Opposites Do Attract

Today I was at lunch with my brother and his wife and we were talking about the five love languages. I'm currently reading that book for our February book group and last night Todd and I took our love language tests. We speak similar love languages for the most part. But, while I was talking to David and Kami I realized just how different Todd and I really are. Here are few great examples of where we differ.

Food: He is very picky and would eat an in-n-out burger everyday if he had the chance. I like Chinese food a lot, he hates it. He won't eat leftovers or really anything cooked in the microwave. I grew up in a big family so I can eat anything.

Sleep Habits: I am tired by 8:00 pm and staying up past 10:00 is a late night for me. I get up early in the morning and am more productive before noon than after. Todd goes to bed between 1:00 and 2:00 am and hates mornings. He likes to start his projects around midnight. I think we could share a twin bed with the amount we sleep at the same time. :)

Personalities: I like to call my personality "strong" some would say moody. I can go from happy to mad to sad to happy in the blink of an eye. Todd is steady and rarely gets upset about anything. I wear my emotions on my sleeve and cry at the drop of a hat. I've seen Todd cry maybe 3 times in our 8 years together. I love to talk about anything and everything. Todd only talks when he absolutely has to. (Thank goodness for girlfriends).

Free Time: I love to exercise. It is one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. I also love to read and I like to be busy and create projects and work for myself. Todd's idea of free time is relaxing. He loves to watch movies, TV shows, play computer, board games, etc. (Don't get me wrong I am addicted to several TV shows and I love to go to movies.)

Family: We even grew up in totally different environments. I grew up in the Midwest 4th of 10 kids. He grew up in sunny southern California with 1 sister. This of course is great for both of us because we get the best of both worlds now that we are married.

I'm sure I could come up with lots more differences and I'm sure Todd could add his fair share as well. In spite of all our HUGE differences I can't imagine someone more perfect for me than Todd. I guess it really is true that sometimes opposites do attract.

A Parent's Patience

I know it takes a lot patience to have kids. I have 3 kids, and sadly I have no patience. It's something that I have struggled with since Tayson was born and Luke is really putting it to the test! I honestly had to walk out of the room last night after changing his poopy diaper. It is ridiculous that the kid can't figure this whole potty thing out. It drives me crazy and I just have no patience for it. This of course makes me feel horrible, but seriously it's just too much. Luke is a very smart kid - I'm not trying to brag or anything but since he gets it from Todd and others in my family (not directly from me) I feel ok to say that he really is smart. He's almost 3 1/2 and he can spell almost any 3 letter word I give him. It's amazing. He can do any puzzle we give him, he has even done an adult puzzle with Todd before. But he CAN'T poop in the toilet!!! It makes me want to scream. Claire on the other hand only knows a handful of words, her favorite of these words is poo poo. And she knows what it means and does it. She even made up her own "poop" word a couple of weeks ago. She passed some gas and she smiled at me and said "poopsie" it made me laugh pretty hard so that's her new word for a toot. She's on the second line of her potty chart already (Luke has 1 mercy sticker and has earned 1 on his own). I keep praying for the patience to make it through this whole potty training event, but if it doesn't come soon I'm just going to have to get rid of Luke for a few months. :)

Don't judge me....I'm just at the end of my rope and had to get it off my chest :)

I've been Tagged....

OK I got tagged by Kristine so here goes. This would be better with a little input from Todd....so I'll see if I can get him to add his comments to the post.

1. Where did you meet your husband? We met at work (Nu Skin). A mutual friend told Todd he should ask me out so he did. I had a very strict rule that I NEVER dated anyone at work. Breakups weren't really my specialty and usually I went with avoidance instead of dealing with issues so work relationships weren't much of an option. I mean I didn't want to find a new job just to avoid some guy. Luckily for Todd I made an exception.

2. First thing said. I have no idea. Most of our early "courting" was over instant messenger. That way we could say anything and not feel or look stupid. Plus we would end up chatting all day at work - it was a pretty smart way to go now that I look back.


3. First date. The first time we actually went out and Todd paid was a lunch date. To keep it safe of course. We went to a Japanese restaurant that Todd picked and he didn't eat anything because he doesn't like any form of Asian food. Then a couple days later we went out on what I consider our first official date. One of Todd's friends was in a band that was playing at UVSC and he wanted to go see them. I told him I couldn't go out until after step aerobics which ended at 6:45 pm. His car (the 1972 Plymouth Fury) was broken down at the time so I had to drive. So I told the aerobics teacher I would be leaving step a few minutes early for a date (which she still remembers and reminds me about all the time ... how she "let" me leave to go on a date with my husband) I went home, showered, got ready, went a picked up Todd then we were off to the concert. Apparently the concert started at 7:00 (which I really didn't know until we got there) and we showed up around 7:45 for the last 2 songs (oops). Then we went out to eat at Chevy's (where we have never been since).


3. First kiss. That would have been the night after our first "official" date. What can I say...why date unless you know you're attracted? I will say that Todd kissed me first although I didn't make it hard for him. :)

4. How long did you date? Not very long. I swore I would NEVER be one of those BYU girls who met someone and got engaged and married fast. Well I had to eat those words after meeting Todd. We met in the summer of 1999, were engaged in November of 1999 and married December 21, 1999. So really we dated a few months and were engaged even less. Oh well, when you know you know.


5. Where did you get engaged? Funny story. Todd and I had tickets to fly to California for the weekend and I was really busy at work that week. So I kept trying to postpone our trip. (I mean he told me he didn't have a ring yet ... and I believed him so what was the big deal?) Apparently, everyone on my team and my boss knew so they forced me to go and changed deadlines for me so I wouldn't stress. By the time we got in and settled I was tired. Todd wanted to go to the beach and walk around but I wasn't really in the mood so I said no. He kept pressuring me saying how much he wanted to go so I told him to go by himself. Then he kept making a big deal about it and made me feel guilty so I went but not happily. The entire drive to the beach and while walking on the beach I was frumpy and had my arms crossed and was just downright mean. Then he drops to his knee and asks me to marry him. Boy did I feel stupid! So of course I said yes and took the ring then the beach patrol drove up and kicked us off the beach. But not before I could get a good look at my ring in their headlights. I'm still surprised to this day that Todd actually wanted to marry me after the way I was acting that night. He must have been too nervous to realize what a jerk I was being.


6. Where did you get married? In the Salt Lake City Temple. We had to be there at the crack of dawn, I think I left my apartment at like 6:00 am to get there on-time. I remember being so nervous right before the ceremony when it was just Todd and I. Then when we got in the sealing room I wasn't scared anymore and it was amazing. It was so nice to have both of our families there and a few of our friends with us.


7. How did the reception go? It was perfect. We had our reception at Thanksgiving Point which was all inclusive so that planning was very easy. Todd and I went down twice to meet with our wedding planners and picked colors, food, cake, flowers, music, the room, etc. Then at the reception the wedding planners were there taking care of us telling us when it was time to cut the cake, throw the bouquet, etc. They were even good enough to get me a Coke when I thought I might fall asleep on my feet talking to people. The funniest part of our reception was at the end my dad was gathering all our presents and putting them in his car for us and one of the presents was a gift basket that was for our wedding night. We went over to grab it before my dad loaded it up and he saw that there were bunny ears in the basket and put them on. Needless to say, those had to be thrown away after the image was burned into our memories. :) I have to thank my parents for being willing to give us a great reception .... I figured they didn't mind paying a little extra to finally get me married off. I don't think they ever thought it would happen.

8. Where did we go on our honeymoon? Because of when we got married (Dec. 21st) we did Christmas before our honeymoon. So we stayed at the Grand America in Salt Lake for 2 nights. The first night one of Todd's family friends called us at like midnight to ask us if we needed more pillows. We had just gotten room service (strawberry and cream waffles...yummy) so he actually thought it was legit and asked me if we needed more pillows which really cracked them up. The next day we had Christmas with my family then headed down to California to spend Christmas day with Todd's family. After Christmas we left on our official honeymoon. We drove up the PCH to Big Sur. Sadly I got very sick our entire honeymoon. I was so sick when we left Todd's house his grandma tried to get me to wear these huge blue blocker sunglasses - which I couldn't do. But I got a really bad inner ear infection so every motion made me sick and I threw up from the beautiful winding roads and when we went hiking (not pretty). For the most part I spent the week in bed sleeping. Todd was so happy when we got to a hotel with a Nintendo so he had something to do.

9. Do you have a song? Kind of. When we were dating/engaged I got to start listening to rap music since that is one of Todd's favorites. So we always said "What Y'all Want" by Eve and the Ruff Ryders was "our song". It's not romantic in any way but it still makes us smile and we call it our song.

So let's see I guess now I get to tag someone else....Kris, Kami (just to get you to update your blog) and Lacey. BTW...I feel like a true blogger now that I have been tagged. :)

Doggie Issues....HELP!!!

According to The American Kennel Club the most popular dogs in America are Labs. We have a lab and he's 4 1/2 years old. Since our new house didn't (and still doesn't) have a fence he ended up becoming an inside dog this past year. For the most part this has been fine. But there are a few things he does that make me crazy. I can't stand it when he sneaks in our bedroom at night to sleep - he snores, licks himself very loudly and always ends up on the extra pillows from the bed I throw on the floor when I sleep. He also loves to eat people food especially the kids food. If we don't pay attention he will sit with his head inches from Claire while she eats and she will take a bite of food then hand him a bite a food. When she decides she's finished eating she will just take her plate/bowl and dump it on the floor next to her for him. What a horrible habit. We have put a stop to this by not letting Shadow in the room while we eat. However, the biggest problem we have right now is that he will eat food off the table, counter, trash, people's rooms, etc. He actually ate 3 loaves of bread out of Todd's mom's duffel bag last time she came to visit (unzipped it and everything), he ate 3 of our Christmas plates, and ate Tayson's b-day cake last year off the counter before I even frosted it. The dog is crazy. Last night I woke up in the middle of night to him doing something in the living room ... I knew he was up to no good by the sound. So Todd and I went out in the front room and the pantry wasn't shut before bed so he got into the trash can and had pulled most of it out licked it clean and tore it apart on the living room floor. UGH! I love the dog....but it is getting to be too much. If any of you have any great ideas please let us know so we don't end up kicking him out of the family. :)

The Perfect Husband

I got this email today. I'm sure most of you have gotten it before so you don't need to read the whole thing. When I read it I was thinking to myself...where did I stop when I picked Todd? I put my answer at the bottom.....aren't you so anxious to see where I stopped?

WELCOME TO THE HUSBAND STORE!!

You may visit the store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch... you may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!
Happy Shopping!!!!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband...On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1: These men have jobs and love the Lord.

The second floor sign reads:

Floor 2: These men have jobs, love the Lord, and like kids.

The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3: These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids and are extremely good looking.

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going. She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:

Floor 4: These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop-dead good looking and help with the housework.

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!" Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:

Floor 5: These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 6: You are visitor 4,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!

I'm going to have to say Floor 3. I can't honestly say he loves housework. I think I got off on the perfect floor with him and couldn't wish for a better husband.

A House Full of Boys....

On a normal day Claire and I are outnumbered. Not only do we have 2 boys and a boy dog my 22 year old brother Timmy lives with us (and has for a year and we LOVE it). So now it's 2 vs. 5 on a daily basis. This week however we have 3 visitors - Drew, Scott and his friend Barrett came down from Idaho for a week of fun and snowboarding before Scott and Barrett leave on thier missions in a month. Talk about boys everywhere!!! Needless to say, there is a lot of food to be eaten, the wii is on non-stop and all talk is boy talk. Claire and I are lonely for more girls in the house so if any female relatives or friends are looking for a fun week in Utah please come visit so we can shop, paint our nails and talk about girl stuff non-stop.

Kid's Prayers

I love listening to my kids pray they say the funniest things. Tayson is a very good communicator and takes his prayers very seriously. Luke on the other hand prays as fast as he can and has to start over if he gets out of his rhythm. Here are some of my favorite things Tayson has said in prayers:

• Please bless that we will all die (long pause)so that we can be resurrected someday and live with Jesus (this was at Easter dinner when he was 3)


• Please bless that no tigers will get out of the zoo and eat people (from the tiger attack this past December)


• Please bless that no-one will get out of jail and come get us at our house.


• Help us to not say bad words, even when we are at the airport.

Luke on the other hand always says the exact same prayer. Every prayer has a blessing for the food in it. He always blesses the bishop, Pres. Hinckley and the missionaries in the same order every time or he has to start over. He always blesses Mark on his mission and that Chelsea will get home safely (no matter the time of day). If someone else says a prayer and misses something that he thinks needs to be in the prayer he will loudly whisper it to them across the table/room to make sure they don't forget. He's very helpful :)

Music

I am not an exceptionally musical person (as most of you know too well). However, I love everything about music. It's amazing to me that listening to music can completely change your mood. One of my favorite things about music is how it reminds me of people or places. I love sitting in the car or at my desk with my iTunes and I will hear a song and all of the sudden I remember some absolutely hilarious time in my life. For instance I can't listen to Les Mis "On My Own" without thinking about my friend Alice and the funny High School story of when she had a solo singing the song with the choir and forgot the words so she just made her own up (I wasn't even there and it makes me smile when I think about it). I can't listen to Eminem without thinking about Todd or the fact that when we first got married I woke up in the middle of the night and sang "slam baney" instead of "slim shady". I had no idea he called himself slim shady - but Todd got a kick out of it. Abba will forever remind me of the ward talent show in the good old singles ward days. I could go on forever with songs that remind me of funny times in my life. I realize this blog is just random talking....but I don't want to be a bad blogger and only tell stories about my kids!

Let it Snow

We are on our third storm this week and today's was a big one. It is so beautiful! I love waking up in the morning and seeing fresh snow on the ground and in all the trees. I love it when the mountains are covered in snow, and not just for the skiing. Of course, I have only skied once since Tayson was born and that was right before Christmas, but it was a blast and I hope to go again this season. Claire loves the snow too. Everytime she sees it she just stands at the window saying "noooo mama nooooo". I didn't get to cuddle back into bed after I saw the snow since I had to teach spin at the crack of dawn this morning - and lots of people ventured out in the snow to join me at the gym so it was great. The parking lot at the gym was pretty funny since no-one could see the lines there were cars all over the place. Then this morning poor Tayson was at the bus stop for 30 minutes (the bus was 25 minutes late and I sent him out early since I thought it would take him longer to walk in the snow). Of course he decided not to walk and Todd was nice enough to drive him to the bus stop. The kids just played and had a big snow ball fight while waiting for the bus. Back in the days of school buses for me we never would have had school on a day like today. We would have seen the snow (even 2 inches) and turned on the radio to hear all the school cancellations. Ours almost always got cancelled because we had some "country roads" people that came to our school. I loved snow days growing up but my kids will never see them living in Utah where no-one is afraid of a few feet of snow. It's hard to sit in my office looking out the window at the snow fall, it is the perfect day to be at home in warm jammies with hot cocoa and a good book.

Girls: 2 Boys: 0

I have decided it is time to take potty training seriously. Luke is almost 3 1/2 and it's really just too much to deal with. He however has no issues with wearing the biggest size diapers they make (until you move into adult that is) and is still not motivated. So I've moved on to Claire and she is doing pretty good. She now has 2 stars on her potty chart. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the motivation Luke needs to get moving on potty training. I also bought a bunch of new "tools" to really kick start things that I am waiting for this week. A DVD for Luke - he loves TV so it might help him. If only there was a game on nickjr.com for him to play that would teach him how to go potty - he'd have it down for sure.

Girl Bonding

Claire and I bonded yesterday before church and painted our toenails. She was so excited to join in the fun I was having and just kept saying "toes...toes...toes" the whole time. The hard part of course was trying to keep her from touching them long enough to let them dry. I love having a girl! When Tayson was little he always wanted to paint his toenails with me, but I would just tell him no and that it was only for girls and he would leave crying.

Claire is such a girly girl - I love it! She loves jewelry. She loves shoes and wearing new clothes. She loves to play with my makeup brushes and act like she's putting on makeup in the mornings. She loves her baby dolls and cuddles them, shushes them and takes care of them just like they are babies. I couldn't ask for a better little girl - I just can't wait until we can start shopping!

A New Year

I thought it would be fun to look back on 2007 and list my favorite things of the year. Rather than put them in order of most important I just ordered them by time of the year.

Our new house

Finding Chelsea – the best nanny ever!

My new bike

Finishing a century and half marathon

Being in better shape in my 30’s than my 20’s

Buying new “skinny” jeans

Phoenix – Amy’s wedding and spending time with old college buddies, not to mention shopping with Kati it doesn’t get much better than that

Tayson’s first day of school

My parent’s moving so close

Mark’s mission (it’s bittersweet having him gone, but I wouldn’t want him anywhere else)

Blogging – I love being back in touch with so many friends who have moved away

Thanksgiving

My hair being as long as Sherry's - for the first time in my life

Our Cruise

Reading (what a year…Harry Potter, Twilight Series, and about 20 other books along the way)

And of course my wonderful husband and kids!!! It just keeps getting better every year.

Looking Ahead:
I'm not big on setting new years resolutions. I love Kati's idea of creating a "theme" instead, but haven't been good at that either. I always tell my spin class at the start of the year the best way to do a fitness goal is to sign up for an event or race rather than say you're going to lose 5 lbs. However, I thought it would be fun to just list some things I'm looking forward to in 2008 then just sit back and enjoy the year rather than think of all the things I'm not doing. So here goes:

Spending the summer with my kids

Lots more reading

So many babies being born this year

Having someone else clean my house

Luke and Claire getting potty trained...hopefully!!!

Merry Christmas

Here are some highlights from our fun Christmas vacation.

Schultz Christmas: We always have a night of Christmas fun with my family before people leave. My parents and Timmy actually opened all of their presents so they could go skiing on Christmas day. Claire got her first doll for Christmas (3 this night and 2 strollers) she was in heaven, Tayson got some great games which he loves playing and Luke's favorite was an armor set and when he put it on he said "look I'm a princess". David has since taught him to hold up his sword and say "by the power of grey skull...I have the power" instead.




The best Schultz Christmas tradition is that my dad always buys a bunch of Nerf guns for everyone and there is a huge battle after the presents are opened. Todd decided to wear Luke's new armor for protection and was heard yelling "are you not entertained?" (from the Gladiator for those of you who haven't seen it).



Another highlight of the night was Trent's present. For some reason unknown to us a couple of years ago Trent saw a Catwoman puzzle and it "reminded him of Todd" so he gave it to Todd for Christmas. We have kept it ever since and this year put it together and mounted it for him. :)



California: Next we hopped in the car and drove to Vegas to see Danny's family for a night, ate a yummy breakfast and headed for Cali. On our way to Todd's house we pasted through San Bernadino so we took Mark and his companion out to lunch. It was so great to see him.


That night we opened presents with Todd, Amy and kids before they took off for Utah. Todd decided to open one of his presents from me so he could play it with Todd M. before they left - Guitar Hero. It has been quite the family hit.





Christmas Morning: The kids got so many toys, books, games, etc. They were in heaven and still are with all their new presents. After having 3 different "Christmases" they were ready for more the day after too. We had to explain that they have to wait another year now.