You would not believe the language I discovered I could speak!

So last night as we were getting ready for bed, I tried giving Peter a kiss. As I was pulling him close I realized he had ACT mouthwash(recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists) in his mouth. At which point I pushed him back and said, "that could be a disaster." With ACT still in his mouth, Peter uttered mmm mmm mmmm! I responded, "No we can't try." He tried not to laugh at my amazing ability to comprehend him and then responded with mmmmm? I said, "No." He appreciated our non verbal communication. He then spit out the ACT and told me that he couldn't believe I knew what he was saying word for word. So for those that want to know, the conversation was:
Peter: We can try!
Mandy: No we can't try.
Peter: Please?
Mandy: No.
And thus we see by using effective communication as a married couple we can avoid getting mouthwash in the bed.

Pancake Flop

Peter loves cooking pancakes. Blueberry pancakes are his favorite. Sometimes he is successful and other times, let's say today for example, he is not. When we buy Bisquick we dump it into a container and then throw away the box saving the recipe for waffles and biscuits. This morning Peter realized he didn't have the recipe and figured he really didn't need one. After all real men don't need to follow directions. When was the last time Chuck Norris (Peter's idol) ever asked for directions? It would've taken all of two minutes to do a google search for a pancake recipe, but Peter decided to save time and guess. So Peter made pancakes...more like the gushers brand. He was so kind to give me the ones that looked perfect on the top. After it was syruped I cut into it and took a big bite. It was pure uncooked batter. I cut in again and the batter oozed out. I'm usually willing to try new foods, but this one I just couldn't do it. So with those in the trash, I headed for the darker pancakes and well they were mushy in the middle AND burnt. Peter tried his and found the same problem. We threw out the pancakes and made toaster strudel instead.

Luckily Peter is much better at stir fry without a recipe than pancakes. We won't starve. :)

Mamma Mia

We saw Mamma Mia today. It was great! Loads and loads of ABBA songs, which Peter and I loved! We will definitely own it when it comes out on DVD. Peter thinks since we have a Bat Bear we should also have an ABBA bear. We're currently looking for a bear sized 70's outfit.

Peter introduced me to ABBA while we were dating. I fell in love with the music as I fell in love with Peter. We had some ABBA music playing at our wedding and it is almost always on in our cars.

Batman

Today we went and saw Batman the Dark Knight in IMAX. We could've watched it in a theater only 15 minutes away, but no, Peter and our friends wanted the true IMAX quality, so we drove for 1 1/2 hours to Ontario. Luckily our friends and Peter are not big enough Batman geeks to dress up in costume, though we heard on the news that some people did. I had no desire to see Batman, until I realized that Ontario has a giant outlet mall and this mall just so happens to have a Disney Store and a Build a Bear. So I went to see Batman, and Peter bought me a bear. And not just any bear, a bat bear.

We also had fun at the mall for a few hours. The Rainforest Cafe was lunch and dinner combined. It was great! I ate all my food-1/2 slab of ribs, coleslaw and fries, Peter brought some of his lettuce wraps home. Peter and I got smoothies and ended up trading. He liked mine more than his and I liked his and mine, so we switched. I drank all of my smoothie (originally Peter's) plus whatever Peter didn't finish of my original drink. I just couldn't let that good stuff go to waste. For dessert we stopped by Wetzels Pretzels and got a cinnamon pretzel, which I ate most of. I'm only telling you this because as we were wandering around looking for food, Peter was asking me how hungry I was. I told him I was starving! "Do you think you could eat a sit down meal at the Rainforest Cafe?" "I want food, I don't care where it is, I'm hungry and I want food now!!!!!!!" (Peter said to add exclamation marks)So hence I ordered food and ate it all! I think I was hungry don't you?

Peter would like me to also mention, that he had asked me several times prior to the incident to see if I was hungry and my reply was usually, "Yeah a little bit, oooh let's check out this store."

We went to the Disney Store, but it was a big upset. Yes things were all very cheap as it was the Disney Store Outlet, but they had no adult clothes, so we left empty handed.

So for those of you wondering if you should go and see Batman...Peter says, "Batman rocks! Go and see it, but don't take your kids." I say, "Given that I didn't want to see it in the first place, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. Actually it was good, I only had to cover my eyes in a few scenes, but Peter didn't look either on one. So my suggestion, if you liked the first Batman movie then you'll like this one a lot."

A day at the bay

Yesterday my co-worker and I took six girls ages 5-7 to Mission Bay. It was an auction item that one family bought at our school's annual auction. We played croquet, some paddle ball games, catch games, horse shoes, flew kites-or at least tried to fly kites. It was windy and all, but the kites didn't seem to want to stay up in the air for more than a couple of minutes. The kids played on the jungle gym, played make believe-I ordered a chocolate shake, scrambled eggs and a pancake with strawberry syrup and they made it in a jiffy. They thought it was hilarious that I was pretending to eat dirt. They made plaster molds of seashells in the sand, played in the water, went for a walk along the beach and went for a ride on a pedicab. The kids loved that! At lunch time they made their own turkey/ham and cheese sandwiches, enjoyed grapes and ate their own creations. On our way back to school we stopped and got ice cream cones. When we delivered the kids back to their parents they were clearly exhausted, but couldn't wait to tell their parents all the fun they had.

Mr. Handyman

On Thursday Peter and his dad installed a set of shelves that were in my bedroom when I was growing up. Here's Peter showing how strong he is. He's so strong he can lift up the shelf with one finger :)

While preparing to install we realized we needed to do a Home Depot trip for screws and a trip to my parents' house for cinder blocks to rest the shelf on until we found the right height. Somehow we decided that Peter and his dad would go to Home Depot while I picked up the blocks....Woa did I pick the wrong equipment to carry. Those cinder blocks weigh a ton! I hefted them into my car and then up a flight of stairs to our front porch, where I stopped. When the guys got home they told me I should have left them in my car and they would've brought them up for me. I was superwoman!

Peter and his dad enjoyed playing with the laser level, electric drill and all those other fun manly tools. Now I get to take my bears out of the trash bags they have been living in the past year and put them back out on display. Perhaps I'll even share and let Peter put some of his airplanes on the shelves. We'll post a picture when we have the shelves all arranged.

Fun in the kitchen

On Saturday we went to Peter's parents house to visit with a cousin that had just gotten married. While we were there we picked a bag full of plums. We took the plums home and went out and bought pectin (stuff to make jam). While at the store I asked if we had enough sugar. Peter said yes. I asked, "are you sure? We need a lot." Peter said, "yes we have a full container." We left the store and ran a few errands, then headed home to make plum jam. We got home tired and decided to make jam Sunday after church. We get home from church and start making it. I asked Peter to help by measuring out 8 1/2 cups of sugar. He opens the cupboard and "Uh oh...Um honey you know how you asked me if we had enough sugar, and I told you we did and you asked again, and I said I was sure, well I was wrong. We don't have enough." So jam making was put on hold. We ran over to his parents house and borrowed their sugar, then headed off to a birthday dinner for our friend. When we returned home we continued with our jam. After I had poured all the sugar in, Peter comments, "I think we need a bigger pot, its going to overflow." "Nah it won't overflow, just keep stirring it." Was my response. Well needless to say it overflowed and we had boiling plum puree and sugar all over our stove. We did a quick grab a pot and pour routine and then wiped down the stove. We eventually finished our plum jam and started ladling it into jars. Now let me tell you, hot liquid into glass jars and I'm supposed to put the lid on how? It was definitely a team effort with hot pads and only a few minor burns. Peter's family told us yesterday that they have more plums for us...we're ready for another adventure :)

Our fish

So here's our fish tank and stand. Isn't it pretty! The stand used to be a lot lighter, but with three coats of mahogany stain and a couple clear coats, voila we have one nice stand. The fish were being a bit camera shy. There are really about 40 fish in the tank. And the can of tuna on top, well that's another story :)

Quirks and funny little differences

Peter
*Yes, he still has his string. It goes everywhere with him. It started as one piece of yarn, now it's a whole wad, you know in case he loses one. He used to throw it in a nylon sock and wash to get the kinks in them. Now he irons the kinks in.
*Could care less if his clothes are wrinkly or not.
*Has learned not to ever wake Mandy up again in the middle of the night by tickling to ask for the blankets back. Now he just grabs hold and pulls.
*Super light sleeper, the sound of the ceiling fan keeps him up.
*Breaks out into random songs. Is quite good at making up his own song based on whatever we're talking about.
*Can be totally cheap, or splurge on stuff...Would rather buy two model airplanes ($60 each) to get free shipping, than buy one airplane and pay $10 for shipping.
*Grocery shopping-doesn't need a list, will always come back with meat on sale. Two bags full of apples on sale is common too...they were only 49 cents a pound (yes we did eat all the apples.)
*Clothing shopping-Do I have to?
*Shoes-Own about 5 pairs, don't wear about 2.
*Wakes up at 7:30 on the dot no matter the day.
*Is frustrated when it's his hair that's found on the pillow.
*Will easily spend $2000 on a big HD Widescreen LCD Sony Bravia TV, but will switch cable companies to save $10 a month.
*Collects ferraris, airplanes, castles and video games. Looks at each often. Likes to own a complete video game series, though some are still in the plastic.
*Loves Costco on Saturdays-Free samples.
*PC person
*Loves watching movie trailers on the internet.
*Loves action/adventure movies.

Mandy
*Irons clothes, even jeans and t-shirts.
*Conveniently takes up the entire bed when Peter has gotten up. Even if it is just to use the bathroom, Peter comes back and often has to sleep on the other side of the bed.
*Has tendency to sleep with legs up, and then roll over, pulling all the covers off Peter.
*Likes having the ceiling fan, AC, and/or a smaller fan on all night long during the hot months.
*Can easily sleep without blankets on hot nights. Or sleep with feet out of cover.
*Grocery shopping-Buy what we need and get it done quickly. This is not an all day event.
*Clothes shopping-Want it, Love it, Bought it.
*Shoes-Own about 23 pairs, 5 rarely get used.
*Don't even think about waking me up early on the weekend.
*Likes taking naps.
*Doesn't worry about losing hair.
*Loves Winnie the Pooh-TV-Got it! Waffle iron-Got it! Shoes-Got it! Jewelry and Jewelry box-Got it! Lawn ornaments-Have three! Salt and Pepper shakers-Wedding gift from best friend...get the picture? :)
*Loves bears-scroll down to a previous post to see picture, then add three more bears to the collection.
*Hates Costco on Saturdays-It's impossible to get through with people blocking the aisles trying to get samples.
*Loves chick flicks.
*Mac person

Though it looks like we have many differences, we do, and we love our little quirks and differences. A few but not all the things we have in common:
*We love gardening!
*We love playing Guitar Hero (we have all four editions so far and don't plan on getting the Aerosmith one, but eagerly await Guitar Hero 4), and Burnout (Mandy's getting really good.)
*We like Disney movies and playing Disney Scene It-Peter would win if he didn't always roll low numbers.
*We like to travel. Mandy prefers airplanes, Peter likes car trips, but nonetheless we like traveling.
*We love pets. Mandy likes dogs best, Peter likes anything with four legs and furry.
*We love watching movies together.
*We love swimming. Peter takes awhile to get used to the water, while Mandy usually just jumps in and gets used to the water real fast.
*We like museums
*We hate doing the laundry, more importantly we hate putting the laundry away, but we grin and bear it and get the job done.
*We like going on fun day trips, amusement parks, Seaworld, etc.
*We like hanging out with friends.
*We love being with each other.

Free Car Wash

We went to a wedding reception tonight. On our way home, as we're leaving the parking lot, Peter slams on the brakes, puts the car in reverse and then very very slowly drives through a sprinkler that was spraying all over the street. He figured if he drove slowly enough the whole car would get washed. He even had the windshield wipers going. It was pretty funny.