That's What He Said!

This is how Mr. Wonderful feels:

Rick Astley |MTV Music

Mr. Wonderful

I love fall. I love fall for many reasons. But many of you may not know the number one reason of all. Fall is when I fell!

You see, 5 years ago, I was not the person I am now. I was broken and shattered. I was unrecognizable. My world had crumbled and crashed around me and I was left not knowing what to do. Thank Heavens for my sisters and my parents! They picked me up and dusted me off. One sister even made me a to do list. 1st thing on my list every day: "Get out of bed!" Best advice ever to someone who wants to hide under her covers...for reals...if it's on my list then I have to do it!

Life moved on and so did I. Me and my life got better.

And then my phone rang. My dear friend in WA. had a brother who was being naughty. He was living with her and her husband when he quit coming home. She called me and asked me a favor. She requested that I get on an LDS singles website to find him (she couldn't because she was married...he apparently checked his singles mail all the time...I was to find him and tell him to go home!).

I made a stupid profile and looked for him (no avail). I also checked out all of the women. I really wanted to know what I was up against in the dating scene. Later that night, during dinner with my parents and sister I told them about the website. We all had a good laugh about it. Shortly after, my mom and my sister suggested I make real profile. With some prodding and my brother-in-law taking a smoking hot picture of me....I was an official internet prowler.
Then one day I got a "wink" from "techguy801" (if you know him, you're laughing right now!) He sent me a little e-note that said, "sounds like you spend alot of time in your car. I do too. What else do you like to do?"

And so it began. *SIGH*...

We emailed each other quite a bit. Then we moved to instant messaging. I was constantly checking my emails to see if he had sent yet another witty and clever message. I was always hoping he would be online when I was. I was totally smitten by him, but, YIKES, I didn't even know him.

After what seemed like forever...about six weeks...I had had enough. I was ready to meet this man who had put a constant smile on my face. We would still be interfacing via the internet today if I had never had the courage to say, "let's meet!" (Mr. Wonderful is painfully shy and would probably never have initiated a meeting). My request was met with the worlds cutest, "rely?" (mis-spelling and all...don't forget this all happened on a chat screen, and his fingers were so enamored of my request that he momentarily forgot how to spell).

Novemeber 1st was the day we met in person. One movie and one dinner later...We had a good time and my prayers that he didn't think I was too fat were heard. On the way home from our glorious first date, I called my mommy and told her all about it. We laughed. I was pretty sure there wouldnt be a second date, as Mr. Wonderful was not full of his usual witty convo and refused to make eye contact with me. I was disappointed I would never see him again, but then became consumed with extreme tummy troubles...so I didn't really care. Mommy asked me if I was sure he didn't slip a "date rape" drug into my food. I was pretty sure.

After a LONG (LONG) night, I forced myself out of bed. I frumped to my computer and turned it on, hoping that the previous night had never really happend. And there waiting for me, was the sweetest little email from Mr. Wonderful. He had had a good time afterall...he was just a little shy and thought I had the most beautiful eyes in the world! *SIGH*

It's all gravy from there folks! We fell in love. He fell for the littles and they him. I would venture to say that we are more in love now than ever. We love each other and the littles. 5 months later he asked me to marry him and build a life together. The best thing that ever happened to me is when I fell in the fall.

Tag

I got tagged by TT. So...here it is...Hold on to your hats!

8 Things I am passionate About

My Family
The gospel
Not Dying...(gotta raise the babies first)
Helping Others
Laughing
Dishes in the Sink
Mr. Wonderful
Being an Individual

8 Word/ Phrases I say often...

Oh My Heck!

Oh For Pete's Sake
Whatev!
"Time to Wake UP!"
I love you (to pretty much everyone...I believe in telling everyone you love, that you love them)
Good Night! (there may or may not be a "nurse" on the end of it)
Gotta Go, My Hair is Here
Oh! For Crying Out Loud!

8 Things I want to do before I die...

Raise My Babies
Travel
Meet Dolly Parton (don't make fun of me!)
Go on a wonderfully romantic vacation with just Mr. Wonderful
Take My Parents to Sweden (Borka Borka)
Star in High School Musical 307, The 30 year reunion (The Role of Sharpey Evans will be played by Minky...What? A girl can dream!)
Be a little more brave
Tear out all the carpet and tile in my house and replace it all with hardwood and then I would like some time to enjoy it before I die..so hopefully, sooner rather than later.

8 Things I have learned from the past...

Don't Judge a book by it's cover
Family is all we have
Don't take people for granted
Everyone has at least one thing in common with everyone else...so you are never really all alone and friendless (even when you feel that way sitting by yourself in Relief Society)
Forgiveness Heals
Heavenly Father knows me and loves ME!
Baby kisses are the best kisses in the world...even better than a first kiss!
In the famous words of Hannah Montana...."Life's What You Make It!"

8 Places I want to see...

Paris
Venice (ahhh Venice! Maybe in the spring)
Home (Seattle)
Scotland
Hawaii, again
India
Oh my Heck...can't believe I'm going to say it...but Asia (long story about that later)

8 Things I currently want/need...

New Tires for Mr. Wonderful's car
New Clothes (ummm, yes I do!)
Skinny Body (ummm, yes I do and oh no you did'nt!)
A Clean House
A New Mattress
Proper Food Storage (copied from my sister)
Child Support
To Be With my Whole Family with out a girl fight/tension (again, A girl can dream!)

8 People I tag...

Steph
Karlee
Maryann
Kelly
Stacia
Rantin' Rag (that's right, I went there! I went there so much, I bought property!)
Marissa
Emily

Music

Music has always held a special place in my heart. I have loved it since I was a little girl.

When I was little my parents had a big fancy white front room. Everything in there was pristine and wonderful. It was the perfect New York City apartment of every little girls imagination. Not only was it big and white, and beautifully decorated...it was equiped with the latest technology for our listening pleasure...that's right...a hi-fi (that's an old fashioned stereo, kiddies!) I would put on the "Oklahoma" LP (oh yea baby!) and rock out. Some times when I was feeling modern and hip...I'd pop in the latest Donny and Marie 8 track..."I'm a little bit country....I'm a little bit rock n' roll"...and I would let my imagination run wild.

Through the years my tastes refined. Who in my family can forget that I was/am Boy George's biggest fan? Seventh Grade when my parents wouldn't let me go to the Thompson Twins concert so I wore black for a week...mourning. I mean sheez...they let me go to the Neil Diamond Concert in 4th grade...and looking at lyrics as an adult...I have pretty good idea which concert was "racier". But that brings me to my point.

Certain songs hold special memories for all of us. Here are a few of mine...I won't include "Fame" as that has already been expounded on. Please laugh and remeber back to your songs...

Hold Me Now...Thomposn Twins...First Speeding Ticket

Where do Broken Hearts Go? ...Whitney Houston...First Break-Up (bhooooooooohoooooo)

Forever in Blue Jeans...Neil Diamond...First Concert

When I met Mr. Wonderful he would always let me use his ipod when I would travel. He would load it with music for me (since I tend to be not so technologically advanced). He would start every play list with Macy Gray..."I Try"...(Sigh)

Yesterday I was rocking out to Miss D (that's right...I listen Celine Dion...you got a problem with that?) and I was thinking about some friends who were coming over for a carmel apple fest, oh, alright, who am I kidding...you guys are the only ones who read this anyway! Now I will always think of our girls night out whenever I hear Celine Dion...well, our party and how much my thighs hurt from scrubbing so you would think I was soooo cool, but then you went upstairs and and saw the messy part of the house all my secrets are out now!!!

Secret Lovers

Ahhhhh, Fall! The time of year that we look back, reminisce and think about the good old days!

The other night I was at the local Holiday/Chevron/Union 66 (if someone out there knows exactly what the gas stations' name is, please! DO TELL!). Anyhooo...getting gas. Mr. Wonderful was home feeling yucky and longing for a Jamba Juice. I, being the most fantastic wife ever, was on an errand of love for him. But I needed gas first.

I was filling up Black Beauty when all of the sudden a flame of red hair blew by. I said to myself, "Boy, if I didn't know better I would think that was a boy from my youth!" When suddenly I heard, "If I didn't know any better I would think that was Minky!" Us redheads, we never forget other redheads...we have to stick together.

We exchanged quick "Hi! How are you's?" and were on our respective ways.

We were not secret lovers. It does remind me, however, of the world being a small place and how facebook is making it smaller by the minute. Take me for example...I have almost 100 friends! Be still my heart, I am close to popular!!

My friend recently reconnected with her secret lover from High School. She was a mere innocent 16 years old. He was older and wiser (if you get my drift). He was only too happy to educate her in the ways of rock and roll (um, double entandre), life and (the pig)...heartbreak! He was a musician and she a artist. This is the stuff of a Molly Ringwald movie, folks!


They would find little places here and there to rendezvous. She would run her fingers through his long greasy 80's bubble gum rock hair and he would compliment her totally "in" fashion sense and her way cool Princess Diana "do". You see, they were never meant to be. She was the girl from the right side of the tracks and he was from the wrong side of the trailer park. But when they were together, they forgot for a moment that it would never work in a million years.

She refused to tell her friends and family that she was his number one groupie/fan. He longed to tell the world that he finally got the girl! Time passed and like a stranger in the night, he sunk back down into his own league.

Flash forward 20 years later. Facebook. A sudden reconnection. Fond memories. The catching up of the secret lovers. Talk of marriages, heartbreaks, new loves found, children...then the inevitable request for the exchange of pictures.

My friend laughed, giggled and said that perhaps she would get around to sending a picture (since she had just recently had her 5th baby that wasn't going to happen). He sent one immediately.

ummm, gross.

I think the only thing funnier than their high school romance is the fact that she was completely clueless about this picture. "Why would he send a picture of his stomach...that's so weird!" Maybe the best comment of all is her husband's, "Oh man! I need to start working out"

EWWWWW!

Anyone out there have an ex? You may or may not. And you may or may not have a relationship with them. Mr. Wonderful, for example, does not (and is not allowed to) have a relationship with his ex. I happen to have 3 GORGEOUS (they get that from me) babies with mine which in turn = speaking terms. We really have a pretty decent relationship except when we are on our periods...then watch out!



I could write a book about weird conversations I've had in my lifetime, and many of them would be convos I've had with Mr. Ex. For instance: Yesterday.



We were chatting on the phone. Mr. Ex is gearing up for hip replacement surgery (many of you would say, "Dang he's old, you should've hung in there until he died and gotten his insurance money", but alas..he's only 42...too much football...so really to hang in there would not be pretty and he probably would've lived to be 347 years old and I never would've seen a penny...that is my luck with him). Anyhooooo...we were talking on the phone and he posed a super scarry question to me (weird that halloween is just around the corner...this is scarrier than anything you've ever seen at Halloween!)

Mr Ex's question: What would you do if you died and walked in the front door of your mansion in heaven and I'm sitting there on the couch in my underwear?

(Que scarry Halloween music) Shivers and chills ran up and down my spine! My hair stood on end. My teeth chattered. My mouth went dry as bile entered it.

Minky's Answer: Put in for a transfer!!!

Note to anyone who burries me! I, Minky, hereby request that I be burried with my sealing cancellation letter in my hand! It must never be pried from my cold dead hands! I will take it to the grave with me, just in case some paper work got lost in Heaven's Filing Cabinet. Also to be burried with me is my sealing information so that me and Mr. Wonderful can hold hands and skip through the daisies for eternity.

Mr. Ex would make a great neighbor though. Just make sure we're not on our periods together

Madge Doesn't Have Dishpan Hands Anymore!

I hate dirty dishes! Dirty dishes are disgusting. Everyone who knows me knows that I cannot abide dirty dishes...they make my sink smell like ketchup...WOOF! I am dry heaving just thinking about it! I DO NOT like dishes in my sink. Point made?

A couple of weeks ago it was the Big Guy's birthday. He hates paper goods just as much as I hate dirty dishes in my sink. What a conundrum! We hosted a small family get together to celebrate the birth of our great patriarch. In his honor, I usually try to use "real" dishes even though we are having a LARGE crowd. Since it was his birthday...of course we used "the good stuff". We had a large Mexican meal. Enchiladas, chili rellanos, rice, beans, guac, salsa...the whole 7 layer dip (that's Mexican for the whole nine yards....TOOT TOOT...that's me honking my own horn due to my fantastic cooking abilities!). 16+ people. Dinner and dessert and drinks and silverware and baking dishes and ice cream scoops and pie server things and....any way all of this equals...alot of dishes!

After the party broke up, the clean up began. Thank the Lord of the Rings that TT was considerate enough to rinse off the dishes (even though she only did it so she didn't have to socialize!). I loaded up the dishwasher (REAL good) and in my oh so modern homemaker way, pushed a few buttons and walked away with a sigh of relief.

"The big deal?" you ask? Weeeeelllll...when hot plastic fumes started spewing from the machine, me and Mr. Wonderful had some concerns. We turned it off...waited a while...and tried it again. To my chagrin...BOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOBAAAAAAAAAAAA...it decided to pick party night of all nights to call it quits! For crying out loud! It's not even 3 years old!

Thus started a week and a half Minky doing the dishes by hand! Mr. Wonderful was soooo good as to try to lighten my load by suggesting dinner out a couple of times (*SIGH* he's so cute!) but it didn't quite make the dishwashing go any better. He did do the dishes at night, but he also had the flu (you know me and...*GULP* G-E-R-M-S...YIKES)...so it was a LONG week and a half.

This morning Rex the dishwasher repair guy came over. This isn't really his name, it's just the imaginary name I made up for him since I don't know his real name. His real name is probably Super Hero...because that is what he is to me...Super Hero! What? A rose by any other name...

Rex proceeded to go to town! Teaching my dishwasher lessons that only a super hero could. He pulled on it. He tipped it over. He drilled it. He tore it a new one and replaced the old one! This was super! He did things to that dishwasher I only imagined I could do to it! In my mind I wished that my truck driver tongue lashing could've been enough to shape that baby up! Naughty dishwasher! But in the end he fixed it and fixed it good!

All for only $300. Rex may have fixed my dishwasher, but he broke my bank account! Maybe dish pan hands aren't so bad!

Sometimes you feel like a nut...

Sometimes you don't.

Halloween Happiness

I love Halloween. It makes me sooo happy. If you come trick or treating to my house be prepared to laugh and cry! One Halloween this little boy trick or treated me. I was totally hyper (hmm, too many Peanut Butter Cups??) and decided to freak out my next guest...poor little guy. I poured red food coloring in my mouth and answered the door on my knees like I was dying...umm, yea...he started crying as the "blood" trickled out of my mouth...There may have been some coughing, causing a spray...whooops! sorry.




Anyhooooo...I have decided to give everyone a good laugh (since this is soooo not the norm) and share some of my favorite CREEPY (and I do mean I am a CREEP) stories with you.



When my brother was little he went trick or treating with some friends...helloooo? No adult??? And he got his big huge pillowcase full of candy stolen when he got beat up by some....GIRLS!!!! Poor Cheffy...They kicked him in his knees and he went down...then they took his candy!!! He still has a scar on his knee to prove that girls rule and boys drool!



Another time, we lived in a neighborhood with some immigrants. They were new to America and wanted to make a good impression so they handed out FULL SIZED 3 Musketeers...Oh yea baby!!! I didn't go to their house but when my sisters got home saying, "The Iranians are giving out candy bars!" Well, who wouldn't put back on their costume and head out one last time?? I put on my Kooky Spook Kosmic Kreeper costume (It had this hat that you blew up and there was an alien head on top of yours...so totally cool!) and headed up to their house. When I got there with my empty pillow case the guy said to me in his thick Iranian accent..."Oh, you are just getting started!" and he proceeded to pour the remainder of his 3 Musketeers FULL SIZED candy bars into my bag! Hallelujah!! Thus began my love of the foreigners. More about My trip to New York later.





Then there was the time that I was in 4th grade and went trick or treating and one lady said to me, "Aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?" I was sooo sad..You try being tall and chubby in 4th grade! It ain't pretty, LADY!!!! (sorry, I may need counseling for that one.)



Ahhh, yes...the year I dressed up as Marilyn Monroe and Jason Gardner was Boy George...so telling...for both of us!


The Halloween that I was engaged and I had a cold...more like cold feet!!! and didn't "feel up to doing much" with my fiance'. So he brought me a variety of soups in a gift bag (see back ground on the kitchen counter...the bag alone was reason to breakup)...I said, "Oh, thank you...I have something for you too" and gave him his ring back...then I went to a rockin' Halloween party dressed as a modern dancer and wore a fake naked bum and made out with a total stranger...What? I was celbrati...I mean, heart broken...Yea...That's it!



There was the Halloween that my mom sent me and my sister to the store and we ended up with my friends' brother in the car with us. On the way home we saw our friend jogging and thought it would be funny (Oh my heck...How rude) to throw EGGS at him. So we slow down, roll down the window and Brandon throws eggs at this poor friend jogging. Wouldn't you know it, it wasn't our friend Hadrien after all! It was a total stranger! So I just drive off. Since we chose to throw eggs at a runner....guess what...he followed us home (I'm brilliant like that, to drive directly home after committing a crime). I went home and started making apple cider when the door bell rings. The convo went something like this: "Good Evening, officer, would you care for some apple cider? What? Eggs? Jogger? Indeed?". The officer told me if I gave up my friends' brother I wouldn't in trouble....my record is still clean today!



I can't help but wonder what this Halloween holds in store...I do hope it's a little less CREEPY than others.