UT Game and Random Pics

So, this past weekend, Paul and I got to go to Knoxville, TN and see the UT Vols get their first SEC Conference win. Mind you, it was only Vanderbilt, but it turned out to be a great game. I have been planning this trip for a few months now. Mom and Dad graciously offered to keep Kaleb so I got everything planned out. I found FRONT ROW 50 YARD LINE tickets online and bought them. Then booked a hotel room closest to the stadium so we wouldn't have to drive in the chaos that is Knoxville, TN after a football game. We have made that mistake way too many times in the past. Believe me, it is worth the extra $50 per night! I took Friday afternoon off of work and we headed up for what was supposed to be a 7 hours drive to God's country. Ten and a half hours later (construction traffic), we finally made it to our hotel. We had every intention of going out on the town but ended up crashing, promising ourselves we would take advantage tomorrow. The game wasn't until 7:00 pm so we decided to just walk around and not do much of anything. If you have never been to Knoxville, it is a hilly (no, mountainous) city. We walked probably over 7 miles, but it felt like 50! My calves are still aching! We ended up buying lots of TN stuff since there is NO VOLS gear down here in MS. We walked Cumberland 4 times and the made our way down to Volunteer landing then back up to the Market square area where we found a bar and decided to sit, drink, and watch football. Around 4:00, our friend Wooty called and said they had made it to town and we met them back over at a place on Cumberland. After chatting for a few hours, we left there, walked over to Fraternity Row and made our way to the stadium in time to see the team run through the T. Our seats were great, for a one time experience, but horrible for actually watching the game. I forget the players are all over 6 foot tall, so it was pretty much impossible to see the running plays. FYI: Buy Row U, seats 1-2, but about row 5-10! That would have been perfect! Next time, next time... Below are a few picture from the game and one video from the end of the game when I got them soaking Coach Dooley with gatorade! After the game, we were so exhausted from all the walking and the excitement of the game, we went back to the hotel bar, ate a little something, chatted with Wooty again, then headed back up to the room! We are just too exciting for everyone to keep up with, I know... =) We made our way back home on Sunday, luckily only taking 8 hours this time. But I did ask Paul to stop for lunch at one of my favorite places, The Cheesecake Factory in Birmingham. We don't have one in MS or in Memphis, so when there is one on the way anywhere we might be going, I try to take advantage! It was so good we didn't even eat supper Sunday night!

This is Paul's favorite place in the whole world!

FEAR THE PANTS!

Mom and Dad were so great and took Kaleb back to Covington with them, to spend some time with him until we get there Wed for Thanksgiving, while also giving Paul and I some much needed Mommy/Daddy time. Last night, we actually took advantage of no children, and ate at a local sushi restaurant before heading to see the latest Twilight movie. I was actually a pretty good movie, but I really need to read the book to figure out what is going to happen in the second part.

I have also added some pictures that has been sitting in my camera for the last few weeks. I have a few videos I wanted to load but am having trouble. Will upload them later. Enjoy!

I have no idea when he started this but he likes to stand up while riding now!

And loves to watch the tires as he drives. I used to be a nervous wreck watching him but now its just funny!

Kaleb's "Cheese" face. I practiced so many times to get him to do this for our family pictures, but of course he wouldn't when time came. This was after we got home from taking them!

Yum... SunChips!

Helping Daddy clean the windows. My little man is definitely his daddy's boy... he LOVES to clean windows, vacuum,  clean up spills he probably caused... Most of the time he just makes things messier, but he loves it so we let him help and then finish it later!

Kaleb and Pop watching "Toys"

Hello, my name is Melissa and I'm addicted to....

Ok, so my BFF Aubrey text me about a month ago about a new website that she thought I would love called Pinterest. I had been seeing posts on Facebook about it but had never really looked into it. So, the other day, I was bored and decided to check it out. OMG! This website is the coolest, most addicting site I have ever seen. I am literally on there a couple hours a day. My crafty self is officially a Pinterest addict. If you haven't checked out this site, be careful. Only do it if you have enough time in the day to spare. It is a virtual pinboard for EVERYTHING! Once you sign up (you have to be invited), they get you to install a PIN tab on your bookmark bar. If you see something on a website you want to remember or share with other people, you click the button, it asks which picture you want to pin, then saves it to your pinboard but also posts it to Pinterest where other people can "Like" it, "Repin" it to their pinboard, or "Comment" on it. There are lots of DIY crafts, Why Didn't I Think of That ideas, Recipes, Exotic Location pics, cute outfit ideas... the list goes on, and on, and on...! I have tried a recipe already and am doing a DIY Magnetic Board for Kaleb for Christmas. I also have a bunch of decoration ideas for Christmas saved. I am getting excited just typing all this! =) Thanks Aub! (Or maybe a big NOT THANKS since I no longer have any free time, haha!)


Sunday was a 'fun' day for me, Paul, and Kaleb. We had set up an appointment for family pictures with a local photographer. We haven't had family photos taken since Kaleb's newborn shoot back in April 2009! The original date was October 23 but it rained that day so it got pushed back to this past Sunday, Nov 13. I know my son, so I am one to start preparing him for big events far in advance (remember the Trick-or-Treat training for a whole year!). So, as soon as I set up the original date, I started practicing "Cheese" with him. Every night, after his bath, I wrap him in his towel, pick him up, and we do "Cheese" face and "Fishy" face in the mirror at each other. He laughs and laughs at our funny faces! Needless to say, I have been super excited to get this on camera. So, the big day comes, we drive out to the meeting site, and get him out of the car. Immediately, he turns into a typical two year old boy. He wants nothing to do with me, Paul, or that scary-looking camera! AGH! I have no idea why I expected anything else, but I really did have my hopes up. I guess I'll know better next time. He finally did open up a little. He started throwing rocks into a stream and just checking out the trees and rocks where we were. He never would really sit with us for a family photo, so I was extremely worried about how they were going to turn out. I mean, I was almost in tears the whole way home. Paul assured me there would be some good ones. And he was right, I don't need 20 good photos on our wall. If it is only 3-4 good ones, that is plenty! That's why I love my husband. He can turn my half empty glass into half full! Right before we left, our photographer told us she would work on them some and hopefully post a sneak peak on Facebook that night. Well, I became VERY neurotic about it and was checking FB every ten minutes! No picture! AGH! Does this mean there weren't any good ones to post?! (There went the half full glass!) Monday, still no picture! Tuesday, still no picture! By this time, I'm pretty sure half my hair is gone, my eyes are turning black, and I'm going to be institutionalized at any minute! I know, I over-reacted by a mile but I couldn't help it! I had been SO looking forward to doing this and for it to go so horribly wrong, I was devastated! Well, Wednesday afternoon, I check my FB and there it was! A big beautiful picture of the three of us!

I can't believe it! How beautiful! The background, my two favorite men, my hair (haha)! Even though Kaleb wasn't smiling, it was still a great picture of the three of us! YAH! My world is right side up again. The sun shined a little brighter on the way home from work (even though it was cloudy!). Now my obsession has turned to her website to see if the rest of them are up! OMG, I might need medication before it is all over with...

To Infinity... And Beyond!

Kaleb's new obsession is Toy Story 3, or 'Toys' as Kaleb calls it. My mom bought it for him when it first came out and he has just now developed an attention span long enough to sit through the whole thing. Over the last 2 weeks, I have watched it a least 20 times! It is a really good movie so I don't mind so much. =) At first, he got too scared to sit through the 'mean' parts. Especially the guard monkey at the daycare. He would cover his ears and whine to the point of almost crying. So I started making fun of the monkey, clapping my hands together like he does with the symbols and calling him a mean monkey. That has seemed to help but he still doesn't like that part.

Kaleb's mornings are very unpredictable. Some times he will wake up in the best of moods, and there are other times I just pray for him to go back to sleep! And you can never tell what time he is going to get up, whether it be 5 or after 7. On weekday mornings, I usually am the one getting him up and ready for school while Paul usually takes that duty on weekends and lets me sleep in, which usually means I don't get up till a whopping 7:30! When he does sleep a little later, I try to just change his diaper and clothes while he sleeps and put him in the car, where I have his breakfast waiting. Some times this works well and other times he will lose his mind when I touch him. Thursday morning was one of those cases where he wanted nothing to do with me, clothes, breakfast or school! I ended up running late trying to get him in the car and then dropping him off at daycare was a nightmare. So Friday, when he slept 'later' again, I decided I was going to get him up early and not have to rush. Well, I had the brilliant idea of bribing him with cinnamon toast eggos and 'Toys'. I got everything ready in his room then went to wake him up (he was in our bed!) So, I walked over to him, rubbed his head and told him it was time to wake up. Thru closed eyes, he said 'No!' I offered my bribe of Toys and toast to which he said 'No!' I offered Toys again, just in case he didn't hear me the first time. Still with closed eyes, he said 'No Toys Momma!' and rolled over and pulled the cover over his head! I couldn't help but laugh.

So, I thought hard and decided to try the hungry caterpillar game I have done in the past. He loves the book 'Very Hungry Catepillar' (written by the same guy that did Brown Bear, Brown Bear). So, to wake him up, I tell him the the hungry caterpillar is crawling up and down him looking for food. He eats Kaleb's nose, ears, toes, belly button, etc. All the while, I am running my fingers up and down, tickling him. This worked like a charm. He started giggling and laughing. He was much more open to to Toys and Toast offer from earlier! =) It was also an easier drop off at daycare! Just thought I would give everyone a taste of what mornings are like the the Rasmussen household!

Oh the things we do to make our children laugh! A happy Kaleb means a happy Mommy which means a good day for everyone!

CE weekend

So, in order to keep my license to practice Optometry in the great state of Mississippi (can't type that word without singing the "crooked letter" song in my head!), I have to have 20 hours of continuing education per year. Well, the end of the year is coming up fast and the Mississippi (hump back, hump back, i) Optometric Assocation hosts a Fall Conference to help everybody get their last minute hours. What this means is that from 8-5:30 on Friday, 8:30-6 on Saturday, and 8-12 on Sunday, I had the pleasure of sitting through countless lectures of stuff I have heard dozens of times before. You see, most of these lectures are to update  all the old doctors on the new stuff. Since we just graduated last year, this is just review for us. So, the real reason I go is to see all my friends friends from SCO that I don't get to see often enough! It was so much fun, sitting in the back of class, just catching up!

Friday night, the conference held a reception with a Kentucky Derby theme. My wonderful sister offered to babysit Kaleb so both Paul and I could go and enjoy a night with adults! =) It was great. We had lots of fun and ended up at a bar next door to the hotel where the conference was held. Around 1:00, Paul gets a phone call from my sister who just woke up and realized we weren't home yet and started having a panic attack. She didn't know that a 'reception' was really just a code name for 'party till dawn'! So we paid our tab and came home, which ended up being a blessing in disguise because Kaleb didn't have a great night of sleeping and I had to get up at 5:30 to shower and be at the hotel for registration and classes! I have no idea how I used to do this in college. I was dog tired the whole day! But, apparently not as tired as my friend Mandi who kept falling alseep during conversations.

I really hated not being able to spend the weekend with Kaleb, but it was really nice to be able to catch up with old friends and have adult conversations. The only thing that could have made it better was to have my other BFF Aubrey there. She had the Kentucky meeting the same weekend in Gatlinburg, but we have her convinced to come to our meeting next year! And, we are already planning for the SECO conference held in March in Atlanta every year!

I was the worst person and only took one photo from the whole weekend! As mentioned before, the reception had a Kentucky Derby theme. And what is the most important thing to know about the Kentucky Derby... HATS! They had a contest for the best hat and every table had random hats on it. This is Jimbo, a doctor I graduated with and now work with everyday! He decided this hat was just his style!

Halloween 2011

I love holidays, especially the ones that give me a reason to spend some quality time with my family. So with Halloween right around the corner, I started on my quest to find Kaleb the perfect costume. My son is not your normal, everyday 2 year old boy. He is not into super heros or transformers or toy story. He likes anything on Disney Jr or Nick Jr, especially Dora and Diego. But you can't very well dress your blonde haired boy up like a little mexican girl and not have everyone staring at you (plus Paul would NEVER have allowed it! lol). While searching the internet one day, I happened across the cutest Chuggington costume. I thought it was perfect seeing that Kaleb loves the show and trains. WRONG! I tricked him into putting it on just long enough to get this picture before he threw a tantrum:

Thats me to the left trying to get out of the picture! I mean, how adorable is he?!

So the moment of truth came list night. (I have seriously been practicing the knocking on doors and saying trick or treat since last year when he would not have anything to do with it!) It was 6 o'clock, I had set out our candy for the neighborhood kids (the "take only one" rule does not apply at our house. I don't care how much you take as long as there is none left when we get back!) Kaleb was outside riding his tractor around the driveway when kids started showing up and trick-or-treating. I had tried 3 times to get Kaleb to put on the costume with no luck. He was not having anything to do with it. So, after a quick heart-to-heart and an explanation that he would get candy if he went walking with mommy and daddy, he let me put on the back-up costume and off we went. He was SO cute. He did so well. We would ask him which way he wanted to go and kept explaining that the light had to be on in order to go knock on the door, but he was having a great time. My mom had given him a goody bag when we were in town a couple weekends ago, so I decided that he could use that as his bucket. I didn't realize how big it was until he took off down the street with it. Paul kept offering to hold it for him, but he had a death grip on it and needed no help! The most precious thing I have ever seen was the first house we came to that had a bucket outside to help yourself. I told Kaleb to reach in and get some candy. I watched and laughed as he picked up one little starburst, put it in his bag, said "thank you" and walked off! SO STINKING ADORABLE! We made it back to the house around 7:30 (the temperature dropped really quickly when the sun went down), Kaleb got in the shower with Paul, Mommy hid all the candy, and he actually went to bed at a descent time, and slept relatively good. After much ado about nothing, it was a wonderful Halloween!

Go Vols!

If you know anything about Paul and I, it is that we are die hard Tennessee fans. Pretty sure our blood is bright orange. Saturday night was the UT vs. South Carolina game. And like every other game this season, we had an extremely promising first half, but a piss-poor second half. All things considered (losing both our starting QB and RB, our second string QB being a huge disappointment, and our third string QB a true freshman that has never played a down that has to all of a sudden start against a ranked SC team), we held our own for the majority of the game. I truly feel sorry for our defense. They are the reason we still have hope at the half. They keep the other team from running up the score by forcing fumbles, making interceptions, and forcing 3-and-outs. Then, after working so hard for 10-20 minutes, our offense takes the field and either goes 3-and-out or throws an interception! Back comes the defense for another 10-20 minutes! Talk about tired! No wonder we can't pull it together in the second half, we are just plain tired! 

But the real reason I am writing this tonight is to share a proud, proud moment that Paul and I had that night. A big play happened in our favor and we started hooping and hollaring. Before we knew it, Kaleb started yelling "Go Vols, Go Vols, Go Vols!" It was so cute! He was jumping up and down, pointing at the TV, just yelling his little heart out! It took a while before we could catch our breath we were laughing so hard at him! Later, Paul was messing with Kaleb, getting him to look at his muscles, then scaring him by yelling real quick. Kaleb was laughing and falling on the floor, just being silly. So I went and got my phone to get it on video. After he got bored with that, I decided to try and get the yelling on video! I can't believe I got it because he is usually very camera shy and clams up when he sees it. But it was SUPER cute!

Enjoy!