Adventures in Babysitting

Awhile ago, Scott and I agreed to babysit one of my co-workers 3-month old boy Colin. Both Scott and I were really excited about this adventure but a little uncertain of what we might be getting ourselves into. Last Saturday night was the big date and let me tell you, it was totally not what we expected it to be! I was thinking the a 3-month old would surely be crying when the parents left (even though I know babies don't get separation anxiety until about 9 months) and be totally upset the entire time we babysat BUT it turned out to be just the opposite. Colin was a little cranky when we got there but as the parents were leaving we sat down with him to feed him dinner and no more than 5 minutes had past and he was sound asleep! He slept for 3 hours straight!!!! Scott and I basically took turns holding the little dude while we watched Christmas movies. When he woke up he just sorta looked at us like, "hello strange people, I would like my diaper changed and maybe something to drink!" We did just that and played with him on the floor for a little while and we even got him to smile at us. Colin is certainly a mellow baby and we appreciated it as we were first timers but something tells me our kids won't be that relaxed! Again for our visual readers, here is a pic of Scott and the little tyke!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas tree

It's Official: The Holidays are here and with that comes Christmas trees. Well, this isn't our first rodeo with getting a Christmas tree and keeping it alive. For those of you who don't know the story of our first Christmas tree let me catch you up to speed. In 2008, this being our first holiday season as a married couple, we were very enthusiastic about the whole decorating thing and couldn't wait to get our Christmas tree and begin our own traditions. We began the day by heading out to buy all the supplies one should need to decorate the tree with all our left over gift cards from the wedding. We found ourselves shopping a little north of Seattle and saw a Christmas tree lot and decided to pick one up as long as we were in the neighborhood knowing that it might be a little drive with a tree on the roof of our car. We picked out a tree but to our surprise there was no one in sight to help us get the tree on our car or help us at all for that matter so we made due with the situation and asked to borrow some twine from them and we figured we could get the tree on top the car by ourselves........well I'm here to tell you it is harder than it looks. We got the tree on top of the car but we forgot to open the car doors when we were tying the twine and stringing it through the windows. It makes it kinda hard to get in your car when its tied shut!! After we were able to secure the tree and get into our car, we headed out on the open road of I-5 to get home but as luck would have it, it was incredibly windy and we could hear the tree slipping off the car and since we were not confident in our homemade twine job we pulled over and went the back roads home....which takes a lot longer!! Once we got home, we got the tree in the stand and straightened out and we were ready to decorate but in all the hussle and bustle of this we totally forgot to have the bottom of the tree trimmed off so that it would stay alive longer but we thought "o-well" do you actually have to do that? Take it from the Friedrichs, YOU DO!! Not two weeks later our tree was so dead that when you touched it a whole branch of pine needles would fall off and be laying at your feet just staring you in the face saying, "you idiot you should have had me trimmed!" So with my parents coming in just a few short days, Scott and I wanted to make the perfect Christmas so we decided that we needed to get a new tree, but that was a chore all by itself. We decided after work one night we would set out on the journey again. By the time Scott was home, I had the tree undecorated so that all we had to do was drag out the old one, hop in the car, pick out a new one, and redecorate....sounds simple enough right? Well we got the old one out of our place but not without a graveyard of pine needles laying everywhere but we thought we would wait to clean them up until after we got the new tree in the house...so we were off in search of a new tree. We found a tree lot close to our house, picked out a new tree and waited patiently while the sawwed off the trunk of the tree to make sure it would stay alive. While we were waiting, we noticed how unusually cold it was for Seattle and we had heard through the grapevine that it might snow, but we were too concentrated on getting a new tree to care. They loaded the tree on our car for us and we got it home and in the apartment with little mishaps. But there was still all those old pine needles needing to be cleaned up, so while Scott cooked us some dinner, I got out the vacuum cleaner and got to work. BUT you should know that those household items are not meant to suck up that many needles!! I broke our vacuum half way through the cleaning process and I finally broke down just as the vaccum started to smoke....but Scott helped out and we got the tree up and running again just was we went to bed around midnight. As we awoke the next morning, we slept in just a little too long and as we opened our curtains, the entire city of Seattle was covered in snow; which meant that both of us were going to late for work since Seattle seems to shut down when the city even mentions snow........so that was last year!

This year we new exactly what we needed and were all ready for the adventure. We got home from the east coast late last Saturday night but we woke up early on Sunday since we were still on east coast time. We decided to make the most of it and go get our tree. Well we headed to get some coffee and we passed a nursery that had a big sign for Christmas trees so we thought we would stop and see what they have. To our surprise, they had a ton of trees and very helpful staff. We picked our tree and they took it and cut the bottom off, put a stand on it and made sure it was straight, put a net around and loaded it to the top of our car and then they opened all the doors and professionally twined it to the roof of our car. We were home with a Christmas tree in a stand with little to no pine needles in less than an hour. We consider ourselves pretty much professionals now so here is what our tree looks like (sorta)..........Happy holidays!!!

Honorary Blog Post

Our good friend Stefanie, who's blog is here ,was really bored at work one dark and stormy Seattle night and dreamt up a story about a conversation we may have in the future. It's an amazing tale so we will share:

A random conversation Hanna & Scott might have about having a baby…

Hanna: Everyone's having a baby.

Scott: I know! We should have one too! Or seven!

Hanna: You wish!

Scott: It's always been a lifelong dream of mine to have seven kids. That way anytime you want you can put on a production of snow white & the seven dwarfs anytime you want! You KNOW that's my favorite Disney story. I'll even let you be snow white since you will be birthing all seven of the kids.

Hanna: Great. If I were to agree to having seven kids I'd be pregnant for 63 month, that's over 5 years of my life!

Scott: Well I wouldn't be against you having more than 1 at a time. You could be octomom 2.0! Only with seven babies instead of eight.

Hanna: Could you imagine what life would be like with seven infants screaming around the clock?

Scott: But we'd have good kids that don't cry.

Hanna: And how do you suppose we'd magically have seven perfect non-crying babies?

Scott: I don't know exactly how right now, but I'd have nine month to figure it out.

Hanna: Don't you think if it were that easy to have non-crying babies someone else would have already figured it out?

Scott: Maybe no one wanted non-crying babies before now. It is possible you know.

Hanna: How about we make a deal then. You figure out a way for you to bear seven non-crying babies at once and I'll agree to have seven kids.

Scott: You're on!

Family makes the heart grow fonder!!

This maybe a really short post but the things that Scott and I have learned in our short time away from work and spending all our time with friends and family is that :

~ We are extremely lucky!!

~ Flights across the country aren't that bad when you consider what is waiting for you at

baggage claim

~Your Parents cooking is ALWAYS better than your own

~ Nothing can compare to spending time with your siblings

~ Thanksgiving this year is a an epic one to be thankful for!!!

~ This is our second Thanksgiving married and they keep getting better!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

A little pre-Thanksgiving food for thought

When Scott and I first started dating, we talked at length about why we loved Thanksgiving so much and why it was our favorite holiday. For Scott, he loves that it is a day to just be with family, watch football, amazing food, and oh yeah, did I mention family! (Scott's a big family guy if you haven't picked up on that.) For me, I have very fond memories of thanksgiving growing up. For one, my birthday almost always falls during the week of Thanksgiving which means I get to celebrate with my family. But I think some of my best memories of Thanksgiving were all the trips we made to my grandparents house....every year. They lived four hours away from us in Montana and we would make the road trip come snow or blizzard! My sister and I would sit in the back seat of my parents 4-runner and build forts out of our blankets and kick, fight, and scream the whole way there (because four hours is an eternity when you are small!) but it was always great to show up in the dark to that big blue house on the hill. Every thanksgiving I would stand in the kitchen and watch my grandma make the turkey and all the side dishes that come with; and then go watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade with my grandpa. My grandma would work all day arranging the table with her finest china; some of the dishes were designated just for cut up pickles and big black olives but none the less we had to use the nicest china. There are so many great memories I could fill our whole blog with but I'll spare you!

My grandparents both passed away almost six years ago and thanksgiving was the last holiday we all spent together. I think of the them often around the holidays and wish they could be with us now. This years Thanksgiving is gonna be extra special for the us because not only is it the first Thanksgiving that we have spent with my parents and family in over 2 years but it will be the last holiday we spend with them in Virginia before they move to Australia. Scott and I are both looking forward to spending a week with my family relaxing, watching movies, playing board games, eating great food and drinking some good wine with the Harrisons.

Our thanksgiving food for thought: "be thankful for what you have, be humble for what your don't, and appreciate all the stuff in between and remember, family is everything!"

Burger Tasting

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, you know exactly what state the Economy is in. In an effort to be more thrifty (since we are trying to save our pennies for a house), Scott and I have been trying to make date night a little more checkbook friendly. I can't say that we are all together better at spending less but we have become really creative. We decided that since we both have an affinity for GREAT burgers, that we will slowly eat our way through the Seattle Magazine's top ten burgers list for Seattle. On Friday night we commenced our quest by going to Jak's grill over in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. The place was packed and the hostess said it would be a 45 min wait so we headed to the bar. We missed happy hour by about 15 minutes (burger and fries for $5) but we settled up to the bar and ordered a round of beer. The restaurant is known for their great steaks but we came just for the burger and the bartender set us up with the most picturesque burger I've seen. See picture above! Scott and I both discussed how we were going to take on the burger and we both opted for different strategies; I being lady-like cut my burger in half and took it one half at a time and Scott being manly took a large bite right out of the center and continued to keep the burger together until it was all gone. I have to say, my burger eating skills need improvement if we are going to continue this mission as I had burger everywhere and Scott was clean as whistle. I was slightly embarrassed by the burger soaked napkin I left for the waiter to clean up but the meal was delicious. We both agreed it was an amazing burger and it is pretty high on our list but its only our first stop on the burger train so stay tuned.

We have gotten some feed back about the arm itching post from last week and we both are shocked to find more people in the world that relish in arm itching. Scott was able to talk in public about his affection for arm itching for the first time! For those of you out there, maybe you could start a club, and at your meetings you could all sit in a circle and scratch each others arms!

Back scratches, arm itching, & shoes left on I-5

Over the past year of being married, there is a phenomenon that happens in Friedrich household that involves scratching. You see, Scott grew up on a household that used back scratching as a means to show love and affection; and if you know Scott, you know that God blessed him with a built in Sweater or to the common folk, back hair. As a person who does not possess a built in sweater I have no idea what this feels like but Scott tells me often "it's itchy." Being the good wife I am, I don't mind giving the occasional back scratch when we are relaxing but as our marriage has progressed in months, the back scratching has also increased. It has come to the point that now whenever my hands grace his back, I find him suddenly ripping off his shift and hunched over in what he considers the optimal back scratching position; which slightly resembles the hunchback of Notre Dame for those of you who are visual readers. I don't remember much in our vows that included "endless back scratching"???? Anywho, along that same topic, Scott also likes his forearms itched.....which, when I found this out, I was puzzled because I have never come across another individual who liked their forearms scratched??? Scott, without thinking, will put one forearm across my lap while we are watching T.V. at night and I without skipping a beat will appease him a little, but the one thing I have learned is arm itching leads to 15 min back scratches. I'm suddenly realizing what a strange blog topic this is so, moving on.........

Yesterday, Scott and I were driving and we noticed what an exceptional large volume of shoes are left on I-5. What is the deal with this? Scott and I were perplexed at why there were so many shoes left on the median of the road....I for one would defiantly stop and pick up my shoe if one were to inadvertently fly out of our car!!! And for the matter, what are shoes doing flying out of cars? Scott and I had a riveting conversation about this, and he came up with a good scenario to answer our question: small children were kicking the back of there fathers seats while they were driving along on the freeway, so the father got mad pulled their shoe off and threw it out the window; but then the Father was mad at himself for not controlling his rage so, he threw one of his own shoes out the window. Makes sense to me I guess......mystery solved.....case closed.

How the Friedrichs survived Swine Flu 2009

Hanna:

So it appears that I could not escape the flu season without coming down with this devilish virus but I did get some encouraging words from the doctor, "it appears you have been hit hard with this bug"---great, thanks Doc. Since I am a Veteran of the H1N1, I have tabulated the following top ten list in order to survive:

1. Get your boxing gloves out of the closet and mentally prepare for the ear biting fight of the season

2. Come to terms that you might not shower that often

3. Call your boss and beg for as much sick leave as he/she has to offer

4. Cry

5. Set up the couch/bed/favorite area in your house with kleenex, Tylenol cold & flu, cough drops, if you are lucky enough, some of that prescription strength cough medicine, water, tea, gatorade, thermometer, remote control, and many many DVDs or DVRd shows

6. Moan

7. Attempt to quarantine yourself from other family members and common areas of your house

8. Prepare yourself that Friends/Family might dis-invite you and your husband to any gatherings or parties for which you may have already hand-sewn a costume for and instead pull yourself together long enough to play a game of Scrabble with your husband/wife.

9. Cry

10. Allow your mother to bake Monster cookies and Overnight Fed-Ex them to you....no matter how old you are

Scott:

Yes I have (knock on wood) survived the H1N1 scare at the Friedrich household. As a survivor and a husband I have the following advice for treating your loved ones.

1. Many would believe that the best treatment that one can give is love and support however I think that having an unlimited Blockbuster supply of entertaining movies helps. Now gentlemen this is a win-win situation for us. First and foremost your wife/significant other/girlfriend will think that you are thoughtful and will love you for it. In reality though this is finally a chance to rent those movies that you said that you would watch together. It is a get out of chick flick free card. May I suggest at least 2 movies a day until the fever breaks (Failure to Launch, Pride and Prejudice and Bridal Wars are just a couple of suggestions).

2. You are allowed to sleep in the same bed with the patient but may I suggest if there is another room or a hide-a-bed to make that election. If you choose the former rather than the latter sleeping in your mountain hardware sleeping bag on top of the comforter is permissible.

3. Lysol, Purel and Clorox wipes are your new best friends. I prefer to call them the LPC.

4. Get on your chef hat and prepare the patient some food. This is a great time to pull out the bachelor food (ie Mac & Cheese and hot dogs, Campbells soup straight from the can and quesadillas made with the best wedding present ever.... the quesadilla maker). Lets keep in mind though gents that this is also a time to show your woman that you can put away chef cardboard and introduce your inner greatness. Every man has one meal that they have learned and have mastered. At the very least this should come out. May I suggest making that meal and lighting a votive candle. It shows thought and romance. BROWNIE POINTS TOO. Now do I have your attention?

5. Ice cream solves everything. Simple enough. Choose the very best and post pone the workout. You can shred with Julian Michaels later. Right now you are on a mission.

6. Take advice from the immortal words of Bruce Dickinson, "I have a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell" Laughter and love combined cures all.