5 out of 10

I really am a nutjob!! Awhile back (last year or two years ago - can't even remember and am too lazy to look at my old posts) I blogged about some of the crazy things I do. In a nutshell, I'm a worry-wart, am OCD and am kinda crazy some times. Aren't we all? Any who, as I was doing one of my daily rituals - checking msn.com - I saw a story that I thought was pretty interesting. It's about the top 10 PHOBIAS of 2010. As I was looking at them, I realized that I have 5 out of the 10 phobias listed. I'm officially a nut-job, as Lorin could attest to.

Top 10 Phobias - MSN.com article
1. TERRORISM
2. FLYING - AVIOPHOBIA
3. HEIGHTS - ACROPHOBIA
4. FINANCIAL RUIN
5. PUBLIC SPEAKING - GLOSSOPHOBIA
6. SPIDERS - ARACHNOPHOBIA
7. DOGS - CYNOPHOBIA
8. CONFINED SPACES - AGORAPHOBIA
9. OPEN SPACES - AGORAPHOBIA
10. THUNDER/LIGHTNING STORMS

Kristyn's Phobias:

1. TERRORISM - If I'm on a plane or in a tall building, I'm constantly thinking "What if someone flies a plane into here or blows us up?" Is that even NORMAL!?

2. FLYING - Refer back to phobia 1. I have flown all over the world - China, France, Ireland, England, Mexico, and I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I'VE DONE IT!!! Something about an airport gets me very excited and gitty, but when I'm in a plane, and especially during take off, I kinda freak. I know it won't happen but I always imagine the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up!! And don't even mention TURBULENCE.... HATE 'EM!! I just start panicking and praying A LOT!

3. HEIGHTS - I am just so afraid I'll suddenly get the urge to JUMP!! Weird, I know, but I freak myself out. I've been on a Hot Air Balloon, Parasailing (twice), on the Dive Devil at Magic Mountain (4 times!), and up very tall buildings, and I've freaked out every time. I just find myself holding on for dear life in those instances.

4. SPIDERS - I swear they can out-run, out-jump, and out-smart me. It didn't help that my friend, Mike Rogan, posted a spider video on facebook (Go HERE to see that). FREAKKKKY!! 8 legged things are just too creepy for me!

5. CONFINED SPACES - I am very claustraphobic! VERY!! Once again, I don't know how I did it, but I did the "birthing canal" when I went to Pepper Sauce Caves. Ask me now to do it, and the answer would be "HECK NO!" Even if someone paid me $1000!! Uh-uh - NO WAY!! It didn't help when I heard about the guy that went caving last month in Utah and got stuck head down in a small crevice of a cave, and died!! Yikes!

Any who, if people didn't think I was weird enough I've just given you even more reasons to think I'm crazy. All that matters is that Lorin knows all these fears of mine and he still loves me. :) And I have to mention also that those other 5 fears don't even phase me, so does that make me semi-normal?

Am I the only crazy one out there?

Fun with Daddy

I'm so glad Lorin took a few days off of work before he left for Chicago so we could have some family fun. We went on a picnic one night and fed the ducks, and on one day we went to the Wildlife Zoo & Aquarium. We went on a Thursday morning and no one was there, so it was nice to have it all to ourselves. I have to mention, Lily decided to throw up as we went out there. Niiiice. She said, "Mommy, my tummy hurts." I told her I would get her a snack and before I knew it curdled milk was everywhere. GROSSSS! Lorin was trying not to dry-heave, and miraculously, I was able to look at it and smell it without dry-heaving while she continued to throw up (which is not the usual - if I was pregnant, I would have been vomiting wit her!) Fortunately, we were right by Lorin's work office, so we cleaned up there and got re-situated. I don't know why I did it, but I had packed her an extra pair of clothes so we were lucky. And fortunately, it didn't spoil the day and we were still able to go. We also went to lunch and were able to get a sitter so we could go see "Sherlock Holmes" (which by the way, is awesome... Robert Downey Jr. is seriously one of my FAVS now!) Any who - we had so much fun and I wanted to post a few pics of our activities with our long, lost daddy - We sure miss him, but we are able to talk a lot on the phone as well as SKYPE. It's so cute... Lily will tell me, "Skype Daddy! Skype Daddy - He's in Chicago for long time!" She sure loves and misses her daddy. :)

Having Lorin leave made me wonder about some things. Everyone is always asking me if I'm going to move in with my mom since he's gone or if I'll go over there every night. People also seem to have an opinion on how often he should come home or if you should or shouldn't wast the money, so I want to ask the following...

1 - Would you stay at your own home or move in with the parents so you're not alone?

AND

2 - Would you try to fly your hubby home as often as possible, or do you think it's a waste of money?

I'm curious...
1 - I am staying at home mostly because I have so many projects I want to get done and I also don't get scared at night.
2 - We are flying Lo home every 2-3 weeks because a: we saved up money so we could do this, and b: we just miss him that much and want to see him. :)

They like to move it, move it... and eat Veggie Straws. We probably weren't suppose to, but we threw veggie straws to them and they seemed to like 'em. :)
Umm, SCARY!! This thing freaked me out, and I swear it was staring at me!
My sugar pie - he is the sweetest little boy, and he just loves me so much!
Lily givin her daddy some loves.
You can feed the giraffes - sooo cool!
My sugar pie again - He was such a happy baby the whole day. I really think Heavenly Father has blessed him to be good for me, especially while Lo is gone.

You don't have to pay to touch the sting rays here like at the zoo... then again, it is about twice as expensive also. :/
Feeding the ducks... there were so many of them and they practically ate the bread out of our hands!

It happened once again...

I've been sucked in... I'm officially watching "The Bachelor" this season. Why, you might ask? Well, first off, it's Jake. It's not that I was in love with the guy when he was on Jillian's season, but I definitely liked him and though he was genuine. Secondly, Lorin is gone and A-He won't be here to give me crap about watching it, and B-He won't be here, so what else better do I have to do? ;)
I just need to know once again that I'm not the only one....

Already excited for Christmas next year...

We are so busy at the Merkley house, but I just wanted to post a few pics from Christmas... It was the best, and I'm already looking forward to next year's Christmas. Do you want to know why I'm already looking forward to it?! I'll tell ya!

Every year I save up some money so that I can shop after Christmas for Christmas stuff. On Dec. 26th, everything is 50% off, and since I'm cheap and poor, that's when I go and buy my stuff. I usually get all my gift wrapping/bows/etc. for the whole year as well as any other cool goodies. If there is something I want but it's still kinda expensive I pray it's still there a few days later when everything is 75% off. I found SOOO many cool things this year, but my favorite was a white swirly cupcake tree holder for $2.50!! Gotta love a bargain!

Lily with some of her cousins on the Merkley side Christmas Eve
Me and Hannah (Tara's oldes)... if you look real close you will see that I got BRACES!! Crazy, I know, but I'm finally getting used to them and they aren't as bad as I thought they would be.
Taylor Lautner showed up for dinner on the Luna side Christmas Eve, so I couldn't resist the pic opportunity.
My little stud, Gavin, on Christmas Sunday looking a little shocked.
My sweet Lily on Christmas Sunday lookin' oh-so-cute!

:(

Woo hoo... that man is HOT! ;)

We've known about this for two stinkin' years now, and I still can't get over the fact that Lorin is leaving for Chicago next week for 3 MONTHS without us!

Lorin will be doing the Clinical Portion of his schooling at Northwestern for Prosthetics starting January 11th. It's 11 weeks long, and I am SO SO SO sad that he is going. Like I said, we've known about this for a long time now, but it still seems so surreal. I'm sure some people reading this are thinking, "Shoot, 11 weeks is nothing!" And I'm sure others are like me and are thinking, "Wow.... that's a long time!"

We had the option of going with him, but we didn't think it would be such a good idea for a newborn and Lily to be stuck in a VERY SMALL apartment in Chicago during the winter. I think we would go insane, and I think we would be in the way of Lorin's studies. It would also be very expensive for us to be there with him. Fortunately, we will be able to fly him home a few times in between.

I just wanted everyone to know so that if I'm a bit of a grump, you'll know why. Lorin is my BEST-EST friend in the whole world, and it's going to be really hard for me to be away from him so long! :(

Enough of the sad news...
We had a wonderful Christmas and I'm so glad we could spend it with so many friends, and with all our family. It was so fun watching Lily get into the season a little more this year. She went around telling everyone that "Santa is coming to town!" And she was so excited to tell everyone she wanted a candy cane for Christmas... pretty low expectations (hopefully she's that way every year - ha!) It was also fun celebrating with Gavin - he's my little stud, and I love that he already loves me so much!!

We hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas, and one of these days when I actually have more time I will post more pics.

Song about Mormons on Conan & Alice in Wonderland

I just love Conan... he's so funny!

Check out this video if you have a few minutes to spare...

Song about Mormons on Conan O'Brien

Also, here is the new trailer for Alice in Wonderland... I CANNOT WAIT!

Alice Trailer

Busy Busy Busy Busy

You know how it is with the Holidays... BUSY TIME!

Even though things are crazy, I love it!! The hustle and bustle just reminds me that Christmas is coming, and I'm so excited!

Of course we were busy with the boutique, but we were able to fit in a quick trip to mine and Lorin's favorite place... Disneyland! We couldn't resist because we had free tickets! Lily & Gavin were awesome, and Lily is still talking about the rides and how Mickey Mouse gave her a kiss. Gavin was way too good... he hardly said a peep the whole time, and we were able to take him on a TON of rides. I wanted to do a blog post that continued from last year's post about Disneyland, but just haven't had the time. Oh well!

Here are just a few pics of what we have been up to lately....

Our Christmas Card Family Pic
Part of the Boutique
At Disneyland
At the coolest new ride at California Adventure... the Toy Store 4-D Ride
Lily with Cinderella... she was so happy to meet her