And Then There Were Three. And a Rascal.

Rumor has it that something is going on at the Adams’ house.

I am here to confirm that all the rumors are true.

We are, in fact, having a baby.

So now click this link and watch the funny video of us telling my Dad and my sister.

The Announcement

Their delayed reactions were hilarious.

Because we weren’t able to tell everyone else in person, we didn’t get videos. However, we are SO thankful for Skype and that we got to see their faces while we told them our news!

Grayson’s Popo had a great reaction that I wish we could have recorded: “HALLELUJAH, Grayson!”

So, ta da! There you have it. Baby Adams will be arriving in early November! We still don’t have an official due date, but we’ll update as soon as we know.

For those of you wondering what Rascal is going to do, my best guess is that he’s going to run away from home to make us remember how much we love him. He’s tricky like that.

I Won the Lottery! (Sort of)

I have become the worst blogger on the face of the Internet planet. You know how you think that everything is so exciting when you are very first married because it’s all new to you? Well, now that we’ve got some time under our belts, I’ve realized that we don’t do anything exciting because it’s all “normal” now. So, to catch everyone up on the events of the last month (again, because it takes me a minimum of 30 days to come up with some good blog-worthy material…sad) here I am again. To bore you with our normal-ness.

A couple weeks back I went to this slammin’ sale at the Zotos Warehouse here in Geneva. My co-worker, Moe, went with me and we had so much fun! We showed up at 7:00 AM (I didn’t know that time existed on Saturdays) and ended up waiting in a pretty long line for over an hour and a half to get in. I wasn’t prepared for the wait outside and was wearing moccasins with no socks—POOR planning! I thought I was going to lose a toe or six before we got inside, but somehow my feet managed to maintain enough blood flow to not turn black and fall off (I’m thinking that there had to be some sort of magical hair product wizard at work, warming my little tootsies so I wouldn’t wuss out). Once we got inside it was a total madhouse, but so fun! Like Black Friday, except better. You buy a canvas bag for $2 and then fill it with as much shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, and other hair products as you can. Then you pay $15 and leave feeling like you won the lottery because you just got a TON of salon hair products for dirt cheap. I may have done a crazy happy dance in the parking lot because I was so excited. I had so much fun the first time; I made Grayson go back with me later morning to fill up another bag. We have enough hair products to last us for at least a year. Grayson has enough hair gels, pomades, waxes, etc. to last him for forever. Plus enough left over to leave to our children in his will.

Also, one of the perks of my job is that I know a lot of people in the community, which means that I have some nice hook-ups when we need stuff. One of my favorite patients just happens to be a Zotos employee, so she scored 66 cans of dry shampoo for me for $5.00! I was dying of happiness inside. We did the math and she got me $462 of dry shampoo. It was like Christmas came early. Grayson didn’t match my crazy lunatic level of excitement, so I was a little disappointed. All you ladies can see why this is super awesome, right?

In other news:

We have just been working and playing and relaxing. And trying to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Mother Nature and I are BFFs right now. Except for the slight bug problem upstate NY is having because of all the warm weather. I’m already covered in mosquito bites and I generally like to wait until a little later in the season for that to happen.

My dad and baby sister are coming out to visit soon, so we are planning for that. I am SO excited to see them and show them around our new home. Not that there’s anything too exciting to see around here, but still. We’re thinking Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen, Cornell University/Hipster Capital USA, the Church sites…we’ve got a full agenda planned, so get ready for the best weekend of your LIVES, you two!

Katie (the baby sister) turned 16 yesterday! I can’t believe it! She’s the cutest, smartest, fanciest 16 year old I know. Happy Birthday, fancy girl!

365 Days.

Last Sunday, we had our 1st anniversary. Hooray! We had a really fun weekend to celebrate 365 days of marital success! Writing about our anniversary feels like I am going to have to say something really mushy and gross. I am fairly sure that you don’t want to read a post about how super fantastically amazing I think my husband is. I won’t bore you with the details. Just know that he is super fantastically amazing and really cute and that I like him. A lot. Hooray for cuteness!

The original plan was to go somewhere, but that didn’t pan out. So we stayed home and had a really fun time staying in town.

Grayson took me shopping and told me to pick out a couple of things as his gift to me. We ended up getting him some things too and we had a great time shopping together.

We got dinner at Texas Roadhouse in Syracuse. Yes, we drove an hour to get some delicious Texas-style (ish) food. And it was worth it. They have the BEST rolls!

I made cupcakes because we had cupcakes instead of cake at our wedding and didn’t save any because there was no way for us to get frozen food all the way across the country. The cupcakes were really good! I asked Grayson what color frosting he wanted on them and his choice was blue. I showed him the pink sprinkles I had and he still insisted that the frosting needed to be blue so they were less girly.

We saw a movie in Rochester and ate at Chili’s on Monday. (It’s funny what you miss when living far away from home. My family used to go to Chili’s all the time because it was right down the street from us and I miss it now!)

It was a long, nice and relaxing weekend. We were very excited to have made it to our first milestone. In true mushy anniversary fashion, I will say that I am very excited to celebrate many more anniversaries with my sweet husband.

Thanksgiving

I know that it’s January. Don’t judge me.

We had the wonderful opportunity of going to Utah for Thanksgiving last year. I miss Utah. The mountains, access to all sorts of stores, highways that get you places quickly, neighbors who know other people in the neighborhood and wave at you as you drive by…

Oh yeah, and my family. I miss them too.

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone!

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house with our extended family. It was a lot of fun and so nice to be able to sit down and spend time with all of them.

I wish I had more pictures of what we did with my Dad, but I guess we weren’t thinking about pictures at those moments. We got to see Anonymous  at a real movie theater (which was very exciting for us) with my dad on Thanksgiving. After the movie was over, I went Black Friday shopping with my mom, sister, aunts, and cousins. It was crazy, but we had a great time! My sister and I drank 5 hour energy shots before we went. Long story short, not a good idea.

We assisted my mom by putting Christmas lights up on her house and I conquered my fear of heights by getting on the roof and helping Grayson! Then I got stuck coming off the roof (BLAST these short legs!) and my mom’s cute neighbor had to come save me because I was way too scared to take a small leap off the roof and let Grayson catch me while he stood on the top of a ladder. This was his plan. Not kidding. (I conquered my fear in a way that I got up high once and will never do that again.)

We met my dad’s cute new pup Kota who I like to refer to as Rascal 2 since he’s basically a mini-Rasc. We shopped at Tai Pan because I love and miss it so, went to DownEast, and hit up Cafe Rio because I am still convinced that it is food for the Gods. Pulled pork salad, be still my heart!

My sweet cousins, aunts, and grandma had a DBYOP (don’t bring your own pictures) Party for me and did my wedding scrapbook, which I love. I have looked at it quite a few times and am really grateful for all their help! While the girls were doing that at my house, Grayson got to go down to Provo and hang out with his friend Luke, so he was happy also. Hooray!

We helped my mom, brother, and sister set up their Christmas tree and had a good time. Especially since their tree didn’t fall over. My baby sister and I decided that this was the perfect time to wear matching outfits and be awesome. We were right. (See photos above and realize what a high level of awesomeness you are viewing.)

The only thing we didn’t do that I wish we had been able to do was see my aunt Connie. She’s in the process of kicking the pants off of cancer though, so she wasn’t able to make it to Thanksgiving dinner. If you are reading this, I love you Connie!

It was a great trip! I can’t wait to go back and visit again!

NYC NYE 2012

Since we have few chances in life to do something totally crazy, we decided to go watch the ball drop in New York City. And yes, it was totally crazy. We had a great time, but would we ever do that again? NO WAY. Let me tell you why.

On Friday afternoon we drove down to NYC after Grayson got off of work. I was really proud of myself because I drove us the whole way. Hooray me! When we got to New Jersey, we immediately went to get dinner at IHOP. Because we’re classy like that.

We woke up Saturday morning and put on a million layers of clothing then headed into the City with our friends Luke and Lauren Markham. We all grabbed lunch at Bubba Gump, which is one of my favorite places to go! It’s a Forest Gump restaurant, so obviously it’s awesome. Then the Markhams headed back to NJ and our wait to see the ball drop began.

In order to make a long story short, the NYPD was incredibly unorganized (Haven’t they been doing it for YEARS?! How are they so terrible at it still?!) and we ended up way way far away (51st and Broadway–not close!) and waited from 1:30 until 7:00. If you aren’t right in the middle of Times Square, you are watching everyone else have fun on a big TV if you are fortunate enough to have a good view of the screen. We could see the ball, but we couldn’t see or hear anything else. The crowd was pushy and fighting each other and the police were very physical and rough with the public.  We were packed into barricades so tight that I couldn’t reach into my pockets. Not to mention that there were people standing BEHIND us that had been waiting since 8 AM. We decided to leave and head over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree. We saw the ball go up at 6:00 and that was enough for us. Instead, we walked around the city a bit and enjoyed.

We made it (barely) back to Port Authority and jumped on a bus back to NJ. Almost missed our stop, but got off in the nick of time. Got yelled at by some crazy New Jersey bus driver who thought he was someone important. Yeah, it was interesting. We went over to Lauren’s parents’ house and watched the ball drop on TV with their family. We had our first married New Year’s smooch and decided that 2012 is going to be our best year ever.

We woke up the next day and drove ourselves into the city for a day of sightseeing. Driving through the Lincoln Tunnel is interesting. When I say interesting, I mean scary. Because those people drive like they’ve never even seen a car before. We got lucky and found a place to park within minutes. Then we enjoyed a day full of New York City things. I was really nervous that Grayson was going to hate it. He didn’t! He even said that he really likes Central Park. So, I counted that as a victory.

We walked from Central Park to the Financial District then to the Brooklyn Bridge to China Town to Little Italy. For those of you who are familiar with the layout of NYC, you know that we walked far. Further than you’re supposed to when you have a perfectly lovely subway system ready for your use. Grayson’s #1 thing to do was to go to the famous Katz’s Deli in Little Italy. He was in Heaven with his pastrami on rye sandwich. I think he debated moving to New York City for a minute. Then he remembered that he hates crowds, apartments, noise, and the  fear of being mugged.

About the pictures above: 1. The pictures labeled “5th Avenue” are of the amazing holiday windows at Bergdorf Goodman. The zebra window was made entirely out of strips of paper and it was so neat! The window display behind Grayson was made of bronzy metal. Cool! 2. Wall Street was totally blocked off because of the Occupy protesters. We weren’t impressed by the group. They were scary and crazy looking. I wanted to get my picture taken with this one guy in a head to toe disco spandex suit while holding a sign that said “The 1%” with an arrow pointing toward myself, but Grayson didn’t want me to get beaten up. Although I’m sure the newspaper article about that incident would be awesome–hopefully it would give a description of that guy’s jazzy outfit. I think he was also wearing a helmet. Ha!     3. Freedom Tower is amazing! It’s super tall and is going to be gorgeous when it’s completed. Seeing it made me swell with such pride. Go America!

We walked back to our car after a lovely day enjoying all that New York City has to offer and drove back to Jersey to hang out with our friends one more time. We saw the most amazing Christmas lights house ever, so we had to stop and check it out. Aaaamaaazing!! Ignore our weirdness in the video. We’re dorks and it is what it is.

 

The drive back home was long and sad. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the fun we were leaving behind us. P.S. When we got to Scranton, PA we stopped at this gas station called Sheetz to fill up. I got the most delicious hot chocolate EVER and feel the need to document it because it was that good. Just imagine the deliciousness of frosted marshmallow white chocolate hot cocoa, then multiply your idea by ten and you may have something similar to what it tasted like.

We had such a fun trip! I can’t wait to go back in April for my birthday. As a not so surprise, Grayson is taking me to see a Broadway show! Hooray!

Happy New Year, friends and family! We love you.

We’re BAAAACK.

So, I took a little blogging hiatus to regain my sanity during the holidays. Because we were crazy busy. We went to San Antonio and New York City all within a week and a half. Then we came home and went right back to work. Crazy Town USA. This means I have some catching up to do. But I’m not going to worry about that until another day.

I can’t believe that it’s 2012. It is crazy weird to think that I was 11 years old a decade ago. And Grayson was just graduated from high school and was getting ready to leave on his mission. Nuts, right?

I am a big lover of the “One Little Word” trend and thought that this would be a great way to focus on our goals for this year. I have debated many word choices and chose a pretty simple and obvious one.  We’ve had kind of a rough first year together and I really want to put all my focus and energy into this making our One Little Word be the center of our lives.

For 2012, the Adams will be focusing on GRATITUDE.

Like I briefly mentioned,  2011 has been difficult for the pair of us. When we moved out here to upstate New York, it was a huge shock to both of us. I have never felt so cut off from my friends and family. I was really depressed and angry that we were here. I cried and cried and CRIED. And eventually, I woke up and got over it, but it took us a while to get there and it was hard and sad and painful for us both.

Then my parents announced that they were divorcing. This wasn’t too big of a surprise after all these years, but it was still very difficult knowing that the “home” I was longing for would never be the same. And realizing that the last time I was ever going to be in my parents’ house with all of us together was before my wedding was awful. I struggled and cried and worried. And Grayson struggled and worried (not so much crying) right along with me.

Grayson’s job has been stressful and hard. He’s got a lot on his plate. And to top it off, he’s not so sure that he likes what he’s doing.

I have spent a lot of this last year not feeling well. We FINALLY figured out that I have some sort of moderate lactose intolerance. Last week, I felt great for the first time in a long time.

Now that it’s over, I can look back and see all the wonderful things that I couldn’t find at the time. I am so thankful that we are living here. We have really had to learn to rely on each other. We’re creating our own traditions. We are going places we wouldn’t have the opportunity to go if we still lived in Utah. We’ve met a lot of really great people who are changing our lives. We have spent an entire year figuring “us” out. What a great blessing all this is! I am thankful to be a daughter and a sister. I am thankful for parents who love me and Grayson. I am so grateful to be a part of my family, even though it has changed. I love being a big sister to my awesome little brother and sister. I love being the daughter of my dad, who has taught me so much about how to be a good person, and my mom, who cheers me on when I am feeling down and worries about me and calls just to say “hello” and ask if I am having a good day. Not to mention that I have the best in-laws ever. They have never hesitated to include me and are the sweetest, kindest people. I am so grateful to be a part of their family. I am grateful for Grayson’s job, even though it’s not easy or fun all the time. I love him so much for getting up and going to work every day to support us. We are so blessed that he found this job! I am so thankful that I haven’t been sick as of late (except for today when I got the flu).

Here’s all the awesome things we did in 2011:

 

Welcome, 2012! Please bring us happiness, love, and gratitude! And more Diet Coke.

Christmas Cookies

I talked Grayson into making Christmas cookies. Let me say that after the fact I wish we wouldn’t have done it. It was a lot of work and they are not good. But, alas hindsight is 20/20. I found a recipe that is supposedly the “best sugar cookies ever,” but I am going to have to disagree. Anyway, we did something Christmas-y, so hooray for us!

Reasons why we shouldn’t have done this:

1. It was EXPENSIVE. Freakin’ piping bags!

2. We burned the first batch. As in scorched them. But I was determined to do it right, so I made another batch. Mistake.

3. The frosting was gross. It wasn’t easy to work with and we made a huge mess.

4. The cookies were yucky. Too sweet, too brittle, too NOT yummy.

5. We suck at cookie frosting. It was kind of a joke. We were that bad.

Although, I love the snowflake cookie that says “who” on it. We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other day and Grayson realized that Whoville is in a snowflake, so he wanted an appropriate cookie. Too funny. Also, his angel is hilarious! Check out that Rapunzel hair!

Note to self: Christmas cookies—NEVER AGAIN.

One Year Older and Wiser Too.

Way back on December 2nd, Grayson had a birthday. That day, he turned a whopping 29 years old. To celebrate, he went to work. But he came home during lunch and opened his presents, which he was pretty happy about.

His big gift was an Art of Shaving sandalwood shaving kit from my parents and siblings. I gave him a fancy safety razor to go with it. He also got a movie, a video game, and a cookbook. After he got home from work, we went out to dinner with our friends at one of Grayson’s favorite restaurants, Simply Crepes. We ate delicious food and had a good time. Then we came home and watched Super 8 on Blu-Ray. I think he had a good day.

It’s also Rascal’s birthday on December 2, so we had to get a picture of the two birthday boys together.

I made Grayson a really neat cake. It was A LOT of work and didn’t taste as good as I had hoped. (I am REALLY losing my sweet tooth lately. Too much sugar!) It looked pretty though, so I guess it’s a success, right?

Birthday interview:

-What are some things you like to do?

“I like to play with my dog and I like to go to the movies with my wife. That’s it.”

-Do you feel different now that you’re 29?

“Yes and no. I don’t know how to explain it.”

-What was your favorite gift?

“My safety razor because I use it everyday and it’s more economical and a better shave and it’s fancy.”

-What color do you like best now that you’re all grown up?

“Dark blue because it’s a well-rounded color.”

-What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

“My name because nobody else has it.”

-What kind of music do you like to listen to?

“I guess I like to listen to music that I can hear.”

-For real Grayson. What music?

“Classic rock. Anything that’s not Justin Bieber. Or that Rebecca Black girl. You know, what’s her face?”

-Give me some examples of bands you like.
“Pink Floyd, Metallica, Rush, Stone Temple Pilots, Queens of the Stone Age.”

-If you could have any super power what would it be?

“To freeze time because time is the most valuable asset in the world.”

-If a genie could grant you just one wish, what would it be?

“To be able to use 100% of my brain.”

He said he hates Justin Bieber, but that’s not what this picture would suggest:

Hahaha! (He took that picture to send to my little sister.)

Happy Birthday, Grayson! You’re the coolest 29 year old I know!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

I’m not skipping Thanksgiving, just doing things a little out of order because I need pictures from my mom. (Hint hint! )

After we got back from Utah very early Monday morning, we had planned to go to work. But when the wee hours of the morning rolled around, we both called in and took a personal day because we were exhausted. We had traveled for 20 hours that day and needed to catch up on some much needed rest. Once we were both up and moving, I convinced Grayson to take me to get a Christmas tree. I begged, I pleaded, I whined, and he finally caved and took me to buy one at this little Mennonite shop out in the town over called Penn Yann.

We were very pleased to get a nice sized tree for a good deal. We loaded it into our truck and headed for home, where we set it up. A few days later, I put the lights on. Then the next day, I decided to force Grayson to help me decorate it. (True story.  Had to make him.)

We got the tree set up and it looked so good. My aunt Connie has given me a Christmas ornament every year since I was born, so we have  a decent amount of ornaments. And they’re all Hallmark ones. So they’re especially cute. After we got it all done and looking pretty we took this photo:

We both got up and I proceeded to start cleaning up the ornament boxes while Grayson took the dog outside. A few minutes later he came back into the room. Then something hilarious happened. The tree lurched forward and started to tip over! I jumped across the room screaming and caught it. So we laughed. Grayson set to work fixing it so it wouldn’t happen again.

Then we had to reenact what had happened and take pictures because it was just that funny.

It wouldn’t be a day at the Adams’ unless something crazy happened. *sigh*

Personal History and My Dolphin Dilemma

It’s starting to happen. My memory is beginning to fail me. This is probably because I have what my husband lovingly (maybe not so lovingly) calls “squirrel brain.” Meaning that my mind is going a million miles a minute and I can’t keep anything straight because by the time I remember what I was trying to think of, I am on to the next thing.

Case in point: Last night we were laying in bed trying to go to sleep and Grayson made a comment about rolling over to be comfortable, which made me think about how I most like to lay to be comfortable, which made me think of how uncomfortable I was when I slept on my sister’s bed in Utah all last week (sorry Bug!), which made me think of how I think the way Rascal sleeps is funny, which made me think of something I didn’t know: how do dolphins sleep? Is it comfortable? When I asked Grayson, he got kind of mad because he was tired. Don’t worry though, I Googled and found out how this morning.

All of this has motivated me to record my own personal history, which may or may not be exciting. I’m going with probably not exciting. But hey, one day someone might care about this stuff, even if it’s only me. So here I go, multi-posting about things I did when I was a crazy little kid (adult).

*What is your full name and how did you get that name?  Do you have any nicknames?

My parents named me Samantha J Groharing. Obviously since marriage, my last name has changed. I mean, when the opportunity comes to jump ship from Groharing, who wouldn’t make that leap and never look back? Especially when switching to a name that is so normal. I don’t miss being called Samantha Gro-HAHR-ing, Samantha Grew-wer-ing, Samantha Gro-ring, or any of the other ridiculous mispronunciations of a last name that is said the same way its spelled. (I think it’s pretty apparent that this doesn’t strike a nerve at all.) My mom named me after Samantha on Bewitched, which has never failed to amuse me. I think it’s pretty cool that she chose it from that show because, let’s be honest here, Bewitched is awesome. I have pretty much always gone by Sam, but have had many nicknames over the years. Sammich, Sammy G Gangsta (I had a really cute friend named Tessa in middle school and high school who nicknamed me that in 8th grade and it stuck for whatever reason. My whole group of friends called me that for years. Too funny!), Samantha Sue, Suzy…there are more, but I think that will suffice.

*Where did you grow up?  Describe it.

I grew up in a suburb of Salt Lake City pretty much my entire life. It was a neat place to grow up, but I never realized it until I moved away. Being surrounded by the LDS Church was a strength for me as a kid, and I am pretty sure that I needed that. I love the house that we moved to when I was about 9. My mom still lives there and it will always be “my home.”

*What was your earliest memory?

One of my earliest memories is going to Disneyland as a 3 or 4 year old. I was wearing a dress that I really loved (Apparently I went through a phase where I wouldn’t wear anything but dresses. I have been totally normal my entire life! Or something like that.) and we were watching one of the parades. Aladdin was riding a big float that looked like a camel and it was spitting water at the crowd. I got “spit” on and was really mad because for whatever reason, I was POSITIVE that he was spitting apple juice on my favorite dress. Way to go, Aladdin! I’ve never forgiven you.

*What games did you play as a child?

I played a lot of imaginary games. I loved to play school and be the teacher, especially when I got to make my brother do homework. I also enjoyed coloring. My mom jokes that she’s never met anyone that uses more paper than me because I am always doodling. I’m going to be a professional doodler when I grow up, by the way. Isn’t that the best idea of how to become a millionaire that you’ve ever heard? (Prepare yourself for the 90s perm you are about to witness.)

*Where did you go to school?

First I went to Southland Elementary, but we moved when I was halfway through 3rd grade. I then attended Bluffdale Elementary. For grades 7-9 I was a student at South Hills Middle and went to Riverton High School for 10-12 grades. I loved high school. I enjoyed the atmosphere of high school and was a big fan of getting out of school at 2:30. My favorite part of high school was called Silver Rush. The school chose a charity and we raised money for two weeks before Christmas break. It was such a unifying experience for the student body and was amazing to be able to give back to the community.

*Who were your friends?

When I was really little, my best friend was name Alexi Hawkins. She was my neighbor and we spent a lot of time together. Her mom introduced me to “ketchup sandwiches,” which was just my way of understanding sloppy joes. I have never forgotten that for some reason.

As I got older I had a lot of different friends. All throughout school, my best friends changed quite a bit, but the main ones were Carly Miles, Kylee Nix, Taylor Figgins, Tessa Hunt, Ashlee Johnson, Melissa Weis, Britney Wells, Garrett DeBruyn, Miles Blaine, David Jackson, Nick Cash, Ismael Arrieta, Chase Ingraham, Petra Henderson, Sam Olson, Courtney Snow, and Jonnie Boyd. I wish I had pictures of everyone, but I don’t. Boo!

*Who were your favorite teachers and why?

My favorite teachers were Mrs. Weibel, who I had in both 5th and 6th grade. She was awesome! She made learning so fun and we got to do so many cool projects. I remember doing a unit on Egypt and making mummies out of dolls. I loved her the most of all my teachers for sure.

My other favorite teacher was Mr. Bickmore, who I had for English in 10th and 11th grade. He taught me more about life than anyone else ever did. I owe a lot of who I am today to this man.

To be continued…