Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love March 17th!  Some people have no idea why this is so special, but it is St. Patrick's Day!  My maiden name is Henry and of course I am Irish from my dad's side.  We are very proud of our heritage.  I even have a three leave clover tattoo.  Every year my mother makes Irish soda bread, corn beef and cabbage with red potatoes.  Last year was my first year away from home being married, so I had to make my own.  I had my corn beef in the crock pot and it turned off while I was at work.  I was so sad, Sean was a good sport and ended up eating with me at 8 pm with tough corn beef, when it is literally supposed to melt because it is so tender.  He even let us watch Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, a classic.  This year, at 7 am I had the corn beef in the crock pot and hope it will turn out!  I am all decked out in green, and getting a little made fun of at work because people either forgot about today or did not care.  Regardless, I am still having a blast!  I have to share a really funny story when Sean and I were dating and he came to visit my family for his first real St. Patrick's Day dinner.  I knew we had to pull a prank on him before he really was apart of our family.  So I talked with  my family and they were all in on it.  This is what happened:

My mom was preparing dinner and my sister and I were setting the table.  Once the table was set and all the food was on it, we took the chairs one by one and moved them into the living room so all that was left was a table with food and the plates, but no chairs.  Sean was looking at me weird, but I said this is tradition, please do not make fun of us.  I was trying so hard not to laugh.  Then my dad went back to the bedroom and got his Ireland flag and tied it around his head like a cape.  If this is not funny yet, just wait.  Then he took an Irish plaque from the wall and read it aloud to the whole family: mom, ashley, stefano, sean, and myself.  Afterward we all took hands around the table and started to walk clockwise around the table.  Then we let dad decide earlier what to say as a chant together, little did we know he would say something totally crazy.  He started to chant: "Weeeeeeeeee the little people" so as we were all holding hands we chanted 'wweeeeeeee the little people' over and over again until we went around the table a couple times.  We were all laughing so hard, we were crying.  Sean was really relieved to know this was a joke and not tradition.  The rest of the night, we would find my dad in another room yelling: "Weeeeeeeee the little people" and to this day it still brings a smile to my face.

There is never a dull moment with my family and I am so thankful for that.  I cannot wait to be in Seattle next year helping my mom prepare our St. Patrick's Day feast!

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! 

-Hayley

Rudy Wednesday

I just got back from a trip to Puyallup, WA for work.  We put on an Imagine U event at Rogers High School.  It was a lot of fun, but very tiring.  The event was successful, but I am very glad to be home.  At the SeaTac airport I saw this and almost died.  I had to have it!  I never see any pug stuff, and this is identical to Rudy.  It is a planter, or to put fake plants in.  LOVE IT.

my mom :)

I cannot believe that I am such a dork and posted Rudy Wednesday on Tuesday and no one called me out on it!

I am starting to get sick and it sucks because I am putting on this big event on Monday and need to be well for that.  I have a lot of women in my life that really care about me, and a lot of 'moms' at work that give me medicine and make sure I am doing okay.  But nothing beats my mom.  There is something special about having your mom take care of you and I will never get tired of my mom taking care of me.  I cannot wait to do that for my own children one day.  I feel like I do that with Rudy and I love taking care of my lil guy :).

I love my mom and am thankful that I take after her with many things.  Patience, kindness, loving...  She is amazing and I am blessed to be her daughter.

Rudy Wednesday

Rudy got a new toy, inspired by Zack Sapp who loves sock monkeys.  Rudy loves them too now :).

Glowing Momma to Be

My best friend Sonja Sapp is pregnant, due on March 30th and she is so excited and glowing.  I took some pictures of her and her husband Zack today.  It was so much fun!

Rudy Wednesday

:)

25 Random Things about Me

I have this guilty pleasure of reading Us Weekly and it was so bad that Sean had to buy me a 6 months subscription two Christmas's ago, because it was cheaper.  I hardly ever read it, but every once and a while I will pick one up from the grocery store.  In Us Weekly, they also do "25 things you dont know about me" about a celebrity.  So I thought I would change it to: "25 Random things about me".  Here it goes!

1. I love to read, seriously, either history textbooks, books, or any book I will be anti-social and just read. Currently I am reading Captivating.
2. sweats is my favorite outfit in the entire world.
3. I love the feeling of fresh leaves during the fall, when I stomp on them and they just crackle under my feet.
4. I have split my chin open four times and have had to have stitches each time.
5. I love a clean kitchen, I hate seeing dirty dishes just sitting in the sink.  I cannot stand it!
6. I miss my old friends when we would run to each others houses or ask our parents to drive us. when there were no responsibilities.
7. I love movies or are rather addicted to watching as many as possible. I am over 21 and do not drink I only watch movies.
8. I treat my pug Rudy, like a son and would not have it any other way.  Some people think hes spoiled, I think he is spoiling me.
9.  I miss my old coworkers.  I love the people I work with now, but our girl dynamic is not the same without them...(Steff, Jen, and Jordan ;( ).
10.  I want to travel to Ireland, Italy, Africa, and Haiti.
11. I love to scrapbook.
12. I eat macaroni and cheese with cinnamon apple sauce, don't judge until you try it but you have to mix it.
13. As soon as I get home, I change out of my work clothes into my comfy clothes.  I can do it in under 30 seconds.  Its like magic.
14. I love to take long baths, its the best.
15. I like to hold hands and walk in the snow.
16. It annoys me when people spell my name wrong: Haley, Haylee, Hayleigh, Hailey, Haily.  Even in emails when I sign my name, I mean come on!
17. I was obsessed with Harry Potter and it was borderline crazy.
18. I enjoy traveling in airports, sometimes alone and just trying to find out where to go next.  I am so comfortable at airports.  Weird, I know.
19. I love the smell of gasoline and white board markers.
20. I take WAY too many pictures of everything.
21. I enjoy to paint on white canvas and write a story.
22. I get lost in country music.
23. My family are my best friends.
24. I love to travel the world and talk about Jesus to complete strangers.
25.  I loved chip and dale rescue rangers as a child.  Dale was my all my favorite.  I carried this little figurine of him in my pocket always.