mestler life

Long time coming....

2009-10-03T18:55:00.012-05:00

Many apologies for the lack of blogging. We have no excuses. We're tired and joyful, achy and blessed. Chasing Chloe around day and night is a wonderful, exhausting experience. She is babbling and crawling. She can recognize animals and make the appropriate noises, point to all her body parts, and say lots of words: mama, dada, bawl (ball), uish (juice), peas (please), no, yesh (yes), boo (book), boo (boo), bubawl (bubble), rock-rock (as she is rocking in her chair), moh (more), uh(up), dawh (dog), Desda (Dixon), owha (flower), tee (tree), birr (bird). She's amazingly bright, adorable and loving.

Despite all of these things, mommy and daddy occasionally need a break. I pulled something off that I have been thinking of for a long time. I arranged babysitters, time off work for me and Jared, and obtained hotel reservations and restaurant recommendations and swept Jared away to Asheville with me for the weekend. He was floored, and excited. We had a great time, and were able to regroup for the fall season. If you've never been to Asheville, I highly recommend it. We'd move there in a heartbeat if given the chance. Enjoy pics below. We'll try to start posting again on a more regular basis.

Look! We're both dressed and not covered with various bits of yogurt and nuggets and other toddler food.

Happy, relaxed Amanda

Happy, relaxed Jared.

Hot dogs for lunch. Jared's dream come true.

In the hot dog restaurant. Jared thought this was cool.

Yummy yummy cupcakes. Best of my life.

Who knew Batman lived off the Blue Ridge Parkway?

One

2009-06-29T20:16:00.002-05:00

Chloe turned one this past weekend. We fluctuate between not believing that she's already one and talking about how big of a girl she is. She walks all the time, eats by herself (finally) and is moving to the toddler room at daycare. She takes one nap a day and sleeps all night. She is full of smiles and giggles, and loves to play outside. In fact, one slip of the word "bye bye" will have her running to the door to try to turn the handle. She is a joy and a blessing, and we love and enjoy her so much. Enjoy some pics from the last few weeks! There are a lot, but she is so adorable! Enjoy!

Pictures of summer Chloe!

Dada

2009-06-21T18:21:00.003-05:00

Easily the one word that Chloe says 100 times a day. Since day 1, she and Jared have had this special bond that is evident in every smile, every look, touch and giggle. She loves her Dada more than any one else. There are times when I am pushed away in the pursuit of Dada, and I am ok with that. Because this man loves this little girl more than I thought possible. She brings out his silly side, patience I didn't know he had, and so much love and adoration. He is so proud of her walk, her babbles and all the little accomplishments that would be nothing to someone else. He praises her and loves her, teaches her and guides her, while I sit back and watch, thankful for the man God has blessed us with. He puts us before so much else, works hard to provide and still manages to play pillows and throw rocks outside after a long day. He's one of a kind, and we've got him. And we're thankful.

There's nothing better....

2009-04-28T19:31:00.002-05:00

than a baby's laugh.

I can take a hint

2009-03-07T21:01:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time. Sorry for the delay, friends, and thanks for the subtle and not-so-subtle hints to update the blog, EMH and LWL. We haven't had much exciting to write about, and sickness has abounded in our house. We've had ear infections, sinus infections, croup, and a stomach bug since we've last posted. It's been a tough winter. Chloe seems to have brought home every possible illness from daycare and lovingly passed it down to us. Hopefully when the weather gets warmer we'll all begin to feel better. We got our first glimpse of spring today with 70 degree weather and we can't wait for more!

We took Chloe to the park today for the first time, and she loved it! She loved the swing and the nice weather, and was infatuated by all of the people. It literally wore her out. She came home and took a 2 hour nap (and for those ofyou who know Chlo, that is a long nap!). We've posted all of her new pictures on her Picasa page; the link's on the right under "Chloe pics". She is such a joy to us and we can't believe she is 8 months old. She is a crawling machine, and is into everything, but her favorite thing to do is stand up and cruise from one piece of furniture to another. She'll be walking in no time flat.

Jared and I are holding our own. He has been back and forth to Richmond and will continue to travel there for work this month. We are excited to welcome our new nephew this summer when Alison and James have their first baby boy in July! Things have been good, just crazy busy. Forgive us for the delay in posting; we'll try to get back into the swing of things soon! Enjoy a few pictures of our cute girl!

Cheesing for the camera. The carrots got a little out of control this night.

Cute girl with her daddy. The sunhat's a little big, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

Somebody LOVES to swing.

Go see some more pics of our cute Chloe.

Look what I can do!!

2008-12-18T20:54:00.007-05:00

Unbelievable. We are officially parents of a big girl. Crawling is right around the corner! She has been working on this for a few days, but now, if we help her sit up, she can sit by herself for a few minutes. She is also learning how to fall gracefully:)

One of Jared's friends from work, Donna, gave her this adorable hat. And she doesn't seem to mind it, she's so excited about sitting up!

We had Chloe baptized at our church the weekend before Thanksgiving. It meant so much to us to give her back to God and have her become a part of the covenant family. Here she is in her gown my mom made her.

Isn't it funny how when your children are in daycare you know the other children in their class better than you know their parents? Chloe's friend Wilson's mom left this snowsuit for us because he had never worn it. We think she looks a little like Randy from A Christmas Story. She couldn't put her arms down. But she loved it.

Merry Christmas!

Laughter is the best medicine

2008-11-09T20:00:00.005-05:00

Chloe is not one to laugh often, but when she does, it's great. It makes Friday night after a long week of work not seem so exhausting. This is what it's all about, and I was finally able to catch it on tape. Enjoy. What a cute, cute girl!

Ticklish Chloe!

Halloween!

2008-11-01T16:29:00.004-05:00

Well we survived our first Halloween! Chloe went as, well, the cutest girl in the world!!!! Below are some pictures.

Drippy diapers, ear infections and rice cereal

2008-10-28T19:35:00.006-05:00

We had quite the week and weekend, if you can guess from the title of this blog. Jared and I took Chloe on her first long car trip to go see her grandparents in Williamsburg, Va. Before we left for the trip we were starting to question if Chloe was developing reflux from her abundant spit up and her lack of interest in eating. However, once we arrived in Williamsburg, it didn't take long for her other end to join the party. Jared picked her up out of her high chair on Sunday and she actually dripped. Fun. She repeated this feat in her carseat on the trip home. More fun.

Needless to say, our first priority of Monday was to take her to the doctor. Not only did she have some sort of stomach/GI bug, but the congestion in her nose and throat made the doctor look in her ears. Ding ding ding. Ear infection. We have been hibernating indoors for the last two days while she recovers. Jared is jealous of her pink, bubble gum medicine. She will return to daycare tomorrow.

Our other exciting event was her first experience with "solid" food. The doctor recommended it to see if it would help her diapers become, um, not drippy. She wasn't too sure about it, but handled it better tonight than last night. Video below is from her first night of eating.

Hopefully our lives will become a little less eventful over the next week!

This is how Chloe eats of late. We don't know if she feels sorry for herself because she feels bad, or if she's just a drama queen.

Cute girl getting ready to go to the store.

Am I supposed to like this stuff?

Weekend Update

2008-10-19T19:02:00.006-05:00

Although probably not as funny as the SNL version. We made it through a very long week and a good weekend. Chloe brought home her first daycare cold, and lovingly shared it with the entire family. She was sick all of last weekend and the beginning of the week with a fever, stuffy nose and cough, and still has the stuffy nose and cough. Jared and I are finally beginning to feel human after suffering with it through the week as well. Jared returned home on Friday from a two day trip to VA Beach, leaving me and Chloe here to battle the illness and figure out how to do things without Daddy. I didn't realize how much Jared does when he's here until he wasn't. I have an all new respect for single moms. We were both very happy to see him Friday night. We are also facing a new reality of a little girl who no longer sleeps through the night. Any advice?

Enjoy new pics below. There are more on her website to the right as well!

Chloe has a new trick. I think she learned it from her friends at daycare. She does this all the time, whether she's eating, playing or trying to sleep. It's cute until she blows formula in your face.

A better video of her rolling over

What a big girl sitting all by herself. Cute outfit provided by Auntie Al and Uncle Jimmy.

Sitting in my bumbo, holding a toy.

Our new way to shop! It was a fun Target outing, but my back was hurting when we were done! She's a heavy girl!

Have a great week!

VID 00004.3GP

2008-10-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

Our little girl is finally turning over!!

New stuff!

2008-10-05T19:45:00.002-05:00

Lots of new stuff happening in the Mestler home! Amanda has gone back to work full-time, Chloe goes to daycare every day where she plays with her new friends and teachers, and Jared moved office locations from downtown to off of Lake Boone in Raleigh! Chloe also has gotten some new toys, and can now roll over all by herself! New pics on her website to the left! Enjoy!

Chloe says you better go see her new pictures!

Has it been 3 months already?

2008-09-21T18:27:00.010-05:00

Time has flown by. Our little girl is almost 3 months old, and I go back to work this week! It seems like it was literally last week when Jared and I were anxiously awaiting the phone call from Rex that they had a bed open for my induction! Since our last post, lots has happened! Our original plan for childcare when I returned to work fell through, sending us into a frantic childcare search. This was totally God's original plan, because we were able to find a daycare right around the corner from our house that I think Chloe will love. I am going to start taking her there tomorrow for a few hours a day until she goes full time on Thursday. Pray that she will love it there and that she will be able to nap well. Jared also traveled to VA Beach, leaving us home alone for the first time, and we survived, although we were both very happy to see him when he got home!

Chloe updates: She can now, hold her head up completely by herself (as evident in pics below), has grown out of her newborn clothes and now gets to wear fun clothes like jeans, is eating almost 5 ounces 6 times a day, weighs around 12 pounds, kicks out of her sleep positioner almost every night, sleeps for at least a 9 hour stretch (sometimes longer) at night, and is sooo close to turning over. She also "talks" and babbles with us constantly. Every time she sees Jared, she smiles really wide and then closes her hands shyly over her mouth. Absolutely adorable. We hope you love these pics of her as much as we do!

I can hold my head up really high now!

It's cold enough for footed PJs now! Yeah!

I love my daddy! This is what I look like just after I smile really big!

Saddest, and cutest, face ever!

Enjoy some more of Chloe's recent pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/themestlers/OurLittleOne#

Hello my future boyfriend....

2008-08-31T18:47:00.011-05:00

It has been a hectic and fun few weeks for us! Chloe has had many outings, and has had some friends come over to play with her! Jessica and MC came to visit, and brought Chloe some new toys that MC didn't need anymore! My brother-in-law turned 3, i mean 4, I mean 34, and we had a pirate filled birthday party to celebrate. This holiday weekend, Jared's family came to visit us in Apex, including Auntie Ally from Colorado, which has been a huge treat for us, as we only get to see her a few times a year. We also got a visit from our dear friends Graham and Ashlei, and their son Grady, who was born 2 days before Chloe. We have been friends with Graham since high school, and it is amazing to think that we have now have children so close in age! They live on the other side of the world, and we see them less often than we see Auntie Ally! Chloe has had a busy and exciting weekend with all her new friends, especially since she was introduced to her future boyfriend, Grady. Here are some pictures of our latest escapades!

Jared playing "Supergirl!!!!" with Chloe

Jessica and MC came to play!

It was a pirate birthday! Happy Birthday James!

Chloe and Grady

Jared and Chloe, Graham and Grady. What proud daddies!

Cute Chloe!

It's a regular nature perserve 'round here

2008-08-19T19:39:00.004-05:00

I was on my way to Durham this afternoon when I got a call from Amanda who said that there was something funny in our front yard. She had seen something go by the window and was quite shocked by what she saw...there grazing in our yard was a little fawn.

The mother was no where to be found, so we are hoping that she was just "out"...

With this sighting, our wildlife total is as follows:
Birds
Frogs
Lizards
Black Snakes
Field Mice (Dixon likes to catch these)
Rabbits (we had a bunny nest in our monkey grass out back)
Deer
Hawks
Turtles
Bobcats

Who knows what we will see next!

The Other Half

2008-08-19T19:14:00.002-05:00

This past weekend Amanda and I had the chance to find out how the other half live for the night. Thanks to the wonderful help of Alison and James who took care of Chloe for the night, Amanda and I celebrated our five year anniversary and the birth of our child at a dinner at the Melting Pot and a nights stay at The Umstead, a new five star resort in spa in Cary. Needless to say, we were spoiled!! Thanks again to Alison, Casey and Brent for helping to set this up.

We enjoyed a nice Patio Suite and all of its finery, from curtains that truly blocked out all light, one of the most comfortable bed we have slept in, a bathroom with a shower and tub that if we could have taken them with us, we would have added them onto our house, to the valet who had our car ready, cooled and waiting for us when we left...with two VOSS waters to go. We were spoiled by the room and the staff who knew our names for our whole stay.

Now in my travels, I am used to having some sort of magazine in my room, whether it is some local bit, a magazine about other historical hotels in the area or something random...but never have I had a chance to peruse The Robb Report now that is a magazine! Now cheesy ads about insurance or another Ford vehicle, no this was articles about what is the better private jet to have, ads for Maybach luxury cars and watch/timepiece brands that you have to be invited to buy!

Needless to say, Amanda and I enjoyed ourselves and left relaxed and quite ready to see Chloe (who did great with her Auntie Alison and Uncle James). We awoke in the morning, got in our waiting car and had a fancy breakfast at McDonald's. It was the perfect way to finish our night out!

Finally...

2008-08-13T12:03:00.005-05:00

Finally what? Finally another post! Finally I feel like myself again, and finally Chloe is getting the hang of this sleep business.

Sorry for the delay in posting. A lot of fun things have been going on. Chloe has gotten to see both sets of grandparents multiple times, and I got to spend a few days at my parent's house while Jared traveled for work. Chloe got to meet her Aunties Erin, Erin and Megan, and we finally made it to Leah's for some hang out time with her, Beth, Sara, MC and Jessica. Her Uncle Derrick, Aunt Aimee and cousin Belle came to visit and love on her as well! We have also been sharing a family cold, which started with Jared, went to Chloe, then to me, and is now back to Jared. Fun times in the Mestler home. Chloe is sleeping "through the night", which I was sad to learn means for 5-6 hours in one stretch. Hey, it's better than nothing. Her naps are still her least favorite thing, which she gets from her daddy, not from her mommy!

There are new pics on her web page, but I'll put a few on here as well!

Aunties Erin and Megan!

Cute in my new outfit from Uncle Derrick, Aunt Aimee and Belle!

WARNING! POOP PICTURES!

Poop happens. And it was a messy happening on this one occasion!

Hopefully we'll have another update soon!

!!!

2008-07-28T21:00:00.002-05:00

I would love to say there is a new post, but not right this second. We will hopefully have something new soon. In the meantime, we do have everyone's favorite...new Chloe pics!!!!

Our little model!

2008-07-12T17:30:00.003-05:00

Chloe had her first photo shoot this week! The link is below. Once you reach the website, click on Clients. The password is Chloe. Enjoy!

www.stocksphotography.com

July 4th Weekend

2008-07-08T11:01:00.004-05:00

We got through our first weekend alone, fireworks and thunderstorms included! We had some guest come over, Jon and Jessica brought Chloe's new best friend Mary Claire(MC) who is slightly bigger than her. We had laid them down next to each other and had to keep MC from rolling over on her! It was very interesting to see how the two differed.
Friday was the 4th of July so that meant a night of fireworks! Amanda and I were a bit tired so we decided to stay in and have a true American meal of delivery pizza! Now fireworks are great and everyone likes them...except Dixon. On top of the fireworks, we had thunderstorms, another of Dixon's favorite things! Needless to say, Amanda ended up holding Chloe as she slept, I ended up holding a 60 pound, shaking like a leaf, panting uncontrollably Dixon dog for a number of hours! On Saturday night since most of the bigger fireworks around were rained out, we went through the same act except we switched "children," Amanda got Dixon and I got Chloe. I do have to say Chloe is a lot easier to handle than Dixon dog during these times!

Sunday brought more visitors, Daniel, Hannah and Caleb came over for a short visit! On top of that, they brought food! Thanks L'Hommedeiu's!

We are off and running in week two of having Chloe in our lives and we are all getting adjusted better. Amanda is being a wonderful Mom to Chloe. The two have so many characteristics alike. Chloe has her nose, her ears and some of her temperament. I see so much of Amanda in Chloe in how she sleeps and how she wakes up from stretching to yawning. We are excited about seeing more of our little girl come out!

I have updated the picture link with some new pics so check it out! The link will have a permanent residence on the right under links!

Thanks to everyone for their support! -J

Adjusting

2008-07-03T20:21:00.003-05:00

So, we have now been home from the hospital for three whole days. It is amazing how different life can be with a 7 lb baby. We have been blessed with a beautiful, healthy little girl who is finally learning to eat well and sleeps like a champ. We were also spoiled by parents who have cleaned our house, done our laundry, bought and cooked us food, took care of our dog, and loved our little girl. Overall, we are a little overwhelmed. She is such a beautiful picture of God's love and provisions for us.

I have been so thankful for Jared during these last few days. He has been nothing but incredibly supportive during this entire process. In fact, during labor, friends and family were getting mad due to lack of updates on our progress, but that was because he never once left my side. He massaged my feet, monitored my contractions, held my hand, held the pink throw up basin for me every time I threw up during labor, then cleaned it out and had it ready again, figured out a way for me to brush my teeth in the middle of labor b/c I was convinced my breath was kickin, convinced me to keep pushing during the three hours when I was really not making any progress, and comforted me and Chloe during the 24 hours my spinal headache had me flat on my back. Now that we're home, he changes diapers, cleans, gives me massages, continues to make our first born four legged child feel special, and so much more. He is the rock of this family and both his girls love him so much!

If you've called, emailed, etc and we have yet to get back to you, forgive us. We're getting there:) Thanks for all the wonderful comments about our little one. Chloe is really the cutest thing we've ever seen!

New pics!

2008-06-28T14:31:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to show off a few pictures of our little girl real quick. I will have a weblink set up later. She is truly amazing!!

Here she is!

2008-06-28T00:11:00.001-05:00

Chloe Bray Mestler was born on June 27th at 11:35pm. She weighed 7.9 pounds and is 20.5 inches long. Of what hair she has it is blond and she has bluish eyes!! We will have pictures up soon! -J

Update

2008-06-27T21:09:00.000-05:00

Still pushing...

Update

2008-06-27T19:27:00.001-05:00

We're at 10 cm! Starting to push!!

Update

2008-06-27T17:34:00.003-05:00

It's now about 6:30 p.m., and Amanda has dialated to about 7 cm. Good progress! She's resting comfortably right now thanks to an extra dose of pain medication. We're moving right along!

Update

2008-06-27T16:32:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the delay folks, but there isn't much to update everyone on. Amanda and baby are doing fine, heart rates are good all around. She is dialated a bit more but we are just trying to get Amanda some rest for now. I will let. Everyone know when the next things start happening.

Update

2008-06-27T11:43:00.000-05:00

The doctors have broken her water and we are waiting to see how this progesses her labor.

Update

2008-06-27T10:18:00.001-05:00

Here's an update to let everyone know where things are at. Amanda is sleeping right now which is a good thing. She started labor early this morning, she is on pitocin and has an epidural(sp?) So she is able to relax a little right now. The doctor should be around shortly to see how things are progressing. We are thinking right now that we should have this baby sometome tonight! Mom and baby are doing great. The staff here has been wonderful and very helpful. Stayed tune for more updates! -J

Here we go!!!

2008-06-26T23:11:00.000-05:00

Well it's midnight Friday, June 27th and we are at the hospital waiting for our room abd then it is on to get this little girl out. Stay tuned...

Fun With Dixon

2008-06-12T21:26:00.001-05:00

Every night when we get ready to go to bed we have a routine we go through with Dixon, it usual consits of asking him who chewed up things from the trash can in our room or yelling at him, "Dixon get off the pillows, stop licking yourself, move over", etc.... But we do have our fun parts or our routine as well. We play "Close your mouth" which is just us saying close your mouth to Dixon while moving our hand toward him to, well, close his mouth. He acts like he is going to go after our hand and we end up getting lots of Dixon licks. Speaking of which, he has been unusually lickey(sp?) tonight. He has a thing for library books and has a need to sniff them to the fullest and then lick them, especially the pages, apparently those are the best. After that he moves onto one of our hands and whatever else is around, elbows, Amanda's body pillows, the comforter and so on. He then took
his back foot and scratched his ear, not just a little scratch, but the kind where he trys to jam his paw down his ear canal to see what he can find. After that he spent the next ten minutes sniffing/licking, eating his foot, apparently there was something good down there. I have a picture that I will try top post later. Our first "childs" world is about to get rocked so I wanted to make mention of him before all the fun begins. Life with the three of us has been great, but I can't wait to add a little girl into our mix!! -Jared

2008-06-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

On the go blogging!

The Makings of a Nursery

2008-05-26T16:53:00.010-05:00

Our little girl, whenever she chooses to arrive, will reside in the room formerly known in our home as " the room with no furniture." It took a lot of work to get it to resemble a pink paradise worthy of housing our little one, and we have lots of people to thank for that!

Our first adventure was to get some air movement in this small room. Jared and Chris decided to tackle this one Saturday by installing a fan we originally purchased for our first apartment, almost 5 years ago. Jared has painstakingly moved this fan from apartment to townhouse to house to house, due to the fact I was determined it would come in handy one day (never mind that we only paid like $20 for it in the first place). Alas, in our attempts to move it with us, we somehow misplaced the mounting essentials necessary to secure it to the ceiling:( Woe is me. So, Jared and Chris went to Home Depot, purchased a new fan, and then spent 2 hours installing a brace in the attic built for a 3 foot tall individual, and hanging our new fan. Documentation below.

Sadly, we have no pictures of the next few big projects. My parents came up one Saturday, and my mom and Jared lovingly painted the room our chosen Terra cotta shade. It only took two coats and they knocked it out in only a few hours. It looks great. Meanwhile, my dad and I washed car seats and put together my glider rocker and ottoman, which took longer than expected due to some important mis-labeling of parts. However, it all looks great! Then, Jared's parents came up for the weekend, and Jared and his dad put together the crib. This was by far easier than expected and they assembled it in 1.5 hours. Other furniture was then moved in, and things slowly started to resemble a nursery. Over the next few weeks, we unpacked gifts, washed clothes, made tiny beds, shelved books, etc., until we ended with this finished product...

There will be some wall decor, as well, but it will go up after she is born. We cant wait for her to sleep in her new room! Thanks to all our family for making this happen! We are so blessed and know that we could not have done any of this on our own!

Dixon's new friend

2008-05-26T16:48:00.003-05:00

Dixon's grandparents bought their upcoming granddaughter a friend for her to grow up with and well...Dixon has become friends with it for now.

This is Jeffrey, our five foot tall baby giraffe. Dixon still doesn't quite know what to think of Jeffrey, I am sure our little girl will love him though! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Proffitt!

37 Weeks!

2008-05-26T16:40:00.002-05:00

Here is Amanda at 37 weeks! 3 more to go, come on little girl, we're ready to see you!!

My Beautiful Wife

Fun pictures...

2008-04-27T18:47:00.006-05:00

My favorite girls at work....

Mom, me and Alison at my work baby shower

My great co-workers!

Pre-pregnancy. Fun times with knives.

33 weeks pregnant this week! Only 7 more to go!! AAAHHHH!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen

2008-04-24T08:30:00.004-05:00

I present to you, my wife!

You know, I never understood it when guys would say that there wives were beautiful or glowing when they were pregnant, but now I totally see it!

Amanda has really come out during this pregnancy, she is truly beautiful. I am so proud and blessed to have her as my wife and for her to be the mother of our little girl!

Thanks love for all that you do!

This by the way is one of my newest favorite shots of my wife...

THE BEACH!!!!

2008-04-20T19:01:00.004-05:00

Jared and I just returned from a relaxing trip to the beach! Our wonderful friends Brian and Sara let us use their beach house at Emerald Isle, and we headed down there Friday after work for one last getaway before our little girl arrives! It was FABULOUS! We slept late, watched three movies (well, i probably watched 1.5 movies. I have a newfound, bad habit of falling asleep during movies lately.) and relaxed. We walked on the beach twice, but it was way too cold to get in the water:( oh well!

Here are some pics from this weekend:

31 weeks pregnant

Jared and the ocean

It was very windy!!!

We had an excellent time! Thanks, Brian and Sara for letting us use the house! And thanks Mom and Dad for keeping Dixon while we were gone!

More belly pics

2008-04-01T20:49:00.003-05:00

27 weeks pregnant

Picture at my first baby shower! She got her cute bedding! Thanks Grandma!

22 and 23 weeks pregnant

2008-02-21T18:59:00.003-05:00

22 weeks....

23 weeks

She is a growing little girl!

Here She Is!!!

2008-01-29T19:39:00.001-05:00

Profile picture

It's a girl!!!

4-D picture...cute little girl hiding her face...

We are in love already!!!

Think Pink...

2008-01-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

IT'S A GIRL!!

Our precious little girl gave a stellar performance today during the ultrasound. We'll try to get those pictures up soon! The ultrasound technician said that she is 99% sure that our little one is a girl!

Praise God for a healthy baby thus far! Her heartbeat was strong, we saw two kidneys, four chambers of the heart, the spine, brain and placenta. When it came time to show off her face, though, she was a little shy and covered her face with her hands and arms. Too cute. We also saw her yawn three times, so we were obviously interrupting her beauty rest.

We are so glad to know that she is ok, and were glad that my parents could be there to see her with us! We won't see her again until June....:( that feels like forever!!

Pictures to come soon!

Amanda

It "Snowed"!

2008-01-25T20:32:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Amanda and I waited around the house for the big show. All week we had been hearing about the event of the winter here in the big NC, it was going to snow. Not just snow, but 2-4 inches, which is a blizzard around here. So Saturday morning we got up, ran our errands and came home and waited. So it "snowed" alright, nothing stuck though. It started to snow around three and didn't stop until after 12 which was a lot.

Dixon was pleased though. He was going in and out sticking his nose up in the air and trying to lick what snow was on the ground up. He was quite happy for the change of weather. The next morning we got up and had a great array of Dixon prints through the yard.

We have a few more weeks of winter, so here is to hoping for a real snow!

P.S. I was typing this and flipping through channels at the same time. The Rock was on and I tried to watch that, but man was the acting bad in it! What was once such a great movie now seems to be full of cliche lines and sequences! Sad, just sad.

Updated Belly Bump!

2008-01-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

So here we are at 20 weeks, halfway there! We get to find out next week, 1/28, what this thing is!! I am hoping for a pony, Amanda will be happy for a boy or a girl.

Here we go, here we go now

2008-01-13T21:15:00.000-05:00

Crazy times people, crazy times here! We are about start week 18 of Amanda's pregnancy and we feel like things are really starting to roll. Last weekend we got two car seats(or chairs for cars as my brother in-law calls them), three car seat bases and a stroller for the little one. My brother and his wife are helping us out a lot by letting us use so much of their stuff from my cute little niece Belle! Thanks Belle!!!

We are very excited because we will be finding out what this little child is on January 28th at 2pm!!! If everyone was reading back in September you will know that I can blog from my BlackBerry and so I will be able to let everyone know then! No matter what it is, Amanda and I are both really really excited to just know what this little thing is!

There are many things that I have noticed that I do on a fairly regular basis that I need to be more careful about. I don't curse but you know, my language could be nicer so that I don't make a horrible impression on this kid. I will need to stop doing things like licking the outside of the jelly jar after making sandwiches and noticing that some of the jelly has dripped on the outside. Or burping in public, which Amanda will like. Oh and even though I have been training for this for the past 27 years, I will have to really buckle down and eat my veggies.

There is one big thing that we do have to figure out here in the Mestler household. Our sleeping arrangement is as follows. If you are standing at the foot of the bed and looking toward the head of the bed, I sleep on the right, Amanda sleeps on the left, and Dixon...well he sleeps everywhere. That is the issue. Once Amanda really starts getting big and needs pillows and other things in bed, there will be less space for me and the dog. Now for everyone out there the easy solution would be kick Dixon out of the bed, but that has failed for the past three years so I might be sleeping in the bedroom next door if someone(Dixon) doesn't get his act together!

I do have to say this has been a crazy time for both of us but we are very thankful for our family and friends and most of all God for kicking our butt every now and then reminding us that he will and is providing. Thank you all for your prayers and support thus far. We are excited about this addition to our family and being able to have this addition join in this family of our friends.

Till next time everyone! -J

Strike a Pose

2007-12-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, here is the obligatory pregnant belly picture....3.5 months pregnant.

Baby Boom

2007-12-18T20:47:00.001-05:00

Jamie Lynn Spears ain't the only one pregnant. That's right, Amanda & Jared are pregnant. Good evening, folks. Guest blogger/Aunt-to-be Alison here. I got tired of waiting for Amanda and Jared to update their blog, so I hijacked their login information to provide you devoted followers some new material. You're welcome.

Let's address these pregnancies in two parts:

1. Jamie Lynn Spears. Age: 16. High school junior. She recently told The Associated Press that she didn't have a serious boyfriend. "I kind of just keep my options open," she said. "I have a bunch of friends that I always hang out with, a bunch of guy friends."

Well good for you, Jamie. And, hey, good luck figuring out which of those "friends" is now your baby's daddy. May he have a higher IQ and more sense than the baby's uncle (or ex-uncle...however that will work) affectionately known as K-Fed. And, may you have better common sense with your children than your big sis does with hers. Jamie = Pure white trash (my husband's contribution).

2. Amanda and Jared Mestler: Age: 20-somethings. Married nearly five years. High school AND College Degrees (beat that, Jamie Lynn). Good jobs. Great people (a little kooky sometimes, but great nonetheless). Ready for a baby. Added bonuses: 1. Takes the pressure off of James and me, at least for the time being. 2. James and I will have a niece/nephew right in town that we can see whenever we want! So exciting!

I'm sure Christmas at the Proffitt household will be full of baby paraphernalia from this year on! My parents are so excited they're about to bust. All of the baby brands of the world are excited, too. Mom and Dad will most likely be invited to be corporate board members for them all by the time baby M is born, due to the sheer volume of "stuff" they'll be purchasing for the baby.

2008 will be an exciting year! Lots to look forward to!

Merry Christmas!

---Just so everyone can see, here is a picture of the little one. We got some great cooperation from Lil'M right before Thanksgiving and here is it's best shot! Sorry for the fuzzy hands, but it was waving up a storm!!! ---Jared

We/I like to call it Casper since it looks like Casper the Ghost! Thanks Alison for hijacking the site!

Exam Man

2007-11-13T19:44:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the long overdue post friends. Life's been busy.

Jared and I have great friends. However, five years ago as a senior at Carolina, I never would have guessed that Jared's best friends would be Chris and Brad. Not that they aren't cool guys, but since Jared did not even go to Carolina I never dreamed that their friendships
would be so great. And so humorous.

The boys have a favorite show. Heroes on NBC. It comes on Monday nights, and every Tuesday an email chain begins between these three boys. They discuss the plot and what they think might happen, and inevitably, rabbit trails get followed. Such as today. Today's email was such a gem Jared forwarded it to me, and I deemed it blog worthy. It reads as follows:

BRAD: Wow! What did you guys think of last night? I'll wait on my impressions in case either of you haven't watched it yet.

CHRIS (in grad school at state, btw): No hero's for me yet. got 3 exams this week. :( You guys can leave me off the emails.

JARED: I think Chris has a power now, he is EXAM MAN!!!

CHRIS: Hmm...I like the idea of Exam Man Jared..Thinking I would craft an outfit like this. Maybe have a mask that looks like a microsoft word document and wield an iphone in his hand to fight off the evil professors and it fires "A" bullets.

Have a good one fellas!!

Unbelievable. Funny, handsome, witty and creative. These three ladies are the luckiest around!

Good Times!

2007-10-02T20:55:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I decided that our floors downstairs needed to be replaced so coming up in the next couple of weeks, we will have new floors. Dixon is going to hate it! We are putting hardwoods downstairs instead of the most wonderful carpet the previous owners left behind. Dixon does not know how to walk on hardwoods which equals fun for Amanda and I!

In doing this, Dixon is going to have a spend a couple of days at the Pets Hotel. So I call today to make his appointment for him and he has been a regular there for the last two years but we have to go through the same drill everytime but this time there was some added questions we usually get when we drop him off:

Me: Hi, we need to board our dog for a couple of days.
Them: Ok, is this Dixon!
Me: Yes (They look it up by name, there is only one dog under our name:
Them: How much does he weigh?
Me: Around 60 pounds, but he is tall. (they are always befuddled because they want to try to cram him into a cage, not a run which is in his record...along with his weight, but we still answer)
Them: M'kay Does Dixon need any play time?
Me: Yes, day camp the first day, a play time the second
Them: M'kay So the second day only that play time is only thirty minutes right?
Me: Yep!
Them: M'kay Do we need to feed Dixon?
Me: Uh, yes, he's going to be there for a couple of days.
Them: M'kay How much does he get a day?
Me: About three and a half cups of food.
Them: M'kay Do you feed him all at once or a few times a day
Me: He gets its all at once.
Them: M'kay Do you want us to feed him our food or are you bringing his own
Me: We will bring our own.
Them: M'kay What kind of food are you bringing, what brand?
Me: ?????? Uh, Beneful, does it matter?
Them: M'kay When will you be picking him up....

And so for another 5 minutes I answered this poor girls questions about the minute details of Dixon's existence at their facility. So Dixon is all set and I have lost 15 minutes of my life answering questions that are already in their database about my dog who has stayed there so many times before. They even know him as the dog who coughs! The things we do for our dogs.

Oh and her name by the way was literally Patience!

HOORAY!!!

2007-09-26T14:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, I am excited now, I figured out how to post from the BB! Now wherever we go, you all get to go.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, we will be back in business real soon,

-jared

An Exciting Week

2007-07-23T18:49:00.000-05:00

We've had an exciting week here in the Mestler home. The hand is almost back to normal, some of my favorite people had exciting times in their lives and I learned that my husband loves me so much that he is willing to stand in Borders bookstore for an hour at 1230 at night just so I could find out what happened to my friends from Harry Potter. I know, I'm a dork...

BTW, the this picture was taken at 136 AM on Saturday morning. Please excuse the tired smile.

Happy Birthday to Megan, Melissa, Patrick and Brad! Sorry I don't have any pictures to display of your charming faces! Enjoy tired Dixon instead...

Congrats to Laura and Jon. Laura and I lived together for 2 years in college, and she is living such an amazing life teaching in Taiwan and now India! She looked stunning, even though we missed her actually getting married due to inability to follow directions.

And finally, Sammy is back! If you remember, Sammy is the resident turtle that sometimes resides in our back yard, and whom Jared is determined to make a home for in one of our bathtubs. Never mind the fact that Dixon thinks Sammy is good eats. Jared found Sammy one morning trying to enter our screened porch. Once Dixon found him, he promptly returned to his hiding place under the deck. Maybe he'll come back to visit soon.

Hope everyone's week is as exciting as ours!

Mr. Kitt

2007-07-20T17:43:00.000-05:00

For those in the know, David Kitt has a new albulm out and if this video is anything like the rest of it, than it should be really good!

More Broken Hand Pics

2007-07-05T20:50:00.001-05:00

The lovely yellow color of the front of my left hand with the bruised middle finger...

And the beautiful green color of the palm. I am a walking rainbow:)

And another fabulous x ray shot. Here's hoping you never get a non-displaced spiral fracture of your metacarpal of your middle finger...it hurts, power glove and all. :)

Freak Tubing Accident

2007-07-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I went out to the western part of our fair state the other week to have a nice relaxing time at a cabin we rented for a few days. We got there, everything was perfect. It was just a small little cabin, one bedroom, a little kitchen, rocking chairs on the covered porch and a hot tub. We even had a substitute dog named Layla.

We decided that we wanted to go tubing down a river to relax because, well, that's what you do when you go tubing, you relax. Or so we thought. This tubing happened to be a little bit more like shooting the somewhat tame rapids on an inner tube with a piece of plastic in the middle to keep ones bum from scraping against the rocks. This being Amanda's first tubing outing, we thought it might be fun. We had gotten a few minutes into our trip down the rive when we came upon our first rough part. I went down first to show her it was alright and she came down afterwards. She had gotten twisted around and ending up going down backwards and fell out of the tube. She came right back up kind of shocked cause well it is a mounting stream and it is cold! As soon as I got to her, she looked up and said "I think I broke my finger." I looked at her hand and noticed that all fingers were still pointing straight and pronounced that she couldn't have and let's continue on. It became apparent that something was not right and her left hand was throbbing. Since this was not the most relaxing trip that we thought it was going to be, we got out and took our tubes back.

As her hand warmed up, the pain increased intensely! So we did what we thought was normal and went to the ER, which we had to hunt for in this Appalachian town. I kept trying not to think of the SNL skit about Appalachian ER's, but well, their pretty true. We went to the receptionist and said that we needed to be seen and she asked us to take a seat, no name no nothing. We waited for a while and watched the locals, everybody knew or was related to everyone else, so it felt like West Virginia. After a while a nurse came out of a door and asked who was there for an emergency, we raised our hands and followed her. The asked what happened and proceeded to write everything down. There was a computer there, but I think it was just for show. We were seen in the ER anteroom by an number of nurses who all asked us what happened. They took us back to the ER where we got to wait in the Cardiac room where we were told that if someone came in with chest pains or was having a heart attack, we would have to clear out. The took Amanda back for X-Rays and brought back this:

The bone circled in red should look the the bone to the right of it. It was at this time we started noticing all of the posters and pamphlets for domestic violence around and then we started to understand why we were questioned separately about what had happened...

The doctor then saw Amanda and said all she needed was a finger splint and she would be good. He left and then came back after a while with this comment, "I don't know where my head was, somewhere in left field, but we are going to need something more than a splint." The hooked her up with a hand brace, nice brown on brown coloring, something that looked like a Powerglove prototype. When we were about to leave, we asked where we had to check out, they said you don't, you just walk out! All in all it was a fascinating experience.

When Amanda gets bored

2007-07-05T18:23:00.000-05:00

I was flipping through the pictures on the camera the other day and ran across this gem. This is what happens when I leave her for a few hours by herself.

I can't do anything but love her!!

Some Hot Ladies

2007-06-09T20:21:00.000-05:00

An overdue picture of my 7 college roomies in Hilton Head...these friendships are priceless.

I love the local news!

2007-05-30T21:03:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I were watching the local 10 o'clock news and the lead story started like this:

"Good evening and thank you for joining us. As the temperature rises so does the probability for motorcycle crashes."

Thank goodness for DVR because we had to make sure we had heard him correctly!!! Nothing like a good ole fake out, for a second there your think he is going to talk about how hot it has been, or how bad of a drought we are in, or how ice cream sales or up. But nope, it is now a proven fact that once temperatures rise, so does the probability for motorcycle accidents...

That's right

Plus

Equals:

Just never realized it, but now I know!

Job Perks...

2007-04-18T19:43:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I come into possession with some random swag* that I get from venues/clients. It could be a hockey puck, a ticket to a show, a cool name badge, or as I tried to get this past weekend in Charleston, a giant tennis ball.

A couple of weeks ago I got a new desk buddy. I actually asked for this! I saw it on our clients web site as a give away that night and thought to myself, how cool is that. So without further ado may I present to you...

Mr. Adam Morrison

Now who wouldn't want this, the pose, the rippling hair, the scary mustache, and of course the bobbling head! So day after day Adam sits on my desk overlooking the world as he now it, surveying the mess I call my desk, and of course watching over the construction site. Every now and then I just have to reach across my desk and just slap him across the back of his head or when I need an immediate concurrence to my life's daily questions, "Should I go out for lunch?" or "Should I answer my phone?" or better yet "Am I really going bald?" he sits there and nods his head.

Ahh, the fun we have at work, Adam and I...

*Just so you the reader knows. Dictionary.com does define swag as plunder or booty!

It's Broken...

2007-03-05T20:56:00.001-05:00

Which makes it even better. I mean worse. I mean, it makes me madder. Or more mad. In moments like this, my grammar goes out the window. They broke the boy's nose. Fuel the fire, stir the pot....WE HATE DUKE!!! (Disclaimer: Jared may not really hate Duke, but seeing as how he married into a Tarheel family, he really has no other option...)

I just pray that Tyler can still play wearing one of these....

Brings back memories of Jawad....

By the way, why is Billy Packer still allowed to broadcast during Carolina games? I think I would rather hear Dickie V...

Oh No He Didn't...

2007-03-04T20:32:00.000-05:00

It's on like Donkey Kong...

Salmonella

2007-02-15T19:56:00.000-05:00

It was a sad day for us in the Mestler home. Our favorite food, the world's most perfect food, is now contaminated. Jared and I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a daily basis, and there is almost nothing better than digging into a brand new jar of peanut butter. Mmmmmmmm. Not today, however. Thank you, salmonella, for ruining our lunches. (Well, my lunch. Jared was probably a bit too excited when I called him and told him not to eat his sandwich, and to go out to eat instead. Probably made his day.) At least we only had one jar of peanut butter to throw away, unlike my parents, who had four. We are a peanut butter lovin family.

In other news, if you ever talk to Jared while he is at work and he seems distracted, this is probably why. This is the view from his window on the 14th floor on the Capital Bank building in downtown Raleigh. The five year old inside of him is jumping up and down with excitement. And rightly so.

Here's hoping all your meals are salmonella free!

So it must be true...

2007-02-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

If I have learned anything from the news over the past few weeks it is this, truly Pimpin' Ain't Easy!

Let's start with example number one. During the last few days in January in Belgium a skydiver (crazy skydiver #1) that was part of a skydiving group fell to her death tragically when neither of her shoots would open. Police say that a fellow skydiver (crazy skydiver #2) tampered with crazy skydiver #1's parachute because crazy skydiver #2 was in a "jealous rage after learning that crazy skydiver #1 had an affair with her boyfriend." Because of this jealousy crazy skydiver #1 plummeted 13,000 with no parachute!!

Example number two. This week lady astronaut #1, who is married with kids, became so distraught with jealousy over lady astronaut #2 and her relationship to guy astronaut that she drove almost 1,000 miles, wearing crazy lady astronaut diapers to reduce stops, to confront and possibly even harm lady astronaut #2. Lady astronaut #1 had a BB gun, a lead pipe or mallet, pepper spare, a wig and a trench coat all in her car in some elaborate scheme to get at Lady astronaut #2!!

See you can even see the crazy in her eyes!!

So as you can tell, Pimpin' Ain't Easy! These playas never know what is going to happen, instead of them getting into trouble, these ladies have gone after each other, wow! So all you playas out there, before you go and start trying to play the game, maybe you should get some psych evaluations done on your "friends" before you take it to the next step!

Sigh.......

2007-01-24T18:09:00.000-05:00

I miss this face.

Christmas time is here.....

2006-12-20T20:06:00.000-05:00


Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan sing their Christmas Song

It's just not Christmas without watching this at least once. I think Tracy Morgan does the best job of them all!

Merry Christmas! Amanda

Cupcake Princess

2006-12-18T20:35:00.001-05:00

Today marked the beginning of Jared's new career! For those of you who don't already know, Jared is now working with Ticketmaster as support for their Ticketing/Development software. We are both very excited about his new job and his new career path, as it seems to suit him better personality-wise! We are also excited about the new job perks, which include tickets to various events around the Triangle! We have already been forced to decide how to spend this upcoming Friday night. Our original plan was to go to the ballet (yeah!!!) and see the Nutcracker with Jared's sister, Alyson, who is flying in for the holidays. Today, Jared found out he could also get us Hurricanes tickets (also yeah!) for Friday night. Jared then proceeded to inform me that Alyson has never seen the Nutcracker, and was not a "cupcake princess" like I was when I was younger. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in Jared's mind, I had graduated from a SugarPlum Fairy to a Cupcake Princess. BTW, please feel free to comment on which outing you think we should attend.

You wouldn't believe it from today's 70+ temps, but last week it was so cold the water in our birdbath froze! Enjoy these pictures of Dixon trying to eat/pick up the large piece of ice! We finally broke it down to a smaller size for him!

And finally, if you weren't tacky this past Friday, you missed all the fun! Enjoy pictures from the First Annual Beahm/Mestler Tacky Christmas Party!

Byyyeee! Thanks for stopping by!

Lord Stanley...

2006-12-06T19:17:00.000-05:00

We have your cup!!!

I got a chance to go see the Stanley Cup yesterday so a buddy of mine at work and thought it would be in our best interest to do just that! It was at a museum downtown that I used to work at and when we walked in the door there was a huge line of kids waiting to see the cup from one of the downtown magnet schools. The teachers told us to go ahead of them and thus we were at the front of the line! They had not opened yet and when they did, we were the first ones in the door. They didn't let anyone else in so it was just Scott, myself and a couple of people from the museum in a sense, we had the cup to ourselves!

I do have to say that the best part was the fact that when all the players and coaches were toting it around all summer and before the season, it did not have the newest silver band on it with the Hurricane's players names. Well it does now!

In totally unrelated news, on our way back to work from seeing the cup we saw a helicopter and a bird collide in the air and sadly that hunk of white stuff that was falling from the sky after the incident was not the pilot's pizza box from the Papa John's they just picked up...

Confucius Says...

2006-11-27T20:39:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I found a great Chinese restaurant last night. We have been searching for one every since we left North Raleigh and left our beloved King's Wok. That was the only place I every found an Annual Report for BP?!?!? Anyways, we think we have found our new Chinese home at Lee's Garden Chinese Restaurant. It is at the corner of HWY 55 and Apex Peakway. It was great! We order the basics in our life to make sure it is good, Amanda Sesame Chicken, me, General Tso, and for starters fried dumplings. The sauce that had with the dumplings was awesome!

As we were leaving we picked up our fortune cookies and of course read them. I do have to say mine was the best I have seen in a long time:

Now I am still searching for the character translation for fanny so if anyone out there knows it, please let me know. If you play the Chinese fortune cookie game with this one it is really funny! So this little guy will be taped to my monitor at work along with my other favorite one telling me that I would make a great lawyer, not a very funny fortune cookie game saying...

Going to the Library

2006-11-06T19:39:00.000-05:00

I have been in a slight rut with my reading lately, I have either read something really serious, or just really boring, or just plain stupefying "Under the Banner of Heaven" so I have been reading my Car&Driver and National Geographic and contemplating what to read next. Amanda and I enjoy going to the library and the library then enjoys charging us fines for our overdue books. We have since found out that the most they will charge you is $10! If we come across a book that we really want we then buy it, say for instance my obession with John Updike! So I have finally decided to let my brain enjoy a blast from the past. I am off in search of two of my all time favorite series Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys!

I can remember spending days doing nothing but reading of the great adventures that these fictional characters had. For the longest time I truly thought that the assassins, the bad terrorist group in the Hardy Boys, was an actual bad terrorist group. One day I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys could join forces against all evil in the world, well Victor Appleton and Franklin W. Dixon(Dixon's nameskae) must have thought of just that. The next time I went to the book store what did I find but a Tom Swift & Hardy Boys adventure!!

Oh the joy of it! I bought it and immediately went home and read the whole book!! So needless to say I am very much looking forward to going to the library with my wife this weekend! And now that I have totally shown my dorkdom, I will leave you with this last great look at the Hardy Boys Casefiles mashup, enjoy!

I love comics

2006-10-30T18:54:00.000-05:00

I have to say one of my favorite parts of the day is in the morning when I get to read my daily comics. Get Fuzzy has always been one of my favorites ever since college. Recently though, Darby Conley has been making me really laugh. For example:

Satchel is by far one of my favorite characters out there.

On a different note, I just learned that I have the same birthday as Bob Barker! Who knew that I was born on they same day, just 57 years later, as Mr. Price is Right! Now that just made my Halloween! -Jared

The Joy of Living with Jared

2006-10-15T20:50:00.000-05:00

Last night around 10 when driving home from a symphony event, I remarked to Jared that I thought the 4Runner may need new brakes. He agreed, as we are seriously overdue on some maintenance on it. I reminded him that he would probably have to take it somewhere to have it looked at/serviced due to my long and early commute (he would therefore have to surrender Oscar, the Versa, to me for a day:) ) unless we took it somewhere on the weekend. The following conversation ensued...

Amanda: "Where should we take it?"

Jared: "I don't know. There's that AAA place in Cary, or I could take it to the Exxon near work."
Amanda: "OK"

Jared: "Or, there's that Just Tires place right down the street"

Amanda: "Where?"

Jared: "Just Tires (slowly fades off)"

Exactly, love. With a name like Just Tires, I seriously doubt they could fix our brake problems.

Fast forward to tonight. Tonight was one of our rare trips to the grocery store together, and we were both tired and ready to go home. As always, we fight over who gets to push the cart, and therefore be in control. Jared started out with the cart pushing, until he got distracted by something on the shelves, and let go. I then took over, and calmly told him that I was going to push. He pouted a little, and then this conversation took place:

Jared: "I wanted to push."

Amanda: "If you give me a kiss, then you can push."

Jared: "Whatever, you can push."

Amanda:"....................." (picture me with a wide open mouth, staring at him in disbelief until he realized what he had just said, and what he had not "heard" me say, and at that point he chased me down the aisle trying to kiss me).

This is the essence of Jared, and why I love my life with him.

Have a great day!

What a strange, strange day...

2006-10-09T18:39:00.000-05:00

I write this a few days removed from Jared and I's strange day. This strange day was last Friday, when our small little town of Apex made national headlines. The drama for us started Thursday night when Jared went to turn off the computer before heading to bed. He came into the room announcing the fact that WRAL (the local news station) had breaking news on its website regarding a "mysterious odor and haze" surrounding downtown Apex. I, being the calm person I am, thought nothing of this.......FALSE (to quote Dwight from the Office :) ). I immediately freaked out, reminding Jared that we live less than 5 minutes from downtown Apex, and should probably be concerned. Jared, knowing how my little worries transform into major catastrophe plans, decided he would go watch the 11:00 news while I went to bed (sweet, sweet man:) ). He returned around 11:15 saying nothing had really been said and we should just go to sleep.

Fast forward 5.45 hours, and it is now 6:00 a.m Friday morning, and I am driving to work. However, once I turn onto Highway 55, all I see are flashing blue lights blocking 55 past the US 1 exit. That's odd, I think, all while the radio station in my car is announcing mass evacuations for Apex due to a chemical explosion/fire/"plume" (the most popular word during the entire event). I immediately, "calmly", call Jared to wake him up to prepare him to pack up our clothes, the dog, and our wedding album, obviously our most prized possessions:) Jared, the hard-working man that he is, prepares for his work day as normal, showering and dressing and feeding the dog, etc. By the time I have gotten to work, the full story of the chemical explosion, traveling toxic cloud and mass evacuations is all over the news, and more evacuations are threatened once the "plume" is moved by the changing winds. So, I convince my husband to spend the day at home ("um...I think a chemical fire and toxic air are more important than anything waiting for you at work", says Amanda, obviously in a loving tone). So Jared and Dixon wait it out the entire day at home, waiting for the changing winds and the shifting "plume". No winds shift, rain falls heavily, and the fire is mostly put out. We fared better than our friends Chris and Melissa, who were forced to evacuate their house around midnight...read their story here ( and thanks for the image, Chris:) ) However, it was an exciting day in Apex, and we never felt more loved...Jared's cell phone rang so much it was dead by 10:00 am.

To treat my loving husband, I took him to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants, Red Robin. Mmmmm...good hamburgers. And Jared's favorite, a hamburger with a fried egg on top....disgusting. We arrive around 6:30 and add our names to the list, and are told the wait is around 25 minutes. No problem. We amuse ourselves for around 15 minutes, until Jared points out an empty table for two in the bar area, commenting, "Couldn't we just sit there?" They probably are getting ready to sit someone there I replied. No, no, ten minutes later we are taken to the table that has been empty during our entire waiting period. It is here that we witness the other strange event of the day. Now, I am not a big alcohol drinker, but I do know some of the "etiquette" of alcohol drinking. Sitting in the bar area gave us a nice view of its occupants, namely one couple who looked to be only slightly older than ourselves. Now, this girl is wearing flip flops (and if you remember, the high temperature on Friday was a rainy 55), blue jeans, a Duke sweatshirt and Duke baseball hat with her hair in a elastic band. She is accompanied by her husband? boyfriend? brother who is also wearing jeans but a Carolina sweatshirt. Already an odd couple if you ask us. And then homegirl orders a glass of Chardonnay. Excuse me? Chardonnay? Would you like some caviar to go with it? I feel like if you are going to eat at Red Robin (which they did, they were seated shortly after receiving their drinks), Chardonnay should not be your drink of choice. Just our opinion. And wear some shoes next time...

No wonder reality television is so appealing...

Till next time:) Here's hoping all chemicals are contained in your hometown! Amanda

Remembering what has always been there...

2006-10-02T18:56:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I get so hooked on a new band or singer/songwriter and I just end up listening to that paticular group or person over and over again. So it is always fun to just hit the shuffle button on the old Nano to see what comes up. Take today for instance, driving home from work I hit the shuffle button and probably one of my favorite bands of all times popped up! There is nothing like some Jimmy Eat World!

I have always been impressed with these guys, good music, good songwriting, and they just play loud. I really like their Futures album especially Nothingwrong. Also if I am going to open the door of forgotten favorites, I really like Third Eye Blind's album Blue and especially the song Wounded. Of course there is anything by MXPX and one band I find funny is Furthermore, but there stuff is hard to find. For fear of starting to sound like a MyStalk or Facestalk page, I am going to end here. - Jared

Introducing Oscar!

2006-09-24T19:15:00.000-05:00

Well the search for new ride is finally over! This is Oscar, he is a '07 Nissan Versa with CVT. He is Magnetic Gray and has a dark charcoal interior. The CVT is something that really interested us and was one of the main selling points for this guy.

The Versa drives great and we did get a great deal. It is a tiny little car, but it is huge inside. Amanda says that I even look small in it. Best of all, it has a aux input jack in the radio for the iPod!

So join Amanda and I in welcoming Oscar to our family! -Jared

P.S. Anyone want to buy a Jeep?!?!

When I grow up....

2006-09-24T19:12:00.000-05:00

I want to be Mike Rowe. Why? Because who else gets to do voice overs for the Discovery Channel, have his own shoe where he just gets dirty the whole time, and is able to sing opera. Well minus the opera part, but hey it would be fun!

WELCOME TO THIS WORLD

2006-09-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

Congratulations Riley and Sarah, and big HELLO to William Finn Schofield!!!

Wow, this is the first one of my friends to have a kid, it's kind of weird and cool all at the same time! William Finn Schofield, a.k.a. Baby Scho arrived safely on Sunday, September 3, 2006 at 12:37 PM via c-section. He weighed in at 8#5.4oz and measured 20 inches long.

Amanda and I can't wait to see the little guy, I hear he has red hair!

The best beach tool

2006-09-04T14:36:00.000-05:00

We got back from the beach a little while ago and I have to say, I had the best time at the beach then I have had in a long time. I think I played from sun up to sun down. On top of that, I discovered the best beach tool ever, yes ever!

What we have here folks is a standard issue entrenching shovel that can be found at any Army Surplus store around. Yes, you too can also have one and dig a perfect moat for your sandcastle, or just dig a hole up to your shoulders just so you can say, hey I found water! So what it is all metal and has sharp and even serated places on the blade, just watch those toes! I guarantee that you will dig bigger and better holes, moats and sand lounge chairs faster and more efficiently than ever. If you are going to bury your spouse in the sand, done in no time at all. So rush out right now and buy one, you never know when you are going to need it!!

The time is coming...

2006-08-20T20:36:00.000-05:00

Just another friendly reminder, International Talk Like a Pirate Day is less than a month away.

And while we are on the subject of Pirates, if you are so lucky to get the Poopdeck e-newsletter from John "Ol Chumbucket" you would have seen this tasty treat. It seems that ABC has recruited the family of one of the founders of ITLAPD to be on wife swap;

Wench Swap – Pirates Capture ABC!

We are almost completely recovered now from our reality TV experience
and have been given permission by the network to tell you about the
show.

We did an episode of ABC's "Wife Swap," which of course we call "Wench
Swap." We are told the episode will be the first of the season – airing
Sept. 18, just in time for everyone's favorite holiday, International
Talk Like a Pirate Day! How perfect is that?

My wife, Mad Sally, went south to the very orderly, organized and beige
home of a very orderly and organized (not to say lifeless, dull, and
non-piratical) family, while that family's plastic wife/mother came
north to the chaotic, messy, unorganized pirate home of the saucy,
salty Baurs. Hilarity, as the saying goes, ensues.

We stood up for pirates everywhere, and there will be moments when
pirate fans cheer, others when they seethe with anger! Maybe even brush
away a tear? Or say, "What the hell was THAT all about?" So watch "Wife
Swap" Monday, Sept. 18, 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, 7 p.m. Central
and Rocky Mountain. Then drop us a message in a bottle and tell us what
ye think.

And get more info on the show at
http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap/index.html

So everyone make sure you watch Wench, I mean Wife Swap on Sept. 18th.

Have a good one, Jared

I want the gold...

2006-08-08T18:58:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for a leprechaun or a pot of gold, you may find him here in Alabama.....

Hey, who turned the heat up?!?!

2006-08-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

I don't recall who ordered the weather, but they sure do need a stern talking to, maybe throw in some finger wagging, a couple of head shakes just to make them feel real bad about what they did you know. I have been tooling back in forth in the Jeep with windows unzipped, rolled up, and stowed away, but when you sit in traffic, there is no air movement, thank you shorts! But when I am driving, I get a nice breeze from everywhere including the floor or where there are supposed to be plugs in the drain holes but that just adds to the atmosphere! Now I am not knocking Jurgis here, just the temperature. Speaking of Jurgis, I have not published any pictures of the guy:

This past weekend Amanda and I drove up to Williamsburg to see my parents. They are moved into their place back East! It was really good to see them and to hang out with them for just the weekend, it has been a long time since we have done that. Derrick and little Belle came to visit also. It is really amazing to watch her grow. She can now walk, has a vocabulary of 50+ words and is just incredibly cute!

Ok, and were off to another hot day tomorrow. Amanda is leaving for the weekend to spend some time with her girls from college, so Dixon and I are batching it. We have some plans with the other batchelors of the weekend though, there ain't nothing like some good ole ribs!! Speaking of Amanda and her friends, I know who ordered the heat, Melissa!!!! -Jared

End of an era...and of a mouse

2006-07-27T19:32:00.000-05:00

Hello all! It has been many moons since my last post, and Jared has apparently gotten tired of coming up with funny things to blog about, so I was given the reigns once again! It has been an emotional and exciting week here in the Mestler home. The week began with dinner with friends Abby and Charlie, Chris and Melissa. We dined in style at P.F. Changs in Durham, and spent hours talking among couples making out behind us at the bar. Gotta love PDA.

Monday we went to test drive a car we think we might like, and almost got talked into buying it. I dont think that I could ever be a car dealer, or salesman, because we were pretty much telling these people, no we cannot afford this right now, but maybe in a few months, and they were like, no no we will make your first payment for you.... you dont have to pay for 90 days.... no wonder people go bankrupt because they suck you in and make you feel like if you dont buy a car right now, it'll be gone. Regardless of your financial situation, they make thousands of dollars seem like nothing because...."its such a great deal!" Needless to say, we came home without a car that night. Although the Versa is very tempting....

And the entire reason for the car shopping is that this Tuesday we turned over our friend the Mazda to its new owner. I never gave this a second thought until she actually came to pick it up, and then I got a little teary eyed. This was the car that saw me and my sister through college. It spent a summer in Myrtle Beach with me, survived the driveway at the Duplex, got trapped at the end of Hillsborough street during the snow storm Jared ran it into a CAT bus here in Raleigh,and most importantly got trashed at our wedding reception. Im talking that our loving brother and sister-in-law poured confetti into the air conditioning vents, and it spit confetti for months. What a good car. It was the end of an era...the Mazda era. She was a good car. Be good to her Molly. She was good to us. Thanks Mom and Dad for such a good ride... she made it through lots of good times.

And on an end note, tonight Dixon gave us a little gift. In the form of a dead mouse. We have had some mice in the backyard that feast off leftover birdseed, and we let Dixon chase them around the yard...all in good fun. Tonight one of the mice was not so lucky. It must have been full and Dixon must have been energetic, b/c he caught that mouse tonight and flung him every way possible. Then he sat there with it in the yard, proud of his accomplishment and his before dinner snack. I made (asked) Jared take him to his final resting place over the fence in the back. I guess labs really are hunting dogs. We should rent him out for extermination.

We are off tomorrow to visit Jared's parents at their new house in Williamsburg, VA...it will be the first time we have been able to drive and visit them since college! Have a good weekend everyone! :) Amanda

There's no turning back now

2006-07-22T08:17:00.000-05:00

So it might have been a somewhat stressful past few weeks for the Mestler household but in the end we have sold the Mazda(I am sorry girl, the deal was just to good to pass up), I have been to DC and found a cool bookstore, I have started working out again, Amanda has fallen in love with Harry Potter, Dixon has gotten a bath, and we now have a Jeep.

Yes I know it is not snowing, but it is hot out there and some snow would be really cool. Thanks to Tim Jenkins for Jurgis. He will be fine while you are gone. He probably spent his first night ever in a fully enclosed garage last night. This should definitely be fun! -Jared

Over 1,500 miles later...

2006-07-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

Oh Man! What a trip. I can honestly say Amanda and I have done things we have never done before, seen things we have never seen before, eaten things we have never eaten before, and been to places we have never been before! We have traveled over 15k miles in a week, traveled through 3 different states, slept in 4 different beds, meet more people than we can remember, eaten way to much fast food, and at a couple points relaxed liked crazy(and I have the stripped sunburn to prove it!) We have gone to a baby shower, a bachelor party, a wedding and have taken our fill of pictures through the whole thing! We are very glad to be home now, Dixon met us when we walked in the house and he too was happy to be home from his grandparents. Below are some pictures of our trip.

Sara and Riley opening gifts. Amanda, Sarah, and Meredith

The guys enjoying themselves and celebrating Riley's future child!

Graham and Asheli are finally married!

And finally, if anyone can tell me what is wrong with this picture, they win a prize.

Glad to be home-Jared

We have a turtle...kind of....

2006-06-23T06:56:00.000-05:00

I would like to introduce you to Sammie! He is a Box Turtle and he "lives" in our yard. Dixon found him a couple of weeks ago. He was in our back yard, inside the fence, on top of the far hill (for those of you who have seen our yard, you will understand where that is. For those of you who have not seen our yard, come on over!) Dixon didn't really know what to think of him, so I picked him up and took him inside to try to convince Amanda that he needed to stay in our guest bathroom bathtub. She didn't like that idea. I took him out front to the side of the house where we have a whole bunch of Hostas. I thought he might like it there, lots of shade, things to eat and plenty of water. He hung around for a couple of days and then he ran away. Yesterday, Dixon was up at the back hill again doing a weird, what is this thing dance so I went to check it out and there was Sammie! It only took him two weeks, but he was back in the same place where we originally found him. I brought Sammie back inside and tried again for the bathtub, but alas, Sammie ended up back in the Hostas. I found him running away again just an hour later....well not really running, more like waddling. I guess I will see him again in a couple of weeks on the top of the hill. Weird turtle. -Jared

Down at the gas station

2006-06-23T06:49:00.000-05:00

I don't know why this struck me as odd, but well, it did. I was getting gas in the Mighty Togdor yesterday and stuck to the pump was this advertisement:

I don't know what strikes me more as being odd, the fact that you name your business "Farm House Car Wash" because I don't usually associate farmhouses with clean cars. Or maybe it is the whole "luscious ladies" that are washing the cars on Saturday. I am glad to know that there are *Farm House Specials*! Oh Fuquay what are we going to do with you. -Jared

CANES WIN!!!! CANES WIN!!!! CANES WIN!!!

2006-06-20T07:02:00.000-05:00

"Eat your heart out Canada. The Stanley Cup belongs to Mayberry."
-Luke Decock The News & Observer Tues. June 20, 2006

Oh my what an exciting past few weeks. It has been a long while since I have seen some really good hockey and now we have the Stanley Cup here in Raleigh!!! A huge amount of thanks goes to the guy above, Cam Ward, 22 year old rookie goalie just did an absolutely incredible job this post season!!! There have been times during these past few weeks Amanda and I could barely stomach to watch and others where the three of us were dancing around like, well, Caniacs!! I almost didn't watch the game last night because I was so nervous, but what a game it was! Here is to you Hurricanes, enjoy every minute of it. Oh, I almost forgot the best part about winning the Cup, every team member gets to keep it for a day, do whatever with it, take it through the McDonald's drive thru, strap it in the grocery cart to just pick up a few things, or just hang out with it watching recaps of the series from your DVR!! How awesome is that!

On a continuous note, I don't think there has ever been a better time to live in the Raleigh area. Businesses are coming in left and right, RBC Centura (a Canadian bank) is moving its' worldwide headquarters downtown, they are totally redoing downtown, we are constantly listed in the top 5 best places to live, we have a great Symphony, the local music scene is great, and well it is just a great place to live so come on down to Mayberry and see what all the fuss is about!

Now onto the World Cup! Oh boy, more nail bititng. GO USA!
-Jared

What is the world coming to?

2006-06-13T18:53:00.000-05:00

Unbelievable..who know she would go from Steel Magnolias to protesting from a tree.

http://www.wral.com/entertainment/9362806/detail.html

"New shoes.....have to break 'em in"

Call me Baron, Rail Baron

2006-06-06T19:56:00.000-05:00

Mucho thanks to our friends Eric and Rachel, Amanda and I are now slightly addicted to a new game called Rail Baron. Now don't go rushing out and try to buy this off your local Target shelves because you won't find it! This wonderful piece of imagination stopped being produced sometime in the late 70's early 80's but I do have to say that this is the best four, five, six hours a group of people can spend. What is this game you ask, well try to think of it like a cross between monopoly and Stratego, but with railroads that cross the US trying to get from point A to point B while trying to use your railroads so that it cost the least amount of money. First person to make over $200K and get back to their home city wins. Oh Yeah!

The best part I think is the character on the box. It was like the creators of this game said "What happens when you take the monopoly man with the Statego man?"

Well my friends you would get this guy on the box!

What a great way to spend Sunday evening. Thanks guys. If anyone is interested, let us know and we can Rail Baron it up!

Now where is my hook...

2006-05-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

ARRGGH there any Pirates in there?

This is just a swashbuckling reminder that it is coming up!

STRAWBERRIES!

2006-05-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was my 25th birthday, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the morning than going strawberry picking with my husband! We convinced my sister Alison and her husband Jamal (James) to go with us, and we picked for probably 45 minutes. If you have never been before, I highly recommend it! My sister and I have our own special strawberry picking system...one for the basket, one to eat, one for the basket, one to eat. When we were done my hands looked as if I had murdered a little strawberry family. We also saw one little girl on her way out with strawberries all over her face, hands and outfit who was trying to convince her parents that she did not eat any strawberries while picking. A fun day had by all...we picked at Jean's Berry Patch...highly recommended....great strawberries. The only problem is that while you are picking them you don't want to leave any behind, but when you get home you aren't quite sure what to do with 6.5 pounds of strawberries.

This past week also marked our niece Belle's first birthday. Below is a picture of her enjoying her first cupcake...we will see her this weekend and are so excited! Have a great week!

Welcome to dorkdom

2006-04-28T18:16:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I seem to have a conversation with a friend that seems almost priceless. I get a lot from it, the conversation just leaves a deep impression on ones thoughts. But for the most of the time my conversations end up like this:

Jared: Ok, this seems cheesy and dorky, but then it wouldn'tÂt be perfect for us. The symphony is performing the music from Lord of the Rings with the NC Master Chorale this summer out at Regency Park on Saturday July 15th. If you guys want to go I can get tickets to it, we can all go, bring a big picnic and drinks hang out and listen to the music. There is also going to be projections of illustrations by conceptual artists Alan Lee and John Howe to go along with the music. This is just a thought, let me know.

Brad: Are we including wives in this? I don't want to mention it to Rebecca and then later have to tell her she can't go. She hates it when I do that to her (tee hee).

Jared: Yes, wives are invited, everyone is invited, the whole world in invited, the entire shire is invited, ok that was lame.

Brad: So...is Sauron invited? 'Cause I don't think he'd like this music....too many bad memories...

Jared: I asked, he said he would think about it and then he just looked at me. It was kind of awkward.

Brad: Well, it could have been worse. The last time he looked at me like that, I got a really bad sunburn.

Jared: That can be worse than the time he challenged me to a staring contest.

Brad: Did you win the staring contest? He challenged me to a farting contest one time and I won. He had to wash my car for a week!

So really in just a few emails time, I have proved to myself again that I am a dork, but Brad is to.

Rememberr kids the eye of Sauron is watching you!

Whoa, sorry wrong picture!

Much better! Til Next time - Jared

Oh by the way, Brad has sold out and now has a blog of his own. Check it out!

Simple pleasures

2006-04-18T19:32:00.000-05:00

So you know those big wire bins at Wal-Mart or Target that hold those big giant colored rubber balls. You know the ones that you always begged your mom and dad for when you were young but they always said it was a waste of money. Something like this:

minus the kind of creepy looking kid. That is the kind of ball I am talking about! Well Dixon loves them!! He got one for Easter, a nice big purple one. We threw it out into the back yard and just watched. He chased after it, kicked it, try to bite it, he just went crazy. Amanda or I would kick it and he would chase after it and then pounce! He would land right on top of it and roll right off of it! It was hilarious!! He eventually got a tooth to it and poof! it exploded right in his face. Instead of sulking about blowing his toy up, he now runs around with the large piece that was the ball slinging it back and forth like the mad crazy dog he is. Oh what we can learn from our dogs. By the way, he just turned two, Happy Birthday little buddy. -Jared

Run, Ronnie, Run...

2006-04-17T20:08:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a gazillion years since our last post, and other than my catching one of the worst cold/flu viruses of my life, we have no excuse. And to inspire me to write more often, I have told myself that our posts no longer need to be chapters in a book, but short, inspiring "snippets" of our day to day lives.

Today, Jared and I are very proud of our friend Ronnie, who ran in the Boston Marathon today. This in itself is a major accomplishment, but Ronnie was in the top 300 finishers out of over 22,000 people. 22,000 people. I cannot even comprehend that. Homeboy ran 26.1 miles in 2 hours and 47 minutes. That, in case you were wondering, is a 6 minute and 23 second mile. Unbelievable. It would take me 26 hours to run 26 miles. Way to go Ronnie. Way to go. To celebrate you today, I'll put up the only picture I have of you on my digital camera, one from your wedding! Congrats!

ps: in case you dont know who Ronnie is, Ronnie married my high school best friend Stefanie, which in turn makes him one of our best friends. He didnt really have an option, he just married into our friendship. But he is one cool playa!

If it a'int pit...

2006-03-27T20:51:00.000-05:00

So I am now part of a robbery investigation. Amanda and I haven't even lived here a full 48 hours and I am part of a robbery investigation!

Quick back story. We have moved, moved this past Saturday to be exact. I have to say if it was not for the help of Chris, Brad, Jamal, Gary Eugene, Martha Jo, Alison Lee, Melissa B. we would be stuggling today. As of right now, we are 90% unpacked, had a little trouble with the washer and dryer, but the guys got it done, then it wanted to spit water out everywhere on Sunday, but hey, being a homeowner isn't easy. The fence people will finish Dixon's new fence on Tuesday(it had to be moved two feet back onto our property) and he will be able to folic outside again and chase the rabbits!

Ok now back to our original story.

Amanda, Dixon and I piled into the mighty Trogdor this morning to go clean up the old place and close it out. As we were pulling down the street, I noticed a white Ford Expedition coming down the road. It was pimped out, large tires, dark windows, two thug like kids(they were young looking with caps on their heads that were twisted to the sides, that is how they rolled) in the front. I didn't think about it. As we were about to pull out of our subdivision, we renumbered a few things and turned around. As we pulled into our driveway I noticed the Expediton parked in the driveway across the street. What I thought was funny was the big sticker on the back that had the white outline of a pit bulls head and underneath in white it said

IF IT A'INT PIT
IT A'INT S%*T

Being the person I am laughed at how stupid it was and began the day long contemplation of who and why would anyone put that on the back on your tricked out SUV! Later that day, Amanda, Dixon and I had come home and Dixon jumped up and went to the window, Amanda followed to see what it was. Two of Apex's finest had pulled up to the house across the street. They had gone into the house with hands on the hips ready for anything, the owner sitting outside in his truck just waiting. The two officers finally came out and talked to the guy. After a while, the officers were walking up and down the street talking to people in our neighborhood, they came and asked my fence guys a couple of questions. I went outside to see what was going on. Apparently my neighbors 60 inch TV decided to get up and walk away this morning! My fence guy asked me if we saw anything, I told him about the SUV and one of the officers was immediately flagged over. I told him what I saw, and they all got excited when I told them about this SUV (maybe they to want to see the moron who puts that type of sticker on their back window) but apparently this vehicle is the clue they needed. I got called tonight by a detective and everything!

What I don't understand is, why would anyone want to turn this little guy:

into something that can do so much harm as to ruin the back window of a perfectly good car.

I will hopefully keep you all up to date on the next chapter of the theivery on Thonrcrest.
-Jared

Enough Said...

2006-03-23T21:48:00.000-05:00

LSU is now my favorite...I hope they win it all...:) Amanda

Like Old School Umbros

2006-03-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

Many apologies for our lack of posting over the last few days (15 to be exact). A lot has happened in that span of time, and while there is no excuse for not updating the 25 of you who keep up with our day to day life, the events that have happened have been stressful/time consuming. Lets see, first....WE ARE HOMEOWNERS! And seriously in debt. We closed on our home on March 13, and have been slowly (and I do mean slowly b/c my one of my least favorite things in the world to do is pack) moving things from current abode to new abode! We have taken Dixon most of the time to sniff out his new yard, and he absolutely loves it. It is multi-tiered, and it is hilarious to watch him sprint down the hills and slide to a stop before he hits the fence. We have given a few tours of the new home, sans furniture, to my parents, Jamal and Alison, Mel and Chris, Brad and Rebecca, etc., and everyone has the same comment when approaching the top of the stairs..."Oh, my gosh that is a PINK room!" Yes, friends, we have a glow in the dark, hot pink room which will eventually house our overnight guests. The day of the walk through one of the old homeowners came up to me and said, with sadness in her voice, "Are you really going to paint the pink room?" Not knowing what to say, I replied, well, we aren't really pink people! It is pink people, and pictures don't do it justice. You all have about one month (hopefully) to come see before it is turned into the "Cacky" room. Speaking of the old homeowners, Jared and I's favorite moment on the closing day was when the old homeowner walked into the lawyers office wearing Orange gym shorts (like old school Umbros? as Chris asked, yes like old school Umbros) and an old Hooters tshirt. While they did have much stress that day (our closing, the closing on their new home 1 hour later, and finding out the sex of their unborn child earlier in the day, when their current child is now 8 months old...you do the math) we were still a little flabbergasted at his choice of attire. To each his own.

Wow, what else? Well, there was much sadness and throwing of clean but not yet folded laundry at the television this past Sunday when the Heels ended their championship run. However, seeing as how I remember saying last year, "I'll be surprised if the Heels make it to the NIT", I am still pretty proud of our boys. Now it is time to pull for anyone who plays against Duke, so that I dont have to witness another WoJo/Coach K moment b/w Coach K and Reddick at the end of the dance.

Now the hopefully funny story for this week's blog. First some background information. 1) I have been cursed with a bad stomach since I was around 16 years old. My sister and I know where every bathroom in Crabtree mall is located, if that gives you an idea of our sufferings. 2) Jared and I have never been very cuddly sleepers. We tend to sleep "butt to butt" with a 60 pound footwarmer in the middle of us. So last night I am awakened at 2:00 a.m. by a very gurgly stomach. Not wanting to leave the warm bed, I just toss and turn and moan quietly to myself. I guess I inadvertently woke Jared up, who sweetly asked (in a sleepy and semi aggravated voice) "Are you ok?". "Yes, just my stomach", was my sleepy answer. "Can I do anything for you," he asked. I took this as my opportunity to gain some sleeping space, and asked "Can you move over a little, b/c I am on the edge of the bed." Now, Jared, thinking he is on the edge of the bed, slides his 6"2 frame over a little so that he doesn't "fall off", and I am left with 1/2 an inch more bed room than I had when I started, and to top it off, still with an upset stomach. This brings up the opportunity to give a shout out to Erin Coltrane and Erin McHall, who had the same thing happen to them at women's beach retreat freshman year. In fact, while in the shower this morning, Jared said, I think we had a Coltrane/McHall incident last night. Indeed we did. Ok, so that was funnier in person. Oh well. Thanks for reading, and expect a completely different side of the story when Jared posts next. Have a good week:) Amanda

Sweet Revenge

2006-03-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

While I try to be true to my beliefs and know that revenge is not something that should be sought after, the screams and the joy written all over my face last night when Carolina crushed Duke at home, on senior night, told a different story. As ESPN flashed a picture of J.J. Reddick staring in disbelief at the court, Jared, Chris, Mel and I laughed in unison. It was almost the same laughter that came when J.J.'s three point shots bounced not off the rim, but off the backboard every time during the second half. True to Carolina/Duke fashion, it was a great game to the end. My favorite moment, though, had to be when Tyler Hansbrough made that not so pretty, but amazing three point shot from the top of the key to help the Heels maintain their lead. This is Tyler Hansbrough, whose home is underneath the basket getting shoved around and making great layups. Not only did he make that great shot, but it was with like 6 seconds left on the shot clock. What a great game. I love the fact that Duke got handed its second loss of the week, and I loved that evil, disappointed look on Coach K's face at the end of the game. Speaking of Coach K, if you havent seen this little diddy, it is pretty funny (and blog-worthy according to my sister...thanks Al).

We also got to spend some time with my parents yesterday in good ole Wilson. Dixon gets pretty spoiled when we go to see them, getting numerous treats, trips outdoors and his favorite dessert of all time, Frosty Paws. If you dont have pets, Frosty Paws is a frozen ice cream-like treat for dogs that Dixon will do pretty much anything for. Here at the mestler home, we remove it from the container and put it in a big bowl to make it easier for him to eat. However, my dad likes for him to lick it out of the rather small container. Nope, he is not spoiled at all. Overall, it was a great weekend. Next weekend will be filled with more basketball and packing, which I (we) have managed to put off until now. Any helpers will be gladly welcome, and payed in meals, basketball-watching, and wet slobbery kisses (from Dixon, of course). Have a good week! :) Amanda

GIMMIE THAT!!

2006-03-04T09:53:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I have always played this fun game with Dixon. It started out when he was little and he had something he shouldn't have and one of us would yell at him and say "Gimme that ..." he would then tuck his tail and take off around the house. We learned how to get whatever he had away from him quite easily, but he still liked the game. Now whenever he has one of his toys we just yell "GIMMIE THAT!" and he takes off flying around the room leaping over furniture, yes leaping over, and just running around in circles. Amanda and I then spend the next 20 minutes or so chasing him around the house, getting the toy away from him which then turns into a game of keep away. Dixon and I play Gimmie That outside, just in a much bigger way that involves running in huge circles around the yard, darting in and out of trees, jumping into the monkey grass, and sliding around on the pine straw. The end result is this:

This makes Amanda happy so she doesn't have to hear me groaning about watching American Idol.

This morning around 7am, Dixon decided he wanted to create a new game called "Drag my purple plastic pool from under the deck and around the yard while biting holes in it to make it useless" which resulted in this:

Now the only question remains, what will he do in the new yard. Stay tuned - Jared

MEN TAKE HEED!!

2006-02-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

If your wife is not feeling well and still insists on folding the laundry even though she hates to fold the laundry do not, I repeat, DO NOT go up to a pile of seemingly unfolded pile of laundry pick up it with very little care and say "what is this pile of stuff all about?" because that seemingly unfolded pile of laundry is actually folded to the best of her abilities at that time. Please use this post to your benefit, if you need me please come see me here:

What the world needs now...

2006-02-26T17:03:00.000-05:00

One of the perks of my job is to go hear lots of different music, some good, some not so good(sorry Chris and Mel). Last night I had invited my friend Billy to go hear a concert with me. Amanda was at a shower for girls and I hate going to these things alone, besides the fact that I learned more about schmoozing in one night from Billy than the last two years at work, we had a good time. Mr Burt Bacharach came into town to play with our fair symphony and it was surprising to find out how much Burt has written in his 77 years of life, yes 77 years of life. And while I was marveling at this feat, he has written over 500 songs garnered a few grammys plus a few oscars worked with the likes of Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainright, Dr. Dre, Dionne Warwick, and just about everyone you can think of. As he was up on stage playing his songs, doing random hand movements acting like he was "conducting" the orchestra I noticed one thing. Burt looks exactly like William Hickey, the crazy old guy with the toupee from Christmas Vacation!

See!! It also surprised me to learn that Burt has two children under the age of 13, 9 and 12 to be exact. Besides the rude people we had to sit in front of (we had great seats, the people behind us didn't appreciate a couple of tall guys sitting in front of them, we slouched for the whole show, but 90 min. is a long time to slouch, friend Billy sat up to stretch his back, crazy person behind him leaned over to tap him on his back and tell him to slouch back in his seat, not good crazy person, not good decorum at all) we did have a good time. Oh the fun symphony world we live in. -Jared

Placing my bets early...

2006-02-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

Yes, much to Jared's dismay, American Idol season is back. That means that three nights a week, I have either something to watch or to DVR for later (which, by the way, is the best thing ever invented for cable television...we got hooked on the try it for three months for free deal, and we will never ever part ways with it.) Last night was the girls first performance, and my bets are on either Paris, the young 16 year old who performed as if she had been performing for years, or Katherine, the girl who sang last and, who was although a little goofy, has a killer voice. My dad agrees with my picks, and he is an idol fanatic, so I must have picked some good ones. We will be forgoing the second hour of Idol tonight in order to watch UNC beat up on NC State. Basketball, as always, wins out over all other regularly scheduled programming.

On a more serious note, I had an epiphany today at work and Jared and I had a long discussion over it tonight at dinner (spaghetti). We had someone at work who was very unhappy with their entire situation and experience as a customer. They complained to all the right people and now every time they come in we have to jump through hoops to make them happy. That being said, their experience there, while not justified, was nothing out of the ordinary. No one was mean or rude, the service from myself and my co-workers was exemplary, and they had as long of a wait as all of the others there on the same day. So, now when they visit, everything has to be dropped and all attention on them so that they wont complain again. However, arent we just making all those in front of and behind them have a poor experience, leading them to complain and the situation repeated. It seems to be a vicious cycle. And, as Jared said tonight, welcome to the world of non-profit.

Hope everyone has a good rest of the week! And if you read the previous post from Jared, now you know how much fun it is to be married to that man. He cracks me up! :) Amanda