This might sounds a little weird but it was too funny to ignore

This morning Emma went to the drawer where I keep my bras and she pulled one out and said, "I need boob" then she tried to put it under her shirt.

Later, I was going into the bathroom to comb my hair before we left the house. Emma said, "Go potty." I said, "I don't need to go." She pointed at our toilet which has a green cover on it. She said "Go potty right here." Then she went to her bathroom and said, "Go on the purple. (Her toilet seat cover is purple). I said, "No, I'm not going to go on the purple." So she came back in my bathroom and said "Go on the green." So I went to appease her. As I sat down she got all excited and said, "Good! You're going on the green!"

Josh Groban

Our Josh Groban concert was the 27th of August. So, according to our normal behavior, we rushed home from the pool to get ready to go on the 26th of August. Jason had mentioned that we had the concert on Saturday, but when he said that I thought, for some reason, the concert was on the 26th and told him we needed to hurry and get going because it was actually that night. I reminded my babysitter via text to be here at 1700 (5) and she did not seem surprised so I took that as a good sign. We got in our concert best, gave instructions to the babysitter and took off for the concert. All signs pointed to it being the wrong day. There was no traffic, parking garage was empty, and even as we were walking to the arena, there were no people lined up at the door. The funny thing was Jason and I did not think anything of it. We thought "This is great, the traffic is pretty good. And, oh look, a front row parking spot. That's lucky." When we got to the door we thought maybe we were using the wrong entrance since no one was lined up. Jason tried the doors and they were locked. Then we both stopped, looked at each other and said, "There's no way there is no line, perfect parking and no traffic on the night of Josh Groban's concert." So I dug around for the ticket and sadly looked on as we read 27th of August. (In our defense, the 26th of August was posted on the ticket for some reason. We had looked at the wrong one before) Jason laughed because this was extremely common behavior for us. We had missed an hour of a concert before, and often times misread movie times ect. But, I was so stoked for the concert and all gussied up (which was not easy for me to do since I had been feeling depressed lately). I even had the perfect hair. I felt very discouraged and I kept trying to will it to suddenly be the 27th. Worst yet we had spent $120 on gas and babysitter that we would have to spend AGAIN the next day for the actual concert. Jason kept a positive attitude and kept me smiling. We looked for a bathroom and decided to take advantage of our babysitter by going to dinner. As we drove back down the 5 we joked around about the situation. Jason said, "Yes, we get dressed up and drive two hours just to go to the bathroom in the Seattle Children's Center. Who wouldn't? Their bathrooms are so nice. Then we go to drabby Pizza Hut for dinner." ha ha

Back at home, we joked with the babysitter. She was more than willing to come back to earn more money the next night.

On the 27th we got ready again. We decided with yesterday being our trial run that we should probably leave a little earlier. We put on the same clothes and I tried to do my hair the same, but it never does turn out exactly the same. We grabbed fast food on the way for dinner. The trip up this time was more disappointing. The day before when we drove up we were happy, singing to loud music with the windows down. But it was cooler this day so we drove most of the way with the windows up. (We love having the opportunity to drive with the windows down since Emma doesn't like the wind in her face we don't get to do it often.)

As predicted we ran into horrible traffic on the way. As we were doing stop and go we looked to our left to see someone we knew from church pulled over on the side of the road. My sister, Liz, also knew her and had told me that she was going to the concert. We called our friends who had their number to make sure everything was ok and hoping that she wouldn't miss the concert. Through that we agreed that we would take her home after the concert. Her phone was dying though so we did not know if we would even be able to get ahold of her after the concert.

We put those thoughts away as the crowd roared and from where we were sitting a man coming out on stage could have been Josh Groban. He wore a suit jacket and had shaggy hair. I knew there was usually an opening act to concerts so I grabbed the binoculars and was thankful that it wasn't Josh yet, because I had missed the entrance. It was an amazing piano player called Elewminate. He didn't say a word, but his music spoke volumes and not only that it was funny. I never knew you could turn piano playing comedic. He did a very good job. He played hits of today from different genres but with his own personal touch and made them magnificent. Then would throw in funny things like the theme to Charlie Brown or soap opera music in the middle of a powerful, emotional song.

When he was done it seemed like an hour before Josh Groban came out. I kept the binoculars ready for when the lights would dim. Finally he ran in through the audience and went to a center stage piano which was amongst all the people. From there it was just great music, laughter, and good times! He was extremely enjoyable. He was everything I thought he would be. His voice was spectacular in real life just like on his CDs. I kept thinking through out the concert that I couldn't believe I was there. It was Jason's first concert and what a great one to be your first! Josh interacted with the audience wonderfully. I really felt like he was looking or talking right at me sometimes.

Afterwards we did get a call from Anna, the stranded girl. She was on the opposite side of the arena so we walked to her. We were afraid we wouldn't have anything to talk about on the 2 hours back home, but she ended up being very nice, talkative, and we had a lot in common. I hope to become friends with her because she was very enjoyable. We stopped at Denny's for a late night snack on the way home which is a tradition for us when ever we are coming home late at night from something. It was an expensive last couple evenings, but it was worth it and relaxing and fun!

It's hard to admit but,

Lack of energy. Irritable. Tearing and crying on a regular basis. Not sleeping well. Eating poorly. Memory and concentration slipping. Loss of interest in daily or normally enjoyable activities. Trying to move as less as possible in a day. Feeling this way for several months.

A therapist had me read these symptoms for Chronic Depression out loud. I complained about each and every one of these things on a close to daily basis for the last several months. Others had suggested depression, but I was an Anderson, I had a husband and a daughter to care for. I had no intentions of admitting I was depressed. My life has so much to offer me. First of which being that I can call Jesus my personal Lord and Savior. That alone makes me feel foolish for feeling depressed. I have an amazing, caring husband who loves me unconditionally and would do anything for me. My daughter is well-behaved and a joy to be around. I'm surrounded by a zoo of animals, I just started my own little business, and I'm writing on a regular basis. All of these things should be more than enough for me to be able to wake up happy in the mornings.

There's no stranger feeling than being happy with your life, but feeling like you don't want to live each day. Every evening I dread the night. Every morning I dread the day. There is really no specific thing that makes it better. When all of this was finally too much to bare on my own and even for my husband, I finally humbled and embarrassed myself to go see a therapist.

I told her that I had depressed feelings, but didn't feel like I could be depressed. So, when she asked me to read those symptoms and let her know which ones I was feeling I burst into tears as I finished. I had every symptom on the page! I had to finally admit that I was depressed. I felt like I had let my family down. They were counting on me to clean the house, make meals, play with Emma and train Admiral. They were such simple tasks and I felt so stupid for being so tired each day that I rarely finished any of my chores. Emma was often put outside or in front of a movie. Sometimes I look at my amazing, lovely daughter playing with the animals, acting silly, and I don't feel anything. I just stare at her. I listen to my husband enjoy a film we are both watching, laughing at all the funny parts and I don't feel anything. I just sit there, staring at the TV. All day long I feel like crying, sometimes for no particular reason at all. All the feelings that I was masking and hiding now came out in full force as I left the therapist office, knowing I could no longer deny what I was trying so hard to deny for the last 8 plus months. I'm tired of faking a laugh because I know something would normally make me laugh. I'm tired of putting on a smile so people don't ask me what wrong. I'm tired of being grumpy in the evenings because I forced myself to do my mundane daily chores, spending all day to get them done when any normal mother could do them in a couple hours. I'm tired of pretending I want to go out and do fun activities or visit with friends, when really all I want to do is lie in bed and pretend my family wants to do things with out me. I'm tired at being irritable towards my husband for no particular reason at all. So, I'm taking the plunge. I'm getting "happy pills" and I'm going to at least use this drug to hopefully give me feeling again. I still won't be myself and the drugs are what's going to make me feel happy, but at least through out the day I can enjoy my family, do my chores, and stop forgetting appointments with people in my business.

Hero, Daddy

As I was making potatoes today, Emma was playing in the garage. Suddenly she ran into the house crying saying that something had scared her. She asked me, "What is it?" So I went out to the garage with her. She showed me where she had gotten scared. There were several spider webs and part of the wall was gone so the insulation was showing. I thought it was the insulation that had scared her. It was her bed time so I told her if she went to bed, I would have Daddy fix it when he got home and it would be fixed by the time she woke up.

When Jason did come home I took a break from my potatoes to show him where the spot was and asked him to fix it. He put a board over it.

Laster when Emma woke up she came in our room where we were resting. She asked Daddy, "Fix it?" I couldn't believe she had even remembered. We went out in the garage and Jason showed her where he had fixed it, but she didn't seem comforted. We asked if she was still scared and she said yes. Jason pointed to different things in the garage asking her what scared her. She said, "nope, nope nope." and then finally he pointed to a sack of spider eggs and she said "ya, that scared Emma" So Jason got a broom and knocked it down.

Jason asked if he did a good job fixing it and Emma said, "Ya, good fix."

How long does it take you to mash potatoes?

So this morning I woke up with every intention of making Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole. Little did I know, it would not be the 30 minute prep time that was promised me. I started the project by cleaning up the kitchen around 1000. An hour later between feeding Emma, letting the dog out, and getting something for myself to snack on as I worked I got the kitchen in clean, working order. I pulled out the potatoes which spiked Emma's interest. We had only ever referred to flaked potatoes as potatoes. She crawled up on the counter and when I told her the dirty oval shaped ball on the counter was a potato she looked at me like I was crazy. So I got out the flaked potatoes and a bowl of mashed potatoes out of the refrigerator and put them on the counter next to the bag of potatoes. I explained how each one was potatoes in different form. She listened intently, although, I don't know if she understood. After that, Jason came home for lunch so I paused the mashing of the potatoes project to make him lunch. We worked some financial figures while I prepped the sink area. I wanted to be able to launch right into it after Jason went back to work.

It was 1230 when I started pealing, washing, and cutting potatoes. I had a fantastic system going in the kitchen. I only wished Emma was old enough to pull up a stool and help me. It would have been such fun bonding time for us. Half way through cutting, I sliced my finger. Upon pausing to take care of that, I also sent Emma outside with some crackers.

At 1300 (1pm) I was setting the potatoes on the stove to boil and soften. I stood back and watched "a pot boil" for a while and then decided I would go vacuum the back side of the house while I waited. At 1315 I checked on the potatoes and was slightly confused that they were not boiling yet, but did not think more on it and went back to finish vacuuming. Another fifteen minutes later I went back to check again. Still nothing. I started to think there was something wrong with the stove when I noticed there was more heat coming off from a different burner...

Yes, I turned on the wrong burner and for 30 minutes thought there was nothing awry. FINALLY, when the potatoes were done I poured the water into a measuring cup like my mommy had taught me and started mashing them. It was at this point I should have read the recipe. Adding the water from the potatoes made the mashness too "soupy" with all the other liquid items I was putting in the mixture.

So, I called my sister to find out what a good idea would be for thickening the mixture. We came to the conclusion that I should put some of the "soup" in a separate bowl, heat it up some more and add flaked potatoes. It worked. I put it all together, mixed it up, gave it a taste and was pleased with what I tasted.

At this point Jason came home from work. He thought it was a little funny that I was still working on my 30 min project. He went for a run and I started pouring the potatoes in the pan. Just as the last bit fell into the pan I remembered the recipe said I should grease the pan. SO, I poured it back in the mixer, started hot water and washed up all the dishes including the pan, dried it, greased it and FINALLY poured the potatoes in the pan for good. I topped it with cheese and bacon bits and it is now currently in the oven.

So, to answer the question it took me roughly 5 hours to make mashed potatoes :)

Insert Title Here

have so many things that have happened lately I don't know where to start. I know that you are all waiting on my birthday happenings post. I have pictures to post of my new hair doo, and Emma pulled a funny one this morning that I want to annotate. So, this post does not really have a title. It's just my last few happenings mixed all together in one. I will post in chronological order.

July 30th - Jason had given me close to no clues about my birthday surprise. I'm an extremely good surprise guesser so his best bet it to go ex na (sp) on the clues all together. On the day before the planned activity, Jason had to figure out some last minute arrangements. Through that, I gathered a few clues. It was outdoors, sitting indoors would make it less fun, and he had a reservation for seating. My first thought was a baseball game. And I'm not going to lie, I was hoping that was not it. I could not think of anything else that you would reserve bleach seating for.

The next day Jason programmed the address in the car. He would not let me in the car until he had done so, because the street name would give it away. An hour and a half later we were about to arrive at our destination. Jason feverishly tried to turn down the sound of the navigation, but before he could get to it I heard, "Turn left on Emerald Downs."

I knew the name. Emerald Downs Casino. But, for a moment it did not dawn on me exactly what we would do there. I thought, "A casino? What will we do here? We aren't gamblers and even if we were we don't have any money." But no sooner did I think that I remembered they had horse racing. Jason and I had loved their commercials on the radio and always thought we should go sometime. We had been horse racing before in Maryland and had loved it. I was very excited. It got more exciting as we made our way to our seats. Karen had reserved us box seats right next to the finish line. The first couple races I figured out how to read the statistics. It's all very confusing. Lots of lingo. We had purchased the beginners book, though, so it told us what all the abbreviations and numbers meant. When I felt like I knew what I was doing I made a prediction on which horse would win. And he DID win!! So Karen gave us $20 so we could place real bets on the horses (which I guess does make us gamblers) Of course, wouldn't you know non of my picks won after that. Half way through Jason presented me with a muffin with a candle in it and they sang me happy birthday. It was very special. Karen treated us to pizza. The announcer was supposed to announce my birthday as well but Jason and I were placing a bet when they did so I didn't get to hear it. We had a couple really close calls. I followed the horses around the track with binoculars until they were at the finish line. It was very nerve racking, in a good way, and very fun.

Then we went home. The Craigs came over for cake and ice cream. I opened my gifts. Mom gave me a stunning new pots and pans set. I was in dyer need of one. Jason gave me an adorable salt and pepper shaker set shaped like cats with lilacs on them. The Craigs gave me a much appreciated AMC theatre gift card which we used to watch Cowboys vs. Aliens. It was a very pleasant birthday. I hardly remembered I was getting a year older. Jason went to a lot of trouble to make it very special for me. And Karen also was so nice to finance the trip and make it fun.

Now for my new hair style. Here are some pictures.

Funny story:

All my stories start from...the very beginning. So, let me take you to last night. It was Karen's last evening. She treated us to a good-bye dinner at Sweet Rice (Thai food) and then we came home and had smores on the camp fire for dessert. Emma had only had a 20 min car ride nap the whole day so she was very fussy and defiant. When it was time to say her last good-byes to Karen it did not go over well. We offered for her to sit and read with Karen on the couch or to read to her in her bed. We even offered for her to sleep next to Nana in the living room, but all she wanted was to cuddle with mommy in mommy's bed. So, we compromised and I held her in her bed while Nana sat on a pillow next to the bed and read a few books. Emma fell asleep on my chest. When I tried to move her she woke up and started crying again. So, Nana offered to sit with her until she went back to sleep. Five minutes later she was asleep again. I had given her sleepy cough medicine and thought for sure it would help her sleep through the night.

For whatever reason, maybe she was anticipating Nana departure, she ended up waking up around 0400 (I did not actually check the time) She came in the room wanting to get in my bed. I pulled her up since I knew the alarm would be going off soon. She did not fall back asleep. She was quiet and still for the most part, but as usual she could not find a comfortable position.

Jason got up an hour later to take Karen to the bus stop where she would get a ride to the airport. Emma appeared to be wide awake. Fortunately, she was still coughing. So, while they were gone I gave her some more sleepy medicine and she went down in her own bed with out a fuss.

Jason and I had stayed up talking the night before and then with the early morning we were both pretty tired by the time he got back from the bus stop. An hour later, he got up again and went to work. I rolled over on his side of the bed as I always do to get the best sleep, and thought to myself that Emma would surly sleep until late morning.

Sure enough I heard her come out of her room a couple hours later. I did not check the time but my eyes and body were definitely not ready to get up. So, I told her to go back to her bed. She did not go back to her bed, but she did play quietly in the house and I was able to fall back asleep.

This is where the funny part comes in. Poor little Emma was being so patient and quiet playing in the house. Finally, at 1000 I heard her quietly sneak into my bed. It felt like it was still very early in the morning, but I figured I would let her come up. I rolled over and opened my eyes to help her get in the blankets, but instead she was sitting on her knees with a movie in her hands patiently waiting for me to wake up. When I did turn to her and open my eyes, she whispered, "Watch movie?" I couldn't help but smile at how cute and patient she was. I told her yes, so she hoped down from the bed and started pulling the blankets off of me and said, "Come on. Watch movie."

I set her up with her movie and then realized it was 1000. Jason would be home in an hour for lunch so I decided to stay up in spite of my tired eyes.

Now before I close out this blog I have to tell you what happened just now. I took a break from writing because Jason came home for lunch. Emma got busy playing with a barbie that she calls "Princess" that I had given her a couple days ago from my childhood collection. She's been carrying it around as her favorite toy since then. I was just about to post this on my blog when she came running up to me and said, "Princess bath?" I thought that was a cute idea so I went with Emma to the bathroom to prepare a bath. As I walked I wondered if I would take the barbie's clothes off or not. But, when I got to the bathroom and went to turn on the water, 'Princess' was already sitting naked in the tub. I laughed and turned on the water. Emma said, "There you go, Princess. Take a bath." Then she took her own clothes off and got in with her. When I left she was washing her Princess' hair.

I