The SC Files

Hi!

2012-01-14T18:22:00.003-05:00

Happy new year, everyone! My new year has begun pretty much in the same way that 2011 ended. I'm super busy at work - working many evenings and every weekend, but I'm doing okay overall. We're interviewing two very qualified people on Wednesday, so hopefully whoever they hire can come really quickly. My new boss has been great and really appreciates the work I'm putting in. Having a good boss is a huge part of being happy at a job, and I know I'm really lucky.

There's really not much else going on. The DF is working his 3 jobs (residency, moonlighting, and dictations for another doctor) and we're enjoying the nice weather. We're really looking forward to having the Super Bowl here this year, and we plan to go downtown to check out the Super Bowl Village. Check out the Super Bowl website here. If anybody wants to join us, let us know and we'll pick a date together. :o)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful day (and that Santa was good to everyone!)!! 

Work, work work!

2011-12-16T20:33:00.003-05:00

I've been really busy at work for the past couple of weeks due to some changes that haven't worked out so well for me. An underwriter in the Richmond office retired, so an underwriter who works in his physical office but is underwriting in the same territory as me has been given his state (North Carolina). That means that her state of Michigan (shout out to Auntie 502!) needed an underwriter. Guess who got the job until they hire someone? You guessed it! So, while she only wrote in Michigan, I now have Michigan, Mississippi, and southern Indiana. And I maintain our book of business in Tennessee as well. To say that I'm overwhelmed is an understatement. They're already receiving applications for the underwriting position, so I'm really hoping that they get someone in as quickly as possible. I've stayed late several days, worked on the weekends at home, and though I was on PTO today, I spent about 4 hours trying to get some work done. Not being interrupted by the phone was wonderful. I love my job and I love underwriting, but I like to do it without being bothered every 2 minutes. It really makes a difference.

There are several insurance companies in the city who have been downsizing, so I'm really thinking we'll have someone new within a month or so. If not, you may never hear from me again! ;o)

Finished...almost!

2011-12-04T15:41:00.004-05:00

I'm pretty much done buying and wrapping presents for this year. I spent about 5 hours today wrapping, and I'm completely seeing why people get sick of it! Most years I have 3 or 4 wrapping sessions as I buy presents, so to do it all at once was a bit tedious. Not to mention that part of Tommy's gift broke on the way back from NYC so I had to do some repair on it, repairs which included pulling out my acrylic paints - no joke! Anyway, I have two things to wrap for the DF's mom, fudge to make for a bunch of people (I've already bought the tins I'm putting it in), and a gift for the DF's work Secret Santa to assemble after that, but that's about it. Unless I'm forgetting someone, which I hope isn't the case! Is everyone else making progress on their Christmas list? I know the DF has bought one stocking stuffer for me, but that's it. Only one person to buy for and he doesn't even know what he's getting yet! :o)

Sorry for the poor picture quality; it's faster if I take pictures on my phone and e-mail them to myself. You get the idea at least.

Final NYC Pics

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

This post just has some extras from NYC: Central Park, Times Square, a view from the Empire State Building, and one of me and Stacy and our "lasers of death." Roy gave them to us at work and told us to tell any would-be muggers that we'd use our lasers to cut them in half. Thankfully, there were no muggers so we didn't have to test them out. :o)

NYC Dinner Cruise

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

The first night we were there, we went on a dinner cruise and saw some nice views of the skyline, too many bridges to count, and the Statue of Liberty. My cell phone and camera don't like low-light photos so these aren't great, but you get the gist of it. :o)

NYC Apartment

2011-11-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

There were 6 of us, so we rented a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom apartment for our stay. It was less than $100 a night per person and for the location on Madison Avenue that's an unbeatable price. It was really nice having a living room and full kitchen to use when we had some down time as well. We had some groceries delivered (carrying a case of water, 3 bottles of wine, and snacks up 4 flights of stairs was not our idea of fun on our vacation) and took advantage of the wine refrigerator. Here are some photos of the view and of the apartment itself.

Time for an update

2011-11-26T16:07:00.002-05:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! My Thanksgiving was very nice as always and my Black Friday shopping was quite successful. (Though I think retailers did their best to ruin it by opening at midnight. Stacy and I refused to go along with it and showed up at 5 a.m. as usual.) After picking up a couple more items today, I believe I am completely done with my Christmas list. I plan to make some fudge for people in the next couple of weeks, but other than that I'm done! Now I just need to wrap everything! The DF and I are putting up the decorations tonight and I've switched my car from my USB player to the Christmas stations I have saved, so the Christmas fun is in full swing!

My trip to NYC was a great 4 days, but I was definitely glad to be home at the end. I'm setting up some automatic posts over the next few days to share some photos. Generally they're of the Madison Avenue apartment we stayed in and common tourist sites. We spent most of our time shopping (or in my case, browsing and not buying - haha!) and just enjoying the city. Look for the first post tomorrow! If you're on Facebook, you can check them all out right now over there.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:49:00.004-04:00

Hi, everyone! Roy, Stacy, and I dressed up as the Three Amigos this year for Halloween. We thought we went all out and had the best costume, but we didn't win any prizes. It was a bummer. Anyway, we had a good day. I hope everyone had lots of Trick or Treaters and had nice weather like we did here!

Lastly, sorry to Auntie 502 and Dad for not approving your comments; I wish it would send me an e-mail when there's one to review!!

The DF Hates the Covered Bridge Festival

2011-10-16T13:13:00.004-04:00

If you haven't read the DF's Parke County Covered Bridge Festival post yet, click here to read it for some humor. He and I went to Parke County yesterday and saw a few covered bridges and briefly visited the Bridgeton festivities. He obviously didn't like the festival, and he kept insisting that it wasn't a real "festival" but he really had nothing to base that on. The traffic really was horrendous, though, and the areas where it was being "directed" were the worst. I'm not sure where they found those people, but they were really awful. We ended up not seeing as many bridges as planned because we were just so sick of the traffic. Anyway, I've included a few more pictures below. The next time we go to Parke County we'll just go on another route to see some bridges. It will go better than yesterday, I'm sure!

I Heart BlackBerry

2011-10-07T15:12:00.006-04:00

Anybody who calls the DF knows that his phone is useless. It drops calls and refuses to send and receive texts and we're guessing it's because it's almost 4 years old. (Keep in mind that with AT&T you're eligible for an upgrade every 2 years; the DF has obviously not taken advantage of this.) He's been thinking about getting an iPhone for a while and his hospital will actually pay for one since he uses medical software on his phone and would use it on the iPhone as well (they have an education budget each year). With the announcement of the new iPhone 4S we decided it was high time that he got a new one.

I'm on PTO and luckily Steven got a break in his schedule this morning, so we went to the AT&T store to order his phone and look at a new one for me since I've been eligible for an upgrade for about 5 months. See my post about my current phone here. I've really enjoyed my BlackBerry but I figured that since I could get their latest model for only $50 it was a good time to switch. I got the BlackBerry Torch 9810 - see the AT&T page here.

I've been messing around with it this afternoon and so far I really like it. BlackBerry is known for its really good keyboards, and since I am absolutely terrible at typing on touch screens (I've used both a Droid and an iPhone and really stink at both) it was important to still have a keyboard. This new BlackBerry is neat, though, because it has a great touchscreen for general use but it slides out to reveal the keyboard for when I want to text or type an e-mail. If I want to use the touchscreen to type I can, but I can also just slide it out to type. The screen size is bigger and the colors are better, and the Internet capabilities are improved. I was glad to see that they even have a hard case for this, even though it's a slider phone.

I'm not one to use my phone for accessing the Internet or watching videos, so while many hardcore smartphone users feel that BlackBerry doesn't meet their standards, I am really happy with BlackBerry phones.

The salesperson at AT&T was great and really made the process easy. The DF's iPhone should be shipping in about 14 to 21 days or so, and I bet you'll be reading all about it on his website. :o)

My New Buddies

2011-10-04T19:06:00.006-04:00

I bought the cute pillows shown here from Terry's Village for Halloween. Halloween's one of my favorite holidays, so I was pretty excited to order these a few weeks ago. They've been in and out of stock and they're on the latest catalog cover so they must be pretty popular. The monster has a zipper across his forehead and the skull has a zipper mouth. They're super cute. Steven made fun of me for buying them, but I think they're awesome! And they only cost $15 - for both of them! :o)

The DF's B-Day!

2011-09-28T20:12:00.002-04:00

Today is the DF's 28th birthday, which apparently makes this his "golden" birthday (28 on the 28th). He had the day off from work, so that was pretty nice for him. We went to Bonefish Grill for dinner, and it was great as always. I bought the DF a pair of Ray Ban Classic Wayfarers since it was high time that he replaced his Oakley's. Wayfayers have been in style for around 50 years, so I told him that he doesn't need to plan on replacing them. He looks very stylish in them, so it was a good gift.

Thank you to everyone who sent cards. He'll probably mention it on his website sometime, but I thought I'd throw it out there too. :o)

It's Saturday Night!

2011-09-17T18:37:00.001-04:00

When I was growing up I could always count on having tacos for dinner on Saturday nights and chili the next day for lunch. I'm not really sure how the tradition started, but it was always something to look forward to. When the DF and I got married I made tacos and chili fairly regularly but I haven't made them as much lately. I find that while I always have ground beef (thanks to the DF's grandparents who often give us some for our freezer) and tomatoes, we don't usually have the rest of the ingredients for tacos. I'm trying to get back into the habit of having the ingredients on hand, and I've recently made a great additional purchase - shown here. The DF thinks I'm ridiculous, but I love taco holders. My parents have them and I just bought some from Avon for us. It was a set of 12, which seems like a lot, but I guess it did make it easy to make a bunch at once. Regardless, they're a big hit with me. Maybe tacos will end up with their own special day of the week for us too. :o)

Fall's here!

2011-09-08T21:41:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, I haven't been better about posting. I haven't forgotten about anyone - don't worry! While I haven't said much on here, I am excited about the upcoming fall season. It's pretty chilly here so Stacy and I both broke out boots this week at work. I'll take 60s weather year-round, even with the rain. Here's a new pair that I bought for this year. I actually used amazon.com points to buy them so they were free! I'm going on a girls' trip to NYC in November so these will be great - not much of a heel and they'll withstand the rain well. :o)

Great birthday

2011-08-19T11:42:00.005-04:00

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday cards and messages on Facebook. The DF and I had a fantastic time in Cincinnati on Wednesday and Thursday attending the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament. We saw basically every big name player out there - with the exception of Andy Roddick, who had already lost, but we've watched him play World Team Tennis anyway. I've included the link to the DF's website below, where he posted quite a few pictures. I've included some of my favorites below as well. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. :o)

The DF's blog: http://www.sjbthecave.blogspot.com/

Epic Fail

2011-08-12T17:52:00.003-04:00

Sorry that I've been such an epic fail lately. Work has been long and we're not really making any progress on the baby front, so I've not been in the mood much to blog. Both the DF and I are doing well, though, and I hope you all are too! Here's Rob looking grumpy like me after a long day. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

5th Time's a Charm!

2011-07-23T10:58:00.005-04:00

As many of you know, the DF and I didn't see each other on our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th wedding anniversaries due to many scheduling conflicts - basically one of us was out of town every year. That changed this year as we actually spent the entire evening together yesterday! We ate dinner at Bonefish Grill (always a winner with us) and then got ice cream at Steven's favorite local place. Then Steven played some ancient Zelda game on the Wii, lol. Those games always have good music and it's funny to watch the DF get all huffy when he can't figure out the puzzles. :o)

We exchanged gifts on our 1st anniversary but haven't done so since then (though the DF has gotten me flowers at least once). We thought this year we should celebrate more, so I bought him a trunk protector for his car and he bought me a lovely ring from Tiffany & Co. that I had pointed out months ago. Most people would think a big rubber mat for your trunk would make a terrible gift, but the DF was really excited. He's been wanting to buy it since he bought the car. His gift to me was more traditional, lol. I can't copy the image so you'll have to go through my link above to see it.

Take a trip down memory lane with these pics of the wedding. :o)

Word of advice

2011-07-14T17:33:00.002-04:00

I've seen a lot of claims during my time as an underwriter, and they've helped me develop a simple way to avoid burning down your house or apartment building. Here it is: If you find yourself cooking something on your stove in the middle of the night just stop, turn off your stove, and go back to bed. Immediately.

Just today I had to fill out a large loss report for a $300,000 claim in one of my states. This guy burnt down half of a 4,000 sq. ft. apartment building after he decided to fry bacon at 3:00 a.m. Yes, he had been drinking. He also felt the need to use two burners. How much bacon can one person eat? He fell asleep and woke to find his apartment on fire. Instead of alerting a neighbor in one of the two next door apartment buildings, he decided to drive to the fire department half naked. Of course he had to park in front of the bay that the truck was behind, so they had to ask him to move his car before they could leave. Nice. How am I supposed to speculate on how I could have underwritten differently to "prevent or reduce" the loss? (It should be noted that I actually didn't write this risk, though I did renew it in April.) I should have told the landlord to include a "no cooking after 9:00 p.m." clause in the lease? Maybe I should have ordered that he remove the stove from all units?

The sad part is that pretty much every other tenant in the building had damage to their apartment (thankfully nobody was hurt). The good part is that the tenant has insurance. I'm sure his insurer will be ecstatic to read that he's admitted to starting the fire through his own negligence and driving drunk. (If this had been Stacy's risk, her legendary bad luck would have resulted in us being the tenant's insurer, lol.)

Most people think insurance is really boring, but claims like this give us something to laugh about. And they let us know that we're better off just going to bed hungry than frying up french fries or bacon at 3:00 a.m.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-03T17:36:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone has fun plans tomorrow for the 4th! The DF and I are going to the city parade and festival and then just enjoying the rest of our day off. Today I made a yummy fruit pie with a recipe from Pillsbury.com. Check out the recipe here. It was really easy and really good!

Tennis anyone?

2011-06-24T12:05:00.005-04:00

I've been enjoying a couple of days of PTO and I've been glued to the Wimbledon coverage on ESPN2. I like that all of the players have to wear white at this tournament and I think all of the players really love this event. Many key players are still in the running, though Andy Roddick just got beat by Feliciano (or as many women call him "Deliciano") Lopez but Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic are still in. I'm rooting for Federer, as usual, so we'll see how everything plays out. I've thrown in some pictures of some nice Wimbledon attire below - Feliciano's the first one. :o)

...And many more!!

2011-06-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I hope you have a fun day planned and got your gift on time! :o)

Ironing - ugh!

2011-06-13T19:48:00.001-04:00

Boy, not ironing my shirts for about a month was not the best idea I've ever had. Of course, my closet looks a lot more full now. :o)

Hello, I'm a Mac.

2011-06-05T09:20:00.005-04:00

As many of you know, my Dell laptop monitor died a couple of months ago. At first we thought it was the computer itself, but since it sounded like it was turning on and off we wondered if it was the monitor instead. The DF bought a cable to connect it to our tv and we confirmed the problem since it worked fine using the tv as a monitor (coolest giant monitor ever!). Apparently it's pretty common with laptops. The DF bought a replacement part but we still couldn't get it to work. So, we decided to buy a new computer.

The DF's undergraduate degree is in Computer Science so he has strong opinions about computers. He's been interested in getting an Apple MacBook for quite a while, so we visited the Apple store here in Indy. I liked the MacBook well enough, so we decided to buy it. It's a lot lighter than my old laptop but it still has a good sized screen, which was important to me. It does have some big differences from a computer running Microsoft Windows, but since I mainly use just the Internet (and I was already running a non-Microsoft Internet browser) it's not a problem. Steven downloaded Open Office, which runs like Microsoft's Word, Excel, etc. so I haven't really run into any compatibility issues. If I had bought this 10 years ago I think I would have had more problems finding downloads and programs for Macs, but nowadays most sites plan for Macs since they're more popular. Since I don't have super strong opinions either way, the jury is still out as to whether or not I'll choose a Microsoft or Mac based computer for my next one. Hopefully I'm a long way off from needing to decide!

Here are some pics. :o)

Spring cleaning

2011-05-22T12:11:00.004-04:00

The DF and I have friends coming up for the 500 this weekend so we're spending today cleaning the apartment. As many of you know, our apartment is pretty clean most of the time, but since we'll have company we're doing a more thorough cleaning. I dusted and polished the wood furniture (there's more than it would seem - it took me forever!), and I made the DF vacuum and clean the bathroom sinks. I used leather cleaning cloths on our leather couch and put towels and wash cloths in the extra bathroom, along with random toiletry items that they might need. This week I'll clean the kitchen and probably clean the bathrooms again. At least if we run out of time, they'll be pretty clean. I'll also hit up the store for food and drinks. I plan to have deli items on hand and maybe make a pan of baked spaghetti since it reheats well and I can make it a couple of days in advance. We're both really looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend. Does anyone have Memorial Day weekend plans? Auntie 502, are you celebrating your anniversary with something special? :o)

Gaylord Opryland/Nashville

2011-05-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

The rest of the weekend was spent in Nashville, TN and the Gaylord Opryland hotel. I'd actually been to the hotel once before but that was in high school and I didn't see much of Nashville itself. The DF and I spent lunch and the afternoon wandering around in downtown Nashville before heading to the hotel. We paid extra for one of the rooms with a balcony view of the inside of the hotel, so we spent a lot of time wandering around and then people watching from our balcony. We ate dinner in the hotel, but it was kind of disappointing. I'm no chef, but I can and do cook better steaks here. Regardless, the hotel was great and was worth the money since we just stayed one night. The DF got a massage on Sunday morning before we left. I don't understand the appeal, but if he's happy, I'm happy. I'm not posting too many pictures of the inside of the hotel because the DF posted a ton on his website. We thought downtown Nashville was really nice and we'll probably go back there sometime in the future, though I don't know if we'll pay to stay in the Opryland hotel again. We'll see. :o)

Don't ask me what's up with this last one. The DF wanted me to take the picture, so I took the picture. What a weirdo.

Zoom zoom!

2011-05-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

The DF and I drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky Friday evening and visited the National Corvette Museum on Saturday morning. We had been there once before, quite a while ago, and the DF wanted to go back. We actually got lucky because they were having some sort of Corvette gathering that weekend, so the parking lot was filled with Corvettes in every direction. It was almost more fun outside than inside. The DF hopes to have one someday, but he's happy with his Acura for now (which is good for his sake because we cannot afford another car!). There's not too much to say about the pics, so I'll just include a bunch below. :o)

And I'm Back!

2011-05-08T14:46:00.008-04:00

Sorry for the delay, everyone. I've been busy and kind of not feeling like doing much of anything the last few weeks. My allergies and sinuses are clashing, and I think the metformin is starting to catch up with me too, leaving me kind of sick and just out of sorts. Regardless, over the next few days I'm going to post some pictures of our weekend trip last week to Mammoth Cave, the National Corvette Museum, and the Opryland hotel in Nashville. You can pop over to the DF's site if you'd like to see some pictures there too.

The trip was a lot of fun, despite the crash that had our car sitting practically still for 45 minutes on Friday morning and my sinuses leaving me wondering if the DF punched me in the face on Saturday morning (note that he didn't).

We took a two hour walking tour of Mammoth Cave on Friday. It had been a really long time since I'd been in a cave, so I really enjoyed it. They turned out the lights at one point, and though the lights had seemed really subtle it quickly became obvious that they were doing a lot more than I thought. To say it was pitch black is an understatement. It would be super creepy to have been one of the original explorers down there as they often spent days to weeks in the caves and they had to have been in a the dark quite a bit. I'll take my electricity and sunshine, thank you very much. There are some pics below. I'm setting up the next couple of entries to post over the course of this week, so you'll see the rest of the weekend then.

Lastly, I want to send a big Happy Mother's Day shout out to both my moms and to all of the moms who read my site. The DF and I appreciate all that you do for us. :o)

Here's where we entered the cave. It was weird to just walk through a door and down some stairs, but that's exactly what we did. This is just one of the entrances - they call it the "new entrance." New being a relative term since I think it was created in 1941, lol.

Here's one of the sitting areas we stopped at along the way. They turned off the lights at one of these.

Here's a good picture of some stalagmites and stalactites. This cave is well-known for them, but we really only saw them in one part of the tour.

We took this last one for Aunt Pamela and I sent it to her on my phone. I don't visit too many National Parks - maybe I should try to get to more of them.

Health Update

2011-04-20T18:13:00.004-04:00

So, it's official. We already knew that I had polycystic ovary syndrome and the blood work from last week's glucose intolerance test confirm that I have insulin resistance as well. This isn't a surprise (the two often go hand in hand) and the DF said that the ob/gyn that I started seeing last September should have tested me for it then. Well, she didn't, so we wasted 6 months and we're starting over with trying to get pregnant. I had to get more blood drawn yesterday to show that my liver and kidneys are functioning well, and if they are, I'll start taking Metformin to get my insulin issues under control. It's common that fixing the insulin resistance helps with getting pregnant because it should help with the PCOS, so we're hoping that things will go well. Metformin has one main side effect, which is gastrointestinal upset, so I'm crossing my fingers that I don't react that way. It's nice to not be in limbo with this stuff at least for now, so I'm looking forward to things going better over the next few months!

In the meantime, Rob always makes me feel upbeat! Here's another pic from his upcoming movie, Water for Elephants. :o)

AWOL!

2011-04-16T17:18:00.004-04:00

Hi there! Sorry, I've been off in lala-land and haven't posted in quite a while. The DF and I passed our 10 year anniversary last week - scary, isn't it?! Things are pretty normal for the most part. I had some blood work done earlier this week to test for insulin issues, but I haven't gotten the results back yet. I started and finished reading Water For Elephants as well, and it was really good! I'm looking forward to seeing the movie with Stacy in a couple of weeks. The DF and I are really enjoying our new coffee maker too. It was a good choice, I think. :o)

Here's a picture of Robert Pattinson because, when in doubt, post a picture of a good looking man!! And you gotta love those boots!

Another Kitchen Gadget!

2011-04-02T13:31:00.008-04:00

I'm really excited to show off my latest kitchen gadget - a new coffee maker! We actually got a new coffee maker from the DF's parents for Christmas of 2008. We took a little bit of time to pick it out and decided on a Mr. Coffee one. Everybody we know with a Mr. Coffee maker has had theirs for a gazillion years, so we thought it would be a safe bet. Not so much. I think we must have picked out the only reject Mr. Coffee model ever produced. It worked fine for quite a while, but about 6 months ago it started to get a little flaky. It wouldn't use all of the water in the reservoir so we'd end up with not enough coffee in the mornings. And it would take (no joke, I timed it) over 15 minutes to brew two cups. We dealt with it because the coffee still tasted fine, but I did browse Amazon's selection of coffee makers just in case and added one to my wish list.

Then last weekend ours finally bit the dust. I tried to make myself some coffee on Saturday morning and it refused to cooperate. I'd start it up and then 25 seconds later it would beep like it was done but it hadn't done anything. I wasn't too happy and had to make a trip to Starbucks instead (I hate paying for Starbucks on the weekend). I ordered the one on my wish list and we got lucky that it actually shipped from a suburb of Indy so it came in on Tuesday despite the slower free shipping option I picked (I saved $15!!). The DF and I use an Amazon.com credit card all of the time because it gives great rewards, so we actually got $75 off the original price due to some reward certificates we saved up. I paid $174 (originally it was $248).

Here's a link to the new one: link. It's a Breville single serve coffee maker. It uses Keurig's K-cups but we can also use the "My K-cup" and make our regular Dunkin Donuts. I picked this one because it has an iced coffee feature, which makes just a shot of concentrated coffee that you then add milk and ice to. I'm looking forward to trying that out. The K-cups are more expensive than regular ground coffee, so I think the DF and I will use the My K-cup more than the pods. We did order a K-cup holder made by Breville, but it only has the remainder of our sample pack in it right now. This coffee maker is super fast and the water reservoir is nice because it's detachable and holds enough water for several cups of coffee.

Check out some pics below! :D

Here it is!

Here's how good it looks next to my KitchenAid (of course everything looks good next to a KitchenAid).

Here's the neat storage spot for the My K-cup and scoop.

Here's the Breville K-cup holder.

And one of the whole area. We have a really nice Starbucks coffee holder for our Dunkin Donuts coffee, and we got a super cute cream and sugar set from Katie for our wedding that we use for our sugar.

New Kitchen Gadget

2011-03-17T17:50:00.003-04:00

While at Kroger the other day with Katie, I browsed their random utensils section to replace my slotted spoon that disappeared recently. (It's really strange, too, because I never lose anything!) I spotted the neatest gadget and had to buy it. As you can see to the right, it looks like a little tomato, but it's actually a tomato storage container. I found a similar item a while back for onions and bought one for the DF's mom, and she says she likes it. I think the onion one advertises that it keeps onions fresh without any smell, or something like that, but I'm not sure if they had any similar claims for the tomato one. It's dishwasher safe, which is great, and it's super cute! The DF thinks I'm weird, but what does he know?! Anybody out there have any kitchen gadgets they love?

Tommy Tommy Bo Bommy!

2011-03-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you read this blog, Tommy, but happy birthday either way!! I hope you've at least taken the day off from your 7 jobs to enjoy yourself! ;o)

The DF's New Car!

2011-03-06T15:44:00.004-05:00

If you haven't read the DF's post about his new car, you should check it out before reading mine. I don't have anything too exciting to add, but I wanted to give everyone my list of features that I think are going to be his favorite. For reference, he listed the memory seats, the fancy stereo, the heated seats, the xenon headlights, and the auto-dimming rear view mirror. Here's my list:

* The sunroof. He makes fun of how much I love mine (I've had it open at least twice this year, even though it's not very warm yet.) but I know he's going to be in love with his too. What's not to like? They provide fresh air without ruining your hairstyle.

* The cup holders. Hehe, his old car didn't have any.

* The fancy steering wheel with all of his radio and cruise control buttons. That's a definite perk to my Nissan. The Alero had the cruise control on the wheel, but being able to turn the radio up and down and switch songs without moving my hands is really nice.

* Not looking like a hobo. Well, technically, he could turn this car into a hobo-mobile by not bringing in his daily paperwork or coffee cups (and who knows what else) but he has a goal to keep it clean. It's actually very strange that the DF let his other car get filled with stuff because he's always incredibly neat at home. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll care enough about how this one looks to keep it clutter free.

* I want to say air conditioning so bad....so...air conditioning - haha!!

Anyway, the DF definitely deserved the new car, and I'm happy that he's so pleased with it. I basically let him have free reign to pick whatever he wanted (within our budget of course; he'll have to wait for his Corvette) so I'm glad he picked one that I really like too. :)

Fridays never let me down!

2011-03-04T17:36:00.003-05:00

It's Friday once again - woohoo! I don't have anything exciting to say except to check the DF's blog tomorrow for a post that's a long time coming. I might post my own comments about it after the fact, but maybe not. I haven't previewed it yet, so I'm waiting to see what he says.

Everyone enjoy your weekend!! Here's a pic of Rob Pattinson; he's serious about you having a good weekend too!

It's that time of year

2011-02-13T08:12:00.002-05:00

Is it just me, or are allergy problems starting early this year? I've had mild symptoms since Friday and I actually had to get out of bed this morning because they were making it impossible to sleep. I'm glad I stopped by CVS on Friday and got some Zyrtec D so now I have a supply. It seems like I didn't have to take them this early last year, though. Who knows; I should just be glad we haven't gotten any more ice. Speaking of the ice, though, it's still here. It refuses to get warm enough to melt. Word on the street is that it should melt sometime this week. We'll see!

Anyone else out there awake too early due to allergies?

Another Snow Day!

2011-02-05T11:53:00.002-05:00

I'm not gonna lie, I usually have no idea what the weather is getting ready to do, and I just proved it again this morning. I opened up the blinds to see snow falling and a good amount already on the ground. I pulled up weather.com and was surprised to see that it's going to snow until late afternoon. Who knew? The DF and I had planned to go out to dinner, but I doubt we'll do that now. I just washed my car so I'd like to keep it clean for a tiny bit of time (I know, that's not really rational, but who cares) and I don't think either me or the DF feel like slipping around on what is now going to be snow-covered iced parking lots and sidewalks. The DF says tomorrow should bring a high temperature of 38, so maybe we'll get lucky and everything will melt and not destroy my car. :)

On today's agenda otherwise, I organized some paperwork to file, paid a couple of bills, sent out a rebate form for the DF's latest oil change, found some buttons for Stacy's cardigan (she lost 3 buttons out of the blue), and am now making cinnamon rolls. I plan to vacuum my car and maybe clean the mats with carpet cleaner since the snow has made them dirty. Busy and exciting day, haha!! Anyone out there have big plans?

Snow (or ice) Day!!

2011-02-01T11:06:00.003-05:00

Due to the crummy weather, my office is closed today - woohoo! Everyone at work talks about how we never close, but it's happened twice since I've been there. We have a new president of the company, though, so maybe he's more cautious. Regardless, I'm reaping the benefits so it's fine with me. Even the DF lucked out this morning as they closed the doctors' office today. He still has to work tonight, but at least he didn't have to worry about the ice this morning.

It's supposed to start up again later today, so we'll see if my office is closed tomorrow too. I feel like I'm in elementary school just praying for a day off, haha! I do have my office e-mail pulled up, though, so I'm keeping on top of that. A little work is fine, but not too much!

Lastly, I wanted to send a birthday shout-out to Auntie 502! I hope you're warm inside and not dealing with the weather!

Australian Open

2011-01-19T20:59:00.002-05:00

It seems like the DF is never around during the grand slam tennis tournaments, and I always watch all of the coverage I can without him bugging me for the tv. This year for the Australian Open he's technically at home, but he's had some late nights, and the coverage starts at 7 (Melbourne is a full 14 hours ahead, so that's actually the broadcast for the following day's 11 a.m. matches) so it's easy to watch a few hours' worth each night. I had to tape Roger Federer's match for the second round as it started here at 3 a.m. He won, though it was close. I follow him and Andy Roddick pretty closely, but I'll watch just about anyone. Women's tennis is less entertaining, but I like the Williams sisters too. Is there anybody else out there tuning in to this year's tournament?

Check out this YouTube video of a William Tell shot by Federer. Jump to the 40 second mark if you're impatient. :)

Yay - it's Friday!

2011-01-07T18:32:00.003-05:00

Well, it's Friday once again, and it's going pretty well so far. Work was busy, but productive, which is all I can ask for. It's so nice having Stacy back. :)

Tonight, I am watching season one of Community and waiting for the DF to get home from work. I don't know how he does it - working 12 hour days is no big deal to him. I can guarantee that if I worked 12 hour days, all I'd be doing on here is complaining about it. He's such a good guy. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone! Oh, and here's a pic from Robert Pattinson's upcoming movie Water for Elephants. :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T16:56:00.008-05:00

Happy new year to everyone! Steven and I had an awesome time at Katie's party on Friday. Lots of family and friends were able to come, and we played plenty of Rock Band. Josh and Craig stayed an extra night, and it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them for the extra time. You can see some pictures of the night below and on Facebook.

Work has gotten back to normal somewhat as Stacy is finally done with her maternity leave. It's so nice to have another person around to share the load with Roy and me. She and I have also started yoga back up. I didn't realize how much I missed it.

While 2010 had some great occasions, like the DF's graduation, it had its downs also. The DF and I have been trying to start a family since spring of last year, and that's not been too great since I'm obviously not pregnant yet. The last quarter was miserable at work since Stacy was gone, but now she's back! I'm sure 2011 will be just as good as last year, and I hope even better! And I hope it's better for all of you too! :)

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T11:18:00.002-05:00

For the first time in my life (I think), I'm not with family on Christmas. Steven didn't ask for today off, so he's working until 7 tonight. Poor guy. We did squeeze in a brief trip to our hometown and got back here late last night. It was great seeing everyone, and we are fortunate to have such wonderful families. We're very lucky!

Since the DF isn't home, I'm doing laundry and plan to watch some Christmas movies this afternoon. We're exchanging presents tonight. It didn't even occur to me to pick up food for a special Christmas dinner since I've never been responsible for cooking holidays meals...so we may have cheeseburgers for dinner - haha! Of course the DF would be perfectly fine with that. I'm very lucky to have such a laid-back husband as well. We'll see what I come up with to eat!

Merry Christmas to everyone; I hope Santa was extra generous this year! :)

Two Birthdays!

2010-12-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to both the DF's mom and my dad!! We have gifts for both of you, but you won't get them until we see you next week. I'm continuing the tradition of ruining the birthdays of people born so close to Christmas, I think. Does the fact that we love you and are looking forward to seeing you make up for it? :)

Don't Make Fun of Me!

2010-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is going to sound ridiculous, but I've been pining over Huggable Hangers for at least 3 years. I never watch HSN, but I randomly caught the Huggable Hangers Christmas special a few years ago (it was while we were in PA) and I was intrigued. I didn't want to spend the money on them, though. Somehow the following year I caught the Christmas special again but didn't buy them. I kept telling Steven I was going to someday. Two years ago Stacy bought me a pack of 20 (including some neat ones that hang pants) and I liked them as much as I thought I would. This year I was resolved to buy them, so I took the time to look up the airing time on HSN and was one of the first purchasers. I didn't call in; I just ordered them online during the special. I got 120 hangers, a bunch of accessory clips used to cascade the hangers or hang pants, some weird air fresheners, and a bonus over-the-door gift wrapping organizer all for only $94! They also had flex pay, so I figured why not? and am paying $18/month for the next 5 months. I told the DF that this can be the biggest chunk of his Christmas gift to me, so that justifies it!

For those of you who don't know, Huggable Hangers are made of a super strong plastic and have a velvety feel that keeps your clothes from falling off. They're also really thin and are shaped so that they never cause "shoulder bumps." The DF thinks I'm crazy, but I think they're awesome! They take up less space, which you can see in the picture below, but I have the clothes spread out generally anyway. It's more about keeping stuff from falling off and avoiding shoulder bumps. The DF wasn't too happy to hear that you can't just yank the clothes off of the hangers, and 120 wasn't quite enough, so I left his long-sleeved t-shirts on regular black hangers just for him. I can buy more Huggable Hangers at Target anytime for about $1/hanger, so I won't have to buy a whole bunch of them ever again. Our coat closet still has regular hangers, and his pants are on wooden ones, but in general we're a Huggable Hangers household, lol!

Does anybody have their own version of this story; where you've wanted something completely random for so long but haven't bought it yet? To be honest, the few things I've really wanted have been coming my way recently. The DF bought me a Kindle last year, the DF's parents bought me a KitchenAid mixer (which I use every week), and now I've gotten my Huggable Hangers! Life is good. :)

This is the "before" pic. I'm not sure how I ended up in it.

This is one of the "after" pics. It shows the clothes still spread out, with the Huggable Hangers. The green ones to the left are the ones Stacy bought me.

These last two pics show the clothes pushed over, like they do in the tv special, lol. I also straightened up the top shelf since no good infomercial would have the "after" pic include any unorganized mess. ;)

Christmas Time is Here!

2010-12-06T16:04:00.008-05:00

Here are some pictures of our tree/decorations this year. Click on the pics for a larger view; the website is refusing to load them in "medium" size. It looks pretty similar to years past, eh? I wrapped up the gifts I've bought so far (and 2 birthday gifts) and I think I'm pretty much done shopping. I just need to buy stocking stuffers for the DF. We didn't have stockings until last year since I was so picky about buying them, so I'm kind of new at buying stocking stuffers. It's not like he's picky, though. I could stuff it full with chocolate chip cookies and he'd be happy. :)

The DF has to work on Christmas Day (I think he was the only one who didn't think to ask off...) but we're hoping to travel on Christmas Eve and see everyone then. I'm crossing my fingers that he can get out of work early that day. We'll keep everyone updated!

Birthday!

2010-12-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday, Erin!!

I hope you have a great one!! :D

Black Friday!

2010-11-26T15:24:00.002-05:00

Stacy and I arrived at the mall at 4:30 this morning for the best shopping day of the year, and it didn't disappoint! I got home around 2:30 and I'd say we were pretty productive. We went to Aldo, H & M, Express, Macy's (twice), Bath and Body Works, Dick's Sporting Goods, Gap, Hallmark, Target, Borders (twice), and Things Remembered. We had two cups of coffee and a margarita at lunch, which we ate at 10:30, lol! We justified it by saying we'd been up since 3:30 or so, so it was like an early happy hour. I think most of the mall workers could have used a drink then too.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and can enjoy a peaceful weekend getting ready for the Christmas season! :)

Churchill Downs

2010-11-16T17:07:00.007-05:00

I'll admit it: I'm incredibly lazy sometimes. Instead of writing my own post about going to Churchill Downs this past weekend, I'm going to link to the DF's. Click here to see what he had to say. I've also included some extra photos below. We had an awesome time with everyone, and we're hoping to make it an annual event. I also have photos on Facebook for any of you who are on there. :)

Day Off!

2010-11-08T09:12:00.003-05:00

I'm using a vacation day today and will be hanging out with Stacy. She's dying to get out of the house (that's what she gets for abandoning us at work to have a kid!) and her husband is home from work today so it seemed like the perfect combination. We don't have huge plans - we're meeting for lunch, then getting manicures. After that, who knows? We'll play it by ear. She'd like to see that Katherine Heigl movie Life As We Know It and while I'm sure that it's a terrible movie I'll go see it with her anyway. I can sit through any chick flick, and since she loves horror movies I'm doing well enough to steer her clear of those.

Anyway, have a good Monday, everyone!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T19:29:00.004-04:00

There isn't much Halloween left, but I thought I'd post about the pumpkin cookies I made yesterday. A coworker gave me the recipe, and they are tasty! You can view the recipe here. I think I may have mentioned them on here before, but who knows. The recipe doubles really well, which is great.

Last night I got to hang out with Stacy at her place. She and I handed out candy with her newborn, Marian (dressed as a strawberry) while Steven went trick or treating with Michael and Jillian (dressed as a Dalmatian). It was a lot of fun because I've never really gotten to hand out candy. I was hoping that since this apartment complex has a lot of families that I may have some trick or treaters tonight, but I haven't gotten any so far. :( Oh well, someone has to eat this candy or it could spoil!

Pumpkins!

2010-10-23T21:25:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd put up a quick post about the dessert I brought to Roy's. It's from Pillsbury.com, which has a great selection of recipes. They're cute little pumpkins, made of peanut butter chips, frosting, and some food coloring. The stems are pretzel pieces. They're super cute, and they went over really well. People compared them to peanut butter fudge, which I suppose is true. I don't eat a lot of peanut butter fudge, so I hadn't made the connection.

We had a really good time tonight, and I'm glad that Katie's kids were able to come this year. We even got to see Stacy and Jillian for a bit. Roy made a pinata for the adults, which was covered in duct tape, so that was a lot of fun. I got a couple of good hits in. :)

Updates!

2010-10-22T09:43:00.004-04:00

Things have been busy and calm at the same time, which is weird. Work is really busy, which isn't a big surprise since Stacy's on maternity leave, but life at home has been mellow. I baked two batches of cookies last weekend, and got good reviews from the DF's coworkers who got some of the chocolate chip ones. My KitchenAid is still the most awesome appliance ever!

This weekend we're going to Roy's annual Halloween party, but I haven't decided what I'm bringing to it. I took the day off from work today, and I need to figure it out and go to the store for ingredients. I can't decide if I should bring a side item or a dessert. Jolene should be in town tonight so I'm probably going to hang out with her for a bit. Mostly I'm trying to just be here with the DF because his schedule this month is really bad and we don't get to see each other much.

I'm also planning my work Halloween costume for next week. I don't want to say what it is yet, but it should be pretty funny and involves a wig and blue contacts (hopefully my eyes aren't too dark for them). We're not doing a theme this year since Stacy is out, and I don't know what Roy's planning. We're doing a crockpot competition again this year, but I don't know what I want to make for it either. I found a neat mushroom and chicken soup (not creme based) recipe, but I don't know if people not liking mushrooms would hurt my changes of winning. I might make Katie's taco soup, but I haven't decided. Anyone have any good crockpot recipes?

We just turned the heat on in the apartment this morning and the smell is making me in the mood for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Isn't it weird how smells can bring you back to childhood? I'm really looking forward to the holiday season even though the DF is working on Christmas (boo!). I can do without snow, but I'll take it for the rest of the highlights that winter has.

All right, I need to get moving. I'm planning to hit the gym, shower, eat lunch, and then get busy on the recipes! Have a good weekend, everyone, and enjoy the Robert Pattinson pic - he's excited about the weekend too!

Project for Today

2010-10-10T15:16:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is one of my co-workers' birthday, and I'm in charge of her cake. She's a huge Red Wings fan, and Pavel Datsyuk is her favorite player. I thought it would be neat to bake a cake that would represent her loyalty to the Wings. So, I made a two layer red velvet cake and put her name and Datsyuk's number on it. I'm not very good at icing things; cookies are more my specialty, but she'll think it's great anyway. Hopefully it tastes great too! It's funny, but my red velvet cake recipe is slightly different than my red velvet cupcake recipe. I got them from two different places, and I'm guessing I could use either recipe for both cupcakes or a regular cake, but I'm not willing to take the chance! We'll see if the cake tastes different than the cupcakes I made a few weeks ago. :)

Wedding Weekend

2010-10-04T19:48:00.003-04:00

The DF and I went to my cousin's wedding this past weekend, and we had a really good time. It was fun seeing everyone (except poor Rook!) and I enjoyed being a bridesmaid for perhaps the last time. The DF ushered like a pro, and we both were dressed well for pictures, which is nice. You can check out what he had to say on his blog. Here's a picture of us looking snazzy. :)

The DF's B-day!

2010-09-27T18:37:00.005-04:00

As many of you know, tomorrow is the DF's 27th birthday. He's pretty laid back about birthdays, but he'll enjoy it regardless. He will not, however, enjoy his morning dentist appointment, haha! No, I did not schedule it, he did! I'm looking forward to giving him his gifts, and I made some red velvet cupcakes for him along with some homemade vanilla ice cream. My cupcakes aren't as fancy looking as Gigi's, but they're really, really good anyway. And the DF is the least picky person I know, so he's happy with them. The cute sign you see below is his gift from Stacy. She said that she saw it and knew it was perfect for him. It's like his life mantra or something. Anyway, I'll let you know what I bought him tomorrow. :)

Best Cupcakes Ever!

2010-09-19T18:54:00.005-04:00

I would like to take credit for the yummy cupcakes you see here, but I cannot. I bought them because the DF and I had some friends up to visit this past weekend. I got them at a place called Gigi's. It's a franchise that's only been open here around 90 days, but word has already gotten around about their cupcakes. A coworker of mine recommended them. They only make 12 varieties each day, and they rotate a selection of them each season. I bought Chocolate Malt, Midnight Magic, Scarlett's Red Velvet, and one that's actually not on the menu yet. It's a devil's food cupcake with an Andes mint icing. And boy are they worth the money! (They're $3 each or $2.75 each when you buy a dozen.) I'm not a huge fan of cupcakes, but I'd eat these until I was sick if I didn't know any better. Anybody who knows they'll be seeing me and would like me to pick some up just let me know - I'd love any excuse to buy more!! :)

Fun for me, work for the DF!

2010-09-10T18:46:00.006-04:00

The DF is working this weekend, but I get to have fun at a wedding shower and a birthday party! I'm baking mint brownies for Kyle's b-day, per his request. I haven't made them in a while, so it should be fun. Other than those two events I plan to watch a lot of sports. The DF and I have been watching the US Open each night, and we plan to add in Purdue football and the Colts this weekend (after he gets home, of course!). And in honor of the weekend, I'll post a picture of Robert Pattinson - it's been too long since I have, I think. Here's one with a piano for Rook! ;-D Have a good weekend, everyone!

New Layout!

2010-09-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

I don't care what the calendar says, it's September so I say it's time for fall!! It's my favorite season so I always jump on the chance to appreciate it for as long as I can. :)

My labor for last week

2010-09-06T09:37:00.005-04:00

The DF and I have said for quite a while that we need a bench or chair in our bedroom so we'd have somewhere to sit when we put our shoes on. We'd kind of been looking, but we didn't really feel like spending big bucks on something. I'd been watching Kirkland's website for sales because they've got a couple of cute chairs and benches (see our chair here). Last week I got an e-mail saying their chairs were on sale for $60 (usually they're $80). So I drove over there after work and got one in a cute brown and blue paisley pattern. The DF isn't a huge fan of the pattern, but he does admit that our bedroom has no color, so he doesn't mind. I had to put it together, hence the labor title. The DF was afraid to sit on it (what a jerk) but it seems to be working out pretty well so far. Today, I'm hoping to do no labor, other than visiting the gym. That sounds like labor, but I like it since I can read my Kindle while I'm on the elliptical machine. The DF's working (surprise, surprise!). I hope everyone out there is avoiding labor with as much success as me!!

It's Friday for me!

2010-09-02T17:19:00.002-04:00

The DF and I are both taking tomorrow off from work. We're heading to a concert tomorrow night, so we thought it would be nice to spend the day together as well. Since Stacy will be going on maternity leave in just over a month I need to burn some PTO now while I can!

Tomorrow I plan to get my car's oil changed and maybe bake some cookies or make ice cream since Craig is coming up for the concert and would probably enjoy that kind of stuff. This weekend I don't have any major plans (my mind is drawing a complete blank, so I hope I don't have plans...) and then I'll enjoy being off on Monday as well. I don't know if the DF is working or not. He probably is. Regardless, I'll enjoy sleeping in. Does anybody have any plans to enjoy the (predicted) nice weather this weekend?

Edit for cluelessness: Apparently the DF doesn't care so much about spending time together today as he had no idea I had taken the day off. Even Craig knew!! *eye roll here*

Birthday Post

2010-08-20T17:26:00.003-04:00

As many of you are aware, I'm now 27 - aahhh! Actually, I really like the number 27, so I'm okay with it. A huge thank you to everyone who sent cards; I always like getting them in the mail. The DF did get me a surprise, which was nice since I picked out my boots myself. It's a t-shirt with one of my favorite Monty Python lines (see image on the right). Simon, you probably appreciate it! I wore it into work today because it just so happened to be "favorite t-shirt" day. Only one other person got it, unfortunately, but that's not a surprise. She's also a huge Red Wings fan, so it makes sense that the only cool person in the office got it, ha! I got some birthday money too and I've already spent some of it at Ann Taylor Loft. I got a pair of the "in" color for jeans this fall, which is gray, and a cute peachy/pink ruffled top! Anyway, I had a really good day, and appreciate everyone out there who thought of me!

Ice Cream Fun!

2010-08-18T18:27:00.009-04:00

I got my Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment last week and since then I've made 4 batches! They make about a quart each (which is 2 pints for those of you who know no conversions, like me!). Officially it can make 2 quarts, I think, but many people say it actually overflows with 2 quarts, which I'd believe. The bowl has to freeze for 15 hours between uses, so you can really only make one batch a day. It is super easy to use, though. Just whisk up the base and then pour it in the bowl to mix for 22 minutes or so. You add any candy, etc. at the end and finish mixing. It's still pretty soft then, though, so it's best to freeze a bit before enjoying.

I bought a Ben and Jerry's recipe book, which is really awesome. It gives some different bases that you can add whatever you want to, and it also gives lots of good specific recipes, including some for sorbets. I've made Heath, mini M & M, mint Oreo, and chocolate Reese Pieces. I was excited to find reusable pint containers for the freezer so that I don't have to use my Tupperware (see mint Oreo below). It also has an ice pack in the lid that will help keep it cold when traveling. I brought some into work and everyone really liked it. I won't be making any more until next week, and what we have currently will probably be gone by then. And don't ask about nutritional information - I just keep telling myself that I'm better off because there aren't any artificial ingredients in it. Ignorance is bliss!

Understatement: It's hot outside

2010-08-09T20:07:00.005-04:00

Many of you know that I bought a bunch of fruit over the weekend for my co-workers, and I brought it into work today. I took the cantaloupes in the building but I left the watermelons on the floor in the back seat of my car. Unfortunately, one of the watermelons didn't like the heat and must have had a crack because it leaked all over the mat in the back. It's not a big deal, but when I got home I took it out and got ready to clean it all up. The DF meanwhile needed a new center brake light for his back windshield, so he decided to go buy one. I had the garage door open and waved goodbye, blissfully unaware of anything amiss. About 10 minutes later I decided to come inside to get a band for my hair and lo and behold, Steven had locked the door behind him on accident. So, I was locked out. I decided to just finish cleaning and hoped he wouldn't be too much longer. Thankfully I'd been meaning to vacuum the car so I had the vacuum outside already. So I vacuumed. Then I wiped down all of the interior surfaces. Then I wiped down the leather. Then I stood around and felt really sweaty. Then I managed to pull my hair up using just one bobby pin - I can thank my hairdresser Tina for that move! Finally the DF pulled up and was surprised to find out he locked me out. He wanted to somehow blame it on me!!

Not surprisingly, I showered as soon as I got inside. Not only is it too hot outside, my birthday gift (awesomely cute Emu boots) arrived today and only made me wish for fall to come even faster! If I can avoid getting locked out in the heat I suppose I'm willing to wait another couple of months to wear them. :)

No news is good news!

2010-07-28T16:56:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. My business trip to NH last week was good, but of course now we're all even more behind than we were before. The people we met there were great, and by the end of the week we were all making fun of each other like we'd known everyone for much longer than a few days. Despite the fact that I'm incredibly busy each day, I enjoy what I do and who I work with, so it's really not that bad. I do enjoy my "me time" each evening, though. I don't know how the DF works 12-14 hour days and doesn't complain. He must be a better person than me!!

Speaking of the DF, he continues to get compliments on the stethoscope pin I gave him, which makes me pretty proud of myself. He also gets compliments on his wardrobe in general, but I can't take complete credit for that. He does dress himself after all. That's all I have to say about him, I suppose.

This weekend I'm heading to Ohio with Katie for Beth's bachelorette party. It should be good fun. I think Beth is having t-shirts made, but I have no idea what they'll say. Knowing her it will be hilarious or embarrassing, or both! I'll let you know what they say if it's clean enough to put on this blog! Happy Hump Day, everyone!

My weekend

2010-07-17T15:40:00.005-04:00

The DF is on call this weekend, which might actually be a good thing. I have lots to do, and I think I'm more productive when he's not around. Most of what I'm doing is benefiting him anyway. I'm traveling to New Hampshire next week with Roy and Stacy for work, so I'm trying to get things done around here before I go. So far I've done 3 loads of laundry, hand washed another 3 shirts (why are the cutest tops hand wash only?), done the dishes (okay, the dishwasher did them), made a pan of baked spaghetti (so the DF doesn't starve next week), and drank 2 cups of coffee (have to keep up the parentheses!). I'm getting ready to log into our work programs to do a little catching up (though we may never get caught up) and I'm watching How to Be (an indie comedy Robert Pattinson did and he's totally a dork in). Tomorrow I'm baking 3 batches of cookies (the DF always insists he get his own), and ironing a bunch of the clothes I just washed.

I'll leave you with a line and photo from How to Be: "Therapy was invented in the 60s. Do you know what invented means? It means it doesn't exist." How dumb is that statement? Lol!

Passport Fun

2010-07-11T13:33:00.004-04:00

The DF and I decided it was time to get passports, even though we don't have any immediate plans of traveling abroad. One of the doctors he works with organizes mission trips, and Steven thinks he might be interested in going on one sometime. The doctor pointed out that the passport rates are going up on the 13th (from $75 to $110) so we decided to save ourselves some money by applying. We got our pictures taken (I didn't smile at all in mine so I look like I'm ready to kill someone - yikes!) and got our documentation together. I had a feeling that the acceptance location (a local post office) would be busy since all the acceptance places have crummy weekday hours (like from 10:00 to 3:00) and yesterday was the final Saturday before the rates went up. I was correct. There was quite a line, but what made it worse was that most people hadn't gotten their photos taken yet, so they had to process a ton of photos as well as go through the paperwork. I don't know why people didn't think ahead, especially since it's cheaper to do it at CVS, but they didn't. We got there at 10:30, they stopped accepting applications at 11:00 (though the post office was open until 2:30), and we stood in line until it was finally our turn at 12:30. The DF and I are pretty patient when it comes to lines (we waited over 2 1/2 hours to vote in the last presidential election) and we didn't have any major plans for the day so it wasn't a big deal to us.

Hopefully we filled everything out correctly, though I'm already wondering if we submitted enough money. I filled out our apps online and I checked the boxes for both a passport and a passport card (which you can use for Mexico and Canada), but the woman at the post office told us to write our checks out for $75. I think the passport card is another $20 which we did not pay. It didn't occur to me until last night what happened. So, I'm waiting to get a letter asking for more money, ugh. At least this isn't time-sensitive for us, so a little delay won't hurt anything. :)

It's Friday!

2010-07-02T20:32:00.004-04:00

The DF started his residency yesterday, and it's going well so far. It's not too different from what he has been doing for the past two years, but he gets to make more final decisions now. When he's working nights he'll be the go-to guy so that's a little intimidating for him right now. Once he gets some more experience under his belt, though, he'll feel much better. I bought him this really cute hand-made stethoscope pin for graduation to wear on his white coat, and he got two compliments on his first day alone! I was pretty proud of myself. Of course, my Kitchen Aid graduation gift is still much cooler. I ran out of eggs this week, but I have more now so I plan to bake some more cookies this weekend. I've made snickerdoodles and chocolate chip so far, so I'll see what the DF wants me to make this time.

Our other 4th of July plans are to attend a local festival and to hang out with Katie and Stacy at Stacy's house on Sunday. It should be a ton of fun! Does anybody have any big plans for the weekend? Of course, I'm just glad to have Monday off from work. A 3-day weekend is always appreciated! Have a great 4th of July, everyone!

I Heart My KitchenAid!

2010-06-22T21:31:00.006-04:00

As a graduation present, the DF's parents bought me a KitchenAid mixer!! I think they felt sorry for me because I didn't win the spouse of the year award (kind of a long story), haha! The DF pointed out to me that it was his graduation, not mine, but who cares?! He's glad that he doesn't have to buy one for me; it's been on my Amazon wish list for 4 years. Anyway, it looks perfect on my counter top, and I made my first batch of cookies on it just last night. I decided to make snickerdoodles because I was in the mood, but I'll probably make chocolate chip ones later this week.

I wondered if I might be let down since I already had a stand mixer that was okay, but my KitchenAid didn't disappoint! It mixed the ingredients soooo quickly and I didn't have to use my spoon to help mix at the same time. The one thing I need to do is figure out how to get the guard on it because it shoots flour out of the bowl. That's minor, though. The cookies turned out great, and I even got to share some with my coworkers today, much to the DF's dismay.

Now I get to decide which attachments I'd like to have. So far the only one that really stands out is the ice cream maker. It comes with a different bowl that you put in the freezer, and it has a special mixer attachment too. You freeze the bowl, pour in the ice cream mix, and then turn on the mixer for 25 minutes. Then you put it in the freezer for a final freeze and voila, homemade ice cream! The DF is so excited about the possibilities that he won't shut up about it, and I don't even have it yet! Anyway, it's an awesome gift and I look forward to using it for the next 60 years. :)

Birthday!

2010-06-17T17:43:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

I'll see you on Saturday! : - )

Baseball season is in full swing!

2010-06-11T21:55:00.005-04:00

The DF and I headed out to an Indianapolis Indians game on Monday, and the weather was perfect. The skies were blue and it wasn't humid or horribly hot at all! We enjoyed $1 hot dogs and we were luckily not hit by any foul balls (we were along the 3rd baseline). The Indians won too, so that's always a plus! I've included some pictures below. Blogger also added some new templates so I've got a nice seasonal one up.

P.S. I can't wait to see many of you on Saturday! :)

Graduation!

2010-06-04T20:29:00.009-04:00

The DF and I are back from Pennsylvania and enjoying our Friday night. We had a wonderful time with family and even got to see a few friends while we were there. Everyone has been so supportive of Steven (and me too!) through everything, and it was great to see him rewarded for his hard work.

It seems like ages ago that he began applying to schools and I can remember clearly when he told me he'd been accepted during our senior year of college. He was coming to visit for the weekend and he told me before we'd even gotten into the elevator in my dorm. I just remember smiling and not being able to stop. I felt the same way during graduation on Sunday when he looked up at us in the crowd and waved. It was such a great feeling to experience. And now we're moving on to residency!

I hope to see many of you at his party in June and we can celebrate together! In the meantime, here are just a couple of pictures from the weekend. I'm not posting anything with his name so if you'd like to see his diploma (we'll bring the mini one down in June) or other photos just let me know in a comment and I'll send you a link in an e-mail. :)

This is me in Steven's goofy graduation hat. It was like a velvet pillow, very flattering, haha!

He was on the jumbo-tron!

Here's the DF and me after graduation. Since he finally finished school, he will now be known as Dr. Fathead instead of Dear Fathead. It's convenient that he'll still be the DF!

The End is in Sight!

2010-05-27T12:08:00.003-04:00

The DF and I are back in PA for his graduation - woohoo!! It's nice being able to sleep in, but the DF has the car at school for student obligations, so I'm kind of stuck at the hotel. I'm very easily amused, though, so between the tv, my computer, and my Kindle I could be stuck here for at least a week before I'd go stir-crazy. This afternoon I'm planning to take the Kindle to the beach to enjoy the pleasant weather. I'll be posting pictures of graduation when we get back. :)

New Painting Pic!

2010-05-19T22:15:00.004-04:00

Last night's painting was both easier and more difficult than the first one I did. There wasn't much shading, which was easier than last time, but it's hard to paint real objects, like the Eiffel Tower, without it looking cartoony (when you don't have much talent, that is, lol). This one ran over the time limit, and I think if I had more time I could have done more blending on the tower to make it better, but c'est la vie, eh? Stacy and I both had a good time and that's what counts. I'm not sure if this one's going up in the apartment, though. We'll see. :)

More Art Coming Up!

2010-05-17T16:55:00.002-04:00

Stacy and I are going to paint the Eiffel Tower tomorrow - be on the lookout for photos! :)

I'm now an artist....kind of...

2010-05-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

Katie found a cool event held at various places in the city called Wine and Canvas where you pay $35 and go paint a picture. She asked if I wanted to try it out, and I agreed. Before I went to their website I thought we just painted whatever we felt like, and so I told Stacy that I'd probably do something abstract since I can't paint. I told her I wouldn't do anything boring, like a fruit bowl or anything. Then I found the website and discovered that they have a specific painting in mind for each night and guess what our painting would be? Yes, a fruit bowl. What are the chances?! We thought it was pretty funny.

Anyway, we went and had a good time. First, we did a general outline and then we basically filled it in. See the work in progress to the right. Shading is really hard, and I don't feel like mine was too impressive. But it's really a situation where you're your own worst critic because everybody liked the painting next to theirs but didn't like their own. After getting mine home it's grown on me, though I feel like my brush strokes painting the bottom edge of the canvas didn't get blended well with the bottom of the painting. Katie was ready to go and people were leaving so I felt a little rushed, but it doesn't really bother me. The DF and I are planning to put it in the dining room, which is appropriate for a bowl of oranges. Stacy likes an Eiffel Tower one that's coming up in a few weeks, so we might go to that one. All in all, it was fun, but I'm definitely not going to be opening a gallery any time soon.

BINGO!!

2010-05-07T06:00:00.003-04:00

Stacy decided she wanted to play bingo one night, so we planned a girls' night for last Friday. We found an Eagles club on the west side with bingo at 7:00. Then we got a group of girls together (including Katie) and headed over there, not really knowing what we were in for. We bought what seemed like an endless amount of "cards" (thin sheets of paper with 12 cards on each one) and we got a free dauber-thing for being new. If the yellow daubers didn't give us all away as newbies, our utter confusion would have for sure, as we realized we had no idea what was going on. They gave us a book of about 9 sheets of 12 cards and then gave us another set of "special round" cards. There was a sheet explaining each round, but we couldn't even decipher what constituted a bingo for each round. I had no idea what a cluster was, or a 6-pack, or a wildball. though I could guess on the 6-pack. Thankfully, two ladies at our table explained everything to us, and I think they got a kick out of how confused we were. Stacy gets super anxious when she plays (who knows why) so it was funny to see her get worked up when she'd get close to a bingo. None of us actually won anything, but we did have a really good time. We thought it was tough to keep up with 12 cards, but many of the people there bought multiples so they were checking 36 or 48 cards for each number called!! It was crazy, but Stacy wants to go back again so I'm sure we will.

Pictured below is my dauber and one of the special round cards - the lightning round! They didn't include the letter for each number called and they didn't put the ball up on the screen, so you had to be fast to find your number and call bingo before they called the next number. It was a cover all, if you can't tell. Does anybody out there have any good bingo stories?

New Stuff!

2010-05-04T19:35:00.005-04:00

I was pretty excited to finally order a hand vac that I'd been eyeballing on Amazon for forever and it came in on Friday. It's the Eureka 71B Hand-Held Vacuum.

I tested it out on Saturday by vacuuming the floor mats in the new car, and I was pretty impressed. I could even see the brush strokes on the mats when I was done. It's not incredibly light and it has a cord, but the hose is super stretchy and it has strong suction. The front guard flips down to make it easy to vacuum vertical surfaces like stairs too, which I thought was pretty neat.

I got another opportunity to use it Sunday night (unfortunately) when I dropped a plate in the kitchen. I was drying it and it just slipped out of my hands. It's actually the first piece of our dinnerware that has been broken since we got the sets in 2006. That seems like a decent record, I suppose. Fortunately, my mom and dad bought us an extra 4 sets of the dinnerware back in the day before they stopped making the design, so we've got some back up pieces. Regardless, the hand vac didn't disappoint me, and it cleaned up the pieces just fine. :)

Man Blog for the DF

2010-04-23T14:04:00.002-04:00

The DF started a blog a few months ago, but he mainly talks about boring guy stuff in his (mine's never boring, right?!). But one post everyone might be interested in is his latest, which is about our new car. Since he posted about it I'm not going to, so check out his site for all the details! http://www.sjbthecave.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, I took a half day off from work today to hang out with the DF since he's off today and works this weekend. We don't have major plans, but he'll be driving the new car for the first time tonight - ooo!! Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Iron time!

2010-04-20T07:00:00.002-04:00

I've had my iron since the DF and I got married in 2006. I have no idea if it's nice or cheap or anything; we just put it on the registry and somebody bought it. Since the DF spends most of his time in button down shirts and pants that I'm too cheap to dry clean, I spend a lot of time ironing said shirts and pants that I hang dry. I probably iron every week or every two weeks. So, I've used that iron quite a bit, I like to think.

Well, it has now become useless. The non-stick coating on the bottom is completely shot. I put it on a shirt last week and it just stuck there. I found out after the fact that while I thought it was good to put it back in its box after I used it (after cooling), I was actually probably damaging it because water might have been sitting on the non-stick coating and destroying it. I should have stored it upright. I also have really hard water here, and I should have bought distilled to use.

Since my iron died, I decided to get a new one. I was in Kohl's with Katie and Stacy one Friday night killing time before seeing The Runaways (good movie, fyi!) and I asked them to help me pick one out. We decided to go with the Euro-Pro Shark. I used it for the first time a few days ago, and I was pretty impressed. It glides as well as my old one and it seems to iron the wrinkles out more easily. I also didn't accidentally iron in any creases. I don't know if I had done that in the past because I'm not very good at ironing or if my old iron just encouraged it. Anyway, I like this one so far, but I'm a little afraid of some of the reviews I saw on Amazon.com. Thankfully, I got it on sale and didn't pay any outrageous amount of money for it. I'll be mad if it doesn't make it as long as my old one, but I'll survive either way.

A slightly different look

2010-04-16T06:07:00.000-04:00

A couple of months ago, I visited a dermatologist and knew he would point out the freckle on my left cheek that I've had since I was young. Most people actually don't even notice it's there. Usually they just see it one random day and tell me I have ink on my face. Anyway, it was a little darker than it used to be and not as circular, so I was not at all surprised when the first thing he said was that he'd have to remove it. I scheduled the appointment for the end of February (that means the last time I saw almost all of you it was already gone) and took some pictures to document everything. This isn't very exciting to be honest. The procedure wasn't painful at all and it healed just fine, so there's just pictures to see. (For those of you who are wondering, it was benign.) Though I do think the stitches would have been nice to have around Halloween.

Before:

During:

After (ta-da!):

Phew!

2010-04-13T19:58:00.003-04:00

Let's just say I'm glad I called to confirm the 3 hotel rooms I booked for the DF's graduation next month.

About a year ago (I'm not kidding), I called and made reservations and wrote down all 3 confirmation numbers, which were consecutive since I booked them at the same time. I called tonight to confirm everything was good to go, and the middle number had been reassigned to some random person who had canceled her reservation...The guy on the phone didn't really have any explanation, but thank goodness he was able to book another room with the graduation rate. There's some big soccer tournament going on, so I'm sure they'll be completely booked before that weekend. So, breathe easy, family, your room should be there next month. (But don't kill me if they screw it up again!)

First Communions

2010-04-10T10:16:00.001-04:00

This must be the year for First Communions, as the DF and I are attending two this month. First we're heading to our hometown today for Liz's and two weekends from now (how many weekends can there be this month?) we'll be going to my nephew Kyle's up here. I barely remember mine since it was so long ago, and it's been a long time since I've attended one. It looks nice outside today, so we will enjoy the scenic drive home. I'll be seeing most of my readers this weekend, actually, so this post is a little useless. Oh well! See everyone soon!

Let's catch up!

2010-03-29T19:44:00.004-04:00

The past few weeks have been a little crazy but mostly good. We've pretty much settled into the new place, especially since our dresser was delivered this morning (see the picture!). I took some time tonight to fill it up and unpack my box of perfumes/lotions/jewelry that had been buried in our closet. I was then able to organize the closet and find all of the shoes I've been wishing I had for work each day.

In addition, today the DF and I primed the walls that we painted in the old place, which was a pain. I'll be glad when we're completely done with that place, but I still have to finish up the cleaning sometime this week.

In more exciting news, the DF and I spent this past weekend in Chicago with his family celebrating Liz's birthday a little early. We went to the American Girl store, which was a little crazy. I've never seen so many dolls with so many outfit choices. You could also have your doll's ears pierced or have her hair done at their salon!! Liz brought all of her other dolls to Chicago, and the boys were joking that the hotel room had turned into a daycare. It was a lot of fun to wander around Chicago together and eat at Due's (owned by Uno's Pizza), even though the DF got really sick!

Have a great week, everyone!

Pictures Day 3

2010-03-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

And the last of them!

The DF's Office:

Another one of the DF's office:

This is the only pic I have of the 3rd bedroom (the DF must have thought it was unimportant):

Pictures Day 2

2010-03-21T15:00:00.001-04:00

Here are some more!

The kitchen:

The kitchen again:

The bedroom (minus the dresser we're waiting to be delivered):

Garden tub:

The pictures are here!

2010-03-20T21:06:00.009-04:00

I'll post some today and some more in the next couple of days. We're loving the new place and though we have plans to buy some other art, etc. the place looks pretty good, we think! :) (And you can see the light, Dad! This one was a pain, even for Roy! He used some hacksaw thing in our kitchen, lol!) If you have a good Internet connection you can get a much bigger view if you click on the photos.

Entry:

The new entertainment center (& light!):

The DF's chair:

The couch:

Pictures to come!

2010-03-15T22:09:00.002-04:00

The DF and I are settling in and we'll have pictures for everyone soon. It's been a rough day today. No hot water (even though I called them about it this morning) and the DF got an eyelash stuck under his lid and we had to have it removed at the hospital. I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is actually the second time that's happened. His eyelashes get so stuck they have to be pulled out with special tweezers! Anyway, we need to get artwork up and then the pictures will be on their way!

Parts of the Move!

2010-03-07T21:19:00.006-05:00

Here are a few pics from the move. The DF and I signed the lease on Friday and we've been moving a lot of boxes ourselves since then. We're hoping to only have furniture left to move when family comes to help next weekend. We've made a ton of progress so far, so I think we're on schedule. Katie gave us some broken down boxes, which helped a lot. In the first picture I'm putting together boxes, the second one shows some organized chaos, and the third one is of our new entertainment center. The DF and I are really excited about it, and I picked out some neat items to put in the shelves on the sides. We're really excited about this whole process, so expect more photos after the move is complete!

Also, I cannot end the post without saying a late evening Happy Birthday to my big brother Tommy!! :D

Goodbye, February

2010-02-28T18:28:00.001-05:00

Am I the only one glad that February's over? It's not like it's been the worst month of my life, but it definitely had some crummy moments. And everything good from February isn't actually happening until March, so February's just been in the way of the good stuff. I apologize to anyone who just had the best month of their life! :)

Finally the good news!

2010-02-23T18:06:00.004-05:00

So, as many of you know, the "match" was a couple of weeks ago. There are way too few spots available for OB/GYN (64 osteopathic spots in the entire country) so we didn't get matched this time around. This gave us a couple of options, like applying for a year long internship and then trying the match again next year or looking into other residencies. Then the DF was offered a family medicine residency spot at a local hospital here. He's done rotations with them and he really likes everyone there. It took a little bit of discussing since it wasn't his original choice, but we both decided that he should go for it. Now we get to stay here for at least a few more years - woohoo!! On top of that, we're planning to move into a bigger apartment in just a few weeks. Our apartment here is 900 square feet, and the new one is over 1,400 square feet and only costs $100 more per month! It's a much newer building too. We were really strapped for time when we moved out here from PA, so I feel like we didn't get into the best place for us. I wanted to wait until the paperwork was signed before I said anything because it's been a stressful couple of weeks, and I certainly didn't want to jinx us. I'll be posting photos of the new place once we move in. I should be posting a picture of the DF or something, but I'll go with this Rob Pattinson one instead. He's got the beard like the DF at least. ;)

One Step Closer!

2010-02-18T21:42:00.004-05:00

We're another step closer to our good news! Everyone just hang in there! Meanwhile, I hope you are all having a good week. The DF was having a good night until Mario Galaxy kicked his butt, lol! Poor guy.

Has anyone been watching the Olympics? I've had it on each night. I like the typical events, but I also love curling. Hearing everyone yelling at each other in foreign languages as they sweep the ice in front of a big rock just cracks me up. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T14:14:00.003-05:00

A big Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! The DF and I are going out to dinner tonight, though I don't know where. It's a surprise, he says, though I think I figured it out already (oops). Last year we did our taxes on Valentine's Day, so this is a step up! We're doing our taxes tomorrow instead, lol. :)

This past week has been stressful and annoying. The "match" is a ridiculous process, and I'm glad that we seem to be done with it, at least for now. I should have some really good news early this week, which our parents have heard about, but until it's official I'm not saying anything here. Enjoy your respective "fatheads" today, everyone! :)

Sure, it's pretty for now!

2010-02-05T20:52:00.006-05:00

While driving home from work was a pain (we got out an hour early, woohoo!), the snow really is pretty. Here's a couple of photos from our balcony. Although, the DF's drive home from Ohio did remind him of why we were so glad to leave Pennsylvania and all the snow! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Casual Days!

2010-02-02T20:14:00.003-05:00

In order to celebrate the Colts making it to the Super Bowl, we get to wear casual clothes the rest of the week at work, as long as we wear some blue. Of course I can just wear jeans all 3 days and have that count, but I'll probably wear my two colts shirts too. I'm just easily pleased by getting to wear casual clothes for three days! We're also having an indoor tailgating party at lunch on Friday, which should be a lot of fun. I'm making football shaped rice krispie treats, I think. Does anybody have any exciting plans for Sunday night?

Finally!

2010-01-29T17:27:00.002-05:00

Oh, Friday, how I've missed you!

Sorry, I'm boring!

2010-01-19T20:05:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm living a pretty boring life right now, not that I'm complaining. It's just not entertaining for this blog. Here are some random pics for you. The first is a quesadilla I had for dinner one night. It's actually the quesadilla missing the top tortilla; they're boring looking (but tasty!) once they're made. The second picture is of the quesadilla maker, though I don't know why it keeps flipping the picture sideways. I think I fill them too full because it doesn't make very good triangle cutouts because the lid doesn't have a floating hinge or whatever they're called. I just cut them with a pizza cutter. This quesadilla's mine because it has banana peppers, which the DF doesn't like. It's also got cheese, bacon, chicken, and onion. We dip them in salsa. The DF is a pretty big fan of them; I think I made them twice in one week alone. :)

Happy new year!

2010-01-07T17:27:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts! I hope everyone's looking forward to 2010. The DF and I are excited about his graduation (finally!!). Here's a pic from the New Year's party we went to. I'm not sure how Stacy's head got included...

Year of the Snuggie

2009-12-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

I forgot I even had these two photos, but since I already posted about the snuggie's greatness, I thought I'd throw them up here too. The first is of Stacy's new snuggie (the pattern's a little overwhelming...) and the second is of Maddy's new doggie snuggie. I'm not really sure how much Maddy liked hers. She did mellow out quite a bit when Sandy put it on her, which was a nice change. Anyway, moral of the story, the snuggie took over Christmas this year!

Watch out, world!

2009-12-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

Liz gets a kick out of Craig's new drums. She's pretty impressive for a 7 year old, even holding a rhythm! I told her I'd post her pic, so here you go, Liz!! :)

Don't you want one now?

2009-12-27T21:23:00.006-05:00

See the profound difference a snuggie could make on your life? Observe how miserable the DF is with his ordinary NBA logo blanket while Craig is looking excited, able to use his remote while warm in his new Colts snuggie. Best invention ever? ;-) More photos from the holiday weekend coming!