Friday, February 29, 2008

I'm all snowed out.

Can I just say that I am SO SICK of the snow??!! It has officially snowed 21 out of 29 days this month, according to Mr. Weatherman on the news. 21 out of 29 days!!!

It was supposed to snow for a 'few hours' this morning then turn into rain come early afternoon. HA! It started snowing full blast here at 8am and hasn't really let up all day long. It didn't turn into a rain/snow mix until about 5:30pm.... then everything went from snowy to pure slush.

Today we had a get-together at my grandma's house at 5pm for her birthday (which was a few days ago)... Russ called me at 2pm and goes, "There's no way you're going to that party... it's pure hell out here. If you say you're going, I'm coming home and taking the battery out of the navigator." LOL. (In case anyone doesn't remember, my hubby salts and plows parking lots for his business, so he was out all day in that snowy mess.) I was pretty bummed since I made a huge fruit bowl to take over there, plus I knew pretty much EVERYONE from my family was gonna be there and that they were wanting to see Alyson.

So I kept pacing around, thinking, "Should I go, or shouldn't I go... If I go, Russ will probably be ticked, but if I DON'T go, I'll feel bad.... " In the end, I reluctantly decided not to go, but still got ready anyway. So at 4:50pm Russ calls and says, "I'm on the highway... it's not too bad now. You could make it there if you want to go." (Yeah... the party starts in 10 minutes, honey!) So I hurried up and got Alyson all ready and cleared my car off.... luckily things weren't bad once I got to the highway. In town was another story. There's a major salt shortage around here, so everyone's using as little salt as they can.... things are a liiiiiiittle bit messy. Which sucks, because the end of my road goes downhill, so if you slide, you slide right out into traffic on the main road. Not good.

So I made it to my gram's in one piece... it was a good time. Good to see everyone. I stayed a few hours, then decided to head home around 7:30 before things got REALLY bad. Everyone was going, like, 45 mph on the highways.... I tried to get over and pass someone who kept hitting their brakes, but I started sliding on slush (and I even have frickin 4wd!) So I just sucked it up and went slow with everyone else. (Cause really, I had precious cargo in the back!!)

So like I said, I am SO VERY TIRED of snow. I can't dare tell that to my husband though... that's what brings in the money, and what lets me stay at home with my little one! I just can't wait til the warm weather comes around... I'm sick of being BORED. Now the weatherman is saying more snow tonight, possibly 2 inches. We already had at least 4 earlier... Is that not enough for one day?!

Enough complaining.... :-) now onto my favorite topic... Alyson. She's FINALLY getting teeth! I noticed it about a week ago. In these pictures you can see her little 'toofer' on the bottom right hand side if you look closely at the first few pics. :-)

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Well, that's about it for now...I'm getting tired. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Adventures in Alysonland

Another doggy bday to report here in blogland.... my furbaby Lucy turned 3 Friday! It's hard to believe we've had our babies for 3 years already. We didn't have a doggie party or anything, but she DID get some special treatment in the way of doggie bones :-) I sang Happy Birthday to her, but she just kinda looked at me as if to say, "That's nice and all, but I have no idea what you're saying."

Here's a pic of Lou Lou that I took on her bday.

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Now, for the latest adventures in Alysonland. OH. MY. GOSH. This girl gets into EVERYTHING now. Just within the past week or so, all hell has broken loose! LOL! I now have had to babyproof my entire downstairs. She has attempted to pull on and/or suck on anything within her reach. She seems to gravitate toward wires and the fireplace hearth...NOT GOOD! I have caught her MANY times heading toward the speaker next to our tv, wanting the wires coming out of it. I now have to use one of her big toys to block it during the day so she can't get back there.

We just got new couches, endtables and coffee table for the living room, and she is LOVING the tables. It sucks. The tables all have a shelf underneath them, and she thinks it is fun to attempt to climb up on the shelves. All I see on the shelf are little handprints... I'm half afraid to pledge the thing, for fear she'll just slide right off! Here are some pics of my little climber. Don't worry, she hasn't taken any spills off the shelf... after getting my photo-ops, I'm always right there to catch her before she goes headfirst onto the floor. Ugh....

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This is what she started doing a few days ago. I heard her crawling down the hallway and figured she was just sitting there looking around like she always does. Ha. No... she was in the bathroom playing around with my basket of lotions, etc. I had to put all the sprays up...she just mostly waves a bottle around, then throws it down and grabs for another one. Hey, whatever floats her boat.

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This is her having spotted the remote control up on the couch and trying to grab for it. She is OBSESSED with the remote control. And the phone...and my camera...and aything else somewhat shiny with buttons.

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By the end of the day, I am WORN OUT from chasing her around. The dogs too! They follow her around constantly, especially Cody. He must think he's her personal bodyguard. Either that, or he's just really interested in her because she walks on all fours like he does. I dunno.

Here are my sleeping beauties.

Naptime...
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Tired Cody and Lucy....
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(No, my dogs aren't spoiled AT ALL...LOL!)

Well, I think that's it for the pictures...for now, anyway!

One more story about Aly before I go. Today, I was bathing her in her aquarium bathtub. She discovered today that if she kicks her feet, she can not only make bubbles, but splash water EVERYWHERE. She got a real kick out of this (pun intended...), and totally soaked me. Water was dripping on the counter, down the cabinets... ( I was washing her up in the kitchen) THEN... I started hearing this soft whooshing sound, and noticed that more water was coming onto the counter. SHe had kicked the plug out of the bathtub and ALL THE WATER was coming out. I quickly grabbed for her towel and tried to get her out of the tub so I could move it over the sink, but she had a death grip on that little toy ring that's attached to the tub and WOULD NOT let go. In the end, water was everywhere in my kitchen.... completely across the floor all the way over by the stove. Soaked part of my little rug and everything. All I can say is THANK GOD we have tile floor in the kitchen!! (Yeah, I think I'll try actually bathing her in the BATHROOM now!) She's still afraid of the bathtub, so we'll see.

Well, that's it for now... gotta head to bed so I get SOME sleep before I have to wake up and get ready for church. Nighty night! Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Frustrations I had to get off my chest.

I don't know whether I've mentioned this before in here, but Russ's brother J is getting married next month... his brother who nobody thought was ever going to settle down and get married! He's such a free spirit and LOVES LOVES LOVES traveling and going on weekend or weeklong hunting trips, and for awhile there, he was scared of not being able to do that anymore if he was married. Well, long story short... he took a break from his now-fiancee (an AWESOME girl he's been dating for over 3 years) for awhile so they (well, HE) could figure things out, and he realized that he couldn't live without her in his life. (awww...) His fiancee K is a teacher and one day, he surprised her by walking into her classroom and asking if he could read her class (2nd graders, I believe) a story. He had made a whole book himself, and it talked about marriage and family and what a good wife/husband is.... K had no idea what was going on....and at the end of it, he proposed to her. (My description just really didn't do his proposal justice, but that's a quick summary.)

So this wedding is in March in Minnesota. Russ is all flipping out because he is the best man, and if it is snowing alot here or there, he won't be able to go. (For his business, they do snow removal too, for alot of businesses in the tri-state area.) He said that if it's snowing here, there's no way he can go because he has to oversee the employees, and there are certain things only he can take care of if problems arise. AND...if it's snowing alot in MN, he's not going to take the chance of getting stuck at the airport there due to the weather.

So for awhile, he refused to make a decision as to plane tickets, hotel reservation, etc.... he kept telling me, "Go with my mom or someone, I'll go up last-minute if I have to." I didn't want to do that, so I FINALLY talked him into getting tickets with friends of ours. At least if it's not snowing, we can all go together. If for some reason Russ can't go with me, at least I won't be by myself. I'd just much rather us all go up together.

So after all this was planned, we started talking about seeing Russ and J's brother T at the wedding, who lives near us and who we haven't seen in almost 2 years due to many many family issues, mostly between T and their mom. T has basically cut Russ's mom out of his life due to stuff that happened in the past that he can't seem to put behind him. She can't even see her other 5 grandchildren now! During all this, Russ's mom would always call us and tell us all the hurtful things T said or did... Russ finally got so upset about how hurt his mom was, he doesn't want anything to do with T. Needless to say, none of us have spoken since, oh, May 2006 or so. It's just a sad situation. I just miss the kids, mostly. Alyson has 5 cousins she's never met, and may not get the CHANCE to meet.

So anyway, we were talking about seeing all of them at the wedding, and how awkward it would probably be. (T would be a groomsman, and his kids would be ringbearer/flowergirls, so Russ and T and the kids would be seeing a lot of eachother.) I thought, "Well, he'll either be civil for J's sake, or just ignore everyone altogether."

WELL. Come to find out from Russ's mom today..... T has decided that since their mom is going to be there, he is no longer going to go to the wedding. He isn't going to be in it, and his children won't be in it due to him "not being emotionally ready to see his mother." COME ON, NOW! He couldn't have made this decision at the beginning, before his kids got all excited and got their dresses?! I just don't get it. He's no doubt hurting his kids, not to mention he's hurting his brother J...on his WEDDING DAY! J acts like it doesn't bother him, but I'm sure he's hurt that his own brother won't be attending his wedding.

I'm just not used to all this family conflict. My family has always gotten along, and so I guess I just don't understand how people can act like this to their own flesh and blood. All this stuff stems from things in the past that are NOTHING to take lightly....but still. T and his family say and act like they are devout Catholics, but it's very hypocritical in my opinion to be so full of hate and refuse to forgive. That's not practicing what you preach, you know? What is that teaching his children? That if someone hurts you, refuse to reconcile and just cut them out of your lives forever?! Those kids are THE sweetest kids, and God knows what they are being told by their parents. From what I hear, they're being told, "Your Nana doesn't love you or care about you anymore, that's why you don't see her." I know they're hurt by all of this too... one of the girls emailed RUss's mom and asked, "Why don't you come over anymore?" and evidentally T or their mom found out and ended that little form of communication real quick. (Newsflash! Eventually those kids will get to the age where they can make their OWN decisions about who they see and talk to, and will learn the TRUTH about why they haven't seen their family!) They are probably being told that Russ and I don't care about seeing them either. That couldn't be further from the truth about how we feel. I really miss those kids, and I have a feeling that unless we just happen to randomly run into them while we're out in town, we're never going to see them. This whole thing just makes me so upset. I just wish everyone could just be civil to eachother and let things go. People make mistakes...it happens.

I don't know why I decided to post about this tonight... I'm just so frustrated by this whole thing. I DESPISE conflict. I'm a "can't we all just get along" type person. So, "Can't the Hunt family just FRICKIN GET ALONG?!"

*sigh*

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Movin' on up....upstairs, that is.

I just got done watching The Biggest Loser on tv... I am SO addicted to that show--I LOVE IT! I always get so motivated to work out while I watch that show... I'll be sitting here on the couch thinking, "Man... after this is over, I am going to go downstairs and get on the treadmill, or put an exercise DVD in." The show ends....and I sit here on the couch and check my email, too tired to do much else.

It's crazy though... the people on that show are losing 10 and 20-some pounds a week at times! I didn't think that was humanly possible. But of course they're doing some mad working out too. I get happy if I lose a pound in a week.... 2 pounds and I wanna throw a party. But 10 or 20 pounds?! It'd only take me a few weeks to get to my goal. HA! Yeah...wouldn't THAT be nice if all we had to do was diet for a few weeks and then be done with it.

Anyhow... I'm just sitting here bored (see above---I should be working out though.) and figured I'd hop online and post real quick. I just took Alyson upstairs to bed a little while ago, so I have ME TIME! Yes, my baby is now sleeping upstairs. 3 nights in a row now, she's been in her own bedroom in her crib. It's a miracle. I've tried to get her up there for awhile now. I've tried to take her upstairs every now and then during the past few months....I'd wait til she was either all the way asleep or reeeeeeeeally tired, then I'd put her in her crib. It was like a lightswitch went on as soon as she touched the crib...her eyes opened and she started crying like crazy. She'd fall asleep for about a half hour, then cry. Fall asleep, cry. The cycle continued for a few hours until I got so fed up and brought her downstairs to sleep....where she fell asleep right away and slept soundly the rest of the night. Grr.

It just started getting REALLY annoying, being asked, "Is she sleeping in her crib yet?", and when I'd say, "No, not yet", they looked at me like I had two heads or something. Since when is there a timeline on this stuff?? Could I help it that my child would not sleep in her crib whatsoever?!

See, when Alyson was first born, we had her in a bassinet next to our bed. It was a bassinet we borrowed from our friends. THANK GOODNESS, because if we hadn't had to return it due to that friend having another baby, Alyson would probably still be in it, stuffed like a sausage with no room to move because her mother wanted her within sight 24-7. LOL. Russ kept telling me, "You need to put her in her room." And I told him, "I will when we have to give the bassinet back." Then came the questions from people, "Is she still in the bassinet?"

So then came the time to give the bassinet back...so Aly moved out to the living room to the oh-so-comfy pack n play, just so her mommy could get over the initial freaking-out stage due to having her baby out of her sight. This was supposed to be a temporary thing, "Just to know she'll be alright, and so I can still hear her," I'd tell people.(Duh Betsy, that's what BABY MONITORS ARE FOR!) But anyway.

To make a long story short, the questions have graduated from, "Is she still in your bedroom?" to "Is she still out in the living room?" to "She's not still in the pack and play is she?" to "Is she in her crib YET?" I feel like saying, "No, we just lay a blanket out on the kitchen floor and put her out there now."

Grr. It just annoys me sometimes. I'm a first time parent and I'm SO SORRY if it's a little scary having my little baby all the way upstairs while my bedroom is downstairs. If her room was on the same floor of the house as ours, she would have been in it a looooooooong time ago. People just don't understand that, ya know? I had to make it a gradual process. I'm just now, on night #3, getting used to the idea that my child will be perfectly fine even without me occasionally perched over her while she sleeps, making sure she's breathing!

I do, however, have my video monitor about 1 foot from me on the endtable!

Somebody PLEASE tell me I'm not alone in feeling a little anxious about this whole 'sleeping arrangement' issue! I just feel like I'm being a nervous nelly. Must just be a first time parent thing.

Well, I'm off to make up Aly's bottles for tomorrow.. then I'm gonna sit and stare at the video monitor. Kidding ;-)

Nighty night!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Another $25 espresso, please!

Recap on the past few weeks, since it's taken me forever to post again :-)

It's pretty much been the same old same old lately... the weather here has been crazy so I haven't gotten out a whole lot. If we're not getting crazy amounts of snow, it's either raining buckets or we have 40-50 mph winds going on. Ugh. Not the best weather to take a baby out in. We had about 5 inches of snow this past week, then it turned to rain which froze to ice overnight, then it snowed again. Just a little bit of everything. Right now it's in the 50's outside and rainy, then tomorrow it's supposed to be snowing again. I am SO ready for warm weather!!! I can't wait to be able to spend time outside with Alyson! :-) Speaking of my sweet little girl, she's officially crawling and her curiosity is driving me insane!! LOL She goes from one corner of the living room to the other in what seems like 0.2 seconds, and I find her either attempting to chew on one of the dogs' rawhide bones,heading for the fireplace hearth and all the decorations I have ON IT... or she's crawling up on the shelf underneath the coffee table. Her curious nature has already earned her 1 tiny bruise on her forehead from bumping it on the coffee table. She's a tough one though... she cried for a few seconds, then was back to laughing and playing. Kids...if only we adults could bounce back that quickly...lol! So yeah, she's definitely keeping me busy these days. She serenades me with endless "na na na na na na's" and "ma ma ma ma's" and "meh meh meh's", with an occasional raspberry thrown in there. It's adorable. Last week, we were at my parents' house and she had been doing the "ma meh" thing....well, she looked up and goes, "Ma...ma" and my mom goes, "She said MAMA!" I said, "No...she said mama...but she didn't REALLY say mama." LOL. If only she knew what she was saying. :-)

So that's the update with my little one. We are officially in size 3 diapers, and I'm sure she's a 20-pounder by now. Taking her places in her carrier seat is getting REAL OLD, REAL QUICK. It feels like I'm carrying 50 pounds now. I just hate to take her out and carry her sometimes since the weather's been so crazy. Ugh.

Anyway... so how was everyones' Valentine's Day? Being that it was snowing and Russ worked long hours this past week, we didn't do anything on Valentine's Day. We saved our going out for the weekend. Some friends of ours have been raving about this restaurant in Pittsburgh, so we made reservations and all went there lastnight. There were 4 couples in all, and it was SUCH a good time!! All of us have kids, and so we were all happy to have an ADULT night out... it had been awhile for everyone!

The restaurant we went to in Pittsburgh was an Italian restaurant called Davio. It seats 40-some people, I believe, so reservations are highly recommended. They don't have a liquor license, so you can bring your own wine...there's just a corking fee. We had about 6 bottles of wine for the 8 of us, and it was all gone by the end of the night! I only had about a glass and a half of wine, and I was feeling it....but by the end of the evening, all that food completely made that feeling disappear!! The food was really good.... expensive, but good! I got filet mignon, and Russ got a sirloin. Russ decided he wanted a double espresso, so he ordered one, then another....then another.... and then we found out that double espressos were about $25 a piece! He drank, like, $100 in espresso. LMAO! He didn't care though.... we were out to have a good time. We figured, we don't do this everyday....it's more like a "once a year" type restaurant to go to and just splurge, so what the heck! We all got a good laugh out of it though! The bill for the 8 of us came to almost $700! CUH-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY! It was all worth it though... just to be out (childless!) with close friends, wine, good food.....and not to mention the FABULOUS flourless Russian chocolate sable cake for dessert. OH. MY. GOD. That cake may very well have been better than sex....LOL! Their desserts are sooooooooooo good...I highly recommend them....hehe. Everyone got something different, so we were all passing them around so we could sample them! I'm watching what I eat and all, but all I did with that cake was watch it go from my plate to my mouth. YUM.

Here's a picture of all of us that some nice guy offered to take! Click on it for the bigger pic...this is the only size that would fit right into my blog :-)


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I definitely think we'll be going back there again... maybe not for awhile, and maybe minus a few espressos.....but we'll be back!