Thursday, March 20, 2008

The bad and the very good!

I'm starting to be a slacker at posting again, sorry!

Things have been eventful lately, or uneventful, depending how you look at it. For starters, Russ's brother got married in MN this past weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go. I ended up coming down with the flu the afternoon before we were supposed to leave.(Strangely enough, after just having told Russ's mom the week before that I've "been lucky I hadn't gotten the flu for awhile." HA! Spoke too soon, I guess...) I told Russ what was going on, but said I'd wait til Friday morning to figure out what I was gonna do. He woke me up at 7:30am Friday, and I THOUGHT I felt fine, til I got up and walked around a bit. Then the chills came again...ugh. I tried eating some cheerios, but breakfast didn't want to stay down, so I decided I'd better not go. I spent the morning crying on and off because I thought I'd FINALLY get out of town for awhile, and I hated to miss the wedding. I really had been looking forward to it.

I called my parents and told them I wouldn't be bringing Alyson over there after all (they were supposed to watch her all weekend), but they said they'd still keep her for a night or two, until I felt better. They came to get her Friday afternoon, and by Saturday afternoon THANKFULLY I was feeling better, so I went and got her that night. Thank goodness for my parents, I don't know what I'd do without them!

From what I've heard from Russ and his mom, things went well...I asked Russ if his brother cried when K walked down the aisle, and he goes, "Oh yeah...he was sobbing even before the wedding." LOL! Then Russ goes, "It brought back memories of our wedding...I was so nervous when I saw you walk down the aisle." Then he told me how much he missed me and Alyson while he was gone. I told him, "You called me more times in 2 days than you do in 2 weeks when you're home!" It was sweet... he kept me updated with everything that was going on and called, like, 4 times a day.

So there's that.

Now for my EXCITING news.... even more reason for me to exercise my butt off and get healthy....

Russ and I just booked a trip to Punta Cana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooooooo excited!!!! (Can you tell?!)

Neither of us have been there before. We didn't go anywhere last year being that I was pregnant for half the year, then had the baby in June... so we really haven't been anywhere since our anniversary trip in September '06. (That's when Russ swears Alyson was conceived... it wasn't, but I'll just let him believe that. He says it makes for a good story to tell her in the future...lol)

Anyway, we're staying at the Riu Palace Punta Cana. Here's a pic and a link to the site if you wanna check it out:

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http://www.riu.com/en/hotel-riu-palace-punta-cana-dominican-republic.html

I can't WAIT! We're leaving early Friday May 2nd and coming home the following Monday night. Not very long, but just long enough to get some much-needed time away and enjoy the sun and sand! And that beautiful turquoise water!!! We're not taking Alyson with us, so we (well, mostly I) didn't want to be gone too long since our parents will be watching her...they're gonna split the time up and watch her a few days each.

Now comes what I dread, but have to do... bathing suit shopping! Gotta go find a cute one. Russ told me I only need to buy bottoms since we've heard alot of the European people go topless on the beach... I told him, "You only WISH I'd do that." LOL

Oh, and we've also decided we're going to visit Russ's brother in Alaska in July or August for a week or so. Before his flight home from Minneapolis, the staff said the flight had been overbooked. Russ volunteered to take a later flight since he really didn't need to rush home for anything... he was originally supposed to come home at 1:30pm but instead got home at 4pm. Since he did that, he got a free ticket for anywhere in the continental US, Alaska and Canada. So we're gonna use that toward his ticket to Alaska, and we got a refund from the ticket I didn't use. So Alaska here we come! We're gonna take Alyson with us... I can't wait. Her first flight... hopefully everything goes smoothly.

Well, it's late and I should have been in bed a long time ago. Alyson always wakes me up bright and early like clockwork for her morning bottle. When I hear her awake at, like, 7:30am, I wanna say, "Puhleeeeeeeeeeeease give me another hour. Just ONE. MORE. HOUR. :-)

Nighty night!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

More of the white stuff.... blah.

THIS is what I see when I look out my front door. Snow, snow and more snow.

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We've been getting snow nonstop for 2 days now. What was supposed to be rain according to Mr. Weatherman ended up being snow yesterday, so we got about 3 inches. Today, I don't know how much more we got... at least another 3 or 4 inches, plus some good 'ol sleet and hail balls. We were lucky though...some cities in Ohio got a foot or more of snow!

This just really sucks... I hate being stuck in the house!!! My vehicle is totally snow covered, and I dread going outside tomorrow morning to shovel the walks and make a path up the driveway to the mailbox. (God forbid we don't get our newspaper out of the box everyday... if we go a couple days without getting the paper, our delivery lady just won't give us anymore papers!) We've called the newspaper office tons of times about that, but nothing's ever done. I know for sure today's and yesterday's papers are in there since it was snowing and I didn't feel like going to get it!...so I doubt she'll give us a Sunday paper. Beeotch. She could at least put it in the mailbox part instead, but she never does! Unless there's some kind of law against that that I don't know about....jeesh. Yeah, I can see the headline now... "Newspaper delivery lady gets 30 days in jail for placing customer's newspaper in mail slot instead of newspaper slot."

Sorry, that whole mail thing just sent me on a rant....it just irritates me. Maybe she's upset because she didn't get something for Christmas. And MAYBE SHE WOULD HAVE IF WE GOT ALL OF OUR PAPERS! :-P

So yeah...2 days of snow equals 2 days where I have hardly seen my husband. He's been in and out of the house since early Friday morning. It's pretty much been, "Hi, bye, love you." Today he goes, "So how does it feel being a single mother?!" (That's what the weekend has felt like!) The poor guy is lucky if he's gotten 3 hours of sleep this weekend. Every time he goes to lay down, his phone rings off the hook...either employees calling, or businesses wanting their lots resalted or whatever. Ticks me off. He's actually home right now... he's getting a WHOLE HOUR nap. Woo hoo...sense the sarcasm. I said, "WHy don't you stay home and get SLEEP and just tell everyone not to call you unless it's an emergency??" and he goes, "Honey, I would if I could...but half the guys still don't have the grasp of what they're doing..." etc etc etc.

I really reeeeeeeeeeeeally can't wait for the snow to be over. On top of all THIS current madness, there is snow predicted for this coming weekend, according to the 10-day forcast. This coming weekend being his brother's WEDDING weekend. We're supposed to be leaving Friday afternoon and won't be home til Sunday afternoon. Russ said that as of right now, he doesn't think he'll be going if there's even a CHANCE of snow coming. We already have all the plans made too... the dogs are set up to go to the kennel, my parents are going to watch Alyson for the weekend.... ugh. Now I don't know WHAT is going to happen. I tried to talk to him about it tonight, but he wanted nothing to do with that conversation..he said it's the furthest thing from his mind right now. He's so stressed out right now..it worries me, but he always says, "It's just part of the business." *sigh*

Anyhow...new subject. What would a post from me be without mentioning Aly? Since she's become an expert at using her little pincer grasp to pick dog food out of the dogs' bowl and attempt to put it in her mouth (an ongoing problem), I decided I would buy her some Gerber finger foods! I got her those little star-shaped banana puffs, and she got THE biggest grin on her face when I gave them to her. Here are some pics. (Notice Cody next to her, just waiting for her to drop one!)

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And here is her first experience with teething toast...she didn't know what to think.

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Well, Russ just woke up from his LONG (yeah right) nap... so I'm gonna go. Hope everyone's having a great weekend and that some of you east-coasters aren't TOO snowed in.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

What NEXT?!

Ok...so here's the latest happenings with Alyson. She's now doing THIS.

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ARGH! MORE for me to worry about now...her falling down and hitting her head. She just started doing this (successfully) yesterday. She's been trying to pull herself up on things for a few days now, but just didn't have the strength to pull all the way up. Yesterday we were over my parents' house and I put her in their pack n play for a nap, and next thing I knew, she had grabbed hold of the top of the pack n play and was standing up! And today she did the same thing here at home. Next she started using the coffee table and endtables. I swear, it's one thing after the other! I have my little climber downstairs in the pack n play to sleep tonight, because I now have to move her crib mattress down to the lowest position so she can't climb right over the top. I'm just too tired to get out the screwdriver and go mess with that thing tonight. Sounds more like a job for tomorrow.

That's really all I had to write about tonight...nothing all that exciting. Russ's mom's bday was today, but she and her hubby just got back from Mexico (2nd part of their honeymoon) tonight. I need to go out tomorrow and get her a gift (buying all gifts seemed to become my responsibility after marriage, despite the fact that it's HIS mother...lol) Anyway, she and her husband Steve are supposed to stop by tomorrow because they miss Alyson. Never mind me and Russ. LOL. Isn't it so funny how once you have kids, your parents don't seem to get as excited to see you anymore? I always joke with my parents about that. When I walk in the door at my parents' house, they automatically go right to Alyson. I joke with them and say, "Hi Betsy! It's so great to see you!" :-)

One more pic before I go... here's Aly spending time with her daddy. Well, actually, she was trying to crawl over him so she could attempt to get her hands on the remote control or the phone...whichever happened to be easier to grab.

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Well, nighty night... have a great Thursday :-)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Oh, one day of springy weather, I love you.

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Can I just say that I CAN NOT WAIT for voting to be over tomorrow night. My phone has been ringing off the hook all day, and each time it is one of those automated "vote for so-and-so" messages. UGH! Stop calling me!

Anyway... so remember the last post I wrote, about wanting spring to come? Well, we're getting a little taste of that today! It is 65 degrees out, and there's a near-cloudless blue sky. Such a long awaited day. Too bad it's just a teaser. Tonight it is supposed to start raining and we'll have a half inch of rain overnight, then another 2 inches of rain tomorrow. Thank goodness we don't live in an area that floods easily... there are a lot of flood watches for areas south of us.
So THEN after tomorrow, the snow is coming back again, a little on Wednesday and then most of the day Thursday. Boo hiss.

Russ and I are supposed to go do something later... he ACTUALLY SUGGESTED we could take the baby to the mall and walk around. And really...who am I to pass up an afternoon at the mall?! I'm just waiting for the baby to wake up from her nap, then we'll figure out what we're gonna do. For dinner today we're gonna grill some steaks outside and take advantage of our one day of nice weather.

And to end my post, a little tidbit about Alyson... I swear the girl is growing up SO FAST! She just started crawling within the past few weeks, and now she's already pulling herself up to a standing position! If you put your hands out, she grabs hold of them and lifts herself up, and she tries to grab hold of the couch and do the same thing. I feel like I'm gonna wake up one day next week and she's gonna be walking. LOL. She'd better hold off on that for awhile... I'm not done babyproofing yet :-) I need to get started on putting locks on the cupboards... yesterday, she was crawling around in the kitchen while I made dinner, and next thing I knew, she had opened one of the cupboards, grabbed my bottle of balsamic vinegar, and was rolling it around on the floor. NOT GOOD! LOL.

Well, Aly's up...she's staring at me with a big grin on her face. Melts my heart ;-)

Have a great day!