tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29903562433490642102024-02-06T20:58:13.586-05:00*The Good, the Bad, and the Just Plain Rediculous!*Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-91243236910527469452011-05-24T01:03:00.004-04:002011-05-24T01:39:25.895-04:00Will's 1st Birthday!Up late again tonight, so I figured I'd post again :-) Alyson has been waking up around this time for the past few nights and crying for me, for no apparent reason. Not sure what's going on there. For the past week and a half or so, her bedtime routine has been dragging out longer and longer. We used to listen to some music, read a book, then I'd say goodnight and that would be that. I'd close the door and she'd fall right to sleep. Then one day she wanted her light left on. Then she wanted her door left open. Now she wants me to lay with her until she falls asleep. If I get up before she's fallen asleep, she'll get out of bed and want to follow me downstairs. I swear it takes almost an hour to get her to sleep each night when it used to take 20, if that. <br /><br />And NOW-- she'll wake up crying and yelling for me. Lastnight she woke up 3 different times. The first time wasa around 1am... I went and layed down in her bed and ended up falling asleep up there until 4am-ish. Being that my bed is MUCH more comfy than hers, I came back downstairs. Not even a half hour later, she must have woken up and noticed I was gone. I hear screaming and crying. I got to the steps and there she was, sitting at the top of the steps saying, "Mommy... you were in my room... you were gone." Ugh... so back upstairs I went and stayed there until she woke me up for good this morning by nudging me and saying, "Mommy, wake up-- I want cartoons on!" lol<br /><br />So far so good tonight... (fingers crossed)... I just don't want this to become a regular thing! I like my own bed. No-- make that, I LOVE my own bed. Hopefully this is just a little phase she's going through. <br /><br />Anyway... onto the weekend. <br /><br />Sunday was our baby boy William's 1st Birthday. I can not believe Will is ONE already!! This year has FLOWN!! We plan on doing a larger family/friends birthday party for both kids in June once we get settled in the new house, but still wanted to do something for him on his actual birthday. We went to church, out to breakfast, then went party supply shopping. We had a small little party for him at our house around 5:30pm. We just invited our parents and two of our close friends and their 3 little kids. Russ had ordered some pasta and meatballs from a local Italian restaurant, and we had cake and ice cream. Will LOVED his cake!! It was white cake with strawberry filling and whipped icing. The boy ATE IT UP! There was some green icing on the outer edge of the cake, so his face and hands were all green! He was still slightly tinted green through the evening! It was hilarious!! <br /><br />Now onto Monday... 4 more days to go until MOVING DAY! It still seems surreal that this won't be our house anymore. We've been here for 7 years and have made SO many memories here. I get a little choked up thinking about it because really-- this was the house we lived in when it was just the two of us, then the two of us and dogs, then kids entered the picture. The other night I was putting Aly to bed and while waiting for her to fall asleep I was looking around her room thinking back to when I was pregnant and found out I was having a girl. I was SO excited to decorate her bedroom. I painted and decorated the whole thing myself and was so pleased with how everything turned out. Same thing with Will's room. I only hope their bedrooms at the new house turn out just as great! We haven't done anything with their rooms yet... they need wallpaper removed and walls painted, but other than that they are ready to move into. I figure Rome wasn't built in a day, so we have to prioritize our home updates right now.<br /><br />But yeah... SO many memories here. I'll miss this house in many ways, but then there are things about it (neighborhood-wise, mostly) I won't miss. I won't miss people driving past our house like the road is a highway. I won't miss the police cars having to go to the apartment complex down the street because the residents are doing drugs or being disorderly. I really do think the neighborhood is the main reason we wanted to move. It's just not very kid friendly, and as the kids are growing up, that's a priority for me. I want a safe neighborhood where I can take the kids or the dogs for a walk and not feel like we're gonna get run over by a motorcyclist or car going 50 mph down what SHOULD BE a 20 mph road. <br /><br />I know this new house will bring so many more memories though. It'll give us the added space we need, because with 2 kids and 3 dogs, this house feels like the walls are closing in sometimes!! I'm just looking forward to painting and decorating the rest of the house... I absolutely love that kinda stuff. Can't wait to figure out where all our things can go... though I'm sure once we're halfway through unpacking I won't be so excited. <br /><br />*sigh* This is just bittersweet. I know it'll really hit me when we get our final things out of the house and close the door for the last time. <br /><br />Well, I should head to bed now. Here are a few pics of Will's party (the rest are on FB). Nighty Night!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1I_ay0eTHKekZtyPD8g3ltH_MmwA5lEieS0WF3dr95XVaxNwdbZtVNIlFD7t1COvzQIdKuRD6QCdXOKT23Bq_WE2Pspwkd8J5pcdsz7R8I92WsVLuXK02_M1qcihVyNhZpFt38X67MH7/s1600/031.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1I_ay0eTHKekZtyPD8g3ltH_MmwA5lEieS0WF3dr95XVaxNwdbZtVNIlFD7t1COvzQIdKuRD6QCdXOKT23Bq_WE2Pspwkd8J5pcdsz7R8I92WsVLuXK02_M1qcihVyNhZpFt38X67MH7/s320/031.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610152241572225234" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1aRctPurrxI05nHa3h7beoGfRp5LDUQJDSfbhi-K7DusdOJmf7hNupc-aVQ-8_hyphenhyphenZKast2hUOGTbbficQPvUWVsxrBEVgy0k2oyw0lTWWlFbe-Zs5CIFxVXfqkz4KhD8LQJUpuuRpfLdx/s1600/026.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1aRctPurrxI05nHa3h7beoGfRp5LDUQJDSfbhi-K7DusdOJmf7hNupc-aVQ-8_hyphenhyphenZKast2hUOGTbbficQPvUWVsxrBEVgy0k2oyw0lTWWlFbe-Zs5CIFxVXfqkz4KhD8LQJUpuuRpfLdx/s320/026.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610151955256847186" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJunJfgu3WasdONVlm3AmX-Kyd2MWJXBbN4Too-O_By6VWSNFftiAf0veKbPWt5fz1NP0GXQwiXtP50XEI8ybjH1zcwGe-Kz0ITZP6b1YIcT1H3_3ZYscqKV-49jSHuJ7fMJJOLzZ5Prp/s1600/024.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJunJfgu3WasdONVlm3AmX-Kyd2MWJXBbN4Too-O_By6VWSNFftiAf0veKbPWt5fz1NP0GXQwiXtP50XEI8ybjH1zcwGe-Kz0ITZP6b1YIcT1H3_3ZYscqKV-49jSHuJ7fMJJOLzZ5Prp/s320/024.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610151946313224610" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo1JcLTKAL5GbxsZtaMF8K5xymLgLcwaPEsvdEJIq2nAFmz4BlzEVfBnp_qZptaTvbo6E-nCtCqvi4l1BQkm8Q8Jt66-N-1G05rbMXiW66IUxz2dLpB_jsTR42ZL9ZUltjc8WCgmInzD_6/s1600/018.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo1JcLTKAL5GbxsZtaMF8K5xymLgLcwaPEsvdEJIq2nAFmz4BlzEVfBnp_qZptaTvbo6E-nCtCqvi4l1BQkm8Q8Jt66-N-1G05rbMXiW66IUxz2dLpB_jsTR42ZL9ZUltjc8WCgmInzD_6/s320/018.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610151934291677698" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4LgYfGxZsKa4Cv1xsBcTIcOLPLOxeYND1BMMqD44yhgGZmleFcMRbU62Rz8V_V-l82Rt4YJr50RNSeRZCCrlC0k9oNCduAqEJPEYkCi2Zb5jhseVg0t6NIvkEpbxywS2mDP5Z5FIijUF/s1600/015.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4LgYfGxZsKa4Cv1xsBcTIcOLPLOxeYND1BMMqD44yhgGZmleFcMRbU62Rz8V_V-l82Rt4YJr50RNSeRZCCrlC0k9oNCduAqEJPEYkCi2Zb5jhseVg0t6NIvkEpbxywS2mDP5Z5FIijUF/s320/015.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610151929851247682" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQAfMmruWsWpfVhG9nGTTFDL-jhrE3dXUy7cOkjgrixrk9IdT1bu4QWPZqdiogO2xjJZ-7oziRV-ALYFJhp6KVfrb7cqO_pIA0S8bQR30te2Kyi05vrjs0i7t7fyfGFfpzUTcoMEZVcQSy/s1600/009.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQAfMmruWsWpfVhG9nGTTFDL-jhrE3dXUy7cOkjgrixrk9IdT1bu4QWPZqdiogO2xjJZ-7oziRV-ALYFJhp6KVfrb7cqO_pIA0S8bQR30te2Kyi05vrjs0i7t7fyfGFfpzUTcoMEZVcQSy/s320/009.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610151923473577618" /></a>Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-90283285588267629262011-05-21T10:53:00.006-04:002011-05-21T11:41:39.650-04:00Picture time!I woke up this morning to find something it feels like we haven't seen for quite awhile...<br /><br />SUNSHINE!!!! <br /><br />This weather has been crazy... it's really depressing to wake up every morning to clouds and/or dreary rainy weather. Finally, some sunshine!! Puts me in a much better mood. But one weird thing it makes me want to do is clean...LOL! I have no idea why. Maybe because I can open the windows up and get the fresh air in the house, so I want the house to be nice and clean. I dunno. I just know I have to take advantage of this burst of housecleaning motivation while it lasts. But I have to put the important things first-- like blogging.;-)<br /><br />Well, yesterday my mom and I took the kiddos to Sears for their birthday pics. Alyson will be 4 on June 21st and Will is going to be 1 year old TOMORROW!!! I still can't believe a whole year has gone by already. <br /><br />AND-- of course--- a few nights ago Will was playing near a big bin of toys we have in the living room, when all the sudden he started crying really loudly. I scooped him up and held him on my lap for a bit until he stopped crying, then he turned around and looked at me and I saw a nickle-sized knot on his right cheek. Instant bruise. He either fell onto one of his toys, or hit his cheek off the end of the toy bin. Poor little guy. Needless to say, he got his very first face bruise two. days. before. pictures. I couldn't cancel the pictures because we are moving next week, and I knew if I didn't do it now, they wouldn't get done in time for their birthdays. So, we went for pictures yesterday, bruised face and all. And of course they don't do touch-ups at Sears for some crazy reason. You'd think they would. The pics turned out really cute, but you can still see the bruise in the pics. Guess it will give us something to talk about when he's older...<br /><br />Anyway, Will totally did not want ANYTHING to do with pictures at first. But I guess you can't expect to plop a one year-old with stranger anxiety down on a backdrop and expect him to instantly be a smiley camera ham. I feel like I got a nice workout from chasing him around the room,picking him up and trying to make him somewhat pose for the girl. We gave him a little break and my mom fed him some of a bottle while my true camera ham got her pictures taken. Aly was LOVING getting her picture taken. She kept wanting to lay down on her belly. She was so cooperative and did exactly what the girl asked her to do-- what a breath of fresh air...lol. After Aly was done, Will was starting to come around a bit, so we got a few decent poses of him. No smiles though. My normally smiley boy just did not want to smile at all. :-( I told the girl, "As long as we get ONE pose of each of them separately and one together, I'm happy." Surprisingly, there were quite a few decent ones to pick from. And of course, I couldn't decide which ones I liked the best and ended up spending way too much money on way too many pics,which I told myself I WOULD NOT DO. Ugh... oh well. There will be lots of pics of the kiddos up around the new house :-) <br /><br />I'm adding some pics from yesterday at the end of this post. For those of you I'm friends with on FB, I posted the whole set of pics on there if you want to check the rest out. <br /><br />Well, I guess I should get started with cleaning. I have a whole long list of things I need to do during this next week before we move, like scrubbing floors, washing walls, cleaning windows and blinds... you know, all the fun stuff. Rather than put our home on the market right away, Russ is renting it out to one of his employees and his family. We move out Friday the 27th, and they need to be in by the 1st to avoid paying another month's rent where they are now, so we need to hurry in order to have the house all ready for them. It's gonna be go-go-go this next week, so I might not be posting much til after the move. We'll see :-) <br /><br />Have a great weekend!<br /><br />Here are a few pics from yesterday...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9wBPkhUuZE4ZRQPVRy_wVxDWV0IaOO-Qcvwrd6fh71Mjmd7ag3byfIx7VfNFkW8_XJqCdN5EeA-DcaKR4GkVudoP35jzwXNI2mYnGQgJUUiziLVn-h9JIUk99-opk78UVzegH9ZE7ion/s1600/s41152ca112476_24.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9wBPkhUuZE4ZRQPVRy_wVxDWV0IaOO-Qcvwrd6fh71Mjmd7ag3byfIx7VfNFkW8_XJqCdN5EeA-DcaKR4GkVudoP35jzwXNI2mYnGQgJUUiziLVn-h9JIUk99-opk78UVzegH9ZE7ion/s320/s41152ca112476_24.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609188304254349330" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg582bP8Gcv3djjJyqYwcas-udUxKF3gaTOfr6xgCJAs7MAWAPihNVsMnSAjclrPdrjgrtk4ajA8EPhgFi7QFiG3W-w35pfMgYDxlme-ntMPMsDO5L-FGATVm-n9t9yYVTPPtD0y0xDp1zJ/s1600/s41152ca112476_23_2.jpg"><img style="float:left; 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margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFkK4seNo9T7wrvhVfByaq8wLyERV9qjkoo_VTInBR9cLaTDS2YLy16ThClxlG4pjNrxnKyRxl0b41oLhg5_XwtYYOd9JROu_qriOD37JlZHb5ZjTYkq0F9dzyQTlmTOgpwxPvDNqV5_2U/s320/s41152ca112476_7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609187807270804930" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DRGCP8YJQ3NvRZIqIZGdojP9lsfLcsR5i6LS5NlW4ZPO5l6taJYnhmFNUz8QsocdrrQwayClr54kAmCuWpvjs_QjlTBNxvtYZ15t7RHR-i3Cv3U1BXTgYm5SsjYDiEXILnlQF7AUZxng/s1600/s41152ca112476_6.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DRGCP8YJQ3NvRZIqIZGdojP9lsfLcsR5i6LS5NlW4ZPO5l6taJYnhmFNUz8QsocdrrQwayClr54kAmCuWpvjs_QjlTBNxvtYZ15t7RHR-i3Cv3U1BXTgYm5SsjYDiEXILnlQF7AUZxng/s320/s41152ca112476_6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609187801865338114" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY83MVKQBV_nyDRFDpnVkOOvMn4BgwgEtHG2-7LTEpm6BjM8XsbGxKuX2_1t_ONpUsTk-Kc670oJ6KrKO04V-1QykT9s483MzdI4cmj5mbYLtJK012AL_o3LFN3HJ8_fXFD-NEWG1X5v-g/s1600/s41152ca112476_4_2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY83MVKQBV_nyDRFDpnVkOOvMn4BgwgEtHG2-7LTEpm6BjM8XsbGxKuX2_1t_ONpUsTk-Kc670oJ6KrKO04V-1QykT9s483MzdI4cmj5mbYLtJK012AL_o3LFN3HJ8_fXFD-NEWG1X5v-g/s320/s41152ca112476_4_2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609187795797552706" /></a>Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-63599568423535885242011-05-18T00:51:00.002-04:002011-05-18T01:53:23.327-04:00The "I couldn't think of anything to write, so here's a survey" postI'm tired but not ready to go to bed yet... wanted to update my blog but do not have the brain power right now to think of something interesting to write about. SO--- it's survey time! Here's a little about me :-) <br /><br /><br />1. What time did you get up this morning?<br />8am<br /><br />2. Diamonds or pearls?<br />diamonds<br /><br />3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?<br />HA! Wow that was a long time ago. I'm a "wait til it comes out on dvd" (or Comcast On-Demand in my case) kinda person. I would have to say it was one of the American Pie movies. Yeah-- long time ago. <br /><br />4. What's your favorite TV show?<br />Right now I am absolutely loving "The Voice." I'm also into Dancing with the Stars mostly because of Hines Ward being on the show shaking his booty every week. Other favorites include Law and Order:SVU, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, House Hunters/House Hunters International (well, anything HGTV usually) and yes, my soap which I DVR religiously-- Young and the Restless. ;-) <br /><br />5. What did you have for breakfast this morning?<br />Honey Nut Cheerios and a cup of hot tea.<br /><br />6. What's your favorite cuisine?<br />Italian! Though some General Tso's Chicken sounds reeeeeally good right now...<br /><br />7. What foods do you dislike?<br />I don't do oysters or anything slimy like that. And grapefuit-- just can't do it. Also tried some collard greens at my in-laws' house (they grew up in VA so they always ate them) and yeah-- not a fan. <br /><br />8. What is your favorite chip flavor? <br />Probably tostitos scoops with salsa or salsa con queso. *drool*<br /><br />9. What's your favorite CD at the moment? <br />A mix cd I made years back of songs that remind me of my crazy college years. <br /><br />10. What kind of car do you drive? <br />black GMC Yukon Denali<br /><br />11. Favorite sandwich?<br />chicken salad wrap with lettuce, tomato and cheese<br /><br />12. What characteristics do you despise? <br />as evidenced by my previous post-- hypocrisy is one. People who are dishonest or two-faced. Materialistic people or people who think they are above everyone. <br /><br />13. What is your favorite type of clothing? <br />I like anything comfortable, without giving off that "I'm a mom and have no time for myself" vibe. ;-) Jeans and a cute shirt suits me just fine. But when I'm relaxing at home, pj/lounge pants here I come. <br /><br />14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation.Where? <br />I would love to go to Italy or anywhere tropical. <br /><br />15. What color is your bathroom? <br />one is white, one is green.<br /><br />16. Favorite brand of clothing? <br />no favorite brand... anything that looks cute is fine with me. <br /><br />17. Where would you retire to? <br />hands down-- Outer Banks of North Carolina. Love love love it there. <br /><br />18. Favorite time of the day? <br />Night time after the kiddos and hubby are in bed. I can actually hear myself think.<br /><br />19. What was your most memorable birthday? <br />My 21st... though it was only memorable to a certain point.... ;-) lol <br /><br />20. Where were you born? <br />Steubenville, OH<br /><br />21. Favorite sport to watch? <br />Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey<br /><br />22. What fabric detergent do you use? <br />Tide... and when I want to shake it up a bit I use Tide w/ April Fresh Downy ;-)<br /><br />23. Were you named after anyone? <br />My middle name (Jane) is after my grandmother. (mom's mom)<br /><br />24. Do you wish on stars? <br />eh... not really. <br /><br />25. When did you last cry? <br />LoL... I got kinda teary-eyed watching Hines Ward start crying on DWTS, if that counts. Last CRY cry was probably a few weeks ago when I was feeling so freaking frustrated and overwhelmed. It was a bad day with the kiddos and I just had a lot on my plate that day. Sometimes a good cry makes you feel SO much better!<br /><br />26. Do you like your handwriting? <br />Most of the time. When I'm not writing in a hurry, I like it.<br /><br />27. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Absolutely! I think I'm a great friend. I am loyal, supportive, trustworthy, honest and fun with a little sarcastic smartassedness (is that a word) thrown in there. ;-) I would give the shirt off my back (but I might have to keep my bra) if you needed it. <br /><br />28. Are you a daredevil? <br />Let me think.....uh, no. <br /><br />29. Do looks matter? <br />Sometimes<br /><br />30. How do you release anger? <br />Yell...cry... throw random (unbreakable) things at walls... have a margarita.... ;-)<br /><br />31. What were your favorite toys as a child? <br />my Casio keyboard, hula hoop, my barbies/barbie dollhouse, games like Candyland and Sorry.... <br /><br />32. What class in High School was totally useless? <br />I'd have to say Spanish, only because we spent more time watching La Bamba and eating candy than learning Spanish. I would have liked to come away from 3 years of Spanish class having known how to say more than "hola" "Como estas" and random spanish curse words. I think my daughter at 4 years old knows more spanish due to Dora and Diego than I learned in 3 years of spanish class! <br /><br />33 Favorite movies? Armageddon, Empire Records, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Mummy, Billy Madison, The Notebook<br /><br /><br />34. What are your nicknames? <br />My coworkers called me Bethel, but I don't really have any current nicknames. <br /><br />35. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? <br />no<br /><br />36. Do you think that you are strong? <br />I try to be. I've gotten stronger over the years.<br /><br />37. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? oreo<br /><br />38. What is your favorite color? <br />blue<br /><br />39. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? <br />I care too much what people think. <br /><br />40. Who do you miss the most? <br />my relatives who live far away... my grandparents who've passed<br /><br />41 What color pants are you wearing?<br />Grey pj pants<br /><br />42. Last thing you ate? <br />cheddar cheese chex mix...that stuff is addictive. <br /><br />43. Favorite song?<br />hmm... right now I would say it is Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" <br /><br />44. If you were a CRAYON what color would you be?<br />red<br /><br />45. Last person you talked to on the phone? <br />My cousin Brenda<br /><br />46. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?<br />hmm... I'd say eyes.<br /><br />47. Favorite drink? <br />hot tea<br /><br />48. Do you wear contacts?<br />nope. No glasses or contacts.....yet.<br /><br />49. Favorite day of the year? <br />Christmas Day<br /><br />50. Endings happy or sad?<br />Happy of course<br /><br />51. Winter/summer? <br />Summer, no contest.<br /><br />52. Hugs OR Kisses? <br />Both, please.<br /><br />53. What is Your Favorite Dessert?<br />anything chocolate<br /><br />54. What Book(s) are you reading? Just got done reading "Heaven is for Real" by Todd Burpo. Very very interesting read...<br /><br />55. What is on your mouse pad? <br />Pittsburgh Penguins hockey schedule <br /><br />56. What Did You Watch Last night on TV? <br />DVR'd shows-- Y&R, Tabatha's Salon Takeover<br /><br />57. Favorite Smells?<br />my clean kiddos after their baths, vanilla candles, fresh baked bread, the air outside after it rains, clothes fresh out of the dryer<br /><br />58. Stones or Beatles?<br />Stones<br /><br />59. What's the furthest you've been from home?<br />probably the Caribbean... either Punta Cana or Cayman Islands, not sure which is further from me<br /><br />60.What is the most memorable moment in your life to date?<br />The birth of Alyson and Will, and my wedding day :-) Best moments of my life, hands down.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-61806788975028111562011-05-15T15:58:00.004-04:002011-05-15T16:51:15.197-04:00Weekend: Success.... Carnival: Fail.Ugh... WHY do I always pick Saturday night to stay up extra late, knowing fully well that I will have to wake up close to 7am on Sunday?? 3 1/2 hours of sleep....soooo tired. <br /><br />And of course the minute I sit down to type this, my 3 year-old decides she wants to crawl on my lap. She just told me, "I want to sit on your legs. Put your pooter (she won't say computer for some reason!)down." LOL Meanwhile, Will is in the kitchen playing with the ABC fridge magnets... and I'm hearing the ABC song over. And over. And over. And over...... Never a dull moment in this house. Well, never a <em>quiet</em> moment is more like it. <br /><br />I decided at 11pm lastnight to put Will's baby pictures in a photo album I bought awhile back. Yeah, only took me a year to start a photo album for him. I've totally been slacking where that's concerned. Anyway, going through hundreds of pics and trying to get them in somewhat of an order took me a few hours. Then, despite it being 1:30am, I decided to watch some shows I dvr'd. <br /><br />yawn.... I need a nap.<br /><br />Ok... kiddos are officially preoccupied with their chicken nuggets and fruit, so mama has a (short) moment of peace. <br /><br />Onto the weekend...<br /><br />This weekend was nice.... Russ has been so busy with work all through the week, so it was nice that we got to go out as a family and spend the afternoon together yesterday. We went out to dinner here in town, and it just so happened that the carnival is in town. You could see everything from the windows of the restaurant so of course Alyson asked if she could go to the carnival every 2 seconds during dinner. She was SO excited to go and kept saying how she wanted to go on the ferris wheel. So after dinner, off to the carnival we went. We didn't have our stroller with us, so we had to hold Will since he isn't walking very well yet, and the area the carnival was at was all gravel. We were trading him off about every 5 minutes because he was constantly squirming to get down. Aly was saying how she wanted to go on the rides, so we went to go get some tickets. Fortunately, Russ has done some work for the guy who owns the carnival stuff, so we got Aly's hand stamped for free, plus free tickets for us. THANK GOD, because Aly chickened out on every ride. Didn't ride ONE THING. Russ and I both took her on the merry-go-round, and at the last second with both of us, she got down and headed right back out the gate. Same thing with the kiddie roller coaster and this ride that's kinda like the teacup ride (the one that spins around) but it was teddy bears. Makes me kinda rethink taking her to an amusement park this summer! Guess we'll have to wait and see. Maybe if she had another kid with her she would have gone on the rides. Who knows. <br /><br />After the carnival lastnight we went to the new house, then took the kiddos to Coldstone Creamery where Aly downed some vanilla ice cream with sprinkles (she never wants anything different) and Will had his first kiddie cup of Apple Fritter ice cream. I think he would have licked the cup if we had given it to him once the ice cream was all gone-- he loved it! Mommy and daddy went the healthy route and split a strawberry banana smoothie, though chocolate was sounding pretty darn good. <br /><br />Today we had church, then breakfast, then back home for a day of just relaxing. (ie: cleaning and laundry for me-- real relaxing.) Russ had a lot of stuff to do in the office today so it's just me and the kiddos hanging out. Can't say I've gotten much done today besides laundry though. The house looks like a small tornado went through. I swear, sometimes I wonder why I bother to clean. Seriously. It's frustrating. Add three big dogs to the mix and I feel like I need a drink by the end of the night...lol! (Preferably a glass of wine or a margarita.) <br /><br />All I know is....bedtime is gonna be early tonight for the kiddos. And probably for me. <br /><br />Hope everyone had a great weekend!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-9795153769887360622011-05-13T22:49:00.005-04:002011-05-13T23:51:42.932-04:00Updates! :-)Ok, so seeing all your new posts inspired me....lol! I'm jumping on the blog updating bandwagon too. ;-) <br /><br />Where to begin...<br /><br />Well, my last post was in February, and I had written about how Russ and I just booked a trip to Cancun. So I guess my updates will start there :-) <br /><br />We went to Cancun from April 7-10...this was pretty much an early birthday present for me, since my bday was April 13th (the big 3-1.) We stayed at Live Aqua and it was sooooo relaxing there! It's a very zen-like spa type atmosphere there. As soon as you walk in the lobby, there are beautiful water features and the scent of eucalyptus in the air. It's an all-inclusive resort and isn't considered adults only but we didn't see many kids there at all, just a few people with babies. We stayed on the 5th floor in an "Aqua Club" room and had access to the Aqua Lounge which is located on the same floor. They have snacks out throughout the day and various liquor tastings each day. Russ and I aren't big drinkers at all (I think we still have liquor from our wedding in2005!), but we definitely enjoyed the tequila tasting our last night there!! They had about 20 or so different bottles of tequila out that night...fun stuff, I'll just say that! <br /><br />The beach was B-E-A-UTIFUL!! Absolutely gorgeous clear turquoise water. Each morning we woke up and ordered room service breakfast and enjoyed that breathtaking view. We'd spend a few hours at the beach/pool areas then head out for some shopping, etc... Unfortunately my husband had the attitude that "I'm already tan so I don't need sunscreen"--- yeah, he ended up paying for that after the first day at the beach. Aloe was his best friend for the rest of the trip. I made sure I got pictures of that. <br /><br />Aside from shopping (the mall was right across the street from the resort--awesome!), we took a late-night boat ride through the lagoon and out into the ocean a little and got to see the resorts in the hotel zone all lit up-- absolutely gorgeous. The boat owner and his captain tried finding the croc named "Ponchito" that hides out in a certain part of the lagoon, but he wouldn't make an appearance for us. I can't say I was disappointed about that! <br /><br />We made sure to check out the local Hooters restaurant too, one evening...LOL. ONLY because they were the only place close to our resort where we could watch the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. The Pens won in overtime, and we got to watch a beautiful sunset over the Nichupte Lagoon in the process. :-) Great night. <br /><br />Anyway, it was SO great to get away for a few days. Russ's mom and her husband watched the kids the first few nights, then my parents had them the last few nights. They all stayed at our house so it was great not having to take the dogs to the kennel, plus the kids got to stay in a familiar environment. Not that they aren't at our parents' houses all the time, but we figured they'd be missing us so it was better that they got to at least sleep in their own rooms at night. Aly's very much into a routine, so it seemed to work out better that way. I'll be sure and post some pics of the trip very soon!! <br /><br /><br />In other news--<br /><br />My baby boy Will is turning ONE on May 22nd!! This year has FLOWN!! I can't believe it's been a year since I was blessed with my son! He's already cutting his 7th tooth, and has been *trying* to walk for the past few weeks. He'd take about 5 or so steps then plop down on his butt. Today, he was walking all over the place, so I think he's got it down now. He still looks like he's had a few too many to drink when he walks, but he can go longer distances now. He gets a huge grin on his face-- so proud of himself. Of course, now I can't keep track of him. This is when I really start to miss the days where I'd put him in one spot and know he wasn't going to move from that spot.*sigh* lol <br /><br />OH-- another huge update. In mid-February, Russ and I saw a few homes we wanted to look at on realtor.com. Two in particular really looked like they had what we wanted. (I wasn't getting my hopes up though-- we'd been looking on and off for four or so years with no luck.) Well, on Feb 13th we looked at 2 houses about 5 minutes from where we live now... the first home had a great lot, great neighborhood, but crappy layout. The second home, well---- was IT. We just knew. Great neighborhood, big flat backyard, lots of space. Seriously, we weren't halfway through the house and my husband was talking about making an offer! We put an offer on the house right after we looked at it... got a counteroffer which was still more than what we wanted to pay, but we couldn't pass it up... so we accepted their counteroffer and are now new homeowners (again!) <br /><br /> The house is a 5 bedroom 2 3/4 bath with about 3000 sq feet. Lots of room for the kiddos. I'm excited they they'll actually have a designated playroom now, since every room in our current house seems like a playroom!! The kitchen is big, we have a formal dining room now, plus we have a spare bedroom again! Just can't wait to move in. Yeah.... not in the house yet. :-( Closing took awhile... we didn't close til the end of March. The house really hadn't been updated much since it was built (yeah, wait til I post pics-- it was interesting), so renovations have been going on for over a month now. At this point, everything we needed to do in order to move in is done except for countertops. We are still waiting for kitchen and bathroom countertops to be installed, which isn't happening until the 18th (hopefully a little before that.) Our moving date is set for the 27th, so the next few weeks are gonna be busy!! Aside from packing for college, I really haven't gone through the moving process before. Moving in our current house with Russ was such a gradual process-- a few things here,a few things there-- that it wasn't a big ordeal. This is gonna be interesting, being that we have 7 years of stuff accumulated in this house. We've already thrown out or donated a lot of stuff, but there's still so much to do! I'm nervous and excited at the same time. This will be a great change for us though. It'll just be great knowing that's the house we're in for the long term. I'll keep you updated... I have lots of before and after pics I'll post soon too. <br /><br />Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :-)Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-50637189593138485802011-02-07T00:43:00.009-05:002011-02-07T01:22:47.044-05:002 months and counting!SO BUMMED about Steelers losing the Super Bowl!! Ugh. Three Pittsburgh turnovers for 21 Green Bay points just doesn't win a game... :-( I was really hoping they'd pull out a win at the end, but no such luck. Maybe next year, right?? As for the entertainment, I think it sucked! I don't think the Black Eyed Peas were that great... they should have had Usher do the whole halftime show. Not to mention Cristina Aguilera screwing up the lyrics to the National Anthem! She's never gonna live that one down...the media's already all over it. I was looking foward to the commercials this year but there weren't that many I liked. I loved the Doritos one where the guy licks the cheese off the other guy's finger... the Pepsi Max first date one... the Teleflora commercial with Faith Hill in it... and the Cars.com one about "Going First." Those are the ones that stuck in my mind, but I don't think I saw half of them! (Baby bedtime takes awhile...lol) So.... now that football is done, back to cheering on the Pittsburgh Penguins now :-) <br /><br />Anyway, onto the good news... <br /><br />Russ and I FINALLY booked our trip to Cancun!! SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!! We're going in April and staying at Live Aqua. It's an all-inclusive. We've done Riu Caribe (not the best place, but a good value) and Sun Palace (AWESOME!)in the past... we would have gone back to Sun Palace but we wanted to do something different. Looking forward to getting away, just the two of us. Yes-- we will be CHILDLESS. We're only going for 3 nights though. I'd miss the kiddos too much if it were any longer than that!! It'll be just long enough to relax and de-stress. SO looking foward to lounging on the beach, sipping a fruity drink and enjoying the gorgeous turquoise water!! LOVE IT. <br /><br />Here are a few pics of the resort-- looks like it's gonna be amazing!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOKTOBd9sDTdkjNaiGJrfF9sBeXmYt91FSf_GQ8HXqEBsf1aK4vSp1dWxLTdpHak5d5n0WZ0DQV8PPsd0Pz1pzcj5j9sPiBJ9Ipm4AST5SLfb8lQ2NryJqUQqniD0WI5a31YL7OV9vmoEE/s1600/resort+view.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOKTOBd9sDTdkjNaiGJrfF9sBeXmYt91FSf_GQ8HXqEBsf1aK4vSp1dWxLTdpHak5d5n0WZ0DQV8PPsd0Pz1pzcj5j9sPiBJ9Ipm4AST5SLfb8lQ2NryJqUQqniD0WI5a31YL7OV9vmoEE/s320/resort+view.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570824522101044914" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ddKCDtaV_L9esW5I2ZkJ2-JfbJ-WgLYq5noSIyrc3Kd7s19T7u7U7e2wgJuGsX8b7iaG9TqqN2TSLHT8w3ak1s-a48CJ4K39gyOmjKUegYDbfZuL0Ws4a6bT9t_1D0h4y8DNK-kahzXH/s1600/beach+view1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ddKCDtaV_L9esW5I2ZkJ2-JfbJ-WgLYq5noSIyrc3Kd7s19T7u7U7e2wgJuGsX8b7iaG9TqqN2TSLHT8w3ak1s-a48CJ4K39gyOmjKUegYDbfZuL0Ws4a6bT9t_1D0h4y8DNK-kahzXH/s320/beach+view1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570824841038850994" /></a><br /><br /><br /><center>Beach Cabanas!</center><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2RHAICbAP-yL-PBWPFz3RkMhj2meqoh6Pxme_l0WrjPCchCsmwyCOdELJPxcdgT9z02DlGD5xwGnSLfZ0avXzo64MuER_QesGVdVfzZdLZWCVPFjOkomcH6gjSptCzWmukBNFgaSJyW2n/s1600/aqua-cancun.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2RHAICbAP-yL-PBWPFz3RkMhj2meqoh6Pxme_l0WrjPCchCsmwyCOdELJPxcdgT9z02DlGD5xwGnSLfZ0avXzo64MuER_QesGVdVfzZdLZWCVPFjOkomcH6gjSptCzWmukBNFgaSJyW2n/s320/aqua-cancun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570825790532898370" /></a><br /><br /><br /><center>Exterior at night:</center><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvjjxXLYmd8Tn6n0ukmLWTb5GrhKv2Zfl-EqcZTTSYcbdCQ26QMRf8oTshfjXZ3mb7xnJonqCM78DxhhY1OOhuHfyKx9eezvy3z_Xx8-Aparqd53cMmtY_yt4wJHttvHWRb3d5RaWdHpKh/s1600/exterior-at-night.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvjjxXLYmd8Tn6n0ukmLWTb5GrhKv2Zfl-EqcZTTSYcbdCQ26QMRf8oTshfjXZ3mb7xnJonqCM78DxhhY1OOhuHfyKx9eezvy3z_Xx8-Aparqd53cMmtY_yt4wJHttvHWRb3d5RaWdHpKh/s320/exterior-at-night.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570826261080825250" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The down side... only 2 months to get my butt bathing suit-ready again...lol ;-) <br /><br />Off to bed... I only got 4 hours of sleep lastnight so I can hardly keep my eyes open. Just wanted to update real quick. More soon :-) Happy Monday....Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-72605759898389936342011-01-23T23:16:00.008-05:002011-01-24T00:25:17.999-05:00JETS --> (J)ust (E)nded (T)heir (S)eason<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="400" height="290" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2eVPxvaIzec" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe><br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="400" height="290" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/esdVUIALmcg" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe><br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="400" height="290" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BJSZmRgNFJQ" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe><br /><br />PITTSBURGH'S GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL.... HERE WE GO..... <br /><br />YAAAAAAAAY! So excited right now!! :-) <br /><br />All in all, today's been a great day. Aside from the Steelers becoming AFC Champs and heading for the Superbowl, Russ and I had our first "date night" in a looooooong time. Well, it was more like "date afternoon." My mother-in-law came over to watch the kids and we went down to the Highlands and did some shopping, then had dinner at Olive Garden. Shopping, yummy portobello ravioli and two glasses of Moscato made me one happy girl...LOL! ;-) <br /><br />Well, I think I'm off to bed. Time to crawl under my warm blankets and get some sleep... this single-digit weather has got to GO! Wishing I was in Cancun right now....Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-60607769740047661722011-01-20T00:15:00.006-05:002011-01-20T00:48:54.836-05:00*&%# ^**%$%!!!!!!!!!!!Today was just one of those days when you wish you could have a do-over. Ugh... <br /><br />Went to Sam's Club today with my cousin. We were loading our stuff up into the back of the Yukon and noticed this lady in a big Escalade stopped behind us. There was a guy collecting carts, so we figured she was just waiting for him to go by. All the sudden she beeped at us, because she wanted to pull in beside me, and my cousin's cart was partially in that spot. She then proceeds to attempt to pull into the spot and HITS. MY. BUMPER. Not just a tap, but hit it hard enough to where the vehicle went forward a bit. Bren and I were just standing there in awe, wondering if the dumbass really did just hit my car. <br /><br />So she took a minute to get out of the car, then comes around the car staring straight at me. It was an older lady, and at first I thought she was about to say something like, "Oh, I'm so sorry" and be all apologetic. She almost kept walking and I said, "Uh... you do realize you just hit my bumper." She got all upset and said, " I did NOT. I did NO SUCH THING." I think steam started coming out my ears at that point. I said, "Yes, you DID hit my bumper. We both stood here and saw you do it." She STILL adamantly denied it. She got all pissy with me and said, "I did not. I didn't feel a thing." <br /><br />I mean seriously.... the lady hit my bumper, then had to back out of the spot so she could pull back in. What did she think made her have to back up?!?! Newsflash-- it was my bumper!! <br /><br />I showed her the scratches (not just scuffs) on the bumper, and she goes, "That's nothing. That will buff right out." (Ok lady, do you do bodywork now and know these things?!) THEN-- (and this pissed me off---) she looked at the scratches and said, "Those could have been there already." I said, "No, they weren't. This is a BRAND NEW vehicle, and unlike you, I'd know if I hit something." I told her I'm not just going to confront someone about something they didn't do! She made it seem like I was standing in the parking lot and just decided to pick a random person and say they hit my car...that's how she came across.<br /><br /> I said, "How about we go look at YOUR bumper, and I can guarantee there are probably scratches on it too." She got a little more upset and said, "Yes, let's do that then." I showed her plain as day where the marks were on her front bumper and the lady tried to tell me it was DIRT. I wiped what dirt WAS there off, and low and behold.... the marks were still there. She still tried to deny it. Finally when she realized her dumbass routine wasn't gonna work anymore she said, "Well what do you want to DO about it?" <br /><br />UGH! Well for starters lady, how about some insurance information??<br /><br />Yeah... dealing with the PA police department wasn't on my to-do list today. The lady admitted to the police that she hit me, but then said, "I still don't think I did it though." I've been driving for what-- 15 years?? And this is the first time anything like this has happened to me. Tomorrow I get to deal with her insurance company, who will get to pay for a new bumper on my vehicle I've only had for 4 months. <br /><br />Yay me. <br /><br />The cherry on top of the cupcake today though-- having to come home and tell my husband all about it and listen to him blow a gasket! Fun stuff! <br /><br />Tomorrow better be a great day!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-501183478934636692011-01-09T22:46:00.006-05:002011-01-09T23:43:01.993-05:00So easily sidetracked... :-)So one of my main goals this new year has been to declutter my life.... in many aspects. One being to LITERALLY declutter my house. My husband jokingly calls me a packrat and says we should be on an episode of Hoarders. While yes, I keep some things that I "might use one day," I am NO WHERE near Hoarders material...lol! I told him, "Have you SEEN the show Hoarders??" and he said, "Well, no...." I said, "Watch it, THEN you just DARE tell me we should be on that show." Let him watch one episode of that show and he'll think our house is immaculate-- two kids, three dogs and all. lol <br /><br />My problem is that when I start going through things (drawers,closets, etc) I come across all the things I've put away that really do mean so much to me....old pictures, old letters, etc... then I just sit there going through it all, thinking back to all the good memories! And of course, I get hardly anything accomplished. <br /><br />Like tonight. I discovered some old cd's and of course had to play them. Right now I'm listening to an O.A.R. (...Of A Revolution) cd from 2003... "In Between Now and Then." (Appropriately titled for this post!!) Brings back SO many memories!! Russ and I had just started "exclusively" dating early that year, and he had gotten this CD right around the beginning of our relationship. All O.A.R's music reminds me of various times in our relationship. The cd I'm listening to right now was played OVER and OVER during our first trip together-- a road trip we took to Buffalo, NY and Niagara Falls, NY/Canada. Russ played the hell out of this cd-- LOUDLY, may I add.. Good times!! Those were the days--- carefree and impulsive days,where we could take off on a whim and think nothing of it. We didn't have kids, pets...no one to be responsible for but ourselves. Now, impulsive is a distant memory. Impulsive for us when it comes to an overnight (or a trip for more than a few days) is planning at least a month in advance so we can find the appropriate babysitters, make reservations for the dogs at the kennel, etc... lol. Kinda hard to be impulsive anymore! Sometimes I find myself missing those days, but I would never give up what I have now!! Listening to all these songs just makes me smile,and think how far we've come in 8 years :-)<br /><br />Next up-- a mix cd I made for my best friends while we were in college in Toledo, Ohio. Ohhhhhhhh my... now those are some crazy, hilarious, "what was I THINKING?" memories!!!! <br /><br />Hmm...yeah, not much decluttering going on around here....lol. I'm having much more fun relaxing and reminiscing....with some short periods of facebooking tossed in there.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-88036533690816032011-01-03T22:58:00.004-05:002011-01-03T23:16:31.052-05:00Boo hoo.Feeling kinda blah today. I started getting a sinus cold about a week before Christmas, and was FINALLY feeling better and had my normal-sounding voice back for about 3 or 4 days.....and now, I'M SICK AGAIN. Back-to-back sinus colds?? Seriously?! Not funny, sinuses. Not funny at all. <br /><br />Anyway... another reason I'm in a mood tonight...<br /><br />My husband and I were discussing the idea of buying a bigger house, because now that we have two kids we just need some extra space. We casually looked around on realtor.com and some other home websites, and came across a few homes we liked. We drove by them, and they just weren't what they appeared to be in the pics, so we didn't call our real estate agent to look at any of them. So yesterday afternoon, I showed my husband a house up for sale about 10 minutes away from where we live now... bigger than our house by about 1000 square feet, and it sits on 15 acres. Lots of privacy, which we'd both like. I actually used to work with the owner of the house, which was a plus because I knew the house was probably immaculate inside!! To my surprise, my husband LOVED it, and called our realtor about going to see it. That was yesterday around 5pm-ish. Russ said he was really interested in the house and would put an offer on it the same day we looked at it if he could. (He hasn't felt that way about a house since the one we put offers on a few years ago!) <br /><br />Our agent called us back this morning, after Russ and I were excitedly talking about the prospect that we might ACTUALLY BE MOVING (YAY!!).... and our bubble was instantly burst. There's already an offer on the house, the people are preapproved for financing, and there's probably no chance of that falling through. <br /><br />Sniffle sniffle. <br /><br />So upsetting. We've both been pretty bummed about it today. The realtor mentioned one other house close to that one, and it was on 10 acres...we figured we might as well look at it. He called the listing agent to set up a showing, then called us back.... and--- burst bubble #2. Contract on that house too. Actually, a bidding war between 2 parties. <br /><br />Needless to say we're back at square one again... at least we don't HAVE to move. We'd just LIKE to move. Russ told me, "Well, I guess this just means there's something better out there waiting for us." That, or it's God's way of teaching me to be patient...lol. Maybe one of these years (cause really, we've been looking on and off at houses for about 4 years now!) we'll find the right one. Just have to wait and see. <br /><br />So that's it for now. Just bummed out, but what can you do, right? It's just not our time to move yet, I guess. Like I always tell myself-- "Everything happens for a reason." <br /><br />Now, I'm off to take some more Nyquil and get some sleep.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-14018233713242192942011-01-01T01:36:00.002-05:002011-01-01T02:01:22.570-05:001/1/11!!!!!Happy New Year!!! <br /><br />Just sitting here thinking of past New Years Eve's.... and MY HOW THINGS CHANGE!!! 10years ago I was super excited that I'd be turning 21....couldn't wait to *legally* drink... was all about going out and having fun. And now-- we got invited to a party tonight, but didn't go since the kiddos are still both getting over their colds. But I realized-- I was perfectly content staying at home tonight with my family. I told Russ, "You know, I don't even feel like going anywhere...let's just stay home this year." Part of me thought, "Did that just come out of my mouth?!"lol But seriously, I really just wanted to stay home and cuddle with my babies and furbabies. (And ok, my husband too.) ;-) I thought for a brief moment that I'd crack open a bottle of wine, but as much as Russ wanted me to (for reasons I won't write in here...LOL) I ended up sitting on the couch with a cup of hot tea. LOL! <br /><br />When it got to be midnight and the ball dropped in Times Square, Russ jokingly kissed all the dogs first, THEN got to me....lol. And not even 5 minutes after midnight, he turned the channel to the show "How It's Made" and it was something about onions. I looked at Russ and said, "Really? Are you serious?!" LOL... <br /><br />In the end, all that matters is being with my family, no matter what we're doing.... I don't need to be at a New Year's Eve party, and I sure as heck don't want to ring in the New Year totally inebriated and then bring in 2011 with a hangover...lol. I feel so blessed and so thankful for everyone I have in my life. Two beautiful kids, 3crazy ornery dogs, and a wonderful husband who would do anything for his family. <br /><br />2010 was full of ups and downs, but was mostly positive. Our family grew by two-- we got our new puppy Ruby (who fortunately is finally starting to settle down a bit) and had our gorgeous baby boy William, who is the best baby boy I could have ever asked for. I finally feel like our family is complete, and can honestly say---- I LOVE my life. <br /><br />Here's hoping 2011 brings much love, good health and happiness. I can't wait to see what exciting things are in store for our family. I just have a feeling this is gonna be a GREAT year!!!<br /><br />Well, I'm off to bed now. Nighty night! Happy 1/1/11!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-7724379642039706212010-12-29T00:56:00.002-05:002010-12-29T01:31:40.744-05:00Christmas recap :-)Well, I hope everyone had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS :-) Our plans ended up changing a bit, and everything (sort of) worked out in the end. This is how things ended up going. Well, for starters-- for anyone who doesn't know/remember, my husband does snow plowing and salting of business parking lots during the winter. He got a phonecall at 5:30am Christmas morning... one of his buddies who also does snow plowing/salting during the winter called to let him know he was out salting and that it was really snowing hard out. It was hardly doing anything when I went to bed, so that was a bit of a shock. Russ got up to check things out and we had about 1 1/2 inches of snow on our back deck by that time. He ended up having to go out by himself and salt a few parking lots of places that were open at the time. I was pretty upset about the whole thing, being that our kids would be up soon... but really, I couldn't get mad because snow is our livelihood in the winter...it's what brings us income. But still-- I was upset he had to leave! <br /><br />I ended up staying up after he left....it was about 6am and I figured I'd play Santa and put the gifts under the tree afterall. I got all the kids' gifts under there and put Aly and Will's new train together. By 8am, the kids still weren't up... thankfully, because Russ wasn't home yet. He ended up getting home about 8:40 or so, and I could *just* hear Alyson waking up. I swear Aly and Will must coordinate their wakeup times each night, because a few minutes later, Will woke up. <br /><br />We opened presents up about 9:15am or so... Aly was LOVING it this year! Will is just starting to sit up really well by himself, so he got to sit on the floor by Aly the whole time she opened presents. She opened his presents too, but by that time, she already had a few of HER presents she really really wanted to play with, so her attention span was zip by that point. I had to keep reminding her that she needed to help Will. Finally, she left about 3 of his presents under the tree so I opened them myself...lol. <br /><br />After present opening, I made breakfast for everyone... pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. By the time we got done eating/cleaning up, it was 10:30am. I hadn't gotten a shower yet, the kids needed to get dressed, and we were supposed to be at Russ's mom's house (20 min away) by 11:30am. Yeah....not gonna happen. Russ called her and told her we'd be late. We didn't end up getting there until after 12:30pm. Everyone opened presents then we ate around 2pm. Russ and his family are originally from Virginia, so there are a lot of southern foods at their family gatherings... one being collard greens. I usually avoid them but figured I'd try them for the first time on Christmas. And yeah....not a fan. Blech. But at least I gave them a try....lol. <br /><br />We stayed up Russ's mom's house til 4:30 or so, then came back home. Aly and Will both fell asleep on the way home, they were SO tired. As soon as we got in our front door, Aly laid on the living room floor for a few minutes...lol. My parents ended up showing up about 6:15pm and stayed til close to 9pm. I tried staying up and getting my nightly dose of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, but my eyes were slamming shut by 10:30pm. I was asleep by 11 and slept for 9 hours. It was great...lol. <br /><br />The past few days have consisted of gift exchanges with friends, and attempting to get all toys out of their boxes and into the appropriate child's room...lol. I usually keep some toys in our living room since the kids' bedrooms are both upstairs, so I moved all that stuff back upstairs and replaced them with all the new ones. In the next few days, the "Great Toy Purge" will be taking place. We need to scale down the amount of toys in this household, majorly. I already have a bunch of clothes to give to Goodwill, so maybe we'll add some toys to the mix. <br /><br />As for tomorrow (well, today, since it IS 1am...) I'm planning on meeting up with my cousin to do some shopping, then I need to go get groceries since it's been almost 2 weeks and we're almost out of everything in this house. My parents got me a gift certificate for the mall, and I CAN NOT WAIT to go out and buy some things for myself. Everything I buy is for the kids, so it'll be nice to treat myself for a change. I'm just hoping the kiddos feel ok tomorrow. My parents are supposed to watch them for the afternoon, but both kids weren't feeling so hot today. They both have runny noses, poor things. Aly is coughing a little, so Russ went and got those Triaminic strips for her (which the pediatrician recommended) and I put the vaporizer up in her room tonight. As for Will, you'd never know he was sick other than his runny nose...he's still little Mr. Happy Baby as usual! <br /><br />So we'll see how things go in the morning. If the kids aren't feeling so hot I'll just do the grocery shopping and hold off on the "me" shopping. I hate seeing my babies sick :-( Hoping they feel better soon. <br /><br />Well, I'm off to bed. Night!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-30956916093562467902010-12-25T00:20:00.002-05:002010-12-25T00:42:30.500-05:00Just not the same.Well, it's officially Christmas Day, so....Merry Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family tonight at my Grandma's house. It was nice, but seems like it gets shorter and shorter every year. Everyone is all grown up with their own kids now, and everything's changed... everyone has their own traditions and other places to go now... it's just kinda sad. In a way I miss the days when all the cousins were little and just hung out and talked for hours.Just not the same now. But don't get me wrong-- I'm just thankful to still be able to get together with my whole family!<br /><br />Plans for Christmas Day include church at 9am, then we're going to Russ's mom's house at 11:30 to open presents, and dinner at 1:30pm with his side of the family. We'll stay over there til 5-ish, then head back home. My parents are coming over our house around 6pm to exchange gifts, and they're bringing us dinner :-) We'll probably just wait until then to have Aly open up gifts... I hate to do it that way, but with our schedule tomorrow, that's the best way to do it. Next year that won't fly, I'm sure!! Right now, Aly's starting to understand the whole Santa thing, but still doesn't totally get it....she doesn't realize the whole "Santa comes at night and you wake up in the morning to a bunch of presents" idea. So we can still get away with opening presents later in the day. Next year we'll have to change things all around. <br /><br />We should have gone to church Christmas Eve, but everything at my Grandma's house started at 4, and since my Grandma's getting older, (not to mention the fact that everyone always has other places to go) everyone always seems to leave by 7pm or so. If we went to church tonight we would only have an hour or so with everyone before they left. Now I'm kicking my butt though. <br /><br />Is it bad that I don't want to go anywhere tomorrow?? I just want Christmas like we had it when I was growing up. I want to wake up on Christmas morning and do the present thing right away, then sit down to a nice yummy breakfast.... then just lay around and watch A Christmas Story while Aly and Will play with their toys that are scattered all over the living room. That's all I want to do. I just want to stay in my jammies and not have to worry about going anywhere. *sigh* In the coming years I told Russ we're just gonna have to tell everyone that if they want to see us, they have to come to our house. Once kids are in the picture everything changes,it seems... and it gets harder and harder to go fifty million places over the holidays. For me, anyway. I just don't want to step on anyone's toes by saying that we're doing something at our house. My mother-in-law and her husband always do a big dinner for each holiday at their house, and those are the few times all her kids get together. I don't want them getting the wrong idea and thinking we don't want to see them, but I don't have the room in our house to invite everyone and their brother either. I can't possibly make a dining room that barely fits a 6-person table hold 15+ people, so as much as I'd like to offer to host things, I just can't.<br /><br />I'm just bummed because I can't even put presents out tonight like everyone else is busy doing. I already have to wake up at 7am so I can get myself and the kids ready, and if Aly wakes up (she doesn't usually get up til 8 or after) and sees presents she is not going to want to leave the house. It doesn't even feel like Christmas Eve since I can't do that. Thank God Aly doesn't "get" the whole Santa thing, like I said... :-( <br /><br />Anyway... enough of my moody rambling. I just needed to vent...lol. (Whether anyone reads it or not.) I'd better try and get some sleep now. Hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, surrounded by the love of family and friends!!!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-49502857565308117512010-12-19T01:09:00.004-05:002010-12-19T01:36:39.133-05:00Loving this time of year!!I really should be sleeping now but I'm not even close to being tired....<br /><br />Just sitting here on the couch, listening to Christmas music and enjoying the lights of my Christmas tree :-) I just got done baking cutout sugar cookies and now I FINALLY get a chance to sit down. I was bummed for a bit because the first batch of cookies I made turned out BEAUTIFUL and so yummy looking....but not yummy tasting. Turns out my baking soda was old and the cookies had a yucky aftertaste to them. NOT good. I just about said heck with it and gave up on baking for the night, but I REALLY needed to get some more done. SO... I made another batch (same recipe but with baking powder instead) and they turned out AWESOME!! I made snowflakes and gingerbread men and trees :-) Can't wait to put icing on them... I *might* have Aly help me...but the question is-- How messy do I want things to get??!! lol<br /><br />So now I officially have a whopping TWO cookies made. Chocolate chip and cutouts. I want to make a few more things since we'll be going a bunch of places over the holidays... not sure what yet. Probably Divinity (my grandma's favorite-- I make her a batch of her own every year), peanut butter cookies w/ reese's pieces in them (yum) and who knows what else. I tell ya-- I have eaten more sweets over the past few days than I have in the past few MONTHS.My tummy is yelling at me for it... it's not used to a lot of sweets...lol We hardly ever have sweets in the house since Russ is diabetic, so it's very tempting right now! My mom gave me a tin of cookies to bring home to "have around when company comes"-- YEAH RIGHT. Those won't last for the company...haha! <br /><br />It feels great to finally get a chance to sit down today. It's been go-go-go from the minute I woke up this morning. We had a birthday party for our friends' son who just turned 3, then once we got home around 4-ish I did a bunch of cleaning/laundry, made dinner, then it seemed like it was time to get the kids ready for bed. This day FLEW! <br /><br />Russ is still gone... he left around 9:30pm to pick up his brother and his family from Pittsburgh airport :-) I just feel bad because their carseat and stroller got LOST... they had a connection in Las Vegas, I believe Russ told me. So, guess their stroller is livin' it up in Vegas right now :-( Seems like something gets lost every time they come here. Last time, Russ's brother's whole luggage got lost, and it was finally brought to our house 2 days before he had to leave. That's my worst fear everytime Russ and I fly somewhere-- I'm always a mess while we're waiting for our luggage to come out!! <br /><br />But anyway....I'm so excited to see them! They live in Alaska, so we don't see eachother much. MAYBE once a year, if that. They have 2 kids-- an 18-month little girl and a 3 month-old baby boy :-) I'm looking forward to seeing if our boys resemble eachother! <br /><br />They will be in town until New Year's Eve... unfortunately they can't stay longer than that because they both have to work at the beginning of the week following New Year's, and flight time back to Alaska is looooong.... they need time to recover after getting home. <br /><br />Well I gotta cut this short now... Will just woke up crying so I gotta see what my baby boy needs. Nighty night!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-72991644734620867722010-12-14T23:00:00.004-05:002010-12-14T23:34:24.175-05:00Sleepytime for everyone but me!Ahh, nighttime. This is my favorite time of day....everyone in the house is sleeping and I can actually sit and hear myself think. I get to sit my butt on the couch, turn on a Hallmark channel Christmas movie, and enjoy the peace and quiet and my Christmas lights. Love it.<br /><br />I got some more gift wrapping done tonight. Little by little, things are getting accomplished. It's just hard because Will's nursery is in what USED to be our spare bedroom, so now I have no place to stay up late and wrap presents without disturbing anyone. I have to do it all at night once Alyson is sleeping, when I go take Will up to his room for the night. He gives me about a half hour of his time before he enters that fussy "mommy get out of here and let me sleep" mode. I have everyones' presents up in his room... wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and boxes all over the place. Poor kid, it looks like Christmas exploded in there right now. Luckily he's not old enough to realize what's going on yet. Mama's gonna have to find a new place for everything next year because he won't be confined to a crib all night next Christmas!! (I'd like to say we'll be in a new house next year, but that's a longshot. Maybe in the next FIVE years. But anyway.) Keeping Alyson out of his room has been rough, because she always wants to go up there with me when I put him down for naps, etc... she caught a glimpse of some wrapped presents the other day and got all excited. I wrapped all her stuff in Spongebob Squarepants Christmas paper (she LOVES that show right now) and she saw it... she goes, "My spongebob wrapping paper! I LOVE IT!!!" then proceeded to grab the roll of paper and give it a hug. Gotta love her. So then I had to tell her those presents were for someone else. She said, "Oh... ok, mama" and then turned around and said, "Can I open it??" She definitely keeps life interesting around here. <br /><br />Not much else going on today... just had to open a case against a buyer on ebay though... that was a first. I've had good luck with ALL the buyers I've dealt with so far,except this one person. He emailed me on 12/8, a few days after the end of my ebay auction, and said there was a problem with his paypal account that would be resolved by Saturday the 11th and he'd pay me asap. Fine...I emailed him back and said it wasn't a problem. Didn't hear anything from him all all weekend. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I thought, "ok, maybe the paypal issue will be resolved on Monday." Monday came, and nothing. So I emailed him and nicely asked if the issue was resolved, whether he still wanted the item, etc. Told him to get back to me asap and let me know. That was yesterday afternoon. Didn't hear anything all day yesterday or today. It's going on 9 days now. I just want to know what's going on, but I'm not getting a response. Ugh!! So, now he has 4 days to pay me or I get my ebay fees back. The way I see it, if you want an item so bad that you purchase it using buy-it-now, wouldn't you at least pay within a day or so?! Maybe I just feel that way because I pay immediately when I purchase something. Who knows. It's just that I was reeeeeally looking forward to getting an extra $50 around this time of year. :-( <br /><br />Man, can I ramble or what? ;-) <br /><br />So that's my interesting life right now. Still battling this sinus cold. Don't have the balloon feeling in my head so much now, but it's turned into a scratchy throat and that tired, drained feeling. I just took some Nyquil...and that green nyquil is DISGUSTING! It tastes like black licorice,and I'm not a black licorice kinda person. Darn grocery store didn't have the red kind. Blech. I just hope this cold is gone for Christmas. Our whole family was sick for Christmas last year (but with the flu, which was worse) and I don't want a repeat of that! So for now I'm just gonna rest up and curl under my Steelers blanket and enjoy a Hallmark channel movie...that is, until this nyquil kicks in and knocks me out.<br /><br />Night!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-78290463144821495012010-12-13T22:59:00.000-05:002010-12-13T23:45:15.381-05:00Another year gone by....wow.I refuse to believe it's been almost a year since I posted! Guess now is a good time to start back up. <br /><br />Let me just say that this Christmas season is going so FAST! Hard to believe there are only a few weeks left until Christmas. I still have over half my wrapping to do, have NO cookies baked, and I need to thoroughly clean my house since lots of company will be here soon. <br /><br />I'm just getting stressed out now...lol. Being that we've had another child this past year, I told myself that we were only going to buy for KIDS this year...no adults except for my in-laws,my parents, and my grandma. I told some of our friends a few months back that we were just buying for their kids, so they shouldn't buy anything for us. Everyone was fine with that. But NOW, I found out they DID get us something...now I feel bad because we have nothing for them, and truthfully we've already spent way too much on Christmas already. Now I feel like I should buy something for them so we don't feel bad when we get the gifts they bought us. They're really good friends of ours--practically like family-- so I don't know what to do now. I really don't want to have to rack up any more money on our credit card.<br /><br />And THEN-- my sister-in-law called the other night asking what size clothes the kids were in. I told her Will is in 6-9 month but will be out of that size soon. She laughed because her little boy is 3 months old and is in the same size, also ready to grow out of it already!! And of course, all the clothes I got her son for Christmas are Carter's 6 month size, which is actually 3-6 months. GRR! I ordered them from the Carter's website,and can't find my receipt anywhere. So now I have to call them and see if I can still mail everything back. <br /><br />And I thought I was done with my Christmas shopping...guess not. :-( <br /><br />Sorry for the whiny post but it seems like when we try to save money, it never seems to work out. <br /><br />Onto more upbeat subjects--my kids.<br /><br />I can't believe Will is already 6 1/2 months old!! He's growing SO fast! At his 6month appointment he was 18 lb 15oz and 27 3/4 inches long...90th percentile for height and 70th percentile for weight. He's sitting up on his own for short periods of time (tries to himself to a sitting position on his own,but only gets halfway there...) and is starting to say some consonants now( ba,na,ma.) So, maybe hearing the word "mama" isn't too far off! :-) <br /><br />Aly is 3 1/2 years old already... she's my little ornery princess. She tries to be my little helper where Will is concerned...which is a help *sometimes*...lol She's in that "I want to do what I want to do" stage, and is going through yet another naked phase...lol I swear, the girl only stays dressed when we go somewhere other than our house. I get her dressed in the morning and 10 minutes later I hear, "Look mama,I naked!"(Great, honey....great....) <br /><br />I'm still staying at home full-time with the kiddos, which has its ups and downs.<br />I absolutely love being home with them and feel so blessed that I'm able to, though I sometimes miss adult conversation (though I make time for mommy's day out with friends,etc!), and especially contributing $$$ to the family. I've been putting some of Aly's older clothes up on ebay (since I'm pretty sure we're done having kids) and have been doing great with that, so it helps out with extra little things I want to buy :-) <br /><br />Well, I'd better end this here...I am battling a case of sinusitis which has my head feeling like it's about to explode:-( My jaw and ears hurt because of it...NOT FUN. It's made my night-owl self very tired, so I think I'm gonna head to bed soon. I'll post pics of the kiddos soon!<br /><br />*Nighty night!*Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-90059538123994281712009-12-21T23:29:00.000-05:002009-12-22T00:25:48.955-05:004 days? Seriously?Ok, so does anyone else think this holiday season is FLYING BY?? Jeesh! Every year I tell myself I'm going to get all my shopping done early so I can relax, and every year I'm still (sort of) last minute! I did a little bit of shopping (mainly the toys for all the kids I have to buy for)before Thanksgiving, and THOUGHT I had the other things pretty much done by the first week of December. (minus the wrapping...) <br /><br />It just seems like Thanksgiving was just last week,and now Christmas is 4 days away! FOUR! Tomorrow I need to run to the store (probably Walmart, as much as I like to avoid that place during the holidays) and get gift bags I forgot, along with a few groceries. <br /><br />Then it's on to the gift wrapping, finishing up my cookie baking, and TRYING to relax in the process. I can only do so much at one time,so it seems like it's taken me forever -- Aly will only sit and watch cartoons for so long before she loses interest and comes upstairs or out to the kitchen to see what mommy's up to. I have no idea what I'm going to do next Christmas when my spare bedroom becomes the baby's room and I no longer have a place to store presents and do my gift-wrapping! Not to mention Aly will be older and start to nib around a bit. I don't want her finding all her presents in the house! I'll probably have to take everything to my parents' house or something. Who knows.Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. <br /><br />As for our Christmas plans, we're going to my Grandma's house (mom's mom) on Christmas Eve... every year our family goes over there, we've done that my whole life. Christmas Day will consist of 9am church, then we're heading over to Russ's mom's house around noonish for gifts/lunch... then once we get back to our house, my parents are coming over and bringing dinner! Turkey and ham and lots of yummy stuff. And oh yeah, more presents. They've even spoiled our dogs this year, from what my mom has told me :-) Needless to say, it'll be a busy, "go go go" kinda holiday. I told Russ that once our kids are older, we're going to have people come to US, and I'll host things. Plus hopefully in a few years we'll be in a new house and I'll actually have the room to have a lot of people over at one time for dinner. :-)<br /><br />Well,I'm going to head to bed... gonna try to get as much done tomorrow as I can.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-88302615377633825862009-11-22T22:52:00.003-05:002009-11-22T23:34:06.825-05:00Crying so hard I can hardly breathe...My parents got their pug dog, Otis Pugsley, back in 1993. I was 13 years old. I still remember the day so clearly... February 12, 1993 my mom, dad and I went to Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville for a day of shopping. Of course, when we walked by Petland, I insisted that we just HAD to go in. You know, just to "look." We had just lost our dog Jamie (aka Boo Boo) to congestive heart failure in the beginning of January 1993. My parents didn't know whether they wanted another dog or not, but they said we could go in "just to look." We saw a little pug puppy in the store, which was a breed of dog my mom and I LOVED. I asked my parents if I could get the dog out to pet it, and they of course said no. While their backs were turned, I asked one of the girls working if she'd let me hold the pug. Well...my parents came back over to me, and to their surprise, there I was, holding the pug and totally falling in love with it. Though I missed Boo Boo and nothing could replace him in my heart, I SO wanted another dog. <br /><br />We oohed and aahed over the dog for a bit, then reluctantly I had to say goodbye to the little guy because of course my parents said no...we didn't need another dog yet. So we walked down the mall a ways and decided to get something to eat. The WHOLE TIME we were in the restaurant, I was just CRYING MY EYES OUT....I wanted that dog so badly. (And I also mentioned it'd be a great birthday present for my mom, who has a Valentine's Day birthday!) All my whining and crying finally paid off, and my parents agreed that we could get the dog. I was ECSTATIC!! I practically ran back to the pet store. Once we got there, we got the dog out right away, and decided to name him Otis Pugsley, after the movie "The Adventures of Milo and Otis," which was popular at that time. (Well actually, we named him Milo for a day, til we realized Milo was the CAT in the movie. So we changed it to Otis. But anyway....)<br /><br />Once we adopted Otis,they put the cutest little blue bow around his neck, and I proudly carried him through the mall. He was soooo tiny,probably 8-9 inches long at the time. I was in love with his little black mask and curly little tail. We walked down the mall to the Kmart there, and bought him a collar, dog bed, food, etc. <br /><br />On the way home, he stayed in the back seat with me, in his little dog bed. I just stared at him the whole way home, and thought that he resembled Gizmo from the Gremlins. In a good way, of course. He just looked all around, wondering where it was we were taking him. I remember hearing my parents telling eachother, "I can't believe we got another dog...." lol<br /><br />So that was the day we got Otis. It still feels like yesterday. Hard to believe it was 17 years ago. Little did we know he'd live such a long and full life with our family! <br /><br />Today is Otis's 17th birthday. Unfortunately, it is not a happy day for our family. Two days ago, my parents took him to the vet because he's had infections in his mouth and recently some bleeding. They noticed an abscess on his gums, and it hasn't been getting any better with antibiotics. They decided to take him in to see if there was anything else that could be done. They discovered that the abscess is actually an agressive tumor that has already invaded the soft palate (back of the roof of the mouth.) The doctor said it won't get any better, and sent my parents home with some pain medicine to keep Otis comfortable, since he's been whining a lot lately. He didn't give a time frame he thinks Otis will live, nor did he recommend putting him to sleep or anything. He basically left that up to my parents, since they said Otis is still eating well and getting around ok. <br /><br />Over the past few days, Otis is whining/crying a lot more, and my parents said it's been a struggle to give him his pain medicine. It's so bitter, he barely gets it down. My parents want to enjoy what little time with him they have left, but they obviously don't want him to suffer either. Tonight on the phone my mom said he is still eating, but not able to stand up very well. I told her that we have no idea how far the cancer has spread, and that he could very well be in a lot of pain. They wanted putting him to sleep to be the last option, but unfortunately that is going to happen sooner than later. <br /><br />When I called my parents tonight, they said they've talked it over and tomorrow they are making the painful decision to have Otis put to sleep. They just can't bear to see him suffer any longer. So today they are loving him as much as they can and just showering him with hugs and kisses and lots of good food. Poor little guy... <br /><br />I am just sobbing uncontrollably as I write this. Whenever in the past my mom has talked about losing Otis some day, it hasn't bothered me much. I think, "Ok, he's going to be 17, he's had an awesome life, and there's nothing we can say we WISH we did with him. He's done it all, practically... we gave him a great life." And that's always made me feel better. But now-- being face with it, right smack in the face-- knowing it's going to happen tomorrow-- I am crying like a baby. That's my little buddy, ya know? I mean, I was 13 when we got him and over half of my life includes memories of him. Whether a dog is young or very old-- it doesn't make any difference in how utterly devastated losing them makes you feel. This whole situation brings back a whole flood of emotions where losing our 9 month old boxer Max to lymphoma is concerned. Every emotion I felt then is all rushing back and it feels like we're losing him all over again too.<br /><br />It's just so sad knowing this is his last night with his family. His last night snuggling up to my parents in bed at night. His last meals in the house... I know he's going to a better place where he won't be hurting or suffering anymore, but it doesn't make my heart hurt any less. Little did I know when I saw him last week over at my parents' house, it would be the last time I'd pet him and kiss his little head ever again. <br /><br />I'll miss you little buddy... til we see eachother again. I love you. <br /><br />**God, please give my parents strength to get through this tomorrow.**Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-73806987034126927422009-11-18T15:52:00.009-05:002009-11-18T16:20:58.868-05:00Halloween update, since I have pics now...A little update with pictures, since I didn't have access to my pics last time I posted! <br /><br />Here are some pictures of Alyson at Halloween... she was a little bumblebee. Russ and I took her over my parents' house, since we don't get many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. She LOVED LOVED LOVED giving out candy to all the trick-or-treaters! We gave out candy from the front porch, but she'd take handfuls and stand out on the sidewalk, waiting for the trick-or-treaters to come by! A few times I had to tell her that, no, she couldn't take something back OUT of someone's bag after giving them candy. She was trying to develop a candy exchange system, I guess...lol. "Here, you take this Reese's cup, and I want those chips...."<br /><br />So here are the pics: <br /><br /><center>Aly (complete with chocolate face) with my cousin's daughter Olivia, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. </center><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowm1oje6ziWwffNl9B-qgU52AOCGCL8SAjBKqSNAzfUooFM1wpCB0CJHujNnIHoA7TIAJDmF8C13vfmzmdkr1wFcEaWa5_5etZLYB0KRlsb2rip3HXaAK6ikPkAb53j-RFIMzVPy8nnx7/s1600/001.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowm1oje6ziWwffNl9B-qgU52AOCGCL8SAjBKqSNAzfUooFM1wpCB0CJHujNnIHoA7TIAJDmF8C13vfmzmdkr1wFcEaWa5_5etZLYB0KRlsb2rip3HXaAK6ikPkAb53j-RFIMzVPy8nnx7/s320/001.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405554812037485234" /></a><br /><br /><center>Stuffing her face...</center><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6Ovk5UQ0nDCT4KOcqtbO7eSLJUbEJ2Ra4u-Hxkz4CRbAe70ntChJxx95-2gWMAn6V5d5g7fNP437aA5n3P71QUnXz48K4TQo-vNiIRXqgn3auizjeAG5qLle51o-6QnCFiIFFHINZyGG/s1600/019.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 247px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6Ovk5UQ0nDCT4KOcqtbO7eSLJUbEJ2Ra4u-Hxkz4CRbAe70ntChJxx95-2gWMAn6V5d5g7fNP437aA5n3P71QUnXz48K4TQo-vNiIRXqgn3auizjeAG5qLle51o-6QnCFiIFFHINZyGG/s320/019.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405555152159653474" /></a><br /><br /><center>Waiting for trick-or-treaters...notice the chocolate smeared on her pants...haha!</center><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKJA5gVqW-MFS5RalvFOTE6OES5dOKcpzWuPc5snHKa0AmHkIHSlEb_aIgqraKOhwUEg1ouCvNxALtu-f7zxu9ofo-RFdqN7xR0ohS0uTmBsw3wyTS8qxRbkLqqm6-IUHDHx3vI4c-pN1/s1600/009.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKJA5gVqW-MFS5RalvFOTE6OES5dOKcpzWuPc5snHKa0AmHkIHSlEb_aIgqraKOhwUEg1ouCvNxALtu-f7zxu9ofo-RFdqN7xR0ohS0uTmBsw3wyTS8qxRbkLqqm6-IUHDHx3vI4c-pN1/s320/009.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405555847782895266" /></a><br /><br /><center>Tootsie roll anyone? Or maybe you'd prefer some Dots?</center><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SlYflMk587zfp2WR6P0etKFHI3yn3Wa_sCedOdTURWT2kkH2esTROsSFSi3KhTLIRPkb6HjCtScg9dDDTRwEXYYw-nK7YZOKp-Kwj1KaKN46eClq1yXwrVsxHlJsuAXtZnyIbphsrgUO/s1600/023.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SlYflMk587zfp2WR6P0etKFHI3yn3Wa_sCedOdTURWT2kkH2esTROsSFSi3KhTLIRPkb6HjCtScg9dDDTRwEXYYw-nK7YZOKp-Kwj1KaKN46eClq1yXwrVsxHlJsuAXtZnyIbphsrgUO/s320/023.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405556293423350498" /></a><br /><br /><br />I'll post more pics soon...Aly just woke up from her nap(Yes!! She took a NAP!! Yay!), so I gotta go upstairs now. <br /><br />Hope everyone's having a great week so far.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-39082386781068125832009-11-12T14:19:00.002-05:002009-11-12T14:32:23.184-05:00News :-)Ok, so....wow. I knew I hadn't updated in awhile, but jeez!!! Better get to it. Lots to update about, but I'll stick to the important one...<br /><br />For those of you who haven't found out from my Facebook account (that's where I've been keeping updated with everyone, mostly!), Russ and I are expecting Baby Hunt #2! We found out right after coming back from NC in early September. I had a hunch I was pregnant, being that I was totally craving jalapeno poppers when we went out to eat on vacation, and I am SO NOT one who likes hot and spicy food. <br /><br />As of today, I'm 13w1d pregnant and due on May 19th, 2010. Alyson will be just over 1 month from turning 3 years old! Russ and I are really excited about everything. He's really hoping for a boy this time around, his "Junior," as he calls him... but I will be happy either way. If it's another girl, I am totally set where clothes are concerned...the new baby will be in the same size during the same seasons...can't get any better than that. <br /><br />I had my first ultrasound a few weeks ago, at a little over 11 weeks, and everything looked great. I'd post a pic, but I'm not on my own computer right now, so I don't have access to it... I'll do that soon. Baby's heartrate was 176bpm, so according to the old wive's tale, that's a "girl heartbeat"....but we'll see. With Alyson, I just KNEW she was a girl, there was no doubt in my mind from the very beginning. But with this one-- I have no idea. SOmething's telling me "boy" but I don't know. <br /><br />I asked the ultrasound tech at my OB office when they usually do the gender ultrasounds, and she said 25 weeks. I REALLY can't wait that long!! That'll be the end of January or early February!! If that's the case, I'm gonna go somewhere around here and have an elective gender ultrasound done, maybe in Pittsburgh or something. I told the ultrasound girl that I'd like to find out before Christmas (I'll be 19 weeks the week of Christmas, and I found out with Aly at 18 weeks...) and she said, "I can take a look around for you then." So MAYBE they'll do one in the office early for me. I'd just like to know before Christmas...it'd be a great present :-) <br /><br />Well, my lovely angel of a toddler is upstairs banging around, so I guess that means she doesn't want to take a nap...which equals her trashing her room. The past 4 days it has been a struggle to get her to take a nap. I think she's trying to get away from naps, but I'm trying to hang onto her naps with a death grip as long as I can!! At least for my own sanity...haha.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-22278136117258532442009-07-23T15:41:00.001-04:002009-07-23T15:43:17.289-04:00Picture time!Here are pictures of our trip to Ocean City, MD in June. <br /><br /><div><embed src="http://apps.rockyou.com/rockyou.swf?instanceid=140946785&ver=102906" quality="high" salign="lt" width="426" height="320" wmode="transparent" name="rockyou" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"/></embed><br><a style="padding-right:1px;" target="_BLANK" href="http://www.rockyou.com/?type=slideshow&refid=140946785"><img style="border:0px;" src="http://apps.rockyou.com/link/logo.gif"></a><a style="padding-right:1px;" target="_BLANK" href="http://www.rockyou.com/slideshow_create.php?refid=140946785&source=cyo"><img style="border:0px;" src="http://apps.rockyou.com/link/create_own.gif"></a><a style="padding-right:1px;" target="_BLANK" href="http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery.php?instanceid=140946785"><img style="border:0px;" src="http://apps.rockyou.com/link/view_all.gif"></a></div><br /><br />Here are pics of Alyson's 2nd Birthday Party, 6/21/09 -- Dora the Explorer theme!<br /><div><embed src="http://apps.rockyou.com/rockyou.swf?instanceid=140899125&ver=102906" quality="high" salign="lt" width="426" height="320" wmode="transparent" name="rockyou" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"/></embed><br><a style="padding-right:1px;" target="_BLANK" href="http://www.rockyou.com/?type=slideshow&refid=140899125"><img style="border:0px;" src="http://apps.rockyou.com/link/logo.gif"></a><a style="padding-right:1px;" target="_BLANK" href="http://www.rockyou.com/slideshow_create.php?refid=140899125&source=cyo"><img style="border:0px;" src="http://apps.rockyou.com/link/create_own.gif"></a><a style="padding-right:1px;" target="_BLANK" href="http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery.php?instanceid=140899125"><img style="border:0px;" src="http://apps.rockyou.com/link/view_all.gif"></a></div>Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-69106298793239293342009-07-22T02:01:00.005-04:002009-07-22T02:29:36.229-04:002am rambles...Ugh.... here it is, 2am and I'm STILL awake. I'm so extremely worn out by this sinus cold I have, but I can't seem to fall asleep. My eyes hurt, my ears ache, my throat is scratchy... and it sucks. No one should get sick in the summertime!! <br /><br />Anyway, since I'm wide awake, I figured I might as well attempt to stay updated with my blog. I really need to update this with pictures from Aly's birthday, vacation, etc... I started a post with pictures last week, but when I went to preview my post, the pics were all screwed up, so I just saved it as a draft and haven't gotten back to it. <br /><br />Anyway, here are the updates from the past week or so... <br /><br />Starting with yesterday... we had a little scare where our boxer Cody was concerned. He and Lucy were napping in the living room while I talked on the phone with my mom... then I see Cody get up and start walking around, only he couldn't keep his balance for anything. I immediately called Russ to come home, luckily he was just next door in his office. I started saying Cody's name and he was just ZONED and wouldn't respond to me, and his pupils were all dilated. He'd try to lift his back legs and it seemed like he was sorta stomping around at one point, only he didn't have the strength in his legs to keep from wobbling around. I held onto him and he was trembling, poor thing. He got himself up on the couch and stayed there for a few minutes, while I called the vet and explained what was going on. They said we could bring him right in... thank God we only live a few minutes from the vet. So Russ opened the door to the basement where we keep the dogs' leashes, and Cody LEAPT off the couch, like nothing was even wrong!! The whole episode only lasted 5 minutes or so! <br /><br />Since Alyson was napping, Russ took Cody by himself to the vet. He said Cody was still kinda weak and wouldn't jump out of the Navigator like he usually does... Russ had to lift him down (and he's about 90 pounds!) The vet said that more than likely it was a mild seizure. They checked his temp (their temp will increase during a seizure) and ended up drawing a CBC to check for any abnormalities where his labs are concerned. They said we'd find out the results by Wednesday, but the vet called us this afternoon and said everything was fine. He said just to keep an eye on Cody and that if he has another episode like that within the next 2-6 weeks, they can put him on medicine if need be. So we'll see. I'm just praying this was just a one-time thing and he won't have that happen again! He's back to his same ornery energetic self today, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed :-)<br /><br />(cough cough sniffle sniffle, sneeze.... this cold sucks.....)<br /><br />Anyway, so that was the excitement of the past few days. In other news... I'm trying to potty train Alyson. That's going really well. *rolls eyes*(Sense the SERIOUS SARCASM.) I just don't get it. Alyson knows when she goes to the bathroom and will occasionally look at me and go "poo" or "pee pee!" She knows how to put her potty seat on our toilet, she knows to take her pants/diaper off, and she even knows to get toilet paper... but she won't do a darn thing once she gets on the toilet. I guess she's *almost* ready but not quite there yet. I just don't want to MAKE her sit on the toilet and then have her not want to go on it at all because she associates it with me forcing her to do it, ya know?! *sigh* And what sucks is that now she's in the "I want to take my diaper off ALL THE TIME" stage. I brought out her big girl undies and she was all excited so I figured she'd want to keep them on, but no. They came right off too, within about 2 minutes. So that's our adventures in potty training for now... fun fun. <br /><br />Well, I really need to try and get some sleep now... Alyson doesn't get the fact that mommy isn't feeling well and would love to sleep in for a change. She'll be up at her usual 8am or so, I'm sure... so that gives me less than six hours of sleep. <br /><br />Nighty night!Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-18240869325151772382009-07-07T13:28:00.002-04:002009-07-07T13:57:47.492-04:00Updates, good and not-so-goodWow, it's been awhile since I've posted... as usual. A lot's been going on, so I'll try to give the short version of updates. <br /><br />Most recently...<br />4th of July was awesome... we spent the day out on the boat on the good ol' Ohio River. The weather was beautiful, blue skies and sunny. We went out to dinner with friends, then back down to the boat to watch the fireworks on the river... good times! Aly went to my Grandma's with my mom and dad to watch the fireworks. My Gram lives close to where the fireworks are let off, so everyone usually goes over there and watches them from the backyard. I wasn't sure how Aly would do with being REALLY close to the fireworks, so I figured I'd wait til next year to take her with us. Come to find out, she LOVED the fireworks and just stared in awe at the sky, going "Woah! Wow wow!" when the big ones let off. Too cute. <br /><br />What else to talk about that's been going on recently... Oh. We just got back from vacation last week... we spent some time in Ocean City, MD with friends of ours and their 3 kids. We stayed right on the boardwalk which was awesome! Lots of nightlife. Not that we could really enjoy it with 4 kids ages 4 and under, but it was still nice to sit out on the balcony late at night and enjoy some 'adult beverages.' haha But yeah, like I said-- 4 kids ages 4, going on 3, 2, and 18 months. Mass chaos all around! haha It was definitely a good time though. The beach was beautiful, and the weather cooperated the whole time we were there. Which was only 4 days, but long enough to get somewhat relaxed. (Before making the 8-hr trip home...fun fun.) I miss it! Russ, Aly and I are heading to the Outer Banks in September, so now I have THAT beach to look forward to :-) <br /><br />As for Alyson, she's doing great. We had a Dora the Explorer birthday party for her on the 21st of June. She had a BLAST! We had a pinata in the shape of a #2, and all the kids loved it. The weather cooperated for that too, which was great because there were 30-some people there and the house would have been kinda crowded if it decided to rain! <br /><br />Aly's 2-yr checkup at the pediatrician went well... she's 36 inches tall and weighs 34 pounds... higher than 100th percentile! My baby is off the charts. No wonder everyone always asks me if she's 3. She's gonna be a tall one. I figure I'm 5'5 and Russ is 6 ft, so she'll probably end up somewhere in between. She's just growing like a weed, and is into something new everyday. SO curious!!! Her latest antic was to flood our upstairs bathroom. Yeah... that was fun. You see, she always goes up the stairs and plays in her room, that's just an everyday thing. So i didn't think anything of it when she went up there the other day. Well, she had gone into the bathroom and decided to stick a bunch of baby wipes into the toilet and keep flushing and flushing and flushing. That toilet is pretty quiet so I didn't hear all this going on, I thought she was just playing in her room. But when the water started spilling onto the floor, I heard THAT. I thought she had turned the shower on, but no. I got to the top of the steps and saw water all over the floor about to head onto the hallway carpet!!! I had to turn the water off to the toilet and figure out what the heck she did. She was just laughing and laughing at the water falling onto the floor. Mommy, on the other hand, was NOT laughing. Ugh... eventually I got the situation under control, but not until after the extra water decided to drip down to the main floor by way of the counter over the stove, and then down to the basement. It basically made a path all the way down the house. NOT fun. I'm hoping we don't have anything like that happen ever again. I hope she got the toilet-plugging out of her system. <br /><br />And we're thinking of having ANOTHER child?? haha <br /><br />Yes, you read that right... we're officially "trying." Well, not TRYING trying, but we have the "if it happens it happens" attitude for now. We're not trying to prevent anything from happening. I was totally excited at the end of May to find out I was pregnant, only to have my excitement cut short by a miscarriage a week later. It was pretty crushing, because it is totally amazing how quickly you can come to embrace and love a child that you've never even met yet (and who is virtually the size of a pencil tip.) At first, I was surprised (because we weren't really expecting it and were actively house hunting at the time.) Then in the next breath I was TOTALLY excited, and Russ was too. To top it off, 2 days later my cousin/best friend found out SHE was pregnant, so we'd literally have been due days apart. <br /><br />I knew to be cautious in the first weeks, but I still found myself planning for the future and how we'd redecorate our spare bedroom to make it the baby's room... it's just sad. But I know everything happens for a reason, even if we can't figure out what that reason is right now. The good thing about this whole situation, though, is that it really made us get our priorities in order and think about the future more. It REALLY brought my husband onboard where having another child is concerned. It was pretty much the furthest thing from his mind even a month ago, now he is all for trying. For now, we're putting our house-hunting on hold to focus on other things, like paying off bills!! My husband is in the process of putting up a huge building/garage on 10 acres he bought for his business, so that's taking up time and money. He's just running out of room where his garage is now, and his business is expanding, so that takes top priority over us buying a new house right now. <br /><br />So now we're taking things day by day, and are excited to bring a new baby into this world when God decides to bless us with another one :-) Fingers crossed! <br /><br />Well, I know there's still a lot to update on, but I need to get some things done around the house before Aly wakes up from her nap. Hope everyone (who still reads this or occasionally checks up on me) is doing well. Take care :-)Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-78242449976535205552009-04-08T14:23:00.003-04:002009-04-08T14:42:36.788-04:00Blah blah blah. That's how I feel today!Well, as I write this my daughter is running around getting into everything and I have absolutely no energy to get up and chase after her! I started getting a sinus cold yesterday and today it's definitely here in full force. Aly had me up just about every hour lastnight, and it turns out this sinus thing got her too... she had a little snotty nose this morning when she woke up, along with coughing and sneezing. We spent a lot of time around little kids this past weekend and had a playdate on Monday, so I'm thinking we caught something one of those days. I guess we've been lucky though... this is only the 2nd sinus cold Aly's had since she's been born. She was about 4 months old the last time she was sick! <br /><br />Needless to say, I've gotten nothing accomplished today, except for caring for my little Alyson! She's eating and drinking ok, and doesn't have a fever as of yet (and hopefully she DOESN'T get one!) so we're good there. Here's hoping. Tomorrow we're supposed to go to my in-laws' house for dinner, but I talked with my MIL today and said there's a chance we might not be able to make it. I don't want to get anyone else sick, since these colds just started. So we'll see... I just feel like my head is a big balloon and everywhere in my head where there are sinuses just HURTS! Also my muscles are aching, especially my back...that happened last time I had a sinus cold. It sucks! Oh well, I guess I'd rather we be sick now instead of next week. Russ and I are leaving for Cancun on Thursday already!! 8 weeks went by pretty fast! I'm looking forward to the trip... we (especially Russ!) need to get away for a few days. Aly is staying with my MIL for a few days, then my mom and dad are watching her Friday and Saturday nights. Luckily, she's used to staying places, and so far she doesn't cry when we leave her with anyone. I hope that doesn't happen, or it'll make ME cry! <br /><br />Well, I'd better go see what Aly's into. She's bringing me pieces of candy and handing them to me, and I didn't know we had candy in the house....hmmm.... Never a dull moment. <br /><br />Hope everyone (if anyone still checks my blog, being that I post 1 time a month...lol) has a great Easter weekend! We're supposed to do lunch with my MIL and her husband, and then my parents are cooking dinner for us. :-) I can't wait to put Aly's little pink Easter dress on her! I'll be sure and post some pics soon.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2990356243349064210.post-66859986372134636152009-03-16T12:37:00.002-04:002009-03-16T13:13:40.957-04:00my monthly post...Guess I should post again sometime this century!!! I've been way too caught up in the whole Facebook craze lately, so that's where I've spent my catching up/blogging/updating time. I'm liking it a lot more than myspace these days. It's amazing the people you can find on there...seems like everybody and their brother is on facebook. Even the priest at my church is on facebook...lol. <br /><br />Anyway, not too much exciting to talk about, sadly! Same old same old. I've just been enjoying what little warm weather we've had lately. This weather's been a big tease!! We had about 4 or so days last week where it was in the 60's, then it got all cold again. Aly gets all excited to go outside and play on her swingset, then the next day she wonders why we're not going out because it's 30 degrees again!! Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-60's, so I'm looking forward to that! I'm so tired of cold weather... <br /><br />In other news... <br /><br />As for the house I've talked about on here time and time again, it came REALLY close to being a reality a few weeks ago. The realtor we've been dealing with called and told us the guy will take a lower price (FINALLY) so we put another offer in. The guy counteroffered with a price that's still a bit too high, considering all the work that needs to be done to the house before we move in (fence, deck, driveway). I mean, the house itself is move-in ready, but Russ is concerned with all the outside stuff that needs finished and that would tack on another $30-40k to what we'd be paying for the house. <br /><br />So NOW, Russ decides he'd rather build a house. A guy he knows (who considers Russ to be like a son) has about 6 acres of land he's willing to sell Russ if he wants it. About 3-4 acres is flat, with the other 2 sloping/wooded. So that's an option now. I guess what we're doing now is just waiting (ha...seems like we've been waiting FOREVER!) to see what happens with the house, and whether the guy decides to finally lower the price to something reasonable. If that doesn't work out, Russ wants to buy the land and build in the next year or so. I was REALLY set on buying the move-in ready house, but when I think about building and having EXACTLY what we want, that sounds pretty darn good too!! There are pros and cons to each option. The one house is in a great neighborhood, very kid-friendly... and part of me wants that. A great place to raise kids, for Aly to go ride her bike, etc... I just keep thinking about what's best for our kids in the future. But building-- we'd have a ton of land to do whatever we want with, plenty of privacy... but no close neighbors or that neighborhood feeling. If we wanted to take a walk/ride bikes we'd have to go somewhere else and do it, because the road in front of the house isn't the place to do it. So I'm kinda torn. In the end I'll be happy with whatever decision is made... you gotta make sacrifices either way. So we'll see. :-) <br /><br />Well, that's about it for now. I need to go get ready...Aly and I are going grocery shopping and then I need to go get some new Penguins stuff to wear for Sunday... Russ and I bought 4 tickets for Sunday's Penguins/Flyers hockey game in Pittsburgh... I'm SO EXCITED!! It's gonna be an awesome game!! :-) <br /><br />Have a great week! I'll try to post again SOON! But when all else fails, you can find me on facebook...lol.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945696442424037268noreply@blogger.com2