The good and the not-so-good

First off, thanks for the prayers for my Grandma... she's back at home now after spending about 6 days in the hospital with bronchitis. The doctor said she also has some emphysema which is contributing to her difficulty breathing. She had quit smoking about a year ago (after smoking for 50 years or so!), but unfortunately she's back to smoking again, though not as much as before.

Anyway, she was sent home from the hospital with oxygen and a portable tank, being that her breathing still wasn't up to par. The nurse checked her oxygen on room air prior to her being discharged, and it was only 87%, so she won herself an oxygen tank. She also has to have breathing treatments at home every so often. Since she has a really hard time seeing now (macular degeneration), my aunt and mom have been taking turns going over my Grandma's and giving her treatments to her. Gram has a doctor's appointment in 1 month, so she'll be on the oxygen at least until then. She's feeling much better though, thank GOD! Her birthday is tomorrow and she really wants to see everyone, so we are having a little family party for her tomorrow evening, just for an hour or two, so she doesn't get worn out. I called a local bakery and ordered her a white cake with raspberry filling and whipped icing, and it'll say "Happy 79th Birthday" on it. I was going to joke with her and have "Happy 30th" or something put on it, but I didn't...lol.

So that's the news with my Grandma. But I swear, when it rains it pours... The day my Grandma went in the hospital, I found out that the pastor at our church was admitted to a Pittsburgh hospital for emergency surgery!! He had been getting sick and throwing up, then come to find out he had a perforated bowel. Needless to say he had MAJOR bodywide infection and unfortunately he is allergic to a TON of things, so I don't know exactly which antibiotics they ended up using to treat him. He was very critical the first 24 hours, and was sedated and on a ventilator in ICU. I just received an email tonight saying that he's been moved to a step-down unit, is off the ventilator and is doing alot better. I guess the staff had to ask that his cell phone be taken away because he was CONSTANTLY on the phone after getting off the ventilator! He is SUCH a talker! Like he said in church one day, "I could find a brick wall and have a conversation with it!" I'm just so happy he's doing better...he's become such a friend of the family and I'd hate to see anything happen to him :-(

On a lighter note...

Russ and I have planned a short vacation for April!! Russ has been so stressed and has been on my back to plan a trip for us. I was just a little on the fence about the whole thing because he wanted it just to be the two of us, and I just HATE to leave Alyson! I know she'll be in great hands with my parents and Russ's mom, but I still hate leaving her. Russ REALLY needs to get away though, and really wanted to go somewhere in the Caribbean. We wanted a nonstop flight if possible, and remembered USA3000 airlines flies nonstop to Cancun and Punta Cana. (Anyone fly that airline before?) We ended up finding a nonstop flight from Pittsburgh to Cancun for mid-April.... I can't wait. We're only going for 3 nights, since "Alyson withdrawal" will surely have set in, even during that short period of time!! We ended up booking a suite at the Sun Palace in Cancun. It was completely renovated and reopened in January 2007 after being destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in October of 2006. The rooms all have private hot tubs in them (I can't wait to fill it all up with bubbles...hey, they provide them so why not!) The place looks gorgeous. I read practically every review and looked at a ton of pictures on Tripadvisor.com, so I think I made a good choice. The place is ranked #3 of all the hotels/resorts in Cancun, so that can't be a bad thing!

Here are some pics:

View of the resort:


View of the beach:


View of the suite:


I'm really excited to go, and it will be nice to spend time alone with my husband. Plus, it'll be a darn good birthday gift! (My bday is the 13th, and we leave on the 16th) :-)

And what's a post without mentioning Alyson? (I really need to start updating HER blog that I started awhile back...) Well, Alyson is steadily growing into Little Miss Independent. She wants to do EVERYTHING on her own, and will let you know what she thinks (mainly by dropping down to her knees and bouncing up and down while whining...) if you try to tell her otherwise. She's doing SO great with feeding herself, but she still doesn't understand why mommy wants (well, NEEDS) to help her with the messy stuff. She's currently loving applesauce,Gogurt, jell-o fruit cups, Jr.Lunchables, and Mac and Cheese....lol. Oh, and Cocoa Crispies and Oatmeal Squares. She LOVES some cereal. Takes after her mommy in that aspect! (Probably because that's basically all I ate while I was pregnant---CEREAL!) Currently Alyson is obsessed with her bellybutton and showing it to EVERYONE (and wanting everyone to show her THEIR bellybutton!), and she's still playing with the dogs food and mixing it in their water. Also, anytime she finds a paper towel, dishrag, etc, she dips it in the dogs' water bowl and then goes running off like a mad woman, with a trail of water behind her. That's always fun to clean up. Earlier today since it was mild outside, she decided to make a few trips out the dog door and run out onto the deck. It's always something... I could go on and on.

How about I'm already looking around online for ideas for Aly's 2nd birthday party!! I'm thinking we're going with Strawberry Shortcake this year. Aly is SUCH a strawberry girl! She will eat a whole container of strawberries if you let her.

I just can't believe she's gonna be 2 in June.... pretty soon we're gonna have to start trying for baby #2! I'm starting to hear, "So are you ready for another one?" and "When are you having another baby?" and "Alyson needs a brother or sister" more and more lately. I'm ready for another baby, but I still need to get my husband to jump on board the baby train again...lol. So we'll see.

Well, I'm getting tired so I'm gonna end this here. Hope everyone enjoys their weekends :-)

Updates...

Here I go becoming a blog slacker again... better update a little.

First off, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day this past Saturday. Though a romantic "date night" with my husband would have been great, I was just as happy going out as a family on Friday night. We took Alyson out to dinner on Friday night, since we knew all the restaurants would more than likely be packed on Saturday. Russ kept asking me, "What do you want for Valentine's Day??" but I told him dinner was fine. I've never really made a big deal out of Valentine's Day. For such a long period in my life (pre-Russ) , February was just SUCH a crappy month for me for a lot of different reasons... so I'm just happy to have a wonderful guy to spend V-day with. Anyway, for V-day we ended up getting Alyson a cute pink teddy bear with a heart pillow that says "princess" on it, and a Strawberry Shortcake "Be My Valentine" book. I read the book to her, but I think it only kept her attention for, like, 2 pages. Oh well...

As for Alyson, she's STILL in that mischievous "I want to get into everything" stage... boy, does she keep me hopping!!! The girl DOES NOT STOP. I wish I had half her energy. She's just GO GO GO from the minute she gets up in the morning. Her latest antics include attempting to crawl out the dog door (she had stopped that, but now she redeveloped an interest in it....), and pouring the dog's food into their water bowl and stirring it around with a spatula she grabbed out of the silverware drawer.

Sorry if this post is jumping all over the place... I just don't have much to write about...that I can THINK of anyway. There are a few things I'd LIKE to talk about in here but it would take way too long to type out right now, and I'm getting too tired to think straight. I'll just continue this another time. Just figured I should update since it's been awhile.

Well, I'd better attempt to get some sleep. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the hospital to see my grandma... she had to be admitted today because she was having a lot of trouble breathing. Come to find out, she has bronchitis. She's had a lingering cough and it seems that she never fully recovered from the last cold she had. So now she'll be on IV antibiotics and supplemental oxygen. I don't know many details yet, but I'm sure I'll find out more tomorrow. My mom and my aunts all keep eachother informed, but by the time info gets passed from one person to the next to the next, and then *I* hear it, the info has always gotten a little mixed up from what was heard in the beginning. You know, kinda like that game "telephone." Anyway, any prayers would be appreciated :-)

Nighty night...

Talk about DOWN TO THE WIRE!!!

HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!!

Wow...what a game!!! By the end of the game I had a headache, was totally sick to my stomach, and had tears in my eyes! I couldn't sit down AT ALL for the last 3 minutes of the game. The dogs were looking at me like I was nuts because I kept jumping up and down and yelling at the TV...lol. They were staring at me as if to say, "Puh-leeeeeeeease SIT DOWN!!"

I'm just so happy the Steelers got a win... the "Six-Burgh Steelers" now have their six pack! Woo hoooooooooooo! :-)

Book me on the next flight to Florida, please...

(A little update to this post first-- I started a blog for Alyson! It's called Adventures in Alysonland! I figured that way I have a place just to write about her. I put the link in my "Misc. Sites" category to the right, if you wanna check it out! Thanks!)

*****Now back to our regularly scheduled post*****

Ugh, I hate this weather we are having right now!!

We got a few inches of snow Monday night into Tuesday, which was fine.... the roads and everything were pretty clear during the day while there was a lull in the snow action. But TODAY... YUCK!! It started snowing again lastnight, and we had another 1/2 inch to inch of snow....but THEN overnight started the freezing rain, which is still going strong right now. Then later is another 1-3 inches of snow on top of the ice. Everything has about an inch of ice on it right now. I'll be lucky to get into my vehicle within the next few days. It doesn't help that my battery died the other day from cold weather, and ever since we jumped my car, the remote starter won't work. So now if I can't get into my car, I have no way to turn it on and attempt to defrost it. Needless to say, I'm not going ANYWHERE today. Or possibly tomorrow. Thank goodness I got out for awhile yesterday!!

The roads are a sheet of ice because all the road crews are running low on salt... I guess they just don't care if people slide all over the place. Some main roads aren't even getting plowed. One of Russ's employees went sliding in a work truck and wrapped it around a telephone pole this morning...he's fine, but it was just enough damage to the truck to put it out of commission for awhile. Russ is thrilled about that, lemme tell ya. Puts him in an even better mood than his sleep-deprived self was ALREADY in.

Ahh, I love winter..... I SO wish I was on a beach right now. Anyone up for flying to Cancun? Heck, I'll settle for staying in the US and just heading to Florida. But for now, it's just going to have to be a day spent in the house with my little girl and the dogs watching cartoons and Disney movies.

Stop snowing! (Uh, I mean, KEEP snowing!!)

This snow needs to STOP! Ugh. It's snowed basically 24-7 for the past few days. It's supposed to let up here pretty soon, but will be back in full force tomorrow. Lovely... Pretty soon I really AM gonna have to shovel my way out of the front door.

It just sucks to be stuck in the house BORED. I've been wanting to take some Christmas stuff back for the past few weeks!! Last week I ended up getting sick, then Aly started getting a little something sinus-related (which didn't turn into much, thank God!), and this week is snow snow and more snow. In the coming days, when it's not supposed to snow, it's still gonna be in the single digits temperature-wise, with lows of -3 and such. I just hate to take Aly out in that!! We were supposed to meet my parents for breakfast Friday morning, but it's supposed to be a high of 8 and a low of -3 or something like that. So we'll have to see about that...

I have to watch talking about all this snow stuff around Russ. I'll catch myself saying, "When is this snow gonna STOP?!?!" or "It's gonna snow AGAIN?!" and he'll look at me like I have two heads. He goes, "Honey, don't say that... this brings us money!This is what I DO." (His company salts and plows parking lots around our area, and in the Wheeling,WV area.) So basically I have to act like I don't mind it snowing 24-7 and being stuck in the house bored out of my mind...lol. But hey, if these snow squalls get us a little closer to being able to buy our new home-- let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! I just wish there were some breaks in between snow days, so I could see my husband for more than 10 minutes out of the day. I've hardly seen him the past few days :-( So yeah, in THAT aspect, I can't wait for the snow to stop!!

Speaking of our (possible) new home... Russ said our realtor J called him about our 'dream home' today... he said that the owner is willing to pay all closing costs and a few other fees, so the deal is looking better and better! We just might make an offer on it SOON! Russ is just waiting for the interest rate to dip down a little more, so he can lock a rate in with his banker. So we're getting a LITTLE closer to this house thing actually happening! Russ told J, "I'm lucky if I've slept for 10 hours all together in the past week, so I'll get back to you and we'll discuss everything after the snow's over and I get some sleep." He can hardly even think straight right now... he's been taking little naps in his truck, but that's about it. (He's been up since yesterday morning around 7am!) I keep saying I don't want to get my hopes up about this house, but it's so hard NOT to!!! I just keep hoping and praying. If things are meant to work out, they'll find a way!

Well, I'm gonna watch some Leno then try to head to bed. I'm just waiting to see whether Aly is gonna wake up soon or not. She's got 4 teeth coming in all at once, so the poor girl has been waking up around this time every night, and sometimes even a few more times. Usually she times it for right when I decide to go to bed. As soon as I get comfy under the covers, the crying starts.

Well, nighty night.

*********************
A little update... here's a survey thing I saw on Maria and Marisa's blogs. I copied it...hope you don't mind ;-)

So here's what you do, copy it to your own post, bold or change the color of the things you have done, and then tag 4 other people to do it. Sounds like fun, right??

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Does Disney WORLD count??)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept in an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a sunrise or sunset
30. Hit a home run
31. Watched a total eclipse (solar)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69.saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (I stood outside the gate, if that counts...)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

We're getting blasted with snow... a whole 3 inches.

I'm FINALLY feeling better today. Not 100% yet, but enough where I actually got out of the house and felt like I was in the land of the living today!!

So obviously I didn't make it to Wally-World to get groceries yesterday.... I got ready early this morning so I could get there somewhat early and *try* to beat the Friday crowds there.

So I get to the parking lot, and you would think it was the day after Thanksgiving...the place was frickin PACKED! I had to park way at the back of the parking lot. Reason being-- we were SUPPOSED to be getting a lot of snow (6-8 inches, which is the most we'd have gotten at one time in the past few years...)Evidentally the "supposed" weather forecast flipped everyone right the heck out, so everyone and their brother was trying to stock up on groceries and such before the snow hit.

And NOW the snow forecasted has decreased to 3-6 inches for our area, which is going to end up being more on the 3 inch end of things. Woah... what a LOT of snow! (Sense the sarcasm.) That's what always seems to happen around here... a ton of snow is predicted (like tonight, which they referred to the upcoming storm as "the worst storm in 2 years") and then it ends up being minimal and everyone flips out for nothing.

So we'll see... the worst of the storm is supposed to hit later Saturday morning. (well, THIS morning now,being that I'm writing this post after midnight...) You watch... now that they've said it's not going to be as bad as originally thought, we'll probably be blasted with a foot of snow and have to dig our way out of our front doors...lol. Great.

Well, I'm gonna try to get some sleep now. Getting a decent sleep has been foreign to me lately. Aly's been waking up more during the night, and also has been wanting to wake up for good WAY more early than I am willing to. Either she's teething some more, or she's starting to get sick... I hope it's the teething.

Have a good night!

Sinus cold, nausea and stomach cramps, oh my!

This week has been rough!! I started getting a sinus cold over the weekend, then Tuesday morning I woke up TOTALLY nauseous, throwing up, etc. I ended up with a case of the flu on top of a sinus cold... fun stuff, I tell ya. I've had that lingering nauseated feeling for the past three days, but luckily it's getting better. I just keep having stomach cramps on and off that will leave as quickly as they come on. They'll just last a few seconds, like my whole upper stomach tenses up, and then they're gone. So I dunno what's up. Everyone I tell this to, including my husband, goes, "Are you pregnant?" It's like everyone hears the word "nausea" and automatically they think I'm pregnant! (Which I'm sure anyone reading this thought too! haha) But no, I'm not pregnant... that I know of yet! This is definitely not prego cramping! :-P

Despite how I feel today, I SO need to go grocery shopping. We're running out of a lot of things in the house, and I can't afford to wait much longer. I've had to put it off all week so far, so I guess today I'll just have to suck it up and take a trip to Walmart. My parents originally had offered to get me a few things at the store and bring them over, but now my dad's sick with a stomach bug too. Must be going around. Our good friends just got sick with it over the weekend too.

I just can't wait til flu season is OVER!! And to think, I told Russ a few months back, "No, I'm not gonna get a flu shot... I haven't had a flu shot for years, and it's been awhile since I've gotten a BAD case of the flu." Ha. Yep, should have gotten a flu shot...lol. I'm just glad I haven't gotten Aly sick. I think if she was going to catch it from me, it would have happened by now. What a relief!

On a different note... (since I have nothing exciting to talk about...)

Here are some pics of my little furbabies rockin' their new collars. I love 'em. I actually got them online from 3 Dirty Dawgz., which I discovered while looking around on Etsy one day. Because, you know, going to the local petstore to buy a collar would be too easy. lol Actually, I just loved how this website had so many DIFFERENT collars. The printed ones we've bought them around here fade so easily. But anyway... here are the pics.

Here's my princess Lucy in her pink crowns collar, and Cody the stud in his turquoise crowns collar!