*&%# ^**%$%!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was just one of those days when you wish you could have a do-over. Ugh...

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.

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."

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!!

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.

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?"

UGH! Well for starters lady, how about some insurance information??

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.

Yay me.

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!

Tomorrow better be a great day!

So 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

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.

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 :-)

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!!!!

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.

Boo 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.

Anyway... another reason I'm in a mood tonight...

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!)

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.

Sniffle sniffle.

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.

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.

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."

Now, I'm off to take some more Nyquil and get some sleep.

1/1/11!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

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!

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...

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.

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.

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!!!

Well, I'm off to bed now. Nighty night! Happy 1/1/11!

Christmas 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Well, I'm off to bed. Night!

Just 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!

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.

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.

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.

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... :-(

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!!!

Loving this time of year!!

I really should be sleeping now but I'm not even close to being tired....

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

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!

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!

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!!

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!

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.

Well I gotta cut this short now... Will just woke up crying so I gotta see what my baby boy needs. Nighty night!