Nervous

Tomorrow I go back to the OBGYN for my regular check up. A lot has happened since then and I will have to rehash most of it since I doubt they have the paperwork. And they always want to hear it from you anyways. Not looking forward to it at all. We are still trying to figure out what we are going to do if we don't get pregnant in the next few months on our own. I want to pursue IUI but I don't know if I can handle the emotional aspect that comes with it. Plus the cost. I know the cost isn't horrible but still. We will see what happens I guess. Still a few months to decide and hope and pray that we don't have to.

I'm glad my work is closed tomorrow but I would be off anyways. Ben's birthday is on Friday so I'm going to take it off instead of getting Tuesday off for my make up day off work. I have no idea what he wants for his birthday dinner so I'm sure it will be last minute. I think instead of getting him a gift, I am going to book us a trip to Amish Country  in May to get away for the weekend. I'm sure he will enjoy that.

The baby is cute as ever! I'm planning on doing a full update after her 18 month well baby visit next week. She still isn't saying many words (which worries me) but we have taken the step of taking her binky away during the day. She still has it for her naps or if we are in public and she is super whiny. She is doing ok as long as she doesn't see it. Full update to come next week!

Bust

Well I think this cycle was a bust. Started spotting yesterday. This stinks. Oh well, I guess it's just the first cycle. I was just hoping with the investment in the fertility monitor and the BBT that it might happen. Part of me doesn't think it will happen naturally anyways because of my issues. We will see...on to next month though!

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving next week. I am only working Tues/Weds since I'm always off on Monday's. And then we are closed Thurs/Fri. I am going Black Friday shopping with my mom also so I'm super excited for that! I do have to go to Best Buy at midnight but then nothing else opens until 5 so I'm not sure if I will head back home and sleep a few hours or if I will just wait around for the others stores to open. Still trying to decide. We are doing Thanksgiving at Ben's mom's new house. This year the day Ben's dad passed falls on Thanksgiving so it's going to be a rough one :( The year he passed away it was actually on Thanksgiving too so we always have a rough time around now. I think the last two years it has made me even more upset because he isn't here to see our precious little girl who he would have just ADORED. I just know it. But I know he's watching over us and he sees her and how wonderful she is.

Work is kind of crazy right now, lots to get done with our year end stuff. I'm still hoping for my raise/promotion to go through come Feb. I REALLY hope it does. There is a staff accountant position open right now that I had been considering applying for but it would mean losing my 4-10 hr days which I don't think I'm ready to do just yet. And I wouldn't get overtime. It would be considered a promotion and I might get a slight pay increase form where I am at now but I think what I might be getting in Feb for my current position would be more. So I think I am going to stick out my current role for now. Plus I get to travel a bit during the year which is nice and I just would miss everyone I work with.

Baby Food and Some Updates

A few weeks ago I decided to try making my own baby food. I went to the store and bought some fresh green beans, carrots, pears, peaches and apples.

I messed the peaches up but the rest turned out fairly well! I put them in my ice cube trays, froze them, and popped them in to a freezer bag. Here is what I got:

Pears - cost $2.82, 14 servings, .20 per serving
Apples - cost $2.44, 9 servings, .27 per serving
Grean beans - cost $2.99, 12 servings, .25 per serving
Carrots - cost $1.19, 14 servings, .09 per serving

Maybe its just a bad time of the year to be doing this but I thought the cost would be more in teh range of what I got for the carrots. Not sure what happened. But I was happy to do it. Not sure if I will be doing anymore batches though. Baby is on to second foods now and that involves mixing a lot of foods and stuff. It seems like someone always has the Gerber two pack tubs on sale for $1. So I might just go with those.

Baby is doing very well though! Getting so big. She is in 6- 9 month clothing right now. Mostly for length than anything. She has the tiniest feet I've ever seen though. I feel like they haven't grown at all since she was 3 mo old! They are so little, compared to other babies around her age. I got some sandals that are so cute that are 6-12 mo and she can't even close to fit in them!

We start swim lessons at the YMCA on Saturday. It's every Sat for 7 weeks from 9-9:30 am. I'm ready to see her in her two cute little bathing suits. I will have to be sure to come back and post some pics of it. There is a girl here at work that is signed up with her son too so I'm excited to have someone in the class with me. A little nervous though because one I don't want to be in a bathing suit but two the class is for up to 36 months. I know there are 4 other people in the class besides us two so I'm hoping they are babies still like our little ones. I can't imagine a 3 year old doing the same things as an 8 month old. We will just have to see!

Ben's new job is going ok. It's really hard having him out of town all week. The weekends are nice to spend together but I still feel like I get no break most of the time. He is always running around and leaving the house to do something so then I have the baby still. I feel like screaming at him that weekends are supposed to be my break from doing it all week. Oh well. I love her to pieces but we all need a break once in a while.

My job is going ok. I was hoping for a promotion but didn't get one. Although PLENTY of other people did. Including 3 people in my department. I guess it had to do with who was going to make the least "noise" about not getting theirs and they said because I got one last year. Well last year was just to bring me where I should be, not because of a promotion. So I asked if they would give me my title change since they say my salary is in the range already and I'm really doing the job already. It's been a couple weeks and they still haven't told me. I'm not happy about it at all. I want to bug my boss more about it but I don't want to make her mad. I will probably wait until next week and ask again. i just don't know what's so hard about it- I'm just asking for a title change that fits my job anyways!

I also found out I am going to have to get another surgery. Apparently I have some scar tissue from when I had my D&C after my delivery for retained product. I've read that its common but it scares me to think maybe it will come back? Maybe I won't be able to have more kids? I'm pretty nervous about it. Plus I have to go under again and I really am just over having surgeries. I'm praying that this is the last one and that everything will be ok after this.

One last thing  -we got a new TV with our tax returns. I love it! And we are also waiting on our new sectional for the living room - found out today it won't be delivered until March 14th :( I'm not happy at all about it! We were told February. I will have to put pics of the new stuff up too soon!

Update

Time for an update. Our little bug is doing pretty good! Things have just been so crazy lately. We had to switch her to the liquid formula since there was a recall on the powdered. That didn't sit well with her so we had to switch her back. So she was a bit fussy this wekeend! But other than that she is doing great. i dont think I posted about it but her 2 month check up was on Sept 16th. She was doing good - she weighed 10 lbs 2 oz, 21 3/4 in long. They said she looked good and everything was fine. They gave her 3 shots - it was heartbreaking. I hate seeing her cry like that :( But 5 mins later she was just fine.

Not much else going on - just working and trying to keep up with everything. My house work has been lacking lately and it's driving me nuts but I have no choice. There's just simply not enough time in the day for it all. Don't get me wrong, it's still clean I just don't get to deep clean like I used to.

We did just buy a new car on Sunday though! We traded in Ben's car for an '06 Honda Pilot. It's a green/blue/gray color and I love it. We need something 4wd anyways because we live on such a steep hill. Plus we need to be able to get around with the baby now. And it has plenty of room which I love! It can fit 8 people :) Probably not comfortably but it can! I'm pretty excited about it and now I just have to get used to driving it.

I lost two good friends yesterday. Well I thought they were good friends - now I'm thinking not so much. Oh well. I guess if they want to act as childish as they did yesterday then I don't need them in my life. Of course, I was upset about someting and they turned it around on me and made everything my fault and brought up so much shit. It was just childish and I'm over it. Oh well. We are better off without the drama.

2 weeks :*(

So my surgery went well last week. Still having some pain here and there but they got everything out. I was doing pretty good right after and felt pretty fine. Just a lot of pain in my stomach area but the motrin they prescribed helped a lot.

So what else is new...I'm just going to list these because it's easier for me...

- I gave up breastfeeding. She wasn't latching on and she was having some tummy issues. I thought it might be from breastfeeding and formula feeding. I think she was getting confused. I hurt to give it up but I feel ok about it. I really wanted to go at least 6 weeks but then I had to have this surgery also and I wouldn't have been able to anyways during that time. So it was 4 weeks but some times I'm still sad about it. Plus my production wasn't going up, in fact in seemed to be going down and I was having to use more and more formula.

-The baby is doing great. We did take her for 1 month pics and they were absoultely adorbale. I can't wait to do some family pics in a few months. Around Christmas time we are doing those and we are going to include my sister, her hubby and my parenst as well.

-Tricia is a lot more alert and awake now. She hasn't started really cooing or anything yet. Ben's cousin had a baby 11 days before me and her baby started that about 2 weeks ago. So I wonder when Tricia will start. I hate to be one of those mom's that compares their child to others but I can't help but wonder.

-I can't believe I only have 2 more weeks before I go back to work. I want to cry. I miss work more than anything because I love the people I work with and it will be nice to see everyone but I can't help but wonder how I will be away from her everyday :( I just hope I can handle it. I know I will be wreck when I go back the first few days.

-In prep for me going back to work and being away from her everyday, my sister took her all day today. My sis wanted practice with her anyways alone and I wanted to see what it was like. I miss her so much though :( Its too quiet and I'm bored without her. I just miss being able to look at her.

-Ben is having a meeting with his district mgr at work tomorrow so we will see what he wants. HE was supposed to get a raise and promotion to mgr months ago and it never happened. Tomorrow he might get promoted, or he might get demoted. He doesn't really know. I'm doubtful that he will get promoted but I'm also very angry with that company. He's been doing the managers job at his store for months now and they havne't even paid him for doing that work with the promise that it was coming "soon". So at this point I could care less if they do promote him because he's just so tired of doing all this work and not getting paid for it. So we will see...

- And last but not least, I love being a mommy :) I don't know what I would do without her but some days it's still hard to believe I have her and she's all mine. I just love her so much and she's my world!

I think that's all for now...still gotta come back with the birth story and pics...

I'm outta here!

Well I figured I would do one last update before I leave tomorrow. I'm out of here until Weds for a work trip to Orlando. It should be a good time but of course I'm nervous about flying. And even more nervous about flying with a baby in my belly! But I will be ok and I just can't wait to get there. It will be good to see all of my field sellers from work for a few days and be out of the office.

On Thurs is my glucose test at the doctors. Hoping that everything goes ok with that! I think I should be ok but you just never know. So that will be a fun time sitting there for an hour until they do the blood draw. I hate needles though so this is not going to be fun!

In other news, I ordered and recieved our invites for the shower! I love them and they turned out really good. I designed them myself and it only cost me 50 cents to print them on vistaprint including shipping! So I'm very pleased and will probably use them again to do my birth announcements once the baby is born.

I also ordered our crib and changing table. It had been out at Babies R Us. I just by chance was looking at my registry yesterday and it was available so I ordered it before it wasn't anymore! I was supposed to get an email when it was back in stock but that never happened for some reason. Oh well! It has now shipped so we should get it by Thurs I think the tracking said. We won't be assembling it for probably another month or so but that's ok. As long as it's up before the shower so we can bring everything in I will be happy. And the changing table came from Amazon because it was cheaper by 30 bucks plus I saved some shipping too. So all in all i'm very happy that it's on it's way and no more waiting!

Well I think that's all for now. I will try to update between trips but not sure I will be able to!

Time is ticking away....

Time seems to be going slow but then I look back and it has gone so fast! I only have 15 weeks left which seems like forever and tomorrow at the same time. We just got the baby's room cleared out (Ben's mom was in there) and so we can just now start work on it. Just a few little things to do - we have to sand down the trim and repaint it, we had some patches on the walls and we need to sand them down some more because they were poorly done the first time around because we were in a hurry. Then we need to repaint that. And we need to replace the trim around the door. So not too much to do, if we had the time we could probably get it done in one weekend but I don't think our schedules will work like that. So hopefully in the next two weeks we can get that stuff done so I can start cleaning and decorating the room.

We did get our bedding set yesterday (see above) and it's absolutely adorable!! I love that it's not over the top pink, it has lots of brown, green, red, and other colors. I got a great deal on EBay for a 13 piece set and then we also bought the lampshade that matches. Just need to buy a lamp base for that and then a mobile and the crib will be all set! As for the crib and changing station - I think I am going to be ordering that in the next few days here because I think the crib is on clearance at Babies R Us. So it said something about saving 10% when you buy clearance plus it's free shipping. So I will probably order both pieces now and get it over with, which is why I would like to get the stuff done in the room. Hopefully we can get this stuff done within the next month or so before the shower so I can bring everything home from the shower and start putting it where it needs to go!

We did go and register at Babies R Us last weekend which was a fun experience! Ben still doesn't understand why we need to register at two stores (we are going to Target this weekend to finishregistering there) but he doesn't understand not everyone can get to a Babies R Us! Luckily the one in Chapel Hill will be done with their remodel soon and so people will be able to shop there. Although I was there last weekend and they had plenty of stuff so that was good. So people might not be able to find everything on registry if they go there but they should be able to find some stuff. I'm excited to finish up our Target registry this weekend. And I think I'm going to order our shower invites online in the next few days as well. I designed them myself so I just have to send them off to the printer to be printed. Everything is starting to come together!!

I am going to be travelling for work coming up next weekend and I will be gone off and on for the next few weeks. I'm gone April 24-28 in Orlando, May 2-5 in Nashville, and then back to Orlando May 13-16. So it will be a busy next few weeks and then before you know it, it will be time for our shower in June!

Getting ready for Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. I feel bad, I still haven't sent out Christmas cards yet. Maybe tomorrow....they might be late though. Oh well! At least I will have sent them.

We did get our tree up, I need to post a pic of that soon. We switched colors this year. We had been doing blue and gold and this year we switched to purple and gold. We haven't had any Christmas bulb ordeals yet with the animals which has been nice. I figured we would lose a few but none so far!

Our plans for Christmas will be slightly different this year, we will go visit Aunt Cathie and Uncle Jimmy who live up the street and then go see Ben's grandparents on his dad's side who live two streets over. Then we will go spend Christmas Eve with his mom's side of the family. We are not really spending time as a whole with his dad's side which is where we normally are. Then Christmas Day we will go to PA as usual to see my family. I'm excited for Christmas this year, but only in the last few days did I get that way since it finally started snowing. Although I don't think it will for Christmas from what the weather forecast says! Only rain.

Work has been slowing down which kind of sucks but oh well. Maybe after the holidays it will pick back up again so I am not so bored! I am working this week today, tomorrow and Weds. Then I will be off until next Tuesday! It will be a long weekend...I have no clue what I am going to do to occupy my time but I'm sure I will clean and relax.

Thanksgiving Plans

So for Thanksgiving we are going to Ben's Grandpa's house. Normally we would go to his other side of the family but too much drama lately and I don't think anyone is really having it. His aunt that lives across the street is having his grandparents over so we might go up there for a minute and say hi. I'm very excited for Turkey though...I don't make Turkey at I think. Ever. So having Turkey now is even better! :) It was a quick week though because I only work two days then I'm off for five! Very nice and everyone is jealous. I have little doubt that I will actually accomplish anything. I might try to get our Christmas Tree up but see as I have no idea where we are putting it since we rearranged our living room, I don't know what's going to happen. I might get it up, I might not. I really would like to. I am hoping Ben's mom doesn't bring out any of her Christmas stuff though because I really don't need any more stuff in the house nor do I want it. I know she has a bunch of stuff but I really don't want it out. So we will see!

As for other updates, not much else going on. Just working. I worked a little over the weekend and I might come in on Saturday to try to catch up on a few things. We will see. It would be so much easier if I could work from home on the things I needed to do. I could but of course I don't have a lap top so it's not that easy.

Mel and Brian and I went to the doctor on Monday and they are having a boy. Mel was pretty upset because her heart was so set on a girl but she seemed to get better with it as time went on. Brian was very excited that it was a boy (which we all knew he would be). But I think it doesn't really matter to them as long as the baby is healthy - Mel just wanted to buy dresses and bows :). But congrats to them!

Also, we found out this week that Ben's cousin Carmie Jo is pregnant. They leave in Kenmore so congrats to them also!

How time flys!

Wow I can't believe it's been almost a month sinceI wrote on here...so many things have been going on!

Work is still insane. I'm working on my days off usually right now but the overtime is nice so I don't mind. Plus it's less of a mess that I come in to the next day.

My birthday was Sept 11, I will probably do another post about this. It was a great night and all of our friends were there! I was happy to have everyone around :) I will do another post with details and pictures!

Sept 12 my cousin Ryan got married to Kelly. That will probably be another post as well. It was a good wedding - but more on that later as well!

On Sept 18th we celebrated Liz's birthday. Probably another post also, or I will put it with my birthday post. They went to dinner but we didn't go because we don't have the money right now. Then it was an interesting night but it was a good time!

I've been going to all of Mel's appointments with her. She just had one this past Monday (I forgot to take a picture of her but I think I will get one tonight!). She was 12 weeks on Tuesday I believe. She is doing better, not as sick but feeling very tired.

My mother in law will be here in about 4 or 5 weeks to stay with us. Her boyfriend will go back to Arizona and stay at the house there until it is sold. The only thing I am not happy about is her dog coming. I don't need another dog in this house, it's already bad enough. Plus she is a small dog so I'm afraid mine will trample her. We will see how she does with Duke. He doesn't do well with other dogs that he doesn't know. So we will see! I will be grateful for the help his mom will provide financially though. That will be a nice break! Plus she likes to cook and clean so that will help out also.

Work has been crazy and hasn't slowed down at all. I really think it's getting worse, which I expected but it's just insane. Plus it's the time of year when people are out sick so I'm constantly worrying about getting sick!

As far as my weight loss, I'm down about 22 lbs from where I started. But from my highest it's around 27 lbs. It sucks though becuase most of my clothes don't fit, well my pants for work at least, and we really don't have the money to buy any more. Maybe one day...

Other then that, not much else has been going on. I come home, make dinner, and go to sleep most nights. On the weekends I clean and do laundry. Not much time for anything else at this point!!

I will try to keep this thing better updated, at least for myself because I don't think anyone really reads this. I want to keep track of things better though so I will try!

San Antonio Bound

Well I will be leaving on Tuesday for San Antonio for work. I am going there for a tradeshow for one of our distributors like I did back in May when I went to Daytona Beach. I'm excited because I'm going with another co-worker and all of our field people will be there! I can't wait to see all them, I don't think I've seen some of them since January! I'm VERYYYYY nervous about flying as I always am but hopefully everything will go ok. I don't know why but I hate flying (well I do...my birthday is 9/11 and I'm just not ok with flying really anymore). We do have a layover which makes things harder but I will be going with my coworker so he should keep me sane. I'm sure I will have lots of pictures when I come back on Saturday!

Not much else is going on...our A/C went out...plans are still in the works on what we are doing with that. All I can say is we are HOT. Luckily, Ben's aunt and uncle are out of town right now and let us borrow their window a/c while they are gone. And once htey come home we should be able to borrow his grandparents for another week to at least keep our bedroom cool. It's just miserable for our doggies though. I can deal with it, it's them I feel bad for :(

We are just taking everything else one day at a time, money continues to be a huge struggle (hence why the A/C thing is still in the works). I just keep prayin that one day it will be ok, and we won't have to worry about money. I feel like when we really need it though it is there so that's all I can be thankful for right now.

As far as my weight loss, I'm down around 19 lbs now. I slipped today some and maybe a little yesterday but it was hot and I needed ice cream! :) But I'm happy with where I am at and I am hoping to be able to watch myself while we are in San Antonio. If not, I will resume when I get back. I hope to be able to work out some while I'm there, most likely I will be indoors on the treadmill though! Its forecasted to be at least 100 or more the whole time we are there.

And finally, I forgot to post last weekend - my mom's birthday was Sunday! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MOM! We are going to have dinner here when it cools down!



Well, I need to get off here and finish packing! Have a great week everyone!

July 4th

So this year we decided to go out of town for the4th of July which we never do! It was fun to get away for the weekend while my parents stayed with the puppies. We went to Salt Fork to Ben's Grandpa's Farm. Ben helped mow most of the time while I sat around and read my books (had to read the 6th Harry Potter again to get ready for the movie to come out next week!). There was tons food and it was a great and peaceful time down there! We literally were in the middle of nowhere...it was about 4 miles on a gravel road to get to the farm. I've been there only 2 times before but I'm so happy we went. And I even got Ben to take me to the fireworks in Cambridge since we weren't getting to go to Akron's! They were really neat for such a small town.

It is really the middle of no where- view off the front porch

Sitting on the swing in the yard while Ben was off mowing

Us...not the best picture

Me :)

Fireworks!

Slideshow of the fireworks

So in other news...I'm back to watching my food a little better. It wasn't easy while I was gone over the weekend and at the beginning of this week with cake at work for a co-worker. And for some reason all last week I was craving ice cream. So needless to say I went back up slighty. I'm still down 5.5 lbs but I am going to get back on track from here on out!

Work is going well, kind of busy right now. I am worried that some people may be leaving my department but it's ok. It's good for them we will just miss them. I just hope some people that have the power to do so, will make the decisions that need to be made to keep them around instead! Also, I'm excited to be going to San Antonio in August for another tradeshow. I will be going with one of my co-workers, Corey, who I absolutely love. We will have such a good time there!

Also, I have a wedding to go to this weekend. I was supposed to be in it but Ben had just gone back to work at the time and I couldn't afford the dress for another month and she was anxious to get them order. I'm pretty sad that she didn't wait for me to get mine because I would have liked to been in her wedding since she was in mine. But it is what is it. I'm excited for her and her fiancee. She will also be moving to Michigan so I will miss her even more! Hopefully, she will come home once in a while and I will be able to keep up with her over the internet. So I will have pictures to post from that i'm sure after this weekend! Her bachelorette party is tomorrow night so I will be going to that but we are just doing dinner. But I might have pictures from there too!

Well I think that's all for now...

IMCO 2009

So I went on my business trip last week and it was a blast (mostly!). I left Sunday with Milena, my co-worker, and flew to Daytona Beach (via Charlotte) . We were cutting it really close for the opening ceremony that my company was sponsoring and so we had to put our butts in high gear to get there. We were a bit late but it was a real relaxed environment so no one noticed. We had a cocktail reception with appetizers but the rest of our crew (Mike, Greg and Teri) decided they were hungry for some real food so we headed down to a little place called Ocean Deck. Wait was too long upstairs at the restuarant so we went down to the bar that served food. It was crazy trying to get me in there (hello fake ID even though I'm 23 and just wanted to eat) but we finally did and had some good food. And a wonderful toast to me done by Greg (love that man!).

Monday morning I got up and went to breakfast with Teri while Milena worked away (she really should have given it a rest but I understand she had a few things going on). Then we went for a walk on the beach which was quite lovely...and I got a bit of redness but of course it just faded away once I got home. No tanning for me in the natural sun. Fake and bake here I come in a few weeks! So then I worked for a bit in my room and then tried to track down a few things for the show at the hotel. Then it was time to get ready to head over to the Daytona International Speedway. That was a really neat time! It was so cool to be down on the track and see how huge those stands are and how steep that track really is. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. So then after dinner and a few drinks at the track we headed back to the hotel. We decided to head back down to the Ocean Deck since they had some decent live music. Good times again down there!

Tuesday was the show. Pretty much stood in a booth and gave people stuff all day. Answered a few questions but it was nice to meet some of the people I have been talking to the last 7-8 months through email and phone calls. I was pretty darn proud of myself for staying in that booth almost all day. I only took about a 20 minute break! We also did lunch at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. which was really neat - and since I despise sea food - I got fried chicken which was delicious! Tuesday night we had an awesome closing dinner reception that was a bike week theme - complete with airbrush tattoos. I recieved a wonderful blue japense symbol for peace and balance :) I had just a few drinks and headed back to my room.

Wednesday - Came home. Nothing exciting there. Oh well besides the massive and horrible thunderstorms that kept us grounded for about 45 minutes on the plane in Atlanta. Have I ever mentioned how afraid I am to fly?...terrified might just be a more accurate description but you say tomato, i say tomatoe. Luckily I had a very funny and distracting kid sitting next to me to keep me preoccupied from the happenings. Finally got home safe and sound though and glad to be back. Although work is still crazy as ever and busy I kinda missed it.

And I will be back later...or tomorrow...with a Mother's Day post!

Beautiful beach...I miss you!

Our massive hotel...literally a mile walk to get to the other side...yes it's the WHOLE thing.

Me and Milena out exploring on Monday

Feet on the beach

Run Forrest Run! Neat signs to stop the waitress (Stop Forrest Stop!) if need be

Booth we spent 8 hours in on Tuesday

Me and the beach

And again...

Daytona International Speedway

Last night...after just a few

Leavin'

Well I'm am leaving here in about an hour to go to the airport - off to Florida until Thursday for work. I'm excited but i know I won't get to enjoy all the weather that much since it's for work. But I will try my hardest - lots of pictures when I come back hopefully!!

Not much else going on - Ben still hasn't found a job. At this point it doesn't surprise me but it's getting really hard financially and I'm starting to worry.

Work for me this week was crazy busy - swine flu outbreak has people buying our products up like mad! Oh well - I have plenty of OT now which I can't wait to have!!

That's all for now...short and sweet. See ya Thursday!

Short Update

So I haven't written in a while. Not sure what is wrong with me. I can't wait for the weather to warm up around here so I get out of this always tired phase!

Ben is still on the hunt for another job - he lost his about 2 weeks ago now. Long story but it wasn't his fault. He's had 3 interviews but no luck yet. Until then he's mister susie homemaker.

This past weekend I went to a "Slumber Party", kind of like Pure Romance, at my friend Danielle's house. It was good to see her. I didn't know many people there but my mom came. Most people would think it was embarassing but I don't think so :) I love my mom!

Other then that I have just been working...and sleeping. Like I said at the beginning, I don't know what's wrong with me but I just get so tired by the time I get home! I just want to do nothing but sleep, sleep and more sleep. I am working on a few things that are keeping me up until at least 10 but then I just crash. Summer...summer...where are you?!?!

Besides that I have one more new addiction...

I ended up watching the movie over at a friend's house and then decided that I needed to read the books. Thanks to my sister...I spent this past weekend reading all 4 (well 3, I read Twilight last week). It is a really good story and I can't wait to see the next movie. I just wish there were more books! I want to read more :)

Celebrating Brian's Birthday

So last Saturday we decided to go out and celebrate our friend Brian's 26th birthday! We weren't really planning on it because Ben was working and they said they were going out early (before he got off work) but then ended up going out around 8:30 to dinner so we went. For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse. We had a good time and then we headed down to the Valley to Coopers. We hadn't been there in a long while so it was a really good time. The owner is super nice and remembered us! I got really really drunk. I don't think I've been that bad in about 6 months! It was a great time, me and Ben had a good time with our friends. :)

Melanie and Brian at dinner - he's a goof ball!

Me and Ben at dinner

Brian and Liz

Me and Tim at the bar

Me and Mel - we were pretty drunk at this point....LOL:)

We had matching chapstick, I guess it was funny at the time

Mandy (who's birthday we were also celebrating), Mel and Christina

I love kisses when I'm drunk :P

Mel's super long straw

It was a wonderful weekend! We didn't do much on Sunday because we slept in pretty late. I have been pretty tired this whole week because I was sick Mon/Tues/Weds and I'm still not feeling 100% today. And of course I got Ben sick and he's mad at me. Spent $35 on meds at the store though to try and make us better!

Work is going well - just pretty busy and just lots to do. I'm being part of more teams at work and trying to learn as much as I can! I love my new position and my new boss. So much better then where I was at :) I enjoy work so much now!

Only thing that sucks about work is that everyone is getting pregnant. There are so many people I know who are pregnant right now. Part of me wants a baby now but I soooo know we can't afford it. Hopefully by the end of the year we will be in a better position to start trying where I feel comfortable. Until then I can only hope :)

Valentine's 2009

Of course I'm a week behind again! Last weekend we went out to celebrate Valentine's Day. Normally we don't celebrate it because it's not really a holiday to us but our friends asked if we wanted to go so we went. It was quite a bit of a wait since we didn't have reservations and that sucked big time but it was really good so it was worth the wait! We went to Japanese Steakhouse in Montrose called Wasabi. It was delicious. Now Ben and our 2 friends Kyle and Liz have never been there before so they were pretty excited about it. I've been a few times but it's been at least 2 years. Afterwards we went to a bar called Brubaker's for a drink (and I will never go there again, the girls that were serving there were rude). Overall, a great night out! We will be going back - when we have reservations :)

Our cook - poor guy was so tired. I think we were his last table...

Me and Ben (I was pretty tired at this point)

Liz and Kyle

And of course Liz and me :)

This week and weekend have not been that exciting...worked a lot that's about it. I have started to go out to my stepdads house to help him clean up his shop a bit. I am trying to get out there a few nights a week and help him out. He's not a good one with organizing or keeping clean. And he has a really hard time throwing things out. So we are working on that :) He had a lot of invoices that needed filed. His computer also got wiped out last year so we are going to work on rebuilding his customers in the software. Fun fun! Ben has been working a lot also. He is off tomorrow so I don't know what we are going to do. Might go to church in the morning and then maybe go to Kyle and Liz's so Ben can get his haircut. I'm going to try to do better and keep this more up to date :)

Excitement

So what's new with me you might be asking yourself (if anyone reads this?!). Well, work is going well but very busy and stressed. I have a lot going on, a lot more then anticipated. Luckily the new girl has started in my old position and it's such a relief to be able to pass things off to her now. She's great! But there's still a lot to do in my new position and it's getting to be interesting trying to get everything accomplished! But I love my new boss :) We did have our stakeholder's meeting and it's kind of scary to hear about all the cuts (not jobs per se but other things) they are doing to make it work without having to lay off people. Like no new hires, no promotions/pay increases, etc. Luckily they are still giving out our bonuses this month. Sometimes I forget that I work in a manufacturing world even though I am in an office!

Ben started his new job yesterday. He seems to be enjoying it so far but we will see. He will be training the next 2-3 months and then will move to his own store. What is nice is he will only be working 4 days, 12-14 hrs a day. He is used to working 12 hr days so I think he will be fine but I know I won't be up when he gets home! I am glad that he's back to work though, it's scary how high unemployment is!

Last night, I made a wonderful new recipe supplied to me by my co-worker! White Chicken Chili. I need to just say how yummy it was! Ben had some suggestions for the future and I learned a few things too but it was really good. Nice for a cold winter day. Check out my recipe blog for the recipe! It's easy even though it is a lot of ingredients.

Now to get to the excitement blog title...I filed our tax returns tonight (can we say early!). I always get mine done ASAP so I can get it back before the mad rush. What I'm excited about is that we got enough back to be able to cover our trip to Arizona in September (right after my birthday). I am so excited about this. I was kind of stressing about how we were going to save although I knew the return would be enough to cover the flights I just didn't realize it would leave enough for our rental car and spending money too. So I am moving the money to another account as soon as we receive it so we don't spend it. But it's a relief to not have to worry about that now.

So yeah I'm excited to go to Arizona in June and visit again with Ben's aunts and uncles and revisit our honeymoon spot :) It's so nice there and there's pools for me to lay out by with a good book so I'm ready and it's only February!

Well that's about all the updates I have for now. This weekend is Lydia's bridal shower so I will be back with pictures probably Saturday evening from that.

Snow & Puppies

I'm a little late with this post but this was from last weekend when we got about 10 inches of snow. Harley just loves the snow and Duke does too! Here's two pictures of Harley and then a video of Harley and Duke. It was one of those days where we were snowed in. Since we live on a hill, there about 4-5 days a year we know we aren't going anywhere because we can't get out/up the hill. It was funny to watch some people try though!!

Sunday of last weekend we went with my parents to try a new place called Zoup in Solon, they have 11 different soups daily. It's a Panera of sorts but smaller and less known. We were 1 of 4 groups of people we saw the whole time we were there! But with the snow we thought that might have had something to do with it. It's amazing how much soup they had and we all got a different kind and LOVED all of them. Yum!! Then we explored a bit up in Solon and ended up at the Cold Stone Creamery in Macedonia, haven't been to one in a while so I was super excited! Here's my creation then a picture of Ben, my mom and Eric eating theirs!


This week has been really crazy with work - our quarterly meeting was this week with all of our team in for the meeting. Since the new admin coordinator for our group doesn't technically start til next week I still had to do pretty much everything. The new person (Julie) was there for the meeting to see how things run but she won't be back until Weds but then she starts full time with us and I'm pretty much done doing the things I had to do for my old position besides training her. I'm super excited to finally have this weight lifted off my shoulders since I have been waiting since September for this to happen!

Ben's birthday is on Tuesday (Jan. 20 - Inauguration Day). I am off Monday. We might try and do a nice dinner this weekend or maybe just wait until Tuesday. I think we are going to go out to the bar tonight with some friends (we will see who shows) and have a few drinks. Who knows!! I am not getting anything for him, at least not right now since we are broke. Maybe in a few months with my bonus or tax return we will get him something!

Hope everyone is well and trying to stay warm (for those of us in Ohio at least!).

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted. I have just been super busy lately with a lot of different things but mostly work.

I have officially moved my desk but my role does not seemed to have changed like it was supposed to. My boss informed me that he needs me to manage his calendar still (hopefully at the end of this week coming up that will end, he said it will but we shall see). I have a gazillion (ok not that many but it feels like it!) interview candidates coming in for different positions right now. I am really pretty sick of doing it at this point and i was just given more to do, both first and second round. Not really happy about it. I am just through with all of it. Plus, I am getting so many things to for my new job which I love but I can't get around to them and I hate telling my new boss that but it's the truth. Now I also have goals to start working on for next year that I need to work on and I just don't know how I will find the time until the hire someone. But then there will be trianing and learning so it will probably be another month and a half before I finally get a break....I'm hoping for sooner but doubt it. Alright enough of the complaining...

I have been doing a ton of cleaning lately and that is making me feel better about things around here but I still have plenty left to do! Everything just looks a mess to me! Hopefully this winter I will get motivated to get more things cleaned up and out.

I can't believe this week is Thanksgiving already! I have to say that I have much to be thankful for this year, my husband, my family, my friends, my home, my puppies and kitty, my job, and so many more things.