Saturday, January 30, 2010

reunion and weekend plans

so there was a bit of chit chat by a few people that i have on my facebook about a 20 year reunion.

now, after a bit of back and forth, we have a venue (i hope - still need to get ahold of the fellow - he owns a lounge that looks pretty poshy, went to school with him since elementary!!) a date, and now just need to get a bit of a planning committee together for the whole thing.

interesting to see how fast word spreads, even with so few of us keeping in touch over the years!

this weekend will be a nice chance to do some relaxing - we have been fairly busy still this last month, but i get some r& r without having to feel too guilty. dh is off to a stag party with work guys, and he'll be staying overnight in the city. we both know that it will just be better all the way around - i don't have to go pick him up, and he won't have to worry about driving home. he's already claimed a couch at a co-worker's home.

i do have a couple things on my to-do list: laundry and getting my payroll and expenses done for last week. the boys and i are going to go out for dinner so that takes care of that :)

hoping to get a little bit of scrapbooking done as well. i have all of our cuba pictures now organized, and thanks to a couple packages of 12x12 page protectors that are sectioned off to hold 6 individual pictures on each side of the page, i won't be doing a super intensive album. considering i printed off 300 pictures, there is just no way that would work anyhow.

so that's it for today - have a great weekend!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

kreativ blogger



so the wonderful meredith has named me as a kreativ blogger... i don't know mer in real life, but when i get to boston one of these days, we shall meet. at starbucks. without children (well, ok, her littles can come so i can feed LM chocolate cake and get him all hyped up on chocolate). and the coffee will be on me!
the challenge is as follows: share 5 random things about me, and then bestow the honor of kreativ blogger to another 5 (possibly unwilling) bloggers that i hope read my blog and will pass it on... and on... and on....

5 random things... let's see...

1. go back, way back... i took classical piano lessons for the majority of my formative years. from about age 3 (when my mom got frustrated with the whole yamaha program) through to age 17. i don't own a piano myself anymore. but there is a big beautiful grand in my mom's house. (i also don't play anymore. but i could.)

2. i love to read. in the last week i've read 2 totally trashy but lovely novels by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - "What I did for love" and "Glitter Baby". total escapism, but that's what i like. oh, and cookbooks. cookbooks are good reading. especially when you're on a diet. food porn. gotta love it!

3. i play hidden object games. love 'em all.

4. i really want to know how to work the f-stop on my dslr. i just don't get it. so maybe i should take that photography class i've been procrastinating about. or read the manual. hmmm... maybe that would be good bathroom reading??

5. totally random - my sister ran into a girl that was a horrible bully to me when i was in high school a few months ago. the girl (lady now, i suppose??) tells her that she really wishes that she had not been so mean to me and to tell me that she's sorry. ya know what honey? i had totally forgotten about you from 20 years ago, and now, that would just be a little late. and, quite honestly, if she still remembers how horrible she was, i'm just a little bit glad for it. maybe she found her conscience somewhere in that little cold bitchy heart of hers after all.

ok, so there's the random list. and the torch shall now be passed on to:

mona - you're so sweet and kind, but unwilling to accept anything less than the best for her kids. and because she's a momma that all kids would want.

sarah - love reading her travel adventures as she is living and working in london!

sue - because sue is just an awesome gal - and she always has her blog up to date. and because she's a great photographer, mom and doesn't complain about her job like the rest of us LOL

lee - again another blogger that puts me to shame and always has something new up on her blog - pieces of her life, creative tidbits, and always a smile :)

carmen - because for just a little while, i'd love her sense of style. and her home. oh, and maybe all of her lovely furniture too... and also her ability to keep things organized. and that she actually gets her scrapbooking done :)

that's about it for tonight. i do have some other stuff to post, but will keep that for another day, hopefully not too long from now!

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

new year

and a new start!

coming out of a fairly busy holiday season, i'm quite glad to have things going back to some semblance of normal. we had a great time with friends and family, visiting and enjoying each other's company.

i got my office totally cleaned out and ready to go for the year work wise, and actually found the carpet in there. my very neglected craft space is also tidied up, and i even got some pages done last night from pictures from last january's trip to mazatlan and put into the album. looking forward to spending a little more time on my scrapbooking again. alas, the pictures from cuba are still not all downloaded, nor uploaded to costco for printing. will need to get to that in short order!

with work this year there a new beginning. we've (co-workers and myself) been transferred to a new third party company that sounds like it actually cares about who we are and what we do as field sales reps. that came into effect yesterday. we met a couple of our contact ladies at our meetings the beginning of december. i've had more emails from them in the last 2 days (count 3) that i did not solicit, than i have from the last company in 2 years. (oh yes, they were great.... NOT)

i didn't do any boxing week shopping, just didn't feel like battling the crowds, nor do i really need anything. dh and ds1 did, however, brave walm*rt on boxing day and came home with more than what they had planned. they found a great deal on a bravia tv for our kitchen. we haven't had a tv on the main floor of the house for close to 5 years. this is a big change for us. i can actually watch the news! i know it will change our viewing habits dramatically! (not that it is a good thing all the way around... that its on just because is something we'll have to work on) we are not typically big tv watchers, but now its just that little bit too convenient, it is on!

we're still in the midst of a crazy cold, snowy winter. the weatherman is teasing us with + side temperatures towards the end of this week. i sure hope he's right, or i'm sure that someone may get lynched. it started the day after we got back from cuba and really has not let up since.

the weather is good for ds1 though, who asked for, and received, a snowblower for christmas from his grandpa. it had just been sitting in their garage, and hadn't been used more than twice, so he is feeling very lucky! he has had it out a couple times since christmas, and is thoroughly enjoying his man toy! he has a job shovelling/mowing for a man across the street, and heck, why not snowblow everyone else's while he's at it?? LOL good kid!

we have a little getaway planned for february to great falls, montana for a shopping/long weekend trip. because of the family day holiday we get here, its nice to have that little break in the middle of the long winter.

looking to march, with work we're heading to blue mountain resort in collingwood, ontario. us "girls" were hoping to be able to go there a couple days early to spend some time together (read shopping trip to buffalo, ny) but its not looking good with flights and such. we so rarely see each other, and don't often have the opportunity, but it would have been nice to spend a little more time together.

and then there's the last new year/beginning. its not bad, but since we came home from holidays i just haven't been able to shake the 10 pounds off my behind that was acquired from the great cuban food we had. then came the bit of overindulgence that is christmas... yummy baking, too much wine and drink, and other high calorie nibbles. so yesterday i started back on my strict diet i really need to follow to get pounds back off. other than being hungry right now (this too shall pass)it should only take me a few weeks. i just need to pass on the carb overload and fatty foods that have been hanging around the house. thank goodness the fridge is back to normal, and the last of the goodies are gone (not to mention easy stuff to throw in the oven and eat just because its there!) i've also started doing a bit of a workout thanks to ds2's wii. i'm not into heavy sweaty crazy workouts (i just don't enjoy it) so its been fun to do a 1/2 hour or so on it and not feel like i must do it every day.

my mom and dad are off to palm springs for the next few months, leaving on saturday. i'm hoping they enjoy their time away in the warm!

happy new year everyone - and i hope your year is off to a good start as well!

Friday, November 27, 2009

home sweet home

and we're back!

got in late last night, and woke up to a very grey day... snowing out now, and while dh and i were out picking up the dogs from the kennel, i told him that it was time for the daily nap on the beach. LOL wishful thinking!

i haven't downloaded any pics yet, i think between the 4 cameras we have close to 600. hopefully will get to that at some point over the weekend. the weather was amazing, the people wonderful, and brought back an extra 10 pounds on my behind. so the food wasn't as bad as people made it out to be!! LOL i'm sure most of it is water retention (i have such a hard time with that when we go away) so it won't take forever to get rid of.

now if only there was a way to keep the tan....

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

so sadly neglected

wow.

i didn't think it had been 3 months since i've posted anything here. i apologize. and especially to those of you who have diligently checked in to see what's up, and there's been absolutely nothing other than some cobwebs!

ok, i'll make things quick, but hopefully update enough that i don't ramble too long.

- had an uneventful end to the summer. kids back to school, life back to normal.

- went camping the last weekend of september. met a ferocious windstorm. don't ever want to experience this in another lifetime.

- ended up purchasing a 2006 toyota 4runner limited instead of the mercedes i had put an offer in on. love it too, but drama with the MB dealership was just not fun.

- dh has his cute little lexus as prior posted.

- house is basically done. just a few things left, and all minor. a few more pieces of baseboard needed. backsplash tile and hood fan to be picked up and installed (i really need to decide on something. decision needs to be made on what kind of railing i want to put in. but the best thing is that i LOVE it. we all do. and anyone stopping over says the same thing.

- work has been busy/crazy, but christmas is now put to bed. which means HOLIDAYS!! we're off to veradaro, cuba tonight for 2 weeks. so looking forward to it!

in a nutshell, these are the things that have gone on in the last while. probably a few more things, but hey, something is better than nothing. will post when we're back!!

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

amazing!

so we went for a break this past weekend to great falls, montana. it was so nice to just get away from the disasterous mess our house is in.

but its all getting better.

we left the painter to do his thing on friday. and we returned to a totally new house! what a difference!

the crappy thing is i can't even take any pictures at the moment, as the weather has been gross and cloudy since we got home on monday. (we don't have many light fixtures up, and none in the new part of the house) i'm never sure about choosing paint colors, but i am very pleased with the green and brown that i chose.

the painter we had in was just a hoot. he's probably in his early 50's, and serenaded us with christmas carols all day. the funniest part was that he really didn't know the words to any of them.

but he worked like a man on a mission, and spent most of the weekend here as well. and it was done on time, as he had promised.

our flooring guy starts tomorrow, and it will be so nice to have the 33 boxes of hardwood out of the way. they're sitting in the kitchen at the moment, and as much as they're not in the way, they take up alot of room!

so, as soon as the weather clears up (its looking like it will be the weekend before it does) i'll post some pictures!

as for our weekend away, friends of our actually were the ones to suggest going. we weren't planning on heading south until the fall for a shopping trip, but this was a great little getaway. we didn't find too many sales on, but we also didn't know that it wasn't a long weekend in the states as it was here. we did manage to find some floor tile for our entry and by the fireplace, and we are quite happy with it. brought home quite a few grocery items that we like, and that we just can't get here. and that was about it. walked alot, and had a great time just hanging out.

so i think that's it for now, have a great day!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

a bit of shopping...

so after all of the excitement has died down (although i will still admit this is just utterly surreal!!!) dh went shopping for his vehicle on friday. this is what he will be getting, hopefully with delivery this week:

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and this is what i've found...

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dh is picking up a sweet little 2009 lexus is250, and i'm upgrading a few years from a 2002 mercedes ml320 to a 2006 mercedes ml350.

sweet rides!

i did take a toyota fj cruiser out for a spin as well, but really, its just not as practical for our family. and i know i sound just that little bit snobby-ish, but i really do love the mercedes. it is a vehicle i feel so safe in, and with the leg room needed for ds1, the back seat is more than ample. they handle so well, and now after driving the other for 3 years, i just know i would have a tough time driving something else.

so it is done.

i should have my new one next week, and thanks to ds1, here's a snap of it!

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in other news, we're living in a dust bowl. i have never seen so much dust in my life. you can write your name on almost any horizontal surface of our house. the taper has been working hard this week to complete things so the painter can start tomorrow. i picked up our paint yesterday, and we're going with a green and brown color scheme, and i think it will look amazing.

that's it, that's all for today... hope you have a great sunday!