Dressing Up, Bowling, And A New Carpet

Hello Everyone! First of all I would like to thank the sweet reader who emailed me to see everything was ok with us since it has been so long since I last posted. And also for everyone who has mentioned they miss my blog posts and enjoy reading and keeping up with us. I miss it all too. Since I've gotten so far behind, though, it just seems overwhelming to start again. I'll get it together soon. Maybe I'll start with a year in review, and do monthly recaps until I catch up.

But for now, I want to share our fun-filled weekend with you.

First there was this. Which was technically not a weekend event, since it was on Thursday night, but is going to make the cut regardless, because anytime we are able to get all dressed up, get a babysitter, and go out by ourselves is worthy of documenting.


Aren't we cute? This was a graduation ceremony/dinner for an ALS class that included one of Jason's Staff Sergeants. Congratulations Eric!

On Saturday, we HAD to go visit Sparky the Fire Dog and his friends. Earlier in the week, Brennan's kindergarten class went on a field trip to the fire station for Fire Prevention Week. While they were there, the firefighters told the kids they would be at the BX at 10:00 on Saturday, and everyone needed to come. Brennan took that to heart, and on Saturday morning, he was ready to go bright and early with this fireman hat on.


Looks like a future fireman to me!








Sparky!


He was just a little excited to have on the fire suit and to stand by the truck.


One with Daddy.


A hug goodbye for Sparky.

After our visit with the firemen and Sparky, Jason had to go work on a squadron Halloween project and Brennan and I went to the commissary. I know that doesn't sound like fun, but since we weren't getting much, I let Brennan push around one of the kid size carts, and he had a blast at that.

Later that evening, we went to a  BBQ at some friends' house. It was nice just to sit back and relax. We had a good time conversing around the fire, playing cards, Brennan played Wii with some other boys, we all had some great food (and there may have been a few drinks for the adults.)

Then Sunday was pajama day! Yay! Brennan and I are big fans of pajama days, and since he started school we haven't had a chance to have one. Jason, not so much, but he does occasionally enjoy a lounge around the house day.

On Monday we went into the Alley to one of the carpet shops. Originally, we weren't planning on buying anything, but after being offered a really great Columbus Day Sale deal, we ended up coming home with this new addition to our Turkish carpet collection.


What do you think? This is the biggest carpet we've bought so far. It's a nice and neutral grey, so when my frequent urge to redecorate strikes again, it should transition just fine. (Speaking of redecorating...some of that will be happening soon, so stay tuned!)

After our carpet buying trip, we headed to the bowling alley for some bowling and pizza.


It was Brennan's first time bowling. I think this picture sums up how he felt about that.


He used the rack for a little bit.


But most of the time he wanted to bowl like Daddy.


Checking out the scoreboard controls. Does anyone actually know how to score bowling by themselves anymore?


The monster face. This is Brennan's current photo face. I think it's payback for all the times I've told him to smile with his teeth, haha.








Pizza at the bowling alley must be better than pizza at home. Brennan ate a whole small cheese pizza all by himself.



Jason was the bowling winner, of course. Sadly, I think Brennan beat me at a couple of games, too. We'll just say that it was because he had bumpers.

Yep, that's it.

Pretty in Pink

It's been awhile since I've taken any pictures of Chloe. Well, pictures that didn't include shenanigans in the backyard or that could be submitted to dogshaming.com.

Like these...

I love the look on her face here. This is totally one of those pictures that needs thought bubbles photoshopped in. (Yeah, I didn't do that obviously.)
The dog protruding out of our fence is Brutus, our neighbor doggie. I don't really know why our fences are built with holes in them, but I am glad Chloe isn't any smaller...she can't get her whole body through to the other side either.

As Brennan would say, "Silly Brutus." (...and another missed thought bubble opportunity.)

So back to Chloe's photo op. She just had to have some new PINK prettiness for her pictures. My opinion, not hers, of course.  Aww, doesn't she look like a little princess?

Ha, looks are definitely deceiving in her case!  Our current nicknames for her are Hog Dog, Grumpy Old Man, Scruffaluffagus, and The Lorax. Can pink polka dots counteract all that?

Besides the the beard and eyebrows making her look like a grumpy male Dr. Suess character; we've decided her goal each time she goes outside is to bring every bit of dirt and plant life from the backyard, back inside with her. And most days - she does a REALLY great job!

She's very much a tomboy, so I tried to girly her up.

Check out that new ID tag. Cute, right!? I love the pink and the little bow. I found it at the Etsy seller ModPaw'd. I am super happy with their service and the quality of the tag. They have lots of really neat designs. This one is called the Bella.

I love it. I've already decided when Chloe gets a new collar, I will order a new tag to match.

Coordinating collars and tags...I'll make her girly yet!

p.s. Just so you know, I did photoshop out our address on Chloe's tag, it is not a flaw in the stamping.

The Weekend

I was worried.

Since Jason has been so busy getting ready for an ORI inspection at work, (Which was last week.  He finds out the results today, so keep your fingers crossed!) we hadn't had a chance to take a family picture for our Christmas cards.  Thankfully winter decided to delay just a little longer on Saturday and we were able to head out for a little photo shoot. 

Honestly, I didn't have very high hopes for getting any good pictures.  I was so frazzled before we even left the house from trying to get everyone ready (mostly just myself, seeing that my wardrobe is in crisis mode right now).  Then to add another zing to my frayed nerves, we got almost there and I realized I forgot my tripod.   So...

Since I can't hold the camera and be in the picture at the same time, we had to turn around and go back home to get it.  Grrr.  I was ready to scrap the whole idea at this point and just draw some smiley faces with our names printed under them inside each card, but Jason talked me into trying anyway.  I was glad he did.  We got a couple of really good family pictures, and as of now I have our Christmas card designed and ready to send to the printer.  Yay!

I'm not going to show you the picture we're using or the card because, well, where is the surprise in that?  But I will show you some outtakes.  I have plenty of them!

The place where we took the pictures is called The Duck Pond.  And rightly so.  There hasn't been a time we've been there that there haven't been ducks everywhere.  Shouldn't they be flying south right about now?


Brennan being goofy.  Or as he says, "boo-key." : )


This is how most of the pictures turned out.  He had to keep track of what those ducks were doing.


There was also a picnic table that needed to be climbed.


And sticks that needed to be picked up.

A mommy with a camera is no competition compared to all that cool stuff. : )

The rest of the weekend was good, though yesterday felt like the longest. day. ever.  The time change just kicks my butt every time.  I guess growing up in a place that didn't participate in daylight savings time will do that to you. 

Saturday morning before the photo-outing, we went to Lowe's for awhile with no particular reason.  We ended up coming out with some weather stripping for the back door, and a new curtain rod.  Take me to a home improvement store and I can come up with a honey-do list on the spot!

Brennan also made a list while we were there.  Everything on his list are things that he now thinks he needs, which mostly consists of those blow up Christmas yard ornament things.  It used to be when were at a store and he said he wanted something, my usual answer was "You don't need that."  So now he has one-upped his requests to, "Need that."  Smart kid.

Yesterday we mostly stayed around the house.  I made a pot of chili.  Jason mowed and weed-eated the grass for the last time AGAIN.  The last two weekends were supposed to be the last time for the year, but then a couple of blades of grass poke up and get unruly through the week so he thinks he has to do it all again.  He explained to me that there has to be a nice flat base for the snow.

In my mind I am thinking that in a couple of weeks the yard is just going to look like this for the rest of the winter.

Then nobody will know that we even  have grass under there, let alone whether it is cut at a uniform height, but hey, it makes him happy. : )

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Stuffable Stockings

Disclaimer #1:  I know it's the first week of November, and this will be the second time I've mentioned Christmas in that time.  But since I've spent a lot of time debating the right stocking choice I really thought you should know about it.  Besides, it's my blog and I can write about whatever I want, right?  : )

Disclaimer #2:  This is a really long post.  I completely understand if you decide not to stick around to the end.  I won't hold it against you.  Just be sure to come back tomorrow.

OK, so now that that's clear, I have been debating new stockings for a couple of years now.  Well, I guess since Brennan's first Christmas when it became clear that the stocking we had were not at all acceptable.


Here's the best picture I could find of our old stockings.  (Yeah, you see how Elmo is kind of hemorrhaging out the top there.  And the other stuff on the table had no hope of fitting in there at all.)

Were they pretty?  Yes. 
Were they able to hold more than a couple of candy canes and a few pairs of underwear?  No. 

Wondering about the underwear?  St. Nick brings us all new underwear every year.  He found that in order to get said underwear in our old stockings he had to take them out of the package.  Now imagine sitting around unpacking your stocking full of goodies, and having stray pairs of underwear tossed out everywhere.  Makes for interesting holiday photos, don't you think?

It also leads to things like this happening.



Yep, definitely time for new stockings.

So in the time I've had to pick new stockings, I narrowed the criteria down to something that would last forever, something that looked hand-crafted, and I wanted them each personalized.  When we were growing up Mom had the cutest stockings for each of us.  I love the memories I have of those stockings, and I want to create the same memories for Brennan.  With all that in mind, I finally decided that the Pottery Barn Kids line of stockings was perfect.


Photo from Pottery Barn Kids

Adorable, Right?  So now I had to decide which adorable stocking to get for each person.  Something that I thought was going to be easy, turned into a morning long debate with myself.  These are lifetime memories we're making here people! 

I even enlisted Brennan's help, which went something like this.

Me:  "Brennan, look at these pictures.  Which one is your favorite?"

Brennan:  Fav-a-fav-a-reet?  MORE!!  (As in let's look at more pictures.)

Me:  "Do you like the train?"

Brennan:  "Like train.  Choo-choo-whoo-whoo!"

Me:  "Do you like the puppy?

Brennan: "Like puppy.  Woof woof!  Nanny and Poo-paw, a-compuk-a-puter?  Puppy, too?"  (He was asking to Skype with Nana and Papaw and their dog, Dolcha, on the computer.)

Obviously, Brennan was no help picking out his own stocking.

The pondering continued, and I kept coming back to this thought.  What if we have another baby?  I would of course want their stocking to match the rest of ours.  (You had no idea the stocking debate was going to get this deep!)  There was no way I was going to buy extra stockings for a hypothetical kid as I read some of the people that wrote the reviews did, sooo....after folding up some laundry and vacuuming the floor I decided to Google "Pottery Barn Kids Stocking 2009," just to see how different the designs are every year.

And I found that the designs are similiar enough that it would be no big deal.  And as a bonus,  I found that my very favorite thrifty place, eBay, had listings for PBK stockings. Oh yeah!  You know I jumped right onto eBay and did a stocking search! 

I hit the jackpot! 

Though now I was hit with the dilemma of the personalization.  Was it cheaper to buy from PBK and have them do the personalization or was it cheaper to buy on eBay and go have the personalization done in town.  Was trying to find a good place in town worth the hassle?  But then the light bulb went off as I was looking at an ice skater stocking with the name Jenny across the top and thinking who would want a stocking with the name Jenny already on it?  Well duh, a Jenny, of course.  So I added my name to my search, and tada, a reindeer and a ballerina stocking came up.  Yes! 


Photo from Pottery Barn Kids
I chose the reindeer.  Even with shipping I was saving $10, so yeah, that was coming to my house.  Next I tried Jason's name.  A nutcracker, a snowman, and a train!  Yeah baby!  It was like I was playing slots at the casino, except I was winning!! 


Photo from Pottery Barn Kids

I decided on the snowman for Jason.  I saved $5 on that one.  Now on to Brennan.  I didn't think his name would be as easy to find as the 70's kid's, but I kept my fingers crossed.  Nope.  No Brennan.  But that's ok.  I took the $15 I saved and went on over to Pottery Barn Kids and bought him...


Photo from Pottery Barn Kids

...the train!  I'm sure he will love it!  I kind of thought the "choo-choo-whoo-whoo" from earlier might have meant that one was his fav-a-fav-a-reet.

You would think that would be the end of it right?  I'd get the stockings in the mail, and then you would see a pretty picture of them hanging on the mantle come December.  I wish.

So when Jason gets home from work, I told him of my exciting shopping adventure.  He says, "You got me a snowman? I'll have to see it."  In my mind I am screaming, "Oh no, you've got to be kidding me," (or maybe I actually said that out loud.)  After a discussion of iconic Christmas figures, and the non-returnability of my purchase my thrifty shopping skills, it was concluded that Jason would be alright with the snowman, but he'd much rather have the Santa. 

Well, OK, if you say it like that. 

Of course, I ordered him the Santa stocking.  There's no way I was going to have him keep the snowman.  Every time I looked at it I would feel like the Grinch.  As soon as it comes in, that baby will be relisted on eBay.  I'm sure there is a Jason out there that really wants a snowman stocking.

So again, you would think that would be the end of it, right? 

Nope, not a chance. 

So morning comes around and I have an email with the title "Your paypal payment has been refunded."  My first thought was, "Yes, they couldn't find that stinkin' snowman!"  But, my hopes were quickly dashed.  The email actually said this:

"Message from merchant: Hi, I am so sorry, but I just can not find the Heather stocking. I just don't know what happened to it! I am giving you a full refund. again sorry."

Really? 
Really? 
How difficult should buying three Christmas stocking be?  So off to the Pottery Barn Kids website I go again.  (I should really get a frequent shopper discount.) 

So you would like after looking at the pictures approximately 7,287 times, plus already having purchased a reindeer from eBay, that my choice would be easy. Just get the reindeer, right? Nope. After the fiasco, I decided that me and that reindeer stocking just weren't meant to be.


Instead, I got a snowman. Yep, me and Frosty, and that's my final answer.

I hope.