Category: Family

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year everyone! We spent New Year’s Eve with my family and I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am the Pictionary queen when Brother #1 and I kicked Brother #2 and Joe’s asses. It doesn’t matter who you pair me with because I will win, muhahaha!

We also celebrated my birthday which is next Monday. My mom got KFC (my fave) and baked me a yummy lemon cake. Joe gave her gift ideas based off my CD Universe wish list so I got Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am (try saying that three times quickly) for the PS2 and Impeach My Bush by Peaches. She’s no doubt so proud of her (almost) 32-year-old daughter and her taste in entertainment. I can’t help it, I love the mooninites and I lost my “borrowed” copy of the Peaches album in The Great Hard Drive Crash of ’07.

We stayed out way too late, not leaving until 1:30 am. The expressways were slick from the snow that had been coming down all night and we almost died. Not really, but one of the people ahead of us could have. This couple in a black car flew past us going way too fast and then their car started fishtailing all over the place. Finally they shot over two lanes to the left, nearly missing the median, then did a 360 and ended up facing us. Luckily they were far enough ahead of this that we witnessed it without fear of getting hit by them.

We eventually passed them as they were pulling over to the shoulder, no doubt to calm down after such a frightening incident. THAT is why you don’t drive like an asshole on slick roads. I hope it taught them a lesson that they take to heart. I was freaked out myself having witnessed it and didn’t fully calm down until we were safe in our bed at 3 am. There were a few wipeouts on the road along the way too. Mostly people taking curvy ramps too quickly and rolling down the embankment. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

We slept until 10 am this morning and skipped a shower so we could get to the mall before it got too crowded. Nothing to worry about there, though – it was dead. In fact everywhere we went was dead. How nice! I will have to keep that in mind for next year. Plus all the merchandise was heavily discounted even more so than two days ago. My $8 Isotoner slippers were only $6 so I bought another pair for work. Before heading home we stopped in Potbelly’s for lunch. I’ve never been there before but my turkey sandwich was so good I’ll definitely be back.

Now I’m just doing a little laundry while I rip a bunch of CDs for my iPod. It’s funny how there never seems to be a large enough selection of music on it.

Ready for Christmas

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Look, our tree is up and it’s only December 8th! No ornaments just yet, but soon. We had to rearrange the living room furniture to fit it. Things are a little crowded, but I like it better than cramming it into the dining room like we’ve done in previous years. I hated that because we’d have to move the table against the wall and only three people could sit there at a time.

Christmas Tree

Can you believe it’s only the first week of December and we’re all decorated inside and most gifts have been purchased? We’re really on top of things this year. The only major things left to do are wrap presents and throw some lights up outside.

Joe’s ex’s family threw a little wrench into our plans this week by informing us they decided against getting the Nintendo DS for each of the kids. We had already bought most of the kids’ gifts, but with a little ingenuity and financial rearranging we’ll be able to get the boy the DS and a game. After all, he’s been wanting one for so long and we don’t want him to be disappointed.

To keep things fair we’re giving the girl money since we don’t know what else to get her. We were going to buy her a case for her iPod but it’s probably best she pick that out herself. The kids are each getting a DVD player and movie courtesy of my parents too so I think everyone will be happy.

Joe and I aren’t exchanging since we still don’t know what’s going on with his job. I got him a few stocking stuffers, though.

Not tired, but should be

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WTF am I doing up before 9 am? I could not sleep even though I went to bed after midnight.

I think I’m all wound up about the shopping tomorrow. I envision total mayhem, including people trying to steal my shopping cart full of gifts. Please tell me it’s not really like that. Our only stop is Target (and boy, you should see the list), but I fear for my sanity. Getting up at 5 am after staying out late is not my idea of fun exactly, but I’m kinda psyched.

Oh and we’ve decided on a black 8GM iPod Nano for the girl after talking to her mom last night. I really hope she’s ok with getting one present while her brother opens a bunch. She said she understood that would be a possibility but I can’t help but feel like she’s going to be disappointed in some way too. Ah well, life’s lessons, right? Hopefully she’ll be too excited with her new cool toy to care. Although I won’t be able to post about it right away because she’ll have to use my computer to download iTunes since her computer doesn’t have Internet access. Doh! Maybe by then we’ll know about Joe’s job situation and I’ll have a shiny new laptop. A girl can dream.

I’m contemplating making caramel apples to bring over to my parents’ tonight, but I honestly don’t know if anyone there likes them. I guess I could always eat them myself. They came out so good last time and we got the honey crisps again. It’s true what they say – they are the mac daddy of apples.

Ok, no one said that but it’s still true.

Bananafishbones

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We invited my brother and his girlfriend to go on a haunted forest walk with us last night. These plans were made two weeks in advance, but you can’t fight mother nature. Shortly after they arrived it started raining, so after our dinner of Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza we played some games instead; Pictionary and Guitar Hero, to be exact. I also made brownies which everyone seemed to like.

My brother must have enjoyed himself because he really didn’t want to leave but they both had to be up early the next morning. I hope his girlfriend had fun. It’s hard to tell with her because she’s much more quiet than he is. I hope the long drive, which was made even longer by the Friday evening rush-hour traffic, doesn’t turn them off from visiting again.

I had a lot of fun. I’ve been wanting to spend some “quality” time with my brother but in the past it seemed he wanted nothing to do with me. Perhaps now that he’s older we’ll be able to hang out more often. I may be 10 years older physically, but not mentally. ;)

I apparently don’t look to be in my thirties either. I was standing in Sears today waiting for Joe to grab the bathroom rugs/towels from the car so we could return them when an older employee asked me if she could help me with anything. When I told her I was waiting for my husband she was genuinely shocked and said I looked too young to be married. When I told her I was in my thirties she wanted to know my secret. Just lucky, I guess. Now I don’t feel so bad for being mistaken for twelve years old back when I was eighteen.

Pumpkin Farm

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Scarecrow We ended up visiting Sonny Acres this morning even though it was far too hot for Fall day. Joe noticed on the girl’s volleyball schedule that she has a tournament the next weekend we’re supposed to have the kids so she’ll be busy with that all day and we wouldn’t have time for a pumpkin farm like I originally planned. So today was the only day we could do it before Halloween.

The place is much bigger than it looks from the street. They have a bunch of rides so the kids went on a few. They also had tons of concessions and I tried something I never heard of before – a walking taco. Apparently I’m out of the loop because the girl knew what it was.

We spent nearly two hours and only $32 so it wasn’t a bad deal after all. Nobody wanted to visit the Haunted Barn like I thought they would. I take that back – the boy wanted to, but I know him better than he knows himself, so I took him into the Spook Shed instead. It’s meant for children under 12 and even there he was a little spooked because it was so dark inside. Hehe.

I want to go back and go on the haunting woods hayride.

More photos from Sonny Acres.