Category: Family

Bye bye dipshits

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When I went to my mom’s this weekend for my brother’s birthday party, I noticed that the next door neighbor’s house is for sale. These neighbors, much like the majority of the block, were never very friendly, although the one girl (of the two), who was older than me, baby-sat me a couple of times, and she seemed nice.

The dad and my dad have gotten into squabbles over the years over stupid crap like us parking in front of their house (even though they don’t own the street, or seemed to care when they parked in front of our house), us going on their lawn (as kids) to retrieve our way-ward balls when playing catch, sprinklers and the water touching their grass (ooo big deal), cigarette butts being flicked onto our lawn and roof from the teenage girls and their friends, etc. Fun times.

Not to mention how the dad would start mowing the lawn at 7 am on a Saturday and not finish until 10 am or later due to all the “breaks” he’d take that involved alcohol. It’s too bad he didn’t run over his own foot, now that I think back on it. The funny thing is, they had a swimming pool that took up the majority of the yard, so I’m not sure what took so long. Personally, I think the guy did it on purpose just to aggravate us because my mom typically slept til noon or later.

Needless to say, they won’t be missed. I took a look on realtor.com to see how much they were asking for the place and couldn’t help but notice how misleading their listing was. Seeing as how their house is set up identically to my parents’ house, I know for a fact that their “dining room” is really the eat-in kitchen and that the family room is really the basement, even though they have them both listed as if they are separate rooms. I feel sorry for the people who waste their time looking at the place. That’s not to say it isn’t updated, as I’m sure it’s more up-to-date than my parents’ house (just think shag carpet, ok?), but to make it seem like this is more square footage than really exists is wrong. Not that I’m surprised – once an a$$, always an a$$. Good to see their a$$es won’t be around much longer, though!

Today in review

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Woke up this morning to a ton of snow, so I called my doctor’s office to reschedule my appointment. The receptionist, who is my doctor’s husband, told me to go play in the snow. He was in rare form, as while he is friendly, I wouldn’t call him cheery or talkative. After that, I slept til 10:30 am and then ended up taking a nap after lunch for a few hours.

The kids played games, had lunch, and made thank-you cards for their Christmas presents while I was sleeping. Joe is not your typical father, i.e. he isn’t helpless (or some would even say hopeless) like some men are where they need the woman to tell them what to do. He even had the sense to put a table cloth down on the table and have them draw on something hard so there wasn’t a chance of scratching the new table.

The kids just went to bed because we played Life and it’s actually a long game. I don’t remember it at all even though we had it when I was a kid. Now Joe is doing some shoveling outside.

We were both getting really pissed off earlier because in our association fees, we pay to have snow removal done, and for the second snowfall this year, it seems like everyone’s driveway BUT ours had been cleaned. What is that all about? I left a concerned voicemail with the property manager around 3pm and at 6:30 pm they came by and cleaned off the drive-way. It’s a good thing too, because I almost left another message, and this time I wasn’t going to be nice about it.

I just don’t get why they keep skipping us. It makes me wonder if everyone else is giving them extra money on the side or something. I know it can’t be because of the van in the drive-way as I saw them removing snow from the apron of the drive-way across the street that had two cars parked in it. They didn’t do ANY of our drive-way until after I left my message, even though they had been removing the snow across the street from us earlier in the day, and then left without doing ours. And we were told they start in different areas of the complex each time for fairness reasons, but the people across the street always seem to get taken care of first. It’s frustrating.

In other news, my camera is in Chicago, so I wonder if they are still delivering it on Tuesday, or if I will get it Monday instead. I’m having it shipped to work so it doesn’t end up sitting outside in the cold. I can’t wait to get my hands on it! It seems to take really nice portraits and I want some current photos of Joe and the kids. Joe is anxious for me to get the new camera too because that means he gets the 5700 which is much nicer than his 885. That will bring us to a total of 4 digital cameras – 3 Nikons and 1 Canon.

P.S. I upgraded to the free version of MT 3.14 last night and I’m really liking the new look and features.

Christmas Eve

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I decided to bake a pistachio cake to bring to my mom’s for our Christmas Eve celebrations tonight. It’s in the oven as I type this. I wonder if anyone will like it. I never tried it before until my boss made it for a co-worker’s birthday last year. It’s so simple to make – just add a box of Jello Instant Pistachio Pudding mix to a yellow cake mix and bake as directed on the box. Yummy in my tummy! And if no one eats it, that’s just more for me. ;)

Today’s plan is to leave our place around 3 pm, pick up the kids, visit Joe’s aunt for a little bit, then go to my mom’s. Dinner is at 6 and she’s having pizza and fried chicken. Now that’s my idea of a great Christmas feast: fast, tasty and a diet-destroyer. ;)

After dinner we’ll open presents and goof off until about 9 or so when we’ll head for home where I predict both kids will fall asleep during the ride… or at least the boy since he always does.

When we get home, the kids will freak out over all the changes we’ve made since they visited two weeks ago (last time Joe’s son screeched when he saw the new tv stand; he cracks me up) and then go to bed. I will make every effort to catch tonight’s 11 pm (CST) showing of South Park as it’s the one where they sing all the Christmas songs.

Tomorrow morning we’ll do presents at our place and stay in our PJs all day, and Sunday the kids will go home and we’ll come back to play with our new toys. Then it will all be over. All that muss and fuss for two days. It’s rather funny when you think about it.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Jonamac Orchard

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20040925-picking_apples_t.jpg When I was a little girl, my grandparents would take me and my brother apple-picking in Indiana, so I thought it would be fun for Joe’s kids. I was a little worried they would think it was lame (they aren’t as fond of the outdoors as most kids are and should be), so I was happily surprised by their excitement when we arrived at Jonamac Orchard yesterday morning, and told them they could pick their own apples. The orchard smelled so good too – it had that lovely Fall smell I adore so much.

We enjoyed hunting down the most perfect of apples (even Joe admitted he had a fun time and he had doubted he would) and ended up with two 1/2 pecks which is more than enough apples for us. We sent some home with the kids and I’m going to find some apple-orientated recipes to use up the rest.

The orchard also had cute little mazes and slides set up for the kids. Joe’s kids particularly enjoyed playing in the grain bin filled with corn. After they tired of playing, we checked out the on-site bakery and picked up a caramel apple pecan pie. Oooo it is so good too! It’s like eating a caramel apple in pie form.
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In a Galaxy Far Far Away

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After visiting pretty much every furniture store in the tri-state area over the past few weeks, I have to say that I really hate furniture sales people. They are so pushy and annoying. The ones I hate the most are the ones that will silently follow you around the store. I feel like I’m prey being stalked by a lion. I hate that feeling. It makes me go quickly through the store and then leave.

That being said, we did find a bedroom set we liked at Bay Furniture today. I’m hesitant to purchase it now, even though it would be a special order not due to arrive for eight weeks, because what if something goes wrong and we don’t end up with the house? It’s highly unlikely, but you never know. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with $2000 worth of furniture and nowhere to put it. Furthermore, I just found an identical set on Walmart’s site for even less money. All seven pieces are only $1536 as opposed to a little over $2000. So as long as it remains available in the next two months, we should be ok. If not, I’m sure we’ll find something just as nice elsewhere. Mission-style furniture seems to be very popular and we like it a lot.

We finally told the kids about the townhome this weekend and showed them pictures of the place. The girl was so cute, saying stuff like “that’s a really nice dining room”. LOL! She was especially excited about having her own room and a ‘kids only’ bathroom. The boy didn’t care as much until I mentioned that he’d be able to keep all of Joe’s old Star Wars toys in his closet. That got his attention!

I asked the kids which one of them wanted the Care Bears I collect in their room, and I was surprised when they both said they did. I was pretty sure the girl would think they were too baby-ish. But that’s cool. I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with collecting them all, but I am. I currently own 9 of them, the two most recent additions being Cozy Heart Penguin and Loyal Heart Dog. I grew up with a bunch of Care Bear toys, so maybe it’s some deep-seated need to re-live my childhood.

Oh and speaking of Star Wars, we just found out today while at Walmart that they are re-releasing a bunch of the old toys, like the Millennium Falcon. It looks just like the original one too, which is cool. Joe has the original, but it’s old and dirty. They also have the cool figurine holding cases, and since Joe already has Darth Vader, we were thinking of getting his son the C3-PO one for Christmas so he’d have both.