301st post

Wow- my last post was my 300th post! thats crazy. i wonder what % of those posts are survivor results :)

this weekend we went to portville to see the new baby- here are LOTS of pics of her and the trip, but mostly teagan.

The drive up was horrible- we hit a snow storm in scranton and had to drive about 35mph for a hour- we saw lots of cars in the ditches, and alot of them turned around in the road. i wonder how fast they were driving to manage that.... once we hit the NYS border though the road were a million times better. they actually plow and salt i guess. we made it though...just took longer.

We went and saw the baby- last wednesday when the baby was born i had said to ryan "oh we have to wait 4 more months until we get to see our baby..." and after this trip I think I am going to need those 4 months to prepare... So much to learn. luckily sarah and jr are keeping a little "tip" list for us. and they will be able to answer alot of questions since it will be so new to them. Plus it seems that EVERYONE has advice to give the new parents...so i dont think we will be lacking in that :) And i think i will take every baby class they offer at the hospital.

Survivor Update #3

I was so upset they voted off Yau...its very funny though how much more open the favorites are this time about who they are voting off. and i think they should have named this veterns vs fans or something, because name 1 person who considers Jonathan or Eliza a "favorite"? I can not stand Jonathan. my favorite line so far has been cirie talking about amanda and ozzys ozzlets. :)

Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

baby tigers and fondue

yesterday ryan and i went to a pet expo to see some baby tigers and look at pet stuff. i was alittle disappointed in the baby tigers. i was picturing a little play area with the tigers running around and maybe even we'd be able to pet them. instead it was a cage inside a roped off area with a dog cage inside. two fat men sitting beside them eating food or reading a paper. looking VERY uninterested in the adorable baby tigers.














we then went to the melting pot for dinner. it was very good- we got there 5 minutes after it opened and were told they were completly sold out for the night but we could eat in the bar if we wanted to. so since the bar was empty we decided that was fine. the food was good, very overpriced though. we paid $92 for the 2 of us for a dinner with no leftovers. we got the fiesta cheese appetizer, the main meal - 1 lobster tail, 4 pieces of filet minon, 4 shrimp, 4 ravioli, 4 pieces of chicken, pork and beef tenderloin. We also got salad and some veggies. the dessert was amazing- i took pictures of it all. but really they make a killing at the melting pot- you pay for the setting. cause if you think about it they dont have any cooks to pay, they give you raw food to cook yourself. i think if i went back i would go for just appetizers or dessert. The one perk was they forgot to add all the beer ryan drank so that saved us some money :).

Survivor update #2

i just realized that i have the incredible hulk as my only player left...i dont think i am going to win... he is pretty annoying i think. now that my 'fan' is the only person i have left i really want the 'favorites' to lose the immunity challenges. why is it they are only doing one challenge an episode??


Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

winter warning

this weekend K&NO came to visit- we had a good time. we did a whirlwind tour of philadelphia on saturday and then went to the king of prussia mall. we went to the cheesesteak sub corner in south philly. and while i was trying to find a parking spot i accidently bumped a car. no damage was done but it was nerve wracking all the same. i dont think i could ever live in a city. we saw the liberty bell, the rocky steps, and betsy ross's house-which we didnt pay to tour but you can. We ate at the cheesecake factory...yummy. i got the keylime cheesecake and it was soooo goood. next time i am going to try the tiramisu cheesecake i think. We went to the sanrio store there- and when we were leaving a store manager ran out and stopped 2 girls who were leaving at turned them around and took them to security. i think they were sticky fingers.... i wanted to go into urban outfitters and see if they had the linus blanket for the baby...but we got to go eat before i could and i forgot to go after we ate. i'll have to look online to see if i can order it.

murphy did not get along well with katie (NO's pug) i dont know if its the breathing/grunting that she does all the time or what but without being provoked murphy would attacked her. it was very stressful. murphy hasnt done that since camping in rollins pond i think.

its so funny today there is a 'winter weather warning' because 1 inch of snow *might* fall.... atleast the ground is frozen right now...

Survivor update #1

thank god becky loves that Johnny FP and wanted to trade with me...
does anyone else think that JFP is the most bizarro person? what was that last night? the funniest part of the episode was when Yau-man pushed JFP into the boat inorder to get the immunity idol. that was the best.

Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Johnny Fairplay & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Ami & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

wreckage hunt

well in my efforts last night to find some good damage like the ones i have been seeing on the news i only saw one area with some apparent damage. i did alot of double takes with houses that i thought could be but there was actually nothing wrong- it was their normal house/yard. the one area that did have damage was crazy because only one house in the middle of a bunch of them had damage. all of the sudden there was metal scraps and pieces of trash (i assume the house) strung out along the road- a car that had looked like it was droppped in the middle of a field after hitting a bunch of things. but just that one house was damaged. i also found out today that the town i was staying in was in the predicted path of the tornado- only i was sleeping when that happened so i didnt know. luckily the weather people were wrong...

back to the safety of PA today...

tornados

Well i am in tennessee again this week for work- and i had no flying adventerous (but i still need to fly home) but last night there were tornados that went by just to the north of where i am staying. I woke up size to golf ball hail hitting the roof at the hotel. scared me a bit- we never lost power or anything though so that was nice. But right to the north of me lost power, tornado came through destroying houses, killing people, and started a fire at a natural gas plant. People are saying it looks like a war zone. I'm going to try and find some wreckage after work. (is that awful?) i do feel bad for these people but i want to see some of it. i dont think i have ever seen the wreckage from a tornado.

Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

We drew the names this morning...and you can tell that i didnt cheat by who i got...i'm not happy.


Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

It's a Girl!

we found out yesterday at our ultrasound that we are having a girl....i'm so excited!! this means i can have all the hello kitty stuff i want... well ryan asked that i don't go overboard with hello kitty, that he is having anxiety over it... but we will see :)

going green

as most of my family knows i am all about going green...(they are way in the red zone)...well last night ryan and i made our first batch of laundry detergent...i'm going to test it out tonight. i'll let you know how it works. and if anyone is interested the recipe is on the simple dollar website. (oh yeah its alot cheaper than buying detergent too) it reminded me of making homebrew...which also reminded me we havent made a batch for probably a year- our last batch i think was our irish stout for st pattys day.

me being pregnant has helped out finances because we buy ALOT less beer...i dont think i drank THAT much...but maybe i did...or ryan is drinking less but i find that unlikely cause i feel like he drinks an awful lot.

scrapbook away...

i'm so excited this weekend i got my scrapbook area set up...well almost set up...a good start anyways. i went and got a 6 foot table and a storage organizer to be my scrapbook area. i have unpacked 3 boxes of stuff and i think i have everything. its so hard because i dont know exactly what i have so i dont know if i am missing a box. i still cant find my container of homemade cards. which is really making me mad- but atleast now i can make some new ones.


















we also painted the laundry room and moved a shelf in from the garage. it looks nice. while moving the shelf from the garage we rearranged and got my bug inside. i am soooo happy about that. it hurt me a little everytime i came home and saw my bug in the rain or snow... so now its safely in the garage. still not running though... it was about 40 degrees and sunny today. very nice. ryan and i were commenting on how we never would be doing something outside in january back in portville.

this is the fence that finally got finished.

adventurous morning

i'm currently in tennessee on business... i flew out this morning and it was awful...besides having to get up at 5:30am...i left with 1 hour to get to the airport, 1 hour to get to my gate. when i got to the first highway from my house traffic was backed up all the way to the toll booths. it took me 30 mins to get 5 miles b/c of an accident. so i got to the airport in 1:15 minutes, took 15 minutes to find a parking spot- then i went to the electronic check in- checked in, hit "0" bags to check in... went up to security line it wasnt too long so i thought for sure i'd be okay. i take my sneakers off, get some of my stuff in the bins to go through the xray machine and i hear this woman yelling "ma'am...ma'am that wont fit as a carry on you have to check that" talking to me about my suitcase. i looked at her and said i cant go back and check this or i will miss my flight. she didnt seem to care about that- so...i run back down the stairs in my socks- back to the machine i left 10 minutes before to see if it will let me add a check in luggage...and it gives me the error - cant check in within 30 minutes of departure see a ticket agent. so i finally get someone to explain that i have to rebook- that i wont make my flight. i was soooooo mad- almost in tears because i was soooooo close. so i go to tticket counter, put my sneakers back on...and rebook a later flight which isnt a direct flight and i am 3 hours later than my original plan. oh well i guess. more miles for my card. oh and i was charged $25 for that change. agh. what was worse was the lady next to me had thought her flight was at 9:20 in the am - and she was very early for it- but it actually was at 7:25 and she had missed it....

slow week

nothing very exciting has been going on here in PA- we have been resting still. i dont think we have done anything with the house since before the new years guests. last night we did sell our fridge on craigslist. we had quite the experience trying to sell that fridge. first person was a scam artist, the second person made 2 appointments and never showed and never emailed me about not showing, the third person also missed an appt and never called/emailed. we had this person coming to get it last night and we were taking bets on if they actually were going to show. luckily they did and we have some more room in the garage.
we have been very lucky buying things on craigslist though- we bought a nice crib and dresser for the babys room and a desk for our computer. i'm looking now for another desk for my scrapbooking/card making stuff. i need to get that organized- i have had to *buy* cards recently and i dont like it. :)

this weekend we are headed to syr for sarahs baby shower. murphy is so excited to go- he has never been to a baby shower before.

one more person...

we will need one more person for the survivor pool- i have 9 so far, so if anyone knows someone who wants to play...
and we will draw the names 1 fan and 1 fav for each person. winner takes all. it will be cool to see this one.

linus went to the vet on friday and she didnt think it was anything yet...but i have to keep an eye on it and if it gets bigger, redder, or discharges i will have to take her back to be sedated and a sample taken. so hopefully it heals up.

survivor

the new survivor starts feb 7th... so who is in??

can you belive they are bringing johnnny fairplay back??? ew. maybe he will poop on someone and get kicked off....

yau-man is back too...

there are 20 people so that means we can have 10 people in the pool this time


***UPDATE***

what do you think about having each person have 1 fan and 1 fave??

Linnie Loo Hoo

Linus has this weird pink mole on her lip/mouth. i'm taking her to the vet tomorrow- i'm alittle concerned- do you think it looks normal??

RENT

We took the train into the city on saturday to see RENT. we left our house with more than 45 minutes to get to the train station and we just needed to grab some lunch and get cash. we never thought we would be running to the train practically jumping on it while still moving. quite an adventure but we made it. luckily too cause it was fun not to have to worry about directions or traffic. It took alittle over an hour to get there. then we have probably 10 minute walk to the theater. it was the artsy area of town. lots of theaters and such.






















The show was very good- i had seen the movie before and I thought the show was similar but better. it was amazing what they did with such a simple set- it was background and then 2 (beer pong) tables and some metal foldup chairs. for every scene in the whole thing. i was surprised at how many children were there watching. i dont think i would have taken my children.

2008!!

i cant believe its 2008 already... new years eve was pretty laid back- besides for the cranium game that got alittle too stressful for me. some people cant just relax and have a fun game... becky, carrie, ryan and i played cards - BS and world war. it wasnt too bad being around a bunch of drunks, it was quite humorous. not like the football game was. well i should say 1 drunk - RB. at 9:45 am when she said she was on her 3rd beer i should have stopped her or atleast slowed her down. because in the 3rd "inning" there was no stopping her, it was far too late. she got soooo loud and wouldnt stop calling me (and the woman sitting in front of us) a b*tch and taking my picture (and the woman sitting in front of us). Then when we got to the truck to leave in the pouring rain she was like "i need some more beer for the ride!" when i wouldnt let her she opened a bottle of wine and preceded to try and get ryan and i to drink it. after about 30 mins she passed out...

monday we got to go see renoir at the museum of art- which was pretty cool. and we went to the irish pub for lunch.

i have done nothing but lay on the couch since all our guests left. its been very nice. and luckily tomorrow is friday again. we are going to take a train into philadelphia saturday and see "rent". i am very excited.

xmas

today i am back at work...i don't like working the day after Christmas i have decided. driving back last night from syracuse ryan and i were like- ewww we have to go to work tomorrow. oh well not too many people are here so its pretty laid back- and i'm blogging so its not like its too hard. but i didn't even get to unpack all my presents and enjoy them. last night we got home about 6:30pm. First to find that our fence was not completed while we were gone...like it was promised. on our trip back home ryan made a list of all the things that had to be done before our guests arrive this weekend. a LONG list i should add. so my thoughts of vegging on the couch for the night were out the window. we worked until about 9 pm and then went to bed. i did accomplish alot though. the house is starting to come together.

christmas was lots of fun. ryan and i are the reigning 90s trivial pursuit champs. we played for about 4 hours and my stomach still hurts from laughing so hard. alot of lounging around happened over the weekend. nothing wild and crazy. i got to see the final episodes on sex in the city which were very good. i got everything i wanted for christmas. and for the record becky got more presents than anyone else this year. more than dad and ryan and cath put together...ha ha ha