Today

My brain hurts.

Moments of Clarity

There are times in my day that catch my breath. Moments when I realize what I really have. I have a wonderful Savior that has saved me from all my sins who loves me so much that He has blessed me in incredible ways. I have a husband who loves me that I adore. I have my family that are mostly nearby (with the exception of a sister in the frozen tundra and our extended family). I have amazing friends that sometimes feel more like family than friends. I have a house that is safe, keeps me warm and dry. I have food to fill me up and clothes to cover me. There are times that the realization hits me that these things aren't guaranteed and there are many that don't have them but they are in fact there and mine. The gratitude that I feels just kind of bubbles up inside of me and feels like its just going to explode out of me.

Today I read on one of my daily reads CF Husband and I found out that Tricia got the call on her lung transplant that there are possibly lungs available. My prayer is that in a few months Tricia is home with Nate and Gwyneth that she'll sneak out of Gwyneth's room after kissing her blond head and putting her to sleep she'll start on the dinner dishes and have one of those moments.

Did I get a lobotomy that noone told me about

cause I picked up my mirror thinking it was a calculator today.
See below post.

Should just go back to bed

Today I:
Put my pants on backwards
picked up a calculator to take a look at my hair.

Weigh In Smack Down

So I weighed myself and I lost 6.5 lbs for a total lost of 20.7! Wow just in time, cause girlfriend was getting frust-rate-d. I kind of haven't been paying attention to my points that carefully this week so it was pretty suprising but looking back over the week I have been making decent choices (except for my easter basket of course!). But despite the Easter Basket there hasn't been any bacon in the house and I've tried to be smart with what I decided. So I'm back on track, going to go to Yoga this Sat, track my points, etc. 20.7 aint nothing to shake a stick at, here's to the next twenty! :)

I have a comment poll:
Should I continue with going to the meetings
or
is it sufficient to do my weigh in at home and blog about it.

I'm kind of leaning towards the latter, but using the weight watchers online. I pay for the monthly pass so I always have the option of going back to the meetings.
What do you think?

Stop Budget Time

So Schmoop and I have been reviewing our finances and have come to the conclusion that we are spending too much. We had a plan to pay off our second mortgage before we had kids and at this rate we're not having kids for like 10 years, so changes had to be made. There are alot of spaghetti, beans and lentils in my future and not so much jumbo lump crab cake. We did splurge on a Sunday Paper subscription, I plan on couponing ourselve towards financial freedom and savings. Too bad they don't usually do coupons on flour, butter, sugar, eggs, etc; since we've been doing the bake by scratch stuff. I have noticed that I've been able to scrimp on our grocery budget to fit in our organic produce so I'm pretty confident that with a little more ingenuity we can make this work.

Contented

We just sat down from having Schmoops family over for Easter. It was really nice, everything in the meal turned out well. I made Leg of Lamb, potatoes, asparagus, Easter Bread and a Coconut Cake. My SIL brought some deviled eggs and some sparkling grape juice (mmmmm). We had a little Easter Egg hunt for our niece Hannah in the backyard, she was so sweet! It cracked me up that in the middle of the hunt she went for our little Barbie Powerwheels I trashpicked, the batteries don't work but you can push it just fine. I love how kids don't discriminate against free stuff!
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Easter Weekend

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Weekend.
I've been thinking about the holiday and parts of it have kind of stuck out to me due to some converstaions I've recently had. As Christians on Easter we celebrate when our Savior, Jesus, died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead three days later. I believe that all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, translation we need a savior. Prior to Jesus dying on the cross there were a bunch of crazy things people did to absolve themselves of their sin (read Leviticus), once He made that sacrifice He did the atoning for our sins. We were granted the Holy Spirit to guide us through our day to day lives. I believe that God reveals himself to those who seek him and seek truth, and that we are called to love everyone. I have been shown great mercy through my salvation so in turn I should extend that mercy and grace to those around me. I am not better than those who don't believe in God or the same things that I do. There is nothing I can do that would bring someone to the realization that I have, I am called to love those people and speak in truth. Today I'm resolving to love those around me more, to show them the grace that I've been granted and pray for them.

Happy First Day of Spring

Don't forget to pick up your Rita's for Free!!!!

Question for the Mommies-Fancy Restaurants

So while we were away we went to a fancy restaurant in our hotel that was one floor up from us and had the same amazing view of Niagara Falls. We scored a table right by the windows and ordered some wine and just sat there talking and enjoying our time together. They brought us our meals and we were having a great time when we start to hear some weird noise. It was the musak that they normally play at restaurants but it was also the soundtrack to Cars. We look around and behind schmoop there is a little boy with a portable dvd player that was currently playing Cars for the restaurant to here. You can see a blurry pic of him here notice I'm trying to be stealthy and pretend I'm taking a picture of Schmoop.

Now this was a nice restaurant, we got dressed up and went to celebrate our anniversary. Part of the reason you go to places like that is the ambiance, and this dvd was definitely jacking up our ambiance. Now growing up as a kid going out to dinner was a treat, especially a really nice place. I can count on one hand the amount of times we went our any place other than Friendly's. On those rare times we knew better than to act up or at least we acted up quietly. When my parents had date nights they went without the kids and we stayed home and did kid friendly activities like beat the crap out of each other. I asked the waiter at the restaurant if it was common for people to bring dvd players out to dinner with them and he astounded me by saying yes and kind of laughingly asking us if we had kids. He said it was a great tool to keep kids quiet and have a good time. I can kind of see why you would do this if you were away from home; its hard to find a babysitter, you want some adult time, etc. What I don't understand is if you are going to do this wouldn't you get earphoneas. Generally I try not to be the type that says "My child would never do" ...., "or I would never do" ... cause you are basically screwing yourself there and its like a big guarantee that your going to do the same thing.

So Moms:
Would you do this?
Is it "normal" to take a kid with a dvd player to a restaurant a fancy restaurant even?

Weekend Re-cap

Yeah Yeah so its Wednesday I know the weekend was a loooonnggg time ago but I'm just recovering from my weekend with the hubs. We drove up to Niagara on Friday then to Toronto on Sat then from Toronto to NJ on Sunday. Monday we lazed around the house and got some shamrock shakes to celebrate our St. Patty's Anniversary. I also went out to Whole Foods and we did the whole Fillet Minion, Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus root we ended the meal with vanilla ice cream topped with ice wine. It was soooooo good!
So Niagara was awesome we stayed at The Brock Hotel, when we got in the room was not quite what I had thought I booked so the hubs called management and asked how much for an upgrade they said oh we see its your anniversary we can upgrade you to our jacuzzi suite free of charge! So we got a Jacuzzi suite that looked over Niagara Falls! It was gorgeous!
this was our view!

Sat we drove up to Toronto and stayed at a much ghettoer hotel Bond Place, Toronto wasn't about the hotel though so we let it be, it was all about the hockey. We went to the Hockey Hall of Fame and Schmoop was soooo happy! Seriously it was like insight to how he probably looked at age 7 on Christmas morning.
I was snapping pictures and he wasn't able to even focus he was looking at the next thing; made me sooo happy cause that was his anniversary gift! We even got pictures with the Stanley Cup.

It was a great weekend but what struck me is that we had long car rides, like really long and it was fun. Here me and the hubs were forced into my little Escort for 8-9 hours at a time and we liked it. Not that it surprised me but it just made me thankful that I did marry my best friend and that we can do anything together and make it fun.
So anyway reflections on my first year of marriage.
I'm really happy I made the choice that I did March 17, 2007. Schmoop is the best person I know; kind hearted, considerate, loving, gentle, humble, fun, funny, ect (I could definitely go on). I'm really happy that God chose to place us together because he truly is the answer to my prayers and dreams. I know life is going to have its ups and downs but now I also know I'll be facing the peaks and valleys with my best friend in the whole world supporting me and me supporting him. Thats all I really need.

Weekend Goodness

So as most of you know, Monday is our 1st Anniversary. Schmoop and I are going away for the weekend to celebrate and I can't wait. Tomorrow we're going to drive up through the Catskills to Niagara Falls and stay at The Brock Hotel on the Canadian Side. We got an awesome room with a view of the Falls. Then on Sat we're going to drive up to Toronto to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, this is the hubby's present. There is a bunch of cool stuff you can do there and we might even catch a game if we can score some tickets. Then on Sunday we're driving back home and spending Monday as just a quiet day at home relaxing and enjoying each others company (yeah thats what kids are calling it these days). I can't wait, I love road trips and celebrating!!!!

Friday Smack Down-wow I forgot!

So I lost 1.4 yeah :)
Forgot to post Friday, but noone yelled at me.
Come on people accountability! :)

$350 Later

Man so our sink backed up this morning while Schmoop was taking a shower and the Roto-Rooter guys came and found a massive amount of food in the pipes. I agree with Schmoop, Garbage Disposals are dumb and stupid. I want to get rid of it.
That puts a serious dent in our 1st Anniversary good time budget.

Fun Cake

Mama K and I made this cake for her hubby's 30th. Notice the road through the center and up a hill with the car over the hill. :)

Clean and Green

So I got this email from my sister in law and thought I would share. Its good to know that when you are changing your lifestyle to become more and more green your family will support you in your changes and maybe you can even drag a few with you... :)
"By the way, it seems that you and I are apparently
tied in the turning-into-real-nutcase race. i
currently have 4 things sprouting on my counter,
chickens squeezing out an ever increasing number of
eggs (despite the hawk massacre of '08), a kefir
obsession, about a million seeds to start indoors for
the garden, and I just ate a brick of sprouted wheat
berry bread that contained only wheat berries. I made
it in the crock pot and I'm pretty sure I could have
seriously hurt someone with it if I tried. But I'm
not in a coop or making birthing mothers smell things
in baggies yet, so you are technically ahead. "

Things I learned whilst hosting a party

So last night Schmoop and I hosted Mama K's hubby's 30th birthday party. There were quite a few things I learned by the end of the night.
1.) Shirley Temples are better with vodka
2.) Shirley Temples with vodka are alcoholic drinks. Go figure.
3.) If someone comes in your house and without introducing herself starts doing dishes, its probably not as good as you think.
4.) I am wayyyy anal retentive about my dish towels. They are only to be used for drying dishes in my mind apparently to other people they are great to wipe up spaghetti sauce or use as a oven mitt.
5.) You shouldn't break out your stonewear when there is a crazy girl doing your dishes cause she'll probably wash it with soap then tell you to fix it by putting it on the stovetop and heating it with oil and because of your impared judgement due to your shirley temple intake you probably will listen and it will crack really loud and then you'll have to buy a new one and then you'll remember how long it took for your stonewear to get seasoned just right and it will be sad.
6.) You love making birthday cakes. Especially ones with little car cupcakes and for one of your favorite people. It helps if the people are older than you and you can make fun of their age.
7.) Its fun to have a house full of people, especially a big crowd of noisy italians. Nothing makes a house a home better than filling it with people.
8.) Surprise parties are fun when the people actually are surprised.
9.) Its nice to wake up to a clean house after a party.
10. ) Parties are a great way to talk the hubs into home improvement as this one got me the removal of gross kitchen wallpaper, a fresh coat of paint and a new stove. I want to have a party next month and the next and the next and the next...

That is all :)

Photo Hunters-Different

Yeah, he's different but thats a huge part of why I love him :)

Sean

I was 14 and excited to be putting on a "Haunted Woods" at my High School. It was my first official after school activity as a high schooler I felt old, I felt cool. I met a guy who was older and he drove me to get a soda earlier that day, I was invincible. We transformed that little patch of woods with fog machines and strobe lights in the name of ecology, well the ecology club that is, and charged admission. I was pretending to be a corpse with a different guy from a different school, always was a flirt, we were scaring everyone who came by. I was having the best time of my life. Things were going to be different in high school, I was going to be myself, I was going to have fun. I giggled as I put the noose over my head and pretended to dangle from it. A guy walked towards us, we could see him round the corner and the cute boy next to me warned me "Don't wear that around him" referring to the noose. I rolled my eyes naively wondering what could possibly happen. The guy, Sean walked towards me and without even looking at me started wrapping the noose around my neck. It was tight and choking me, I started to panic when I couldn't quite breath. I did the first thing I could think of to get out of the situation, I dropped pretending to faint. Cute boy said "Oh my God you killed her" and Sean ran away. As soon as he was gone I kind of giggled a nervous laugh and pretended I was ok. Inside I was reeling from what had happened. The teacher in charge ran up to me as I left and asked me if what had happened was true. I said it was. He asked me if I was going to tell my parents and I said no.
It was then I realized that high school was going to be the same.
I still google his name sometimes to see if he's in jail

Wordless Wednesday-Adorableness

Picture of my niece Hannah taken by Dirkey on 3/2/08

The Newness of new

Soo I updated my blog a little so if you're reading through blog-lines click through and check it. Its our one year anniversary this month (on St. Patty's Day!!!) the best freaking anniversary ever!! So thats new.
The other thing.... thats new.... are you filled with suspense yet.....
We took down the freaking hideous wallpaper in our kitchen!!
By we, I mean Jason. We are very aware of our strengths and weaknesses and my weaknesses are basically anything with fine details (can you say ADD). So Jase usually steps up in areas like painting and ripping down wallpaper cause I would get paint all over the floor and when I rip down wallpaper I tend to take the wall with it. So the wonderful hubs took the NASTY wallpaper down and we're getting ready to paint it a color called funky yellow :) Its all primed, spackled and primed; all we need is to pick up the paint and go to town.
We're also getting a new oven, a convection oven and I'm way more excited about this than any person should be. There is going to be alot of bread going on in there.
Hope you all had a good weekend :)
Whatcha do, lemme know