Close calls

I tell ya, this has been one of those weeks! My brother got her around 6 last night. We went out to dinner and then stopped off at a few places. We got back a bit after 9 and everyone wanted to play the Wii. I let them stay up until about 10 and then got them off to bed. Mike and my brother played for a while and I watched. I was pretty tired so I decided to call it a night around 11. I went in to our bedroom to get ready for bed but decided to check my email before I headed to bed. I noticed it started to smell like something was burning so I went back in to our room. It looked really really hazy to me so I called Mike down. He stood on his side of the bed trying to figure out where it was coming from and I was standing by my side. Suddenly we both saw a lot of smoke drifting in front of me. It was coming from an outlet about 3 feet from where I sleep. Mike and my brother quickly shut the power off in the house and I called the non-emergency number to the fire dept. I told them that I didn't see fire but that there was smoke coming from the outlet, the outlet cover was starting to turn black, and the wall was hot. She told me to get everyone out of the house because there was a possibility that there was a fire in the walls. I don't think I've ever hauled booty that fast. Cassie's room is directly over ours and her bed is right over where the outlet was. I took the kids to our car and the fire dept. got here really quickly. I think they must have been bored because thee ended up being 3 trucks. It was killing me watching them walk in to the house with axes. I thought for sure the walls were coming down. There ended up not being a big fire, it was just starting. The thing is, we weren't even using that outlet. It scares me every time I think about it. If that would've happened when we went to my parents last weekend, our house would've burned down. If I would've gone to sleep when I originally planned, I could've been shish-ka-bobbed :(. There's obviously a wiring problem. The power is shut off down there until an electrician comes. We're using our home warranty so it'll be Monday. The warranty company doesn't consider it urgent since we're not completly out of power. That makes me want to shut all of our power off before we leave the house because I'm afraid something might be wrong somewhere else.

On a another note, I got a new GPS today. I got a better one than what we had before and this time I bought a carrying case to go with it. Now it'll be put away so nobody can see it.

I don't think so girly

Every winter my face starts to dry out pretty bad. I've tried a lot of moisturizers but have yet to find that special one that'll really hydrate my skin. It gets super dry and gets itchy and even starts to flake a bit. It drives me nuts. It was really bugging me this morning so I decided to pop over to this large beauty store in Central Park called Ulta to see if I could find something that would help. I went in to the store and headed over to the skincare section. Shortly after a bubbly little blonde haired girl popped over and asked if she could help my find something. I told her about the problem I was having and she said she knew just what I needed and she'd be right back. She came back with a tube of something, spent 5 minutes telling me how wonderful it was, and then asked me if I was ready to check out. Back the train up girly, how about you show me where you got this. She took me to where she got it and when I looked at the price on the shelf I was flabergasted to see that this little tube of this moisturizer was $126.00! Seriously, who pays this?! She then said, "I know it's a little high (A little? What the?!?!) but it works better than any other moisturizer that you'll find. It's very very good." I'm sure it is cupcake! And for thousands of dollars I can run out and have a few things lifted, tucked, sucked out, enlarged, peeled, and waxed but you don't see me running right out to do that! When I told her that I really needed something about $100.00 cheaper she left. LOL! I spent the next 30 minutes looking myself until I found something that I thought would help and I got it for the price I wanted to pay. Thanks for nothing, blondie! LOL!

Gotta run! My brother's coming for another visit and I think he just pulled up!

Getaways are good

I loved spending the weekend in West Virginia at my parents house. I should've posted about this sooner but was in an incredibly bad mood the past 2 days. I'm finally over it now. We got home Monday evening and some time Monday night someone decided to break in to our Santa Fe and steal our GPS. We weren't the only ones...there were several on our street. It might not have been so upsetting if I didn't rely on the thing so darn much to get me around. Nothing I can do about it so I'd might as well shake it off. We'll be shopping for a new one this weekend. I've learned my lesson though, from now on I'll be taking it out of the car when I'm not using it. I really hope whoever took it takes it to a pawn shop. I gave the police the serial number so if they try to sell it to a pawn shop then they're going to jail. Back to my weekend.....

My parents have only lived in WV for just under 2 months so this is the first time I've gotten to see their house. I was excited to go, I haven't been to West Virginia since I was 7. Our new house is just under 1,800 square feet. My mom told me when they bought their new house that it was about 1,800 square feet as well. What she forgot to mention is that it was 1,800 square feet on each level LOL! The place is huge and I had a lot of hiding places. I loved that I could hide from everyone and they'd have to look for me. They live up in the mountains and they love it. The day we got there my brother wanted to take us down to the New Gorge River. In order to do that we had to cross the New River Gorge Bridge. I'm sure most of you can imagine how excited I was to do that....lol. I'm just not a big fan of bridges or tunnels. It took quite a while to drive all the way down to the river. It was pretty darn scary at times. The roads are very narrow and curvy. Once you start down you can't turn back...it's one way. At least the way we went was. I loved it though when we got to the bottom. I LOVE white water and little flowing streams and waterfalls. I love these pictures. I'm sure it'll be even prettier in the spring and summer. I know we'll probably go down there a lot when we visit my parents. I remember going down there when I was little and playing in the streams. Isn't it pretty? I could sit there for hours just watching the water.

My mom and I spent a lot of time out together. My parents bought a Wii, so Mike and the kids wanted to stay at their house and play with my brother. They were really excited when my mom and I were out and came back with a Wii for them to take home (and lucky too, they're very hard to find!). They've had a lot of fun with it. Ok, so have I...lol. I'm not a video game person at all but this system rocks...lol. My arms hurt for a couple of days from playing tennis and baseball.

Mike and the kids both have a 4 day weekend in February so we'll be going back for another visit. It was only a 5 hour drive and that's with stopping to eat. My dogs got along well with her dogs. I was a little worried that mine would freak out because they were staying the night somewhere else. If all goes well I'm hoping we can visit them at least once every 6 weeks or so.

A round of applause please

Ok, rarely ever do I toot my own horn but I'll make an exception this time. We're leaving early in the morning to head to my parents for the weekend. I should be packing but couldn't head out without sharing my big accomplishment first. Mike sent me a text message about 9 this morning saying he was supposed to get off between 12 & 1 and asked me if I could come pick him up. He had some training thing this week at one of the USDA buildings in D.C. I've picked him up from work before but never had to go right smack in the middle of D.C. to get him. Not only did I get there early, I also got there without using my GPS or a map. How great is that?! I even found a place to park rather quickly. I had some time to kill so I went in to the Smithsonian Castle for a bit while I waited. I'm awfully proud of myself that I got there without any help. If you would have told me back in September I'd be able to do that I would have laughed you all the way in to the new year. I think I can get around D.C. better than I could get around Dallas. That's just nuts...lol. I had a nice short little visit. With the exception of finding out that there was a ding dong with a shotgun loose by the Capitol. I'm glad I decided to walk over to the Smithsonian instead of the Capitol! I parked half way in between the two and was trying to decided which one I wanted to visit. Good thing I chose the Smithsonian. Geez...some people. I had a pretty nice drive on 95 too. I have figured out that you can't go 65 on 95. I was going 80 on 95 and people were passing me like I was driving in a school zone. I better run, lots to do before we head out tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have lots of great pics to post when I get back :).

Plugging along....

I decided last night that I'd might as well get out today and do some things I've been putting off. I had a pretty productive day although the incredibly insane drivers up here did cause me to end up crawling back home with a horrible headache. Something is very very wrong with these drivers up here. I don't know if they're just complete dummies when it comes to driving or if they're just careless. Either way they certainly do keep me on edge. I was only out for a few hours today and saw three accidents while I was out. One of which appeared to be very very serious. The two SUV's involved looked like balls of metal in the street. They had all 4 lanes of a major street blocked off and everyone had to detour on a side street so I drove right by it. Somebody must have been driving super fast! Honestly, I don't think there's been more than a couple of days that I've been out and not seen at least one accident. The people up here seem to be very careless when it comes to driving. They're really freaking me out and I seem to be on edge every time I get on one of those busy streets. Back to my accomplishments of the day....

1. I found the kids a pediatrician and took them their medical records and everything
2. I found Cassie an orthodontist and got her info to them and made her an appt.
3. I requested that both Mike and my medical records be sent
4. I found the hospital
5. Found a new Avon lady and ordered some makeup

About that finding the hospital bit....I certainly hope that we don't ever need to get to the hospital in a rush because it's not close. Their new pediatrician's office is located right by the hospital and I was really surprised to find out that it takes a good 25 minutes to get there. Not that big a deal I don't guess, I'm just used to it taking 5 minutes to get to their doctor. I could've picked a closer one I guess but I did a lot of research on pediatricians and talked to a lot of people before I decided on this one. I'm not one of those people who can just plop out the phone book and pick one. It's a good thing I had my GPS with me because I have no idea where I was. Well, I take that back...I was in Fredericksburg...somewhere. Apparently there's a whole other side I wasn't aware of. I guess I'll have to get back over there and explore if I can get the nerve back up to drive around in that madness again.....sheesh. I'd feel safer in a helicopter or something...lol.

I'm off to cook dinner. Joshua just informed me that I need to take him to a family reading thing tomorrow night at school. He also told me that I'm supposed to be going in my pajamas.....I need to go find that note and have a better look at it...lol!

Patiently waiting for snow

That's one of the things I was looking forward to when I found out we were moving here. Well, not for me but for the kids. They rarely ever saw snow back in Texas but they did get lucky a couple of times. We've been very patiently waiting since November for buckets of snow to start falling. I've seen it but they haven't. I had to drive to D.C. one day back in November I think it was to pick Mike up because he only worked half a day. About half way there it started snowing like crazy. In fact, it was snowing so hard and was so hazy out I couldn't even see the Pentagon until I got right up on it. By the time we left there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. When we got back home there was nothing. I thought it was pretty cool but the kids weren't too amused. They have their snowsuits, hats, gloves, and sleds ready. They're just waiting for the white stuff. I check the extended forecast on Accuweather every day and they always seem to have snow in days 11-15. As those days get closer though they always seem to take it out. You know, I've always wondered how they can predict the weather that far in advance. It seems to me that they rarely ever predict it correctly short term. The kids have been really excited because we're going to visit my parents in West Virginia next weekend. They live way up in the mountains and have already gotten tons of snow. Of course the kids think this is incredibly unfair since their. They're just certain they'd appreciate the snow more than their grandparents and have asked me nearly every day if it's supposed to snow while we're there. Well I've been checking and of course not...lol. They're definitely gonna get to play in the snow though. I have a couple of uncles who work at a ski resort called Winter Place in West Virginia. I'm planning on taking them snow tubing there next Sunday. They've never done that before so I'm really looking forward to taking them. While looking at the forecast there I did notice the high is in the 20's that day so I'd better go get some long johns or something to wear under my jeans...lol. I'm looking forward to the trip and I'm really looking forward to seeing my mom......I know she's really been missing me.

We had a pretty good day. I spent most of it trying to convince Mike that it would be a really good time to get those new floors...lol! We went downtown for a bit. I wanted to stop off at the stitching shop to browse around. I was good and only picked up 1 cut of fabric. Oh what pretty fabric it was though!! I bought a really pretty piece of fabric from Picture this Plus in the color Phoenix. I picked it up for a piece I'm stitching for a friend for a Valentine exchange I'm in. It's so pretty! I looked the color up online to share but won't bother because what I found actually looks nothing like what I have here. I started on the piece today and hope to have it finished in a few more. After we left downtown we stopped by Lowes to get some paint samples. I've decided I want to paint my kitchen but haven't decided 100% on a color. I think I nearly have though. I wish I liked painting as much as I like stitching. I'm afraid we might need new floors when I get done LOL!

Visiting with my Bro

I really should try to make a bigger effort to post more than once a week. It's not that I don't try, I do. Time just gets away from me these days and when I do have some free time, I have to pick and choose what I want to do. Unfortunately there's always something that interests me a bit more than blogging. Once a week isn't bad but I'm gonna try to shoot for at least twice from now on.

I had a really nice visit with my brother. Well, that is if you disregard the fact that I was sick for 50% of it and then Joshua was sick the other half. He was out of school on Monday and Tuesday with tonsillitis. I was super bummed because I made plans for my brother and I but had to scratch them because I was home bound with junior. Bummer. He left yesterday morning. We did go to D.C. on Saturday though. I was really excited that we were taking him because he had never been and I love playing tour guide. I can maneuver around all of that D.C. stuff now like nobody's business :). Of course I was not pleased when I woke up Saturday morning with a bad sore throat, headache, and a fever. It would've taken more than that to keep me home so I loaded my purse up with medicine and off we went. We took him to see all the touristy stuff. If you click on this pic of my brother you'll notice that the reflecting pool is frozen. The reflecting pool in front of the Capitol was frozen too. You wouldn't believe how many ding dong tourists were walking on top of the ice. We were there 4 days earlier (see pics in previous post) and the water wasn't frozen. I was just waiting for one of them to fall in...lol. You know, there are squirrels ALL over the place here. Joshua loves to chase those things. I don't like them usually but did come across one while we were walking in D.C. that really amused me. Joshua was eating a little bag of Cheese Nips and started chasing him. The squirrel started to run away but as soon as Joshua turned around the squirrel started chasing him. I told them to toss him a cracker and he'd probably go away but he didn't. Mike walked up to him with a cracker and he came and got it. How funny is that?! I only fed him one time. He didn't even snatch them. He walked up and carefully grabbed it, plopped his booty down, and ate them while all of his little squirrel friends watched...lol. After they fed him the bag of Cheese Nips, we left. Somewhere in D.C. there's a chubby little squirrel full of Cheese Nips.

I've spent most of the day trying to get caught up on some things. Mike's got a 3 day weekend so we'll probably go pal around for a while tomorrow while the kids are at school. I'm not sure what we'll be doing. In a perfect world he'd be taking me floor shopping since Santa didn't deliver LOL!!

And she's out again....

I started her in January about 3 years ago and here she is again. Still unfinished. I do work on her every now and then, it's just that she's so darn huge! I'm talking about Earthdancer from Butternut Road. She's beautiful and I love her but she's just so big! I pulled her back out last Friday night and have put a few stitches in her here and there. I've loved stitching her but am not enjoying stitching those trees so much. I really want them to just be done so I can get on to the dream catcher and the beading. She only requires about 4 gillion beads so that should keep me busy for a while. It's a good thing I like beading!

I wanna go see the whales

Mike and I were talking the other day about how we thought one of the first places we'd go when we moved was to the ocean. We've not made it yet and hope to soon. I know it's not the best time of the year to visit the ocean but any time is fine with me. I don't need to swim in it I just want to look at it. I could just sit in the sand and gaze in to it for hours. Virginia Beach is about a 2.5 hour drive from where we live. I looked up some fun things to do in the area and remember a friend of mine mentioning the Virginia Aquarium Marine & Science Center. I had a look around and noticed that they have boat trips you can go on to encounter animals. How neat is that?! Right now they're offering whale excursions. How fun would that be?! They only offer it from Dec.- March so I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it down there for it this time. They also offer a dolphin watching excursion in the summer along with a sea collections excursion. If we don't make it down there for the whale excursion this winter, we're definately gonna have to make it a point to do one of the others this summer. My tentative plan is to go to Virginia Beach at least 1-2 times a month this summer so I figure we can probably manage to do one of the excursions then. At least I hope so.

I talked to my brother a bit ago and he said he might be coming back up tomorrow for another visit. I'm really glad....I've been feeling really homesick today. He mentioned something about wanting me to drive to Philadelphia with him to get an authentic Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. I'm not too sure if I'll do that...perhaps I can talk him in to going somewhere a tad bit closer. It's kinda far to drive for a sandwich LOL! It's not too bad of a drive from me. About 3.5 hours I think. I'd rather drive to Virginia Beach and see the ocean :). I'm doubting we'll take any long road trips but I do know he's been itching to go to Washington because he's never been. I won't bring it up but if he does we just may have to gander back up there.

Happy New Year!

I'm happy to see that 2007 is gone. It was pretty eventful and full of stress and the unknown. Here's to a hopefully fabulous and exciting 2008. Of course I can't think of a more exciting place to be than near D.C. I tell ya, I really do love it there.

We picked Mike's mom up at Reagan National in D.C. on Saturday. On the way we stopped off at In Stitches so I could pick a few things up. I'm in a Valentine exchange in one of my yahoo groups and picked a couple of things up for that. I have some things I thought about stitching for my stitched part of the gift but couldn't get too overly excited about any of the Valentine charts I had so thought I'd spring for a new one. They were having a 20% off sale so that made it even more appealing. After we left the shop we went to pick her up. This is the first time the kids have ever been to an airport and thought it was super cool. Her flight arrived on time. After we collected her, off to the National Mall we went. Boy, I bet you didn't see that coming! Our first stop the White House, of course! This was the first time we had been back since before Thanksgiving. I'm glad we stopped by because we could see the lights from a Christmas tree through a window. We walked by the Washington Monument, pointed out lots of buildings to Mike's mom and told her what they were while we walked to the US Capitol. Now for your viewing pleasure, another D.C. pic. Sorry, can't get enough of the place. I'm sure there will be tons more to follow in the future. Especially this spring. I'm planning to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in April and am sure I'll have lots to show then. Ok, on to the pic. Yes, that is the National Christmas tree you see in front of the Capitol there. I disappointed to say that I thought it would be much bigger than that. I tell ya, they really do make everything look larger on TV. The tree in Rockafellar Center was much larger than this one. It was still pretty and I'm glad we got to see it.

Mike's mom only stayed a few days, we took her back to the airport yesterday morning. I can now tell you that the best day of the year to visit D.C. is New Year's Day. The place was a ghost town early that morning. It was SO nice! We got a parking spot by the Monument right away. It's rare to ever find a parking place there...at least a free one. We had been wanting to get tickets to go up in to the Washington Monument but every time we tried the were already gone. We walked right up to the window and got tickets for the first tour. It was really neat! I loved it up there! You could see all of the Memorials, the Pentagon, White House, Capitol, everything! I'm really glad we got to do that. Afterwards, we headed back over to the Capitol. We walked right up in front of it this time and then around to the back. We got to see where the US Supreme Court was and the Library of Congress. Very very cool. I can't wait till we get some more visitors so I can show them all of these things. After we finished gazing at all the new things we hadn't seen before, we went to the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum. We had a really great time there and are really looking forward to going back. Joshua especially loved it. He was really fascinated by all of the airplanes hanging everywhere. I really want to go to the National Museum of American History. It's been closed for over a year for renovations and is supposed to open up again around the summer. I'm sure I'll be there waiting with bells on when it does :)