Running Out of Steam

Only 4 more days to post and I'm just about out of things to talk about.  So I'll leave you with this completely adorable picture of Katie & my godson from yesterday afternoon.  Happy Saturday!

Thankful

I try to be thankful every day, but today especially I want to remember to share my thanks.  Right now, it's all about the little things.  Good cold medicine, soft tissues and Doug & Katie letting me get the rest I needed the last few days. 

I'm thankful for my family.  My beautiful daughter who loves to dance and laugh and play.  She makes me smile.  My helpful husband who stayed up with me last night making food for today.  He also mopped the kitchen & bathroom floors and helped me with dishes & laundry yesterday.  It was so nice getting up this morning and knowing that we just have to get ourselves ready and nothing else.  Thank you Doug, for talking me into staying up last night.  Thanks to my mom & dad for organizing and preparing the better part of 2 family dinners this week.  My brother & sister for being a loving uncle & aunt to Katie.  My in-laws for hosting a low-key movie night for us to wind down with tonight.  And I'm thankful for all the rest of our family and friends.  We love you all and wish you the best on this Thanksgiving day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Food & Even Better Friends

Last night we had dinner at the C's.  It's so nice to just have a simple dinner without feeling the need to break  out the fancy recipes or the pretty dishes.  Then we just sat and talked and watched the kids play.  It doesn't get much better than that for me on a Saturday evening after working that afternoon.  I didn't have to cook a thing (thanks Angela!) and Katie had a great time playing with the other kids.  Doug & Jay spent much of the evening outside enjoying the cool November air and some rather disgusting cigarettes.  We are so lucky to have friends where everyone gets along.  No one has to feel awkward or left out and just suffer through the evening because the other person is having a great time.

Katie had a great time last night and boy was she worn out when we got home!  She fell asleep in the car and didn't even open her eyes when I took her jacket off and laid her down.  She played hard last night.  Nicky has all kinds of toys that Katie doesn't so everything was new & interesting.  In fact she's still sleeping.  So much for the time change being an issue!

Doug is going to watch football with his brother this afternoon, so I think Katie & I are going to go see my sister at her new apartment.  We might even bake her some cookies.  I hope everyone got their extra hour of sleep.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Busy, Busy!

Things have been crazy here at Three Snider's lately.  We've had some home improvement projects, birthdays, & vacations! 

First thing's first, our projects.  We have desperately needed a new bathtub pretty much since we moved into our house 5 years ago.  It was cracked and Doug repaired it many, many times.  Just about the time we thought we'd really gotten it fixed good, we found a leak behind our shower wall.  :(  This opened up a whole other can of worms and so since we'd have to fix all that anyway, we might as well put in the new tub.  So Doug, with the help of some good friends & family installed a new bathtub for us.  It is awesome!  All shiny & new.  Now it just makes the rest of our bathroom look sad, but that's another post for another day.  Next on our list is a new front door!  It came in today and tomorrow we are getting the paint.  Installation will be next week.

 There were two big birthdays at our house this month.  I turned 30 and even more excitedly, Katie turned 1!  :)  We had two parties for Miss Kathryn.  A small one with Doug's family at our house on Saturday and a larger one with my family on Sunday (which also happened to be my birthday.)  Each party was great.  Katie loved eating birthday cake and was totally not interested in presents.  I got a few presents of my own and some birthday money to spend!

For vacation, we drove up to visit our friends in Wisconsin, the Norgaard's.  We had a great time!  All of our girls (they have 2) played together and we went to the zoo and the farmer's market and shopping.  So.Much.FUN! 

Sorry, NaBloPoMo!

I missed a day, actually 2. So I won't actually get to complete NaBloPoMo this year. Darn. Actually, I'm not that sad. I think my posts have been pretty boring this month.

Why'd I miss those two days? Well, Tuesday I was going to post before work, during work, and after work, but something always prevented me. Not enough time before, really shouldn't do that at work and then after work I didn't get home until late and then went straight to bed. Yesterday I didn't post because I didn't post Tuesday and knew I'd already messed it up.

So here I am today, posting. It's Thanksgiving today and even though this month has had it's ups and downs, we still have much to be thankful for. In no particular order.

• Doug's dad came home on Tuesday and we'll get to spend Thanksgiving with him after all.
• Lots of family and friends to spend the holiday with. Doug went out last night after work and caught up with Aaron & Ronnie and we may have visits with other friends and out of town family this weekend, we hope.
• Our 2 crazy kitties. They may be pains sometimes, but we love them! They keep us entertained and make us smile.
• Doug's very understanding job during this difficult time with his dad.
• My very understanding job.
• Our siblings, this year we've come to realize how important those relationships truly are.
• Our parents, who love us and care for us and want to help us.
• Doug's new lawn mower, which he won't use until Spring, but we're thankful to have one that will now run all the time.
• A warm home, this time last year we'd just gotten our furnace replaced and I'm still thankful that my uncle and aunt did that for us (they also did the air conditioner over the summer!)
• Good food to eat. I'm learning that to become a better cook, I actually have to cook more often. :)
• Good books to read and movies & TV to watch. It sounds silly, but sometimes you just need that little distraction from all the rest of the crazy world.
• Speaking of crazy world, our troops who are fighting for our freedom and protecting our country and their families who have to celebrate Thanksgiving without them.
• A change in our government, whether you voted for him or not, at least it's something different and something new to look forward to.
• My husband's miserly ways...:) No really, it's a good thing!
• Cozy new mattresses.
• Warm blankets.
• Phone calls and visits with my girlfriends.
• Sweet baby, Hazel.
• Our niece & nephews.
• The 3 dinners we get to attend today! I'm very thankful for this, even if I will be complaining about how much food I ate by then end of the day.
• So many other things that I can't even begin to mention!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Much Anticipated, Weekend Recap!

Alright, here it is, finally!

Let's see, we left bright and early on Friday morning. Angela picked me up at 5:50 a.m. We had my stuff loaded into her car and our coffee in hand and were driving down my driveway by 5:59. We headed to Desire's, but knew that she was not going to be ready, Angela told her 6:30. We were right, she wasn't ready when we got there, but managed to get ready and we had all her stuff loaded by 6:30. We stopped for a quick breakfast at McDonald's and got on the highway. We stopped early on in our trip at a Convention & Visitor's Bureau in Iowa. There, we got directions for an "easier" route. (Yeah, easier, maybe, definitely LONGER!) So we headed out with our new directions. Probably a bad idea, to ever change routes like that, but it worked out okay for us. We made it to our destination.

We made many pit stops and were debating where to stop for lunch. Finally we saw signs in Waterloo for Subway. That sounded pretty good, and we headed for the exit. Well, we couldn't find a Subway. McDonald's, BK, Arby's, Wendy's, all kinds of stuff, but no Subway. So we settled for Quizno's. Normally, I like Quizno's, but we really had our hearts set on Subway and so it just wasn't the same. :(

After that we were more than halfway to our destination, Madison, WI. Our ride was really uneventful. We were all pretty excited, so the book I brought to read and the crossword puzzles Desire brought to do pretty much stayed in our bags. We made it to Madison just after 4, I think. Checked into our hotel, where the locals seemed to think we were crazy for complaining about the cold. Seriously, Madison and St. Joe have similar weather, but they are definitely more cold tolerant than we are.

As soon as we got into our room, Carmen called. I told her we were there and she came to pick us up. First we went back to her house to visit with Josh and to meet Hazel!

Misty & Hazel

Angela & Hazel

Desire & Hazel

After we got our baby fix, we headed to State Street. We had dinner at Noodle's & Co. A place where Carmen took me when I visited a couple years ago. It did not disappoint. I think there is one in KC, and I'm really going to have to be on the lookout for it. Then we walked around and shopped. We went into a few really neat stores and we all bought a couple of trinkety things. It was fun. By 9, everything on State Street was closed so we decided to go have some dessert and warm up. Carmen took us to Bluephies and it was sooo good! Desire and Angela had some kind of fruit crisp desserts and Carmen & I split cookie dough egg rolls and butterfinger wontons. YUM!

After that we decided to pick up some drinks and head back to our hotel. We played this girls' night in question game that Desire picked up and then headed to the bar next door to our hotel. Carmen stayed for a little bit, but she had to head home to Josh & Hazel. We missed her, but we had a good time there. In Wisconsin the bars don't close until 2 or 2:30. Here they close at 1:30. That extra hour really wore us out. We got back to our room and ready for bed. Angela was out and soon as her head hit the pillow and Desire & I soon discovered that she can snore louder than either of our husbands! ;)

None of us got much sleep that night and even though we didn't meet Carmen until 10, we were still so exhausted! Not too exhausted to shop though. Carmen took us to 2 of her favorite malls and we also had a nice lunch, but I can't remember where. I had a super yummy grilled cheese and some french onion soup though.

Here we are at the mall, with a Wisconsin Cow.

We shopped till we dropped (literally!) and then picked up some Subway (finally!) and went back to Carmen's to watch a movie. I'm pretty sure that if we had had pillows the three of us would have been asleep in no time. I know we were in bed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

We left our hotel about 7:30 Sunday morning and then had breakfast with Carmen, Josh & Hazel at IHOP. We had to cram in every last bit of baby hugging and kissing as we could!

Saying Goodbye. :(

We were on the road by 9 and fortunately decided to go with our original route and that cut about an hour from our travel time. Of course we didn't stop nearly as much and we all really just wanted to be home. It was a much quieter trip, that's for sure. We all had a good time though and meeting Hazel was definitely the highlight. Thanks again to Carmen for showing us such a fun weekend! Thanks to Josh and all the rest of our husbands for giving up their wives for a weekend of baby lust! :)

We're Here!

The drive wasn't bad. The baby is the most adorable thing in the world. I'll be home tomorrow.

On Our Way

In less than 30 minutes, Angela will be here to pick me up. I have one more thing to pack and then I will be ready. Have a great weekend, everyone!

So Much To Do

I leave tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. I've got a ton of stuff to do this evening just to get ready.

• Pack-very important! I have already made a list though.
• Pick up the house a little bit. Doug's going to be busy this weekend too, so I don't want to come home to a total mess on Sunday night.
• Finish those last 2 loads of laundry. It's just bedding, but it'll be nice having it out of the way.
• Make dinner. No explanation necessary.
  
• Get the coffee ready for tomorrow morning. There is no way I can make decent coffee first thing in the morning.
  
• Take a shower. So I can have a few more minutes to sleep tomorrow.
  
• Try to go to bed at a decent hour. I'll probably be too excited to sleep.

I will definitely be posting in the morning, but I just realized that I may miss my Saturday post and thus disqualify myself for NaBloPoMo. :( Maybe I can use Carmen's computer or something to post really quickly. Don't expect much from me in the morning since I probably won't have much time, but I'll at least say goodbye real quick. :) I'll post Sunday to let you know I made it home safely, but you probably won't get a recap until Monday evening.

Wacky Wednesday

Apparently having the library closed on a Tuesday does weird things to people. For one thing, it makes them very impatient. Seriously, if I had to hear one more time "Well, did you enjoy your day off??" or "I came yesterday, but you were closed..." I was going to scream! Oh yeah, it was lots of fun. I took the cats to the vet and did laundry. Woohoo! And another thing, if my back is turned to you, please don't stand behind me and think I can see you and know that you wanted to print or your password expired. Please, come around to the front of the desk and ask me politely and I will be happy to resolve your issues. Also, if I'm on the phone when you walk in, don't drum your fingers on the desk or grunt at me indicating that you would like to use the computer. I'm on the phone, with another patron, who I happened to be helping before you walked in the door. When I am finished I will turn to you with a smile and happily give you your password, even though I'd like to throw it at you! Oh, and the hormonal teenagers in the afternoon were pretty much the last straw!

Most days I really enjoy my job. I love working with the kids and helping people find a great new book to read, but there are some days...*sigh* Notice that most of my issues come from the internet/computer portion of my job. Yeah, that's not a coincidence. Computers are frustrating for everyone at some point or another. It just sucks that I am dealing with those frustrations pretty much daily. It certainly can make for some long days and let me just reitterate that this is not a daily occurance. Most days I'm happy to help and these slight annoyances don't bother me so much. But when you have, I don't know, 50 annoyances in one day, they don't seem so slight anymore. *UGGHHH!!!*

Alright, alright. I'm done and I feel better. Thanks for letting me get this out.

I'm meeting Angela and Desire in a little bit. We're going shopping for road trip snacks! :)

Doug went to the hospital this morning to see his dad before the biopsy. He said he looked and seemed like he was feeling a lot better, so that's good. Hopefully we'll get the biopsy results soon.

Slightly More Motivated

We took the kitties to the vet this morning. They weren't sick, just needed their vaccinations and a check up. Both are in good health, although Tess is about 2 pounds over-weight. Since we feed them from one dish and separate dishes just wouldn't work, we're probably going to have to exercise her more. She used to really love chasing the laser light, but the battery died and we haven't gotten around to replacing it. Surprisingly, Tess has already gotten over being in the carrier and seeing the vet (even though she bit me this morning), but BJ is still hiding. Oh well, he'll come out when he's ready.

Other than that, I haven't done much else today. I made chicken & biscuits for lunch, but I really need to get the house picked up. And it probably wouldn't hurt to start packing. Angela, Desire & I are leaving Friday morning at 7 and driving to Madison, WI to visit Carmen, Josh, & Hazel.

Doug's dad is now at KU Medical Center. He's been there since Friday night. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and they are going to do the biopsy tomorrow. So far, the plan is to have him transferred back up to the VA hospital in Leavenworth, hopefully on Thursday. Doug's going to go down tomorrow morning before the surgery to see him. We'll know more about his condition afterwards. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you are sending him. We really appreciate it.

Unplanned Evening

I find myself with no plans this evening. I had originally thought I was going to my mom's to work on some crafts, but that kind of fell through. So now I'm home with a whole evening ahead of me. What to do? What to do??

Right now I'm boiling water for mac & cheese. I should probably have something else with my dinner, but I'm not sure what. At least a veggie, right? Maybe some broccoli...yum!

As for the rest of the evening, well, I could clean the house, or watch a movie, or read a book, or...the list could go on and on. Which means I'll probably spend the evening flipping channels trying to find something decent on TV on a Friday night. Let's hope I manage to do something a little more substantial. :)

At least it is finally the weekend! One week from now I'll be in Wisconsin holding the newest addition to Carmen & Josh's family. I can't wait!!!

Up Early

This morning I woke up at 5:30 and was wide awake. Thanks, daylight savings time. I let myself lay there for awhile. I had an hour and a half before my alarm was supposed to go off. Then I noticed that hubby was snoring. Not really loudly, but it was starting to get on my nerves since I was trying to get back to sleep. So I got him rolled over to his side, but by that point I was really *AWAKE* I ended up getting up at 6:30 and going ahead and starting my day. So that's why you're getting this extra early entry. Of course this would be the morning that I actually did get all my clothes and my lunch ready the night before. Oh well.

Dinner was good at mom & dad's last night, although we were all probably rushing too much. They'd been gone on a motorcycle ride most of the day and Doug & I were headed to the movies with Jay & Angela (who we last minute invited over for dinner, sorry my mac & cheese sucked!). We saw Zack & Miri. (I won't type the rest of the title because it will be tripping CIPA filters all over the place.) Anyway, the movie was hilarious! And for the first time we noticed we were exactly the same age as the characters. There was a scene where they were attending their high school reunion and of course we knew every song on that part of the soundtrack! It was a fun movie and if you enjoy that kind of humor (it's a View Askew production) then you should see it.

Let's see what else did we do yesterday... Oh yeah, we watched football. I don't even try to watch anything else on Sundays. That's why it is the best day for laundry. :) No, really I don't mind watching the Chiefs so much. The rest of it though and then the ESPN highlights...ugghhh...No thanks!

That was pretty much it for Sunday and here we are back at Monday again. Storytime today at work and I really hope I have a few more kids attend. If you have any preschoolers and nothing to do at 10 or 1:30, come by and see me. It'll be fun! This evening will probably bring more laundry and cooking something for dinner. Not sure what yet. Fun times.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins this afternoon with our friends' and their kids. It was lots of fun! Doug carved the pumpkin in our profile picture. :)

Fun Times!

We hosted our annual 4th of July BBQ this weekend. It was lots of fun! This is the third year we've done it and the first time we've actually felt organized and prepared. It still leaves us feeling completely exhausted by the time the day is done, in a good way. We're always happy to have our family and friends with us for the holiday. Click here for more pictures!

Busy Weekend

Well, it's Sunday again. Where did this weekend go? Fortunately I spent some time making friends with all those cleaning products under my kitchen sink Friday night, so even though I wasn't home at all yesterday, I don't feel like the weekend was a total loss. :)

So yesterday, Doug & I both worked all day and then we had a surprise birthday party for my friend, Desire', last night. It was alot of fun and I think she was truly surprised. A good time was had by all!

Today we're going to take it easy probably. Maybe head out to get some brunch or something and go see another birthday girl, our niece, Sammy. :)

I'm a Reader...Not a Writer

I got to just over 3,000 words on my novel writing project and then it promptly fell apart or at least life did. Things have just been too crazy for us lately and writing a novel is about the last thing on my mind. I've been more concerned with keeping warm.

Yes, that's right, our furnace went out or rather won't come on. Fortunately we are in the process of getting it replaced thanks to my very helpful aunt & uncle, but it still falls under the category of "More Crap that Goes Wrong @ Doug & Misty's." Frankly, we're done. There has just been too much craziness at our house lately. Please someone tell us it's going to calm down soon!

We're definitely looking forward to the weekend though. Our friends, Angela & Jay, are coming over on Saturday and Angela & I are going to cook something yummy for dinner and then we're going to play the Wii or do something like that. It should be a good time.