2008 Christmas roadtrip - part 2

Christmas has come and gone and we're back home again. Even though it was A LOT of driving we were so fortunate to be able to spend time with both of our families. Josh had such a good time with all of his cousins.

It ended up taking us close to 9 hours (with stops and bad weather) to get from Scott's parents' house in Ohio to my parents' house in Utica, NY. Josh did quite well, slept for about half of the drive, and watched DVDs for a good part of his awake time.

Josh finally got to see real snow and play in it with Daddy (since we haven't had much in Ohio). He didn't like rolling around in it, or going on the sled - all he wanted to do was eat it! After his nap on Christmas eve's day we took Josh to see Grammy June since she was unable to join us for dinner then went to Cioci Joan's for Wigilia (Polish Christmas). The food was all so delicious and it was great to see most of my extended family. The time flew and after opening presents it was time to go home and go to sleep so Santa could come.

Josh had so much fun opening presents on Christmas day and he proudly put baby Jesus in the manger in Grandma's nativity all by himself.

After stopping by to see Zia Joelle and Zio Beppe, and Grammy June again, we headed to Cioci Paula's house in Syracuse for Christmas day dinner and more presents! Having small children around again really makes Christmas so much more fun. It was great staying at Paula & Patrick's for a couple days because Josh and his cousin Aidan are only 3 weeks apart in age so they had a great time playing together with all of Aidan's toys and the new toys they both got for Christmas. Friday was a lazy day, playing outside in the snow and inside with the toys. Grandma and Grandpa drove out to see us one more time and help us eat all the yummy leftover food.

We got on the road around 10 am yesterday for our 5.5 hour drive back to Cleveland. Since we weren't in any rush we stopped in Buffalo for lunch and went to Duff's for wings (chicken fingers for me). It was soooooooooooooooooo awesome to have REAL buffalo wings & fingers. (I highly recommend anyone stopping in Buffalo to get wings to go to Duff's instead of Anchor Bar - trust me on this one!)

We finally made it home around 6pm last night and immediately started unpacking and doing laundry. No rest for the weary, we're headed back out on the road tomorrow afternoon. If anyone hasn't heard (or read) yet, we're moving to Pittsburgh! Scott was offered a larger territory and we jumped at the opportunity. I haven't had any luck finding a job here in Cleveland (and I hate the house we're renting) so moving out of here was the best Christmas present for me. Josh gets to go to Nana & Papa's again for a few days while Scott & I go to Pitt to find a place to live and celebrate New Year's Eve with friends.

2008 Christmas roadtrip - Part 1

It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a couple days away and we are almost half-way done with our Christmas roadtrip. On Saturday morning Scott, Josh and I drove down to St Clairsville to his parents' house for the first part of our trip. The "Florida Bukowskis" (Chris, Jon, Day & Jimmy) flew in that afternoon and we've been having fun ever since. Jimmy is a year older than Josh and they have been playing together non-stop since they got here. It's great that they are so close in age... Josh is learning a lot from Jimmy (good and bad) and it's funny to watch Josh follow Jimmy around and do exactly what he does.
Yesterday we had a professional photographer come to the house and take family portraits of all of us. The ladies dressed in red shirts, the men in gray shirts and the boys in red and gray sweaters... very festive. I can't wait to see how they all turned out! We haven't had family pictures done since last July so we are long overdue. After the photo shoot I made everyone French martinis - my favorite - and we tried watching the movie "Fred Claus" but turned it off part-way through because it wasn't funny at all.
Today we got ready early and took the kids to the mall to see Santa Claus. Jimmy was up first and did quite well. He hopped right up onto Santa's lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas - blue shoes and a big net to catch doggies (so cute). Josh, on the other hand, is TERRIFIED of Santa. We watched how well Jimmy did and tried to convince him to do the same but no such luck. He clung to me and wouldn't even look at Santa. All we could do to get a picture of Josh with Santa this year was to be in the picture as well... it didn't turn out too bad.
We're on the road again tomorrow, this time for the 7.5 hour trek to my hometown - Utica, NY. Hopefully Josh will be good in the car and sleep for a couple hours... if not, we're equipped with a portable DVD player and Wiggles DVDs :)

Josh's Christmas portraits

I took Josh to get his Christmas pictures done yesterday (better late than never) and am quite pleased with how they came out. I'm sooooo glad that we have a Portrait Innovations up here... the people are great, they're not too terribly expensive and you get your pictures right away - we only had to wait a half hour for them to print our order!

Josh didn't want to cooperate at first, he was more interested in playing with other kids at the Lego table. It took me, the photographer and one assistant with a stuffed dog to get him to sit and smile for the camera. He just kept running around, trying to pull decorations off the tree, and grabbing all the different props that were in the room.

Only two more months until we get to do it all over again for his 2 year old birthday portraits! :)

mama's new 'do

So I cut my hair... again. I really didn't mean for it to be this short, I actually wanted it an inch or so longer but this is what I walked out of the salon with. Its definitely taking me some time to get used to it (I cut it on Friday afternoon).

I remember when I was a teenager seeing Moms in the mall with their kids and a lot of them had short hair... I used to wonder why women felt the need to chop their hair off as they got older and had kids. Alas, that's me now. I don't know what it is about short hair that makes me feel so old...

Health update

Just a quick update on what's going on with me... it's been almost 2 weeks since the problems with my left side started. I've had numbness in my left leg from the hip through the toes and hypersensitivity to touch on my left side from the chest to the hip. It has slowly started to get better but I am still not 100%. Both the regular doctor and a chiropractor couldn't figure out what was causing my symptoms so I went for an MRI today.

Above is a picture of the contraption I had to sit in, very still, for 45 minutes. All of the times I've seen MRIs done on TV the patient has been laying down so it was quite a shock to me to see this machine when I walked in the room. The only good part was that I got to watch TV so it helped to pass the time. Now I wait for the results to come back, the tech said 1-2 days. Tomorrow I go for another test, a nerve conduction study, to determine if my symptoms are caused by peripheral neuropathy. I know, a big confusing term. Once I get an answer on what is going on I will explain it in non-technical terms :)

PSS Great Lakes Holiday Party

What a fabulous weekend we just had! On Friday we drove to Nana & Papa's with Josh & Kody in the back seat... surprisingly it wasn't too bad and they both behaved (for the most part) on the 2.5+ hour drive. On Saturday afternoon Scott & I left for our night out in Pittsburgh. After stopping for a little outlet shopping in Washington, PA we made it to the hotel - the decadent and gorgeous Omni William Penn in downtown Pitt. The hotel was really spectacular and our room was very spacious and comfy. We didn't have much time to get ready for the Holiday Party and after two outfit changes (on my part) we were ready to meet up with Chris and Susan and get the night started.

First was the cocktail reception where we got to meet a lot of Scott's fellow reps and branch personnel. After, we were escorted to another room for dinner and dancing. The buffet dinner was delicious, the DJ played good music (although no one really danced), and they gave away a bunch of gifts to all of the employees - it was a random drawing and Scott won some Harry & David treats, yummy!

Afterwards a bunch of us (me, Scott, Chris, Susan, Jen, Jerry, Shawn, Julie) decided to change into more comfortable (and warmer) clothes and go out to a bar. Since we had no idea where there was to go we let the "locals" choose and we went to Bar Louie at Station Center. The DJ there was playing awesome music and we all had a great time drinking, dancing and cutting up. Sadly the night had to come to the end... it was so good to see old friends from Jacksonville and have a night out with Scott.

Now its back to Cleveland, and more doctors appointments, for the next 2 weeks. Its hard to believe that our "Christmas roadtrip" starts in 12 days! Oh, and you can officially call me Scrooge... we're not getting a Christmas tree at all this year.

You get what you pay for

So I spent the majority of the day today Christmas shopping and am happy to say that I am pretty much done. All the kids are bought for, as are the gifts for the family present exchange among the adults. Scott and I aren't buying each other gifts because of our current financial status so that's one less thing to fret about... he is always so hard to buy for and never really wants or asks for anything.

Now to the topic of my posting... you get what you pay for. Against Scott's wishes I bought an artificial tree this year. We've had a real one for the last 6 years because he grew up with real ones and insisted on it. I grew up with an artifical one so all of the hassle that surrounds having a real one was just too much for me to deal with this year. We were away last weekend, are away again this weekend, and then leave on the 20th to start our "Christmas Roadtrip" to visit both of our families - in my opinion, we weren't going to be here enough this month to warrant getting a real tree. Besides that, the living room in the house we're renting is small and even after rearranging furniture we couldn't find a great place to put it where 1. Josh wouldn't get at it, 2. Kody wouldn't get at it, and 3. it wouldn't get sap on our couch.

I bought a 4 1/2 foot tree for $29.99 at Target and on the box it looked fairly decent (see above pic). Well, when we opened it and set it up I swear to you it looked like a Charlie Brown tree. I am so mad! Now I'm going to have to go back to Target, return the darn thing, and search for another suitable one. Bah Humbug!

Time just keeps flying by...

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and we're 3 weeks away from Christmas! Like a lot of people we are scaling back on presents this year and are mostly buying for the kids so I don't have too much shopping left... a few more things for Josh, something for my godson Matt and my cousin Mikey. One more trip to Toys R Us should do it!

Our Thanksgiving was very nice... it was the first we've spent the actual holiday with either of our parents in years. We drove down to Nana & Papa's house and stayed for 4 days. Thanksgiving dinner was great and all I was in charge of was the potatoes - sweet and regular mashed. After dinner Scott & I took advantage of having built-in babysitters and went to a movie... we saw "Four Christmases" - very cute. We did a little shopping on Friday while Papa watched Josh and on Saturday we went to go get a Christmas tree (over 12 feet!) and to see the Christmas lights at Oglebay in WV. Josh just kept pointing and screaming "ooo" at all the displays, it was adorable.

Josh gets to go see Nana & Papa again this coming weekend. We're dropping him off on our way to Pittsburgh for the PSS Great Lakes branch Holiday Party at the Omni William Penn. I'm soooo excited to get dressed up and see my friends Jen, Jerry, Chris and Susan and eat and drink and have a fabulous time!