Our new kicks

Today I took a "mental health" day and played hookie from work. There were so many errands I needed to run and the weather was going to be awesome so I didn't go into the office. The temperature gauge in my car read 70 at one point and I was driving around with the windows and sunroof open and enjoyed the day. I definitely needed it to recharge my emotional battery after yesterday.

Anyway, two of the tasks I completed today were getting myself and Josh some new sneakers(as seen above).

Josh has been wearing the hand-me-downs from his cousin Jimmy and although we greatly appreciate getting the free stuff from him, I thought it was time to get some nice new sneakers for my boy. Last night I traced his feet onto a piece of paper and brought it into Stride Rite at the Tanger Outlets in Washington, PA. I was shocked to learn that he is a size 7.5 almost 8. My poor buddy has been wearing size 7 sneakers for awhile now and I didn't even realize that he had outgrown them! I opted for the velcro ones over the shoelace ones so that we can start teaching Josh to put on his own shoes. He's already started trying to dress himself and this is the next logical step. While I was there I also picked up a cute pair of green clogs that look like frogs called Polli-Walks. They will even leave webbed-looking frog feet impressions when Josh walks on sand or soft dirt. He absolutely loved them and even wanted to wear them to bed.

I've been wanting to start running again and now that the weather has improved I figured there's no time like the present. My friend Keri recommended a place called Fleet Feet - a store that specializes in everything for runners and with expert staff to get you in the right sneaker. I was told that I over pronate (which I kinda already knew) and needed a sneaker with extra support. I tried on two pairs of sneakers, one Asics and one New Balance, and decided on the Asics. She had me run in the store and I could immediately tell a difference from my Nikes. They were supportive but still very comfortable. I can't wait to try them out (I didn't start running tonight because I also got a pedicure today and didn't want to risk ruining it on the first day).

The search continues...

Yesterday was the first day of fiscal year 2010 for PSS and that meant a new budget. I've been in contact with my former VP of Marketing (Mark) for months now and talking to him about rehiring me into a second analyst role for the department. The communications all seemed positive and he said there was great interest in bringing me back on, but it was a budget issue and he would have to find the money for my salary. I remained hopeful thinking that my salary is piddly compared to the giant budget for the department. All of my friends that are still there were telling me that they saw a need for another analyst, there was more than enough work to go around, and that also gave me hope.

So, I gave Mark a phone call at 8:30 yesterday morning.
It's a "no"... not enough room in the budget :(

Needless to say, the rest of my day yesterday was horrible. I was in an awful mood and so greatly saddened and disappointed that my career at PSS is totally over. My friend Jennifer is trying to keep me positive and says that there is going to be something bigger and better for me out there, an even better job is right around the corner. I'm the eternal pessimist so its very hard for me to look at things that way but I'm trying.

The search continues...

I still have Kforce and RHMR working to find a job for me, either contract work or ideally permanent. I may have an interview soon with an educational company and am waiting to hear back from the recruiter. Luckily my assignment at Michael Baker Corp has been extended until the end of this month so I have at least another 4 paychecks coming in. Scott is doing well in his territory but not well enough for me to take a substantial paycut from what I was making before I left PSS. Hopefully Jen is right and I'm on the verge of starting a great career with another company.

Hair before and after

So I went to the hairdresser yesterday and told him I wanted to go a little more blonde. Having a new hairdresser is a learning process, for both of you. You need to learn how to tell them what you want and they have to learn what you like and don't like.

Well, this is what I got (yes I know its blurry):

So, feeling like I had "hooker" blonde hair I went back to the hairdresser again tonight for him to fix it. One hour and many low-light foils later this is what I ended up with (again, I know it's blurry but taking your own pic is hard):

It's not EXACTLY what I had wanted but it's definitely better than the way-too-blonde hair and I'm happy with it for now. Plus, he used color to do the low-lights and with a few washes I'm sure it will lighten up a little bit more.

"Pee pee" on the potty!

For the very first time EVER, Josh went "pee pee" on the potty this afternoon! I was so happy and so proud of him that I actually cried :) When he woke up from his nap today his diaper was bone-dry so I knew he was going to have to pee soon and figured I would try to get him to go on the potty. Yeah, it was a success!

He has been interested in the potty for a little while now but had not actually peed or pooped on it the many times he has been put on it (both here at home and at daycare). I'm not super worried about getting him potty trained yet and haven't been pressuring him at all. He sees all the other kids at daycare using the toilet so its only a matter of time until the peer pressure gets to him and he wants to do it all the time too. He just turned 2 not even a month ago and I'm ecstatic that he's even trying. I know we have a long, wet road ahead of us but I'm excited for Josh to reach this milestone.

Here are a few more pictures from our lovely afternoon today. Josh is very happy to be able to go outside and play with his birthday gifts!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Irish Marriage Blessing
May God be with you and bless you.
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortunes and rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

An Irish Prayer
May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

An Old Irish Blessing
May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!

Cleveland Rocks (kind of)

Ok... so I've decided that Cleveland does rock in some respects and that I like the city when I'm only a visitor and not a resident. We had such a good time there yesterday and last night and I'm posting just a few pics from the trip.

The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame was great - lots of really cool stuff to see. I was a bit disappointed that cameras weren't allowed in the museum (only in the lobby) so I didn't take too many pictures.

We stayed at the Doubletree in downtown Cleveland and would highly recommend it to anyone. The hotel was really nice, recently renovated, and the bed was super comfortable.

We went to dinner at Cadiallac Ranch which was right down the road from the House of Blues. We didn't realize that Cleveland was hosting the MAC playoff game so the place was mobbed with Akron Zips fans - I'm sad to say that Akron beat my Buffalo Bulls too :(

After dinner we went to HOB to see Dickey Betts and Great Southern. I've seen them 4 times before and this was by far the best I've ever seen. They were amazing! Scott and I debated whether he was playing with such passion because he's getting ready to re-join the Allman Brothers Band for a show (this is their 40th anniversary year) or because he has an axe to grind since there is so much bad blood between him and the ABB... Either way, the show was unreal and I'm so glad that we got to be there. Again, no cameras were allowed in the concert so I have no pictures.

Let the concert season begin!

This weekend is the unofficial start of the 2009 concert season for me and Scott. It is by far Scott's favorite past-time and I have come to love going too when it's a band or artist that I really like. Sometimes we go together... sometimes we go separately.

Tonight we are staying in St Clairsville, OH at my in-laws' house with both Josh and Kody. If it wasn't sold out, I would have dragged Scott to the Wheeling casino to see Bret Michaels. I know, I'm a total dork for wanting to go that show but whatever.
Tomorrow we will head up to Cleveland, minus the "kids" to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during the day and then to House of Blues at night to see Dickey Betts (former guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band). We're really looking forward to a night away, just the two of us.

As I said, this is just the beginning. At the end of April/beginning of May Scott will go to see The Dead in New Jersey and Philly with his brother Jon. The Grateful Dead is Scott's absolute favorite band and I'm excited that he is able to go and see the remaining members play more shows. I'm also glad that he can go with his brother - I definitely do not appreciate that music or the shows like Scott and Jon do and I am more than happy to stay home with Josh.

June is shaping up to be a busy concert month for the both of us.
The Wanee Festival in Live Oak, FL is the weekend of June 5th. At this time its looking like Scott won't be able to go due to lack of money but we'll see, I don't absolutely rule anything out when it comes to Scott and concerts. If he REALLY wants to go he will.
The following weekend I am doing a "girl's night out" with Jen, Julie and Susan and going to the No Doubt/Paramore concert on June 13th. I'm sure all of our husbands/boyfriends are thanking us for making it a girl thing and leaving them home. For $15 a ticket for lawn seats we just couldn't say no.
The weekend after that will be the amazing two-night Dave Matthews Band extravaganza! These are the shows that I'm most looking forward to. I love DMB, I love their shows, 'nuff said. Jen and Jerry will be accompanying Scott and I to the Friday night show and then on Saturday my BFF Patrick (here's your shout out :-p) will be driving down from Buffalo to go to the Saturday show with me. I have 2 other tickets to that show so we'll see who else wants to come with us. Its guaranteed to be an awesome time.

Right now that's it for concerts for us but as more are announced I'm sure we'll add more to the list. Living in Pittsburgh is great because a lot of concerts make a stop there so it is sure to be a busy year of concert-going for us both and we couldn't be happier about it. :)

Take two pills daily for 10 days

Unfortunately I have a sinus infection AGAIN. I just had one two months ago (right before we moved) and never finished my antibiotic like a bad girl so the infection decided to pay me another visit. I shouldn't be surprised... I get them every year around this time, whether I'm living in NY, FL, OH or PA. From what every doctor keeps telling me its due to my allergies causing things to get blocked up in my nose and sinuses which then proceeds to get infected. I've tried nasal sprays like Nasonex and a nasal cleaner like Simply Saline but nothing seems to keep my sinuses from getting infected.

Today the doctor at the urgent care told me about a contraption that my co-worker Stephanie had told me about LAST winter. It's called a Neti Pot http://www.neti-pot.com/.

It literally looks like a mini tea pot that you fill with salt water, stick up your nostril, lean your head to the side over a sink, and let the fluid flow and clean out the sinuses and drain out the other nostril. I know, this all sounds absolutely disgusting which is why I dismissed it when Steph told me about it last year. But, this doctor, who has allergies himself, swears by the thing and says he's never felt better. I'm still skeptical about it, I hate putting anything up my nose and using nasal sprays was a big step for me. Running water into one nostril and out the other just doesn't sit well with me but I'm not totally dismissing it. I'm tired of these infections and all the antibiotics and wonder if I should just give it a shot. We shall see...

Here's a picture of me and my little man from tonight - daycare needed family pictures for a collage and I didn't like any of the other recent ones I have so we had a photo session right after his bath tonight :) Josh is getting into trains lately and insisted on wearing his "choo choo" pajamas - luckily he doesn't realize that its also a cartoon. Scott and I can't stand Thomas the Train so we're being mean parents and hiding the show from him. He has enough stuff to watch already.

Pink is the new Tan, right?

Ah, my beloved tan... this Northern existence has made you run away from me... please come back...

So yes, I'm back to going to the tanning bed, well, tanning booth. The fake-and-bake, the cancer vault. I do not like being pale, never have and never will. Living in Florida allowed me the luxury of getting real sun and a real tan as early as March. I remember too many St Patty's Days where I was laying on the beach and enjoying the sun - one year I remember getting drunk and absolutely burnt to a crisp with Scott and going home and passing out (ah the days of being childless). But I digress...

Now that I'm back up North it's back to paying for my tan and getting it at night, in a room that would make anyone claustrophobic go nuts. At least there's usually good music and I can dance my time away. Based on Jen's recommendation (she is really my ambassador to Pittsburgh), I got a membership to Hollywood Tans (http://www.hollywoodtans.com/index.asp). It's a nice place, clean and with all stand-up tanning booths (they also have the spray-on Mystic tan which I may do right before my trip to Jax).

So there are 3 levels of tanning... the HT42 booth is a max of 11 minutes and their lowest level of tanning - this is the one that I did 3 times last week with minimal pinkness and minimal results. The mid-range booth is the HT54. Today I decided to go into the strongest booth, the HT60. As a gift for buying a 3-month package in the HT42's they gave me 2 free weeks in the HT60 booths and that expires next Monday so I figured why not try it out. According to their website:
"HT60: The Ultimate 8-minute Tan
The HT60 is our fastest tanning booth. You'll have your beautiful base tan in only 3 to 4 sessions, with only 2% UVB allowing you to build your tan faster."

Well... I'm pink, I mean really pink. I wouldn't say red, just very very pink. I only went for 5 minutes but it was a very hot and intense 5 minutes. Tonight I will lotion up really good before bed and hope that tomorrow I don't wake up red. One thing's for sure... I won't be wearing a v-neck shirt to the office tomorrow. I don't need to give those nerdy engineers any more reason to stare at me! :)

Busy week

Whew! I don't know how things get so busy all of sudden but it seems to be happening more often these days. I guess that's the joy of parenthood :) Here is the rundown of the last week for us that's worth mentioning:
Friday (2/27) - Not an eventful day but we went to CiCi's for dinner (mine & Josh's first time). It's Lent so no meat on Fridays. The food was okay but it was a very kid-friendly place (as seen by the enormous amount of families there that night) and Josh seemed to like it so I'm sure we'll go back.
Saturday (2/28) - After an afternoon of shopping at the Ross Park Mall we rushed home to get ready to host our FIRST Pittsburgh get-together with our "crew" - Jen, Jerry, Chris, Susan, Julie & Shawn. What a great time had by all! I made chicken wonton cups, Jen made bacon wrapped water chestnuts (oh so yummy) and Julie brought crab dip and the game "Apples to Apples". After consuming many many many drinks we switched to playing "Asshole" and finally called it a night about 2:30 am! Boy did we pay for that the next day - both Scott and I were hurting pretty good (and I know we weren't the only ones).

Monday - We took Josh to his 2 year old checkup at his new pediatrician's office. I'm happy to report that Josh is 35 1/2 inches tall (90th percentile) but only weighs 28.2 pounds (50th percentile). Looks like my little man is going to be tall and skinny like his daddy :) One not-so-good thing did come out of that visit though, they did a finger-prick blood test and said that Josh is anemic. I'm not totally surprised since he's such a picky eater and doesn't really eat any meat. So, we have to take him to a lab to get more blood drawn to double check his iron level and if he's still deemed anemic then he'll have to go on iron supplements for awhile and multi-vitamins for the long-term. We're trying to modify his diet and add more iron-rich foods to it but it's slow going. He likes Mini-Wheats cereal which is a good source of iron and fiber so that is now his breakfast every morning. Luckily they have lots of new flavors (Blueberry Muffin, Strawberry Delight, Brown Sugar) so we can kind-of change it up for him so he doesn't get too bored.

On Tuesday I had to get a new car battery for my Camry. It had been sluggish starting on the cold mornings we've had over the last month and that morning it barely started at all. So I went to Sears and they said it was definitely time for a new battery. It was almost 3 years old and wasn't a good battery for living in Northern climates (it was the original battery from when I bought the car in Florida). Its nice to turn the key now and have the car start right up. So far I've put new tires on the car and now a new battery - I'm convinced my car doesn't like being in the North. Hmmmm, I wonder why? LOL

After work on Thursday I met with a recruiter from Robert Half Managment Resources regarding permanent work. My contract position ends on Friday, March 27th, which is 3 short weeks away, and I haven't even interviewed for anything else. I landed this current job through Kforce Professional Staffing and supposedly they're looking for permanent work for me while I'm at the contract position but I haven't heard anything from them. So, it can't hurt to have 2 agencies looking for me. I walked away from the meeting feeling pretty good and the recruiter had a potential position in mind already. I should also mention that going back to PSS is still a possibility. I exchanged emails with the VP of Marketing and as he stated there is a "high interest in bringing me back on" but it is a question of finding room in the budget for me. He should have a definitive answer in the next week or two. So, I will go on any interview that either Kforce or Robert Half sets up for me and explore my options. Keep your fingers crossed for me that something comes through in the next few weeks.

Now it's the weekend and we're looking forward to being lazy. We may go to the outlets this afternoon after Josh wakes up from his nap since it's so warm outside - in the 60s - but it will depend on how rainy it is. Hopefully Spring is on its way to Pittsburgh! I need some warm weather :)