Green Beer & Ham!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of my friends, family and anyone else who may happen on to my blog today!  As I probably say every year, I just LOVE this holiday!  Why?  You may ask, well, I will tell you...I love that many (many) years ago my Irish great-grandpa married my Cherokee great-grandma, I love being married to my Irish husband, I love my Irish son's very Irish (and Scottish) name, I love my Irish mother-in-law, I LOVE green, I love parades, I love Guinness, I love the opportunity to dye my beer and any other foods (like cupcakes) green!  I think that justifies saying that I love this holiday every year! So...happy, happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

For dinner I decided to treat Will to some "green" food.  We had green mashed potatoes and green beans to go with our ham dinner.  We also enjoyed some green beer...Heineken - for a light colored beer, not so bad.   I would have preferred Guinness, but I was obsessed with the idea of everything green.

I wish I had a copy of The Quiet Man, I would make Will watch it!  Will is secretly thanking his lucky stars (as he reads this)..I am pretty sure he does not want to watch a John Wayne movie, even if it does take place in Ireland, but come on...Maureen O'hara and the Duke?!?!  I guess, we may have to settle for P.S. I Love You (which I actually do really like, even if it makes me cry)! I need to be doing homework though...last two weeks of class and I have a paper, a final project and a final (the first two are due by this Sunday).   Aaagh! Got to get working...while I drink some more geen beer!!

Cheers to you!!

Almost Ours

We are in love with a house!!  We are now in the process of purchasing it.  Everything has gone through, all we are waiting for is the closing date (March 25th)!  We are so excited!!! We are buying our first place together!  This has all  happened pretty fast.  We found the place in early February (right before my first trip), we were sadly outbid by someone else...So, I was a little sad when I left for my trip, but Will called me on my second to last day there telling me that the offer fell through and they were wondering if we were still interested!  Fingers-crossed that nothing happens from now until the 25th...but we should be good to go!

A little about the house....

It has 3 bedrooms (all on the 3rd level) with a 4th room on the lower level (it is not technically a bedroom because it has no window).  We are going to make that the man room/boy room!  I told Will that he can have his drums set up in there and whatever else he wants as long as Colin gets a corner!  There are 3 1/2 bathrooms!  I am so excited about that! There is 2 on the 3rd level (our master and what will be Colin's), then there is a half on the main level with a 3rd full bath on the lower level. 

I love the kitchen!  It is very spacious and has a nice set up.  Eventually, we plan to spruce up the cabinets a bit and put in granite countertops.

We are trying to decide if we want to paint before we move in or not.  Our last day at our apartment will give us plenty of time to move in and do whatever needs to be done before living there.  I am glad we will not be rushed.  I have a light tan color picked out for the main areas (living, family and hallways).  Then Will and I decided on a medium blue color for the master.  I will post pictures when it is done.  I am very excited about that room!  We also have a blue for Colin's room picked out.  It is a darker baby blue, so it doesn't look too infant like.  We're also thinking of stenciling his name on the wall.  We saw it in a magazine and it looked so cute!  I think we are going to go away from the Pooh theme and move towards transportation.  That way we can do firetrucks, airplanes, cars, etc.  We have some ideas for the bathrooms but we need to look a little more.

Can you tell I am so excited!!!!  I will keep you all updated! Oh, and another big deal item...it is in the area that we wanted!  Colin will be able to go the schools we were hoping for and I just love this city!

Hopefully, more to come!!!

A Boy's Best "Buddy"

It seems like every boy and girl (if not all, at least most) create a bond with some object when they are young; it can be a blanket, a bottle, a pacifier, or in this little boy's case a stuffed animal.  Once this bond is made, they want to go EVERYWHERE with their "friend".  Colin never really used pacifiers (at times we really wished he would) and he only likes his "baba" (bottle) at sleepy time, but he loves...(You may have guessed what Colin's is...maybe you have seen him in a few pictures, if not all of them)...his stuffed animal, a bunny that he calls "buddy" He was trying to say bunny and "buddy" came out and it just stuck.  At first we tried to correct him but now anytime he sees a bunny he calls it "buddy".  I thought that Buddy deserved a blog entry, it is getting close to the day he came into our lives (he was a Easter gift from Grandma Liz).  This Easter will be two years that he has been with us.  I am honestly surprised that he has lasted this long.  I am so thankful that the stuffed animal Colin clung to came from such good stock!  We have had a few scares of misplacing Buddy and I would just hate the day that Buddy was no longer around.  So, here is a glimpse at Buddy in his first two years of being a boy's best "buddy"!

The beginning of Buddy!

He goes everywhere with us!

He was even in our Christmas picture! He is just part of the family!

Colin and Buddy reading one of daddy's books.

Happy Birthday, Grammie!!

I am blessed with many things: a wonderful husband, an adorable son, a great job, etc, etc...I am also blessed with the BEST mom in the world!!!  A mom that is celebrating her birthday today! 

Mom - Happy birthday!  I love you, miss you and hope to see you soon!  You need to come out and visit!  Especially if we are able to close on this house, we will need your expertise in painting and fixing up the house!!!

Happy birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Michael!!

Wanted to take time today to wish a very happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Michael!!!  Twenty-two is a wonderful age to be - so ENJOY your year! 

We were able to celebrate this last Sunday with Michael.  We had a great time visiting with family, eating delicious food (and a wonderful dessert), and watching Ryan, Brady, and Colin chase poor Rusty (doggie) around.  Colin started saying "Uncle Michael" now and is working on "Grandma"! It was so cute to hear him say "Bye Uncle Michael" over and over (he gets excited when he learns new words)!

Happy birthday, Michael!!

My Little Guitar Hero

I was loading pictures on my computer and found a few of Colin from before I left home. Will let him play with one of his guitars for Guitar Hero.  Just thought I would share...sure miss my little guy!

Missing My Boys!!!

A little after the fact, but I finally made it to California.  My business travel buddy and I flew in on Monday and have been busy working ever since.  It has been nice and warm!  I am so not missing the snow, but I am missing my little boy and my hubby! It hasn't even been a week yet...cannot believe I still have like 11 days.  This is definitely the longest I have been away from my two boys!  I do not know how people stay away from loved ones longer...I would definitely not choose to be in the situation that would keep me away from Will and Colin longer. 

Besides, missing my guys...I am learning a lot, eating delicious food, working out, and relaxing in a comfortable bed!  So, there are good things to being here, plus, I do love California (for visiting).  It is nice to be on the west coast and be around that vibe...that feeling of time; just being relaxed not rushed.  I love it!

Happy Bday to Honest Abe & Uncle E

Just wanted to do a quick shout-out to my brother-in-law, Eric (our Uncle E to Colin)...anyway, happy birthday Eric!! Hope you have a wonderful day! I would like to note that Eric shares a birthday with someone that a lot of people in this country admire...Abraham Lincoln, hence the picture of the statue!

So, why not have a quote from the 16th President to start our day and end this blog...

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other".

Seriously...More Snow?!?!?

I assumed that I would be writing  about the Super Bowl from sunny California, but due to the recent snow storm my trip has been postponed.  That is irritating in some ways, but I am glad I was able to watch the Super Bowl with my hubby!!  Great game!!!  I am very excited that the Saints won!!!  If I had known we would be watching it together I would have planned a Cajun type meal (maybe jambalaya), but since I did not know, we settled for turkey burgers, tator tots and chips w/bean dip which was actually a pretty good football meal!  Will even baked a delicious cake!! 

I have been working from home since Friday, even the weekend I was trying to get the travel plans worked out.  Since the airlines keep canceling flights they keep moving me.  I am now on a flight for tomorrow but cannot get through to the airline to change it to Monday.  What a first trip and it hasn't even started yet!!!  Sunny Cali sounds good right now though; warm weather! We are expecting another 10-20 inches today and tomorrow.  Crazy!!  I see snow as a wonderful thing to travel to...and then leave.  I would actually prefer the rain right now.  I cannot wait for Spring!!

I have enjoyed spending time with Colin these past few days (he stayed home with me on Friday and Monday), even though he has made working a little more challenging.  He likes to sit in my lap while I type and have me pretend to eat out of every cup he has in his little cupboard.  Today, we took him to daycare, so that he could enjoy the company of some other kids and so I could get more work done.  I am sure he was starting to feel cooped up in our apartment, which by the way has a hole in the ceiling now.  It was supposed to get fixed after the last snow storm in December (we came home from Oregon to a good size bubble on our ceiling).  For whatever reason, iIt did not get fixed, so during this storm it got even worse (I mean it did have close to 30 inches of snow on it).  So, we had a little talk with the apartment people about the possibility of it collapsing on our 2 year old's head.  The nice people came and put a hole in it and provided us with a bucket...which is fine. It surprisingly does not make it colder in the apartment unless you stand right under it and Colin knows to stay away from the bucket.  At least that happened in an apartment where someone else has to fix it, but I am ready to have our own place.

The top picture is from the other day.  Snow is pretty, even if inconvenient at times.  The next picture is of Colin staring out his window.  Probably wanting to go outside and play.  I took the picture from our porch so you may have to look hard to see him.  The last picture is of Colin headbanging.  I put the band on his head and we were listening to music and he was rocking out!! I was teaching him to headbang...he is getting the idea!

Challenging the Knickerbocker

Apparently, this storm is challenging the Knickerbocker storm of 1922 (which sadly is named that because the Knickerbocker theatre collapsed during the storm and killed 98 people).  I have heard that some areas have between 20-30 inches; that was this morning and it is still snowing pretty hard.  I think it is supposed to stop snowing in the early evening.  We ventured out for a few minutes this morning, so of course I wanted to share some of our pictures.

I just looked at the cars again...you cannot see the tires anymore.  Crazy.  I wonder how I will get to the airport tomorrow!

Colin getting ready to go outside for some fun in the snow.

Our apartment people shoveled a path for everyone...didn't see too many people using it though!  It is almost taller than Colin...by the end of the day it could be.

Enjoying the snow.

After his adventure outside, we treated him to some hot cocoa (well warm cocoa)!