I'm Back...and Tan!

I'm back to the bloggy world...and tan. We spent Thanksgiving 2010 in Naples, FL. JM's parents have a condo there and we were lucky enough to have a free place to crash for 10 glorious days. JM, Baby J, Babs (my MIL), my mom and I all enjoyed the 85 degree weather and played many a mean game of Rook. (If you have never played Rook, google it, buy it at Walmart and thank me later. So much fun, although I can attest to play at your own risk. Most family feuds have been started by this card game- ha!)

We were 3 hours from Tampa, where my grandpa is in a nursing home, so we spent an entire day with him. He is slipping further into Alzheimer's and we just don't know how long he will be with us, so it was very nice to be able to visit him. He is the sweetest man and Baby J LOVED him! I mean, this kid does not let anyone hold him when JM or I are around, but he let my grandpa hold him and talk to him and kiss him. Melted my heart...and my grandpa's, as he just played with my little guy and smiled. Sometimes kids just know, you know? Here is a four generation pic (the only 4 generations J has):

Another night, Naples had the big Christmas tree lighting downtown. After the lighting, the street lamps had snow machines attached, so it "snowed" in FL. I think it was soap suds, but we loved it. This is not the most flattering pic of me- but showed the snow pretty good- ha!

Babs, JM, Baby J and me in downtown Naples. We loved the Christmas parade! Please ignore my large chub arm. Yikes. I promise I have been doing bootcamp like 3-4 days a week, but these stubborn fat arms (thank you, Grandma) will not go away. I should have put my hair over the chub, but J yanks it, drools in it and the frizz sets in. Sigh, please just look from my neck up :-)

Naples has a beach club that has a fun sunset party on Sunday nights. Here is our family pic of the trip!

I was so thankful my mom could come along with us. She lives in WI and only visits a few times a year. She loves J so much and I love watching her play and love on him. I pray every day that her and my dad's circumstances change so they can move closer. I love her sooo much!

I know that isn't so many pics, but the stupid blogger won't let me upload at a speedy rate. Anyways, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for in my life.

A short list of thanks (disclaimer, not all serious- I have a strange sense of humor):

1. I am so thankful to have both my and JM parents. My son is so fortunate to have all 4 grandparents to love on him. I hope they are all here for a long, long time.

2. I am so thankful for my husband. Although we fight and are sooooo far from perfect, at the end of the day, there is no one else I want to come home to. Plus, we make pretty babies.

3. I am very thankful for my current long hair. I think it covers my chub arms and is generally flattering. It also holds the poof and curl very well, which-let's face it- is a blessing in the hair world.

4. I am so thankful for DVR. Not missing Gossip Girl, Life Unexpected or One Tree Hill while on vacay = PRICELESS.

5. I am very thankful to be employed. That being said, I was thankful to not have to go to work for 10 full days. Not so sure I am yet thankful to be back.

6. I am thankful that the officer in my aforementioned post did not find the bootleg bottle of vodka. Thank you, Jesus.

7. I am super happy that Christmas is in 4 weeks. Family, food and days off work? Yes, Please!

8. I am beyond thankful that 2 of my best friends have finally found special men in their lives. I have prayed and prayed that they would not settle, but that God would send the right person at the right time to them. I don't want to say mission accomplished yet, but I am so hopeful and my heart bursts with happiness for these two! S and N, I hope you know who you are! I love you both!

9. I am thankful that heels make my 5"4' self look slimmer. I am not a size 4 (le sigh) and every little bit helps :-)

10. I am thankful to have a blog as an outlet and the fact that people (well, I think there are 4 or 5 out there) read it.

Happy, Happy Tuesday!

Christmas Card 2010

Thank you, Shutterfly, for the 50 free cards. Here is the final product:

Let me know what you all think!

Excuse me Ma'am

Do you know why I pulled you over?

Is there a right answer to this question. Seriously.

In all my 28 years, I have never been pulled over or gotten a ticket. I would like to say this is due to my amazing driving skills, but in reality, I usually don't get caught doing the stupid things I do daily (i.e. hit curbs, bump mailboxes, cut people off, accelerate through yellow lights, roll through stop signs, speeding, etc, etc, etc.).

Yesterday, JM begged me to meet him for lunch. At Subway. About 10 minutes from both of our offices. I agreed.

I know Oprah is all about the no phones in the car and after yesterday, I have to agree. After hanging up with my mom, I called JM to see if he had beat me to Subway. He had. Next thing I know, cop lights are on, the car is behind me and I tell JM I am getting pulled over. His incrediulous really? didn't help matters. I hang up.

Excuse me, Ma'am. (Ok, really!? I am only 28, is this really Ma'am territory...ok, I digress).

Excuse me, Ma'am. Do you know why I pulled you over? Ah ha! Trick question. I really did not know. Speeding? Did I hit a small animal? I have no clue.

You ran a stop sign back there. REALLY!? How is that possible? Are you sure? Yikes. My bad, officer. I was just talking to my babysitter about my son and (insert tapered off rambling here).

Ma'am, I need your license and registration. Ok, no problem. WAIT. STOP. THE. WORLD.

To really understand the next part, I have to inform you of my favorite sales guy, Big Jimmy. Jimmy is a 300 lb, foul mouthed co-worker, who has an intense fear of flying. His cure? Drinking. Yep, Jimmy gets drunk before every flight. I took him to the airport on Friday, after our sales meetings were over and prior to that, I took him to Liquor barn for a pint of vodka. To drink with his orange juice. At 2 pm. To make a long story short, Jimmy left the remaining 1 Tbsp of vodka and the plastic pint in my glove box. Which I now had to open for my registration.

Sweating and crying, I opened the glove box, pushing papers over said incriminating bottle. Whew. Luckily, the officer didn't see it. Sigh of relief.

Insert argument about seatbelt wearing here. Officer says I don't have it on. I say I took it off to reach in the glove box. He says no. I say yes. I have an annoying dinger in my car that mandates seatbelt wearing. He drops it. Again, I am thankful said Vodka bottle was not found. This officer is not seduced by my feminine wiles- ha.

Give him the papers. No insurance card. Dammit. Its in the glove box. If I dig for it, vodka is exposed. I tell him its a new car and I don't have the card yet. He leaves.

Comes back and a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign and no proof of insurance later, I am released. Sigh. I mean, of all the times I could get pulled over, it has to be when I have a bootlegged bottle of opened booze in the car!? I barely drink any more, let alone keep pints on hand.

I go to court in January. Apparently, running a stop sign calls for such things. The insurance thing I can drop by taking my card (which I have) to the court's office. Ok. I can handle that. The fine is what I am scared of anyway.

Case in point: Do not drive on backroads in Lexington with a half drank bottle of vodka in your glove box, without your insurance card, while running stop signs. Not a good idea, apparently.

Hope your day is better than mine!

Bucket List

I saw the movie. I cried. I thought about it. I blogged.

Without further ado, here is my Simply Sallie Bucket List:

1. See Oprah live (I realize I am running out of time, but am working on it).
2. See a musical in NYC
3. Go to Hawaii
4. Drive from one coast to the other, stopping along the way
5. Getting down to a size 4 (Maybe more of a pipe dream than a bucket list- but if the Big Man upstairs is watching and could help me out here, that'd be great- HA!)
6. Take my son to football games at every SEC school. (100% positive this is on JM's list too!)
7. Take my son to a Packer game at Lambeau Field.
8. Learn how to sew
9. Take dance lessons (maybe with the hubs! AND it may help with #5- ha!)
10. Give Jag a little brother or sister (alright, not anytime soon, calm down)
11. Buy a house on the beach to retire
12. Take my husband to see Tim Tebow play
13. Go back to college and get a masters in something I love
14. Get my children through college, debt free (well, for them) so they can start life with a clean slate.
15. Make sure I take enough photos to show memories, but not take so many that I have no memories. Sometimes the experience is worth more than the picture!

Ok, so I add and change these often. But, today, that's where I am at.

Quick Life Updates:
Jag got tubes 2 weeks ago. I sobbed as they took him back and no joke, 10 minutes later he was done. The anesthesia was tough for him to come out of and all he wanted was his mommy. I know it killed JM, but I honestly loved every snuggly second of his mommy-wanting day. Sigh. Does it get better than a warm, curled up baby just wanted to sleep close to you? I don't think so.
We bought a new car. Well, used, but new to us. Ford Taurus X. 2008. Only 30,000 miles. We got a great deal. Too bad in the 3 weeks we have owned it we had to fix the heated seats and now have a transmission problem. I know its under warranty, but are you listening, Ford!? I just wanted a sporty mom wagon that made it easy for me to get my baby J in and out without having to heave his 22 lb self and myself onto our large SUV. Seriously. Can I catch a break here?!?
Second, another post to follow regarding my day yesterday.

Love to all!
S

Bloggers get 50 Free Cards from Shutterfly

I know, 2 posts from me in one day?!? Is it Christmas? Ha, not quite yet, but with Thanksgiving nearing, I am brought to one of my favorite times of the holiday.

ITS CHRISTMAS CARDS, YA'LL!

I know that it may be the type A in me, but I love coming up with fun, always photo Christmas cards. In the past, this gets expensive and usually causes a little distress with the hubs. Good thing I stumbled across an AMAZING deal for bloggers. Shutterfly.com is giving away 50 FREE Christmas cards if you blog about them. Seriously. Free. 50! Woo Hoo!

After perusing through the Christmas Cards, I decided on a few faves. Let me know what you think about THIS, THAT and ANOTHER card. I would have to say that I love all three and think baby J's precious face will make for a GREAT card this year.

Since J is the only grandchild on each side, I am thinking to do some customized, maybe monogrammed ;-), gifts. I am loving the photo tote and photo books. I think that either would be perfect for the Grandmas. I may even do one of the photo books with some pics from the big milestones in J's life thus far- as I think photos are way better than the baby book that I am barely keeping up.

I am totally going to talk JM into getting me some of our new family photos on a canvas. I am loving these right now- especially because the save me from shopping for frames, which, I guess in a way, saves me money, right?

If I love the Christmas cards as much as I think I will, I am going to have to hit Shutterfly up for J's first birthday. Sigh. Can it be possible that his birthday is so close? Where does the time go?

Ok, now that I have totally given all my Christmas secrets away, go to shutterfly.com if you have a blog. They will email you instructions so that you, too, can get the 50 free cards. What better Christmas gift to give to yourself than something memorable and FREE!?!?

Thanks-giving

Who can believe that Thanksgiving is around the corner!? Yikes. Next week. Seriously, this year has FLOWN by and I cannot believe that in LESS than 3 short months, I will be the parent of a one year old. Stop. The. World.

I cannot stop giving thanks for this guy. He is the sweetest little boy. He is the most adorable, fun, silly, happy and the absolute light of my life. Honestly, I just cannot believe that I have been blessed with this little guy.

Speaking of thanks, we got the giving part down this weekend. Dear Goodwill worker that took the two carloads of items we brought- THANK YOU! I am sorry to bombard you but when Momma starts purging she just CANNOT stop! I was so glad to get rid of many items that we just no longer use. RIP Ab Dolly from 2002- I can honestly say I never really used you. Doesn't getting rid of clutter just make you feel awesome!? AND if that clutter goes to giving people jobs and keeping Abby busy with her awesome thrift store finds? Bonus.

Hope all have a great week. More to come soon- I really mean it this time. Really.