...sitting in a tree...

Olive Garden Outing

2011-07-05T20:44:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Ben and I decided to get lunch at Olive Garden. Ryan was fresh off eating his lunch so we figured we would be safe to go to a sit down restaurant. Olive Garden has these nice car seat "slings" that you can use rather than a booster seat, so with a few toys we set Ryan in there and hoped for the best.

Now I would be lying if I were to say that I never used to bristle at a screaming child in a public place; I did and so did Ben. So we have tried to be very conscience of Ryan disturbing other's meals. Ben is especially jumpy if Ryan makes so much as a peep. One time at church (Christmas eve, so Ryan was all of a month old) Ryan just started to whimper and Ben popped up and scurried Ryan outside. A little excessive.

So it was quite hilarious to see Ben at Olive Garden. Ryan was not crying or fussing at all. Instead he was literally squealing with delight. He was playing with his toys and screeching/squealing to his little heart's content. I knew people were looking but I found it adorable, a little loud yes, but adorable all the same. Ben however kept giving me the stink eye because I wasn't quieting him down. He tried several times doing the "Shhh" finger at Ryan (he's seven months old and does not understand that).

After a couple hairy eyeball glares I scooped Ryan up and held him on my lap. The curious baby stood up and reached to try and grab the man's shirt in the booth behind us. I pulled him back before he could grab the shirt so instead he began squealing and smiling at the family. He thoroughly entertained them for the duration of our meal. And he made me laugh (and Ben laugh too). He is such a happy baby. I love that boy.

The Massive Wassive Spider...

2011-06-28T11:31:00.003-04:00

The massive wassive spider

Waited til dark to come about.

Crawled up my arm,

And scared the shit right out!

Made me run out the room

For he was an unwanted guest.

So the massive wassive spider

Took a ride on the porcelain express.

There was a rather large spider (if you couldn't tell by my wonderfully written poem) in Ryan's room last night. I put Ryan to bed at his normal time and he woke up around 10:30pm. So I went in to see if he just needed his paci. I grabbed the pacifier which was covered in drool. I walked, in the dark, over to my boppy pillow and grabbed the burp cloth off of it. I walked back to the crib while I wiped off the paci and felt like I had something on my left arm. Figuring it was a hair I brushed it off with my right hand. Then I felt something on my right arm. At that point I knew it wasn't just a hair and I squealed and ran out of the room like a big ass bird. (All the while poor Ryan is crying). I flipped on his light and saw this massive black spider (not as big as the one from our basement, but big enough). It started charging me (yes, running right for me!) and the only thing I had was my bare feet (yeah, right!) and Ryan's hamper. I called to Ben to bring a shoe and stat! And meanwhile I fended the beast off with Ryan's hamper. I smashed the hamper on him and lifted it back up. El Diablo (the spider) survived the hamper. He continued to charge for me. I started picking the hamper up and smashing it like a crazy person. I felt like a performer from the traveling show, STOMP.

Ben shows up with two squares of toilet paper...my knight in shining armor (instead of riding in on a trusty steed (a shoe) he rode in on butterfly (two squares of toilet paper)).

Anyways, i lifted the the hamper and Ben hesitates after seeing the shear size of this monster but then goes in for the squishing. He misses by like a foot. Then a little game of whack the mole ensues before he finally gets the bugger. Down the toilet it goes.

I felt like I had spiders crawling on me all night. Creeped us both out, but nevertheless we survived the night.

My Poor Camera

2011-05-24T18:55:00.002-04:00

So it seems that my trusty camera isn't so trusty anymore. I think after its last bump on the ground it has decided that it doesn't want to keep on living. Unfortunately the cost to replace my DSL sidekick would run me a lot of money that, with a baby, a new car and sinking driveway, we just don't have the spare funds.

My flash also has kicked the bucket, though I do hope to be able to repair it instead of replace that. The camera itself isn't focusing consistently, randomly has deleted pictures off the memory card before they can be transferred to the computer (really good pics might I add!), and has more recently been popping up with error messages. I think I need to play the lottery...or just save the money that I would play into the lottery....hmmm.

So sad. It has been a good run dear friend.

Poop.

2011-04-29T15:54:00.007-04:00

There have been so many memorable moments with our adorable baby boy Ryan that I can't even begin to count them all. The memories of him laughing at his daddy playing peek a boo around the doorway, or lighting the room with his toothless smile in the morning, all are equally important to us, but let's be honest, the poop stories are the best.

Many heard of the great "I put a size too large diaper on my boy and he exploded everywhere" story of last week. And this latest story is no exception in the funny category.

My day started off with a marathon run to several stores to finish gift shopping for this weekend's wedding festivities. As I unloaded my cart full of goodies to pay at Toys-R-Us I reached for my wallet. Gone. Shit....it's by the computer at home. Super. I happened to have my checkbook which the cashier graciously let me use sans driver license.

I headed over to the bank where I begged for them to cash a check without ID. Luckily since I work at another branch, they just asked a few security questions and I was on my way cash in hand.

On to the mall. Parked the car and realized that I had no stroller with me. Double shit. So I picked up my 16 and a half pound son and headed in. Now I understand 16.5 pounds isn't a lot. But toting my equally as heavy diaper bag and shopping bags I accrued proved to be a work out. Somewhere around JCPenny's Ryan decided he had had enough. Understandable. So he started crying as I shopped for ties for Ben and then proceeded to fall asleep. Deadweight. Awesome.

Keep in mind that Ryan is not much different than his Daddy. He shares the same looks and the ability to be a mobile heater. Always hot and sweaty. Thus making Mommy hot and sweaty.

Then on to Target. Luckily I kept Ryan in his car seat and placed him in a grocery cart. Sweet relief. Target went over relatively smoothly. And it was off to home.

Now comes the poop. Ben and Ryan have a sort of agreement apparently. He doesn't poop or poops very little while his Daddy is home. But when Daddy goes to work, the flood gates are open. As I sat at the computer with my baby boy on my lap to balance my checkbook (multitasking my friend) Ryan grunts and grunts a little more and proceeds to fill his diaper.

I move him to the changing table and there I find a surprise (not so much of a surprise anymore). The diaper leaked. Up the front this time, thus covering his dirty bits. So in an effort to be diaper changing savvy, I started the kitchen sink sprayer. Warmed the water up, went to get Ryan off the changing table I found him grinning from ear to ear with poop all over his hands and face. Triple shit (literally!). Ryan decided to take a sample of the poo that covered his belly and make his Momma's day even more exciting.

So I took the diaper off and ran him over to the sink. The sprayer worked wonderfully. It sprayed off the stinky mess and I gave myself a pat on the back. What a brilliant idea! I celebrated too soon. Because in my haste to spray off the brown artwork my son displayed on his hind-quarters I forgot to have anything prepared to dry off his now soaked body. As he dripped across the floor on the way back to the changing table I laid him down and grabbed the extremely faulty dirty diaper and ran it to the trash. I came back to my smiling son...never a good thing when he has his "I'm so cute you can't get mad at me" smile on. He had peed. So I sopped up the pee with paper towels, diapered his ass up, and am looking forward to making thru the rest of my day.

I'm thinking we are going to have to rework this arrangement he has going with his Daddy!

Baby Boy!!

2010-09-01T20:20:00.002-04:00

He's so cute. I can barely stand it!!! He is a hand/thumb sucker already. The first picture is of his little fist up by his face. The ultrasound tech was trying to poke my belly to get him to move his arm, but he was determined to keep his hand up there.

My appointments are now every two weeks. The baby looks healthy and he's a bit of a chunk (3 pounds already!!!) But the funny thing is I haven't gained a pound in the last 3 weeks, so the doctor wants me eating more! Interesting since last visit she said I have gained too much...oh well. I'm trying to eat healthy. :)

Can't wait to meet the little guy. We still have no name...can't decide, but hopefully we will decide soon!!

Our Wonderful Visit

2010-08-01T17:49:00.003-04:00

It seems that the weekend with Mike, Jen, Caleb and Owen just flew by! We had such a great time. We were just saying that we wished they could stay longer and are looking forward to the next visit (hopefully soon).

The boys got along with Aida which was wonderful. Even Caleb warmed up to her! We went to the local park, into Washington DC, to Ben's firestation, Ben's favorite mexican restaurant, kite flying, Dinosaurland, to the backyard for s'mores and sparklers, and of course the Wii was played.

I'm glad the weather cooperated, and wasn't too hot. It was the perfect visit :) I posted pics on facebook and I will hopefully get some pics posted on the blog soon.

Thanks for such a great visit Mike and Jen!!!!

Baby Bump Time!

2010-07-12T17:16:00.003-04:00

So our little guy is growing into a big guy...here is my (a little more than) 5 Month baby bump pic. The doctor is very happy with everything so far, but she's still keeping a close eye on me. So I go back in three weeks. The ultrasound turned out pretty crappy, otherwise I would post that too. The ultrasound tech is not very good at taking pictures...Oh well.

The doctor says our baby is actually measuring 5 days bigger. So who knows, this could be a sign that he's coming early :)

Ben and I went out and went shopping yesterday and I got some clothes that actually fit!!!! I'm still fitting into most of my shirts and my jeans, just not my shorts or dress pants. The joys of gaining weight during pregnancy. I think I've gained like 25 pounds already. Hopefully that'll slow down!!!

The Baby Bump!

2010-05-23T15:09:00.003-04:00

I am now just about 14 weeks along and the baby bump has officially arrived! Still a little weird to see it, but exciting all at the same time! :)

Pics from visit with Daniel

2010-05-23T14:57:00.003-04:00

The three peas in a pod outside Dan's new apartment

Daniel outside his new apartment door.

Dan's new view of the Capital building...

Daniel wearing his shirt he got from us as part of his Birthday present.

Daniel was just so excited about his day with us that he was dancing in the street as we left....(or was he excited that we finally left....hmmmm?)

Daniel's belated birthday visit

2010-05-17T18:34:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Ben and I took Daniel out for his birthday (belated). We picked up Daniel from the metro in Fairfax and took him to lunch at On the Border. We had a huge lunch, got chips and salsa to go, and headed over to the Apple store in Reston Town Center. There Daniel played with the ipad while Ben and I contemplated the purchase of the 27 inch imac. (We didn't purchase it....yet) Then we headed over to Trader Joe's where we bought some delicious cookies (peanut butter with milk chocolate chunks) and of course, mochi.

Then we headed into DC to take Daniel back. We got to see his new apartment and I did take some pictures that I will hopefully upload soon.

We had fun and I think Daniel enjoyed his belated birthday day :)

Awesome!

2010-05-11T11:38:00.003-04:00

How cool is this?!?! The Doctor said that i get the award for best ultrasound. The baby was moving all over the place! And this ultrasound was our most favorite. (It was the doctor's favorite too!) We are so excited!

The baby looks healthy and happy says the doctor. And I get to go to my old OB/GYN for a couple more appointments before the high risk doctor wants to see me exclusively. Starting in July I will be going in every two weeks so they can monitor me very closely as my biggest risk is premature delivery. But as of now, the due date is still November 24th!

For you, Aunt Martha

2010-04-22T14:15:00.002-04:00

Say hello to our little (BIG) friend!....

The blueish green fangs.....holy crap!

Let's call him Pierre (i was feeling French when I named him). Pierre is a freaky Bold Jumping Spider. He's creepy and not welcome at our house. I think he lives up to the Bold part of his species' name as he stared me down from the inside of the Rubbermaid container to which he was imprisoned. And i felt threatened. No joke. He even started cleaning those awful looking fangs of his whilst looking me right in the eye from his many eyes....

Ben claims Pierre tried to eat his hand when he jumped from the braking mechanism on the Camry's wheel. I think he was going for the jugular. Only Pierre knows the truth.

Got the freak out yet Aunt Martha?

Arachnophobia right here in Stephens City.

Our Good Deed Done...

2010-04-18T13:50:00.002-04:00

So for the past 2 weeks Ben and I have been watching a German Shepherd for a woman from the rescue who's father passed away. She was paying $100 a day for her dog, Harper, to be boarded while she was out of town handling the funeral arrangements. So we were asked if we could watch Harper so that her owner wouldn't have to pay around $1400 on top of all the travel expenses she had in flying to Florida, and moving her Mom up to New York.

Harper was a bit of a challenge. Within the first three days she peed on the floor four times (she is supposed to be housebroken), she got into several little scuffles with Aida, got into potted plants leaving dirt all over the carpet, ate a few receipts, and chewed on my shoes, underwear, socks, Ben's shirts, among other things.

The icing on the cake came on Friday when she made a deposit in the middle of our bedroom floor which sent me into dry heaves while cleaning it up. And then yesterday she, seemingly out of nowhere, attacked Aida which required a folding chair to separate the two of them. It was quite scary. Poor Aida has blood in her ear and lost several chunks of hair from her head. In the evening I discovered a gash on Aida's head that I cleaned up (it is looking better today). This morning it looks like more of the hair around the gash fell out so my little girl has a bit of a bald spot, but she's a trooper.

Harper's owner picked her up today, thank goodness. I'm glad we were able to help her out in this most sad time for her and her family, but I am much more happy that Harper is no longer here!

It Finally Happened...

2010-04-16T21:44:00.002-04:00

It's been too long. I must admit I have been somewhat of a hermit when it comes to technology lately. I have barely been on the computer in the last few weeks except for updating my resume for the....get this....job I was just offered!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say, it is a bit ironic that I have been applying for so many different jobs since moving down to Virginia without even a slight interest from employers and as soon as I find out I'm pregnant I get the phone call. I had a phone interview followed by an in-person interview the very next day. And believe it or not, they loved me and offered me the job a few days later!

The job is at a bank as a teller and it is only part time, however I get an awesome pay rate, benefits and PAID vacation in addition to a 401K. I can't complain.

I will start training soon and will hopefully have lots of fun updates once I start my new job!!!

**Also, my next doctor appointment is in a little over a week so I will have updates on that as well soon!**

Riley

2010-02-20T22:01:00.003-05:00

Riley, our very first foster dog, has been adopted! He was a wonderful dog and deserved to have great home. He went to a family down in Richmond, VA. They have a Bernese Mountain Dog that is about 3 years old. Riley seemed to really like the family and we've heard that so far he is already bonding with his new owner Brian. Brian and his wife Julie seem to be very active and live close to the James River where they like to take their dog swimming. We really felt like this would be a great home for Riley, but we miss him very much.

I hope he loves his new home and I hope he doesn't forget the people who saved him from the pound. :)

2010-02-20T10:00:00.003-05:00

Bag of Almonds - $10.00

Bag of Pita Chips - $7.00

Tollhouse Chocolate Chips - $2.50

Everything else the mouse ate - $$$$

Catching the mouse alive and releasing him back to the wild - priceless.

Mr Plow ("That name again is Mr Plow!"-Simpsons' Reference)

2010-02-07T22:42:00.004-05:00

They finally came around and plowed our street at 4:00PM on Sunday. Not that i minded the delay...there was a lot of snow to be plowed on more important main roads. Besides, the dogs were having so much fun playing in the snow covered street. But alas, Mr. Plow came and cleared our road...unfortunately our yard was his dumping ground for the surplus snow. So despite the fact that we'll have snow in our yard until mid May, at least our road is now drivable. (And the dogs have another playground...or a play-mountain if you will.)

Snowmegeddon 2010

2010-02-07T14:08:00.005-05:00

I can say that this past snow storm rivaled any i have seen in Ohio. Not to say that the quantity surpassed what i have seen before, but at the very least it has been quite some time since i have seen that much snow in such a short amount of time.

The snow started at 9:00AM Friday morning and did not stop until about 4:30PM Saturday. We got 15 inches alone between Friday night and Saturday morning. I have heard that areas such as Dulles got a record 32 inches while other areas did not get quite as much. We measured the snow in our backyard at 29 inches this morning around noon and that was after the sun had been out all morning.

The dogs have had an absolute blast these last couple of days. They have been running around the culdesac with the other 4 neighborhood dogs. Last night we had a "snowed in" party with all the neighbors. They all came over to have a "potluck" style dinner. It was great getting to know our neighbors a little better and after everyone chipping in and shoveling each others driveways i think we all became much closer neighbors.

Every inch of me aches from shoveling. Ben did a good job handing out beers and "supervising" the shoveling progress we were all making. He also looked after all the dogs while everyone was busy working. Although our two canines were very much slowing down our progress as they would pounce on our shovels as we were trying to throw the excess snow off to the side. It was funny/cute the first couple times...but not the last 20 times....

Overall we survived. You'll notice in the slide show of pics that i fell down and could not get back up in the backyard this morning. It was a combination of having on many layers, the sloping backyard and my supreme uncoordination. It was hilarious. I felt just like that kid from "A Christmas Story"....i feel his pain.

Hope everyone else survived whatever snow they got! And we are supposedly not out of the woods yet as we are due for two more snow storms in the coming two weeks. Yippee!

...Facebook... (and an update)

2010-01-27T13:15:00.004-05:00

I have gone over to the dark side. I have gotten sucked into the vortex that is Facebook.

Through the persistent urging of my friend down here in Virginia, I have decided to join the "social networking" site. I am not going to promise to anyone that I will keep my facebook updated regularly, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to have it on the side. I do promise, however, to keep my blog updated. :)

So if any of you blog readers that have Facebook want to "friend" me....feel free to do so.

**On a separate note i have an update on Ben. He went to the doctor today to have his wrist checked out with the hope that he would be released back to full duty. Unfortunately such isn't the case. He is to be on light duty for at least another 6 weeks. It seems that his bone just isn't healed quite yet. He is very bummed. :( **

A Visit from Daniel

2010-01-24T19:23:00.007-05:00

Daniel came to visit us last weekend (sorry for the delay in posting!). We had mostly beautiful weather although it did rain a bit on Sunday. We didn't do too much, but we had a lot of fun. On Saturday we took a drive into Middleburg, VA and walked around a bit there. We also had to go to Wylie Wagg to get the dogs some food and treats.

Saturday evening we took Daniel to Brewbakers, a local restaurant in Old Town Winchester. Although Daniel had already been there before, he wanted to go again for their wings. Apparently they have good wings....i wouldn't know because I don't like to eat small amounts of meat off a bone like a caveman...

We also watched a few movies, took Riley to an adoption day at Petsmart, and took the dogs to a local park while Dan was here. Before we took Dan back into DC we treated him to lunch at another Old Town Winchester restaurant. The place is called Snow White Grill and it is a really cute little place to eat. We had a really fun visit and are looking forward to having him come back soon!

Good Luck Daniel!

2010-01-06T11:14:00.003-05:00

This is the view from street right in front of Daniel's apartment in DC. As far as getting the true DC experience, this is about as good as it gets!

And here we have the proud intern in front of his apartment (he has the basement of the townhouse behind him.)

Good luck in DC Daniel! Looking forward to reading all the updates on your blog!

Aida Roadruck | A Dog Named Christmas

2009-12-11T11:02:00.000-05:00

I entered a pic of Aida in a photo contest for Hallmark and she needs your votes! We only have until the 15th of this month to vote! Tell everyone you know to vote for Aida!

Sorry for the late notice. :)

Aida Roadruck A Dog Named Christmas

Posted using ShareThis

Meet Riley....

2009-12-03T17:31:00.004-05:00

Ben and I have gotten a foster dog. His name was Roy, but we renamed him Riley which means "Valiant Warrior" in Irish. He's had a bit of a rough start. He was found locked up and tied down in a shed on the edge of someone's property. The owners of the property had just purchased the house and heard a dog barking and thought it was a neighbors dog. About two weeks later the owner was taking a walk and heard the barking again. He followed the bark to a shed where he had to break through the lock and found a dog tied down inside. The dog (Roy) couldn't even stand up because he was so weak. They figure he was locked in there for at least two weeks, probably longer.

Despite his rough start, this 80 pound, 1 year old dog doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He is just one big lovable goof. Although we named him Riley (for now) we have called him many other names since we picked him up 6 hours ago including, "Shit for Brains", "Damnit!", "Gomer Pyle," and the list goes on. Riley has claimed a specific wall....twice, as well as trying to claim our poor innocent Aida. He's still in tact....that will be corrected right quick and in a hurry.

All he wants to do is play. He can jump up in the air 6+ feet to catch a ball. He is absolutely skin and bones and once he gains some weight should be at least 100 pounds. But he is a lovable guy. Hopefully he'll be adopted soon and have a new start in life. :)

Vote Today!

2009-12-02T09:39:00.004-05:00

Right now there is a site called "The Animal Rescue Site" that is having a contest to award $20,000 in grants to your favorite animal shelter/organization. All you have to do is go to the site and vote every day for your shelter/organization of choice. Since Ben and I have become involved with the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue I would like to ask you to vote for them, however if you have another rescue organization you are involved with please vote for them.

Just visit: http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

Then go to the side tab labeled "Shelter Challenge" and cast your vote. You don't have to register or even enter your email address, but the limit is one vote per computer per day. If voting for VGSR (Virginia German Shepherd Rescue) simply type in the name where prompted.

Please help us out in trying to move up in the rankings. Right now VGSR is ranked number 139 in the US. Thanks!

*I should be posting Thanksgiving pics later today! :)*

A Welcome Visitor

2009-11-16T16:35:00.003-05:00

This little (actually he was quite big) guy was on our sidewalk when Aida and I got back from our walk. I ran inside and grabbed my camera. It has been so long since I've seen a praying mantis. I then had to go outside and rescue him as he was still on our sidewalk and the kids from the neighborhood were out playing basketball in the culdesac and they usually end up running thru our yard and i didn't want him to get smashed.

My good deed for the day. :)

Oink Oink!/O-H-I-O!

2009-11-07T21:35:00.002-05:00

So these past weeks have been interesting.

We went back Ohio for our good friend's wedding reception several weeks ago. We had a great time and were so happy to be able to attend. Here are the pics from the wedding:

After the weekend was over we headed back to Virginia with Dad. We asked him to come spend the week with us as we were going to head back to Ohio, yet again, the following weekend for Daniel's Homecoming game at Ohio State. That week Dad cracked the whip. He was our resident handyman, landscaper and dog whisperer....let me explain. He wanted to help out around the house by organizing our garage and fixing a hole where he and Ben had previously turned a gas pipe around to hook up our grill. One of the days he went all "Edward Scissorhands" on our landscaping. Five yard bags, a cut extension cord and several scrapes later, we had finished trimming the front yard. And now for my favorite descriptor, "dog whisperer." One night I made pot roast. Ben and Dad were in and out working on the lawn mower (the handyman was tweaking it). Dad wanted to test it out and opened our double gate to the backyard and walked up to the garage to get the mower. Once he got to the mower it wasn't working quite right so he went back to the basement. All the while I was in the kitchen working on dinner. I called them both up for dinner. Ben came up, but Dad was still in the basement working on something. I got the thinking, "Where is Aida?" She hadn't been hovering around in the kitchen like usual. I called down and asked Dad if she was in the basement with him. He replied, "Isn't she up there with you?..." "No." Dad says, "OH S*%#!!!!!!!" It turns out, while Ben and Dad were in and out, they let the dog out, forgot she was out, and also forgot that the gate was open. So she had feasibly been "out on the town" for an hour. So we all went out into the dark yelling for Aida (who wasn't wearing a collar). After about 2 minutes I see a shadow come running towards me from around the pond. It was a smelly, soaking wet, Aida. She had apparently taken a dip in the pond chasing the geese no doubt. Dinner was put on hold while we gave Aida a bath. It was quite the eventful night.

Back to Ohio we went to see Daniel on Homecoming Court. We had a great time. It was my first Ohio State game and we had the best seats. It was a little cold, but we were so happy to be there for Daniel. Although he didn't win King, we are still so proud of him and think that it is amazing that he was on the court. Here are the pics from the Homecoming weekend. I also have another album on my web albums that are pics from the camera Daniel had so make sure to check it out.

After returning from Ohio, I came down with it....the dreaded H1N1...the Swine Flu! I must say, i wouldn't want to get the pig flu again, but it certainly wasn't the gloom and doom the media has portrayed it to be. Ben called off work one day to take care of me (he's so sweet) and as long as I routinely took Tylenol or Advil I was able to keep my fever down. But i'm better now and hopefully we won't have to deal with the oink flu again!

Under the Knife (again)

2009-10-13T13:26:00.002-04:00

It has been a year now since Ben's infamous accident at work. And although he has been able to be back at work, full duty, since April this past year, he has been in a lot of pain. So after his one year checkup with his surgeon a third surgery has been scheduled. Come December 14, 2009, Ben will bid ado to his plate and nine screws that have taken up residence in his right wrist since his surgery last year. The surgery brings hope that he will regain more mobility and less pain in the future.

He will be out of work for 2 to 3 months letting his "swiss-cheese" of a bone heal. And with any luck, this will be the very last surgery having to do with his wrists. So stay tuned for some more pics of his surgery battle wounds after December 14th.... :)

Well S@#*!

2009-10-11T11:15:00.003-04:00

It finally happened. Our beloved "boob-tube" of a television has called it quits. Unfortunately, Ben and I cannot afford a new television at this point (way too many more important things to spend our money on I suppose).

Ever since we got the TV (a hand-me-down from Ben's parents) about a year and a half ago it has been warning us that it wasn't going to last by randomly turning itself off. In order to get the damn thing to turn back on we had to unplug it and wait a minute or two and then plug it back in and push the power button. Sometimes it would take several attempts, but usually after two or three tries we would get it back on. Yesterday, however, the TV threw a fit. It turned off while Ben was watching something and so he went through the process of unplugging, etc. After about five attempts, several cursings, and a slamming of the cabinet door, Ben gave up. Then he was off to work. I left the TV alone for a few hours and tried it again. It turned on, SUCCESS!...then it shut off. I tried again and again to no avail. So I unplugged it and let it be for the night.

I came home from church (I was being a good little Catholic girl :) ) and hoped that the TV would work while I ate my lunch. It doesn't even show a picture anymore before it shuts off. Oh well. Back to the stone age of no television (in the living room) we go.

Our Wonderful Visit

2009-10-03T21:40:00.002-04:00

Ben and I recently had the pleasure of having Mom, Dad, Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry come to our home and stay for the weekend. We had a blast. I can't remember the last time we've laughed so hard. We visited wineries, local restaurants, Skyline Drive, the State Arboretum, and just hung out around the house. We played several rounds of Cranium which brought out the acting and humming talents of everyone...i never knew we had such a talented family. Uncle Larry's rendition of Bill Cosby moved me to tears...literally...I laughed so hard i cried. Mom nailed an impression of Robert Deniro. It was good time had by all. We can't wait for everyone to come back and visit.

Other than the visit there have been a few other happenings. I visited the ER at the local hospital the morning before we had our visitors. Nothing serious, I just had Vertigo. Wouldn't recommend that to anyone....it sucks. But I am all better now. Ben is going in for surgery number 3 probably in December (it's not scheduled yet). His doctor felt that the plate and screws that are still in his right wrist were impeding his range of motion and causing him some discomfort and pain. Therefor the plate and nine screws are going to be removed and he'll be out of work for 2-3 months.

That's about all the updates for now. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Update Time!!!!!

2009-08-18T17:40:00.001-04:00

It has been awhile since I have updated our blog. So here are several updates all in one post...

First, Ben's 24th Birthday (July 17)...

Next, Daniel and Sara came to visit us one weekend and we hit up a couple wineries...

On our brief trip home in early August we met Connor McGuiness...he was adorable!...

And for the final update, our trip to North Carolina...

I didn't put any of the pics from the wedding in this album because there are so many. But if you are interested they are in an album on my web albums page...

I think that's all the updates for now. Sorry it's so pictorial, but a picture's worth a thousand words...

Missing our Houseguests...

2009-07-13T15:20:00.003-04:00

I left off with Thursday in my last post. So Friday was our last day with Mom and Dad. So we decided to take Aida up to Sherando Park. We walked around the lake and the park for a little while, but the bugs were definitely out to get us so we headed back to the house. Mom and Dad had planned on working on some projects with us while they were here, but with Ben getting sick our projects were put on hold. But Mom and Dad did get a bunch of little things done like trimming our bushes and staking a tree so it stood up correctly. Ben and Dad fixed our shower light (it kept turning off after 10 minutes or so because it turned out to have the wrong watt bulbs) and fixed some of the recessed lights that weren't flush to the ceiling.

So after all the the little fixes, I made Peppermint Penguin Drinks (we were out of Kahlua, so no Dirty Bananas). Peppermint Penguins have Oreos, Mint Chocolate Baileys, Creme De Menthe, ice and milk. They are delicious. Then Mom and I challenged Dad and Ben in air hockey...they won. So Mom and Dad said their goodbyes to Ben since he was working on Saturday and we all headed to bed.

Saturday, Dad got all the suitcases packed and by the front door. But with a little sweet talking, Dad and Mom decided to stay a couple extra days. Ben and I were very excited. So while Ben worked on Saturday, Mom, Dad and I headed into DC to visit with Daniel. We went to Capitol City Brewery right next to Union Station. Dad was so hungry he ordered a bowl of chili as an appetizer, a black bean burger with cilantro rice and red cabbage (you can do the math on the sounds of evening from Dad after that lunch....) Along with that monster lunch, we had onion rings as an appetizer and were given complimentary soft pretzels. After lunch we walked around the Capitol building and then headed back to Daniel's townhouse where he packed up to spend the night at our house.

Sunday, we all headed out early to Skyline Drive. We drove about 25 miles into the park stopping at every overlook. Once we finished with our outing we went to lunch at Glory Days grill, shopping at Costco and back to the house for some Wii. Then Mom and Dad drove Daniel back into DC. Our visit was over.

Mom and Dad left this morning. Ben and I were both sad to see them leave. Although they were worried about "over staying their welcome" Ben and I would have happily had them stay even longer. A little over a week and we still didn't get to do everything we wanted. But we look forward to the next visit. :)

Our Fun Visit...

2009-07-09T22:27:00.003-04:00

Our visit with Mom and Dad has been absolutely wonderful. Ben and I have been having so much fun. Sadly, our visit is almost done. But here is a recap of the past week:
Friday- Ben picked Daniel up from the metro station on his way home from work Friday morning. Mom and Dad showed up about noon or so. So we all made a trip to Costco (a must of course!) and picked up a pizza from there for lunch....they have really good pizza. That evening we made these huge sirloin steaks on the grill, which made everyone very happy.
Saturday- Ben had to work, but I took Daniel, Mom and Dad out for a little drive around Stephens City to show them the park and other little places. Then we headed over to Ben and my friend Julie's house for a cookout/pool party. That evening we came back to the house and watched the fireworks from the upstairs window. It was great because we could see the big fireworks display from the house and didn't have to worry about bugs or traffic. :)
Sunday- We went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel, took Daniel shopping for clothes and groceries, and took him back to DC. We had dinner at Bertucci's (a great little Italian place) and we were quite the noisy group. We weren't really all that bad, but we laughed a lot. :)
Monday-Ben worked again. Dad's poison ivy (from the last time they visited, two weeks prior) was still really bad so we decided to take a trip to the walk in clinic. 3 hours later, Dad was diagnosed as still having poison ivy, and was put on some meds. So then Mom, Dad and I went up to Costco where I found the most perfect kitchen table. We were in the Camry so I couldn't buy it just yet, so instead we headed to a gardening store where they had everything on sale. I needed to get some insecticide for our dogwoods and I bought Sparkler Roses for around our mailbox. I decided I definitely wanted to get the table from Costco to surprise Ben the next day, so we went back up to Costco, bought the table and tried to fit it into the highlander and camry...it didn't fit completely so we had to call in reinforcements (our friend Julie).
Tuesday- We planned to go canoeing on Tuesday. However, Ben came home from work really sick. He barely even noticed/mentioned the new table and went straight upstairs. He ended up having some pretty classic food poisoning symptoms (vomiting, etc). But then he started having some abnormal chest pains. After awhile, we were on our way to the ER. After about 6 hours, 2 IV fluid bags, and a shot of Dilaudid, the diagnoses was a "jolted" esophagus and a strained muscle from vomiting. And the doctor wasn't sure if it was food poisoning or a gastrointestinal virus. My money was on the food poisoning. He was sent home with two scripts. The one was Zofran, a med to calm the stomach and prevent vomiting. However, after taking this particular med his temperature shot up to 102.6 and he was having horrible headaches. Turns out that these are side-effects of Zofran. He hasn't taken anymore Zofran.
Wednesday-Ben was still not feeling super well (who could blame him!) so we took it easy. We took a drive to Middleburg. Middleburg is this cute little town in the middle of horse country. We went to Wylie Wagg to order Aida a new address tag and then to lunch at the Red Horse Tavern. On the drive back we stopped in the Virginia State Arboretum. Ben slept in the car while Mom, Dad and I walked around. It was beautiful. The building on the property was the old slave quarters which has been converted into dormitories for visiting students and scientists. Once we got back home, Ben took another nap and we filled Aida's pool and let her go "swimming." She ended up drinking so much water that she peed on the floor and even did a happy dance to go outside again (she stood at the door shifting her weight from one back leg to the other).
Thursday- Since Ben was feeling much better, we went canoeing (we took a raft instead of a canoe so we could all go together). We had a great time. We decided to go on a 7 mile trip. As soon as we got in the water we saw a deer and a crane. We saw several cranes throughout the trip, and some turtles, fish and even a beaver! The trip was a blast. Mom and Ben got a little sunburnt, but we would all like to go again sometime! I think Mom would even be up for a few more rapids!

So that is the update so far. We aren't sure what our plans are for tomorrow. But we are looking forward to another fun day. Here are some pics from the week:

How cute is my Cousin?!

2009-06-26T20:11:00.002-04:00

Here is a YouTube video of my adorable cousin Sebastian...

Makes you want to drink lots of tea. :)

The Greenest Thumb

2009-06-04T21:23:00.000-04:00

Ben and I have finished another item on our "to-do" list. We finally have planted our vegetable garden. And believe me, it was no easy task! To start off, the area we used for the garden was absolutely infested with weeds. I'm talking about 1 to 2 foot tall dandelions...no joke. Not to mention the irritating weeds that are like vines that subsequently strangled out all the real plants that were initially growing in that area. But after the long grueling hours of weeding we were able to begin work on our garden.

We planted: Tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green beans, romaine lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers. I'm hoping we have "green thumbs" and that all our hard work will pay off in the end. I will keep the blog updated as to the progress of our garden...wish us luck! :)

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-26T23:23:00.003-04:00

Our friend's Matt and Cat came to visit us for Memorial Day weekend. We had a really good time and were already making plans for their next visit before they even left! The first day we took a walk around the complex, went to the Stephens City/Newtown Festival, and had a cookout. The next day we headed out to the Shenandoah River State Park. It was beautiful. We went on about 3 miles of trails and got about 3 dozen bug bites! That night we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Glory Days Grill, to celebrate Matt and Cat's birthdays. Of course in between all our fun, we got in a few games on the Wii.

Overall it was a wonderful visit and we definitely look forward to another visit! :)

Alright you Bird Lovers....

2009-05-20T19:21:00.003-04:00

Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? It was sitting on our fence yesterday morning and both Ben and I are puzzled as to what kind of bird it is....

**UPDATE**
It took all of 10 minutes, but Aunt Martha figured out the bird mystery. It is a Green Heron. Pretty cool I think. It seems that it was not quite full grown (a little smaller than a crow). Hopefully I will see it again this summer! :) Thanks Aunt Martha!

Before and after...in progress

2009-05-16T12:43:00.005-04:00

Ben and I have been busy getting the house unpacked and trying to make the house feel like our home. So I thought it would be nice to take some "after" pictures to compare to the pictures I took a couple of months back. We are still in the process of fixing up a few things here and there, so as we complete our never-ending project list I will post more pictures...or you could just come see for yourselves :).

I'm so Proud....

2009-05-11T15:41:00.000-04:00

Ben and I were very excited to be able to join Mom, Dad and Nathan to surprise Daniel at Ohio State for the Sphinx Senior Honorary induction last Friday. Mom and Dad received a notification back in early April stating that Daniel was to be inducted into the 103rd class of the Sphinx Senior Honorary. The induction was to be a surprise for Daniel as he was going to be "ambushed" by the current members and taken to the ceremony where his family would be there to see him.

It turns out that they got a key to his room and yanked him out of bed at 7:00am for the induction. He is then "linked" with a current member who turned out to be one of the very first friends he made at Ohio State. I can't remember her name, but she was very nice.

Daniel was completely shocked to see the family already there. And I must say, I have never seen Daniel smile as much as he did that day. He was absolutely beaming all day, as he should have been. We were all so proud of him. It was a really big deal that he was inducted into this honorary society. Only up to 24 students out of the entire Ohio State Senior Class are chosen, based on scholarship, leadership and their contribution to the school.

Daniel deserved it. I think the Sphinx are lucky to have him. I am so proud of my brother.

SUCCESS!!!!!

2009-04-17T21:20:00.004-04:00

Meet Cheddar. He's my new mouse pet.....Not really. But we caught him/her, FINALLY! And he is now enjoying his new home in Sherando Park (a little over a mile away). Although he won't have minty-fresh pillows and a shmorgous-board of food at his disposal, he at least didn't have his end in a snap mouse trap.

We came home from dinner and Ben was outside with his parents and I was in the living room when I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I called Ben in and slowly backed over to the flashlight on the counter. Without thinking it through, Ben lifted the love seat and I laid on the ground with the flashlight. The mouse came out from under the couch like a bat out of hell right towards me. He took one look at my eager "I'm-a going to catch you!" face and made a quick turn to the right and headed into the dining room. He hid underneath the dry sink and so Ben and I ended up pulling the dry sink out at an angle and barricaded the exit with the bucket that I had originally set up in the kitchen.

So there you have it. We have successfully caught ourselves a mouse. We hope/pray that Cheddar was our only "house guest."

Mouse Hunt

2009-04-14T17:23:00.000-04:00

The last several days have been frustrating. We seem to have mice taking up residence in our walls. We have remedied the bird in the vent situation. Turns out Ben's handy work with the hardware cloth covering the vent outside has indeed done the trick. The bird tried to get back in the next day, but the cover Ben made stopped it.

So back to the last few days. Last night we heard the mouse again. He/she is chewing on something around the outlet behind the stove (confirmed by Ben and his stethoscope). So Ben and I positioned ourselves on either side of the outlet and as Ben unscrewed the outlet, I stood with gloved hands and a flashlight ready to catch the little bugger. But to no avail, the mouse was not there. We both stood there waiting and eventually I did see the mouse crawl up and later, back down the insulation. Cute little thing. But a pain in the ass nonetheless.

So we set up our traps and went to bed. Today I checked out the trap to find that the mouse did in fact find his way into the trap and defecated all over the place in it. It seemed as though the mouse was in there quite awhile, but was able to eventually get out. So I went to the store, bought more traps, and a plug-in for the wall that transmits waves through the electrical wires and apparently mice can't take the high pitched sound. The other day Ben and I bought some of the same type of wall plug-ins at Costco (bulk pack) but they don't transmit the sound waves through the wires or through walls. But I am still trying them in other rooms.

Now for the picture above. Those are all the "tools" I am using for my mouse hunt: Traps, food, electronic sound things and moth balls. I have also fashioned two homemade traps. I've used a bucket and a trash can and made a ramp up to each with cardboard. I then put peanut butter on a graham cracker, and some cereal and sunflower seeds in the bucket and trash can. I am hoping the little critter(s) will make their way up the ramp and will be in the "trap" in the morning. I told Mom that I think God and Grandma are having a good ol' time watching me try and trap these pests like a crazy woman. I still have a sense of humor about the situation, but I am really wanting to rid our house of mice for good.

Things that Scurry in the Night....

2009-04-08T11:26:00.002-04:00

Well, on top of our bird in the vent we have some other visitors.

I'll start with my day yesterday. I was sitting on the couch when I heard the bumping/scratching/chirping in the wall again. That meant that although Ben sealed up the vent from the outside, the bird was still on the inside. Damn. So I called the pest guy and he said he'd be out between 2 and 4. I got a call from him at 12:30 asking if he could come now. So of course i agreed. I was in the middle of straightening up and as I was wiping down the counter tops, I looked at the paper towel that I used and was shocked to see small brown mouse droppings. Damn again. So when the pest guy showed up, he confirmed what I already knew, those were in fact mouse turds.

Being that I am an animal lover, the thought of buying those horrible snap traps made me sick. The pest guy said that they bait for mice with a poison that dries them from the inside out. Sounds like a good time. He also mentioned that we may find the dried carcasses around and it is ok if the dog eats them because there is not a secondary poison. It may be ok for him to let his dog eat mouse carcass, but it is not ok with me. Not to mention, once I researched this method of extermination I read about the awful smell of the rotting mice carcasses in the walls. I think i'll pass.

I don't want my house infested with mice, so I decided to research some humane ways to rid us of our unwelcome visitors. I read all about the Havahart traps (but they're expensive) and I also read that mice can't take the smell of peppermint. So the site recommended putting peppermint oil on cotton balls and placing them in areas where you've seen evidence of mice. So I thought, what a great, easy, and safe way to get rid of the rodents! So I set several cotton balls soaked in peppermint around the areas I found the mouse poop.

This morning, I discovered that this method DOES NOT WORK. I believe I may have given the little critters some nesting materials with a fresh peppermint scent. A few of the cotton balls have been commandeered by our newest house guests.

We are going to buy some traps today. They are humane live traps that we can catch and release the mice (a couple miles away of course). I know it is probably not the method that most people would implement, but I am really hoping it works for us.

Things that go Bump in the Walls...

2009-04-06T21:51:00.003-04:00

The last few days Ben and I have been frantically trying to get work done around the house. Although one would think that taking one task at a time would be the way to go, we have implemented the ADD method. Every day we come up with a plan of action-i.e. Today we are going to finish putting up the closet organizer. Simple enough. But then we get side tracked and instead go up to Home Depot and buy peg board for Ben's work room area only after we meet our friend Julie (our realtor) and her family for lunch at the annual Kiwanis Pancake Luncheon. And after we buy the peg board and eat pancakes, we sweep up the garage and put books in the book case in the office. That was our day on Saturday.

So today (Monday) we both said, we are going to work on the closet and get it completely finished so we don't have to live out of boxes anymore. I guess you could say our ADD set in, but for good reason. Let me explain. I was in the living room eating breakfast when I heard a noise in the kitchen. Thinking it was Ben rustling around in the pantry I asked him what he was doing. He replied he was working on the computer in the office. So then I got a bit freaked. Could it be mice? A rat? A Raccoon? Or maybe it was just my imagination. Then I heard it again. So I called Ben into the room. Of course by the time he came in, the noise had stopped.

So a little later the noise started again and this time it was a bit louder. It sounded like thumping and rodent nails on a hard surface. Ben heard the noise this time and started opening cabinets and pulling out the oven....all the while my wussy self was standing on the couch. Yes, that's right, the girl who once had rats as pets was standing on the couch like the stereotypical girl hiding from a mouse. But I must defend my actions. The sound was far too heavy for a mere mouse or rat.

We called the pest service and the soonest they could come out for an inspection was Tuesday. So we settled back down until we heard the noise again. So Ben ran outside to the side of the house where the noise was coming from and discovered a very large black bird flying out of our microwave hood vent. It wasn't as big as a crow but it was big enough.

So instead of working on the the closet today we ended up going up to our new favorite store Home Depot to buy some hardware fabric to cover the vent. And of course Ben needed a ladder, so we had to go purchase one of those too. I almost think Ben trained that blasted bird to fly into our vents so he could have an excuse to buy the ladder he had been coveting at Costco. :)

After we were finished with blocking the bird vent i walked around the yard and took some pictures of the flowers that are blooming. I know what some of them are, but I am still unsure about a lot of them.

I know Dad would call this whole experience the "joys of home-ownership" but I would hardly call it a joy. It's more like one of the "pains in the ass of home-ownership." :)

FINALLY!!!

2009-03-29T18:09:00.001-04:00

I have finally found my card reader so I was able to put some pictures on the blog. I am hoping to be able to take some pictures of the house and do some before and after pics, but first we have to get all the boxes unpacked; So stay tuned for those pics in about a year! :)

We are officially getting our internet hooked up on Tuesday, so for now we are "borrowing" someone else's unsecured network. For now I am trying to limit the amount of time spent online. But I wanted to make sure I put some pictures up, so here they are.

I will blog soon!

Home Sweet Home

2009-03-25T21:44:00.002-04:00

I will keep this post brief, as both Ben and I are exhausted! But, we are officially moved into our new home! I still wake up every morning thinking I am at our apartment and am startled to open my eyes to such a large bedroom. Aida has had no problems adjusting to the new place. She loves running in the backyard and throughout the house and I think she is finally getting to burn off some of that excess energy she's been building up.

We had so much fun with Mom, Dad, Daniel, Nathan and Liz over the weekend and were very grateful for their help in moving and getting (somewhat) settled. We both tried our best to convince them to stay another day, but it didn't work. :(

I did take a few pictures and will be posting them as soon as I can find my SD card reader amongst the many boxes that still lay unpacked. Ben goes back to work tomorrow (he called off Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) and he will finally be returning to full duty on Sunday!!!!

I am off to bed. I will try my best to post tomorrow...no promises. :)

Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

2009-03-16T13:38:00.003-04:00

Just thought this was funny. Every once in awhile, as many dog owners can attest to, a dog pukes just because. This morning was one of those moments. I heard Aida get up and walk around a little bit before the unmistakable gagging sound began. So I jumped out of bed to find her standing by the bathroom door. This was a really good sign.

You see, every time Aida begins her about-to-puke warning sounds, I rush her into the bathroom and have her put her head over the toilet where she then proceeds to spew into the toilet bowl. Brilliant! I have to say if you can teach a dog to puke into a toilet, that would save your carpet and one's gag reflex from the bile and nasty stuff that comes out.

So back to this morning; After I opened the bathroom door, Aida went directly over to the toilet (Score!). Needless to say, I did not have any cleaning up to do. :)

The Best Laid Plans....

2009-03-14T21:36:00.004-04:00

Our apartment looks like chaos. I bet if you looked up the word "chaos" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of our apartment. There are boxes everywhere along with tape guns, bubble wrap, permanent markers and random possessions. I can't wait to move it all out of the apartment and in turn make the house the new poster child of chaos. :)

Today Ben and I attempted to rid our apartment of some of the many boxes. We loaded up the Highlander and headed out to the storage unit. After unloading the boxes, we headed over to the house to commence cleaning day # 2. We had everything figured out; We were going to clean the rest of the kitchen (the upper cabinets, the appliances, and the floor), paint the pantry shelves and touch up the carpet with the handheld steam cleaner. I was thinking, "this won't take long..." I was wrong.

We arrived at the house at about 11:00am. I forgot to bring a sponge to clean the refrigerator parts, etc, so we ran up to CVS (right around the corner). After CVS we swung over to Subway to get something to eat. So we really didn't start cleaning until Noon. Long story short, we finished at 7:30pm.....and I didn't get the kitchen floor or upper cabinets cleaned. It took me a couple hours to clean the refrigerator alone! Cleaning by ourselves definitely made us appreciate even more having Mom and Dad there to help us last weekend!

But we are very excited to get into the house. Ben said that he likes the house more every time we go into it. And I feel more like it's really OUR house each time we go. We have less than a week to go until moving day, I can't wait!

Happy Birthday and Happy Cleaning!

2009-03-08T16:11:00.004-04:00

Our visit with Mom and Dad has come to an end, but we are looking forward to seeing them in less than two weeks for the big move!

The visit started off with a surprise, as Mom and Dad weren't supposed to be arriving until 1:30ish on Thursday afternoon. I had planned on vacuuming that morning and then heading up to the store to pick up a few things (coffee, drinks, etc). I got up, showered, vacuumed and got sucked into watching Fried Green Tomatoes on HBO (I had never seen it before!) . So there I sat, in my robe and pajamas and my hair in a towel. I figured, "I have plenty of time!" Somewhere around 11:30, mom called and said they were a couple hours away and asked if they should stop to eat lunch or wait until they got in. She also said she would be calling when they were about 15 minutes away so I could turn the oven on for the roast. After I got off the phone I thought to myself, the movie should be over soon and then I will get up, do my hair, get dressed and run up to the store. I barely finished my thought before my phone started ringing, it was Mom....they were 15 minutes away! Completely took me by surprise! Luckily I was able to get myself presentable before they actually arrived. :)

Ben and I got our first housewarming presents from Mom and Dad. I got a bird feeder and a big bag of bird seed. Ben got a hose, a cool nozzle for the hose (it looks like a firehose nozzle), a stud finder and a laser level. We are very excited to put all our new "toys" to good use at the new house!

So on my birthday Mom and I went shopping while Dad wandered around places like Sears, Home Depot's Expo center (where he had bought a new granite counter top and sink for their half bath on Thursday) and Lowes. Mom and I found lots of good deals and I was so excited to wear a new shirt out to dinner that night. After Ben got off work we went out to eat at Bertucci's an Italian Restaurant in Herndon, VA. It was very good. The pics below are from the restaurant.

On Saturday we left the apartment around 9:30am and headed out to the new house where we put Mom and Dad to work cleaning, after we gave them a tour of course! I, unfortunately, did not take any pictures while we were at the house because we were so busy cleaning. Dad and Ben cleaned all the carpets (except the basement) and fixed a few things here and there. Mom and I had the joy of cleaning the bathrooms (yuck!) and part of the kitchen. We got a late start cleaning(2:30ish) and headed back to the apartment around 8:00pm. We picked up Five Guys for dinner, good as usual. By the time we got back to the apartment Aida had been left alone for 12 hours! But she is a very good dog and didn't have any accidents.

So Mom and Dad headed out this afternoon after Ben made them his homemade cinnamon biscuits. :) Like I said, we are looking forward to yet another visit in just a little over a week. It'll be nice to have both Daniel and Nathan here too!

Overall, I had a very nice birthday and after cleaning the house, it is finally starting to feel like our house!

Let the Moving Begin!

2009-02-28T15:37:00.003-05:00

Well, it's official. We pulled up to the house today (to start our radon tests) and the for sale sign no longer says "for sale"....it says "SOLD"!!!! We were pretty excited.

We rented a storage unit in Stephens City right up the road from the house. We packed up the SUV with as much stuff as we could, filled a friend's truck with a bunch of stuff and headed out to Stephens City this morning to start filling up our 5ft x 10ft storage unit. We figure over the next couple of weeks we will be able to move a good amount of our stuff so that on moving day we will only be left with the big furniture but we shall see if that all works out.

After packing up the storage unit, we headed over to the house to start the radon tests we had bought. The tests will collect a reading over the next few days before we have to send them back to the lab. After that was all set up we headed out for lunch. We decided to try out "IJ Cannes" an American Grille restaurant in Stephens City/Winchester. The food was pretty good, I had a burger and Ben had a BBQ beef sandwich. Shenandoah Chocolate shop sits close by the restaurant so we walked over to check it out. Yummy.

The people at the restaurant and the chocolate shop were so nice. The owners of the chocolate shop talked with us and gave us information about the area and even told us about some spot in Washington National Park that only the locals know about. We are both very happy to be moving out that way. It seems like the people are a lot friendlier and that there is more of a neighborhood-like feeling.

Second Big Purchase....

2009-02-23T12:41:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we had "purchased" our home inspection! Whoo hoo! Having a home inspection is not necessary, but highly recommended. We thought that an inspection was very important when making such a big purchase and would highly suggest anyone buying a home have an inspection as well. The inspector was very nice and very thorough. He checked every single outlet and every nook and cranny of the house.

Luckily the house "passed" the inspection. There isn't any big problems that need fixing, just a lot of little things. When the old owners were foreclosed on, they took just about all of the lighting fixtures and left the wires hanging out of the ceiling. So, we have to either cap off the hole or install a lighting fixture. They left wires hanging out of the back outside wall that went to a hot tub or sauna, so those will also need to be covered. In order to pass FHA assessment we have to fix these minor issues before closing.

Lately, Ben and I have been watching nothing but HGTV and TLC to get ideas for the house. We are very excited to move in and start to personalize our very first home! We have picked out paint samples and looked at lighting fixtures, but we aren't buying anything yet. We have our list of things we need and things we want. Although those two lists sometimes intertwine, we have our priorities in check....i think. :)

**UPDATE**
I just posted this entry not but 1 hour ago and I received a phone call from our realtor with the good news that the appraiser from FHA went through the home today and gave no restrictions for passing FHA regulations! So that means that, although we are going to cover the lighting fixture holes, we do not have any time constraints in which to complete that task.

First Big Purchase....other than the house....

2009-02-19T16:14:00.003-05:00

Yesterday evening Ben and I made our first big purchase for the house. A Washer and Dryer....I know, we're livin' on the edge. We purchased a Maytag Bravos set after much research and debate. I decided from the beginning that I did not want a front load washer based on the reviews and reports I read on them. Coincidentally, LG front load washers now have a warning on them stating that they are not intended for use on a second or third floor. The vibrations are so bad that they need to be set on a concrete (basement) floor. I also read that front load washers are increasingly having issues with mold. And supposedly retailers are supposed to warn you of this problem and suggest that you wipe out your machine after every use.....definitely not for me. Besides, the laundry room at the house is not in the basement so that pretty much determined my decision from the beginning.

So we decided on the Maytag set you see in the picture above (but we went with the white color because it costs less than the colored washers and dryers...go figure). The washer is HE and both the washer and the dryer are Energy Star qualified. We are very excited and hope that we like them. Unfortunately there really isn't one washer out there that people/reviews agree on being the best bet. So we are hoping that we will have a good review of the washer. The idea is pretty neat with this washing machine. It doesn't have a central agitator thus giving it more room (4.7 cu ft!).

Along with our purchase, we got 3 years of Tide for free (something like $250 worth), a $100 mastercard gift card, and a rebate for free delivery. Plus the appliances were all 10% off. So good deal.

The set is due to be delivered on our closing date (March 20th). I will post my review after I get to use them!!!

House Photos

2009-02-18T15:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures I have taken at the new house! We are very excited and can't wait to move in! Yesterday we met with our mortgage broker and locked in a rate of 4.5% fixed so we are very happy.

Mom and Dad are coming to visit in a couple of weeks and we are anxious to show them the house. We plan on putting them to work helping us start to clean it. :)

We have our home inspection this weekend. Hopefully everything will be up to code and in good condition. We have our fingers crossed. And of course I will let everyone know how it goes.

That's it for now. :)

WELCOME HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-10T20:23:00.007-05:00

I am so excited right now I can't type long but......Ben and I put an offer on a house and it was just accepted today after a month and a half wait!!!!! So anyone who wants to come visit after March 20th (our close date) we will have plenty of room!

~~~

Our first home. Now come the babies...just kidding. :)

~~~

Details to follow soon.

As Seen on TV

2009-02-09T11:39:00.002-05:00

Ben and I went and got ourselves sucked into the vortex of what some may call a gimmicky product. We bought a Peticure. The Peticure is a nail file for your pet. It claims that instead of using a typical nail trimmer, that causes pressure and breaking of the nail, the Peticure gently files the nail down.

The store we buy Aida's food at (Wylie Wagg) just had gotten them back in stock and were almost out again so we decided to pick one up. They said that the peticure works really well so we figured we'd give it a shot.

The Peticure claims that you have to first introduce the product to your dog over a several day period. You need to have "positive treats" ready so your dog associates the peticure with good things. We are currently in that "introduction" period and will hopefully be able to successfully file Aida's nails soon.

We will give an update as to whether our purchase was in fact worth it soon! :)

"911, What's Your Emergency?"

2009-02-05T10:20:00.003-05:00

I am going to try and make a very long story short....Here it goes:

Last night around 7 pm, I walked into the kitchen to do the dishes and noticed a smell. It smelled like a gas burner on the stove top had been left on without the flame lit. So obviously concerned, I called Ben in. He agreed that there was definitely a smell, but wasn't convinced it was from the stove top.

Ben pulled the stove out, turned off the gas, opened the window and turned on the exhaust fan. I did the dishes and then headed into the bedroom where the smell about knocked me down. Confused as to where the smell was actually coming from, Ben and I walked around sniffing everywhere as if we suddenly joined the canine species. Surprisingly, our master bathroom smelled the strongest. So we opened the windows and turned on the fan. Mind you it is in the low 20s outside.

We called the emergency maintenance number. We didn't want to call 911 because we weren't sure that it was gas from the stove. The maintenance guy came in and was like, "Whoa! It really does smell in here!" Duh. So after he searched around he found a garage that had a car that really really smelled strongly of gasoline. The strange thing was, the garages are not directly below our apartment and moreover, the car was not leaking. After going back and forth, the maintenance guy could not determine the owner of the vehicle and so he called 911.

With sirens blazing the firetruck showed up along with the shift commander. It was hilarious to see the people "rubber-necking" out of their windows and driving by very slowly. One woman was on the 3rd floor across the way and had her blinds pulled all the way up and her window open so she could hear what was going on!

They checked out our apartment, as well as the other apartments in our building. They broke into one garage to check another car, and somehow got inside the stinky car. They could not find a leak but were pretty sure that that car was the culprit. So the Sheriffs Department was called to determine the ownership of the vehicle to have it moved and further investigate the stench. They couldn't figure it out. The plates were from California so I don't know if that was part of the problem.

So the firefighters said they were going to leave the garage door open and if the smell got worse in our apartment, we were to call them back and they would tow the vehicle. Luckily, the smell seemed to dissipate and there was only a slight hint of the smell this morning. So hopefully, they will find the owner today and get the situation resolved. Otherwise we may be calling our good ol' friends at the fire department again this evening.

Other than my splitting headache this morning, everyone is doing fine. :)

A Round of Applause...

2009-01-27T18:38:00.003-05:00

My title of this particular post refers to the great state of Virginia's road crew. And believe me, i am being very sarcastic.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of snow blowers outside my window. While that may not sound very odd to those who live in Ohio or Wisconsin, note that there are no sidewalks outside my bedroom window. Instead they were literally snow-blowing the parking lot. I remembered this from last year but thought perhaps they would have learned their lesson from before.

So I turned on the TV to find out that just about every school within a 25-50 mile radius of here was closed, including colleges and Universities. And you would expect to see several feet of snow, as this was what was required to shut down schools back in Ohio, but Nooooo. The snow doesn't even cover the grass which is peaking out everywhere. Virginians are pansies.

This evening Ben and I headed out to grocery store to pick up the usual eggs and milk. I figured that the snow had long since stopped so I assumed (you know what they say when you assume) that the roads would be crystal clear. Holy crap! The main road outside of our apartment complex looked like they never touched it; it was completely covered with absolutely no visible lines. Luckily the expressway was relatively cleared. Even Wegman's (the grocery store) parking lot was better cleared than that of the main roads. I suppose we'd be better off if the Wegman's maintenance team took over the city's road maintenance. Perhaps it is a lack of salt, lack of manpower or just the state's choice of sub-standard sand (yes, sand) to make the snow "melt," but anyway you look at it, the roads suck.

That's right, I am geezing. Uncle Larry can geez about politics, so I can geez about the weather and those damn roads. To be fair, this is the first snow that has stuck all winter...Even so, I do miss Ohio for their road crews, they were usually on top of things.

I have always maintained that all Virginians should be required to spend at least one winter in Ohio to learn how to drive.

Murder Mystery

2009-01-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

Over the Holiday break, Sara hosted a Murder Mystery dinner at Aunt Debbi & Uncle Jim's house. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pics from the dinner.

Enjoy!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-08T21:02:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas. We were both so happy to be able to come home for Christmas this year. It was really nice to see everyone and to spend so much time visiting. It has been sad to come back to our apartment without any of our family here, but it is certainly fun to go through the photos. I plan to have the rest of my pics up on the blog, like i said, by the weekend.

This weekend we are heading back out to Stephens City to look at a few more properties. One of the houses we are looking at is a foreclosure and would need a little work according to the realtor. But we figured with Dad being retired we are going to steal him to help us out when we find a place. :) And come spring I am going to steal (or borrow) Mom and Aunt Martha to help with landscaping. They know all about flowers and shrubberies and such. :)

I will post updates and photos as I get them. Love to all.

We miss you all.

Here come the Updates!

2009-01-08T12:51:00.002-05:00

Only a little over a month behind, here are some pictures of the little Lima Beans (Caleb and Owen) at Thanksgiving. I am still working on Christmas, New Years and Dad's Retirement Party Pics but I hope to have them all uploaded by the end of the weekend....we shall see!

A Screeching Halt....

2008-12-14T19:34:00.004-05:00

So I may be being a tad over-dramatic (I know what you're all thinking, "Stephanie?!?! Dramatic?! Those two words don't belong in the same sentence!" You're too kind.) Anyways, today Ben and I continued our search for a house. We met a really nice realtor that we like very much. She has been sending us lists of houses to go through and we have sent her the ones we were interested in seeing. Many of the houses we had showed interest in have been going under contract right from under our noses unfortunately. But today we headed out to Stephens City, VA to view 6 properties that we had liked from the listings Julie (our realtor) had sent us a couple days ago. By the time we arrived (10AM this morning) to Julie's house (also in Stephens City) 3 of the 6 houses had gone under contract within the past 2 days. So she had pulled a few more houses to show us.

House 1
The first house was actually right across the street from Julie's house. The neighbors there were all very friendly, they waved to each other while driving by, etc. It was a really nice neighborhood feel. But unfortunately the house wasn't exactly what we had wanted. The biggest drawback, for me, was that there was no basement. So we left for house number two.

House 2
House 2 was in a newer allotment and was brand new itself. It was a beautiful house. We both liked it very much. It wasn't too big and had an unfinished basement that had the rough in for a bathroom. The kitchen was stunning: granite countertops, stainless steel appliances (GE Profile), dark wood cabinets....I loved it. The master bedroom was enormous! The master bath was really nice. Everything was perfect. On top of everything else, the subdivision was offering special financing for 30-year fixed mortgages at 4.875%. As if that rate was not good enough, they were also offering $10,000 towards closing costs, and a special mortgage rate of 3.8% fixed for the first two years and the 4.875% for the last 28 years. The price had also been reduced $100,000. Perfect.

Houses 3-6
Nothing to speak of. Water damage on the ceiling in one, lots of cracks in the other, nothing that compared to House numero 2.

Lunch
The realtor took us out to lunch at a local Italian restaurant. The food was really good, and they even have homemade mozzarella sticks....yummy. I was sold. I loved the area all together, the neighborhood feeling was there that we miss so much from Ohio, the realtor could tell us all about the areas whether they were good or bad, how the schools were, if they were safe, etc. All things she isn't really supposed to tell us, but that we greatly appreciated and wanted to know.

Back to House 2
We decided that we would go back to the house that we both loved so much. We sat down with the sales consultant in the office and discussed numbers and the down payment. The down payment was $9,000. And we don't have $9,000 readily available. So we said we couldn't sign a contract at that moment but we wanted to see the house one more time. So as we went back to the house, another family was coming into the office to talk about the same house.

Ben and I talked all the way home about how we could come up the money so we could get this house. The whole time Ben is nervously biting his nails as I chatted away about what we could do where, all the while hoping that other family didn't buy the house.

They went into contract a couple hours later. I cried...stupid i know, but I let myself get really excited. And to be fair, I was upset not only because we loved the house, but because of what a great deal it was with all the incentives. We both felt like we really missed out on a wonderful opportunity. As the realtor said, if it was meant to be we would have gotten the house.....I just wish it had been meant to be. :(

Our search, for now, has come to a screeching halt.

The Hunt is On

2008-12-03T17:06:00.002-05:00

Ben and I have started to look for a house. We have mutually decided that although we love our apartment, we would rather be paying towards a mortgage rather than paying rent. Our biggest set back is the location we can afford. In order to get out of the $400,000-$500,000 range, our house hunt has led us an hour West. That, of course, means a much longer commute for Ben. We like the area we are looking well enough, but we will be sacrificing certain things (i.e. Ben's commute time and being close to just about everything). Nothing has been decided, and we certainly don't expect to be moving anytime soon. With the housing market being so low we figured now would be a good time to buy a house, if we find the right house at the right price.

Just today we walked through a house in Winchester (the area an hour West of our apartment) that was on Apple Pie Ridge Road. We really liked the house. It is a small house but it sits on 2 acres. I will be posting photos soon that I took while we were at the property.

On Friday we are heading back out to Winchester to check out another property. And I will do my best to keep everyone updated on our House Hunt. :)

What's a Puggle?

2008-12-03T16:49:00.002-05:00

Several weeks ago Ben and I were able to visit our friend Brett Custer back in Ohio. He had recently adopted a new member to his family. Brett named his new "son" Buster Custer. Buster is a Puggle, which is a mix between a Pug and a Beagle. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical on what the cross between those two types of dogs would look like, but Buster is absolutely adorable. Just see for yourself....

When it rains...

2008-11-15T11:26:00.003-05:00

If you haven't heard already...there has been yet another chapter to Ben's Accident Saga. A couple days ago Ben woke up with a lot of pain in his right wrist. After insisting that he call the doctor despite the fact that he had an appointment scheduled for the upcoming Tuesday, he reluctantly made the call.

So Friday we found out that his pain was for good reason. One of his pins had broken. Unfortunately the pin broke in a "bad spot" as the doctor said. The pin was partially in the bone and partially in the joint, hence the pain. So after finding out that Ben and I hadn't had anything to eat or drink yet, the doctor insisted on doing the surgery that evening. Otherwise, Dr Miller said he'd worry about Ben all weekend.

So long story short, the surgery went very well. Dr Miller took about an hour to fish out the broken piece of pin through a small incision on the top of his wrist. The pin did not cause any damage to his joint. He will be in a small splint for the next three weeks on his right wrist. But he has a removable brace on his left wrist and will start physical therapy on Monday for that wrist.

Just another bump in the road. :)

As I promised...

2008-11-10T21:43:00.002-05:00

As I have promised here are the rest of my photos from Wisconsin. They are mostly of the kids playing outside in the leaves. So enjoy the adorable Wisconsin kids...

Ben and I are planning on heading back to Virginia this Wednesday. He is getting his casts off on Tuesday (the 18th) as well as the pins pulled out (ouch!). Luckily it looks like we will be back in town for Thanksgiving so we are looking forward to seeing everyone again very soon. Thank you all for such a wonderful visit (in Wisconsin and Ohio).

And for everyone we don't get to see on Thanksgiving, Have a Happy Turkey Day! :)

On a roll...

2008-11-06T18:08:00.003-05:00

So far I am enjoying my web album. I have been meaning to put these photos online. They are from the quick visit we had with the Lima family. Caleb and Owen are just the sweetest little boys.

I am still getting my Wisconsin photos in order and they will be posted asap. :)

Wisconsin Trip Part 1

2008-11-06T10:56:00.003-05:00

Uncle Larry has helped me start Picasa Web albums. So enjoy this first round of Wisconsin photos. I have more photos from my other camera that i have yet to upload to the computer. So as soon as I get those organized, I will add them to the blog.

We really enjoyed ourselves in Wisconsin and wish we could have stayed longer. Hopefully we will be able to see everyone again soon.

Enjoy the slideshow. :)

Delayed Update...

2008-10-15T17:52:00.003-04:00

While we were at the doctor's office last Friday, Ben was put in a hard cast on the right wrist. While he was being prepped, I was able to sneak a picture of the incision and pins. He has three pins sticking out (two are shown here). The sutures were taken out and the incision was steri-stripped. The pins all stayed in and were padded up before the cast was put on.
These two photos are of the x-rays showing Ben's newly acquired hardware. The above photo is oriented as if his arm was laying flat down and you were looking through from top to bottom. He has 9 screws total, 3 pins and 1 plate. You can see the screws really well in the picture below.

I got Ben cast tattoos just for fun. I actually emailed the company asking them if they had any firefighter-themed tattoos, and they emailed back saying that firefighters often go un-thanked and that they were going to send him a care package for free. And they sent him all different kinds of cast tattoos. We thought that was pretty nice considering the tattoos cost around $30-$40 depending on the size.

******

Everything else is going well. I was finally allowed back up into the bed after sleeping on the floor for two weeks. The doctor had given him the all clear to sleep without having his arms propped up on pillows. He still isn't allowed to pick anything up or do much with his arms at all. Aside from intermittent pain, he seems to be healing slowly but surely. I have just recently developed some kind of head cold/sinus infection that I am hoping to be rid of very soon. It is definitely a pain in the butt to be sick and have to take care of someone else and a dog at the same time. But I have been feeling a little better each day (nothing compared to what Ben is going through :) )

We are hoping to make our way back to Ohio soon and then up to Wisconsin to visit the family there. :) So we will be seeing you all pretty soon!

Happy Visit

2008-10-12T15:33:00.002-04:00

We are having a great visit with the family so far and wanted to post a quick picture. I applied some cast tattoos to his left arm (notice the flames). I will post more later, I just wanted to let everyone know we are having a great time and Ben is doing well. :)

More Updates

2008-10-06T18:22:00.006-04:00

Ben's parents came down for the surgery this past Thursday (they came on Wednesday). As they watched Ben try and get comfortable on our hand-me-down couch, they decided to look around for a new recliner or loveseat/couch for him. They came across a furniture store nearby. Long story short, they ended up getting a really nice leather reclining couch for him that we picked out. And as a surprise they got him a recliner to match. His arms are much happier in his new comfy recliner.

After they left on Sunday, I went to town rearranging the furniture while Ben laid in the bedroom watching TV (I had kicked him out). So these photos are of our new, beautiful, furniture in our newly rearranged living room.

As for an update on Ben. He is really looking forward to having his right arm casted on Friday. Previously I posted that the cast would be up to his elbow, when in fact it will be up past his elbow with a hinge so he can move his elbow. Pretty high tech. I think we have finally gotten rid of Ben's fever, he hasn't been running one for the last two days. Although the pain is still there and very prominent, he seems to be feeling a little better as each day passes. The Vicodin is certainly helping with that! Of course, Aida didn't help matters when she decided to pounce on his right arm a little earlier...oops.

So that is the update for now. I will hopefully be able to post an image of the x-ray of his right wrist after Friday. Until then, thank you all again and again for all your concern, thoughts, and prayers.

Surgery Results

2008-10-02T19:12:00.003-04:00

I wanted to let everyone know that Ben's surgery went very well. Ben was in the OR for a little more than 3 hours. Dr Miller said that everything went well, but it took so long due to the amount of damage. Dr Miller ended up using 1 plate, something like 6 screws, and several pins. Ben is in an enormous amount of pain even being on the Vicodin. When we see the doctor next week, he told me that he can give me a copy of Ben's x-rays after the plate, screws and pins were put in. It looks very robotic. So look for those images to be making their way to the blog towards the end of next week.

We just got back a little bit ago and I am going to eat some dinner. I will post more later I just wanted to give everyone a quick update.

The CAT Scan Part II

2008-10-01T17:52:00.003-04:00

Ok, this is pretty neat. We figured out that the CAT Scan Disc had the 3D images available. So I thought I would share with you a better visual of Ben's wrist. These three images are all from Ben's right wrist. You can definitely see the damage to the top of the radial bone in all three images. The ulna bone isn't broken too much but does have a small chip that is visible in the top image. The ulna is still slightly dislocated, but is reduced to the best position for the time being (according to the Ortho).

So enjoy these cool, but slightly disturbing images. :)

*On a side note, Ben was switched from Percocet to Vicodin and took his first dose about a half an hour ago....He is really happy right now.*

Chapter 2-The CAT Scan

2008-10-01T14:40:00.003-04:00

Ben had his CAT Scan yesterday. Luckily we were given a copy of the images from the scan.

These images are oriented as if you cut the hand off and looked straight down the inside of the arm.

These two images are pretty good at showing the break in his right wrist. In the top image, take a look at the right cluster of bone...those pieces are supposed to be one solid piece. That is the main part of the break.

The second image shows the few small triangular-like shaped flecks of the bone that are going to need to be pinned.

The most recent update on Ben's surgery:

His surgery is scheduled for 11:30am tomorrow (Thursday). The plan is to be at the hospital by 10:15am. The surgery shouldn't take too long, about 1 to 2 hours. As long as everything goes smoothly he should be out of surgery and on his way by 3:00pm or so. The surgeon seems to think that as long as he can use a plate to secure the larger pieces back together, the surgery should go fairly quickly. He will still need to use pins to secure those small flecks of bone. However, should the larger pieces be too small for a plate, he will have to pin those as well, and it may take longer. If only pins are used, he may have to use an external clamp (those robot looking contraptions and bolts on the outside of the skin). Ideally he wants to be able to use a plate and pins and cast up the arm past the elbow. So we will have to see tomorrow.

I will try to update the blog after the surgery tomorrow. Thank you all again for your continued concern and prayers. :)

Ouch!

2008-09-29T18:39:00.004-04:00

Chapter 1- The ER

Yesterday around 11:30AM I got a call from Ben asking me to bring his wallet to Reston Hospital (he had left it at home). I said sure and then he dropped the oh-by-the-way comment of, "I broke both my wrists." So after my initial shocked feeling settled down I headed to the Hospital.

At P/T yesterday morning Ben was doing a cross-fit workout with the other firefighters. He had a barbell totaling in weight of 205lbs held straight over his head doing "push and jerks." I am not quite sure exactly what that exercise entails, but anyways, he had the barbell over his head and was told to keep his weight more on his heels. He somehow lost his balance, fell straight backwards and landed on the ground in a bench press position (elbows back on the floor with his forearms straight upwards). All the weight was absorbed by his wrists.

After many x-rays and hours in the ER trauma, we found that his left wrist was definitely broken but in more of a clean break. His right wrist, however, was completely dislocated and broken with "wafers" of bone shattered off. Needless to say, the right wrist was worse off. They put Ben out so they could "reduce" his right wrist. Both wrists were splinted up past his elbows.

Today, Monday, we went to see the Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr Miller, who will be operating on Ben's right wrist. He determined that his left wrist should heal well in a cast after about 5-6 weeks. So he removed Ben's splint and casted his left wrist up to his elbow so he now has mobility of his elbow. Dr Miller said that based on the x-rays he would need to either pin or plate (or both) Ben's right wrist back together. But in order to determine what he needs to do, the Doctor ordered a CAT scan of the wrist.

So tentatively, the CAT scan should be tomorrow, the pre-operation consultation will be Wednesday and his surgery will be Thursday. Although nothing is completely set in stone, this is the ideal schedule.

The Doctor doesn't think Ben will be back to work until February or March. But it is too soon to tell. We will have to see how surgery goes. I will try and keep this blog as updated as possible.

Thank you to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. :)

(*The photo above is of Ben on his "cocktail" of pain meds* :) )

Just for Giggles...

2008-09-25T17:57:00.002-04:00

Dad's attempt at giving birth.

Lol.

Surprise Weekend

2008-09-24T19:08:00.003-04:00

The weekend is over. The family is back in Ohio. But here is a look back on the surprise weekend.

Mom and Dad arrived on Saturday. We mostly relaxed and made a dinner stop to Mighty Midgets BBQ. On Sunday, Ben had to work :( but I decided to put Mom and Dad to work. We took Aida to Bark N Bubbles to give her a bath. I helped a little bit, but Mom and Dad did most of the dirty work. It was a lot of fun. After Aida's bath, we quickly learned of Dad's low blood sugar. So we got him some food for lunch and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

Monday we headed for Great Falls National Park. It seemed that Mom and Dad enjoyed the break from the busy traffic and concrete buildings. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time walking around.

After the park, Ben gave us a tour of huge houses in the area. Seeing these houses made us all question what in the heck these people do for a living.

On the departure day, Ben and Dad went into Herndon to a bread shop to pick up some yummy honey whole wheat bread while Mom and I got ready to go. After breakfast we headed up to Baltimore's Inner Harbor to spend a few hours before their flight. The traffic wasn't too bad driving up to Baltimore after we took a detour around I-495 (it was a parking lot!). We ended up taking the George Washington Parkway thru DC, which turned out to be a really fun. We could see Georgetown, the Washington Monument, The Capitol Building, and some other monuments from the Parkway.

Once we got to Baltimore we had a heck of a time finding a parking spot. Ben ended up getting focused and making a u-turn very illegally. We parked in a lot that ended up costing us $26!!!! We ate at Phillips seafood restaurant that was supposed to have Baltimore's best crab cakes. The experience was not a good one. The service was very very slow, the food was not good (except Dad's crab cake and Ben's mashed potatoes), and we were left with only like fifteen minutes to walk around. Despite the bad restaurant experience, the company was good.

We walked around for a bit and called it a teaser for Mom and Dad encouraging them to come back for a longer stay so we could take them to Baltimore for an entire day.

On a side note, we ended up being gone for around 6 and a half hours with Aida being home alone the entire time. She behaved herself wonderfully with no accidents or problems. This morning when Aida and I got up, she quickly ran out into the living room apparently looking for her grandma and grandpa. It was cute, but we were both bummed that they weren't still here.

Overall our visit was a lot of fun. And we are looking forward to more fun come October 10th!

!!!SURPRISE!!!

2008-09-23T20:19:00.003-04:00

As many of you probably have already heard, Mom and Dad came down to Virginia to surprise me for the weekend!!! The surprise was a complete success as i had no idea that something was up. Ben had told me that one of his fellow firefighters wanted to go into DC on Saturday to see some of the sights because he and his wife hadn't been into the city in years. So believing my husband, we headed into DC to meet his friend at a restaurant for an early lunch at 11 am. Once we showed up (40 minutes late) we walked into the restaurant and as the hostess was asking if she could help us, I spotted Mom and Dad in the corner booth. I just stood there with my mouth open and was speechless. The hostess asked me again if she could seat us, and all i could stammer was, "my my my parents. My parents are over there! They're over there!" And i pointed them out and she looked at me like i definitely had some screws loose and said, "ok..."

So, needless to say, i was surprised. It was a great surprise. A great weekend. We are both sad they're gone, but we are looking forward to another visit in two weeks and three days!!!

I have more pictures from our fun weekend and I will probably post them tomorrow. I just thought I would post my initial "Surprise!" photo. :)

It was a really great weekend.

O-H-I-O!

2008-09-12T19:45:00.007-04:00

On our most recent trip back to Ohio we were able to help Daniel move into his dorm. Our initial plan was to leave on Saturday so that Ben would have a day to relax before going back to work. But Ben decided on Saturday morning that we should stay and help Dan (and mom and Nathan) move down to Columbus. It was really nice being able to see Daniel's dorm room. While Nathan and Ben were racing down the hall in the University supplied moving bins, Mom and I helped Daniel unpack some of his things. However, Dan wanted to unpack things once we left (it would give him something to do). So I made his bed and we unpacked a few things, said our good byes, and headed back to good ol' Cuyahoga Falls.

Earlier in the week we picked Ben's parents up from the airport and went to dinner at Blue Canyon restaurant in Twinsburg. The food was great, except I had bitten into a stone or something in my mashed potatoes. They apologized profusely and gave us all dessert "on the house," and replaced my mashed potatoes. We celebrated Ben's mom's birthday with dessert. It was a nice time had by all.
I must have decided to go backwards with this posting, because this photo is from even earlier in the week. Aida's poor little paws had a serious allergic reaction to what we can only assume was seasonal allergies. She chewed on her back paws so much that she had raw spots. So we tried to help alleviate some of the irritation by pulling out her swimming pool. That dog could play in the water for hours on end. Her favorite part was to attack the hose spray. It was pretty humorous to watch.

And last but not least, Aida took a nap on her grandpa and grandma's couch and on uncle Dan's lap. How cute is this picture? It is hard to resist Aida's adorable face plopped down on whatever piece of furniture she wants to get invited up on. Even grandpa can't resist letting his grandpuppy up on his previously off limits to animals furniture.

I would like to make a special note to inform you that during a rousing game of Pictionary we all learned that Aunt Martha is a very talented artist. I mean, her rendition of a tongue depressor was down right inspiring....And during a game of Cranium, Uncle Larry gave an award winning charade's performance of Tyra Banks. The critics are raving about our talented family members...perhaps an encore is in the future? :)

Overall, we had a very fun visit. Unfortunately, we probably won't be back in Ohio for awhile. But we are looking forward to our guests in October: Mom, Dad, Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry. We're counting down: 4 weeks from today!

As always, we miss everyone! Love you all.

The Lost Post

2008-09-09T20:57:00.006-04:00

I have finally gotten around to posting on the blog. As you may notice, the photos on this post are not from our most recent visit to Ohio. I didn't want to just skip over this visit all together, so before i post photos from our most recent visit, here is a quick recap on the August visit.

We went to the Akron Aeros game on the first day we arrived. It was a lot of fun, though the weather was a bit chilly. I couldn't tell you if the Aeros actually won or not, but i can tell you that the fireworks at the end of the game were spectacular! I wish i would have gotten pictures from the fireworks show, but unfortunately i was too busy watching.

One of the main reasons we came back was to go to Sean and Lynsey's wedding. They had a beautiful day for a wedding, and a beautiful wedding all around. We had lots of fun with Matt, Cat and Brett at the reception (and Nathan). I got to see a lot of people i went to school with that i hadn't seen in years.

That visit Dad also had his veins stripped in his one leg (fun times). So that was another reason we came back, we wanted to help out as much as we could.

Once i get my photos off the camera, i will post from our most recent visit. I hope everyone is doing well, we miss you all.

Happy Anniversity!

2008-08-25T09:40:00.011-04:00

It has officially been one year since Ben and I tied the knot!!! Whoo hoo! We decided that although another trip to Jamaica to celebrate our anniversary would have been tolerable we wanted to keep it low key this year. Well, i guess the lack of money played into our low key plan as well.... Anyways, we stuck around here for our one year festivities.

The day started out nice, Ben came home with beautiful flowers for me, and i made breakfast ( homemade waffles, yum!). And incidentally, Sara (my cousin) sent us an e-card that informed us that August 24th is in fact "Waffle Day" celebrating the waffle iron's patent date from many years ago. Who knew?! So i suppose making waffles on our nifty waffle iron will have to be a must on our anniversary's to come.

I gave Ben a "Manly Movie Night" as a gift for our anniversary. He is always talking about not having a guy around to watch a manly movie with, so i thought it would be nice to give him a voucher for one manly movie of his choice and a package of movie watching must-haves. I included a big box of popcorn, some milk duds, twix, and a six pack of IBC rootbeer. On top of the super cool movie package I put together all the paperwork I have been filling out and working on to officially change my last name. I put it all in a nice little folder with a ribbon around it. He was quite excited. Although we both go by "Mr and Mrs Roadruck," and have since the wedding, i thought it would be nice to make it completely official.

Speaking of anniversary, many of you may be curious as to the "Happy Anniversity!" title of this post. No, it is not a typo, rather it is a reference from many years ago. Back in the good old days when the family used to make a yearly "camping" trip to Cook Forest, PA, one of Mom and Dad's anniversaries happened to fall during the week we were there. So Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry got a cake from the closest store (an hour away!) and had them write "Happy Anniversary!" on the cake. Well, it turns out that somebody flunked 4th grade spelling, and wrote "Happy Anniversity!" instead. So it has become a joke to all who know the anniversity legend.

Okay, back to our celebration day...Later that day we took ourselves out to a nice dinner at Red Rock Canyon. It was delicious. Because the restaurant was practically right next door to Trader Joe's we just had to stop and pick up some mochi. I think the last time we had mochi was when our friend's Matt and Cat came down and Matt discovered his love for Trader Joe's mochi. We also made a quick stop to Cheesecake factory where Ben picked up his favorite, Banana Cream Cheesecake. And i got sinfully rich Fudge Cake. We figured that while frozen, year-old cake from our wedding sounded very appetizing, we wanted a back up. Once we were back to the apartment we broke into the old cake.

And you would not believe how good it was. No joke! The cake was just as good as it was freshly baked. We decided that since we were so nice about not smashing the cake in each other's face at the wedding, we would have fun on our anniversary....so we did.

After our "eating" our cake (Aida was our own little automatic vacuum cleaner as icing and crumbs fell on the floor), we watched our wedding video. And like the party animals that we are, we were in bed and asleep by 10:30.

Today we decided to extend our celebration by heading out to Great Falls Park. On the way however, we went "left for adventure!" (another inside joke) and ended up at Algonkian Regional Park. As soon as we pulled in we saw a deer taking her time walking across the road. Soon after we saw several more deer. I think in total we must have seen 6-7 fawns and around 5 doe's. There were so cute! As Mom would say, "It was a WONDERFUL Deer Day!"

After the Algonkian Park we headed over to Great Falls Park. It was beautiful! Aida was funny because she would hop up onto the stone wall that was barricading the visitors from getting too close to the river and would walk along the wall up against the wooded rail. It was quite a sight considering the width of the wall that she could walk on was only like 6 inches or so. Either way, she seemed to really enjoy herself.

After about an hour or so we headed out, as we were all tired and thirsty. I took a picture of the drive on the way out because i thought it was pretty in case you were wondering about the picture of the road. We decided that Aida just needed to have an ice cream cone for being such a good girl at the park. And while we were at it, we might as well treat ourselves too.

All in all, we had a wonderful anniversary. We are still very happy and can't believe it has already been a year! Thank you to everyone who wished us a Happy Anniversary and sent us cards, we feel very loved.

Hope you all enjoyed my very lengthy, full of pictures, post. Love you all!

Fiesta!

2008-08-22T22:04:00.002-04:00

Well, we finally got around to finding a set of dishes we liked! And thanks to the generosity of Mom and Dad we were able to get enough sets to have people over! Our last set of dishes were Ben's from when he first moved to Virginia. Ben loved them, and I did too, except over the last several months we have been working with only 3 bowls, 3 small plates and 4 big plates and no mugs. The dishes have been slowly chipping, cracking or all out busting apart (in the microwave). So needless to say, we are sooooooo happy to have 6 place settings!

So here is a quick picture of our first meal on our new plates.

I have a lot of pictures from this past visit that i am slowly working on. I will post another blog entry soon! I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seats. :)

Luray Virginia

2008-07-07T13:38:00.006-04:00

So our fabulous weekend has unfortunately come to a close. The weather forecast called for rain all weekend, and we really lucked out. It rained here and there, but never for very long. The cabin was set back in the mountains, amongst the trees and cows.....yes, cows. But, as silly as it sounds, the cows were adorable and gave us all a good laugh. I took a bunch of pictures (upwards of 400 pictures...did you really expect any different?)

Below I have included several photos from our weekend...

We took a drive on Skyline Drive on the 4th of July. It was beautiful with mountains as far as you could see. Aida came along for the ride, but enjoyed riding with Grandma and Grandpa more than Ben, Daniel, Nathan, Liz and I. It started to drizzle towards the end of our drive, but it was still a very pretty view.

Here is the view from our cabin.

I have lots of pictures of the cows. There was an apple tree in the front yard of the cabin and those cows loved the apples.

The boys set off fireworks on the 4th of July and the last night (after Nate and Ben purchased more). This picture is of Ben and Daniel frolicking in the haze of a smoke bomb with sparklers.

The Luray Caverns were one of my favorite activities from the trip. It was unbelievable. I have tons of pictures from the caverns, so if anyone wants to see more stalactites and stalagmites :) just let me know. And Dad has just as many pics...Ben kept calling him Ansel Adams because of all the photos he was taking.

Although Ben's birthday isn't until the 17th, we all wanted to have a little celebration for him. So I had picked up a banana cream pie and decorated it. After the Happy Birthday song and pie we all played a big game of Cranium and of course laughed a lot.

I just thought this was a really cute picture. Aida was very happy to see the family and loved hanging out with Mom and Dad.

This photo is also from Skyline Drive.

All in all, we had a great vacation. The weekend seemed to go by way too fast. Sadly we did not see a bear, even with the trail of chum that i left from the fishing pond to the cabin's fence. But we did see some deer, rabbits and of course the cows. :)

The best end to the vacation came when Ben and I convinced (it didn't take much) Mom, Dad and Daniel to come back to our place for the night. We stopped at a little BBQ stand for lunch that we had been wanting to take the family to. After lunch we came back to the apartment and relaxed. Dad took a nap, Ben and Daniel played a video game, and mom and I researched wineries for their October trip with Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry. For dinner we took them (we drove, they payed :) ) to Fireworks pizza in Leesburg. It was a big hit.

We played Cranium again, and got guaranteed laughs. Mom honed her humming skills for the many humdingers and Dad brushed up on his silent acting.

Unfortunately, they left this morning. But it was very nice to have the extra time with them.

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July!

Here we go again!

2008-06-27T18:48:00.002-04:00

Well, Aida is at it again. I suppose it's not her fault that her delicate little feet are no match for the hot pavement. Last night Ben and I took her on a short walk to find some poo bags. Upon our return I noticed that Aida had something stuck on one of her back paws. When I got close enough, i realized that both of her back paws had torn similarly to that of her front paws a couple weeks prior. Unfortunately, the circular tear was larger on both her back paws. So we cleaned and wrapped up all four of her paws. We have been looking into getting her some booties especially for her trip to Luray, but you would not believe the cost of those suckers. To get good boots, that aren't known to falls off or wear through in one use, you are looking at a $55-$60 purchase....plus shipping and handling. Don't worry, we didn't purchase any boots for her...yet. We probably will eventually, but for now we are pricing around.

.................................

As for the other things going on around these here parts.....it is still very warm outside. Ben has been working a few extra shifts as we are trying our best to pay down our credit cards. We have Aida all set up for the next 7 months with new heartworm and flea/tick medication and we're crossing our fingers that this preventative keeps those nasty ticks away. I have been baking a little more lately, and Ben seems to really enjoy that. I made some cinnamon rolls from scratch the other day (shown below). They turned out really good....they didn't last long. :)

The other day i went out with Aida for her morning bathroom break and underneath the back bumper of the highlander sat two baby morning doves. Later on when I came out to go to the store, the baby birds were still there probably trying to escape the sun's heat. I snapped this picture of the one baby, the other one had hopped out of frame. I must be a magnet of morning dove babies, as you may recall, Ben and I had two baby morning doves hatch in our window box planter at our old apartment. Anyway, I thought they were cute.

That's about all the news for now. Hope all is well with everyone. Looking forward to Luray in July and the Ohio trip at the end of July!!!

Our Little Tennis Champ...

2008-06-16T21:16:00.007-04:00

First off I would like to apologize for the numerous posts I have added today. Feel free to peruse the 3 following posts as they were also added today.

Ben and I had this brilliant plan to take Aida up to a tennis court and let her run around and catch the balls we were hitting back and forth. While, in theory, this was a good idea, we did not take into account the hot asphalt and her little paw pads. Aida had a blast catching the balls and running around. Once we got home, however, Ben discovered she was limping while she was out back. He looked at her paws only to find that she had ripped a dime sized shallow hole in her one front paw and did the same to the other front paw except the piece of paw pad was still hanging on. We felt really really bad and we made sure to clean her paws and give her lots of TLC.

Here are some pictures of the good times at the tennis courts:

And now for the "Awwwww, poor Aida!" moment.........

She's fine now. We wrapped up her paws and she has left them alone for the most part. Hopefully she won't need the booties come tomorrow but we will keep an eye on her. Until then, Ben was pretty happy to have found cute girly bootie socks for her. And of course, once "grandma" heard about the ordeal she promptly picked up a new toy for her. So she is still very well spoiled. :)

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-16T12:00:00.003-04:00

For Father's Day the boys went to the shooting range down on Front Street while mom and I got stuff ready for dinner. These are just some pictures from Daniel's camera. They said it was a lot of fun....Enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday Owen!

2008-06-16T11:38:00.000-04:00

Owen's 1st Birthday Party bash was a big success. Caleb was feeling much better from the day before and the birthday boy was just as happy as could be. We had a lot of fun seeing the Lima family and of course Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry. And luckily we got to visit with them two days in a row! Owen got lots and lots of clothes (Jenn was very happy) and he loved the couple of toys he got (Caleb liked them too!). Overall, the party went very well, and we were so happy to be involved in our Godson's birthday. :)

Howl at the Moon

2008-06-16T11:15:00.003-04:00

On Friday night Nate, Daniel, Liz, Ben and I all went up to Cleveland to go to a bar called Howl at the Moon. We met Matt and Cat up there which was a lot of fun since we haven't seen them in awhile. The bar was a dueling pianos bar where you can make requests of different songs from Snoop Dogg to Classical and the two pianists sing and play the music. It was pretty fun. Silly me didn't take any pictures of the performers though....i'm not sure why. Oh well. It was a fun night though. Matt and Cat got a big party drink for us to share (see the middle picture above).....it was good.....very good. I drank more than my share i think.

Living in an Oven

2008-06-10T14:58:00.002-04:00

Yesterday morning the outside temperature tipped the scales at around 85 degrees....at 8AM. We took Aida to the vet for her Lyme Disease booster vaccination appointment at 10AM with temperatures reaching the low 90s. By the time we got back around 11:30AM Mother Nature turned the thermostat up to almost 100. The temp did reach 100 that day with a heat index of 110 degrees.

It is the weirdest feeling to step outside and feel like you are standing in an oven. The air is so thick you can hardly breathe. We have been pretty much running our air conditioning non-stop and keeping the blinds shut all day.

Luckily, the Excessive Heat Warning is supposed to be lifted come tomorrow. Because the cold front is moving in of course that means more Severe Thunderstorm warnings are being announced. Currently the temperature is 97 with a heat index of 107. The storms are supposed to bring icy cold 89-90 degree temperatures....but we'll take it....it's better than 100 degrees.

We are looking forward to coming back to Ohio to see everyone and to enjoy the more seasonable weather. :)

Race for the Cure

2008-06-07T11:49:00.003-04:00

First off, Ben and I would like to thank everyone who donated money for the Race. We really truly appreciate all your support and hope that you all know that you made a difference. Last time I checked, this Race ended up surpassing the 3 million dollar goal. So thank you all again.

Here is Ben and i towards the beginning of the race. Luckily the sun wasn't out at first. It was, however, very warm and muggy. Once we got to the third mile the sun decided to pop out.

Here's the finish line!! Whoohoo! It took us about an hour to finish the entire 5K. We probably would have gotten done a lot sooner, but the massive amount of people set the pace.

You can tell how muggy it is here in this picture. The Capitol Building is in the background covered in a humid haze. This picture was taken by another race participant after we finished. As we walked back to the metro, there were still hundreds of people walking the race. The amount of people participating in this walk was both massive and inspiring. It's nice to see so many people getting together for such a worthy cause.

*Just a funny tidbit: On our way to the metro station I heard a *pop* sound and felt a wetness on my left calf. I looked down and realized I had Ketchup splattered up my leg. I stopped to figure out where it came from and what i should do. Ben said he had felt a pop under his foot. Here there was a ketchup packet a few feet back that he had stepped on thus splattering the condiment up my leg. We thought it was funny.*

Our most heartfelt thanks, again, to everyone who both donated money and took the time to read about the cause.

Celebrate Fairfax

2008-06-06T22:13:00.003-04:00

Ben and I went to the Celebrate Fairfax Fair this evening. It was still nice and hot and muggy, but the festival was nice. It cost us $7.50 a person to go and we got to see a concert by Ok Go! . If you haven't heard of them by name, you may have seen or heard about their music video in which they perform a choreographed treadmill routine. They were very good live, but i have learned that I am too old for that kind of stuff anymore. The loud music made my ears very mad. We were in the front row right up against the speakers. I know, that was our first mistake...but we eventually moved back.
This is Ok Go! Their video is pretty fun to watch. They said it cost them $5 to make and they originally posted it on You Tube and it turned into this huge sensation. You can follow the link below to You Tube to see the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

This picture is for Dad. Ben thought you would like to see this motorcycle they had on display at the fair.

Well, we are off to bed. We have to get up early for the Race for the Cure!

Hot as H-E-double hockey sticks...

2008-06-05T17:03:00.002-04:00

Well, the mercury in the thermometer reached into the 90s today. And thanks to the great Capital of the country being built on a swamp....the humidity made this day even that much more enjoyable. To add to it, there is another small wave of storms a movin' in tonight. Luckily for us, the storms aren't supposed to be nearly as ferocious as yesterdays.

Two tornadoes touched down somewhat near us. We are in Loudoun county and one of the tornadoes touched down in Fairfax county, which is the county we used to live in (just south of us). But let me tell you, Mother Nature dealt us quite the thunderstorm anyways. The trees whipped back and forth as if they would easily snap in half. The rain was coming in so hard and fast banging against our windows. Once the Tornado warning came up for our area, we retreated into the bedroom, away from the many windows in the living room. Everything turned out okay though.

Hopefully the strong storms have subsided for awhile. We are looking forward to our weekend. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Celebrate Fairfax festival. It is supposed to be another hot day in the low 90s but that's nothing compared to our Race for the Cure day on Saturday. I received an email from the Race headquarters warning the participants on the heat advisory on Saturday. It is supposed to be mid to upper 90s. Yippee. Luckily the race is early and we probably won't be hanging around much afterwards.

That's about all the news for now. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are well and happy and hot. :)

Memorial Day

2008-05-30T19:15:00.005-04:00

I know I am a little slow in my posting, but here are some pictures from the past Memorial Day weekend with mom and dad.

Here's a picture of Ben and I on the Key Bridge over the Potomac River. Mom, Dad, Ben and I walked from the Rosslyn metro station over the bridge to Georgetown. In the background is Georgetown University. The day was beautiful, I was a little chilly, but i am always cold.

Ben found this great little restaurant in Georgetown called Mr. Smiths. When you first walk in, it looks like a dingy bar but once you walk to the back of the "bar" and down some steps, you walk into this really pretty open garden area. There is also an outside area that you can eat at. It was really neat. This picture is from that restaurant.

I am sparing you the plethora of pictures I have of Dad stretching from Georgetown through DC. But here is one of the pictures where Dad is stretching in the middle of our walk from the metro to Georgetown. I'm not sure what Ben is doing.....but I caught the Kodak moment anyways.

In this photo, Daniel has joined in on the stretching madness.

The visit was a lot of fun....all too short though.

Other than that, Ben and I are doing well. We found a dentist that we really liked. And both Ben and I are cavity-free after something like 2 years (or more) since we've last visited a dentist. So we were pretty happy.

We went down to the complex's swimming pool the other day. It was really nice. But the water was cold. The weather has been beautiful so we are planning on heading back to the pool next week with hopes of warmer water.

Aida is going to be spending the day at "Doggie Day Camp" tomorrow as we help one of Ben's friends move from Manassas to Leesburg. Unfortunately the forecast is calling for thunderstorms so the move might be a little wet.....oh well. Next weekend we have the Race for the Cure and we are also going to be going to a festival in Fairfax. And then we have our favorite Godson's 1st birthday party the following weekend.

That's about all that is new with us. Hope all is well with everyone. Enjoy your weekend!

Race for the Cure

2008-05-21T14:59:00.005-04:00

Ben and I have joined the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. For those of you who don't know, the Race for the Cure is a race geared towards raising funds for breast cancer research. Although neither Ben or I have lost a loved one to breast cancer, we hope that we never have to.

Unfortunately, I thought that the race was later on in the summer, and therefor am late in putting this information out. The race is on Saturday June 7th. It is a 5K run/walk (we will probably be doing more walking than running) in downtown DC. The proceeds go to the Susan G Komen for the Cure organization. The story of Susan G Komen is very touching and I would encourage everyone to read it at: http://cms.komen.org/komen/AboutUs/SusanGKomensStory/index.htm
If you don't have time to read her whole story, you should know that she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33. She ultimately lost her three year battle but before she died, she asked her sister to promise to help other women with breast cancer. Her sister fulfilled her promise through the organization of the Susan G Komen for the Cure.

We think it is a worthy cause. And I could bet that anyone who reads this can think of at least one person affected by this disease. For me, Aunt Helen, Grandma Myra and Lee Panco. Who do you think of?

The smallest donation you can give is $5.00. Our goal is only $250. We hope to surpass our goal, but any little bit counts. Please take a minute to visit our team page at:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=263218&lis=0&kntae263218=4B771B0AB602472EBDB6BA86863839B1&supId=0&team=2804058

or by clicking on the link underneath the thermometer icon on the right side of the screen. And help in the fight against breast cancer.

SPOOOOOOON!!!!!

2008-05-20T20:07:00.005-04:00

Ok, unless you have ever seen the old cartoon "The Tick," the title of this post would not make any sense to you. "Spoon!" was the tick's battle cry....it was a funny cartoon...whatever...Just thought I would add this disclaimer.

So, as Ben was giving Aida some good loving pets, he said, "what the hell is this?!" and instructed me to get the flashlight. As he picked through her fur like a monkey, he found this bulbous skin tag. Or so we thought. I actually would have preferred a skin tag to the nastiness that was the engorged tick attached to her chest.

After a short freak-out, I called the vet and made an appointment for "tick-removal." And as I was on the phone with the vet tech, they reminded me that I was indeed behind on my Lyme Disease vaccination. I forgot that a few weeks after the initial vaccination, a booster shot was needed. Therefor I had to get her re-vaccinated. Super.

What started as a "free-of-charge" tick removal, turned into a $50 vet visit. And what's worse, is the realization that the tick, flea and heartworm preventative we use (Revolution) is not strong enough for the vicious ticks and fleas of these here parts. The reason I liked Revolution so much was because it was very cost effective, and only one dose per month rather than a pill for heartworm and a separate pill or topical for fleas and ticks. So instead of $150 per year for Revolution, Frontline is running around $170-$180 per year PLUS $90 or so for heartworm. Ahhh the joys of owning a pet.

Add all of that, plus the gourmet organic food, and the fancy-pants expensive vets....and you've got one expensive mutt.

Oh well.

Virginia ticks suck...........................literally.

For the Love of Gallbladders!!!

2008-05-15T16:17:00.002-04:00

Well, I went to see the specialist today. He was much much much better than the previous specialist. He said that although the text book symptoms of gallbladder problems shows up on your right side...it is possible to have a gallstone pass through the duct, get lodged, and cause severe pain that radiates from the center and wrapping around both sides. That's what i had. He thinks that the gallbladder is the cause of my problems and is sending me for another ultrasound. He said in ultrasounds that up to 15% of gallstones are missed and that since I did not "fast" before hand that could have hindered the view of the gallbladder somewhat. He also said that it is possible that on the Sunday of my first ER visit, that I had a stone stuck in the duct by my pancreas causing that horrible pain.

So the outcome of my whole visit: I am going next Tuesday for an ultrasound. I cannot eat or drink anything after midnight. :( Good thing i am not a very big breakfast person. Once the results come back, if I have any stones or "sludge" the doctor said I am off to the surgeon before I have any more "attacks." If the test comes back negative I will be on watch in case something happens again.

I know I probably mentioned it before, but the last ultrasound in Akron showed a polyp or small stone in my gallbladder. And unfortunately, according to the doctor, those small stones are the ones you have to watch out for because they can get stuck and cause problems such as pain and pancreatitis. So that's what they will be looking for.

So if i have the surgery, unfortunately I will be on a low-fat diet for the rest of my life....I suppose that is a good thing. But no big pizza parties, ice cream sundaes, etc. Oh well. Until I have the ultrasound results, I am on a low-fat diet. Boo hiss.

Well, that is the update. I will keep everyone posted on how I am doing. :)

Tylenol, Advil, and.....Dilaudid

2008-05-13T20:28:00.004-04:00

I cannot remember the last time I have been so sick for so long.

First we started out with Ben coming down with Pneumonia/Bronchitis the weekend before last. I did my best mimicking mom and dad. As "mom," I cooked for him, got him whatever he needed or wanted, took him to the doctor's office and basically did whatever I could. As "dad," I went out and bought Clorox spray and wipes and disinfected any surface I could then I proceeded to get "sympathy sickness." The Sunday before last Ben took me to the ER with severe upper abdominal pain. As I laid on the hospital bed crying, Ben sat in the chair shivering with a fever. I was given Dilaudid (good drug by the way) but of course it doesn't take much to knock me out. And because Ben knows all the nurses, they gave him Tylenol with codeine.

So after my fun visit to the ER where it was determined that nothing could be done at that time, I spent the week with an uncomfortable stomach. Then I went to a GI doctor, who I am pretty sure got his MD from a mail-order-MD company or something...I didn't like him. So I found a new GI doctor that got really good ratings and I made an appointment for this upcoming Thursday.

I started feeling sicker as the weekend approached so I made an appointment on Friday to see the doctor. She gave me a prescription for Augmentin and said i had Allergic Sinusitis. So I was to take: Augmentin, Zyrtec and Mucinex. But as I was on my way to the pharmacy, I thought to call mom because I thought Augmentin sounded familiar. She called my old doctor and it was confirmed that I am allergic to Augmentin. After several hours of fighting the doctors office, they finally called in a new script: a Z-pack. On top of everything, I start with a low fever on Friday night.

Saturday rolls around and I feel horrible. But my good childhood friend, Derek, was getting married and we had RSVP'd for the wedding already and I really didn't want to miss it. So I insisted that we go. Ben, being the good husband he is, drove the whole way. Once we got to Ohio, i felt even worse...but after a little bit i started to feel better and decided to go to the wedding. To my surprise, I lasted through the entire ceremony and most of the reception without feeling really sick. I avoided dancing and drinking so as to not aggravate whatever I was sick with. It was really nice to see all my old friends from school though. I was happy we went.

That night, at about 2:30AM I woke up with a 101 temp, a headache and stomach pains. Ben got up with me and tried to get me to drink fluids, take Advil and get back to sleep. So the next day, Mother's Day, I tried really hard to feel better. But unfortunately my body didn't agree with me. So once my fever started spiking again and I was feeling like "a thousand buffalo" (referencing dad's quote from the car ride back from Maine) were trampling on me, Ben wanted to take me to the ER. So exactly one week from the first ER visit I was back...different state, different hospital.

After a long wait in the waiting room I was put in a room. And after another long wait my temp reached over 102 degrees. So I had a massive pile of blankets on me and mom went and worked her magic to get a nurse or doctor. Long story short (well at least a little less long) they tested me for everything, and besides treating me for a bad case of dehydration, there was nothing they could do. They basically concluded that I had some type of nasty stomach/intestinal virus. No fun.

So i am still going to the doctor this Thursday. I am hoping that there is something they can do. But don't worry, i will keep you all posted on my stomach woes. I can't wait to feel better. I still am not feeling great. But I did start to eat food today. I haven't eaten any real food beyond saltines, jello and popsicles since last Friday. I am hoping tomorrow will be better.

Looking forward to seeing the family Memorial Day weekend (so long as I am feeling better :) )!

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's....

2008-04-29T23:24:00.003-04:00

SUPER-VISOR of the YEAR!!!!!

Congratulations to our superhero!!!

**We are very proud of you Dad**

A re-cap on what you already know...

2008-04-20T20:04:00.007-04:00

This past visit to Ohio was a blast. As everyone already knows: The week started off with Owen's Baptism/Caleb's Birthday. It was so nice to see the Lima family. It had been awhile. Unfortunately, mom was really sick and was unable to attend. I took upwards of 130 pictures at the Baptism/Birthday so I could capture every moment for mom. I think she appreciated it...she was kind of out of it when I showed her. And even when you are in perfect health, looking at 130 photos from one event can be a bit overkill....oh well.

I apologize for uploading some photos...I know similar photos have already been posted on Mike and Jenn's and Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry's blog. But in case you were just craving some more photos of those cute little Lima boys...here they are.

After the festivities of the weekend, Ben headed back to Virginia to complete his last week as a probational firefighter. Dad and Nathan finished installing the new front door that Sunday. Of course (you knew I was going to add this in...) I had to fix the handle on the door. Dad and Nathan were trying to hammer on a brass cap over a screw...little did they know the washer between the screw and the door face was on backwards...leave it to a woman to fix a man's mistake. Lol....I have been rubbing this in since I figured out the washer was simply on backwards and once it was turned around, the cap snapped right on...ok now i'm done.

It was nice that I was able to stay so long. Even though mom was sick, i was able to help take care of her. She felt bad...but i figure it was a small repayment for the 23 years she took care of me with the countless days of being sick. So after many trips to Acme to get Jello, then back for saltines, and then back another day for soup, etc, mom started to feel better. As mom just was becoming more like a human and was emerging into the outside world, dad went in for surgery. The surgery went really well, actually better than expected. He was as happy "as a clam with two peters" (for explanation of that quote ask my mom) the day he came home from the hospital. I think he was just so happy to be out of the OR. He felt well enough to have an italian ice from Ritas and a Galley Boy, fries and a shake from Swensons. In the following days the drugs knocked him out. But once he was off the "hard stuff" he was back to his old self.

So Ben is officially off probation at work. After taking his final exam (and he aced it by the way) he was given a new badge plate that goes on his helmet that says "firefighter" instead of "probationary." He is now no longer considered a "rookie," yet another benefit of being off probation. Everyone was so proud of him, including me. :)

Since my birthday plans with my friends was so rudely cancelled by the big snow storm in early March, we rescheduled for this past visit. We decided to go to the new Quaker Steak and Lube in Canton. We had a lot of fun. Everyone was able to come (of course with the exception of the out of towners: Daniel and Sara). Afterwards we went over to our friend Brett's house to play a playstation game called rockband. The game is similar to Guitar Hero, but uses two guitars and a set of drums (of course not real guitars and drums, but video game type instruments) and also a microphone. I learned that unlike my dad...i have no rhythm on the drums. My foot and hand coordination is way off. And Ben was nice enough to record my attempt at rockstardom. Unfortunately I don't know how to upload a video onto this blog so my video debut will just have to wait. Darn.

So all in all, the visit was a lot of fun. We got to see everyone and I got to visit a little longer than usual. Of course that made it harder to leave. I really wish we could have stayed longer. We certainly miss the family a lot. Thanks for a great visit everyone. We look forward to seeing you all soon!

Well, Sh**!

2008-03-28T17:06:00.002-04:00

Bad news about the poor Geo. As many of you probably already know due to the high-speed communication highway that is my family, the Geo is a little more (or a lot more) worse off than initially thought.
I felt very car-smart going into Midas saying that the donut gasket was probably the problem and where I thought the problem was...but all my car jargon went down the pooper. Unfortunately the problem lies in the catalytic converter. There is a hole in the catalytic converter, which seems bad enough...but wait, there's more! On either side of the converter the flanges are seriously rusted out. If they replace the converter, the pipes are going to need replaced due to the severity of the condition of these flanges. The Midas guy was very nice, he put the car back up on the lifts and showed us the problem. He wasn't kidding. He said that because of the salt up North the under-carriage can rust a lot faster.
So Ben checked the Kelly Blue Book value of the car...and it is actually worth less than it would cost to fix it and that's in "fair" condition. So we aren't sure what we are going to do. But we will keep you posted.
On a side note...i'm a girl. I cried when I found out how much the car was going to cost. I think it was a mixture of how much the car was going to cost, it wasn't what I had expected to hear, and that she's my first car. The Geo means to me what a man's first muscle car is to him. :) Listening to her V4 engine purr....heaven.

For Shame...

2008-03-26T19:33:00.004-04:00

Well, Virginia has gone and slapped us with the sticker of shame. My car did not pass their snooty state inspection. As if it wasn't bad enough that the trusty (or not so trusty) Geo had to tuck her tailpipe between her tires and drive away...the inspector plastered a pink rejection sticker on the front windshield. So the whole world knows, the Geo has been rejected by the state of Virginia. Bastards.
Basically what this means is that we have to get her fixed within 15 days and try the inspection again. The inspector said there is a leak in the exhaust system. Dad thinks it is a leak in the donut gasket between the manifold and exhaust pipe....or something fancy like that.
Midas here we come.

Christos Voskrese!

2008-03-23T13:26:00.003-04:00

Happy Easter everyone! Ben and I went to church this morning and thought that if we went to the 9:00 mass that there wouldn't be as many kids and it wouldn't be as packed....we were wrong. We arrived like 5 minutes early, but it took us those five minutes to find a parking spot. The church was packed and we sat next to a couple that had two young kids...they were crying or screaming almost the entire time. After church I asked Ben if he wanted kids...he said "no." :)

When we got back to the apartment Ben set up a little Easter egg hunt for Aida. He put some treats and food into six plastic eggs and hid them around the living room. Once Aida got the hang of finding them, popping them open and eating the contents she had a blast. It was cute.

We miss everyone and wish we were there. Hope you all have a great Easter!

Christos Voskrese! Vosten Voskrese!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-21T15:49:00.003-04:00

Today was my first attempt at making Paska. And I must say, they turned out really nice! Of course I haven't tasted either of them...but if nothing else they look pretty. And they smell great. I am really excited.

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

We will be seeing everyone in a couple weeks!