Daylight Savings Time

It sucks! It was sooooo dark last night. Addie didn't want to get up from her nap because it was so dark outside. I finally got her up and Ryan took her for a walk. When he got home, he wanted to go the grocery store and since I HAD to go to BJ's for just about everything. We decided to go then, it was super dark out and it was only 7 p.m. It was nice and light out this morning. That will only last for so long and then it will be dark when we go to work and dark when we come home. Oh well, it's only three days a week.

Well, I am going to try and do this NaBloPoMo. One post a day for the WHOLE month of November. We will see if I can keep it up. I haven't been great at it over the past year. But I am going to try.

Circus

On Saturday, we took Addie to her very first circus. I think she really enjoyed it. She got REALLY antsy towards the end, but who can expect a two year old to sit still for so long.

She loved the elephants and the horseys.

Pictures added later.

Boo at the Zoo

We took Addie to Boo at the Zoo on Friday night. Since we had Trick or Treat last weekend, I wanted to do something Halloweeny on Halloween. So we met up with a friend from the Mom's group and walked around the zoo and got all the goodies. It was a fun time and I think that Addie had fun.

After that, we went to Sonic. And the best part, we only had to drive about 20 minutes to get there. It was awesome. We got our slushies :)

I will add pictures later when I get to my home computer.

Where were you the morning of September 11, 2001?

I was actually still in bed when the planes hit. I always laid in bed in the mornings and watched the Today show and I had just turned it on right after the first plane hit.

I remember calling Ryan and telling him, he was in the satellite pharmacy at Akron General and couldn't get to a TV. I was glued to the TV the whole day.

For days afterward, all I could do was watch TV, listen to the sounds, remember the tragedy.

It's a day I will never forget and each year as it passes, I reflect on the day.

New Goals

I have made it a new goal to write in my blog once a day. Even if it's to say nothing. I want to write down all the things that Addie does.

I have joined www.sparkpeople.com so that I will finally start and stick with my weight loss journey. I have to weigh myself tonight, but already today I have logged all my food and drank four glasses of water. It should be easier than it seems right. I also want to try and work out more, who doesn't.

I am super busy at work. But here are a couple of posts that I need to make:
Mere's Wedding
Big Girl Bed
Failing Miserably as parents
Browns Season
Work Issues
Handicapped Stall Issue

Until Next time.....

Fort Wayne Zoo

When we were home for the wedding, we took the opportunity to go to the Fort Wayne Zoo on Thursday. It's super nice for us since we have a zoo pass that gets us in free.

We got there right at 11 am and got to see the demo with the sea lions. Addison loved it, she was fascinated by the sea lions and all of their tricks.

My Celebrity Look A-Likes

Garst Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

You have to answer each of these statements with one word - and only one word!
Where is your cell phone? ear
Your significant other? loving
Your hair? sandy
Your mother? talky
Your father? nerdy
Your favorite thing? Addison
Your dream last night? Starbucks
Your favorite drink? Dew
Your dream/goal? College
The room you’re in? work
Your ex? ugly
Your fear? broke
Where do you want to be in 6 years? mommy
Where were you last night? home
What you’re not? organized
Muffins? banana
One of your wish list items? vera
Where you grew up? Indiana
The last thing you did? appointments
What are you wearing? clothes
Your TV? addictive
Your pets? lonely
Your computer? lifeline
Your life? wonderful
Your mood?nervous
Missing someone? always
Your car? awesome
Something you’re not wearing? earrings
Favorite store? target
Your summer? anticipated
Like someone? yes
Your favorite color? orange
When is the last time you laughed? today
Last time you cried? tuesday

Bridesmaid Dresses

My baby sister is getting married at the end of July. She came up last weekend to pick out bridesmaid dresses. We both tried on dresses, to see how they would look on her other girls. We had a ton of fun. Here's the picture. Yes they are polka dotted. You have to remember that she is getting married at a summer camp outdoors.

Trip to Phoenix

Sunday, March 8

We got to Phoenix about 10 a.m. and we went straight to my Aunt Cathy's house. She had made lunch for us, since it was 1 p.m. our time. So we hung out there for awhile. We knew that Addie was tired, so we decided to leave around noon to go and check into the hotel. Well of course once we got to the hotel, the room wasn't ready so we had to sit in the car for awhile. Which wasn't too bad, Ryan went down and registered for the conference and then we just sat in the parking lot. You can't beat the sunshine in Phoenix. We then went back over to my Aunt Cathy's house and hung out for a few more hours. At about 5, Addie started melting down, so we left, found a sub place to get dinner, and went back to the hotel and ate dinner and then Addie and I were both in bed and asleep at 7:30 p.m.

Monday, March 9

We got up, had breakfast, Ryan went to the conference. Addie and I got ready and then walked down to the Phoenix Science Center. It was pretty cool, it would have been better if I didn't have the stroller to mess with, ( I need to get one of those harness things for Addie). She didn't want to be in her stroller, but I couldn't corral her and try to push her stroller around. They had a couple of cool exhibits, Addie was a little young for it, but I had a good time checking out all of the cool stuff. When we were done, we walked over to the conference center and met Daddy for lunch. We went to the Hard Rock. We were in a pretty central location so that was nice. On Sunday night, I got a phone call from my friend Steph (we lived in the same hall during our freshman year, and we had were great friends the whole time we were in college). She lives on Martha's Vineyard, which is in Massachusetts. She just happened to be in Phoenix with her boyfriend Jesse for the past week and they were leaving on Monday night, so we made a plan to get together for dinner, how crazy that we both live so far away and we just happened to be in the same city. So we got together for dinner, it was really nice catching up, we hadn't seen each other since we graduated from college over 10 years ago. Her boyfriend was super nice and I was glad that I got the chance to meet him.

Tuesday, March 10

We got up early, Ryan skipped his morning sessions and we went to the Phoenix zoo. It was super big and it was really cool with the mountains in the background. Not a lot of the animals were out, I think because we got there so early, they were still being fed and getting ready for the day. We did see the rhinos being let out of their pens. They were super close to us, so that was cool. They also have a really cool monkey exhibit, where you are in the monkeys exhibit with nothing in between you and the monkeys. We stayed for a couple of hours, until Addison had timed out and then we went to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. We sat right next to a fish tanks and also by the elephants and the gorillas. Every time the thunderstorm came, Addison freaked out and started crying. We went back to the hotel, and Daddy and Addie went swimming for a short time, and then Ryan went back to the conference and Addie took a nap. We then just found a place to order in food so that we could watch American Idol.

Wednesday, March 11

Ryan had a full day of conferencing. Addie and I got up and had breakfast and then we hung out in the room for a little bit before we went to the mall. It was really cool, because it was a regular mall but it had a ton of outlet stores in it. We shopped for 3 or 4 hours. Which is funny for me, because I am not a big shopper. We ate lunch at the Mexican restaurant at the food court and then went back to the hotel for a nap. When Ryan got done with the conference, he and Addie went swimming. and then we got together and headed over to my cousin Shanna's house to have dinner and watch the American Idol results show. We had a nice time.

Thursday, March 12

We got up early, took our stuff to the car, as Ryan was putting my suitcase in the car, the seam busted open. So we were in a mad rush for a Wal-Mart so that we could buy a new suitcase. We got a new one, got to the airport, checked in, I had to take the car back to the rental car place, got back to the airport, got through the huge security line, and we only had about 5 minutes before we boarded the airplane. We made it back to Cleveland. We were glad to be back, but we definately were glad that we had the chance to get out of this snow and into a ton of sunshine

Blizzard - March 2008

Friday, March 7--I took off work on Friday so that I could some last minute things done before we left for Phoenix on Saturday. We went down to the Lil Lambs see in Canton. We met Shannon down there. We went to the sale, got a couple of things, then we went to Kohl's. When we left Kohl's about 10:30 am, it was snowing pretty heavy. I didn't want to drive home in the bad weather so I left, when i got back to the CF area we went to Target and Wal-Mart and by the time we got home, the roads were really slick. It continued to snow all day and it took Ryan almost an hour to get home from downtown, normally a 15 mintue drive.

Friday night we decided to change our flight because with all the craziness we decided that there was no way we were going to make it out.

Saturday
We got up early and took the dogs to the kennel, we had a 9 am appointment and didn't want to miss it. We grabbed breakfast while we were out, and then came back home, we got stuck in the middle of our street perpendicular to the street. It was kind of humorous, but of course Ryan didn't think so. We just hung out at home all day. Our flight was at 7 Sunday morning, so we went to bed early.

Sunday
We got up at 3 am and left for the airport. The roads were not too terrible, but they weren't great either. It took us about an hour to get to the airport when it would usually take us an hour. The lines were pretty long, but we still got to the gate with about 30 minutes to spare. I will update more about our sunshiney trip to Arizona.

The Tenth Circle

I have a goal for the year to keep reading. With having a new baby, I didn't read as much as I would like and watched far too much TV. I enjoy reading and have found a great new author. So I am going to try and read a book a week! Which since I am doing the story time with Addison, I will be at the library at least once a week, so this shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.

For the first week (that I decided to do this), I read "The Tenth Circle" by Jodi Picoult. What an amazing book. It focuses on the angst of teenagers. There's so much more than just face value, that's what I love about her books. I look forward to reading more of her books, but then what am I going to do when I am done. :)

A fun little questionaire to reflect on the past year. I will have to do this yearly and check back to see what I have done from year to year.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? I didn't work full time for the first time in my life.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't really have any resolutions last year, but soon after our friend Dana's wedding we started the weight loss journey, Ryan is down over 40 pounds and I have lost 26. It's been tough, but we will get there with a little perservation. My resolution this year is to continue to lose weight.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My boss at work had a baby in November, but that's about it.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thankfully

5. What states/countries did you visit? We went to Florida and visited my grandparents and Disney for a day. We also took a week's vacation to North Carolina to spend a week at the beach.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Less Clutter in my life.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? No dates in particular, I just would like to remember all the fun times as Addison's mom.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Being a good mom to Addison

9. What was your biggest failure? getting caught up in things that I shouldn't have, especially at work.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No, except for the occasional migraine.

11. What was the best thing you bought? TV for our bedroom, i love having a nice TV and DVR in our bedroom.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Addison, she was a good girl in 2007. 2008 will be another sory I have a feeling.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Some people at work.

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, Student Loans....

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Dana and Paul's Wedding

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Anything by Jordin Sparks, 2007 American Idol


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier, a little more settled as a mom
b) thinner or fatter? definately thinner, about 40 pounds
c) richer or poorer? richer, ironic for me to say, but with Ryan's new job, a little more money each month

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Exercising

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worrying about $$

20. How did you spend Christmas? Christmas Eve at our house with a nice dinner from AC, Christmas Day at the Tofils for dinner and some Wii fun. The next weekend in Fort Wayne for family time with the Balls.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007? More and more each day with both Ryan and Addie

22. What was your favorite TV program? That's a tough question, i am a TV junkie. I would have to say my favorite show was Grey's Antomy.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I can't say hate, but I am starting to truly dislike a few people at work.

24. What was the best book you read? I read quite a few of Jodi Picoult's books and they were great.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? None really

26. What did you want and get? A purse like my sister's, I have been bugging her about it for over a year, she got me one for Christmas.

27. What did you want and not get? We typically get everything we want. :)

28. What was your favorite film of this year? We watched a ton of movies this year, thanks to Blockbuster online, they were all pretty good.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I can't remember, but nothing too exciting. I was 32.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Nothing really, we had a pretty good year.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? If you know me, I don't really have a fashion concept.

32. What kept you sane? Ryan is the one to keep me in check most times.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I am not really into any celebrities.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The 2008 presidential election.

35. Who did you miss? I miss hanging out with Heather but have reconnected this year and hope to spend some time together real soon.

36. Who was the best new person you met? I am really glad that we reconnected with Kim and Jonathan, and I really like hanging out with Julie.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. Just do it!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Let's see how far we've come by Matchbox Twenty, hence my blog title. :)

Christmas Eve 2007

We had a very relaxing Christmas Eve. Addie and I just hung out all day. Then got her up and to church around 3:30 p.m. That kind of sucked because we were there so early, she pretty much melted down towards the end. Ryan made it for the end of church since he had to work until 4:30 p.m. We then had a very nice dinner at our house which AC prepared. We had filet, shrimp, caesar salad, twice baked potatoes and broccoli casserole. We hung out until around nine. Then everyone went home to wait for Santa to come. Ryan actually had to run out to a patient's house so he was gone for about an hour. It was a nice evening.

Christmas Pictures

Here are our Family pictures and our Christmas pictures from JCPenney.

Steve and Barry's

How to Eat a Banana

This is the first time that Addie has eaten a banana by herself, so you know me, I had to capture it one film.

Christmas Photo Shoot

Shopping

I dont' have time to do this post right now, but I wanted to set it up. :)