Not a trace!!!

There is not a trace of Christmas left in my house!!  The tree was put away this morning right along with all the decorations around the house.  I know some of you think that is terrible but for me it is a relief!  I like when things are back to normal and it seems like so much clutter is around with all the decorations!  I went through the 10 bins of decorations in the basement too and I have 5 huge bags of donations to get rid of.  Whew!!

We had a really great Christmas! 

  Grande, Short and Tall coming down to see what Santa left!

Grande and Tall with their new hats to keep them warm at college!

This was Tall's favorite gift!  He was always complaining how cold he is at school and he said he can't wait to wear them at college!  lol...only Tall!!

Dinner at my parents house...3 of my boys with 3 of my nephews!

Venti and Mocha with their Christmas pants!!

This is my whole family!  My parents are on the couch in the middle (Mom has a green shirt on and Dad is in Maroon)....My older sister is beside my Mom with her hubby and my younger sister is in the black shirt and her hubby is on the end of the couch.  Joe and I are on the right side of the couh with Venti and Mocha behind us. My boys are in front of us and then all my nephews and 1 niece!

Short, Venti, Tall and Grande!!

I have 4 days off which I am thoroughly enjoying!  We got 5 inches of snow today so it was a good day to stay home and undecorate!  I'm not sure what we are doing New Year's Eve as we were invited to a party by a friend of ours a couple of weeks ago but she hasn't mentioned it since!  Hummmm....if so then we will just go out to eat and then spend a quiet night at home!

I am hoping that once the holidays are over that our house will sell!  We had several showings in December and all of them loved the house but for some reason or another they didn't buy it.  One of them had a boat and needed a flat driveway which ours isn't.  The right one will come along soon I hope!!

If I don't have a chance to post again before New Year's I want to wish everyone a safe and happy one and here's to 2013!!!

We have a winner!!

I am happy to announce the winner of the "This is 40"  contest is Mary from Life In a Small Town!!!!   Congratulations!!  The promotional company will be in touch with you shortly to ship you your prizes!  Enjoy!!!!

Here we are 2 days before Christmas!  I am getting there little by little!  Joe helped me wrap the other night which was a huge help!  I just have a little more to do today.  I wasn't going to do any baking because I didn't think that I had time but Joe got called into work today so I have the day to myself and I decided to do some baking!  I'm going to make my Grandma's soft sugar cookies and everyone's favorite peanut butter cookies!!

Tomorrow we will be going to Christmas Eve mass at 5pm and then we have dinner reservations at The Melting Pot.  Then we are going to Venti's in-laws for a Christmas Eve party!

Merry Christmas to all of you!
Thank you all for being a friend, follower, or both as that is the best Christmas present I could ask for! 

Midway!!

I couldn't think of an appropriate title for this post so I decided on midway because it is almost "midway" between Thanksgiving and Christmas! The time where some of us are not evening thinking about Christmas while others are all ready done and wrapped! I am somewhere in between where as I have some gifts purchase (not wrapped) and still have many more to get! Which one are you? I'm curious how many of you are prepared...or not prepared! December 25th will be here whether we like it or not. Its funny how some people absolutely love Christmas and can't wait for it to get here and other people cringe at the "C" word. I tend to be a cringer probably because of the cost and the how much work it is. I wish our world didn't become so commercialized and turned our Christmas into a day that is all about gift giving instead of enjoying the day for what it really is. Speaking of Thankgiving, I had a very nice day spent with all my family! It was Venti and Mocha's turn to eat at my Mom's so it great having them there all day! Here is a picture of the boys and Mocha.

Grande, Tall, Short, Venti & Mocha  

We haven't had any luck yet with our house! We had one showing so far and the lady loved it but couldn't afford it. We probably won't get much action now until after the first of the year. We did find another place that we like and put a deposit down but if someone else comes along that wants it and doesn't have a contingency to sell their home then we will lose that one. We are so hoping that doesn't happen!

Venti like to wear bowties. I think he gets a kick out of everyone's reaction. He has worn them since he was little!

Some things never change! Hehe!  

Work is going good....busy but good. I will be working over-time from now until Christmas which is good for the wallet but bad because I already don't have enough hours in the day! The boys will be home from college for Christmas break from December 15 - January 22nd! Yikes! I'll be cooking and doing laundry non-stop! I do like them home but its funny how we get use to them not being here! Short loves when they are home! What a full house it will be again!!

Dorothy I'm Not!

Sandy blew threw here and did quite some damage but nothing compared to those in New Jersey and New York and for that I am thankful! I was off of work for 2 days which was nice but that was the only bonus when it came to the storm. We only lost power for a little while and all the food/batteries/ice/flashlights were purchased just in case as you never know when it comes to a hurricane!

We have not had any bites on our house yet which is a little discouraging. I guess I is just a bad time of the year. We did lower the price a little hoping that would get some showings but it didn't. I have a feeling that something just isn't right because my Dad is our realtor and we live next door to my parents. Last Saturday we were at a friends 50th birthday party and my Dad had a couple of glasses of wine and I asked him if he has had any calls about the house and he said, "well I did have one call but they wanted to see it right away and I said no!".....I was like "what!!??"....he said that he didn't "have time"....I said, "Dad, if you don't have time then just let us know and we can show it!"...he then changed the subject....hmmm...I know they don't want us to move but we have to financially and we are in a hard situation since he is our realtor. Sigh....I told my Mom and she said she didn't know anything about it. Either she doesn't or she is just going along with him! We already have a contract on another house but it is contingent on us selling ours. Someone could come along and purchase that one before we end up selling ours! :(

I was approached by a great company to let my readers know if a really great giveaway that they are doing and all you have to do to enter is to like the facebook page by clicking on the image below!!

Make sure you check it out the Blue Duck Shearling!!

Happy Veteran's Day and I have the day off tomorrow which I am really looking forward to because I will be the only one home!  Hehe....the kids all have school and Joe works!  Yippee!  I won't know how to act!

Auntie Em!!

I need a pair of ruby slippers so I can click my heels 3 times and make this storm disappear!  Sandy is fast approaching and they are saying the worst of it will start in about 4 hours from now!  Right now the wind is howling and it is raining!

It doesn't look too bad yet!

I live in the direct path of the hurricane which is very scary as you really don't know what to expect no matter what the newscasters say.  Schools are cancelled today and tomorrow and work was closed today and will probably be tomorrow as well.  Joe left for work this morning and gets off work right when it is supposed to be really bad out!  Grande and Tall where home for the weekend and left last night and right as they were getting in the car they got the call that their University cancelled classes today.  They decided to go back anyhow since they thought if they stayed that they wouldn't be able to get back until after the storm!

See the eye of the hurricane at 2am?  That is exactly where I live!

They are calling for winds up to 50mph and wind gusts up to 80mph!  Yikes!  I'm just praying that everything will be okay!

Venti's sister-in-law got married on Saturday and it was a really get wedding! It was extra special because the bride was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma 2 years ago and has since received a bone marrow transplant and is now doing extremely well!

It was the first wedding that I have been to since Venti & Mocha's!  I found this plain black dress that I loved but it needed some bling added to it!

I found just what I needed at the fabric store!  A couple of buttons and some rhinestone rope which I sewed until my plain black dress was all blinged out!!

Then I decided to do my own hair and thought it turned out fabulous!

And here we are all ready to go!

I had to laugh at Joe in this picture!

Venti, Joe and I at the reception.

Don't you just love Venti's bow tie??  The reception was at an Antique Automobile Museum!  Very unique!

Thank goodness trick or treat in our neighborhood was last Thursday or it would probably be cancelled with the storm!

Short all ready to go!

Joe dressed up to scare the big kids!

I wanted to make sure my post was completed before we are supposed to lose power!  They say we could lose it up to a week!  I sure hope they are wrong!

Hope everyone has a great week and Happy Halloween!!  I hope everyone keeps safe during this storm!

Boo!!!

 We've been Boo'ed!!!  We kept seeing signs on our neighbors front door that said, "Boo" and we couldn't figure out what it meant! 

This morning when Joe looked outside he saw a bag on the front porch!  

Inside was all kinds of goodies!!

To start a Halloween BOO, one neighbor secretly leaves a small gift basket, a BOO poem, BOO instructions and a BOO sign at a neighbor's doorstep.
The lucky BOO-ee is asked to post the sign near the door, alerting others that "We've Been BOO-ed!" That way, new BOO recruits won't leave a duplicate BOO on the doorstep.
In turn, the neighbor is asked to BOO two other households, leading to a chain reaction--and Halloween fun!!
Day by day, the BOO signs proliferate. Soon, the entire neighborhood is sporting BOO signs, and everyone is guessing. Who's been booed?

Here is the poem that was in the bag:

Okay neighbors, here's what you have to do:

Keep the Boo sign on your door.  Make two copies of the sign to pass along.

Make two new Boo Bags ($10 limit each bag) within 2 days to pass along to two neighbors without a Boo sign on their door.  Leave the bag at your neighbor's house, but don't let them see you!

Don't forget to pass along the signs and the directions!!

Let's see if we can get all of S---------s "Boo"ed by October 31st!

(If you choose not to participate, please pass along the Boo Bag left or you so we can keep it going!)

 Have you been Boo'ed?

October Happeneings!

As you know we put in an offer on another house and they accepted it!  Our house is now for sale and we haven't had one single showing yet!  Hmmm...I know the market is slow but not one showing in 2 weeks!  I guess we will sit and wait patiently (or impatiently)....we have to sell this one in order to buy the new one so someone else could still come in and buy the other one before we sell ours.  Let's just hope that doesn't happen!

It was a sad day here at our house on Wednesday.  Our beloved Brody had to be put to sleep.  He has been sick since Labor Day and nothing has been helping.  He was on his third medication and he seemed to be getting worse.  He was urinating all over the house, he could hardly walk and he just looked ill.  The vet said that was the best thing to do.  He was only 3!

RIP Brody!

I took some funny pictures (at least to me) while I was out running errands.

She clearly doesn't understand the concept of "drive-up ATM's!"

And this one:  "Why get it fixed when you have duct tape and trash bags!!"

I have a new co-worker!  This is Sara!  :)

And yes that is pretty much my view every time I turn around.....so I try not to turn around much!  lol

Joe and I had a ball the other night at the Halloween Store with the "babies!"

Grande and Tall are on their way home from college and Tall requested ham, greens and potatoes so I guess I better get cooking!!

I love this saying:

Happy Fall everyone!!