Why Cats and Christmas Don't Mix

I have been working really hard these past few days trying to get everyone's presents wrapped. As I am just about done with my Holiday shopping, I have everything spread out on the living room floor to make sure it is "equal".

But there's a problem...

Someone, or "something" stole my piece of wrapping paper, put a couple of holes in it, crinkled it, then decided to sleep on it. Hmmm... wonder who it was?
lam

Tree Hunting

It's about that time again! Time for a Christmas Tree! "Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree... how we need you to be the perfect tree!" That's the song I was singing in my head while at the tree farm. Haha..

(<-Man does he look cranky!)

(I was freezing too you know!)

And the story goes...

This is our 3rd Christmas Tree. Our first Christmas together in our house we had the "signature" first year Charlie Brown tree! It was rather pathetic. And it didn't have much help looking festive with no carpeting in the living room and no furnature. So, actually I can't blame the tree. But last year was a little more exciting =)

We had our carpet installed, some furnature to sit on, more places to put decorations and more decorations to put up! So we decided to get a nice tree. Well, that was until we got there and Matt decided he had to have the biggest tree on the tree farm! I can't even begin to explain to you how hard we laughed trying to squeeze it through the door and trim it enough so it would fit under the 8 and 1/2 ft. ceiling. Then, after we finally got it to fit, it just looked too damn BIG! It was one of those extremely hilarious moments that neither one of us will ever forget! I remember buying lights and tinsel earlier that day not knowing that eventually I would have to go back to Target to get 3 more sets of lights and 3 more sets of tinsel (not to mention a few extra boxes of ornaments) just so we could decorate it! Matt had to bring in his work latter so we could decorate the top half! Haha.. Memories. Anyway, so now it's this year and back to the tree farm we went! This year we agreed on a more "normal" looking tree. So we hauled in a 6 footer. What's that saying again?

Oh yeah.. "3rd time's a charm!"

lam

Derik turns "1"!

Our first nephew. How exciting is that! A year ago, I became an Aunt and Matt became "Unky Matt" (or at least that's what he calls himself since Derik can't speak yet). I have to say it is interesting. A part of me feels "too young for this" but it also makes me feel more mature and more responsible. Because I started thinking about when I was a little girl and how I grew up surrounded by my Aunts and Uncles. I just remember spending a lot of time with them (and with some of them that was a good thing and with others that was a "not so good" thing).. The things you don't realize until you're "older"… haha. (I'm not going to go there just quite yet but I will tell you that some of my family members are a bit "kOoKY" at times.) I remember growing up with family not realizing that at the time my Aunts and Uncles (and even my mom and dad) weren't much older than I am now? And they were always around…. weekends, holidays, birthdays, etc. Always. You name it and I couldn't escape them! (Baby D, if you read this someday I hope that by that point you are not ready to "escape" me yet!). It's one of those things where you kind of just have to know them!

At my precious age of 25, I have yet to change a diaper on one, bath one, feed one, dress one, etc. - whatever else you do with babies. Not that I don't think I could figure it out if I had to! I mean, how hard can it be?! I just haven't had to! But now there's a baby in my life and pretty soon he may just have to spend some "alone" time with Aunt Lee and Uncle Matt! OMG! I can see it now! Looking at eachother…. What do we do? You do it. No. you do it! --> (me picturing how our conversation would play out the first time he needs a diaper change and he's with us!) Well, we may as well "practice" on "D" because eventually - I said eventually, we will have our own!

So I'm pretty sure Derik had a great 1st birthday! I mean, they didn't have those kinds of toys when I was 1! And who wouldn't have fun surrounded by family and friends with tons of presents to open (or at least for mom and dad to open), a cake to smash, games to play, pictures to take, guests to entertain (and eventually a nap to take). He really is a cutie!

I took a video of him eating his cake. (It's a little long but worth every minute of it because it's just so damn cute!)

lam

I'mmmmm Baaaccckkkk!

I'm back on the blog! The reason you haven't seen me for awhile is because I took a week off of EVERYTHING! Seriously. I just needed a break! I took a week off of work, the gym, the computer.. and it feels GREAT! It's amazing how "refreshed" you feel after a good week of goofing off! I'm pretty sure last week made the "best ever" list! I'll start with last Friday. I was SO ecstatic that it was my last day of work before my 9 days off! It was kind of CrAZy since I had a million and one things to finish up at work but I trudged through it. I didn't get out of work until 5 (I usually leave at 4:30) but that was okay. I can deal with a 1/2 hr. of OT, however, the trip home could have been A LOT better! So little did I know (because I obviously just don't pay attention) it was "Light Up Night" in the 'burgh and who would have thought that an event so freezingly festive could cause so much chaos! The streets were PACKED! BTW - This is how I know that I am normal.. Let's just say if I wasn't sane I would've committed several felonies on my way to the bus stop. So I'm standing outside freezing at the bus stop with a bunch of "crazies" standing around me and next thing you know, the 5:15 bus doesn't show, nor does the 5:25 OR the 5:40….. I was SO mad! How can 3 busses just NOT SHOW UP! Damn Port Authority. And figures, I actually had plans that night (for once). We planned to spend the night at Jeff's camp (a nice 2 and 1/2 hour drive that somehow lasted 3 and 1/2 hours! - I'll explain later) so once I got home I had to eat dinner, take a shower and pack for the night. We ended up not leaving our house until 8:30 and Jeff's camp is in Warren County (near Tianesta) so it's a little bit of a haul. Due to the snowrenchel downpour and the 12" on snow on the road we didn't make it up there until midnight (If you ask me I really can't believe we even made it at all!). Matt calls it our "adventure" for the week (even though I thought I was going to die the whole way there). What is it with men having to "test" everything while they're driving? I probably would have been fine if "someone" didn't have to "test" the brakes….. or the snowy roads to see how bad they were…… or the traction control…… or the tires……. ETC.! Men. A woman would have just drove at a nice, safe speed until she reached her destination. Seriously, could there not be any more truth to that statement? Stupid boys again!
The rest of the week I shopped! I LOVE Christmas shopping! =) It is one of my favorite things in the world to do. I spent Tuesday shopping with my mom and my sister at Ross Park Mall. It was really nice and I'm not lying! (It really was nice =) Something "magical" must have happened after I moved out because Kelly and I actually get along now.. Who would have ever thought that would happen? TG is a whole new blog post! I only wish I had some video of "crazy grandma" drunk, playing Nintendo Wii. (Any mental image you come up with will work just fine!) And on that note, somehow, I managed to make it to "Black Friday". After a whopping 3 hours of sleep (yes - I am one of those crazy people) I showed up at JC Penny at approx. 3:45am, waited in line until they unlocked the doors, squeezed my way through the crowd, ran through the store like a maniac, all in a sad attempt to be the first one to make it to "the deals". I always knew I was different. I was so tired my eyes hurt! After a few hours I went and picked up my dad and drove him to the mall to help him shop for my mom. It was so cute to see him buy her some nice things for Christmas (although I picked most of them out and had to lead him the entire way through the mall! OMG if he had to do it himself he would have been there ALL day!) The day actually went well until we were almost home and dad was going to take me to lunch… (don don don daa ..) Kelly called….. crying. She rear-ended a mentally challenged man in the parking lot on her way home from work. The girl really doesn't have lady luck on her side, does she? The is her 3rd fender bender, I think. Maybe it's her 4th? And she's only 20! She's already passed me up! I guess she had a hard time understanding this man and he wasn't very happy with her so the police had to come to the scene and straighten things out. Of all people Kelly… geez, why couldn't you have just hit somebody else?! You could have made it a lot easier on yourself! OR, better idea - Just don't hit anyone at all! (And then maybe I would have gotten to eat my free lunch! haha..) I took dad home after that. Needless to say, he wasn't in the mood to eat lunch after that phone call. Saturday night was "date night". Matt had made dinner reservations at Monteray Bay on top of Mt. Washington (so sweet). He also bought us tickets to go see Spamalot at the Benedum Center. It was awesome! I wasn't going to say this but I just can't help my big mouth! It's about time Matt has to sit through a play after the hours of racing I've watched! 15 races to 1 play and I still love him. Some men wouldn't go to one at all so I guess I should be lucky I got 1! Haha.. =)
I have more posts to add so stay tuned for "Derik's 1st Birthday" and "Superscratcher" all on the way!

lam

Time Waster (If you thought T.V. was bad…)

Wait until you try the Nintendo Wii. Yep! We bought one! Why? I have NO idea! But I'm an ADDICT! I eat, sleep, work and play Wii (which is why I've been a "blog slacker" lately.. haha!). It's the coolest thing ever! We bought the Wii Fit game and it is awesome! Puts a whole new meaning to "fun" exercise let me tell ya! There's about 50 different exercises on the Wii Fit and you can compete against eachother and anyone who knows me knows that I can be a "little" competitive at times! Let's just say my new life goal is to OBLIVIATE Matt's scores! So far Matt is in the lead on the Hula Hoop (There is something so not right about that. How could a boy possibly beat me - a girl - at the Hula Hoop? WTF? <--- Sorry, I had to throw that in there!) It's just too damn funny. I have serious anxiety over this. I NEED to beat him. Especially so I don’t have to listen to him walking around calling himself "the champion" anymore! Or saying that he "conquered" it or singing the "perfect" song which goes something like, "I got a perfect. I got a perfect!" You just don't know what that's like? I do have him on step areobics though! The boy might be able to wiggle his hips better but he sure ain't got no rythm! (I'll have to sneak a video of Matt "hula-hooping" so you can see how funny he looks =) We also play Mario Kart. Which totally has all the old tracks with totally better awesomer graphics! And I think you all should know that I am the BEST Rainbow Road racer ever! OMG - I am becoming a video game junkie. Reality check? Is there anything I should be doing that is more important than playing Nintendo Wii?

P.S. I'm ALWAYS Yoshi (because he's the best at beating "Matt the Monkey" or "Diddy Kong"! Haha.)
lam

Halloweentown!

I didn't get a chance to take too many pics of my "decor" but I wanted to at least share my Halloweentown! It's the coolest thing ever! Everything in the pic either lights up or moves. (I couldn't turn it on for the pic though because of the glare.) Isn't it cute though? I have this strange feeling that I am slowly turning into my mother?

lam

BaKIng FRenZy

Some of you wouldn't know it but I'm becoming rather "domesticated" these days! I've been baking again. Yes, I have… and not the easy stuff either! It's funny that I'm writing about this today because I was sitting here thinking to myself this morning that my "fat pants" feel tight today. I wonder why! So here are some pics to show you what I've been working on (or, proof of my lame 25-year-old life! Whichever way you want to look at it!) Think about it…. I took pictures of my "baked goods". Who does that? But that's what I've been up to lately… I don't go "out" with friends, I don't have any hobbies (other than work); I just stay home on the weekends… bake cookies… and take pictures of them. What the H-E-double hockey sticks is wrong with me?! As you can see from the pics, my creations include Halloween cut-outs, a Pumpkin Cake (which I was extremely proud of by the way!) and I also baked a pumpkin log but I don't have any pictures of that one (it's a little boring looking, I think). The pumpkin cake looks rather fancy (there is a reason) because I entered it in to a baking contest. See.. we had this Halloween Party at work so I decided to participate in the bake-off and I LOST! How could my beautiful, cuddly cute little pumpkin cake LOSE! I worked SO hard on it! I stayed up until 1AM two nights in row making the damn thing! That's the last contest I enter! I do; however, have a "theory" on "the loss". I've come to the conclusion that since the "staff liasons" were the judges, and 3 out of 4 of them were from the 50th floor, I'm not surprised that 3 out of 4 of the prizes went to contestants from the 50th floor.. Cheaters.

So much for calling it the "award-winning" pumpkin cake the entire drive into the city! I made Matt drive me in (because I had to transport it in a cardboard box) and I have to say by that morning he was pretty annoyed with hearing me talk about my "soon-to-be" prize-winning pumpkin cake! Haha! Oh, well….

Guess I'm not the "confectionist" that I thought I was?

lam