On Monday, Jason and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I do believe I love this man a whole lot more than when I married him. He's not perfect...but he is perfect for me. We've had us some good times and had us a few of the bad times (hello...3 miscarriages). He asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate. My answer was: "I want to go away somewhere so that I can sleep as long as I want to in the morning without my kids waking me up at 5:45 a.m." So we booked a room at this quaint 1700's bed and breakfast in Old Saybrook, CT. We could only go on Wednesday due to some work meetings Jason had already planned. Plus they had a March special...only $100/night (usually $200+) during the week.
The bed and breakfast was great. Each room had it's own fireplace which I loved. We checked in and looked online (tripadvisor.com) for a local restaurant. One place had all 5 star recommendations. This little whole in the wall Italian restaurant called Tiberios. When we got there, we both were like-'there is no way we're eating here'. It doesn't do much for the eye from the outside. So we drove a bit more and finally decided to give Tiberios a whirl. To say this was The.Best.Italian.Food.I.Have.Ever.Eaten. would be an understatement. Seriously...it was "better than sex" food. Once you walked inside, it was a beautiful experience. The waiter was fabulous, the meals were unprounouncable (unless you know Italian)...awesome. Totally recommend it to anyone within driving distance. They had this sun-dried tomato pesto to spread on your bread. I gobbled way too much of that up. I also got the tortellini soup (awesome), Jason got the tomato soup (awesome), and then I had the shrimp ravioli (oh my heavens good) and Jason had the blackened fish special (very very good). Can you tell it made an impression on us?!?
Then we rolled ourselves out of there and went to see a movie. We don't need much to make us happy. We saw "He's Just Not That Into You". I thought it was super cute (who doesn't love a flick with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston in it?) but Jason wasn't overly impressed. Then I'm done giving details for the night.
The next morning....I woke up at 5:45 a.m.! That stupid internal alarm clock. Of course Jason slept and snored his way to 8 a.m. I just got up and surfed the web in a bad mood. We had breakfast downstairs with a very nice couple who were there to go antiquing. Kudos to the man for antiquing with his wife on weekends. The minute they left, Jason gave me the "don't ever expect me to do that with you" speech. Please...like I don't know that already. I wasn't overly impressed with breakfast. I kept expecting the hot food to come out after we had our fruit dish, Irish soda bread, and a muffin. But the only hot food that ever appeared were hard-boiled eggs. So not impressed. I think they only do hot breakfasts on the weekends when they're busy. Then it was time for our massages. I had booked us each a 30 minute massage in our room. Our masseuse was a guy named Al. I was a little nervous about that. But he was nice (and straight). Kinda a talker though. It was quite nice. I felt a little dazed and confused afterwards.
Anywhoo...so it was raining and neither of us felt like window-shopping (I'm moving soon...it's just another item to pack). He didn't want to go test drive a Honda Odyssey with me (whatever), so we just drove for a bit and then stopped for lunch at Lenny & Jack's Fish Tale. We just got a very light lunch cause we were still rolling from dinner. Then we were off to pick up the kids. Overall, very relaxing and fun to hang out with the hubby for 24 hours.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Our Housing Drama (with a Funny Story)
Be prepared. There is a funny story at the end of all this.
Here's the background (long story short): Jason and I sold our house here in CT in Sept. 2007...right before housing prices started dropping. Loved our house but didn't like the schools there and didn't like the busy area...way too many motorcycles and honking horns.
My dear hubby said we were going to rent for a year(ish) to wait until prices dropped further and go from there. So we found our nice quiet house on 11 Ann Avenue in Shelton. We've now been here 18 months as renters. (Sidenote: Being a renter vs. homeowner the last 18 months is a story all in itself). So we are month to month with our landlord (since we surpassed the one year lease time frame).
In late January, we found a house that we thought we were going to buy...had a strong verbal agreement and was waiting on them to sign the contract. We told our landlord we're moving, and then the whole house deal fell apart. Please know-don't try to buy a house where the couple is getting a nasty divorce and the guy decides to wait until last minute to say he's also filing bankruptcy. Talk about drama.
While all the buying/selling drama is happening, Jason also finds out that our current landlord is in default on his mortgage and is getting foreclosed on. Yes, it's true. He decided to stop paying the mortgage on the house we're living in last August. Then (since he still thinks we're moving soon...cause we never told him differently), he puts the house up for sale and also for rent.
So Jason and I are in the midst of figuring out what we're doing, where we're going, etc. When we decide for sure, I'll post about that later. Meanwhile, we are getting a fair amount of people calling and wanting to see the house. Granted, this is not my house and I don't really care what these people think of it...so I do not go out of my way to have it sparkling clean and tidy. Sometimes we even stay here and go back to the playroom or go outside while they look at the house. I'm not upsetting my family life to let people see this house. Plus, the longer it takes to sell/rent, the better for me until we figure out what is what.
Okay-funny story: On Saturday we were supposed to have a showing from 11:30-noon. Great, no big deal. I've seriously had over 20 showings on this house in the last month. So we finish our lunch and hear the doorbell ring. It's 11:45. I go to the door and (in my Midwestern hospitable way) open the door and say, "Hi! Come on in! We're just finishing up lunch!" There is a middle aged woman at the door (dressed in a suit) along with a young woman and her son. They introduce themselves by their first name and come inside. I don't think I really look at them again...I'm just talking and walking back to the kitchen. I'm saying something like, "Oh yeah, cute kids...yeah, yeah, yeah" I then say, "Okay, we're just gonna go out here to the playroom while you do your thing." (We are not looking at them at all). Jason gets Abby, I get Ben and we all head out to our playroom (at the back of the house) to hang out. Five minutes (FIVE MINUTES) go by. We're playing with the kids...not paying a lick of attention to these people. Suddenly the older woman comes to the playroom door and says, "Um, I see that you have your house for sale. I think you have us confused for someone else." We're like "Huh?!" She says, "I'm a Jehovah's Witness." Holy Moly. Our mouths drop open and our eyeballs nearly pop out. We had NO IDEA! She was quite flustered and didn't even try to give us any literature or talk to us about JW stuff. They just made a beeline for the door and that was it. We were like, "Omigosh, we're so sorry! We were supposed to have a showing, blah, blah, blah."
What a strange experience. After they left, we just looked at each other and started to laugh...hard. First of all, we've never had any JW people come to the door before. Secondly, the people for the showing from 11:30-noon never showed up. They must've thought we were the strangest people. Just welcoming them in like we were the best of friends and then disappearing to the back of our house. I can only imagine them standing in our house for FIVE MINUTES and trying to piece it all together. What a hoot!
Here's the background (long story short): Jason and I sold our house here in CT in Sept. 2007...right before housing prices started dropping. Loved our house but didn't like the schools there and didn't like the busy area...way too many motorcycles and honking horns.
My dear hubby said we were going to rent for a year(ish) to wait until prices dropped further and go from there. So we found our nice quiet house on 11 Ann Avenue in Shelton. We've now been here 18 months as renters. (Sidenote: Being a renter vs. homeowner the last 18 months is a story all in itself). So we are month to month with our landlord (since we surpassed the one year lease time frame).
In late January, we found a house that we thought we were going to buy...had a strong verbal agreement and was waiting on them to sign the contract. We told our landlord we're moving, and then the whole house deal fell apart. Please know-don't try to buy a house where the couple is getting a nasty divorce and the guy decides to wait until last minute to say he's also filing bankruptcy. Talk about drama.
While all the buying/selling drama is happening, Jason also finds out that our current landlord is in default on his mortgage and is getting foreclosed on. Yes, it's true. He decided to stop paying the mortgage on the house we're living in last August. Then (since he still thinks we're moving soon...cause we never told him differently), he puts the house up for sale and also for rent.
So Jason and I are in the midst of figuring out what we're doing, where we're going, etc. When we decide for sure, I'll post about that later. Meanwhile, we are getting a fair amount of people calling and wanting to see the house. Granted, this is not my house and I don't really care what these people think of it...so I do not go out of my way to have it sparkling clean and tidy. Sometimes we even stay here and go back to the playroom or go outside while they look at the house. I'm not upsetting my family life to let people see this house. Plus, the longer it takes to sell/rent, the better for me until we figure out what is what.
Okay-funny story: On Saturday we were supposed to have a showing from 11:30-noon. Great, no big deal. I've seriously had over 20 showings on this house in the last month. So we finish our lunch and hear the doorbell ring. It's 11:45. I go to the door and (in my Midwestern hospitable way) open the door and say, "Hi! Come on in! We're just finishing up lunch!" There is a middle aged woman at the door (dressed in a suit) along with a young woman and her son. They introduce themselves by their first name and come inside. I don't think I really look at them again...I'm just talking and walking back to the kitchen. I'm saying something like, "Oh yeah, cute kids...yeah, yeah, yeah" I then say, "Okay, we're just gonna go out here to the playroom while you do your thing." (We are not looking at them at all). Jason gets Abby, I get Ben and we all head out to our playroom (at the back of the house) to hang out. Five minutes (FIVE MINUTES) go by. We're playing with the kids...not paying a lick of attention to these people. Suddenly the older woman comes to the playroom door and says, "Um, I see that you have your house for sale. I think you have us confused for someone else." We're like "Huh?!" She says, "I'm a Jehovah's Witness." Holy Moly. Our mouths drop open and our eyeballs nearly pop out. We had NO IDEA! She was quite flustered and didn't even try to give us any literature or talk to us about JW stuff. They just made a beeline for the door and that was it. We were like, "Omigosh, we're so sorry! We were supposed to have a showing, blah, blah, blah."
What a strange experience. After they left, we just looked at each other and started to laugh...hard. First of all, we've never had any JW people come to the door before. Secondly, the people for the showing from 11:30-noon never showed up. They must've thought we were the strangest people. Just welcoming them in like we were the best of friends and then disappearing to the back of our house. I can only imagine them standing in our house for FIVE MINUTES and trying to piece it all together. What a hoot!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Raggedy Abby
When I was a little girl, my Grandma Boston got me a big handmade Raggedy Ann doll. It says, "I love you" on her heart and has my name on Raggedy Ann's apron. I have loved that doll for years, and it pulls at my heartstrings to see Abby play with her all the time. Lately, Raggedy Ann has been quite busy. Abby has her hosting tea parties, being a constant dance partner, taking naps with her (on the floor next to the bed since room is tight with the two of them in a twin size bed). I even had to convince Abby that Raggedy Ann doesn't need to wear a pullup for her bedtime. Oh. So. Cute. Then, of course, Abby gets the idea to put on Raggedy Ann's clothes. So please let me introduce Raggedy Abby (and a naked Raggedy Ann).
Abigail and "Benjamina"
Yes, I totally did it. I'm a girl, Abby's a girl, and Jason wasn't home to stop us. It was actually Abby's idea...and it was a lot of fun (except for Ben, I think). He never cracked a smile the whole time. Okay, I'll admit it. We dressed Ben up like a girl. One minute I'm straightening up upstairs, and the next minute Abby has her hair stuff all over the place and wanted to play. And out came the Fancy Nancy tutu and...what else can I say?!? By the way, don't they look a lot alike?!?
Ben's "T is for Train" Room
So these pictures are mostly for my mom to show her what their Christmas money bought. :) Ikea came out with a red dresser that I L-O-V-E. Is there anything red that I don't love? The old dresser we used for Abby's nursery and then Ben's nursery was on its last leg. So with Christmas cash in hand, I had a mini shopping spree at Ikea in January. I even got the matching nightstand...which still needs a lamp. Can't find a lamp (and price) that I like yet.
When I was 9 months pregnant and went looking for a crib set for Ben's room, I wasn't quite sure what to get. I somehow went to Babies R Us to get an alphabet set and ended up with the "T is for Train" set. Love it. And it was on clearance, to boot. Then I was even more tickled one day at TJMaxx to find rolled up on the bottom of a shelf there....the matching rug. Again...on clearance. Totally made my day. Mom, thanks for the dresser and nightstand. I can now actually sneak into his room and oh so quietly open his drawers and put his clothes away while he's sleeping. No more yanking out stuck drawers and hearing the loud squeaks that could wake the whole house. And I'm throwing in a picture of the drawer organizers too. Awesome. Gotta love that Ikea...and Nana & Grandad's Christmas money.
When I was 9 months pregnant and went looking for a crib set for Ben's room, I wasn't quite sure what to get. I somehow went to Babies R Us to get an alphabet set and ended up with the "T is for Train" set. Love it. And it was on clearance, to boot. Then I was even more tickled one day at TJMaxx to find rolled up on the bottom of a shelf there....the matching rug. Again...on clearance. Totally made my day. Mom, thanks for the dresser and nightstand. I can now actually sneak into his room and oh so quietly open his drawers and put his clothes away while he's sleeping. No more yanking out stuck drawers and hearing the loud squeaks that could wake the whole house. And I'm throwing in a picture of the drawer organizers too. Awesome. Gotta love that Ikea...and Nana & Grandad's Christmas money.
Bathed Ben
Of course, I took tons of pictures of Abby during her bathtimes. Now I have to make it an effort to get the camera out while getting both kids bathed. Here our some precious shots that I love.
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