Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! Blake has one more week off work so we will be doing lots of work around the house this week. I probably will not do any blogging until he goes back to work. I hope everyone will have a great New Year also! See you all next year!

Around Here

We have so much going on in the next few weeks!  I am sure many of you do since it is the Christmas season.  Thankfully Blake is off work for the next 3 weeks.  I figured I would share some of the stuff that will be occupying our time.

This week we are working on putting up a website for a company we are starting.  We will be doing web design, photography, and things like that.  We are just putting together our talents and making a small business out of all of it.  It should be a fun thing.  I will post our website as soon as it is up and running.  We are also working on a logo design and website for a charity my aunt is doing.  This will be our first big project and we will get lots of publicity off of it.  I will post that site when it is up too!

Lets see some other things on the to do list…  I have to make some candy for the candy swap the women at church will be having Sunday.  I am going to make my grandmother’s English Toffee.  This is very special to me because it is my father’s mother’s recipe and she is no longer with us.  But my mother’s mother is the one who makes it now.  That makes it even more special to me that one grandmother is sharing something with me of my other grandmother’s!  I have never made it before so I hope I don’t mess it up.  I am also going to make some dog treats if I can find my cookie cutter I bought just to make them.  I will post pictures of the outcome of those events.

Of course we have lots of people to visit who are having Christmas get-togethers.  I am looking forward to all the fun times, I love getting together with friends and family!  We will also be traveling to Ohio next week for Christmas.  I always look forward to visiting there everyone there!  My mom has our big Christmas Eve party where we eat pizza and exchange gifts.  I am hoping to have my grandma cook some Chinese food for us too.  She makes the best egg rolls!

Lastly our other events are projects around the house.  We will be finally finishing up our bathroom.  It will be nice to be able to take a shower without having to go upstairs to my in-laws house!  We will probably be working on getting little things organized and make plans for the baby’s room.  We have so much to do before she gets here!

I hope everyone else will have a more relaxing Christmas break than we will!

This baby is a kickin’

I think I have one strong little girl inside me!   She kicks me like crazy.  She started kicked so hard on Friday that Blake was able to feel her kick for the first time.  It is so nice to be able to share those little things with him.  He loves it!  He just can’t get over feeling her inside me.  It is so neat.  He is so goofy too because I told him that she can recognize sounds now so he should talk to her.  He thinks he has to talk really loud and directly into my belly button like it will go through the umbilical cord.  What a weirdo!  He makes me laugh!  I love him!

Update on Marley

I just heard from the family that took Marley.  They adore him and love him like crazy.  They are keeping him and just can’t believe how quickly he fit into the family.  I am relieved, this is a big answer to our prayers!  It sounds like they can give him everything that we couldn’t.  This makes it so much easier to let him go.

I will keep in contact with them and hopefully we will get some doggy playdates!  The family is telling their kids tonight that they are keeping Marley.  I wish I could see their reaction when they tell them.

Tears…

We love you Marley.

We hope you enjoy your new home and new family!  You will always be part of ours.

Blame It On The Rain

We never got any grass established in the yard this summer because the hot weather killed it.  So now this is what it looks like out our door.

What a mess.

It has gotten so slippery with the snow last week that Blake was driving the car down so that I wouldn’t fall trying to get up the hill to the driveway.  As you can see the car got stuck because of the heavy rain we have had.  We are planning on landscaping all of this and making a nice walk way but wasn’t planning that until next spring.  We just didn’t know I would get pregnant and have trouble walking up the hill.

Since we live in a walk out basement we have a hike to get to the car.  We have to walk out to the end of the deck and go up a hill to the right.  Next year we will be putting in a driveway and a safe walk way.  Until then…

I almost choose the title for this to be Ice Ice Baby because well that has been bad too.  Although I like the cold temps because I can deal with frozen ground more than mud.  You know the dogs have to go right through the mud each time they go out.  Needless to say they are living in the laundry room this week!

And for your listening pleasure I thought I would share some old school!

Can anyone help me???

I have a huge frustration with Dick’s Sporting Goods!  Last year we bought an elliptical on 12 months same as cash.   We had problem after problem with this thing!  First it broke after a week of having it.  Then we got it replaced and was excited because they even gave us the cheaper price it was on sale for.  But then the new one broke!  We wanted our money back but they refused to stand behind their product.  We finally at least got them to give us an in-store credit so we could use our money for something not broken!

Now that the 12 months is about up I am trying to pay off the balance before the finance charge is applied!  Wouldn’t you think I could just log on to their website and pay it off!  NO!  Because when I log in I just get a blank screen.  It has been doing this for a week!  So I called their 800 number thinking maybe someone in customer service might be able to tell me what is going on.  haha Who was I fooling!  I of course got to speak to a very nice woman who didn’t speak any English!  She simply told me that I could go online to pay it off in response to my question of why their site wasn’t working.  I don’t know maybe she just didn’t understand me…

So now I have just a few days to get the check to them in the mail or I can pay it over the phone for a 10 dollar charge.  Do I take the chance that it will actually get there one time and hope if it does that they won’t hold my check until after the date so they can make some money.  Or do I suck it up and pay 10 dollars over the phone because conveniently (for them) the website isn’t working where I could make a payment…for free.

I Won!

I never ever ever win anything!   Until today!

I won Bloggy Giveaways Glam Baby!

I was so excited when I just got the email!  I have wanted to find a cute bag to use as a diaper bag and now I have won one!  Here is my favorite one:

Check out Glam Baby for all the great bags!

The BIG Day!

We have been anticipating today for so long now! Finally we know who this little baby is that is starting to kick me all the time!

Here you can see the baby’s face, a fist and belly.

Here is were we can sorta see that…it’s a GIRL!!!!!!

Of course with girls they never guarantee that is what you will have but it really looked pretty good! Blake wanted a girl very much and I didn’t really feel either way! We are so excited! Also we have chosen a name. Piper Grace Craig

Now we can start picking out some sweat little girl stuff!

What a Find

I found a new weekly carnival that I think I just might get lots of use from!

You can get there by clicking on the picture!

I have been starting to make some freezer meals and found that I was saving lots of money!  When I buy the groceries for a meal I usually have enough to make it twice since there are just 2 of us.  So instead of making and having leftovers I just make an extra batch and put it in the freezer!  I don’t have many recipes to use for this carnival yet so I just thought I would share the carnival!