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Category Archives: Raves & Praise

I have my table!

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So, as you may or may not know/remember, we’ve gone through a multitude of dining table sets over the years. (I started the process by wanting a counter-height table…we got one but returned it because it scratched too easily, we ordered a different one and the wrong base came in TWICE…) Our most recent table was from Sam’s Club which we got on clearance for half price because it had a scratch…and I knew at the time it would just be a temporary table until we found THE table.

Well, I found THE table.

I’m always on the lookout at Costco since their prices are really really good…and this month it was in the circular for warehouse only. I was drooling because it seemed perfect—center table legs, butterfly leaf, nine pieces, and leather-cushioned chairs!!—but it didn’t list a price.

So we were headed there today and I hoped it was a great price…AND IT WAS!! PLUS there was a manufacturer’s in-store rebate which made it even better. But they would only hold it until the end of business. And they only had three in stock with none showing as on order. Our friend with the trailer didn’t answer his phone. U-Haul was cheap but we didn’t have our ball/hitch and they didn’t have any. But we bought it anyway thinking we’d figure out something. Luckily our friend got back to us on the way home (plus his daughter could babysit)…but that still meant another 2-hour round trip (man do I hate being an hour away from Costco).

And of course it rained cats and dogs on the way home…but I have my table!!!

Stay tuned for pics.

Regaining household real estate

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The good thing about our second kid? As soon as she’s done with something, we can GET RID OF IT! Because we sure as hell don’t need to worry about saving it for a possible third child! YIPPEE!

So, within the past week, the jumper has been sold and the bottles and bottle rack have been put away (and will be listed for sale soon). We have now regained some much-needed floor space in the living room and counter space in the kitchen!!

Don’t get me wrong—it is a bit sad that we no longer need that stuff…but the declutterer in me is THRILLED.

Oh, and if you couldn’t gather it from the above statements about the bottles going away…Katie is DONE with bottles! She would probably still take them, but after her 12-month appointment (at which time she was still drinking a few bottles a day) I just decided I’d had enough (and really wanted my counter space back!) so I waited until she was good and hungry…and gave her milk in a straw cup. And she did pretty good with it. I kept a single bottle available for a week in case there was mutiny…but it never happened. YAY KATIE!

My vacation is complete.

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I took Grandma Jean to Dairy Queen tonight after we dropped off a Redbox movie at Walgreens. I was keeping my fingers crossed that they would be able to make my all-time favorite blizzard that no one can make anymore…that I grew up eating at this exact DQ.

So what is this magical flavor? Peanut Butter Crunch. It used to be on the menu everywhere like 20-25 years ago—it’s just peanut butter sauce and cookie crunch but not every place carries the crunch.

I started my spiel like I always do: “I’m hoping you can make a Blizzard for me that used to be on the menu. It has peanut butter sauce and cookie crunch.” She barely batted an eyelash and said sure.

Be still my heart.

Then I asked the next most important thing: “Can you please make sure to mix it really, really well? Most places where we live mix the top half and leave the bottom all vanilla.” Of course, she said.

Oh my.

I splurged and ordered a Large (I typically only order a Small because it’s some waaaay-distant-second-place-flavor like Mint Oreo).

And it was HEAVEN.

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And we have benches!

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Tom busted his ass all weekend to get the side benches done on the new deck! And they are AWESOME! (There’s still one tiny section to do on the top level deck, and then we’ll likely just put one bench across the far end of the lower level deck. At least that’s the current plan.)

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Of course, Owen loves to run up and down them, lay on them, and play on them. He loves everything about the new deck. 🙂

We also had dinner outside tonight… Katie loves her whole strawberries.

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And Owen got a little messy with his chocolate pudding dessert.

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Our new family portrait!

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So back in February, a friend of ours posted about this really cool family portrait he had commissioned by KateWhitmoreArt on Etsy. Everyone RAVED over it and said they would love one…including me. And then a few months later, I finally said YES, I’M DOING IT! But it was going to be a pre-deployment surprise for Tom.

I worked with her for about six weeks before we had a final product—sending ideas, evaluating sketches, changing details, etc.—and I managed to keep it a secret up until the very end, when I needed his input on something (though, honestly, I could have decided on my own—but you know how I am about surprises and the final reveal would only be a day or so away anyway).

And I have to say that for someone who doesn’t get choked up too easily…I think Tom was actually a bit choked up. 🙂

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In it, you will notice all the small details of our family that I gave her to make it perfect…

  1. Owen driving his police car.
  2. Me taking a photo of Owen with my iPhone.
  3. A replica of our favorite Troy playground/park in the background.
  4. Tom wearing an MSU shirt.
  5. Katie wearing pink and grabbing my hair. The artist did the hair-grabbing thing on her own. I did NOT provide that detail.
  6. Owen is wearing blue.
  7. All pets are accounted for—and Charlie even has the nose dot.
  8. Owen’s drink is his actual cup.
  9. We have USMC Tervis tumblers. (I wasn’t expecting them to have a visible design, but I can tell they are the USMC one that I sent her the sample photo of.)
  10. Our exact diaper bag is under the table.

It turned out more perfect than I could have imagined. But, it did take a bit to get there. Here’s the first draft, when she was trying a Christmas theme (I told her we loved Christmas):

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She sent it with this:

I thought it was a little too ‘out there’, possibly. I thought it would be cute to have you guys in the tree, surrounded by your ornaments and lights! I just felt it might be a little fun—the ornaments would have either icons/colors for your interests, the USMC, Cars, things like that, and something a little more unique than a standard portrait. Something you can’t get a photo of, you know? If you don’t feel this one, though, just let me know and I can take another crack at it!

So, while I did really like her unique take on us INSIDE a Christmas tree (I had told her we LOVED Christmas) I just wasn’t loving it enough…so I gave her the suggestion of a park or the ocean and sent a few more pics, after which she came up with this:

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My thoughts were more YAY! but it wasn’t QUITE there yet. She said she didn’t do a slide (as I had suggested) because the spacing/sizing didn’t work out right. So to me it didn’t look like we were really at a park but more just having a picnic—which we haven’t really ever done. And I wasn’t sure about the kite as he’s never flown a kite so that’s just not him. I thought I might be over-thinking it but my online sounding board assured me I wasn’t…and that the artist DEFINITELY wanted clients to be happy. So I asked her to put Owen in his power wheels police car, have me taking a picture with my iPhone, have our actual sippy cup/Tervis tumblers on the table instead of a pitcher of lemonade, and change the picnic basket to the diaper bag (a long story, but it took trying/buying/returning about 15 bags before I settled on that one, so it’s kind of a running joke).

She was fine with all the changes and then sent this, which was IT.

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Then came the color version and it was almost perfect. Bonus points if you can see what the last missing detail was.

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Highlight this text to see what it was: The white S on Tom’s shirt.

So overall I’m absolutely and completely THRILLED. I’ve already ordered artwork for our walls (I had bought a Groupon ages ago unsure of what I would use it for…and I’m glad I saved it for this) and I’ll just say that I’m sure this will turn into Christmas presents… 🙂

And we have a playset!

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We weren’t really planning on getting a big playset, but once I saw Owen playing on his little Step 2 playset and saw that he had really outgrown it…I looked on the local Yard Sales board and found exactly what we wanted, emailed the lady, and made plans to go look at it (it was 45 minutes away). I was excited because most of these types of sets are SUPER expensive and have too many things that Owen wouldn’t really use, but this one was actually quite reasonable and had things Owen would like (towers, ladders, a rock wall, and a tunnel!). We looked at it, Owen played on it and loved it, so we left a deposit last weekend and made plans to get it this weekend (Tom was in the field all last week).

I thought the process would take ALL day, possibly requiring two trips (and since it was 45m one way, two trips would have been dreadful)—even with our friend’s big trailer—because Tom had no one able to help him. But thankfully at the last minute I managed to get a friend’s husband to help (the ones buying our old playset!) and then one of our best friends was also able to help…and he also offered his big truck (which ended up being critical) and the whole thing was done in like two hours, not counting drive time! They had it apart and loaded on the trailer and truck in under an hour (the lady texted me to tell me and we were both amazed) and I think it took about the same to unload and put it together. YAY!

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“Mom! The number one!”

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“Mom! Look! It’s the letter A!”

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Testing out the bench.

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He had to run and get some cars…

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Are you done screwing the slide in so I can use it?

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Wheeee!

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Tunnel!!

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Uncle Tom! (A great picture that I’m ticked ended up blurry! I had an in-focus one but you couldn’t see Owen’s face.)

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The workers!

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Katie’s first swing!

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Also, as a bonus, we didn’t have to use any money from the savings account for the cost of the thing (which was not inconsequential). We had our stash of Craigslist/LejeuneYardSales cash from a few recent sales for the deposit last weekend, then I sold a bunch of stuff this week to finish out the rest of the payment. YAY!

A great day to be outside!

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Wow. Just wow.

Today was one of those rare North Carolina days where the weather is perfect, there’s a nice breeze, there’s no bugs, and it’s perfectly glorious to be outside…so we took full advantage of it!

I got out the kid enclosure our friends loaned us to put Katie on the deck under the umbrella (so I didn’t have to worry about sun) and she didn’t mind it too much.

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And then he climbed in with Katie.

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Meanwhile I was catching up on some of my big ol’ stack o’ magazines.

And Owen was running around playing with/snapping his Indiana Jones whip (something he’s not allowed to do inside), running around the yard, climbing on his playset, and playing with his army men* that he earned this morning for pooping. 🙂

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And here you can see him in all his adorable action:

We came inside for a little bit because after her nap, Katie was NOT having it…but when daddy got home, we decided to eat dinner outside!! By then it was a little cooler but still definitely worth staying out to enjoy it.

Ahhh, spring!

* The army men were an unplanned surprise. They were a gift from Grandma Marsha probably two years ago (in a Diego backpack) that we just tucked away until he was old enough to play with them. And I had kinda forgotten about them as they were in Katie’s closet (Owen’s old closet). But today, Owen happened to be in her room with us and the closet doors were open and his inquisitive eyes glommed on to Diego RIGHT away: “What is this?!” 🙂 Then he opened it and found the army men…which I then immediately used as a potty training bribe!

Dentist time!

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Wow. Owen could not have been more awesome at the dentist today!!

Full cleaning.
Full flossing.
Full X-rays.

No whining.
No refusals.
No stubbornness.

Such a difference six months makes.

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Then when they put his X-rays on the monitor he says “Awesome!” And he thanked the hygienist. And he agreed to share his ice cream (treat) with the dentist!

So I was just planning on giving him ice cream at home but he said he wanted a cone…so I pulled into McDonalds. They took so long with the car in front of me that the cone was dripping by the time I got it. So I cleaned it up and handed it back to Owen. Well, a mile down the road after waiting in traffic the cone was dripping all over Owen.

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So I had to take a quick detour into the Best Buy parking lot to clean up the melty cone, wipe down Owen, take the paper off the cone, and clean up the drips on the car seat. :/

OWEN ATE A BANANA!!!!

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Owen shocked the hell out of me and asked for AND ATE a banana today. Just. like. that.

I was on the computer in the office and he was out playing his Sesame Street Xbox game and I saw that Cookie Monster was eating a banana. Owen came in to me to tell me he needed a banana. I was sure he just meant to play with it (to mimic what Cookie Monster was doing) and I said no, he didn’t need a banana.

A few minutes later: “Mom…I NEED A BANANA!” I asked if he was going to play with it or eat it—completely expecting him to say play with it—but he said EAT IT! So I said “Are you really going to eat it?” He said yes.

So we went downstairs, I started peeling it for him, handed it to him, and he took a bite like it was the most normal thing in the world and he’s been eating bananas forever. EXCEPT HE’S NEVER EATEN A BANANA IN HIS LIFE (aside from mashed when he was a baby) AND YOU KNOW HOW HE IS ABOUT TRYING NEW FOODS.

I was floored. FLOORED I TELL YOU! And perfectly giddy in my excitement—if we’re being honest.

He only ate about half of it BUT HE ATE IT! Without any coercion! Now to find videos of Cookie Monster eating some veggies!!

*As a sidenote, I really hope he continues to like them because that should help with the poop issues we’re STILL having…

Finally, after 26 years…

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…I got to see Top Gun on the big screen!!!

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Why didn’t I see it in 1986? Because I was 12 (or 13) and my mom saw it first and said “It’s just a bunch of planes flying around and it made me sick.”

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

So I’ve watched it about 25 times on VHS…then DVD…just waiting for the day it MIGHT come back to the theater.

And that time was now…for a special limited release in IMAX 3D!

To help promote the films upcoming 3D Blu-ray release on February 19, Paramount decided to re-release the classic in a six day run that started on Friday, where the film averaged about $6,600 per screen.

And it was only an hour away in Wilmington so HELLS YEAH I was going! WOOHOO!!!

We considered it an anniversary [of when we met in February 1997] / Valentine’s Day outing so ate a sushi lunch first then walked down the street to the theater where I saw this:

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And had to have some!

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Yum!

Then it was off to the movie. Aren’t the 3D glasses stunning?

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And the movie was AWESOME! Wow. The 3D aspects didn’t blow me away…but there were some cool aspects and the actors felt very close and sometimes it felt like you were IN the cockpit with them!

Also, interestingly, with the awesome THX surround sound, I heard A LOT more of the background noises that just melted away in TV showings even with a decent home surround sound system (like a running shower and background music that were never as pronounced).

It was my first actual 3D movie (other than Honey, I Shrunk the Kids at Disney about 20 years ago or 3D/IMAX attractions at Cedar Point) and I’d have to say 3D has come a long way. And it took a good 20 or so minutes until I finally stopped noticing that I was watching the movie through glasses and just enjoyed it without distraction. Well, except I had to pee about 30 minutes in but hell if I was going to miss one second of the movie after waiting 26 years!

We ended our day’s outing with a trip to Costco…so it was a great day! And I can cross See Top Gun on the big screen off my bucket list!

Different shades of brown.

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One of the moms in my group had a GREAT explanation for the “difference” (not really) between black and white skin.

Evie asked me a question after MLK day. Many would find it difficult to explain… but this is what I said. I held a white towel against my arm and asked if they matched. She laughed and said, “no”. I held a black towel and asked her if anyone she knew resembled the towel. Again, she laughed and said, “no”. I explained that we are all just different shades of brown. Flesh, blood and bone. Full of emotion, love and tenderness. We are all the same, just a different shade!

I thought that was simply awesome—and a perfect way to handle what could be a potentially uncomfortable or awkward question. The next day, this photo was making the rounds on Facebook and I thought it was apropos to her explanation.

The last payment!

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I just made the last payment on our only credit card that was carrying a balance—so we are officially done with credit card debt!! And amazingly…done mostly since I’ve stopped working (which of course makes me wonder just what the hell we were doing with my salary the whole time I was working)!

Of course, we still have the mortgage and two cars and Tom’s student loans…but the original debt is gone!

In an ironic side note, the amount we made at our garage sale was just about the exact last payment ($539 vs. $534). I guess it was meant to be.

Now THAT’S a garage sale!

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So we finally had our garage sale today—we’ve been wanting to have one ever since we moved back to Jacksonville but just never got around to it. If you remember, our last garage sale was a complete dud and we pretty much vowed to never have another. But we just had SO much good stuff to sell that we decided to take the chance.

And we’re glad we did.

Yes, it was a bit of legwork to get ready for it—and I pretty much ran the whole day by myself as Tom was in taking care of the kids—but it went really well. I didn’t get TOO terribly aggravated with people making deals (because we wanted the stuff GONE!) but I did draw the line a few times—of which these two cases were the most memorable:

  1. One guy at about 7:15 (we officially opened at 7 but of course had people shopping in the dark at 6:45) pointed to all the stuff he wanted and it totaled $45 and asked if I’d make him a deal. I said sure, $40. He says “How about $30?” Uh, sorry, NO. Not at 7:15am on popular items (like a pack-n-play and space heaters) and certainly not that big of a deal.
  2. An obviously English-understanding but Spanish-speaking only woman (her young daughter was translating between us most of the time) who drove up in an [Escalade or Excursion or something] and was talking on an iPhone thought that $2 was too much for a two-piece baby outfit—which I had already discounted from $4 (I had all baby clothes marked at $2 per piece). She made a big stink about how that was just TOO. MUCH. MONEY. Really? SERIOUSLY?

But otherwise I was giving out good deals.

It was pretty busy all day but no matter how much stuff people bought, it never looked like the stuff was dwindling! NEVER! (Unfortunately, that just goes to show you just how much stuff we had. And sadly, the garage is still FULL of boxes we have to sort through and reorganize.)

When it was over, I was eager to count our stash and see how well we did. I was excited to see that we made $539—until I looked back at the total for our last garage sale (that I complained was a complete dud) and saw that the difference was only $239. But, it just felt like it went SO much better—and, if you go back and read the old garage sale post, you will see that I said another $200 would have made it better. One shopper even commented that it was a really nice sale! Yay, us! (And I have to give a huge thank you to our friends who loaned us tables and signs!)

So, in the end, we made about $300 for about 18-20 hours of work (prep, sale, clean up) which just sooooo doesn’t seem worth it. I mean, it’s better than working that long for nothing…but had we sold another $200 worth I’d be more amenable to having another garage sale sometime during my lifetime.

So I guess we did okay. Not awesome, but okay.

And everyone who drove by? They actually stopped…even if they didn’t buy anything! 🙂

Diapers, anyone?

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Costco. Wow. 🙂

I had 11 boxes of diapers to return and of course didn’t even think about the receipts because they’ve been bought piecemeal over the past six months and returns are so easy—they just look it up on your card and you’re done.

Except this time it was a PITA because some were bought online and some were in-store. And they each had to be looked up separately and returned separately. And it was just a hot mess of confusion (two different sizes, to boot). But all FOUR people who were working on it were completely awesome—and were apologizing to me for it taking so long (it took about 30 minutes). (And yes, I apologized for being a pain. Had I thought about it, I would have printed my order emails.) We were all laughing and joking and I told them I would likely be spending the whole amount momentarily…and they said that’s what they hoped! I even saw the manager during checkout and she joked “Hey, it’s you again!” And she joked that I only had one bottle of wine!

I LOVE COSTCO.

Oh, and we spent MORE than we returned. And we returned $400 of diapers. 😮

Oh yeah—Why did I have so many extra boxes? Because every time they were on sale I bought a couple boxes. And I really didn’t expect Owen to be potty trained for a while yet. I also had a couple boxes of size 1-2 for Katie but she’s almost out of those… And I had forgotten we like the Pampers with the pee-line on them so we’ve been using those instead.

Why didn’t we think of this before?

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I have no idea why I didn’t think about doing this before… We desperately need more cupboard space, and we have an empty wall over a storage rack. So…we put in a 36″ upper cabinet this morning!

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We still need knobs and it looks a little strange with empty space on both sides, but I don’t care. Eventually, before we sell/move again, we’ll install a matching base cabinet with a short piece of counter top, and it will hopefully look like it’s always been there.

Amazon: YAY!

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A rant turns into a rave!

I just realized I didn’t use the Amazon Mom 20% coupon I had when we ordered Owen’s new car seat a few days ago. I was debating if it was worth returning the other one and reordering to save $25…when I decided to try writing Customer Service.

It was:

I understand that you would want to use your Amazon mom in your recent purchase and I wish I could help.

I’ve reviewed your order and see that your order has already been shipped. Under the circumstances, I made an exception and requested a refund of $25.80 to your credit card. The $25.80 refund is 20% of the price of the item which is $129.00. It will take 2-3 business days for the refund to appear on your visa statement.

This is why I have no problem spending thousands of dollars there every year!!

Amazing full double rainbow

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We were getting ready to leave Grandma Marsha’s place when Tom came running in (from packing the car) saying there was the most awesome rainbow outside…so we all went running. Of course I had my phone, and tried to get a panoramic shot as it was starting to pour down on me… It’s a decent picture, but certainly doesn’t do it justice.

As we were driving away, I kept trying to take pictures through the car window, so Tom stopped in the parking lot of the hospital a few blocks away so I could get out and try for more pictures. It was the biggest and brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen! And it lasted a good 15 minutes–and probably would have lasted longer except the sun was setting!

Early birthday presents!

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We normally don’t buy each other birthday (or Christmas) presents—we just buy what we want throughout the year. But this year, I thought of the PERFECT gift(s) for Tom…and unfortunately, I kinda had to spoil it at almost the last minute to make sure he didn’t buy it himself! (He made a comment about “still needing to get” it and I just told him NOT to shop for anything the few weeks before his birthday. 😮

Tom wears my old (circa early 1990s) MSU jersey. Owen’s MSU jersey is too small (4T). I don’t have one (my old one doesn’t fit, which is why Tom wears it). MSU’s season opener is coming up soon. So I decided to get new jerseys for everyone (well, not for Katie—she has a onesie). I was going to get them all personalized, but not once I saw the price tag. 88| So, Tom just got one and the other two were from eBay. 🙂

I was going to wait until right before the game to give them to him (still before his birthday) but he had had a crappy day at work, so I decided it was time. And he LOVED them, of course…

When he saw that his was personalized, he says “How did you know my high school number was 72?!?” I said “I didn’t—I got your birth year!” (I should have kept my mouth shut to keep him really impressed—because truth be told, I never even THOUGHT about trying to find out what his number was.)

The best thing? Owen was even more excited than Tom was! He had to have his on right away, and then he made both of us put ours on, too. Then he and Tom had to play football in the living room (Owen is GREAT at recovering fumbles). And apparently his number is a quarterback number (or at least was from last season) so he thinks he’s a QB now. 🙂

Stay tuned for a family photo on game day.

Happy 11th Anniversary

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Eleven years. Wow. It just kinda sneaks up on you every year (and even moreso this year since we’ve been a little busy with Katie).

We didn’t even try to get a sitter to do anything this year, though I’m sure our friends would have obliged. Instead, we made a family trip to Wilmington to go to Costco…and have our traditional Chinese meal (we did lunch instead of dinner, though).

Katie was a complete gem, sleeping the entire hour ride down, our entire hour in Costco, and about 75% of our lunch…then took a bottle and slept the entire way home. Of course, Owen was just as awesome, sitting in the cart with stuff piled all around him, not even noticing really because he was having fun with daddy’s phone. 🙂

We had a slight brush with fame at Costco…we saw Keith from Top Chef Texas fame (we’ve eaten at his restaurant, Catch, before). That’s as close to famous as I’m likely to get living here. And he said hi to me in passing, likely because I was staring at him. 🙂

Our lunch was really, really good. I picked a place off Yelp pretty much at random…just going by reviews and proximity to Costco…and we couldn’t have been more thrilled. Everything on the menu at Double Happiness was tempting, but I ended up with the Dry Wok Chicken and Tom got the Coconut Shrimp with Candied Walnut (and we got a Double Steamer dim sum basket). And surprisingly good Hot & Sour soup—as close to mine as we’ve ever had. We definitely want to go back there to try more of the menu!

All in all we had a really good day. How can we not when we have such a great little family?! 😀 (The only downside is that I forgot to take a picture of us to celebrate the day!)

Surprise Shopping Success

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OMG OMG OMG!!

So I was shopping at Ross the other day and just happened to pull out a shirt on clearance that I liked. I tried it on and it fit perfectly so I bought it even though I didn’t need it. I come home and just now looked at the tag and it is the exact brand of my favorite shirt in the world that I can apparently not find online anywhere but can find at Ross and Marshall’s every five years. It’s long-sleeved as opposed to my favorite short-sleeved one but I’m still thrilled. THRILLED.