Mock Turtle Neck

I received a mock turtleneck in the mail the other day from a company called Clothing 4 All. Although it wasn't the size I expected (I thought it was going to be a 2T, it was a children's size 2-4 instead) It looks VERY warm. I would highly recommend you going to www.clothing4all.com and ordering one for yourself too.

Here's a picture of the shirt..


Since it wasn't the size I expected I couldn't post a picture of it on someone.

I wish I had bought a size for me though because it looks so warm. I put my arm in it to test it out, and it's super soft on the inside. So soft infact I think I could crawl up in it and sleep.

The black is the perfect shade of black, but they are available in a bunch of different colors, I picked black because it will go with anything. It's going to make a great Christmas present for a niece or nephew of mine, one that I know will last awhile and stand up to the rough and toughness of a child.

Vacations

During our 6 hour drive home yesterday, my husband and I were talking about vacations.

Since we've gotten married we haven't ever really had a family vacation. Most of the jobs my husband has had did not offer paid vacation days, if they did we used them to visit family. Any holiday or day he got off was always used for traveling to and from Maine, Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Virginia.

We live pretty far from my family, so we don't see them that often, when we do it's always a rush to make sure we see everyone while we're in town.

His job he has now gives him 2 weeks of paid vacation. That might actually leave us enough days for traveling to see family AND having our very first ever family vacation.

Which of course has us thinking about where we should go and when. Do we fly or drive? Stay in a hotel, rent a cabin or camp? Get travel insurance or not?

We had thought about going to the beach somewhere. Probably either in North or South Carolina, then we realized we probably have access to someone's house in Florida, so we could go there for free. There are so many choices. Wherever we go we want it to be relaxing and fun, not jam packed with doing things and seeing things and spending money. We want a low key vacation. Does anyone have any good ideas?

Thanksgiving

We took a trip to Tennessee, it was great. I didn't realize how bad I missed everyone until we saw everyone.

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving, and a surprise birthday party for me the day before thanksgiving. Really it was a good relaxing trip.

I'm so excited about Christmas coming, This weekend we will venture out and buy a Christmas Tree. I cannot wait. I love Christmas Tree's so much, it's my favorite part of Christmas. If they made rehabs for Christmas Tree addicts like they make alcohol rehabs I'd have to check myself in.

There is just something about bundling up, wondering around in the cold picking out the perfect tree. Then bringing it home, setting it up and decorating it. It doesn't get any better than that. The whole family around the tree, hanging ornaments and lights.

What is your favorite part of Christmas? The tree? The family time? The food? The presents?

I'm leaving

on a Jet plane... Don't know when I'll be back again.

OK, that is a lie. I'm not leaving on a plane, and I know when I'll be back again.

But I'm soooo excited because on Wednesday (my birthday) we'll be getting in the car and driving 6 hours to visit all our good friends in Tennessee. We miss them so bad, we haven't seen them since July and Lexi has changed so much since then.

We'll be spending Thanksgiving with Jim and Kathy, and visiting all our friends from our church. We'll be coming home on Monday. I'm sure I wont want to leave.

So tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be packing our Samsonite luggage and loading the car. ok, we don't really have that nice luggage, but someday....

I'm always afraid I'll forget something. Last weekend when we went to visit my sister in law we forgot to bring any of Lexi's toys. Luckily they have a 7 year old who had some toys Lexi could play with. We're going to try to avoid forgetting the toys this trip, We wouldn't want Lexi having to play with dog toys!!

Football

My husband is becoming addicted to football.

Today we watched parts of 3 or 4 different games. We watched all of the Stealer's game, of course with him being from near Pittsburgh he's staying loyal to his home turf.

He got so irritated when they lost in over time he threw a plastic potato chip at the tv.

I better get him under control or we might be looking for Superbowl tickets in the near future.

Well, I don't know if it will go that far, but he is liking football. Tomorrow he'll go to work and spend time discussing all the exciting plays of the game with "the guys."

Gifts

I have mentioned before that I have the hardest time deciding what I want for my birthday or Christmas. Some woman have no problem making a list, including diamond earings, D&G watch, kitchen appliances, clothes.... their list go on I'm sure.
For me, Christmas and Birthdays has always been the only time I get things I need or want so it's so hard to decide- do I want craft things, or a new shirt!?
With my husband it's really easy, it's a CD every time you ask him what he wants.
Does anyone else have a problem deciding what they want, or am I the only one?

Exercise

I've started exercising again. Exercise is something I've never been consistent with, eating on the other hand... well, I've been consistent with that. This unequal balance is the reason for the extra weight around my waist.
In the past I have tried Pilates, Slim in Six, running, and now I'm working out will Billy Blanks and his Tae Bo tapes. I would love to be able to afford some exercise equipment, especially a treadmill. I really like running, but it is hard trying to go running when you don't have a jogging stroller, and it's dark before your husband leaves for work and after he gets home.
I've had success in trying each of those programs, they all do different things and I haven't followed the diet for any of them. I find just cutting back on the amount of food I eat not what I eat, works best for me.
So what happens? Why do I stop working out consistently? I'll work out for months then suddenly I just don't feel like it. So I stop. I loved the Slim in Six work out videos. I was borrowing them from my neighbor, I had been doing them for about 3 months when I found out I was pregnant. So I stopped. They were too hard for me to do and feel safe. I got bored with pilates because it was toning my body but not getting rid of the fat that covered the muscles. Under the excess weight there were some pretty nice muscles I'm sure.
what works for you? are you consistent? Do you use a treadmill or some other equipment? or is a video your choice to work out with?

Cell phones

I talk on the phone entirely too much. I have used more than 900 peak minutes in a month.
Our two year contract ran out with our cell phone providers and we decided to cut the minutes down to 700 SHARED minutes so we could afford to get a land line with unlimited long distance. Sounds good doesn't it?
I called the home phone providers and they informed me I had to wait over 2 weeks before they could get someone here to set up the phone stuff! Can you believe that?
Imagine how hard it is for me, someone who is used to having 900 minutes myself, to try to use only 350!!! That's no where near enough minutes. I need a cell phone booster for my battery. My husband would say I just need to stop talking on the phone.
He's a guy, what does he know about talking? Obviously he doesn't know it's a necessity! :)

Baby shower

My sister in law is due in the end of January. I am one of the lucky few that gets to help plan the shower.
I'm having a hard time with this because I want it to be something spectacular. Great, wonderful, awesome, amazing. Something you'd see in lights in Vegas.
It's hard because the four of us that are planning it all live between 45 minutes and 2 hours away from each other. I'm sure with her husband's family helping it will be a good shower, I just hope it is.
My number one priority in this shower is to make sure April and Jason get EVERYTHING they need and want for little baby Elijah. My nephew's not gonna be in need!
As a matter of fact, my nephew's going to be spoiled! Just like he needs to be.
So hopefully in the month that we have to plan this shower we can get everything taken care of so no one has to worry about anything!
Crazy!