Happy New Year!

Christmas & Basketball

So, how was your Christmas?

Ours was pretty good. We had several places to go to, and the boys definitely hit the jackpot once again. They got SO much stuff. This was the year of the video games...Brendan received about 10 new Game Boy Advanced games, Adam received new Leapster games, and Joe's sister & brother-in-law gave the boys their X-Box along with about 20 or so games to go with it! (they bought a Play Station 3 and didn't need their X-Box anymore, and they knew how much fun the boys have playing their X-Box when we visit). On top of all of that, both boys got a lot of other stuff too- toys, games, books, clothes, etc. Brendan found the pickle at 2 of the houses we went to, so he was feeling pretty clever. Okay, so, how many of you do the pickle? Do you even know what I'm talking about? lol It's an old German tradition, there is a pickle ornament that is hidden on the tree, and the first person to find it gets an extra gift- the pickle gift. At one house the pickle gift was gift certificates to McDonald's (score!) and the other pickle gift he won was a really soft beige colored blanket. I might have to swipe that one when he's not looking. lol

Anyway, we enjoyed being with family and the boys had a blast seeing everyone and playing. My mom gave me an MP3 player, so I guess I am no longer the last person on earth to not have one. heehee. I don't know how to use it yet, but I hope to have time to play with it this weekend. Yes, yes, I know I am many years behind technology, you can stop laughing now.

I was going to upload a few pics from Christmas, but I apparently walked off without the cord to my digital camera, so I can't right now. Will have to do that later.

Brendan is on a 1st grade basketball team, and they had their first practice last night. After a minor meltdown/pouting session after getting hit in the face with the ball, I was eventually able to talk him in to sucking it up, going back out there and not giving up. After that, he had a blast, and even made 6 baskets! It will be fun to see him play and learn over the next few months. Between Basketball practices, Basketball games, Cub Scouts, Swimming lessons, and Tae Kwon Do, we will be running all over the place.

Well, anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever you celebrate).

Now it's on to New Year's eve, when I "get" to work all day and all night while everyone else has fun :(

Graphics at pYzam.com

A Little Late, But Here it is...

Isn't this amazing?! A picture just doesn't do it justice, but let me assure you it is AWESOME.

This is what they call The Magic Tree. The guy who does it every year likes to be called Will Treelighter. He has a very detailed purpose and meaning that this tree is supposed to represent. I will copy & paste his description below if you're interested in reading it:

The purpose of the Magic Tree is three fold. First and foremost it is a "senseless act of beauty". This idea, that there can be a senseless act of beauty is actually a misnomer for beauty all by itself has the supreme purpose of conveying the human/divine ideas of hope, goodness, peace and even love. Beauty has a way, when we recognize it, of putting us at ease while at the same time exciting us, paradoxical yes, but true. I think this particular paradox is better known as the state of joy. This is a healing state of mind that can have a powerful affect on heart, mind and soul not to mention the body. Acts of beauty, then, are always quite sensible.

The second purpose of the Magic Tree follows quite naturally from the first and that is to illicit from the viewer a sense of their own natural goodness. What you perceive outside of yourself you have also within you. We spend far too much time seeing what is wrong with each other and the world. What we see outside of us we reinforce within us. It is of course important to acknowledge those things in the world that are not working and find creative solutions but in order to be creative we also must acknowledge those things that do work. Doing so reinforces within us the ability and power to be a solution to problems in the world, in our relationships and within ourselves instead of a part of the problem. Beauty is a powerful ally along with good natured humor in confronting the woes of the world and empowering our sense of Self, our sense of worthiness and response-ableness. So the second purpose of the Magic Tree is to reflect back to you what you essentially already are, a healing being of hope, goodness, peace, love and joy.

The third purpose of the Magic Tree also follows naturally from the first two and that is to bring your attention to the great Being of hope, goodness, healing, peace and love that comes to us by right of our own readiness and developement in these aspects of divine manifestation through the human system. Maitreya is said to be the expected one of all the various religions and also for those who hold to no religion. Maitreya is someone like us but who has gone on before us in His personal evolution to the point where He embodies these divine aspects like no other to date on this planet. He comes to inspire the changes needed in the world to restore balance to the human to human relationships and the relationship of the human system to the other systems of the planet. We however are the ones who must do the work because doing so further developes our own abilities to represent the divine in the world and Maitreya would not take this opportunity from us. I have no proof of Maitreya's existence but only a deep sense of hope that it is true. The prospect of His presence encourages me. How else, without the guidance of this Great Encourager and elder sibling of the human family, can we together work out the solutions to this time of turmoil that we find ourselves in?

The Magic Tree then is a beacon of healing and soothing beauty. It is a call to goodness, drawing out our own innate desire to be the positive changes we want to see in the world. And it is a notice of grace and encouragement to come from that magnificent manifestation of what we together are ready to receive, the Great Encourager, The Teacher, Maitreya.
When the student is ready the teacher will appear. Who shall teach the student, humanity, but one who has been, in many forms and guises, one of us and with us from the beginning?

(as described by Will Treelighter).

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

After the ice last week (check out the double-decker long icicles on our garage above), we got the snow to go with it over the weekend. About 6 or so inches. The boys were so happy, since snow is a lot more fun to play in than ice! lol

Last night we took the boys to a "Cookies With Santa" family activity.

(drunk on cookies? heehee)

They had so much fun decorating a foam stocking, talking to Santa, eating cookies and playing.

Brendan told Santa he wanted a Super Mario game...

Adam told Santa he wanted a reindeer! LOL!

Afterwards we drove around and looked at some Christmas lights around town. To which the boys kept asking "are we there yet?" I don't know how many times I had to try to explain to them that it was not a destination we were going to, but that we were driving around to look at all the Christmas lights as we drove by. Brendan said, "but that's boring". So, it wasn't so much the nice warm fuzzy family togetherness I had envisioned, but we got to see some neat lights and several real deer up close in one neighborhood, so I can't complain too much. Even the boys eventually thought some of the lights were really cool. One house had a ton of stuff, from fountains to racecars to sleighs to gingerbread houses and more. Apparently they have done it every year and we must be the only ones who never knew about it until this year. lol The guy was standing out front taking donations to give to Habitat for Humanity. We donated some money and stopped and talked to him for a little bit. He was so surprised that this was the first year we'd been by. I guess we really are out of it by living out in the boonies instead of in the city limits. lol

The other really awesome thing we went to see was the Magic Tree. I will post that pic for Wordless Wednesday tomorrow :)

Catching up & 2 Cute Pics

Wow, I ended up being away from my blog longer than I intended, sorry! I'll try to quickly catch up on what's been happening since Thanksgiving...

* Thanksgiving was good, we went to Joe's sister's house and enjoyed visiting and eating yummy food. That weekend we decorated the tree and I put out our greenery/lights/bows on the porch outside. I still can't believe it is almost Christmas!

* Adam got sick last week with diarrhea and fever, but he's finally better now.

* Scouts have been taking up some time, Brendan enjoyed their little Christmas party & meeting the other night, and this weekend they are supposed to participate in a parade and craft show.

* Also this weekend is the annual Cookie Share that our local mom's group does. And a scrapbooking crop that has been rescheduled from last weekend (got canceled due to the ice).

* Ice, ice and ice has been our scenery these last several days. Brendan's school has been closed all week so far. His Christmas concert was supposed to be last night, so he sang & performed for us at home instead. lol

* Joe is still having issues with heartburn and stomach. They had put him on Nexium for chronic heartburn and then he started having stomach issues. His doctor was an idiot and no help at all, so he changed doctors. He is now scheduled for an upper endoscopy on Tuesday.

* Speaking of medical issues, my nephew is having another hernia surgery Monday. This is his 5th hernia surgery I think, and he is only 7 years old! Poor kid.

* Kitties are still doing good. They are crazy little furrballs.

I'll end for now with a cute picture of my 2 boys in front of the tree, and a cute pic of my 2 furry boys too...

Hope you all are doing well! I'll try to come around and visit blogs as soon as I can.

Menu Plan Monday

Here's our menu plan for this week...

Monday: Chili

Tuesday: leftover spaghetti from Sunday

Wednesday: Beef stew in the crockpot (one of these weeks we will actually have this! lol)

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Pizza/family night

Saturday: Pork stir fry

Sunday: On your own

Will write more about other stuff later...things have been kinda busy.

Happy Birthday & Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday to my FTS friends Melissa and Carolyn!!!

Melissa's b-day is today and Carolyn's is Saturday.

And Happy Birthday to my RL friend Necia next Tuesday!

Happy birthday ladies! Hope you all have wonderful ones!

And a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

Kitties, Busy week and Menu Plan Monday

Well, it's official, we gave in and let Brendan name the kittens. He of course named them Mario and Luigi. He loves video games and his new gameboy, and he was dying to name the kittens that. Wouldn't have been my pick, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. I'm already used to Mario, Luigi will take a little longer. lol Maybe we can call him Lou instead for short? Or weegee? lol

We are still enjoying them. They have discovered our outdoor stray cat that we've been taking care of, and they will just sit there looking and pawing at each other through the glass door. Mario was afraid of Ollie (the outdoor cat) at first and fluffed up real big, but now they both just have fun watching & pawing at him. And he's somewhat interested in watching them as well.

We had a pretty successful Christmas shopping trip Saturday. I am now about 1/2 done with all my shopping, maybe even about 65-70% done.

This week is another busy one each night after work. Tonight we have to meet Brendan's scout leader somehow to turn in his popcorn money. We just got the order form Thursday, and it's due today, yikes! We actually did pretty well though, about 8 or 9 people ordered some.

Then Tuesday the kitties have a vet appointment and Brendan has Tae Kwon Do. Wednesday he is in the school play at 8:30am (he is a tree in Snow White), then they have their Thanksgiving feast in their classroom, and it's a half-day of school so he comes home early. Wednesday night I'll be making the food we're supposed to bring for Thanksgiving. Thursday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving w/ Joe's side of the family at his sister's house, which is about 2 hours away from us.

As of right now I am not planning to go out at 5am for any of the Black Friday sales. I haven't seen anything in any of the ads this year that is worth it to me. Thanksgiving weekend we will be getting our Christmas tree (that's our tradition anyway, so I assume we will be), and decorating the tree & porch for Christmas. I also hope to get some things cleared out and organized...an always on-going task & goal.

Anyway, on to Menu Plan Monday...

We have been eating venison like crazy, Joe got some recipes from his boss so he's been trying out all sorts of things. Most have been really good! So, anyway, we are taking a short break from venison this week:

Monday: Garlic Lime Chicken

Tuesday: Shrimp/rice/veggie dish

Wednesday: Chili

Thursday: Thanksgiving dinner

Friday: Pizza/family night

Saturday: Beef stew in crockpot

Sunday: Venison Meatloaf or Venison burgers

Holidays are Sneaking Up!

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is one week from today!!! Holy cow! That doesn't seem possible. I am definitely looking forward to Joe's mom's stuffing though. I never used to like stuffing until I had hers, and it is one of my favorite foods now! Yummm, I can almost taste it.

Tonight Brendan has Cub Scouts. Normally he goes to Tae Kwon Do on Tuesdays & Thursdays, but now scouts fall on some of the Thursdays. I am SO exhausted, I really do not want to go, but I'm almost positive he gets his popcorn selling stuff tonight, as well as his first earned award, so we have to.

Kitties still have no names. I want to get them named soon though, I'm tired of calling them just "kitty" and "hey you". Brendan is pushing for us to name them Mario & Luigi. He's into video games now, so he thinks those would be cool names. I'm not exactly thrilled with that, but I could live with it I suppose. Mario is fine, it's Luigi that will take some getting used to. lol We'll see. I do kinda feel like I should let him name them, since the kittens are technically for him & Adam. (although I really am enjoying them and loving them, and secretly feel like they are mine. lol)

This Saturday is our annual Christmas shopping trip. My mom, sister, aunt, cousin, grandma and I get together for one Saturday in November each year to go Christmas shopping. I am not a shopper, I don't like shopping, I don't like crowds, I'd rather do all my Christmas shopping online...BUT, I do enjoy this from the family tradition aspect and enjoy visiting with them all. We've been doing this since I was a kid, so it holds a lot of fun memories. It doesn't seem like it should be time to do Christmas shopping yet, but I guess it is since Christmas is only about 5 weeks away! ACK!

Our Newest "Little Ones"

The kitties are here! The kitties are here! (If you missed the story of what happened to them and how we came about adopting them, click here). I had forgotten what it was like to have little kittens in the house! lol Wow, I didn't go to sleep until 2:30am when I finally had to put them in the bathroom with a litter box, food and water and close the door. The one wasn't a problem, but the other one is a little wild man. He could not stay off of us while we tried to sleep. If he would just lay down at our feet it would be fine, but he insisted on walking up to our faces, on our pillows, drinking my cup of water, trying to get under the covers with us, pouncing on our feet, etc, etc. It's times like this that I really wish our bedroom had a door! lol (it's a loft with no door so the kitties can just walk right up the stairs and have full access to us). The one kitty stayed in the basement for most of the time, Adam scared him with his excitement I guess. lol

They are both ADORABLE though! Such cute little furrballs. I am enjoying them, and the boys love them. Joe likes them too I'm sure. We still haven't named them yet. I had a whole list (3 pages long) of pairs of names that go together, but none of them really seem to fit them. I had almost settled on Rocky & Rambo, but I don't know. I'm starting to think maybe we should just name them normal names instead of names that are a "pair". We also have another outdoor cat that was a stray and ended up sticking around. His name is Ollie (started out as Ali, as we thought he was a she at first. lol). So, do we try to make the kittens' names go with Ollie? That's kinda difficult. Although the funny thought of Ollie, Wally & Doodle did come up (you know the line from the song...Ollie, Wally, Doodle all the day...) lol But, I just can't picture calling one of the kittens "Doodle". By itself it sounds weird. heehee. So then I thought maybe we will just stick with the "O" theme, and just name them names starting with O. In which case I was thinking of Otis & Ozzie for the new kittens. But I'm not 100% convinced yet.

Anyway, here they are! Aren't they adorable?! I can't believe any human being could have possibly tied them up in a trashbag and thrown them away! That just disgusts me. Thank goodness they are safe and have a home now :)

Jam-packed Weekend & Menu Plan Monday

Whew! What a weekend. Joe made it home from Minnesota in time for us to have pizza, cake, watch a movie & open presents on Brendan's b-day Friday. Brendan was SO excited that we got him a Gameboy Advance SP! He's been wanting one SOOO badly. He also thought my dragon cake was pretty cool.

The boys' birthday party at a nearby gym went well Saturday evening. The kids all seemed to have fun. I did feel really bad though, because I discovered that not all of the invitations made it to all the parents, so now some of them probably think we didn't invite them! I started discovering this that morning at play practice (Brendan is in the school play- he's a tree LOL!) and I was chatting with one of his friends' mom and I asked her if they were coming to the party later that day, and she said she had heard about it but never received any info on it. What a bummer, because her son is one of Brendan's favorite friends. They had company in anyway, so couldn't go. Then at the party I discovered from one parent that another parent hadn't received their invitation either. *sigh*.

Joe's brother ended up staying at our house that night (unexpectedly, and boy was I embarrassed that my house wasn't all picked up and tidy) and he & Joe hunted in our woods Sunday morning. Joe got 2 deer this weekend- one on opening day Saturday morning, and one on Sunday morning. So, he is done for the season since he filled both of his tags.

The bad part is, that last night while shuffling around our cars, Joe accidentally backed my SUV into his truck! ARRGG! It was on the side of my passenger side door actually, he was backing at an angle to pull it to the other part of our driveway and apparently swung too wide and clipped it on the back corner of the truck. Of course the piece-of-crap-1984-rusted out-nasty truck didn't have a dent or mark, but my year-old nice SUV now has a dent in the door. *sigh*

Oh, and we were supposed to finally be able to pick up the 2 kitties, as they were the right weight for being neutered and sent home, but I called around 1:00 on Sunday and the lady who had been fostering them wasn't there. Theboys were really disappointed that we couldn't pick them up. They've been waiting for several weeks! But, I got a call this morning from her, and I can pick up the kitties around 3:00 today! So, we will have 2 little crazy furrballs running around our house starting tonight! The boys will be so excited!!!

Sorry for the long post today, but this weekend was jam-packed! Now, onto my Menu Plan Monday:

This weeks Menu Plan:

Monday: dinner out with my grandparents
Tuesday: leftover spaghetti
Wednesday: Beef stew in the crockpot (I keep putting this on the menu plan but keep not making it! lol)
Thursday: Hotdogs for the boys (has to be quick since we have Cub Scouts)
Friday: Pizza (family night)
Saturday: on your own, I'll be gone
Sunday: Homemade chicken fingers & veggies (didn't end up making these last week).

Happy 7th Birthday!

Today Brendan, my 1st born, turns 7 years old!

Tonight we shall eat pizza, watch a movie, open presents, and eat the dragon cake I made (see post below for picture of cake). I just hope Joe makes it home in time. He's driving in from Minnesota (he was there for a couple days for work), and might not get home until the boys are in bed, but he's hoping to be home in time for dinner and cake and presents. Then tomorrow is the birthday party. Brendan is so excited. He even got dressed for school fast this morning because he said "I want to be good for my special day". lol

Happy Birthday Brendan!

We love you!

My Attempt at a Dragon Cake!

Okay, so I took on a little project tonight after the boys went to sleep. See, Brendan is turning 7 on Friday, and both boys' birthday party is on Saturday (Adam just turned 3 & since their b-days are only 2 weeks apart, they share a party for now. I'm sure that will change as they get older). Anyway, they wanted their party to be dragon themed. In the midst of trying to search online for various dragon party favors and such, I accidentally ran across these instructions for making a 3-D dragon cake. Now, what on earth made me think I could even attempt this is beyond me, but the more I looked at the pictures and admired them, the more I thought about trying it. I didn't dare rely on it as the birthday party cake for everyone, just in case it turned out really bad. But in a moment of insanity I talked myself into trying a mini cake, for Brendan to have here at home on his actual b-day Friday.

The instructions call for 8" round cakes and ding dongs. I decided to do a mini version, and use ding dongs (instead of round cakes) & oreos (instead of ding dongs).

Now, keep in mind that I do NOT do cakes. I don't usually make my kids' b-day cakes, and I have rarely ever even baked or frosted a normal flat cake. (I'm more of a cupcake-making-Mom than a cake-making-Mom) So again, I have no idea what made me try this, but I did. (I figured at the worst it would look ridiculous and/or fall apart, and we could just eat the messed up ding dongs and oreos with frosting on them and no one would have to know. lol)

Although this is FAR from perfect, and definitely the work of an amateur, overall I think it turned out pretty cute :) Especially for a 7 year old and 3 year old who would like it no matter what considering it consists of ding dongs, oreos, lots of frosting, chocolate chips and fruit roll up...talk about being in sugar heaven! lol

So, here it is...

Now I'm off to bed.

Goodnight!

Menu Plan Monday (on Tues again!)

Once again, I'm a day late posting this, sorry! This week's meals are for convenience and not the healthiest choices, but I don't care. The last couple weeks have been crazy and I need a break!

Monday= Soup

Tuesday= McD's after Tae Kwon Do class

Wednesday= homemade chicken fingers & veggies

Thursday= Kid Cuisine frozen meals for the boys (it's a busy night w/ little time)

Friday= Pizza & birthday cake/cupcakes (Brendan's 7th b-day!)

Saturday= Birthday Party

Sunday= beef stew in the crockpot

My Little Spooks

The boys were both ninjas this year. I work at a Halloween event every year, so they came there to do games, activities, and of course get CANDY! I had not tried Adam's costume on him until the night before, and of course it was too small. So we improvised and had him wear navy pants & shirt under his ninja overlay thing instead of the jumpsuit that came with it. Worked out fine, but his head piece was so tight it couldn't be pulled down over his face, so he wore it more like a hat instead. Oh well. It was fine, they had fun, that's all that matters.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Today is Adam's 3rd birthday! Unfortunately he had a grumpy start to his day, but hopefully he will be a bundle of joy when he gets home :) We brought cupcakes to daycare, so about snack time he should cheer up! lol Tonight is pizza, cake and presents at home as a family.

Happy Birthday Adam!

We love you!

Wordless Wednesday: Ice Cream Mustache & Gotee!

Scout Party & Hayride

On Sunday Brendan had a Scout Fall Party & Hayride to go to. It was at the Pack leader's farm, and the boys had a blast!

The big barn had a loft that was set up with tables & chairs, basketball hoop, magnetic darts, and strings of lights all over. Out one of the top windows of the barn was a slide! How fun!

They picked corn to feed the horses. They thought it was a fun activity, even though they were doing work on the farm to help their leader ;)

After the meal, as it started to get dark they played a few games. The favorite game by far was the flour fight! Each kid (and adult) had a panty hose filled with flour and they ran around whacking each other with it.

Then they went on a hayride around the farm.

It was a great time. Brendan and Adam both had so much fun!

Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday, Oops!)

Oops! Forgot to post this yesterday. Here's our menu plan for this week:

MONDAY: Goulash (I think different people called different things goulash, in our case this is macaroni or rotini noodles, ground hamburger and tomato soup/sauce mixed).

TUESDAY: Was going to be a chicken dish, but now we have parent-teacher conferences right at dinner time, so we'll probably just eat leftovers.

WEDNESDAY: Old Bay Pork Chops (we didn't end up doing these last week)

THURSDAY: leftovers

FRIDAY: Pizza & Birthday cupcakes (Adam's 3rd b-day!)

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: On your own (I will be gone at a Scrapbook retreat, woohoo!)

School Picture

Brendan's school pictures came back today, just thought I'd share real quick. I think they turned out pretty good! The fact that he cut a chunk out of his bangs and we had to take him to get his hair buzzed the night before school pictures actually turned out fine! lol

Cats & Rainbows

Last Tuesday my mom's cat, Neko, died. We got that cat while I was still living at home, my sister and I had to beg and plead to get him. At the time, my mom hated cats. She wanted nothing to do with them. She would jokingly say "I love cats...dead ones". (Be careful what you wish for, huh?). But eventually she agreed to let us bring this cat home. (we were older by then and had powers of persuasion. lol) It was actually a kitten from Joe's cat at his parents' house. She made us promise that "the last one out takes the cat". Anyway, over the next couple years my mom fell completely in love with Neko. We all did. He was so funny and cute and loving. My sister moved out and got married, I moved out and got married, and by then she was saying "the cat stays with me". My dad moved out and got married (long story). Through all of that she had Neko by her side. I'm sure that he was a huge factor in her getting through the divorce. He has been her buddy, her "child", her best friend, and her roommate for so many years now. But recently he was getting very sick, not eating, not drinking, not going to the litter box, and had fluid building up in his belly. They drained a liter of fluid, and it was back a few days later. He was diagnosed with FIP and the vet strongly encouraged my mom to have Neko put to sleep. She struggled with that decision, as she didn't want to "kill" him, but didn't want him in pain either. And the vet said he would die soon on his own anyway. So, after many tears she went ahead and followed the vet's advice. That was last Tuesday. I am somewhat sad about him being dead, but I am much more sad knowing how much she loved him and misses him and all the ways it affects my mom. I think to her, this is like losing a child. Goodbye Neko, we will miss you.

On a happier note, I went with her to the Humane Society on Sunday, and she picked out two new kittens. They won't replace Neko, but hopefully they will help fill the void in some ways.

While I was there, I asked about the other 2 kittens that we are supposed to be getting (see earlier post for that story) and the lady said they are doing fine, but still not big enough to neuter yet, so we will have to wait awhile longer to bring them home. The boys are sure anxious to see them.

One last tidbit to share...this morning when I pulled into the parking lot at work, there was a huge, beautiful double rainbow in the sky- it went a full arch. I could only get a small fraction of it in the photo, but it went all the way across the sky. The photo doesn't even come close to doing it justice (it was still kinda dark outside too), but thought I'd share anyway...

Menu Plan Monday

Here's our menu plan for this week:

MONDAY: Chili

TUESDAY: Chicken & Veggie Casserole

WEDNESDAY: Chicken Quesedillas

THURSDAY: leftovers

FRIDAY: Pizza/Family night

SATURDAY: Old Bay Pork Chops

SUNDAY: Skillet Fajitas

We're Back!

Well, we are back from our weekend celebration for our 10 year anniversary. Things started out a little crazy...Brendan got sick earlier in the week, with a high temperature. He ended up home from school Wed & Thursday. Joe took him to the doctor Thursday morning, because we were supposed to be taking the boys to my mom's house that night. They tested for strep, ear infection, etc and finally said it was just a virus and we'd have to wait it out. So, since my mom insisted that we still bring the boys and still go on our trip, we did. The next morning as we were heading out the door for our trip, the doctor's office called. Turns out they let the culture sit overnight, and by morning his strep test was actually positive. At this point he had already been at my mom's all night! So, the nurse called the prescription into a pharmacy near my mom's house, and we called Mom to let her know what had happened. She agreed to go pick up his prescription. I just hope my mom doesn't catch the strep...she has MS and doesn't need anything like that to wear her down! I feel so terrible :( She didn't have the boys the whole time, but she did for a day and a half before my dad & his wife took them. By then he had been on antibiotics and wasn't contagious anymore.

But, that aside, Joe and I had a very nice little trip together. The hotel we stayed in was nice, and we had a jacuzzi, kitchen, deck, etc. The first evening we went to an amusement park that is lit up after dark. We rode a few rollercoasters and such that we normally cannot ride when the boys are with us. We played mini golf in the amusement park too, and ate at a 50's themed diner. Then, just before the park closes they do a fireworks & lazer light show (which is the real reason we were there).

The next day we went out to breakfast at a pancake house, and then stopped by the Winery for the free tour and wine tasting. We ended up buying a few bottles, and a bottle of sparkling raspberry juice for the boys.

We hung out in our hotel room for a little while, watched some home improvement shows on HGTV (we love those, and we don't have cable at home), sat out on our deck, and relaxed for a little bit.

That evening we ate at a fairly fancy Italian restaurant, and the food was SO YUMMY!!! We are very casual people, and I don't think we've ever eaten at a fancy restaurant, so we were clueless when the waitress brought out a scoop of butter after the appetizer. We're both looking at it thinking, what do we need a scoop of butter for? Then we saw that there was a little spoon and we're thinking, okay, maybe this is not butter, why is there a spoon? So finally Joe gets up the nerve to taste it, and it was sorbet to cleanse our pallette before the main dish! LOL! We felt really stupid. So, we ate it, and it was yummy! Shows how much we know about being "fancy", huh? LMAO. The waitress was nice enough to take our picture before we left.

After dinner, we headed down by the lake. We were on our way to the landing when we saw a scenic area and the sun setting, so we stopped and walked by the water and took a couple pictures.

Then we headed on to the landing area, to go to a dueling piano bar. It was fun, and the guys playing/singing were really good.

After hanging out and having a few drinks, we then walked along the boardwalk down by the water. There was a really neat fountain that shot up water in a neat pattern, and had different colored lights and such. We watched that for a few minutes, and enjoyed a night walk along the boardwalk before heading back to the hotel.

All in all we had a wonderful time celebrating together! I'm so glad we took the time out for the two of us to relax and enjoy.