Confirmed!

Look who's apprearing on the Today show this week:

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20187202,00.html

Looks like the reunion wasn't all rumors.

Did I say that I surrendered to my age?

Ok, I know the other week I said that I had come to terms with the fact that I’m getting old. Apparently part of me still thinks I’m 21 and can stay out all night with the girls. Sunday morning was a harsh reminder that I am most definitely not 21 and I certainly cannot party like I used to. Saturday, after running some errands, Kelly and I headed to Winchester for some girl’s time with Rachel and Kristy. We started out relaxed, eating some munchies, gossiping in Rachel’s living room. Dinner at Brewbaker’s was even low-key. Some decent bar food and a few drinks. Once the crowd rolled in, somewhere we lost our self control and started ordering a few too many drinks. It was a great time with the girls, some old friends, and even my little sis who made it out, but I most definitely felt the ‘good time’ the next morning!

On Sunday, I got to spend some QT with mom and Laura – shopping, dinner, PACK’S ICE CREAM…A fun day. We were supposed to get pedi’s too, but were turned away at the door because it was only 30 minutes until they closed. We were not happy campers and vowed to never return to Elite Nails again! Another place I may never step foot in again…Wal-Mart. I have been in search of a decent patio set that it not $1000 and finally found one yesterday in Wal-Mart of all places. All set (and excited!) to make my purchase, I was told they had no way to get the boxes down from the top shelf. (Something about not knowing where the keys to the lift were.) Needless to say, after standing around for 20 minutes while they searched for #1 someone who knew how to operate the lift and #2 the keys to the lift, and then being told I had to leave empty handed, did not sit well with me. After getting into a bit of a tiff with one of the assistant managers, I left almost in tears (of rage). Today, I’m not quite as upset…After calling both customer service and the store manager, I am having the patio set delivered to my house for free! (Well, I have to pay for the set, but not the shipping.) I have to say, I would feel a little bit better if Nichole was canned as well, but I guess I can settle for the free shipping.

New Face for a New Job

Spaaaaaah...Red Door, exactly - Is where I'll be spending my evening on April 15th! In celebration of Spa Week, and my job change (more to come later), I’m treating myself to a facial. Well, actually Frank is treating me, as I’m planning to use part of my birthday gift certificate from him. I couldn’t pass up the $50 facial special for Spa Week! I just made my appointment and can’t wait!

Not so bad here

With everything we've been reading and hearing about the housing market, it seems that the sky is falling everywhere. I think the housing markets in Las Vegas, Florida, et. at. have left America with the conception that markets everywhere are sinking, sinking, sinking. While the bubble from the early 2000’s has most certainly popped, I really don’t think the overall housing market is as bad as CNN and other news outlets lead us to believe. Case in point: A house on our block went on the market on Monday and yesterday evening as I pulled onto our street, I was quite surprised by the “Under Contract” sign. Yep – 1 day on the market. That - after our neighbors were told by their first realtor that they would only get $560k – and they decided to list at $699k. Granted the ‘yellow monster’ on our block has been for sale for over a year – but vastly overpriced at $1.3M. If you price it right, they will come.

Chocolate Overload

Frank & I spent Easter Sunday in Winchester with my mom, sister, and the rest of the crew. We left Arlington Saturday afternoon so I could meet up with Rachel & Kristy for dinner, which was, as always an incredibly fabulous time! Saturday was the first time I’d seen Kristy since December when she told us she was preggers – She’s about 22 weeks now and looks amazing. I can’t wait for our newest girl to enter our close-knit circle! After dinner, Frank & I met my sister for a quick drink and then we headed to mom’s for some egg-dying fun! We all stayed up well past midnight so we could indulge in our Lenten sacrifices: chocolate for me & Frank, parmesan goldfish for Laura, and potato chips for mom. I ate so many peanut butter M&Ms on Saturday night, my tummy was still feeling icky on Sunday morning! After mass on Sunday, we headed back to mom’s house, where we proceeded to eat our way through the day. We had pasta for lunch and ham and turkey with all the fixin’s for dinner – and lots of snacks in between! I ate so much that I couldn’t even finish my two chocolate desserts that I piled on my plate! By the end of the day, I was so uncomfortably stuffed – and tired! I couldn’t even drag myself out of bed this morning to the gym…guess that means I need to run a few extra miles tomorrow morning to start working off some of these M&Ms! Happy Easter, Everyone!

Gotta hand it to ‘em

As most everyone knows, I am and always will be a Bo’ Sox fan; however, I will admit when the Yankees deserve my respect. Yesterday they showed extreme class by traveling to Blacksburg (star players and all) to play the VT baseball team in memory of the victims of the tragic events that occurred last April. They even donated a week’s worth of Jeter’s salary ($1M) to the Hokie Memorial Fund ;) – All Hokies, Yankees fans or not, have to respect them for that!

I've surrendered to my age

Yesterday after work I hit the mall to pick up my new 7 jeans (a ‘gift’) which had to be altered (shortened, of course!) – While there, I figured I would treat myself to a few new outfits for our upcoming Vegas trip. After striking out in my usual stores, and deciding that I did not want to spend a lot of money on cute, trendy, ‘going out’ clothes that I would probably only wear in Vegas, I decided to venture into Forever 21. Well, let’s just say I was easily the oldest person in the store and my-oh-my was I out of place! After hunting around, I found 2 dresses to try on – The first which was so short and tight, I had trouble getting it on and off – I’m hoping they don’t have cameras in the dressing rooms or someone got a good laugh. I had to literally fight with the dress to get it off, over my head! One of my earrings even shot off in the process, into the room next door. Yes, quite a debacle. After that ordeal, the thought crossed my mind that I am not quite forever 21. Not ready to give up though, I hit another store, which I don’t even remember the name of – I wanted to laugh out loud as I walked through – ridiculous clothing (for someone my age!). I guess it’s time to come to terms with my age and admit that I’m almost 30!

Early Easter

On Saturday it certainly felt like spring was in the air and seemed natural that the Easter Bunny should be hopping down the trail shortly. Frank and I spent the afternoon outside seeding our lawn to cover the bare spots and fertilizing. I can’t wait for more spring flowers in the stores so I can start planting flower gardens! Yesterday; however, turned rather cold and rainy and felt more like the Ides of March were upon us. Despite the chilly weather, Frank and I celebrated Easter a little early with my Dad and sister (and her friend, John). To warm us up, I cooked pork tenderloin with red wine gravy, glazed carrots, cream spinach, and roasted potatoes. Laura made her famous deviled eggs and we of course topped off the evening with a Gummy Bear Cake in celebration of Laura’s latest feat (see previous blog). A very enjoyable day – Luckily on the real Easter, I will get to dig into my chocolate bunny that is now teasing me!!

Congrats, Laura!

I had a feeling my little sister was going to do it - and late Saturday night she heard official word that she was accepted to the radiologist program that she had applied to earlier this year, through Shenandoah University and the Winchester Medical Center. After numerous interviews with the school board and hospital board, observations, and even a class and exam, she pulled through and was one of the 22 (or so) selected out of over 400 that applied! Way to go, Laura Garone, RDSD :) I am so proud of you and never doubted once that you could do it!

Forever a kid at heart

Yesterday I mentioned to a few of my co-workers something about wanting lots of chocolate in my Easter basket - They were quite flabbergasted that I still get an Easter basket…And even more tickled by the fact that the Easter Bunny still hides my basket, leaving my sister and I (and now Frank) to wake up on Easter morning to the excitement of hunting for our goodies. It’s a tradition that my family has done ever since I can remember, and despite being a tad embarrassed to find that I’m apparently too old for this kind of stuff, one that I’m certainly not going to suggest stopping!

This morning as I was eating my cereal and watching TV, Frank came into the living room, looked at me and said, “Really? Easter baskets and Saved by the Bell?” In my defense, the Today Show was on commercial so I just flipped to catch a few minutes of Zach and the crew. Hey – at least I was eating Raisin Bran instead of Fruit Loops! :) A part of me will always be a kid at heart.

A little R & E

This weekend was so restful and productive - A full dose of relaxation and errands! Frank and I started the weekend on Friday night with dinner at 'our' sushi place and then hit up Blockbuster for a few movies. We watched Michael Clayton after dinner, which I was not a fan of, as proven by my frequent cat naps throughout. It just didn't grab me from the start. After a relaxing evening, the errands started on Saturday morning with a trip to Exxon to get my oil changed and then I hit up the gym. That afternoon, Frank met up with some of his boys for some basketball and golf, as I headed to Cheesecake Factory to meet Megan for lunch. She's nearing her third trimester and looks fantastic! After lunch, I hit the mall for some shopping and more errands and then met up with Frank and his boys that evening to hang out. Mark and Sarah were in town from NYC so we got to spend some time with them which was nice since we hadn't seen them since our wedding. They are also expecting and just found out they're having a boy! How exciting! I swear, it feels like everyone around me is preggers!! (I’m avoiding tap water just in case it’s something in the water! hehe)

Frank actually didn't have soccer on Sunday, so he went to church with me and then we hit Costco to stock up. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the house - literally...The blinds that we ordered for the upstairs bedrooms came in so we hung them yesterday. :) We both agreed that we were really glad we decided to save the extra $200 by installing them ourselves - It was a piece of cake! We ended our weekend with a second movie...Reign on Me, which I thought was really good - Frank, however; was not won over. Now begins a full week of work...

Snow, snow, and even more snow!!!

My mom and I went to visit our family in New Hampshire this past week. I knew they had gotten a lot of snow this winter, but it's one thing to hear about it and definitely another thing to see all of the snow in person! They had gotten close to 100 inches prior to our visit and while we were there it snowed another 5 inches on Wednesday night as we landed, and then another 10 on Friday night/Saturday morning - bringing them even closer to beating the record of 122 inches set back in 1873. Granted, some of the snow has melted and packed down, so they only have about 3-4 feet on the ground now, but the snow banks are easily 7-8 feet high. It's truly beautiful, but I certainly couldn't live there with all of that snow - It would just get miserable! Here is a picture of my grandmother's backyard - Notice the snow is easily half-way up the swing set...And another picture looking out her front door - You can barely notice the fence by the tree line.




We made a visit to the Budweiser Brewery during our trip and met some of the infamous Clydesdale horses, took a tour of the factory, and got to sample some beer. I tried two types that I hadn't had before - Budweiser Select and their seasonal summer ale, Sun Dog - both which were pretty good. Select actually has less calories than Bud Light! And Sun Dog tastes very similar to Corona.



After 4 days in the cold, I was ready to come back to VA - And what a nice change it was - It was so nice on Sunday when we got back home, I was able to go for a short run outside! Spring cannot come soon enough!