Merry Christmas

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

We will be traveling to Massachusetts tomorrow for Christmas and are headed to NYC on the 26th for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show with Jamie's family (all 18 of us) as a surprise present for my mother in law. I'm very excited to take Aislinn. We'll be taking the train from Providence down and back.

Today the Direct TV guys are here getting us hooked up (finally) and I'm still wrapping presents. My parents and grandmother are coming over tonight for dinner and festivities. Tomorrow they head to DC to visit my sister and her family.

Feliz Navidad!!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sister-in-law Gretchen's birthday! I hope you have a great day!

Welcome little one!

My friends Sue and Joe had their daughter on the Saturday the 8th.

I'm planning on a visit tonight after work to see the new addition.

Congratulations!!

Almost there...

So things are going pretty well with the house. The kitchen/front hallway floor is done, the carpets are going in today, all of the house is painted except for the master bath, and the bathrooms are pretty much complete. Today the POD arrives and we're going to do some cleaning and move some things over. Jamie really pulled it off and has been working very hard helping to get it all done in time. So we're still on schedule to move in this Friday.

Jamie also came home with a 9 foot Christmas tree (artificial) the other day.

Last night's orchestra/band/chorus concert at the school was great. I was very impressed with the level at which these kids can play and sing. Aislinn was right up front singing her heart out with all her fun facial expressions and I almost started crying. It's so hard to believe how big she is now.

Only 13 more shopping days left until Christmas (if you count today as one of them)!

Happy Birthday!!

I would like to give a shout out to my nephew, Adam, who is celebrating his 15th birthday today!!

I hope you have a great day!

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday to my stepfather, Fred! We're celebrating tonight with pizza, wings, and cake.

Easy and Fun

Orange and clove pomanders. What could be easier? I think I will make these with Aislinn next week to make our new house smell like Christmas.

New Favorite Show

I've gotten hooked on Dirty Sexy Money. Just when you think it's not going anywhere, something jumps out to surprise you. If you liked Six Feet Under then you'll appreciate Peter Krause who plays Nick George. Funny...I just saw him in a few episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 as Andrea's boyfriend during a summer at the beach club. Also actor Daniel Cosgrove who played the golf pro fiancee, Freddy, has 90210 ties. But I digress...

The stylists over at Barton Hill Salon and myself love Zoe McLellan's hair who plays Lisa George. Short and sassy.

Great show. I highly recommend it.

More renovations

Yesterday the living room and dining room were painted a nice neutral (but no bland) color and they look great. Nice and bright. Aislinn's room got it's first coat. She picked out Jolly Green for her room color. Think Kermit the Frog here. It's so bright that it's reflecting off her ceiling!

I've posted this pre-painted pic of the upstairs hallway which will be a color called Macadamia by the end of the week. Aislinn's room is on the left side of the pic and straight ahead is the linen closet. Our room is the doorway on the left at the end of the hall.

Notice the beer can in the closet. Nice.

Cute top

I just love this top by Rebecca Taylor! What I don't love is the price. If it was 75% off I might be able to justify buying it but I doubt it. Anyway...it's cute to look at and imagine wearing.

Renovation update

After owning the house for three days Jamie and his crew have successfully ripped out the carpets and have new ones on order, removed the kitchen floor, completely demolished the master bath, and all of the bathrooms no longer have a vanity. They're making sure they keep one toilet in service at all times...lol. The upstairs bathroom and hallway floors will be removed today.

The painters have been there all weekend and the house is almost all primed already. Today they are going to start painting some of the rooms. Once that is all finished we can get to the kitchen floor and the bathrooms. Tonight is a trip to Lowe's to pick out vanities, sinks, and toilets.

It's been a long three days for Jamie. I've been running to birthday parties, the Christmas walk, finishing the longhouse (woo hoo), and hosting a vendor open house with some friends. I did peel a few pieces of wallpaper and picked out some paint colors. I am planning on being a more integral part of this process starting today.

I'll keep everyone up to date! Once I have pictures I'll post them.

Home Sweet Home

The closing yesterday went smoothly however, the previous owners still have some items they need to remove from the basement today. Jamie has already ripped out the carpets with the help of our neighbors and thank goodness they did. It was disgusting. I don't even want to know what some of those stains were! Next we'll be ripping up the kitchen floor and the master bath. The painters are going to start on Sunday and said they would be done by Wednesday. The countdown is on. We'll see if Jamie can get all the work done before the December 14th move date. So far he's come under budget on everything.

Tomorrow is the Lewiston Christmas Walk and Aislinn will be singing with her school chorus group. It's been a number of years since I did the Christmas walk so it should be fun. Jamie's brother and his family are coming as well to help with the house and to visit.

Have a great weekend everyone!

New Home

We will be closing on our new home this Thursday if all goes smoothly. Then we have approximately two weeks to replace the upstairs carpeting (hallway and all rooms), paint the entire house (interior), re-tile the master bathroom, and paint all the molding. We're not going to be doing this ourselves obviously but nonetheless, it's going to be a challenge which Jamie says will be done by December 14th when the movers come.

Most of our house is already packed in the POD along with the Christmas decorations.

Wish us luck! I will keep you posted!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and safe travels to your family and friends!! For those of you going out shopping on Black Friday have fun!!

How do you explain the unexplainable...or is it inexplainable?

I am going to stop and get this movie today. It looks absolutely hilarious and the fact that William Shatner narrates is makes it even better. Has anyone seen this yet? There are no screenings coming to our area that I know about so I'll just fork over the $15.00 and I'll have it for life. That's about the same amount of money I would spend at the movie theater anyway.

To yule or not to yule?

Ok...it's two days until Thanksgiving but already I am starting to play holiday music in my car thanks to XM radio. Last year I complained because our tree was up the weekend before Thanksgiving. Luckily since we are moving it's packed in the POD and currently sitting at the corner of Elmwood and Sheridan in a climate controlled facility.

Anyway...here's a DVD of the ever famous yule log for purchase if you long to have it this season. I may just buy it. It would go great with the burned copy of Mitch Miller's Christmas Sing Along my brother gave me a few years ago. And it also follows up on what he once told me: "You can find almost anything on Amazon".

Happy Anniversary!

I want to give a shout out to my sister and her husband who were married three years ago yesterday! Happy Anniversary!!

Friday lunch

One of the graduate students in our lab just received his Ph.D. on Monday and today is his last day in our lab. We went out to lunch at Cozumel on Elmwood and after two margaritas I'm not sure I am ready to do any experiments this afternoon! Luckily I only really have paperwork to do.

This weekend we start our longhouse project and maybe some Christmas shopping although Jamie has informed me as of noon today the parking lot at the Outlet Mall was already filled with Canandian license plates and he couldn't find a spot. I think the best shopping days are going to be Monday and Tuesday nights from now on. At least until the holiday season is over.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

What I am coveting today

I love this Picture Postcard dress from Anthropologie. Not sure where I would wear it and if it would look good on me but nevertheless I love it and would like to have the chance to see if it does indeed look good on me. Or anyone else other than the model in the catalog.

Longhouse

Aislinn and I are starting to get our Iroquois longhouse project together which is due on December 3rd. Personally I have dreaded doing this since she started kindergarten. I feel for any parent who has done this project (I have talked to many who absolutely loved it) and just hope we can put together something decent. Personally I have no idea what we will use for the frame. Sticks? Dowels? Toothpicks? And the bark covering has me even more perplexed. Can you get "faux bark" in sheets and cut it to make the shingle like covering?

We'll see how this all plays out.

On a good note, we had a good parent/teacher conference last night followed by a yummy dinner at Carmelo's!

Parent Teacher Conference

Tonight is our parent teacher conference for my daughter, Aislinn, who is in fourth grade. We are scheduled for 7:40-7:55. I guess we'll sum up my daughter's work in 15 minutes. I believe we are the last appointment for the night and that might not be good! It may run into overtime. I feel my daughter is doing very well in school this year so we'll see how it goes. I am expecting good news!

The Holiday

I just saw The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. I loved the story but more importantly loved Cameron's wardrobe!! And I want her hair too!

Here I am

Well I officially have a blog now. Not sure who will want to read it!