How was your week?

What a week it has been. Well really, only two bad days but that's enough to count as "the week" in my book. On Tuesday morning we got in the car to take the kids to preschool and my check tire pressure indicator was on. No big deal I thought, this light used to come on all the time in my pilot when the weather got cooler. After I picked up the kids at preschool I went to Martin's to see if my tire did in fact need air. After checking my manual to see what my tire pressure is supposed to be, 33 PSI in front, and 35 PSI in back I got out of the car to put air in the needed tire and check the others. When I went to put air in the front passenger's tire (this is the one that was on my indicator) it was all the way down to 19PSI. I couldn't believe how low it was. We went home and then a short five hours later I got in van again to go to work and what do you know the stupid indicator was on again. I told Joe about this and he reminded me that I could look on my dash and in would tell me my exact PSI of each tire. It was back down to 23PSI. I went to work hoping that a friend's husband in tire shop could look at it and then fix it for me. No such luck. I had a huge SCREW in my tire, in a spot no less that could not be repaired. This means a whole new tire. I spent all of my morning Wednesday at Costco so they could replace my not even 6 month old tire and $168.54 later I was able to leave. I still cannot believe how much one of my tires was. So that is how my week has gone. I know it's not the worst thing that could have happened but that and this gloomy weather has put me in such a blah mood. Don't get me wrong I Love Fall, I really do love the cooler weather. I 'd like it much if rain weren't included and if it wasn't so gloomy all day long. This weather gives me no motivation to do anything, all I want to do is nothing.

Today we were supposed to go to D.C to The Annual National Book Fair. Joe has worked this for three years now. It's supposed to be really cool, but since they were calling for rain we (me and the kids) decided not to go. Joe still had to go for work of course but it's good for him, he'll get 12 hours of comp time for the day. I talked to him just a little bit ago and he said it hasn't rained much since this morning. So instead of going today the kids and I are just hanging out at home. I cleaned out the pantry, it really was overdue. I put some chili in the Crock pot for dinner tonight, for when Daddy gets home of course. I have also done quite a bit of laundry, but that's about it. Oh and I also managed to watch the season premiere of ER, in which I cried almost the whole hour. That was fun, I really hate that I am so emotional about my shows. Joe laughs at me sometimes cause he just knows when I am gonna break down. Sometimes it helps cause I tend to start laughing at him laughing at me cause it is a little silly, especially some of things I cry at. Other than crying I really enjoyed the episode and I really am gonna hate to see it go at the end of this season since this is it's last.

Hope everyone is having a nice relaxing weekend.

Coming up this week......Our Anniversary (which means a Date Night, if everything goes as planned) and Our annual Light the Night Walk. And oh my gosh it's almost October already. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Until next time....

Frustration!

I have been trying not to complain as much but this whole situation is making it very difficult for me. A few of you probably already know what I am about to write about. Here we go, I had a Pampered Chef party at my house on FRIDAY MAY 23rd. I asked my consultant to keep my party "open" for a few more days so that I could get a few more orders from people at work. As soon as I had all my orders together from my friends at work, I drove down to Sterling to deliver them to her. First problem, she never returned my phone call from the previous day or the day that I drove down there. One of my very best friends happens to be her next door neighbor so I instead gave my orders to her to deliver for me. My friend delivered them that evening and my consultant confirmed this with me as I finally spoke to her the following day which was Saturday the 31st. She stated that she was going to close my show and that I would receive my order by the end of the week. Pampered Chef has been really quick about turn around time is what she told me. On Tuesday the 3rd I spoke with her again because I needed to get the total on one of the orders. She then told me that she was closing my party that afternoon as she had two more orders to add to my party. Still she said I should receive my order if not by weeks end no later than that next Monday. So here we are now it's Tuesday June 10th and still no boxes. At this point I now have guests asking me why their checks have not been cashed? WHAT? I called her that early afternoon only to have her tell me she would call PC and find out where my order was and call me right back. Three hours later I leave for work and two and half hours after that she calls the house. She told Joe that my order would be shipping the following day and I should receive it by the end of the week. Yes, another end of the week. Friday comes and still no order. I call her yet again and she asks me how am I doing? I tell her not good as I still do not have my order. I also add that I have not gotten a tracking number for my order and the last time I had a party I was notified by email that my order was shipped. She tells me I am going to call PC and find out what is going on and she will call me right back. One hour later we decide to leave the house so I call her only to let her know and to give her my cell phone number. Had to leave her a voice mail. The night goes on and still no phone call, Saturday passes and a busy day for us so I don't call her. Sunday comes still no phone call. I get that it was Father's Day and all but still at least a phone call to say hey I am still trying to find out what going on with your order but, nothing. Now here we are at Monday June 16th. Thirteen days after my party was "closed" and still no packages. I decided to write an email to the customer service people at PC earlier today. A few hours later I get a email (an automatic one, I think) that has my tracking number from Fed Ex and says that my order was shipped TODAY! For those you wondering in my email to PC I in no way put down my consultant. I just said that I thought it was very unusual that it was taking so long for my order to ship and could they please give me some information as to when I would be receiving my order. So there you go, it shipped today and I should according to Fed Ex receive it by Wednesday. Can you see my frustration? I know such a long story and I am sorry but I felt like I had to tell the whole story for everyone to understand where I was coming from. Oh and also when and if I get the order on Wednesday I have to quickly separate everything because on Thursday (after work) we leave for a couple of days for a little road trip.

No onto the fun part of our weekend.......

On Friday Nana and I and the kids did a little gallivanting. Had to get Jacob another pair of swim trunks as two of the pairs I bought him were a little big. When we got home we did some drawing with chalk on the driveway. Jacob has a huge bucket of chalk and is constantly wanting to draw things that swim and go in the water. It really is quite funny cause most of the time we end up covering the whole darn driveway. Fun times......

On Saturday we kind of just hung out in the a.m. On Saturday afternoon myself and two of my neighbor friends took one of our other neighbor friends to the movies. She's expecting her third child and it's her third boy so we thought she could use some girl time before the baby comes. We went to see Don't Mess with the Zohan, staring Adam Sandler. He is such a funny guy. It was a really funny movie, I think all of us enjoyed the movie and the girl time. We've decided that we definitely need to make sure we make more time for us and we cannot wait again until one of has another baby. Because who knows when that will be. Ha! Ha!

Sunday of course was Father's Day and unfortunately I had to work. This was okay with Daddy though cause I am off this coming weekend so we can drive out to Indiana to see my SIL and BIL and our niece and nephew. We are also stopping in Ohio on the way to go to this Amusement park- Kings Island. For these exciting rides for the kids, besides these cool rides they also have a Scooby Doo ride and everybody knows SD is Jacob's favorite. We all looking forward to this mini family vacation, time away from work again. Fun times for the kids, too. I am not sure how many rides Jenna's actually going to get to ride because she's so petite. She gets in free so that's a plus.

I guess I should get back to Sunday. After I got home from work we all just relaxed and then had dinner and then relaxed some more. Did I mention I had to be at work at 6:30am on Sunday? I never have to work this early, but it was good because then I had the afternoon off. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Sorry about how long my post is, especially my ranting part. Until next time.....................

It's Official.....

I am on VACATION! I clocked out tonight at 10:33 p.m and I do not have to work again for 11 days, yeah! You know what one of the best parts about the week that I'm on vacation is? I am totally missing inventory...We inventory on either the 13th or the 14th, I really don't know cause I won't be there. Really just luck but good luck. This year our inventory's going to be really bad, probably the worst that store has ever done. But oh well I won't have to be there. I don't have to wear blue and khaki for 10 days. Silly I know, but really it does get a little irritating after a while of wearing the same colors day after day after day. Oh and also no crappy customers,no complaints, this week was a pretty crappy week for crappy customers. I had one man call me an a**hole, the best part....it was because he was the idiot. He was the one who came into the store with a lawn mower full of gas, and then proceeded to argue with me on whether or not it was against fire codes. But I was the a**hole, go figure. I know off on a tangent, sorry. So needless to say I am soooo glad that this work week is finally over.

Am I packed you ask? Well sort of, I have all my clothes together. Not in my suitcase yet, because my suitcase is still in the basement. I kind of have some of my bathroom stuff together but not really to organized there. I really hope to get all my stuff together and in my suitcase sometime tomorrow. I don't want to do like I normally do and be putting stuff together at the last minute on Saturday night. Our flight leaves at like 7 something Sunday morning, and we have to drive to Baltimore, yuck! Going out of Baltimore saved us some serious dough on our plane tickets and we all know every penny counts.

So plans have changed a little for tomorrow I still have some running around to do but I will not be getting my hair cut. I know I am really kinda bummed about it but the guy who was to cut my hair had some sort of hand injury. He's not working the rest of the week, and I am not really ready to let another new person cut my hair. Especially right before our vacation, who knows what could happen. Sorry Kelly there will probably be no curls in my near future. Still not sure if I am ready for that either. Especially with rain in the forecast. It's looking like there's a good chance of rain many of the days we are there. I am hoping that the forecast is just wrong. It looks like it's going to be pretty rainy here while we're gone. Hopefully it won't be too rainy either place.

Cute Jenna story.......

On Wednesday we were just about ready to leave to take Jacob to therapy. I had just told the kids to go sit on the stairs so we could put their shoes on and leave. Now please keep in mind Jenna always runs when I tell her I have to fix her hair. She usually says "no mama." Today was very different. When I told them to go sit on the stairs Jenna said to me..."Mama, me hair all mess up!" As she is moving her little long hairs out of her face. It really was too precious. Her hair really has started to grow since we got it trimmed. You can really see the hugest difference in her bangs. They are down to her eyebrows again. Oh and by the way my baby is less than a month away from her SECOND birthday, yikes!

Tired and at a loss for words

There's really not to much going on over, I mean nothing too exciting anyway. I am kind of having a little bit of blogger's block, I think. I guess it could also have something to do with the fact that I am feeling a little tired and weak again, on and off. I had a Dr.'s appointment last week and my BP is still pretty low. I have been checking it on and off while at work and it has been pretty consistently low. On Thursday morning I am going for this test called a Tilt Table Test. It only takes about an hour that is if I last that long without fainting. Hopefully that will not happen and the test will just show, what I already know and that is that my blood pressure drops dramatically when I go from a lying to standing position. What does this mean? It means that apparently I have low blood pressure. In order to not feel light headed and dizzy, I will have to go meds for a while and hopefully it will get me regulated. I am hoping that this is not a permanent thing. I am really getting a little sick of this whole not feeling like myself thing. I HATE being dizzy, I HATE feeling light headed but it's not just my head it's my whole body that feels funny. I am really hoping that this is all better sooner rather than later, cause I really don't want to feel like this on vacation. How horrible would that be? So enough about me and my griping.

Other than me feeling like crap, we had a pretty good weekend. On Friday we had a play date, the kids really enjoyed their time with their friends. As I also enjoy my time visiting with my friends. It's nice to have that time even if it is just once every two weeks. I have no pictures from our play date or anything else we did this weekend. Daddy kind of left the diaper bag in his car and when it finally did end up in the house on Friday night I kind of left with out it on Saturday.

Friday night I had a little get together at our house. I had a Tastefully Simple Party with my neighbor/friend who is a consultant. This was my first experience with TS and I loved it. The food was great and the company of my friends was also great.

Saturday Nana and I and the kids decided to head out for a while. We went to the Dulles Town Center for a little bit, we had lunch and I had a few things to return. After finishing up at the DTC we headed back towards home and stopped at the Leesburg Outlets as I had a few more returns to do there. I also bought the kids a few thing for spring. The Gap was having a great sale lots of stuff was 40% off. The outlets were packed it was like it was Christmas or something. Lines everywhere. The funniest of them all was the Coach store. They are getting ready to move into a bigger store, they open in the new location on May 1st, I believe. From what my MIL and I heard they are trying to get rid of most of their inventory so they don't have to move it ( a whole 10 stores down). There was a line outside of the store, an employee was only letting so many people in at once. One woman my MIL talked to said she waited outside the store for an hour, and then she waited in line inside for another hour and a half. They had all of the merchandise marked down any where from 30%-50% off the lowest marked down price. It sounds pretty good but not worth 3 hours of my time after you factor in time to shop. The weather was great on Saturday, a good day to be out in the nice fresh air.

And of course Sunday brought the ugly rain just about the whole day. It seems as though it has been raining non stop. I had to work of course on Sunday, too. I guess this post tittle isn't really true. I have really rambled on for too long now. Sorry there's no pics of the kids or anything else for that matter. Hopefully this little block won't last for too long and I'll be back on track soon. Hope every one else had a great weekend.

Slighty Irritated

Yes me, slightly irritated can you guess why? Well let me tell you, earlier today when I looked at our weather thing on our desktop it said few pm snow showers. I am okay with that, like I said before just snow if you're gonna snow. At about 9:00pm or so when I had just come back from my break one of the other CSM's says to me it's snowing outside. It's coming down pretty good out there. I then go check it out for myself and sure enough it's coming down pretty good.So good in fact that the whole parking lot and sidewalk are covered in white. Again I am still okay with this. Until it's time for me to go home, it's freezing out as I am walking to my car. I am now driving home and it's still snowing,still okay. Now I am about half way home and just about to our exit on the freeway and all of a sudden NO SNOW. I get off the free way and still NO SNOW. Down the road some more and just about to our neighborhood and still yep, NO SNOW. I tell ya, you would have thought I drove to another state or something with the difference in weather. At our house not a drop or a flake of snow. I only knew it was snowing in Winchester because well I had snow on my car from while I was at work. This is just absolutely crazy how can it be snowing so much on one side of town and not the other. I just don't get it.Sorry about all that ranting.Just really had to get it out and well you were here: ) Oh and I also added a weather.com thing at the bottom of the page. If you want to check the weather in your neck of the woods all you have to do is click on settings and then type in your zip code,and wallah.

I know that I said my next post would be my funny little Jenna story and I promise that is next. I must also say that I can't stay irritated too long when I have such cute kids. They are both fast asleep in their beds,but I turned on the camera as I always do when I come home. I always have to check to see if Daddy took any pics while I was at work. And tonight he did. How can anyone resist this cute little funny face?

Not really sure what the face is all about so I'll have to find out tomorrow from Daddy.

This is one of yesterday's funny faces,

but she's been smiling a lot like this lately.

Can I say I told you so?

Did I not say that it would snow since I returned the kids snow suits. Joe said that this is my fault I did it to myself. I just had to go and talk about it so now it's happened. I know that the snow didn't really amount to much but it did snow. What about this crap of weather they're calling for this weekend? A wintry mix both Friday and Saturday, lovely my two days off. I think perhaps it's only going to get worse.What do you think? Where's spring? I am really ready for 70 degree weather.How about you all?

I went to work a little early today because I had a CSM meeting. Work was very slow tonight not a whole lot of people out shopping in this yucky weather. I also left a little early tonight and the roads weren't too terribly bad. The Wal-Mart parking lot however was horrible, very very icy. I had to walk very slow and take baby steps to insure I did not fall. Then when I got to my car I had to yank on the door I don't know how many times because it was stuck shut by a nice layer of ice,fun! I hope every one else is doing what they can to not have to be out in this ugly weather.
Sorry I am kind of all over the place tonight, just some random rantings from Jamie........

Stay safe!

Crazy Weather...

How about this crazy weather we're having? Right at this moment it is 27 degrees and there is freezing rain. It was also doing this on my way home tonight. The roads however were not as bad as I thought they would be. I really wish that it would just pick something to do and just do it. Rain, Snow, Sleet, Ice but just one at a time. I don't know about where everyone else is but here it pretty much snowed on and off for most of the day. Never really amounting to anything,then when I left for work this evening it decided to start raining a little bit. And as for the rest of the week tomorrow it's supposed to be rainy, then sunny on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Friday the high is supposed to be in the 50's and then back to a high in the 30's on Sat. Then get this on Sunday a high in the 40's but a chance of a Wintery mix? I really don't like this on again off again weather. I am so ready for Spring to be here. Come on sunny days and weather in the 70's. Hope everyone is staying safe during this crazy weather.

Finally Pictures

Here they are as promised pictures finally. I am starting with the most complicated one first this is some of the family that we got to see while in PA. I have noted who everyone is below the picture.This is Nana, her mom, her brother, his wife and their three boys (V,A,S),also one of Joe's other cousins(MA),then his sister, her husband and her two kids(J,A) and lastly the four of us.I think that covers everyone.

This has been an interesting week and a half Joe and I have come to the conclusion that our kids are crazy.What Jenna likes to do for fun is run in circles until she's so dizzy that she collapses.It's hilarious but she's crazy. And well Jacob he's just Jacob still as crazy as ever. They have been really keeping us on our toes . The pic at the bottom is from just a couple of days ago when Jenna and I were in the computer room. She got quiet for a minute then walked up beside me with the Sharpie in hand and Sharpie all over her hands ,some on her face and lets not forget the neck.She thought she was just the cutest.

On a side note work has been reaaallly slooooow. My five little hours at night are going by slow. I know that January is always a slow month for us but my gosh. We're still getting some weird returns.Some of our customers still even have that warm holiday spirit (NOT). They are getting meaner and meaner I tell ya. Oh but on a good note I got to wear jeans to work on Wednesday and Thursday. I know little things excite me it's just the last several times they've had jeans days they're always on Fridays the day I don't work. This time it was for a great cause Children's Miracle Network. All we had to do is pay a quarter a day and it went CMN, and I got to be comfy at work for once.Enough about work.I'm off today, yeah!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and hopefully it's not too terribly cold.

Oh and last but certainly not least that for the prayers my grandpa seems to be doing well and is at home now.Thanks Again!

From top left to right:Anthony,Aunt Lisa,John(nephew),Vinnie,

Nana,Steven, Andy(brother-in-law),Mary Ann,Uncle Carl,Grandma Emma,

Michele(Joe's sister),Me,Alyssa(niece),Jacob,Jenna,and Joe.

Jenna and Jacob A. @ our play date

The wonderful road conditions on our way up
1/17/08

Jacob on the drive up to PA

1/17/08

Jacob was not ready for this pic,

but the two girls were

Jenna and their cousin Sara
1/17/08

Jacob so proud of his many Potato Heads

1/24/08

Jenna decided to color herself with a Sharpie

1/23/08

Yummy,Yummy in my Tummy

This past Sunday while I was at work I came across this Southern Living Cooking School book that at some point during the Holidays Wal-Mart gave away free to customers. I have gotten a couple of these freebies in the past I think the last one I got was over the Summer. Anyways these books have lots of recipes in them from appetizers to entrees to desserts. Usually I just browse through them and then they go in the cupboard with the rest of my recipe books. For most of you who know me pretty well know that I am not much of a cook, I don't usually get real fancy and my baking usually consist of a box of brownie mix. But this time a recipe in this book really caught my eye, and I thought why not this looks easy enough I could make this and they do look extra yummy. So I bought the ingredients that I thought I needed and then I went home. I was a little to tired to do anything that night so the next day Monday I decided I was going to make these yummy Chocolate Chip-Pecan Squares. Oh my gosh these things are so scrumptious and so so easy to make. As a matter of fact they're so easy to make I've made them twice this week. Yep twice, only because I promised one of the other CSM Ruth that when I made them I would bring in some for her to taste cause every time she makes goodies she brings some in for me so I thought it was only fair. When I made them on Monday Ruth was not working for the next two days and by the time Wednesday rolled around well we only had two left and well they would have never made it in to work. So this afternoon (well really yesterday, because of the time now) I made another batch. Only Joe told me if I made them again I had to take them all with me that I could not leave any at home. He really likes them too much and would be tempted to eat them all he,he! So I only left two pieces at home one for him and one for his Mom the rest went with me to work. These little pieces of heaven are so darn good. One more thing I am not usually a real big fan of nuts unless it's a Hershey's bar with almonds. I kinda have a small addiction to these candy bars, I quite frequently eat them for my break at work, I know. I really know how to go off on a tangent I'm sorry but for those of you who like to bake you have to give these little things a try. Oh and have fun...

One more thing before I go what the heck is up with the price of milk? I don't know if anyone else bought milk today or in the last couple of days, but I swear when I bought milk last week it was not as expensive as it was today. Now normally 2% milk is like around $3.59 or so at Wal-Mart and this is Wal-Marts Great Value brand. Maybe even a little less I think I usually pay $3.59 for Jenna's whole milk. Well tonight I paid a wooping $4.27 for a gallon of 2% milk. I could not believe it when the cashier rang it up. She then proceeded to tell me that the customer in front of me bought whole milk and it was over $5.00 for that milk. What is wrong with this picture $5.00 for a gallon of milk? I seriously can't believe this. I really try not to do a whole lot of complaining on our blog but this is ridiculous and I just had to see if anyone else has the same views as me. I will be making a trip to Martin's this weekend to see of their milk also went up. Unless some can tell me it did in fact because they just bought milk there or at Foodlion or any other store besides Wal-Mart. Okay I think I've got it all out now, sorry about that little rant I just had to get it out. But please do tell me if it's just me or is this price increase on milk is CRAZY!