I did it. I was very brave today and stepped on the scale. Somehow the number wasn't as bad as I expected...regardless of how my clothes are fitting me I guess.
140lbs...did nothing all week but eat and drive, eat and drive. haha
Had a GREAT Christmas with the families. :)

Meet Elliott!

Yesterday Chase & I went to Birds Unlimited in Webster to look at cockatiels. We'd talked about it a lot and decided we were ready for a new bird member of our family. I had really wanted a Senegal, but was worried about their 1 person love affairs...I really wanted something that liked everyone. I've always like cockatiels and figured this was the way to go.
Anyways, we went in and the girl showed us a few 'tiels. I'd been interested in the normal grays and the Lutinos. The first little guy she pulled out of the cage was active, talkative and walked right up my arm into my hair. He chewed on my rings, and on her necklace...just seemed pretty outgoing. He was also adorable. He's only about 4 weeks old, not certain on a hatch date though.
I decided he was perfect and we went shopping for a new cage, play gym and toys for him. A little under $500 later we were all packed up in the car and Elliott was on his way home!
We were told he might not eat for 24/36 hours and might not move around much. After Chase got his cage put together I opened the box that Elliott was in and he was hissing at me something fierce. I didn't let that scare me though, and started petting him. He was handfed and very comfortable being handled. He quickly calmed down and decided he wanted out of the box and started trying to climb out. I got him on my hand and pet him a bit. Then went to put him in his cage where he wouldn't let go of me for a few minutes. Once he did he explored a little bit and had a few bites of his millet. :)
Roxy seems to really like him and she whines to get closer to him. Well he started whistling back at her...awfully cute. :)
This morning he freaked out a little when we woke up and came down stairs but he quickly relaxed. I'm going to try and get him out in a little bit before mom and John come over to meet him.
I'll get better photos today...these are from my cell phone last night.

Merry Christmas!!

Last night we had a crazy hilarious time at my grandparents' house. A-mazing!
Today we're headed to Mom's for brunch and gifts, then quick Christmas w/ John's family, off to Dad's for our Christmas there and off to Aunt Patti's to celebrate w/ the rest of the family. I L-O-V-E these 2 days of the year! They're my favorite!

I hope that everyone has a very safe and Merry Christmas!!

Holiday treats

Completed

• Peppermint bark
• Rocky Road
• Baked S'mores bars
• Fudge w/ Walnuts
• Layered Mint Fudge
• Butterscotch/peanut butter haystacks

Still to go

• White Trash
• Chocolate dipped pretzels w/ toffee bits
• No bake chocolate peanut butter bars
• Chocolate pie (for dessert Friday night)

Making progress!

I'm sad that I didn't get a chance to blog on Monday. My Monday weigh in was fantastic...135lbs! No joke.

I wish I could say that it was due to diligently working out and eating well, but I can't. Actually early Saturday afternoon Ali and I left for Ohio to see Chris Young at the Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown. Should have been a 5 hour drive, took us nearly 8 hours due to a fatal accident outside of Batavia on the Thruway. So basically we skipped lunch and dinner, just snacked on Monster Energy Drinks (low carb of course), cheetos and cookies. No really, we were running so far behind that we got dressed in a McDonald's bathroom because we didn't have a chance to check into the hotel. We made it to the concert 15 minutes before the meet & greet that I had a pass for. Then after 4 hours of sleep, I had a bagel and yogurt for breakfast...and hit the road. By the time I got home I was way too tired to eat and didn't. So the joke is: the cheeto/cookie diet? It works!
Anyways, more about the concert later.
Here's a picture of Chris and I after the show though. :D

Monday weigh-in: 137.8
Confession: I haven't worked out in like 3 weeks...hence the no Monday weigh-ins. Just been too busy!

Chocolate Pie

As Thanksgiving approached I got in touch with my Aunt Dawn who was hosting for my dad's family. I offered to make a few desserts if she was interested. Dawn asked me to make her 'Best Cake' and a Chocolate Pie since they are so popular. I decided to look up recipes for chocolate pies as I didn't want to just use the Jello pudding filling. I ended up coming across the Homesick Texan blog, and made her recipe for her Grandma's Chocolate Pie. I followed the recipe exactly aside from the fact that I just started added ingredients and not the directions...Oops! Haha. Meaning that the vanilla and butter were both cooked with the rest of the ingredients. As far and I, and everyone else, could tell it didn't make much difference. I also made the standard Graham Cracker Crust, recipe found on the box. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than a chocolate pie in a graham cracker crust. :)
I did have some trouble with the meringue...just in that it seemed to take forever to peak, and then there wasn't quite enough to cover the whole pie.
I also topped the pie off with some chocolate shavings.
This recipe is very rich, but most definitely will make it again.
(photo note: the photos of the cut piece of pie were taken after it was a few days old and the meringue was moving around a bit and the crust was a bit soggy)

Texas

I've just got to say, what a game last night! I was on the edge of my seat and my throat was sore by the end! I don't know that I've seen UT play such an awful game! Thank you Hunter Lawrence for that field goal!!! Big 12 Champions! Oh and in the BCS Rose Bowl Championship!!!!
Hook 'Em Horns!!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

The night before Halloween my mom had us over for dinner with my grandparents to show them her new dining room table. I volunteered to make dessert. After looking all over the place I finally decided on a Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust. I found the recipe in my Betty Crocker Fall Baking book, yet can't seem to find it on their website. Anyways, here is it:

Crust

• 2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
• 1/4 cup butte/margarine, melted

Cheesecake

• 4 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

• Heat oven to 300*F. Grease or spray 9-inch springform pan. Wrap outside of pan in heavy-duty foil. In bowl, mix crust ingredients. Press in bottom & 1 inch up side of pan. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool 5 minutes.
• In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed just until smoothe and creamy, do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Spoon 3 cups of the mixture into pan; spread evenly. Add pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg to remaining cream cheese mixture; mis with wire sick until smooth. Spoon over mixture in pan.
• Bake 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until edges are set but center of cheesecake still jiggles slightly when moved. Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Remove from oven to cooling rack. Without releasing side of pan, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes. Cover loosely; refrigerate at least 6 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
• Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake again; carefully remove side of pan. Place cheesecake on serving plate. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cheesecake.

Everyone loved this cheesecake. My stepdad said it easily rivals Cheesecake Factory, I don' t know about that but it was good. My mom really liked the gingersnap crust. I did serve it up with a little dollop of Cool Whip on top. :)
(photo note: I cut the cheesecake when the cake was near room temp...I probably should have had it refrigerated while we ate. But anyways, that's why it looks so soft.)

Christmas Decorations

This past weekend Chase and I decorated the house. The weekend before we put some lights up on the house, then we put lights on the outside tree and put a few lawn ornaments out. We got Rudolph and the Abominable Snowman that light up...after the holidays we plan to pick up Frosty as well to complete the set. :)
We also decorated inside. I put green pine garland with white lights on one the banister's upstairs. We've got the little fake tree up in the front window and that is all decorated with random ornaments. We'll get our real tree this weekend and decorate that just in silver/red. I can't wait to have everything done.
It's so festive in here!
I love it!

Christmas Candies Menu

Since Chase and I are a bit strapped for cash, we've decided to make (well have me make) a bunch of Holiday candies and put together decorative tins for everyone. I'll also bring a tray to Mom's (who hosts John's family), my grandparents' (who host Christmas Eve), and my Aunt Patti's for Christmas Day.

So far this is my list:
White Trash
Peppermint Bark
Rocky Road
White Chocolate Haystacks
Chocolate Dipped Pretzels w/ Toffee

and maybe some fudge and truffles, we shall see!
Photos and recipes will be added as I make them. :)

Thanksgiving

What a fantastic time. I love my family and am so very lucky to live close by so I get to see everyone at the holidays.
Lets start from the beginning though. Without an oven all of my baking had to be done at my mom's house, 45 minutes away. I was over there Wednesday all evening (baked chocolate pie & pineapple/walnut cake), I also baked a dish (apple crisp) Thursday morning before we went to Grandma's, and Friday evening I was there making carrot cake bars for my stepsister's on Saturday. There will be blogs with recipes and photos later this week.
So like I said, Thursday we had lunch at my grandparents'. The group was small but conversation was good. & the food, the food was excellent as always. It was weird only having 3 of 7 cousins in town. Just as we were getting ready to leave my grandparents' in Greece to drive over an hour out to my Aunt Dawn's, my dad called. There was a crisis at Dawn's. He only brought red wine and no one brought white, liquor stores are closed. Oh no. After raiding my Grandma's liquor store in her basement (OMG she had EVERYTHING but white wine, aside from some fruity Arbor Mist) I went over to Dad's he lives right around the corner from my grandparents' and picked up what was left of a box he had in the fridge. Let me tell you, everyone out there was so happy when we arrived with the wine. Haha
Dinner at Dawn's was supposed to start at 3. We got there around 5 and didn't eat until about 30 min later. Haha, Carpenter's are always late. It's just what we do. Again great food and fantastic company. It was wonderful to have Ken, Sharon, & Brent in town for the first time. I love that they live here now. :)
Saturday we went to Amy's for our 3rd dinner. John cut the turkey here, and gave me both legs to scavenge off of....L-O-V-E!!! I love having 3 dinners and being able to count on different dinners for different favorite dishes. Grandma's got the best homemade rolls ever, Dawn makes some incredible stuffing, and at Amy's the desserts are amazing.

Duo

RIP Duo - 11/21/09
I'm sorry little man.
The house is very quiet without you.
I miss our talks & your wolf whistles.
My little swinger.

Monday weigh in: 138.8lbs
Confession: I only got on the elliptical Monday and Tuesday, and didn't even last for 10 minutes either day.
Goal: Get on that darn elliptical more than twice!

Cookies

Today I've been baking cookies. I made (cheated) Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and am currently finishing up baking some peanut butter dog cookies. I found the recipe here. They're very oily...1/2 cup oil and 3tbs peanut butter...and they're burning. So I'm now baking them for 15ish minutes and putting them directly on a cooling rack when they're done. The good news is my dogs don't seem to mind. They've sampled and approved them. The cookies are in the shape of gingerbread men. :)

Today is the day

I've lost 25lbs since moving back home to NY in May 2008. In the past 3 weeks or so I've put on another 5lbs. My goal is to lose another 10-12ish-lbs. With the holidays quickly approaching, Girl Scout cookies in the house, cooler temps and craving comfort foods this is going to be a bit difficult.
I've got a really nice elliptical that I've never used and that is going to change. I start today. My goal is to get on the elliptical for at least 30 minutes a day Monday-Thursday. Friday-Sunday will be my days off. I'll do this for a week or two and then bump it up to 45 minutes for a week or two and then up to an hour. I don't know enough about weight loss and exercise to know how this will work for me in my weight loss goals, but I figure it's a start. And really, at this point in the year, I'd be happy to maintain my current weight and not gain anything. :)
My problem is that I'm lazy when it comes to working out at home. I blame it on my physically demanding job...and my comfy couch and cuddly dogs. So I'm turning to my blog to help me. I figure that if I blog every Monday about my workouts and with weekly weigh ins, it just might keep me motivated...knowing that my readers will know if I stuck to it or not.
So (& I can't believe that I'm doing this) starting weekly weigh in is 139.8lbs.

Here's to hoping this works for me!



EDIT(5:40PM) - I FAIL. Apparently I'm in worse shape than I originally thought. I lasted 8:30 on the elliptical today. Looks as though my estimated time spent working out is going to have to be adjusted slightly. Ugh.

The Men Who Stare At Goats

So yesterday we went to see The Men Who Stare At Goats. It was really funny, but much different than I expected. I don't really know how to describe it. Not sure I'd recommend the movie...maybe as a rental. Clooney was hilarious.

Ugh.

I love hate having all of this Halloween candy in my house.
I can't help but eat it when it's around.
That is all.

New Computer

I mentioned a few posts ago that Chase got me a new laptop. We'd been talking about it a while, but I thought that's all it was, talk. I had hoped though that maybe I'd get one for Christmas though. Luckily it did and it arrived in October! We went to Best Buy and Chase had a few computers in mind but wanted me to make the final decision. I ended up choosing a Sony VAIO. I was shocked when he said ok, and we bought it. I thought he was just asking so that he could get it for me later.
Anyways, I love my new laptop! I love Windows 7...although I am still learning my way around. I also love that I can be on the computer downstairs and watch tv/hang out with Chase at the same time.
My laptop is brown. I love brown.

Chunky Apple Cake

At the end of September my mother in law came to visit for a few days. One night we went over to my mom's for dinner. Mom put me in charge of bringing dessert which I was happy to do. I went back to my Betty Crocker Fall Baking book that I made the Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars from. This time I decided on the Chunky Apple Cake. I enlisted Chase and his mom to peel/cut apples for me. We had waaaaaaay too many and I ate/threw out quite a bit. The recipe turned out pretty good but next time I would bake the cake about 10 minutes less (it was a bit too hard on the outside), I'd ice it while the cake is warm, and I'd poke holes in the cake before icing it so that the icing runs into the cake.

-Ingredients-
Cake
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups coarsely chopped peeled baking apples (I used Granny Smith's)
1 cup chopped Walnuts

Frosting
1/2 cup butter (do not use margarine)
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3 tablespoons milk

-Directions-

1. Heat oven to 350*F. Spray 12 cup fluted tube cake pan with baking spray with flour.
2. In large bowl, beat 1 cup butter and the granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in apples and walnuts. Spoon into pan.
3. Bake 50-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour 30 minutes.
4. in 2 quart sauce pan, heat 1/2 cup burrer over medium heat, stirring constantly until golden brown. Gradually beat in powdered sugar with spoon. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla and milk until desired spreading consistency. Generously spread frosting over top and partially down side of cake. Cut cake with serrated knife.

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

For my mom's birthday this year (waaaaay back on September 19) we decided to have her and John over for dinner. I made French's Crunchy Onion Chicken, corn on the cob, and zucchini with melted seasoned cheese and crumbled turkey bacin. Dessert was the star though! I know it wasn't quite fall yet, but I love fall baking, and lucky for me so does Mom. I made Apple Streusel Cheesecake bars which I found the recipe for in my Betty Crocker Fall Baking book that I picked up at Wegman's. Everyone loved them and I plan to make them for Thanksgiving at my grandparent's. The recipe was extremely easy and I love that it calls for a can of apple pie filling which means that I didn't have to peel/cut apples. :) Oh and I WILL get a pastry blender before I make this again. The 2 knife method is useless.

-Ingredients-
1 pouch (1lb 1.5oz) Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix
1/2 cup cold butter or margarine
2 packages (8oz) cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons AP flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 can (21oz) apple pie filling
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

-Directions-

1. Heat oven to 350*F. Spray 13x9in pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, place cookie mix. Using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through the mixture in opposite directions), cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture, press remaining crumbs in bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
3. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over partially baked crust. In medium bowl, mix pie filling and cinnamon. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle reserved crumbs over top. Sprinkle with walnuts.
4. Bake 35-40 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool about 30 minutes. Refrigerate to chill, about 2 hours. Cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Cover and refrigerate any remaining bars.

Sun City Carnival Tour Pt. 1/2 June 4

So way back on June 4th Chase and I went to see Kenny Chesney at Darien Lakes PAC. Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert were opening. The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm, but cool once the sun set. I did bring a zip up hoodie and was very happy that I did as I ended up wearing it most of the night. We bought our tickets from a broker and paid way over face value...BUT they were 9th row to the right of the stage. I was so excited when we got there I could hardly contain myself. We were so close to the stage!

Lady Antebellum was first out and I was really impressed. I liked the couple of songs that they had on the radio at the time, but didn't know any of their other stuff.

Miranda was up next and I knew she'd rock. I saw her quite a few years ago just before Me & Charlie Talking was on the radio. I knew that these days her show was much different not to mention then it was acoustic, this time she had her whole band. She covered I Love Rock N Roll and In The Midnight Hour (amazing!).

Finally as the sun began to set Kenny came out. In all of the other 6 shows I'd seen of him before this he closed with She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy. This time he opened with it. I was thrilled for the change up. He came out rockin' something fierce and didn't let up all night. In the middle of the show he surprised me by singing Me & You which was fantastic. He played all of his hits and owned that stage. In the beginning of one song early on (don't remember which one) Kenny's microphone died. He went and tried to use Clayton's but his wasn't turned up very loud, so he ended up sharing with Wyatt who was signing back up. They brought him a new mic after the song. During Don't Happen Twice Chase and I noticed that people had started to clear out around us, so we snuck up and stood about 2 rows back from the stage, knowing that the show as almost over. He then sang Jack and Diane. After all of the years I've seen his show, I've never seen him do it. Even back when he said he always closed his show with it. I just about lost it. It was amazing. The whole crowd sang along all night and they just seemed to get louder. After Jack and Diane he surprised everyone with an encore of covers which we watched from our new spot right up next to the stage. Amazing. He covered Travis Tritt/The Eagles, Bob Marley, Van Halen, Steve Miller Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd , Violent Femmes (!), U2, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's. About half way through a girl in the front threw the TN Vols hat that she'd been wearing up on stage. Kenny asked her twice if it was his now, and she just kept screaming so he put it on. He wore that hat the rest of the night and kept it. Miranda Lambert came out during Gimme Three Steps and sang/danced along. Then she went and grabbed a saxophone and played in the horn section during The Joker/Three Little Birds. Then Kenny called Tambo out and they sang Blister in the Sun. I was shocked and very pleasantly surprised. Not the type of song you expect to hear at a Kenny concert. They rocked it. Then they sang With Or Without You to which Kenny called Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum out and laid her down on her back on the stage and they sang to her. She was laughing hysterically. It was amusing.

Anywho, here is the complete set list and some photos.

Set List

1. She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy
2. Live Those Songs
3. Summertime
4. Beer in Mexico
5. Keg in the Closet
6. Out Last Night
7. Big Star
8. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
9. I Go Back
10. Anything But Mine
11. Down The Road
12. Me and You
13. Old Blue Chair
14. Living In Fast Forward
15. Young
16. Never Wanted Nothing More
17. Back Where I Come From
18. Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven
19. When The Sun Goes Down
20. Don’t Happen Twice
21. Jack and Diane

Encore

22. Take It Easy
23. Gimme Three Steps
24. The Joker / Three Little Birds
25. With or Without You
26. Blister In The Sun
27. Mary Jane’s Last Dance
28. You Really Got Me

Lady Antebellum

Miranda Lambert












Kenny!

New laptop

Last night Chase and I went to Best Buy and he bought me a fancy new laptop! It's a Sony Vaio and it's brown, I love it! Anyways, since I've now got a laptop, I have no excuse not to blog right? Beware! Over the next week or so I'm going to post reviews of the concerts I've been to this summer. I always mean to do it after the show, and I haven't done it at all. While I still remember them pretty well I figure I should blog them before I forget. Keep a look out, I'll be included photos and perhaps some video as well. Also, I've done a lot of cooking/baking lately so I'll have recipe updates too.

Cream Cheese Cherry Dessert

For my grandma's birthday we had her and my cousin (with his g/f) over to Mom's house. As usual, Mom was in charge of dinner and I handled the dessert. The week before we'd gone to a baby shower where my aunt made this awesome cream cheese/cherry/blueberry dessert. Well she took too long to email me the recipe so I found one similar at Cooks.com.

CREAM CHEESE CHERRY DESSERT

1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs 3 tbsp. butter, melted 1/4 c. sugar 1/2 tsp. cinnamon FILLING: 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese 1 c. powdered sugar 1 tbsp. milk 1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip 1 (21 oz.) can cherry pie filling Melt butter and combine with graham cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Pat in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Refrigerate crust while preparing filling. Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk. Beat until smooth. Beat in Cool Whip. Spread evenly over graham cracker crust. Refrigerate until cool. Spread cherry pie filling over top. Chill.

I found that this recipe would really fit better in an 8 x 8 pan. I doubled the crust and the filling for a 9 x 13. I could have actually tripled the filling if I'd had the ingredients. Aside from the pan size problems, the dessert was super easy to make and tasted fantastic! I did half of the pan with cherry pie filling and the other half with blueberry pie filling. It turned out looking like something fitting for the 4th of July.I only got the one photo of it...and of course forgot to take one after it was cut. Yes, 1 blueberry got away from me. :)

I made CANNOLIS!

My favorite dessert ever has got to be cannolis...especially the chocolate chip kind. Well we ended up having a late Father's Day for my grandpa since he was out of town on the actual day and I was in charge of dessert. I found an awesomely easy looking recipe at Hungry Girl and had to try it. I made it exactly as she has it written only mine made 8 not 6.
They ended up being a huge hit, everyone loved them. I can't wait to make them again.
I forgot to take pictures of them, as I was too excited to try them...and they were gone before I knew it! So this photo is from HG.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Time to actually update this thing!

A few weeks ago my dad fell at the boat launch (shouldn't have been trying to launch the boat by himself, but he's impatient and just couldn't wait for me) and broke a rib. Yep, just 1, but still. He's too old to be doing this silly things by himself.
Anyways, I made him some oatmeal raisin cookies with walnuts (one of his favorites) to make him feel better. I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Basically it's the recipe off the Quaker Oats container but with a few hints and extras. One thing that I found super helpful was the note on refrigerating the dough before baking. I'd had trouble in the past with having my oatmeal raisin cookies turn out super flat. Cooling the dough helped a TON. Not only did they look good, but I liked them (not my fav. usually) and Dad loved them!

Moved in

Well, it is Sunday @ 6:34PM and we are moved into our new house! It only took about 4 hours to load the truck, drive, and then unload the truck due to all of the fantastic help we have.
Now my house is a disaster! There is stuff everywhere. Worse even, is that it is 85+ degrees outside and we don't have A/C. This summer has been beautiful and in the 70's...until this past week. I'm done with 80-90 degrees and humid.

Where I've been

visited 17 states (34%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project


visited 11 states (4.88%)
Create your own visited map of The World or another interesting project

Homeowners!

We closed on our house last Wednesday...therefore, I am too busy to blog.
No seriously. We spent all day Friday/Saturday/Sunday painting then went out for some more Monday after work. Today we're going out to hopefully finish up the painting and then I'm off work tomorrow to finish packing the townhouse, which has been horribly neglected.
So yeah, no blog time...not until after we move Saturday anyways.

Facelift

I found a new layout! Now I didn't make this one, but I did alter it a bit. I'll play around with changing fonts and all later.
Off to go watch some TV because Cara's a party pooper and still working...then HAIRCUT! Yay!

4th

Happy Birthday America!
Off to grill then to the Red Wings game, followed by fireworks.

Zeus

Today we went to Mom's house around 2ish, and stayed until almost 10. The keedz were exhausted and begging to go home. They'd run around the yard all day and didn't get a nap.
This is where Zeus stayed the entire 20 minute ride home:
Yes, Chase buckled him in.

Boats

On Tuesday after work I met Dad down at the boat launch and we went out for a few hours then got lunch at Pelican's. We took a ride down to Irondequoit Bay and rode to the other end of it, where we proceeded to hit a rock...don't worry hardly any damage was made. Anyways, just as we were entering the Bay there were a TON of swans. Seriously like 50. All of the white dots in these pictures, yea swans.The Bay bridge:
The house my dad wants, it's on a super tiny island in the Bay and the only way to get there is by boat.
At Pelican's we sat out on the deck right by the water (so Dad could keep an eye on the boat) and I saw a HUGE fish! It was enormous and had orange lips. I fed him french fries.
We also fed these guys a few fries (and the ducks) hence the reason he is sitting on the post squawking at us.
The boat

boats
vessels of freedom
harbors of heeling
boats

-Kenny Chesney