Brrrr 17 Degrees, and No snow...

I am with these sweet puppies... too cold for me to go out of the house at all!

I actually wouldn't mind this arctic blast as much if we had already gotten a good snow fall... but we haven't!

Kind of a tease, if you know what I mean.  :(

Although I am dressed right now, this picture shows what I will be doing later, in my jammies in front of the television.

Yes, Libby and I will snuggle together, me under a blankie, on our favorite chair!  Nothing like the body of a 95 lb. yellow lab to help keep you warm!

Here is Libby snoozing alone...

Doesn't she just have the sweetest face?  She usually curls up by my feet, but every once in while she lays next to me and rotates onto her back... so funny and human like!

The dog snores like a freight train, too!  Hubby and I have laughed about having to turn up the tv volume over her snores!

Today my Dad is off from work.  He wanted to sleep in after the SuperBowl.  He gets up at 4 am to go to work, so he usually goes to bed before the game is over.  This year he wanted to enjoy it.

Dad is also baking his famous cookies for Pumpkin to bring to school on Wednesday for her birthday.  Is there anything special about his cookies you ask?  No, they are from a package, but because he made them it makes his granddaughter very happy!

Dad is also making homemade meat sauce for pasta tonight.  Yummy... I was 16 years old before I ever even tasted a bottled sauce.  There was none of that in my family!  lol

Tomorrow, is my IV infusion for my rheumatoid arthritis.  Don't worry about me getting cold in NYC though.  We leave the house from the garage, we park in the hospital garage, we walk through a bridge from one hospital building to the next, then back to the hospital garage and then back home to my garage!  I never have to step foot outdoors, and believe me, in this cold, I won't!

STAY WARM! 

be well,
Dawn

Tags: frigid, cold, baking cookies, rheumatoid arthritis, yellow lab, pajamas

Super Colts

SuperBowl XLI is over and done and in the record books.

Peyton Manning and Tony Dungee have been through a lot in the last 14 months, personally and professionally.

I am very happy to see them in the picture above, holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy as newly crowned SuperBowl champs!

The game wasn't one of the prettiest games, and the Colts win wasn't a perfect one either.  The Bears were tough adversaries, and have much to be proud of in their own right.  However, the Colts, led by Manning, held it together.  They dominated the game in time of possesion, and eventually the score showed that domination, too.

Well, done.  Enjoy the off season.  Mini-camp starts in June.

be well,
Dawn

Tags: Peyton Manning, Tony Dungee, Colts, Bears, Superbowl XLI

ARRRGHHH!!! Kids gone wild!

Three maniacs are doing the worm on the kitchen floor as I type this.  OMG.  Fuzzy, Pumpkin and friend.

They are very scary!  We had a nice dinner with the 4 kids at Chili's.  Then, the girls went off to play alone.  Pumpkin's friend is leaving in 5 minutes at 8:30pm, so, Fuzzy had to get back in on the fun!

Now, they are army crawling without arms across the floor.  They are full of dog hair, because Libby was jumping all over them.  Ugh.

I had a nice day shopping with Mom today.  I got a few goodies for the house and so did she, a couple of bargains, too. 

I picked up a box of cookies.  Have you ever had David's Cookies, Chocolate Florentive Lace?  They are soooo yummy!  A lot of bakeries make the Lace cookies really well, too.

Now, the girls are doing the bump.

Someday, our basement will be finished and the kids won't take over the entire house... at least I hope not!  LOL

Hubby has been working on finishing our basement for just over a year now.  Well, he worked on it for 2 months last year, stopped for 10 months and restarted last month.  LOL

The floor is laid and the walls are all framed.  We just laid out all the outlets tonight.  Hubby is going to run the wiring for the electric tomorrow, early in the day.  Our friend, who does electrical, will come and do the connections to the box and to the outlets. 

Next, Hubby will install bi-fold doors to the unfinished part of the basement where the boiler/laundry area is located.  Then, we will lay out lighting receptacles and switches. 

THEN, sheetrock time!  Woo hoo... And, then dropped ceiling.  And, then sprucing up the bathroom down there.  And, then rug installation (this we will hire out) and THEN, painting and furnishing.   Yeah, we are a loooooong way from done, but it is taking shape slowly but surely!

The finished area will have a big tv/video game area, an air hockey or table tennis area, a crafting table, lots of shelves for games and craft supplies and a computer desk area.  I think Hubby said it is almost 700 square feet!  It will be about 2/3 of the total basement, and about 1/2 of our house area.

It will be a really nice multi-purpose room! 

Fuzzy and Hammer have been helping Hubby with the construction, too.  I used to love doing stuff like that with my dad.  :-D

Okay, Pumpkin's playdate has left... time for us all to watch some tivo tv together.

be well,
Dawn              

Tags: crazy kids, home improvements, basement

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y - Saturday!

Saturday!  Such a great day of the week! 

Everyone can sleep in if they want to do so! 

No work or school! 

Just fun stuff for the kids...  Ballet and Jazz class for Pumpkin, and Bowling League for Fuzzy! 

I am going to drag my mother out to lunch I think, and to the store with me!  Or at least I think I will try to do so!  Mom just wants me to take her credit card and go pick up some stuff, but doing it together would be more fun. 

I think I have mentioned before that my Mom used to be a big smoker.  Since July 2005 she has stopped smoking in her house, (which had a separate hvac and air handler than ours) and since you can't smoke in restaurants or most public places in NJ that pretty much leaves her smoking outside. 

Mom used to be a 3-pack-a-day smoker.  She went down to less about 5 a day, but now has crept back up to around 10-15 cigs a day.   I hope and pray that someday she will stop completely.

However, for now, Mom goes out onto our little porch area outside our front door and smokes at the little bistro set out there.  The cats and the dogs often watch her doing this.  They actually sit in the full view glass door and stare at her.

So, where am I going with this?  I belong to the graphics group, Derasta Creations, as mentioned in my side bar.  One day, one of the women used a tag for her signature that totally reminded me of my Mom.

My kids totally cracked up and love this, and even my Mom and Dad and Hubby got a good chuckle, too.

So here it is...

Grandma, smoking, who looks an awful lot like our all black cat!

be well,
Dawn

ps... The weather people are big fat liars and we got no snow at all.  Just slushy goopy rainy gunk that wet the ground and now is turning icy.  Arrrghhh!  I want SNOW!

A 'Super' Weekend Assignment

Blogfather John Scalzi has a 'super' assignment for us all to do! 

Weekend Assignment: Share your memories of the first Super Bowl game you remember seeing. Which is to say, the first one you had an actual interest in -- Super Bowls playing in the background while you faced away from the TV and read a book or something don't count. If you remember watching one but don't remember quite the year, here's a list of the Super Bowls to date to assist your memory (click on the particular game to a full description of the game).

Extra credit: So, ever been to a Super Bowl game?

                             

I clearly remember rooting against the Miami Dolphins in 1972 and 1973.  My dad being a HUGE Jets fan, kind of made that a prerequisite in my house!  I also remember it because my dad's brother and sister both love the Dolphins, and we don't!  I do love an underdog, and I was totally Daddy's LittleGirl!  The Jets may not have won since SuperBowl  III, but at least they have won a SuperBowl, unlike the Dolphins Dan Marino.  Sorry people... some rivalries don't die, and I had to get a blow in there!!!

We were also Steelers fans in my house, and their run starting in 1974 and culminating in 1979 with their 4 wins, totally rocked!  I can clearly remember the SuperBowl parties of those years, taking turns between my house and my cousin Leslie's house!  Hot dogs, wings, chips, dips, beer and soda, and lots of fun!  Of course, that was when the game started earlier in the day, so you and your kids could watch together and still get the kids to bed on time! 

In the summer of 1981 we drove out to Ohio to visit relatives, and we stopped at Canton, OH at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  It was great!  I remember seeing the SuperBowl rings and being amazed at how big they were!  I also bought a Franco Harris Steelers jersey at the gift shop before we left!  It was a replica one, long gone, but I wish I still had it now!

The late 80's was an exciting time to be a Jet fan with the NY Sack Exchange - Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau!  No return to the the SuperBowl, but it sure was fun!  About two years ago I met Joe Klecko at the ESPN Zone in NYC, and he signed a white Jets hat for my dad, and gave Hubby and I tickets to a game! They were doing a trivia contest and I blew everyone in the room out, with my Jets memory!  There was some very not happy 20ish year old males!  Ha!

Somewhere along the line in high school, I also became a Giants fan.  The Giants used to host a charity basketball game at my high school each year against the teachers!  It was a blast!  They would spend hours signing autographs and talking to anyone who came to the game and supported the school! 

The late 80's, the 1986 and 1990 seasons, to be exact, were GREAT times to be a Giantsfan!  The Giants led by Quarterback Phil Simms rocked the SuperBowl and won both those years!  After all the years of watching poor Phil get clobbered it was sweet to see him get his just desserts!

Good thing, too, my hubby, who was then my fiance, is a HUGE Giants fan!!!  I am so glad we got to share that game together (actually played January 1991)!  We even went to two games during the regular season!  The kids are now Jets and Giants fans, too!

The Jets and Giants haven't won any SuperBowls since, but the Giants did return in 2000, only to be beaten by the Ravens.  In this house we are very hopeful that very soon the Jets or Giants will make it back and win! 

Until then, we still celebrate football, and all its glory on SuperBowl Sunday!  We eat lots of chips, dips, hot dogs, chili and wings, and drink mostly iced tea and water.  We will cheer to the end, hoping to at least get lucky on one quarter in a football pool. 

Personally, I am rooting for the Colts!  After all, it is Giant Quarterback Eli Manning's big brother Peyton's big day!

And, no I have never attended a SuperBowl, but I would love to do so!

Then, as we bid football adieu by overeating junk food, we will turn our eyes toward baseball...

About a week to training camp... I am informed that pitchers and catchers already reported!!!!  Go Yankees!

be well,
Dawn

ps... Have fun celebrating the SuperBowl at your homes, too!

Tags: Superbowl, Bears, Colts, Jets, Giants

Tags: John Scalzi, Weekend Assignment

CarnivAOL Call

Time for CarnivAOL submissions!  Check out the site CarnivAOL !

Everything you need to know is there.  You don't need a 'special' entry or a 'creative' or 'artsy' entry... just any journal entry of yours, old or new, that you want to share!  People will come and read your journal!  And, that is GOOD!

As you can see football fever is starting to set in here!  I will be doing an entry about Superbowls past and present sometime this weekend.

Did anyone see Grey's Anatomy tonight, Thursday night?  Wow.  I really related to it... Poor Meredith.  I think that both my parents are disappointed in me in much the same way.  I turned out so 'ordinary' (as Meredith's mom lamented to her), and I don't think they are very satisfied with that.  I know they love me, and are 'happy I am happy'... but, I don't think 'they' are happy.  If that makes any sense... well, it does to me.

However, it is my life, and I feel that I am where I needed to be!  Even if my book never gets published, even if this is totally 'it' for me.  I am happy and satisfied.  If all I ever am is a great mom to my kids, and a good wife to my Hubby, I really am okay with that!  So many kids don't get parents who give them their all, and I know that my kids do get that from me, and their dad. 

Any how... Colts or Bears?  Who are you rooting for?  Either?  Neither?  Whatever wins you money in the football pool? 

be well,
Dawn

Tags: CarnivAOL, Superbowl, football, Grey's Anatomy

Thankful Thursday

Good Morning!

It is time again for Thankful Thursday, from Gretchen.

1.      I am very thankful for the wonderful breakfast I had with my kids and Hubby this morning.

2.     I am thankful that after I get Hammer set up for the day, I can take a nap.

3.     I am thankful that Pumpkin Muffin decided to join the Chess Club a few weeks ago, and that she loves attending it every Thursday.  

4.     I am thankful that the weather people are forecasting about 3-4 inches of snow for overnight tonight!

5.     I am thankful for my mom and dad and all of their love, support and help, around the house and with the kids.

I am also thankful for all the wonderful graphics and tags that I am getting from my email group, Derasta Creations!  The group also has games, recipes, and other inspirational emails that really brighten up my day!  

be well,
Dawn

Tags: Thankful Thursday, Giving Thanks, Derasta Creations