And On The 13th Day...

Good Monday... Good Morning... however you prefer... I prefer whichever way works the best!

We have had quite a beginning of the year...And all in good ways!  One of my cousins on my dad's side, which is a very small side, they're the Rhode Island of families, recently moved two towns away from me if you're counting from my house.  SAME town if you're counting from work.  Yay!!  I get to see her more!  She  moved in with her mum, my Pop's little sister, and I might get to see her more too.  She's a Hermit Crab.  Not just a Hermit, a Hermit CRAB...  She's rad and we love her, but she can be a bit of a crabapple.  4 years in the same town as my work and I have yet to see her due to that fact.  Saw her twice, once at a wedding in Pismo Beach of all places and once at my baby shower for Thing 2.  That was a surprise!!!  It was the best surprise of the day, really.  She took Pop's death really hard and she's one of those people that doesn't want to be reminded of the negative, even if it means staying away from the negative's children.  Hopefully a trend to be changing in the not too distant future... I'm leaning towards Saturday! 

I am still rolling with the changes, REO Speedwagon style, as to having a child born in January...  Atleast it's at the polar end of Christmas and New Years, but still...January.  I have decided to make it less stress and I am now not including the month of January in my yearly budget.  January is a free for all...The "year" will start with my January 31st check, not with my December 31st check as previous years sans Thing 2.  Once I decided on that, my whole outlook on this month was A-Number 1-100%-OK.  Yay!  Nothing extravagant for her bday this year.  Just an intimate family party with some cake, some pizza.  You know, health food.  I'm excited though just the same because it means we have managed to keep the tiny human safe and sound for two whole years.  It's as much a celebration of the day of her birth as it is of every day since... I am a proud mama of this little one and of our family as a whole!  Yay us!

We got our W-2's at work today...You know what that means...the tax man waits for no one...  I get to start my orange tri-cut folder of 2013 tax info.  My tax lady loves me for this, by the way... she LOVES me for this.  I have two more W-2's, the mortgage company info for the house, the bank statement year ends and my 401k stuff to throw in and we're getting our taxes done! YAY!  I know, shut up, I like YAY... it works for me right now. 

I have the taxes all tangled up already and I'm fine with the outcome so far.  I am VERY fine with the fact that the lens that was suggested to me by my lil cuz is coming down in price as we speak.  I love the Amazon Wish List, it's one of my favourite things.  Then there's the whole Flash debacle.  I have been putting off getting a flash for my DSLR since I bought my very FIRST one.  I have a flash for a SLR, and I LOVE it... nothing special, but it's fancy enough for me.  I am not a true dyed in the wool photog, though... so I am not comfortable using the 35mm that was once my gpa's anymore...So it's time to walk away from the past and make the push into the new millennia...14 years after it started, but still...shut up.  I am DYING to get the lens and flash because now that the prices have dropped SO significantly I feel super justified in the purchases.  Then there's the struts for our civic, still need to do that...  we are getting our new phones, and now there is a new deal through TMobile that I am wondering if we should check out.  Getting these phones is going to be just as if not more harrowing than getting our house.  But that's how I roll and that is one of the reasons my hunny loves me!

Wednesday I have taken a personal day to stay within the vicinity of my home and await the arrival of my Pop's elder sister to come into town from several states away with my Uncle and their RV... I LOVE that I get to see them too!  I have gotten to see her a lot I'd say... for someone that lives STATES away.  I LOVE seeing the side of the family that completes my puzzle.  That's what Choners says.  He kinda gets where I fit in with Ma's family...but when we're around Pop's family it's like a game show buzzer going off in his head and it's lovely.

Another reason for us to write off January as a loss, other than Thing 2's bday, this year my favorite bookstore in town is closing it's doors.  They couldn't brave the slow paced sMall that they reside in and have to make a decision.  I have been a patron of the store since day one and will miss them so.  They had GREAT discounts when there were discounts, and it's even better with 75% off the lowest price.  I got THREE bags of books for $24.  And there's something in there for ALL of us!  It was so bittersweet...  So many empty stores in our sMall.  Atleast during Halloween they put one of those atrocious Costume City things in there and it beefs up the traffic something wonderful... I loved how artificially busy it was Saturday with the closing sale. People came out of the woodwork.  Aaahh, small towns...

We still don't know what we're doing for the Big 10...  and we also made another financial decision.  To cancel our New York trip next year so I can get LASIK... I am just about Legally Blind and I am a candidate and Ma works in Optometry and can get me a deal...but with the things we have going on this year, I would really like to get my eyes done next year.  I almost bit the bullet and did it this year, but it would cut too heavily into our, lets say, profit margin...Still not sure how to incorporate photos into the blog to make it interesting... so I'm considering that heavily and hopefully that will improve with the new upgrades to ol' Betsy.  Other than that, everything's good.  Rolling along at work... I need to get in for a trim, keeping the short 'do... 

First Pic...

Having fun with the 'do...

These are my wascally wabbits...

 

And one of them will be two :*(

 

 

Two days....

Two Years!!!

 

and always with the squishy face!!

On The 6th Day...

Not only would I NEVER believe it was January, I would never believe it was winter, I would never believe that 2013 was only 6 days away...

I would swear that it was, in itself, a WHOLE YEAR away.

Recap:

Christmas was wonderful...  minus the SICK... the ungodly sick that we all experienced... starting with the Wee One and working it's horrid way up...  Daddy took the longest to recover, but alas, it happened and we were staring The New Year straight in the face.  We had our usual NYE.  Kids in bed early because the big one tries to stay up and can't, Martinelli's chillin until the ball drops and BOOM...  a good time for all :)

***took a break and came back the next morning, started the post at 4:30pm on 1/6/14... wrapping it up morning of 1/07***

 It was a modest Christmas this year, and I think it was better for it.  Thing 1 got games and Hello Kitty stuff and Thing 2 got her first trike.  I got some bad ass books that I can't WAIT to read, because I gotta say...  as much as I wanted to go back to the Stephen King Library at home and re-read, I AM refreshed that after 13 years together, the Mister is still providing new and exciting literature!  I can't be upset at that... like, at all.  I had some nice time off with the family, even though we were sick up to our eyeballs and I still have a lingering cold/allergy thing going on... but hey, it didn't stop us from the important thing; spending time together.

My lil sis's 13th birthday celebration extraordinaire was just a dinner at her favorite (right now) restaurant, yummy food and I got to spend a whole HALF of the dinner with her because Thing 2 didn't get her naps in and that was the end of that. 

Speaking of sleepy Thing 2...  she got a new bed.  Courtesy of a recall and that she BROKE her bed due to the problem of the recall before I could address the issue... plus that crib is SUPER old anyways.  I promised I would order the new one after the New Year... January 2nd, I ordered that bad ass bitch and it already came to the house!!  It came to the house yesterday and when I got home last night daddy had it all put together!  Then he spouted off about extra pieces...those would be for the Toddler bed conversion.  I can't believe the deal I got, I was so excited...  I felt awesome about the purchase because we were UP on our budget this year!!! WTF?!?!  I know !!!  It was exactly the amount of the bed and well, who can have a new bed without new bedding??  Nobody!!  That's HOO!  Hehe... yep, owl bedding.. it happened...  It's super cute, it's girly without drowning in pink and I LOVE it, and I found a good deal on the set...so the bedding + the bed = our "profit" from our budget.  I was so excited.  I couldn't believe it.  Nothing like starting the year on a total up note right?

Other than the plans I made for our tax return, there really aren't any HUGE decisions on the horizon, which means something unexpected is probably going to happen.  So super saving McScrooger time is back in effect immediately.  I might need a hair trim, other than that though, not really planning on anything for myself.  I can't WAIT to get that tax return though.  Not gonna lie.  I have my lens to look forward to, the car needs struts (that's a duh with the miles on it and how old it is and that I haven't done them before), we're getting new phones!!!, and we are doing something super extra special for our 10 year wedding anniversary!!!  I wanted to do something special and surprise the mister, I feel he really deserves a surprise...but then I started thinking and the thinking got out of hand and then there was a WHOLE list of things to choose from!!  I didn't know which one would be best, I wouldn't want to get back from the trip and say," Oh you liked that?  Yeah, well, it was between this, and this...and this and this and this and this..." and I wouldn't want him to sit there and think that there was a better possibility out there and I picked whatever it was I picked and why did I do that and OMG OMGOMG!!!...  so I brought him in on it...and it was so freaking cute too... so now we are mulling over three major possibilities, but I DO believe it's swinging one way..  A weekend Disneyland Resort getaway with a two park hopper :)  We haven't done Disneyland in FOREVER!!!  And NO...we are not taking the kids...and NO ... I do NOT feel badly about that decision...  AT ALL.  We already promised ourselves we would take them when Thing 2 is older.  That makes the most sense...  We took Thing 1 when she was 2 and some months...it was magical.  Thing 2...is not magical.  So, I say... we wait to take the kiddos...  But then again, I don't know that we're doing that... we'll see.  We have... uhm... three months or something like that to figure it out.. Less than that actually...  two months to cell phones, three months to anniversary.

Also, the first time we'll be away from both kids for time to ourselves EVER...  We've not done this before.  We've been there for the kids...and I think that this particular event calls for some Mommy/Daddy time, don't you?  Me too!! 

There's THAT....

It doesn't feel like the 7th day of January today... Yesterday didn't feel like the 6th day... and today doesn't feel like the 7th... It.just.doesn't.  It's SUPER hot here.  The rest of the country is experiencing this Polar Vortex thingy... Not here... Not us... Of course.  I wanted it to be damned COLD!  I wanted the cold, I wanted to see snow this year and we were well on our way with the coldest autumn in our history and record breaking lows in November...but alas... no... dammit.  And it doesn't look like we're going to see any cold ever... I don't see where we are... Unless the Spring stays cold... which would be nice.

My tape player in my car died again, which brings the question...do you replace the radio on a 12 year old car with 217k on it?  Even if it runs like new?  Yeah, we'll be pondering that for sure.

Crafting a lot already...  getting down the list of Christmas gifts... uhm..yeah... 

I feel this is the catch up necessary to bring us to the New Year.  I am excited about this year, last year wasn't great.  It by far was not the worst... but...it was... underwhelming.  New year, new rules... new rules to have a great year!  Thing 2 turns 2 and I think it's going to be a small affair due to the fact that I don't want to start the year off with no saving ;)  And she's 2.. come on... she still wasn't all that into Christmas... we had to open her gifts for her, mostly and then she just wanted us to get on with the opening of the actual gift itself.  She had no concept that there was MORE... so... with her bday... we're going small this year.  Maybe something next year, but even so, probably NOT.  And you know what sucks, this year would be great for us to finally host a party at our house even in the winter... it's NOT COLD!  Oh well...  Still loving my short-ass hair cut... LOVE.IT.  Ok, well, I think that's all the damage I can do for now.  Also, we now have Netflix... we have internet and we have Netflix.  We are no longer cavemen... write that down...