What To Do

I am a little confused on what to do.

Sunday's normally have a game on the tv.

Not this Sunday. No game for us to watch.

What to do? What to do?

I guess we'll just have to wait until next week. How many others have their team playing? :)

New Year, New Changes

If it seems I have been more remiss than normal on stopping by, here is why:

1. It's broomball season. Big Poppy and I like to play. Sometimes the ice is hard. Like really hard. When a body hits the ice just right it can through your back out of whack. That's me, right now. My back is aching and the muscle relaxants and pain meds drug me down this weekend. On the upside, I am on the mend. I love my chiropractor!

2. It's a new year and the beginning of the new year is a great time to start something new. That is exactly what we have done. Big Poppy and I have either added to Little Guy's inheritance or we have squandered away his college savings (let's hope we are adding to his future!) and have purchased the family business (family business in that it was previously owned by GrandC and GrandB - Big Poppy's brothers have not worked for the company for many years now).

3. Now that the deal is finalized (yes, you do create debt when purchasing a family business, we did not get it for free) and I am on the mend I have no excuse for not catching up and posting more.

4. So, this new year brings in a resolve. I will post more often, if for no other reason, this is a great way for me to remember what we have done throughout the years.

5. I got nothing else right now. :)

It Worked

Pictures recovered. It took some time. But it was worth the wait.

This is audit week. I'll catch up this weekend.

But I am so happy, Big Poppy came through big time.

Please oh Please

I am patiently waiting to see if they can be recovered. My computer has crashed, burned and then been partially revived. However, after noticing iTunes music is not at full force and if I try to synch iPod music it wants to erase everything, I noticed something even more disturbing.

My pictures are MIA - well at least half of them are gone and most of the Christmas pictures have gone to the black hole of computer land. It makes me very, very sad. I have memories here to share with you, share with very special people and to keep for the next for the future years.

Please, oh please, let me be smart enough to figure out how to retrieve the pictures. I will (somewhat) happily repurchase music for iTunes. I will be more diligent about backing up my computer.

Please, please let me be smart enough to hire the right person for the job if it turns out to be bigger than anything Big Poppy can handle. I am already smart enough to know this is beyond my capabilities.

Until then, I have this one to share.

And after some genius, Big Poppy or otherwise, recovers my pictures, I can finish my 2010 picture book and let you know how the month of December turned out for us.

Here's a hint, there were bouts of the stomach flu, pouting lips for non-exist fudge (a clear sign my family no longer loves me) and lots of family fun whether in the Frozen Tundra or the Icy Plains.

Wishing You A Magical Christmas

NYC

I don't know how to say this.

I love New York.

I loath New York airports.

The mobs of rude people, and I know you are not all from New York but seem to think you should take the stereo type of the New Yorker attitude to the extreme, are enough to drive me to a drink. Heavily. Ok, maybe it did drive me to a drink but not heavily - just one glass of wine.

What was I doing in New York? Flying home from our Orlando vacation of course!

No, I was not insane and tried to save a few bucks by not having a direct flight, however you probably heard on the news, the Frozen Tundra was hit with a rather large snowstorm. There were even roof collapses from the weight of the snow.

We were all set for a Saturday departure. Mother nature had other plans. We had a change to Sunday flights via Atlanta and Milwaukee. Those were cancelled. Monday comes and our 7 am flight was delayed to 9:15 and we were flying via New York.

Have you ever entertained a kid at an airport for way too long? I am not talking hours. I am talking days. There is a hotel located in the Orlando. For convenience sake we staid there. We thought we had a one day delay.

In reality, our extra stay at the airport was not all that bad. We had good food, a comfortable bed and plenty of moving walk ways which kept Little Guy highly entertained. He was also a big fan of the glass elevator and watching us mover closer or farther from the people outside. Weeeee. This can be said even before stepping into the elevator. The anticipation is that great.

Really, it was just the NYC airport that made our delayed trip home bad. Work may think not being there to get items done is bad and when I am up early and home late catching up from today, then I may agree. But, we did get see Little Guy for his first trip to NYC. Maybe next time he can even venture out of the airport.

NOTE: I'll wrap up vacation this week.

Baby, It's Cold Outside - II

Day two of vacation (or is it really day one since Saturday was a travel day?) started off cool and cloudy. I went for a quick wog -- somewhere between a walk and a jog -- and returned back to our place just as it started to rain. Now a little rain does not make me melt, I am not made of sugar nor am I green, but this did dampen my mood. Vacation rain does not make me happy. In fact it makes me very sad.

AuntJ and Big T were set to travel over to spend the day with us. While our place is larger than a hotel room, a two bedroom condo unit, it would feel very small if three adults and two young, energetic boys were forced to stay inside and play all day. One thing Big Poppy has told me about Florida, it may rain every day but it will not rain all day. I admit, I doubted this because of the cloud coverage and how cold it was outside. Fortunately, Big Poppy was correct. By the time AuntJ and Big T made their way over, the sun was out and while it was not warm it was no longer cold.

Big T and AuntJ were great little hosts for the day at Sea World and helped us plan out a good day.

It started with the dolphins.

As you can see, despite seeing the dolphins more often Big T was still happy to see them again. Little Guy's mouth and eyes are opened up in wonder and awe. What is hard to capture on camera (darn you point and shoot) is the pointing fingers and the "oohhh!" and smiles and laughter and the trying to jump into the pool with the dolphins. Little Guy could have stayed watching much longer, we stayed here for 15 minutes, and he was displeased when we moved on to see what else there was to see at Sea World.

About two weeks ago I was speaking with a client who has two year old twins. She told me we could talk more the next day because she was on her way out the door to take the twins to Sesame Street Live. We laughed about her exciting life and how jealous I was not be going to Sesame Street Live. As I hung up the phone I thought to myself how lucky I was Little Guy has not shown interest in some childhood characters - yet.

Well there are Sesame Street shows at Sea World. We decided to go. I thought it would be a good introduction for Little Guy. Boy do I feel like a bad mommy now. Little Guy loved it. He stood on the bench in amazement, watching everything. Big Poppy and I have done plenty of things with Little Guy and have introduced him to many parts of life. However, Sesame Street or other characters have not been around us all that much (I may have a fear of create a couch potato that misses out on the activities of life).

I need to realize a little show here and there is not going to harm Little Guy. He deserves a little entertainment too.

Afterall, if Little Guy sees puppets every now and then, he may not be afraid of Shamu...or maybe a whale is something to be a little scared of.
 
AuntJ and I swapped kiddo's, Big T was a big fan of this aunt (yeah!). The Christmas tree light show held their attention (and ours) for the entire time. Little Guy is young enough that he was amazed every time the lights came back on or changed colors.
 

 
We stayed until the park closed to see the fireworks. It was cold. COLD. While walking around to find a good vantage point for the fireworks I spotted heaters. We found our spot. Big Poppy walked back a short ways to get himself a hot chocolate and a hot toddy for AuntJ and me. Between the heater, hot toddy and snuggling boys I was able to keep my blood circulation circulating.