Let's GO Mountaineers!

Ah football season....the beginning of early tailgating, good food, good friends, good fun. This year we kicked off another great season in a new tailgate location. I think this spot will suit us well. We now have 4 families consistently coming (Beans, Doolittles, Robinsons, and Tenneys) with may others stopping by to join in the fun.

The game was awesome, just as we expected. The stadium was packed. The band was on cue (except for a slight glitch during the Star Spangled Banner) and did a great Armed Forces tribute during half time. Morgan was very pleasant, sleeping through the first quarter and being very patient until the end of the game.

The Mountaineers finished with a decisive win over Villanova. Our rivals Pitt, Virginia Tech, and Michigan all lost. What a great day for Mountaineer Football!

Fan from the beginning

First Football Season

9 weeks old

WVU vs. Marshall


Second Football Season
14 months old
WVU vs. Western Michigan


Third Football Season
26 months old
WVU vs. Villanova

Gone, but not forgotten

We woke up Saturday morning to a gorgeous blue sky, light breeze, and great temperature. All was right in the world until I walked outside. It was then I noticed that someone STOLE our WVU flag, where it had been proudly flying ON OUR PORCH for the past two years.

Yes folks, even in Small Town USA crime still occurs. It's amazing how bold someone was to walk up to our porch and take the flag out of its holder. Mind you, this was not a little flag. It was roughly equal to our American flag flying on the other corner of the porch. Not to mention that my husband swears our house is lit up like Fort Knox at night. I honestly don't know when it actually happened, it was just Saturday that I noticed it was gone.

If someone in PA is trying to squash our pride in WVU, you have not succeeded! We are very PROUD Mountaineers, and will one day replace that flag with a bigger one! And if you are one of Patrick's bone-head friends and you took the flag as a prank, kindly return it at your convenience. I promise if it is returned soon you will be spared the wrath of a fiesty, hard-headed Italian. If not cousin Guido may be looking for you. Better watch your back!

Are you ready for some (fantasy) football???

Today was the first of two fantasy football drafts for both myself and Patrick. We did a live draft today, which is always a lot of fun. Last year my team didn't do too well in this league, but I did have Tom Brady, who I kept from last year. Hopefully with his arm and some good running of Willie Parker, Earnest Graham, and the return of Antonio Gates I will have a good season.

Draft Central

The Commissioner (hard at work)

Lots of strategy involved...

We will kick off college football this weekend with the first WVU home game. We are looking forward to a bonfire on Friday, tailgating on Saturday, and of course the game.

Labor Day we will do an online draft for Patrick's work league. I am the league CHAMPION of that league, and therefore will be drafting last (sigh). Even if I have a bad year, I can always say I beat all the men at FF one year!

Mother's Life Lessons #672 and #673

Over the past week I have learned two very valuable mothering lessons that I thought I would share for any mothers who have not learned these rules yet.

Lesson #672--Remember to put sunscreen on you BEFORE you put it on your toddler, who will want to run immediately into the very cool baby pool/play place. This lesson was extremely painful to learn after 2 1/2 hours of fun in the pool I emerged with a sun burn SO BAD I am sure it was sun poisoning. I never went to the doctor (although everyone said I should) but was nauseous for 2 days and could not wear a THING without it being excruciatingly painful. That was last Thursday. If you can imagine the color of a clown's nose, or lobster, or cherry tomato, you can imagine the current color (still) of my shoulders and legs. My back has faded and subsequently started to peel. According to my husband the coolest part of the sunburn is getting to peel the skin. I hardly agree, but let him indulge in his 3 minutes of fun peeling my back skin (ewwww...) I should have thought about this lesson since we had just recently returned from an air trip to CT and we were dutifully instructed, if air masks should fall, to place ours on BEFORE helping Morgan. Apparently the same concept applys for sunscreen application.

Lesson #673---it is not advisable to place your toddler in the tub directly after dinner. This is especially not advisable if your toddler has yet to have a bowel movement during the day. Needless to say, I now have to add bleach and scrub the tub and tub toys to my list of chores for the evening. If you require further explanation about this lesson, feel free to contact me.

My hope in sharing these lessons is that other mothers will be spared learning these lessons the hard way. Have a nice evening!

30 by 30

Today officially marks 7 months before my 30th birthday. After dealing with a lot of medical problems over the past 2 years, I am finally ready to be serious again about losing weight. My goal is to lose 30 pounds by the time I am 30. Today is the start. I am looking forward to posting my progress on the 11th of every month. Please pray for me, as this is certainly not an easy task. It's achieveable, but I know I will struggle.

Pounds to go: 30

Months to go: 7

Weekend in Connecticut

Last weekend Morgan, Patrick and I jetted off to Connecticut to attend the wedding of a long time family friend. It was a very short trip (Aug 1-4) but we sure did get a lot of things in while we had the opportunity to be with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law.



Morgan was supposed to be the flower girl in the wedding. She looked adorable. She liked holding her basket and playing with the petals. However, when it was time for her to walk down the aisle, she wouldn't go! She is going through a very shy phase right now and saw lots of people she didn't know and wouldn't let go of my leg! She wouldn't even walk with my mom, who was the Matron of Honor at the wedding. I ended up carrying her down the aisle while she held her hands over her face! She wouldn't even throw petals until AFTER the ceremony when she found it great fun to throw the petals at the bride and other wedding party members. Thankfully she also thought it was great fun to pick up all the petals and put them back in her basket.





She did have a great time in the limo, which I let her ride in sans carseat and she loved the lights on the ceiling, being able to wear a big girl's seat belt (and insisting that Mama put hers on too...). Overall, for being 2, she did a great job and was very pleasant.

While we were in CT we also got the opportunity to visit a local aquarium. This was Morgan's first trip to the aquarium. We had lots of fun watching the sea lions and penguins. I touched a sting ray. We saw a 700 pound sea lion slide merely feet away from us on the concrete across part of the auditorium, outside of the pool (it was part of the show, so don't panic). And of course, because of Morgan's infatuation with Finding Nemo, we had to locate Nemo and Dory in the indoor aquarium.






It was a super quick trip, but lots of fun. We were all exhausted when we got home, but it was worth it.

Three Things I Like

My friend Catherine posted about three things she likes and asked her readers to tell her what they like. I have decided to copy her and share three things I like here (to give you all something to read).

1) Carnations--very simple, inexpensive flowers that can be dyed any color and last forever.



2) Bluetooth technology--it's great to be totally hands free at work, in the car, and at home. I don't get the pains in my neck anymore from holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder, and I can multi-task a lot easier.



3) Baby wipes--they have way more uses than one would think! They will take most food stains out of clothing (if the stain is fresh), will get bugs off a car bumper, great for faces, bottoms, hands, feet, and all points in between.

I Love My Bank!

I had one of those eye-opening experiences with fraud yesterday that made me really appreciate my bank. I used my debit card to purchase a footlong meatball sub at Subway on Wednesday afternoon. That evening I attempted to use my debit card at Target and it said it was denied. Dealing with a screaming 2 year old and the fact that I was already flustered I just assumed I had punched in my pin number wrong and used another card to pay for my purchases. Yesterday afternoon my blackberry died in between my home and my work destination. Knowing it was my only link to the "outside" world I stopped at a Radio Shack in one of the towns on my way to get a car charger. Again, my debit card was denied. Now I was getting slightly more than annoyed, and while bad-mouthing the bank under my breath paid for my charger with another card and went on my way.

After arriving at my aunt's house I called the bank. I was getting more steamed as I tried to navigate through the voice-command prompts to get to a customer service woman. Finally, I was connected. Thankfully I remembered that this poor woman was not the person who was denying my card and I calmly told her what my problem was. Her response was this...

"It looks like there was a charge attempted with your card for 4,352 British pounds to a car sterio outlet in Great Britian. We flagged the card for fraud and denied the charge."

I WAS FLOORED!!! That's well over $9,000! All I could say was "Thank you, thank you, thank you. We dont' even have that kind of money!" The final result was they canceled my card and will be sending me another. They are also watching the old card for any additional attempts at charges.

I was so thankful that the bank was that astute to notice that a charge of that magnitude was well outside of our "normal" spending. I am also glad that the charge was denied before it ever went through. I can't imagine the horrible mess that would have caused with overdraft fees, etc. not to mention all the identity theft issues I would have to deal with.

I rarely use my debit card for transactions that are not immediate, and I never use it over the computer. I have a strong suspicion I know where the "suspect" got the number, but because I strongly support the "innocent until proven guilty" mantra, I will not say on this blog. However, it just reinforces my paranoia about identity theft and credit card fraud. I am always careful to check all credit card statements weekly and our bank accounts daily. I shred anything with identifying information on it, even junk mail. I get our free credit reports 3 times a year. Any still it isn't enough, but I do feel better about why I do these things (and I proved to Patrick that I am not obsessed!).

So thank you bank, for all that you do to keep your customers safe, happy, and loyal.

5 Years!

Today Patrick and I celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Our wedding day was absolutely perfect. We had a beautiful ceremony, great food, and an awesome reception. I am one of those lucky brides who was perfectly happy with every part of my wedding, and I wouldn't change a single thing. I hope to watch our wedding video sometime soon...I have actually never seen it. I just remember how happy I was and how great I felt marrying the man of my dreams.




We continue to enjoy life together, writing new chapters together. I pray for many more and at least as much fun in the next 5 years as the last 5 have been!

Business travel is only great because...

Once again I am on the road for business. This time I am attending a grant writers conference (snooze) in our state capitol. Patrick and I both travel a LOT with our jobs. To give you an idea, my car just turned one year old and has 30,000 miles on it. I hate business travel. I hate being away from my husband and my baby. When Morgan was younger I didn't do nearly as much travel because I could use Morgan as an "excuse" to stay closer to home. That is obviously no longer the case. I am pretty sure by now you know that I hate business travel.

HOWEVER......there are a few great things about business travel. I will list them in order of importance to me:

1) a king size bed ALL TO MYSELF! I love the fact that I can lay in the middle of the bed, stretch out my arms and not touch the sides of the bed or anyone/anything else. And I have SIX pillows (ahhh, heaven). To understand why this is so great you have to understand my normal sleeping arrangement. My husband, our dog, and I sleep together in a full bed with 4 pillows. (Yes, we sleep with our dog. No it was NOT my idea. She is a small dog. But she is a dachshund so she is a very LONG dog with a penchance for sleeping diagonally in our bed. Please don't feel the need to comment on how sad it is that two grown adults battle a 13 pound dog over bed space. I know it is sad. It's our life :) And on extremely rare occasions of night terrors, Morgan joins us. So this much space is just amazing.

2) Access to unlimited hot tub usage. Given the fact that absolutely no conference provides comfortable chairs to their participants who are expected to sit for 8 hours straight and the fact that I have a condition/disease/disorder (I am not really sure which category it falls into) that makes me live in pretty constant pain from my mid-back down through my toes, a hot tub is the next best thing to a free massage. At 29 years old, my doctor tells me that I have pain equivalent to being over 70. My disease, or whatever it is, creates extreme pain in my bones, muscles, and joints. Sitting in the car for long periods of time, sitting at conferences, and having to walk alot or stand for many hours at a time (while staffing an exhibit table for example) only makes the pain more crippling. 15-20 minutes in a hot tub does wonders for tired, aching body parts. It's not long, but having access to that allows me to minimize pain meds, which for me is very important.

3) Finally, business travel is great because I have a fantastic excuse to eat out. In fact, in most situations, that is the ONLY option for food. If you could see my waistline (and for those of you who have) you would know I LOVE to eat out. And when I eat out, I don't eat out healthy. It's an extreme problem, I recognize that. But just as with smoking or any other long-time habit, it is hard to stop. Business travel gives me a) money to eat out (something we really don't have or shouldn't be spending on) and b) reasons to eat out. Maybe some day I will get to the point where I ONLY eat out on business travel. That's my 5-year plan. For now, I will just enjoy it while I still can.

One thing I always seem to forget when attending business conferences is this: cute shoes do not always equal COMFORTABLE shoes. And one would think that as a person who has fairly moderate levels of pain in her legs I would be most cognizant of what I wear on my feet. Hey, I never said I was a smart woman! I think I need to put a sign in every suitcase I own that reads "Have you thought about your feet today?" Again, as with eating out, it's self-inflicted pain. But I think this one will be easier to correct.

So I will end this ridiculously long post by going to lay in my king size bed, surrounded by multiple pillows, having just left the hot tub, and think about what's for breakfast....haha just kidding. I'll be thinking about lunch (breakfast is in the hotel).

Good night!

Isn't Technology Great?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Charity

In such a money-hungry society where your social status is decided on the clothes you wear and the cars you drive, it was so nice to read this story. Just wanted to share. Makes me think that there are certainly ways our family could cut back, even to help pay down our debt. Perhaps that will be my "project" this month.

Our Baby is TWO

At precisely this moment, two years ago, Morgan Elisabeth was born. What a treasure the past two years have been. Our baby is now two....and when I read her growth update today it started off "Your Preschooler...". She's not a baby anymore. She is such a spunky, funny, independent little girl. Two years have flown by just like two blinks of an eye. It's been a fun journey so far and I anticipate many good trips on the road ahead. Thank you God for answering our prayer two years ago...our angel arrived safely from heaven and we are doing the best we can to raise her as you wish. We are thankful for every rising sun and midnight moon that we are blessed with her. I pray for many, many more.

*Pictures were added later in the day*

Annual Susalla Summer Spectacular

Every year my mom's side of the family tries to get together for a summer outing. Since my uncle and cousin both work security at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, we have been going there in the recent years. We had a really great time as always! It was Morgan's first trip to Kennywood, and she really enjoyed it! I was afraid that she would not ride any of the rides but after the first one, she was a riding fool! It is always great to get to spend time with the family. We missed my one uncle, aunt, and cousin (they were at my cousin's all-star baseball tournament) but made the best of a rainy day and had lots of fun. Below are some pictures from the day.