Friday's Foto Finish Fiesta

I am so glad that it's Friday because that means this crazy birthday week is almost over for me. I considered posting some pictures of all the birthday folks but that was going to take to long and I have a headache tonight so I decided on something short and sweet.



This is Ginger our now almost 2 yr old Chiuaua from last summer. We got Ginger from a friend of ours who was given her by another family. For some weird reason this family bought Ginger for their 16 year old daughter under the condition she take care of her because the mother had the 16 year old, a 13 year old, two 8 year olds, and a 9 mth old baby. Well the 16 yr old didn't take care of her so they gave her to our friends and we ended up taking her. A Chiuaua was not the type of dog that Dave and I wanted and I still wouldn't choose one now but we love Ginger.

I do find it funny how in the winter we have to force Ginger to go outside because she hates the cold and forget the snow but in the summer she will pace at the door constantly to go outside. She loves to lay in the sun and this is one of her favorite spots, my guess is because it's out of the way of the kids and the stones are warm from the sun.

Now head over to Candid Carries and share a picture of yours.

Nana

Today marks the fourth birthday of the week and it belongs to one of my best friends Shanna, or Nana as my kids call her.

Shanna and I went to high school together and we were both on the Color Guard but we barley spoke to each other. In fact I despised her back then because she was mean and stuck up (don't ask what she thought of me). Things got so bad at one point that Dave got involved and then her brother got involved and it was just plain ugly. Somehow we managed to escape High School without killing each other.

A few years later our mutual friend Jenn was getting married and invited us both to her bachlorette party and the wedding. Shanna and I talked at the bachlorette party and since we were the only friends making the trek to PA for her wedding we decided to sit together and we actually had a good time.

Shortly after that Shanna moved into the apartment across from Dave and I and the two of us have been friends ever since. If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I would have planned a bridal shower, and baby shower for Shanna I would have said you were smoking crack but I have done both. I am so glad that we were both able to grow and change as people so that we could become friends because I can't imagine my life without her in it.

So to you Shanna, Have a very Happy Birthday you deserve it!

The Nick Man

Today is the second of three family birthdays and the third of 5 birthdays of people I am close to this week. Yes you have read correctly all three of my siblings were born in the same freaking week of February and I have two very close friends that fall between them. I really hate this week/month even though I love the people with the b-days.

So we know Stephy Lou was Monday, well yesterday was our awesome friend Davids or as we call him Big D's 29th birthday. Today is the older of my two brothers (but still my little brothers)Nick's 23rd birthday. Now you will just have to wait to find out who the other birthday folks are and when there are because this is really Nick Man's day.



I was 4 going on 5 when Nick was born and I remember allot about the week he was born. At the beginning of that week my dad had surgery (one of many back then) on his knee so he was on crutches for Stephs birthday. The following Day my grandma had come over to help my mom do some cleaning and last minute things for the new baby. Steph and I were playing nicely in our bedroom with all her new toys. At the time we had bunk beds and the top bunk was mine but it was off limits to Steph. Our mom and dad thought it was too high for her to be climbing on. Well that day since dad was gone and mom was busy we decided it would be fun to take all the stuffed animals and barbies up to my bed and play boat. I climbed up first and she tossed all the toys up to me and then she started her climb for the top bunk. She got about half way and got scared so I leaned over and told her to grab my hand. Instead of just reaching for me with one hand and holding on with the other she let go completely and tumbled to the floor with a very loud thud! It turned out that that thud broke her collar bone so we spent the rest of the day at the doctors waiting for them to set it.

Of course as luck would have it the very next morning my mom went into labor with Nick (who up until that point was known as Andrea because the ultrasound tech told them it was going to be another girl). Since my mom and dad had only discussed girl names for him they didn't have anything picked out so my mom let my dad name him. That is how Nick Man got the name Nicklaus Hogan Jurden after my dad's two favorite golfers Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. I don't know if he knew how well the name would grow to fit Nick but he has golf in his blood for sure.

Unfortunately for me I do not remember much of Nick during his first year because of everything that happened with my father so I skip forward to when Nick was about 2 and Steph and I would torture him all the time. We made him play barbies with us and we would dress him up in our fancy church dresses all the time. The worst thing we did though was pile up tons of blankets and towels on the laundry room floor and then send Nick down the laundry shoot and into them like a pile of leaves. I'm pretty sure if Steph or I would have fit we would have done it to but Nick was not that excited about the whole thing. He was always such a good sport about everything we did and he never complained about it.

Today Nick towers over Steph and I so we can't really force him to do anything but I'm pretty sure if we ask him to he would do whatever it is because that is just the type of guy he has grown up to be. Nick isn't one to show emotion for much of anything, really nothing at all even when he is excited you don't know. The only times I have seen him show any emotion have been when my two children were born, the day he got married, and then funerals of our uncle and grandfather this year. Allot of people that knew our father say he is just like him in the regards but I think part of this for him was that he grew up in a house full of crazy women. :) Either way Nick is an amazing man and a great brother. I hope he has an awesome day today.

*I'm writting this at work because I don't feel like working at all so later today when I get home I will ad

Lil Sis

Today is all about my lil sis because it's her 25th Birthday. I can not believe I just wrote that. She should not be that old yet it's just crazy to me.



Anyway my sister is a character all her own. She LOVES her birthday more than any other day the entire year. Every year she plans a huge birthday party with all her friends (all million of them). She buys a dress, shoes, purse, jewelery, the whole works for this party every year and usually has a blast.

This year didn't work out so well for her though. She started the evening off with dinner at Typhoon (sushi) with her closest friends and other than there table not being ready when they got there it was great. After that they headed off for a bunch of different bars and clubs and that is when things went south. Apparently a guy she was taking to for a while but stopped showed up and was being a bit of a dick so much so that she had to keep herself surrounded by friends at all times so he would leave her alone. She also had an old friend yell at her but I don't know why and another friend ditch her. the final straw for the night was when she was standing at the bar talking with friends and some strange guy standing beside her pukes all over the front of her including her face. Somehow she managed to no get sick herself but she couldn't get this guys vomit off her. I think it's a good thing that I was not there with her or I would have hit that guy for puking on her, who does that kind of thing?

Anyway after that she went home and to bed. I felt so bad yesterday for her when she was telling me about her party this year. She was so excited about it and had been counting down the days for two weeks. I just hope that today her actually birthday is much better and that maybe the meal I made for her last night helped a little too!

*If anyone knows any nice, cute, single guys that love sports and are looking for a girlfriend let me know because my lil sis is single and looking. Just don't tell her I said this. :) *

Good Friday

Yesterday was a good Friday, the first in a long time. The day started as it always does with me going to work. For the last 2 months work has been complete hell thanks to the administration change. These are always hard to deal with because most things get put on hold until the new person figures out what is going on. It also means that all the managers and other who serve at the pleasure of the Attorney General are freaking out because they don't know if they are going to keep their jobs or not. Anyway our Manager is one of those that might not be around much longer and that has made him even more of an ass than normal. Yesterday however I did not have to talk to him about anything which helped make the day better. I was also able to learn some new things that are becoming my responsibility, train my supervisor on some of the new things I have already taken on that our Manager wouldn't train her on, and accomplish all of my to-do list yesterday.

At 4 I left work and went to pick up the kids. Thursday evening my MIL called and apparently she had talked to Dave earlier in the week about getting the kids again this weekend. We have some things going on Sunday so she is going to bring them back early but I couldn't tell her no all together because she seemed really excited about seeing them. I'm not sure what is going on with this every two weeks thing but I'm not complaining. So I picked the kids up and headed north towards our meeting spot. We pass Dave's work on the way up so typically we stop and pick him up since I get their about the same time he is supposed to get off work. This wasn't the case yesterday because Dave had three appointments scheduled for yesterday evening but the kids and I stopped anyway so he could see them and because we had some time to kill. While we were standing around talking to some of Dave's co-workers one of them came up and was talking to Emma. He told her that she looked very pretty and her response was "I know thank you"! I about died when she said that, but everyone just laughed and then said that Emma may look like me but she was all Dave. It is very true though Emma's personality is more Dave's than mine and the tell-it-like-it-is, No BS she gets from her dad for sure.

I left there and met my MIL, then I headed back home. Dave called on my way back home and said he would be home around eight so I should hold off on dinner so we could eat together. So I came home and changed my clothes, fixed my hair and make-up, and played a few games on boggle online until Dave got home. Dave was in the mood for Mexican so we went up to Las Margarita's for dinner. It was packed but we didn't have to wait to long for a table. Now for me I can't go to this restaurant without ordering a Frozen Margarita. They are huge and really good! It took a long time for them to get our food out to us but they give you free chips and salsa that of course taste amazing but Dave and I went through two bowls of them and I had drank half my Margarita. Finally our food got to us and it was GREAT as always, and too much so I have my Nachos for lunch today. By the time we left the restaurant I was feeling more than a buzz from my one drink but now quite drunk. It was very strange since I only had the one margarita the only thing I can think is that my stomach was too empty when I started drinking.

Since Dave had to work early this morning we came back home and we just sat in the living room and talked for a couple of hours about all kinds of things. It reminded me of the conversations we used to have when we were in High School and it was so nice.

So there you have it my Good Friday, the first in a long time.

*A side note for you, Ian didn't have any accidents yesterday either1 YAY!!!!*