Bush Economy Good for the Repo Man!

Whoever you want to be in office or whatever you think about the economy . . . .

this is one funny clip!

(from the Colbert Report. . . pronounced "coal-bear rah-poor")

My Crazy Kitties . . . & My Beautiful Niece!

Ok . . . so our cats are crazy. . . they love to lay on the air conditioning vents . . when the cold air is blowing! And they love jumping in the fridge as soon as we open it so they can lay down in it . . . the pic below was from this very morning! . . . I thought cats liked warm temperatures?!

p.s. - we need to go grocery shopping

Also, look what else I saw my cute kitty, Nina, do this morning . . and every other morning this week . . . as I was leaving for work . . .

And my lovely sister-in-law sent me this beautiful picture of my niece, Bryce, today via phone message! I can't be there to hold her and see her grow . . . and it just kills me, so I just LOOOOVEE when I get these picture messages from Bry & Sommer! I seriously showed everyone at work, and kept opening it back up during the day to look again! She is just so gosh darn cute!

Our New Garage!

First off, my wonderful hubby made this easy and very organized tool rack in our garage! It's so nice because they used to be just all thrown in a pile in the corner!

Ok, the main reason for this post: I made some cute little yellow "hunny" pot favors for my sister-in-laws baby shower . . . they turned out really good!! Although our garage floor didn't . . . I put newspaper down, but obviously not enough . . . . ugh . . . .

So, when we were home that same weekend as the baby shower, I saw that my Uncle Don had re-painted his garage floor with epoxy paint w/flakes in it, and it looked so nice! So I got this wonderful idea for us to do it! And so here you are . . .

Shane's job was to paint the floor, while I was in charge of the specks . . (bad idea . . . I got a little speck happy. . . but it still looks nice!). Below is half and half so you can see what it looks like before and after specks are applied.

We actually watched a 15 minute "instructional" video tape, because it was quite the process . . you have to sweep your entire garage, wet it completely, put some cleaner/etcher on it and brush it, wet it again to get all the "soap" off, let it try overnight, then mix the epoxy together and let it sit for 30 mins, then you have to paint it all within 2 1/2 hours . . .luckily we only have a one car garage and Shane is super speed man, so we did it in like 20 mins.

Ta da!! I think it looks sooooooo much better than it used to! Now only to dry wall the rest of the garage and paint it! Shane loves my ideas! A homeowners job is never done! At least we have friendly helpers like the little bugger below . . .

And we always have to celebrate a good house update with some well deserved cuppies!! Easy Pillsbury Funfetti ones this time! YuM!



And because I just love seeing before and after pics right next to each other . . .

Before


After

Black Widow: Found in Our Back Yard . . . Ugh!

So I really was hesitant to blog about this . . . because now I feel like our friends and fam will never come visit us again!! . . . but it's just so gosh darn scary and completely unexpected, I just have to!

When Shane was rolling up the hose in the back yard, our hose holder thingy broke . . . bummer. . . . so Shane opened the lid to try to fix it, and found this little bugger. Shane came and got me and said "do you want to see something scary?" . . .

Well there it is! It was almost too crazy to believe! So we went back in and checked on wikipedia to see if it really was a Black Widow . . . . and ugh . . unfortunately, it matched completely.

Soo scary! I was afraid to go to sleep that night!!

Warning:: Spider lovers and environmental protection peepz, do not read any further . . . .

We did dowse the spider in bug spray, and Shane made sure it was in spider heaven by smushing it with a stick.

I am still nervous there are more though! Although, I heard that black widows kill other black widows . . . . so my hope is that the one we killed had already killed all the other ones!

Presque Isle, I Heart You!!

The weekend we went home to see our beautiful niece come into this world, we also got to go to one of my favorite places in Erie, Presque Isle!

It started out with some sand volleyball with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and hubby at Beach 6, then they left with my mommy-in-law and daddy-in-law to go to Sara's for icecream, and then meandered on home.

I wanted to enjoy the beach a little longer, so I made my hubby stay. He's such a good sport and I know he loves me because he HATES water, sun, and sand.

A little while longer after we basked in the sun and I went for a refreshing swim, my dear mommy and our pup, Behren, came to enjoy the day as well!

(sorry for the pics . . they were taken by my phone . . . my cam was in the car)

Behren loved watching all the people and loved digging in the sand!! He was the best digger out there! . . . . If only we could get him to build sandcastles too!

We then decided to take Behren for a little walk down the shore and let him get his feet wet. I was so glad my mommy and Behren decided to come to the beach to see us!

I thank God for getting me to the beach that weekend. I was so lucky with everything I got to do, and I have been missing Presque Isle so much!

Waldameer! Ravine Flyer II! First Ride Story!

Well we finally made it to Waldameer in Erie, PA this summer! I did not think it was going to happen, but we made a little time available when we went home last weekend to see our wonderful niece be born! I have been wanting to ride the new rollar coaster for some time, and since my parents seemed excited to ride it also, I just had to get us all there! It turned out that we had a nice picnic at Shane's mom's house on Saturday and when we said we were going to go to Waldameer to ride the ride, everyone (Shanes mom, stepdad, dad, dad's fiancee, brother, sister-in-law, sister-in-laws parents, my parents, and our cousins) joined along! Totally made my day! So, this new rollar coaster I am talking about is the Ravine Flyer II! It was ranked 2nd worldwide among wooden rollar coasters and 3rd overall by Coasterfanatics! The above pic is the bridge that goes over the road. Supposedly there was a Ravine Flyer I that also went over the road, but I was either too young to remember or it was before my time. The below pic (the only pic courtesy of Waldameer . . . all the rest were taken by my camera) shows a digital view of the coaster.

Maybe it was because the wooden coasters at King's Dominion were so bad, but this wooden rollar coaster was actually pretty smooth! I was very impressed and do have to say that it is the best wooden rollar coaster I have ever rode on! It just had so many unpredictable twists and turns, some fun tunnels, an awesome first drop, an almost sideways bank . . . big props to Waldameer for making this awesome coaster! In fact, I heard that attendance was up 20% in the park, but I would have to argue that it is even more! I have never seen Waldameer that busy!! Although, we still only had to wait about 20 or 25 minutes in line.

Here are the youngins waiting in line! Me, Shoshonna, Shane, Marissa, & Dan! It is nice, because at Waldameer, you do not have to pay just to get in. So some of our group got to just sit and watch us ride. And you can pay per ride, like we did. . . since we only wanted to ride that one ride ($4.50 each person for the ride).

Here is Gary (Shane's daddy) and Renee (Gary's fiancee), and my lovely parents waiting in line! Don (Our step-diddy) was in line also, but not pictured . . he was too busy talking to the people behind us! So social he is! So excited they rode this! They still have the kids in them! Although Don told the couple behind us that he didn't have a choice. That I was making him ride it! Ha!

Aww poor Dan had to either: 1) wear his sunglasses (with the high likelihood of them flying off), 2) put them in the bin next to where you get on the coaster (with the chance of them getting stolen), or 3) had to put them in his pocket. . . . . . . (with the definite result of them breaking in half) . . bummer Dan!

Oh . . and also, I am not sure if you heard . . . but we all got news that you were not allowed to wear flip flops on the ride . . that they MADE you wear sneakers . . . which I thought was really stupid if it was true. . . but I want to clear things up . . . you CAN wear flip-flops! Yay!

So here is my cute Mommy and Daddy and Me and Shaney at Waldameer! So happy that we were all able to get together and go to Wally World! It was one of my goals this summer, and we did it! Yay!

Shoshonna and I being silly in the mirrors at Waldameer!

Us all heading back to our cars . . we had to park in the "overflow" lot because the other one was packed full! Crazy! Thank you for a great time Waldameer and my family! :-)

Bryce's Birth . . . Through My Eyes.

Bryce Lynn's birth story . . through my eyes . . aka . . . through my camera.

Bry and Sommer decided to get induced on Friday, August 15, 2008. Sommer's due date was August 18th, but on August 11th she was already 4cm dilated and we were all getting ansy! She had to go into the hospital at 6:30am on Friday, and they started her IV (pitocin, I think) and broke her water around 7:18am. At 9:28am (because yes. I kept a journal of what happened when. She's my first niece!) Bry came out and said we could go see Sommer. She was having some pretty hard core contractions (at one time they were only 15 seconds apart . . ugh.), but she never complained at all! In fact, she never complained the entire pregnancy! She is truly amazing and I hope I can have the attitude that she had. She used her puppies as a "focus" and had their pictures up on the bed for her to look at.

Sommer's beautiful ring that Bry got her for the pregnancy. It is Bryce's birthstone, and Sommer's favorite color!

We (Sommer's mom and dad, Bry's mom and dad, Shane, Me, and then a little later Don, Bry's stepdad, & Bry's grandma) were all in the waiting room. It was the most exciting and nerve-wrecking time ever! We kept text messaging Bry and Sommer to get the status, and they just couldn't reply quick enough for us! Finally, at 10:33am we got a text message from Bry that said, "8cm dilated. About an hour."! So then we were all so excited and got even more anxious! We all just sat there, waiting for more information . . . anything! A little before 12pm, Rita's (Bry's mom) phone beeps and we all stand up and she says "Oh my gosh! They had her!"! Then all of our other cell phones beep and we get the picture message too! (below is the actual picture we received!)

So then we were all freaking out! We all jumped up and wanted to run into their room, but couldn't, so we all hugged each other and congratulated each other! We all just held our phones and stared at the picture, trying to determine if Sommer was ok and who Bryce looked like. We think she has Sommer's nose and Bry's mouth, but it's still too early to tell for sure. We ate some cupcakes I made, because it was like we couldn't eat or go to the bathroom until we heard, because we didn't want to miss anything!

Above are the grammies waiting patiently to get to see their first grandchild! We were getting really nervous because it was already 12:30 and we hadn't heard anything from anyone. So I text messaged Bry and said that we were all really nervous and asked if everything was ok. . . . a couple minutes later, Bry's cell phone pops up on my cell phone and I answer, "BrY!" and Sommer replies back "hi!", and it was just the greatest feeling in the world. To know they were all ok, and that it really happened. We had our niece. Sommer then said that Bry was going to come out and let people in 2 at a time. I was soooooooooooo excited!! So here is Bry coming to get us! Such a proud daddy!

After Sommer's mom and dad went, Bry came out to get his parents and kinda waved us in to come too. I knew there were only supposed to be 2 people at a time, but I couldn't wait any longer so Shane and I tried to sneak in . . . . bummer. . . we got caught. The lady was like . . "you are going to have to go out to the waiting room. . . only grandparents are allowed to see them now". And I was like "are you kidding me?!?!?! I drove 6 1/2 hours to get here. Woke up at 6:15am! Have been waiting for 5 hours! And have been so unbelievably excited for this! . . . And you're telling me I can't see them!??!" . . . . ok so I didn't really say that to her, but that is what I was thinking! So I about started to cry and walked back out . . . . really bummed that I wouldn't get to see her for a while longer . . . . so when Bry's parents came out, I told Shane I wanted to try to sneak back in! I needed to see my little niece! So we did. . . and success!

This picture makes me want to cry now, because I cried then. It was so great to see one of the greatest couples in the world, after they tried for over 2 years to get pregnant, finally be blessed with a beautiful baby girl. Their faces were glowing with proudness, as was mine!

We didn't stay too long because we didn't want to get caught . . . but later on we were just standing by the entrance doors and the lady that previously yelled at us, said "you can come see her now. We are getting ready to take her to the nursery". And I was thinking, . . . we already saw her and there's already 2 other people in there . . . but I said "OK!!!" Of course I am not going to pass down another chance at seeing my newborn niece!

So here is Bryce Lynn under the heating thingy . . . oh man . . I would LOVE to have one of those! She is getting ready to go to the nursery where they can measure her and clean her up.

Bry and Sommer were sooo lucky! Even though their "nesting room" is not an actual room, mostly everyone else who had babies, had to double up with another couple. Bry and Sommer got a room to themselves and got their own shower! Everyone else had to use community showers!

Here (above) is my favorite pic of the new family! Bry, Sommer, & Bryce! I just love them all so much and am so lucky to have them in my life!

Aunt Staci & Uncle Shane's turn to spoil Bryce! Although she is already so spoiled! So many cute clothes and so many people who love her!

Aunt Marissa & Uncle Dan meeting Bryce for the first time! You can just tell how happy they are!

She's so tiny! 7lbs 8oz, 21 inches!

My favorite pic of Uncle Dan & Aunt Marissa with Bryce! Bryce is modeling the outfit and blanky Shane and I gave her.

The beautiful and awesomely decorated nursery! I want Sommer to decorate our house!

Baby Bryce stretching out! Ugh . . . . I miss her already :-(

Sommer wrapping her up while she starts to wake up a little! I got to see her beautiful eyes!

Sommer, Bry, Shaney, Bryce, Me, Dan, Marissa . . . . loving Bryce and so excited to all be together to celebrate this amazing time.

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family . . . on all sides! And I am so excited that Bryce was born into a family that will love her, care for her, spoil her, teach her, enjoy her, and be there for her on her life experiences. I thank God soooo much for getting Shane and I to Erie to celebrate Bryce's birth, and I hope that God can bring Shane and I back to Erie for good so we can be the best aunt and uncle we can be. Bryce, don't grow up too fast!

p.s. - now you know why it took so long to post this . . . :-P

The Office : September 25th!

thanks to mase for the video link!

To Help You Get Over the Hump . . .

Happy Hump . . . wednesDAY!

I am working on my niece's birth story . . . I promise to get it up soon, but until then, enjoy this awesome video that I found on Brooke's Erie Blog.

I Proudly Introduce . . .

* B r y c e * L y n n *

08.15.08
11:36am
7lbs 8oz
21 inches

I will definitely blog more later. I have tons of pics. . . 126 to be exact!!(she is just too cute)!! But wanted to give you a quick post to show you how absolutely beautiful my new baby niece is! I can't wait to show you more!

It's Official! I Will Be an Aunt Tomorrow! :-)

YAY!!! My lovely brother-in-law and sister-in-law decided to get induced tomorrow morning! This is wonderful for a bunch of reasons for them, but it means so much to me, because I will get to be there for everything :-) My lovely bosses let me take off tomorrow and Monday so I will get to spend some quality time with my family! I cannot wait! Seriously. I'm going crazy!

Shaney and I are leaving for Erie after work today . . . it's going to be a late night, but soooooooooo worth it!! Pray that we get there safely!

Oh my gosh! I am freaking out!! I can't even imagine what I will be like when I am the one having the baby (not for several years. . . sorry mom).

AhHhhhHH!! I cannot wait to be the best aunt I can be to their baby!

We Lost . . But It's OK! :-)

So we had our final soccer playoff game last night for the championship! Unfortunately we lost by 2 (the last point was right at the end when our goalie came out to try to get some more offense going), but you know what?! It's ok! The other team was one of the most sportsman-like teams and it was a good, fair game. Also, we did not have ANY subs (2 of our players got hurt at the end of this season :-( with an ACL tear and the other with a hammy injury) and the other team had one girl and one guy sub. And we were just not clicking. The new season starts Tuesday though!

After the game, we hung around for a while to watch Michael Phelps continue on his trek to craziness! So the question is : is he THAT good, to win with his eyes closed?! The answer: pretty much! When he was swimming the 200m fly, his goggles kept filling up with water and he even said, "To be honest, I was having trouble seeing the walls." 8 Golds, here we come!

And one last thing real quick . . . . update on my sister-in-law, Sommer!

Last I heard, she is doing well! She is 4cm dilated (as of Monday), and having some back pains. But Dan, my lovely brother-in-law calls me this morning: "Staci! Did you hear?!" . . . so then I begin to freak out! Oh my gosh! Is she having her baby?! Should I start packing?! But I say, "hear what?!" and he says, "She is having contractions an hour a part." . . ha! So obviously I am still excited, but I was thinking this was it! She was having her baby now. So silly Dan got me all excited this morning, but it was still great to hear from him! Sommer and Bry are ready and it is just a waiting game! I can't wait! :-)