Random . . . .

My thoughts are very random right now, and I can't seem to concentrate on one thing for very long because there are ALOT of things coming up . . .

1) Let me start by saying my niece just melted my heart again the other day. She loooovess her "bubba and buddy" (bottle and security blanket) and usually has to have her mommy or daddy snuggle her while she drinks it, but the other day she walked right over to me when I was on the couch and just stood there in front of me, looked straight into my eyes, and smiled at me. So I picked her up and put her on my lap and she snuggled with me while she drank her bubba and held her buddy. It was one of the greatest feelings in the world!

2) My brother & sister in law sold their house (yay!), so now they will get to move into their dream home! Excited for them and glad they can be a little less stressed right now.

3) Taking the kitties to the vet this weekend for a checkup and to get some preventative flee/worm meds.

4) Going to try to help coach some long and triple jump with my hubby! Excited to do that since it's been 4 years since we've jumped ourselves (sniff, sniff)!

5) Very upset about electric costs. We keep having very high bills (close to $200) and so Shane called Penelec and the lady was like "nope. that's normal. . . . by the way . . when the cap goes off, expect to pay 30% more!"

6) How come you can't have a "Family Plan" at the YMCA? Ok. . . I mean .. you can. But everyone (besides the parents) has to be in school and living together and under a certain age. But for phone plans, you can have a family plan with pretty much anyone! Not fair. C'est la vie!

7) Having Easter breakfast at our house with my dad's side of the fam then going to Shane's family's easter lunch, then to my mom's side's Easter dinner. Gonna be a busy weekend!

8) Finally got some black, flat shoes (Naturalizer Calva from DSW online w/free shipping). I really wanted the most comfortable ones I could find since they will be my walking shoes when we go to Germany! (as of now, they aren't as comfy as all the reviews stated, but maybe I just need to break them in . . . they are a lot easier to walk in than heels though).9) Umm . . have you seen the weather forecast for Erie for the next couple of days?! Who's excited?!

10) Shane and I are getting our couples massages next weekend (free too!! Using gift certificate from Mommy & Daddy from Christmas)!

11) Been planning Mase's top secret bachelorette party. That's all I can say about that.

12) I really miss taking pictures. When I took my photography class we were forced to take pictures every week and print them out and bring them in. . . I've really been slacking (I'm going to say that the weathers been to blame . . . I hate taking indoor pictures and looooove nature pics), so hopefully I will bust out my camera since it's supposed to warm up and get out there and start shooting again!

13) I know we've been home in Erie for almost 1 1/2 years already (holy crap!), but I still feel extremely blessed to be back so close to our family and friends! They are pretty much awesome.

14) I want to win the lottery.

Best Cheesy Greek Fries in Erie!

These might not look that delicious to you (or maybe they do), but let me tell you . . they are sooooooooooooo YUMMY!!! I usually don't like this much "extra stuff" on my fries, but these are by far the BEST I've ever had. Anywhere (Not that I've had them very many other places, but trust me . . they are GOOOOD)!

For those interested, they are from New York Lunch! I guess there are several different locations around Erie, but I def recommend you checking them out! Yummers!

Spring Has Come! . . .

For now . . . (but I'll take it!)

This past Saturday my parents and Behren came to visit, and since it was so nice out, we decided to meander in our back yard.
The trees are budding!
Life is coming out of hiding!
So my dad said this is some type of bug house and the hole in it is where a bird pecked and ate them all . . . . (or he could've totally made that all up and I COMPLETELY believed him).Proof that there were deer in our back yard!!! Yay!!! :-) (My cousin told me to get some acorn rage to bring the deer in! He uses this to lure them to hunt them, but I just want to see them up close, because they are so gosh darn cute!)
And of course Behren had to find our creek and go for a quick dip! Although, he wasn't as eager to get into the tub later for a bath!
So excited for the spring and summer so we can explore our back yard even more!

It's A Boy!

Sommer & Bry found out that they are having a baby boy! I had to get them a few cute things now, even though they aren't due until August!
Nina is pretty excited about it, too!
We already have an amazzzzzing niece, Bryce, and we can't wait to have an awesome nephew too!

Shaney's 26th Birthday!

This past weekend, we celebrated Shaney's birthday!

Friday, we went to JR's Last Laugh with his fam and my parents! It was so much fun, and I really don't know why we don't go there more often!
Saturday, we had the fam over to celebrate with some pizza, cake, and icecream!
We like to get fun cakes, because who says that you have to have balloons on every single cake past 16?!And the awesomely true card that my parents got Shane . . . .
Gosh do I have the best parents and hubby anyone could ask for! ;-)

Seriously though.

Awesome Home in McKean for Sale!

Here is an awesome home for sale in Mckean, PA!

If we didn't already buy our house, we would've probably bought this one!! It's absolutely gorgeous inside and out!


1796 sq ft
4 bed
1 full, 2 half bath
.51 acres
3 car garage
$188K

Find Out How Far You Ran!

So Shane and I have been going on runs/walks since we've moved to our new house and I'm always curious how far we went.

I googled "find out how far we ran" and google apparently had this awesome tool that I did not know about!

You put the address that you started at in the "jump to" box, click start recording, and then double click at different points along your run/walk/bike/skip/jump/cartwheeling/etc! It shows how far you went and you can even see how many calories you've burned based on your weight.

According to this we ran about 3.89 miles last night and I burned 365 calories while Shane burned 452!

Pretty cool google, pretty cool.

4 Year Proposal Anniversary!

Can't believe it's been 4 years since Shane proposed to me (and since we were in Disney World . . .hint hint . . 5 year reunion . . cough cough).
Wowwwweeee does time FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY by!

It's been a great 4 years though!

Shane, every morning I wake up and press snooze 3 times just so I can cuddle you that much longer. Every day I think about how I can't wait to get out of work so that I can be with you again. And every night I thank God for having you in my life. I love you.

Everything go Boom.

We woke up early Saturday morning, excited for our day of skiing that awaited us . . or so we thought . . .
Our water heater wasn't working because it has been building up sediment and such for about 18 years or so. The heating elements were completely covered and crusted in sediment. This took Shane two hours to get out and there was still a foot left in the bottom. . . we decided it was time to get a new one.Here is Shane, his dad, and brother Bry putting the last minute touches on the new one! Hopefully this one works (so far so good)! We think the old one had so much crap b/c they had the water bypassing the water softener (which was also why our water tasted irony).
Then while they were fixing that, I was in our garage tidying things up, and saw this out the window . . . :-( Pretty much started crying after that. . . we've had some pretty upsetting things happen with our house since we've moved in (in addition to these 2 fun things). Almost to the point where I just want to rent and not have to worry about these kind of things. I'm sure (I hope) it will get better, but right now I'm just really overwhelmed with everything we had/have to do.

Last Ski Trip!

Shane and I took what will probably be our last ski trip yesterday. And what a BEAUTIFUL day it was! Sun was shining (even got a little sun on my face)! Blue skies! Freshly groomed trails! Fun jumps!

Here are some pics of Shane going off the jumps and going in the half pipe @ the Peak! He is amazzzzzing at skiing. He goes so fast through the woods, and can jump and do tricks like it's his job! One day I'll get there! ;-) . . . (yeah right). It's so fun for me to watch him though, and it was such a great day out! I did go off some of the jumps (no fancy tricks though), and I landed them too (No pics or vid. You'll just have to trust me on that).

Sad that we probably won't be able to ski again this season, but soooooooooo excited for warmer weather (hopefully)!

We Are Winning At Parenthood

First. Let me say that once again this isn't about Shane and I having a baby or anything . . .

Second. Found this on Brooke's blog and then later saw the commercials on TV, but I just LOOOVE it, and thought I would share in case you didn't see it, because it is hilarious!



Probably my favorite quote from the commercial . .

Mom - "Our kids are sooooo lucky to have us as parents. We read to them. Take them on play dates. We hug 'em and we kiss 'em all the time . . "
Dad - "We feed them. Every day."

911!

Well. Last night marks the first time I have ever called 911.

Here's how it went . . . .

2:45AMish - I wake up to someone leaning over me . . I completely jumped in bed and gasped . . . then Shane says "oh. sorry baber." Me - "Oh my gosh! You scared the crap out of me!!!! What are you doing?!??!" Shane - "There's a cop car going down our neighbor's driveway." (he was looking out the window on my side of the bed) Me - "What's going on?" Shane - "I don't know." . . . so the cop car then drives back out of the driveway and we lay there not knowing what the HECK is going on, but try . . and successfully and eventually go back to sleep.

3:20AMish - We wake up to someone BANGING on our door! Me - "Oh my gosh. What should we do?!" Shane - "Just stay still. Just stay here." Me - "Oh my gosh. I don't know what to do. I'm calling 911." (At this point I was completely freaked out and shaking! Because last I knew there was a cop next door . . . so obviously something was going down. . . didn't know if it was a mass murderer, someone who was lost, a cop, someone who ran out of gas . . I was scared.) So 911 asks what my emergency was and I told them the story about how there was a cop car in our neighbor's driveway about a half hour ago and someone was banging on our door and I had no idea who it was and was scared to go look, so they patched me to the state police who then quickly said they were looking for an elderly guy who had wandered off and that they would be at our house in a minute. So literally . . like 1 minute later, the cops were there at our doorstep. They said that it was them that were knocking and they were going house to house to see if anyone has seen him. They told us that he wandered off and that he had dementia and was trying to find his way "home". I guess he was only wearing his flannel PJs and boots, so they needed to find him fast since it was so cold outside. They told us to keep our doors locked in case he tried coming in to find his "home". So they left and we went back to bed, still shaken up about everything. (We did tell the cops that we would contact them if we saw him).

3:45AMish - Still wide awake, we hear and see a helicopter outside with its spotlight looking for our neighbor. I felt so helpless. I wanted to go and help search.

4:30AMish - Finally fell back asleep

6:45AMish - Heard on WJET TV 24 that they did find our neighbor (I guess he was yelling) in a creek in the woods. He had hypothermia but was conscious. They rushed him to Hamot Hospital. You can see GoErie.com's report here.

Such a crazy night. So glad they found him and that he was still alive. Hoping and praying for his full recovery.

p.s. - Props to the 911 center and state police for such a quick response to us, and for finding our neighbor. So comforting.