Staying Warm in Buffalo

In case you haven't seen the commercial for the Snuggie, watch it here:


This is one of my favorite commercials so I decided to make a few to keep us toasty warm.

I found a pattern online and started sewing. After a discussion with some friends this week, we decided that the Snuggie would be sooo much more warm with a pocket in the front to keep your hands warm when we aren't answering the phone like the lady in the commercial.

Here are the results:

Here is a standing up picture of the revolutionary pocket.

Here is a picture of Nick working in his Snuggie.

Leaving Town

Here we are in January again trying to budget Nick's vacation days which brings us to the topic of VACATION. We haven't been anywhere aside from Niagara Falls in over a year. All of Nick's days off were spent visiting Ohio. So we have decided that we want to go somewhere. A few problems arise:

1. Sarah doesn't want to go anywhere where the weather will be above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I hate hate hate warm weather.

2. Tom Brady doesn't want to visit Disney World. If you notice in every single advertisement they use fireworks. Fireworks = SCARY! I was there a little over a year ago and tried to look at Disney through the eyes of my daughter and it sucked. She would hate it even if we promised no fireworks.

3. If we go anywhere that would require a hotel stay, it would be quite a drag every night after 8pm when Tom Brady goes to sleep and Nick and I have to watch TV on mute with closed captioning for 2 hours until we get to go to bed.

4. We aren't quite financially stable enough for a real vacation like an Alaskan Cruise, a trip to the pyramids in Egypt or a scuba vacation in Australia.

We have decided to visit the Lowcountry of Charleston, South Carolina. Land of Sweetgrass baskets and our good friends from college. Weather permitting, we should be there in mid February when there is probably not much to do but hang out. We are looking forward to lots of doing nothing and not freezing our butts off. Even better, we will not be melting either like the last time we went during the month of July.

The best part is that I made a reservation to rent a car from Thrifty Car Rental. I chose to use their "wild car" special. I pay a turbo cheap rate for a mid size car or larger. It will be a surprise what I get. Woo Hoo! I love surprises. No Toyota Yaris for us!

imagination

Sometimes I wonder if Tom Brady is imagination deficient due to her excessive time on the computer and Playstation 2. However, I occasionally see evidence that there is hope for the future. I found these dollhouse dolls on her bedroom floor wearing some helmets from her mini football helmet collection. Tom Brady has caught me posting a picture of her toys. She has something to say:

Hi evrybody this is tom brady cool Huh? cool photo well how is this
cool this you see is ......... my Miami helmet doll has been on the high school softball team well ......... my dolls are different every singe time i play with them
okay the next one is........ my Jets -helmet -player is in college for florda gators okay the last one is.................... the denver broncos baby it's just 3 months old.

This is Sarah again. Lets give Tom Brady a round of applause for her blogging debut. She did a great job with the explanation of her dolls.

Busy Beaver

Someone made a comment that she doesn't know how I keep busy. I truly don't feel like I had a productive day, but when I thought about it I was quite the busy beaver.

6:20-wake up
6:40-hygiene
7:00-breakfast for kid, pack kid's lunch, shoes/coat/backpack on kid
7:40-go outside to shovel driveway/sidewalk so kid can get to bus
8:00-breakfast for me and computer time
9:00-get ready to go to store
9:30-actually get to store. have 6 ink cartridges to have refilled. this gave me time to read.
10:30-visit neighbor/babysitter to ask her if she can babysit this afternoon.
11:00-walk dog. also counts as a little exercise for me!
12:00-lunch/phone call with pattie. sorry for eating in your ear!!
1:00-Dr. Appointment. It took 1.5 hours to escape waiting room. ARGH!
3:00-Get home and start cleaning kitchen (didn't clean up after lunch)
4:00-Start dinner prep. make tomato sauce/chicken parmesan
5:12-it is right now and dinner will be coming out of the oven momentarily.
5:30-Eat dinner
6:00-homework/reading time
7:00-Put jammies on kid, read bedtime stories
7:30-kid's bedtime!!!!!!!!!!
8:00-now I sort of juggle housework with TV shows.
9:00-stop doing housework and just watch TV
10:00-probably go to sleep.

social butterfly

Tom Brady brings home another scrap of paper with kindergarten hieroglyphics scrawled on it. Apparently this is a phone number and probably makes more sense when held up to a mirror. This is a phone number for girl "A". I will call her Alexa. Tom Brady was supposed to have a play date with this girl over the holiday break, but it didn't happen. Apparently they are planning a play date for an afternoon this week.

So Tom Brady gets a phone call from girl "B". We will call her Bernice. Tom Brady's half of the conversation goes a little like this:

"No, I really do like you! But I like other people and have other people to talk to."

"Okay, here's the deal: Alexa is busy on the weekends so she can come over for a playdate on a weekday and you can come over on Saturday"

"Sleepover? Yes! I have a High School Musical sleeping bag and I can bring it!"

Tom Brady hangs up and says that Bernice said "I'm hanging up now". I really hope kids don't just start showing up on the doorstep.

Back to Normal

It is almost 9am and life is good. I gave Tom Brady a bath which can be a day-ruining activity. Tom Brady HATES baths but didn't put up too much of a fuss. I then decided to get myself a shower and asked Tom Brady dress herself, let the dog out and get herself breakfast. It took a little coaching, but after my shower I came downstairs to her eating cheerios and yogurt. The cereal bowl was the size of her head, but it was so nice for her to exercise some independence. She had also found yesterday's paper and was reading the sports page. What a grown up little person.

I hope I can be as grown up as Tom Brady and get myself to Weight Watchers today. This might be painful.

They saw me coming a mile away. . .

Today Nick returned to work and I attempted to return to my daily routine. I had high hopes of cleaning the house. First I had some errands to run. Unfortunately for Tom Brady, she was still on vacation from school so she got to run with me all day long. Here is our day.

1. Complete daily hygiene rituals. This occured with no obstacles out of the ordinary. Just Tom Brady whining about why she hates brushing her teeth and changing underpants.

2. Leave house and head to Delta Sonic for car cleansing. Delta Sonic is a way cool car wash that washes the interior and exterior of your car. They will also change your oil while you relax on a couch next to a fire enjoying something from the Dunkin Donuts that is right there in the store. After that you can fill your gas tank with the cheapest gas in the neighborhood. Our brown car really needed a good cleaning on the inside. After our sudden trip to Toledo this week and all of the driving around Thanksgiving, it was a mess. I also had them shampoo the seats because the vomit stains really show up on black interior. They did an amazing job and I forgot to tip.

3. Pick up desperately needed household goods. The traffic in our neighborhood is insane during the holidays and that makes it almost impossible to go out for cat food and sandwich bags. Mission accomplished.

4. Go to bank, drop letters in mail box and then go home to drop off brown car with wet seats due to recent shampoo.

5. Pull white car out of the garage and replace with brown car. Drive white car directly to Goodyear Store for annual state safety/emmissions inspection. We should have gotten it inspected before the end of November, but we parked it in the garage and never took it out until now. While car is getting inspected, we head across the street to the mall to browse.

6. Darn Goodyear Store calls and says I need $400 of repairs for my car to pass inspection. I also need a new battery. I tell them to skip the battery if I can pass inspection. I thought I could shop around for a cheaper one (first stop: Dollar General!).

7. After 3 hours of repairs, they tell me my battery is close to death and they had to jump my car to get it out of the garage. I told them that I was hungry and I was glad they were done with my car. I go out to my car only to discover that it won't start and it appears that my battery is dead. I immediately return to the store and buy their overpriced battery because I was not in the mood to argue. Yes, they saw me coming a mile away.