!YADHTRIB YPPAH

***DARNNIT...some of you may have gotten a sneak peek of this on the 29th, while I was writing it.  Guess my fingers clicked the button a little too soon, as it wasn't supposed to be posted until today, the 30th.  Hope there wasn't too much confusion!***

It's a special day in the Andreen household...one of those days where we all come together to CELEBRATE!! Why, you ask?  Well...the time has come to wish my DAD another 

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  

On this day, not more than a few moons ago, he entered this lovely world :-) 

Dad--I hope you have a fantastic birthday...a day to relax (at least a little bit @ some point during the day) and take in everything around you...and I hope you picked something delicious to eat for your birthday dinner (if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say mock chow mein, although I'm guessing you guys may head out for happy hour and apps somewhere).  Either way, enjoy your day! But before you go, a few entirely random birthday facts...of which I can't 100% verify their accuracy, but I don't really care cause they're still fun!

Since your last birthday, 31,536,000 seconds have passed

The world population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this, another five babies will have been born.

You just so happen to share your
birthday with pro-golfer Tiger Woods
 and Today Show anchor Matt Lauer
--whom you can proclaim is, indeed,
older than you are

...although Tiger Woods is not :-)

In 1817, the first coffee was planted in Kona, Hawaii...good thing, too, cause coffee is delicious and Hawaii is amazing!

In 1954, the 24-second shot clock was first
 introduced in professional basketball
(in a game where Rochester played Boston)

On this day back in 1981,
Wayne Gretzky sets an NHL record
for scoring his 50th goal,
just 39 games into the season...woah!

From PA, the four of us (fur kids included) are wishing you  

A VERY HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY We love you and miss you!!!

Lords and Ladies

Not that really any of you care, but I thought I'd share my excitement with you anyway...this afternoon, I'm FINALLY heading out to get my hair done.  This girl is in dire need of a nice cut and color, cause let me tell you, right now my hair is downright nasty...I can hardly handle it! Eeeekkkkk!  Driving down Second Street in downtown Harrisburg on my way home from work each day, I one day noticed a cute little place--the exterior paint and awning drew my attention right away--just so happens it turns out to be a salon.  Viola!  Why not give it a try, right?!?!  Here's a sneak peak...

Lords and Ladies Salon, Harrisburg. I mean, really!?!?!
 I'm so in love with the silver, feathery, art piece above the door...
coupled with black paint.   Love the color palette...fantastic!

OK, so as I write this today, I've already been to the salon once...but...today, I'm trying a different stylist.  And, since I have absolutely no freaking idea what to do with my hair (and absolutely no artistic eye or ability to visualize what might look good or not so good), I've decided to defer to someone who knows best...and hand over the artistic control to the stylist in hopes that he'll make my hair look fabulous!  I know, right...can you believe I'm uttering those words out of my mouth?  What's gotten into me?  I know the ICU; a good stylist knows hair...I don't expect anyone to come into the hospital and tell me how to care for someone with an EVD on a ventilator (although you better believe that it does happen sometimes), so I'm not gonna pretend I know what's best for my looks ;-)  Keep your fingers crossed...let's hope I walk outta there with a bangin' new hair style!!  Happy Thursday, friends!!

Adventures of the Furkids

Some updated photos of the fur kids, since some of you have been asking...
Tank totally excited for the hockey season or he just found  a very comfortable spot on the bed to take a nap.
FYI, we were apparently in the midst of putting away clean laundry
cause our 2nd bedroom definitely doesn't look like that on a regular basis!

Kelsey sent a care package for Halloween!  Kaia's not so sure about the whole costume thing.  

Maybe she just really wanted to be a frog instead of a chicken.
I'm pretty sure the majority of our dog clothes/costumes come compliments of Kels!
Now, if only I could find some costumes for her kitties...

Ah yes, Tank the chicken.  I don't think he's fooling anyone. 

Basking in the sun...it's what chihuahuas do best :)

Waiting patiently on a recent trip to the vet. 

The Random, The Bizarre, and The Hilarious

Apparently I've acquired a weird knack for finding crazy, random signage scattered around town.  I guess it probably comes from my skills of observation and attention to details.  Here are a few wacky things I've seen of late...don't get me wrong NONE of these are as funny as the "dolphins rape people" sticker we saw in NYC, but they're still good for a laugh!  Consider this your disclaimer...there may or may not be a few inappropriate words and phrases contained in the following pictures :)  Happy Monday...hope you all have a fantastic week (and one last week to countdown to Christmas)!!

Found on a garbage can on Second Street in Harrisburg.
I have to agree...smoking trout sounds a bit more delicious than smoking crack.
Probably a bit more legal and less hazardous to your health as well.  Either way, well said.

For those of you who don't live in central Pennsylvania...they like to use the word "varietals"
in substitution for the word "varieties".  After further research, the word does have it's place in
the world of wine, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't excuse the 264 other ways central
Pennsylvanians put it to use :)

This one courtesy of my fabulously handsome husband.  Found none other than under the
windshield wiper of his car one afternoon after work.  Svend really should have been more
observant and realized that he put the note on the wrong car...unless there are things about
Mike's drive to work that I'm completely unaware of!!

I have to say, this one's pretty awesome.  A little vulgar and Mike probably wouldn't let me put one on my car,
but I assume there is definitely a time and a place where this sticker would be completely appropriate and would come in quite handy!

For those of you who don't follow my Pinterest boards, these are a few other randoms I've found in my endless wandering on Pinterest.  I take no credit for these, other than the fact I've re-pinned them from others, but they're fabulous and I thought I had better share them with you :)

I have to believe there is some sort of a translation error here.  Love it :)

I love smart-ass packaging.

How can you NOT love this!! I mean, seriously.  

Random street art is probably one of my favorite things.  I need to live in an area
somewhere where I can see things like this on a regular basis, cause this is fantastic.
Oh, and murals on old buildings too.  

Just for good measure, this little guy is adorable...and I'm pretty sure he loves that stick!

Holiday Hiatus

First of all, I've been a bit absent from blogging...apparently I've been on hiatus since Black Friday.  Whoops! Who knew the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas disappears so easily.  Seriously.  I don't even have half of my holiday shopping completed and I have to ship the majority of gifts this year...eeeeekkkk! Guess I better get back to Santa's workshop!! Hopefully I'll be able to get you all up to speed on the recent events in our household over the next week or so.  Until then, here's the quick recap of the things that have been going on in our lives--lots of work, waking up way too early (Mike recently joined a vanpool and now leaves the house for work by 4:15), some eating and sleeping, many laughs (as always), and most recently, playing host to some midwestern visitors which means we did a bit of touristing in and around central Pennsylvania!  More photos to come, so keep your eye out.

Hope you're all enjoying the busy hustle and bustle of the holiday season.  I'm still in awe that temperatures have been in the 40's-50's range and there's no white blanket of snow on the ground (perhaps another reason I keep forgetting that it's mid-December already)!  Enjoy a quiet and restful Sunday afternoon before Monday sneaks up again...after all, it is the week before Christmas already...it's going to be a busy one!  As always, take care and enjoy every moment :)