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 :)

MINNE.SNOW.TA

Did I mention that Mike and I are again getting excited about some visitors heading our way from L'Etoile du Nord...the Star of the North.  Yep, that's right, Karen and Pat are headed our way in just a little over three weeks--they're coming to check out life in the 'Burg and we're excited to share it with them.  I can hardly believe that at that time, we'll be half-way through December already (and oh so close to Christmas)!  Not only that, but that same weekend marks the end of my official ORIENTATION at the hospital...I can't believe that almost five months has already blown by, eeeekkk! Kelsey and Mike are also planning a trip out for Spring Break 2012--who knew Harrisburg was such a sought after Spring Break destination??  I'm sure we'll party like rockstars.  Either way, they'll get to kill two birds with one stone since Mike's (ahem, her Mike, a.k.a Ronaldo) mom just recently relocated to the Washington D.C. area; alas, it'll be fun family time all around!

As always, anyone else who has a strong hankering to explore all central Pennsylvania has to offer is definitely welcome in our home...just drop us a line and let us know when you want to come, we'd be pleased to have you!  Let the countdown to our visitors begin :-)

It's Black Friday, Black Friday...

Kohl's officially has my vote for the absolute worst, most annoying, gouge your eyes out obnoxious, Black Friday commercial.  And, yes...if you haven't seen it yet (i.e. if you haven't been mesmerized or brainwashed by it's annoyance already), I'm going to make you watch it just so you can share my pain, LOL!  Uggh...it's on as I'm typing!  For your sake, I sure hope it's only airing in this part of the country, but I'm sure it's a nationwide commercial.  I've been hearing it pretty much on repeat for the majority of the week!  Mike heard it once the other morning and (thought) he liked it...until we heard it 72 more times in the next three hours.  Seriously enough to make me want to vom and never shop at Kohl's again...oh wait, I don't shop there anyway, well, guess I won't be starting (duh!).  I can't wait for Black Friday to be done and gone so I don't have to hear this again!!!

Anyone have fun and interesting plans for Black Friday shopping? If you do, I'm sure you're already out, scoping out the deals & steals and wading through the never-ending mob of people out doing the same.  Good luck!  I'm otta here...gotta work the day away, I'm definitely excited to get some Christmas shopping of my own done, though!  (I may have already started a little online shopping of my own).  Cheers! & Happy long, holiday weekend my friends...enjoy as always!

THANKSTURKEY DAY

HAPPY THANKSTURKEY DAY!

We're busy this morning putting the final touches on our contributions to the first annual SWEATPANTS THANKSGIVING! We're headed to the McSurdy's (in our sweats) to see if eight people can polish off a 20 lb. turkey and all the accompaniments.  OK, so we'll probably have at least some extras  for second Thanksgiving later in the night...after all, there is football on for the majority of the day.  But really, what better idea than having a nice, relaxing, low-key, smorgasbord of a Thanksgiving, in sweatpants (or any other combination of relaxed-fit, stretchy, lycra-containing clothing), with seven of your closest friends, less than a block away from your own home...SCORE!  At least we'll get our exercise on the walk over...(kidding, only kidding).  I should inform you all that the actual concept  turned into Sweatpants Formal Thanksgiving, i.e. sweatpants on the bottom half, formal attire on the top half or vice versa.  However, I've decided in my own right that dropping the "formal" aspect sounds much more inviting and therefore, I'll just be rocking the sweatpants portion :-)

Of course, much love to our family and friends back home...we hope you have a fantastic and relaxing day & we miss you as always; eat lots of yummies for us!  I'll catch you up on all of the Sweatpants Thanksgiving details later on, but first I have to leave you with a little Thanksturkey Day humor...

Moving on out.

Well gang, we're moving again!  Now don't get too excited, it's nothing crazy-like...but it's going to be a long trip.  I don't even think we can say we're moving a whole block, more like half-a-block.  I know, we're crazy, right?  Well, here's the deal...Mike and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the neighborhood we found out here in PA but the home we're renting just so happens to be very roomy--probably much more roomy than the two of us and 10 lbs. of dogs need!  I mean, really, right now we have just about 2500 square feet...that's like 1250 for each of us (and we thought we'd downsize when we moved out here, LOL)!  We just plain old don't utilize the 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms (yes, three and a half bathrooms!) that we have now.  Not to mention that I've kind of become a freak about conservation and being GREEN, so a smaller space = less to heat in the winter and less to keep cool in the summer.

As you probably know, we have good friends who live a block away (literally the next street over) with homes owned by the same company.  They're smaller (yay!!) and it just so happens that there is a family currently packing up and moving out-of-state in the next month or so (I mean they're like busy packing up NOW)...how could we resist!?!?!  We took a walk through last weekend--the space will be amazing for us and the size is fantastic!  It still has the same style and features we <3 about our place on Green Street...just a quick review--open floor plan, exposed brick, stainless steel appliances, gas heat and central air, second floor laundry with pedestals (bonus!), original exposed ceiling beams, etc., etc., etc!  SOLD!  (Errr...RENTED)!

We don't really have any definite details as to when this all will happen...just around the first of the year after the current renters move out and the place gets a new coat of paint on the walls.  No joke, we're seriously going to open our fence in the backyard and the fence at the new place and walk on through...it really is that close...good thing we have great friends who are easily persuaded with food (and more importantly, BEER).  Keep your eyes peeled...I'll post photos as soon as I can :-)