Fashion Isn't a Luxury.

Quinn and I went to the mall today. It was his first time in the stroller. Come to think of it, today was my first real shopping trip since he's been born. I've hit the mall a couple times here and there, but usually I just run into one store. But today we made two laps around the mall (which isn't as much as it sounds- calling it the "mall" is kind of a stretch!) But he loved it, and fell asleep on the second time around.

I managed to find quite a few good deals- a couple shirts at Charlotte Russe, a t-shirt from SJP's clothing line at Steve & Barry's- grey with pink writing that says "fashion isn't a luxury"- a new knife from the kitchen store, new shoes for Quinn from Old Navy, some Bath & Body works soaps (I always grab a few of those when I'm at the mall- we use them at home and at the salon).

The deal of the day was at JCPenney. All of their formal/semi-formal dresses were on huge clearance. I found a black cocktail dress to wear to one of the many weddings I have coming up AND another prom dress. Yes, another prom dress. I couldn't pass it up. This one is teal and very 80's and would look really great with my white scrunchy boots- and both dresses were $6.97! It couldn't NOT buy them!

The other highlight of the trip was the vanilla latte and blondie brownie I had for a snack from the coffee kiosk. YUM!

Here's a picture of Quinn about halfway through our shopping day:

And here he is in the car when we got home. I think I wore the little guy out!

I can't stop taking his picture.

Snow Day

There's another snow day today, which doesn't affect me, (it's my day off anyway), but it did make a long weekend for Joe, so he's happy. I'm so ready for the cold weather to be done and spring to get here. I'd really like to go outside and take Quinn for a walk (and probably the dog would like that too-- poor neglected Cissi).

What's new here.....big news of the week: I bought my prom dress. It's so amazing, I can't even show pictures ahead of time. If you thought last year was good, wait until you see this year! All I'll say is this: Karen Carpenter meets Marsha Brady in YELLOW! Hideous. Perfectly hideous. I'm really trying to get up in the on-stage 'best' dressed contest this year. I am having a slight shoe dilemma though....I'll have to cruise back through the goodwill again for footwear.

And as an added bonus, I found a roll-top desk at the goodwill in decent condition. I've been looking for one for a while and they're hard to come by, unless you want to pay a few hundred for one, which I don't. So anyway, I have a new desk which I will pick up this weekend, which means I don't have to use a TV tray as a desk anymore!

A few photos from the past week:

Quinn helping me get ready to go to dinner at Los Mariachi's, my new favorite Mexican place

trying out the bumbo seat for the first time

and totally abandoning any sort of boundaries the back positioner is supposed to give him

cousins

Here's my little baby Gap model in his new onesie from aunt Trish:
And this is the Valentines Day card we got from world's cutest nephew, Trey, and his dog Ozzie!

Week in Review

You know, with this whole 'going back to work' thing, I have a lot less free time to blog. I'm going to have to reevaluate the situation.
Anyway, it's been a good week in U-town. School was cancelled Tuesday, so Joe had a nice day off... I gave us a 2 hour salon delay, which sounded like a good idea at the time, but it really threw our internal work schedules off and we were off-kilter all day. (Some would say that we're that way every day at work!)
Wednesday I went to work at noon, and Joe had a delay, so he and Quinn and I got to be bums all morning together. After work Wednesday, Quinn and I went to Joe's girls' basketball game, then to dinner at Cracker Barrel afterwards. (There's slim pickings for dinner in Piqua!)

Yesterday, V-day, I worked all day. Between the Marie's chocolates I brought, the bag of hugs and kisses another girl brought, and the chocolate covered strawberries one of our clients brought, we worked on a sugar buzz all day. Good times, lots of laughs as usual.
After work, Joe came home from practice with a necklace/earring set for me for Valentines day. I'm already planning my oufit for work tomorrow around it.

Today- day off! I love Fridays. So far it's been an extremely productive (hah!) day. Quinn and i both slept until 9, I fed him, we watched One Tree Hill together, and now Q's taking his typical 'after-breakfast-nap'. I have the cutest sleeping-baby pictures of him too, but for some reason my camera (and it's the "good" camera, too!) won't upload the photos to the computer. Not good.

So now I'm catching up on my blog reading, having my coffee, and finding new music online. So far, today's new favorites are Elsa Chapman and Alexa Ray Joel (Billy's daughter!?). I have a new iTunes card that I'm itching to use up but I need to figure out what I 'need' and narrow it down to 15 songs.
My plans for today include to stay in my p.j.'s until some ridiculous time this afternoon, give Q-baby a bath, watch more recorded tv, and I guess I need to hit WalMart for diapers.

check it out

The Zebra Lounge has re-opened, hopefully for good this time. (link at the right)

Saturday

It's naptime for Quinn, and I need one too, but first I'm doing some catch up on blogs and emails and pictures, and possibly some new iTunes. But first, here's a semi-OK hair picture. This is at the end of the day, so it's all un-done and all, but you get the general idea. There's not a whole lot of pictures of me, since I'm usually behind the camera, so this will have to do for now.

In this picture, I'm laughing at Quinn, who has Cissi's tail in his hand. He's been grabbing things lately, and Cissi's tail is one of the new favorites, along with my hair, necklace, earrings, and glasses.

BANG[s]

I'm in a hair rut. This is not a good thing for a hairstylist, but it's true. I've had the same style and color, with minor variations, for the past year, and I just keep letting it get longer and longer. I thought about cutting it off, but winter boredom is not a good enough reason for me to lose the length just yet. I know I need some new 'snazzy' color (I penciled myself in for an appointment next week) but that's not enough.
So this evening after I got home, in a bathroom-beautician moment, I cut my bangs. I've had various lengths of bangs on and off most of my life, and I've been in the 'swoopy' bangs mode for the past few years, and I'm bored with it. I now have new bangs, a la Reese Witherspoon. Who knows how I'll feel about this when I wake up in the morning, but tonight I feel pretty dang sassy with my new bangs, and I think it's enough to carry me through this hair rut.
Aren't you glad you tuned in to my blog today, for this fascinating update?! :)




Um...I did NOT get bangs like this:

Oh, how I wish someone would come into the salon requesting this monstrosity! How much fun would that be to cut!?

on the mend.

The three of us are getting better now. The attempt to keep Quinn away from the sickness was apparantly too little, too late. However, it did provide me with a full 10 hours of sleep, which on top of my antibiotics, helped me feel a TON better Saturday morning...just in time for mom to call and say "Quinn doesn't feel well". Super. (I was glad though that mom and dad kept him overnight. Joe and I both really needed the sleep. Thanks!)
So we took him to the doctor, and after he was poked and prodded WAY more than he would have liked, the doctor determined Quinn had the flu and therefore, there was nothing we could do for it, except baby Tylenol and sleep. It worked, he's feeling much better today. He's back to his smiley self. We're all actually feeling better today- I hope everyone else out there is too!

Not a lot going on today, catching up on sleep and TV, and now that I'm feeling better I'm telling myself I'm getting back to my excersizing. I haven't actually done it yet, but I'm thinking about it. That's a step, right? :) We have a wedding to go to in 8 weeks, and that's my goal of when to be gut-less. I. Can. Do. It.

As for the rest of the day, I'm going to catch up on my blog reading, watch one or two Lifetime movies on my DVR, do some laundry and make some dinner. Oh, and exercise. See- I already forgot!

Prom update: they've posted the date for the time warp prom 2008. It's April 26, so it's time to start dress shopping!

Sick and Sicker

The sickness is going around U-town. Watch out. Joe caught it, one of my co-workers had it, and now I have it. So I'm sitting in the dining room, killing time (aka 'staying awake') until mom gets off work, and she's coming to rescue Quinn from the sick-house for the night. Hopefully he hasn't caught the bug yet. Joe's had it all week, so he's been quarantined to the bedroom, and Quinn and I dubbed the family room and that bathroom the 'healthy wing' of the house. But apparantly the sickness is airborn, because now the healthy wing also needs to be disinfected. I felt fine until 11:00 today, then all of a sudden I had a sore throat, chills, and was super-tired. What the hey?!
So until Grandma comes to the rescue, I'm washing my hands like I'm scrubbing in for surgery when I have to get close to Quinn, and breathing through my nose...when I can't hold my breath any longer around him. He's got a well-check next Friday though, so hopefully he'll stay healthy, and then they can give him the once-over to make sure he's good, along with his shots.
In the mean time, the doctor's office is so over booked they can't get me in until Monday, which is no good, so I'm waiting for them to call me back with another alternative. And then I'll go to sleep for a long time. Probably until sometime tomorrow evening. :)

Aside from that, the jeep has a flat tire and the bird couch has a rip in the "upholstery" (if we can call it that.)
Ugh.

New Pictures of Quinn

news and updates

1. heath ledger died? what the heck. i thought britney would be the next celeb to kick it.
heath apparently won't be (but should have been) on season 2 of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. anyone else watching this show and oddly intrigued by it?

2. typing one-handed, as i am holding a sleeping quinn, who got his first cold and is doing alright, as long as he is being held...

3. cold weather = dried/cracking shampoo-hands. OUCH. My fingers are on fire. Good thing dad (or santa?) stocked me up with the good industrial strength hand cream for christmas!

4. eat a heath bar in mourning of cracked-out celebs tomorrow.

and a joke, to lighten the mood:
One night a burglar is trying to break into a house. He's sneaking across the lawn when he hears a voice - "Jesus is watching you!" He jumps, turns around, but he doesn't see anything. So he starts creeping across the lawn again. "Jesus is watching you!" He hears it again. So now the burglar is really looking around, and he sees a parrot in a cage by the side of the house. He says to the parrot, "Did you say that?" The parrot answers "Yes I did." So the burglar asks, "What's your name?" The parrot says "Clarence." The burglar says "What kind of stupid idiot would name his parrot Clarence?" The parrot laughs and says, "The same stupid idiot that named his Rottweiler 'Jesus' "

Because it's winter and I'm a hermit, therefore nothing to blog about, so instead I'll tell jokes.

A neutron walks into a bar. "I'd like a beer" he says.
The bartender promptly serves up a beer.
"How much will that be?" asks the neutron.
"For you?" replies the bartender, "no charge"


Yes, folks, there's plenty more where that came from. Check back soon. :)

fungus humor

A mushroom walks into a bar.
The bartender refuses to serve him and tells him to leave.
The mushroom says "Aw, come on, let me stay...I'm a fun guy!"

New Years Eve

We had a good time celebrating the arrival of 2008. You saw a snippet of the celebration in the video earlier. Joe, Quinn, and I went to Lima to rock out with Joe's 7:11 club (those are his Swiss friends, who really aren't Swiss at all, but midwestern Americans, but I call them Swiss because he met them in Geneva.)
Robert and his wife, (and his 2 cutie-pie girls) were nice enough to share their house with us overnight. The rest of them went skiing during the day- where Joe's super-awesome ski jump took place- and then Quinn and I met them back at Robert and Heather's for dinner, drinks, cookies, and a full evening of Rock Band, featuring the Skype Outs-- who apparantly originated in Green Gables.

I assumed my position of drummer for a few songs, and yes, closed out the night with a riveting version of Black Hole Sun, then we watched the New Years Rockin' Eve in Times Square and counted down to 2008.

New Years Day, Heather made pancakes for us, Robert supplied Tim Horton's coffee and was nice enough to let us be bums for the first half of the day and take our sweet time leaving his house to come back home....

We should have stayed at the party, because we came home to a frozen/ burst pipe under the kitchen sink, so we had to call the plumber to come fix that on Wednesday. Then Thursday I went to work, and we had no heat, so the heat guy had to come fix the furnace (apparantly we were supposed to have been periodically cleaning out the furnace filter for the past 3 years?! Who knew????) And then this Saturday, we had a minor issue with a lack of hot water at the salon- but super dad/handyman came to the rescue and fixed it ASAP.

Quinn turned 2 months old yesterday- he is doing great at the babysitter's (and of course at grandma's!). i'm back to my regular schedule at work and BUSY! It's good to be back.

Today, Joe caught up on his grades, while Quinn and I slept. We both took naps from noon to 3, then we had lunch/dinner from our favorite sub places (Subway for me, Our Hero for Joe.....Similac for Quinn.) And now I'm blogging and having some toffee coffee.

That should catch us up on 2008 so far. Congrats to both Nicole Ritchie and Christina Aguilara on their new babies. Thank goodness for E! News Weekend for keeping me updated.

ha ha.

G, B-flat, and D walk into a bar.
The bartender looks at the group and says "Sorry, you'll have to leave. We don't serve minors here!"

Christmas in Michigan

Here they are: the rest of the Christmas 2007 pictures. We spent Christmas eve, day, and day after in Michigan. We got to visit Joe's parents, where Quinn got lots of quality snuggle time with his Grandma LaValley, we saw 'grandma Featherstone, Dick & Joann, and we got to meet our new nephew, Trey.
Quinn and Trey were cute together; they weren't quite sure what to think of each other. Or maybe they just weren't quite sure why we stuffed them into a ginormous Christmas stocking....either way, it was fun and I can't wait to hang out with Trey again!
Quinn also had his first college visit, when we made a quick side trip to buy textbooks for Joe.

responses to the comments of the post below:

jh- sounds like you need me to come up and drum for the skype outs! oh- and the orange bar at the top of my blog links to the awesome layouts.

nancy- 'black hole sun' is in my top 10 all time fav songs- it'sa 90's grunge-rock song. (And as for dad and i with the hats-- the drummers always get the coolest hats!)

trish- the hat is joe's, but i like to wear it.

jill- rock band is always better with hats. wait until you see the new year's pics!

Back to Christmas

The Thursday before Christmas we finally got a chance to take Quinn to see his Great-Grandma Lehman- she got to hold him for hours, we got to eat Grandma's caramels, butterscotch cookies, sour cream cookies, Boston fudge cake, and cheeseball. Good stuff. When we got home that night I had some quality time on the bird couch with my two babies.

The rest of these pictures are from Christmas day, at mom and dad's house. We had a lot of fun- breakfast was great, everyone got lots of nice presents, (lots of new hats!), and then we played Rock Band for a few hours. We're definitely not up to Partridge family status yet, but we sure did rock it out. Let me tell you, mom can sing a mean "Black Hole Sun!" I'm hoping for another rock band night in Columbus soon.

My very first video blog

I am not a 'type A' kind of person (that's my sister, for those of you who know us!), but there are two things I get totally anal about organizing and those are the color tubes at work, and photos. The first doesn't affect anyone here, so I'll skip that, but the photo thing....I MUST have photos organized in chronological order or it just drives me nuts.
I've been known to disassemble entire photo albums to insert ONE photo in the beginning of a book, so it views as it happens in real life. And my blog photos are always listed in order of how they occured (in case anyone was wondering), same with order of posts.

Having said that....at Joe's request, I will post a video of New Year's Eve countdown, even though I am still in Christmas posting mode, (see post below) and it will drive me nuts to do so...but I'll do it. Because Joe doesn't give a rat's hind end about blogging, so the fact that he actually asked me to put this on here means something.

He was inspired by our friend Jennie's blog video of Joe's super-awesome ski jump- which you all should definitely check out on her blog, Tivo Changed My Life. (See link to the right). It's well worth the blog-walk over there to see it.

After thoroughly enjoying her video MANY times, he suggested I put my video of the countdown to midnight on here.

Anyway, all this build up for nothing...kind of like the video.