Most everyone who reads this knows me very well. I'm not typically sentimental. I try to be funny, I am often sarcastic, and sometimes I can be judgemental. I apologize, this ended up being longer than I had first anticipated.
Our family lost an important member this past week. My dad's cousin Terry has been sick with multiple cancers and other ailments for the better part of the last 10-15 years. His wife stopped caring for him, (aside from his $$), so my grandparents 'adopted' him. He was a funny guy, an amazing athlete, and an overall great person. We are upset that the family found out via a rumor, and his wife would not talk to any of his family, but are happy that Terry is now in a better place. He will be greatly missed by all of us - and that is the truth.
After dinner last night (Christmas night) my aunt and I were putting left overs into Styrofoam containers, I was trying to figure out who should get the extra piece of ham, and came to the realization of how lucky our family really is. (And by 'our', I mean both my and Adam's sides of the family.)
We are all, for the most part, healthy (apart from the surgery here and there due to previous athletic injuries), everyone lives in large houses (my house is by no means the biggest in the family), and we have a lot of family around. My son, who is 2, knows nine (9) great-grandparents. NINE - and he sees each of them, at least a few times a year. (Hopefully, now that Grandpa Miller 'moved' back to Cinci, we'll see him more often.) Nine Great-Grandparents, to me that is amazing, and I am grateful that he has gotten to know them, and will hopefully, have each of them around for a bit longer.
We had a phenomenal Christmas this year. Adam had Friday off, but not Monday, and I had Monday off, but not Friday, so we stayed in town and celebrated with my family, but again, we're grateful to all have nice jobs, as there are so many people looking. My uncle flew up from Texas, and my Aunt, Uncle and twin cousins came up from North Carolina. It was so nice seeing everyone again, and so nice to be able to offer our house and comfortably welcome 4 additional people and a dog stay with us for a few days.
I went a little overboard this year, and enjoyed every bit of it. Adam was just as bad, but more sly. He 'just' bought me tickets to a Broadway show, but then of course, we'll have to pay for the trip to New York City, which really adds on to the total. Sly fox.
I will post pictures of Christmas soon, hopefully over the next few days, as Ares is spending the week at his Grandparents' house in Cincinnati. Adam and I will make the trip on Friday to stay the weekend and bring him back home. I will miss him tons, but am exciting about keeping a clean house for the week (well, if I can get it clean to start!!)
Merry Christmas everyone, and here's to health, family and good times in 2012!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
December
I'm not entirely sure where this month went, but I'm pretty sure I was around, perhaps, maybe? Here's what I remember from this month.
1) Thanksgiving happened. We were in Cinci from Wednesday evening, through Sunday morning. We had a fabulous time, and it was nice to not be rushed and to be able to relax while in town. The "Feast" was just that, 12 people, and I think there were 6 pies, 45 rolls, 20 lbs of Turkey (maybe more), I'm fairly certain that there was enough food there to feed 40-50 people. It was amazing though. Ares got to go to another Great Aunt's house and ride their horses. Ares met his Great Grandpa Miller for the first time, his Great Grandma Jean and Papa Jim came up for a quick visit too. The weather was beautiful for an Ohio November and we had a lot of fun.
2) The immediate day after coming back from Cincinnati, I was in Los Angeles for a week for business. I stayed in Beverly Hills. I got to eat at no less than 4 "Top Chef" restaurants, that were all within a 3 mile drive of the office. One of the restaurants that I ate at (not a top chef restaurant, but one of the most trendy places in Hollywood) was "animal". There, I ate bone marrow, polenta, pork belly, poutine, oxtail something-or-other, foie gras, a few other things I can't remember, and to end the evening, bacon chocolate crunch bar with ice cream. Oh, and two bottles of (awesomeness) wine finished by the 5 of us. I also got to go to dinner with some sorority sisters of mine that moved out there (plus, a visit to the famous Crumbs Bake Shop on Hollywood Boulevard), all while Adam played single - childless bachelor, and Ares lived it up with Auntie Cindy and then Grandma Venus.
3) I got home from the airport, and immediately left to go back to Cincinnati for my father in law's Surprise 60th Birthday Party. That was a fast FAST and busy weekend that we had. A lot of fun, but an exhausting few weeks for me.
4)Decorating the Christmas tree. I decorated late this year, as we'd been out of town for so long. The tree had been up for a week or longer, but it took time to get the ornaments on, because I was just so tired. Plus, I still had to put away the Thanksgiving/Autumn stuff. It's more fun putting Christmas stuff out, although, I do NOT look forward to putting it all back away. I wish I could keep the Christmas things out for a few months. I think I might separate the stuff into Christmas and Winter things, so my snowmen/snowflake things stay out until Valentines day (of which I own nothing).
5)Sledding - we got the most minuscule amount of snow, and Ares wanted to go sledding. We have a (roughly) 6' hill in our backyard, so he went up and down that, about 20 times. Then, he pulled the sled up himself, and pushed his cars down. He not once, ever, complained about it being cold. (Of course, it did take about 10 minutes to bundle him up!)
6) At work, they did a reorg. I still work for the same manager, that didn't change, but instead of working on California, I will now be in charge of Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas. I'm slightly excited, because the regulators in the state aren't nearly as strict as they are in California, but kind of bummed in that my winter trips to L.A. will now be few and far between. I'll still go out maybe once a year, but the earlier plan was that I'd be in California at least 5 times a year. I'll likely get to go to Summerfest in Wisconsin though. That could be neat.
7) We finally have Ares getting up and going to the bathroom himself in the middle of the night. Maybe once or twice a week he'll call for me, but usually I just wake up to hear a flush, or a toilet lid close. (Sorry, no picture for this.)
8) We spent an evening with my cousin and his kid at the Lake Erie Monsters Game. We had fun, while the boys had an awesome time together. They were best buds within seconds!
9) Now, we've been getting presents wrapped and ready to go for Christmas. We have my aunt, uncle and two cousins staying with us a few days in the next week or so. I might have gone overboard for Ares (although, I did not spend more than $60), but there's about 15 things for him to open. I really know I went overboard on Adam, but I think (hope) he likes what he gets. I know he doesn't read the blog, thank goodness, but I multiplied our "budgeted agreed amount" by about 12. Oops - he's going to love it. (Thanks mom & dad Miller for contributing! Now I can say it wasn't all me!) The tree is together, the Christmas lights are on the house and we are ready to go! (the left top two windows also have lights like the other windows, but they are in Ares room, and the timer went off before I took these pictures). I just noticed that you can see the lights around the banister on the second story through the big window above the door.
10) I got our Christmas card together (as mentioned in a prior post). (I only mailed half of them, as I don't have updated address lists.)
Merry Christmas everyone .
1) Thanksgiving happened. We were in Cinci from Wednesday evening, through Sunday morning. We had a fabulous time, and it was nice to not be rushed and to be able to relax while in town. The "Feast" was just that, 12 people, and I think there were 6 pies, 45 rolls, 20 lbs of Turkey (maybe more), I'm fairly certain that there was enough food there to feed 40-50 people. It was amazing though. Ares got to go to another Great Aunt's house and ride their horses. Ares met his Great Grandpa Miller for the first time, his Great Grandma Jean and Papa Jim came up for a quick visit too. The weather was beautiful for an Ohio November and we had a lot of fun.
2) The immediate day after coming back from Cincinnati, I was in Los Angeles for a week for business. I stayed in Beverly Hills. I got to eat at no less than 4 "Top Chef" restaurants, that were all within a 3 mile drive of the office. One of the restaurants that I ate at (not a top chef restaurant, but one of the most trendy places in Hollywood) was "animal". There, I ate bone marrow, polenta, pork belly, poutine, oxtail something-or-other, foie gras, a few other things I can't remember, and to end the evening, bacon chocolate crunch bar with ice cream. Oh, and two bottles of (awesomeness) wine finished by the 5 of us. I also got to go to dinner with some sorority sisters of mine that moved out there (plus, a visit to the famous Crumbs Bake Shop on Hollywood Boulevard), all while Adam played single - childless bachelor, and Ares lived it up with Auntie Cindy and then Grandma Venus.
3) I got home from the airport, and immediately left to go back to Cincinnati for my father in law's Surprise 60th Birthday Party. That was a fast FAST and busy weekend that we had. A lot of fun, but an exhausting few weeks for me.
4)Decorating the Christmas tree. I decorated late this year, as we'd been out of town for so long. The tree had been up for a week or longer, but it took time to get the ornaments on, because I was just so tired. Plus, I still had to put away the Thanksgiving/Autumn stuff. It's more fun putting Christmas stuff out, although, I do NOT look forward to putting it all back away. I wish I could keep the Christmas things out for a few months. I think I might separate the stuff into Christmas and Winter things, so my snowmen/snowflake things stay out until Valentines day (of which I own nothing).
5)Sledding - we got the most minuscule amount of snow, and Ares wanted to go sledding. We have a (roughly) 6' hill in our backyard, so he went up and down that, about 20 times. Then, he pulled the sled up himself, and pushed his cars down. He not once, ever, complained about it being cold. (Of course, it did take about 10 minutes to bundle him up!)
6) At work, they did a reorg. I still work for the same manager, that didn't change, but instead of working on California, I will now be in charge of Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas. I'm slightly excited, because the regulators in the state aren't nearly as strict as they are in California, but kind of bummed in that my winter trips to L.A. will now be few and far between. I'll still go out maybe once a year, but the earlier plan was that I'd be in California at least 5 times a year. I'll likely get to go to Summerfest in Wisconsin though. That could be neat.
7) We finally have Ares getting up and going to the bathroom himself in the middle of the night. Maybe once or twice a week he'll call for me, but usually I just wake up to hear a flush, or a toilet lid close. (Sorry, no picture for this.)
8) We spent an evening with my cousin and his kid at the Lake Erie Monsters Game. We had fun, while the boys had an awesome time together. They were best buds within seconds!
10) I got our Christmas card together (as mentioned in a prior post). (I only mailed half of them, as I don't have updated address lists.)
Merry Christmas everyone .
Monday, December 12, 2011
Such a funny kid
I'm sitting on the floor of the bathroom while Ares is on the potty for this exchange:
Me: Ares, it's bedtime, c'mon, hurry up and go potty
Ares: but I can't
Me: You haven't gone since I brought you home from school (almost 4 hours ago), you have to go now
Ares: but I don't have to, my penis isn't full.
Me: (Laughing hysterically) - That's sound logic, OK, let's go.
(10 minutes later, we heard him get out of bed, run down the hall and go to the bathroom, LMAO.)
-----
Ares: Trick or Treat
Me: It's not Halloween, it's Christmas, you say "Merry Christmas"
Ares: Can I have a toy?
Me: No, it's not Christmas yet.
Ares: Trick or Treat
Friday, December 9, 2011
A Great Picture!
I'm psyched that we've gotten some great pictures of Ares as of late. Two great pics with Santa this year (once with Grandma, and once with Auntie Cindy) a great candid, and a fabulous school picture this year. (So I spent, like, $70 on school pictures, and got 4 -5x7 1-8x10, 4-3x5 and a few wallets. $70!! ugh!) Ah well, I now have something to put on my desk at work, since all of his other pictures are a year old. It was such a bad evening with Ares today (tantrums - I think he's getting sick) that Adam had a beer with him while we were putting Ares to bed. We were all in the bathroom, waiting for Ares to finish up on the potty when he noticed Ballpark licking the (now empty) bottle. I yelled at Adam for letting the dog so close to the beer, and Ares exclaims "Hey daddy! You're not apposed (supposed) to have that in here!!"
Ares hasn't watched his dragons cartoon in over a month, because we gave it back to Koa's dad, who let us borrow it. I'm babysitting Koa this weekend (they're in from Pittsburgh), and when I told Ares that Koa was coming over he was excited that he might get to watch dragons. Only twice had we ever mentioned that the movies were Koa's dad's and it was so long ago! This kid remembers EVERYTHING!
I've finished our Christmas cards. The one thing I miss from my maternity leave, is the time I had to sit on the computer and make neat things with pictures and things. Perhaps I can convince Adam to let me go on another maternity leave in the next year or so... ??
I've finished our Christmas cards. The one thing I miss from my maternity leave, is the time I had to sit on the computer and make neat things with pictures and things. Perhaps I can convince Adam to let me go on another maternity leave in the next year or so... ??
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)