Hey Jack, it's a fact - football's back!

Football season starts tonight!!!!!!!

That's right boys and girls, fall is officially here with the official start of the NFL Football season!

TONIGHT my Dallas Cowboys take on division rivals (and current Superbowl champs) the New York Giants, televised on NBC!

My boss, I recently learned, is a Giants fan so I'm hoping since I'm stuck working tonight that we can get out quick so I can catch the last hour or so of the game. I do plan on wearing my Cowboys star earrings though and of course team colors!

 

Nike Unveils Some Awesome-Looking NFL Sneakers

This week Nike unveiled some really neat sneakers for the NFL, featuring a shoe for each NFL team!

A lot of them are pretty cool, others... kinda meh. And they are pretty expensive too, but still cool! I don't really know where or when or how often I would wear them aside from on Game Days if I were to get the Cowboys one (which happens to be one of the more expensive styles, grrrrr!), but I do think they look pretty awesome!

Here's my favorites:

 

 

 

 

The last one I moreso like the color scheme rather than overall style, unlike the 1st two I posted where I like both the color schemes and styles!

You can see all the shoes, categorized by AFC/NFC division, here.

Angels in the Outfield - We're Always Watching!

 As I've mentioned time and time again, I am a bit of a TBS junkie when it comes to my default TV viewing habits (although nowadays, during the daytime the TV is usually turned to Sprout). I do just love it though when TBS plays old school movies from my childhood as their late-night movie!

This past week I got to take a walk down memory lane and watch once again:

Remember this one from 1994?

Young Roger lives in a segway foster home with another foster boy, JP, in a neighborhood within walking distance to the California Angel's stadium, where the boys spend most of their summer afternoons watching the games from the nearby trees. One day Roger's widowed deadbeat dad shows up and Roger asks when will they be a family again. "When the Angels win the Pennant" dad tells him, basically implying it'll never happen, as the Angels are in last place. But Roger, being a naive kid, doesn't realize that and prays that maybe God can send a little help to Angels to make it happen. Pretty soon Roger and JP get to go to a game in the stadium and lo and behold, Roger meets Al, an angel in charge, overseeing some angels that seem to be helping the ball team do the impossible! However, only Roger can see them. Pretty soon, desperate manager George Knox takes notice of Roger being a sort of a lucky charm and eventually starts to believe the boy's claims about there really being angels helping out the team.

As a good Christian girl in grade school, and a bit of a tomboy at the time, I LOVED this movie. It combined baseball as well as good clean family fun with a plot based around faith and angels.

In the center: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Neal McDonough, and Adrian Brody.
I think that's Matthew McConaughey on the far right.

Watching it now, it's amusing seeing all the now-famous stars. Sure, the big names in it at the time were Danny Glover, Tony Danza and Christopher Lloyd - all early/mid-90s golden actors, as well as Brenda Fricker (aka the Pigeon Lady from Home Alone 2) playing the foster mom Maggie. But it also stars a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main character Roger. And there's a young Matthew McConaughey, Adrian Brody, and Neal McDonough all as supporting actors playing Angels players. Dermot Mulroney (best known for playing love interests in My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Date) plays Roger's deadbeat dad. Oh, if only we knew the stars these guys would become years later!

I gotta say, watching it nearly 20 years later, it still is a pretty good family feel-good film! I think I might even pick this one up on DVD at some point to share it with Jay - we can do a 90s baseball double feature, pairing it with another one of mommy's childhood baseball favorites, The Sandlot!

Tebow, Tebow, Tebow

Warning - this is a bit of a sports rant.

Whether you watch football or not, I'm sure by now most of you have heard of the Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow or at least the latest internet crazy of taking random pictures of yourself in various poses known as "Tebowing." The guy is fairly young, an out-spoken Christian, and supposedly a good guy all around.

And the media seems to have a huge love affair with the guy.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not a "Tebow Hater." Honestly, I don't know much about the guy as he's not on my team (The Cowboys) so I could really care less about him and I don't really have an opinion on him.

But what I CAN'T stand is this crazy media love affair. They're like obsessed with the guy!

I swear, I can't turn on ESPN or even watch the recaps and highlights of other games between the games on Sundays without hearing them CONSTANTLY mention Tebow's name at every chance they get.

I kid you not.

Here's a perfect example:
This evening, before the big Sunday Night Football game, we were watching the recaps and highlights of the afternoon and they got to the Patriots game. Apparently some guy on one of the 2 teams that was playing in that game played in college with Tebow... So OF COURSE they HAD to mention Tebow when he had NOTHING to do with the game they were recapping!

DRIVES ME NUTS!

I told hubby that one of these days I'm going to start taking shots everytime we're watching something football-related and they say the name "Tebow." Hubby said I'd be drunk quite quickly!

I just don't get it though - WHY??? Why is the media so in love with this guy?

I hear he's not even that great - I mean hello, his team is what, 6-5 or something like that now? All the good teams this season are at least 7-3 or better.

If it was Aaron Rodgers and The Packers they were constantly going on about, okay, sure I can understand that as The Packers are currently the only undefeated team this season (although they have had an easy season so far!). But it's the freakin' Denver Broncos!

I just don't get it.

Thoughts on the recent Penn State scandal

Penn State has been in the news a lot lately the past week or so.

Penn State is a bit important to me as my parents met while both attending college there (both my parents were born and raised near the Pittsburgh area - Uniontown & Brownsville to be exact), so we're part of the Penn State family. Growing up, my parents would often wear their college sweatshirts on the weekends, watching the football games on Saturdays while doing other things around the house. I even remember constantly getting in their bedroom closet to play with their Nittany Lion plush (mom didn't want me to mess it up so she would put it up, out of reach... or so she thought!).

I didn't really hear or look into what happened until late last week when I heard about Joe Paterno getting fired and riots happening... something having to do with sexual abuse of children. Trying to figure out what exactly happened, why people were upset or defending Paterno and in order to form an opinion of my own I went searching online and came across an article that included the 23 page grand jury report of what all happened, naming a handful of others that knew of Sandusky's inappropriate and sick behavior.

To brief you (if you were lost and didn't hear about the scandal til later like I did and only heard people going on about Paterno and not really discussing what actually happened):

• The former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky hosted a program at the university for underprivileged boys called Second Mile in the '90s and 2000s. There's recently been 8 victims that have come forward saying Sandusky physically sexually abused them, some even saying it went as far as rape, when they were teens and preteens who met Sandusky while participating in the program.
  
• One of the more extreme incidents that occurred in the locker room showers in 2002 was witnessed by assistant PSU football coach Mike McQueary who was a graduate assistant at the time. McQueary returned to the locker rooms one evening to put away a pair of shoes and grab some recruiting films to take back to his office when he heard something going on in the showers, where he witnessed Sandusky doing "something of sexual nature" with a young boy. Despite Sandusky and the boy seeing him, McQueary turned away and left, doing nothing to stop it.
  
• McQueary did however return to his office and call his father and informed head coach Joe Paterno of what he saw. Not having witnessed it himself, Paterno followed protocal and reported it to PSU athletic director Tim Curley. Curley and the Sr. VP for Finance and Business Gary Schultz then met with McQueary to discuss what he saw. It's reported that Curley and Schultz did tell the PSU president Graham Spanier, however it's been said that Spanier was only told that Sandusky was just "horsing around" with a boy in the showers, not that he was sexually taking advantage of a child.

Honestly, I think Joe Paterno is the least of the people that should be held accountable here - if anything he was simply a messenger or a middleman. To him it was hearsay and from reading about it, he was following protocol/policy.

McQueary and Paterno

McQueary was the one that witnessed it, could have stopped it and taken the boy to safety and report it to the police himself. If anyone should have followed up on it, it should have been McQueary as Schultz and Curley had met with him - all Paterno did was inform the necessary PSU authority that there might be a situation, that one of his staff claimed to have witnessed Sandusky doing something inappropriate, and put them in touch with McQueary so they could begin an investigation. It was out of his hands, I see him as simply being the messenger here. Sure, he could have followed up, but again, to him it was just hearsay; McQueary was the one who actually witnessed it and should have done more.

Think about it, if you inform the necessary authorities as per protocol/policy about a serious situation, you most likely would assume that they would do their part/job. If you had only heard about the situation and still saw the person in question around wouldn't you most likely assume that nothing came of the investigation? However, if you actually did witness something such as McQueary did and still saw the person around wouldn't you question what was going on and why no punishment was carried out?

And while it doesn't excuse anything, we do have to remember that Paterno is an older man, from the older generation who often believes that your word is your bond - if you say you're going to do something, that means you're going to do it. He most likely believed that Curley would take care of the situation like he was supposed to (and most likely told Joe he would), and he probably, honestly thought nothing came of it. I know if it was me, I probably would have made the same assumption - that nothing came of the investigation and that McQueary was mistaken about what he said he saw.

If anyone should have gotten fired right away, I would think it would be McQueary, Curley and Schultz for dropping the ball and not making more of an effort. Thankfully, Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury, as their stories didn't match up and clearly they didn't take McQueary seriously as they told the PSU president Sandusky was only seen "horsing around" with a boy in the showers. McQueary should have followed up with Schultz and Curley though and he should have tried to help the boy rather than walking away. From what we know, Paterno's involvement was just that he was a messenger. And you know the saying - you don't shoot the messenger.

And that poor child... in the grand jury report, all the victims say they became uncomfortable with Sandusky. This one, to have seen McQueary walk in... I can only imagine the relief he felt, in hoping that here, someone would help and put a stop to Sandusky and then the despair when he saw McQueary do nothing and just simply walk away instead.

Being a mother of a boy... stuff like this scares me. Eventually he's going to want to do programs or join clubs similar to Second Mile (whether it be Boy Scouts, sports, whatever) where adults are trusted to supervisor the kids and protect them, not take advantage of them. Many of the victims said things with Sandusky started out innocent - dinner over at his house with his family, joining him for professional sporting games nearby with a few other kids... things you would think you could be okay with your child joining a trusted coach or mentor to do. But unfortunately some adults you think you can trust are just sick. And that scares me.

If they're cleaning house at PSU of anyone who had any knowledge or involvement of what happened, that's fine and understandable. However I feel it's quite unfair for them to single out Paterno like he has been when to him it was just hearsay and he was just following protocol being the messenger.

What are your thoughts?

The Fabulous Fall Blog Challenge, Days 9 & 10

 

I was bad yesterday and didn't get around to posting day 9, so here's the last 2 days of the Fabulous Fall Blog Challenge! This was pretty fun!

Day 9: Favorite Football Pastimes

Watching the Cowboys, obviously!

Growing up, almost every Thanksgiving I would catch at least part of the Cowboys game. In high school, the guy I dated was as big a Chicago Bears fan as hubby is a Dallas Cowboys fan (ie: flipping out at the TV, jumping around like a madman, lol...) and so every Sunday he would come over and watch the game on my dad's bigger TV with the surround sound, lol... And since I've been with hubby the last almost 5 years (Wow! Congrats hon, you're officially the guy I've been with the longest! hehe...) football season in the fall and winter has always been about watching the Cowboys and cheering them on.

As I mentioned previously in this challenge, last fall we took a trek down to Dallas, Texas as neither of us had been there, my college roommate lives down there now and wanted us to come visit and well, we decided to go in the fall just so we could catch a Cowboys game while we were there! So that was fun, despite it being the Monday night game against the NY Giants where Tony Romo (our main quarterback) broke his clavicle and was out the rest of the season. We also made sure to stock up on Cowboys gear both at Walmart and the Pro Shop since our Walmart up here only sells Bears and Packers stuff (boooo!).

23ish weeks pregnant , so technically Jay's been there too, lol...

In college, when I lived on campus in the dorms, we would regularly attend the NIU football games too - I got to see Michael Turner (now on the Atlana Falcons), Garrett Wolfe (former Chicago Bear), Doug Free (Dallas Cowboys), and Sam Hurd (former Dallas Cowboy, now Chicago Bear) play for our Huskies!


Day 10: Thanksgiving Memories

Hm... well, like I said, I almost always caught part of the Cowboy's game on Thanksgiving while growing up.

When I was really little I used to get up early and watch the Macy's parade, with Santa arriving at the end, signifying Christmas was just around the corner.

For the longest time Thanksgiving was at my parent's house every year. Then my aunt and uncle got married and we started alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving (one year my mom would do Thanksgiving at our house and my aunt would do Christmas at her house and then the next year they would switch). Since hubby and I got married we decided to alternate where we did Thanksgiving each year as his parents live over an hour away and we hate rushing back and forth (Christmas isn't an issue as my family does everything on Christmas Eve while hubby's is on Christmas Day).

Fun with Our Phones Monday #3

Linking up once again!

 

On Tuesday my mom had to serve Jury Duty so I requested the day off work as she's my babysitter when hubby's at work and she most likely wouldn't be done til 5 or so. I also had to go downtown as I had to turn in our tax assessment "complaint" forms to the public administration building by a certain date. I find a parking spot and whadyaknow - I'm parked right behind one of my parent's vehicles! I was a bit confused as to why my mom was parked in a 1 hour spot... we no sooner cross the street and are heading up the block to the public administration building when we spy my mom walking towards us down the block! She offered to walk with us up to the office and as we're waiting to get in the elevator... my dad comes out! How weird! Apparently he had some stuff he had to do there as well and turns out I had actually parked behind him and not my mom. She didn't know he was there either - it was too funny!

I often sit with Jay on the couch in our family room on the main floor and we high ceilings althroughout the house. Tiger loves that she can jump on top of our hanging cabinets in the kitchen and the interior wall of our kitchen doesn't go all the way to the ceiling so Tiger can easily reach it from the top of the cabinets! I was laying on the couch with Jay one afternoon when I looked up and saw Tiger chilling up above us - too funny!

My Dallas Cowboys "wired star" game day earrings arrived Thursday afternoon... in that giant box you see there! Yeah, I was a little confused as to why such a tiny item was in such a big box! I was expecting maybe a small padded envelope or something! lol...

As a gift to myself (but we'll say it's from Jay) for my birthday I had this necklace pendant made from The Vintage Pearl. I had seen them before on various blogs and in various giveaways but it wasn't until I saw there was a discount code in last month's issue of Parent's Magazine that I decided to get one made. Based on the photos online, you'd think it was a pretty decent size, however it is a lot smaller than I was expecting, but I still love it! I was debating about getting this one, as Jay and I often read "Guess How Much I Love You" before bedtime some nights, but opted for this "Dainty Drops" one instead. I figure I'll add a charm and birthstone for each child we have.

 He decided to completely crawl under the coffee table the other day - before he's just reached over the edge but never completely climbed under it. This time he did and seemed to be having one going at daddy's notebook before mommy took it off him, lol...

 I get What to Expect's emails daily and last week they mentioned taking your kiddo to the playground. We've had decent weather lately (not scorching hot, but not cold either) and I don't know why the idea to take Jay to one didn't dawn on me sooner! The article mentioned baby swings, sandboxes, slides, etc so I decided that since Jay was all mine on Saturday (daddy had to work alllllllllll day and I already was scheduled off work) that I would take him to a playground since we had some errands to go out and run anyway. He really seemed to enjoy the baby swing, as he swung for a good 10-15 minutes, just watching all the other kids run around. I also assisted him in sliding down part of a slide but he seemed a bit unsure about that one.

 

Jay's first Cowboys game day!! I decked him out in his little Cowboys gear - onesie and socks (and later in the night bib and bottle).

We went to Sam's Club, all decked out in our Cowboys gear, and picked up a few things in the afternoon before the game, such as hubby's beer (a 24pk of Sam Adam's Octoberfest. At Sam's it's basically $1/bottle, which is how I was able to get hubby sold on the idea of joining Sam's - no, it wasn't the diapers and food in bulk, it was the beer, lol...) Jay was a bit confused as to why there was an entire other seat next to him in the cart though - he kept waving his arm there all like "uh... guys? What's supposed to go here?" It was pretty funny!

 Game day photos with mommy and daddy! We're misplaced Dallas Cowboys fans, living in Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers territory - I'll root for the Bears so long as they're not playing Dallas or in a playoff race with them, but you'll never see me like the Packers.

He fell asleep for a bit prior to the kick-off, waking up screaming 20 minutes later when daddy started cheering loudly (ie: yelling and screaming) at the TV. We had a mini football party with 6 of hubby's friends coming over to watch the game with us. It was fun times, despite me being the only female, lol...

Eventually Jay sat and played in his walker for a good bit of the game, but we did catch him watching the game and commercials for a little bit =)

Show Us Your Team

Despite not being truck people, we'd love to have a
vehicle like this one!

Going through my G-Reader late last night I saw lots of you were taking part in this Football link-up hosted by Running Down a Dream and decided I'd jump in too, since we're big on NFL football in our house!

For us, we're Dallas Cowboys fans living in Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packer territory (ah the joys of living just a short distance from the IL/WI stateline!).

Nope, neither of us have ever lived in Dallas or Texas for that matter...

Not sure why hubby became a fan really - no one in his immediate family was ever really into football when he was growing up, but he's been a Cowboys fan since before we ever met (so at least 14 years ago!). For me, I remember being in 4th or 5th grade back in the mid-90s and Starter Jackets were all the rage and back then and you either liked the 49ers or the Cowboys. I always rooted for the Cowboys when we watched the games during Thanksgiving so naturally I decided I'd be a Cowboys fan, even though I wasn't really that big on football at the time.

In high school, my high school sweetheart was a HUGE Bears fan and during the 3 years we dated we'd always watch the games together on Sunday, however I'd always check-in on my Cowboys and see how they were doing as well and of course root for them when we weren't rooting for the Bears. The guy I dated next for several years in college wasn't big on sports at all so I didn't watch much football for the next 3 years until hubby and I finally started dating, and him being a Cowboys fan too, well, I finally got to watch my team's games and cheer em on and keep up with them much easier than I had before.

My college roommate moved down to Dallas a few years ago for her own reasons and we decided we would go visit her at some point. Hubby requested we go during football season so we could catch a home game while we went and so we did - we went to the Monday Night Football game at the end of October against our rivals the New York Giants a few days before hubby's birthday, saying it was his birthday present!

Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX from the outside of the parking lot

Gotta say, being in Cowboys Stadium (the NEW stadium!) it was pretty cool! I've been to Solider Field several times but Cowboys Stadium was just... wow! And with the world's largest HD TV hanging above the field... that thing is A BEAST! The game was pretty exciting and we only lost by like a touchdown despite The Giants giving our quarterback a season ending injury (which was hard to watch - you could see Romo on the sidelines nearly begging them to put him back in, despite them saying he had a cracked collarbone or whatever).

Hubby enjoying his birthday present!

Me in my homemade Cowboys maternity, 5 months pregnant

We went back the following day and took the VIP tour of the stadium which included a visit to owner Jerry Jones' private suite (which has an elevator in it!) as well as the both the players and cheerleaders locker rooms and a trip onto the field, getting our picture taken on the big Cowboys star in the center of the field.

Us sitting in Jerry Jones' private suite on the 50-yard line

Getting our picture taken on the giant Cowboys star in the center of the 50 yard line

Favorite players... Tony Romo obviously, as he's our quarterback, Miles Austin, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware (aka D-Ware), Felix Jones, Dez Bryant... I am partial to Doug Free (and formerly Sam Hurd) as they both played college football for NIU when I was there, so seeing them continue their careers into the NFL and on my team was neat! I also really liked Marion Barber too but he sadly won't be playing for us this season either... our kicker - Dave Buehler - is pretty awesome too, as he's known for also tackling people - how many people can say their team's kickers do that?? 

I wore my homemade Cowboys maternity tee to the game too, as I was 5 months pregnant with Jay at the time and couldn't find any "official" ones I liked. I got quite a few compliments on it from staff members at the stadium though! I have a t-shirt and a hoodie, but I am hoping for my birthday this year to get an actual jersey (a Romo one since Barber and Hurd are now playing for the Bears - grrrrr). We got quite a bit of Cowboys loot when we were down there, as you can pick it up at Walmart not to mention in the mall down there they have an actual Cowboys pro-shop with all the official NFL gear for sale - we got the Fox NFL "Cleatus" robot too, as those NFL robots crack us up (not to mention I prefer watching the games on Fox too) among some baby stuff for Jay to wear this year! Our goal is that when he starts talking is to teach him how to say "football" "Cowboys" and "touchdown" so he can yell em out while watching football with daddy! hehe...

 

I'm soooo glad the NFL lockout is over and the preseason is about to get underway this week - I don't know what we would do each week with no football this fall - it'd be worse than the year there was no baseball when I was a kid!

The 1st Sunday Night Football game is the Cowboys vs the Jets and since we have a rec room in our new house hubby insists we host a football party! Should be fun!

Also, while out at the mall last week I stopped into one of the sports shops after work to try on jerseys to figure out what size I want and came across this awesome official Dallas Cowboys snowman family! It was 50% off too so obviously I couldn't pass it up, not to mention with the 2 big snowmen and the baby snowman it's PERFECT for our family! I can't wait to display it this winter!

Life as of late

I realize I haven't actually posted much on this blog in awhile - as it is, I barely update my baby/family blog much either. Not sure why, as Jay falls asleep before midnight, giving me a few hours to myself... guess I just haven't had the motivation!

For those still following (and I noticed I somehow gained a few this month!), here's a brief update on life and what I've been feeling!

Baby Jaydran (Jay) is doing pretty well! He'll be 6 months already next Thursday and has been hitting all his development milestones, some of them even early! He just cut his 1st tooth last week, after several months of teething/gum pain and I think he's got at least 1 more that's pretty close to coming through! He eats baby foods now, getting a big bowl of apple rice cereal in the morning and a jar of fruits or veggies for dinner. He doesn't crawl yet but he can roll from back to tummy and tummy to back with no problems and will roll around all over the place if you let him (which BTW is NOT fun when you're trying to change his clothes or diaper! lol...). Lately he's been working on sitting up by himself and he's starting to get the hang of it. He also enjoys playing in his new baby walker and jumping/swinging around in his Johnny Jump Up.

Not sure if I mentioned it on here but we're seeing a pediatric urology specialist at the children's hospital in Madison for his enlarged kidney issue - turns out, the ureter tube, where it connects to the bladder there, is deformed and basically pinched shut which is why nothing is getting through and why the kidney is enlarged. The specialist said it's basically one of those things that just happens when the organ is formed in the womb and that we'll most likely have to have a minor surgery when he gets closer to 2 years old to remove the ureter tube, snip off the tapered part and reattach it into the bladder. Not looking forward to that, but the specialist assured me he's done it plenty of times and it's always been successful.

My hours at work picked up for awhile but they seem to have slowed down now, although I still have the most hours our of the regular employees (non-management). They picked up because we lost 1 of our assistant managers so that was like 30+ hours that needed to be picked up and most of them went to me and another girl, but the last week or so we've gotten a new assistant manager for that spot and so there goes that whole block of hours. I still seem to be getting at least 2 shifts a day though (down from 4, which I'll admit was bit crazy to adjust to so all of  a sudden like, as it seemed like when I wasn't working I was on call). The paychecks were nice though and Jay's pretty much set on clothes for fall (I swear I come home with a bag every week!).

We lost power for about 2 days straight at the beginning of the month when we had a really nasty storm come through early one morning. By the time I got off work that night it was 86 degrees in our house and just too hot so my mom said we could spend the night at their house in the spare room if we wanted, which we did! It came back on later the next night though.

I recently started going the chiropractor for my back (finally) and he's got me doing some physical therapy for it too. I've been going twice a week and they do this electrical stimulation for 15 minutes, then a 10 minute ultrasound (which feels like a light massage) and then a full massage to loosen up my back muscles and get out any knots as he said my back muscles were just waaaaay too tight which was a big factor in my back pain. He also does a few adjustments which seem to have helped.

I'm sure you've heard, Borders is closing! That really makes me sad as I'd rather not have to shop at Barnes & Noble if I want to get a non-new release or best-seller. B&N's prices are higher, they have no free rewards program and the only thing I like better there is their kid's section - everything else I prefer Borders. We went the 1st night of the liquidation sale and dropped some cash on some finds. I went back the other day too and picked up a few more collectibles for Jay that we either didn't get on Friday or they were out of and just got more in. That really does suck though... I really liked Borders and before we had a Borders in my town I enjoyed Media Play for my books, but they went out of business long ago.

We joined Sam's Club recently and I really like it! We can buy diapers and baby food in bulk for good prices, as well as our kitty litter, hubby's beer (Sam Adams) and a giant tub of ice cream that'll last us awhile among other stuff we can buy in bulk to stock up on (like body wash!). Also their book and movie selections are decent and are often cheaper than Walmart too (by like a dollar at least) so I've picked up a few newer/best-seller books there.

We finally got Tiger spayed too. Ever since we moved, we've been finding furniture and stuff that she had been peeing on! I'm not sure why she suddenly felt the need to mark our brand new furniture in addition to random boxes in our storage closest, other than maybe she was pissed or stressed about Jay and then us moving soon after too or what but we took her to the vet, they said she seemed fine and decided that spaying might solve the problem. Seems to have worked so far as we've noticed she's been peeing in the litter box again. She was confined to the basement for most of the month, 1st to keep her from peeing on all the upstairs furniture and then after she we spayed we had to confine her to the larger downstairs bathroom for a week or so til she healed so she wouldn't be jumping up high and tearing em open. We let her back upstairs the other day and she seems to be doing fine. She's still curious about Jay though and he tries to pet her every chance he gets (he's very fascinated with textures right now too!).

There will be football this year!!! In case you don't pay attention to sports, there was an NFL lock-out going on the last few months involving the player's salaries and the owners and the players coming to an agreement or something... because of this there were no organized team things going on which explains why there's been so many NFL players arrested over stupid stuff the last few months. But anyways, if the lock-out wasn't settled soon there was the possibility there would be no football this season and that would be sad as I look forward to spending Sunday (and sometimes Monday nights) watching football with hubby and we were looking forward to Jay experiencing his first season of football (we're hoping to teach him to say "football" "touchdown" and "Cowboys" at some point!). It reminded me of when I was a kid and there was no baseball that one season in the early/mid-90s. The 1st Sunday Night Football game of the season is the Cowboys vs the Jets so hubby wants to have a football for it too - should be fun!

My college roommate is up visiting this week from Texas so we got together for a bit today so she could see the house and Jay (he's doubled since she last saw him in March) and we figured out her centerpieces for her wedding next year too. She also told me some rather pathetic but amusing news about my ex that only confirms I did the right thing leaving his lazyass - he's 29 now and living with his girlfriend he met online (who moved up here from Texas)... in his bedroom in his parents house! He's also still going to school and since he's living at home I assume his parents are still paying for it... his poor family, they've been paying for his tuition for at least 10 years now and it's all because he's just downright lazy and doesn't apply himself or go to class! The thought of living in his bedroom at his parents house just scares me and makes me soooo thankful I got out of that relationship! I'm sooo thankful I have a husband who WANTS to work and that it's important to him to be the provider for his family and that we have the means to have a home of our own and can support ourselves and way of life, plus we have one of the cutest baby boys ever! I can't imagine being nearly 30 and still living at home because I'm too lazy to support myself. That's just pathetic (*note* it's one thing to have to move back home because of the current economy and say you lost your job and thus lost your home and needed somewhere to stay til you get back on your feet - I get that. But the fact is, my ex is lazy and always has been and is on track to always will be. He's been wasting his parent's money for years and doesn't seem to have any problem with it either).

So anyways, while I haven't been too active on the blog here, feel free to keep in touch with me on Twitter as I'm always tweeting on there throughout the day and I LOVE tweeting with my blogger friends on there too - I've enjoyed getting to know some of you more via Twitter!

101 in 1001 progress update #5

This morning the Illinois/Wisconsin stateline was hit with some pretty strong storms and our house was one of the unfortunate 600,000+ that had its power knocked out at 715am! It's about 130am the next day and as of 1130pm it still wasn't back on and was 81 degrees in the house! My parent's house has power though so we're spending the night there, hoping ours comes back on tomorrow at some point!

Anyways, here's an update on my 101 in 1001 list!

#4 - Watch at least 2 Netflix DVDs and 2 Instant Queue movies a month (11/66, 11/66)
Yeah... slacked a bit on this one. In June we watched "The Green Hornet" on DVD and I gotta admit, it was better than I was expecting (which honestly wasn't much). While it wasn't great, it was fun and amusing. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars. So far for June we've watched "I Am Number 4" on DVD - it was alright, although I would have enjoyed it much better if it didn't have all the dumb teenage romance drama in it. I enjoyed the kid that played #4, the gal that played #6, and Timothy Olyphant as #4's guardian. It was an enjoyable movie and I'd recommend it. Also, I wasn't surprised that the team of Gould and Millar who worked together on Smallville for years were involved, as had that teenage superhero feel to it. I could see a sequel happening for this one too. As far as Instant Watch goes... no movies in June and so far for July I've watched "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" - I recently finished the 1st 2 books and decided to start watching the Swedish films before the American remake comes out this Christmas. I gotta say though, actress Noomi Rapace IS Lisabeth Salander. I don't mind the casting of Daniel Craig as Blomkist in the American version, but I really wish they would use Noomi again as she's got the part down pat!


18 - Read at least 15 (non-children) fiction books (5/15)
I've read 2 so far for June and July! In June I finally finished "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and promptly started "The Girl Who Played With Fire" which I finished in July. I swear, Steig Larrson had a pattern to his books - make the 1st 200 or so pages of the book have just enough intrique to keep you interested (because they are a bit boring, making you wonder where is the story going already!?) and then something major happens in the last half of part 2 or between pages 200-300 that makes you glued to the book, wanting to read what happens next, making it so you don't want to put it down! That happened with both books! While book #2 seemed to move a bit faster than book 1, I was still wondering the whole time "where is this going? what's the point?" during the 1st 200 or so pages. And then something major happens and I breezed through the rest of the book in a matter of days! I really want to read the 3rd, however it's not currently available in trade paperback (only in large print paperback) and the Kindle version costs more than the hardcover version at Walmart so I guess I'll just wait...

22 - Find a part-time job that works me at least twice a week
Well, I guess I have this now! We've had several key people quit at work recently due to moving away and apparently I've "proved" myself too since as of this week, aside from management I have the 2nd most hours at work, working at least 2-3 shifts a week with a handful of on-call shifts, half of which I get called in for. The paychecks have been nice, but it's been a bit hard shifting from working 1-2 days a week to working 4-5! I'm used to hanging out with Jay most of the week and it's been a bit strange not doing that!

29 - Have a date with hubby at least once a month (4/33)
30 - Take an overnight with hubby once a year (1/3)
These go together for June & July, as hubby and I attended a wedding up in the Twin Cities from June 30-July 2 (my childhood best friend's wedding) and we left Jay with my parents to get some mommy and daddy time! It was nice getting away and not having to worry about squeezing in feedings, etc into the schedule but it was a bit strange being without him too!

51 - Host a PartyLite party once a year (1/3)
I did this in June! While not quite as many people came as I had hoped, I did get some "book orders" and got a nice bit of hostess credit. I stocked up on my tealights and took advantage of some nice hostess offers too! Definitely worth it!

53 - Visit in person with a friend once a month (6/33)
I've seen several people in June, so that counts!

60 - Go to church at least once a month (3/33)
We had Jay's baby dedication on Father's Day Sunday and we went once again in June too.

88 - Get a pedicure 3 times a year (2/9)
For Mother's Day, hubby got me a Groupon for a mani-pedi which I redeemed days before we went to the wedding in the Twin Cities - it was nice! The finger nails didn't last longer than a week, but the toenails still look good!

98 - Go on vacation somewhere once a year (1/3)
We went to the Twin Cities this year! While it was a mini-vacation, it was still a vacation for us and is about as much of one as we'll get this year, with Jay being so little. I'm sure we'll go somewhere more exciting for longer next year. Aside from the wedding, we stopped in Mall of America for a bit, ate some CiCi's Pizza (which the nearest one is nearly an hour from us so despite seeing all the commercials on TV, we've never had it!) and we drove past the Metrodome - the home of the Minnesota Vikings! Near the end of last season, the roof collapsed due to all the snow that had built up on top of it - it still looked like it was under construction!

Random Musings of the Week

I kinda like these posts as I can share bursts of things all at once!

Anyways, I've been working on my 101 in 1001 list lately!

One yearly thing I can cross off for now is #94 - go to a hockey game once a year.

The Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center in Chicago

Last Thursday I found out that hubby and another co-worker of his had pitched in to get some tickets to a Chicago Blackhawks game for another co-worker friend of theirs whose birthday was this past Sunday. The guy's been feeling a bit down lately (or so it would seem from his Facebook status posts) and they wanted to make sure he had a fun birthday. Hubby and I both went and it was pretty fun! I had never been to the United Center before, despite it also being the home of the Chicago Bulls and in the 90s when we were kids the Bulls were THE team to go see (I told hubby we were both deprived/jipped when it came to that! lol...). Our tickets were at the very top, in the standing room section, but fortunately I took breaks to sit down a little bit here and there so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately the Blackhawks lost, 4-1, with Philly scoring 3 points in the last half/quarter (what do they call it in hockey since there's 3??).

Hockey reminds me of soccer though as it's similar - there's a goalie and you run across the field/ice trying to get the puck/ball in the opposite goal - and watching hockey makes me miss playing soccer... I played for 5 years, 8th grade all through high school. I wasn't really any good until my coach switched me to defense my junior year, then I was actually pretty decent and got to start quite a bit! I hated all the constant running that the midfield and forward positions had to do and couldn't handle it - with defense we only had to worry when the ball came down to our end of the field and then the goal was to either a) kick it up the field real hard, b) pass it on up and out to one of the midfielders or forwards so they could run it or aggressively steal it from the other team's players who were running it and then do either a) or b).

I've also worked on #4 a bit too (Watch at least 2 Netflix DVDs and 2 Instant Queue movies a month).

I mentioned earlier this month I finally watched The Blindside which we had gotten in the mail back in November. The other DVD we watched this month was Predators. It was a decent movie for a Predator action flick and better than I was expecting (only other Predator movie I've seen was AvP:Requiem and I wasn't impressed) - I figured it was produced and written by Robert Rodriguez (in which I LOVE most of his work) so I figured it couldn't be THAT bad... The premise is that a handful of different military people from all over the world (including a Black Ops turned mercenary, a Spetsnaz, a drug lord bodyguard among other similar types) and a doctor come to as they are being parachuted into a strange jungle. At first they're not sure why they're there or who put them there but they start to put the pieces together and realize that they're not on Earth anymore and that the planet is used for hunting by the Predators and that they're the game. This one stars Adrian Brody (whose face drives me nuts, it's too narrow as is his nose!) and Topher Grace with appearances by Danny Trejo (who is AWESOME in everything he's in) and Laurence Fishbourne.

I also watched the documentary called Babies on Netflix's Instant Watch last night. It was cute and interesting - there's very little dialogue in it but for an hour and 15 minutes it follows 4 babies from different cultures (Africa, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Fransisco) from their newborn days up until around their 1st birthday as they interact with others and discover the world around them. The African culture was quite different, as the baby was part of a tribe in the wild. I also didn't understand why the farming Mongolian family let their baby boy run around with no pants or diaper on half the time - the African baby I get, as that's the culture, but yeah... it was definitely an interesting watch though!

Tiger intensely watching the Babies documentary

About 30 minutes into it Tiger came into the room and joined me - she sat down and stared at the TV for a few minutes before getting up and moving even closer to it! At one point, the Tokyo baby was crying and throwing a fit due to frustration with toys - Tiger's ears perked up and she was practically climbing in front of the TV, pawing at it and meowing, like she thought the kid was stuck in the TV! lol... for the remainder of the movie she seemed pretty intrigued and intensely watched what was going on on the screen! My kitty is hilarious... I have no idea what goes on in that little brain of hers and if she can comprehend what she's seeing, but she often gets really into watching TV with us!

So the talk on Twitter today is that OMG, Taco Bell doesn't use real meat! Honestly though... is that *really* a surprise to anyone? I thought that was old news... maybe it's just cuz I'm a Taco Bell-aholic, but yeah... regardless though, like I saw someone pointed out, the ingredients don't sound any worse than what's in a veggie burger patty. Must be a slow news day!

Also, as I mentioned on Twitter the other day, in the Illinois and Wisconsin area, this past week it seemed like the Superbowl came early as I swear people in this area were more pumped and excited about this past Sunday's Bears vs Packers NFC Championship game than the actual Superbowl! The rivalry around here is a bit crazy between fans of the 2 teams and it was all anyone could talk about this past week. Even area Walmart's got in on the action, selling Bears and Packers cupcakes for all the football parties that were happening! Now, hubby and I are both Dallas Cowboys fans, so we weren't *that* concerned about the game as our season's been over for a few months now, although I do cheer on the Bears when they're not playing Dallas (the only time I *ever* root for the Packers is when they're playing against Brett Favre as I can't stand him), so it was a bit sad to see the Bears lose, especially as they started to make a comeback in the 2nd half of the game. So for the Superbowl it looks like I'll be cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers this year as my parents are both natives of the Pittsburgh area (dad grew up in Uniontown, mom grew up in Brownsville, both of which are about an hour drive southeast of Pittsburgh) and we still have a lot of family out that way.

In other news... hubby's getting a VERY nice raise at Verizon as the District Managers (one of which is one of my brother-in-laws) put their foot down and petitioned the owner of the company for more money as there's been a huge issue with sales reps turnover due to it solely being based on commission and well, the economy sucks. Not to mention that the person who was getting paid the most wasn't making more more than hubby and yeah... there was no possible way a person could raise a family on that, let alone barely get by themselves! So they "won" and sales reps are getting paid hourly now, but since a sales rep working 40 hours a week would be making more than a manager, well they had to redo that too and decided to restructure the entire company. Previously, hubby was the store manager of the store where the warehouse is and so he was also doubling as an administrative/executive assistant as he dealt with all the inventory and orders as well. Well they're condensing some of the store management positions, making 1 person incharge of several stores in their nearby area, thus eliminating hubby from that, but he's now the inventory manager and will be incharge of the warehouse and inventory, placing orders for all the stores and often delivering them as well in addition to training sales reps on how to better sell/push accessories. This goes into effect February 1, although we won't see the pay for it until March 1. It's pretty neat though!

Jay's 30week growth  ultrasound pic

In baby news... I mentioned it on my baby blog, but since I'm sure not all of you read that, they found ANOTHER abnormality on the ultrasound yesterday (last week during the growth scan it was showing Jay's femur to be a bit small) - one of his kidneys is larger than the other. The doctor said it's possible he just hadn't peed yet and it was full, but since that's 2 things in the course of a week they want me to meet with a high risk doctor and have an ultrasound over at the hospital either at the end of this week or beginning of next week to have both looked at on their more high-tech ultrasound machines. Sooooo annoying! They've looked at his kidneys plenty of times on the ultrasounds and they were all fine... I'm really guessing it was just full at the time of the ultrasound yesterday as that just makes no sense! Grrrrr... I'll be 37 weeks on Sunday, which is considered full-term, so yeah... Jay, you can come out anytime after this weekend, okay??

My father-in-law was released from the hospital on Friday. He seems to be doing alright and they have him doing outpatient dialysis. Our church also offered to put the family up in temporary housing until their house is "fixed" and more liveable. It seems my in-laws have come to the realization that living out there is probably not the best for them at this point. They live out in the country, over an hour away from the rest of us with the nearest city/town being halfway between there and here. Their house is also on 5 acres of property which with my brother-in-laws all grown and working most of the time, there really is no one around to help maintain the property as needed. So the plan now is to get the house out there fixed up (ie: strip the basement as the mold damage was that severe) and to sell it so they can move somewhere closer to town, which would also help them save on travel expenses too as they come into town several times a week for ministry-related work and now for dialysis several times a week. The big problem is going to be with their pets, as they have a mini-zoo - they already had 1 cat and then acquired 4 kittens a few years ago that were mysteriously left on their back porch and while the original plan was to give them away to good homes, my little sister-in-law got attached and they named them all and yeah... that never happened. They also have 3 remaining dogs too, one of which is a pitbull that my brother-in-law acquired from a friend who got deployed soon after him and his wife had a baby and she couldn't handle the dog with a newborn on her own. Not sure what they're going to do... I told hubby if we had a house with a fenced backyard I'd be okay with taking 1 if not both of the non-pitbull dogs temporarily (I like pitbulls, but this one's a bit spastic and I don't feel like dealing with that with a newborn), but like he said, we don't yet so we can't.

And that's my update for now!