HAPPY BIRTHDAY CRISSY!!!!

Wishing you a fantastic birthday and year ahead. Thank you for always bringing a smile to our days. You are a wonderful friend! Enjoy your day...you deserve it! Your gift from your Stetson fam will be delivered to you at lunch tomorrow! Have a great day!

Almost famous

Check me out......

http://www.wjct.org/tv_podcasts.html

I just wish they said the name of the studio or got a shot of the signage or something, but he got the counter, which is awesome. I love it. Not to brag, but it gave me goosebumps.

Happy Valentine's Day

Good morning and happy Valentine's Day. I hope you are get sweet goodies from your special someone. Brian and I gave Reagan a basket with some play food and 4 tiger barbs to go in her new fish tank. She was excited, but not quite as excited as I was hoping for. She has gone in her room about 20 times this morning to go check on her fishies, so that's really cute. Brian got me a Pandora bracelet and 3 charms (square I love you, little girl (from Reagan) and a cupcake). Just what I wanted.

Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam Photos

Hoover Dam

Grand Canyon tirp

We had a great vacation. Here is a recap
We arrived late Tuesday night. In the morning we did local sightseeing and had a ton of fun. Here is a cool story--
Sean's favorite baseball player is John Smoltz. He used to pitch for the Braves but just got traded. A while back the local Arizona paper did a piece on John Smoltz's parents owning a local business--a distributorship. Low and behold it is in the next town over from my parents. You know what comes next, we take Sean there--just to take a picture.



While we are there this guy comes out and starts talking to us--where you from, what is new, yada yada. My dad starts to tell him how big of a fan Sean is and this guys goes, "Wanna meet Mrs. Smoltz?" Ah sure! We are then introduced to John Smoltz's mom. Sean was actually kinda speechless. It was so funny. She was really nice and didn't think we were stalkers--Always a good thing!

We then grabbed some lunch, looked at cacti. We also did some local shopping. Sean found us a good shopping cart.



Thursday and Friday we went to the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam. We spent a lot of time in the car. We had a little cabin at the Canyon and just had fun. Oh we got really close to some mule deer. We saw a coyote too (sorry no picture).




(I will post some Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam pictures separately)

When we got home Friday night, we were all exhausted and I wasn't feeling quite right. I woke up on Saturday with a fever of 101!! My parents had a previous festival to go to so I just slept pretty much all day. I went from shivers to sweating to back to shivers. It was bad. By Sunday, my fever had broken but I started this hacking cough......I still have this stupid cough.
Monday we went to see a movie and Tuesday I popped a Nyquil and flew home. Sean was thrilled that I used him as a pillow!!

I was back to work on Wednesday and lived on cough drops! My office was slow when I left on vacation but it was nuts when I got back.
It is now Friday and I am slowly getting better. Good news!

Just wanted to share...

...this with you. This is part of my valentine's gift for my Kirk. I put it in a frame for his desk at work. My Dad took it for me. I initially tried with the timer and had a tough time and jazz would never sit still so Dad to the rescue. I think this turned out pretty cute. Now, I want Kirk to take one for me :o). I know...I am cheesey but, what did you expect? XOXOXOX Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day with your loves! I love you my sweet buds.

What a big girl.

Before

Yes, I cut her hair. It was getting totally ridiculous and it was always falling in her eyes. I know that would have driven me crazy, so I figured it was probably bothering her as well. She was a real trooper and just sat as still as could be and didn't cry or anything. As you can see, the place was pretty cool. I wish they had places like this when I was a kid.


During

After

They also put cute little clips in her hair, and sparkles, but I didn't end up with a cute picture of that. She looks so much older now, it's hard to look at. The baby is all gone!

Quit dippin' in the mustard

So I just caught up on the nearly month of this blog that I've missed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRAME!!!!

Good choice of vehicle for Reggae Bear. She'll always be happy with a Jeep..

Howie I can't even BELIEVE those people are suing YOU. UNREAL!!!

Glad Seany Boy got his cast off. Phew!! Hope AZ was nice and that you're feeling better.

Now for me...

Well I'm totally in for girls weekend for sure except I work on Saturdays and Mondays so there I go screwing everything up again. And I'm down with the spouses and kids coming too, doesn't just have to be us. Just can't swing a whole week. I could take a Saturday or Monday off towards the end of the year. It was like pulling teeth to get the days off for the Mother's Day cruise. I never say no when they call me to come in but the one time I ask for 2 days off all hell breaks loose. Anyway, the guy I fill in for got it done for me.

Since this Monday is a holiday Elena and I were trying to plan a little getaway for Valentine's Day because we haven't been able to go anywhere since I work every weekend.

In other news...another reason we couldn't afford to go away for a whole week, etc. was cause we are having a barn/shed built in the backyard to house our book inventory and then I can get more rent for my house cause it'll come with garage. Well boy was I in for a shock when I got a few estimates for this "barn". They ranged from $18,000 to $24,000, I was thinking more along the lines of like $2,000 But it really needs to be done because we run ourselves ragged moving our inventory back and forth and all over town. So the other day we decided to go with a prebuilt shed like thingy, smaller than we hoped for which is still in the $10,000 range plus $3,000 for a concrete slab to put it on.

Anyway, the next day(2 days ago), Elena and I were driving and here is how the conversation went:

EJ: Are we sure we wantto spend $10,000 on the barn? What if we move sometime soon?
CS: Yea, I was thinking that too. And imagine the vacation we could take with the money we don't spend.
EJ: YEAAAAHHH
CS: Think we could get a good deal on a last minute cruise somewhere? Anywhere?
EJ: (eyes lighting up)

So the bottom line is we just booked a cruise to the Western Caribbean and we leave Monday. And boy can you get a great deal if you are flexible enough to just leave on a whim like this. It's 4 days and we're so very excited. It's already so close, we leave in less than a week. We'll take lots of photos and "post the good ones" as Turner says. :-) Now I just have to pray that I don't get called into work next week while we're gone. I already made it sound like I was starting a huge yardwork project. But that'll only work for so long because my boss passes our house on his way into work(he lives on our street). :-)

We're leaving the cats to fend for themselves and hopefully Oreo kills all 4 boys and we come home to just 1 sweet precious kitty cat.

Anyway, that's about all that's happening here, which is A LOT for me.

Happy Happy Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest people on earth. I totally wish we could be there to celebrate with you. Just know that we are thinking of you and love you.

Katie, Brian and Reagan.

Thank You!

Hi Buds!

Just wanted to thank you all so very much for thinking of me on my Birthday! Thank you for the generous gift card to Macy's...it is perfect! I am looking forward to a shopping trip soon. Thank you for always making me feel so special. Most of all...I am grateful for your "forever friendship".

I love you!!!! XOXO ~ Krame

Weathering the Storm

Ok - this post has been ALONG time coming. As I'm sure none of you will be surprised - I HAVE SOO MUCH to BLOG about and it seems to just be piling up - so forgive me if this ends up feeling like just a PURGE of information!!!

I've started training again for another half marathon at the end of March - this time it will be in Knoxville - so, not too far away! My left BIG toenail has FINALLY fallen off since I ruined it during the last half marathon. Now, I just have to wait for the two on my right foot to fall off. Right now it looks like I just had a beautiful purple pedicure!

No real news with the Lokster - he isn't crawling, yet. He CAN sort of but scoot around - which is pretty funny to watch and he's going to be a chatty chet - he talks non-stop - though none of it makes any sense at this point.

The bus is now BLACK! It looks REALLY cool. I'm VERY happy with it. Now we just have to finish up the logo design for the outside of it and get that put on. We also FINALLY got a storage space for it - so it's not sitting in my in-laws yard anymore. I also have some GREAT business cards that I need to send out to you all! They're pretty cute! Our website should be done in a couple of weeks, too.

Last year, just after we purchased this house and before we moved in - we had Loki's baby shower here. At the end of this stressful event, the plumbing for the house EXPLODED in the front yard. It was obviously a pre-existing condition that we were not made aware of. I cried!
Apparently, all of our pipes in our front yard and leading out to the city drain are terra-cotta and get easily clogged by root matter.

So, the city came and cleared out their section and replaced the terra cotta with PVC and all was well with the world until last week. You see, we never replaced our side of the piping - hoping that letting the city do their work would be enough. And it WAS - for almost a year!!! And then last week after our shower started overflowing (ironic that both problems occured during or after a shower), Whitebread checked the front yard and AGAIN, the plumbing exploded. So, my sweet husband spent the ENTIRE weekend digging a HUGE ditch in our front yard to replace the old terra cotta. So, it's all better now but we still have a MASSIVE hole in the front yard because it's been too cold to fill it in.

My sister has just recovered from tonsilitis, the mumps AND mono - ALL at the same time. She had her mumps vaccination but STILL got it. And this only fuels my no-vaccine FIRE. Though my tune may still change down the road.

And this moring after spending a NIGHTMARE of an hour on the phone with what I'm hoping will be our health insurance company (after 3 previous phone calls - getting the run around each time) - a geeky gentleman rings our doorbell and SERVES me with papers!!! I'm being sued by the STUPID contractors who remodeled our attic (and didn't complete all of the terms of the contract) - AND ruined our hardwood floors in the process AND stole our entire DVD collection.

So, needless to say, I'm a little on edge.

I made a WHOPPING $800 last month with my new sales job that I'm suddenly considering giving up - lol.

BUT - I think we'll be OK! We've weathered worst storms than this and with ALOT less optimism.

Maybe, I never you told you how broke we were when we got to San Fran - and couldn't find jobs right away. But it all worked out!

So, I'm sure it will this time, too. In fact, I feel better just being able to post this! Thanks for listening ladies (or reading, rather).

It's the support from viewers like you that make this show possible!!!

Bunn Lovin's to all!

Deep thoughts

So...I have been doing some thinking. Some may say, too much thinking....but here is where I am.

I know "Stetson Family Vacation" is hard for everyone financially. I know it's hard to see into the future and I know money is tight. Money is tight for all of us and I understand that. This year was going to be a lot less expensive, but still I understand. So, I think it best to not do a "Family" vacation, this time. When I say this time, this is what I mean: Our friendship is something that is so special and important to me. I want to make a lifetime of memories with all of you. I want Reagan to grow up knowing all of you and being friends with your children. As a child, I remember going on vacations with my parents friends and some of my best friends in life were my parents friends children. Besides Brian and maybe our families, you guys are who I want to take trips with and go places with. You are my best friends. Maybe you feel the same, maybe you don't. Just know that I understand that this year is tough, but we didn't take a trip last year. If we say we are going to do it next year, then don't, I am afraid we won't make an effort to plan them anymore.

On that note, what about another girls weekend. What are you thoughts on that? I have a few ideas:

1. August beach trip to Georgia
2. Changing of the leaves trip in October (we might be able to snag my grandparents house in Georgia)
3. Macon trip just to hang out and be together (Macon is the exact 1/2 way mark from Howie to Orlando)(sorry T)

PS: These things are up towards the north because Howie seems to always have to come towards us. We should give her a break and try to go towards her.

Please know that I miss you all so much. I wish I lived closer to all of you and I wish there were more hours in the day so we could talk more (or at all) and visit more. I know our lives are busy and I know we all have other priorities, but life is short and I don't want to look back and think, "Damn, I wish I had hung out with ______more."

I love you all. Peace out!