It’s been a busy few weeks
Blowing Out The Candles
Marin is now officially three years old! She picked out an ice cream cake for her birthday. It was pink with a grey kitten on it which I was pleasantly surprised about since at the shop it was brown in their cake book. But that is what she picked so I went with it to make her happy. The cake was very good. It had been a while since I had an ice cream cake. Yummy!
Marin's Cake Blowing Out The Candles
She received lots of gifts: more Legos, Kai Lan toys, coloring books and a bunch of games. She is starting to really get into the games. She has a Little Pet Shop board game I bought at a garage sale for probably 50 cents. We have gotten our money’s worth and then some on that game! For her birthday I bought her a Spongebob memory game and a Mickey Mouse yahtzee game. She is still learning the concept of yahtzee since its for 4 yr and up ages but she is good at the memory game. She has beaten me several times playing it and I don’t even let her win. It’s pretty embarrassing when a 3 yr old beats me fair and square. She had her annual checkup with her doctor. She weighs 35 pounds and is 37.5 inches tall. The doc told me she needs to be eating more fish and fruit. Good luck on the fruit! Marin does not like fruit even though she ate it when she was younger. I think her mind set is “Why do I need fruit to satisfy my sweet tooth when I can just eat candy?!” So I am trying to get the candy out of the house so she only has the fruit option. Let’s see how that works…(if you could see my face right now you know I don’t look optimistic!) But I think the fish part is somewhat doable. We went to Fish City Grill the other night and I asked her what she wanted to eat...of course she said mac n’ cheese because that is always her answer (I don’t know why I ask anymore)…so I started naming the items off the kids menu. To my surprise she chose catfish! I didn’t even have to coerce her into it. I’m thinking she eats fish at school and I am none the wiser about it. So I was very happy to know she likes fish…of course it has to be fried which defeats a little of our purpose but she is still getting the nutrients of fish! I decided to start buying fish sticks to put in line for her dinners. She tried some last night and loved them and now I think I will try and see if she likes tuna. So far so good on fish…fruit is definitely going to be the bigger battle.
We are starting to get involved in our HOA lately. We joined a committee for activities and communications for the neighborhood. We have another meeting tomorrow night at our house. We are planning a Spring Fling in April. I’m in charge of volleyball and horseshoes. Hopefully it will be a success.
I am enjoying the winter Olympics! Eric and I always love watching the games. Of course, my favorite is the figure skating but I like the skiing and snowboarding events, too. We want to actually attend an Olympics one day but don’t know when that will be. We seriously thought about the London games in 2012 but it’s just so expensive and such a short amount of time to save up the money needed to go since you have to make reservations way ahead of time. Maybe someday…
New Granite Sink
We have been on a home improvement kick lately. A couple of weeks ago we replaced our sink with a single basin sink and a new faucet. I was so tired of the double basin because I couldn’t fit any big dishes or pots in it and those items are the only ones I actually hand wash…everything else gets put in the dishwasher. So I am very happy with that purchase. This past weekend we just spontaneously decided to paint the office. Eric was already moving his desk to a different spot so I just told him he ought to move it to the middle of the room so we could paint. We always talked about doing it but never really planned it through so this was a perfect opportunity. We also chunked the ugly black curtains that were in there and bought new ones that look really good with the wall color. We will probably paint the guest room at some point. Next in line will be French doors to replace the sliding patio door in the back of the house. And then my big project that I feel is a must is making a true bar area out of that opening in our kitchen that looks into the breakfast nook. I can’t believe the builders didn’t just go forward with that so it would actually be functional. It will take some time and money so that is on a backburner for a little while.
Marin showing off the new curtains in the office
Having Fun In The Snow
We had eight inches of snow a couple of weeks ago. Like everyone else, we all decided to have a little fun in the snow.
Marin is Turning 3! Or as she would say…”free”!
My baby turns 3 this Sunday. Can you believe its been 3 years? It's such a cliche' to say it but "They do grow up fast!" We decided to not have a huge party this year. Birthday parties are so expensive and she won't really remember it anyway at this age. My mom asked me if I remember my birthdays when I was little and I can only remember as far back as maybe 7 or 8 years old. But I think we'll still have lots of fun. We will probably take her to Peter Piper Pizza or something and I am going to let her pick out an ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins. And of course she has lots of presents already stacked up on the dining room table. They are not all from me and Eric though...I did buy more than I initially thought I would but she also got presents from my friend Christy and my mom sent one as well. My poor mom spent about $10 to ship Marin her gift and then decided that her and my dad were going to come up for the weekend. So she could have saved that shipping cost. Next year we plan on taking Marin to DisneyWorld for her 4th birthday. We have a Disney Rewards credit card that we used for the past year and a half so we racked up a few Disney dollars to help pay for it.
The Chicago trip was fun! Marin had no problems on the plane ride. She actually really enjoyed it. On the flight back we were waiting for our name to possibly be called for standby (we used our friend Darren's buddy passes) and Marin watched the other passengers boarding and started to get worried. She kept trying to pull me up to the line to board because she wanted on that plane! We finally got on and was spoiled with the amenities of the 777. That is the one with the 5 seats in the middle and 2 on each side. I had never been in one before so it was quite nice. We had our own screen in front of us and got to pick which movie we wanted to watch and it also had games (the remote served as the controller). It was pretty neat. Marin got a little restless towards the end but who can blame a kid after being cooped up in a small seat for 2 hours.
So what else is new? Oh, Christy found out she is having a boy! So I have been shopping for little boy things. Since she and I are both huge baseball/softball fans I have picked up a bunch of clothes with little baseballs on them. I'm a sucker when it comes to shopping for baby clothes or any kids clothes for that matter. Anyone who has seen Marin's closet can attest to that. Anyway, I am anxiously awaiting Darren and Kelli to find out the gender of their baby (or I-Mixed as Darren likes to refer to it). I wish I had a guess but I really don't know which way I would lean. Maybe I'll ask the Tarot cards... 
Yes, I bought Tarot cards and a learning guide but I have not picked them up in several months...maybe I'll try and practice again.
Well, enjoy the photos we took during the Chicago trip...there isn't many since Eric forgot the camera almost everywhere we went. 
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- On the way to Chicago.
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- Jackie and Marin in Chicago
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- LegoLands are almost as popular as Starbucks in Chicago
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- Jackie and Marin
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- Eric had more fun than Marin at the Lego store
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- Marin at the playland in a mall in Chicago
She’s A Little Weathered, But Doing Fine!
Canon i550
We purchased the Canon i550 inkjet printer about 7-8 years ago. It is the only color printer that we own. We rarely have a need for printing anything in color, but when we do, I can depend on this bad boy. Like most inkjet printers, the heads occasionally clog up when not used for a long period of time. What set this one apart is that I can usually unclog the heads without a problem. The actual print head is separate from the ink cartridges which allows me to completely remove it and clean with warm water. That's right water! Even with the circuits on the heads! I just let it complete dry before putting it back into the printer. However, I must warn you. This printer is the only one that the warm water trick has worked. I have turned several printers (mostly Epson brand) into what I like to call "page counters" trying the warm water trick. Another plus of this printer (the main reason I originally purchased) is the low cost of ink. It takes 4 ink cartridges each cost individually about $10 or about ~$35 for all 4 in a bundle. Angela found some on the eBay daily deal site for $20 (all 4 colors), so we ended up getting a couple extra sets. Anyways...just had to use it again tonight to print out some labels for Marin's birthday party at school and it worked out perfectly.
Marin is turning 3!
Coloring Away!
Lazy…a thing of the past (hopefully!)
I have been waiting to do a new post until I could get some pictures from Christmas uploaded and share them with you however I am really busy lately. And when I do get some free time I am too darn lazy tired to get it done! Sorry...I will try to get some pics added sooner or later.
Christmas was good. Marin loved the presents from Santa. He brought her a toy cash register with a shopping cart and toy groceries. I think by far that has been her favorite gift. She plays with that register everyday. I played "shopping" with her for about an hour one night and it was amusing to see how much my grocery bill was. She is too young to understand the concept of money so she was charging me like $8 for peanuts and $10 for pretzels. Thank goodness it was play money!
Of course being our only child she was kind of spoiled with too many Christmas presents. For her birthday I am cutting back. She'll probably only get 2 things since I am already tired of cleaning up all the toys!
Marin and I had a little vacation in East Texas the week after Christmas. Poor Eric had to work so he missed out. We got to hang out with my parents and just relax a bit. New Years Eve was a fun party and we did fireworks as always. Marin was very scared about the sparklers at first and I went through a whole box of them trying to get her to hold one. I finally gave up and was walking back into the house when she decided she would try it. After handing her that first one she was hooked. It was like her magic wand that she kept waving around. I had to make sure she didn't get too close to anyone because she was going crazy with it. It's fun to watch someone discover something for the first time.
So its my birthday month! Yes, I know a birthday is only one day but I celebrate the entire month..deal with it! This one is a bit more tolerable than last year. Thirty was hard to swallow but thirty-one is not so bad now that I have already dealt with losing my twentys. I have decided that I am going to age gracefully. I haven't quite figured out how to do that but that is what I've decided nonetheless.
I finally broke down and bought a treadmill. Because of the recession my company is no longer paying for the 24 hour fitness memberships. We had cancelled them about 3 months ago anyway since we never went...lazy. So I decided I am not going to let gluttony get the best of me!! So it is a little bit of an eyesore sitting in the living room area but I know I won't use it unless that thing is in front of the TV. So far so good...I have walked 20 miles in the past 7 days. I am sore as hell but hopefully that gets better with time.
We are headed to Chicago this weekend. We are using our good friend Darren's (works for American Eagle) buddy passes. We have to fly stand by so it can get tricky if the flights start filling up. We will get there by Saturday, hopefully and endure the cold weather. But we'll deal with the weather since we get to see our good friends Jason and Jackie. We haven't seen them in a while so it is due time for a visit. It will also be Marin's second time on a plane. The first time she was only 16 months old when we took a vacation to Cozumel. She probably doesn't remember that so this will be interesting now that she is almost 3 and can understand what's going on around her. We have loads of stuff to keep her busy though....from coloring books to Spongebob episodes we'll try to keep her from getting bored.
Images in the Sky
When you look up at the clouds what do you see? I see Marin, Angela, myself, friends and family, and several vacations! Before you ask...there is just Diet Dr. Pepper in this cup! I have slowly been sorting through a bunch of photos that I have stored on my computer. I have a little over 5,500 pictures and a few video clips from the digital camera that add up to about 12 gigabytes of data. I have gone through and got rid of most of the duplicates and started organizing them into relevant folders. I have been using the new Picasa 3 for managing the photos. The newest version includes face recognition abilities.
Once you name a few, it will try to find others based on the facial features. I have noticed that it sometimes suggests the wrong person when it comes to children because their face changes so much, but it does well on adults.
As everyone, I always try to keep backups of files that are of importance. This use to be in the form of burning files to multiple CD/DVD's every so often. Of course you have to remember to do it. Another problem is that burned CD/DVDs do not last forever. I have had several issues trying to read back burned discs that were only several months old! Sometimes I could only end up reading the disc by placing in the original burner that I had used...weird!?
Over the summer I implemented a RAID 1 configuration for storing my videos, pictures, and documents. This works great to protect against a failed drive, but they will tell you to always keep a copy elsewhere in case the worst happens. There are plenty of online backup companies out there, but I'm not talking about them today.
Google Picasa 3 will let you sync your web albums! I have uploaded images to Picasa in the past, but typically reduced the quality to keep the file sizes low due to the 1 GB limit. You can now purchase additional storage at a dirt cheap price in my book. I just added 20 GB to my Picasa account for $5 per year! I dare you to find an online backup company that is cheaper and as trustworthy. So I now have 21 GB's of available storage to store my 11 or so gigs of photos (taking away about 1.5 GB of short video clips that will go to Google Video or YouTube). Luckily I have a decent ISP that will allows me 5 MB upload speeds. So it will only take about 6 hours to upload all of my photos.
Don't get me wrong...I'll still keep the RAID of course. In fact, I added another RAID 1 of 2 750 GB hard drives for Marin's movies and shows!
Taking it to the WiMAX
The other day I was running through a Vegas casino with a couple of buddies chasing after this terrorist with a machine gun and something strange caught my eye...it was an advertisement for a mobile Internet company in metro areas that do not require a contract and as low as $30/month. I know what you are thinking...month-to-month Internet for my laptop for $30!?! Crazy! I then proceeded with my mission at hand.
Okay, so it did happen in a game, but still! It's kinda cool on a couple of levels. The wireless Internet and in-game advertising. I assume it somehow updates the ads from the Internet as well so they are somewhat current?
The company offering the wireless Internet is Clear.com. They offer several different packages with or without a 2 year contract. They also are currently running some specials for reduced rates for the first 6 months. I have read some good and bad reviews, but for the price it is worth a shot if you are in the market for something like this. The idea is that you use WiMAX technology and is currently only available in certain metropolitan areas (at least by this company), DFW being one of them. The connection speeds are quite nice as well.
Below is a short video clip I made of the in-game advertising experience.
Christmas and Babies
We've got the Christmas tree up. We also taught Marin how to turn on the lights everyday when she gets home from preschool. We have a tree with the foot button that you just step on to turn them on so it is very easy for her. No luck on getting Eric to put up lights on the house this year...lazy. I also found my Christmas dinner plates in the attic and decided to lay those out on our formal dining room table. I bought them when we still lived in the townhouse and had a smaller table so there are only four plates in the set. Now that we have a table to seat six the 2 end chairs have no place setting. So I am currently looking for another set of plates to accommodate six. I tried to find 2 plates to match the set I already have but it is a discontinued pattern and hard to find. And when I do find them they are outrageously priced. I can't believe I am rambling about dishes...I must be getting old...
Babies are everywhere! I've had a couple of friends who have just had babies (one had twins! yikes!). We also have a couple of friends who are trying to get pregnant. And as I announced in an earlier post my best friend Christy is expecting her first baby in June. Geez...I have a feeling I will be buying lots of baby gifts soon!! Everyone keeps asking when Eric and I are going to have another one and I always say...SLOW DOWN! We are still learning how to manage Marin right now and have you seen the price of daycare? Think about how much it is with two kids enrolled! Marin will need to be close to public school age before we can think about numero dos!
Happy Thanksgiving, Ya’ll!
I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week! It is crazy how fast this month has flown by. I wrapped most of the Christmas presents last night since Marin is staying at her NeNe and Papa's house this week. I am glad to get that over with and be able to focus on the tree and other decorations this weekend. I asked Eric to put outside lights on the house this year but he is in lazy mode lately and doesn't want the hassle. I am still trying to persuade him but I don't know if he is going to give in...we'll see.
Not much going on in our world lately. Eric still hasn't been assigned a project. If they could just get him assigned somewhere within driving distance we'll be ok. He was recently offered an assignment in New Jersey. Can't really swing a $1200/mo apartment rental plus our mortgage...and I am not moving to New Jersey! There are a lot of places I would consider moving to and New Jersey will NEVER make that list!!
Marin's teacher at preschool said Marin is great at following directions with her coloring and she knows her ABC's better than most of the three year olds. Alert the media! We've bred a genius!! It's hard for me to comprehend the significance of her learning to color and say the alphabet but I guess when you are that age it is impressive to the teachers. So I gave her extra M&M's to reward her. You don't have to tell me...I already know I am horrible!
Thanksgiving...What am I thankful for this year? I am thankful that Eric and I are both employed. We have been through rough patches in the past few months but have managed to make it through with only minor "scratches". I'm lucky to have people I can turn to if need be but I hate to show weakness so I refrain from ever asking of help and did whatever possible to make it on our own. So thanks to those who graceously wanted to help us...we love you all. But we preferred to buckle down and make it work. Some people might say I'm too proud but I prefer to think of myself of just being strong-willed.
Christmas Shopping is Done!
If you know me well then you know I HATE Christmas shopping during December. Stores are crowded, people get crazy and rude...and I don't want any part of it. So not only do I shop early, I also do the majority of my shopping online. I can now sit back, wait for my packages to arrive and enjoy the holidays without the fuss. Amazon is truly still one of my favorite sites but I have been a big Ebay shopper lately as well. Eric made a wishlist site last year for our family. I don't think its going to get much use this year. I think the adults in my family are doing a Chinese (White Elephant?) gift exchange instead of drawing names. But I did put Marin's list up there for anyone wondering what she wants. There is a feature where you can click sold (shopping cart icon) so the next person to look at the list will see what she's already got. I am not trying to ask people to buy her presents 
. I just know people will ask what she needs or wants so instead of thinking about it on the spot or having to verbally go over a list I have it all organized in one place. (Just found out from Eric that it requires a log in to see it but he will get that fixed shortly where you don't need it.) UPDATE: If asked for a username/password, leave them both blank and click 'Login'.
This year Eric and I have to fill each others stocking with goodies since Marin can't wake up Christmas morning to see Santa only filled her stocking. I think she would get suspicious if ours are empty. Yes, we have decided to spend Christmas at home this year. Usually we go to East Texas but now that Marin is old enough to know who Santa is we thought it better that he deliver her gifts to our house and not try to make up some crazy stories about how he tracked her down at someone else's house. But I am planning to spend the week after Christmas in East Texas to make up for it. New Years is always more fun with fireworks and we have to go to the country for that.
My friend Christy is expecting her first baby! I know she is nervous about it so I just pray it is healthy. She is due in June so I have to plan a trip to Arizona this summer. Boy, is it going to be HOT! The last time I went to Arizona it was in March a few years ago and the weather was perfect. But the summers are killer. It is a dessert after all!
Marin got sick on Halloween so she didn't get to really enjoy the holiday. We took her to a community trick or treat thing at the civic center in Diboll but she felt pretty bad and I am pretty sure she has fever. But she still wanted to do it and then when I got her back to the house that night I gave her Children's Mortin and she started to feel better. She did get to ride the "tractor" (what she calls my dad's 4 wheeler) and she took a couple of swings at the Halloween pinata at my parents party. I only got one picture of her the entire night which was her swinging at the pinata but her jacket was on so you couldn't really see her costume. I might have her put the costume on again this weekend to take a picture for her scrapbook so years from now she doesn't question why I didn't have any photos from Halloween 2009!
Fall, don’t go…I am not a friend of Winter!
I can't believe October is almost over. Fall is my favorite season of the year and it always seems to go by so fast.
Halloween is next week. Marin is going to be Tinkerbell. If you haven't already figured it out Tinkerbell is my favorite Disney character. I've sort of been pushing it on Marin. I did her room in Tinkerbell decor, she has Tinkerbell PJ's and t-shirts and now I am making her be Tinkerbell for Halloween. But she likes it, although if she knew there was a Dora the Explorer costume out there she would be throwing a fit to be Dora instead. I just can't take too much of that Dora but I tolerate it for Marin's sake. We are going to spend Halloween in East Texas again this year. My parents always have a party with a mini bonfire to roast hot dogs. It should be a lot of fun.
I've already done my jack-o-lantern and I don't think he is going to last until Halloween. We may have to toss him by the end of the weekend. He is starting to turn to mush. I thought they were supposed withstand a little longer that a week, but whatever. Marin's cousins came in town last weekend and we went to the pumpkin patch. She picked out a small one and painted it (and painted herself in the process). I was going to try and wash the clothes she was wearing but decided to just toss them because they were covered with the paint and they were old anyway. She sure does love to make a mess.
Eric's job is going ok. And I say "ok" in that he hasn't really done anything in the month that he has been there. He is waiting to get assigned a project. We are hoping he gets in on a project with JCPenney so he can work in Plano. We dodged having to move to Seattle or rather him commuting to Seattle which is what we discussed being the most realistic option since it was only a 9 month project. I am not about to quit my job and sell my house for just a 9 month commitment. I think he has meetings with JCPenney today and Monday to see if they want him on one of their current projects. I am crossing my fingers he gets in!
Anyway, I included some pics from last weekend:
