Before I hit the road

Tomorrow is a big day. The girls and I are flying south for the remainder of the winter (we hope). B's going to drive with me as far as Tuscaloosa, then I'm on my own. I don't have a definite plan other than I'll be in Tuscaloosa for a week and then I'll head to Louisiana. We've never been without B for 3 weeks, so I"m not sure how any of us are going to hold up. We may be wanting to return sooner than later.

That being said, I'm not sure I'll have the ability to download pics along the way. I'll do my best to give you verbal updates, but you may just have to wait for the visuals until I return.

Don't worry though, I've prepared a slideshow to tide you over. While I'm gone, B has big plans to make progress in the kitchen. We bought our cabinets off Craig's list, so he'll first have to spend some time removing them from the other house. If all goes well, maybe a wall will be knocked out when I return. Who knows. In the meantime, here's the before pictures. It includes the new addition of the handrail on the stairs. I cannot tell you what a difference it made to the room. I was afraid it would close in the room, but it's done just the opposite, and I have Mr. Ed to thank! Enjoy.

Oh, and for those of you wondering about the lovely orange extension cord running down the hall, it is necessary to run the heater in the bathroom. Otherwise, all the lights go out. Go figure.

As Promised

Here are the latest and greatest snow pictures. The first are from the winter storm we had last Friday. Unfortunately for us, it all happened while B was at work, so the fun was cut short when Abri had had enough. She had pulled off her mittens, and I think her little fingers felt the frost.

Waking up to the surprise.


Please can I just go out and touch it.

Patiently waiting for Mommy to get her boots.

Doesn't Abri look like B here











On Sunday, we traveled just over the state line into Pennsylvania to visit with Mike & Lisa Gurzo, friends we met in Dallas while working with USG. Their twins, Abby and Garret are just a month older than Abri, so the girls had a good time. Once the little ones were down for a nap, Mike took us to the back of the property to sled down the hill. Lise' had a ball and even went down a few times by herself.

We had a small hike to the hill.

Abri had the best seat of us all.

B & Lise' ready to go down. Although she'd do it herself, she preferred to go with Daddy.

Lise' on her own.

SNOW DAY!!!

It was absolutely beautiful this morning. We woke up to snow covered lawns, and large flakes of it fell all morning. Of course, Lise' was begging to get out in it before she had breakfast in her tummy. I being the greatest mom ever gave in after we had all eaten. Not only that, but I built all the snowmen in record time. Who needs the gym! Lise' was so happy she finally was able to use her snowmen kit. Thanks Clare & Kaye.

*Unfortunately Abri gave out before I could get a picture of them with the finished product.

Apparently this was a winter storm. For now, the snow has stopped, the rain is falling, and supposedly tonight the roads will turn treacherous. Yuck!

More pics to come. I just need time.

How old are you?

Well, I don't have much time for TV, but my TIVO does its duty. I record Oprah everyday, and this month sometime, the infamous Dr. Oz was on.

This time the topic was aging. The basis was what you're doing in your life now could affect how fast you age, and there are preventative steps you can take to slow that process down. It was packed with loads of information, but nothing hard. You just have to care enough to try.

Here's where you start. Realage.com

I was a little nervous about where I would stand at the end, but I'm happy to say that I'm 32 in real years, but age wise, I'm 29.7. That's not bad for someone who doesn't have a second for herself! Now, I'll shoot to knock off another year.

Good luck!

When will I learn?

I'm the classic procrastinator when it comes to buying things for myself, especially at full price. So, this morning, I was up early with the girls and saw an ad on TV for and upcoming Billy Joel concert at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn. It happens to be the last concert that will ever be held there before the stadium is torn down following the 2008 baseball season.

B and I have always said we'd like to go to one of his concerts, and where better to see him than in NYC?

So, tickets went on sale at 9am. At 9:50am, I thought about it, and hopped online to see what the prices were, and here's where you enter my mind....

9:50am-Hmm, wonder what tickets to that concert cost. That would be a fun thing for me and B to do.

Make a few clicks, and there it is, 2 tickets $95 each. I chose best available, and all that was left was upper seats. Not where I'd love to be, but can't be bad...unless it's raining. The concert is on a Wed. night, so would B want to take off work? What would we do with the girls? I know the Swindells have no plans to visit in July, maybe I could call my parents and tell them to visit with us at that time. Should I call mom now, or maybe I should just buy the tickets and figure it out later. It's still months away. Maybe I should just buy them anyway, I'm sure I could sell them. Hmmm....maybe I should B to check with him. At this point, I'm watching the "5 min. left before these tickets are released button." It's going down, I put the computer down and walk to find my phone. I call B, he says go for it. I go back, of course, my time is up, but I sign back on. ALL, and I do mean ALL the tickets are sold out! Now, don't get me wrong, it's not the end of the world for me, otherwise, I would have known to hit the buy button without asking all the questions. I'm getting up there in age, so maybe that's it. Or, could it be that the last concert I went to was prekids, and my friend Mandy supplied me with that one, so I didn't actually do the purchasing.

I do know one thing. I'm going to do myself a favor and not watch what they go for on ebay. I would really feel like an idiot then if they turn into one of those Hanna Montana crazes.

Learn from my mistakes, and dont' ask questions, JUST DO IT!!!!

And, with that....the birthdays are over!

How is it that only 43 days into the year we, the NJ Swindells, have completed ALL of our birthdays for the year? We hammer them out with efficiency, that is for sure!

Julie (Jan. 8)
Lise' (Jan. 13)
Abri (Feb. 9)
B (Feb. 12)


Our celebrations started for B a week before the actual date. We wanted to celebrate while his parents were here, and it was a good excuse to make a Coke cake, one of B's favorites. Now, I usually do not have any trouble baking cakes, but I've been severely challenged with the inconsistency of the oven I currently own. The temperature has a mind of its own. If you want 350 degrees, you have to be almost at 400, and if you want 400, you need to be right around 425. @#$XXX!! is about what I have to say about that. No words are needed, all you need to see is the picture. Note, Ms. Becky about laughed herself right out of the house on this one, and this is the "improved" picture! I think the award for UGLIEST cake ever is right before your eyes.



Abri's birthday we celebrated only a day early. Her cake turned out much better. B even iced it for me because I ran out of time. It was delicious though, and she had a grand 1st birthday!

Snow Day Part II

It's a bloggin' kind of night. Be sure to scroll down. I think this is my 3rd post.

I mentioned that we were excited about the snow. By the time B returned home from work, we had 2-3 inches, and the girls wanted to go back out. Lise' had to try out her new snow ball making contraption. It worked like a charm!

Want to know about NYC?

Scroll down, I started it days ago, so it saved the original date. It's after the snow pics.

Happy Birthday to B!

Beside being B's 32nd birthday, it's our first real snow day. The girls and I returned home from our errands just in time to watch the show.

Just before naptime, we headed out to play. It was short lived, but fun. Abri actually threw a fit when it was time to come in. For now, she's fast asleep-IN HER BED- and the larger flakes are still falling. Unfortunately, it will probably be too dark to get too many more pictures before the warmer air arrives. At least Lise' got to wear her snow suit and boots once.

Baby it's cold outside!

Just as an FYI, I started this post days ago. This one was prior to the snow post.
So, this was all last week.

I'm hibernating again. The temp outside is technically 20 right now, but with the wind gusting anywhere from 20-50, it feels like -5 to 0 degrees. That means my trip to the store has been postponed. I have no desire to bundle the girls up and fight that. Instead, I have to survive the day with my stir crazy kids inside. They are suffering from attention with drawl since B's parents left on Saturday. This too shall pass.

We had a great week. On Tuesday, B and I took the 5:45am ferry out of Atlantic Highlands to NYC. We beat the morning rush, and the 30 minute ride in was nice. The weather was great too. It wasn't windy, so when we docked at the pier, just east of Wall Street, B and I decided to walk for a while. It's been a while since we could just go and not worry about dragging kids or finding kid friendly potties. To say the least, we enjoyed ourselves. We made it all the way up to Greenwich and decided we'd best take the subway to make it to the live taping of Martha on time. Just as before, when mom and I went, we waited in line and were called into the waiting room where you sign your image away and feast on tasty muffins and water. We were sitting in the 2nd row from the front, so when Joey came in, we were much closer this time. Here's the picture to prove it.

B and I had card number 12 and 13, so we knew we'd have great seats. We even wore bright colors, which the audience coordinators really like. When called to the studio, we sat in the very first row (not on the floor-I heard you don't want those seats b/c you can't see anything). The camera practically stayed in B's lap the entire first segment, so he got lots of airtime. The show was enjoyable, and our gifts for the show were craft boxes in the shape of hearts from the MS line at Michaels and a box of chocolates from Charles Chocolates. Let me just say, I'm not what I would call a chocoholic. I enjoy chocolate, but I don't go out of my way to buy the expensive stuff. I've never understood why anyone would pay $4 for a single piece of chocolate when you could buy an entire bag of M&Ms for 79 cents. Anyway, you're handed the gifts when you leave, and we didn't even open it up until we got home. Boy oh boy! I have never tasted anything so good. I especially enjoyed the chocolate mojito hearts. We ate the whole box, including the actual box teh chocolates were in. It was all divine. Valentines is another holiday B and I don't really carry out. We don't mind it, but we don't expect things either. It's as simple as that. At least, it was....from now on, I may use it as an excuse to order more chocolates!

The other thing we came home with was a bottle of Lorraine Bracco's of the famed Soprano's olive oil. B won it for being an enthusiastic audience member. Joey tends to hand out leftover giveaways to those exuding happiness throughout the show. Thank goodness I talked him into bringing a backpack to the city. I'm not sure where we would have put it all.
After leaving Martha, we hiked a few more miles through Manhatten, and found ourselves at Madison Square Park. Apparently it has some amazing history, including, but not limited to being the birthplace of baseball and where P.T Barnum started the circus empire. It's also the site of one of NYC's lastest "attractions." For only a quarter, you can try out the new self-cleaning coin-operated public toilet on Madison Avenue between 23rd and 24th streets. Could we possibly pass up the opportunity? It's even staffed 24 hours. (That's the man in the picture with B). Just be careful, after 15 minutes, the door open automatically, and you are exposed to the world. Once that was out of the way, we decided lunch was in order, and ended up at Momofuku for lunch. After watching travel shows and reading "my fav in the city lists", I added it to my list of to dos. It's definitely not a restaurant I would have taken the kids to either. The menu is very different, but everything we had was unbelievably layered in its flavors. The best thing we had was the rice cakes with oxtail Ragu. It was B's choice, and man it was good! I had the steamed pork buns, which is a favorite of many NYC chefs. It was a meal I was glad we saved for just ourselves.

Once we had successfully stuffed ourselves, we had to decide what to do. Where do you start in NYC? I originally thought we would head home b/c we had tickets to the NJ Nets that night, so I made no plan. By lunch, we decided we'd be too tired to do it all, so why not hang out in the city a little longer. The NY Giants ticker tape parade was going on, so we had to stay away from downtown. For a few minutes, we considered going down there to fight the crowds, but then thought again. Have you seen the fans? They're crazy! We had walked the parade route at 6am, and they were lining the roads like Mardi Gras fans. Finally, we decided to go to the MET. Neither of us had been, and knew we'd never begin to see all it had to offer, but we had no idea!

The first thing you should know when going to the Met is that you should leave your olive oil at home. They don't smile kindly at you carrying it in your backpack, and they won't check it at the coat check. Lucky for B, the security guards agreed to hold it for him, something they don't usually do. Some of you might say, it's olive oil, chunck it. But, to us, it was "Martha" olive oil. How could you just throw it away? Good thing we didn't. It's darn good for bread dipping!

So, we had about two hours before we wanted to catch the ferry back home. We didn't want to be in the 6pm rush, and my shins were starting to ache, so we chose to hit the American Wing. It proved to be less than exciting, so we ditched that idea and headed to the art wing. The idea was that since we didn't have time to read everything on the wall, we should at least see something we recognize. We found that in Picasso, Monet, and the like. It was fun. We were amazed at how close you are allowed to get to the actual paintings. You could breathe on them for goodness sakes, and there was no protective covering to keep you from stabbing it or lets say, throwing olive oil all over it. Impressive. We'll be back, but I think we'll save it for another trip when we have babysitters. I could just see myself yelling, "No, Lise', you can't climb the ancient temple." over, and over and over again!

So, after a day of joy, peace and exhaustion, we hiked on over to the pier on 35 street. It was an overcast, rainy day, and it was getting cold as the sun went down, but B and I decided to sit on the upper deck in the back of the boat anyway. You don't get a view like that everyday. We sailed under numberous bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge. I can't wait to do it on a clear (and warm) day.

Just as a reminder, click on a photo to stop the slideshow.

Ok, Ok, I'm back!

It's been a busy week. Things were rather quiet last week, but we more than made up for it in the past couple of days.

For starters, B's parents arrived for visit last Friday, and we've been going strong ever since. I won't be able to get it all posted tonight, but I'll fulfill the addiction you know you have to our ever exciting site.

Mimi & Papa were delayed in their arrival, so I let the girls stay up a little late last Friday night. Here's a few "Too Cute not to Post" moments.


The next day was so pretty, we figured we'd better get out because rain was forecasted the rest of the week. Lucky for us, we only had to drive right up the street to explore Sandy Hook portion of Gateway National Recreation Area. It's the start of the "Joizy" Shore, and it's beautiful. There's all sorts of things to do, but it was pretty windy that day, so we drove around and visited indoor sites with promises to return when the weather warmed.


One site we visited was teh Sandy Hook Lighhouse, which is the oldest operating lighthouse in the country. This is obviously not from the day we visited.

We ended the day by making one last stop at the beach on our way home. Apparently seals can be seen this time a year off the shore, and one had been sighted that morning. Abri was napping, so everyone but me and her bundled and climbed the sea wall to look. In that time, Abri woke up, and I couldn't stand it anymore, I had to go too. Have a look see....

Walking toward the sea wall. This is all I could see from the car.

Ahh, the other side

I've always heard of the Jersey Shore, but images of hypodermic needles crossed my mind. Who ever thought it could be this beautiful, and shells-THEY WERE EVERYWHERE! There were so many that you didn't feel guilty smashing them with your shoes as you walked. You know I'm a shell nut, and I've never seen anything like it. I'm so lucky this is a 5 min drive from our house. My only problem is that I'll have to limit myself to how many I bring home each time.

Lise' and Papa found themselves "trapped" for a short time.


The next morning turned out to be even prettier, so after lunch, we went in search of the seals. We did spot a couple, but they were pretty far from the shore, and we had forgotten to bring our binoculars. It turned into another shelling day. I found 2 sand dollars too.

It was quite a walk to the water. The day before, we were only a half mile up the shore, but beach was completely different. Check out the ship in the distance.

No ordinary bucket for Lise'.

I think Lise' was born to be here.

We had the place to ourselves.


For weeks, Lise' has been asking me when the snow was going to arrive because she wants to make snow angels. We have the snow suit, the boots, the gloves, the works just waiting for the moment. Still haven't seen the stuff stick. B and I just figured we'd have to head to the mountains to fulfill her wish.

As you can see, she made it happen on her own. I never mentioned it at the beach. I only turned around to find her taking matters into her own hands. How could you stop her! Click on pics to enlarge or slow down rotation. Then click again to close.

As Bugs used to say, "That's all folks." Tomorrow is Abri's 1st birthday. Where has time gone?

Goodnight.