Jury Duty, day 1

So here I sit, Downtown Cleveland - at the Justice Center, fulfilling my civic responsibility of jury duty. I have to say, I'm intrigued and curious, but sort of feel trapped as well. I certainly don't mind going to work every day. It's just what I do - I know it and it's just part of my routine.
This week, my routine and what I know is all screwed up by traveling downtown, dealing with traffic and PAYING to park in an overcrowded parking garage - probably blocked in by another car! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was here right about at 8:00 this morning like I was supposed to be. There was a line about a mile long - well, maybe not a mile, but it was REALLY long to check in. I bet there are between 300 and 400 people here! I was one of the last ones to check in and I found myself a seat on the floor in a corner since all of the chairs seemed to have been taken.
Thank goodness for laptops!!! They do allow them and they do have wireless internet, so I just took my seat and started working. I did some work through the orientation process and then realized my battery was just about done. I had to find an electrical outlet, which I did and started back to work. To my surprise, I was in the very first group of people they called. So I packed up my stuff and headed to the 22nd floor - pretty cool view of the city up there - and stood in another line to get seated to a trial. The bailiff called out names in the order of the seated jury and the alternates. I was actually seated - juror #7. This was a civil case that involved 2 guys who were working for the city as garbage collectors and were injured in an accident that they were claiming was the fault of another driver, who is now dead, but that death was unrelated to this accident -that happened in 2003. So I spent almost 2 hours being asked questions (with all the other seated jurors) by 3 different attorneys and the judge. Just as things seemed to be winding down, and I thought we were going somewhere, one of the attorney's dismissed me. I had thought I was going to be on this case for the 3 days they were expecting and be done, but it didn't pan out this way. So away I went. Then it was lunch time. I went to the cafeteria for an overpriced personal pan sized pizza and then headed back to the waiting room to be called for another case. And here I sit............

I'll update as my week - yes, my 5 day minimum - week of service goes along. Once again, thank GOODNESS for a laptop!!!

Car Shopping Stinks!!!

My lease is up next month on my car. I have one more payment to make for this month and then I need to turn in my car (or at least decide what to do) by Feb. 18th.

I thought my only option was going to be to buy out my lease since I do really like my car, it's only got 26,000 miles and my buyout is pretty reasonable.

So yesterday, I decided to start researching my options. To my pleasant surprise, I think I can buy a new one for the same payment I'm paying now for my current lease! I went to a Chevy Dealership and found that they were offering an V6 Impala for $15,406 and a 4-cylinder Malibu for $15,731. I secured reasonable financing rates so both of these were well within my budget!! It sort of seems like a "no-brainer" to pay $300 less for more car and go with the Impala, however, my husband doesn't like the look of the Impala!!! No mention of a bigger, better, faster, upgraded car.....it doesn't LOOK as good inside or out, so it's really not an option - or not one that he'd be happy with. The catch - the deal ends today.......(of course it does!!!)

So today, I go back to the Mercury dealer where I got my Milan 3 years ago. I can actually get a V6 Milan for $15,892...also within my budget, but my salesman says he thinks the rebates may even get better for the Milan a week from now and suggested I wait to do anything. (by the way, in case anyone is wondering, they're extending the employee pricing for Ford another week).

So the typical Tony and Mary would act now and somewhat impulsively as to not let the good deal slip away, but, I'm very proud to say (and I may kick myself in a month) we're holding off. I'm going to make my final payment and revisit the issue at the end of the month.

Worse case, I can get the new Milan for the same and maybe a few bucks less than he offered me today. I can give the Chevy Dealership another shot at the same (or better) offer in a month. Then - and only then - I just have to make up my mind which car I want to drive for the next 5-8 years!!! I've been so spoiled by leasing all these years and getting a new car every few years, but now I guess we'll be buying a car that I will have to drive for a while.

I'll keep my eye on the incentives and maybe, just maybe, waiting will actually proove to be a better option. I guess there is a chance I won't get as good of a deal in a month, but for once, I'm not being impulsive and I'll take that chance....you'll all hear about it if the best deal slipped pass me!!!

The other good news was that I actually took 1/2 day of vacation today to do this....I never take time off work and honestly, this felt pretty darn good!!! I will also probably regret this when I return to my piles of unfinished business, but that too, will just have to work itself out. I'm really only worried about it since I have jury duty all week next week, so I lose another week of work, but oh, well!!!

So tonight Hannah had gymnastics again and this was the first night in her new class. I was a little worried, but I had explained to her that she was not going to be in Miss Kim's class anymore, but instead with the bigger kids in Miss Callie's class. She told Bobo about that today, so I thought we might be OK since she seemed to be OK with the change. The good news was that Miss Kim wasn't there today, so that probably helped the transition. She went with Miss Callie after warm ups just fine and was actually really excited to be in a different class. She did really well tonight and this group of kids are a little older and seem to listen better and sit still, so that should be really good for Hannah. I took a few pictures tonight, but they're really grainy for some reason. The gym seems well lit, but the pictures come out terrible for some reason? I tried just about every setting on my camera and they just don't come out well. Also there are a TON of orbs in my pictures!!! That place is either haunted or just has a ton of energy in it!!! Here are a few:

The new class is 15 minutes longer, so they get to do a little extra, which is nice. Tonight they got to play with the parachute - which Hannah thought was just great!

Happy New Year!

Wow! 2009 - seems crazy to think about when 1999 rolled in and we were all anticipating the new millenium...and just this fast, 10 years went by and things are just great! It might be fun to compare things from 1999 to 2009, but that may take too much brain power, so I'll just say, "Happy New Year 2009" and I love my life now!!!

So we had to work on New Year's Eve. Daycare called to pick Hannah up by 10:00 Wednesday morning. Their furnace went out - or so we're told - so we had to pick her up. She came to work with me for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. I had a movie there for her to watch and she sat in my office and was overall, really good. We had lunch together and then I tried finishing up a few things and we left around 2:30. My dad came up to fix the hot water tank that he just installed the night before. There was a leak on the new one and he insisted on coming up to take care of it - THANK YOU DAD!!!!! I felt so guilty to have him drive up just to do a quick little fix, but he said that's what he signed up for 30-some years ago! Anyway, I really appreciate it!!!

We got ready and went over to our friend's house - Mike & Heather - to celebrate the New Year. Everyone brought their kids so they all played together and we just hung out and played a few games too. It was fun. The kids got their jammies on around 9-10:00 and watched a couple movies. Hannah was SO exhausted, but she made it all the way to midnight!!!! Here are a few pictures from the evening:

And this one was just minutes after midnight - Hannah just couldn't take it anymore!!! She was SO tired!

We packed up to go home shortly after midnight and went to bed. We had a pretty lazy day New Year's Day. We went to my mom's for dinner and then back home again. We both worked Friday and didn't do much Friday evening.

I went for a massage this morning! So nice! Tony had gotten it for me for my birthday and I wanted to use it before the place closes down - no sign of that, but who knows with this lovely economy! It felt great and the therapist commented on how many knots I had in my neck and back! Yeah, no kidding! Just a few weeks ago making cookies, I almost couldn't stand upright because I was so knotted up! Maybe that's why I've had headaches lately too? Well, anyway, it felt great and I'll have to maybe do that for myself every now and then.

Here's some pictures of Hannah's "one month before I'm 3". I can't believe that's less 30 days from now! YIKES - guess I'd better decide what we're doing to celebrate it - party or no party?? She's just so excited to get to be the one who gets to blow out the candles this time!!! She's been to so many other people's birthday parties the past several months, so she's ready for it to be her turn! Although, it was awfully nice of Jesus to let her blow out the candles on his cake last week!!

We're off to play poker tonight! Wish me luck!!!

The Christmas Recap

Well, it came - Christmas - despite not being ready! But it was a very good time.

Monday and Tuesday were really busy trying to do the last minute stuff. Monday was gymnastics, so I wasn't able to get much done. Hannah is being "promoted" to the next level class for gymnastics. We're off for the next week, but start again on January 5th. I'm not sure if she'll like moving on or not since she really liked her teacher. I'm sure it'll be fine once she starts going again. Tuesday, we were just so busy after work, cleaning, wrapping and making Jesus' birthday cake. Hannah liked helping with that!




I had to work Christmas Eve, but was able to leave by 3:00 so I could take Hannah to church. She went up for children's sharing time and once again loudly blurted out that it was Jesus' Birthday when asked what story was the most important Christmas story!


After church, we went over to Dawn's house. It was fun - Hannah loved wearing her dress all evening.




Then Santa came! She was so excited and not scared one bit! She really got into it this year. She had a great time opening presents and got all sorts of great gifts - dress up clothes and shoes, princess memory game and candyland, princess jammies, a kids laptop computer. She had a great time!





Here she is in her Cinderella dress up clothes




And playing memory with Krista.


Then we came home (at 11:00 and she was still going strong!) and put cookies out for Santa. She picked the cookies and wrote him a note:







Her note says "to Santa", but the letters are a little jumbled up. I told her the letters to write, but she sort of put them in a funny order since she was running out of room on the paper!

Then he stopped by late that night while she was sleeping and put (way too many) gifts under the tree!!




She woke up around 8:30 and I asked if she thought Santa had come, and she laughed and said, "No, he'll come over later". I asked her if we should go check the cookies and when we did, she was surprised that he had eaten them!!! So she looked downstairs and saw that there were presents and she was so excited!


My Dad and Julia came over just before 9 and Hannah was so excited that they had brought her a bike! It was a true gift from "Grandpa Tractor" - a yellow John Deere bike!






We all had breakfast and Hannah didn't eat much because she wanted to ride her bike. She rode it around the living room and kitchen, but had a hard time getting going on the carpet. Then we headed downstairs and opened gifts. We realized afterward, there were too many gifts! Tony actually felt guilty that she had so much, but then again, I did wrap things like puzzles and books separately and I also wrapped some new 3T clothes that I had to get her which normally wouldn't be presents. None-the-less, she got a ton of stuff, but had a great time opening it all!


Here's everyone with their loot - except for me of course since I'm always the one with the camera!








So Hannah got a sleeping bag, books, puzzles, new coloring books/crayons/markers, Barbie Diamond Princess Dolls, a trunk of dress up clothes (from Aunt Susan), Cinderella & Barbie Princess DVD, Disney princess dress up dolls, playdough, a teaset and the Barbie Diamond Castle playset!










I also gave her the quilt I made for her. I'm so glad she likes it!!!





Julia got a digital camera, Dad got some new shoes (let me tell you how stressful it is to buy shoes for my dad!!!) and Tony got some CD's, Kiss stuff and I framed his signed OSU Jersey that he got a couple years ago. I got perfume, a new planner, toaster and coffee pot. It was a really blessed Christmas - no evidence of a bad economy at our house!!!









Then we got some of Hannah's things put together and played a while and Hannah rode her bike outside for a little bit. Suprisingly, she did really well!!






She took a nap and we got dinner ready and ate when she woke up. After Dad and Julia left, we went over to Tony's friend Jimmy's house for a little while. It was another late night.


Friday, we hung around at home all morning and played. By 1:00, I had to clean up the mess! Tony was proud of me that it took until 1 before I started cleaning! Then we just hung out at home for a while and then headed up to the mall to go see "Tales of Desperaux". It was cute and Hannah was really sad when the movie was over - it was a combination of being really tired and cranky and hungry! We just had dinner at Johnny Rockets in the mall and then we went to Target to get a few things.


Saturday, we just hung around for a while and I did a little more stuff around the house. It was 65 degrees today - weird for Cleveland - so Tony took Hannah out to ride her bike for a while. She fell off and into mud, which was the worst part!!! I ran to the grocery store and then came home and started getting things ready for my Mom, Randy and Grandma to come over. They came around 5 and we ate dinner and then opened gifts.


Again, more than was necessary, but nice gifts! Hannah was so excited to open gifts again! They got her Barbie Diamond Castle horse & carriage, the DVD, and dress up clothes and another Barbie DVD (Christmas Carol) and she even got her own set of REAL golf clubs - another appropriate gift from her "Grandpa Golf"!! She also got a princess dress and umbrella from Aunt Nadine & Uncle Dick which she loved! Great Grandma got her a really neat pop up book.









My Grandma liked the quilt I made her and mom & Randy both got gift certificates they can definitely use. They stayed for a little while, but then had to go before it got too late.









Hannah has had a great weekend and it was such a joy to watch her have so much fun! Tony and I are so blessed and grateful for all that we have. I know sometimes it's tough to remember to be grateful, but times like this easily put things back in check and I can say that I'm so fortunate and am so very grateful for all that I have - a great family! Thank you so, so much to all of you! I love you all very much!

PS - I added a slideshow to the top of the blog with all Christmas photos! Feel free to look through them. Double click on the picture to open them up in another window. Susan, this is sort of for you since you weren't here!

10 days and counting....

I can't believe how close we are to Christmas already! Where DOES this time go??? If you ask my husband, we're stuck in Groundhog Day with our daily routine, so why then does the calendar keep flying by?

Anyway, I'm not really any more ready than I was a week ago. Well, I guess maybe I am, but I don't feel 10 days away ready.

Last week, I was in Columbus Monday through Wednesday, so that made the week fly by. I did a little shopping while I was there so I was able to check 2 more things off my list. I got some not so good news about work while I was there. My company has made the decision to not give annual merit increases to all Salaried employees....really stinks for me because I was sort of counting on it! I spoke to my boss when I got back and asked if there any indication that I should be worried about my position and job security and he put those fears at ease the best he could. I guess nothing is guaranteed, but he said I shouldn't worry and that I could still expect a market adjustment to be processed this year as he had promised me....I guess I'll believe it when it happens. I am thankful to still have a job in this totally crappy economy, but I sort of feel like my compay jumped on the bandwagon because they could - and I guess good for them, but ouch, this one hurt!

So anyway, Thursday when I got back, I didn't accomplish much at work. It was our holiday party that day, so my morning was shot doing all sorts of stuff and then the afternoon we closed the office to have the party. I did get my Christmas cards done Thursday night, so that's one more "check" off the list. Friday I tried like heck to do some catching up, but I wasn't that successful. I'm so behind - maybe I'll catch up this week???

Saturday, I worked on a sewing project for Christmas and did some laundry. I got Hannah down for a nap and took a shower. I woke her up and got her ready to go to her first movie at the theater! It was our neighbor girl, McKenna's, 4th birthday party and they invited Hannah to go see "Bolt" at the movies. She was so excited and I was SO aggravated that I drove around the mall parking lot for over 20 minutes looking for a parking space. I wasn't even trying to find one close - just the first one I could pull into. We finally found a spot at the end of an aisle near Dillards, so that meant we had to run through the parking lot and through the mall to get to the middle where the Cinemark is at. We were late, but only about 5 minutes late. Hannah freaked out as we were walking into the theater because it was dark and loud. I had to calm her down and told her to stop crying. She did and we found our seats and she got settled and was very good through the whole movie. She had to go potty about half way through, which I was fully expecting, but she sat still and enjoyed the movie. Here are the girls after the movie was over:

Then we headed back to Laura & Aaron's for pizza and cake & ice cream. Here are the kids enjoying the party:

I felt a bit of a cold coming on, so I headed home around 8:30 and called it a night fairly early.

We got up Sunday and I got a grocery list together and headed out shopping by 11:30. I was back by around 1:00 and started my baking...trying to check off another holiday "to-do". I'm only making 6 kinds of cookies this year and of course this turned into a full-out "event" for the entire rest of my day. Hannah came to help when she got up for her nap. She was so excited to be making cookies for Santa!

I baked until my back hurt too much to stand any longer, which was by about 8:00. I got the kitchen cleaned up and was actually VERY happy that nothing good was on TV because I was in bed by 9:30!!!

Today was work, a fairly typical Monday. After work, I took Hannah to gymnastics. She absolutely loves going and does so well! She had a case of the bad attitudes today at daycare, so I should have punished her by not letting her go to gymnastics, but I can't do it! Instead, we decided to make her "lovey" the punishment. Our new deal is that when she has a bad report for the day there, she will come home and have to throw a lovey in the garbage. I know that will be a VERY bad day here, but maybe she'll remember to be good! It's sort of hard to punish her because she is generally such a good girl, but when she's nasty, she really can be a BRAT! She now is rolling her eyes (wonder where that comes from?) and sassing back at daycare, which just isn't allowed, so now she's going to have to have a punishment for behaving that way. Maybe it will only take one lovey in the garbage for it to sink in!!! We'll see - I'll be sure to share how that goes over!

So all that's left on the holiday to-do list is about 3 or 4 more gifts to buy, mail my sister's stuff so it might get there in time (note to self to HURRY up with this one!), finish baking, finish wrapping and finish my sewing project. Then I'll have to get groceries for Christmas day stuff......I'm sure I'm going to run out of time!