Christmas Part III

Well we've finally finished all of the Christmas events. Last night we had our Crowley family Christmas. We all went over to Mimi and Papa's for Italian Beef and fixings. The kids were ALL very patient until we finally let them open presents. We had a fantastic time.

Baby Nolan in his 1st Christmas bib.

Oops... Charlie took a break from opening.


Uncle Bryon and Nolan

Auntie and Nolan. No - he wasn't crying... he had actually just smiled.

Nolan's Christmas present I made him.

Big Brother Ryan and Nolan

Charlie's Christmas Carols

We bought this guy a karaoke microphone for Christmas. He's always singing!

He's such a doll.

Since I am off work all week, I took Ryan to see Marley and Me today. He was staying with Mimi and Papa, hence the reason he was by himself. What a great movie! I love yellow labs and I wish I had mine back. :( We had a good time. Tomorrow, I am taking the other three to see Bolt. Due to the sheer size of their family, they don't get to go to the movie theater very often. It should be fun as well.

Tomorrow night we are heading to the lake house. We are hosting a New Year's Eve bash up there with a bunch of our friends. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Can you even believe it??

XOXO

BNT

Merry Christmas Loves!

Merry Christmas friends and family from the Crowleys! We are very thankful to be blessed with your love and friendship in 2008 and we are looking forward to 2009! Enjoy your family time and we hope to see you all soon!

We travelled to Iowa yesterday to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and my two sisters and their families. Today we will spend the day with our large and lovin Stewart family and hopefully this evening we will catch up with friends!

Ho Ho Ho....
XOXOXO

The Day After Tomorrow

This post has nothing to do with the day after Christmas.

Okay. I just want to really THANK you people who wished for a White Christmas. Thanks a whole friggen lot! WTF with all this snow??!?!? Good lord! Here we are trying to decide if we should break for it now while it is snowing heavily but possibly the roads are in better shape - OR do we wait till it stops but then there will be like 6 inches of snow on the roadway!?!? UGH.

I keep feeling every day we are waking up in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow!".

When it asks "Where will you be?" - Yea... I'm hoping it will be at my mom's house eventually - and not having an "Orange" Christmas stuck at the Dekalb Oasis!


Other than the painful drive that lies ahead of us... we really can't wait for Christmas. Really... For those of you travelling as well... please be safe. If you need a ride to Iowa - come jump in the Excursion with us!! Merry Christmas!

Earmuffs anyone?

I figured I'd type a blog entry really quick just to keep my fingers moving as opposed to keeping them still as they may ice up. I AM SO FREAKING COLD!!!! Where in THE hell did global warming go?! I want it back NOW. We just got back to our house (for our new AT&T install) because we got stuck up at our lakehouse yesterday since our truck wouldn't start. Fine with being stuck at that house... where it was warm... but then we have to load up the truck and freeze, be outside and freeze, then come home to a freezing house! WAAA. I would leave and go out shopping or something but the amount of traffic that we experienced just gettin home will keep me from doing that! YIKES. I feel like such a whiner.. but seriously... does it have to be SO nasty. I'm fine with 30 degrees and an occasional stowstorm - but do we need one every other day or for it to be -40 last night with the wind chill?!??! I know I live in the midwest - I get that. But I thought the midwest and the Artic Circle were further apart the last time I checked. I'm in my house and I can see my breath! Okay - it will get better once the heat catches up - but it still won't improve outside. WAA WAA WAA.... I really wish that Santa Claus would bring Puerta Vallerta to my doorstep (or anywhere about 50 for that matter - that just happened to be the first place that popped into my mind!)

On the other hand... I'm not having to go outside to work in this crapola... So there's a PLUS.
Oh yea... and it IS Christmas week. I suppose that's another.

Well that's all for now... I have to go find earmuffs.

I don't wanna work... I just want to bang on my drums the rest of the year...

Yes... I’m all over the flu and I finally have stopped having the occasional tummy pains. And NO... unless half of my office is as well – I am NOT pregnant. Allright – now that is out of the way.... it’s been a busy week and a half.

Bryon had a great time on his boy’s ski trip. It snowed LOADS!! Of course I am positive he missed me tons! He came back home on Tuesday and even brought me a prize – good hubby!
While he was away, I ventured down to Iowa as my forever friend Sara was in town to surprise her Gram. Sara and I have been friends since we were 4 and you can basically say she is my sista from anotha motha! Doesn’t really work for sister does it? Anyway, it was funny to go to her Grandma’s birthday party and have her friends remember me as a child as Sara and I were inseparable!!

Saturday, mom and I ventured out to do some shopping and got to stop by to see McCartney. Is she not the cutest baby EVER? She has grown so much since I had seen her when she was a week old and boy does she look like her momma! Oh yea... and I got me some Taco Pizza. WOO WOO.

Saturday night a bunch of us met up for beers. We had invited our old friend Travis (since we were wee little ones) out with his wife Tori. We had a ball reminiscing and saying “remember when”. Tiffany would hate that. I know... I know... We ended up closing down Frackies and somehow Sara and Greg came back to Mom and Dad’s. We were having a blast talking about all kinds of things when we realized it was 5 AM!!!!! Sara and Greg’s son will be waking up in only a couple of hours!!!! OUCH! I at least got to get plenty of sleep – but still – we’re too old for that! I got on the road just in the nick of time on Sunday to miss the sleet storm heading in and made it home safe and sound.

This week is my last week of work until 2009. Again – WOO WOO! Unfortunately because of the possible threat of incremental weather and a couple of your typical bitchers and moaners our Christmas Party for this afternoon was cancelled yesterday. So THANK YOU people for instead making us sit at work when it won’t start snowing until the rush hour we could have MISSED if we had had our party. Thanks... thanks so much. Stupid. I guess it’s obvious how I feel about that subject! Grr..

Anyway...I’m off until 1/5. We’ll be heading to Iowa for Christmas there from the 24th till at least the 26th. That’s all I got. Holla if you want to hang out. (or go see Dirty Dancing – ANN!)

PS – As of 8 PM last night my Christmas shopping is complete. And they are all wrapped and under the tree. Except one big one. ;) Not that my husband reads this anyway...

Weekend Review: From Pizza to Purell

This weekend we trekked up to the Lake. We had the rare pleasure of hanging out with our buddy Jeff and his girl Jess. We met at Next Door Pub for some Za and brew. YUM on both accounts. Could it be any freaking colder though? Lord have mercy!

Saturday we had a fantastic day. We braved the cold to go do some shopping. No... not Christmas shopping - shopping for us. Not one Christmas present purchased this year so far, but we took advantage of sales for our benefit. YEA! We got some more decor for the lakehouse. Instead of decorating for Christmas, we decorate for Winter instead. Everything in the house is Winter themed - blue, white, silver, etc. So we put up our NINE foot tree and watched Christmas movies as we did it. One thing funny about my hubby is that he LOVES Bing Crosby. No matter what, for the next 50 years... this is what I'll be watching this time of year. But he did allow us to sit down and watch Love Actually a bit later. Love it! So sweet. Here is the finished tree:

Caution: This rest of this post is not for the faint of heart.

After a very enjoyable Saturday... I had the worst Sunday I can ever remember. EVER.

Bry and I went to bed about 1am on Sunday after finishing our gorgeous decor. About 2:30 I wake up and realize I am sort of uncomfortable. I quickly get annoyed as it seems like every time I have the opportunity to sleep in my “best bed ever” I can’t seem to. Then I realize I am not just uncomfortable – but I am actually in pain. My stomach really hurts. Weird. Okay. So I just lie there for a bit. Then I have these sudden rampant thoughts – “Oh my god. Am I going to throw up? Seriously? No this can’t possibly be. I haven’t been sick since at least junior high. No way.” Only to get to the bathroom in time to let it out. WTF is what I am thinking. Then I think maybe I just had something bad to eat. I’m still feeling like this can’t be happening. I brush my teeth, go to the kitchen for some water and see the clock says 3:11. I figure I’ll just go back to bed because now I am feeling better. Bryon wakes up a bit as I climb in and asks – “Babe are you okay”? I answer – “I’m not sure.” So, I go back to sleep only to wake up suddenly with the same – you have GOT to be kidding me – thoughts and quickly race to the bathroom to get rid of some additional pizza from the previous evening. Brush my teeth again, go grab water and note the time of 4:12. Crawl back into bed and realize that now I cannot sleep and damn my stomach hurts. Most likely an hour later I am back in the bathroom. This time I really start to get frustrated as there really isn’t anything left to get rid of and now it freaking hurts like hell. I can hear Bryon calling from the bedroom to ask if I am okay. He has a very weak stomach – but does he seriously expect me to answer in between wretches? This takes place 2 more times. I finally end up just lying on the bathroom floor just because it feels so cool against my face. Bryon finally gets up the nerve to come in to find me lying on the floor. Not thinking him trying to pick me up to put me back in bed right now is a good idea!! AAAAGGH!

To make a VERY long story short, I was miserable all damn day. I finally was able to fall back asleep around NOON. Yes that is right – noon. I was in such pain from heaving all damn morning that my back and head were pounding not to mention my stomach. My man – the best jello maker on the planet – fed me about this time and I was able to take some Ibuprofen with it. Then I finally passed out for a couple hours. Woke up again, passed out again and repeated again. I felt better this morning even though I was still incredibly weak and just blah... but no puking so off to work I went only to find out my boss and my good friend are out with the stomach flu too. Gross. I hope no one else has to suffer this misery.

UPDATE: I still am not up to par. This blows. Bryon leaves for Vail today for his annual boys' ski trip and I can only hope that he doesn't end up with it. I'm just trying to make it through the day of work so I can take him to the airport. Word of advice - stock up on Purell people.

Keeping up with the Crowleys

It has been forever since I have posted, but I have been inspired by my friend Ann's new blog. She is just so clever! It seems that if we are not travelling around that our life just really isn't that interesting!

Anyway, we have spent most of November in our basement. We have ripped up the tile, laid new, painted and reorganized everything. Bryon did a lot of the hard labor and definately deserves back rubs for all of his hard work. We also got a new fridge and large freezer which thrills me! We now have room for more food and drink! We were very busy trying to finish up before we hosted Thanksgiving. And we finished...the morning of. Our very first Turkey Day turned out wonderfully. Bryon did the majority of the cooking, although I did do some. I focused more on the presentation! My tables looked great! More than anything I was so very happy to give my mom a break after 33 years! Can you believe that? She has had to host Thanksgiving longer than I have been alive. Nuts. Mom & Dad Crowley, Kevin & Bern, Teri and all the kids were our guests in addition to my parents. It was a busy day, but we are very pleased that everyone enjoyed it. We were exhausted by 10 PM. We were actually exhausted for a couple days.

Friday night we hosted a little party for some of our pals in the city. It was great to catch up and see friends before the busy holiday season. We were happy all of our pals are well and we enjoyed the night out. I, however, realize that it takes me longer to recover from a night out. Ouch. Saturday, Bryon went out to do some shopping, while I continued to recover. That will teach me a lesson - he came home with a new flat panel TV for our bedroom. It's gi-normous in comparison to the one we had in there. He is so stoked and can not wait until we get AT&T's new U-Verse hooked up later this week. He can record up to 4 shows at once and record on one TV and watch on another! It is cool - however, the last thing I need to do is spend more time watching TV! It just being Winter provides enough lack of motivation itself. Saturday night we went on a movie date. We saw the new Bond movie - eh. Stupid plot. Then, we snuck into see Madagascar! It was awesome and we were so sneaky! It was exhilarating! Actually, it was very easy as there was no one even in the hall we were in. Compared to the week before when the same hall was packed with 100 screaming teenage girls when we went to Twilight on opening night! Sunday was a nice day of finishing up around the house and preparing for the week. I was planning on getting the Christmas decor up, but that didn't happen. Bryon DID bring up the tree tonight and set it up. I'm procrastinating. A portion of one strand of lights is out and I have checked every bulb!!!!!!!!! UGH. I'll get it done though. Hopefully I will have motivation after the gym tomorrow. I can't WAIT to get to the gym. I feel terrible after all the fun and food from last week.

Now we turn toward the Christmas holiday season. I am looking forward to time off. Bryon is taking a week off next week for his annual boys' ski trip to Vail. We have cut back substantially on our Christmas gift list this year and so I am very much hoping to enjoy a much less stressful season. As we should all do and enjoy the real meaning of Christmas. Ok. Bryon is telling me I have been typing too long. I guess I'm done for now. :)

New York........New York

Last weekend I met mom and Debi in New York City. Mom had a conference there so we figured we would make a weekend out of it. I arrived Thursday afternoon. The first thing on our agenda was my very first show on Broadway - Mamma Mia. I had gotten us front row tickets and mom sat right next to the Musical Director/Conductor. She was fantastic. We also got a great view of the orchestra. It was very cool to see everything from that perspective. Plus of course, the show was AMAZING! We had a great time and we headed out to an Irish bar after for a few drinks. Imagine. Us at an Irish bar. Our hotel was right in Times Square. It couldn't have been a better location. Friday morning we headed over to the Today Show first thing and caught some of their Halloween show. There were a bunch of folks in costume all over the place. Mom headed back to her conference and Debi and I walked around. We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral first and then headed down 5th Avenue to Central Park. Across from the Plaza hotel there was a stage set up. We wondered what it was for?? Low and behold in about 40 minutes a free Pink concert was going on! Somehow we stumbled into front row tickets for the show! It was SO flipping cool! We were literally right in front of her. SO awesome. We headed back to pick up mom after that and headed to Chinatown. We scored an invitation to a "secret" purse location and scored a couple of great bags. We then headed up to SoHo and did a little shopping. We had dinner in Little Italy outside as it was so beautiful outside. It was fun to enjoy our Italian and Sangria while watching the kids trick or treat. These poor kids don't have any houses to go to - so all of the businesses pass out candy. It is odd. After this we took the Subway back up to our neck of the woods. Debi headed back to the hotel and mom and went - wait for the surprise - to the Irish Pub around the corner. We had a drink and then went back to Times Square to people watch. Talk about being in the strangest place on Halloween. It was nuts.

On Saturday, we walked to Hell's Kitchen, had breakfast and went to a flea market. We then headed down to the South Seaport. We took a boat ride out to view the skyline and the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island etc. It was a gorgeous day and it was great!! Debi went to mass at St. Patrick's and we walked around Rockefeller, etc. We had a nice dinner at - can you guess?? - an Irish Pub and then loaded up our bags into a cab to move to our hotel out by the airport. (The rate at our h0tel in Times Square was going to change to $650 on Saturday night due to the Marathon coming in town - hence the move.) We got to the hotel and hung out a bit in the hotel bar while we were receiving calls from Bryon who was at the ACDC concert. I was bummed that I had to miss that - but he made sure we heard some of it anyhow.

After dealing with the difficult hotel staff about getting back into the city, we managed to catch the bus to the subway Sunday morning. The Subway was not in a great neighborhood - but it got us directly to Grand Central. On the way, we were able to witness some of the marathon. WOW - very cool. We walked around and went to a little street fest and finally grabbed our NYC pizza for lunch before heading back to get ready to leave. Unfortunately, we grabbed the wrong bus when we got back to the Subway station (thanks to the hotel for being so helpful) so we ended up in a neighborhood that no one spoke English and we couldn't even determine what language or nationality the neighborhood represented. However, we are resourceful gals and we made it back - but at that point we were ready to go home!!!

All in all - we had a great long weekend and our weather and our luck couldn't have been better!

Oh Baby!

Oh what fun! I travelled home to Iowa this weekend to see the new additions in that neck of the woods! First, Mr. Carter Robert Roseman was born September 7 and then, Miss McCartney Nicole Low, born on October 18. I chose to go home by myself as Bryon wanted to get some things done around the house, including staining our deck. It looks great. Anyhow, I ventured over to Aimee and Darren's and we spent the afternoon playing with the babies. By looking at them you couldn't possibly believe that Carter is only 6 weeks older than little McCartney. He is a big guy! I think he's going to be a linebacker. However, I have no idea where he gets his size from... not his parents! Both babies are absolute joys! I am excited to spoil them and especially drive Aimee crazy with pink little clothes. She isn't much of a girly girl, but if Auntie Trish can help - McCartney will be. I told her I couldn't wait to buy her those cute little tights with the ruffle on the butt! How adorable are those?!!? YEA. Can't wait. Darren offered up for Aimee to join Lori and I out for a bit. After having a wonderful dinner with my parents, I met Lori, Aimee and Tiffany out. We had a great time chatting about all sorts of interesting things. Think -- two childless women and the childbirth discussion (with details)! HA HA! It was wonderful to have them all around. Yesterday, we visited with some of my parents old friends in the morning and then mom and I went out for lunch (Taco Bar at Ganzo's of course) and to the mall for awhile before I had to get back on the road. Luckily for me the wind calmed down a bit before I got on the road, but not before Bryon had been blown OFF of a ladder at the house!!!! Luckily, he is cat-like and landed on his feet. I'm still waiting for the aches to set in. 15 ft!! That's FAR. I don't like him doing that sort of thing when he is alone, but he is a man so he probably forgot.

All-in-all the weekend was fantastic. Finished it up with my favorite show True Blood and fell asleep on the couch. Maybe that is why this morning I couldn't understand why it was light outside when I woke up. OOPS. My alarm "fell back" and I didn't even notice. It is automatic so when I thought I was getting up EARLY at 615 - it was actually 715--- YIKES! I felt bad for Bryon though when I had just told him he could sleep for another hour... then I come back and say nevermind -- GET UP! Typical Monday eh? Better this week than last, as I head off with Mom to NYC on Thursday!!!

Miss McCartney

Lori/McCartney, Me, Aimee/Carter
He's taking her to the prom in a few years no doubt!

Carter Robert
Momma's first drink - and she chose Smithwick's.

Thank God Tif didn't order it and say it wrong!

Tif & Trish - as Lori said - "You can't imagine one without the other"

Aimee Sue and Lori Lou

Oktoberfest and O'Donovan's

We had quite an exciting weekend. Starting off with Aimee and Darren's new arrival Saturday morning! We are SO excited! Saturday evening we (including Kevin, Bernadette and Charlie) went up to Long Grove for Oktoberfest! It was a little chilly to hang out in the outdoor area, although we did watch a Polka Band for a bit. Charlie was fascinated by their attire I do believe. Even though Kevin REALLY wanted to watch the outdoor movie "Frankenstein", neither Bern or I were going to be able to last much longer outdoors, so we headed into the Village Tavern for a MUG of Oktoberfest. Although we did sit outside, it was at least bearable. After numerous crackers and German cheese, we decided we (and Charlie too) would probably need a real dinner. We went over to Fritzl's and everyone except Charlie and I dined on authentic German fare. I had a few bites of Bryon's sampler platter and it was good! We had a good time hanging out and laughing at Charlie being goofy. I don't think there is anyway possible he could be cuter! I don't know who can resist his face!!

Sunday we met Jaime and Dan at O'Donovan's for some pre-game brunch. YUMMY! I hadn't been there forever and it was just as good as I remember - except more expensive! After that bill we decided to go by Dieter's game day hangout. He told us they had $1.50 beers! AWESOME! What we didn't know is that it was a private "men's" club that seemed like we were in some scary basement in someone's house. Oh well, after a couple who cares! We had a good time - and HEY although they try just like every other week - the Bears DIDN'T lose!

WOO HOO!

ANOTHER New Addition!!

Miss McCartney Nicole Low was born Saturday morning at 9:04, weighing in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. and 19 inches long! What hair she has!!! She's beautiful! Congratulations Mommy and Daddy Low!

Auntie Trish and Uncle Bryon couldn't be more excited! We can't wait to meet her!

Proud mommy Aimee

Beautiful Family

10 fingers, 10 toes...

Nolan Robert

We got to meet our new nephew last night! I think he is the cutest baby ever!

Proud Auntie "Ish" - Charlie can't quite get out the TR part of my name so Ish it is...
He looks really little with big Uncle Bryon holding him.
Proud big brother Tyler... it seems like just yesterday we were visiting Ty when he arrived to the world.
Little Charlie is having a hard time giving up HIS momma to the new baby... He told Uncle Bryon in this little voice (nearly a cry) - that "the baby is touching MY mom's boobs!!" Uncle Bryon told him it would be okay and he said "NO!" He was so funny... not being able to remember little Nolan's name... he kept looking to others for what his name was - ya know Da Baby...
Poor mama was exhausted and is going to have her hands full with her newly expanded household. But everyone is happy and healthy and doing well. :)

XOXO

New Addition!!

We have a brand new baby nephew, Nolan Robert, born today at 7:00 AM! Pictures to follow...

My Craft Show Finds