it all started with a book

First off Happy New Year and hope everyone is off to a great start to 2012! O and I had an awesome end to 2011 and 2012 is starting off pretty well. It has been freezing here in Northern Va the past few days, I really don't want to get out of bed when I see that its 13 degrees outside. I was not made for cold weather and I hate it, unless there is snow as long as its not snowing on my birthday. Having a birthday in February I had many a birthday party cancelled because of snow and ice and what have you.

Monday Jan 2 O and I both had off work and I had really been wanting to check out the new used book store 2nd and Charles. I got the 4th book in the Inheritance Cycle "Inheritance" for Christmas from O and I used to own the first book "Eragon" but over the past 6 years I had lost it, I own all the other books and so I wanted the first one to complete my collection. Yes Yes I could have downloaded it to my Nook but there are some books you just need hard copies of and I have hard copies of all the others so maybe due to my OCD I needed the first book as well. I also wanted to reread the entire series again since its been a couple years since the third book came out and I need a refresher on whats going on.


So first I convinced O that we should go out to lunch and I even got him to go eat Thai food which was amazing. I needed some green curry to start the New Year right! Then off we went to 2nd and Charles and the whole way there O complained. "Why do you need to go buy the book!?" "I hope this doesn't take long". I just told him I wanted the book and I knew I could get a deal if it was used. And so we went and then we went into the store and this is what happened...I ran to the back and grabbed the book and it was only $3.85 SCORE! and then turned around and couldn't find O anywhere. 2nd and Charles has everything, video game consoles, video games, ipads, books, dvds, cds they have it all. Then I saw him in the comic book section and there he stayed for an hour. Then he found the video games. And so our quick trip into a store O didn't even want to go into took us an hour and half and this is what we ended up with:


The entire reason we went to 2nd and Charles

 

And 15 comic books and an Xbox 360 Elite for $160 notice only the book is for me.

(Also now we need a Kinect so I can play awesome fun games like Dance Central and drive O nuts!)

 

 Here is another picture with Ninja in it since he is an attention whore and just so darn cute!

 

Lesson Learned never take O with me to 2nd and Charles again. Also I love that store!

Happy New Year!

Here's to saying goodbye to 2011 which brought so many wonderful things to us this year and memories to last a lifetime. I must say 2011 just went by way too fast, I feel like the majority of the year was spent counting down to our wedding in September and then before I knew it O and I were married and starting a new and wonderful journey together. I have met new and wonderful people and watched some of my favorite people move across the country and while I miss them terribly I am so truly happy for awesome and amazing things to come for them as well (ahem M and B I'm talking about you two love birds getting engaged out there in CA! Congrats!) O and I had quite a few friends get engaged in December like our cousin K and her fiance C who we love to death (you may remember those are the two we visited Unicorn Winery with in November and we have been waiting for these two to get engaged and C popped the question in December in NYC in a horse drawn carriage (collective awwwws now please)) and we are so excited for all the fun to come as we get to celebrate them and all our friends in the next year(or two) getting married! Lots of babies were born this year that I love to spoil and cuddle and snuggle with, so happy for my friends who have such wonderful loving little families and letting me play and spoil their children and then give them back when they need a bath.

O and I were so blessed in 2011 I cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for us. I am sure it will be filled with even more love, laughter and crazy silly adventures! We don't do New Years Resolutions I mean really who keeps them anyways. I want to keep going just the way that we are, with love in our hearts and joy in our souls and smiles on our faces. I want to keep making sure our friends and family know how loved and appreciated they are. I want to keep helping those who we don't even know but have so little and ask for even less. I want to keep God first in our family and remember to be thankful everyday that we are so blessed and remind ourselves not to take anything or anyone for granted.

So where will you be New Years Eve? We will be ringing in 2012 at home with a bottle of champagne and each other. We are taking it easy this year and not spending $100 on a ticket to party, trying to save that money for some great things to come in 2012! You all will hear much more on those adventures later. Until next year may your glass be full and your heart even fuller! Happy New Year! O&J

My hearts a .... SHUT UP PLEASE

So I am sure most of you have heard the The Gym Class Heroes song "Stereo Hearts" and for those that haven't here you go:

  I mean they play this song on the radio at least once an hour at least on our local station here HOT 99.5 they do. It's not so bad, I mean it's catchy and can get stuck in your head and make you feel like you are going to have a seizure or brain aneurysm if you hear the chorus repeat one more time as you walk around singing it all day long. Usually it doesn't bother me so much but this morning I had a rather adverse reaction when my alarm went off at 5:45 (yes I am working this week see I like it cause no one else is here and I get to take naps at my desk and do cool shit like update my blog) and BAM "Stereo Hearts" is playing, I immediately wanted to smash my alarm clock and scream but instead hit snooze. Of course then when my alarm went off a second time Adele "Someone Like You" was playing which I hate to wake up to because that song is depressing and makes me feel sad and like I should be on Xanax or something (not what you want to wake up to in the morning) Now don't get me wrong I love Adele (we used her music in our wedding ceremony), its just not fun to wake up to sad songs about lost loves.

Back to the point, yesterday morning when my alarm went off at 5:45 "Stereo Hearts" was playing and I was slightly annoyed but not angry like I was today. "Someone Like You" used to play every morning at that same time but I would quickly turn off the radio so I didn't start off my day in a downward spiral of sadness cause seriously that song makes me want kill myself. SO when I was driving to work today what should my ears hear the opening beat to "Stereo Hearts" (see I told you it gets played once an hour on the radio just like Adele and Katy Perry songs, its like the law or something). Which got me thinking...(after I changed stations) I wonder if I always hated "Stereo Hearts" or if it is a reaction to having to wake up to that song and it is getting imbedded into my brain to have a negative reaction to it. "Stereo Hearts"=waking up from a peaceful slumber in dream land and then going to work in cube land with old guberment farts. You know instead of Pavlov's dogs salivating at the ring of a bell, I get angry whenever I hear that song. I didn't get angry when Adele used to play every morning but I was more worried about hearing the sad sad lyrics and being depressed in the morning so I turned it off. I guess I should just hope that Gym Class Heroes isn't playing tomorrow morning or I may need a new alarm clock or to switch radio stations but I have mad love for The Kane show and need them to function in the morning and to get my giggles out.

Guess I will find out tomorrow and hope that they find something new to play at 5:45 like some Katy Perry since I know that gets played once an hour too...maybe some Britney Spears, Pitbull, even Bruno Mars but please god no more "Stereo Hearts".

And to show how much I love Adele here is the song our wedding party walked down the aisle to

Santa I know him!

So I didn't die from the invasion at the beginning of the month but did have lots of fun and then I got busy getting my Christmas on! Then I got the flu the weekend before Christmas and then I started feeling better enough to get my Christmas Cookie bake-a-thon on and now its all over and I can try to breathe through my stuffed up nose again. It was a whirlwind of a month so far and I loved every single minute of all the holiday festivities with the family. O and I are so truly blessed in so many ways!

Santa came to our house Christmas Eve and we woke up to wonderful gifts and full stockings! I was relaxing looking at the tree and our gifts and playing with Ninja and Sirius Black (our cat children not human children-I am not that strange to name human children that and besides we don't have any human children yet that I know of) and O kept making a big deal about how I should go make a cup of coffee for myself. Now O doesn't drink coffee so I was like what the what is your problem-and got up to go make coffee in the kitchen while O presumably watched and much to my surprise there was this - SCORE! ( I love my husband! and not just because he surprises me with awesome coffee on Christmas morning but because he is wonderful and funny and loving and caring and just perfect!)

We had Christmas morning just the two of us (a perfect 1st married Christmas) and Ninja and Sirius who played with the wrapping paper and snuggled and had a perfect Christmas morning. Then we packed up and headed over to my parents (Momma Bear and Papa Bear) house to have brunch and open gifts there with my brother Mario and his wife Princess Toadstool and most importantly eating Stolen which is my favorite part of Christmas Morning. After a few wonderful hours there sharing and laughing and relaxing we headed home (YAY because we only like about 5 miles away). We relaxed and watched Elf (which was the movie for our family Christmas trivia game and we won for the second year in a row!) and just enjoyed the afternoon. Then we headed to my aunts where EVERYONE met up for dinner, fun and family. We seriously have the best family ever, I mean it you may think you have us beat but you don't. I love how much love there is in our family which is the best gift anyone could ever ask for...don't you agree?

Now its back to work and back to the daily grind well somewhat since O and I are both working this week but 95% of everyone else isn't so there is not much to do but I do find pretending that there was a Zombie outbreak and not much else is happening outside my cubicle walls helps time go by faster during the day... New Years Eve is coming up on Saturday and I can't believe how fast the year went by! I am so excited for a new year and new adventures and celebrations in 2012.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and end 2011 right and have a great beginning to 2012! Oh and that's me with my nose covered in Vaseline and catching a cottonball on my nose---told you my family is awesome! (we are also very competitive which is why playing Christmas games is so much fun but we love each other even more and that's what counts most!)

Preparing for the Invasion

My teenage cousins thing one and thing two have been asking forever to have "Girls Night" at my house. Today is the day.....I think I may need a lot of caffeine and perhaps a red bull or 7 to stay up with them tonight past 11. Wish us luck!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Just like that it's December! Cant you believe it?! At the McNeil's we love Christmas, and I love the giving the loving the memories to be made and traditions that are carried on every year since I can remember.

This year O and I were the lucky winners of two tickets to the National Christmas Tree Lighting. They have a lottery and I entered just for fun and I actually won! It was a wonderful and cold evening but still lots of fun. We had pretty good seats and were sitting about 30 rows back from President Obama and the First Family. I was so excited to actually be that close to the President and actually see him ((yep I am a nerd but oh well)).

Carson Daly was the host and he must be friends with Dick Clark's Doctors because he looks EXACTLY the same as I remember him when I was in high school watching Total Request Live. As one guy pointed out all the 30 year old woman are like YAY Carson Daly and the high schoolers and like Carson who?? I was super excited to hear Ellie Goulding perform and she did not disappoint and of course Kermit, and how could you not love Kermit! Kermit and Mrs. Obama read the Night Before Christmas together and then Santa appeared and did a skit with Kermit that was pretty funny and geared towards all the adults there.The other performs were great too and we were not disappointed: Rodney Atkins sang, One Republic did a great job and I was totally impressed with their live performance. The last performer Marsha Ambrosius was simply amazing! I had never heard of the group Big Time Rush who evidently have a show on Nickelodeon but I can see how they appeal to the kids, I could have done without them but at least it wasn't Justin Bieber! The US Airforce Jazz Ensemble Airmen of Note carried us through the evening providing the music for all the singers and they were fabulous as well.

We will definitely enter the lottery again next year, although I must admit I would not go if I had to stand. I just don't think it would be worth it since you are so far back, not to mention standing for 4 hours in the cold to watch a jumbo-tron is not fun to me.

Definitely feeling lucky that we got to be part of such a fun night and great experience! What a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

Turkey and Stuffing and So Much to be Thankful For....

So I totally lost track of time with the Thanksgiving holiday last week (I can't even believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone!) O and I hosted the family at our house which meant I got to cook the Turkey and make the homemade stuffing to go along with it. I have done this before so not totally a huge deal and lucky for me I have the best Mom in the world who made some of the sides to bring over so I didn't have to make the whole thing by myself. Have I mentioned how much I love our family? Anyways Thanksgiving went off without a hitch and everything turned out wonderful, we ate we drank and stuffed ourselves silly. O filmed some of the prep making the dinner, he was inspired by the Podcast Epic Meal Time. If you have never watched these guys, do it! It's Jackass for the kitchen and is not for those with weak stomachs. Trust me you will laugh yourself silly watching these guys.

So Thanksgiving Day came and went and I hope you all had a wonderful one full of family and friends and love. I don't believe in Black Friday so I wasn't out there with the masses late Thursday night (I was enjoying my family) or at the butt crack of dawn either. I had to work Friday and so did O. I knew eww and ugghh but lots of people do it and since I work for the Man as in Uncle Sam, everyone else is pretty much gone so I relish the silence and enjoy it to the fullest. I also simultaneously lose my mind and almost collapse from boredom. I really think we should just get the day after Thanksgiving off but who am I to say. I think next year I will take it off just to see what its like :-) Back to not believing in Black Friday and nothing against any of you who participate but seriously ugggh! It makes me insane and I can buy the same thing online for the same price and not get pepper sprayed in my face so some lady can get an Xbox. I will now nicely get off my high horse before I go on a rant, and in case you want to know my horse's name is Spirit or Swift Wind because he is the same just depends. (If you know what amazing cartoon this horse is from you get 500 extra points).

O and I got started on our Christmas decorating and got the tree up which then the cats happily claimed as theirs. I am actually quite proud of them this year as of yet they haven't tried to climb the tree or use the ornaments as balls. And here they are Ninja and Sirius Black in their new favorite nap spot.

So the Holiday season is gearing up to be in full swing and O and I are so excited to be celebrating our first "married" Christmas together. So bring on the cups of Christmas Cheer and house covered in lights. Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday!