It's That Time Of Year Again!

For a couple days now, it has been snowing. But it wasn't until yesterday that it started to stick.

See how the grass is still green?



I call these "snow flowers"! Don't they look like it? haha!

Last night though, the ground froze and suddenly, the snow was sticking even more. It started piling up, little by little. This morning, we woke up to a winter wonderland! And it's still snowing! Who knows, maybe it'll stay cold enough to keep piling up and we will have enough to make a good snowman!



As happy as I am about it finally snowing, I'm a little nervous. This is the first year I will have to DRIVE in it! I've heard so many stories about car accidents caused by black ice and snow. Just keep us in your prayers!

A Sad & Happy Post About Cars & Coffee

We will start with the sad. I will tone it down and not be ranting and raving with very angry emotions.
If you got off of work and walked out to your car and saw this:

you would probably be pretty upset.
I, however, was a little more than upset. As soon as I saw it, my mind raced to last year when I had walked out from work to find that my Camry had been hit in the office parking lot, where everyone's car was quite nicer than mine. Then I thought about the damage the U-haul did to my car when he decided to hit me on the freeway and drive off. And of course, the stupid newspaper boy in AZ who backed right in to my car when I was setting up for a yard sale. I mean, really, I just thought "hasn't my poor car been through enough?" Why can't it get hit by someone with insurance? Or someone who'd help me pay for all these damages? My poor Camry was just in the body shop not even a year ago! Does my type of vehicle say to others "Hey, whoever drives this car is a RICH lady! Just hit it and take off! She will pay for it!" Meanwhile, I'm paying deductibles up the whoo-ha and my rates are going up. GREAT! Merry Christmas to me... I get a new bumper.
Anyway, that's about as delicately as I can express all that mess.
Moving on to the happy story.
When we took Janelle to the airport, we decided to hit one of the malls nearby because it has a Disney Store. The malls around here all had to close theirs. Happily, I walked out with two giant bags! On the way home, we took a little scenic route. Suddenly, right in front of us is a Borders. A Borders! Naturally, I automatically think "it has a Seattle's Best Coffee inside!" So I squeal and convince my dear husband to pull over, though he thinks (based on it's small size) that it's just another Border's Express and there won't be any of my beloved coffee inside. As soon as we park the car though, I see it! A turned off Seattle's Best sign! Ah! I started screaming, kicking my feet, and laughing with pure joy! Poor Jan... what a sight I must have been. We dashed inside and I ordered a LARGE carmel latte with whipped creme and carmel drizzle on top. My favorite! Normally, I'd never order whipped creme... but there's something about Seattle's Best's whipped creme. I always eat it with a spoon before putting my lid on and drinking my coffee. There we sat, as I savored the moment, in total blissfulness. WOW I found a Seattle's Best in PA! Do you realize I've been looking for one since I moved here? That's almost an entire year! Finally found! I wrote down the exact location and plan on visiting there again very soon. To make it even better, there was an Einstein's Bagel next door! No joke! I mean, I was just in Heaven! Some may think it's weird that I love those two places so much... But when you're deprived of them, you are so excited when they're found! When I visit AZ, I always go to Einstein's and Seattle's Best during my visit. So, now, it's like having a little piece of home =) YYAAAYYYY
PS belated blog birthday shout-outs to Paul and Greg!

So Long, Farewell, To You My Friend

Does anyone remember that song from Out Of The Box? Janelle and I would sing it on our way out of all those princess parties we used to do. "So long, farewell, to you my friend. Goodbye for now until we meet again."
Anyway, Janelle's week here and my vacation has come to an end. We seemed to be running around like chickens, trying to see everything and do everything! Here's what we did and the pictures to prove it =p
Gene & Boots Candy Shop- I always pass it on the way to and from Pittsburgh. When we picked up Janelle and drove passed it, we both yelled "turn around!" and Jan-Michael did! So we got to take pictures with the cute place and buy candy.


Nemacolin Woodland's Resort- Since being there for New Years Eve 2 years ago, Janelle has wanted to stay in the palace-like place. Now that Jan-Michael works there, we thought, why not? We used his lovely discount and stayed in a room that we probably would have never been able to afford. Jan's boss left us treats in our room too (bottle of wine and pastries). In the morning, Jan came and got us and brought us two floors up to the VIP level where we ate breakfast and drank coffee. It was quite the girls night =p I accidentally left like 4 items in my room. I blame in on becoming blonde. Sadly, none have been returned to me. Really, who would want someone's shoes?!


Waterfront- Yes, we went shopping! And Janelle and I got matching purses! I talked her in to chopping her hair off while I dyed my blonde, so she talked me in to a "name brand" purse. It's the most I've ever spent on a purse, but I really liked it. Wow, maybe I'm growing up? haha! We bought them at Marshall's, so it's not like we paid what they're worth. Still, I know! What a shock! I bought a brand name purse?! Anyway, after, we walked around the Waterfront and showed her our cute AMC theatre.

Pictures I don't have are of us watching Barbie and the Diamond Castle, the videos from our Disney World Honeymoon, and a little of our Arizona Wedding. I think we spent a whole day watching movies! We also don't have pictures of us shopping the day after Halloween, buying a bunch of junk I'm sure we don't need. Or how much we laughed when we'd look in the mirror and think for just a second that it wasn't us until we realized, yes we went to the salon and did all that to our hair.

Jan and I were both sad for Janelle to go. It was so nice having a best friend around for a week. When are you coming back?!

Now, who's next?!!!!!!

Our Halloween Costume PAR-tay

First of all, NO, you are not seeing things and do NOT need to re-adjust the color on your screen! My hair IS blonde! It all started when I fell in love with the Legally Blonde on Broadway CD and then the reality show in MTV. I decided I was going to be Elle Woods for Halloween. Instead of getting a wig like when I was Hannah Montana, I decided to really dye it. I figured I'm 25 and haven't ever gone to a salon and had my hair permanently dyed. Sure I've done a wash-out brown here and there (you can blame that on when I started being Belle!), but never actually had it dyed before. Janelle went with me to the salon and I talked her in to being crazy with me- she chopped all her hair off! Yep, she went from long to shoulder length in a matter of minutes. My hair on the other hand, took about 4 1/2 hours! What can I say, I have a lot of hair! Even though it took a long time and was a bit on the crazy side, we had so much fun doing something like that together! Now the question- does my husband like it? Better yet, do I like it? Not really. On the plus side, I do feel like I look more like my very blonde Mommy!

This year, Halloween was Jan-Michael's "happy pill". He has been so happy since fall came along and Halloween was a couple of months away. He started decorated the den in August. No joke! My husband is so creative. The things he came up with and made just blew me away. We keep telling him he should go be a set designer or something! Just look at all that he did!


I worked on making "scary food" this year. We had spiders that were brownies, donuts turned in to eye-balls, chocolate kisses and pecans on pretzels that looked like brains, and the best- bloody, bandaged "fingers" that were cocktail weenies, tortilla strips and ketchup!

Dressed up, I of course, was Elle Woods. I made "Bruiser" her dog by putting pearls and a tutu on an old Taco Bell Chihuahua. Jan-Michael, with is LONG hair, was the Joker from The Dark Knight. Janelle was fairy who had gallons of glitter on her!

Everyone came over at around 7:30 and we talked, ate food, played Scene It and watched a couple scary movies. We even had a costume contest, which Matt won because he was a Ghost Buster! Everyone got to take home treat bags because even adults need a little candy =)

Rich's Farms and Kennywood Phantom Fright Nights

The first night Janelle got in to town, we took her to a haunted house. The scariest one ever! Here in PA, you don't just go through a make-shift tent, or staged backlot.... you go to a real farm! I think that's what makes it twice as scary. You walk through real corn fields and a real farm house! I was really excited to go to Rich's Farms this year because Jan-Michael and Wes (Jan's brother) always talked about it when we lived in CA. I guess I just didn't expect it to be so scary! We went on a wagon ride through the fields where various things/people would pop out and chase the wagon... Then we had to go through the front/backyard of the house.... And then through the actual house! Every time Janelle and I made it to the end (or what we thought was the end), we would clap and yell "Yay, we survived!" only to find out that we were not even close to being finished. On top of all the scaring, it was snowing! Honestly, I closed my eyes through most of it and just let Jan-Michael pull us along =p


Halloween night, we went to Kennywood! Yes, I know I have still not posted pictures of the cute theme park from this past summer. But during Halloween season, they shut the park down and re-vamp it for their Phantom Fright Nights. For those who have ever been to Knott's Scary Farm or Universal Studios Horror Nights, you can guess what to expect. Fog machines everywhere, only the "scary" rides open, mazes, and lots of actors scaring you at any moment. It was brave ladies night- meaning Angela, April, Janelle and I went by ourselves! Yep, we had no guys to protect us. Jan-Michael stayed home to scare all the trick-or-treaters with his costume from last year (the headless horseman). So it was just us girls, braving the scary mazes. It was fabulous! The mazes were the scariest I've ever seen. There was even a 3-D pirate maze and we had to wear 3-D glasses! The scariest part was when we were in this graveyard maze- a scarecrow was hanging on his "perch", moving around and taunting us when all of a sudden he jumped down and started chasing us! I guess we didn't expect that he could get down! haha! We stayed until the park closed at 1am! It was a blast!

Janelle is Here! And We Were In the Parade!

We've had a special visitor this week- my best friend Janelle! All the way from California!

Here we are at the airport!


Here's Janelle transfixed by the small amount of snow that feel the next morning.

I had heard there was a Halloween Parade in the cute little town I live in. But it got better when I found out that anyone can be in it! Right then and there I decided I HAD to jump at the opportunity. Pretty much everyone who lives here has been in it at one point or another- whether it was because you were in the high school band, or a five year old with a great costume. In fact, Jan-Michael has been in it several times. After seeing the Pike Day Parade, I just had to be apart of this one. So, Janelle brought out my Belle costume, her Snow White costume, and we dusted them out of retirement for one last time....

We called ourselves the "princess unit". I bought blinking lights and glow stick bracelets to wear too. I'd say we looked like Winter Belle and Snow White from the Electrical Parade!


The parade was awesome! Yes it snowed a little, yes we were cold, yes we ran out of candy... but it was the best Snow White and Belle experience ever!


After the parade, everyone in costume gets to participate in a costume contest. There were some amazing costumes! One of our favorites was this 11 year old boy who made his very own Chicken Little costume. So cute! And for once in our dressing-up career, we won! The "princess unit" won 2nd place in the 17+ age group. Yep, we didn't even have to cheat and pretend like we were 16 to win =p YYyyaaaayyyyy! I'd say her vacation was off to a great start!

Pampered Chef

I just wanted to say thank you to my Mom, Christy, my Dad, Aunt Jenny, and my Mother-In-Law for ordering from my Pampered Chef Catalog show! Because of them, I was able to purchase a set of stainless steel pots and pans at 60% off! Not to mention a few free goodies too. I am so excited to cook in them when we move in to our new house! Now if anyone is a pro at cooking in stainless steel- a few tips would be appreciated =)