Weekend Recap 1-13-08

So as I had stated earlier in the week, this Saturday was expected to be a bit hectic. It was busy, and I was exhausted today but it all turned out well.

Friday, work was work. We had a staff meeting to talk about some training they are going to be able to get us after waiting for the $$ for it for over a year. I think it sounds interesting and will hopefully be helpful but there are others who are just afraid of change.

Saturday I got up and get ready to head to south jersey. I wanted to dress appropriate for the funeral/memorial service I was going to first but I didn't want to dress up b/c I didn't know what I would end up doing with Tara. I ended up just wearing some black jeans, black sweater shirt like I would for work, with another sweater and wore my fancier jacket. Its not like anyone REALLY cares what I am wearing but for me its just a show of respect to dress up a little for a wedding or a funeral or other related events. Its like going to a theater show for me-if its an evening performance, I can NOT dress in jeans. Its just me, and I know plenty of other people do and that is fine, but for me, the Theater is a special occassion and part of that is dressing for it. I know I am strange but I am who I am!

Anyway, I was a little worried about some traffic in south jersey after I got off the turnpike and making it to the funeral parlor in time but it worked out. I don't know if I mentioned who I was going to a funeral for, it was a good childhood friend of mine's mother. She was a wonderful woman and had really struggled with health the last few years. It was a nice turn out, I saw my friend and her husband who is also a friend and I got to meet their son officially. They live in NC but b/c she and her mom are from NJ they came up here for the service. When I saw(my friend) she had told me to be sure to introduce myself to her son b/c he really wanted to meet "the lady that introduced his mom and dad" which is how he apparently knows me:) So I did that. The service was nice, a good turn out which I am sure made her feel good to be comforted that her mother made an impact on that many people's lives. I didn't stay for the reception, just said my good-byes after the service and drove over to pick up Tara.

Originally, Tara was going to go out with Josh in the morning but it turned out the place they were suppossed to go was closed for a private party that morning so they are going to go another time. (instead my sister took Tara out to eat for breakfast for her birthday). But Josh and his friend and her daughter did meet us at Friendly's for Lunch so that was fun. We had the people sing happy birthday to Tara which she loved and she got a balloon so our day was off to a good start. Here she is with her ice-cream when they were singing:

and then with me (not a flattering photo at all but all I have from the day) and then one of her with Josh:



Its actually really cool her and Josh get along so well. He just tells her he is her cousin but he acts like an Uncle and I think it works out well for both of them:)

After lunch Josh and his friend left and Tara and I went upstairs to Build A Bear. She had a special coupon for a free bear up to $12 or $12 off a bigger one that weekend only b/c it was her birthday. I told her she could pick which ever one she wanted and I would pay the difference and some clothes for it for her birthday gift. She was happy with that. She picked out the husky and I had to say I was so impressed by her when she then went into a story telling me how she knew it was a husky and had seen them pull sleds on a WHYY tv program about animals. It was adorable. So we built the bear, gave it a bath, brushed it and then picked out an outfit for her dog. Build a Bear also started a "bearville" or something like that similiar to the idea of webkinz so we got codes for that too. I haven't checked it out yet but I will report back when I do.
Here are some photos of her building her bear and then getting the clothes on it and everything:








After Build A Bear we went to Barnes and Noble. I told her that Uncle Shaun in Japan had said Happy Birthday and asked me to let her get a book or something from him. She was happy about that. She also had her birthday money from my grandfather and $30 on a Barnes and Noble gift card left over from Christmas so she was excited to do some shopping at Barnes and Noble. They were having a buy 2 DVDs get 1 free sale and this worked out perfect for her b/c she really wanted to get Seasons 6-7-8 of Full House (she has the other seasons) and with the sale she was able to get all three by using her gift card and some of her christmas money! And then after she bought the DVDs we looked around for a book or something and ended up getting a book and another Hannah Montana DVD "from Uncle Shaun". She did tape a video message for him too though thanking him and telling him she missed him!It was cute! Here she is at Barnes and Noble with her goodies:


After Barnes and Noble I drove her home. It was almost 4pm and I was doing good on time. On the drive home she said her stomach was starting to hurt so I am sure it was good to be done for the day. I did see Luke too when I dropped her off-cute as ever but didn't take any photos. My sister looks very ready to have the baby so I am sure that will be soon too. She is due the 22nd.

As I was dropping Tara off, I got a call from my good friend Kim. I had called her in the morning to see if on an off chance she had nothing to do, her and her girls might like to meet us for lunch. I thought it would have been fun to have a mini celebration:) She had called me back earlier and said she couldn't do that b/c they had plans but as it turned out they would be up closer to where I would be than normal. So, it turned out they finished what they had going on and since I had a little bit of time to spare I went back over to the mall to meet them and hang out for a bit. It worked out well too b/c when I was about 2 min from the mall my sister called to say Tara's cell phone was not in her purse and so we figured it had falled out in my car so I told her I was almost to the mall and I would check then and let her know and if it wasn't I would run to Friendly's and BN to check. Thankfully it was in the backseat like I thought but if I hadn't been going to the mall I would have already been on the turnpike and it would have been more work to turn around and bring it back. Since I was going to the mall I just dropped it off after I saw Kim before I headed home.

So I got to the mall and walked around with Kim, her husband and their 4 girls. Here is a photo of her triplets with their toy they bought with the $ their grandmother gave them that day:


And I don't think you get the same effect looking at this photo as you would if you saw it in the mall but I just think its adorable. Its a photo of the triplets walking down the stairs with their Dad right behind them.


After I left the mall, I drove back to my sister's apt to drop off the cell phone then jumped on the turnpike for the drive home. I have been on an "old school" music kick lately (songs of 80s 90s from jr high through college) so it was fun to listen to a little Debbie Gibson and such on the way home on my ipod through the car stereo. Usually I listen to Harry Potter and I am only up to mid of book 3 since I started over after reading the books but it was a nice break. I will get back on Harry Potter soon enough!

So I got home with plenty of time to spare. We left around 7pm to go meet our friends at Airiang (hibachi) for a birthday dinner. I LOVE this restaurant so I was happy to go. We had a nice time, food was good as always and the wait wasn't too bad with the reservation. Here is pic of the birthday boy with the guy singing Happy Birthday!



After dinner we hung out just talking outside for a while. They were reminicing about their college days. It was nice to hear the stories but its hard to contribute b/c I didn't go to school with the rest of them but its still fun.

Sunday-didn't do much of anything. Went to the grocery store to get some food for dinner and stuff and everyone was asking each other "you stocking up for the snow?" and I kept telling people it wasn't going to snow-and it didn't :( The rest of sunday I just worked on condesing some photos. I have a lot of duplicates from just dropping copies to my external drive for backup and I want to get the duplicates out-sort of like sorting through boxes of photos for doubles-just easier:) and less space needed to do it! I am almost done and when I feel like I have a little more organized I can leave it for a while. I have a ton of books I want to make this year-some from last year things we did some from things even older including my College days where I really want to do a Circle K book and a Canisius one. The good thing with my software is I can create a 12x12 book and then decide if I want to get a 12x12 printed bound book or just have the pages printed and put into one of the picfolios I have.Only time will tell...

I guess that is all for today. I have some work stuff I will put in a separate post later.
Ta ta for now!!