You Can Have Whatever You Like

This year, Christmas 08, Jay and I spent at the Palmers. It was good to spend time with family. This is Diane's front tree in the formal living room....wait for it.......
This is the only present I received from Jay that I did not personally wrap although I did guess what was in it... a robe!

This is the present of the year. Watch the video below to find out what it is.....

This is the family room tree! :) Looky looky at all the presents!

The other side of all the presents.

Brothers pretending to like each other.

Henry and Diane opening their new printer from Rob.

Mae and Scott patiently awaiting their turn to open presents in our round robin style.

Rob opening our gift to him! A Nerf Vulcan! I was unsure about this present but Jay insisted. Rob tormented us with the next couple of days so he must have liked it!

Henry and Diane with more presents!

Sonny even found time to shop for Henry. How sweet! :)

Mae & Scott

Jay acting 13! :)

Brian and his awesome new 'Bomber' jacket.

The carnage at only 1/2 way through....

I've been waiting a month to have/use this present that Jay bought me and I wrapped. Watch the video to find out what it is......

All I can say, is that I have the best husband ever!!!! :)

The boys trying out the new Vulcan.

The bare tree after all the present were opened! :) What a wonderful 1st Christmas as a married couple!

Freezing our heinies at the Eagles game.

For Jay's birthday in November, I got him Eagles tickets (for those that don't know, he is from South Jersey), his favorite team, to be played here in DC at the Redskins. This is how excited he was this morning to go to the game!
This is the view walking into Fed Ex Field, home of the Redskins. This is also when we found out that instead of starting at 1pm, the game was starting at 4pm instead. Small oversight. It was noon when we found this out so.....

We had some major time to kill. We decided to go to the players entrance and watch them come it. We got pictures of some random Redskins players but the above picture was the only one worth putting up. ***Troy Aikman*** :) After watching players/commentators go in from noon to 2pm we STILL had time to kill so.....

We found the place Jay's sister Mae and her boyfriend Scott were tailgating and hung out with them for while. It was silly cold outside!

By 3:30pm, we made it inside to our nosebleed seats! The view was actually fine but the chill was terrible! Oh the cold wind!

Still excited, before we were miserably cold!

Watching McNabb and the boys warm up!!!

Note the unhappy look on Jay's face. I don't think either of us could feel our legs at this point. I get chills now thinking of how cold I was!

Night time at Fed Ex Field. Eagles lost. :(

So glad to be home in my nice warm toasty house! Thankful to have had this fun experience though!

Mr. Bigglesworth

This is so my little kitty....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo

Very funny!

Hair yourself a merry little Christmas

Well, I've been feeling rather somber lately and haven't had anything happen to make fun here on the blog. It's mostly just been the daily grind! Work has been really stressful lately and I've been trying to stay on top of that. Also, who knew that adding one person to my household would make cleaning that much more intensive.

I thought Jack was the hairiest creature in existence. I have always been constantly vacuuming, sweeping and dusting Jack's hair since I got him 6 years ago. It has been such a pain (although I love his cute little face). And that's adding to me, I already have long hair that has a tendency to find its way around the house.

All of this was nothing to the hair droppings I've been cleaning up the last 3 1/2 months. Jay's hair falls out in bunches. Or so it seems. Hair covering the shower and the whole bathroom for that matter.

And his pillow case!

Every morning it is covered in hair. It seems like he has tons to spare as he is definitely not going bald.

So the two hairy men in my life are keeping me busy....and cleaning!

Maybe I will start to wish that Jay would go bald...... Nah! :)

My husband the chef!

OBX

Jay and I traveled down to Jesse and Stacie's home in Greenville, NC so we could celebrate Christmas with them this week. As you can tell, Jesse is uber excited about his presents!

Stacie didn't want to ruin the wrapping! :)
We got to NC on Friday night and stayed at Jesse and Stacie's place. On Saturday morning we bundled in the car and drove 2 hours to the Outer Banks, NC (OBX) for shopping and to see the beach! On the way there however, I got a speeding ticket! The first ever in my life! I totally deserve one though, I'm constantly speeding. After that ordeal we made it to the outlet stores and parked next to this dog who really wanted to drive!!!!!

The view from our hotel room in the OBX.

Me and Stacie freezing on the beach while waiting for Jesse to set up for our group photo.

The beach at night!

A great Christmas on the OBX!

We also got to watch the UNI v. Richmond game which UNI sadly lost. :(

These three pictures are all from the same house on the OBX. This guy decorates for Christmas to the hilt and people come from miles around to see his decorations. The pictures do it NO justice!

The next morning leaving the OBX. It was really warm! 60 degrees! :)

Christmas!

The final tree with all the presents under the tree! Jack likes to gnaw on them as seen here.

Petals & Stems

This is the name of Christine Jones' new company. She did the flowers at my wedding and did a fabulous job! I loved my flowers, they were so me.

Here is the link that shows her new website and it has some pictures from the wedding the the gallery section:

http://www.psfloral.com/testimonials/

Enjoy! :)

The Compounded Procrastinator

Yep, that's me.

I think there are several aspects of my personality that inclines me to this tendency. It's unfortunate, it has caused a lot of unnecessary stress in my life over the years.

A. It is hard for me to work on work when the house is messy or dirty (which it is right now)
B. I would rather wait to the last second. I see time as what is left until a deadline rather than completing things with extra time left over.... (which consequently is also how I view my bank account, thank goodness for Jay's money management!)

And here I sit, doing it as we 'speak'.

Jay went to bed 1/2 hour ago, yep, that's 8pm (EST). He is definitely the morning person of the two of us. I love being a night owl. I love it more when I'm not working though.

I'm putting off writing some reports I need to finish tonight. I do love working at night though. It's quiet, the Christmas tree lights are shining and my candles are burning. I'm also doing some laundry before our trip to NC/OBX on Friday to see Jesse and Stacie for Christmas. So all is not lost.

I do remember many all nighters in college though. I think I told myself I worked best under pressure but I think I was just over-involved in everything there and just didn't have time. I wish that was my problem tonight.

ARGH. Four small reports calling my name. I'd better run off and complete them. Let the procrastinating end. Midnight is fast approaching and then I would be late. I hate that.

Off I run, wheeeeee......

Leta Joy Palmer

Well, it's official. The Social Security Administration considers me a Palmer.

And let me just say, there is no way I want the government in charge of any more things than they have to be.

I walked in to a waiting room full of people. The room smelled slightly of old feet.

The only improvement in service the SSA has done in recent history is install a touch screen computer so that you can check in. This presumably, is so they can deal with you in the least amount possible.

When I came in they were on number C228 (don't ask me how that is a number) and I had gotten C232. Before I got too excited though, I looked at the room full of people and realized there were several lines of numbers depending on what you were there for and they were all going through the same windows of clerks. Boo.

Only 2 windows of clerks. Double boo.

I had a form to fill out and I did that quickly. Oh what to do with the rest of my time. Cell phones were strictly prohibited by signs everywhere telling you to turn them off. I, ever the rebel, left them (I have 2, one for work, one for me) on but with no ring (or so I thought, my personal phone did ring later but luckily no one noticed). I had planned on working while sitting there so that was now out the window.

So I started observing. There was a security guard/police officer with a gun. A gun at the SSA? I was totally surrounded by octogenarians. What the heck are they gonna do? I can see the headlines now, sweet 80 year old grandmother guns down a SSA office after waiting for 3 hours to find out where her money is. Please.

Tweet, tweet.

Rent-A-Cop: "Sir! Is that a cell phone?!"

Unsuspecting SSA long line waiter (meekly): "yes"

Rent-A-Cop: "Turn that off!"

Ah ha! Now I know why there is an officer there with a gun! It's so simple!

Meanwhile, it still smells like butt in the waiting room. And I am wondering if they are EVER going to get to C232. I'm still wanting to know why there are only 2 people manning the front to take care of a room of 30+ people. This is almost as bad as the DMV.

I then watched an older lady walk up to the Po-Po at the counter and say that she had an appointment 2 hours ago and when was it her turn? Her simple question was, when I am going to see someone behind the magic door? (keep in mind this is at about 2:15pm)

I quickly found out reason #2 that this cop carries a gun by his response:
"They will help you as soon as they can, I can tell you it will be before 4pm when we close."

How's that for efficient governing!

Now contrary to the DMV lines, when I actually had my turn, the lady was super nice. And very friendly. My only beef with her is that she took my old Social Security card and shredded it.

I wasn't really worried.

Not until she ushered me out the door with only a paper record stating that I would get my new card with the new name within 2 weeks. With the timeliness of this government, I'll be lucky to get it by the end of the year.

So here it is, the new name:
Leta Joy Palmer
(I was very sad to let Brass go, I loved my name!)

Good luck on any future trips to your local SSA office.

Don't bring a cell phone or a gun.

What a Freeloader!

He is the fattest cat. He has recently been put on a diet but continually begs for food. Human food too.
I think he is embarrassed about his size. Or wait, he could just be napping. His activity for 90% of the day. The other 10% is used eating and waking us up in the wee hours of the morning by walking all over us in bed.

Immobility, unless of course we shake the food bag.

His cute little face is his saving grace.

"Life is so hard being a cat!"

"What?!"

Such a cute little face!

"I am cat, hear me roar!"