Easter

Easter was once a holiday that I loved and it faded a bit while I was in college and grad school due to proximity and lack of time off. When we moved up to Buffalo a lot of the big family traditions shrunk and we all got older the easter egg hunts around our backyard were a little less intense (or nonexistant really).

When I went away to G-town that was the first year my family got a great deal on a vacation home in Myrtle Beach or Hiltonhead or someplace warm. It was also the first year I joined MTC (musical theatre club), and since Geneseo is a State school we did not have the week off for Easter, and our final semester performance landed on Easter weekend. So not only did my parents miss the first year performances but I couldnt go home for the weekend cause I had to perform that weekend. I think that year Bri also couldnt go to the vacation because he had school and I'm not sure if I'm mixing years because this happened all of the four years of Gtown,,, but one of the years I went to an Easter party in Rochester (freshman) and one year I came home to go to my friend Erin's house for her fathers amazing lasagna and Bri came with too.

Regardless... when I went to Bloomsburg, I still was not getting very much time off, and living 4 hrs away made me less likely to drive home while my family is all in S.C. or N.C. One year I went home with a friend from grad school Nikki and did all her family's easter festivities. That was super fun cause we painted eggs (syracuse colors cause it was prime NCAA time) and her dad hid them on us and we hunted them down for a long time in search of all of them (he's a good hider!).

I came home one of the two years I was in NYC but I had to be on a plane to go back to NYC mid Easter sunday which really takes the fun out of it.

This year I was home, but being home also means being available for two family Easters now that Kevin and I live together everyone seems to think that we have to mix holidays. I can't say that I fully agree but mostly because its been so rare for me to have Easter with my family that I didnt really want to share it just yet. I eventually gave in on that one.

So this year I woke up and Kevin told me he had hid my easter present somewhere in the house. YAYYYYY Like a mini easter egg hunt except he's terrible at keeping surprises so while he's telling me 'its somewhere in the house'.... his body and facial expressions all pointed directly at the bedroom closet... to the point where his eyes seriously couldnt turn away from the closet giving away EVERYTHING. I played along and searched in a few obvious places that it wasnt (like under the hats on the headboard and in a few boxes. But I also didnt know WHAT it was so that was super fun. He got me the new Rascal Flatts CD (WHICH I LOVE!) and just came out on Tuesday. I jumped on him and screamed "I KNEW IT!!!'.. hehehe. So fun.

Then we got dressed up and went to church. I was very disappointed by the lack of easter dresses.. To be fair I just wore a dressy version of what I wear to work, but the people at church were NO JOKE,,, wearing jeans and sweatpants! The only people dressed up were children below the age of like 5. I was amazed and slightly saddened as its a fun part of church. Also I was saddened by the mass exodus (pun intended) PRIOR to communion??? granted we sat near the back but so many people left before communion and a ton left directly after and people were actually racing the priest down the aisle.. I wonder if I could write a bulletin letter on 'appropriate church etiquette'. seriously.

Then I went over to my parents to hang out with them and my sister and had breakfast (my mom made this casserole with lasagna noodles, broocoli, cheese, eggs and ham),, my sister and I picked at that and then went to town on the fruit and the Entenman's coffee cake. We just kinda hung around for the afternoon then Kevin picked me up and we drove to a local firehall to go to his family's Easter brunch. Where I proceeded to eat the dinner buffet they had (and a few mini bites of cheesecake SO GOOD)...and then rushed out of there and headed back to my parents house for Turkey dinner (none of us like ham,, well i think mom does but its not what the majority of us like)... cranberry sauce and all. I stuffed myself.. mostly on turkey and cranberry but omg... SO FULL. I tried to hang around till my stomach shifted and I could have some awesome dessert that my mom made special for me (this french vanilla layer cake that I LOVE LOVE LOVE..) but Kevin had to work at like 4am this morning so we couldnt stay late. I might have to go over there this afternoon before its all eaten!..

Needless to say Easter was a busy and belly-filling day, but surrounded by family it was a wonderful holiday of which I'm sure I'll have many more.

Captcha

Can we briefly discuss Captcha... I know its the thing that 'somehow' makes my posting or commenting more secure,, but does anyone sound out or say the words that come out of this product?

I just commented on my Cuz's page and it capcha'ed me the word spamsham.... which I couldnt help but giggle even now saying it aloud but I wonder if it has any relation to the fact that Shannon has many of those letters in her name?


I wonder if I could 'set' the captcha someday to come up with words that I like to say aloud...

like 'polly wog'
'passive periphrastic'
'quantum'
'purplemonkeydishwasher' (my fave for the telephone game)
'hoodlum'
'mayhaps'
'indubitably (still laughing at that one right now!)

'well Bunk!'
'whozits'
'quark'
'cochlea'
'otolaryngologist' (yeah that would be a fun captcha!)

or if I could make it post something that they'd have to read for fun!
"Did you say something nice to danielle'
'Have a nice day'
'Greetings'
"If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again'

"Rinse and Repeat'
"Your query was not received"
"poo" (that one makes Kevin giggle)

hahahaha

We're having a party

So we've been in the new apartment for hair over a month now and we're getting more and more settled each day. It has been fun to decorate the different rooms in the ways that we like and while it seems like we spend 99% of our weekend running around or in Kevin's case working and homework-ing... its nice to just slow down and attempt to cook dinner and have an adult beverage (horrible beer in his case,, and lovely wine in mine!)

Anyway, we're hosting an apartment warming/bday party for Kevin in a few weeks.. and you are all welcome to come if you'd like. Sadly I don't think anyone from the WNY area actually reads this but your welcome if you'd like to make the trip.

After planning and organizing a move and its great success I needed some time to regroup and calm down before attempting to plan something again. Its so hard to get everything ready for your home to have a bunch of people come in and visit. Especially since most people havent been to any of my apartments and few to Kevin's parents house, that I know it will be interesting to some how the 'clash of cultures' occurs between us in our apartment. While on a tighter budget than I'd like, I want to have a nice homey apartment where people feel welcome but I cant always afford the things that I want and I find it wasteful to buy things that are cheap and not want I want at this point. So in being picky and shopping online and doing sale comparisons I find decorating to be fun but stressful a bit.

I find planning a party and not getting RSVPs back from the many people invited to be frustrating and a bit stressful also. When you get an invite to something, you check your schedule and maybe even check your husbands/wife/gf/bf's schedule and get back to the person a Y/N/Maybe. If you have no interest in coming , say No and be done with it. Your not going to hurt my feelings cause you cant or dont want to come! Instead people do nothing and if I knew only 3 people would come then I wouldnt make all kinds of food and buy lots of drinks and worry about seating. If I knew that before the day of it would be much nicer. But people hem and haw and I dont understand it.

Do you think its like New Years where you dont want to commit to an event because your not sure what better is going to come along? Where people are waiting for the big invite for the "perfect' nite? Do you think its just that people cant plan two weeks ahead of themselves? The party is at my house and I'm supplying the food and booze,, I mean really!! Its an economic stimulus plan funded by me! Free food and drink and socializing, that sounds like the best time!

Oh well, so I'm trying to plan an party and I'm doing my best to make the apartment ready and figure out what to serve and what to pour and there is no question that my level of apathy increases as more days go by and more people dont RSVP.

POO!!!

So anyway you should come and celebrate with us! I know there will be pizza and wings and beer and wine, so thats a receipe for success...:)

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Well I have absolutely no, nil, nada intention of cleaning anything on Wednesdays.. Because after three straight 10.5 hour workdays I'm usually 100% wiped out by the time I get home on Wed,, and only the mere concept that Thursdays are really my Fridays is what allows me to get up in the morning (Plus Thursdays are my date nite with my friend Tina so we get to do fun crafts or just share a fresh mozzarella and catch up!).

But I will consider a weekly cleaning project as a task. Perhaps Sundays as I feel like after I go to church that my soul is a lil more clean than it was when I went in, so maybe that is a good day to some homeward cleansing. Last weekend I scrubbed the bathroom, which wasn't terribly dirty since we've only been in the apartment for a month but with a dispenser of clorox wipes, some Comet and a bunch of paper towels (i know all you organic people are cringing at me over there, sorry) and I was off!. Today Kevin wiped down the windowsils because he thought they were sub-par on the cleanliness scale. He said that after a lot of scrubbing its output is mediocre at best.

Hmmm I wonder what we could conquer this week. I guess since there are so many 'still have to unpack and organize my own home' projects to be done I should stick with those for now. This weekends project is curtain hanging in the bedroom... they're too long and there are no curtain rods as of yet,, so it should be n interesting challenge

back to the 'mess' that is my work desk... FUll of charts!
eek
D

You should register!!!

GO HERE to Sign up for free (thanks Shan!)

A good long while ago, near the finale of Act I, Kevin and I registered to be bone marrow donor. The idea of actually donating bone marrow sounded painful but we just registered our information so that in case we are a perfect match for someone we can actually help them. The registration is not painful at all (if I recall you have to like swab some spongey things and put into separate containers?)... anyway..at the time we did it as a part of a Leukemia thing for a Geneseo student that was in need of bone marrow.

I know if my bone marrow is ever needed as much as my fears of pain would be present, the knowledge that I am helping and perhaps saving another human's life would allow me to push through my own personal torment to hopefully help someone through theirs. So I registered.

and I hope you will also!
D

The big move

Okay so as you all know, Kevin and I finally (after three years and a trans-state relationship) moved in together in the beginning of March. Here are some before and sort of after (I'm still mid-decor) pictures to tide those over who do not live nearby and cannot come visit.

So I prepared my parents house for the move and I had asked a lot of friends and family to help me move so I wanted to be sure that everything was ready and rearing to go so that when people came to help that it would be simply move this into truck type situation. Our good friend Walt accepted the challenge to drive and man the UHaul truck as he is a self proclaimed 'expert mover'.:)


Here is Walt and Kevin moving the headboard onto the truck:



I had created a 'staging area' for all the bins and furniture that was to be packed/moved in both my parents living room and garage for easy access and minimal door opening/closing times.

Staging Areas:




I had asked people to come to the house at Noon, and because everyone showed up slightly earlier (about 11:50) we were actually completely 100% done at 12:01 loading the truck at my house,,, which is pretty amazing and all in part due to the awesome help of Kevin and Walt and Justin (Walt's brother in law),Jason Tina, Nick and of course my family and myself. Super fast. Rapid fire.

So then we took the truck over to our apartment, and here are a few 'before' photos. I actually took more on my parents camera but since I keep forgetting my own camera its not fair to wait for the truly before pics,, when these will suffice.

Before Bathroom


Before Office


Before Bedroom


Okay so before we do the 'after' pictures I want to put a few pics of the post moving lunch, cause some of the moving occured at Kevin's house too and Kenny, Matt, Dawn,Jim, Kevin's Uncle Eddie and Kathy (?) and of course his parents and sister. So here are a few candids of the post move lunch.







Okay so after everyone left Kevin and I passed out (literally) for a few hours and got to work. Since everything was in bins we had a lot of stuff to put away and a lot to unpack. I am proud to say that almost three weeks later we are about 99% done unpacking and we're at the 'decorate and where should we put this' part of the game. Which I think is the fun part,, and I've already rearranged things once in three weeks so outlook is good for more revamping! Here are some 'mid' pictures because there is still a LOT more that we plan on doing to the rooms and to the apartment but this is where we live so ya'll can feel welcome to look!:)

Mid-Bathroom


Mid-Office (eventually will be spare bedroom but we don't have a bed yet so its only an office for now).


Mid-Bedroom


Mid-Kitchen


Mid-Living Room




So as you can see there is a lot of natural light in the rooms (except the bathroom), with huge windows and blinds everywhere that really make the apartment a homey warm atmosphere. We have a lot more room then we need so we'll find a way to fill it all up with fun and cozy accents to make a nice home for ya'll to visit sometime soon.

I hope you liked the pictures!:)
Danielle

moving

Moving is such a bother. Seriously. Its amazing how much STUFF a person can accumulate in such a short time.( although I say the same about stupid student loans and how fast THEY accumulate in just 4/8 years, THAT,, not amazing,, ).

My parents have been gracious enough to let me store bins upon bins of 'stuff' from years past in the basement. But as the bins pile up from my siblings and their travels, plus my parents and their never ending collection of 'stuff'... well I just felt like I should go through many of those boxes and do a 'clean sweet- keep/sell/toss'. It went quite well. I am selling my old books (textbooks and otherwise) on amazon and hopefully can get a little income to do some work on those never ending loans, but there was A LOT of stuff!!

So I'm not NEW to moving by any stretch of the imagination. I moved to Buffalo, again to college, mid-year in college, grad school, mid summer in grad school, again to go home, again to NYC, again to Astoria, again to NJ.. frankly its ridiculous. In NYC because I really had very little support and even fewer friends with cars, I had to pay for movers to take my stuff in their trucks, which turned out to be a great investment at the time. (much cheaper than me attempting to move a queen mattress alone and trying to drive a U haul truck through Manhattan,,frankly I get mini panic spirals thinking about it)

So this move that I'm starting is the first for Kevin and I as a duo. It should be interesting to say the least. We have an excessive amount of stuff, even after purging (which I think he's just learning how to do based on years of packratting)... and we don't have much furniture but the things we've refurbished or taken from our family members, but cohabitation with someone you care deeply about and have been awaiting for about 3 years... well its exciting!!!

We both can't wait to host parties, and have friends and family over, and walk down to the street to 'OUR Pub".. and have pot lucks, and wine/beer making. Its going to be great, and it will be our world to create and define and we been patient with ourselves and each other (as best as possible) and its going to be awesome.

Move in day is March 1st,,,and while we'll be doing things here and there in pieces during the week,, look forward to postings to come on our apartment and what a cozy nook we have created!