Wednesday's Random Ramble

nice...or naughty... haha. just playing around with photoshop one night...


We have our tree up already but not decorated. We opted for a fake tree this year - easier upkeep :) It is not decorated yet, probably this weekend we will get some ornaments on it. It is assembled and pre lit and looks so pretty plain. I like coming home to see it shining in the window :) We are getting in the Christmas spirit here.. basically done with shopping. Today shall be spent weeding through toys and clothes and passing old ones along to make room for new. I need to go through my clothes as well... finally let go of my old banker clothes... I kept them all in case I go back. aaand I will eventually. buut I will get new ones when that time comes. by that time, they wont fit and some are outdated anyways. pardon the horrid grammar... it is hard to have a coherent thought with 2 toddlers awake and on full speed this morning. Not doing too shabby... its not even 10am and I have dinner in the crock pot, one kid dressed (the other one is a battle), a load of laundry started, the living room picked up, kitchen halfway cleaned.... and one blog post written :)






this picture makes me laugh :)

Thanksgiving Recap..

Lets start with this. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Whats not to like?! Day off of work, parade, food, drinks, family, fun, and football. *if you are into that sort of thing* plus it kicks off the holiday season. I have enjoyed it since childhood. It is all about family and togetherness and reminding everyone of what they are/should be thankful for. It is like Christmas without the consumerism....(not very true... BLACK FRIDAY... but its not about presents I mean) It has always meant that I get to see many different parts of my family since we travel and eat at least 2 Thanksgivings each time... this year was 2 bc we only had my Moms and then inlaws to go to. Years previous we had my Dad's as well but he lives in VA now. I am not a fan of how Thanksgiving is being pushed out! In the stores, the Christmas stuff took a front seat to all the fall decor and it wasnt even the middle of November yet. The only upside to that was I got some cute Thanksgiving turkey crafts for the kids before Thanksgiving at 60 percent off. Like I said: it kicks off the holiday season, but now it seems to be taken over by the rest of the holiday season. We had a nice laid back Thanksgiving(s). First, my Mom's around noon for lunchgiving then onto his Mom's for dinner. We ate like kings... so full! and we discovered that the kids LOVE "red stuff" (cranberry sauce)








the kids helping me plan my black friday attack! My future bro in law Josh and I took on the stores at 8pm and stayed out until around 245am. I scored a big haul from Toys R Us. Had two coupons that they let me use on top of my sisters employee discount and black friday sales. I got $180 worth of stuff for $56 :) It filled my backseat and completed my shopping for the kids in one shot. My backseat was stuffed full haha

All Things Must Pass...

Today marks the 10th anniversary of George Harrison's death. I remember that I was a senior in high school and I was late to school so I could make a button to wear that said all things must pass with his picture the morning I found out... I was always a bit of a Beatle nut... :) That weekend, my boyfriend at the time and I went to NYC to see Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Circle. It was my first time there and it was amazing. We stopped by twice that day since people were leaving so many items on the circle, the park maintenance guys kept coming and clearing it off... we wanted to stop back and see what was left there. I really really wish I could locate the pictures of what was on the circle... song lyrics, apples, flowers, pictures, letters and signs... I left a flower with a small note. I only have the pic of right after they cleared it off... we managed to hit a time when no one was really there so I could get a pic of me basically by myself with the circle.
So.. RIP George. I will be playing your music and feeling the love today.

some pics I found...

on another note.... I have fallen waaaaaaaay behind in blogland here... Thanksgiving was great. I will post about that either later today or tomorrow. Depends on if I get called out of work or not. It was slow last night so they told me I didnt have to come in. On one hand BONUS NIGHT OFF! but on the other hand... its right before Christmas and we could use the money. Well! I have a fish tank to clean and a shower to grab while the boy sleeps and the girl is playing her game... toodles!

Booze & Boardgames

so every year for the past... 7 years or so my friends have been coming over for a "booze and boardgames" night. We are dorks and enjoy boardgames! This year we played Apples to Apples and Battle of the Sexes instead of Scattergories and Cranium. Early on we played some wii before the kids went to bed. Maris was soo pissed she had to leave the party. Just about everyone brought me booze as gifts :) I got SoCo Eggnog and salt and vinegar chips... some African elephant liquor... I get a bottle of Malibu every year from one friend... and a crazy gag gift from Jim's best friend. Last year it was the infamous BFF teeshirt (most of you have seen it via FB) WELL... this year he gave me a big vacuum box stuffed with plastic shopping bags that he had saved for a year. I mean stuffed. And every year I retaliate and my plan is to make a garment or something obnxoious to recycle and regift the thousands of bags back to him haha ITS ON!!! one eyar he gave me a half eaten box of cereal with a shirt hidden underneath the bag of cereal... one year I got a turkey baster... he is a weirdo haha.


my rocker babies! Maris actually tries to sing the Beatles songs... Jackson doesn't understand the game, just likes hitting the drums. They love music!


some of my booze-y gifts :) *a quick chek slushie spiked with rum too!*


my birthday flan (I wrecked it by trying to put a candle in it... lol)


the candle didnt work out so Christie held a lighter :)


the yellow shirt is one of my gift retaliations to Kevin. His own BFF shirt> he wears it all the time! hehe
I have some fun and fantastic friends.


November 12 - I am thankful for having a job that I have fun at and enjoy... I am fortunate enough to work with many people I consider friends in life now. *I know I complain about the place... it does drive me batty and they do screw me sometimes... but it is still a steady and fun job*

November 13 - I am thankful for Quick Chek coffee. It is so good! and I needed it after my party!

November 14 - I am thankful (again) for my friends. There are people that I cannot imagine living without and I am fortunate enough to call them my friends *family too!*

Thankful Catch Up!

I am falling behind with the things I am thankful for list!
November 7 - I am thankful for my Mom
November 8 - I am thankful for the people who made me feel special on my birthday <3
November 9 - I am thankful for the beauty of fall.... leaf piles!
November 10 - I am thankful for my active and creative mind. It has been on overdrive lately!
November 11 - I am thankful for Netflix Instant. Its the small things in life :)


Happy Veteran's Day to everyone! We are enjoying a relaxing day... we did Sams Club and went to the new pizza place in town for lunch. Now I am watching a movie for ME!!! while the kids paint at the table. It is a good day :)

Friendly Friends :)

I had a great birthday - felt very loved. I ended up with 97 notifications for facebook about birthday comments, plus calls and messages and emails. My uncle carried on my tradition of calling with the Beatles Birthday song, my stepdad called me which was surprising in itself, and my Dad called me! (I haven't heard from him in months - in my stubborn nature I was waiting for him to call me since its usually ALWAYS the other way around...) A few friends got me gifts... I got a fantastic camera necklace, a tie dye shirt, cupcakes, a bunch of balloons **a Garfield one - I LOoVVE Garfield!**, the Frasier Dvds I was lacking from my collection *yaaayy* <3... my Mom got me new work shoes... I was in desperate need of new ones and they are so comfy! and I also enjoyed a bar/diner night last night with my Friendly's friends. I've said it before, but I never expected to make such great friends at work like I did.











On the home front I was lacking a bit in the celebration... I got a "Happy Birthday" and that's it, but his family is kind of like that with birthdays. I was a bit surprised I didn't even get a card... but its really not that big a deal. Kinda sad he didn't have the kids make me one though! I do that for him!!! We are throwing my traditional "beer and boardgames" night on Saturday with some of our friends so we will see. I am pumped to flex my brain and utilize my useless knowledge to kick some board game butt! I am thinking of what cake to make myself... :) even though my friend Krums has made me one for the past few years... maybe I will make something different this time.
Well there I go rambling again! I am watching my Frasier gift with a smile while I work up the ... gusto to get out and get myself a bagel! The kids requested donuts too. Better get myself in gear!




somewhat random side note: this man makes my heart flutter :) I love watching Frasier - never get sick of it! His acting and comedic timing are just exquisite <3

So It's My Birthday...

I was trying to think of a good way to make an interesting post about being another year older. I am now twenty eight years of age. Getting older starts to make me think of things I want to do with my life... although I do understand that 28 is young *I'm not going through a midlife crisis or anything* I DO want to acknowledge that time is ticking and that I want to make a mark on this world. Life goes on whether I accomplish anything or not.
"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans" -John Lennon
What I am going to attempt to do is make a bucket list of sorts. Twenty Eight things I would like to achieve/experience in my lifetime. I have a running bucketlist in a notebook that I have been fortunate enough to cross things off of... so I will start fresh with undone ones.

1. Establish myself as a photographer
2. Get paid to do something I love... not just have a job. (goes hand in hand with #1)
3. Own a home - by water (always dreamed of having my own dock and boat to go out in whenever I wanted)
4. build an epic treehouse/fort for my kids in the yard of said house... the kind you see in movies like Now and Then... furniture and curtains...
5. experience the Northern Lights
6. Go to Europe
7. Go On A real safari
8. conquer my fears and ride a real rollercoaster
9. parasail... I chickened out twice...
10. Create something original to change someone's life/inspire someone
11. Go to the Galapagos Islands
12. Be Part of a flash mob
13. Live in NYC after the kids are grown (at least for a little while)
14. Have and enjoy spoiling grandchildren
15. have a works of mine published
16. Get a tattoo
17. Be a contestant on a game show (ahem Wheel of Fortune!)
18. Have happy well adjusted children
19. Ride on a fanboat!
20. making a salad solely out of things I grew in my garden on my waterfront property with a tree house :) *have a successful and extensive garden with herbs and vegetables* nothing like fresh mint for your tea and fresh snap peas :) mmmm
21. Learn to play guitar
22. Stay in the underwater hotel/resort in Fiji Poseidon Undersea Resort

23. watch every movie on the AFI's top 100 movies of all time

24. learn to play chess

25. drive across country - make a kick ass book of the photos

26. walk across abbey road (and get the picture of course!)

27. see my kids grow up and succeed in life

28. approach old age with grace, humor and health



Well! I am off to bed! It is my night off and I am still up at 1:30am... bad Marisa!

Back from Brooklyn

Back from my city adventure. We had a low key time... not really what I was expecting but it was fun! We ended up getting a bottle of gin and staying in the first night and playing pool and poker with his friend Tim. I like playing pool! I happen to be queen of lucky shots :) :) We walked the Brooklyn Bridge since I have never done that in my life as a "new yorker"... Brooklyn is beautiful. We ate some great food, walked around, saw a street performance... typical NYC stuff... fun and I got pictures!





so if you look closely at the picture above, there are personalized padlocks attached to the bridge by random people... I was so intrigued by this! The next time I go, I am going to bring one to add. Something about being part of the bridge is so cool :) A nice damage free way to leave your mark somewhere. I'm into it!river view from the Beacon train station with the tracks along the bottom. I stayed there and looked at the river for a while before heading home. I feel at home near water... very calming






November 4 - I am thankful for a supportive unit of friends and family and the large supply of willing babysitters for my kids :)
November 5 - I am thankful for the beautiful fall weather and melted snow
November 6 - I am thankful for Jimmy for taking the kids outside and off my hands so I can clean/blog this afternoon :)

Citybound :)

This afternoon I will be boarding a train to take me to...
NYC! Where I will meet up with...this guy! To clarify, one of my closest friends moved to the big city a while ago and I never get to see him. The city beats California though! (he was there for a while too)
Geoff and I have been the best of friends since 1999... and yes Prince's song just played in my head :) We always do creative fun stuff when we get together so I'm excited to see what we end up doing this weekend.

I am seriously looking forward to some real down time. Between the kids and work, I am burnt out... especially with them being sick this week. I haven't slept for more then an hour straight for about a week now without one of them waking me up for something or coming to lay on me at night. I am not one to have the kids sleep in bedwith me *I'm too neurotic*** thinking I will roll on them. always have been... so the fact that they crawled into bed with me tells me they mean business with not feeling good since they have no habits of coming to sleep with us.
I am going to eat some good food, see some sights, check out Geoff's place and life now... relax and actually SLEEP! The kids are happy to be with Daddy and then at Gramma's and they are feeling better so I'm good to go. Jim is a little upset about me going without him... but I asked him WEEEKS ago and he said he didnt care if I went and that he doesn't care to go bc the city is stupid... I know we never see each other but if I wait for him to make family time on his own... it would never happen. I have been trying for months to get him to take a day to go to the kids museum again or apple picking *too late in the season now...* but you get what I mean... It was like pulling teeth to get out for our anniversary and the only reason we ultimately DID go out was bc my Mom and Stepdad got us a certificate and took the kids for us. I have little time with him but I have even less time to myself... My birthday is this week and I wanted to go do something for me. I am going to sit in the park and take photographs and clear my head of all the stress and fatigue I have been feeling. and I will be back tomorrow night :)

Catching up - Welcome November :)

November is one of my favorite months.. it includes a fave holiday *Thanksgiving*, my birthday, a slew of birthdays in my family... autumn time.. its just a good time. So welcome November! I see some other friends of mine doing a 30 days of thankfulness list so I am going to jump on board (I love lists..) I will add them at the end of my posts all month long.

So there was a massive snow storm on October 29th... the biggest in history for the date I believe... lots of people lost power for days... we were fortunate enough to keep power and heat all through the storm but ended up losing it for 2 days AFTER the snow was melting and the sun was out. weeird. The snow started on saturday night - making us postpone my brother's birthday/Halloween party until the next day. Fortunately he and my sister didnt lose power either.
It wasn't until Halloween afternoon that our power suddenly cut out and stayed out until late afternoon the next day...
theres so much to catch up on... I'm going to break it down by day :)

Saturday : it snowed. a lot. That terrible half dead tree in our yard broke into a bunch of pieces and fell all over the kids outdoor toys and our parking spots. Jim went out and dragged the limbs out by the road so the landlord could take them away. The other shots are from Sunday morning when I drove out to take pictures after the snow stopped falling.








Sunday: We went to Josh's birthday party with the zombie skeleton cake :) We ate some good food and hung out until I had to leave for work. I really needed some down time with the family :)

Monday: Halloween! Maris' enrichment classes were cancelled due to school power outages so we were home for the morning. Around 11:45 the power went out. I took the kids out with my friend Kimmie for lunch and then to the pet store to kill time before the Halloween parade in Warwick. That was a mob! The kids had fun and got to see a friend from our Moms group we havent seen in a while. He was Pooh Bear! At the end of the parade, they gave out little goodie bags and cider and donuts. Headed home after that to pick up Jim (power was still out) and our clothes to go stay overnight at his parents house. We did some trick or treating and then ate some dinner and it was overall a good evening. The day was super stressful bc the kids were being cranky and BAD bc they were coming down with something... I ended up being up ALL NIGHT with Maris with a crazy high fever and she was telling me her throat hurt. Trick or treating was a success in spite of the cold and snow. Jackson caught on quick and loved it. He was always the first to say thank you when he got his candy :)
momma goofing with the kidsparade time!
Tuesday: Kids were iffy but on meds and now feel better. The power came back on!

Wednesday - We took the day to stay holed up at home in our jammies and watched movies and read books. Throats were still scratchy and noses were still running... can't shake these colds!!

30 Days Of Thanks :

November 1 - I am thankful for family willing to lend a helping hand
November 2 - I am thankful for the return of our power! Being displaced is not fun with 2 sick ones...
November 3 - I am thankful for motivation from friends/family to get my butt in gear with the photography thing :)