Ok - Furnace got fixed...there was a bird of some sort stuck down there..

went to the Fairmont/Alter game...dont want to talk about it...I think im going to be sick....

Yeah...Im pathetic, I know. What do you want to know about my holiday? That I spent probably a combined total of 12-13 hours of shoveling cookies, spin dip, cocktail weenies and other various holiday goodies down my pie hole? Well thats what happened. Drove up to the lake, hungout with the in-laws, Erin, Aileen and their clans...

Oh and PS - I was informed that I was not allowed to get into the box of jarred salsa, apple butter and various other things until I officially made Aileen and Katy READERS OF THE MONTH....

READERS OF THE MONTH:

AILEEN HORCH and KATY STIERWALT!!!!
Way to go ladies!...chomp, chomp, THanks for your support!!! >gulp<

Well, as many of you know, having a house has its ups and downs....heres a recap of our last week:

Below - we finally got our sink replaced in the downstairs bathroom...as you can see - we have mad that bathroom our homage to the McLaughlins and the Carpers...works out as I had a ton of dorm room frames that didnt really "GO' with any particular room...and we needed a place to put john's diploma. The sink in there originally was as old as the house. Corroded out dial knobs and it leaked, bad...all the time. when you would walk by the bathroom you could HEAR it running and you could tighten the knobs to stop it from running. Only took us NINE months to fix it...not bad.

Then we got all ambitious and decided to have our new maintence guy - (Tom, a guy who's business card I found at the local harware store and charges a fraction of the labor + a receipt of what he spent on supplies) put in the sink upstairs. We bought it about six months ago and its been sitting in our living room or our dining room ever since...looks good, huh?

But course, if anything went as planned, it wouldnt be OUR life, right? So the guy gets it all in, but now theres a problem with the drain pipe, I heard statements like, "The previous intsaller did it incorrectly" and words like "Galvanized" and "I cant access behind the wall and I dont want to break the tile" .....So I suggested that maybe he could get to it from the kitchen wall, behind the cabinet above the stairs going down to the den...I lead the charge and helped him remove the cabinet... I felt like an archiologist, only instead of finding what tools our ancestors used to kill their prey, I found out what horrible taste they had in wall paper.....

.....And well....since the cabinet could go right back up....I gave him an "all systems go" on trying to get to that pipe....

Long story short? The cabinet is still on the floor, along with a box of non-perishables, the hole is still in the wall, the sink cannot be used, our furnace is not working...(its 55 degrees in here) We dont know why...oh god...thats a whole other story...someone is coming tomorrow to look at it, in the meantime we've got a fire going which really isnt doing SHIT, and john just got a space heater for the bedroom... We dont know WHAT is wrong...the gas is fine bc we have hot water. Who knows. Thank God we're fat and fend for ourselves in the meantime.

On a brighter note, john installed a new garage door opener and I have a remote and we cleaned out the garage and I can fit my car into it!!! So excited. I want it to snow, so now I too, can be one of those assholes on a snowy morning that DOESNT HAVE TO SCRAPE!!!!! FINALLY!!!! IVE ARRIVED!!!!:

What would YOU do?

This little gem was sent to me today and Im wondering...what would YOU Say if you were the librarian?? Or better yet, what would you actually say and what would you WANT to say??

From MOM:
"I just read The Polar Express to the afternoon kindergarten....after the story, I give each student a bell on a necklace, and tell themI talked to one of Santa's elves and asked if he could get them fromSanta's sleigh (just like in the book)...the kids were SO excited...EXCEPTfor one (who KNOWS EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING)..."they're not from Santa'sleigh, you don't know an elf, there are Santas everywhere, Santa's comingto MY house first,"....it's amazing how ONE kid can ruin a story for therest of the class - drives me crazy. Oh well, the rest of them reallyENJOYED the story and believed the elf story.Just had to get that off my chest."

So? What would you say to little Johnny?

ITS OFFICIAL....I have no life.

I fought it tooth and nail...when they said how fun it was, I said I was too old for that. Stacy told me not to. But everybody was doing it. I got a taste...and I have now fallen into the social abyss that is.....myspace.

so without further ado.....

http://www.myspace.com/fort00

Check out my new License plate!!!
(when I emailed the idea to Stacy, she wrote me back and was something along the lines of this: "When I first read that, I was like, SHRIVER? As in Maria Shriver? And then I thought the connection to the Kennedys and how you love democrats & I thought, Oh Fort, you're so political"....I wish I could actually find the email - I was dying. This email is also appropriate because legend has it, that on my 21st birthday as I was barfing up a full night of non-stop shots, beers & mixed drinks, I would periodically lift my head up and proclaim, "Fort's a SURVIOR"...(I dont remember this)

Ok - We had NOTHING - NOTHING going on this past weekend. For the first time in about FOUR months. It was weird. Brendan posted he was going to have a cookout Saturday night so we said what the HAY. John was off to the grocery store to pick up beer and I said, "Eh, I dont feel like drinking tonight. Just pick me up a 2 liter of Diet Sprite." He stopped in his tracks, smiled, nodded, and did just that. We get to Brendans, and they both crack a beer and needless to say that was all the peer pressure I needed. I was eyeballing that Fifth of Captains and the Coke Zero and that was it. We decided to stay.

The group picture above is us in a bunch of Napoleon Dynamite-esque shirts that Brendan made with the intention of selling at a recent Notre-Dame game. They were made for the new coach of ND & brendan claims he got drunk and forgot to sell them...so he gave them away to his rugby girls & some friends...

Check out these hot college guys we met at the bar. Damn!

Ok - Every once in awhile stacy gets caught in a situation and she wishes that I was there for support. I had one of those moments when I noticed these homemade looking espadrilles. Ok. Maybe they ARE cute and woudl have looked great in my bridesmaid dress...but Ok. I was drunk, I was in a hoodie and a ball cap, and my first instinct is to poke fun at the overdressed when Im feeling somewhat underdressed. It only gets worse as I get older....

So I slyly get my camera ready, walk over to the juke box, and hold my camera down and act like im playing the jukebox and take the picture. It may not been that subtle, as I was only four feet away from the girl and it did require a flash...Judge for yourself.

Ok - Im not trying to be disgusting, but seriously. I HAD to take a picture of this bathroom stall at The Balcony....Im not going to go into details, but this really IS as small as it looks and five more pounds and my chances of using this facility would be SERIOUSLY at risk. There was another girl in there and I was like, "This stall is SOOO small!!! Im totally taking a picture of it for my blog!" It sounded reasonable at the time, but in my state of mind, it was probably the girl in the espadrilles who was later making fun of ME as I took her picture.

Just sitting here watching the bengals game - Tied 10 10 - I get too nervous during these games, Ill probably head to bed soon and check it out tomorrow. John is working 2nd shift all week so Ill really only see him sleeping, as he will I. A nice vacay from his annoying wife! ALthough Its gotta be killing him to be working during a bengals game!!!

man, NOTHING exciting has been going on...so Ill post a few pictures my mom took of the Chili Cook off...better late than never

Here's Nick with Annie (Alisa's) and Emma (Stacy's) little girls. Big ol' teddy bear....WHO DAY!
Here's Johnny Mac with Pauly - THE GRAND CHAMPION. He won hands down.
J-Mac presenting the second runner up award to Tony Schenke....
Kenny Hamric took off because apparently his cat was stuck in his walls and his roomate was freaking out. So he just left, missing his "Burnt Pot" award for worst chili. Think of a big pot of manwich...but greasier and soupier....John posed for this picture with the idea that we could superimpose kenny into it later...hmmm....that will keep me busy for the next few hours...

NOthing planned for this weekend...I think.

Ok - I know im making some sort of breach by posting this picture off the photographers website...but It let me! and I was going to direct you to her website anyway so you were going to see this picture no matter what... she'll probably have some more pictures up later this week, but for now, it looks like she found a gem for her home page! www.nicolecphotography.com check it out! She did a great job!

I felt old today. I had a customer on the phone and at the end of the conversation i said, "Thanks, Hun." It just came out! I felt old. When ever I say it I always think of Flo from that show Alice...like, I hang up with customer, chomping on my gum....."Thanks, Hun" then a co-worker annoys me and Ill start yelling, "Kiss my GRITS!" .....its only a matter of time.

What makes you feel really old?

Looks like my blog-cation is over...
Im online, and ive got no excuse to keep disappointing you all! :)
So...this weekend was the wedding.

Here's all the lovely Bridesmaids & Meredith at the church.

Nick and Meredith were married at Holy Trinity church in Downtown Dayton this Saturday and it was a great...but busy weekend.

We both worked all day friday and raced up to Dayton for the rehearsal. It was your typical rehearsal. Jokes were made, people told me not to race down the asile, (which I did anyway...i think i was just nervous. it happens. I cant control my speedwalking) We then were off to the Spaghetti Warehouse for the rehearsal dinner where there were 40 some people.

All was going swimmingly until my brother and I got into a very verbal and very public display of our typical bickering when we got into an argument about exactly how the cheesecake should be distributed. He wanted people to get up and pick their own, i decided we should just pass them along into the crowded seating area. Nick thought otherwise. I proceeded to pick up plate after plate of cheesecake and pass them into the tables as my brother yelled things like, "ITS MY WEDDING, and we'll do it MY WAY" in front of his new family. (This is old hat for rest of us) As usual, I got my way, and Nick was then deemed, "Groomzilla"... Here we are in a happer, booze-induced party mode at the reception:

Here's John & I. Some of you might see this in form of a Chrismas card if we can find your address. Or not.

Nick with some groomsmen, and that guy in the white shirt. If I had a dime for every person who came up and asked me who that guy was, Id have about thirty cents. Still dont know who it is, although he did take his shirt off at the end of the night and was verbally berated by his date for doing so. I can only assume that there's a Harrigans connection there???

Here's Stacy, Paulythebastard, Me & John. Ive come up with a new trick. Use other people to sheld the sides of your gut and its more slimming than vertical stripes....

Nick throws the garter to all the single men. For the first time in many recent weddings, it DID NOT JUST DROP TO THE FLOOR. Meredith's brother was the lucky guy.

Later that night, it seemed as though everyone was going out to the bars. I decided on Taggarts since John and I didnt have a car, & it was really close to my folks place. Enter Pauly & Elizabeth. We got them to agree to go out with us, and when we got to Taggarts, my feet hurt so bad that I just kept my slippers on the whole time. And as soon as we got there I knew it was a bad idea. So I went into the bar with my bridesmaid dress and slippers on, and damn near fell asleep.

Even in this state, I managed to get hit on and asked out by a guy...It never would have happened if J-Mac and Paulythebastard would have given up their seats to E-Beth & I at the bar...we had to fend for ourselves up front...The guy asked if we could get together sometime. It was nice to be able to say "Thanks! But im married!" It was a little feather in my cap, even though all my friends SWORE he was mentally handicapped. I REALLY dont think he was. Just a little closed off and creepy.

Went home, scarfed down moms leftover lasagna and passed out. Woke up the next morning and had a blast with Trinity...my moms cousin Jan and Her daughter Kim and Grandaughter Trinity stayed with mom and dad and it was fun to have this little kid full of energy bouncing around all over the place. Kinda made me excited to get this process going with the fostering...in case you didnt know already, this last round of chemo pretty much did its job and threw me head first into menopause. Im the only 28 year old in town bitching and moaning about hot flashes....its driving me nuts! So anyway, in the new year we're going to work on the foster parent thing. Hopefully this blog doesnt come back to haunt me! ha ha!

Later that sunday, we all went to the Lebanon, Mason & Monroe Railway for their "Polar Express Train to the North pole" with me, mom, Jan, Kim, Trinity, Leanne, Tony and all their kids, AJ, Lindsay, Katie, Michael and Danny. We had a blast! Here are some pics -

Left: Leanne & Tony with Katie, Danny, Mrs Claus, AJ, Santa, Michael & Lindsay

Trinity & katie - so cute!



Tony with Michael, Lindsay & Katie -

All the kids on the wagon....at least until college...

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IVE BEEN THROUGH WITH THIS COMPUTER!!!

Its Thursday night, 10 o'clock and I am officialy back on line, with a brand new virus protection....long story short? I practicing unsafe computing and got a virus that apparently sent out thousands of emails and rr detected it and shut me down. Im a dirty, dirty girl.

Had to get my computer wiped out and nothing short of THREE HOURS with tech support to get this baby back up and running.

I am NOT ready for my brothers wedding on Sat and we have to be ready tonight since we've got to drive straight to Dayton after work tomorrow and we'll be there till Sunday afternoon.
next week Ill be blogging like Ive never blogged before.

sorry for the vacay!