Family photos

My how the months have flown by! The picture on the left was taken just days after Bradley was born, on June 12th. The photo on the right is the 3 of us taken on October 18th, 4 months later! I thought it would be a good idea to re-create this shot, and now I'm wishing I'd done it sooner.

Getting Gorgeous

We all know I'm a huge cosmetics-addict. Well on my recent trip to TN (that blog is coming soon!) Laura, mom, Bradley, and I snuck away to Green Hills for some girl time on Saturday afternoon. Our destination? Sephora, of course!

Laura and I each had gift cards to spend, but mine was not spent without a little legwork ahead of time. You see, I had the unfortunate luck of accidentally throwing away my gift card, so I had to get the receipt from mom and dad, and hound the Sephora people until they agreed to re-issue me a new gift card. What a nice surprise though, to get the automated answering message each time I called the Green Hills store.


"Hello, gorgeous" the voice said each time I dialed.
"How did they know I was calling?" I thought cheerfully to myself.


Then you listened to the different menu options before choosing the appropriate one. I however, found it was such an ego boost to hear some unrecognizable male voice on the other end of the phone referring to me as gorgeous, that I kept calling and hanging up right after the greeting!


Hello gorgeous!... Hello gorgeous!... Hello gorgeous!... well you get the idea...

Anyways, we three ladies and the bebe spent a good amount of time perusing the aisles of the store, before I finally settled on 2 items:


Bare Escentuals Well-Rested, an under-eye concealer I have already been using, and Bare Escentuals Rare Minerals- a Best-of-Sephora-voted product for blemishes, and one I have been wanting to try. (MA, I'll let you know what I think about the Rare Minerals- it's still too early to tell)

I had so much fun looking at all of the new products and daydreaming about an unlimited makeup budget, and sampled a few powders and lip glosses along the way. And of course, we had to record Bradley's first trip to the Makeup Mecca for posterity!

Don't be a Hallo-weenie

This morning Yahoo had this article headlining their page- The 10 Most Disapointing Treats for Trick-or-Treaters- it was a quick interesting read, and while I don't agree with all of them (I happen to like the mini fun-size candy bars)- my number one most-loathed trick or treat candy as a kid is suspiciously absent from this list.

Do you remember those peanut shaped orange fluffy pieces of candy? (I've taken the liberty of finding an image.) Individually wrapped, they are mushy and chalky, and downright gross. I think the reference to "candy for senior citizens" from the Yahoo article applies to these too. All these peanut candies are is a waste of space! Give me my mini boxes of milk duds and pieces of Double Bubble bubble gum! Now THAT'S where it's at.

Read up on your Halloween treats and make sure you're not THAT house that all the kiddos avoid, and feel free to comment on your personal favorite treats you received as a kid (or as an adult if you're still begging strangers for candy).

Miles and Milestones

Real real quick, I'm blogging to say "Hey Nashville, we're coming your way tonight." I am super excited to be going home, and yes, I'll say it out loud... excited to see some fall foliage and cooler temps. I am even busting out some of my autumnal apparel for the occasion. Don't get any ideas though- I'm not proclaiming to love the fall, just anticipating a temperature other than HOT. What I'm Not anticipating is the long car ride this evening.

Bradley had a few milestones this week. He finally rolled over from his back to his tummy on Monday, and then yesterday we had our first play date. A girl named Stephanie that I met at church invited Bradley and I over to her house. Steph has 3 kids, but her youngest Ethan was born a month after Bradley. We put the 2 little boys on a play mat and both of them kicked and grinned, and Bradley even talked some for us, while us moms got to know one another.

Bradley's 4 month check up was today and he's now a whopping 15 pounds! He's in the 65th percentile for his weight, but only the 25th for his height, so we've got a little chunkster on our hands! Nevertheless, the doctor declared him "perfect," so that's great news. He gave me the go-ahead to start him on solid foods whenever I'm ready, but I'm still adjusting to having Bradley sleep in his own crib in the nursery, so one thing at a time, please!

Ok- time to make a mad dash around the house to finish packing!

Knights of Columbo (Day)!

It was a low key weekend for us. Friday was Spouse's Day on base for Brian's squadron. It was pretty uneventful, but we did get lunch outside on the pavillion, and then Brian and I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of us with Bradley on the playground nearby.

Notice his festive matching t-shirt and socks, compliments of Aunt Laura! Friday evening was spent making dinner and watching a Netflix movie (Sicko), and I caught Bradley grinning big in his bouncy seat!

Currently, the dilema with taking Bradley's picture is that it's impossible to catch him smiling at the camera, because by the time all the blinking lights and flashes have gone off, they startle him into a wide-eyed stare where a smile was just seconds before!

Saturday Grandma Ann came to visit, and the four of us went to Wes & Jess's baby shower on Saturday night. It was funny being on the other side of a baby shower, remembering that when I had mine in April, I wasn't even sure what to do with all the gifts I received (and I'll never forget the way the girls oohed and ahhed over Beth's Boppy pillow gift she got at her December baby shower, with me not having a clue what a Boppy even was!).

The Vilendrer family at the baby shower

(aka another excuse for Bradley to wear his fancy party outfit while it still fits!

Sunday we went to church and spent a lazy day watching football and cleaning after saying bye to Grandma Ann, and today is Columbus Day, a work holiday for Brian so he's outside pressure-washing the house! fun, fun! (The blog title is a shout out to Emily, a reference to an Anchorman quote-gone-wrong.) I'm not sure what else we'll accomplish today, but if the weather holds out I see a walk through the neighborhood in our immediate future.

Lookout Nashvillians, we're headed your way this weekend and would love to see you!

Spit Happens

Happy 4 month Birthday to Bradley!  I love when the month marks roll around and I think back to what I was doing x months ago today, and then realize how much my life has changed since then!  

Bradley's first fall photo shoot

Bradley goes for his checkup next week (keep your fingers crossed for us- more shots are coming and I dread them!) but at his last doctor's appointment the little man weighed in at 13 pounds and 15 ounces!  All my fears about him spitting up too much and not gaining enough weight are out the window.  We have gotten into a routine where we get up in the morning after Brian has gone to work, and Bradley sits in his bouncy seat while I eat breakfast and we both watch Sports Center.  I swear to you, the kid will watch football with Brian and me and seems totally content!  He's up for a few hours then takes his morning nap.  After that Bradley eats (spits up) and is up for a few more hours before taking his afternoon nap.  By the time Brian gets home around 5 and I am trying to start on dinner is when Bradley decides to get fussy and needy, so it makes preparing dinner and eating a lot of fun (read: chaos).  He plays on his Baby Einstein mat while I check email, and spends some time in his swing while I'm doing various chores around the house.  Now we're about to embark in a scary new territory:  moving Bradley to sleep in his crib in the nursery.  I'm thinking this will be more traumatic for me than it will be him (it makes no difference to Brian since he sleeps through everything!).

And finally, here's a new video we took today.  I call this "Spit Happens."  Enjoy. (technical difficulties... please check back later!)

Palin in comparison

If you've been watching the news lately (and I have... after binging on Sex & the City for 3 days straight, I decided I needed to rejoin the real world and spent the bulk of the day yesterday watching CNN and MSNBC), you know that Senators Obama, Biden, and McCain were in Washington last night to vote on the economic bailout bill.  But where was Sarah Palin?  Hopefully researching what newspapers she reads, and studying up on her Supreme Court history!  he he

SEX!

And the city.

ha ha- made you look!  (I know right?  What a cheap ploy to get you to read my blog!)  They say sex sells, so I wonder how many copies of the movie has flown off the shelves in its first week on DVD?  I received my much anticipated copy of SATC: the movie (Or Sex & the City season 7 as Sarah Scott calls it) on Saturday, but held off from watching it till Monday with Jess while both of our husbands were at work.  

You'll recall that I was very pregnant when the movie came out in theaters this past spring, and the very day I was finally slated to see the movie with Rhonda and Joe, wouldn't you know it, I went into labor!  I went so far as to consider seeing the movie that afternoon to distract me from the ensuing contractions, but thought better of it.  I remember calling Rhonda that morning while walking with mom through the neighborhood to try and lessen the pain of the contractions or make them stop altogether (no such luck) and saying to her, well I have bad news- I can't make it to the movie because I'm going to the hospital instead!

In true-to-form irony, Bradley was really fussy on Monday while Jess and I were trying to watch the movie, forcing me to stop the movie 5 or 6 times to take care of my cranky little man.  Well, he stopped me from seeing this movie the first time, I said, I guess it's only fitting that he keep me from seeing it now!  We got through the fussiness and since then, SATC has had a permanent place in my dvd player.  It's been running constantly while I dash from room to room getting things done, and conveniently it's on when I plop down on the couch to feed Bradley.

I'm thinking enough is enough though, and today marks the sad day when I shall return the movie to its little Netflix envelope, and pay it forward so some other deserving lady or gay man can enjoy Sarah Jessica Parker and crew.  The scene I can't get enough of?  The Vogue fashion shoot.  Those dresses?!  OMG, I'm JUST sayin!  I give the movie 2 thumbs way up.

Finally Friday

It's Friday... where the heck did the week go???  It's funny how even though I'm not "working" anymore, I still look forward to the weekends.  That's when Brian and I usually run all our errands and hang out with friends and each other.  Tonight Wes & Jess are watching Bradley for a little while and Brian and I are actually going out on an official date!  Woo hoo!  I used to think it was so cheesy and unnecessary for married couples to go out on dates.  You see the person all the time, I thought, why are "dates" necessary?  Well buddy, don't knock it till you've tried it- especially once you've got little ones in the mix!  A night to dress up in my nice clothes and be a wife, and not a mom, for a few hours is something to get excited about.  (Of course I'll worry about Bradley the whole time I'm gone and will be elated when I get to pick him up later on, but still!)  The plan for tonight is to go out to the Boardwalk on Pensacola Beach.

Speaking of the little chubster, here are a few of the latest photos of Bradley.

Bradley examines his Pooh Bear

The "Nakey Baby" and all his chub rolls, sitting in his Bumbo seat

Happy after his bath, and enjoying some Tummy Time

The little rascal has started to suck the same two fingers I did as a kid, except here it's his left hand.  I have yet to pay attention if it's the same hand every time.

I plan on being an informed citizen and taping the Presidential Debates tonight, and watching it later, unlike Nerd-Alert Heather whose Friday Night plans include watching the debate with some friends!  (Just kidding- I think it's awesome that they care enough to make their plans revolve around this political event.  More of us should be so sheik.)

Sunday Night Fever

Well you can tell by the way he uses his sleep, he's a woman's man, no time to peep...

I caught the little guy sleeping like this last night, and I exclaimed to Brian, hey, he looks like John Travolta!  So the blog title and picture opportunity were too good to pass up!  It was too risky a move though to try and manipulate his pointer finger up, so use your imaginations.

weekend recap

We had a great weekend.  Me and Double B (that's Brian and Bradley) went over to Wes & Jes's for dinner.  Jes fixed alfredo noodles and cheesy potatoes, and Wes grilled steaks.  It was delish.  Then on Saturday, we returned the favor and had a bunch of people over to our house (I counted 8 adults plus Bradley).  The weather was awesome.  I went to the pool with Bradley, Wes and Jes, while Brian and a few other guys put together our new storage shed.  Sunday we went to church, and the pastor gave an awesome sermon about Moses.  He also quipped a few lines that I loved:

The head can only absorb as much as the rump can take

There's no U-haul pulled behind a hearse

We relaxed the rest of the day, ate leftovers from the cookout for lunch and watched football.

Bradley is getting cuter every day.  He's now started to really laugh and squeal when we tickle him.  In other news, Brian is sick with some kind of bad cold, and now my throat is hurting so I fear the worst is in store for me.  I don't care so much if I get sick, but I'm dreading Bradley catching whatever we have, and not being able to comfort him.  Keep your fingers crossed that all my hand-washing, and Lysoling the house will keep him healthy!  Here are some of the latest pics of the little one:

Bradley and me at the pool

A happy baby, content after enjoying the pool and a mid-afternoon snack

My boys smiling at each other... watching them together makes me love each of them more!

Our little man holding his head up this morning

NF-L if I know

I've got a sick hubby and a sleeping baby, so I'm stealing a few minutes to myself to catch up online.  I'm checking all the NFL scores as Brian and I are in a pool together with people from his work.  This week we picked 8 games correctly, 5 incorrect.  That will be 9 or 10 correct based on the Steelers game still in progress, and tomorrow's Monday night football, and 11 correct possibly with the game postponed from Hurricane Ike.

(A quick shout out to Conley, who's in Houston and survived Ike, albeit without any power still at this point)

Anyways, I was reading a recap of the Titans game today when I stumbled upon what I think must be the funniest quote from football this weekend.  This came from TN Linebacker Keith Bulluck:

I got hit with a piece of box and pretzel wrapper flying around.

Yep.  You heard it here second (after reading it on ESPN).

In the NFL, our teams the Titans and the Packers are 2-0.  In College pigskin both the Kentucky Wildcats and Wisconsin Badgers are 3-0.  We are happy football fans these days.  Bradley even had his Blue on in honor of gameday yesterday!

3 month update

Baby Bradley is now 3 months old officially, as of Sunday, which coincidentally enough, was Grandparents' Day.  A belated shout out to Grandma & Grandpa B, and Grandma Ann!

We took Bradley to the doctor last week to make sure he is still gaining enough weight and to see about the excessive fussing and spitting up our precious little one has been doing.  We got no helpful answers on the crankiness and baby urp that keeps finding its way onto all of my shirts, many of my pants, our sheets and couch among other things (and that is with burp rags catching the majority of the stuff!) but the doc assured us that Bradley is healthy, and basically told Brian and me, this too shall pass.

Bradley is weighing in at 12.4 pounds and is 23 inches in length.  He can still wear some of his 0-3 month clothes, but has graduated to wearing mostly his 3-6 month gear.  This makes me both happy and sad- happy because I have a whole new wardrobe to dress my little doll in, but sad because, like everyone says, they grow up so fast!  He is making fun squealing noises when he gets excited, and loves to have his tummy and feet tickled.  The swing is still my lifesaver in the afternoons, where Bradley takes most of his naps, and he's still sleeping in the bedroom with Brian and me in his bassinet.  I still haven't quite figured out the trick to getting him to sleep all night long without his pacifier falling out, and him waking up and wanting it.  Until I solve that problem, I'm not moving him into his crib in the nursery, lest I be trudging down the hall at 2 and 4 am to replace a dropped paci.

One cool thing Bradley and I are doing together now is Kindermusik.  It's a weekly mommy-and-me music class with moms and babies ages newborn-1.5 years.  Bradley is the youngest in his class, but he seems to enjoy it so far.  We've had 2 classes, and he likes moving to the music, and is especially curious at looking at the other babies.  I like it because it gets me out of the house, introduces music to Bradley in a structured way, and lets me get a workout too, standing, sitting, rocking, and swaying with a 12 1/2 pound baby in my arms!

Guess that's all for now!

Weddings and Funerals

This past weekend was full of ups and downs.  Brian, Bradley, and I made our second trek up to Tennessee for a wedding and a funeral, both for which I was asked to sing.  My childhood friend Dana passed away last Monday night.  She was a seemingly healthy 27 year old girl, who was there one day and gone the next, making it the most heart-wrenching funeral I have ever attended.  I forced myself to hold it together until the end, after I sang Amazing Grace.  What do you say to the mother who tells you she wishes it had been at her daughter's wedding and not her funeral that she had wanted you to sing?  

Dana's passing was a reality check for all of us.  We know we are never promised tomorrow, yet we live like we have an eternity.  As I ran through the words of Amazing Grace in preparation for the service I found a glimmer of hope at the end of the third verse:

Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come

twas grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.

I realized after hearing these words again that God is with us in the best and most difficult times.  He will never leave us, and by leaning on Him we can get through whatever life tosses our way.  It's so hard not to question God when He takes a person in the prime of their life, but I have to go on believing that there is a reason for everything, and know that in the Big Picture, Jesus is in control and will lead us safely home if we will let him.  

That same day after the service, we piled in the car and drove up to western Kentucky for my friend Ellen's wedding.  Ellen and I were potluck roommates our freshman year at UK and have stayed friends ever since.  I was so honored to sing for her special day, and stand next to her as a bridesmaid.  

About an hour outside of Nashville I realized in horror that I had left the cd for the song I was supposed to sing in my car (dad was driving)!  Luckily we were near Clarksville, so dad hopped off the interstate, pulled in front of a Hilton Garden Inn, and we used his laptop to steal internet from the hotel, downloaded the track again, and were back on the road in minutes.  Once in Princeton, Brian bought some blank cds from the Walmart down the road, and I had my soundtrack to sing along with for the rehearsal that night.  I heart technology!

We stayed in this shady motel in Princeton, KY- hop over to TAR for a long overdue shout-out to all things not right.  For a small town though, Paglia's where the rehearsal dinner was held had some of the best pizza and service I have ever had!  Ellen said that place is the only sit-down restauraunt in Princeton, but buddy, if that's the only place I could go to eat I'd be one happy camper!  

Ellen and I at Paglia's Pizza

Saturday was a gorgeous day, sunny and 80 degrees.  The ceremony was beautiful, held in the quaint, country Crider Baptist Church, and Ellen was the picture of the classic bride, complete with "Shelby hair!"  I have never been to a sweeter wedding- the church was surrounded by corn fields, the food was in the fellowship hall, with a tent outside.  Along with the usual nuptual fare they served homemade punch and lemonade, cream candy, country ham and biscuits, and Ellen handmade white chocolate suckers and individually wrapped them for guest favors.  Bless her mom's heart, Betty was up at 5 am making those biscuits and ham, but they sure were tasty.

Freshman Friends:  Stephanie, Ellen, and me

Mr. & Mrs. Jason Mach

Ellen, our gorgeous Bride

One funny story was that some old white haired lady turned around and asked Momma B how old Bradley was.  Mom replied that he was 3 months, and wasn't he just the cutest grandbaby ever?  Grandbaby, the woman exclaimed, I thought he was yours!   My mom got the biggest kick out of that, and it sure made her day!

Congrats and Best Wishes, Ellen and Jason!  I'm done with weddings for a while- it's been a hectic season, but next on our list is the Big One:  Laura & George on March 14th, 2009!  The countdown is on!

Gratuitous baby pictures

Just so you don't forget how absolutely adorable my little munchkin is, here are a few of his latest photo ops!

Able to hold his head up now, here he is in his Bumbo seat

wearing the outfit that Jim's mom gave him

I kid you not, my son posed himself like this in the bathtub.  He's such a stud!  I only put the washrag on him so I could take his picture without it classifying as kiddie porn.

Bradley sitting in his bouncy chair, holding his soft puppy dog.

"I love mommy-" can you blame the kid?!

Hurricane Aftermath

Yes, that's right.  To be festive, we made a pitcher of Hurricane mix that we'd been saving from our trip to New Orleans.  We even got out swizzel sticks and straws!  What better night to make hurricanes than when we were waiting to see what Hurricane Gustav would do?  Amber and Mobes came over (Mobes is a nickname based on his last name, Mobley, but I have a hard time remembering to call him James when Brian's always referring to him as the latter) and we had a girls versus guys game of Taboo.  Guess which team won?  Sorry guys, maybe next time.  Or not.

Monday after the worst of the storm had passed us, me Brian and Bradley headed out to Pensacola for a little shopping.  Curiosity brought us over to P-cola beach to see the waves for ourselves.  This was taken around 4 in the afternoon, and just to give you an idea, the worst weather we had was earlier that morning around 6:30 am.  I can only imagine what the waves must have looked like then.

I will say that despite my morbid fascination with tropical systems, it's a little different watching the storm on tv from land-locked TN as opposed to watching the storm head right towards you on the coast.  It's very ominous.  Lucky for us (and only to my mild, and yes, sick disappointment) Gustav missed us.  And once again, someday I'll figure out how to get the fascinating weather-channel quality video uploaded to my computer.

Labor Day weekend part one

Labor Day weekend continues, and we're waiting to see where Hurricane Gustav makes landfall.  Depending on how far west the storm hits we'll get a lot of rain and wind, and are under a Tropical Storm warning now.  Either way, looks like this storm is going to give us more action than Fay.

College football season is now officially under way.  Saturday me Brian & Bradley, along with Grandma Anna, Jim, & Jesse went to a sports bar in Pensacola to watch both the LSU and Wisconsin games.  They both won, and Kentucky beat U of L today for the second year in a row!  The SEC is a force to be reckoned with always (except for poor Miss St!).

Sat. night we all piled into Jim's truck and drove out to Sandestin (about an hour from Gulf Breeze where we are) and went to Baytown Wharf, which is a really cute touristy area on the water with little shops and restaurants.  As is common with coastal cities, a freak rainstorm passed through just as we were parking the car, so we dodged raindrops from the parking lot all the way to an underground parking garage, thinking we could cut through and get to the wharf on the other side.  Let's just say we got more than our fill of the parking garage by the time we zigzagged through and finally made it up to ground level, and waited for the rain to subside.  I say subside, and not stop, because the men decided the rain had "quit" after 10 minutes of waiting, so we went ahead out into the wet weather towards the wharf.  I was slipping and sliding in my flip flops, soaked from top to bottom trying to push the stroller through the sprinkling precipitation.

We settled on one of the first restaurants we found, and had a nice dinner outside on the covered porch of this cajun, new-orleans-style place to satisfy our hunger, and dry off.  I was a much happier camper after I got some food in me and let some of the water on me evaporate.  After an interesting feeding session with Bradley in the ladies' room, Grandma Anna, Jesse, and Bradley took off walking, and me, Brian, and Jim walked into this little club where they were advertising free draft & well drinks, and no cover charge till 10 pm.  It was your typical middle-aged-tourist club where they played your favorite disco hits of the 70s and 80s.  This was the second time Brian and I have been out since Bradley has been born, so we each had a couple beers and shooke our groove thing for a few minutes before meeting back up with the others.  We made the loop around the wharf, and I fed the fishies off the dock, finally heading home around 10 pm.  Our little man was all tuckered out, but we all had a good time visiting.

a photo op in the giant chair

cross dressers!

Due to Gustav making his approach today, Ann, Jim, and Jesse went ahead and left to avoid the heavier trafic, so now Brian and I are gearing up to have Amber and Mobes over.  More on that to come later!

Fay-ked Out

I know you're all thinking by now that no blog means the Tropical storm blew us away.  Hardly.  Fay was downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it got here, giving us a smattering of misting rain, and a few wind gusts and that was it.  Never fear though.  As we speak, Gustav and Hanna (Montana) are churning in the Caribbean right now, so who knows?  Maybe my lifelong dreams of being in a hurricane will be realized before you know it.

Sucky Salesmen

Remember the good ole days when I always seemed to have a random, funny story to share?  Turns out you only have to go as far as your neighbor's house these days to experience the hilarious blog-worthy anecdote.  Jess called me the other day just as I was about to start dinner, asking me to come over for a minute.  I was worried b/c she didn't day what she wanted, so I scooped up Bradley and off we went.  Turns out she had been hoodwinked into watching a demonstration for Kirby vacuum cleaners, and didn't want to be in the house alone with a strange man who really creeped her out.  (As in, loosening his tie, creepy!)

So I pulled up 2 chairs, and we watched for an agonizingly-slow hour and a half, as the vacuum cleaner salesman version of This Guy tried to sell us an overpriced cleaning machine.  Now I did sales for 3 1/2 years, so I did not envy the job this poor kid was trying to do.  He was obviously nervous having 2 lovely ladies stare at him in silence as he feebly attempted to show us how wonderful this kirby vacuum cleaner was.  He began sentences and trailed off, and  I could see the script he was trying to go over in his head, striving to cover all his bases.  He came dangerously close to catching his necktie in the "easy to use" vacuum several times, so I couldn't help myself when I asked him if he ever got it caught.  No, he said.  Not yet, I thought.

While he went through all 150 attachments the vacuum came with, it was glaringly obvious that this guy had no idea what he was doing.  Poor Mr. Boom-Goes-the-Vacuum at one point mistakenly labeled the dusting attachment as the pet groomer, realized his mistake as he saw and identified the real pet groomer, then commented, but you could also use this one as a pet groomer too.  It was embarrassingly painful to watch, and for his sake I hoped the demonstration wouldn't take too much longer since it was obvious from the beginning that neither one of us were going to buy a vacuum cleaner.  No such luck.

As he struggled to get the vacuum apart, I sarcastically remarked "looks easy," which fell on deaf ears as he agreed with me enthusiastically.   It was all I could do to keep a straight face the entire time as he went through his pitch, tried to demonstrate the poor quality of Jess' vacuum, but not being able to figure out how to turn it on, then couldn't get his own vacuum to start, asking Jess if the plug worked, then realizing it was because part of his vacuum wasn't attached! 

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, his boss, and his boss' boss showed up as well.  Apparently there was a car-full of them working the entire neighborhood.  Each guy tried to help our kid out, and attempted to one-up each other in salesmanship, but only managed to come off smarmier and smarmier.

And all for the bargain price of twenty-ninety-five (that's 2 thousand dollars, he clarified for me, thanks) and 2 hours of your time that you'll never get back, you too can be the proud owner of a Kirby vacuum cleaner!

The Fayte that awaits us

Hey yall!  As I sit here typing this, Brian is making us breakfast, and I can hear the wind gusting outside the window.  It's an overcast day and the heavy rains are on their way.  Yes, we are ready and waiting for Tropical Storm Fay- my first ever Tropical Storm experience.  I saw on TWC this morning where Jim Cantore was at Panama City Beach, where so far the beaches were still relatively calm.  Apparently there were even sandbags at a local park for residents to go and pick up to prepare for Fay.  Admittedly I was kind of excited at the looming storm ahead, even though since we don't live right on the water, we have no need for the sandbags.

I'm not sure what to expect from this storm, but I have my raincoat and video camera ready, to bring my own weather channel fantasies to life.  We'll see what kind of a camera man Brian makes!  So far the three of us are safe and sound in our little house and don't plan on getting out in the torrential rains (don't worry Mom!).  This is Amanda Vilendrer, Tropical Storm aficionado, signing off!