Happy Anniversary To Me...oh yeah and my husband too!

24 years ago today...well tonight at 6:20ish actually, I said "I Do".

Where has the time gone???

It seems like just yesterday, I met this good lookin', large biceped guy and now the rest is history.

I must say that he didn't realize that it was love at first sight as I did but I did manage to turn his thinking around after I pursued him and then the clincher.....fixed him a lasagna dinner.

We were not engaged for a very long period (9 months) and *ahem* I am not promoting short engagements so don't get the wrong idea. Although my beloved and I were young (20 & 21) we were not as young as some and my husband had a few very important requirements already in place:

• steady employment
• a house (yeah I know it was humble and needed work but he was the owner)
  
• 2 paid for vehicles (one for work and one for pleasure - even though he loaned me the pleasure car and I totaled it....lets not talk about that right now)
• and the most important one....a washer and dryer...woo hoo!

We have had our ups and downs like all couples but the good times far outweigh the bad.

So, you may ask; do I have any pearls of advice for a long lasting marriage? Well, I'm glad you asked.

1. Always think of the other person first; you'll be surprised how happy you'll be trying to make the other person happy.
2. Make time for your spouse; yes, working hard to provide for your family says "I love you" but if you never spend time with each other you'll start going your separate ways.
3. Let your husband lead.

So, next year will be the big 25...wow, a quarter of a century. We have kicked around the idea of taking a trip/cruise to Hawaii. We'll have to wait and see what the economy holds for our business this next year. But no worry; we have another 24 years to plan a fabulous vacation.

"And there to I plight thee my troth"
(yeah this was part of our vows...my father-in-law found this version and since we were his first wedding we acquiesced to his choice)

Till Death Do Us Part!!

Merry Christmas & Crazy Kids

The Whole DeMasellis Clan

This has got to be one of the oddest Christmases we've ever had. This is the first year that we were not all together on Christmas morning. Since Andrew is home on leave he is dividing his time between home and PA. Brooke's family gets equal time; although it's by no means equal. We actually are getting the better end of the deal. As part of his "exodus" (military term for vacation) Drew is required to "do" HRAP (hometown recruiting...something, something). He was obligated to report Dec. 22nd, 23rd, and 24th and then again next week on the 29th, 30th and 31st. So he and Brooke will be back sometime either Sunday or Monday.

Drew & Brooke

Our holiday has been a bit disjointed. Tuesday night we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. Then Wednesday morning we celebrated Christmas with Andrew and Brooke before they took off for Pennsylvania. Last night we went to church for a very short service and then off to our friends house for some Christmas eve food and fellowship.



Well, it was a tad of a disaster due to me. I offered to bring a bean dip to share but when I purchased all the ingredients I was certain that I already had refried beans at home...not. Do you know that there is virtually no stores open on Christmas eve at 8pm that sell refried beans. After much sliding around (the roads were getting bad) I opted for Hormel chili with beans. I then assembled the whole "mess" at my friends house (much to her dismay I'm sure). Although my husband really liked it I thought it was rather gnarly.


I also had all the gifts wrapped last night even tho I was frequently interrupted by a "dinging" on my computer from some unnamed person attempting to chat with me.

I can only count on one hand how many times in my kids life that I've had all the gifts wrapped ahead of time and wasn't up to all hours of the night wrapping. I even had everything under the tree.

It was actually a nice leisurely time this morning. Since Andrew the early riser was not here none of us were up before 8am; it was a nice change...lol.


After the present exchanging (Jordon "played" Santa and doled everything out in a nice systematic fashion)

our oldest son Brandon, his wife Bekka and our "grand-dogger" Zoe, came over.


I proceeded to make a DeMasellis favorite; creamed beef....yummmmmm! We also had biscuits, hash browns, fried eggs made by Mr. D (he's a better egg maker than me) and orange juice. The finality of the meal came when Mr. D proceeded to make some rather funny comments (for the life of me I cannot even think what they were now) which caused Brandon to spew orange juice all over the table...AHHHHHHH. Well, at least we were all done eating by then and the butter was the only casualty.

The clean up began and so did the arm wrestling.

Then the new wii games were pulled out and the competitions began. We are a very competitive family....no one likes to lose and some of us are better losers than others...cough, cough... Brandon.

Caitlin and Jordon were trying out Jordon's new ipod docking station (gee how high can we blare it....they asked) while signing (not be be confused with singing) Christmas songs. Then there was chatting, texting and phone calls galore. With all the computers we have throughout the house, much communicating was going on all over; living room, dining room, office, etc.



Finally I've made my contribution to the family dinner later today at my sister-in-laws. Rosa Maria Salad (a cross between Ambrosia & rice pudding) and a cheese ball; nom, nom.






We will be having sandwiches and I'm sure all kinds of other goodies as well.


Haystacks, fudge, peanut butter blossoms.....yummmyyyy!!








Well, I hope all of you had as much fun as we did. Families can add a lot of dynamics to a holiday but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Mom

Husbands should not be allowed to drive small cars...thru snow drifts!!

It should be a law that husbands should not be allowed to drive their wife's car if there is any chance that the husband in question may even consider driving her car thru a snowdrift. Yes, somehow my husband thought that he could plow through a nearly 4 foot high snow drift with my itty bitty blue car. Needless to say we (as in Jordon and Steve) spent over 2 hours shoveling, snow blowing and plowing my car out from "on top" of a very large-ish snow drift.....in the middle of our driveway.

He was warned that no...it could not be done, but no....did he listen to the wife and children....NO, of course not. So, we were all late for our church contata tonight. Some later than others. It's a good thing that our wonderful friend who always keeps us plowed when it snows happened to call and ask if we were having problems with snow drifts...wow as a matter of fact...yes...HELP!

I'm happy to report that our cars are now snowdrift free and I am not reliquishing the keys to my car anytime soon.

Aveo Mom

Short Post

This should be the shortest post ever....how do you like the new colors and background...cool huh?

eBay Gift Card = WIN

I got a Christmas card in the mail the other day and *BONUS*, this was inside.

Now comes the hard part....what to buy!!

The possibilities are endless you know...

1. New electronic gadget
2. Collectible
   
3. Clothes
4. Clothes for the dog...lol
5. Hmmm, I could always re-gift (which was my sons idea-yeah into his stocking)

Gift cards sure have come a long way. It used to be you were limited to the store in which the card was purchased; now with Visa & Mastercard gift cards the receiver can shop anywhere.

I won't be rushing into my decision to spend my gift card; I'm weird that way. I like to hang onto gift cards and wait for just that right item. Since I don't have any one thing coming to mind I'll bide my time. It makes shopping a lot more fun anyway; knowing that I can buy whatever I want (well, at least within a $25 budget) and not feeling guilty for spending money not in the budget.

So, if you run into me on eBay, wave and know that I'm just looking around....but that I'll be back....cuz' I've got a gift card burning a hole in my pocket!!

Do you have a buying suggestion....I'm all ears.

Happily window shopping,

Me

Silas Marner....a thing of the past

As you have already noticed....the family book club never came to fruition. I read the first 3 chapters and thought I was going to slit my wrists...lol. As my sister put it; "It was the best cure for insomnia!"

So, Silas was thrown under the bus. Unfortunately for my son, that is not an option as it is a required read in his British Literature class - HA...stinks to be him!

On to more interesting thoughts now...

Only 8 more days until we pick our son up from Fort Knox!!! WOO HOO! We all sure have missed him these past 11 weeks. He will be done with boot camp tomorrow but then will spend the next week doing mundane tasks...like...cleaning, cleaning, oh, and did I mention cleaning. His dad, younger brother and I will be driving to KY next week to pick him up. His leave is just over two weeks...15 days to be exact. We are sharing his time off with his fiance and her family in Pennsylvania. Sharing is not always easy; even for adults. We realize though that his heart is now with his sweet young bride to be so mom must let go and let him be with his "one true love".
Trust me....I'm not that old that I don't remember what it was like to be young and in love. XOXO

Here's another exciting bit of news:

We are having a "friend" visit us for a few days soon. This friend has offered to help us in moving our business to a single location. Yeah! Many hands make light work and we can use all the hands we can get right now. We are currently running our business out of three locations; it has been a bit of a logistics nightmare. Plus, one of the locations is our home. Working out of ones home can have some benefits (no fighting the traffic to get to the office, no required business attire (one doesn't even have to dress if one doesn't want to..lol), multi-tasking (work, laundry, making dinner)) but working from home also has some drawbacks; limited privacy, inability to park ones own car in ones own garage due to shelves of product and no longer having the use of a once beautifully finished basement (again due to shelves of product).

So....this "friend" is going to come in handy. Why the quotations you ask? Well, this is no ordinary friend but a "special" friend of our daughters. By special I'm not implying special-ed (well, as far as I know...lol) but rather in the sense of extra-special male companion. Yes, you heard right....this young man in question is coming to stay at our house and has agreed to subject himself to the bosses (aka "the dad") work-a-holic tendencies . Our daughter will not be here. She still has one more week of college before Christmas break so we will have the "friend" all to ourselves....to do with as we please....for instance:

• grill him of his intentions
• examine his work ethic
• what are his household habits
• will he eat moms cooking
• you know, all the important stuff

It's a "parents-of-a-daughter" dream come true.

** Disclaimer ** Don't worry daughter....we promise to go easy on him......

+ evil laughter +



We have never formally met this young man but from the countless chat sessions, web-cam discussions and phone calls we have had, he seems to be a fine, polite and upstanding citizen. If we find anything to the contray after this visit I will have to edit this blog and deny ever having seen him....we do own guns and have 44 acres on which a buried body would never be discovered....again with the + evil laughter +.

No seriously, I'm sure everything will go smoothly. About the only thing that may go awry would be his changing his mind about our daughter due to her "crazy" parents. It is a package deal you know....love the daughter and you have to at least tolerate her family....lol.

Keep tuned...I'll let you know if he survives!

Until next time,

The MOM