It's been a while!!

I haven't posted for a long time, I know! Can you believe it is almost December!!! And, Christmas is right around the corner then it will be 2009! Time flies! We are going to Tim & Maureena's for Thanksgiving and my parents are also going with us. It will be nice not to travel from morning til night like we usually do! That always makes me more tired and like I need another day off just to re-cooperate! I have to work 1/2 day on Friday so I chose to work the middle shift so I can SHOP! I am sure black Friday will be very hectic, they are predicting busier than normal due to the poor economy. Funny how poorly the economy is doing yet my company had a record sales year - and it's only the end of Nov. I guess I am lucky!
Are you ready for Christmas? I usually have all my shopping just about done by now but I still have a few people left to buy for. Some people are so hard, especially Tim's dad. I keep telling him I am buying him a tie for our Alaskan cruise. He doesn't think it's funny. The Sandy Valley craft show is this weekend so I am going to that on Saturday. I just talked to my friend & she wants Tim & I to go to a local place that is having a live band, that should be fun.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

TODAY TIM IS 30!!!

Yep, he is 30 today....he thinks the world is ending! LOL He is telling everyone he is 29 and now goes backwards from there. I am having sloppy joes and a cornhole tournament for him today, just something small. It's not a surprise because I couldn't do that and still have it here at the house. Our friends and family are coming, and the weather is supposed to be decent so it should turnout well. He is getting a tattoo - those who know him know he is deathly afraid of needles, so this should be GOOD! HA I told him his life insurance is all paid up....LOL I know he will pass out, he passes out when they give him a shot of novacaine at the dentist. What is he thinking! Everyone please send him an e-mail about how over the hill he is! When I ordered the cake I told the lady something over the hill & she said you call 30 over the hill....I said he thinks it is....!!! She thought I was crazy. I have been teasing him all morning that I am going to trade him in for a younger husband! LOL This should be a fun day. My sister turned 30 in July so I know she is really going to give him a hard time as he did her.

motorcyle trip

Our trip through the mountains of WV & VA was this past weekend. There were 10 bikes total. It ended up raining pretty much the whole time. The sun finally came out yesterday for about 2 hours once we were almost to Ohio. (of course!) I wasn't really cold, I had on plenty of layers! We wore our rain suits almost the whole time so we didn't get wet either. The 1st day we rode to Covington, VA where we spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express. We walked down the hill to dinner at a little place called Belly Up. The food was pretty good, cheap too. After dinner Roger went and bought tons of beer, wine, & chips. He came to our door w/ the biggest box full of stuff, it was so funny. He even got plastic cups! For those who do not know Roger, he is a guy that we met on our cruise. He lives in Richmond, VA. He drove to OH to meet us to drive back to VA. He had to work Sunday so he drove straight home from the hotel. Mod went with us on this trip last year, so I really missed him this year! It just wasn't the same. I could have done without the rain too. Last year it was 85 & sunny and we went a week later even. You just never know about the weather. My whole body hurts right now, I think I am going to take some ibuprofin before bed.

My Birthday

If you didn't know, Thursday was my Birthday. Tim planned for my parents & his dad & Maureena to meet us at Red Lobster (they had endless shrimp) YEAH!!! Well, I decided that morning that I was taking off work early so we could eat dinner at a decent time, but...Tim already had this "surprise" planned so it really didn't do me any good! LOL He always does stuff like that, he is too cute! He got me the Harley down vest & jeans that I wanted & Tim & Maureena got me a Harley sweatshirt (from TN!) that I wanted as well. We are celebrating with my family on the 13th at the lake.

Yesterday we went to the OSU game - my 1st one ever!!! Tim got awesome tickets 25 rows up and we only paid $30 total (the ticket value was $62 each)! WOOHOOOO It was fun. We met up w/ Sherri & Roger & we got to meet their little boy Aaron - he is so cute!!!! I got to hold him & we got some pictures with them. After the game we met them at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner - and it was not even my idea! HA HA I love that place. They sang HB to me & wrote HB to you on my cheesecake plate & sprinkled sprinkles on it too. We also ran into Dave P & his dad at the game (more friends of Tim's sister Angel). It was a fun day!! Then we shopped - Tim's favorite.

This morning when I read my e-mail I got a message from Mod!!!!! I am so happy, I cried when I read it! Here it is:

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you Jaclyn..
Happy..Birthday..to..you...

Happy Birthday Mom, I know u thought that I might be forget.
Hope all the thing you want would be come true and u always have a beautiful life.
Sorry Mom for being late, I didn't do on purpose. Cause I don't have internet service in my home and my school so I must go to the internet rent to use internet service.
And my full time at school like I told u just make me sometimes forget to communicate to you. I am sorry Mom.

I miss u mom, also Tim. Even bristol and Bosten too. When I type this email, it is just easy for me to gather all the things again about last year.

Mom, could u also give my warm regard for grandpas and grandmas over there and all of the family. I miss them also.
Say 'Hi' too for Bristol, Bosten, Jersey, and Kolby.

I am still on my promise and dream to go back to USA, especially Ohio. I love u all Neff family. Sorry again Tim and Jaclyn for not gave u my information before. I hope u understand my condition.

This makes me really miss him!!!! So, if you are family and reading this you will appreciate the message from him.

our bedroom

Well, our bedroom is done and I love it! 3 of the walls are baby blue and 1 is chocolate brown. I have brown curtains w/ silver gromet tops over a silver rod. I still need 2 more panels but JCPenney.com is out of them right now. I got baby blue ribbon to use as tie backs. My lamp is a silver base and brown shade. It is so different being so bright, we now have a white ceiling which makes a huge difference. My mom did mostly all the painting, I helped her with the ceiling and the brown wall but she did the rest while I was at work. I don't have anything on the walls yet but I am picky so it may take me a while to find things I like.

new stuff

Guess what?? Tim bought new a new car!!!! I didn't even know "we" were getting a new vehicle until he calls me and says he is at Progressive Chevy! He got me a 2005 Chevy Equinox - fully loaded - leather interior, moonroof, tinted windows!! I have been wanting one ever since they came out! It is a dark gray color - think they call it silver metallic. I have only driven it about a mile since we got it a week and 2 days ago. He calls it our "family car". Since we were buying stuff, we also bought a King size bed! We needed one! I like to hog the whole bed plus we sleep w/ 2 cats & 2 dogs. It is so high I can barely get into it! Now I get to re-do our bedroom. The comforter is baby blue and chocolate brown and we bought paint last night. I have new curtains, rugs, lamp, etc - I can't wait to get it done. My mom is coming down Thursday and then spending the night, she is painting it for us. I have a vacation day Friday, so we are going to the Uhrichsville Water park which is pretty cool and very cheap! And close, just a few blocks away. We are so busy at work, I need a LONG vacation!!! a 3 day weekend will do too!

Niagara Falls

We ended up leaving Friday night instead of Saturday to beat the rain. We didn't get stuck in any rain until we hit Buffalo, and that was just a 2 minute down pour. It was really nice Saturday while we were in Niagara. The rest of the bikes met us there, although more than half the group cancelled because of the possibility of rain. :( Wimps - ha ha ha!
Mod left on Tuesday. He was taking pictures out the car window and said those were his last pictures. :( None of his bags were overweight and they didn't charge him to take a 2nd which I am surprised but glad because he was bumming that it would cost him so much. They have changed everything since we flew at the end of April. It is ridiculous! He went to Washington DC from here for orientation and to talk to the congressmen (sounds boring to me). He was due to fly out today for Indonesia - he had a layover in Germany. I know he really missed his family and they missed him! He said his mom screamed when he called to tell her when he was coming home. I know we will miss him and he will miss us. The dogs miss him, especially Boston! He looks so sad every morning when he goes into his room and then comes out and lays in the door way waiting for Mod. AWWWW poor baby.
Happy 4th of July!

doing better!

Look at that, 2 posts in 1 month, I am getting better! LOL We are getting ready for our motorcyle trip to Niagara Falls. We leave Saturday morning and will return Sunday night. Mod leaves July 1st so we have been getting ready for that too. He has been packing, and weighing his luggage, and unpacking, and packing some more.....said he is overweight on both bags....probably cheaper than shipping it so.... He is getting excited now, all I see him doing is looking at his luggage. We had his going away party last Saturday, we had a good time and a good turnout. He mostly got money, which he needed so he can pay for his overweight luggage. We had cornhole tournaments which were fun.
Tim is out on the bike today, I opted to stay home and be lazy! I have been making cards and doing laundry all day. It is nice to stay home!

slacking again!

I know I haven't posted in a while! Well, Mod leaves at the end of June so we are having a going away party next weekend. In order to prepare for that, we have got tons of dirt and gravel to fill in our new walkway to the house from the garage and also the area alongside the house where Tim tore out all the extra concrete from where there used to be a garage when the house was first built. Today he planted grass seed and cleaned out the spouting. I am hoping it doesn't rain too much to give the grass a chance to grow before it gets washed away. We still need a lot more gravel though to fill in the drieway because we only put a truckload down last fall.
This week I had to put 2 new tires on my car, as the 2 front ones were "non repairable"! I kept telling Tim they were losing air so he would just pump them up and tell me I am crazy. (go figure) LOL Then yesterday, the power steering went out on his truck and I will soon need back brakes and rotors. Good thing he can do all the work, that will save us a lot of money!
Last night we went out and bought a window air conditioner for our bedroom. We have central air but being an older house it stays a lot warmer upstairs. Even after having our house insulated and sided plus new windows we still needed it. After 2 90 degree days we decided to get one. I think it will really help and may keep most of the upstairs cool. I just turned it on tonight, so we shall see.
We are getting ready for our big bike trip to Niagara Falls. We leave June 28th. There are 18 bikes going as of right now. It is a 6 hour trip. I will be bored as it is all highway and no scenery so Tim said I should get an IPOD. I got a nano. I only have 1 song on it right now so hopefully I can get it ready within a few weeks so I can take it on the trip. I am excited, I have not been the Niagara since 6th grade!

Florida

We just got back from Florida yesterday. It was a very nice trip overall, despite the fact that we put Angel's ashes in the ocean on Saturday evening. It was a beautiful day - perfect! We put them about 6 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico near Tarpan Springs, FL at sunset. I am sure she is very happy with what we did. My aunt and my mom joined us (my mom is down there vacationing and my aunt lives there). My aunt did not get to fly up for her memorial so she wanted to be there. The lady that owned the boat was so sweet, I am going to send her a nice thank you card. We asked a lot of places and no one would let us do it without paying a private charter which would cost around $600! The weather was perfect the whole time we were there, then we came back to this OH weather! EWWW!

April already!

I can't believe it is April already. We will have owned our house for 5 years come April 5th. It is hard to believe. In case anyone didn't know, Tim has been going to the chiropractor 2-3 times a week. His back was bothering him for a while and he finally went. Hopefully he never has to have surgery. He said he feels better, but then last week he thought he may have had a kidney stone so maybe the pain was from that. Who knows but he is still going. Since he broke his back some years ago and he refuses to go easy he is always in pain (although he never complains and refuses to see a doctor). It must be a Neff thing!! LOL
It is almost motorcyle time! I cannot wait. We just need a luggage rack in order for Boston to ride with us. Tim said I have to buy that since this was my idea (like I know what I need). Maureena will help me. Our friends Dan & Jamie rode over the other day and had their mini doxie Honey on the bike. She looked so cute and seemed to love it. As soon as I saw them out front I was yelling to Tim that she was riding! He thinks I am nuts. I am sure we are going to put a lot of miles on the bike this summer! Now that we have our leathers and more experience as Harley riders we are gonna have a blast! We have a trip planned to Niagara Falls and VA/WV already. I really want to do a covered bridge tour too so hopefully we can do that. The last weekend I am working until Fall is next weekend.
Our Florida trip is coming - we leave April 23rd. I am ready for the beach. I have lost 20-21 pounds on my diet that I started last year so I can now fit into my clothes I have in garbage bags in the closet. It feels so good!! Tim started me on this diet thing but he cheats too much! He laughs at me when I say I don't want a bun w/ my burger or hot dog but hey it is working! I eat whatever I want for dinner usually but less of it.
This past weekend I went to a scrapbooking expo in Columbus with Jenny, her sister in law, and my friend Michelle. Afterwards we went to every scrapbook store in Columbus. We had a blast. I left home at 7am and did not get home until around 11pm. We shopped until we dropped! On Sunday I played with some of my new stuff. Of course I bought some more stamps!! I am addicted. There is a crop for cancer next week that I will probably do because of the cause. Before too long it will be too nice outside to scrapbook/stamp!

I know I have been slacking on here lately. Maureena told me she keeps checking it and I am not writing anything! I hope everyone did not stop reading this. We have been busy working. I finally got word last week that I don't have to travel to Tallmadge near as much!!! YEAH! My car is not going to know what to do! HA HA With gas prices soaring I am excited not to be putting so many miles on my car. Plus it makes me so tired (driving all day). On Monday, I went to 30 companies, boy was I whooped by the end of the day. That was pretty much my normal week all in 1 day!! I did get Manager of the month last week though! I chose to get into a drawing for a day off with pay, $100, or a $250 Coach purse, OR NOTHING (that was one of the draws - a blank). So I gambled, what did I have to lose?! I won a day off with pay. I was hoping for the Coach purse, but maybe next time.
Has anyone seen any good movies lately? We belong to Netflix but I am so out of the loop with movies I don't know what to get. We just got 3:10 to Yuma, it was okay. I thought Tim would like it because he always tells me I pick the dumbest movies (the girly ones). Once it gets nice out I will probably cancel it because we will be on the bike a lot. Speaking of the bike - we got a case that goes on the back of the bike so the dogs can ride!!! YEP! Tim hates it, and he will tell you I bought it not him! Only 1 can fit in it at a time, but Bristol doesn't like it so I think Boston is going to be our rider. We just need to get him a Harley du-rag. He will be 1 cool Harley dude!! LOL He is such a good dog, after getting him we call Bristol Miss Antisocial. They are completely opposites. (Thanks goodness because I don't need another barker)
I will try to stay more up to date on here! Half the time I can't remmeber my password to get in to make a new entry.

scrapbooking

I have been scrapping & stamping a lot lately. Usually every chance I get. Last night I went to a friends for a crop. She has her own scrapping room - it is sooo awesome! She has 1,000's of dollars worth the stuff. I wouldn't have had to take half the stuff I did if I knew how much stuff she had, and multiples of things so eveyone can use it! I learned a little about the cricut and also the Epson PictureMate - it is a printer dock made for scrappers - even has a handle so you can take it to your crops! I got to meet a lot of nice people too. I got done 4 zoo pages - trying to get that book done before it is been a year ago!!! LOL
Jenny got me hooked to the Cuttlebug, so I bought one this week! I got it off of SCS so I got a great deal on it. I can't wait to get it. Since I wanted this I had to put my sizzix sidekick and accessories up for sale. So I posted it on SCS. I already sold the acces. now I just need to push the sidekick and tote. If not, I will put them on E-Bay. If you have never been to splitcoaststampers.com you have to check it out. I am totally hooked!!!
By the way, I got back all our cruise pictures, except for the stingray ones - if you want to see them e-mail me and I will send you the link to the album.

Back to reality :(

Well, we have been home a week now! :( The weather was beautiful, in the mid 80's most of our trip. The views were amazing and it was the most relaxing vacation I have ever been on. We have decided that cruising is the way to go. We pre-booked an Alaskan cruise for next summer already. (we are addicted to cruising) :P We met some of the nicest people! I loved getting to meet people from all over. We now have friends in NY, Chicago, VA, NJ, MN, etc. The people we met from VA are originally from Ireland, so that was really cool. My favorite part of the trip was swimming with the stingrays and going to the turtle farm. Tim's favorite part was swimming with the dolphins. I absolutely loved The Cayman Islands!! I told Tim I am going to move there and work at the turtle farm. I loved it. We got to hold the baby turtles and everything. I could have spent a whole day there just ooing over the turtles.(in case you didn't know I am a turtle freak!)My least favorite was Montego Bay, Jamaica. I never want to go back there. It was dirty and I felt unsafe. Needless to say we were back to the ship around 11:00 that day! Tim tried to tell me but I had to see if for myself.
Since we are back to reality and back to work this week, not to mention the cold weather - it stinks! :P I have been so busy at work that the week flew by - thank goodness. I was up in Tallmadge 2 whole days which was nice since I had been out of the loop up there for a week while we were gone. I had to fire the girl that worked up there so we are back to square one for the 4th time. There is no work ethic anymore, it is unreal. We will be in Tallmadge for at least another 30 days but I would say more. I have hired 2 new gals so we will see what happens.

Bon Voyage!

We are leaving for Pittsburgh tonight and our flight leaves tomorrow at 6:45am. Then we are off on our 7 day cruise. YEAH. I am so ready for a vacation. We will have no access to cell phones or internet - no one will be able to find us! HE HE HE I checked the weather and it will be in the 80's all week. Beats Ohio weather! I know we will get sunburned, especially Tim because he refuses to wear sunscreen. We can all laugh at him when we get home. We will have phone access on Monday in Key West, so if you must talk to us you will have to catch us that day while we are still in the US and don't have to pay a small fortune to use our phones. I will (try to) post pictures when we get back!

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe we are in the 2nd week of January already. We leave for our 7 day cruise on Sunday January 13th. I am so excited! We just have to pack yet, which I hate to do too early. We already booked out excursions - swimming with the dolpins in Cozumel, Mexico and in Grand Cayman we are touring the city of Hell, visiting the turtle farm (I HAVE TO), touring the rum cake factory, and swimming with the sting rays. At Key West and Montiego Bay we will relax and see what we can get into on our own. We fly out of Pittsburgh so we are spending the night there on Saturday night since our flight leaves at 6:45am! The hotel offers free shuttles to and from the airport plus we can park our car there while we are gone. That is a huge savings. Mod will stay with Dan & Jame and the dogs will most likely stay with Step & Mark. This is our first cruise, Tim wants to do the Alaskan one next. So maybe we will book that one for next year.
Yesterday was Angel's Birthday. We all went out to dinner (late lunch) with some people in the family. It is hard to believe it was here already. I miss her so much. We even heard I'm Bringing Sexy Back on the radio on the way home from there. Tim and I just looked at each other and started singing. I will never forget the day she sang that in our car at the top of her lungs (she was loopy from her meds). It was hilarious!!!