CHAOS!!!!!

Pure and utter CHAOS!!!

I’ll be back to explain soon….I hope.

~Maria

The NHL’s winningest goalie calls it quits!!

It’s true…he’s retiring!! Although I understand his reasons…and I can’t think of anyone who deserves to retire more than Patrick Roy, I’m still saddened by the news.  He will be missed in the world of hockey greatly…and even more so by his fans. 

I just hope that another Colorado Avalanche star doesn’t decide to follow in his footsteps…because if he does, then I’m going to have a breakdown!!

OK…now that I’ve stated opinion on that…onto other hockey issues. (sorry…this is my day to vent on my sport)  The Stanley Cup Finals are now underway…and the New Jersey Devils have taken Game 1 with a 3-0 win over the Anahiem Mighty Ducks.  In this particular matchup…I’m not really cheering for either team.  I am a fan of the Devils and have been for a few years now, however…I would like to see Paul Kariya win a Stanley Cup…he definitely deserves one.  So, I look at it this way…whoever wins…wins.  I’m going to sit back and enjoy watching the series.

Okay…I’m off now to watch the broadcast of Patrick Roy’s announcement…

~Maria

Thanks for all of the well wishes…you’re very sweet!!

I went to the doctor yesterday and he put me on a antibiotic…says that I have a very nasty virus.  The only problem is, the antibiotic has to be taken with food…and well, food and I aren’t getting along much at the moment (if you know what I mean)…so, that is the tricky part.

I came into work today (against Jason‘s wishes I might add)…but I’m leaving in just a moment to go back home and to bed.  I haven’t had much food the past few days and well, my body is a bit weak because of it.

I haven’t been this sick in a long time…and I don’t like it one little bit.

To make matters worse, my mom was in a car accident on Tuesday evening.  She is OKAY…just a few minor bumps and bruises…BUT she totalled my minivan. *sigh* So, I guess that I’ll be getting a new car soon…at least I don’t have to pay for it this time. (I hope) 

Okay…well, I hope that you enjoy your (for some of us, an extended) weekend…and be well m’dears!!

~Maria

Didn’t get to sleep until late last night…

Woke up this morning with a swollen sore throat and a fever…

Went to work despite feeling like $#!%…

I can barely swallow now, ’tis not a good thing…

Want to go to sleep…

I want to go home so that my Jason can take care of me…

~Maria

Thank you all for the wedding advice and your support.

The situation is a bit frustrating, BUT now that we’ve talked more about it…we’ve decided that we will just deal with it as it approaches.  So we are keeping the October wedding date and we will just figure something out between now and then.

A friend of mine, who happens to have one of the most beautiful Japanese style gardens that I’ve ever seen, said that he’d be more than happy to let us get married there…so that’s an option.  I’m sure that it would be just as beautiful in the Fall as it is throughout the Summer.  He himself will be getting married there in July…so I will be able to get some ideas about how I’d want to set things up there from seeing their arrangement at that time…if we chose to go that route.

We received our wedding bands in the mail over the weekend…and they are beautiful. We chose the Celtic Trinity Knot bands to honor our Irish heritage.  While I am mostly Italian/Sicilian (from my dad’s side)…I do have quite a bit of Irish and Scotch (from my Mom’s side of the family) and we thought it would be nice to have bands that were a bit more traditional according to that heritage. Jason’s ring is a bit different than mine, he has two celtic dragons on his along with the trinity knots…where I have just the knot work. However, it’s not apparent to anyone unless you look very closely.

I also received my wedding gown right after we returned home from Atlanta.  That was a nice surprise after all that had occurred that week.  I tried it on and it is gorgeous!!  I won’t have to have too many alterations done to it…just a little bit taken in around the bust line and it will have to be shortened about a foot or so! It is VERY long…even with crinoline on underneath…it would still consume me!  My oldest daughter, Dora came in to help zip me up while I tried it on and she was just awe struck when I turned around and she could get a full view.  I asked her what she thought and all she could say was, “Mom…you look so beautiful!!  That dress was made for you.”  That was all I needed to hear!

So…even though Jason knows what the dress looks like…he won’t see it on me until our wedding day and I think that he will be quite pleased when he does.

Well…I suppose that I should be getting back to work now…considering that I’m AT work (oops).  I will visit your sites soon…

Have a Happy Monday m’dears!

~Maria

TGIF

Yup…it’s Friday!!  ‘Tis a good thing…I’m so tired and this week has been quite strange indeed!

Jason has been working a great deal this week and so we haven’t had a chance to spend much time together…that makes me sad a bit.  However, when he is home I can be as clingy as I want to…and he doesn’t mind one little bit…and THAT makes me feel much better!

We’ve been having financial difficulty lately…not dire-straights or anything…but set backs.  It’s frustrating…and a bit depressing as well.  The reality of it is that we may have to postpone the wedding…and THAT just bothers both of us.

Of course, Jason keeps telling me that he doesn’t care if he marries me at the courthouse or wherever…but he doesn’t want to wait.  I understand…but I also know that he really doesn’t want that for a wedding.  We still need to talk about it all more and nothing says that things won’t pick up soon in the financial department and we won’t have to worry about it…but, for now I say that we should just take it one day at a time.  We’ll get there…

For those of you who have been concerned about Jason since his dad died…he is doing just fine.  Like I said, he’s been working a great deal this past week…but even so, he is doing well. 

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and for those of you who are having fabulous weather…enjoy it!!

~Maria

A Few Changes…

I’m sure that you have noticed a few changes around my site…like my favorite Disney character displayed EVERYWHERE.

I just thought it would be nice to see that cute little face of his all the time…hehe.  Selfish of me isn’t it?

Well, every once in awhile I’m entitled to be…don’t ya think?  Besides, how could anyone not like that adorable little face?  It’s too cute!!

Okay…I’m finally STARTING to get caught up on REAL LIFE, so I should get a chance to get caught up on Xanga within the next couple of days.

In the meantime, thank you all for your support and comments and emails…you are the BEST!!

Happy Hump Day!

~Maria

Thank you to all of you who have sent me emails and such regarding my last post.  They were all very much so appreciated and I apologize to those that I haven’t replied back to.

Some of you may know or may have guessed that we were in Georgia attending Jason‘s Dad’s funeral…well we tried to anyway.

See, the funeral was scheduled for 2pm on the 7th and we were scheduled to arrive in Atlanta at 11:47am, which would’ve given us plenty of time to get there.  However, once we arrived to the airport here in Denver we were informed that our flight had been delayed and wouldn’t arrive in Atlanta until 1:22pm…which would make us late for the service.  This, of course, upset Jason greatly and I was feeling beyond awful about the situation.  But, Jason and I tried to look on the bright side of things and saw it as it was better than not getting there at all.  So onward we went and we boarded the plane.

We were about 20 minutes into the flight when the pilot announced that “due to severe weather over Kansas and Tennessee, we will have to make a detour through Texas that will delay our arrival time to 1:54pm”.  WHAT????  Is he kidding?? 

Jason and I just looked at each other in total disbelief.  He was going to miss his own father’s funeral!!

Well, we talked it over….and over…and over almost all the way there. No matter how we looked at it now, there was no way that we’d make it to the service in time. Jason was crushed…and I felt completely and totally helpless.

We landed at the Atlanta airport at 1:40pm…but didn’t get off the plane until 2pm.  By the time we got our rental car and got out of the airport it was 2:48pm.   We’d missed the funeral completely.

There wasn’t anything that we could do about it…which just made it that much more difficult to deal with.  So, we drove over to his Mom’s house to see if she had returned home yet.  She hadn’t…so we went over to a restaurant to eat, considering neither one of us had eaten anything since about 4am that morning.

We eventually made our way back over to his Mom’s house and it wasn’t long after we arrived that she and his brothers returned.  We explained to them what had happened and they completely understood and tried to console Jason a bit, but he still felt as if there was something that he could’ve done to prevent the whole thing.  He and I had already gone through the should’ve/could’ve conversation…and well, that just never corrects anything. 

We decided to try to make the best out of what time that we did have down there with his Mom and siblings.  So we sat and talked with Mom a great deal about everything that had gone on with his Dad and also about brighter subjects…like our engagement.

Of course it will take some time for everyone to get to a point where they will be able to move on from the loss of their father/husband…but I think that all of us having spent some time together may help the process along a little bit.

We’ve been just trying to get back into the groove of life since we returned home.  It’s difficult to do after going through a tragedy of that sort.

So…that’s the update on us.  I have a great deal to catch up on…so I will hopefully be able to do so soon.

I hope that you all are doing well and have a good week!

~Maria

I won’t be posting much at all this week.

Jason & I will be going out of town to attend the funeral of a close family member.  So, I will be back this next weekend sometime.

Take care m’dears and have a good week.

~Maria

WARNING…a somewhat lengthy post!

Well I’m glad that everyone likes the gown that I’ve chosen!! Thanks!!

To answer a few questions etc….

I AM having it altered a little once I’ve received it.  I’m ONLY 5’3″…so of COURSE they will have to shorten the length a bit (I’ve never owned a dress that didn’t have to be shortened…haha).  Also, Jason has helped me with every bit of planning thus far…this includes my gown.  This is his FIRST (and last darn it..for me too…hehe) wedding and I want him to have say in everything that goes into it…right down to my bouquet!!  (which we picked out as well…and I’ll have to post a pic of soon)

See…I understand tradition and all…BUT you must understand that we are not going to have a “traditional” wedding so, why obide by all of the other traditions?  I mean, those traditions are cool and all…and I’ve obided by them before…BUT this is a different type of wedding.  To Jason and I this is a ceremony that is just meant for him and I…it’s not for show to anyone, it’s just for US.  So I figure that we should do it just the way that we want to. 

Anyway…things are still busy around our household.  The kids have only 3 more weeks of school (which is just ridiculous).  When I was in school…the only students that ever got out in May were the Seniors and that was only because they were graduating!  We always got out of school in the middle of June!  I don’t get it…

So I suppose that once the kids are out of school that things around the house will be even more hectic!! Oh well…welcome to life with four children!!

Work has been extremely busy for me…and I don’t see it letting up anytime soon!  I work in the Safety/Training Dept. for an electrical contractor (we build transmission lines, substations etc).  We’ve received a few fairly large jobs as of recent and so we’ve been hiring quite a few new employees…which of course I have to build training files and driving files for.  I take care of all of the requirements for O.S.H.A. and the D.O.T. (Dept. of Transportation).  So I’m constantly auditing paperwork and making sure that peoples’ certifications are current and such.  However, my boss has been out to town lately, so I’ve been having to also take care of all of the Worker’s Compensation cases as well.  We normally don’t have many…it’s usually just minor stuff.  Although, a couple of weeks ago an employee had a very dangerous chemical spill on him and has had some very adverse effects because of it…including hospitalization.  So I’ve been on the phone constantly dealing with the claim adjusters, doctors, clinics…and the employee himself.  WHEW!!!   Then there’s MY job as well…haha.  My desk looks like a hurricane hit it…several times!!

Okay…I’m done venting about work now!

We had a scare at home about a week ago…my dog, Rusty got out of the backyard through a part of the fence that’d been blown down from the storm!!  He was only missing overnight…but I was so scared that I’d never see him again.  His name tag (which has my phone number on it) had fallen off…so I didn’t know if we’d get him back…but we did!! When I got him (about 5 years ago after my Dad died) I’d had an implaint put in him that is barcoded with all of my information in it!  So, when the man that had picked Rusty up, brought him to the Dumb Friend’s League…they scanned the implaint and called me right away!!  Too cool eh?  We were ALL very relieved!!  Especially considering the girls and I cried ourselves to sleep the night before after searching for over 2 hours and not finding him.

The other scary thing is that Jason’s Dad has been in and out of the hospital recently.  He has had two cases now of congestive heart failure…so please keep him in your prayers.  Jason is doing okay…and has talked to his Dad briefly.  His Dad seems to be holding his own, but there is no telling what could occur.  His Mom has spent most of her time at the hospital with his Dad…but has tried to keep us updated on his condition as much as possible.

Other than that…things have been somewhat normal.  (what’s normal anyway?)

Well…back to work for me!!  Take care m’dears and have a wonderful weekend!!

~Maria