Some pictures

Tom James Company Christmas Party (Nacho Ordinary Christmas Party):
Ben, Chad, Todd, Steve, Samantha, Nick, Jen and Tracy (Norfolk and Richmond offices)This is the new guy in Norfolk - Joey and his wife, Rebekah. Now go make us some money, Joey!!

Nick and Steve rockin' the molestaches. If you knew Steve, this outfit would not have surprised you.

This was Gracie's humiliating haircut that I later paid for by her running away and making me the maddest that I've ever gotten at another living being.

Christmas pictures will be next....Sorry, but I've been really lame at updating this blog. I'm not even sure who I'm apologizing to because it's not like I get comments saying "Sara, I'm dying to read your next post and see some more pictures...please hurry!"

Miss me?

Ok, I'm back. You can breathe a huge sigh of relief. That dark cloud I mentioned before didn't really last that long, I just haven't had much blogging time. Here's what has been going on (without pictures though because I don't have my camera/computer adapter - I will add them later).

We went to Nick's company party a few weekends ago. It was surprisingly fun although it didn't seem promising when the invitation asked me to dress up like a Mexican and participate in "Nacho Ordinary Christmas Party".

Gracie got this humiliating haircut which she later got revenge for by running out of the house and making me chase her for 10 minutes one day before work. First degree murder was almost committed that day.

We had a birthday party for the best dad that ever lived (mine). That is another post for another time because I want to write a small tribute. He's worth it.

My mom and I went to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents last weekend, and we had a fabulous time with lots of laughs. My grandma can't say "esophagus" so she says "you-sock-of-us". We made her say it over and over again while we laughed and laughed. I also got to see my uncle, aunt, cousins, second cousins, cousins by marriage, etc. Would have been a perfect memory had it not been for the airport nightmare that I survived. I would tell you about it, but I've found that I still can't talk about it.

We spent Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day with my family before heading off again to Georgia for a few days (where we are now). Too bad I don't have pictures, because this is a really boring post without pictures.

Ok, next time I post, there will be more pictures than you know what to do with.

dark cloud

I am sick.
I have been sick for 3 straight days.
I had to cancel my flight to Ohio this weekend.
I'm missing Holiday Sweater-Fest with my best friends.
Nick is snowboarding in fresh snow.
This week has not turned out how I thought it would. At all.
I went out to do some Christmas shopping.
I spent $200 on myself, knowing I will probably return $180 of it.
I had to come right home after an hour because I felt nauseous.
Not a good start to the weekend.....

I can't always be positive, can I?

I had a dream...

I sometimes have some very vivid, strange dreams that make me laugh. This was a good one from the other night:

I found out that I was pregnant, so I went to the doctor. The doctor confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. He said that the good news is that I'm also ready to deliver right then and there. I remember feeling really relieved because I had this little pooch belly that I thought was from all the holiday eating, but now I had something to blame the extra flab on. I asked what I was having and the doctor told me I was having two sets of twins (not quadruplets, but 2 sets of twins). So they deliver the first set of twins and put the babies up near my face. Both little girls were Asian, one was about 3 years old with glasses and a cute bob hair-cut, and the other was about 3 months old with a physical handicap and coke-bottle glasses. Then it was time to deliver my twin boys. The first boy came out fully dressed and ran past me on the floor beside my bed. He was also about 3 years old and had very long (like a girl) dirty-blonde hair with bangs that covered his face. The doctor said that the other boy was fine staying where he was in my womb, so I went out of the hospital to run some errands. That was it! That was my dream. Weird.

For the record, I'm not pregnant....I suppose I just had something crazy to eat before I went to bed.

oops!

I forgot to add the video of the kids singing a birthday song to Jesus. Am I obsessed with them? Maybe.

So live your life....ayyyayyyyayyyy

Thanksgiving turned out well despite the drive that I mentioned previously. We spent Thanksgiving on the Sunday before with my family at my parents' house. I didn't get pictures of everyone, but here are a few of Michelle, my mom, Madison (my niece), Oliver (her dog), and me. I take fewer pictures of my family because I see them more often, so I'll have to make sure to get more at Christmas. Otherwise, they will think I love them less. Then on Wednesday came the dreaded drive which I wrote about before. That was not an exaggeration - I didn't even mention that I also had a cold. But once we got there, it was all fun, games, monkey bread, and turkey. Here are my niece and nephews - Annabel, Jack, and Bennett (6, 4, and 2).

Annabel and I played this game where I would call out a word and she would have to make the expression before I took the picture. Here is "confused" and "stuffed"....not bad! She is much better at this game than me. Yes, my grown friends and I have played this...often.

The kids loved to wrestle with Uncle Nick. Meanwhile, I sat on the couch imagining one of them splitting their head open on the fireplace and bleeding all over the carpet. It was quite stressful for me, but they loved it of course (and no injuries!).

The turkey-carver and the cook, Dan and Sandy. SOOO much food and deliciousness....six pounds worth according to my scale.

Nick smashed some pumpkins....ah, country livin'.

Jack and Anna picking up acorns and putting them into a container. I call this game "Acorn Pick-up".

My awesome sister-in-law and mother of the 3 puddin pops, Andrea. She and I made spectacles of ourselves playing "Mother May I?" in the front yard with the kids while the neighbors drove by. That's love, my friends.

Dan just got a new motorcycle, so we all got to take a spin on it. That is Gabe and Bennett on the back. Don't ask me why the adults got the helmets and the kids got to fend for themselves.

Jack and Bennett playing "Caws" (cars).

Love them snuggle bugs!!!

And now, back to life in the 757....

aaaaarrrrrrrrr

I love Nick's family very much so please do not misunderstand the message of this blog. Thanksgiving weekend has started with me not-thanks-giving. Let me explain my situation right now. We left home around 1 o'clock this afternoon to drive a minimum of nine and a half hours to Atlanta to visit the in-laws. I started the trip already dreading what was ahead-everyone and their mother heading who knows where on this one particular day. I always beg Nick to pay for us to fly instead of drive. I am a diva after all. No success in that regard in the five years of us doing this. So here we are. We sit in stop-and-go traffic for hours. I try to sleep but wake up with a kink in my neck. My back is aching. My rear end is numb. My legs are losing circulation from the slightly too-tight-for-travel jeans. I get completely engrossed in a brand new delicious book only to get violently nauseous from reading in the car. The sun has been blinding me for the last 4 hours, somehow avoiding my sunvisor. The scenery no longer has the beautiful colors of fall but the drab brown color of winter. All this AND Nick might be the most impatient lunatic driver/traveler that I know. 226 miles down, 350 more to go. I do not feel obligated to be thankful right now. I'll be saving my thanks for 350 miles from now when I wake up to some delicious monkey bread tomorrow morning.

"You're hot then you're cold..."

I like fall. I don't love fall, but I like it. Most people go on and on about how they love fall weather, football, caramel apples, the smell of leaves, carving pumpkins, drinking apple cider, decorating with fall colors, candles that smell like pumpkin pie, etc. Me? My feet get cold and stay cold until May so it's not exactly my favorite. I'm a spring/summer kind of girl for sure. But what I will credit fall with are the insane colors that the trees will turn. At the risk of sounding corny, I can't help but stare at them in amazement. My favorite trees are the ones that have really dark branches and bright, almost-neon yellow leaves. I like driving by them and appreciating the fact that something so beautiful can exist solely for the enjoyment of people who will take a second to observe them. Oh, and I love seeing so many colorful leaves all over the ground, especially if it's rainy and they are bright and stuck to the ground. This tree greets me whenever I drive up to my house:

A Jodi-ful Weekend

Jodi flew all the way from Chicago and boy, were her arms tired! Sorry, couldn't help it. She's one of the friends that I love that I always talk about. Now that she has met all my Virginia friends, I think they might like her better. I don't blame them....she has very pretty eyes.

Here are some pictures from the weekend, but I mostly only have pictures of Friday night's Girls Night....the best thing that ever happened to Virginia Beach.

Here are the big trouble makers...2/3 of the group: Ashley, Michelle, Brandy, Sara, Jodi, and Amber.

Same girls, different order...

Me and my sister from another mister...

Natalie, Amber, and yours truly....
Michelle and Ashley....precious....

Nick and Jodi...Guitar Hero is apparently a very serious game...

Jodi and her Uncle Tim and cousins, Alex and Caroline. They live nearby, so we always go see them when she visits...they are hilarious...

That's all the pictures I have of the weekend although we did a lot of other fun things. Oh, and Jody was there too, but I haven't gotten those pictures developed yet. I will post them later.

Surprise Visitors

The Blossers came back for a visit this weekend, and it was like they never left except for the fact that Bella is now walking and doing tricks.

This is one of her tricks... Us: "How big is Bella?" Us again: "SOOO big". She doesn't say it, but she makes this hand signal. It never once got old even though we made her do this 800 times.

She had a fascination with the doggie door. It was hilarious when Gracie would come darting through the door and make Bella jump. Ok, it only happened once, but it was very memorable.

BFF's, Bella & GracieThey brought her Halloween costume for our laughing pleasure. If you think this is mean, you should see the video of her when we got her to sit next to the vacuum cleaner and then switched it on. You would think a bear had come to life the way she books it across the room with a very concerned expression on her face.

Tired porkchop...
Despite the fact that I only have pictures of Bella, Matt and Mel were actually there too and we had a blast. Looking forward to skiing with them in March!!

Hallow-Birth Party

Nick is officially one year away from being old (old = 30)!!! We went out with a few friends to celebrate, and little did we know - Halloween is a big deal. My world has gotten a lot bigger since the church "Harvest Parties" days. We may have been the only people without costumes to go out to dinner that night......

The girls - Brandy, me and Michelle (wedding coordinator extraordinaires)

Seamus (pronounced Shame-us....which he did), Jeremy, and Michelle

One of Nick's worst nightmares come true...

Happy Birthday, Ridiculous Nicholas! Next year, we will be dressing up to make for more exciting pictures.

Happy Schlappi's

I flew back into town on Saturday morning and was greeted by a few visitors. Nick's parents, Dan and Sandy Schlappi, came for a visit and also brought our niece, Annabel - possibly the cutest 6-year-old that lives in the world today. Sorry about the speckly picture...I thought the flash would get rid of the speckles, but things don't always turn out the way we thought they would. A word to the wise.Here we are at Colonial Boringsburg. I think this was an actual conversation about knitting in circles as they did in 18th century Williamsburg to make socks.
I asked Nick to act like he likes me, but he tends to smoosh me. Here I am trying not to get smooshed.
The princess....a girl after my own heart.
Lots of souveneirs to be had if you are an 18th century soldier.

Annabel and Papa. She wanted to ride the horse but we convinced her that carriage rides are lame. We also got her to eat a packet of butter for $2. Kids....

The last night they were here, we told Annabel good-bye and she started crying into a pillow. She is seriously the sweetest little cupcake ever. This is her brave-despite-her-broken-heart smile. Love her!!

Goodbye, Schlappi's! Thanks for driving 9 hours to see us. Or, if you're Dan and get lost for an hour trying to find a Long John Silver's, 10 hours (that was for the block of wood I got as a Christmas present that was supposed to be some clever joke about the speeding ticket I got). See you at Thanksgiving!!

Edits....

I have some editing to do. Ok, first, Jody was actually on vacation with us. I totally forgot to post pictures of her so please forgive me. It was SOOOO much more fun with her there. (Nice touch with the hair-sun-glisten, Jody)
Thumbs up for cruise ships!
Such a show-off. Good thing she's hot.
She randomly decided to cut her hair off mid-trip. And get some man-hands.
Second, I was so excited about December and the birth of Baby Borich that I couldn't even put it into words last night. I needed a day to let it sink in. So, here goes..... OHMYGOSHI'MSOEXCITEDABOUTBABYBORICHARRIVINGINDECEMBER!!! Now I feel better. Have I mentioned that Sarah is the skinniest pregnant girl of all time? Jealous.