New York! Just Like I Pictured It!

We had a great weekend in NY. We arrived on Friday and hung out with my brother at his place. Had VERY VERY VERY good Pizza---yummy NY Pizza is the best!

Saturday me, Larry and the kids took the train down to NYC. Metro North into Grand Central. It was in the 40's but cloudy and windy, so we bundled up. Marissa had a cough, so I gave her some cough medicine and some cough medicine gum and we set out for American Girl Doll Store. It was jammed pack. Marissa was overwhelmed. As soon as we got in the store she saw Ivy and wanted to get it. I said to leave the doll where it was (in the front) and we'd explore the store and come back for it. We walked around some, but there were so many people we finally just picked up some (read expensive) accessories and made our way to get Ivy and the cashier.

We then went to see the tree in Rockefeller Center. The kids loved watching the skaters fall on the ice. We stayed around the tree for a while and then Marissa got tired, so she went in the stroller and Larry and I took turns holding and walking with Dylan as we walked up 5th Avenue.

Build A Bear was crowded and since we have one of our own in the local mall we decided not to go in. Same with The Disney Store. Marissa fell asleep and Dylan, Larry and I stopped for dirty dogs. YUMMY! I had mine with mustard, sauerkraut and onions.

Then we walked the rest of the way to FAO Schwartz. There was a line but it was moving. Marissa woke up and we walked around the store some and picked out a toy for Dylan.

We walked back to Grand Central, watched the light show, got some lunch and headed for our train back to Mount Vernon.

We got back to my brother's place and prepared for the birthday party.

Cal was very suprised and we all had a lot of fun. I got VERY drunk and sent Larry back to my brothers place with the kids, my father and SIL and I spent the night at my sisters.

We hung out at my sisters on Sunday, they got the kids some toys and we visited, stayed the night and left on Monday around 11.

We stopped at Marissa's favorite "on the road" place for lunch: Cracker Barrell and got home around 6pm.

Marissa at American Girl Doll Store w/her packages:

Both by the Tree:

Street People LOL:

Ain't She Peculiar

Last Friday night Marissa and I went to see Kidz Bop Live.

I thought she would be thrilled, well she was, but she was unsure too.

During the concert she kept asking peculiar questions like "why are the lights on the wall diamond shape?", "why are there 9 of them?", "why do they like singing?" GAH!!!!

I looked over at her a few times and she wasn't even watching the concert: she was looking at the ceiling, playing with a speck of lint on her skirt. Even at one point she was holding her ears. When I asked her why, she said "it's too loud"

KIDZ BOP too loud??? Where did this kid come from? Certainly she's not mine. I started going to Rock concerts as a teenager. My first concert ever was Molly Hatchet at the Palladium in NYC before it turned into a club! I've seen Foreigner, the Who, the Stones, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Eric Clapton, Rainbow, Elton John, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, etc. etc. etc. If she thinks Kidz Bop is too loud she has problems.

I wasn't sure if she was enjoying herself, and I realized that she didn't know many (any?) of the songs. I guess that's from always having either movies playing in the car or the Classic Rock station turned on. Until towards the end when they performed "I'm a Believer" and she turned to me excitedly and said "That's from Shrek" and she sang along. Another song they performed at the end was "All Star" also from the movie Shrek and she recognized that one too. After a while she was in the aisle bopping her head and shaking her leg (her version of rocking out???) and had the biggest smile on her face...Gotta Love That Girl!

Montage

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Ninety Degrees in The Fall???

It's been fall for over a week and our temps are still in the mid to high 80's. It's weird. We went to our first fall festival yesterday and most of the people were wearing shorts and sandals! Today it's supposed to be close to 90 again! I can't imagine what the Steelers are thinking
today taking the field in 90 degree weather against the Seahawks.

Anyway here's some pictures:

I Be Bad Guy Mama

I guess gone are the days where I can pick out Dylan's Halloween costumes.Gone are cuddly puppy dogs, fuzzy bears, cute froggies.Seems my little boy is growing past cute and cuddly and on to scary and mean!I had thought that I would have the kids dress up as a Kitty (Marissa) and Puppy (Dylan) for Halloween this year.I even saw a cute puppy dog costume at Target for Dylan and was just trying to find a cute Kitty Cat for Marissa. She said she either wanted to be a Kitty or a Witch.So Monday Dylan and I were shopping and I said to him "let's go look at costumes"off we went to the Halloween section of Super Center Walmart ...and he was oohing and ahhing over all the outside decorations and pumpkins and such.I started looking through the toddler costumes and saw a cute, cute, cute "Itsy Bitsy Spider", he said "no", a fuzzy bear, he said "no", a frog, again "no". He said "bad guy" ...what? "bad guy, Mama" then "I be bad guy". I looked to where he pointed and it was the skeleton. He wanted to be a Skeleton.No matter how I tried to convince him otherwise, he was insistent. "I be bad guy"So this year for Halloween, Dylan will be a Skeleton and Marissa will be a Witch

Long Long Time

it's been a freakin' long time since I've been here...let's see what we've missed...

I did start working at the manufacturing plant as a contract recruiter back in June. I like the work, I've been working 1 to 2 days from home and the rest at the office.

We went on vacation in July. We went to NY then the Pocono's and had a really good time. We finally saw Frank & Yo's new place, it's really nice. Then we went to Michelle's bridal shower. Stayed over at Aunt Marion's where Dylan had an allergic reaction to almond cookies and we had him in the emergency room. We went back to Ellie's and then went to the Pocono's where we spent one day at a water park, a day at the pool at Big Bass Lake, a day shopping and then a day at a kids play place. Went back to NY for one day because John was doing a dinner at the American Legion.

Liz came back to PA with John, so we spent a long weekend with her. It was nice, Marissa really enjoys her visits.

We went to The Wiggles with the kids.

Then August was preparing for back to school. Marissa started kindergarten on August 27. She seems to really like it. Dylan has orientation for preschool on 9/5 and then starts 9/11. 9/12 he starts speech through Dart. He's talking soooo much now and even his articulation is picking up.

Yesterday was his birthday and we went to The Zoo and then back home he opened presents from Grandma & Peepaw. He especially loved the baseball glove! His Baseball Birthday Party is on Saturday. I'm still waiting for responses, but I think we'll have a decent turnout.

Today he started peeing on the potty! I'm so excited for this new phase for him! It's just a start and I know the road can be rough ahead in this phase, but it's a start...I owe it all to the M&M's LOL.

BBL with links to pictures and other ramblings.

Job Hunting & Interviewing

The interviews on Monday when pretty well. The first was for an IT Staffing agency in Downtown Pittsburgh. I met with the other recruiter and was very impressed. The compensation plan is phenomenal. Nice base and really good commission. Low expectation of placing a minimum of 2 a month and average commission on a new start is around $2000. So the chance is there to make over $80k a year. I then met with the Sales Manager. Who actually works out of a different office, but until this office is up and running (just hired a new sales manager is looking for another) is commuting to the PGH office about 3 times a month. We had a good interview, but I felt he was high pressure/high expectations. He was hard to read. Sometimes I felt my responses were dead on, sometimes I couldn't tell. The position would be a lot of work, especially to begin with just building up my portfolio. The expectations that the sales manager has is different than what the recruiter and recruiting manager has talked about.

The second interview on Monday went really well and I think I have a greater chance getting this position. It's a contract position going 3 to 5 months with a great chance for it to extend. It's for a manufacturing company hiring only their assemblers. Low pay, very regulated restrictions, high turnover. It's more flexible with time and hours. Ability to schedule yourself, lower pressure, high expectations, can do some work from home. The person who had the job before is recruiting for this position and he said he would come in some days at 10 and work to 4 and then go home to work a few hours on his own schedule. This is what I like about it. It's professional but without being so strict. It's flexible, but you can still schedule yourself to work 40 hours. It's hourly and the pay rate would be about $25 an hour. The HR Manager is trying to push this for a permanent position but corporate has been waffling about it. James, the former recruiter, was hired to work 3 months and actually worked 9. I think it would be a great transition for me because I'm just getting back into the work environment. I don't really know how it's going to work.

So I have a call back to another company who I sent my resume to and left me a voice mail yesterday to call back today.