Counting down!

In less than a week I will be in Ireland!! I know I know that is all I talk about but I can't contain my excitement. It feels like I have so much last minute stuff to take care of and my head is just swirling. I can't wait until we take off so all of this tension and anticipation can be relieved! Actually, I probably won't be able to fully sit back and say "ahhhhhh I'm in Ireland" until I get the keys to our rental car and then we'll be on our way.

I've got my cousin Carley with me until we leave so I took her shopping today. We went to Peter Harris (a sort of clothing outlet) and scored big on some good brand name items. Tomorrow we are staying in and getting the house in order because my husband robbed me of the car for the day so he can take care of work stuff before we go. I think we'll take a walk to the library to return all my travel guides and pick up some plane entertainment. Friday will be a massive laundry day then on Saturday Carley and I will go for manis/pedis! Trip planning is so much fun, I want to make a full time job out of it. Well if I get a job there will be the opportunity for so much more travel for us, like hopefully a California Christmas!

Another

Tony has become a big fan of the HBO Family show "Harold & The Purple Crayon" (based on a kid's book). It's available On Demand so we watch it almost everyday and there is a new episode available where Harold imagines what he will do when he grows up. One of his careers is a train conductor so of course Tony is now obsessed with this particular episode for it includes his beloved trains. Harold also imagines a high profile career in the city so now when Tony watches it he tells me "Mommy I want to go to the city". One day soon my son I will take you to a real city. Sorry, I am a snob about this, Albany just doesn't feel like a city to me. I'll take NYC or even Boston despite me being annoyed with Boston after living there for 10 years. Luckily I am so over living in an urban area so I do enjoy living out here, sometimes I just miss the ease of living in a city.

Nudist

Tony is going through his "nude" stage. Everyday this week he's decided at some point during the day to take off all of his clothes and his diaper, out of nowhere. I'll be doing something and I turn around and there's my naked kid. He even tried to go bottomless at our play date this week after he went "potty" with his friend. I am just hoping he keeps his desire to go nude under control when we are out in public! He's already got little to no shyness about him. I fear what this kid will do in school. I know he's not bad in a rotten sense but he's very mischievous/playful. He'll either annoy the hell out of his teacher's or be the teacher's pet (maybe both). I was told by the lady at the Y that he's the cutest kid. Well enough bragging about my cute son :)

In other news, I am getting sick of housewife duties again. Every time Tony and I have a busy and fun filled week my house hold chores suffer. I either make the poor kid suffer and sit inside all day and have a clean apartment or we go out and have fun and the laundry and dishes pile up (yes even with a dishwasher, I hate loading/unloading). Next week my 12 year old cousin is going to stay with us before school starts up for her so I hope I'll be able to get some stuff done quickly without him interrupting me so we can go out and enjoy ourselves. I'll also have to spend some time putting the finishing touches on my packing!!

The lack of take out/delivery options in this area is depressing me a little. I miss the days where I could order some Thai, Indian, Sushi or decent Chinese and have it delivered to me in less than an hour! There's nothing by us but some chain restaurants which are okay on occasion but there are only so many times I can stomach Cracker Barrel's chicken tenderloins. We were lazy tonight again and ordered from this hole in the wall my husband likes even though we took a vow of no take out/eating out for the month of August to save up for our trip but with the way food prices are and the deals offered at some places it is cheaper to eat out at times!

So my housewife days might be over sooner than I want but that would mean I'd have gainful employment. My interview went well I guess, I can never gauge how I do on these things, but, I have been contacted by my interviewer several times for more info on my resume and for permission to contact my references, all very good signs. I am happy that I might have a really great job where I'd actually be making some kind of difference in this world but also depressed about returning to work and losing time with Tony and all of the friends we've made. I am also worried about taking on a position with such responsibility. Ahh we'll see, we'll see, nothing is official yet and I've always been considered to be an outstanding employee in every position I've held so I'm sure I'd make out okay with whatever they throw at me.

WHY?

Why must my husband and his family be so freaking....I don't even know the word! They've already rearranged my plans once and now that I type all of this stuff into a beautiful loose itinerary my husband says I don't want to do this, I'm telling mom and dad we won't go with them (on the trip they surprised us with). It's so much nicer to have a semi-structured plan to follow when you have a kid. Please do not make my head explode by changing things on me again. I know this trip is just as much as Mark seeing "home" again as it is a travel experience for us but he is so uncooperative when I ask questions like "do you want to see this", "would this be a nice thing to check out" and just says sure then 10 days or hours or minutes later he says wait no, I don't want to do this or my most favorite "we'll see". Well if he's a lump I'll just hop on a tour bus and Tony and I will do what we want!

Trip to Old Forge, NY (Summer 2008)

Spent a few days up in Old Forge, NY, my families' old vacation spot from when we were kids. We were even able to stay in one of our old favorite motels. On our first night we went down to the arcade which hadn't changed a bit in the 10 years since we've been there. In fact half of the games were out of order! Since we are all grown up we pooled our tickets together to get stuff for Tony and he picked out a Spiderman doll-his latest obsession that bloomed after we attended a Tri-City Valley Cats game on Superhero night. Afterwards we enjoyed some yummy ice cream!

The weather wasn't that great for swimming or the water park at Enchanted Forest Water Safari but we still had a fun time.

It was kind of nice because there were no lines at the park and the crowd was pretty tame. Last summer we went to Water Country in NH and it was really a test of patience to be around a billion annoying and rude families in 90+ degree temps!

Tony enjoyed himself on the kiddie rides, especially the train of course. He picked out this Irish horse on the carousel all by himself, good little Paddy!

The water rides were a different story-he likes to swim and play in the water but if you get his face wet forget it. I took him on the lazy river ride and they have an elephant that spits out water and we were right in his path and apparently that has traumatized Tony for life! The 2nd time we went by the evil elephant he started freaking out and pulled my hand up over his eyes and kept saying "cover Tony eyes mommy". If we ask him about the water park he says "go on slide and go ahhhh" and then makes a noise about spitting out water and says something about the elephant and then says "Tony cover eyes".

I think Mark may have enjoyed himself even more than Tony did. He is not scared of the big rides like I am and he was the only one to attempt the highest slide there, the Killermanjaro. It was so funny to watch him running around from slide to slide like a little kid. His fun quickly came to an end because he's got no fat on his body to insulate him from the cold Adirondak air and he was shivering after about an hour! By the time it started to rain we were ready to head out anyways so our timing was great. We even got a small window of sunshine while we were there.

Tony was so well-behaved all weekend which is always nice. I think he's starting to come out of the terrible twos a little. I am hoping his screaming phase will die out in the next few weeks before our flight to Ireland!