I’m a relatively light sleeper. I have a hard time falling asleep if there is a lot of background noise, which is exactly why I sleep with a fan every night. The hum of my fan helps to block out a lot of the noises that would normally keep me awake. Noises like my husbands snoring, the tv being on or rain. Well, ok, that’s a lie – all of those things would totally keep me from ever falling asleep, but the fan does drown out the noise – a little. My problem is that I have super sensitive hearing and pick up on background noises that most other people don’t hear. And unfortunately for me, sometimes there are noises in which I have no control over and they’ve been known to drive me almost to the brink of insanity.
Jan 272012
Jan 262012
I’m not the mushy, romantic type. It’s just not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, though, I do have my moments and rarely occasionally I like to be swept off my feet by my handsome husband, Chris (although I don’t have those moments very often). Sometimes he will say something to me like “you’re so beautiful” or “I can’t wait to grow old with you” and do you want to know my standard response? ”Barf.” It’s just the way I am and anyone that knows me in real life can verify it.
Jan 182012
Got your attention, huh? Here’s what happened:
Last Friday night, my boys were with their dad, so since Chris and I had a (much deserved) night off, we stayed up late catching up on the shows we had on the DVR. When it was time for bed, Chris went into the bathroom to brush his teeth first and then he went upstairs to the bedroom. A few minutes afterwards, I went in to brush my teeth and saw something that I need to question Chris about. It was something I’d seen before and frankly, I was just tired of letting it go. I brushed my teeth and went upstairs to confront him and the conversation went something like this:
Jan 112012
Remember yesterday how I told you about our adventure at 5-Wits Espionage, the role playing spy game? What I didn’t tell you was that no one else was there at the time Chris and I arrived, so we got to play the game by ourselves. If other people had shown up, they would have been part our group and played along with us, but since it was just the two of us, the tour guide asked us our names. My husband, Chris, immediately blurts out “Ken” and simultaneously say “Kelly”. So, there we were – Ken and Kelly.
Jan 092012
Saturday night, the handsome guy that I’m married to took me to the Outback for dinner. Honestly, he hates it there, but he knows that I really like it, so he takes me there every now and then – and that’s why I keep him around.
Anyway, since it was a Saturday night, the place was pretty busy. We did the call ahead seating, so we didn’t have to wait long, however some people weren’t as smart as we were and had to wait nearly an hour to get seated. Luckily for the suckers people who were waiting, we’ve been having some unseasonably warm weather here in Massachusetts and it was almost 60 degrees that night, so waiting outside was very tolerable. Despite the heat wave, there were quite a few people that chose to wait inside in the lobby and/or at the bar.
Jan 022012
On New Year’s Eve, Chris and I headed to Mohegan Sun casino down in Connecticut for the night. Normally, we’re pretty lame and just stay in, but for Christmas I had gotten Chris tickets to see Kevin Hart (a very funny comedian) that night, so off we went. Sadly, we didn’t win big – or at all, but between the show, a great dinner and some awesomesauce people watching, we ended up having a really fun night.
As we were walking around, Chris suggested that we should grab coffee before driving home later that night. The casino is about 90 minutes away from home, so we thought the coffee would help keep us awake for the ride. We had walked past a Starbucks, but since I’d rather drink sewer water than try to gag down a Starbucks coffee (was that a collective gasp I just heard??), I had said to Chris that maybe we can just split a Coke instead.
Dec 132011
I can’t believe that I’ve lived in this area for my entire life, but just went to the Medieval Manor in Boston for the first time this past weekend. It’s an interactive dinner and show set in the dark ages and it was a fricken blast. Throughout the night we were entertained by the King, the Minstrel, the Jester, an Oaf and a few Wenches who all put on quite a show filled with jokes and music. All of the performers (minus the king) were also the servers, so they had double duty. But since we were doing things dark ages style, meaning we had to eat all our food with our hands, the performers were able to just drop our food and go. I guess they didn’t have forks back then.
Dec 092011
If there’s one question that I get asked more than any other, it’s “How did you meet your husband, Chris”?
Let me give you a little backstory first, though.
I had my second son on August 16, 2007 and he was delivered by c-section. I had several complications from the surgery and thanks to a visiting nurse who came to my house daily and a second surgical procedure, I was finally back to my old self about thirteen weeks after I had my son. Thirteen weeks!! It was a very long recovery and my ex-husband was such a douche anything but supportive and helpful during the time I was out of commission. Within a week or two of getting back on my feet, my husband left. Like as in moved out. We both mutually agreed that it wasn’t working out with us and it was for the best that we each go our seperate ways. That was in November of 2007.
Have you actually tried a chestnut that was roasted over an open fire? I did – and after I gagged over it for about 30 seconds or so, I spit it out. It was so bad that I couldn’t even bring myself to swallow it. And trust me, I’ve swallowed plenty of foul things over the course of my life. I can’t put my finger on whether it was the taste or the texture that grossed me out more and since my husbands experience with one wasn’t much better, I know it wasn’t just me.
Wondering why I was even eating a roasted chestnut? You know you are.
Nov 232011
The man I married is a far better husband than I am a wife.
It’s a fact and even though he will stand in front of anyone and deny it – it’s true.
He’s the type of man that will see something around the house that needs to be done -and he’ll just do it. No questions asked. I am the type of person that sees something around the house that needs to be done and I go in the other room and ignore it.
Oct 182011
Shortly after I started dating Chris (my husband), he took me out to eat at The Outback Steakhouse. It’s one of my favorite places to eat and since he had never been, we decided to go there one night. I don’t remember what he got, but coincidentially he ended up getting some sort of weird rash/allergic reaction the following day, which of course – he blamed on The Outback. For the record, as convinced as he is that the food he ate was to blame, I am equally convinced that he’s full of bologna. It wasn’t until recently that I finally convinced him to go back there with me and low & behold – he was just fine.
So anyways, I’m working on getting him to take me back again soon and in the process we got to talking about some other things he will never do with me. I’m talking things that no matter what I said or did, would never convince him to do them with me.
Oct 102011
One year ago today (on 10/10/10) I got hitched in Vegas to one of the most amazing men I’ve ever met, my husband Christian. In some ways it feels like I’ve known Chris forever, but in other ways this whole thing still feels brand new and I’m looking forward to many, many more years with him.
Today I wanted to share a couple of never before seen photos from my special day:
Aug 092011
Do you remember the good old days when we built towers & houses out of primary colored Legos? If you don’t have kids (yet), or your kids aren’t old enough for Legos yet – you are in for a big surprise when the time comes.
Before you get the wrong idea about my story (based on the title of my post), I should say that I love Legos. They’ve kept my children entertained for hours over the course of their lifetimes! The thing is, you can get a tub of Legos if you want to do your own thang, but there are all sorts of sets out now a days that are based on some really cool characters (Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Star Wars just to name a few), that are popular with the kiddos. I mean, I’m all for using brain power to create masterpieces instead of rotting it away in front of a television, but man oh man, some of these new fourteen million piece Lego sets are tough to assemble. For the record, I’ve put together many sets over the last couple of years and consider myself to be an expert on the matter.
“There’s only one cure for snoring: insomnia” – Anonymous.
Do you live with someone that snores? I do (sorry Chris). If you do, then you will easily relate to what I’m about to tell you. If you don’t, count your blessings. Seriously.
Here’s the thing. When I was married to my ex husband, he had sleep apnea and man, he snored like nobody’s business. I mean it was all night, every night. It was pure torture for the seven or eight years we were married and I’d never slept so well as I did when he moved out.
Now I’m remarried to Chris, and guess what? Yup, you guessed it….he snores, too. I just can’t seem to win in the snoring department, can I? I should say that he doesn’t snore all the time, but when he does, it’s loud and very distracting to me when I’m trying to settle down and fall asleep. Usually a good whack from me and he’ll stop. Sometimes it takes five or six whacks and a few kicks, but eventually he gets it and changes position, which usually helps. He’s tried Snore Stop pills and Breathe Right Strips, but they don’t work.
What gets me, is that often times he falls asleep almost immediately. It usually takes me a while to actually fall asleep because I always lay there and think about the day or what I have to do the following day. So, he will be laying there snoring while I’m laying there thinking and I’ll tap him so that he will stop – and he’ll say “I wasn’t sleeping so why are you hitting me”? Um, last time I checked, people don’t snore while they’re still awake. I kid you not, we have this conversation in bed all the time.
When our family went to Disney World in December, the five of us crammed into one hotel room and I found out the hard way that Chris’s son also snores - but on a whole different level. He swore it was because he was sick that week (I’m pretty sure he wasn’t), but let’s just say that between the two of them, I got no sleep for the entire week. And for that reason, whenever I travel with our whole family, we will be booking hotels with adjoining rooms. One for myself and Chris and one for the boys.
Chris tells me I snore – and I don’t deny it, but my response to him is always the same: “My snoring doesn’t keep you awake, but yours keeps me awake”. Fact.
I’m very open to suggestions if anyone knows a good way to make the snoring stop.
Jan 032011
Pretty much everyone knows that I got married in Vegas on 10/10/10, but for those of you who are new here, now you know. We were married at the Viva Las Vegas chapel not too far off the strip. The ceremony was a blast, the minister (Elvis) who performed the ceremony was awesome and in general everything went off with out a hitch. Until now.
During the ceremony, the chapel provided a photographer as part of the package. My sister & brother in law (and their son) flew in from California to stand up for us, but when my SIL started to snap photos, she was told she couldn’t. Apparently only the photographer was supposed to be taking pictures during the actual ceremony. I was never told that I couldn’t take my own pictures (it was MY wedding afterall?!?!) & was aggrivated at the time, but let it slide….it was my wedding day and I didn’t feel like getting into it with the photographer? She set up the camera and I trusted that she was going to get some good shots of Chris & myself getting hitched.
Once the ceremony was over, we were told the proofs would be ready in four to six weeks. A few days after the ceremony, I got an email with all the proofs and I was VERY disappointed. The photographer really did a terrible job. Half of the pictures were off center and she only took six or seven pictures during the actual ceremony. There were a whole bunch of posed pictures that we took afterwards, but I wanted a lot more of the actual ceremony, especially since I wasn’t able to have anyone take pictures for me with my camera. But, I sat down and decided which pictures I wanted to order and faxed in the order (and payment) the following day.
Anyway, the six week mark came and went, and of course we hadn’t received the pictures we ordered & paid for. Chris called them to see what the hold up was, and another few weeks later, we FINALLY had our pictures (and when I say called them, I mean he went back and forth with them on the phone several times because they couldn’t seem to figure out what was going on). We were supposed to get a certain number of prints that were included with the package, which is all well and good, but they left out a couple of pictures when they sent them, so we’ve been leaving message after message with no calls being returned. I realize they were the free pictures that were included with the package, but I still want them. Nothing like getting the run around, huh?
I am really disappointed with the way things have been handled by Viva Las Vegas & highly doubt I’ll ever see those pictures, so if you’re planning on getting hitched in Vegas, may I suggest you try a different chapel? My wedding day was a truly one of the happiest days for me and I have so many happy memories from it. Thankfully, because there is very little photo proof from that day.
Dec 242010
It was one year ago today that the love of my life asked me to marry him & as most of you know we got hitched this past October (10/10/10) in Vegas. I am so thankful that he’s mine and truly feel that he’s my soulmate. Ok, you can go barf now.
Oh, and there’s good news on my hearing situation. You may remember me telling you last week that I went in to see my doctor because my left ear was still blocked almost a week after my flight home from Disney World (if you recall, I flew home with an ear infection). My doctor told me that my ear drum was retracted, which basically means it was all smooshed in causing my hearing loss.
Well, yesterday all of the sudden my ear popped out of no where……and I’m VERY happy to report I have my hearing back almost two weeks later. My ear has actually been popping on and off since then, but I’m totally fine with that since I can now hear again!! The only downside is that it’s very painful, so I am keeping an appointment with an ENT (ears, nose & throat) doctor that I have set up for next week.
I have a new found respect for people dealing with hearing loss (my own sister is deaf in one ear). I’ve always had a great sense of hearing & for it to be gone like that was really hard to deal with. Getting my hearing back is, by far, the best gift I’ll receive this Christmas.
Finally…the post everyone’s been waiting for. You know, the one in which I talk about my wedding. If you missed the posts about the first two days of my trip to Las Vegas, you can read the posts about them here, here and here so that you can stay in the loop.
Before I start telling you about the day, you need to know that Chris’s brother Keith, his wife, Virginia and their son came to stand up for us at the ceremony. They were due to come in to Vegas around 8:15 that morning from Sunny San Diego, so keep this in mind when I talk about them later in the post.
The day started pretty early for both of us. We were both up around 6 am, because we were so excited! We got up, showered and went downstairs to grab some breakfast in a cafe in the casino. It was delish by the way. Keith & Virginia has booked a room at the MGM Grande and we decided to take the monorail down because my tootsies were sore from all the walking we did on Saturday.
We were already at the MGM when Chris got a call from one of them that their plane was delayed by about an hour, which was fine because that gave us some time to place a bet at 10:10 am on the roulette table, check out the lion den there and play some slots. We didn’t win on the 10:10 am bet, sadly. We got a call from K & V close to 11-ish that they were on their way, so Chris and I walked across the street to New York New York and found a fabulous deli in the back, so we picked up some sandwiches for all of us and headed back to our room to wait for them to meet us there. When they made it, we all had lunch and waited to head downstairs to meet the limo at 1:15.
Once the limo arrived, we were finally on our way….
And this is a picture of us just after we arrived at the chapel (take note of the super cool t-shirts we were both wearing):
And here we are checking in at the chapel:
Once we were all checked in, we had to wait about 30 minutes before the chapel was ready for us.
They were very organized at the chapel, I have to admit. I think they said they had something like 176 weddings booked for that day. Wowza! It was like an assembly line over there, but they managed to get everyone married, and that’s what mattered.
Before we knew it, we were inside our chapel and meeting Elvis who walked us through everything that was going to happen. Part of the package included a professional photographer and she told me we couldn’t take any pictures. WTH? I assume it’s so that I would buy additional pictures that weren’t included in my package, which I plan on doing anyways, but I was too excited to be upset over it. However, Virginia managed to snap one shot of Elvis for me:
The Elvis was hilarious and made the ceremony a lot of fun. The whole thing was like a whirlwind and it all happened so fast, but we did get a DVD of the ceremony, which only lasted seven minutes, so apparently it really was as fast as I thought it was. Anyway, Elvis sang us two songs during the ceremony. Viva Las Vegas and Love Me Tender. We had to pick two our of only four songs on their list, which I think is absurd considering the amount of songs Elvis sang in his career, but hey, who am I to argue. And no, I don’t remember what the other two songs I could have chosen were. Sorry.
So, about 2:15 pm PST I found myself a Mrs. Like I said, the ceremony was so much fun and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. There was a webcam in the chapel, so the ceremony was live on the web for our friends and family, which I really liked because that way everyone that didn’t come with us could still be part of our day. As soon as the ceremony was over, Keith and Virginia were asked to wait outside so the photographer could take some pictures, which should be ready sometime next week (hopefully).
Then before we knew it, we were back in the limo on our way back to the Paris. Keith and Virginia had left their stuff in our room, so they came up to get it before heading to their room. Once they took off, we did a little research about where we wanted to eat dinner, decided on a place at the Monte Carlo, but ended up at the Rainforest cafe in the MGM, which is where K&V were staying. We had an awesome dinner followed by a small mountain of chocolate deliciousness (literally…for anyone who hasn’t eaten at a Rainforest Cafe, it’s called the Volcano) for dessert. Yummm.
Then we said our goodbyes to Keith and Virgina & headed directly to Harrah’s (by taxi) because we had tickets at the Improv comedy club. Oddly enough, the headliner, Scott Record, is orginally from the town I live in now and even more odd, was that there were some people from my town at the Improv that night. During his performance he started talking about how he was a masshole or something and asked for people in the audience from MA. There was us, the other people from my town and some people from Billerica, which is north of Boston. Small world. I didn’t wait in the line after the show to meet Scott, but I did hunt down the people from my town, just to say hello.
By the time the show was over it was around 9:30, so we headed back to our hotel to play roulette at 10:10 pm, but sadly we didn’t have any more luck than we had at 10:10 am. Our flight left Vegas at 6:30 am, so after roulette, it was time for bed. And yes, we felt as bad as we looked in this picture we took at the airport the morning we left. Between the time change and late nights, we were beat….and we are still catching up today.
It was the best wedding day and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Everything just fell into place and I am positive it’s because Chris and I are meant to be together (try not to barf now).
Oct 152010
Make sure you check out part 1 here before reading on.
So after we were done at the top of the Eiffel Tower, we walked down to the Venetian to use the other set of half price tickets we purchased earlier in the morning. If you’re wondering what’s at the Venetian, it’s Madame Tussad’s Wax Museum. I went to that one the last time I was in Vegas and I’ve been to the one in NYC twice and I love it there. Their wax celebs are VERY realistic and it’s totally fun to pose with them.
After we left the museum, we headed back to our room at the Paris to get ready to head out for the night. We had tickets to see Penn & Teller at the Rio, so we figured we’d get ready and head over there for dinner and a little roulette before the show at 9. So, we waited in a LONG line for a cab over (too far to walk in heels), and finally got over to the Rio around 7 pm.
We picked up our tickets for Penn & Teller at the box office and came across a restaurant called Martorano’s, that had Italian food, so we ate there. There was a LONG wait, so we ate at the bar (which normally I dislike, but we didn’t really have time to wait). I have to tell ya, the food was terrible and we were both pretty disappointed. We got an appetizer and an entree to share. The app was mozarella chunks in olive oil, which I think was bad because it was bitter and I don’t think it should have been? The entree was Broccoli Rabe, which was just ziti and broccoli in a garlic sauce. That might have been good if it wasn’t WAY over-salted. I mean heart attack inducing overly salted. We couldn’t even finish it. We did get a HUGE piece of cheeseckake to split for dessert and that was good, but it was $14, which is insane for one piece of cheesecake. Anyway, we didn’t like it and I wouldn’t recommend that place to anyone, ever.
After we finished, we played a little roulette and then headed over to the show. Chris and I are both in agreement that Penn & Teller was one of the best, if not the best, show we’ve ever seen. They were hilarious and did some awesome tricks/illusions that I keep meaning to google to see if I can figure them out. If you are planning a trip to Vegas, go see them. Trust me on this.
Once the show was over (I think around 11), we hit the roulette table again for a little while so that the line for a cab would be a little shorter. Then we headed back to the hotel and went to bed because we both knew we had a big day the following day (my wedding day). Stay tuned for that……
Oct 152010
This post is about what we did on our second day in sin city (Las Vegas), so if you missed my post about our first day there, read all about it here.
Our second day there was Saturday 10/09. We woke up around 8 am (remember there is a 3 hour time difference from what we’re used to, so it was 11 back home) and were were absolutely FAMISHED. There were a few places in our hotel/casino, but we decided to venture out to find some breakfast. But before we did that, we stopped downstairs to make lunch reservations for the Eiffel Tower restaurant. We were so hungry that we didn’t make it far…we ended up next door at Planet Hollywood at Starbucks where we had some delish cinnamon rolls and devoured them in record time I might add. While we were wolfing down our breakfast we kind of planned out our agenda for the day. Our first stop was going to be one of those half price ticket booths in which, you guessed it, you can get half price tickets to shows and attractions. We picked up tickets to a couple of things and were off.
We headed over to the MGM Grande with the first set of half price tickets (which weren’t exactly half price, but about $8 off of $30) to the CSI Experience. I’d never even heard of that until the previous night when we were at the MGM for dinner, but we checked it out and had decided on Friday night that we wanted to do it. For anyone that doesn’t know what the CSI Experience is, it’s an interactive experience where you actually become the CSI and solve clues to solve the case (and included some video help from the cast members of the show). It was A LOT of fun. Chris and I worked together on a few things & did a few seperately, but both came out to the same conclusion. I didn’t take any pictures in there (sorry) because I was so busy solving clues, but it was definiltey worth it. It took about an hour and if we had more time, I would have considered going back to solve another one of the three crimes that needed solving.
After that, we were pretty rushed for time because our lunch reservations were for 1 pm, so we briskly walked back to the Paris. We got there just in time and were seated by the window facing the fountains at the Bellagio & saw the show two or three times while we were there. I remember when I went to Vegas the last time, the fountains were one of my favorite things and that hasn’t changed. Anyway, here’s the view from our table:
And here is the cute couple:
After that, we grabbed tickets and went all the way to the top, which I think they said is like 500 feet or something like that) tall. The elevators only take a few people up at a time, so I feel like we waited in line FOREVER, but it was worth it. Once we finally got to the top, we saw the fountain show two more times before heading back down.
And that was the first half of our day….stay tuned for the rest!
Oct 142010
Chris and I did SOO much during our trip, I am going to have to break it all up over several posts. Since our first day there wasn’t uber exciting, this entire post is dedicated to our entire first day.
Our flight was last Friday at 10 out of Logan in Boston. Because Chris is one of those people who gets super stressed out if we’re not at the airport a good three hours before the flight leaves (no matter how many times I try to convince him that it’s not necessary anymore), so we set out at 5:45 am to drop off the kiddos at my moms house.
They were getting picked up for the day by their dad, but since my mom wasn’t ready to come down here to stay with them that early, so we brought them to her. And then we were on our way about 6:30 am (after a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts to get them munchkins). Of course, we hit traffic on the way into the city, but it was expected. They did this whole highway restructuring project some years back in Boston called the big dig, which cost millions and millions of dollars and was supposed to alleviate the terrible traffic in the city. Of course, it did absolutely nothing, but I digress. We got to the airport around 7:30 and were on our way to Phoenix for our layover at 10 am.
Our layover was only about an hour, so that’s wasn’t bad at all. Then the flight from Phoenix to Las Vegas was around 45 minutes. It was around 3 pm PST when we arrived and we took a cab from the airport to the hotel. I ended up asking the cab driver something about traffic and he ended up telling me that he’s only been driving a cab for about two months. He lost his job & home and his family (wife and 4 kids) had to relocate and he took the job driving the cab. He was super positive about it and we spent the rest of the ride talking about how shitty the economy situation is out in Nevada and it turned into him playing tour guide sort of. He gave us all sorts of tips and hints for things around the city.
It was probably around 4 pm by the time we got to the hotel, checked in and up to our room at the Paris casino.
After we were all checked in, we headed over to the county clerk and got our marriage license, which was a VERY easy process I might add. We took a cab there and back and when we were done, we went back to our hotel. We grabbed a quick snack at the Patisserie (pastry shop) downstairs in the casino and then decided to go walk around the strip for a while. The ultimate goal was to find someplace to eat. We walked down towards the MGM Grande, stopping a few times along the way to take pics and whatnot and we ended up having dinner at the Studio Cafe at the MGM. The food was delicious and it was about 8 pm PST by the time we ate (which equals 11 pm EST) and we were STARVING.
I can’t quite remember, but I think we were back around 10 and hit the hay early. We were up at 4 am that morning, so we were both pretty beat. We ended up having a VERY busy day the following day, which I will tell you about tomorrow and it may even take two posts.
Boston mom of two little boys. Stepmom. Trophy wife. Blogger. One of the cool kids!
