Baltimore (updated to include post and title) :)

This weekend, Mike and I went to Baltimore to see Kooza and go to the National Aquarium. Circue du Soliel was incredible and for three hours, all we could say was HOLY CRAP! The show was INCREDIBLE and I recommend it to all. Mike purchased the Tapis Rouge tickets which involved a cocktail hour prior to the show and during the intermission and a picture taken on arrival. The picture is cute but my hair is awful. The curl took over... It was straight as a pin when I left the hotel but it was misty and damp. However, it gives you an idea of the boy.

Sunday, we headed to the National Aquarium with two Flat Stanleys in tow. For those of you unfamiliar with Flat Stanley, it is a paper cut out that school children color and pass onto family members and track their travel. My friend Penny's children, Caroline and Ben, are doing the Flat Stanley routine- both came to Baltimore with me.

The Flat Stanley's stayed at the hotel with us....

Ben's Flat Stanley said hello to the sharks....

Caroline's Flat Stanley said hello to the dolphin (who was saying "Talk to the Tail")...

Then the Flat Stanleys came home to the farm.

In Pennsylvania Dutch country...

where apparantly Darth Vader lives. The kids are going to love it!

The weekend overall was AWESOME and returning to reality was a a huge shock...

Scary Times

Mike went into work this morning to find out that two men from the IT department were being laid off. They had heard rumors of lay offs but had not seen the rumor come to fruition until this morning. One of the men was Level 3 and from Mike's office in Allentown. The other man was Level 2 (Mike's position) but from the Harrisburg office. For all intents and purposes, it seemed that Mike should have been the Level 2 man to go, since he has been in his position the least amount of time. However, Mike has volunteered to take on call time, stays late to learn new things, offers help whenever he can, and most importantly will go wherever the powers that be tell him too.

It would seem that Mike will now be splitting his time between the Allentown and Harrisburg office. He will need to take call for both offices (2/4 weeks out of the month) and will be living in limbo for the time being. As he puts it, it is gainful employment and only makes him more valuable.

The whole situation is terrifying to me. As an RN, I am secure in a job. I may not always have my position I am in now, but the bedside nurse is always in demand. And although, I may not want to go back to the bedside, I am guaranteed a job there. I cannot imagine the insecurity of not knowing if your job will still be there from one day to the next.

Tomorrow morning at 9am, Mike will meet with the powers that be to discuss his time at Harrisburg. Send good thoughts if you will, please.

Wordless Wednesday- Warped edition

So, in my usual good timing, I managed to tear the ligaments in my left ankle- AGAIN. (This is getting very old, peeps.) I was carrying in my laundry and managed to put my foot into the hole in the driveway and completely turn my ankle. The resulting tearing noise was enough to make me ill. I dragged myself into the house, laundry basket and all, and cried quite a bit while nursemaid piglet tried to make it all better... It sucks to do this at any time but this is the weekend that Mike and I are headed to Baltimore for Circue du Soliel and the Acquarium. We are still going just with me at a much slower speed.

Mike sent the above picture to make me laugh today. It worked. The look on the banana's face is priceless.

Happy Spring

Happy Spring, my fellow bloggers. Of course, it is flurrying and only 43 degrees outside here in PA, but still officially the first day of Spring. March Madness is underway and in an unprecedented move, I am leading the pool. My cynical family was sure Mike had helped me with my brackets. He did not, I did my research and chose not one emotional pick. When I told Mike that they thought he had helped, he snickered and said I should have helped him :)

Happy

I have become hesitant to post alot because it is such a wonderful journey that I have found myself on and one that is both exciting and intensely private at the same time.

So, I will say this: I am Great, Mike is Great, and together, we are incredibly HAPPY.

My idea of a perfect saturday

630am- get up and let aged dog out (not perfect yet)
645am- climb back into bed and into the arms of the man you are head over heels in love with (now perfect)
645-830am sleep in aforementioned arms
830am- man lets dog out
845-0930am - lie in aforementioned arms discussing anything
0930am -get up, drink caffeine of choice (diet coke) and eat girl scout cookies for breakfast
0930-1045am watch nephew of love play video games
1045am make the wise decision to go back to bed
1100am love joins you
1100-145pm sleep
145pm shower and head out to get food for lunch/dinner
300pm eat phenomenal hoagies from local mom and pop shop
400 - 7oopm sleep on couch with love

This is where perfect ends... Mike was called into work, i headed home and did not sleep much because of all the sleep I had had during the day and Princess P was more than angry with me for leaving her alone... It got better sunday afternoon when I headed back out into the land of open fields to have dinner with the love :)

And then it started to snow...