Which way the wind will blow....

Here it is! The blog I am sure so many of you have been waiting for! This may seem like quite the conceited statement, however, I have already been asked about this blog like three times, sooooooooooo I know it is true :)

So I went to New Jersey to see Duane, and it was amazing. I got in on Friday night right on time, and he was standing, looking very handsome I might add, at the bottom of the escalator. I ran over to him and gave him big hugs and kisses, and then we got my baggage and went back to his house to drop everything off. We then went to dinner with his friends Janet and Josh. They were very nice, and it was a good evening. This is us that first night:



The next day was the day that he had been planning for a while. That was our New York day. He took me to New York, where I have never been, and took me to see Mamma Mia. He also took me out to a very nice dinner in the city. We took the train from New Jersey to New York. Here are some pictures at the train station:







We took the train from New Jersey into New York, which was actually very fun. I really like trains, and it was fun to see different parts of New Jersey. It was also very neat to ride into Pennsylvania Station. You ride through the tunnel for about 5 minutes, and then it opens up, and you look up out of your window and see the huge buildings of the city. It is almost like a movie set. They only give you that brief second of a preview though because then you are underneath the ground while the train parks. We got out, and went up into New York.

Being in the city was quite surreal to me. Most of the time it felt like I was on the back lot of some film studio. It was freezing in the city, but it was really neat how we could walk anywhere. Pennsylvania Station is on 7th Avenue, and you just keep walking up the street, and you find Broadway. Mind you, most of you know me to be quite the little Broadway girl, so to actually see the sign that said "Broadway", my heart stopped just a little bit. I was in Lindsay Heaven. In New York, on Broadway, with a wonderful man. Yep. Lindsay Heaven.




Anyways, Duane took me to see Mamma Mia at the Winter Garden Theater. Which is also the theater where Cats played for so long:




The play was really fun and really cute. It was wonderful to see an actual Broadway production as the quality of everything was really fabulous. And it was such a cute, fun and light show. It was perfect, and my baby had gotten us fabulous seats.

After the show, he took me out to a real New York dinner! It was at a little French restaurant just North of the theater called Maison. We got three courses, and all of them were very good. I got a little Pizette, which is like a little pizza, roasted chicken, and then a Chocolate Souffle. The dessert looked so scrumptious that I took a picture of it:



After dinner we had to walk back to Penn Station to catch our train back to New Jersey. It was beautiful to walk through the city at night, although it was utterly and bitterly freezing. We thought about taking the subway, but I hadn't gotten a picture of Times Square when we passed through it in the morning, and I wanted to see it all lit up at night, so we braved the freezing temperatures. Here are the pictures:






What I haven't yet told you is that I have a little bit of city anxiety. And, by a little, I actually mean quite a bit. It was so cute cause Duane took care of me to calm my fears in this respect, but as we were walking back to the train station, after Times Square, there were two corners where we had to walk through two huge groups of black Islamists. The first corner we walked through the group and the preacher dude that was speaking said "These white people, they don't know what we're talking about, they don't understand" I was like OMG! THEN on the NEXT corner there was some chick who looked to be like a masters student or something ARGUING WITH THEM! I was pretty sure someone was going to get shot. No one did though, so that is good. We got to Penn Station and had a little while before our train. We started to wander around but at that point my anxiety got the better of me, and we had to go back to the part of the station where I was familiar with. Poor Duane with poor anxiety attack Lindsay. But, he was so sweet about it and hugged me and held me until the nerves had passed.

The train ride is about an hour each way, so because we were looking so cute, I decided to take a bunch of pictures of us. I am going to post them cause they are so cute:






The next day was a pretty lazy day. We hung out for a while, and went to brunch, which was really good. We went over to his sister Tammy's house, and I got to meet her and her boyfriend. They were very nice, although both a little under the weather I think, so that was too bad. Tammy has just gotten a cute little puggle puppy. Which is a mix between a beagle and a pug. As I am blogging this I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of the puppy cause he was so cute. But, alas, another time. After that we went back home and I got to see a lot of old videos of Duane's. He was in drum and bugle corp in high school, which is like an amazing marching band which tours the country over the summer, so he showed me a video of that. And, I got to see some of his college piano recitals that he had been in. They were all very awesome.

The next day was sad because it was Monday, and I was leaving. :( I didn't leave until late afternoon, so we did get a lot of the day together. Duane was able to show me the music from the children's musical he had written, which was very good. He also played the accordion for me! I added the clip below:



Duane has quite the extensive instrument collection. All of which he can play very well. I took a picture of his string instruments which hang on his wall:





They are all named, from the left it is Mandy, Bassy, Banji, Lecty, and Cousty. And his accordion is Courdy:



I also took more pictures of us. And yes. I am that girl that takes pictures of me and my baby kissing, and then I POST THEM. Deal with it.





Duane is amazing. He is kind, sweet, handsome, funny, smart, and more talented than I knew. I had such a wonderful time with him and I miss him very much already. He is more wonderful than I think he knows, and one of the most amazing people I have ever met. I am very lucky to have him in my life, and I appreciate him every single day. No matter what he can make my day brighter. The trip was great, and he is great. And I love him.

The end of this blog. There will be more I am sure. We are way cute though amirite? :D

Accio!

So tonight I was perusing youtube, NOT doing laundry like I should have been. BUT, my boredom payed off, this is what I found:



What what? An entire song about the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Pretty freaking awesome.

That is all.

What I learnt today

About a week ago my sink disposal just stopped working. I flipped the switch one day and it just didn't turn on. I hadn't done anything traumatic to it, just the normal small food items. It just stopped working. This was very stressful to me because with three kids, I really felt that I NEEDED a disposal. Also, to get it fixed would have required me writing up a request, taking it to the apartment office, and waiting for them to fill my request. And probably also involved the toothless fixer dude. So, needless to say, I was not looking forward to it, so I had been putting off my request.

Well, today my Dad came over, and I just happened to mention that the disposal was broken. He looks at me and says "Have you tried pressing the restart button?" and I said "...there is a restart button?!" My Dad then proceeds to reach underneath the sink, press this magic button and my disposal works again.

This was epic enough knowledge that I thought I would pass it along to anyone who does not know about the magic restart button. Or, maybe it is just me that doesn't know. Either way...I am very happy to have learnt it.

You better not shout, you better not cry!

So, this is a bit late, but I just got the pictures from when Santa came to our house to visit us. See, we are very special, and Santa came just for us about a week before Christmas. He even brought one of his elfs! Severian thought this was just about the coolest thing that he had ever experienced in his life. Ender was somewhat skeptical of the big guy in the red suit, and Kat...well...she was absolutely terrified. It is funny, cause Kat is a pretty social baby, but there was something about a fully grown man in a red suit with a full beard that freaked her out. She literally started shaking when I tried to take her over to Santa. She clung to me and buried her face in my shoulder, and shook until I handed her to my mom, who was across the room from Santa. Anyways, here are the pictures:










As for us, there is not a whole lot that is new. Mostly just working and stuff. The kids are going to a new babysitter, which they seem to like. They miss Britany a lot, but they like the new girl, staci. And yesterday Auntie Ry came over for dinner so that was lots of fun! Our lives have settled down quite a bit though from the 8 week marathon that started in November for us. It is a nice change of pace.

And, because I read the beautiful Sarah's blog right after I posted mine, I thought I would add my little quiz character to my page:

Take the Quiz here!

Think of me fondly, whenever you fancy...

Sooooo.....Hmmm....how do I want to start this blog? I am unsure. This blog has the specific intent to set everyone up for the slew of blogs that will be coming in about 3 weeks that will be mushy and sappy and full of pictures, and to introduce someone who is very important to me. I guess let me refer back to a little blog entitled something like "I have been thinking a lot lately..." Or something to that effect. I believe that in that blog, I set out some rules and guidelines that I was looking for in a significant other. Lets review:

#1. Must have accent.
#2. Must love musicals and old movies.
#3. Must be able to dance..or willing to try to learn
#4. Must be Quirky.
#5. Must be willing to write me notes/give flowers/do cute thing
#6. Must Not be Gay

I think that I have found a man who fits into every catagory, and more.

#1. The accent, I know, was one of my most crucial points. But, his Jersey accent is incredibly adorable, and sweet, and not thick at all, which is good. It is just enough for this little Lindsay to swoon over :)

#2. He not only loves musicals, he is musical! He can finish almost any song that I start to sing randomly, or can at least tell me what musical it is from. He even knew what "Once on this Island" was when I had never heard of it. He has also been in musicals, and in the orchestra for musicals. Which, I of course, think is amazing.

#3. He can dance, and not only dance, knows how to ballroom dance. Hello!

#4. He is quirky enough to meet my quirkiness.

#5. In the time that I have known him, he has been very sweet, and has made sure that he made me feel wanted every single day by just doing the little things like texts. He plans AMAZING surprises, and has made me feel so special. There have been times when I have not known how to respond with words because I am so blown away by how sweet he is.

#6. I know what you are all thinking. There is no way that there is a guy like this who is straight. Well. He is. True story.

These were the few guidelines that I set up just a while ago. However, my boy most certainly surpasses these by leaps and bounds. He is an elementary school music teacher, so, I mean really, how freaking adorable is that? He is extremely talented, and can sing, play piano, guitar, bass, banjo and probably more, and is good at all of them. Oh, and did I mention that most of them are self taught. He writes songs that are good. Can juggle. Runs regularly (the other day he ran 12 miles, and I was tired just thinking about it, but it is amazing to me). Oh, and is freaking hot. And did I mention amazing? Cause he is. He is very smart, and our personalities mesh very well. Like, our first conversation, we had a full on theoretical discussion about Harry Potter, and whether or not Snape would have befriended Harry had he lived. He didn't even KNOW that Harry Potter was the way to my heart. It was just....him....

His name is Duane, and he is my boy. And I am swept away.

I know you are all like, oooo what does he look like? Well, I will have more pics and more stories coming in the next few weeks, but here is a sneak peek for now...



I know right. Freaking cute. Freaking, freaking adorable.

Holiday Season!

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have blogged, and I apologize for that. We have been crazy busy over the holidays. Also, all the babies have been sick at some point over the past two weeks, so it has been very crazy. However, Christmas is over, and I finally have a moment to sit down and do a little blog. There has been a lot that has happened. The first thing is Severian turned 5! And, being a very spoiled boy, he got not one but three birthdays! The first one was supposed to be on the Saturday before his birthday, however it snowed very bad, so we didn't get a chance to do much. But, he still got to open his presents that day, got a cake, and we went to go see Bolt. The neat thing was that we went to go see it, and it just happened to be one that was in 3-D! Severian thought this was one of the neatest things ever, and surprisingly, kept his 3-D glasses on the whole time:



So he had that party, AND then we also had a little party for him on his actual birthday, which was the next wednesday. Kat and Ender were sick, so we did not do a whole lot, just a little cake at my Mom's house. He got lots of things, he got a playdough set, High School Musical 3 soundtrack, and lots more, here are some pictures:






He also got a doctor's outift, which was just about the cutest thing ever. He loves to dress up and play doctor with his brother and sister and me:




Severian's birthday is the last birthday in our birthday marathon. His is December 17th, so it is a week before Christmas. The week of Severian's birthday, we also put up our tree. This was very fun as the kids loved to help me decorate the tree. Ender was old enough this year to participate. Although I much prefer real trees to fake ones, real trees are expensive, and also very hard for me to get, and dispose of. You know, cause I am a small single mother of three that does NOT have the strength to get it up three flights of stairs by myself. While my parents and brothers would help me, it is still just a huge hassle for everyone. So, last year, we bought a fake tree. And, our fake tree is pretty much the coolest ever. I don't have to string lights in it because it already has lights. But none of those crap pre-lit bulbs. It has, get this, FIBER OPTIC lights. That are RAINBOW colored. For shizzle yo. Sev picked it out. Anyway, here are the kids decorating the tree:














And, finally, we get to Christmas. Christmas this year was amazing. The kids, as per usual, got a ton of stuff. I did not take a lot of pictures because my Mommy got me a little digital camera that allows me to take videos, and upload them directly to my computer. Which is A M A Z I N G. The kids got a lot of playdough, moon sand, building stuff, and tool kits. They also got this way cool dinosaur thing that makes sound and walks, a remote control car, and lots of clothes. And lots more that I am sure I am forgetting. It was great too because I got to spend time with my family, and with my in-laws, and it was not trauma at all. It was all very good, and it was very good for the babies as well.

Oh, and, as our big family gift, my Mom and Dad got me a Wii. And a Wii Fit. I am officially the coolest person y'all know. I mean, I am just sayin.... but, Severian is certainly the coolest five year old you know cause he is going to rock the wii out.

Here is just a little clip of Christmas, if you have made it through this lengthy blog, then I applaud you. I hope your holidays were as fabulous as mine. Here is our brief clip of Christmas, filmed with my excellent new camera. My favorite part of the video is the quote by Sev "Look, I got light up socks, so if I don't see my feet I can just see them!" Pure awesome:



More to come!!!!! <3 you all!