Cleveland Rocks!

Even though the Indians lost the AL Championships, I still have a soft, squishy spot in my heart for Cleveland. This is why I am excited for the weekend! Me and my boys are heading to Cleveland for 2 reasons: 1) My dad is going to be there on business (plus I talked my mom into joining him so we could see her, too!) and I haven't seen my parents in over a year and 2) I have not been back to my old stomping grounds since Dec. 1997 - 10 years! Squeee!

I really only lived in the Cleveland area for 2 years - my last 2 years of high school. However, those 2 years shaped who I am now in more ways than I can count. While I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of moving almost all the way across the country and away from the friends I had spent a large chunk of my life with, it was the best thing for me in the whole wide world. So - lots of warm feelings about Cleveland and Ohio in general. I am most excited to visit Kirtland again, as I know it has changed tremendously since I was there last. PLUS Soren has never been to Ohio, so that will be fun!

Today I must make my third attempt at registering our 'new' car (read: used). There was all kinds of drama and I almost yelled at the DMV (yes, the entire department! HAHA! - no, really, just the chica who sits at the front desk saying 'no' all day) yesterday because I seriously think all the bureaucratic nonsense we go through to register a vehicle is ridiculous. I understand WHY all the nonsense exists, but it is ridiculous. It seems the state... I mean COMMONWEALTH of Virginia is much worse than many other states. It took me 2 years to get my driver's license because of the stupidity. Oh well. At least the vanity plates are cheap. And yes, we are getting one for Alan's car: 2METER2 *giggles* That's how tall he is, after all!

Aside from the car drama, I am helping a friend clean her apartment that they just moved out of (I was assigned the microwave because I'm tall - hee hee!), and I have to go beg CVS to reprint some receipts because Soren, in his attempt to be as thorough as possible in taking out the recycling, made off with ALL of our receipts from the past 2 years. Yes. All of them. I almost had a heart attack this morning when I realized this. Now we just have to pray that nothing we have purchased breaks. Our Flex Spending card is freakish and doesn't accept transactions from CVS without a receipt to prove we aren't spending our money on junk food and cheap drug store merchandise. I keep the CVS receipts out usually so Alan can take them to work, but alas . . . I missed one.

Luckily, I do not have to work today! Wednesday and Friday are my days off, so I get to run errands, do service, do laundry, and clean the house! This is especially important on Wednesdays because Wednesday is girls night at my house. This is when I send the boys upstairs and I have a handful of girls over. Sometimes we just chat, sometimes we play Karaoke Revolution or DDR, sometimes we watch a chic flick, sometimes we play games, sometimes we even LEAVE THE HOUSE.... but whatever we do, we get time off from kids and husbands and just get to be girls together. It's awesome and I highly recommend it!

With that, I leave you. I have babbled on long enough for one day. It is now time for me to shower, as I currently smell of chlorine from my water aerobics class, and get ready to fight the demons at the DMV!!!!