Austin's favorite cookies

Austin Really loves Oreo cookies, regular or double stuff-dunked in milk of course! Tonight he was eating them and I wanted a picture, but he wanted me in it (WHY???) so here it is...

On Fitness.....

Ray decided he was going to walk every day for 10 minutes (I of course suggested 20 in a nice way) and he agreed. Well, he went onto my treadmill and promptly broke it-well sorta of-it slowed WAY down and stopped on him! Keep in mind I love to walk every day and feel stiff and achy if I don't so I was devastated, but I didn't give up. I kept using it, but right in the middle of some really good speeds it would S-T-O-P! Remember Marcia Brady as she got hit by a football?"OH MY NOSE" Well.... that was me-You see...the human body continues to move at the same speed on a treadmill -even if the belt stops! Lucklily these things go on sale (deep discounts) in January! I researched (Runner's world,internet guides & Consumer reports) and shopped around until I found my top two. We ended up buying this at Sam's Club for a great price. It's very heavy since it has a commercial grade motor-3.0, incline, adjustable cushion surface and can handle 350 lbs! Getting it down the steps was easier than we thought although Ray was probably having flashbacks of our moving the pool table (I saw his shoulder twitching a few times). We managed NOT to put it through the wall this time. There are other goofy perks on it too-programmable work-outs, cup holders, i-pod & computer link-ups, stereo speakers, and a 3 speed fan. The one picture shows very bad form-but we were trying to get the whole treadmill in the photo and I am so tall. Check it out!

On interest rates.....

I am proud to say that we are re-financing our mortgage at an interest rate 2 % LOWER than our current mortgage interest rate.....not bad. Our payments will be much lower too-but I always pay extra (gotta bring down that principal!) Despite this happy news...Our house appraisal was disappointing -it went down compared to our first appraisal of this house (just 1 1/2 years ago when we moved in) ,BUT we aren't planning on moving any time soon, so we shouldn't be concerned about that so much I guess. It's sad that real estate has depreciated so much in such a short time. I guess many of us have plenty of reasons to be grateful for what we have.

New Year...new teeth!

Timmy lost another tooth. Austin seems a bit envious, but we keep telling him that is just because he was born with extra teeth (long story!). This one was quite a mess when it came out and I don't think the chapped lips helped at all. The tooth fairy is a frequent flyer in our house! PS Look closely at the first pic...his other tooth is now loose too!

Our trip to OCC...

The kids like to visit Orange County Choppers Motorcycle shop and showroom each time we visit family in NY. It's actually quite close to where my parents and sister live. They've moved quite a few times and now the shop and showroom are together. You can even view the shop where they make the bikes and film the tv show. All around the showroom there are bikes and merchandise. here are some of their favorites....The NY Giants bike, the NY Jets bike, POW bike, spyder bike, a cool blue one (can't remember who sponsored it), the Livestrong bike, the holiday bike and of course the firebike. The firebike is displayed against a 9/11 memorial wall. The entire back wall is full of fire department badges. The floor and surrounding walls are decorated with fire fighting gear. I had a lot of pictures, so I posted them small, but to see detail, click on the photo and it will enlarge....

Christmas

Sorry this took so long, but we went to visit family in NY the day after Christmas. Obviously the boys were quite excited for Santa's arrival. Santa brought Hot Wheels, Webkinz, socks (& yes both boys WERE smiling when they opened the socks), some clothes, books, assorted items ......AND......Santa brought the Wii! Anyone who knows us knows we don't have videogames in our house. All games are board games or learning computer games that we supervise. Yes we're mean and we were hoping to keep these things out of the house for as long as possible. I'd like to say I'm not against them, but I'm really only against sedentary, solitary play with electronics. The wii allows them to play together and MOVE! Here are some highlights...

Let it snow , let it snow, let it snow...

It snowed today and here are the first pics...
The one picture is from a week ago, but I thought latte & Timmy looked so snuggly!