Mistaken Identity

I have no exciting stories for you from my day. Instead I will share with you this heartwrenching story I read in the news today. Some of you may have heard about this. A month or so ago I remember reading about a horrific car accident in Indiana that took 5 lives of students and staff from a small Christian university. One girl had survived but with very critical injuries. Here are the two stories I read about her today....

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/grief-after-hospital-mixup/2006/06/01/1148956450283.html

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14710138.htm

The young woman's sister had started a blog to keep everyone updated on the condition of her sister only to find out it wasn't her. www.lauravanryn.blogspot.com

" It is a sorrow and a joy for us to learn of this turn of events. For us, we will mourn Laura's going home and will greatly miss her compassionate heart and sweetness while knowing that she is safe and with her King forever. We rejoice with the Ceraks, that they will have more time on this earth with their daughter, sister, and loved one."

This story made me so sad and I can only think of what that family is going through now realizing their daughter is actually gone. My prayers go out to both of those families involved.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I'm Baaaaaaack!!

The long weekend is over and the slacker has returned. To make up for my lack of blogging this past week I will try my best to entertain you all today.

Our weekend started out pretty slow, Chris had to work Friday night and he was gone till almost midnight. I just chilled here with my doggy and watched the Carolina/Buffalo game. Saturday was a little on the crazy side, we had so much to do and we were having friends over that night. We got up Saturday morning and cleaned the house and did some much needed yard work. It has been raining so much the last month or so I haven't been able to get things done out there and start planting. Hopefully the sun stays out this week.

After we cleaned the house we headed to Walmart where we needed to pick up a few things. One of those things being a new pad for our bench we have outside. We actually found a nice one for only 14 bucks. We got a nice new futon cover on sale for 30 bucks, a new toilet seat and a bunch of other little stuff. After Walmart it was off to Costco. I love Costco, I really really do. You know those Air Wick scented oil air fresheners that you plug in. Well normally at the store one of those is like 4 bucks and that's only for the refill. The warmer itself is like 7 or 8. Anyways at Costco they had a 6 pack with 1 warmer for only 9.99. Of course I got them, what a deal. After that we headed to the grocery store and then then Petco. We spent the afternoon running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

Finally we made it home around 5:30. Chris got everything (bbq, chairs etc)moved into our driveway since we couldn't sit out on the grass because off the new grass we are trying to grow. Our friends Chris and Kellie and John and Kelli came over around 7. We had a yummy supper, bbq chicken, burgers, hot dogs, bake potatoes. After we ate we all sat around for a few hours talking, it was a very relaxing evening. Of course after everyone left I went inside to watch the Oilers game which I had on record.

Sunday we really didn't do too much until later in the day. Around 5 we decided to go for ice cream at a place called Cold Stone Creamery. We got a kick out of the t shirts the staff were wearing. "Friends don't let friends eat grocery store ice cream." It was SO good, I suggest if you have one near you that you go. For my friends in Canada I am sorry you don't have any. LOL Because it was the long weekend our neighbor's decided to have a HUGE party. They are from the Dominican Republic and I guess it was their mothers day. Anyways they had about 30 or more people over and since they don't have a yard decided to use the driveway behind their garage to have all their chairs, bbq's, tables etc. Our end of the driveway is ok because we are at the very end so we aren't in anyone's way. We don't like those neighbors very much , they are rude and obnoxious and really can't you go party somewhere where someone has a yard? Anyways......Our other neighbors in the house behind ours had a bunch of people over. But they have a yard and don't block everyone off. They had a much smaller gathering. Later in the evening Chris and I wandered over to their place (the ones we like) for a little visit. We ended up staying much later than planned. I don't know how some of those people stay up that late, I was so tired when I woke up Monday.

Monday our friends Jen and Alison were in town from Seattle. They were at a wedding in NH this weekend and flying back to Seattle this morning. So we met them at Anna's in Brookline for lunch yesterday. Anna's is our favorite place to go for burritos and stuff but we don't go nearly enough. It is so good! As Chris and I were standing there waiting for our burritos I glanced over at the guy standing at the cashier paying for his lunch. As I stared at him for a few seconds I realized I knew him. He was my old friend Des all the way back from high school and I haven't seen him in a super long time. I knew he had lived here before when he went to MIT but I had no idea he was back. He is here for another 3 years getting his PhD. It was so weird, total blast from the past. It was cool to see him though and we exchanged emails and stuff so hopefully we will be getting together soon with him and his girlfriend. After lunch we headed back into the city with Jen and Alison. We ended up at Faneuil Hall, went to the north end to have a cannoli at Mike's Pastries. If you have ever had a cannoli you will know what I am talking about when I say how rich it is. WOW, I had a hard time finishing mine. For those of you who don't know what it is it is basically cream filling wrapped in pastry with chocolate chips on it. After that we walked around some more and finally headed back to the car and came back here to our place.

We just hung out for a few hours grilled some burgers and that was that. They left around 9 and Chris and I just relaxed before we both zonked out. It was a HOT weekend too, and that just makes me so tired when I have been out in it all day. But thank God summer seems to be here and hopefully we can go a few weeks without the darn rain:)

As usual I had my camera with me the whole time and forgot to take any pictures. I did take one though of this tiny little bar in the north end.
Hope everyone had a great weekend:)

GO OILERS GO!

Stanley Cup Finals HERE WE COME! I am so excited I don't even know what to say. I was 12 years old the last time the OIL were in the finals.
Sorry I have sucked so bad this week at posting:( I promise I will get better at keeping ya'll up to date about the goings on in the McClees household:)

The ole ticker still works.....

So I had an appointment with my doctor yesterday, she told me that my echocardiogram was fine. She said my heart looks and sounds very healthy. My blood work that I got done when I was there last time all came back good. She had thought I could be anemic but that all checked out fine. I still have my holter monitor till June 4th. After that she will get all the results of the EKG's and we will go from there and try and figure out what is happening when I get all those weird symptoms. I am just glad the echo was normal and now I don't have to worry about it anymore.

After my doctors appointment Chris and I set out on a mission to find me a new pair or running shoes. The ones I had were so uncomfortable and were killing my feet. We decided to check out
a few stores in the mall, one of them being Olympia Sports. I was certain I wouldn't find a pair I could afford in there. Most of what they sell are 80 dollar Nike's and adidas. And I just don't have that to spend on shoes right now. Chris is an adidas man, so is his brother. I am not so picky on brand name, I just want them to look good. Anyways they had a clearance sale and I found a pair of Reeboks in my size. I was very excited. They are super comfy and I think they look pretty good as well. And here is the best part, they were over 50% off and I got them for 24.99. They were regular 60 something. What a freaking hockey game last night. The chants of "WE WANT THE CUP" gave me shivers. There was fights, goals and saves....oh the saves. I love Dwayne Roloson. I am certain I stopped breathing for the last five minutes! We took a 4-0 nothing lead in the 3rd with 3 of those goals coming in under 3 minutes. I was jumping around screaming like a crazy lady. Then I turned to Chris and said "you know if we can score 3 goals in under 3 minutes so can they!" And that they almost did with 3 in 4 minutes. GOOD GRIEF! So now it was a 4-3 hockey game, too close for comfort. But then good ol' Fernando scored to make it 5-3 and that was that....or so we thought as the Ducks scored a flukey goal with just over a minute to go to make it 5-4. But we held on and that's the important thing. The Oil now have a 3 games to none lead in this series and we can pretty much guarantee they are going to the Finals for the first time in 16 years. WOOOOOOOOOHOOOO! Sure teams can come back from a 3-0 deficit but it has only happened twice in the history of the NHL playoffs. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders. LETS GO OILERS!!!

Goodbye Sydney Bristow

Last night was the ALIAS series finale:( I hate when my favorite shows run their course. But like Andrea said in her post, at least I have LOST and Grey's Anatomy to fill the void. I won't go into the finale too much cause I know some of you (Dave) have not watched it yet. I thought it was great and I am so sad to see it go. I was overall happy with how they dealt with most of the characters and even more happy that they did leave some things open if they wanted to do anything with it down then road such as a movie.

So we have decided to put movie Tuesday on hold for the summer because last week was the last 5 dollar one because of summer. With school going to be out and stuff I suppose it makes sense since there will be more people out and about why not make more money. Perhaps we will still go once a month and have our new Tuesday date night be to the driving range.

Dogs everywhere

I find it hard to believe sometimes that I am still watching the Oilers play hockey this late in May! GO OILERS!! We won game 1 in Anaheim Friday night 3-1. Game 2 is tonight.

Chris was on call this weekend so he ended up having to work for a bit on Saturday. I must have ate something or had a stomach bug because I spent all day feeling like I was going to lose my cookies at any minute. I think I avoided that though by swigging pepto from the bottle all day. We had planned to go over to Georgette and Tyrone's Sat night and we went anyways regardless of me feeling sick. I figured I was just going to lay down here watching TV so why not do it over at their place. Tyrone was actually out of town so it was just Chris and us girls. We ended up ordering BBQ from Red Bones. At first I wasn't going to eat cause I was afraid it would just make me sicker but I was so hungry and it looked and smelled so good. So I ate a little anyways and all was good, I lived to tell about it:)

As some of you know our dog Annabelle has issues upon meeting other dogs for the first time. This is sometimes a big headache especially when we are walking her. We don't really know what her issue is, she was 10 months old when we adopted her so we really have no idea of her background at all as she was a stray. The most logical answer is that it is a fear issue and she feels like she needs to protect herself (or us), but once she realizes there is no issue she is fine. Georgette and Tyrone have 2 Husky mixes and we thought last night would be a good night to take Belle over and introduce her to the girls. When we got there I think it was a bit overwhelming for her because we had her halti on and Chris was holding it tight so she couldn't open her mouth. Madison and Leah were all up in her business trying to figure out who this new dog was and why she was make such odd noises. LOL. We waited long enough for Belle to eventually calm down, Chris walked her around the house to let her sniff things out and eventually we took her leash off but kept her halti on. The Halti is NOT a muzzle it is something that is used for walking her. If she pulls it pulls her mouth shut and she doesn't pull. Last night it was effective in the sense that when we took her off her leash she was to preoccupied with getting her halti off that for a while she barely paid any attention to the girls. Eventually we took her halti off and the 3 dogs played together for the rest of the night. Running in circles, chasing each other up and down the stairs, wrestling etc. Belle can add 2 more doggie friends to her list. I just wish she could be just that and not have all the drama before hand.I had to take a second picture of Madison cause she looked away right as I took the picture. If you notice though Leah and Madison both have one ear that stands up and one that is down. It is super cute. They are sisters and it is so cute how they both have their ears like that but it is opposite ears. Leahs left ear stands up and Madisons right ear stands up.

Just when I thought the rain was finally gone for a while it POURED for about an hour this morning. Hopefully that is it. I would like to see the sun for more than an hour or two this weekend.

Last night Chris and I went to the driving range and let me tell you I was hitting that ball like a pro. Ok, maybe not a pro but pretty freaking good regardless. Chris says another trip or two to the range and I should be good to hit the links for the first time. I am so excited. I have wanted to learn how to golf since Chris and I met but all of that got delayed with his elbow injuries. I am sure glad he is back into golfing shape so he can teach me. He is pretty happy with how he is hitting the ball as well after not golfing for so long. He went golfing with some work friends a few weeks ago. It was the first time in 4 years he has been able to golf and he played well and beat the other 3 guys he was with. After not golfing in 4 years that made him feel pretty good. I also saw these super cute golf shoes with pink trim that I really really want. Chris however is trying to talk me out of it because he says it won't go with everything and I will just end up complaining about it. Perhaps he is right.....

Have a great weekend:)

CONFERENCE FINALS BABY!!!

Ok so first things first.....WOOOOOOHOOOO OILERS!!!! Won 4 games in a row after being down two games to none to WIN this series 4-2. I am so excited I am certain my neighbor's think I have lost it. Western Conference Finals baby!!!!!!!! First time in 14 years, I am so pumped!!My test went alright the other day. Not much to tell really. It was pretty neat seeing my heart on the screen and hearing it beat and stuff. Although on the machine it sounds more like a washing machine, that was a little trippy. I think I will let Chris describe it though, he will do a much better job than me since he probably saw it much better than I did. I believe it was being reviewed by a cardiologist earlier today and then forwarded to my doctor who I have an appointment with next week. I am sure if there is anything of concern I will here from her before then.

Last night Chris and I went to see Mission Impossible 3. I was very impressed. It was a great movie. Lots and lots of action. We both really enjoyed it. Sadly 5 dollar movie Tuesday is over for the summer. BOOOOO!

As most of you know ALIAS is my favorite TV show and Jennifer Garner is one of my favorite actresses. Chris was working yesterday at one of the Starbucks stores in Harvard Square in Cambridge and the girls working informed him that Jennifer Garner had been in earlier that day. If you need to know she had a soy latte of some sort. Anywho imagine my excitement at the thought that had Chris been there only hours earlier he could have met her. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering Ben Affleck is from here.

Grey's Anatomy was SO good last night. It was however a bit predictable but great regardless. I'm just mad we have to wait ALL summer to find out what happens with Merideth and McDreamy. Speaking of TV shows I was very sad to learn that Scrubs will not return till mid season again. I suppose it is good in a way considering that come January we will be able to watch it with no reruns. But still it's disappointing we have to wait that long.

I have a doctors appointment at the hospital this afternoon. I have been having these odd episodes for the last few months where I will feel lightheaded, weak and feeling like my heart is going to beat out of my chest. I went to my doctor and she suggested I have some tests done to rule out anything to do with my heart. So I have this thing called a holter monitor for 30 days.Anytime I am feeling any symptoms I hold it to my chest and it records for 30 seconds and then I call and send the transmission of the ekg over the phone. Once it has been sent they send it to my doctor so they can check it out. It's kinda cool. Anyways the other test she ordered was an echocardiogram which I go for today at 3pm. I am a little nervous just for the fact I even have to go for a test like this. But at the same time it will be cool cause I get to see my heart on the screen just like an ultrasound on a baby.

There you have it, that's my excitement for the day. I better go get ready.

Happy belated mothers day to all you mothers and to my mother in law Linda who is still enjoying herself over in England.

For some reason all our links have ended up at the bottom of the page and we can not figure out why. Hopefully we will get it fixed soon.

Boy is it raining here, it hasn't finally tapered off a bit today but it rained all weekend like crazy. Friday night and Sunday night were spent watching the Oilers beat the Sharks. Saturday night we went over to Georgette and Tyrone's. We played TV Seen It 3 times and of course the girls put the boys to shame. We had pizza, Canadian beer and watched Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. I definitely love the original but this was enjoyable as well. I thought Johnny Depp did a really great job.

Just a week ago the Oilers were down 2 games to none in their playoff series against the Sharks. Now they have a 3-2 series lead heading home for game 6 on Wednesday. LETS GO OILERS!!! My nephew Braeden has stated that the Sharks are going to be "shark stew" let's hope he is right:)

Chris and I were downtown yesterday. While we were down there he got a page and had to go to a store. As I was sitting in the car waiting for him I saw something that made me laugh I just had to take a picture. I don't know if this was male or female but he or she was dancing up a storm all the way down the street. Afterwards we decided to go for a walk down in the harbor area. It was a little cold and overcast but we took some cool pictures. And since I have no exciting stories for you I will post the pics.
At some point today I will get the rest of those pics up over on our picture blog.

GOOOOOAAAAAAL!!!

2:46 am game over OILERS WIN! 2 mins into the 3rd OT. WOOOOOOOHOOOO! I think I just woke up my neighborhood.
LOL. Now I can sleep!

GO OILERS GO!!!!!!

It is now 2:21 am. Second overtime has just finished. Yikes. LETS GO OILERS!!!!

Hockey is bad for my health

Overtime hockey is stressful. Overtime hockey in the playoffs is beyond that. I may have a stroke soon. It is 1:30 am and the 1st overtime has just ended.

Happy Monday

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Chris and I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. We stayed close to home since we needed to get some work in the yard done and I wasn't feeling too great most of Saturday and Sunday.
We don't have much of a yard but we make do with what we have. I still need to plant my veggies and pick up some flowers and stuff to plant this coming week. Our grass was very patchy and in fact there was a whole section that didn't have anything growing at all. So Saturday we spent the day cleaning everything up. We loosened all the soil where needed and Chris put grass seed on the lawn. Hopefully within 3-6 weeks we will have lots of grass. We will most likely go out this weekend and get some fertilizer to help it grow. Chris is not a happy camper after his Avalanche have gone down 2 games to none in their series against Anaheim. I was pretty disappointed that the Oilers couldn't get a win in game 1 against the Sharks last night in San Jose. Hopefully tonight will be a different story. GO OILERS!

Today was bath day for Belle. Poor thing hates it, she sits in the tub glaring at me the whole time shaking like she's in the artic or something. After her bath once she has been dried off she always goes nuts and tears around the house like a crazy dog. It's pretty funny. But the good news is that now she smells purty and is oh so soft:)

Happy Belated Birthday to me

I was so excited to get a surprise in the mail today from my sister in law Susan. I received a belated birthday gift from them and it totally made my day. Susan made me a little photo book, mostly with pictures of my nephews Austin and Braeden who I miss very much. It was such a wonderful surprise. Inside the front cover of the book was a few other goodies as well. As most of you know I have my eyebrow pierced so they sent me three new eyebrow rings. THANK YOU Susan, Dave, Austin and Braeden. You totally made me smile and made my day.

The mice are still on the lam. We know there are more though because we can still here them at night. We WILL get them, those little beasts are going down.

Yesterday I had a nice afternoon out with a friend. Nothing more refreshing than lunch, shopping and lots of chit chat.

It is SO nice out today, the hottest day of the year here so far, around 80 degrees. I think we will spend some time in the yard this weekend getting it all cleaned up and get some planting done. Perhaps we will bbq some chicken tonight for supper.

Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs start tonight. GO AVS!!!

Have a great weekend!!

One down who knows how many to go....

We aren't sure where this little disgusting creature came from. You see he was not in a trap he was just laying dead in the corner of our hallway. I was sweeping when I came across it. I was thinking to myself "my that is a big clump of dust, how weird since I just swept yesterday." Upon looking further I realized it was not a dustball after all. I said to Chris who was standing in the kitchen "what the heck is that?" As he came over to look and realized that it of course was a dead mouse I started realize how grossed out I really was and I jumped about 10 feet in the air, threw the broom and ran screaming to the corner of the living room. I still have the heebie jeebies thinking about it. **SHUDDER** We think this must have been the little punk who set the trap off the other night but he didn't totally get stuck. So maybe it snapped on him and he got away and walked off to die in the corner from his injuries. YUCK! So anywho, not sure how many more we may or may not have. I guess we will find out. Hope you all enjoyed the picture.

Gotcha.....Or do we?

Still no dead mice. GRRRRR! Those little buggers are smart. They don't eat mouse poison and they somehow eat the peanut butter right off the traps. Last night around 1 am we heard a SNAP from the kitchen and were excited cause we thought we had caught one. BUT NOOO the peanut butter was gone and the trap was now upside down. I swear we might as well just start inviting these stupid mice to dinner. Doesn't seem like they are going anywhere anytime soon.

Do you see peanut butter on that trap? I DON'T because the stupid mice ate it.

Chris came home the other day with a plant for my kitchen window. Mums to be exact. I haven't figured out yet if he was sucking up or really just being sweet;) I kid, I kid. But he normally doesn't bring stuff like that home so it was a great surprise.My mother in law is in Great Britain and finally had a chance to update her blog. So go on over and read about her travels and say hello:)

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!

That is all I have to say. I am too excited and too tired to say anything other than WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I LOVE THE EDMONTON OILERS! Defeated the Red Wings in 6 games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mice, Dogs and Broken Ankles!!

***WARNING-- For those of you who have weak stomachs DO NOT scroll down to the picture at the bottom of this post. If you do and you lose your cookies its NOT my fault, don't say I didn't warn you.***

The traps are set....Now we wait. Last night Chris and I were woke up OFTEN due to the fact that mice were running races or something in our ceiling and Belle did not take too kindly to this. Everytime there was any sort of movement from up above Belle was up and barking at them. Trying to set those mice straight I suppose about who's the boss. Being woken up from sudden barking very close to you is not pleasant, trust me. We have 4 traps set for now and will put out more if need be. Let's all PRAY they are dead by morning.

Chris and I were out walking Belle today and within 5 minutes 2 people made a point of how pretty she was. The first girl asked what kind of dog she was and said that she was very pretty and that she walked so proper. Chris told her Belle walks like that cause she is prissy. LOL. I never really thought about it before but she does walk good. She holds her head high, chest up and tail wagging high. I guess she wants to show the boys she's all that. Down the street a little a guy stopped at a traffic light asked what kind of dog she was and again told us how pretty she was.

When Chris was 15 or 16 he broke his ankle pretty bad on a trampoline. I will let him tell the story in full in a later post. Anyways his break was so bad that doctors took a picture of it. There is really no reason for posting this other than grossing you all out the way Chris did when he first showed me this. So for your viewing enjoyment here it is.........

ITS GROSS.....

I WARNED YOU....

I HOPE YOUR NOT EATING.....