Too Fancy For Me

I think I'm officially staying in the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed in. We came up to Cleveland tonight to see our friends Tom & Lauren (and their adorable boys Chase and Cole). Since we didn't want to have to drive all the way back to Akron tonight, we decided to stay in a hotel up here. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ohio, Cleveland is about 45 minutes from Akron. Anyway...Tom is the executive chef at the Marriott up here and he got us a room for the night. Not a big deal for him...but a big deal for me! Seriously. This room is so nice! It's got the most comfortable king size bed ever. Apparently their beds are so wonderful that you can now buy them. Yes. You can buy a hotel bed. It has sheets with more than a 150-thread count (in other words, they're super soft and not scratchy like normal hotel sheets)....an oversized down comforter....you get the picture. It's so fancy that there's even a real bath robe hanging in the closet. Oh yeah, and there's a coffee bar for my husband....and get this. They have stickers on the toilet paper. I thought that was hilarious. You know how they always fold the paper into a point? Well this place puts a fancy gold sticker with Marriott embossed on it. haha! Normally I probably wouldn't go into this much detail about a hotel room....but the one we stayed at for the last three nights doesn't even compare. And since my sweet exhausted baby boy is asleep in his pack 'n play, I just felt compelled to blog about it. Yup. I'm in my bath robe listening to K-love on my headphones, typing about our awesome room. Ooh, I almost forgot! Ed's friend Chris is the Sous Chef downstairs. He sent up a goodie basket for us....it's got all kinds of different drinks, trail mix, bananas, cereal for the morning, etc. I could get used to this! But alas. Our trip ends tomorrow. We're going back to Akron in the morning to hang out with his family some more. And tomorrow night around 7, we're taking off for North Carolina. Our goal is to have a repeat of our trip up here. You know, the trip when Edwin slept the whole way! I'll post lots of pictures once we get back home. I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday, so I'll have some time to recover. Have a great night!!

So Much to Catch Up On

Yup, it's been awhile since I've posted last. I kept meaning to do it...but everytime I thought I'd get around to it, something else came up. I'm sure I've used that excuse before! Anyway....there's a lot to catch up on. First of all, I'm typing this post from a hotel room in Akron, Ohio. Ed and I drove up here to visit his family since they haven't seen Edwin in about 6 months. Considering he's almost 7 months old....they've missed out on a lot. We left Wilmington last night around 9:30pm. Our original plan was to drive a little over halfway and then get a hotel room. We drove at night so that Edwin could sleep. Well.....when we finally got to the point that we wanted to call it quits, all of the hotel rooms were booked. That is, except for one hotel that was...let's just say..."nasty". And since they wanted to charge us $75 for about 5 hours, we said forget it. We kept on going and arrived in Akron around 9:00am. That's a long haul!! My dear sweet husband did the majority of the driving too. I managed to stay awake last night until just past Raleigh (2 hrs into the drive) and then conked out. At about 6:15 am, Ed finally threw in the towel and I took over the driving so he could sleep. Even though we were exhausted when we pulled into town, we couldn't make Grandma Jeanie wait any longer. A quick stop to Lowe's (where she works) to surprise her was quite fun. There were tears of course, but she was absolutely thrilled. After that, my prayers were answered when our hotel said we could have an early check-in. We napped for about 3 hours ....even Edwin slept!!.....and then made our rounds to see some more of the family. Back to Lowe's so Jeanie could show Edwin off...then to see Uncle Feets at his garage. We eventually ended up back at Jeanie & Glenn's house, where Grandma and Grandpa went crazy over our sweet little boy. I think we got back to the hotel around 8:00 for Edwin's bathtime. I watched last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy online (I brought the laptop & headphones) and Ed is still watching one of the Matrix movies on tv.

Wow. I think that's the most I've ever written in one post. But there's more!! Ed's magazine finally came out! I haven't seen the actual hard copy, but it's online. Coastal Carolina Dining pages 35, 48 & 49. I love the pictures!! Ed thinks that the one makes him look to cocky, but hey, he's the head chef! He should be proud of everything he's accomplished. I know I'm very proud of him. Check it out.

Ok, what else? Um....I'm off work for the next week, so that's pretty exciting. I'm still trying to decide what Edwin should be for his first Halloween. We have a bumble bee costume that was Anthony's.....but I call Edwin "punkin-head" (don't know where that came from) so I thought it would be cute if I dressed him like a pumpkin. Good thing I have a week to decide.

I could probably type all night. Now that I've had some sleep this afternoon...and it's only 9:30pm....I'm not sure what else to do. I can't read a book because we have all the lights off in the hotel room, trying to keep Edwin asleep. He's in his pack 'n play over by the bathroom. Let's keep our fingers crossed that he sleeps all night :)

Oh yeah! I remembered one more thing. Last week we took Edwin to Portrait Innovations to have his pictures taken. It was so much fun and the pics turned out great. We spent a little more (okay a lot more) than we originally planned, but we couldn't help it. One of the things included in the package was a cd of all the shots. These aren't the edited versions, but at least I can post some of them on here. Enjoy!! I'm probably going to watch another tv show online (abc.com rules!!). Later.

Pumpkins

This was sent to me as a forward in an email. I liked it, so thought I'd adapt it for my blog. Enjoy!

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin.God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff-- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see. Happy Fall!

Christmas and Lowe's

What do these two have to do with each other? I’ll explain. Last night, we went to Lowe’s Home Improvement (sorry DJ) to get a riding lawn mower for Ed.

We have a HUGE yard and it’s very difficult to mow because it’s about 90% weeds and the rest is sand. Anyway, Ed finally settled his motorcycle accident case so we’re taking a small portion and investing in a riding lawn mower. It takes Ed forever to do the yard and that takes away from what little time we spend together as a family. He’s thrilled to have a new toy, and I’m thrilled to be getting my husband back!

Anyway, while Ed was talking to the salesman about the benefits of one mower vs. the other, I took Edwin for a walk down the Christmas aisles. It was so fun to watch his expression as he looked at all of the lights on the display trees. We found one display of “modern” Christmas trees with giant lights that twinkled along with music. Edwin absolutely loved this! I realize he doesn’t really know what’s going on yet, but to know that we can start new family traditions as the Boso Family is so exciting! Plus, God has been working miracles in my life this year…I can’t wait to celebrate the birth of His son. What an amazing gift to the world. I just pray that people will remember the real reason for Christmas. It’s not about gifts, it’s not even about spending time with family (although that’s great). It’s about God fulfilling his promises to us. Oohh…I’m so excited!!!

The 4 Hour Haircut

No, you did not read that incorrectly. I'm talking about four hours sitting in a chair getting my haircut. Now before you start coming up with crazy images of Chinese water torture, let me explain. Because it really was a fun experience with a great result.

Whitney is a girl I met through a small group at church and she works at Steven Ward Hair here in Wilmington. On Sunday, she asked me if I'd be interested in being her "model" (I use that term loosely) for a hair-cutting class. I jumped at the chance for a free haircut! I had no idea that Steven Ward is apparently some big deal in the hair world. He's worked on tons of celebrities, had his hairstyles on magazine covers, etc. He was going to be teaching some of his employees new techniques for cutting hair.

So Monday after work, I arrived around 5:00pm. I told Whitney should could do whatever she wanted to my hair, as long as it wasn't super short (like hers) because my hubby would freak out. Then it was time for consultations. Steven went around with all of the other hairdressers (is that what they're called?) to discuss the different styles, hair textures, techniques, etc. I'd say this took about 45 minutes to an hour. Then it was time for shampoo. Ahhh..the best part of any haircut is definitely the scalp massage! Once the cutting officially began, there were several times that they all had to stop for a "lesson." I could not believe the attention to detail! Even after cutting my hair for over an hour, then blow-drying it for 30 minutes, she still went back for finishing touches. This was about another hour! But the results are totally worth it. I finally left around 9pm feeling like a new woman. I made Katie take a picture of it, but the photo doesn't do it justice. At work yesterday, I got so many compliments....from people I don't even know! I'll admit, I thought it was just a fluke....but this morning it continued. I'm so grateful that Whitney decided to ask me to do this. I feel so great!

Just a quick one

I don't have a lot of time (since I'm at work), but I just had to post this picture. It was taken about 2 months ago, but it's just so darn cute!! Basically, I'm going crazy at work today. Have you ever had one of those days when you just can't stand to be at work? I'm not talking about "gee I wish I was independently wealthy so I could do whatever I want". No, I mean "I can't sit still, these blue cube walls are making me insane, I'm just antsy". That's how I feel today. So I was looking at some old pictures and came across this one. Yes Edwin is much bigger now, but he still looks this sweet when he's sleeping. I love it!!