The Fintons

Proud

I think I have the most handsome husband ever. This is Brandon at the hockey game on Saturday. It’s now the background on my iPhone. Awwww.

Tags: Love

Wonderful Birthday

What a wonderful birthday I had this year! It all started Tuesday when Patti dragged herself out of bed to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast before I went to work. She also surprised me with a lunch pail that you could barely zipper closed that was filled with a nice thick sandwich and lots of snacks! After work, Erik and I got home to find that Patti had decorated the house and had ingredients to make manicotti ready to go for when she got home from school.

We enjoyed the wonderful meal and ice cream and Patti and Erik got me very nice LL Bean slippers and chocolates for me to enjoy at work. It was a wonderful day and very much unexpected!

Yesterday, we “finished” celebrating my birthday (as if Tuesday wasn’t 3 times more than I expected) by going to a Binghamton Senator’s hockey game and Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We realized that the Vestal Texas Roadhouse is half the size and half the quality of the Syracuse restaurant that we’ve grown to love. But, the food was still very good and we walked away stuffed.

The hockey game started off well with an early Senators goal, but soon the visiting team had gained a 4 goal lead to bring the score to 1-4. After that, the Senators seemed to be frustrated and had a greater interest in taking off their gloves and turning the ice rink into a boxing ring. Much the rest of the game was boring and we expected the Senators would loose. Late in the third period however, the Senators finally scored bringing the crowd to its feet. Then another, and another, and a fifth goal to tie the game with less than a minute to go! After 5 minutes of overtime and no goals, the game went into a best out of 5 shootout where the Sens lost 2 goals to 1 to bring the final score to 5-6. Even though the Sens lost, it was definitely the best game that Patti and I had been to yet and we had a blast!

So, my birthday this year was awesome and I couldn’t have asked for anything different. I had a wonderful time Tuesday with Patti and Erik, and had an amazing time with Patti on Saturday. It will definitely be a birthday to remember! Thank you Patti for everything you did! I certainly didn’t deserve half of what you did and I love you so much for it!

Tags: Family, Holidays, Love, Senators

Happy Birthday Brandon

Well, it’s finally here.  Brandon is getting old.  He is 26 today!  Wow…

So I want to wish him a Happy Birthday for the millionth time.  But, he deserves lots of smiles, so it’s okay.

Our favorite picture...we've barely changed!

Tags: Happy, Holidays, Love

Yay

On a lighter note, Husband’s birthday is tomorrow. *yayforhim!*

Tags: Holidays, Love

Be happy

Tags: Love, Movies, Politics

Halloween

We hope everyone had an awesome Halloween.  We had a great one.  We spent much of the morning moving Brandon’s dad with Ashley.  Erik and I came home and took naps when we were done.

In the evening we had some more pulled pork and had Brandon’s mom, Ashley and Matt over.  I tried to paint Erik’s nose black with the paint brush but he wasn’t so interested.  So I ended up using my thumb, so it turned out pretty horrible.  Oh well.

Then we went down to Homer to meet Brandon’s dad and Valerie.  Erik wasn’t so interested in keeping his costume on or putting his Pooh hat on.  Brandon’s mom finally talked him into it and we started trick or treating.  He of course would only whisper trick or treat sometimes and every now and then say thank you.

After awhile he kept saying “next house,” and “next street.”  He actually loved it and said he had fun.  He was really sweet and still excited when we got home.  He didn’t bug for too much candy.  Well, not too much.

Tags: Family, Fun, Holidays, Love

Carving Pumpkins

A couple of weeks ago we trekked out on the coldest day of the season to pick out pumpkins at Anderson’s.  Erik, of course, wanted the pumpkins at the absolute back of the pumpkin patch, on top of a hill forcing Patti and I to drag the pumpkins back down to the car.  Tonight we finally carved the pumpkins into masterpieces (well, Patti did 95% of the carving, Erik and I were responsible for the mess making)

As you can see, Erik got quite involved this year and made a nice mess with the guts from the pumpkins.  At first, he said it was gross and only wanted to scoop the guts out with “the shovel” until I shoved his hand deep into the pile of muck.  After that, we made a “pumpkin pie” as Erik called it by squishing the goo between our fingers and patting it down flat.

These three photos are taken a year apart from the last.  Erik on the right was less than one year old, the one in the middle one year and 8 months, and the picture to the left was taken tonight.  Each of Erik’s three Halloween’s Patti has carved an Erik pumpkin and two of the three years we have pictures of Erik holding his pumpkin. (Unfortunately we don’t have one from last year for some reason-just of him when he was carving the pumpkin).

Tags: Family, Fun, Holidays, Love

Chris’s Wedding

So I have spent a large majority of my time lately working on Chris’s wedding. It is only a month and a week away. I can’t believe it’s here already. And my dress hasn’t come in yet! AH!!

Well I got all of the invitations done (if you haven’t gotten yours yet it’s coming, all the way from NY, that’s why it’s taking so long). I also ordered the tuxes for the little ones (Erik, Sonny, and Gavin). Chris and my mom did the flowers, tables, all of the little girls dresses, hair appointments, nail appointments….I probably could go on but I can’t remember… Ha. I’m glad it’s coming along so nicely. I’m trying to find Chris a photographer though. She was just going to have some friends use my camera to take photos, but I would really like to have someone else do it. We’ve put a lot of effort into this day, and it’s going to be special, so I want pictures, darn it!

I for some reason have this really weird pain in my right thumb. Like it hurts to write. I have no f****** idea why. So my life!

School has been alright. Nutrition still sucks, writing is still the same, and philosophy is almost too easy. I registered for summer though. I’m taking three classes instead of two. Figured what the hell, why not right? Not like I have something else better to do.

Brandon and I are going to a Syracuse Crunch game this coming friday. We got free tickets through UC. Good times, good times. Hopefully we can go to the last binghamton senators game since Brandon’s company has tickets. We’re really getting into hockey. How strange.

SO…..it appears I can’t drink alcohol. Every time I do, I vomit. Not like oh Patti had to much to drink look at her how stupid she is because she’s ralphing…. It’s, Patti had three sips of wine and the next day vomits all day long. I drank on New Years, got sick (that time I probably did have a ‘lil too much). I drank when we were in FL after my dad passed away when we were out to dinner with my best friend Lauren. I had two glasses of red wine. I vomited all night long and the entire next day (was running a fever too). I drank a half a glass of wine on our anniversary. Again, same story. Then about a week ago I was having a really rough day and decided to have a Mike’s. Well I had one, and the next day, was vomiting all day. Brandon’s dad had come to take Erik so we could go out for the day too. We ended up laying in bed the entire day because I felt so sick. Just lovely. Doesn’t look like I’ll be drinking again anytime soon. Guess it’s good I was never really a drinker anyway…. Heh…

Tags: Family, Life, Love, Sickly

Our first anniversary

Well Brandon and I had our first anniversary. Kind of. Since we were married on the 29th of February it’s our 1/4 anniversary. Man, it’s going to seem like we’ve been married a long time when we finally hit our 1st anniversary.
Well we went to the Number 5 for dinner in Binghamton. Notably our favorite restaurant. They changed the liquor laws as well and if you buy a bottle of wine they can recork it for you, which is great. So we didn’t feel obligated to drink the whole thing and get toasted since we paid for it.
Then we went on to a Binghamton Senators game. I’ve never been much of a hockey fan but this has been quite fun. It’s our second game, and this one since it’s closer to the end of the season was much more intense. Binghamton won, yay. There weren’t too many mishaps, and only about 5 all out fights. At one point two Senators were on top of one Rochester American swinging and beating him down. I felt bad for the guy, even though we were rooting for the other team. I guess that’s what comes with hockey.
So school has been rough. I’m doing very well in my Philosophy class. Right now my grade is a 97. Doing well in my writing class as well. My teacher handed out one of my papers as an example to write their papers off of, so that was good. Nutrition…nutrition…not good. Right now I have a 75. I hate that class. It’s brutal. I was talking with one of my classmates who is in that class but a different section and she was telling me how rough she was having it too. My professor did say she would consider my situation at the end of the semester when she submits my final grade, so hopefully that little bit will help. I have only ever gotten one C, and one B-, but the rest have been B or above. I graduated with a 3.8. Things better start looking up.
SU is great though with their scheduling. They already have the fall semester up and you can early register in April. So I already have my schedule for the fall semester. I’m going to be taking 2 classes during the summer too. Erik is going to have to go to daycare for 2 days out of the week for around 3 hours a day. It will be good for him to socialize. I have had trouble having anything but a private sitter, and now me watch him. So this will be his first daycare setting, but since it’s minimal, I think it will be okay. Even in the fall semester, when I’m taking 4 courses, he will only have to go Monday and Wednesday from noon until Brandon gets out of work and picks him up. Hopefully it turns out well!

Tags: Love, School

Christmas!

So Erik really liked this Christmas. He was on sensory overload at certain points though. When he was opening his gifts, he was having a hard time moving on to the next. He wanted to play and open the one he just opened. He finally got the hang of it and was ripping one after the next open. It turned out that his favorite gift from Santa was his Handy Manny toolbox. It has all of Handy Manny’s tools, and the front row of the tools jump up and down and it plays a song. He thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. He also liked all of the play tools we got him.
Grandpa came over and had brought Erik a new sled and wagon. Erik loved both. He really liked to sit in the wagon and just be pushed back and forth. Can’t wait until the summer when we can take him outside with it. Grandpa also got Erik a large stuffed Shrek doll. He thought that was great too.
Erik absolutely did not want to nap. He kept getting up, over and over. He finally fell asleep after much deliberation, but he only got around an hour’s worth of sleep. When we woke him up he was not the happiest camper. When we got to my Aunt and Uncle’s, he got a hold of a candy cane, and once that sugar hit he was quite hyper. My side of the family got Erik some clothes, and a few dvd’s. I was grateful for the dvd’s. We have been watching the same 3 over and over and over again. The more dvd’s the better!!! Erik never watches t.v., just the dvd’s, so, great gifts. Erik liked Christmas dinner, but put too much turkey in his mouth at once and it kind of all came back up at once. Not good. He ate good after that though.
Erik didn’t want to go to sleep that night again either. Too much excitement. All in all, he really enjoyed his day, and got tons of new toys. The next day I had to go through his toybox and took a box of old toys that he never played with anymore out to make room for all of his new toys. He needed new toys though, so it’s good.

Tags: Family, Holidays, Love