An amazing day!

Today was one of those great days...

1) Our check engine light has been on for a week or so, and we finally took it to a mechanic that was recommended by the maintenance lady for our apartment. I even drove 20 minutes to take it to a mechanic I could trust even though there is a mechanic right down the street. And it was worth the drive! Everyone there was so nice. I was originally told that the diagnostic would cost $90, so I was expecting to pay that much plus the repair...it turned out to be a bad gas cap! When I went to the counter to pay, the bill was $14!!!! They didn't even charge for the diagnostic since it was something so little!!! If any of you know about the numerous, expensive repairs we have had on that car, you would know that this is the CHEAPEST visit to a mechanic EVER for us!

2) Then right down the street from the mechanic I found a gas station with gas for $3.25! All the gas stations in the city are about $3.60, so that was a huge savings! Of course, I filled up the car!

3) On the way home I drove by Kohl's and decided to go look around, and I found Cala the CUTEST clothes on super sale! With all the money I had been saving so far, I figured that I had plently of money to buy some things :) I bought a winter coat with the matching snow pants (as seen in the picture below), some Christmas PJ's (I can't wait for Christmas!), and some long-sleeved shirts that Cala will look adorable in!

4) And to top off the day, Mark came home an hour and a half early! I love those kind of surprises!

I love Fall!

I just love the fall...the changing leaves, the chilly weather, the crisp breeze, the overcast days...it's so beautiful! And...it means that Christmas is just around the corner!

Happy 1st Birthday Cala!

Today is Cala's birthday! We celebrated it a little early so we could get together with our families. We gave Cala her own chocolate cake to eat. At first she didn't quite know what to do with it, but then she figured it out and what a mess!

Then we opened presents, which she also loved!

These are a few of Cala's favorite things...

Slides at the Park

Climbing on Things
Like this step stool, I found her calmly sitting
on the top step today. Of course, I didn't react so calmly!


Watching Curious George and Clifford in the Morning


Being Cute


Spending Time with Daddy

Fun at the park!

Dunkin' Donuts!

I was so excited to move back East for lots of reasons...and one of them was Dunkin' Donuts! I love Dunkin' Donuts! I love donuts period, I love to walk by them and admire them/drool over them in the grocery store! Finally, after pointing out the many Dunkin' Donuts stores that we live by to Mark (mulitple times a day) we went there this morning.

We actually tried to go earlier this week. What a story...It's about a 25-minute walk, and when we left we noticed some dark clouds to the East, but figured that we wouldn't be out long and it would be fine...yeah right! About half way to Dunkin' Donuts, it started pouring, not just raining, pouring. We tried to stand under a tree (not a very smart idea during a thunderstorm), but eventually that wasn't even sheltering us from the rain, so we decided to run home. We did and we were SOAKED!

Anyway, this morning's trip was successful. I got two donuts, and I'm sad to say that they are not as good as I remember. So I think that today was our first and last time eating at Dunkin' Donuts... or who knows maybe we'll give it one more try...

Welcome to New York!

Well, now that we finally have internet I can post more to our blog! We've been in New York for about 2 1/2 weeks. I think we are finally starting to feel more at home. It definitely took some getting used to. Right after we moved I was talking to our landlord, and she was asking how things were going. I told her that this area is SO different than where we used to live. She seemed a little puzzled and asked if we used to live in the country :) I said no and tried to explain what Wymount is like, but really how can you explain Wymount?

This picture was taken from our front door.
And the picture below was taken from our back door.

Thank goodness for the church, though. It's the same everywhere you go. We've already made some friends. There are quite a few young married couples with kids and the husband is going to some kind of graduate school.

Cala is doing well. She has become quite a challenge to feed. She really wants to feed herself, and now refuses to eat baby food. Consequently meal times have become MESSY! Luckily, Mark hasn't started school yet and he helps with the clean up. I don't know what I'm going to do without him!

This is the method of clean up that we usually resort to, just stick Cala and her entire highchair into the tub and hose her down!