Christmas 2011..and other stuff

Since we have officially passed the first day of Spring, I guess I can blog about Christmas now. I'm off to a slow start considering how our New Year started out, and I really can't believe that March is almost over. Please bear with me through this long post. We have had an unseasonably warm winter this year. There has only been 2 snow storms, and temperatures have been in the 80's the last couple of days. I'm a little scared of what summer is going to be like if we are having such a hot March. Maybe blogging about Christmas will at least let me remember the cold of winter- even if we didn't have any snow on the ground.

Colin's parents came out and spent Christmas with us this year. It's a Battersby tradition to always have hors d'oeuvres on Christmas Eve, so that is what we did.



We had our friends the Petrie's come over and we enjoyed some great food and lots of laughs. Somewhere over the course of my Christmas shopping I was joking around on Facebook that plungers were THE Christmas gift to have this year. Dory said she wanted one, so that is what we got them. With a little note attached.

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
You probably thought the only gift you were getting from us
Was the one dealing with poo,
But we have a little something else for you too.
Dinner out and movie with the Battersby's
Merry Christmas to you.



It was good for a laugh. It was nice to spend Christmas with Colin's parents. We always enjoy our time with them. Colin made a great prime rib roast (another Battersby Christmas tradition), and our friend Erik (aka Bobo) came over for Christmas dinner. I think Colin's parents wanted to adopt Bobo, and it was fun to hear Colin's dad call him "Bo". Another nickname for the Bober that he didn't ask for. :)









Colin and his parents also took a day and went to Vermont when they were here to see our cousins. I had to work so I missed out on that adventure, but from what I heard everyone had a good time visiting and catching up with each other.





We took Colin's parents to a Monarchs game when they were here. It was their first hockey game, and while I don't think they enjoy it as much as we do, it was a fun experience for them. Colin and I spent New Year's Eve at a Monarchs game. They had some indoor fireworks after the game, and I think we were home and in bed before midnight.

My surgery in January went as well as it could have given the circumstances. I ended up with the same anesthesiologist and nurses that I had in August so it was like old home week. As I'm being wheeled to the operating room the anesthesiologist says "do you feel anything yet?" and I answer "no, not really" as I'm giggling down the hallway. She says "oh, I think you do." I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in recovery. We have never met our insurance deductible before (thank goodness), but this year we met it on January 20th. I hope to never do that again.

We have been loving our Monarchs season tickets this year and have been cheering them on at every home game. Unfortunately I don't think they will be making the playoffs this year so the season will be coming to a close on April 15th. Not sure what we are going to do with ourselves until October when they start playing again, but I see some baseball games with the NH Fishercats and possibly the Red Sox in our future.

March Madness is upon us and this season has been more "madness" than most on my bracket, that's for sure. My beloved Duke got knocked out in the first round by 15th seeded Lehigh...don't think I didn't take a lot of flack from EVERYONE I know for that! My bracket just got worse from there. Oh well, there's always next year!

We celebrated our 9 year anniversary on March 8th. I feel incredibly blessed to be married to such a wonderful man that loves me unconditionally. It really has been a great 9 years- even if we can't decide who is the funnier Battersby. Feel free to weigh in on that one if you have an opinion on it! We each think we are the funnier one...go figure! :) Truth probably is, no one else would find us that funny! Ha! At least we can laugh with and at each other, and that's what it's all about!

My Hun

We found out today that we are losing another baby. This is our 3rd miscarriage in 14 months. I have a d&c scheduled for Friday. Not a great start for the Battersby's in 2012. In the midst of this truly horrible day, my nephew Roman made a post on my Facebook that brightened my day and made me smile through the tears.

hey Hun, i just wanted to take the time to say how much i love you and miss you. i know that some might say this alot, but you are my favorite aunt! no one compares to you in my mind. i remember when you lived around the corner from our house and i would always want to go over and see you. i remember always asking if we could go over, but you were mostly at work. i look up to you in every way possible, and cant see a fault in you at all. i love you with all my heart, and dont know what i would do if anything happened to you.

roses are red,
violets are blue.
no one can love you,
quite like the way i do!

Roman is 17 now, but when he was little, I always called him my "hun". That has stuck throughout his life, and even after he is married with a family of his own, he will still be my "hun". I love you, Roman!

Our Tree

Just like we have the tradition of tagging our Christmas tree on the first day the tree farm is open, we also have a tradition of going to get the tree and decorating it the day after Thanksgiving. So this morning, we went to breakfast and then it was off to the tree farm to hopefully be able to find the tree we tagged. Funny story from last year-we had a hard time finding the tree we tagged and as we're walking around in a sea of Christmas trees Colin says "I know it's around here somewhere in a place that looks like this."

This year we were able to locate our tree without any problems. It was 50 degrees and sunny today so it did seem a little strange to be cutting down a Christmas tree.

Colin sawing it down


That was easy!


All done!


Bring on Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We love Thanksgiving! This year Will, Kerry, Matt and Betsy spent Thanksgiving with us. In between eating lots of yummy food we watched football.

Table is set and ready for the food and friends


Colin did a great job cooking the guest of honor


Eating!


It shouldn't take a special day to remind us how much we have to be thankful for, but I'm glad just the same that we have one that does!

Battersby's Annual Christmas Tree Tagging

We have a tradition that we started when we moved to NH six years ago of going to a tree farm to pick out a Christmas tree every year. After the first couple of years of going the day after Thanksgiving to pick out a tree and cut it down, I came to realize that if you wanted to get a really good tree, you have to go the first weekend the tree place is open and tag your tree. As the years went on, getting there on the first weekend turned into having to be there on the first day, and that turned into having to be the first one at the tree farm on opening day. I don't know how to top that next year. Maybe I can talk the owner into letting me sneak in the day before opening day! :)

We took our friends Erik (aka Bobo), and Lizette with us this year. They are from Arizona and had never been to a Christmas tree farm before. I told them we had to be there bright and early when the place opened, and I think they thought I was kidding at first- but they met us at 8:30 for the adventure anyway! As other people quickly started to show up at the tree farm after us, I pointed out that it was good we got there early!

After about a half hour of walking around, we found the perfect tree! Here are some pictures of our tree tagging adventure!

Here it is- the perfect tree!




Lizette and Bobo with their tree.

Funny thing is Bobo thought that by picking a tree with such a high clearance that he wouldn't have to get dirty when he went back to cut the tree down. Colin loved telling him that the tree farm requires you to cut the base an inch from the ground. So much for not getting dirty Bobo!

Happy Halloween!

I am playing catch up again on the blog posts. I meant to post this before Halloween, but that didn't happen. I must confess that Halloween is not our favorite holiday. In fact, it's our least favorite. This year though, we had a pumpkin carving party with some friends. It was decided that this would be a pumpkin carving contest so we posted the finished pictures on our facebook page and asked our friends to vote for the best pumpkin- without telling which one was ours of course.

Here is Colin getting started on his pumpkin

Lizette, Erik and Will creating their works of art

Kerry is getting serious

Kim and Nick

The finished masterpieces

Pumpkin #2 was Will's and it won the contest by a landslide. Colin's pumpkin was #8. It was Max, the Manchester Monarchs mascot. My pumpkin was #6 and I got the idea from one of those pumpkin carving kits because I'm not very creative. Thanks to Kerry and Will for hosting. A fun time was had by all!

1st Date Anniversary

I don't know how many people celebrate their first date anniversary, but we do. Mainly because our first date was on Colin's birthday 9 years ago, so it's easy for him to remember! :) Before we got married, my sister in law asked both of us to write down our account of what happened on our first date, and she read them at my bridal shower and we compared how close they were to each other. I don't have a copy of my version, but I do have a copy of Colin's so I will share that here. It's mostly true. :)

Our First Date
By the Groom

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2002 was the most exciting day of my life and a day that would change my life forever. It was the day I met my true love and had the best birthday ever.

I was highly anticipating my first date with Heidi. I knew from our many, many hours of conversations, emails, and chatting that we were going to have a good time, but the nervousness still existed for how she'd feel about me in person.

After many hours of online debates I finally decided to make reservations for the stage production of Beauty and the Beast. I had told Heidi early on I was a very cultural person who enjoyed "the arts". So I figured I'd show her how cultural I was. Although I had only been to one other broadway play in my life. Ha-hah.

I got off work at about 3:30pm on that Wednesday and went home and had a shower and changed. I made myself look Seattle presentable, which were jeans and a dress shirt. A blue dress shirt I believe. But what I was wearing is inconsequential to this story, because you see "I look goooooooood in anything".

4:30pm was the expected time of her arrival. At 4pm I made final preparations and then I heard the "ring, ring, ring" of the telephone. “Could she be ditching me on my birthday”, I thought as I answered the phone. It was Heidi. She was lost. My simple driving directions to my house (which included complete descriptions and landmarks) were somehow misinterpreted and she drove off into the middle of Issaquah instead of Sammamish. But I got her straightened out and she was back on her way.

We talked as she drove and then she pulled into my apartment complex. I grabbed my wallet, the tickets; a few maps to and from Seattle (because I prefer to be prepared than lost) and a red rose for Heidi and headed out the door. I met her at the front of my complex and gave her a big hug and presented her with the rose. She was wearing beige slacks and a flowered blouse. But who cares, because she looks beautiful in anything!!!!!!!!!

She had bought me a birthday present! Between the gift and the fact I forgot my leather jacket, we decided to head into my place to see what she got me.

I unwrapped the gift and found the book “The Bourne Identity” and the DVD “So I Married an Axe Murderer”. Looking back on it, could she have bought the DVD as a method of foreshadowing? We’ll see!!!! Ha-hah. I was amazed how generous and thoughtful Heidi was for getting something for me on our first date.

I showed Heidi around my small 700 sq.ft. apartment, when she noticed my DVD collection. She was looking over the DVD’s and then started to laugh and said “are these alphabetized?” I got bright red and replied, “well, yeah, of course, I said I was a geek!” She just laughed some more and smiled. So now I thought I was surely out, because she thought I was a dork.

We decided to leave about 5pm. I opened the door to my Subaru for her and we were on our way. We had to drive into Seattle and park and find a place to eat. I had printed up maps to and from the theatre, and of restaurants around the theatre. Heidi asked me “why did you print up so many maps?” I told her “I don’t want to get lost on our first date!”. She just laughed. I knew I was a goner now. I thought “she must think I’m the biggest dork on the planet!”

We found a parking spot in a pay lot about two blocks north of the theatre and walked over to it. I asked her what she’d like to eat, and she said “it’s your birthday, you choose.” So despite a good healthy convincing I succumbed to deciding where to eat. We went to this Italian joint about 3 blocks west of the theatre. As we were walking I was on the left, she was on the right. We were talking and then jokingly as we were crossing the street I made some comment that she took seriously and then I thought “that’s it, I have no chance of a second date now”. (The comment I’ll reserve for Heidi to tell you, but in my judgment it was a pretty funny comment at the time. --- but see Men are from Mars, and who knows where women are from? Just kidding!!!)

At the restaurant we got a table and sat down. Heidi ordered spaghetti with red marinara and a Pepsi and I ordered a shelled pasta with a sausage marinara and a chianti. The meals were good, but as I told her “it will take a pretty good Italian meal to beat the one I had in Little Italy in NYC!”. Our conversations throughout dinner included Pepsi vs. Coke (Coke is better!), the Duke Blue Devils, travel, Movies, Music, and of course family.

We were then off to the theatre. We walked and talked back to the theatre. We had lower tier seats at the very back of the theatre. Pretty bad seats, and the theatre seemed to lack temperature control, because it was very hot in there. The first act started and lasted about an hour and a half. The intermission came and Heidi and I discussed the first half and I had to run to the bathroom. When I came back I had trouble finding Heidi, but after a few minutes I found her standing in the corner looking at future plays coming to the theatre. The second act started and I slowly crept my hand closer to hers. I thought I was being pretty sly and about twenty minutes into the second act we started to hold hands. The play lasted about three hours total. So it was nearly 11pm at night before we headed out. The cool breath of the night felt good to both of us as we left the sweltering theatre. We walked hand in hand over to the car.

We got in the car and discussed the play and how the date went the whole drive home. As we neared the apartment complex I felt my stomach start to flutter and nervousness start to creep into my mind. I knew I really liked Heidi and I wasn’t sure if she would accept a kiss good night. We pulled into the parking lot. I got out, opened the door, and escorted her to her car. She opened the door and turned to me. I looked into her eyes; I placed my hand under her chin and gave her a kiss goodnight. At that moment I felt in the perfect place at the perfect time.

The evening was magical for me, as I believe it was for her. I knew I had found someone who compliments me and most of all completes me as a person. Heidi is an amazing woman, she probably deserves better than me, but I’m in complete and total bliss that she’ll have me as her husband. She has made me the happiest man alive since we’ve met. I can’t imagine my life without her.

Heidi - I love you … the mostest!!!! --- Colin


As for the comment he referred to that he thought I took seriously, it was something he said about having me walk on the side of traffic. I really didn't take it seriously and still joke with him about it to this day (because I am still the one that mostly gets stuck walking on the side of traffic!). I drove away after our date that night knowing I was going to marry him, and I did just that 5 months later! In case you're wondering-the DVD's are still alphabetized, and we still go back and forth with the "you decide, no you decide" debate over where to eat, but those maps he use to love to print out have thankfully been replaced by a GPS. Happy Birthday and Happy 1st date anniversary sweetie- I love you the absolute infinite mostest!

P.S.- Pepsi is better! :)