Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!

We left work early last night, went home to pick up the kids and then headed to Lawrence, KS to see the new football facility at KU. Before you read any farther....believe it or not this was MY idea and not my sportsaholic husband. The thing is I LOVE going to Lawrence and I knew he would agree when I told him what we could see. However, I begged and begged to go to Lawrence when KU won the basketball tournament and he didn't want to go then. ?!?!

Anyhoo, the facility is state of the art and absolutely amazing! It was one of the most exciting things I have done in a while. We got to see the Orange Bowl Cup but sadly I didn't even think to take a picture of it. Duh!!!! The facility houses the football administrative offices as well as the training facility. The training area is beyond belief! There are workout machines/weights for miles in the workout room. So super duper cool! The locker room is absolutely humongous! I have been fortunate enough to see the KC Chiefs locker room and theirs has nothing on the KU football locker room.

We got to see Coach Mangino's office which is the coolest! His view is the football field!!!! Lucky guy! Coach Mangino started walking down the hallway as we were in it and I asked him if he would mind letting me take a picture of him and Sean. He said, "Of course!" I was so excited and trying to hurry so that we didn't keep him long that I took a horrible picture. It is fuzzy. I work with a guy that is into photography so I am going to ask him if there is any way to doctor it up. I will be willing to pay to get this picture looking sharper than it does. We thanked him for the picture, shook his hand and congratulated him on the Orange Bowl win. Very, very nice guy!

We also got to meet an ex football player who is now a training coach. I went over and talked to him and told him I was going to bring A over to meet him. I asked him to tell him how important grades were in order to get into college and possibly play a sport. The coach was so nice and really pumped A up on his size and frame and told him if he stayed into his books he could do it. He then followed up telling him to stay away from girls! I was sooooo glad he put that last part in! Which all of this made us really sad because of the situation with Br. We should be taking Br to college right now. He should be playing football right now at a college. But he threw it all away on some bleach blond bimbo!

We had so much fun in Lawrence last night. I wish we could have stayed longer. We go back on October 25 when we go to the Homecoming game against Texas Tech. I can't wait!!!!

P.S. K is a MU fan so she wouldn't be in any of the pictures!

A day in the life...

I took K to get school shirts last night. As we were walking out the door of the house I was praying to God to grant me peace, patience, and not to wring my child's neck. Sean decided he had enough with the shopping and opted not to go and sent me out into the wilderness by myself with her. God answered my prayers because she did an EXCELLENT job! She had a gift certificate at Hollister so we got two shirts there. We went to Sear's, who was having 60% off their clearance sale, so we got 5 shirts for $4-5 a piece! We also got 4 additional shirts there that were 30% off. Then she had a gift card at Claire's so we went and got her some jewelry. And she bought a pair of shoes and sunglasses with her own money at Payless. I think she has plenty to start out school with. On the way home we stopped at Walmart to get K some contact solution and the Neutrogena Wave face cleaner. I am trying so hard to instill in my daughter to take care of her facial skin.

What is left of Hurricane Dolly made its way to the Midwest last night. We received torrential down pours of rain. There was flooding by my house that I have never seen in the almost 6 years I have lived there. The thunder was incredibly loud and the lightening was fierce. Of course, you know that means I was on the couch with the beloved dog last night. I think I got 3 hours of sleep - at best. Uuuugh!

I am kind of ticked off at my hubby this morning. I have been reminding him and reminding him and reminding him about the costs that will be incurred on schedule pick up night next week. Last night after he went to bed I sent him an email at work for yet another reminder. This morning he tells me "this is the first he is hearing about these things!" So, I had to point out the numerous times I told him, what we both were wearing at the time, and exactly where we were standing when I told him (hey! I am female....we don't forget these things!). Of course that jogged his memory *vaguely*. I am going to go buy some sticky tack and start writing things down and sticking it to his forehead. That is all I can do. I try to be extremely organized and let him know so that he can plan for it. My husband is a very organized person himself but he always seems to forget the things I tell him about.

A Granny's Love

Last night when we were over at my parents house we got on the conversation about how spoiled I was by my Granny so I thought I would share a little bit.

I only had my Granny for 6 years of my life. But they were the most beautiful years. I believe I bonded more with my Granny as a mother figure than my own mother. I spent alot of time at my Granny's house. My mom even made a comment last night about how I would stay the whole weekend with her and when my parents came to pick me up I didn't want to leave.

My grandparents lived in a story and a half stone house that was built by my great grandparents. The house had 4 bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, mud room, one bathroom and a basement. It is unfortunate the the house is located in what today is known as a bad neighborhood. As much as I would love to drive by and see their house it would not be a wise decision for me to do so.

On the front of my grandparents house was a huge stone porch. Each spring my Granny would plant red geraniums in the flower boxes. I can smell them now just thinking about it. Each spring I get a red geranium plant and put it on my front porch in honor of my Granny. I remember riding my tricycle back and forth on her porch all the while she was walking back and forth on the porch. My Granny had always seemed to be in poor health but at the time I was not aware of it.

I loved being in my Granny's kitchen. Probably because she spent so much time in there. Granny always wore aprons she made herself and of course I had matching ones. She was a fabulous cook. Her speciality was home made chicken noodle soup. She made the noodles from scratch and I would sit on the dining room table and eat them as she cut them into strips. I also spent alot of time washing dishes at my Granny's house. Granny would give me clean dishes to wash if there were no dishes to wash at the time. I loved standing on my stool and splash the soapy water around. I would also rearrange Granny's cabinets all the time. I am not sure why she let me do it because it only caused more work for herself. I would stand on the counter tops and move the dishes between different cabinets where I thought they were best to be stored.

I ate some rather strange things at Granny's house. I remember my favorite snack request was a bowl of Miracle Whip. (Doesn't that just want to make you barf?) I can remember sitting at their 50's style table eating a bowl of mayo. I would also eat Rice Krispies with tea in it rather than milk. But the most special times were when Granny would feed me Gerber baby food in bed - and yes this was well past my baby years.

I remember going grocery shopping with Granny and I would lay in the shopping cart and have her pile all of her groceries on top of me. And we would never leave a store without me getting a donut or an Icee.

I loved playing 52 pick up with Granny. Granny would fan a deck of cards onto the floor and I would pick them all up. We would play it for hours. I also like to ask her how old people were in our family and she would count on her hands and I would watch her as she counted. (My daughter has my Granny's hands and I kiss them and tell her how proud Granny would be that she has her hands).

I miss my Granny so much. There were so many times in my life that I wish I had her to talk to. I have often gone to her graveside alone to visit her. She was a wonderful person and will forever live in my heart!!!

Go! Go! Go!

I am stressing about my upcoming schedule. Life always seems to get busy this time of the year with school starting. Here is my upcoming schedule:

Monday - dinner at my parents for K's birthday
Tuesday - possibly get nails filled, finish K's school clothes shopping
Wednesday - travel to Lawrence, KS.
Thursday - work on PTA posters
Friday - work on PTA posters
Saturday - go to the Royals game for military appreciation day
Sunday - scrapbook with Pam
Monday - finalize PTA prep
Tuesday - work PTA booth for schedule pick up night
Wednesday - work PTA booth for schedule pick up night, get K's schedule and meet teachers
Thursday - work PTA booth for schedule pick up night
Friday - take K to get her hair highlighted, make and ice cupcakes
Saturday - finish boys school clothes shopping, K's birthday party
Sunday - FINALLY RELAX!!! (I hope!)

We bought the movie 21 over the weekend. We seen it at the theatre and loved it. I hope to get to watch it while I work on posters Thursday or Friday. If you haven't seen the movie I recommend it. And that is saying something since I normally only like chic flicks!

I accidentally broke a mirror this morning while getting ready to go to work. The mirror was on its last leg anyway. I hope I don't have 7 years worth of bad luck!

Well I must be off to accomplishing my numerous tasks at work.

Until next time!

My busy weekend!

Let me tell you about my busy, busy Sunday. For starters I got up and fixed everyone the breakfast of champions - cereal! We ate dinner at Denny's on Saturday night in which we had breakfast for dinner so cereal seemed like the logical choice. Afterwards I went through K's closet and started pulling out clothes that no longer fits or she no longer wears. * I have to revisit this project later this week. * After that in celebration of having my Escape for 1 year I went out and gave it a nice birthday bath inside and out. I about died as it was so incredibly hot outside!!! I came back in, cooled down and then made lunch. After lunch I did some cleaning in the living room and kitchen. Then I sat down to make out our weekly menu, wrote out the grocery list and Sean and K went to the store. After putting groceries away I began making potato salad which I will be taking over to my parents house tomorrow night for dinner. Sean had requested that I make him a chocolate pudding pie so that was my next task. I made the pie crust and home made whipping cream (see picture). After that I made some tuna salad for us to take to lunch this week. Then made dinner which was Italian sausages, stuffing, cream corn and green beans. I have done 2 complete loads of dishes and will be starting the 3rd one as soon as I get done posting. After I do that I will make our lunches for tomorrow and hopefully be done for the day!

We accomplished getting the boys school supplies purchased on Saturday. Now we just need to get the kids some more clothes and we will be 100% ready for school to start. I got 6 guitars painted this weekend but still need to cut out the letters for all of them. I will need to paint an additional 3-4 more before next Tuesday.

The only frustrating part of the weekend was dealing with the boys mother and her lacking a watch. She had asked to pick them up at noon on Saturday in order to take them to a family reunion. She didn't show up to our house until 2:00PM. She was supposed to bring them back by 5:00PM and didn't show back up until 7:30PM. Then on Sunday about 30 minutes before it was time to take the boys home she called and said she would pick them up at our house; however, she wasn't going to make it to our house for another 2 and a half hours. I swear that woman WILL be late to her own funeral.

Upstairs Lycra!

I didn't get a chance to blog today. I normally blog from work first thing when I get there. Today they wanted me to work from 8-5 - imagine that!

Last night we went to get K's jeans for school. My sister called right before we left and asked if she could tag along. I am so glad she went because she introduced us to "upstairs lycra". I had no idea such a thing was on the market and now that I do it is my new best friend. Upstairs lycra is a tank top that helps hold in any "extra" cushioning you may have on the top portion of your body. There are so many shirts that are hanging in my closet that will get to see the world again now that I can hide away those extra rolls. I am sooo excited!

Tonight we celebrated K's 13th birthday with the boys. They (ok Sean and I had one too) had cupcakes and cookies and cream ice cream. K got a new hair straightener, the Camp Rock CD, 3 pairs of polka dot earrings, and a polka dot night gown.

Not much else going on.

As James Brown would say....I feel good!!!!!

I feel absolutely fabulous this morning! It is the first day in several days that I have felt this good. Yeah! I think adding my exercise routine back into my schedule holds the key. I did find out last night that the reason I couldn't get the tape to work yesterday morning is that the 1 mile tape broke. So now I am forced to do the 2 mile tape which is a more intense workout and actually better for me anyway so it all works out. Hopefully when I go back to see my doctor in two months I will get a smiley face instead of the sad face I got last time.

We took the boys to get their school tennis shoes last night. They got skater shoes too. All our non-skater kids are wearing skater shoes. I don't mind since they are made so well. A got a pair that coordinates with his school colors. He actually did the best on his shoes. He picked his shoes out which were the exact amount of what he couldn't go over but when the cashier rang them up they actually rang up for $10 less than the sticker price! Sold! We had to pick out shoes for B because he could really care less what shoes he has. He just isn't into clothes or shoes yet. The only concern he has is how fast he is going to be able to run in his tennis shoes. So once we got them on him he had to do a lap around the shoe store running as fast as he could and then they got his stamp of approval. We also ran over to Office Max and got K's binder so her school supplies shopping are done! Yeah!

I received the first set of pictures from Snapfish last night! Yeah! Pam and I already have our scrapbook date on the calendar. I can't wait!!!!

Some accomplishments

I did not get most of things done that I wanted to on my day off; but I did get some things done that I wasn't even planning on so I guess it balances out.

After being rudely awaken by work I ate some breakfast and was feeling bad so I checked my blood sugar levels which ended up being way too high. I needed to conjure up some energy to workout but when my levels are high I am extremely tired (and my husband will tell you I am also very irritable). I called Sean and he told me I just needed to work out and not worry about the fact that I am tired. Well, that set my irritability off because being tired from high blood sugars is a completely different tired than being tired from staying up too late or doing something physical. So, I laid around watching Best Defense on TRU TV, my favorite station. Sean called back a little bit later and had all the school supplies budgets worked out. My husband is the CFO of our family. He does a GREAT job with it but he drives me crazy because I am not as detailed oriented about it as he is. In fact I know it is wrong to study zodiac signs and I usually do not pay much attention to them but I have done some reading on my sign and I can say I am a Pisces through and through. I am sentimental, sensitive, love to be creative, a day dreamer and I could care less how money comes in and how to balance it but I hold a PHD in spending it. Anyway, he tells me that whenever I am ready I can go get K's school supplies and then starts preaching to me about not going crazy and I don't have to get all the cutesy stuff. So I had to explain to him that girls want the cutesy stuff and there is no reason why we cannot buy it. I ended up winning that one. So, I got dressed and headed up to Walmart to get K's school supplies. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to get a picture in the body of my post so the picture is up above. K loves polka dots so I was excited when I found so many polka dot themed items. We still have to get a binder which I will let her pick out and some post it notes which will be donated by an unnamed source.

When I got home I worked out and then ate a light lunch and started feeling better. I even checked my blood sugar levels 2 hours after I ate and while it was still slightly high it was way better than from the morning time.

After dinner we took K to get her school tennis shoes. We gave her a dollar amount and told her she could not go over that. I was dreading it because K can really be a pain in the hind-end anymore when you take her shopping. She wants what she wants no matter what the cost (hmmmm! I wonder where she gets that from??) So we head up to the mall and go to Journey's where we have been buying her tennis shoes lately. They sell skater shoes there. My daughter is NOT a skater but incredibly hard on shoes. The skater shoes are made with high quality and even K cannot tear these up. Fortunately they make very girlie skater shoes so we can all be happy. Smile! The first pair K picks up have all kinds of rhinestones on them. They were as cute as can be and were also $10 over the limit we gave her -* and *- if didn't have the CFO with us she would have got those shoes! They were precious!! The second pair she picked out was one cent below her limit amount and she ended up loving them! It was a piece of cake (thank you, Jesus!) I hope clothes shopping goes as smooth! I am crossing my fingers, toes, hairs, etc.

Tonight we are taking the boys to get their tennis shoes. They are so much easier to please than our princess. I hope they don't pull reverse psychology on us since she was so pleasant in picking hers out.

I wanted to get to bed at 10:15 last night since I haven't been feeling good but didn't end up making it there until 11:30. I read for a few minutes (I actually enjoyed the chapter I read last night) and then attempted to go to sleep but had a hard time getting there. I finally drift off and then I hear my husband say "Booboo" (that is what he calls me). He then tells me the dog is trying to come down to our room. Frustrated I grab my pillow and go sleep with the dog on the couch. I love my dog to pieces but she is getting on my ever last nerve. She is either going to have to change her ways or my DH is going to have to change his because I am tired of sleeping on the couch!

I am feeling much better today. I tried to work out this morning before work but the VCR kept kicking off. Not sure what is up with that and I was not awake enough to figure it out.

Have a great day!

Day off

Well I finally make it to my Tuesday day off to myself and what do I get??? My work calling me starting at 10 til 8:00AM!!! For real!!! Can't a girl take a day off???? Sometimes I want to take that company provided cell phone and flush it down the toilet. How ironic....just as I am typing this - they call again! Job security I guess because they cannot seem to function without me! It is ONE 8 hour day. Deal with it!!!

I don't really have much planned for today. I have a few projects to do, some painting on the PTA guitars, and some emails to return. I really just want to relax as much as possible. Especially since I have been having a terrible time keeping my blood sugars in the norm the past few days. Which reminds me - I also need to exercise today.

I finally got K's school supply list so I think I will run and get those items sometime today or this evening. My husband is going to be checking with the boys mom to see if we need to get their supplies as well. I want to get everything bought before the tax free weekend that is coming up in a few weeks. I don't do well shopping with millions of people so I would rather get it done without having to freak out than to save a dollar or two. That is my philosophy and I am sticking to it.

I am probably a little more than half way through Love the One You're With and I think I can say at this time this is not one of Emily Giffin's best books. I enjoyed her first two books so much but this one I get to parts where I am forcing myself to read it. I didn't even pick it up at all to read yesterday. I will finish it since I paid $20 for it and hopefully as I read to the end it gets better. One can always hope!

Well I best be off to enjoy my day!

Are you an organ donor?

Exactly 13 years ago today I was admitted to the hospital to have a scheduled c-section in order to bring my daughter into this world. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had to have a Cesarean because my daughter was breach. My OBGYN had a baby 8 months before I did and her baby was breach too. She opted to have her baby turned while still in the womb. When the time came where I could make the decision of having my baby turned or not my doctor told me that it was painful and my stomach would be bruised so I gladly opted out of it. While I feel like I missed out on some of the birthing experience I had always said if I ever had another baby I would have another Cesarean. However, that would never be an issue because I never had another baby.

I have enjoyed mothering K these past 13 years and look forward to a new chapter in our lives as she hits her teenage years. (Ok...enjoying those teenage years may be tough but I am still super duper blessed to be her momma.) I couldn't imagine life without her.

K spent the weekend in Branson with her dad for her birthday. She had always wanted to go to Branson and I am so thankful her dad took her there. I cannot stand Branson. It is waaaaay too crowded. I thank God for my answered prayers for getting them there and back safely.

I was put on a prayer chain a little over a year ago for a little boy who needed a liver transplant. Since then I have been made aware of several children who are very sick and sadly some of these children have even passed away. I had never realized how many people have such sick children. Those of us that have healthy children may not realize how blessed we are. I still visit several websites a day to pray and get updates on children who are still battling their diseases or to pray for those that have lost their children. After hearing all of these stories I gladly became an organ donor. I know God does not need my organs in Heaven and if in my death my organs could save a life I will gladly pass them on. So today's message in celebration of my baby's birthday I want to spread the word of organ donation. By clicking on the below link you can learn all you need to know about being an organ donor and if you decide you want to be an organ donor you can sign up there too!

http://www.organdonor.gov/

BTW...the little boy I was praying for who had to have a liver transplant ended up having to have 2 of them at the age of 3!!!! He is doing well today. There is another little boy who is on the list to receive a new liver - please keep him in prayer.

Have a blessed day!

My thoughts on the Dark Knight

I am soooo excited about the release of The Dark Knight. Let me start off by saying, Batman, is not my kind of movie. I prefer movies that star actresses like my girls Reese and Drew. However, I LOVE make-up whether it be girlie girl make-up or theatrical and I have been counting down the months to see The Joker's make-up on the big screen. I have had the above picture as my screen saver on my PC at work for several weeks now. I want to try to duplicate it so if there are any volunteers out there who want their faces painted - get in line! I don't plan on seeing the movie this weekend. I really hope to wait until the hype dies down because if there is one thing I cannot stand that is sitting in a crowded theatre. However, my husband is a HUGE movie buff and has been anxiously waiting for the movie to come out (he actually wants to see the movie - hear the story line - he could give a care less about my beautiful make-up part) so he may have other plans and we will see it this weekend.

Last night we watched this weeks episode of Tori and Dean. When the new season came out I had DVR'd the first episode (ok I DVR them all because I don't have time to watch it on the night it is on) while my husband was at basketball camp with A. When he got home I asked him if he wanted to watch it or if he wanted me to delete the episode. He told me to delete it because he "doesn't get into that type of thing". So I deleted it. I have spent the past several weeks watching Tori and Dean on either Wednesday or Thursday nights. As I would watch the episodes my husband would sit at his computer (playing a game) and I would look over and he would be watching the TV. But remember he doesn't get into those types of things. So last night I started watching this weeks episode and he comes into the living room and asks me to wait to watch it later because he wants to watch it with me! Uh huh!.... I knew it! He loves Tori and Dean just as much as I do! He just won't ever admit it!

I have read up to chapter 5 in Love the One You're With. The chapters flip between her past and present life; however, so far the chapters about her present life always end up being all about her past. I am sure they are setting the foundation of the book but I am getting a little bored because I know everything about the main characters past life but the only thing I know about her present character is her name, where she lives, who her husband is and that she stopped in a cafe to have some coffee. I can't visualize what she looks like, what type of a person she is, etc. because through 4 chapters we have not yet been told. Chapter 5 goes back to her present life so I am hoping that it will finally delve into who Ellie is today so I can start making sense of it all.

That is all for now. Have a fabulous weekend!

Love the one you are with

Yesterday ended up being a good day at work as I found out I won an award that I was nominated for. Actually it was three of us that won the award. We have a program at my work where associates nominate other associates for jobs well done. It is very hard to win the award. This is only the second time I have won it in the 8 or so years I have been in this organization of the company so it is exciting. The thing I don't like about it is in a few weeks they will have a big ceremony where everyone in the building will attend. We have to walk up in front of everyone to get our award (a plaque and a $50 gift card) and pose taking a picture while shaking hands with a VP. I like being behind the scenes - I do not like being the center of attention. I wish we could skip the ceremony part - except for the cake that will be served!

I attended the first PTA meeting last night where we worked on our proposed budget for the 2008-2009 school year. Our poor kiddos are being hit so hard with the economy being like it is. We had to anticipate prices going up on all things so several events that we normally do during a school year had to be eliminated. I wish these yahoo's who run our country would get it together. Life stinks for everyone with the raising prices. It is one thing to effect me but to now have it effect our children - that really hurts!!! The board loved my guitar and "Be a hero" theme so I have to get cracking on making all the other guitars in the next two weeks. I have 8 dates so far scheduled for PTA events - and this is just through the second week of November!! I am going to chair the Grandparents Day breakfast in which I am looking forward in doing that. I have yet to chair a school event at the middle school level so I am not real sure what I have got myself into. Yikes!

K and I started working on her invitations for her birthday party when I got home but she started having a smart mouth so I had to send her to her room and told her we would do the invitations another night when she could be respectful. She wanted to print out her invitations rather than buy the little card invites so we went and bought some paper and matching envelopes. She typed up the format which I think should be changed to be a little nicer but she wasn't going to have any of it last night. Who knows how the final product will turn out??

Today my hubby took the day off and is golfing with a friend of his. I am glad he got to go golfing because he hasn't been able to golf as much as he would like to the past few years. It is funny he called me yesterday after his friend asked him to play and he told me that he told his friend that he would ask the boss if he could go and let him know. When he told me that I replied...."Am I really the boss?" He then told me it was just a figure of speech. I then told him he had it correct the first time. =)

I am going to go buy a new book to read tonight. It is Emily Giffin's latest release titled "Love the One You Are With". I have read 2 of Emily's books and loved them. I am sure this one will be just as good.

More jibber jabber

The date night my daughter and husband had last night went beautifully! Sean bought K a pink rose and she thought that was the neatest thing in the world! They went to Applebee's where I even got my husband's leftover penne pasta for lunch today and a strawberry cheesecake shooter! After they got home I played a game of Life with K while Sean played golf on the PC and watched the All-Star baseball game.

I know I keep talking about my reunion but I am on such a high from attending it. I keep getting emails from my old classmates and it is so much fun rekindling friendships with them. We have over 10,000 hits to our reunion page now! We have 54 missing classmates so I took it upon myself to do some digging to see if I could find some contact information for them. I have found possible contact information for nearly 15 of them and have got one missing student to already register on our website. Wahoooo!

My pictures were supposed to ship from Snapfish yesterday but I have not received an email confirmation on that yet. I hope they hurry up. I did get an email when I ordered them stating since they were offereing the 50 prints for a penny each that shipping times could be delayed. My friend Pam and I are both waiting for our pictures so that we can scrapbook.

Well I really need to go get some work done so I will close for now.

One guitar down....several to go!

Here is the guitar I worked on last night that I have to have ready for tomorrow nights meeting. It took forever!! First I had to paint 4 coats of the purple paint and 2 of the black. Then I cut the letters out using my Sizzix - which is getting old and doesn't cut as well as it used to. I then put glitter on the letters and then had to glue them down. After that I did a stencil of the star and stripes and punched out the smaller stars and glued them down. I finally finished up around midnight.

K and my husband have been butting heads recently so tonight they are going on a "date night". My husband is taking her out to a nice dinner and is going to buy her a flower. I am hoping the special attention will clear the air. I know alot has to do with her becoming a teenager. The other is they are both very strong, outspoken people so they are going to naturally butt heads because they both want the last word in. Sometimes I laugh because it is literally down to who gets the last peep in. But I do want K to be respectful and she needs to know her place. We let her by with jokingly saying things like "whatever" when we told her to do something and now she is saying it and meaning it. I know we were kids once before and pushed the buttons but I am having a hard time understanding why our kids take the risk of being grounded or in trouble. Just do what you are told and life is good for you.

My reunion pictures are supposed to ship today. I can't wait to get them. Mostly because this will be the first prints from my new camera and I want to see if I am using the camera right and what the kind of quality the output is. My friend Pam ordered some pictures too (hey! why not...Snapfish had a special 50 prints for a penny a piece!) so we are eagerly looking forward to the next time we can get together to scrapbook.

Other than that not much is going on. I am extremely tired. Next Tuesday can't come quick enough for me!

Back to the grindstone!

Today was my first day back to work. Can't say I got alot done. It was nice having a week off and I only got 2 phone calls from work the whole week long! I guess I am training my co-workers well. Yeah!

I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I liked staying up until 2AM and sleeping in until 9-10AM. I am thinking I should play the lottery so that I can make that a permanent way of life. Wouldn't that be so nice??

I received a few emails over the past few days from some of my classmates. It is so nice to hear from them. Although it had been 20 years since I seen them last it seemed like yesterday. I hope to keep in touch with a few of my closest friends. I am still trying to hunt down a few that are "missing" or did not attend the reunion.

I scheduled next Tuesday off as a vacation day. I need a mental day. Although we were on vacation last week I still worked my little hind end off. I cooked 3 meals a day (for the most part) did 3-4 loads of dishes a day and cleaned up after my sweet little family all week long so I am thinking I need a "me" day.

Well it is almost time to go home now. I need to go home and paint a paper guitar to present at our PTA meeting this Wednesday night. I am going with a "guitar hero"theme for our membership drive but using the phrase "be a hero join PTSA!" Hopefully it goes over well.

Twenty Year Reunion

Last night we went to my 20 year high school reunion. For one, I cannot believe how I got myself worked up about being nervous about it. For two, I cannot believe I considered not going. I had so much fun reuniting with my classmates!!!!!!!!! I took lots of pictures and have already ordered them to be printed - can't wait for those to come in the mail so that I can scrapbook them. Our reunion took place in a Hilton ball room and was catered by The Hereford house. The environment was classy and the food was delicious. No one has really changed that much. The morning of the reunion we went on a tour of our high school which has completely changed. An alumni would not be able to enter the high school and find their way around. The updates are very nice. There is a second gym now, a lunch room for seniors only, and a new auditorium. The only thing I didn't like is that they changed out the lockers and now they are only about 6 inches wide. I don't know how students even get a coat put in their locker!

At the reunion we took a class picture and then we took class pictures by elementary school. I ordered a print of both of them and can't wait to get those in the mail as well.

My husband and I went to the same high school although we did not know each other at the time. He is 4 years older than me so he was a senior when I was a freshman. I was a good girl and my husband.....was a typical wild teenage boy. He dated every skanky girl in our school. Thank God he changed his ways! The first person we ran into was one of those skanky girls and of course she acknowledged my husband right off. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! She looked so nasty! I would venture to guess she is whacked out on meth and every other drug out there. Once we were at home my husband hugged me and told me he was a very lucky man. Yes, he is - if I say so myself.

Vacation Days Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday it was overcast and cloudy out so we stayed home and played board games all day long. We played Apples to Apples, the new electronic version of The Game of Life, Pass the Pigs, and Imaginiff. We had a great time. =) Then late that evening we went to Dairy Queen to get some ice cream.

Today we spent the day at the pool. It was extremely crowded that we couldn't even find an available lawn chair. Oh well....we still had a great time. Soaked up some rays, floated in the lazy river and the kids went down the slides several times.

Now I am onto reunion mode since it is two days away. Tomorrow I will go to the tanning bed to try to get a little more color on my pale body. Tonight I will be doing my finger and toe nails.

Have a great day!

Vacation Day 3

Today we went to the pottery studio and painted a piece of pottery. On the way to the pottery studio I explained to our children how we were to have manners while we were there. I specifically told the boys that conversations about butts, farts, and poop (you know, guys favorite subjects) were a no go. At the time I was explaining this I didn't realize how "key" this would be in our day. Read on....

When we got to the studio we were the only ones there. The boys quickly picked out a piece of pottery - A painted a skateboard and B painted an alligator. K threw a fit trying to find a piece of pottery - which was expected - she is such a drama queen. She finally settled on a star mug. I painted an octopus and my husband painted a '55 corvette. We had the studio to ourselves for the first hour and a half and then some other customers came in to paint. All was going well when my *HUSBAND* let out 3 farts. Then he didn't stop there he let out like an additional 15!!!! Our kids were cracking up and I was TOTALLY embarrassed! A let us know that all the other tables were starring over at our table. I couldn't believe how I had a conversation with the boys about not talking about these things but never in my LIFE did I think I needed to tell my husband to not actually DO any of those things. I am used to those types of bodily functions after raising 3 boys and I work mainly with men at my job. But to have my husband do it in a small studio with only women there besides out kids was over the top. I can't take him anywhere! I told him tonight that he had better not let that happen at my high school reunion this weekend!

I got K's skating party booked. I had to book it 3 weeks past the time I wanted to book it because that is all that was available. It kind of ticks me off because I have been calling the skating rink for 3 weeks and left messages for someone to call me back but would never get a return call. Then now the date I had to book it on my sister is going to be out of town and cannot make the cupcakes. She is going to make the icing (my sister makes the BEST icing in the whole entire world!) ahead of time and I will make the cupcakes. I hate it when I try to be extremely organized and can't get what I need on the other end so then my plans have to dramatically change for those that do not have it together.

I have my first PTSA meeting next week. Life as I knew it is about to change as I know I will be extremely busy with PTSA this next school year. Besides the meeting next week I already have 5 dates in August that I have already had to put on my calendar for PTSA events.

Vacation Day 2

This morning my husband got up and cut the boys hair. B was begging for a haircut as he likes his kept short. A on the other hand pretty much had to be forced as he likes the shaggy look. They both look very handsome with their new haircuts. I prepared the meatballs for dinner and made a chocolate cake. It was extremely hot out today so we stayed in the house for the most part.

For dinner we had what we called a "Messy Night". I had read about it in a magazine as a family fun idea. I prepared a spaghetti and meatball dinner along with chocolate cake and the trick was you had to eat with your hands - no silverware could be used at all. I put trash sacks on our chairs for "just incase" accidents. We also gave the kids old Tshirts to put on. I tried to post a video but couldn't get it to work. =(

After dinner we went to play miniature golf which was alot of fun. Since it was a week night there were hardly any people there so we pretty much had the course to ourselves. Above is a picture of my husband with the kids after golfing.

Our weekend

Our vacation has officially began. We didn't have anything "special" planned for today so we kind of took it easy around the house. K made a "Welcome Home" poster for my nieces from their dog when they return from vacation tomorrow. We played the game Apples to Apples tonight (thanks for the recommendation, Kel!) It was fun but our kids were wired so it was equally frustrating having to say..."don't do that, stop, don't call her names, be careful don't spill your drink, etc." And this to our kids that ages 11-13! You would have thought we were playing the game with 4 year olds.

I got my hair highlighted yesterday but I can't seem to see the highlights. I will ask my sister her opinion when she gets back into town to see what she thinks of it. I was afraid of going too light so it was probably my fault in choosing a too conservative color. Even if you can't see them having the color in my hair gives my hair more body which I am in great need of.

We had a wonderful time on the 4th of July at Kelly and Bryan's house. We had way too much delicious food, saw great fireworks, and had terrific conversation. Very enjoyable!

On Saturday the time got away from us as we had many last minute errands to run to prepare for vacation. I left the house at 9:30AM to go to the hair salon and swang by the house to pick up my hubby afterwards and we did not return to the house until midnight! (yup....the 24 hour Walmart was our last stop....in fact we had been there twice in one day!) I had not got a chance to clean the house yet so I ended up being up until a quarter to 4 AM! My hubby let me sleep in this morning in which I did not get up until a quarter til noon.

I will post as I can this week.

Weather Scare

Happy Birthday to my hubby! Who loves birthday's but not the getting older part.

Last night was the scardest (is that a word?...no spell check says it is not but I am leaving it) I have been in a long, long time. My husband and I went out to eat and I knew he was going to go home and watch the Royals game (for the third night in a row) and that sounded boring to me. So I dropped him off and was headed to Gordmans to do some shopping. When we left the restaurant it had started raining lightly and by the time I was exiting my neighborhood to go to Gordmans it was pouring rain. As I was driving towards Gordmans the rain was coming down in sheets and it was pretty hard to see. I kept saying to myself "maybe I should turn around and go back home." I would drive a little farther and think the same thing again. The lightening was so intense the hairs would stand up on my arms when it flashed. I finally decided I would turn around and go back home. As I get turned around I realize the storm is now coming at me and visibility is impossible. I looked out my windshield and all I could see was swirling sheets of rain. There was no trace of the road I was driving on - and I happened to be on a bridge as that point. Scary stuff. The only thing I could do was roll my tires a few rotations and then completely stop to wait for the rain to blow around enough so that I could try to see the road. I had to do this the entire way home. Other cars around me were doing the same thing. It was the ONLY way to be able to see. I prayed all the way home and thanked God to no end once I was safe in my driveway. Scaaaarrrry!

This morning as I was driving into work I counted two trees over by my house that were snapped in two and several limbs and branches down. As I got into the town where I work there were several trees totally uprooted and blocking roads. They got hit much worse than we did. Thank goodness I wasn't driving over here last night.

I ended up with the dog on the couch again last night for the second night in a row. Tuesday night the thunder was not too bad but last night it was very loud. I didn't blame her for being scared.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July! I am on vacation next week and will try to post as much as I can.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I have alot to do at work today since I am on vacation next week so I have to blog and go today. I just have alot of tid bit information to share of happenings from the week.

First off I will start off with my new camera. As you know, I had my heart set on a Kodak discontinued model at first and ended up not being able to find one for sale. My second choice was a Canon, which also happened to be a discontinued model...I know how to pick them don't I? I could only find it through Sears and the only two they had left happened to be located in Lee's Summit, MO....just a hop, skip and a jump away from me. We drove out to the Sears Grand to get one of them and guess what? They couldn't find either one of them!! Darn my luck! Luckily I had a third choice in mind, which was the Canon A470, and they had plenty of them in stock, so I purchased one of them. I am having so much fun with this camera and am glad it is the one I ended up with. I can't wait to have a "real" reason to take pictures outside of walking around my house snapping photos in order to learn how to use it. (Kel - be ready to say cheese on the 4th!)

I got my shirt for the reunion last night. It is black with raspberry colored flowers on it. It ties on the side of the waist which looks somewhat slimming - if that is even possible. I am going to wear a pair of black capri's that I already have. I just need to find a pair of black sandals and some jewelry.

I have to send out a quick congratulations to my cousin Chris and his best friend Zach who are opening a Planet Sub in St. Louis, MO this weekend! You guys did it! I wish I could be there but will eventually make a trip down there to check it out. (Kel - if you ever went to the Planet Sub in LS, Zach was the manager and Chris worked there over the last 6-9 months)

Speaking of St. Louis, I have been talking with my family members who live in Festus, MO, which is where they found the bodies of two of the people that the serial killer guy killed. Very spooky to have that happen there. Festus is a very small town and things like that don't happen there. Which is even more spooky my Aunt and Uncle (Chris's parents) are staying in that same hotel this weekend while they are in town for the Planet Sub grand opening!

Tomorrow my hubby will turn 41. He is not liking being over 40. I keep reminding him that I am only (cough! cough!) 24 so it will be awhile before I can relate to what he is going through. He took the day off tomorrow and is going to pick up the boys and go see the new Hulk movie and then he wants to go out for a steak dinner.

Well I best be getting all of this work done that I need to do. Today is my last full day here as our company closes at 1:00 on Thursday. Hammer time!

Today's Frustration

Yes, I am back again for a second post. Blogging is very therapeutic for me so I decided that instead of sitting here stewing about a situation that happened I will write (type) it down and then I can get over it.

A couple weeks ago I had called my sister and asked her to watch our kids for a couple hours while we went to my high school reunion. She asked for the date and then said, "yes, I can do it." So with that all taken care of we were set to go.

This morning my sister calls me to talk about me watching her dog a day or two when her neighbor can't because they are leaving for Vegas tomorrow. She then goes on to tell me that how they will get home from Vegas, be home for two days, and then leave again for Oklahoma. I stopped her and asked "so you won't be in town on July 12th?" in which she replied "no." I then reminded her that the 12th was the day she agreed to watch our kids while we were at the reunion. She replied "Sorry! I will be out of town."

Uuuuuugh! God love my sister........she is so unorganized that she never knows what she is doing until 2 hours before she is doing it. She has dropped me flat on so many things at the drop of a hat and it gets completely frustrating! She is making K's cupcakes for her birthday party and I asked again today...are you going to be able to do them and she answered "yes". If she drops me on that I am going to be furious!

I feel better now just getting it out. Now onto finding someone to watch our kids.

You will always be my baby!

It took four years and the help of the fertility drug Clomid but I finally got pregnant. My "baby" will turn 13 years old this month! Boy does time fly! When I was pregnant I HAD to have a girl. Actually I would have been happy with either sex - probably even an alien baby as it was so hard for me to get pregnant. I think the reason I really wanted a girl is that, like in Tori Spelling's book, I do not have that bond/relationship with my own mother that a mother and daughter should have. I wanted to have that relationship so bad and I KNEW I could offer that to my daughter. And my daughter and I have just that. It is the best feeling in the world. I have enjoyed raising her this far and look forward to the future where someday we can be the best of friends. (But right now I have to continue to be momma!)

K is at a stage in her life where her and I can really enjoy each other's company. We can have civil conversations. She feels comfortable to tell me almost everything. (I say almost because I know there are things she hides from me - but I am always one step ahead of her so I already know what is going on.) She is a joy. But don't get me wrong....she is your typical teenager and can have her moments as well. She can be Queen Sassafras if she wants to be. As much as I love her in those moments I do not want to be within 100 feet of her.

As I am sure I did and all girls do, K talks NON-STOP. She gets a kick out of when she is talking I start raising up her arms and twirling her around - looking for the mute button! I believe I have ADD and sometimes the abundance of talking she does totally and completely wears me out because I cannot take it all in. There are nights once I get her to bed my brain feels like it is going to explode from all the words I took in.

Last night K and I both got new books to read. (I also got my new camera - that may tomorrow's post). After we got my husband off to bed I told her to grab her book and we would sit up on the couch and read for a little bit before turning in ourselves. So we got blankies and laid on the couch along with the dog and started reading. About every other syllable in my book K would say something. Of course I didn't mind helping her with a word that she didn't know how to pronounce or know what its meaning was. It was the conversations such as "I would really like a Sidekick phone" during our reading session that was getting on my nerves. I told her that we couldn't concentrate on our reading if she was going to continue to talk. We went back to reading and she would say "Mom!" I would look up and she would wink at me. She would say "Mom!" again and I would look up and she would blow me a kiss. Yup, that's my baby!