Life's a journey.....

Christmas

2009-12-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

Halloween

2009-10-31T03:33:00.000-07:00

Columbus day

2009-10-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

Labor Day

2009-09-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

Independence Day

2009-07-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

In the song "Yankee Doodle," why did Yankee Doodle stick a feather in his cap and cal in macaroni? Th eline refers not to the pasta but to the Macaroni Club, a mid-eighteenth-century English social club of dandyish young men who wanted to bring the influences of the Continent to bear on their home country. Thus the line was originally intended to discredit the American revolutionaries.

Did Betsy Ross design the American Flag? No, it was designed by Francis Hopkinson, a naval flag designer, who was never reimburesed for his services by teh US Government. And there is no record of Betsy Ross 's commission to sew the flag.

When did the motto In God We Trust start appearing on US coins? It has appeared on most American coins since about 1864. During the Civil War, rising popular religious sentiment prompted Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to put the country's faith where its money was. Other slogans suggested were God Our Turst and God and Our Country. The motto is not required by law.

Fathers Day

2009-06-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

Bugs gone wild

2009-06-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

All Purpose Insect Spray
1 garlic bulb1 tbsp cayenne pepper1 quart water1 tbsp liquid hand soap1 small onion
Chop or grind up the garlic and onion, add the cayenne and mix with water. Let it steep for 1 hour. Ad liquid soap. Stor in a covered jar in the refrigerator for up to one week. Use as a spray wherever insects are.

Makin a list...checkin it twice

2009-05-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

I am a habitual list maker. I make lists for everything. Grocery shopping, things to do, calls to make, other lists that I need to make. I have lists everywhere. (Somehow I believe this goes along with my post it fetish. There's a pad of postits in everyroom of my house, plus like 10 in my car). With the move in date of the 20th of June, you can bet that I have started my list of todo's. Fortunately, Ken is taking care of alot of the little details, like switching on all of the utilities and cable. I'm not used to having anyone help me with all of these little details so i'm making a list of the things he's doing so I don't get confused.

So far here is my packing scheduale:

29: pick up boxes
30:pack dining room
31: Sisters pool bday party
1: pack cookbooks
2: pack living room
3: pack den
4: pack office
5: work
6: pack bedroom
7: pack clothes
8: pack front coat closet
9: pack garage
10: pack garage
11:work
12: work
13: Sister in laws pool bday party
14:
15:pack kitchen
16: pack kitchen
17: work
18: work
19: pack bathrooms
20: Movers coming at 8am

It all smells like roses

2009-05-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

After 6 years of doing property management, I am still surprised at some of the things I find when I go into homes. I guess the Glade needed a little help .

Obi Wan is the Pope?

2009-05-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day we took a ride out to a new suburb here in Vegas, Aliante, where we're moving to in a few weeks. We wanted to check out the shopping, restaurants, and of course see how long the commute is going to be for all of us. Turns out it's only going to add 10-15 minutes to each of our drive, which I don't think is all that bad. I usually use the time in the car to turn on some theraputic music (either Korn or System of a Down if I need to scream or classical if I need to wind down and focus).

While we were out there we stopped by Aliante Station to see "Angels and Demons". We had been to the movies there once before, a few months ago, but we didn't have time to check out the casino then. Honestly, it's almost identical to the Red Rock Casino. The only difference that I could tell was that the restaurants were different and the bingo hall was smaller and was non smoking only (yay!!).

I had read the book like 4 years ago, and remembered the general plot. I knew that it was set before 'The Davinci Code', but in the movie they make references to Davinci like it had happened before this. There were a few other general key plot changes that I don't think affected the movie, but were definately noticeable to anyone who had read the book.

I love the whole history conspiracy searching for clues thing. Any one know of any other books along the same genre?

Ken didn't really like the Davinci Code, so he was hesitant about seeing this. Especially after the previews, which were all very chic-flicky. But he enjoyed the movie after he got into it. I asked him what the difference between this and Davinci was and he said it was just more suspensful.

The movie was great. I love the theme music, which was the same as from Davinci. The acting was supurb and the sceenery was awesome. I know they shot alot of it from a sound stage and did the whole cgi thing, but it looked very realistic. Well, ok, i've never actually been to Vatican City, so i'm assuming it was realistic. Looked real enough to me.

It definately made me want to go back and read the book again.

Overall - 2 thumbs up.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Have a safe and wonderful day!

Eating Carpet

2009-05-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

Due to my insane schedule, I have to occasionally kennel the girls. Usually it's just for a few hours before Carl gets home from work. But I guess that's long enough for them to do serious damage. To my carpet.

Notice the sheet metal under the cage? That's because Bella somehow figured out to move the tray, and then eat the carpet and padding underneath all the way to the cement foundation. Now before I get a ton of hate mails for abusing my dogs, they're kenneled up for this reason. Bella is still a baby, a BIG baby, but still going thru that what else can I eat when my mom's back is turned baby stage. I can't tell you how many pairs of shoes, panties, and books I have lost in my battle of wits with a 10 month old rottie.

Note how the damage is in squares? This was what she could get thru the holes in the bottom of the cage.

How big the damage was. Now this was done over a series of days actually. Took me that long to obtain a piece of sheet metal to put under the cage. I know she didnt ingest any of it simply by the amount of remnants around the hole. Also none was 'evacuated'. (And yes I did call the vet).

The smiling culprit.

And the wonderful patch job my carpet company did. Can't even tell there was any damage. No harm to floor and dog.

Now to go see what else she's gotten into.....

Friday's Facts - Cats are allergic to lilies

2009-05-22T18:29:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned that i'm trying to make this blog more organized, trying to make it more user friendly. Alot of the blog's I read have different days for different topics. So since i'm such copycat, I have come up with some of my own. Okay, well so far all i've come up with is one, Friday's Facts. It's no secret that I love wierd and unsual facts. And I love sharing them. Hey, you never know when one of them might be that winning answer on Jeopardy.

So here is the first Friday's Facts......

Lilies, a floral reminder that winter has passed, frequently appear in homes during spring holidays as potted plants or cut flowers. But for cats, many lilies can be as lethal as they are lovely.
Members of the plant genus Lilium produce a chemical, present throughout the plant, that can cause a cat to suffer fatal kidney failure. It can be deadly for a cat to simply bite into a lily leaf or petal, lick lily pollen from its paws, or drink water from a vase containing cut lilies. Easter lilies, stargazer lilies, and Asiatic lilies seem to be the most hazardous of this group of plants.

“Some cats appear to be more susceptible than others to lily toxicity, and the severity of the resulting kidney failure also varies from cat to cat,” said veterinarian Julie Fischer of the UC Veterinary Medical Center-San Diego. “Some poisoned cats recover with minimal therapy, while others require weeks of dialysis to live long enough for the kidneys to repair themselves.”
She noted that many cats never recover kidney function following lily toxicity and die, or are euthanized, within just a few days of becoming ill.

“Symptoms of lily poisoning include vomiting, lethargy or loss of appetite,” said UC Davis veterinary professor Larry Cowgill, co-director of the UC Veterinary Medical Center-San Diego “If cat owners suspect lily poisoning, they should contact their veterinarian immediately because a cat that has consumed the lily toxin very likely will experience kidney failure within 36 to 72 hours unless it receives appropriate treatment.”

Vets note that while all plants of the Lilium genus should be considered extremely hazardous to cats, calla lilies and peace lilies, which don’t belong to the Lilium genus, are harmless to cats.

Where's the beef?

2009-05-21T11:43:00.001-07:00

In the tradition of Memorial Day weekend, we are having a barbque. It's just going to be the three of us, plus maybe a few friends. Now that I have an idea of a moving date I don't want to do anything big. I'd rather wait until we're in our new house and then really throw a huge party.

I was perusing the yahoo main page I came across a recipe for these, Inside out cheeseburgers. Don't they just look delicious? I can't wait to try them this weekend. I had it in my head for a while that I was going to write a cookbook that was 365 different hamburger recipes. Besides getting stumped after 34, I found several different versions of this book written by other people. Isn't it always the way? Come up with a good idea and someone's beaten ya to it. Owell... I had fun experimenting.

1. Ingredients

1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1 pound 90%-lean ground beef
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Nutrition Info
Per Serving
Calories: 304 kcal
Carbohydrates: 1 g
Dietary Fiber: 0 g
Fat: 19 g
Protein: 30 g
Sugars: 0 g
About: Nutrition Info
Powered by: ESHA Nutrient Database

2. Cooking Directions

Preheat grill to medium-high or preheat the broiler.
Combine Cheddar and Gruyere in a small bowl.
Gently mix beef, Worcestershire, paprika and pepper in a large bowl, preferably with your hands, without overworking. Shape into 8 thin, 4-inch-wide patties. Mound 2 tablespoons of the cheese mixture on each of 4 patties, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Cover each with one of the remaining patties. Crimp and seal the edges closed.
To grill: Lightly oil the grill rack (see Tip). Grill the stuffed patties over medium-high heat, about 4 minutes per side for medium-well. (Be sure not to press the burgers as they cook or they'll split open and the cheese will ooze out.) To broil: Cover a broiler pan with foil and coat with cooking spray. Broil the stuffed patties in the upper third of the oven, about 4 minutes per side for medium-well. In either case, let the burgers stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Yield: 4 servings

3. Still Hungry?

Why put the cheese on top of the burger when half of it just melts off--Instead, form the burger around the cheese so you can char the meat and safeguard the more delicate flavors. Use any mixture of hard or semihard cheeses-Emmentaler and Gouda or Asiago and Parmigiano-Reggiano also pair well.

Tip
To oil a grill rack: Oil a folded paper towel, hold it with tongs and rub it over the rack. (Do not use cooking spray on a hot grill.)

ch ch changes....

2009-05-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, i'm seriously debating whether or not to leave the changes i've made to the design of this blog or to hire someone seriously more gifted than me to revamp it. I like the white background, I think, and I love the header picture.... just not sure.... I so hate change.

But considering how much I hate change, i'm moving, AGAIN. For those of you who remember I moved 3 times last year and swore I wouldnt move again for a really really long time. Well, that must have been in dog years because we're moving in a month. There's a rental home that just came up that we're dying to have. It's the perfect design, not to mention location, being half way between both of our parents. It's a bit out of town (think half way to Utah) but for the price and the house, I think it's worth it. Carl and I are just about out of room here, and Ken and I are ready for that next step of living together and seeing as how there's not even enough room for him to leave stuff for overnight (what do you mean clear out one of my dresser drawers?) we NEED a bigger house. We should get the keys this weekend and will know all of the details (moving date) later. I'm actually pretty excited. It's going to be a big step for Ken and I. We've known each other for 15 years, dated off and on for 10, but have never spent more than a week total together with each other. I think it'll be good for us, getting to know each other on a different level. He's lived by himself for the past 5 years, and i've always either lived with a boyfriend or a roommate, so it's going to be a big transition. I've got my fingers crossed tho.

Dollhouse has been picked up for another season!!!

2009-05-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

I am just so excited that "Dollhouse" as been picked up for anther 13 episodes. I just love this show. I've always been a huge Joss Whedon fan, love just about everything he's ever done. And when I heard he was doing this with Eliza I was just thrilled! And it didn't disappoint. Ok, yes, it started out a little slow in the beginning. They even said that the first few episodes were 'filler' shows that the studio made them put in there, so as not to overwhelm the audience with the 'big bad' conspiracy that is a staple for any Joss Whedon show. But even they weren't that bad. Heck, they were just as great as the rest of the episodes, just didn't go along with the story line. My favorite sceen in the whole season was the one where they all 'woke up' and they stumbled into the huge warehouse full of clothes. I so want that closet! Three rows up from floor to ceiling and at least 20 racks from side to side! I'd never have to wear the same thing twice. So anyways, costume changes aside, i'm dying to see what's in store for next season, what with Alpha on the loose. Yay!!!!

Finally wired

2009-05-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend I did a little shopping. We started out just trying to kill some time before "Angels and Demons" started, but ended up spending 2 hours in Best Buy. I've been slowly loosing what was left of whatever computer savy I had by not having my own computer for 3 weeks. Yeah, I could use the one in my office, or Carl's, but I couldn't download photos, and I just felt limited. Kind of like having your car in the shop for 3 weeks and using your parents car. You know they lent it to you cuz they trust you, but you're still hesitant about putting too many miles on it or taking it off road. So after perusing the many isles of laptops, drooling over the pink compaq, I settled on this one, a HP Pavilion Notebook. They had an amazing deal where if you purchased this groovy little contraption and signed up for a 2 year contract with your server (mine being AT&T) for the wireless air card, it was only $399. Even my cheap butt couldn't pass that up. So fast forward 24 hours and here I am, sitting on my couch, watching a rerun of NCIS and writing this. Yay!!! I am so excited. I am taking the next two days off from work to clean my house, catch up on blogs, and maybe revamping it and making it pretty. Well, prettier.

Mothers Day

2009-05-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

Killing time

2009-05-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

It's thursday evening, and I actually have a ton of work to do. Most of it housework, so it'll wait. I've been trying to decide what direction I want this blog to go in. I'm sure this is a dilema that alot of people go thru, especially after they've come up against that 'dreaded writers block'. It's not that I don't have a list a mile long of things that i'd like to write about. It's just that the list is so varied. It seems like every one of my multiple personalities wants to have a say and voice their thoughts. I already have one for my ever growing collection of recipes. I've been toying with the idea of keeping one blog, but add different sections, such as frugal tips, contests and sweepstakes, and decorating ideas. That's one way to satisfy all of the voices in my head. The hard way would be to create an different blog for each topic. What would all of you do? Does anyone have any recommedations for a blog designer? I've checked out a few different sites (of designers) and they all seem go good. I guess I just have to make a decission. But it's thursday evening, dinner is in the oven, and the vacume is calling my name.... i'll have to think later.

What's the origin of the word hijack?

2009-05-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

During Prohibition, the taking of trucks full of illegal liquor became commonplace. When it happened, a gunman would say, "High, Jack", to indicate how the driver should raise his hands.

I've got gremlins

2009-05-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here I am trying hard to be all organized and post more often and my damn computer decided to crash on me. I was catching up on blogs saturday night and all of a sudden it started duplicating the window I was on. It got up to 54 open windows, and nothing I did to stop it worked, so I finally just unplugged it. Not sure if that was the right thing to do or not but hell it stopped the madness. So when I turned it back on I got this lovely little screen that said that windows was not working properly (duh), and that I needed assistance. Again, duh. I am a computer idiot. I can turn it on, get to a few sites, shop, and that's about it. So until I can either get my sister (who is a certified computer genius, says so on her business card) over here to fix it or I buy my Mac Laptop that i'm saving for, i'm stuck using Carl's computer or posting at work, which i'm doing at the moment. The only problem with both of these options is time. And I want a computer of my own. One that I don't worry about opening up a wrong screen, or downloading photos on, or leaving a window open that has access to my precious identity. In otherwords, time to go shopping.

The joys of parenthood

2009-05-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

My nephew Jacob had just asked his dad, my brother Joe, for what was I believe the 56th time if he could go upstairs and play on the play station with the older kids. I just love the total defeat in Joe's body language. Gotta love kids!

My new night shirt

2009-05-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

I am a die hard Buffy fan. I am also a die hard Twilight fan. (ok, maybe not die hard. I haven't gone up to the actual Forks and done the whole 'Twilight tour', but close.) So when I saw this tshirt I just had to have it. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the first time I saw it was hanging in Ken's closet. His sister bought it for him as a gag gift, and of course he had no intention of wearing it. So now it is happily folded away in my drawer. My pajama drawer. It's a 3x. So the unfortunate part is I won't be wearing this out to say the new Twilight movie premier. But I will be wearing it as I watch season 7 on dvd of Buffy tonight.

May Day

2009-05-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, with the festival of Flora the Roman Goddess of flowers, the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pre-Christian indigenous celebrations were eventually banned or Christianized during the process of Christianization in Europe. As a result, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on 1 May.
The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.

Too wierd even for me

2009-04-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've always said that the men in my life (past and present) are all very similar. In looks, personality, and I guess even in their choices. Last summer when V got married, he took his new bride to Ca, where they went to Catalina Island and also stayed for a bit on the Queen Mary 2. Well, I just found out that my ex-husband C went there last week on his honeymoon. Apparently their trip almost exactly mirrored V's, down to the number of nights they stayed on the QE2. These two men don't know each other at all, and the only thing they have in common is me. But I suppose this is further proof though that the men in my life are cut from the same cloth tho. (I can hear the twilight theme playing in the background).

I can promise everyone tho that when I get married again, I am NOT repeating this journey. Hawaii, Ireland, even maybe a cruise off the coast of Mexico. But if Ken suggests staying at the QE2 on our honeymoon........not sure what i'll do. Run for cover?

It's been how long?

2009-04-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ignore the crappy vinyl floor. It's a rental.

But seriously, I haven't blogged in how long? I haven't even been hopping on to check out anyone else's blogs. No, I haven't been sick, won the lottery or abducted by aliens. I've just been so friggin busy with work! We're almost done with our third rehab job, and i'm seriously looking forward to some evenings to just relax and get caught up on some personal stuff at home. To say that my own list of housework has fallen to the wayside while i'm cleaning someone else's mess wouldnt even begin to cover it. So this week I made out my new Flylady Control journal and am determined to get some order back into my life. I have a ton of things to write about, and am working on revamping my site. My to do list is 3 miles long and i'm pretty excited about some things that are coming up. 2009 is looking to be a very productive and positive year.

Show me the money

2009-04-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Easter

2009-04-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

La la la la la la la la la la la la

2009-04-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

They were having a big debate on the radio the other morning about how many girls were on the Smurfs. I remember Smurfette, and towards the end there was a little girl, Sassy I think her name was. But several people kept swearing there was another one, altho no one could remember her name. Any one have any clue?

The new project

2009-04-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we took 2 weeks off from rehabing houses and during that time I took the job working weekends. I guess I just can't stand to have any free time. But this house popped up and compared to the last two that we did it looked pretty easy. It's mostly just really really really dirty. Here, judge for yourself.

See what I mean? Overall we're expecting it to take us about a week. The biggy is going to be bagging and hauling away all the trash. The general maintenance won't take too long, just replace every single battery in all of the smoke detectors (can always tell where the pot heads live), some light bulbs and air filters. But the entire downstairs and half of the upstairs has to be repainted. I hope we can get it done on scheduale. The last house went 3 weeks over scheduale, mostly because I, well we, both had total lazy days where we didn't feel like doing crap. I just want to get this one done before we hit one of those spells again.

Nail time

2009-04-07T22:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight was bath and nail time for the girls. I try to do it at least once a month, more often in the summer. They're actually pretty good at it, considering they both hate water. There's the initial struggle, the bracing all four paws on the edges of the shower door to try to keep from being forced into the shower. I've figured the trick of it is to not turn on the water until after they're in there. If I do it before, there's no way they're getting in there. But they can sense it coming. I don't even have to say 'bath time' and they start running around the house looking for a place to hide. And honestly, if they could groom themselves likes cats do, i'd be fine with not giving them a shower. Definately would keep my back from hurting half as much as it does. But no, they have to be smelly dig in the dirt eat poop dogs that require a regular bath if I don't want my house to smell like a 15 year old boys room. Sunshine is always first, since I can just hold her while I wash her. In and out in less than 5 minutes. Bella tho is a different story. Thank God I have a detachable shower head (my wonderful birthday present from Ken) or I think i'd look like the hunchback of Notre Dame forever. She has this really thick almost muppet monster like hair that just takes FOREVER to soak up water and wash. And of course she's the one that likes to roll around in the dirt. Couldnt be the little one with hair the size of an eyelash.

After bathtime comes nail time. I've never cut their nails, as i'm a total chicken. I can just see myself cutting in too far and hurting them. The pedi paws is so wonderful cuz it's almost fool proof. I never worry about hurting them. Getting them to hold still for it is a different story. Again, I can just hold Sunshine. But I have to lay on top of Bella to keep her still. Fortunatly it's fast and they forgive me just as fast.

What is a last laugh?

2009-04-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

A bullet shot through a victim's hear somtetimes precipitates a final laugh before death.

My latest obession

2009-04-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

One of my wierd contradictions is that I love makeup. I rarely wear it tho, mostly because I just don't feel comfortable being all made up. I'm very much a natural girl at heart. I used to be strictly a Clinique girl, but for some reason this past January my skin just did a complete flip-flop. Now I look like a prepubescent kid, all broken out and red and splotchy. It's just so not attractive. So I started looking around for a new face regimine. I talked to my esthetician and she suggested Neutrogena facial products, which I have to admit have cleared up my skin a bit. Since I was changing things up a bit I thought I'd try some new makeup too. I have now fallen in love with Bare Minerals .

I bought my starter kit at Ulta, where the technician tested several different shades on my skin before I settled on the medium.

I watched the 30 minute dvd, just to get an understanding of why 'less is more'. I'm used to putting makeup on until everything that I don't want people to see is covered and what I do want them to see is accentuated. Not with this stuff. When they say less is more, trust me they mean it. It took me a couple of days of swirling and tapping to get it right, but man oh man now that I have it down I just love it! It's so super easy too. Just a tiny little bit on the inside of the cover goes a long way. I use the concealer brush to do under my eyes, eyelids, nose, chin, and any problem areas that I have.

Then just a quick brush with the large brush with the same color blends everything in. A quick sweep with the warmer and then the mineral veil and voila, I have clear skin.

I love that it only takes 5 minutes, and if I want that 'natural look', I just have to put some mascara on and i'm done.

Why men don't get it

2009-04-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

I thought this article by eharmony of 5 reasons she's just not into you was just hilarious. The sad part is there are still alot of men out there who would read it, and still not get it. But it is nice to know that it's not that us women are crazy, misreading all of the signs. Men just don't get it. A large majority of them anyways.

Plenty of holes left in the desert

2009-04-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

That's always the running joke around Vegas...that there are still plenty of places to bury a body. No matter what we can't seem to get away from the mob jokes.

But keeping that in mind (ha), this weekend we loaded up the girls in the truck and headed out to the desert. This is about 20 miles outside of Vegas, on the outskirts of a SMALL town called Jean, which is just east of the California border. Ken and Carl are helping a friend with a short indie movie and this spot was just perfect for what they needed, and I thought the girls could use a day out.

Isn't this just gorgeous?? Don't get me wrong, I love green and trees and all that too, but there's just something so majestic about the open barrenness of a desert.

The girls (who were tied to the trailer hitch of the truck so as not to wander off and aggrivate any snakes or coyotes) watched the boys wander off.

The movie is set in the old west and they needed a spot to show a body burried in the desert. Looks perfect to me.

The girls seemed to love being outside. Plenty of new smells and dirt to roll around in. I took them for several short walks (I wasn't looking to aggrivate any snakes either) and they totally loved it. Sunshine especially has always loved the sun. She knows exactly what time every window in the house gets direct rays and you can find her there like clockwork.

They both passed out on the way home and slept the majority of the night. Now I know what to do when they're all amped up and running around the house like wild horses. A trip to the desert!

Where did "three sheets to the wind" come from?

2009-03-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

The phrase, which has come to refer to a completely inebriated person, derives from sailing - but not from the sails, as one might think. In the early 1800's, chains were used to regulate the angle of the sails, and these were called sheets. When the sheets were loose, the boat would become unstable and tipsy, thereby resembling a drunk person.

Where did the weekend go?

2009-03-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a LOONG day. I got in the office around 9:30, and was getting quite abit of misc paper work done when we had an unexpected visitor. It was a gentleman who, well, I had met but Nicole had never met. Back story - her late husband (my late boss) was dating a woman, P, for 4 years (before he met Nicole). P was married to JK. John, Nicole's husband, new she was married, as did everyone, but everyone, and I do mean everyone, also knew she was also dating John. Well, P died, a year later John and Nicole get married. End of story. Well, until yesterday. JK comes walking into the office and wants to offer his condolences to Nicole on John's passing. Huh? We were both in shock. Surely this man knew that John had been having an affair with his wife for almost 4 years. And he wants to come in and offer his condolences to John's widow? It was definately a wtf moment. The husband of John's mistress comes in to offer the widow of the man that was sleeping with his wife condolences??? Definately threw both of us for a loop. Margaritas for lunch were a must. We went to Ricardo's, our regular lunch spot. Great nacho's and great margaritas.

That night I started training at the second job. It's not that hard, alot of cash handling and checking in an out the staff. I worked 5 hours thursday, 8 friday, and 5 saturday, all training. I think i've got it all down, but i'm still want one more night before i'm totally left on my own. I've worked for myself for so long, i'm not used to asking anyone how to do something, so once i'm on my own I want to make sure that I can do it. So I have a break until thursday night, when I have to work 8:30 pm to 5:30 am. It's a pretty crazy scheduale, considering i'm working all day doing the property management thing, but I was quite proud of myself for handeling it so well. I wasn't that tired and didn't loose my momentum all weekend. Normally i'm one of those people who likes to sleep for 8-10 hours a day, and don't you dare do anything to ruin that routine. But I did ok. I know it's eventually going to wear on me, but hopefully this won't be for a long time period.

Sunday I slept til noon, went and did a little shopping, came home and baked a ham (new glaze with maple syrup, dijon mustard, and a dash of crushed cloves... yummy!), and cleaned up the house. That night after dinner we watched "Flags of our fathers". It was a good movie, the cinematography was amazing, but I found it slightly depressing. It was so sad how they, especially the Indian Ira, was totally manipulated by the government, using them to sell war bonds. Yes, it was for a good cause, but they really didn't care about them as people. Plus the movie was a tad bit on the slow side. Not sure why. We're gonna watch "Letters from Iwo Jima" next weekend. The cool part of this is, at least I think for Ken, is seeing all the history and getting a sense of what his mother saw as a kid. She was 5 and in Okinawa when the nuclear bombs were dropped and she remembers seeing the blast in the sky. I think in a wierd way it helps him to either understand better or get a better sense of his parents history. His dad is American, a marine, and his mom Japanese, born and raised on Okinawa til she was in her twenties and married his dad. So in these films he's seeing both sides. Of course his dad didn't fight in this war, he was only 5 himself, but he was a marine for 20 years, serving 4 tours in Vietnam, and I think this gives him a sense of his father.

Today was a pretty good day too. Had a facial at 10. My face is still breaking out something awful. I know i'm not drinking enough water these days. Especially this weekend, I lived on sweet tea. And then tonight I had a massage. Just needed to relax. This week is going to be just as nuts as last, but i'm feeling more positive about everything. Maybe it was just pms hitting early. Damn hormones.

Making a Decision

2009-03-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I went for the interview last night. I got the job. All I have to do is go get my sherrif's card and go in tonite to start my paperwork/training. But after all of that, i'm just not sure if it's something I wanna do. I really want the job, only for the extra money. But Ken is very upset about it (where the job is). He doesn't like me being in that environment, and I can't blame him for that. So this morning i'm sitting here trying to decide what to do. I have a big personal/business move i'm planning and I want to be prepared if that goes sour, but I also want the time to prepare for it, which I won't have if I take the job. I'm trying to think positive, that everything is going to work out fine, but i'm a bit of a worry wort at heart so i'm also planning on the negative. Or planning for the negative. I'm so confused. I almost feel like I should flip a coin. Take the second job, put the money in savings for our house in August, or in case things go wonky at work, or focus on work and do what it is that I really want to do. Ugh... I hate being a grown-up sometimes.

Doing my part

2009-03-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have decided to do my part in stimulating the economy. Yes, that is my excuse for shopping. I just can't seem to help myself these days.

I just bought this from The Sak. Isn't is just too cute? I just love their bags. I have almost gotten over my dooney obsession and have moved onto these bags. Almost. Not quite tho... i'm still jonesin for this one...

or this one. I can't decide which one I like better. Not that i'll be buying either one any time soon. The bag from The Sak was my last little splurge for a while. We're hoping to be able to buy a house in August, and with the state of the economy the way it is, you pretty much have 20% down, which in Las Vegas is quite a hefty sum. So we're scrimpin and saving. I've even been contemplating taking on a second, weekend only, job.... just to build up the savings account a bit. I know i'm gonna be dog tired all the time, but I figure I better do it now before we have kids and i'm not as flexible with time, not to mention have more expendable energy.

10 ways to creep out a roommate

2009-03-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, I stole these off of my sisters page on Facebook. I thought they were absolutely hilarious.

10) Collect potatoes. Paint faces on them and give them names. Name one after your roommate. Separate your roommate's potato from the others. Wait a few days, and then bake your roommate's potato and eat it. Explain to your roommate, ''He just didn't belong.''

9) Move everything to one side of the room. Ask your roommate if he knows how much an elephant weighs, and look at the floor on the empty side of the room with concern.

8) Draw a tiny black line on your nose. Make it bigger every day. Look at it and say, ''The hair, it's growing. Growing!''

7) Buy some knives. Sharpen them every night. While you're doing so, look at your roommate and mutter, ''Soon, soon....''

6) Collect hundreds of pens and pile them on one side of the room. Keep one pencil on the other side of the room. Laugh at the pencil.

5) Tell your roommate, ''I've got an important message for you.'' Then pretend to faint. When you recover, say you can't remember what the message was. Later on, say, ''Oh, yeah, I remember!'' Pretend to faint again. Keep this up for several weeks.

4) While your roommate is out, glue your shoes to the ceiling. When your roommate walks in, sit on the floor, hold your head, and moan.

3) Make a sandwich. Don't eat it, leave it on the floor. Ignore the sandwich. Wait until your roommate gets rid of it, and then say, ''Hey, where the heck is my sandwich!?'' Complain loudly that you are hungry.

2) Every time your roommate walks in yell, ''Hooray! You're back!'' as loud as you can and dance around the room for five minutes. Afterwards, keep looking at your watch and saying, ''Shouldn't you be going somewhere?''

1) Talk back to your Rice Krispies. All of a sudden, act offended, throw the bowl on the floor and kick it. Refuse to clean it up, explaining, ''No, I want to watch them suffer.'''

Having a roomate at such a mature age (ha!) has led to a resurgance of practical jokes. Most of them have been me being the pranker and Carl being the prankee. I took a bath in the hall bathroom one night (his bathroom) and left my copy of "Twilight" in there. Later, finding it on the counter, started complaining about what if someone had found it in there, what would they think of him.How the book was for prepubescent little girls. So after he went to work that night, I left a copy of this on the back of the toilet.

Don't mess with a pro.

Classes and old friends

2009-03-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how sporadic i've been blogging lately. I feel like I haven't had a free moment in ages, to sit and write or even just browse thru everyone else's blogs and see what all has been going on. But I am bound and determined to get back into a routine, to get on some sort of scheduale, to get organized. Now that it's starting to get warmer I think it's do-able. For some reason when it's cold outside, I get totally lazy. (yes, i'm going to blame it on the weather).

Today I went to a class regarding tenants and foreclosures. Very interesting stuff. Not much I didn't already know, in regards to what the laws and responsibilities were, but the application of those laws was a bit new. Plus, I ran into an old friend that I haven't seen in 6 years. I knew she was in real estate but there's like what 5000 of us here, if not more in the Vegas Valley? So I figured it was just a matter of time before we ran into each other. Very cool. And the timing of it was very cool. I have some personal plans in the work, just things to set into motion, and I was beginning to get worried but today I saw several signs that everything is going to work out just fine.

I love seeing the signs. Sometimes we just get so busy that they pass or by, or even worse, we choose not to see them. Two in one day tho, totally awesome. I try to see not only the ones that confirm that i'm on the right path, but that I might be on the wrong path, or headed that way. Those are always the hardest to see, mostly because I hate to admit I might be wrong.

St. Patricks Day

2009-03-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

A little laugh for the day.

2009-03-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

WOMAN'S PERFECT BREAKFAST She's sitting at the table with her gourmet coffee. Her son is on the cover of the Wheaties box.Her daughter is on the cover of Business Week.Her boyfriend is on the cover of Playgirl.And her husband is on the back of the milk carton.

WOMEN'S REVENGE 'Cash, check or charge?' I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase. As she fumbled for her wallet, I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse.'So, do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked.'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me, and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.'

UNDERSTANDING WOMEN (A MAN'S PERSPECTIVE)I know I'm not going to understand women.I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax, pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the root, and still be afraid of a spider.

MARRIAGE SEMINARWhile attending a Marriage Seminar dealing with communication, Tom and his wife Grace listened to the instructor, 'It is essential that husbands and wives know each other's likes and dislikes.'He addressed the man, 'Can you name your wife's favorite flower?'Tom leaned over, touched his wife's arm gently and whispered, 'It's Pillsbury, isn't it?

CIGARETTES AND TAMPONSA man walks into a pharmacy and wanders up & down the aisles. The sales girl notices him and asks him if she can help him. He answers that he is looking for a box of tampons for his wife. She directs him down the correct aisle. A few minutes later, he deposits a huge bag of cotton balls and a ball of string on the counter.She says, confused, 'Sir, I thought you were looking for some tampons for your wife?He answers, 'You see, it's like this, yesterday, I sent my wife to the store to get me a carton of cigarettes, and she came back with a tin of tobacco and some rolling papers; cause it's sooo-ooo--oo-ooo much cheaper.So, I figure if I have to roll my own .......... so does she.(I figure this guy is the one on the milk carton!)

WIFE VS. HUSBANDA couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position. As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, 'Relatives of yours?' 'Yep,' the wife replied, 'in-laws.'

WORDS A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day.... 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, 'The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men.. The husband then turned to his wife and asked, 'What?'

CREATION A man said to his wife one day, 'I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time. 'The wife responded, 'Allow me to explain. God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!

WHO DOES WHAT A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, 'You should do it because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee. The husband said, 'You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.' Wife replies, 'No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee.'Husband replies, 'I can't believe that, show me.'So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says . 'HE BREWS'

The Silent Treatment A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:0 0 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, 'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.' Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.

A nite out

2009-03-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

We've been working on the second rehab job for almost a month now, and we are both beginning to get a little bit burnt out. It's been a great learning experience ( I installed all of the towel bars and toilet paper holders myself), but I feel like the rest of my life is on hold until we get this done. My book store inventory is down, I have only gotten to blog twice last week, and I have about 10 other projects I am just dying to get started on. Hopefully, if we can stick to the plan (which we haven't been able to do so far) we can be done this wednesday. I am soo excited!

But seeing as how we've been working so hard with no time off, we took saturday night off. I think we both needed to just get out and relax a bit.

First, we headed over to a new restaurant. The Fat Greek. I was in ULTA earlier in the week and got to talking to one of the techs there and she recommended this place. She said it was one of the best Mediterranean restaurants she's been to in a while. And it did not disapoint. The tzatsiki was wonderful, served with fresh warm pita bread. I just love this stuff. I probably could have eated the whole bowl full myself if Carl and Ken hadn't enjoyed it as much as I did. I ordered the seafood pasta, which was good. Not terrific, but good. It had a lot of shrimp, which was good, but the menu didn't say that it included muscles, which I am not a fan of. So I just picked them out. But the place was very nice, quaint, and the service was terrific. We were there at 8pm on a saturday night and it wasnt very crowded, or loud at all, which is always a bonus for me.

Next we headed over to the Brendan theaters at the Palms Casino.

It's really hard for me to give an opinion of a casino, having grown up here. After a while they all tend to blur into one another. But the guys really like the theater here, and it was just down the street from the restaurant. I like this theater, as far as movie theaters go, i'm just not a big fan of overly trendy places.

We went to see 'Watchemen'. The guys had both read the graphic novel so they had an idea of what to expect, and from what they said it followed the book very closely. I had never read it, or even heard of it until I started seeing commercials for it all over the place.

It wasn't what I expected, but it was still good. A little on the long side, and I got a bit restless, but we did go see the 10:40 showing so this old body that is not used to being out til 2 am probably was just protesting a bit.

I enjoyed all story line twists, the action, and the cgi was amazing, altho it was a bit disturbing to keep seeing a floating blue penis on the screene. From what I gathered Dr. Manhattan was like a ken doll in the book, so why they decided to make him anatomically correct in the film is beyond me. I mean he looked amazing, but your eyes kept being drawn back to the blue penis. At least mine were. I'll have to ask the guys.

Estrogen Overload

2009-03-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

My house is under quarantine. At the moment I am currently experiencing... "that time of the month". Why, you ask, am I sharing this information with a bunch of total strangers? Because not only am I hormonal, crampy, emotional, bitchy, craving chocolate milk and cheese-its, and totally lazy, BOTH OF MY DOGS ARE IN HEAT. How in the hell did a responsible mother like myself let this happen? Totally wasn't my fault. My goal was to get them both spayed in March. This March. As in this month. Sunshine was supposed to go into heat in Feb. Never happened. So I was kind of expecting her to have hers now. Well, last weekend Miss Bella started showing symptoms. Now keep in mind she's only 8 months old. I raised her mother, Daisy, who didn't have her first heat cycle until she was like 14 months old. So I don't think I was wrong in expecting the same with Bella. Nope, she decided to be an early bloomer. I even called the vet, just to make sure something wasn't wrong, and he said that most larger dogs start between 6-8 months and that Daisy was just late. Wonderful. So now there are three moody, lethargic, can't get enough to eat or enough cuddle time making a puddle everywhere females in my house.

It is definately a chic film fest, half gallon of breyers ice cream and not getting out of my sweats all day kind of day. Hope everyone has a better friday.

Gerard Butler. Yum-o.

2009-03-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

I have always had a weakness for men with accents. Southern. English. Scottish. Yep, show me a man with a sexy accent and i'm totally and completely hooked.

So when I first saw, and heard Gerard Butler in "300", lets just say it was love at first site. This man was to die for. Those stomach muscles. That voice. That passion. Those eyes. Just look. See? Those eye's that say 'I can make you do anything I want just by raising my eyebrown and smiling at you"? And he can.

After realizing that this gorgeous hunk of a man had been acting for quite some time, I quickly went for a walk through my dvd collection. Tomb Raider 2. Yep had it. Tomorrow Never Dies. Yep had that one too. You mean I had been watching this man for years and had not realized that he was so ...so... yummy?

See what I mean? Look at those abs. Lets all just pause and stare for a minute.

Okay minutes up. Clean up the drool.

Of course the role that completely made me fall for him was in PS I love you with Hilary Swank. The gorgeous Irish man who loves his woman so much that even after his death he sends her on a journey to find herself and her way in the world without him? Where do I sign up?

Battling my inner tree hugger

2009-03-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

I have an addiction. Yep. I admit it. I am totally and completely addicted to magazines. Cooking ones, fashion ones, health, womens views, quilting, you name it I probably have a subscription to it.

But this addiction, like most, has it's pros and cons. The pros? My mailbox is usually filled with at least one, if not more, wonderful colorfilled issue of something that will capture my short attention span for at least an hour or two. Possibly sharing new recipes, craft ideas, or general knowledge that this over active mind just has to have.

The cons? There is absolutely nothing, and I do mean nothing, that I cannot gleam from these glossy pages that I cannot find on the internet. Heck, probably half of the 25 subcriptions that I have actually have an ONLINE magazine. Now where is the logic in that? They even put more stuff on their websites just to get you to log on to them.

So why do suckers like me continue to fill our landfills with these periodicals of useless knowledge? Because we are suckers. Old fashioned like to curl up on the couch with a glass of chocolate milk grew up with Bop and Teen Beat magazine suckers. We like the feel of the pages in our hands, the scents of the sample perfumes and whatever chemicals that might be affecting our brains. We like the mobility of a magazine. Curl it up, and it'll go with you anywhere.

Alot of my magazine subcriptions, probably half, are cooking magazines. Like I really need one more recipe for fried chicken, or that perfect pumpkin pie. But I have to admit that I have stolen, er, borrowed, well copied some of the recipes i've found in magazine and had great success. I do believe that's what they're there for afterall. To help us enrich our lives. And to make the perfect german chocolate pecan pie (Thank you Rachel Ray magazine.)

So next time you're inline in the grocery store and you're absently mindedly reading the front covers that are oh so conviently placed next to you, grab one. Take it home. Curl up on the couch and savor the smell, the small tidbits of advice, the glossy pictures of models in clothes that you would never wear. Become on with your inner teen again.

At least if some of ya'll do this I won't be alone in my obsession. Misery loves company afterall.

And you never know what knowledge will fall out of the pages and into your hot little hands. Could be just the thing you were looking for to show up that soccer mom down the street, you know miss perfect who knows everything about everything and everybody. Bet she didn't know that if you fed a dog slices of pineapple it would make his poop taste so bad he wouldn't eat it anymore.

Oh and just for the record, I do recycle all of my magazines. After cutting out all of the recipes and tips. And coupons. And cool decorating photos.

I'm such a follower

2009-03-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

Every sunday over on SITS they list a whole bunch of cool giveaways. I, or you, get extra points if you like back to their site. I'm going to cheat this week and list them all on one post. I'm just feeling that lazy tonite.

Melissa over at The Scholastic Scribe is giving a $25 gift card to Target to the person who comes up with the best caption to this picture.

I came up with a few, but i'm not sure they would be considered PC. Or blog 'appropriate' material...

The Coco Cafe is giving away this gorgeous baby sling. I know several women who would love one of these as a gift. I've been doing some reading on the whole 'baby wearing' thing. I was raised where you always had a baby on your hip anyways, so this way you at least can use both of your hands. Altho I guess it's not as much of a feet when you can cook dinner, do the laundry, change a diaper and tie a shoe all with both hands as apposed to one. But I still think they're cool.

Xazmin over at This is the year is giving away your choice of these two cute girly packages for your little girl. Seeing as how I don't have any kids myself but am surround by pregnant women or newborns I thought this would work as a cute gift.

Mamarazzi over ad Dandelion Wishes is giving away a prize everymonth to one of her followers. I have been following her site for a few months now and she is just the coolest! Definately check her out.

So ugly it's cute

2009-02-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Say your friend, that you've known for several years and consider yourself pretty close to, has a baby. Her second baby, mind you. The oldest child is 2 1/2 and other than having moments as the queen of bossiness is quite adorable. But lets say you go to visit your friend 15 hours after the birth of second child. And you hold it. I mean him.

And you don't know what to say. You chalk it up to being emotional, that he's just too cute for words, that you're caught up in the moment. You're standing there racking your brain trying to think of something to say to this woman who just labored, intensely, for 10 1/2 hours to give birth to second child.

"He's just precious. What an amazing gift." That's what you finally come up with.

When what you're thinking is "Who let ET and Yoda mate?"

I always knew I was average

2009-02-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

75%

According to this groovy little test ( I love these kind of things) I am 75% addicted to blogging. Whew. I thought for sure i'd be in the top 90%.

Oh what would the world be like...

2009-02-20T11:22:00.000-08:00

Only female bees work. Males remain in the hive, their only mission in life being to fertilize the queen bee on her maiden flight. After they have served their function, the males are not allowed back into the hive but are left outside, where they starve to death.

I think we've all had days where we wonder what the world would be like if it worked like this for humans....

New Brad Pitt Movie!

2009-02-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

The Inglorious Basterds is the new Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino movie.

I saw this trailer on the morning news. Looks awesome. Bloody, gory and totally Tarantino-ish, but with Brad Pitt? I can't wait.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-18T09:07:00.001-08:00

A man that will wait patiently while you run to get the camera after splashing paint all over his face while opening a 5 gallon bucket - priceless.

Look what I found

2009-02-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

I came home last friday nite to find this in my fridge.

Why is there a biohazard bag in my fridge you ask? Good question. Apparently Carl went to the dermatologist. And this is the medication they gave him. In my fridge. He says it has a longer life if it stays in the fridge. My fridge. Next to my food. Um, yeah. I need a new fridge now.

Presidents Day

2009-02-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

I thought for President's Day i'd share some quotes from the First ladies. The things they've seen and done, the places they've been....absolutely inspiring.

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic. Abigail Adams

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent. Barbara Bush

Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is. Barbara Bush

The search for human freedom can never be complete without freedom for women. Betty Ford

I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition. Martha Washington

Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water! Eleanor Roosevelt

and my absolute favorite: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

These pictures don't have anything at all to do with Valentines day but they're just so darn cute I thought i'd share. I found them all online so no they're not of Sunshine. Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Weekend!

All in the 3's

2009-02-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

Everything in my life has always happened in 3's. Either something happens three times, or on the 3rd. The third day of the third month of my thirty-third year was pretty significant. So for there to be THREE friday the 13's this year? Yeah, i'm gonna be in bed on November the 13th. Not leaving my house. Unless there's a fire. Or tornado. Which wouldn't surprise me. Altho not everything that has happened has been bad. Just extremely life altering. I told Nicole I wasn't coming into work that day (11-13-09) and she said that that was probably gonna be the day I either get engaged or married.

What's your significant number?

What i've learned this week

2009-02-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

Pretty much the entire week has been consumed with rehabbing the house V was living in. It's taken alot of work, but we're almost done. At first it was extremely cathartic. I got a bucket of hot water and a sponge and sat on the floor and washed every baseboard in the entire 2300 sq ft house. After 5 days of cleaning and repairing I am tired of cleaning up after that man. Done. Finished. No futher therapy needed.

But I have learned several things this week that i'm pretty excited about. I've never done this much physical labor or these types of repair before, so i'm looking forward to being able to do them in my own home.

First, Home Depot is now heaven. I had no idea this store was so cool! I think I've spent like 3 hours in there this week, picking up things for V's house and mine. I can't wait til it gets warmer and I can hit their garden section.

We spackled and textured. I had no idea this was so easy. I had to do 3 corners, where it had been chipped off down to the metal and was quite proud of how they turned out. The entire place needed to be spot painted. I think we went through 3 gallons of paint.

This little thing was so much fun! I caulked all the tubs and around the toilets.

Hung up 7 new blinds.

Replaced 4 kitchen tiles. Ken did this actually. Only took him like an hour to get the old ones out and the new ones in, but of course you have to set and treat it over the next 24 hours.

Took out 15 bags of trash, a couch, entertainment center, lawn mower and took home 4 bags of stuff that originally was mine but I had left when we splilt. Overall I feel better than I ever have about the split. And it's been just great having Ken there with me. He's taught me alot, and we've had some amazing discussions, about everything that has happened and everything that we want for in the future. Absolutely beyond exhausted but it's been a good week.

Things short people do not notice

2009-02-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

How low the washer and dryer are - apparently people taller than 5'4" have issues with the front loaders. Personally I think they're perfect. My friend Nicole, who is 5'11", had a platform built for hers to stand on to make doing laundry easier. I, being only 5'1", would have never considered this a problem. I guess sometimes being short has it's advantages.

True Love

2009-02-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Ken and I were laying in bed the other night, and I had had the new muppets christmas movie in the dvd player (just for background noise, I hadn't taken it out since Christmas). After a bit I started massaging his back and the conversation went something like this :

"I'm not sure how romantic the muppets are."
I leaned up and whispered in his ear "Whisper sweet nothings in my ear. Motorcycle cop. Motorcycle cop is a sweet nothing? No, a motorcycle cop is following us."

At this point he popped his head up and was like what the hell was that? I busted out laughing.

This wonderful quote is from the first Muppet movie (like there was any doubt where I was going with this).Ken and I are movie quote nuts. We're constantly throwing out new quotes to see if the other person can identify them.

What's your favorite movie quote?

5 reasons getting older sucks

2009-02-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

In honor of my un-birthday (34 years and one month) I thought I would share some of my observations on aging.

5. What do you mean it's acne? I thought I paid my dues when I was 15! (remember, I was called pizza face for 2 years???) But for some reason, my face has decided it's going through puberty..again. I've heard every reason there could be...stress, diet, GETTING OLDER, even AS YOU GET OLDER your skin changes, so the same skin care products you've been using for the last oh say five years DON'T WORK ANYMORE. Are you kidding me? So now i'm faced with the even more stressful task of finding NEW skin care products, on the off chance that the first 10 I try are going to make said acne WORSE!

4. Achy joints. Achy muscles. Let's face it, i'm just achy. When you're on the floor and have to announce that you're getting up, just to warn anyone who might be within grabbing distance, you're headed down that hill.

3. Your body changes. Everyone always warned me this would happen. 'Oh, just wait til you're 30, you won't be able to eat like that and not gain any weight'. I'm actually okay with that, but I just lost 5 lbs and I swear my jeans got TIGHTER. My hips and butt must have shifted to compensate for the weight loss. Yeah, that must be it.

2. Hearing goes. I've always had bad hearing. Not really bad, just not the kind of hearing that can pick up a direction of a sound. (You don't want to be in a car with me and have me hear a siren, I start freaking out until I can SEE the friggin thing). But as I've gotten older, I have found that I have a hard time hearing with alot of ambient sound. "Be quiet i'm on the phone", "Turn that music down, I can't hear what you're saying", " I couldn't hear you the fan in the bathroom was on". These phrases have all taken on new meanings. (Meaning, they could all be at a whisper and they would all be too loud).

1. And the number 1 observation on getting older, what in the friggin crap do I wear? "I'm too young to be old and too old to be young". I have gotten to where I almost HATE shopping. Everything either makes me feel like i'm trying to look like i'm in my early twenties and still have the body to show off (which I don't) or i feel like a frumpy old school marm from the 19th century (thing Little House on the Prairie). I'm sure it's not as bad as it looks, but I can't seem to find a sense of style anymore. Shoes, no problem. Purses, I got it goin on. Clothes? Can't I just wear jeans and a Pearl Jam t-shirt and call it good?

Betcha didn't know

2009-02-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

The biggest pig ever recorded in history was Big Boy of Black Mountain, North Carolina weighing in at 1,904 lbs in 1939.

Does anyone know..

2009-02-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

How to make a button? I mean one of those cute little button's that's on the side of everyone's blog that links to somewhere. I'm totally lost.

Interview with a Blonde

2009-02-07T08:11:00.000-08:00

A Sassy Engineer was doing this cool interview thing, and I thought it would be a cool way to let ya'll get to know me a little better.

If you would like to play along here are the directions:
1. Leave me a comment & your e-mail address saying, "Interview me." If you dare.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (You get to choose the questions.)
The first five 'askers' get the interview!

1. What did you think you wanted to be when you grew up? Growing up my main goals were to be a mom and a teacher. For a short period in my early teens I was convinced I wanted to be a runway model, but then I found out most of them were taller than 5'1". Canceled that idea out. I went to college for 6 years (still haven't gotten a degree yet, kept changing my major too many times) and actually went for my degree in elementary education. Changed my mind half way thru. Still working on the mommy thing tho. We're hoping to start trying later this year if the economy gets a little better.
2. If you could buy any car in the world, what would it be and why? I don't have a dream car. Car's arent that big of a deal to me. There are some 'cheaper' cars that I would like. I saw the cutest VW Beetle (the newer model) driving down the street yesterday. It was this pearly iridescent purple/lavender. Just gorgeous. That i'd like to have. A Camero. A Mustang. Ya know, cars that make ya go ooooohhhh. But I guess my dream car would have a lifetime full coverage warranty on it. That's the car I would want.
3. Coffee or Tea? Tea, hands down. Just the smell of coffee makes me nauseaus. Yuck.
4. What do you still want to accomplish or do in life? Have a kid or two, Finish a degree in something, Run a successful business, Retire at 60, Visit Europe, Be happy. There are a few bigger things I want to accomplish, like make sure that after I retire I don't have to worry about finances, but my list of little things i'd like to accomplish is quite long. I'll save that for another post.
5. What is the best gift you have ever received? Oh, this is a tough one. I guess my birthday present from Ken this year is this best. It was the most helpful and thoughtful.

Friday Weekly Recap

2009-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

I've decided that since during the week I either post random things, respond to meme's or awards, or babble incoherently, i'm going to start posting Friday Weekly Recap, so that I can keep up with all everything. So here it goes.

Monday: The day must have been pretty uneventful because the highlight of the day was my facial at 4. Lately i've broken out like i'm 14 again, and it's driving me nuts. So I called up my esthetician, Darlene, and begged and pleaded til she made me an appointment. Feel better, altho now I look more like 16. Is anyone else breaking out like crazy? I don't know what to do. I've been using Clinique for 7 years now, so I guess it's time for a change? Nicole recommended Bare Minerals? Any recommendations?

Tuesday: The day was pretty quiet, no real drama. Ken and I started rehabing V's house. At first it was a little weird. We walked the house, assessed what needed to be done, and started bagging trash. At first Ken was ranting the whole time. I just let him go. I figured it was the perfect time and place for him to vent and get it all out. After about 2 hours he sat down and told me to take a break. I was in that space where if I stopped I was done and I just wanted to get everything done. So he just sat and watched me for a few minutes, then got up and just wrapped himself around me and told me he loved me. I almost started crying. His support, and help, with this means so much to me. He even said he thought I needed this because it was cathartic for me, but it think it is for both of us.

Wednesday: Had an eviction at 10, which went relatively well, considering when we walked in there were new born puppies on the floor. They paid, we handed them the keys back, all was good. Wish they all went that easy. Went to walk thru two more vacancies (this was the point where I lost a set of keys. In a parked car. We tore the car apart for 20 minutes only to find that they had slid inside the folder that was sitting at my feet. Yeah, not gonna live that one down for a while). Lunch at Roberto's (yummy nachos). Ken came over and we got started on bagging up trash and cleaning the second house we're gonna rehab. He's really into this rehabing thing, and especially us working together. I'm still a bit in shock I guess, i'm not used to having this much help. I love it tho.

Thursday: It was one of those day's that started with me laying in bed cursing my uterus. I am so thankful that I have a job where I can pretty much come and go whenever I want because I didn't' get out of bed til 9. No appointments, other than lunch with Emily, which was nice. Very quiet productive day. Ken met me at my house after work and he took a short nap before we went over to house #2 to finish bagging trash and start cleaning. I am so loving having him here every night. I am even getting to the point where I don't mind waking up at 3 in the morning.

Friday: Only 8 o'clock in the morning, but no real plans for today. Have to go to the office and get a few invoices out, do some filing, maybe lunch with Nicole. After that, NADA. YAY! Ken and I decided not only were we taking tonight off from cleaning houses, but we're taking the night off from each other and just staying home and cleaning our prospective houses. That's the only thing that really sucks about rehabing homes, i'm so flippin exhausted by the time I get home nothing gets done in MY house.

Weekend plans: Finish up all maintenance and cleaning on V's house and get it back on the rental market. That should take about a day. Hopefully, anyways. After that I want to just take a little time to relax, maybe go catch a movie.

Writers Assignment

2009-02-05T04:51:00.000-08:00

Mama Kat's writing assignment this week is:
Choose a prompt, post it on your blog.
The Prompts:
1.) Tell us about a lie you told that you later regretted.
2.) Choose a task you'd like someone to complete and write a poem asking them to do it.
3.) Describe a talent you have.
4.) Write a list of ten things on your mind this week.

Seeing as how it's 5 oclock in the flippin morning and i'm awake (Ken has to wake up at 3 to be at work by 5) and i'm still not fully functional I thought i'd tackle #4. Sounds simple enough.

1. Why does the check engine light in my car keep coming on and off?
2. Have to find a good vet and see if I can get a discount if I get both girls 'fixed' at the same time.
3. Organize ebay stuff.... need to buy some more rubbermade storage bins
4. Make room in garage for extra fridge
5. 5 days into february and haven't gone to gym once... totally ruining my habit for feb.
6. Second time reading 'Twilight', can't believe all of the things that I missed the first time through.
7. My best friend's birthday on the 3rd (i'm sorry i was a day late calling hun!!! i know, i suck)
8. How long is it going to take me to rehab (get ready to rent again) the house that V lived in. (I decided to do the work myself, mostly cuz I feel this wierd sense of pride/honor/humility that the reason it's dirty is cuz of me, I can't ask someone else to clean up after that)
9. When is Beth going to have her baby? (my boss's daughter)
10. How do I keep Bella from digging up the garden bed? She's dug so deep in one spot she's hit concrete and keeps breaking it off in chunks to bring in the house for me to step on.

Random Facts

2009-02-05T04:37:00.000-08:00

The Peace sumpol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee, and it was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The forked symbol is actually a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament.

Typical Tuesday - Carl's story

2009-02-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

I debated with myself alot today over what to write about. Whether to post about my stress in finding a valentines present for Ken, or how I lost a set of house keys while sitting in a parked car and tore the car apart for 20 minutes only to find that they had slid into a folder that was sitting at my feet, or about how V and I got together 6 years ago and why the relationship ended, or even about how I struggle with my inner pack rat and turned down 4 bags of stuff that was left in one of our rentals. If I wrote about all 4 this would be a 2 hour read, and i'm sure most of ya'll arent' into all that. I'm fairly relaxed at the moment, sitting here listening to the dogs wrestle in the hallway (I hope they don't wake Carl up) and drinking my afternoon glass of sweet tea. Ahh... relaxation.

Oh I suppose I could tell the story of Carl. It's a rather interesting one. Well, only from my viewpoint maybe. We met when we were 18, working at Walmart. I was freshly married (and unbelievably naive), and experiencing the world for the first time. I was rather sheltered as a kid, as much as inflicted as by choice. I was always the kid who would rather stay home with a stack of books than go cruising with friends. I did that too, but it was usually forced upon me. But that was the summer of 1993 (God I feel old). A few months after I started working there, my first husband, C, started there too, and struck up a friendship with Carl, R and Ken. I had formed a friendship with all 3 from day one, but once C got into the mix I wasn't "allowed" to socially interact with them. It wasn't appropriate. All they wanted was to get into my pants. (well, that was partially true it turned out). So this went on for about 4 or 5 years. They were all friends and such and I didn't have much to do with anything. In 1999, C and I split, and R and I started dating. This was shortlived, but led to a wierd friendship. The four of us (R, Carl, Ken and myself) started hanging out as a group. I became one of the guys. And I totally loved it. I had 'my boys', as I called them and it was great. We would all go to the movies, concerts, try different restaurants, go on road trips to California, whatever. During this time Ken and I started dating. When Emily moved out of my house in 2001 I needed a roommate. Ken and I decided that we werent' ready for that yet, so Carl moved in. This created a wierd/perfect relationship. He became more than my friend, he became my brother. When I had a bad day at work or was upset with Ken, he'd comfort me, listen to me bitch and cry, and never judge me. That's one of the things I so love about him. He never judges. He may never forget and will constantly tease me but he never judges. So anyways... time went on, I lost my house, he moved out, Ken and I broke up, I moved in with V, and here we are 6 years later, Ken and I are back together, and Carl is living with me again. And it truly feels like home again. I love it. And altho at times it's rather frustrating living with a boy, (why oh why do I have to be that specific when asking him to do something? Does everyone have to give a detailed list of chores instead of simply saying 'Clean the bathroom?") It has it's perks. He's taller than me so he can reach the top shelf. He plays with the girls so I can be online. He takes out the trash. He loves sushi more than I do so I can usually talk him into paying for my meal too. And there's the added security. Friday we did yoga together, and while that may sound odd, it honestly was like having a girl friend here. Wierd, I know. Oh and my favorite part, and I know his, is the looks we get from people when we say "Oh i'm living with my boyfriends best friend/ I'm living with my best friends girlfriend". I swear it's like the look off of friends when Phoebe says 'i'm having my brothers babies'. Priceless.

Closure

2009-02-02T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today marked the end of my relationship with Vinnie. Yes, the relationship officially ended December 2007. That was when I moved out. My cell phone remained in his name up until this past december, but now is in only my name. But he still was a tenant of mine, living in the house the he and I rented together for 3 of our 5 years together. As of today, the house is officially back in my management possession and he rents from someone else. No more ties.

I expected some emotions, some feelings or memories, as I walked the house this morning. Surprisingly, there were none. The house was left a little dirty, and any of the smaller things (like fake plants or candles) that I had left were left, discarded with the trash. I didn't even feel sad really. Just made an assessment of the work to be done to get the house back in rentable condition, and went to lunch. It was just like any other house. No feelings, no attatchments. Which made me feel good. It truly is over then.

Lemonade Award

2009-02-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

Two Little Lambs has awarded me with this!

For the Lemonade Award, here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Seeing as how it's the Monday Morning Hangover after Superbowl (which was an awesome game) i'm going to tag everyone that reads this post today.

2009-01-31T07:21:00.000-08:00

Lynette over at Crazed Mind has tagged me with this game/meme. This meme involves opening the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the closest book to you at the moment, turn to page 56. Write the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that. Then pass it on to five bloggers.

I have two books close to me, a thesaurus and The Book of Answers by Barbara Berliner.

On page 56 the fifth sentence is :

entrials- baked in a umble pie. In time, the dish went out of fashion, but the phrase took on a new life that it till has today.

Okay that sounded gross. It was talking about where did the phrase from to eat humble pie originate. I love books like this, full of little tidbits of information.

I am going to follow Lynette's lead and tag 5 of my followers.

The fabulous life of a Southern Belle

Unnecessary Drama

He call's her "Lemon Pie"

By the hair of my chinny-chin-chin

Ramblings of a 30-something Carolina girl

End of january - first habit of 2009

2009-01-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

I decided this year I was going to have new habits, not resolutions. With this month coming to a close (already???) I figured it was time to reassess the list and see how i've done so far.
My new habit for January was to make an effort to look nice everyday. I think I did pretty good in that department. There were only a few days, and those mostly weekends, that I didn't do more than throw my hair in a pony tail or not wear makeup. As far as clothes go, I made more of an effort to avoid the jeans, sweatshirt, and sneakers look. Not that I object to comfort, but it really doesn't look all that professional. I tried to limit it to once a week, and that on my busiest running around spending most of the day in the car anyways days.
I have started exercising this past week. My goal is 3-4 times a week. Both Carl and Ken are exercise junkies, they go 6 times a week and really really watch what they eat. I've been trying to learn from their example, but there is no way i'm giving up my tub of sour cream. I draw the line there.
So since i've already started I decided that February's habit is going to be #2, to exercise in some form everyday. Carl and I are doing yoga tomorrow, altho it's the P90X yoga tape. It's pretty intense. He's been on that program for a week now and it's kicking his butt, altho I supose that's the idea. I'm just gonna do the yoga part with him and do my own thing the rest of the time.
And yes, walking the dogs for 30 minutes a day is going to count.
I"m really hoping the yoga thing helps with my posture. I'm pretty short to begin with (only 5'1") and i've been so tired and stressed lately i've been slouched over 90% of the time. I know I need to do something about it soon or i'm going to turn into the hunchback. My sister even wore a corset for a month to train her to sit up straight. I don't know about all that, but if I can't get myself upright any other way that might be a last resort.
This is the updated habit list.
1. Study devotionals once a day
2. Exercise, in some form every day
3. Live on less than $50 a week (with the prices of gas going back up this might have to change)4. Make an effort to look nice for work every day, (no more jeans, sweatshirt, pulling my hair back in a pony tail and no makeup) January - accomplished!!
5. Stop cursing
6. Watch the news everyday and pay attention/get caught up on wordly events
7. Be more concious about recycling.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Anyone have any ideas for new habits?

Photo tag

2009-01-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

SassyEngineer over at A Pretty Peony had this on her blog and tagged anyone with blue eyes. Okay, well my eyes are blue with green around the middle, but I guess that's close enough. (and I hate the term hazel. They actually look more like sunflowers but I can't get a good enough picture of them.)

But anyways.. here are the rules...

1. Go to the section of your computer where you store all of your photos.

2. Select the 6th folder.

3. Select the 6th photo from that folder.

4. Post and explain about that picture.

5. Tag 6 other people.

This was one of the puppies from my dog Daisy's first litter (Daisy is the dog that my ex kept). It was summer, the kitchen floor was cool, and for some reason it found being cramed under the stove comfortable. Never figured out why.

I am going to tag everyone who has a birthday in January. Have fun!

All about A

2009-01-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

The Pink Tutu was playing this game, and of course you know how much I love lists so I just had to play along. She has given me the letter "A", and my job is to list 10 of my favorite things that start with "A". (If you wish to play along leave me a comment and i'll assign you a letter).

1. Angelina Jolie. I don't think i've seen a movie that she's been in that I don't like. Plus she's married to Brad Pitt. Gotta give her props for that.

2. Anne Rice. I have read all of her books except the most recent ones about Jesus's life, which i'm trying to work my way thru now. A wonderful, talented and twisted writer.

3. Avacado. Sliced or on a sandwhich, and best of all...in guacamole. Yummy!!!

4. Allison Krauss. Her voice is so pure and haunting, and I love her band. Very cool. 5. America!!! Need I say more? 6.Alibris . I just love this site. I started out as just a customer, but in October opened up my own store. I've always wanted to own a used book store and so far totally love doing this. My goal is to have 500,000 listing by next december. 7. Acqua Panna water - my favorite bottled water. And it has to be the glass bottle, not the plastic. 8. Apple Perfume - okay so it's actually called Be Delicious, by DKNY, but it smells like green apples and i'm getting stumped here. This is harder than I thought it would be!

9. Apricots- the yummiest fruit. Raw, in a pie, or in preserves. Perfection. 10. Autumn - my absolute favorite season. I love watching the leaves turn - not that the leaves change color here or we have much of a fall. It's more of a 2 week chill before winter creeps in. I'd love to spend an autumn down south or back east and just enjoy the change in the weather and nature.

Just what I need...

2009-01-27T19:50:00.001-08:00

..A new shoe addiction. I bought a pair of these the other day

and let me tell you, these were the most comfortable shoes I think that have graced my feet in a long time. They're Antonio Melani, from Dillards, and oh my God were they comfortable. I wore them for about 6 hours straight, with about half of that being walking. First time wearing new shoes, and doing that much walking, normally I would be crying where's the bandaids by now, but not these. No blisters, no tender feet, just a slight pinch in my pinky toe, which I think will go away as I wear the shoes more and the leather stretches. I am now officially addicted. And they looked so cute with a pair of jeans and a white sweater. Love a pair of shoes that goes dressy and with jeans.

Musical Monday

2009-01-26T12:59:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the tips last week from Malcom and Candice, I am attempting to play along again. We'll see if this works.

This week is Tool's "Lateralus". I love Tool. I love Maynard. The man is a genius. I've heard a total prick in real life, but still a musical genius. I listen to their cd's when I need inspiration, and this video is definitely inspiring. I don't know who did it, but it's just totally awesome.

Anywho, listen to the lyrics, watch the video (warning: it's LONG 9 minutes and 24 seconds to be exact) and just be awed. I know I am everytime I watch it.

Manic Monday and Blond Moment #2

2009-01-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

With Nicole dealing with the death of her brother and 6 evictions pending (just waiting on the go signal) this weeks is going to be pretty hetic. I have like 6 posts floating around in my head that I want to write about. So the dishes won't get washed, or the laundry put away. I'm sharpening my writing and communication skills. That's what's really important, right?

So in honor of this Monday Morning, I thought i'd start everyone off with a blonde moment. I have a very dear friend (hi hunny!) who called me to share this ....this... moment (i'll leave it at that). Now she knows I love her dearly, and that I share this purely as a warning to women everywhere....... Slow the F*&k down!!! Now it was a day like any other, taking kids to school, stopping by the grocery store, fixing dinner. Normal. So here she is, in her routine, bringing in and unloading groceries, and i'm sure in a bit of a hurry as that seems to be her normal state (with three kids and a wicked addiction to coke (the soda people!) she can't help it). So she's putting away the freezable food, shuts the door and bends over to pick up more stuff to go into the fridge. The freezer door doesnt lock. It opens quietly. She stands up, quickly. Bam! Whacks her head into the door. Cursing insues (the kids ears are still ringing). But, being the modern super mother that she is she goes about her day. Finishes putting away the groceries, takes #1 kid to volleyball or soccer or whatever sport she's in this season, and comes home. At some point a massive headache starts creaping in (duh). So she takes her prescription migraine medicine, thinking that should take care of it. And it does, slightly. While fixing dinner tho she notices she's getting light headed, that the room is starting to spin. So, she calls her doctor. Who tells her that she has a MILD CONCUSSION! (At this point in the story I cracked up and fell off the couch I was laughing so hard). So she's taking it easy, and of course using this as an excuse for the kids to have to keep the noise level down. Now c'mon ladies, we need to slow down. There are good concussion stories and you've got to be kidding concussion stories. This is one of the later. So as an early monday warning, everyone slow down! And have a good week.

Smart Ass Answers

2009-01-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

You might have seen these already.

SMART ASS ANSWER #6 It was mealtime during an airline flight. 'Would you like dinner?' the flight attendant asked John, seated in front. 'What are my choices?' John asked. 'Yes or no,' she replied.

SMART ASS ANSWER #5 A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and he opened his trench coat and flashed her. Without missing a beat, she said, 'Sir, I need to see your ticket, not your stub.'

SMART ASS ANSWER #4 A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, ' Do these turkeys get any bigger?' The stock boy replied, 'No ma'am, they're dead.'

SMART ASS ANSWER #3 The police officer got out of his car as the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window. 'I've been waiting for you all day,' the officer said. The kid replied, Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could.' When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.

SMART ASS ANSWER #2 A truck driver was driving along on the freeway and noticed a sign that read: Low Bridge Ahead. Before he knows it, the bridge is right in front of him and his truck gets wedged under it. Cars are backed up for miles. Finally a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, 'Got stuck, huh?' The truck driver says, 'No, I was delivering this bridge and I ran out of gas.'

SMART ASS ANSWER OF THE YEAR 2008!! A college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow's final exam. 'Now class, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!'
A smart-ass student in the back of the room raised his hand and asked, 'What would you say if tomorrow I said I was suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?' The entire class is reduced to laughter and snickering.
When silence was restored, the teacher smiled knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said, 'Well, I guess you'd have to write the exam with your other hand.' A BONUS

EXTRA A woman is standing nude looking in the bedroom mirror. She is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband, 'I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.' The husband replies, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.

How to create and Indoor Sactuary

2009-01-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Where do you go to relax at the end of the day? Your home! Stress should be left at the door and your soul given a place to rest and be nurtured. To make your home more enviting for relaxation, implement these ideas. You'll be surprised how doing these for a few weeks can create a totally different environment and feeling in your home.

1. Green! Bring green plants into your home, especially the kinds that filter indoor pollutants. Some of these plants include gerber daisies, spider plants, english ivy, chrysanthemums, and boston ferns. You should have two plants for every 100 sq ft.
2. Bring the outdoors in. Bring in pieces of nature, whether it be a rock you found while hiking that you like, or a piece of wood, or even flowers you picked off the side of the road.
3. Color. Painting a room can change your whole attitude. Find the colors that represent what you want that room to feel. (In my house my bedroom is green and brown, the bathrooms 3 different blues, and the main rooms a desert tan).
4. Sight and sound. Those nature sounding cd's that you can buy just about anywhere now are wonderful to listen to over a cup of hot tea (or coffee). Fix yourself a comfy sitting place, near a window or pretty art work, listen to nature and just enjoy the moment.
5. Room. You should always find at least one place in your house for a little peace and calm. It could even be the bathroom!
6. Clean. A cluttered environment equals a cluttered mind. Clear out those hiding spot every other week or so. If you have less to clean and worry about you'll be more able to relax and enjoy what time you have.
7. Let the light in! Natural light has an amazing affect on your body. Open up those curtains and allow your home to fill up with the sun.
8. Love love love. Homemade gifts and mementos of those special people in your life can make you smile, which relaxes you! Try to have something that makes you smile wherever you find the most stress. (i have two scary looking witches in my kitchen to make me laugh when i get too stressed out).
9. Read! Turn off the tv, and curl up and let your mind go!
10. Baths. A hot bubble bath, some hot tea, a classical music cd, and some candles. Need i say more?

Hug those you love

2009-01-22T20:01:00.000-08:00

My boss and friend, Nicole, lost her brother yesterday. He was only 47. It was a quick battle with cancer that took everyone by surprise. He and Nicole had always been close, altho during the past 10 years they had let disagreements with both of their spouses come between them. In the past year they had rekindled their relationship, making the bond between them stronger than ever. They had lost their mother (to the same thing) 20 years ago and reliving this for Nicole is incredibly hard. I'm trying to be their for her in any way I can, doing as much business wise as I can and also giving her as much space as i'm sure she needs.

I can't help but think of how close my brothers and sisters are. There are 7 of us, spanning 19 years (i'm the oldest). Of course like most families we have our differences. We are all very different people. Some of us working day by day doing the family thing, some very conservative and some living alternative lifestyles. But dispite all the disagreements and differences, I can't wrap my head around what I would do if I lost one of them.

Hug your family tonight. Tell them that you love them.

100 things i've done

2009-01-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Megan was doing this and I thought it looked like fun. (just copy and paste) If you play along, leave me a comment so I can see your list.
Bold whatever you have done. (or italics if your font is bold)
1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland.
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you're not sick.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagra Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen and Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language
.37. Had enough money to truly be satisfied.
38. Seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo's David.
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served in a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp.
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Been to the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the paper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had Chicken pox.
89. Saved someone's life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a lawsuit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Read an entire book in one day.

Wordless Wednesday - Baby feet

2009-01-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

More blog awards!

2009-01-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

Lorie over at Thinking Out Loud has given me this cool award. The premise behind this one is to make new blog friends. So i'm going to award this award (doesn't that sound funny?) to some of the newer blogs that i've started reading.

Lindsey at Sweet Simplicity
Brandy at One Girl Revolution
Liz at Loving mom 2 boys

And Chermonblie over at He calls her "Lemon Pie" has awarded me with the Your Blog is Fabulous Award. Fabulous! (ha! Couldnt help myself) The condition of this award is that I write 5 obsessions I have and tag my 5 favorite blogs.

So my top 5 obsesssions (in no particular order)

1. Sweet tea

2. writing in my day planner

3. Work, work, and more work

4. any food with shrimp in it

5.organizing my life and my home

Wow, I dont' know if I can pick just my top favorite 5 blogs. As you can see from my profile I read ALOT of blogs (in my defense not everyone posts everyday so it's not like I spend HOURS glued to my computer....okay well maybe just a few hours). So I am tagging everyone who is following my blog! Yep, ya'll are my favorites today cuz ya'll like my rambeling..rambleing...(too lazy to find a dictionary tonight. )

Musical Monday

2009-01-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

Jori over at Jeff & Me + Three is hosting a musical monday. Very creepy since just like 2 hours ago I was thinking I should start something like this. Cool. But you stole my idea Jori. Just kidding!

But since I'm a total spaz when it comes to learning how to download a video from youtube (any help would be appriciated, I can pay in the form of kind thoughts) I'm simply going to link and share the lyrics with ya'll.

I'm not going to feature a song, like i'm supposed to, but a cd. I first heard "So What" by Pink a couple of months ago. With all the crap that V and I went through I thought this was the perfect break up song. I love to just turn this up and yell (sing) along.

You weren't there

You never were

You want it all

But that's not fair

I gave you life

I gave my all

You weren't there

You let me fall

So... So what

I'm still a rock star

I got my rock moves

And I don't need you

And guess what?

I'm having more fun

And now that we're done

I'm gonna show you

Tonight...I'm allright...

I'm just fine...

And you're a tool....

Best Break up song.... Ever. I'm telling you, there's nothing more cathartic than screaming this out the car window. And I love the video. Pink is awesome.

I bought the cd today and the second song on there also spoke to me and all the ups and downs i've been through the last year. Sober . The total ups and down roller coaster of emotions after a relationship is over. Who you are as person isn't who you thought you were and trying to find the real you just makes you even crazier.

I don't wanna be the girl that laughs the loudest...or the girl who never wants to be alone...I dont' wanna be that call at 4 oclock in the morning..cause i'm the only one you know in the world that won't be home.. that's not the way I want my story to end...I'm safe up high...Nothing can touch me...But why do I feel this party's over? ....no pain inside...you're my protection...but how do I feel this good sober? ....I don't wanna be the girl that has to fill the silence... The quiet scares me cause it screams the truth....

......And if i let myself go i'm the only one to blame...when it's good then it's good, it's so good till it goes bad..till you're trying to find the you that you once had.. i have heard myself cry never agian...broken down in agony just trying to find a friend...

I. Love. This. Song.

The rest of the cd is just as awesome. But you can definately tell that she wrote most of the songs (if not all of them) when her relationship with her husband fell apart. Misery creates the best art.

How to make self-rising flour

2009-01-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

For each cup of flour in a recipe, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt.

Out of baking powder? Use 1 tsp baking soda plus 1/2 tsp cream of tartar for each tsp of baking powder needed.

Cutest apron on the block

2009-01-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

Cookie girl over at Cookie Girl Creations is giving away this adorable apron. I have to say that I had no choice in entering. It is just too adorable. And lately i've found myself in a wierd love affair with aprons. I want one, they're just too cute and pretty, but then I get one and I don't want to wear it cuz I don't want to ruin it and get it dirty. So my goal is to make it fashionably acceptable to wear your apron anywhere. Oooohhh..maybe the newest swimsuit cover? There ya go.

Wierdness

2009-01-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

It truly has been a bizarre week. Let me recap, just so I can keep the wierdness in some semblance of order.

Monday: Oh crap, there was a monday? Oh yeah, it was supposed to be the busiest day of the month, but Nicole was having a family emergency so I brought alot of paperwork home and got caught up on 'Big Love' before the season premier sunday. (DVR set!!)

Tuesday: Going about the day, minding my own business, and about 2 in the afternoon I get a text that reads 'Hi Tina. Havent spoken in a while. Hope everything is going good for you.". I was like who the f is this? It was Chris, my first husband. Let's just say dont' ever be behind the wheel when you get a text from your first husband that you havent spoken to in 5 years. I'm lucky that tree jumped out of my way. Turns out that he's getting married. To a girl that I was best friends with in high school. Hm.. so of course my first question was how long have they been dating. Guess they've been friends for 6 years and things just naturally progressed. So, yay. I am happy for him. And her. I'm glad he's finally found someone. We got married 3 days before high school graduation and made it 7 years together before I was going out of my mind and we split. I'm the first one to jump on the your too young to get married band wagon, having done it myself. That was wwwwaaayyy too young. Neither one of us knew who we were as individuals, much less what we wanted to be as a couple. But I know he carried alot of resentment and anger for a long time about the split, so I truly am happy that he's fallen in love and found someone that he wants to be with. Just shocked the snot out of me to hear from him like that.

Wednesday: Boring morning. (should have been a clue) Had a depo for a case going at work. Now while I can't give the specifics in the case I can say that I was truly not prepared to be attacked. I thought the depo would take maybe 30 minutes top. Nope. Two and a half freakin hours. By the time I got out of there I was fit to be tied. There wasnt' a Baskin Robbins close enough. And of course being in that mental state there was no way I was getting anything else productive done the rest of the day. Now mind you, I tried, but after attempting to put something in the computer 3 times and it going going right (damn computer) I quit and went home. Went to bed at 9 pm and didnt wake up til 7 am.

Thursday: After the last two days, Nicole promised me a nice boring day of inspecting some vacant properties and then we'd go shopping. We both had gift cards to Macy's burning holes in our pockets and I for one dont like fire that close to my body. So we headed to the first property. Yep. That was the last one. This house was evicted the day after christmas. They decided they didnt like that and moved back in and rekeyed the flippin house! Metro was called. Locksmith was called. Went through it all again. So we show up a third time and they have done it again! New hardware on the door, house locked up tight. Well, I got smart (a-ha!) there in between the second and this time and had the power turned off so they were in there for 3 days with no power. But seeing as how I am not about to rush in a house with a squatter and get shot for nobody, we waited for metro. Again. Then waited for the locksmith. Again. Finally, after 2 hours, got back in the house, did our inspection and locked the house up tight. In my 5 years doing this this is the first time i've ever had this happen. Sign of the times?

So after all that we headed straight to the mall. Macy's was having some amazing sales so I bought 2 summer nightgowns (and yes I was tempted to come home and turn the heat up to 80 so I could wear them), a pair of silky short gouchos, and a bottle of perfume. I love this stuff! Long day of shopping, got home around 6, got in my jammies, and just surfed around online all night reading blogs. Friday: Full day in the office. Didn't get home til 5. Had plans to go to Ken's for dinner, but V called right when I was walking out the door. They (he and T, the new wife) have found a new place to live. (currently they still rent from me, in the same house that I lived in when we were together). Cheaper, which was his main goal. But they needed a letter of recomendation from me, the landlord. (the power!) So, realizing that this was probably the only moment in our relationship where I had the upper hand I told him that it was a friday night and I had plans, but if they would like to type up the letter for me and bring it over, say 10-ish, I would be more than happy to sign it and give them one of my business cards. They accepted (did they have a choice?) So went all the way up the mountain to Ken's for dinner. He fixed a delicious shephards pie that i'm going to have to watch him make next time so I can post it on my other blog. Got home about 9-ish and worked on cataloging comics for the ebay store til they got here. And it was a pleasant exchange. Havent spoken to HER in 6 months? V calls like maybe twice a week, just to tell me what's going on in his life (havent decided if I care still or not). But paper signed, they have a meeting today with the new landlord. Keep your fingers crossed for me. This is the last tie that he and I have together.

So..... if anyone else from my past pops up I think i'm going to spend the rest of the month in hybernation.

This weekend is going to be spent cleaning my house, since I didn't get anything accomplished during the week. Oh joy.

Catchin up on blog awards

2009-01-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

First, I'd like to thank Mrs. Potts for the Honest Scrap award! Very cool!

The rules...

1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.

2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.

3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

The 7 brilliant blogs that I bestow this award to are:

Jane at Jumpin in the Jungle
Michelle at One Crafty Mama
Rachel at Adventures of an American Mum
Sassy Engineer at Pretty Peony
Lena at Inner Green Fairy
Andrea at My Chihuahua Bites
Maven at A Fabulously Good Life

Okay, now to the 10 honest things about myself.

1. I am addicted to sweet tea. Seriously. Check my blood sugar level sometime.
2. I bite my nails when i'm nervous.
3. I babble alot when i'm nervous also. (makes my boss nervous when i'm alone with clients)
4. I am addicted to clothes and shoes. (I just counted - I have 28 pairs of capris. Should I consider this a problem?)
5. I am teaching myself how to cook. (growing up, cooking mostly consisted of openeing a box of hamburger helper. I'm now trying to make it from scratch)
6. My mom is from Tennessee and my dad is from Georgia and even though I was born and raised here in Las Vegas, when I get nervous or pissed off, I get a southern accent.
7. I have a very unique giggle. I've been told it sounds like a horse whinnying.
8. I love the movie 'Waitress' so much one of my goals now is to open my own pie shop.
9. I love the Star Wars movies and was at the midnight premier of the first three.
10. I talk to my dogs like they're my kids and often carry Sunshine around on my hip like a baby.
And !llegally Blonde over at Could've Been Blonde awarded me with this!

The rules of the award are:
- You must be a true lover of the New Year to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with the New Year.- List 5 things that you love about the New Year. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space.- Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But keep the New Year cheer going.- Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving a comment on their site. Also, link back to the person who gave you the award.

Since we're already at the freakin middle of the month (I swear it's gonna be christmas again before ya know it) I am awarding this to everyone!! We should all have had at least 5 things happen that we love about 2009 so far.

Here is my list:

1. I am 34 years old! Yes, I am proud of this. I am shocked by this. Maybe i'm just in so much shock that i'm confusing depression for pride.

2. My first husband called and told me that he is getting married. To a girl (woman now) who was one of my best friends in high school. I wish them both the best!!!

3. Business's are going great. Busy little bee over here. No time to sleep. I'll do that when i'm dead.

4. My relationship with Ken is growing by leaps and bounds. We are both moving forward and I can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds in store for us.

5. I am addicted to blogging! I feel like i'm making so many new friends out there in bloggy land and am looking forward to getting to know more!

I do believe that's it. If there are any that I forgot please remind me. Remember, natural blonde here.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

Sleeping puppy. I want to be THAT relaxed.

2009-01-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

It was a wonderful, relaxing, stress-free birthday weekend. The absolutely best birthday i've had in a very long time. Friday night Ken came over and I made manicotti. (recipe on my other blog) I don't even remember what we watched on tv, just that dinner was good and it was a nice, quiet evening.

Saturday Ken woke up with a mission. For my birthday, he went to Home Depot and spent like $300 on misc stuff to fix up the house. I gave him a 'honey-do' list and he went to work. I got three new curtains and rods, new weather stripping on the patio door in my bedroom, a new shower head and doors for my master bath, and he redid the cable wiring for the front media room. I swear I love this man. This was better than any other present I could have thought of or asked for. He just kept coming up with 'well, would you like me to do.....' and of course my answer was yes! He topped off the day with steak dinner and a cheesecake from Freeds, the absolute best cheesecake in the entire world. This of course led to a discussion of wedding cakes, since he saw a few that they had displayed when he went in. They had one there years ago that i've always said if I were to get married again I would get. It was a 4 layer chocolate cake with chocolate covered strawberries all over it. Divine. But after several bites of cherry cheesecake, I have decided that all I want is a GIANT cherry cheesecake. Or even a bunch of little ones. They are that good.

Sunday I got alot more done around the house, talked to V (more on that later) and then went to see 'Yes Man'.

Loved. It. Honestly, I laughed so hard I think I peed in my pants a little. Enough said.

Vinegar

2009-01-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

ALL NATURAL PRODUCTS

Homemade Citrus Vinegar for Cleaning
This is a gentle but effective vinegar cleaner. It is fresh smelling and a wonderful homemade alternative to harsh chemical cleaners. Fill a glass quart jar with the peelings (make sure there isnt any white pulp left) of any citrus frut (grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, etc). Cover the peelings with white vinegar. Cover jar and allow to sit for about 2 weeks. Occasionally shake the jar. Strain and use in any of the following ways:
Pour into a small dish or bowl to absorb room odors. Make an all purpose cleaner by mixing 1/2 ucp to 1 galon of water. Make a glass cleaner by combining a quart of water with 1/2 cup of the vinegar mixutre and add to a spray bottle. Make a linoleum floor cleaner by adding 1 cup of the vinegar mixture with 2 gallons of water and mop as usual. Make an oven cleaner buy spraying the vinegar mixture directly onto the burned on or soiled areas. Close the oven door and allow it to sit for 2 hours. Wipe clean with a sponge or rag that has been moistened with warm water. Might need to be done twice.

10 Money Saving Ideas for the Kitchen

2009-01-10T17:28:00.001-08:00

1. Make a meatloaf stretch by adding oatmeal or rice.

2. Try to make your oven do double duty when you heat it up. Bake soem poatoes with the cookies, or the biscuits with the meatloaf. Or simply cook two of whatever your making and freezer or store the second in the fridge.

3. When boiling potatoes, save the water. If you're makign mashed potatoes us it instead of part of the milk. Or you can let it cool and use it to water houseplants.

4. Buy a whole chicken and chop it yourself.

5. Buy holiday hams and turkeys when they're on sale and freeze them.

6. Grow your own herbs. Lots of herbs, and even some veggies, grow great in small-med size pots that fit right on your window sill.

7. Have one meatless meal night a week.

8. Always watch the scanner when checking out. Just because it's marked a certain price doesnt mean it made it into the computer.

9. Make your own juice from frozen concentrated juice instead of buying bottled juice that says 'from concentrate'.
10. Price Comp! Find a store that will price comp any ad and find the best deal for what you're shopping for.

Largest Full Moon of 2009

2009-01-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

Happens to be on my birthday. How perfect is that?

Turning 34

2009-01-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

These pictures has nothing to do with the post. Everyone just love the other pictures from Hawaii so I thought i'd share some more until my new camera comes in and I can bore everyone with pictures of my dogs. Yep, I bought me a new camera. Kind of a birthday present to myself. Oh yeah, tomorrow is my birthday. The big 3-4. And ya know, it either hasn't hit me yet, or it's not going to bother me. I didnt have a problem turning 33. 32 - yeah, that freaked me out. I was depressed for a week. I think that was the worst one so far. I don't think i'd have a problem though with getting older if I had accomplished alot of the things that I thought I would by now. Now I know there are no rules, no one saying 'you have to do this by this age or you're a failure', but honestly sometimes that's what I feel like. I always thought i'd be married and have a family by this age. I've been married (legally) once, for 7 years, and then was with V for 5 years so I consider that being married. But neither one lasted (obviously) and no kids, which since the relationship didnt last is probably a good thing. Now Ken and I are working on our relationship, and I think we're progressing, both have the same goals and ideals. I just... well, you know how it is when you're uterus starts hollering at you ...'hey, all the other women your age have already had at least 2! I'm beginning to go stale down here!'.... I swear I hear that dreaded clock ticking... and Ken and I have talked about it. We both want kids. We both just want so much for our relationship to be stable first. To NOT be that couple who in 10 years is staying together for the kids. We've had so many ups and downs that I know in my heart that this time is a one way street on the up path, but... I just want to be sure. So... wow this is going in a hundred directions. Sorry. For my birthday, as I said, I bought me a camera. I have an old one, that Bella ate the cord too, but I wanted something new to celebrate the new year of my life. A year hopefully filled with new experiences, friends, and lots of laughter. And a new camera to capture all of that.

Wordful(less) Wednesday #2

2009-01-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

Sunset in Hawaii. Summer vacation 2006.

Is it really only tuesday?

2009-01-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, this post might sound a bit like a ...well okay it probably is just a whine fest. I am just exhausted tho and I cant believe there's still 3 more days in the week!!

This weekend was spent cleaning out a rental. I honestly can't believe some of the things people leave behind when they move out. I've always tried to be super concious of what I leave, if anything, in an apartment/house. But this house was a total bachelor pad. Wrestling videos, comics, the whole nine yards. It took us about 6 hours to bag up everything. The topper was this evil snake in a bottle. And yes, it was a real snake. Carl said it was a cobra, but I didnt get a very good look at it. As soon as I realized it was a snake, my stomach rolled and my skin crawled. Totally grossed me out. Which of course the boys thought was hilarious, so Ken decided to sneak it up on my whenever my attention was drawn elsewhere, simply because he thought it was hilarious to hear me scream. I didnt find it that amusing. I did find it humorous when he was laughing so hard he choked on his coke and almost threw up. Would have served him right. The thing was just awful. I got the worst vibes from it. Definately evil.

Monday... crap, was that really just yesterday? I was swamped at work. Along with being the first of the month (rents due) and all the vacancies we're dealing with, there's also the year end getting ready for tax stuff to get out. And I ran out of checks. How does that happen? And then I ran out of stamps. Seriously? So I left around 2 and went and got my eyebrows waxed. I was beginning to look like a muppet and was in serious need of some pampering by this point.

And Darlene, my manicurist, being the wonderful darling that she is, had a free hour so she gave me a free pedicure. So many different yay's here. It had been 4 months since my last one (who has the time and it's winter so no one besides me and the inside of my socks see's my feet) and man oh man did my feet appriciate her generosity. I guess I was making faces cuz she asked me if it was hurting. Nope, I was just disgusted by what she was scraping off my heels. EEW. Never going that long without one again. But after that I had to go back to the office and finish up paperwork and didnt end up getting home until 7.

Today was almost as crazy. I had left my leather jacket at Darlene's so I had to go pick that up at 8, then rush to get my tuneup on my car at 8:30. But I had forgotten that it was trash day and the trash guys were two houses down the street and wouldn't let me drag my trash can to them. Wienie heads. So now my garage is gonna stink until friday morning. Lovely. But I digress. Picked up my jacket, dropped off my car and walked over to the Cannery Casino (right across the street) for breakfast while I waited. I went to their cafe. Yeah, won't be doing that again. It didnt taste bad, but it didnt taste good either. No taste come to think of it. But walking back across the street to pick up my car I had this guy pull up, roll down his window, and I swear he asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. Now, this is vegas. So probably 70% of the time when you see a younger woman (and sometimes not so younger woman) walking around or in front of a casino, she's probably a hooker. And by the look on this guy's face I had a feeling that's what he thought. Are you kidding me? I was wearing jeans, a black sweater, 3 inch heeled black boots and a black leather jacket. The only part of skin showing on me was my face and it was probably red from walking into the wind. Now maybe this is what hookers look like in Alaska or somewhere where it's cold but not here. So this just set me off. Here I am trying to make an effort to look nice, and some guy thinks i'm a hooker. I'm gonna go back to the sans makeup and just wear sweats.

The rest of today wasnt bad, just busy. Didnt feel like cooking dinner so we just had Panda Express for dinner. I really need to get my butt to the grocery store tomorrow though. Maybe, as long as tomorrow is really friday.

If I wasn't addicted before, I definately am now

2009-01-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

AndreaLeigh over at My Chihuahua Bites has given me this lovely blog award. My second in a week! Yep, it's official. I am addicted to blogging. Where else can you spill your guts and win awards? Well, wait...doesn't Jerry Springer hand out awards?

So I am passing the lovely blog award to the follwing fellow bloggers.

Lenaloo

Seven Clown Circus

Julie at Wearing Mascara

Chris Bliss

Scentsy

2009-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

I recieved a burner and two differed secntsy bars as a gift from a tenant who was moving out. I fell in love with this thing. It's a two part double burner type holder. You put the scented wax bars on top, turn it on and enjoy the aromas. No messy candles to knock over, no paranoid half way down the street oh my god did I remember to blow out all of the candles? It's perfect for someone as scatterbrained as me because i'm always leaving the house and forgetting to blow out a candle. And the wax smells so good when it's melting. The smell is subtle, yet fills up the whole house. I've been using the sugar one and have actually had people ask me if I just made cookies.

The only problem is that I have no way of contacting the lady who gave it to me and I don't know where to buy new wax bars. I checked out the website and they only sell through their reps. I have emailed them several times asking the local rep to contact, but so far havent heard anything.

Does anyone happen to know where I can get some more of these things?

New habits - not resolutions

2009-01-02T19:32:00.001-08:00

Over chinese lunch today, my best friend Emily and I were discussing our goals for the new year. I had really decided to not set any resolutions, as I feel I should just keep taking baby steps towards my new life. But after listening to Emily talk about her goals, and her plans to acomplish them, to improve herself this year, inside and out, I felt inspired. So instead of resolutions, i'm going to set out 12 new habits that I want to establish for 2009. They say 30 days of repetition makes something a habit. So I figure one a month and i'll be doing good. So here it goes.

1. Study devotionals once a day
2. Exercise, in some form every day
3. Live on less than $50 a week (with the prices of gas going back up this might have to change)
4. Make an effort to look nice for work every day, (no more jeans, sweatshirt, pulling my hair back in a pony tail and no makeup)
5. Stop cursing
6. Watch the news everyday and pay attention/get caught up on wordly events
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

These are in no order yet, and obviously I still have to come up with a few. For January i'm tackeling # 4. All I did with my hair was pull it back into a clip but I at least put on a nice sweater and makeup. Any one have any ideas of new habits they'd like to establish in their lives?

100 things about me

2009-01-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

To start off 2009, i'd thought i'd attempt my list of 100 things about me. So here it goes....

1. I was born in Las Vegas NV. (I have spent the majority of my life here, but have lived in Memphis Tn for 3 years and Dayton Ohio for 3 years)

2. I'm the oldest of 7 kids (3 girls, 4 boys) (We're all very close, almost too dependent on each other. We almost never just get together because we have birthday parties for everyone at my parents house, and with the growing number that works out to about 2-3 parties a month)

3. I currently have 3 neices and 3 nephews

4. I married my high school sweetheart 3 days before graduation only to get divorced 7 years later. (llloooong story)

5. The smell of coffee makes me nauseous ( I was ecstatic when I found out that Star Bucks has a drive thru so I could get tea and a lemon loaf in the morning and not have to go in)

6. I was allergic to gold until I stopped eating red meat. ( I also dropped 15 lbs when I stopped eating it. Now I only eat it twice a month, if that)

7. My favorite Disney movie is Beauty and The Beast

8. I have blankets that were made by my great grandmother (now passed), grandmother (now passed) and mother on my quilt rack.

9. I moved 3 times in 2008

10. I have been anorexic twice in my life, the lowest weight being 85 lbs

11. I'm 5'1"

12. I love sushi

13. I hate peanut butter cookies. (the smell of baking peanut butter is enough to make me gag)

14. I hate doing laundry so much I make sure I have enough clothes to go a month without washing anything. (I actually have enough summer/spring clothes to go 2 months, but I've never pushed it)

15. I am a packrat by nature - i've had 50 glass jars stored in the closet before, just in case.

16. I used to be afraid of dogs until I got a rottweiler (Daisy) as a puppy for mothers day.

17. I love being cheap and frugal - if it's not free or almost free I dont want it. (I constantly get teased for my mismatched house. I have a 3 bedroom, 1700 sq ft house, fully packed and furnished, and probably only spent $400 total for everything (not counting clothes and books of course). I love mismatched homey looking decor! )

18. I set out and iron 8 outfits every sunday night so during the week I dont have to worry in the mornings about rushing.

19. I've only lived by myself for a year out of my life, the rest either with husbands/boyfriends or roommates (currently Carl)

20. I make my sweet tea sweet - a cup and a half of sugar for a 2 qt pitcher

21. I always have candles burning

22. I cant sleep without a blanket on me, even in 100' weather.

23. When I was in the 6th grade I was fascinated by snakes and sharks and had pictures of them taped to my desk.

24. I can swim as long as I dont have to put my face in the water - if my face gets wet I freak out

25. I love massages

26. I collect piggy banks, tea pots, and anything winnie the pooh or the muppets

27. I would rather pay someone to wax my eyebrows than to pluck them myself

28. Typing was the first college class I ever took.

29. I can type 80 wpm.

30. I love playing bingo, have my own bingo bag and about 70 dobbers

31. I love quilting, altho pretty much all i can do is basic squares.

32. I love anything to do with the muppets and cried when Jim Henson died.

33. The only reason I passed any math in junior high and high school was because I had a friend sit in front of me in every class who always did the work for me.

34. I have 7 years of college under my belt and no degree.

35. I changed my major 5 times.

36. I hate raw onions but love them cooked.

37. I have 2 real best friends - Tiffany, who i've known since we were 15, and Emily - who was my first husbands sisters best friend.

38. Halloween is my fave holiday.

39. I collect witches and have them around my house year round.

40. I have a 3 foot gargoyle statue in my garden

41. My hair is it's natural color now but when I was 16 I died it black and then died the 2 inch roots purple to match my prom dress.

42. I have a fear of the ceiling falling on me.(i actually had this happen before)

43. I am a post it addict. There is a pad in every room of my house and probably about 20 in my car and purse.

44. I know how to change a car tire and battery but i usually let someone else do it for me.

45. I hate saying no and am usually the person that takes care of everyone around me.

46. I taught my self how to drive a stick shift (I had a job interview and my first husband wouldnt get out of bed to drive me and the only car we had at the time was a stick so I hopped in and figured it out).

47. Altho I pride myself on being rather intelligent, I love to play the dumb blonde card. You get away with more if people think you're dumb.

48. I am a capricorn.

49. My favorite colors are pink and green.

50. The only place outside of the US i've visited was Montreal Canada when I was 15 for a band competition.

51. The first time I ever rode on an airplane was when I was 27.

52. I have never been able to get pregnant, altho I usually start having sympathy symptoms when someone around me is.

53. I hate Cheryl Crow simply for that song 'lie to me just please dont leave'. Just terrible.

54. I believe in ghosts and while I dont seem them most people around me tell me that I attract them.

55. I love 'trailer trash wine'. (1.99 sangria mixed with 7-up)

56. I love Acqua Panna water

57. I hate being cold.

58. I wear size 6 shoe.

59. I tend to ramble on and on when I get nervous

60. I have been told that I am too honest

61. I am allergic to loritab and hydrocodone

62. I love shrimp! (I have been known to finish of one of those shrimp cocktail trays you can get at the grocery store in one night)

63. I am a fidgeter - people hate going to the movie theater with me because I wiggle around more than a 3 year old.

64. I love the rain.

65. My dog Sunshine was my ex's new wifes dog. (When we split, he kept our two rottweilers. She had Sunshine, a boston terrier, and couldn't bring her in the house cuz the rotties would kill her. So I told them since I didnt get to take MY dogs, then I should get to keep Sunshine. They went for it. And I totally love my dog!!!)

66. My dog Bella, is the daughter of the two rotties that my ex kept.

67. I had my tonsils removed when I was 24.

68. I love the Flylady organization system and try to follow it, altho currently i'm off the wagon.

69. I make lists constantly.

70. I'm really bad about remembering if I locked the front door or closed the garage door. I've gone back and checked up to 4 times before.

71. My handwriting changes, depending on my mood.

72. I'm addicted to blogs. I guess it's my version of reality tv since I dont watch it.

73. My favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip from breyers.

74. I dont like online banking. I forget things too easily.

75. I'm addicted to Clinique products. I can't use anything else on my skin (good excuse to keep buying it).

76. I really like being alone alot. I have way too many hobbies that are solitary.

77. I cant' sleep without socks on.

78. My parents have been married for 35 years.

79. I believe in the power of prayer.

80. I hate liars and consider alot of practical jokes lies. (like friends who email me this big sob story about how she caught her hubby cheating on her and she found out she was pregnant and on and on. I called and she was like oh I was just messing with you. Totally pissed me off)

81. I use alot of words too much. (totally, wow, perfect)

82. I didnt go to my high school reunion because the only friend I really had in high school was my first husband and I definately didnt want to see him.

83. I have been lobster diving. I caught, killed and cooked my own lobster.

84. I dont use candle holders. I buy tea plates and tea cups at Goodwill for $.25 to use.

85. My first job (besides babysitting) was when I was 17 as a telemarketer for a Lawn Care company.

86. I love putting things in order and filing. (when I was dating my first husband i'd spend hours putting all of his comic cards in numerical order and just be happy as a clam)

87. I had chicken pox when I was 11. I had already started getting acne, so the two combined (and it was a nasty case of chicken pox, not one spot on my face wasnt covered) made a target for the local bullies. I was called pizza face for the next two years. I still have scars on my forehead from the chicken pox.

88. I try to wear a different pair of shoes every day. My theory in this is so that I dont wear the shoes out and they last longer. I think it works cuz i've had some shoes since I was 18.

89. I am unbelievably clumsy. (If you've ever seen the movie "Junior", think Emma Thompsons character.)

90. I dont watch alot of tv, but when I find a show I like that's all I watch. (these day's it's NCIS and House. I watch all of the reruns on USA. Well, not really watch. I always have the tv on for the noise so I mostly listen)

91. I dont' like my writing skills. When I read back over what I've written it sounds more like see Dick and Jane run. Honestly it sounds better in my head.

92. I am a complete light weight. Two glasses of wine and i'm crawling across the floor.

93. I dislocated my elbow when I was 15 doing a free handed cartwheel (my toe caught on the matt is was flipping over and I landed on my fore arms instead of my head)

94. I love my car. (yes, another cheap story). I bought it at an auction for $700 in August of 07. It's a 1998 Chrysler Sebring Convertible and I totally love it. (and the fact I dont have a car payment)

95. I have a journal of business ideas that I want to start/try

96. I'm addicted to my bluetooth.

97. I dont like olives.

98. Everytime a guy has made me a mixed cd, we've broken up within 6 months.

99. I go by my married name because my maiden name is so popular. (there were 4 girls in high school with me with the same first-middle-and last name. fortunately we were all in different grades)

100. I am a huge procrastinator and will put off just about anything if I can.