Couple snaps from the past week

Including this one because #1.... should it be THIS dark after school!!?? It seems like it's darker earlier this year than usual. Also including this one because I thought it was a riot how incredulous Mom was over the fact that Jessi comes home from school and sits right down at the diningroom table to do her homework...even when I am not yet home from work. She commented SEVERAL times about it and Jessi would just look at her all confused like, "Duh... I do it because I HAVE to. It's a rule....and if I don't do it I get in trouble." And Mom would try to explain to her that none of those things had ANY effect on my brothers and me when we were kids ;) ;)

I like this one too... probably should have used the flash. But I HATE FLASH!!

LOVE this one!!! Upon seeing my extremely neglected fishtank, she made it her first order of business to get it all nice. We went fake plant shopping on Friday, and then spent a couple hours on Saturday tearing all the 1/2 dead plants and crap out and putting all the nice new stuff in... including black gravel that makes the colors pop more than natural colored gravel like I had before.

It looks FANTASTIC now!!! And on Monday we even went out and got some new fish to add more color and life to the aquarium... LOVES IT!! Thanks Mom!!!!

Alrighty... off to work. I still feel like complete SHIT! This is the cold that just won't go away and has actually gotten WORSE over time and not better. I'm sure my family and co-workers are delighting in listening to me hack up a lung all day and night long. Antibiotics are on board as of about 1/2 hour ago and hopefully that will FINALLY get rid of this thing!!

The season officially begins!!!!!

Tonight we'll do the big tree... that we traditionally do on the day after Thanksgiving... BUT.... I had forgotten that last year I threw away all out lights because they were old and ratty. So we took the trip to Walmart yesterday and got WAY too many lights ;)

Consider this your engraved invitation!!!!!!!!!

It's that time of year again!!!!!

The 2nd ANNUAL Christmas Party of Debauchery

December 22nd 630pm

Same details at last year. Think you can top last years "gifts"???

The things I learned from my Nana.....

- If your child goes to public schools, you are training them to be a homosexual because of all that gender equality crap and liberal agendas.

- DON'T put your mail in the mailbox to send it. They are all crooks. They don't even drive real mail trucks anymore... or even wear uniforms!

-Adding cinnamon cuts half the sugar out of anything you eat.

-Soy is extremelay bad for you... avoid it at all costs. (To which I responded... "You know... I heard it turns you gay." To which she -in ALL seriousness- responded... "Well... I am NOT surprised! I have no doubt it probably does! It messes with your hormones, you know!"

-Heat should be kept at 80 and there should be enough humidifiers in the house to make it feel like walking into a tropical rain forest.

-I should wear more hot pink and more blazers. My Aunt Joyce should wear more blush and not straighten her hair.

One more fun little tidbit... She was looking through my scrapbook and saw this LO and said, "What's that he's doing there... like devil horns or something??" I said -in all seriousness-, "Of COURSE it is... we have been worshiping Satan in our home for years."

Feel free to "Wow. Just Wow."

The end of the line

Turkey day was great!! Lots of food, family, friends and fun :) I could get all hokey like the rest of you girly saps... but I'm not gonna!! LOL!!


Black Friday. UGH!! I got up at 3am and once I found some gloves I was off to Toys R Us!! I drove by Circuit City and Best Buy just to see the lines and Best Buy was CRAZY!!!!! The line was all the way to the shoe store and the news was there. It was a mad house!! I was thinking, 'Oh God.... what is the line at TRU gonna be like' I was relieved to see that it wasn't that bad. I got in line at 3:30 and there were only about 30 people in front of me. I was hoping they all wanted Wii's and not Microsoft Zunes. We all froze our butts off for 1.5 hours and all became BFFNs ;) One of my BFFNs took this picture of me freezing.....When the doors opened it was MAYHEM!!! Some jackasses had poised themselves across the driveway to avoid getting in the line that was halfway down the driveway... so when the doors open they just ran across and started pushing. It was CRAZY. I was having Pantera concert flashbacks!! LOTS of people were making mad dashes for those Zunes. The store had THREE of them in stock. #$%$^%#@!@#$%#*&#@!#$%^&@#$%&#$!@!#$#%@#$#@!@#$#@!#@$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so bummed out.


After my initial disappointment... it actually ended up being a very successful trip. I got lots of stuff and lots of great deals. I went to Walmart too and that was MUCHO CRAZIO. ALL the registers were open and the line to get to the registers to pay was all the way to the GARDENING DOORS!!!! I was sneaky and paid in Sporting Goods, but even there I had to wait quite awhile. Getting out of the store took longer than waiting in line!!!

Last stop was Old Navy where I got Jessi's winter coat at 50% off... Woo hoo!! When I walked out of Old Navy I heard "COLLEEN!!!!!!!!!!" Hi Julie!!! LOL!! We chatted a bit and then I headed home.

Now Mom and I are going BACK out to get our hair done and maybe a little mall shoppin'

TTFN :)

Ode to Rosie (...just can't bear to go sans puctuation and capitalization)

Watching Pushing Daisies.
Taking a break from cleaning
and cleaning
and cleaning.
even the dogs got a bath.

Yet the house is still a mess.
Why does it always seem to get messier before it gets cleaner?

Excited for tomorrow!
Dinner at our place.
Liz will bring the mashers.
I suck at making mashers and this is not the time for sucky mashers.
Don't know why I cannot master mashers.

Dad is coming as always
He got Turkey Day in the divorce
Surprise!! Mom is coming too! Yikes! But a fun yikes :-D
Also Tim, Liz, and Jr
kids and dogs too of course.

Before I know it................

3am!!
Time to get up and SHOP SHOP SHOP!!!!
SO excited about Black Friday
Love the excitement in the air.
LOVE the HUNT for the perfect bargain.
LOVE kickin' some old lady's ass to get the last $5 DVD of Terminator 2
...maybe I shouldn't say stuff like that now... working where I do.....
Eh... It's all in good fun!!


(No old ladies were harmed in the making of this blog ....no promises about Black Friday though.)

I'll take an order of crazy with a side of whackadoo please.

Maybe it's the time of year... maybe it's the weather... maybe it's GLOBAL WARMING. It very well could be George W... but everyone seems to be feeling a little crazy lately, myself included. I woke up Saturday morning with the DESPERATE need to get the ghetto-dust-collecting black entertainment center out of my livingroom. So I emptied everything out of it onto the floor. Then I emptied everything (and there was a LOT) out of my scrapbooking room cabinet onto the floor in there.

Then I spent the next 3 hours trying to figure out how to hook everything (TV, dishnetwork, vcr, home theater, wii, switch box....)back up because I wanted to do it 'better' than I had it before. My success was extremely limited. I got the Wii 'in stereo' which RAWKS for Guitar Hero, but I can't figure out how to get the dish network in stereo. Not a big deal right now, since I can't control the volume of the home theater with a remote since Cooper chewed it up when he was still in his puppy-chewing phase, so that would be a nuisance not being able to control the TV volume.

Once I got everything hooked up, I looked around the house. There was crap E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!! The house was pretty messy even before I trashed it with my 'project' as I am not quite 'in the groove' with this whole 'working mom' thing (that MIGHT set a record for the most air quotes used in a sentence ever!). At this point I become so overwhelmed I told Sean to get his shoes on cuz we were going to Target.

When I called Nicole in a hysterical rant because I was feeling so stressed out that I tore apart my entire house... and just stressed in general, she says, "DUH... Can't IMAGINE why you are having issues." I said, "What are you talking about??" She says, "Hmmm.... your ENTIRE life has changed over the past few weeks. I'm pretty sure that might cause a little stress." I had a quiet 'AH-HA moment' and just realizing the source of my angst whisked most of it away!! Reason number 123 why Nicole rocks :)

Anyway... I decided that we all needed a little evening of fun, made some calls... did a LOT of quick cleaning with lots of help from Rick ;) ;) and ended the day with some Mike's Hard Berry, some spinach-artichoke dip and some Wii.... LOVES IT!!

(....just don't look in my scraproom)

Seen written into the dirt of a pickup truck a couple weeks ago....

"I wish my girlfriend was as dirty as this truck."

CRACKED ME UP!!! I tried to take a pic with my phone, but I wasn't quick enough.

Why is is that now that it MATTERS, Sean decides he is not a morning person????

Getting him out of bed and ready in time to catch the bus has been QUITE a task the past 2 days!!! I think Daylight Savings time is messing with his head a little still... plus I am trying to get myself ready for work every morning now, so that just adds to the chaos.

He had about 7 minutes to eat his yogurt and grapenuts before the bus would be outside beeping at us!! My job this morning. Eating Coach. I could TOTALLY coach one of those pro eaters (GAG!) "Come on!! Take another bite!! You can do it!! HURRY!!! OK... another bite... YOU'RE BUS IS COMING!! WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY WITH YOUR 'BUCKAROO' GAME!!!! EAT, eat, EAT!!!!"

I think we'll try an earlier bedtime tonight!

Whistle while you work!!

Today was my first day of my new job. I spent most of it organizing my 'cubby' (as they refer to the cubicle areas). I was almost late because at 8:04am I decided that I needed to make a couple LO's of the kids to put up in my very first 'office' EVER!! ;) I whipped 'em out super quickly though and was able to still walk out the door at 8:32am!! I was still 5 minutes late thought because I rolled the dice on which way to go to avoid construction and came up Snake Eyes.

Of course once I got it all organized I HAD to snap a pic... gotta love camera phones :) I would imagine this is the only day my desk will look this nice, so what better time to take a picture!?

My first day went very well. The fact that I am doing the same thing that I have been doing sine the beginning of September helps... as does the fact that I already know everyone there, so I don't feel shy about asking questions AND I know WHO to ask which questions...and at our place it's never the same person twice in a row!!

Another plus for today was that I am FINALLY on the 'getting better' side of this nasty-ass cold!! A minus though is that Rick is on the 'coming-down-with' side. His never last as long as mine do... but they are usually worse.... as is the drama surrounding them ;) Maybe there is something to that? Maybe next time instead of pretending I am fine, I will just be a big ole drama queen about the whole thing and stay in bed and then I will get better faster too!! Maybe not...lol!!!

Chilly Day for Chili

I think I'll share a recipe today! Easy Peasy! Delicious! Comfort food... AND... GOOD FOR YOU!!!!! This recipe started out years ago as Weight Watchers Chili, but I have evolved it over the years. Still healthy though! This recipe makes a LOT because it's DELISH left-over!!






-1 pound of ground turkey or beef (We like turkey better for this... and only this...lol)
-2 cans of corn
-2 cans pinto beans
-2 cans small white beans
-2 cans small red beans
-1 can tomato sauce (just plain tomato sauce, not spaghetti sauce)
-2 packets of taco seasoning mix
-2 beef boullion cubes

Brown the Turkey and taco seasoning. While that is browning, I dump everything except the tomato sauce and beef cube into a colander and rinse it all off. Once the meat is browned, dump in everything, including the tomato sauce and a little water. Simmer for at least an hour. I usually start mine before General Hospital ;) ...and let it simmer til dinner at 530 (stirring occasionally).

Top with shredded cheese. My favorite is 2% Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp White... but I would never presume to tell anyone what sort of cheese they should top their chili with. Cheese is a very personal thing ;) ;)

P.S. The WW recipe also had a diced bell pepper (love em raw..hate em cooked), a can of mexican tomatoes w/green chilis (blech)

Medicine head

I had the weirdest dream last night and part of the dream was that I got an invitation to a Pampered Chef party from Kristie. I can't really remember much from the dream, just that it was really off-the-wall and that I woke up with that weird 'was that a dream, or was it real?' feelings that lasted quite a while. I finally convinced myself that it was all just a dream induced by the night-time cold medicine I had to take last night as I am still feeling like shit.

Then a couple minutes ago I sat down on the couch and felt something in between the cushions of the couch. It was a PAMPERED CHEF INVITATION FROM KRISTIE!! I REALLY AM a crazy lunatic....ROFL!!!

P.S. Above is a painting by Jeff Mihlayo... he has a lot of neat stuff that I just found, just now while searching for a photo for this blog (what I REALLY wanted was a picture from that old 'medicine head' sudafed commercial with the cartoon guy holding his head like a balloon). I love 'google images'

ARRRR, me Hardy!! I found me TREASURE!!

Jessi got the greatest package today from her Nana!! Inside she found a HUGE sports bag (that will even fit her field hockey stick... and in the spring her softball bat!) with her name embroidered on it for her birthday. JUST as exciting for everyone... was a shoebox FULL of costume jewelry. The kids have had a blast playing with it... especially Sean-who calls it his TREASURE! He is upstairs looking for his eyepatch right now ;) ;)

Recently my husband's evenings have been spent with Tom Morello

So I have had to find things other than TV (I hate watching it upstairs in the bedroom) and Rick to entertain my evenings. Last night I suddenly found myself SCRAPBOOKING!! It's been ages since I dusted off the old paper trimmer and I had such a blast that I took my streak right on through today!
The paper laquer glue-ish stuff is still wet on the #1... it will eventually dry clear. Eventually.
The 'Love, Elsie' stuff is cute, but the stickers don't stay stuck. Hence the staples.
I have to do a "I {heart} fall" LO every year... cuz I do!!
This paper doesn't photo very well. It's actually as creamy natural white with colored flecks all through it, kinda like white kraft paper.
This one sucks... and is crooked in the photo, but since it sucks I don't give a rat's ass. I still have a hard time scrapbooking random photos that I took just for the hell of it.

I don't think my streak it over yet! I am having a great time! The only problem is that I have a REALLY BIG stack of layouts and no pocket pages to put them in... and I don't think they will all fit in the album I have going right now.

Sean comes home from school with this picture and says...

"It's Me and Daddy and Daddy is holding up his deer."

I say, "Oh... that's nice. You did a great job!"

Sean says...

"Yeah... but I had to use my IMAGINATION cuz Daddy can't shoot a REAL deer!"

THIS is how I roll

Oh Yeah. I'm all artsy and shit.


Once again I can control it all from the wheel!! YAHOO!!!

I would imagine driving and photo-ing is HIGHLY illegal ;)

Leather... a GOOD thing... especially with slobby kids! (who have already left purses and toys in the car just bought on Saturday and SWORE I would keep nice and NEAT)

Note the ONSTAR button that will never be connected to anything ;) Unless I won the lottery or something and feel the need to blow $40 a month.

I LOVES ME A BUICK!!!!!!!

BAD KITTY!!!!

While Rick, Sean and I were **trying** to sleep......

And some action from BEFORE we went to bed (and this morning) ;)

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Sean for sharing your sickness with me. You're a prince ;) Ok... that's out of my system...lol!! I feel like crud, but as the country song says....'Nobody knows it but meeeee.' Well... I guess that's not really true because you all know now, but that doesn't count because I said so. I am just not a wallower. I hate it when people are sick and just wallow, roll around, and bathe in it and make everyone else around them miserable just because THEY feel miserable. It's pretty selfish IM(not so)HO. Ok... rant over. I just needed to get that out of my system!! I think being at home with the kids for so long I had forgotten what it was like to deal with so many different personalities.

Today is Jessi's slumber party. I have a workshop this morning to learn the ins and outs of Medicare Part D as enrollment starts this month and our phones are ringing off the hook with people needing help figuring it out. It's kinda hard to help them figure it out when _I_ don't even understand it!! But as of noon today.... I will be a PRO!! ;)

After my meeting I had told the car salesman that I would come back and drive some more cars, but I don't know what I was thinking telling him that. After that meeting I have about 18 errands I have to run before Jessi and her posse get off the bus at 230. When, exactly, did I think I would have time to test drive cars??? Reason #154 why I NEED THAT ~~~~>
;) ;)