I love mornings when I feel so damn efficient that I could puke ;) ;)

And let me just say that it's a GOOD THING I decided to blog because I noticed the green light is on '6' and it should be on '4' PHEW!! That woulda been some crispy ass chili! (P.S. to me... get cheese on the way home!!)

Jessi called me on my way home from work yesterday EXTREMLY EXCITED that she took some TOTALLY AWESOME PHOTOS.... so here you go.... ;) ;) She told me on the phone she shot them in manual and I was shocked... but turned out she meant manual zoom and focus ;)

Tomorrow is my Mom's birthday. Here is proof that we all thought ahead. This is also my reminder to put them in the mail to only arrive a teeeeeeeensy bit late ;) ;)

Even old dogs love the snow!!

So we got a little snow yesterday....

Don't know why this photo won't stop looking all weird and pixely, but I am sick of messing with it... If you click on it... it's much much better :)

Getting to the birdseed is going to be a bit of a challenge ;)

Sometimes it annoys the heck outta me when parents call me and say...

"Are you SURE you really want to have them all over there??" Like I am a bumbling idiot, unable to make rational decisions.



Other times... I completly understand why they may think I may have a few screws loose ;)

Yesterday and the day before it felt like spring was on the way!

Then last night was got slammed with a huge snowstorm!




Mother Nature can be such a bitch sometimes ;)

Oh what a beautiful moooooooorning.....

I hate oatmeal. I always wanted to like it because it's good for you... but every time I tried that instant slop... BLECH! Then I saw an episode of 'Good Eats' that was all about oatmeal. He too said that the instant stuff is just gross and not even in the same food group as the real thing. So I went out and bought myself summa <-----THAT stuff over there. WOW! Holy Yummy!! It takes about 10 minutes to make it in the morning, But it's an easy 10 minutes, boil water, add oatmeal, turn down heat and simmer while you pack lunches or brush your teeth or... BLOG ;) Little bit of brown sugar and a little bit of skim milk and I am set til lunch (or even later... if I wait and eat it during our morning break at work, I am never hungry at lunchtime).

So vacation is over. I'm feeling better. I am ready to get back to work! Jessi was ready to get back to school. Sean... well... he's up and ready to go, but I wouldn't say he was feeling eager ;)

Time to send the boy out to the end of the driveway! Have a great day everyone!!

OMG that was like SO RANDOM! I know, RIGHT!?

A couple shots that I just found on my memory card from the other day that I forgot I had :)

LOVE the expression on her face in this one :)

After she finished METICULOUSLY coloring this... they found some tape and in a team effort and hung it up over Sean's bed, where it still hangs. How freaking cute are they!?

________________________________________________________________

And some from today...

Is it just me, or can you almost HEAR them plotting my death?

Today I bought a chicken because no decent New England kitchen is complete without at least one chicken, or other farm animal, in it's decor. Not that I needed an excuse to buy it. It's a damn cute chicken.

I also bought somethat that Julie will appreciate...lol!! Because... I completely give up on those damn hang up on the wall ones that the drunk ass people that visit me keep ripping out of the walls.

(OK... no drunk people have really ripped them out of the walls... well... maybe once... but those damn things just won't stay attached!!)

VEGAS, BABY!!

I am home sick from work today. I feel like complete shit on a stick. I slept terribly last night and every time I coughed I could tell I was bothering Rick, so I went downstairs to "sleep" (and I use air-quotes because there was way more sniffing, coughing and trying to breathe than there was sleeping!) in the den. Once Rick got up, I headed back upstairs and stayed in bed til 1030 or so. I still feel tres ucky, but I'll live ;)

Being home sick, with zero energy has given me to start researching our September TRIP TO LAS VEGAS!!!!!!! It started out a couple months ago when Mom went to Vegas and decided that she and I needed to take a mother/daughter trip there. Since then it has morphed into a Mom, Chris, Tim, Kristie, Rick and I, trip to Vegas. I am SO EXCITED!! It has been TEN YEARS since Rick and I went anywhere without the kids! And having everyone else there to hang out and have fun with should be a BLAST!!!

We also played a little wii... had some spinach artichoke dip... watched some funny stuff on youtube like this one...


The kids had a blast too... ran around like crazy monkeys, colored, and ran around like crazy monkeys some more.

Maybe Nicole will post some pics too, but I wouldn't hold your breath...lol!!

Tryin' out Nicole's new backdrop...

...the kids were only slightly cooperative ;) ;)

Thank you Mother Nature :)

We REALLY needed this little bit of 'warm' weather and sunshine!!

(Oh AND... he was WAY out in the yard and thanks to my new lens, I didn't even have to leave the house to take these! :D )

LOVING this vacation!!

I never really appreciated being home when I was a SAHM!! But I SURE DO NOW!!

I have gotten SO MUCH DONE!! Cleaned out the fridge (even took out all the shelved and scrubbed them!), scrapbooked, cleaned and re-organized the laundry room (really needed to be done and I have been able to put it off so long because a few weeks ago Rick took over all laundry duties, so I haven't even had to set foot in there unless I needed something from the freezer... Have I mentioned how much he rocks lately?.... cuz he totally does!), had time to fool around with my camera and new lenses ...and have even gotten busy on the treadmill every day!!

The vacation HASN'T gone so well for Mr. Sean. I think he has the winter blues and really needs to be outside more, but the weather has not cooperated. Today he had a COLOSSAL TEMPER TANTRUM that left me with my jaw on the floor at how naughty he was being! I laid the smack down bigtime. All video games and computer games are gone for the day, and all 'war' games are gone period. I wasn't liking that he was playing them anyway, but Rick insisted that he was ok, playing them, and he is really good at them and loves them. I also relented because most of Sean's friends play them also, and they are the same age...... So against my better judgement, I have been letting him play. No more though. And his behavior the rest of today is already 110% better. Right now he is sitting beside me coloring... like a normal 5 year old should be :)

P.S. To any other moms or dads out there, both kids here have been on a kick of finding coloring pages on the net and printing them out to color... there are ENDLESS color pages out there of anything you could possibly want to color! I just google ' power rangers coloring' ...or whatever else I am searching for, obviously ;)

For awhile there I thought I was done with the whole "scrapping thing"

Turns out I just needed a vacation!

These are nothin' fancy because I AM done with the whole 'spend 28 days on a page' thing. I just want my photos in an album to be looked at... and I like to get a little creative. I was thinking for awhile about just getting a pocket album for my photos... but I just couldn't do it! In fact... thinking about the fact that I needed to go get a pocket album just to get my photos out of cyberspace was what got me wanting to scrap again.

Even though they are simple, I still have to post them for far away family... and because I like the idea that even if something happened to my albums, they are safe and sound in cyberspace :)

Sean got into the scrappin' action too... he really likes that circle stamp and punch.

And this is a photo of what my little beansprouts are doing right now... playing WWF with each other. Actually... all they are doing is making wrestlers, dressing them and giving them stupid hairstyles. They want to go outside, but it's raining, windy and nasty out. Little Miss Jessi has been told that she cannot make any plans until she cleans her room. She is getting right on that as you can see.

I'll bet you $100 she is crying on Sunday because her vacation is over and she "didn't even get to do anything fun."

Alrighty... it's lunchtime and there is a beansprout and avocado sammy callin my name!!

Ummm.... ok.

Home with Senor Sicky

So I guess I am starting my vacation a little early. Sean has that yucky cold that's been going around and he has a fever, so we get a day off today! He slept with me last night because he wasn't feeling well and becaue Rick is on call and it's been CRAZY that last couple nights for him... call after call after call of trucks stuck on ice. He gets $10 for every call... but at this point I think he'd give back the $300 he's made on calls this week so far just for a full nights sleep! Anyhoo... I got off track there with the 'on call' thing... I was going to say that neither of us got much sleep last night because of Sean's fever... we was tossing and turning, and it was like sleeping with a woodstove in the bed with me!! I think he's over the worst of it though... and crossing my fingers that the rest of us don't get it!!

I don't go back to work til next THURSDAY!!! SWEEEEEET!! Not sure what I am going to do with myself... but there is MORE than enough around here that needs to be done! I am also thinking of taking a day, or overnight, trip down to visit my Nana.

Alrighty... off to take a megadose of vitamin C!!

Beef stew gone wrong

So... So... wrong.

It was looking and smelling soooo yummy. I started making my famous little tiny dough balls and Jessi came into the room and said, "Mmmmm.... something something smells good like blueberry muffins or something."

I look at her like she has 10 heads and tell her she's a whacko and that the only thing cooking is beef stew... no berries involved.

A minute later I go to dump some dough balls intothe beef stew and the whole surface of the stew is covered with something bright, hot pink... almost red. My first though is, "Ew... is that blood from the stew meat or something???" (which I knew was impossible as I seared the meat, and because blood isn't that color...) So I lean in for a sniff. Hmmm.... that smells like some kind of berry or something... and it smells like a candle. Could it possibly be the little Mulberry tea light candle that I got as a prize at the stupid candle party I went to last week that I have been moving from surface to surface all week not knowing what to do with it??

Why... yes it could.

Don't even ask. I have NO idea.

Snow...ish Day

The kids and I are home today cuz it's NASTY out there. It started out as a snow storm... then it turned into freezing rain... right now it's pouring regular rain.... and soon it will start getting colder out and we'll have freezing rain again... and glare ice roads. Good times :)

It has been a very nice snow day though. I knew it was coming so we rented lots of movies. We got 'No Reservations' (Jessi and I are watching it now... great chick flick so far :), Snow Buddies (Kids dying to see this one since Disney has been pushing it like crazy, they loved it and Sean CRIED... TWICE...lol!!) Disturbia, and Lassie. Sean is working on his Valentine's and I am making beef stew for supper... YUM!

Our snow day has also given me lots of time to experiment with Ken's K10d. It's a more upper level camera than mine and he loaned it to me to see if it is better at auto-focusing in low light than my camera is. ...and based on my experiments, it's about the same. There are some great features that it has than mine doesn't, but nothing that makes be feel like I need to upgrade anytime soon.

I rearranged.... again.

This is much better and feels much less cramped. We still need some 'pretty stuff' ...and I think we are going to need a smaller computer cart or something... but I'll live withthe table until I can't take it anymore.

Because it's the kids favorite

...and they have played the video about 321 times today (on Jessi's zune...through the xbox... on the TV ---yeah, we're hooked up!)

5 tickets to the Jonas Brothers for me, Jessi, Mikayla, my friend Karen from work, and her daughter.... $250

Gas to Portland, ME... $250,000

Me making it through a Jonas Brothers concert without slitting my wrists (on my BIRTHDAY, no less).... PRICELESS ;) ;)

Yes. the baaaaad mommy lets her son play video games in the morning before school.

Only because about a week ago the bad mommy discovered that if she whispers in her sleeping son's ear, "You know... if you get up and get all ready now... you'll have a little time to play a game" ...magical things happen. There are no more more battles... only peace :)

I had no idea how much time I was wasting getting him ready in the mornings! Now I have time to take some pictures with my new lens... blog... e-mail.... read some blogs....

My essay on why I would never vote for Hillary Clinton.

OK... not really an essay... more of a statement.

I would never vote for a woman who allowed her slimy husband to cheat on her over and over again and there are only 2 scenarios why she would.

#1- to further her career. ----What ELSE would she ignore to further her career???

#2- she didn't know. ---- highly unlikely that she didn't know (about as unlikely as the idea Bill has kept it in his pants since Monica and that she was a '1 time transgression'), but since that scenario has been mentioned to me when I have stated #1, let's entertain this theory as well ;) If she did not know about it.... how clueless must she be?? What else can people do behind her back and get away with?? I have known plenty of woman who have been cheated on, and yes there is a short period of time where the woman may not know about it, but we are not talking about a couple months of a little affair here... we are talking DECADES of being with this dog of a man. So for her NOT to know... she would have to be a drooling, babbling idiot. We already HAVE one of those for president right now and I'm pretty sure we don't need another!

Edited to add.....
I should never say NEVER... I mean... if it were a choice between her and a George Bush clone... or other person that I had even more issues with than I do with her... I guess I would have to vote for her.

New lenses... yummy yummy

Today the wonderful UPS man brought be the 2 new lenses that I ordered on Friday. I am IN LOVE!! I am SO glad that after my initial bout of buying manual lenses, I stepped back a bit and took the time to really learn my camera and settle into my shooting style. It really made me able to be sure about which lenses I really needed, as opposed to buying lenses just because other people have them.

These were taken with my new 50mm 1.4 ...SO CRISP even in the wacky afternoon lighting in my house!!!

And THESE are taken with my new 18-250mm zoom lens... this is a photo not zoomed (also... loving the crispness!) See those teeny tiny little barrels and tiny black dot(g) near the woods?

And this is ZOOOOOOOMED!!! Obvisouly they'll be a little learning curve with this one since the focus here shoulda been the dog and not the weeds, but you get the idea!

I should be all set on lenses now... there is nothing else I really need. Someday I might like a fisheye just for fun though ;)

We are SO freakin HOOKED UP it's not even funny!!! ;)

Can I just say that I TOTALLY {HEART} Slickdeals.net!!!??? This morning there was a post in the 'hot deals' forum that video rockers were on clearance. I had been planning to get some for the den anyway, so this was like icing on the cake... and it turned out to be a LOT OF FREAKIN ICING!!!! They were on clearance for $12.48... from $59.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVES ME A GOOD BARGAIN!!!!

...oh... for you locals.... they still had quite a few when I left there this afternoon... I would imagine they'd even be there tomorrow.

The rockers are way cool and super easy to hook up to the TV... and they are comfy too!!

Cozy

It's 6am. Everyone else is asleep, or at work. It's dark and raining out (So much for "the big ice storm of 2008").

I am WAY cozy in my new den, finally watching Fargo that Tim got me for Christmas. LOVING THIS DEN!! Kinda makes me want to change things in the living room to make it feel more cozy like it does in here!!

Today is 'Candle Party Day.' Yippee. ;) Everyone at work knows I don't really want to go and that I think all that Partylite stuff is WAY overpriced, so it's kind of turned into a big joke all week. "So, I'll see ya Saturday, right??" "You had better give me your cell phone number, so I can call and remind you Saturday morning" "Alrighty... see you TOMORROW... at the PARTY... RIGHT!!????" I'll GO! I guess since they are all willing to trek all the way out to Hampden on a WEDNESDAY for my Pampered Chef party at the end of the month, I can make it in to Bangor and buy somethin' pretty for my new den. Maybe on the way there I should stop at the bank and get a loan so that I can afford a tealight... or maybe I'll splurge bigtime and get a VOTIVE ;)

A den of progress

We still have some odds and ends to pick up (curtains... a basket for toys instead of the suitcase over in the corner there... etc etc etc), but our new den has VERY QUICKLY become the favorite spot of the house!

We decided to keep the 'ghetto entertainment center' ...and I must admit it fits in quite nicely in there and doesn't even look as ghetto anymore!