Suddenly a Saturday evening get together has formed itself!

So... Saturday night, same time same place ;-) I'll not be farming out the kids, so if you have some to bring... bring em on over!

Nicole thinks we should play outdoor winter wiffleball under lights.

Do I DARE!!??

Why YES, I believe I DO!

Jessi and I took a little stroll over to Best Buy to check out the Verizon phones today. We had Unicel, but Verizon bought them out and everyone has to switch to Verizon. I WAS going to wait a awhile since we have til March to switch, but Best Buy made me an offa I cudn't refuse, ya know?

Rick and Jessi are the proud owners of new env2 phones, PERFECT for them since they have a full keyboard and they texting fools! And I am the very proud owner of an LG Dare. LOVES IT!!

This past week has been pretty "blah" ...hence the no blogging, sorry Nicole ;) When I wasn't "blah" ..I was busy! Friday night I took Jessi and some of her friend's to Bucksport to cheer on her A Team cheerleaders at their competition and I must admit, it was REALLY fun! The girls are so cute and Sassy!! Karyn convinced me to go since she was going to cheer on her daughter who is on the Orrington team, and I am glad she did! This Friday night is Jessi's B Team competition and it should be even more fun since my kid is actually a participant! GO REBELS!!!!! ;-)

Sooo....... we got a little snow....

P.S. the day they DO climb to the top of the roof and slide down... they had better keep right on slidin' down the road and on to Texas because I will kill them dead!

Kids don't care about snot freezing cold.

If I had MY choice... I would have spent the evening snuggled up on the couch with a blanket. INSTEAD I took Sean to the pool to go swimming since Karyn was there with her son and his friends... then I stopped over at Jessi's school to visit her at her "dance-a-thon" (and I use that term VERY loosely since I saw no dancing when I was there...lol. They should have just called it a "hang-out-a-thon" and asked the parents to donate money to get the kids out of the house for the evening...lol!!) and take some photos. The girls even decided to show off thier routines so I could take photos. Who would of thought that teenage girls like to get their photos taken!!?? SHOCKING....LOL!

SNOT FREEZIN' COLD!

And I am NOT even kidding. This moring I walked outside and it was so cold that the air made me cough... and then I sniffed... and my nose stuck shut because my snot froze!

Sometimes... ok LOTS of times... or even MOST of the time... I HATE MAINE!

The current temperature is 19 degrees BELOW ZERO!! Which means it has "warmed up" a few degrees since we left for work and school this morning.

Look what _I_ FINALLY HAVE!!!!!

We are 95% there! The shower and toilet are up and running, but the sink isn't done yet because Scott's glue was frozen. (Don't ask, I have no idea!) I still need someting for over the toilet. I really want some black shelves or a cabinet to go with the towel bar on the opposite wall, but I haven't been able to find something that I really like. SO EXCITED to pee in my own ROOM! ROFL

P.S. It's kind of hard to tell, but the walls are a creamy white color- not yellow, "Linen white" to be specific ;-)

FINALLY DONE!

I have been working all week on my "book of 2008." I had been agonizing with my perpetual question lately of to scrap or not to scrap and if NOT to scrap, what the hell am I going to do with all the bazillion photos that I take!!?? Then I made my mom a "book of Sean" for Christmas at her request because I made her a scrapbook all about Jessi before Sean was born and she had nothing like that for him. But.... I REALLY didn't want to make a scrapbook, nor did I really have time to make one since she didn't ask me til December ;-) THEN I got an e-mail from clark photo that they were having a sale on photo books and the lightbulb went on over my head! So I made her one and when it came I wished I had ordered one for myself too because I LOVED it!

Then this past Monday I got an e-mail from Winkflash that they are having a flat rate book sale til Jan 26th. All books up to 100 pages are one flat rate. Lightbulb again!! A book of all my 2008 photos!! And I used every one of those 100 pages! I can't WAIT til it arrives!!!! I reallllly hope the Winkflash ones are as good as the Clark one was!

You're gonna LOVE my nuts!

Well I told him

After reading a couple articles that Kristie sent me... and the comments from all my fabulous peeps (THANK YOU!!!!!), and since Rick was in the truth camp, I decided to go with the truth. Especially since we have some time to wrap our heads around the whole thing. It would be a LOT easier to lie... buy Sean is really inquisitive and clever and Nicole was totally right on with the abuse thing, Sean would definitely pick up on that. Plus too many people would have to remember "the story."

So.... I talked to him about it a little bit just now...

"Remember how we brought Sampson to live with us just for a little while to live the rest of his life, right?"

"Yeah. He's way old."

"Yeah... I think we may be getting near that time to take him to the vet to be put to sleep." (I know the experts say use the word 'die' ...but since Sean has already BTDT... he knows what getting put to sleep is)

Sean's head pops up and he says... "Can we get a new dog when Sampson dies!!!?"

So... I think he'll be ok ;-) We talked awhile more and I asked him if he thought he would be as sad as he was with Nicky and he said... "Well... probably not since I haven't known him as long... but I still want to keep his collar if I can."

Hindsight being 20/20... I'm not sure if I would do this all over again. Maybe?

Oh yeah.... and.... did "oh my god that kid is going to grow up with a collar fetish" cross anyone else's mind or am I truly one sick puppy? LOL (I should add to that, that Sean cleaned under the couch in the den the other day and found Lucy's baby collar that she had outgrown and I told him to throw it away since it didn't fit any of our dogs and he vehemently refused and chose to keep it.)

Input needed.

So…. We all knew Sampson’s days were numbered. What I HADN’T factored in was Nicky’s health going downhill so quickly. Now I am faced with a yucky decision. When Sampson had his first vet visit back when we got him, the vet and I noticed a mass inside his nose. The vet said that canine nasal cancers were quite fast and aggressive, and they are. At this point Sammy has one blocked nostril, sneezes a lot, and shakes his head a lot. (Which is what made me notice the nose thing, I thought maybe he had an ear infection and that’s why he was shaking his head so much) I think Sammy’s days are very numbered. He already has pain from his arthritis and fused hip… so I won’t let discomfort go on for long with the nose thing. He has had enough I think. It’s just so hard to tell with him because he is SO stoic and is still up and around and happy to see us when we get home and getting up to greet visitors… all the doggy good stuff that the vet said to watch with him. He said when that stuff starts to fade away, then it’s probably time.

My question is… when it is time to take him to the vet, do I tell Sean the truth? He still gets teary about Nicky sometimes. Still has Nicky’s collar in his room and takes his dog tag off the shelf it’s on a lot to hold and look at. A big part of me thinks that it would be better to just tell him that the people who had Sampson got a new house or something and really miss him and want him back. Everyone at work is QUITE split on the issue.
Needless to say… even though everyone in the house wants to… we won’t be going to see ‘Marley and Me.’

Back to school!

The kids are back to school today. This vacation seemed REALLLLLY long! Not because the kids were bad or drove me crazy, but because it almost seems like Christmas was ages ago and all the new clothes the kids got for Christmas already don't feel new... and our old morning routine feels like our new morning routine. We are all ready to go right now and we don't even have to leave for 15 minutes! Because I wanted to start the new year back to school out right, I made them do EVERYTHING last night, make lunches, lay out clothes, pack bags, and I did the same. I REALLY like this more laid back morning and I really hope that we stick with it!!!!

Bringin' in the new year with a boatload of sushi :-)

We had a delicious and fun New Years Eve dinner tonight at 'Green Tea' with Len, Dyan, and Nick. RICK even tried and LIKED sushi! And we all thought the serving of the sushi on a big wooden boat was WAY cool ;-) We also thought it was WAY cool when the waitress took my order, and actually said.... "And theeeennnnn....." (think 'Dude, Where's My Car') I think we may have had the beginnings of a new tradition! The only downside was the very slow and forgetful waitress... but that didn't really bother me.

My goal for the New Year is to keep sticking to the low carb thing and keep losing weight. I am leaving 2008 20 pounds lighter (ok... maybe a little less than that since the holidays, but that'll be a cinch to get back off again once I get back to it!), and I would like to end 2009 with at least another 20 pounds gone... hopefully more!! I would also like to take an adult ed class or something else enriching, and maybe volunteer somewhere. (I learned today that it can't be at the agency because of dept of labor reasons or some crap, which was a bummer because we get calls all the time from elderly, homebound people looking for someone to take them shopping every now and then and I would have loved to do that! --and it's not a huge time commitment)

Well... night owls we are not, so we have the New Year's Eve set on the DVR to watch tomorrow... only because the Jonas Brothers are performing ;-)

Good night and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's a crock pot ~~FIESTA~~ (or what is the chinese word for party??)

I got the GREATEST crock pot book for Christmas. I have a million crock pot books, but they are the same old heavy types of foods that are nice on a cold winter day now and then, but not for everyday stuff. THIS one is different! There are tons of great recipes in from it that I can't wait to cook! And I am starting today! Tonight everyone is coming over and Mom and I are making 2 dishes from the book, Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce and Orange Hoisin Chicken. They are both VERY different than stuff we have ever had, but that's part of the fun of it...if they are yucky... oh well. ..lol! We also are firing up the rice cooker to steam up lots of jasmine rice to accompany our dishes... so at least we'll eat rice ;)




And here are a couple from xmas dinner that I never blogged about because I left my camera at Liz and Jrs and didn't go and get it til last night when I went to borrow Liz's crock pot.

P.S. 庆祝活动 <--- there is the word for celebratory activities in chinese, and here is how to say it... qìngzhù huódòng

....and here it is in Thai เลี้ยง

Just tryin' to keep ya all educated n' stuff LOL!!

Christmas eve and morning

We have had a great Christmas so far and we haven't even had dinner or done presents with my side of the family yet!! The kids slept a little later than usual, we didn't get up til 530, so no naps needed! I LOVE not feeling all morning like I can't WAIT to get back to bed for a nap!

It was goooooood :-)

I didn't break out the camera til late in the night after Nicole reminded me that I hadn't taken any photos... so for more photos... and VIDEO... Ya may wanna hop on over to Jerry's Blog later on after he gets all artsy-fartsy and finishes his movie. :)

SO READY!!!!

I am SO ready for the Christmas Party tonight and SOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!

The house isn't quite as ready as I am yet.... but I am almost to the point of not caring because I am sick of cleaning. Maybe I should break out the wine a little early, then I REALLY wouldn't care!! ;-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend....

Jessi was away at a friend's.... Sean was long gone to bed... so Rick and I got slightly inebriated and..... well.... ok AFTER that.... Rick suggested that we wrap some Christmas presents. the kids have been BEGGING for 2 weeks to have presents under the tree, so I agreed, even though I was not confident in my wrapping abilities at that point in time. I am not the best present wrapper anyway... and I think I dropped the tape and scissors 874 times, BUT Rick actually WRAPPED some presents.... which he has *always* insisted that he is completely unable to do... so next year at wrapping time... I know the trick! LOL

The next morning was like Christmas (hee hee) when Sean came downstairs. He promptly inspected each one and then made them all into a "house."

Today we grouted my REAL TILE FLOOR in my master bathroom!! No more fakey tiles in this house now that we know how easy it is to do the real thing! Next stop is the downstairs bathroom since bad, naughty Lucy ripped up so many tiles....and since we never finished them in there anyway. Next weekend Scott is coming to put in the fixtures and I will have MY OWN BATHROOM!!! Only 4 years later.... but who's counting? Note the lovely little 5 year old boy handprints in caulk on my freshly painted wall that I now have to sand and repaint.

I also decided that this is the year (by this I mean 2009) is the year I get my bedroom all fancied up instead of it being a gym and room for storing clean clothes. Elsie Flanigan's blog about her cute bedroom made me get all excited to do mine! I got the bed I have wanted for YEARS earlier this year and have still done nothing with the reast of the room (except put up my cool funky mirror). And for you naysayers out there appalled that the bed is not made.... get over it, it has a day job titles "Sean's fort." And the sheets don't match the room because my aunt gave them to me and they are the most silkiest, butteriest, most luxurious sheets that I have EVER SLEPT ON, so the color thing gets canceled out in my book! I think window treatments should be #1 on the list...lol. Number 2 is this, or something like it!

And here is Rick rolling his eyes when I talk to him about the things I want to do in the bedroom.... wait... that didn't come out right. LOL

HEY.... I never blogged Turkey Day photos!

What is WRONG with me!!?? LOL

Outtakes that I JUST CAN'T bear to delete...LOL!!

Yesterday Nicole and I did a photo shoot with the kids. Always an interesting challenge.....

G..... O..... LET'S GO!!!