Random sites for the bored...

This one cracked me right up just now...

Great Olan Mills Photos














"You'd think Pearle Vision would throw in another two pairs for free."

This was last nights obsession after this post on 2peas. The kids and I are SO going 'bento' for lunch...
Love these...but they are a little too pricey for my liking. From what I hear, they have some cute Hello Kitty bento boxes at the dollar tree. I am going to get one for myself... Jessi says no Hello Kitty, but definite YES to the whole bento idea and spent about 20 minutes last night looking at bento boxes on ebay. This one is her favorite.

How freakin' cute are these little soy sauce containers??


And did you know you could SHAPE hard boiled eggs!!?? I had no idea! You can use the molds to shape rice balls too, but I did know about that. I need summa those molds... we just make our rice into plain old boring balls around here!

Bento is such a great way to make a healthy, fun lunch!! I love stuff that makes me grin, and opening my lunch to see a happy little egg bunny and yummy little rows of yummy-ness should totally do the trick!!


And on the other complete end of the spectrum...

Disgusting sites at Walmart (not for the easily queasy!)

And since just about everyone who reads this blog got a new palm for Christmas...

Freeware Palm I got a great little program that is my new check register (let's pretend I had an old one, ok...lol), but there are lots of other neat free programs here too!!

And some others from my bookmarks....

All about frosting... (a post from a GREAT blog that is completely dedicated to cupcakes!! YUM)

Mobiles! (Cuz I want one!)


That's all folks... my lasagna timer should be beeping at me any second now!! Happy Surfin' :)

TUBIN'!!!

The kids have been BEGGING me all week to take them tubing. We live just a few miles from "THE" place to go tubing around here, yet we have never gone.... but now ALL Jessi's friends go ALL the time... so of COURSE we had to check it out ;) We had a BLAST!!! I didn't want to take my big fancy camera, but I couldn't just NOT take pics... I mean... HELLLOOOO!!!! Have we MET!!?? LOL ....so I brought my old point and shoot that was handed down to Jessi when I got all snooty about cameras ;) ;)

K... I saw this on a blog awhile ago and have been dying to do it...

and to see YOURS too!!!!

Top 25 FAVORITE MOVIES that I can think of at this very moment...lol (in NO particular order, and for me a 'favorite movie' is a movie I could watch again and again.... there are some movies that I really loved, but wouldn't want to watch them again like 'Reign Over Me' and other movies that are just not the kind of movies you want to see more than once.... )

1. 40 Year old Virgin
2. 50 first dates
3. Titantic
4. Ace Ventura: Pet Dectective
5. Billy Madison
6. Fargo
7. Untamed Heart
8. Blast from the past
9. Encino Man NO WEEZIN' THE JUICE!!!!
10. Ever After
11. Pure Country
12. The Little Mermaid
13. Clerks
14. Heathers
15. Not Without My Daughter
16. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
17. Legends of the Fall
18. Practical Magic
19. The wedding Singer
20. Finding Nemo
21. Steel Magnolias
22. Independence Day
23. Heathers
24. Men in Black
25. Far and Away

Back to life... back to reality

Phew... it's over!! The tree is down and all the toys are put away. The livingroom looks so empty without the tree there... and because the old crappy recliner is not coming back. Rick took the day off today and totally used the day to it's full potential!! I cam home to a super clean house and happy kids that had spent the whole day playing with Daddy and all their new stuff. Rick thinks he is going to make a tradition of taking the day after xmas off and I think that is a GREAT idea!!

LOVING THIS!! Be sure to watch all the way to the end :)

We are ALL UP IN THE SPIRIT this morning!!! The kids slept with me last night and woke up having a big 'It's Christmas eve freakout.' Today will be a nice quiet day :) We just have a little cleaning to do, and we are going to make cookies from Santa... from a tube of gingerbread cookie dough... cuz I just suck as a mother that way and would rather get right to the fun of decorating them ;)

Yesterday was the family party. It was very nice! Liz wanted a photo of everyone there, but I didn't have my tripod, so I snapped a couple, then Rick's uncle mike snapped a couple. When it was time for the picutre they all started lining up against the wall and I nixed that one hastily... "This isn't a prison line up, people!! We need to mix it up a little... make it interesting!!" I got some good ones... I made them black and white because Liz and Jr's bright yellow wall just wasn't sayin' "Christmas" to me.The rest of the photos from the party are here ...since for most of you it's just a buncha people you don't know.... you probably don't care ;)

Ho Ho Ho!!!

The Christmas Party had a little less in attendance than last year's (we waited til a little too close to the holiday I think, and for some reason Chris wasn't willing to buy a $600 plane ticket to join us), but we didn't have any less fun!! I FINALLY found the wine that Nicole has been telling me I HAVE TO TRY for YEARS... at Sam's Club of all places!! She was right... it is DELISH, and I HATE wine!!

Poor little Sean puked his guts out at B and Grampa's house, so I had him come home instead of spending the night there, and Jessi came home too. I know grandparent's HAVE to spoil the kids... but maybe they learned their lesson that a 4th Capri Sun may not be the best idea ;) ;) The last time he puked like that was the same scenario... Disneyworld... 3 big glasses of chocolate milk.... you can do the math ;) He is fine now though, thank goodness!! I was afraid he had the yucky stomach flu that is going around and that would NOT have made for a very merry xmas!!

Semi-busy day today. I met Ken for breakfast at Bagel Central for a little photography chattin.' Then I came home to pick up the house from last night and I didn't have to because Rick had already done it! LOVES HIM!! I thought I had to do some last minute shopping, but upon further inventory, we are all set! At 3ish we have the family xmas party. So I guess it's not really a SUPER busy day, it just feels that way because I am SLEEPY... as at 6am the kids don't really care that Mommy was up til 1am ;)

:D

Stacie at work sent this to me today, just watched it now though because we are blocked from youtube and all the other good net places at work, it's too cute --the video, not the blocking!

Work was grrrrrrreat today! I walked in and found out that our director decided that the office would be closed on Christmas eve day in addition to Christmas day, so I get 2 paid days off next week and don't have to use any of my PTO (paid time off). I love that place!!! Things got even better when we all decided to order out for lunch and the director decided to pay for it all!! Guess she got an extra dose of the Christmas spirit and wanted to share it and I am ALL FOR THAT!! :D

Tomorrow is party day! LOTS of cleaning and preparations to do but I am very excited!!

Yesterday I was informed....

"I'm not getting my hair cut. I wanna grow it longer like the Jonis Brudders." (Jonas Brothers for the rest of us ;) )

We'll see how long that lasts one the tangles and the 'girl' comments from Grampa begin.

The natives are getting restless

Taking a break

...and crossing my fingers for a snow day tomorrow.

I still have 3 more of those "course discussions" to do and a 2-3 page "job description" about my intership and the agency (which somehow differs from the other required -and finished- 3-5 page paper summarizing my internship experience) . Woo Hoo. I am really scraping the bottom of the barrel now with the course discussions and just plain makin' shit up. I also still have to finish my other paper on "Housing options in the Bangor Area for the eldery" ...but that one is easy peasy cheesy and it's almost done on my computer at work.

After a couple not-so-nice days, I think Rick and I have come to an understanding that if we are going to make this '2 income family' thing work... everyone is going to need to pitch in more around the house. And not by just doing the things I tell them to, but to actually SEE things that need to be done and do them. Dr Laura says that 2 income families just plain can't work because the woman always ends up bitter and resentful because she has to do "everything" and the man is unhappy too because he has some bitch nagging at him all the time. (my words... not hers ;) ) Anyway... I would really like to prove her wrong on that one.

Alrighty... I should go start the chicken stew... the PERFECT dinner for this kind of blizzardy weather :)

@#$%!

Um.... where did the time go???

I have TWO HUGE page papers due on MONDAY that I haven't even started. One of which is nearly impossible because I have to write a 2 page summary about 10 of the courses I have taken over my college 'career' and how they have been helpful to me in my internship, or how they will be helpful to me in the future. Yeah, RIGHT. For one thing, many of my courses were taken 10 years ago... I don't even REMEMBER the details of them. For another thing... my position here not really relate to hardly any of the courses I have taken as my focus up until very recently was children and adolescents. So WTH am I supposed to do???? I talked to my internship advisor who said, "Just do the best you can with it." Thanks, Dude.

Great Sunday!

I got our Christmas cards shot and all ordered. They are essentially the same as my new banner up there :)

I also got some great pics of the 'kids' playing outside!! They have been in and out ALL DAY LONG!!


Tim came over to do a little laundry, be my photography assistant AND did LOTS of my gift-wrapping for me! YAY TIM! I HATE wrapping presents and he is a present wrapping guru!! The kids are SO excited to finally have some gifts under the tree!

I think the best married couples have personalities that contrast and compliment each other

One is calm and even.... the other is a little high strung.
One is a diciplinarian..... the other is a softie.
One likes to douse old ladies with puddle water... the other thinks that is EXTREMELY WRONG!
One likes to spend money... the other is very budget minded.
One is patient... the other is not.

Those last 2 there are where Rick and I fall off the chart and get ourselves into trouble now and then ...LOL!!

Last night I just couldn't help myself and showed him his Christmas present. Partly because I was concerned I got the wrong model and that would have sucked if he couldn't play it til he (er, I..who are we kidding here?) exchanged it the day after Christmas... but also because I suck and can't keep a surprise a secret. So then because I showed him his... He just HAD to show me mine :D

So... yes... we both know what we are getting for xmas from each other, but that doesn't lessen the excitement ONE BIT!! I can't WAIT to play with my Palm... and he is drooling over the "secret hiding spot" where he knows his xbox is ;)

Plus.... the kids have no idea what THEY are getting, so there will at least be SOME suprises on Christmas morning! :)

Oh for Pete's Sake

5:16am-Text that University College is opening late at 10am (I don't even have class today anyway)

...Rick gets a page....

5:38am- Text that the kid's school is open today. (Since when do they text that school is OPEN!?)

5:40- ANOTHER text that the kid's school is open today.

I drag myself to the hallway to holler down to Jessi (who is invariably up at 5am) that she does have school... listen to her groan. Tell her it's a GOOD thing... she would be bored home another day.... blah blah blah. She agrees. I go back to bed.

...Rick gets a call on his work cell phone...

5:55- Text that the kids school is CLOSED today. (guess they changed their mind)

...Rick gets another page....

I GIVE UP!! I get up and head downstairs to tell Jessi the "good" news and here we are, watching 'Three Men and a Little Lady' at 6:20am. I also called my office and the message says we are not open til noon today, which is good I guess cuz the kids won't have to be at B and Grampa's house for very long... since they were just there yesterday to play on their snowday!

Early Christmas Present from Nana

My grandparents had one of these and I was reminiscing with Mom one day about how much I loved going there during the holidays when they had it going... a few days later a package from Plow and Hearth arrived. The kids love the spinning and gentle chiming as much as I did when I was a kid :)

Oh yeah. We're snowed in!

Woke up around 5 this morning to a text message from WLBZ saying that my college was closed . I got up to pee and look outside and Jessi was coming upstairs in despair because she was really hoping for a snow day, she had been watching TV and her school was not cancelled.... it also wasn't even snowing out. I told her that my school just cancelled, and reminded her that it's 5AM... and often the cancellations don't start rolling in til 6ish. She moped back to her room, certain she had school. Once I was back in bed for about 5 minutes, I got a text saying that the kid's school had been canceled. She was a very happy girl :) I went back to sleep til around 7am, then called my office and was happy to hear "The office will be closed today due to the storm...." The best thing about that is that we get PAID snow days, just like holidays!!! LOVES MY JOB!!

Rick is home today too. He was planning to work since they are short-handed there right now, but after an absolutely miserable night of being on-call, he decided he would stay home today. Last night might have been his worst night ever of having that pager. He would be in the middle of handling one call when the pager would go off for another. He finally gave up even trying to sleep and went downstairs to "sleep" on the couch. He is so good about trying not to bother me and let me sleep when he is on call... but I always feel guilty sleeping while he can't.

Alrighty... Jessi wants to make a movie and needs a 'Windows Movie Maker' lesson!

3rd time's a charm :)

It all started with this blog post on Heather's Blog. REALLY NEAT pics of her tree AND she put the settings she used right there, so of course I couldn't NOT try it, RIGHT!!? So Rick was immediately sent to the van to get my tripod that has been in there since that day at the stream (no comments from the peanut gallery needed on THAT) and then got down to bizz-nass :)

But... since I am not classy like Heather, and my tree is not as beautiful and elegant ....it seemed fitting that I got a little wacky and silly with my photos!


It's lookin' like tomorrow's gonna be a snow day!!!

Blogging TWICE in ONE day!!!?

Jessi was in DESPERATE NEED of nail polish remover, so I took her down to Rite Aid to get some. Right beside Rite Aid is my FAVORITE little gift shop/hardware store so I HAD to pop in and see what Christmas goodies they have this year. They had several decorated trees to shop from. One of them was all decked out in baby ornaments. TOO CUTE!! Jessi said, "Awwww.... I LOVE these... too bad we have no baby to shop for :( " I said "Yeah... too bad.... but WAIT!!! Nicole's sister just had a baby boy!!" So I couldn't resist on getting an ornament... and a sweet little stuffy... and a really cute box ;) And of course I HAD to make a cute little card too... and of course I HAD to take a photo ;)




Speaking of Nicole... how freakin' cute are these snowman canvases that she got me at 'The Christmas Tree Shoppe'!? I have always wanted to do something with that beam in the kitchen/diningroom.... these have gotten all kinds of ideas rolling around in my brain!!

Off to clean up and finishing decking my halls!! SO glad those antibiotics worked!!!!!!

We seem to have a bit of a 'Tape Obsession' going on around here

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!!