Don't make me go ALONE!!!!!!

This winter I have decided to learn to ski! If I'm going to do all this low-carb crap and loose weight... then I need to kick the sedentary lifestyle up a notch (or would that be down a notch?) and keep it off... so I have to find fun ways to do it cuz EXERCISE SUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKSSSSSS!!! My friend Karyn from work was going come with me, but she has been having back problems the past couple months and doesn't want to make it worse... so she totally bailed on me!!

Soooooo.... SOMEONE out there MUST join me! Don't make me make an ass of myself alone!! (and I WILL be making an ass of myself... I just hope I can STAND, because I tried water skiing once and standing was not even close to happening!)


Here is the info Come on.... JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow... I called Rick this morning and told him it was way worse this year

....but this is beyond disgusting behavior and makes me embarrassed to be a part of it!! You'd think it would go without saying but NOTHING at Walmart is worth stepping over someone's dying body for!!

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

"Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,"' she said. "They kept shopping."

The 34-year-old man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined, and the man's name was not released....."

Just woke up from my Black Friday nappie...

THAT my friends, is a really bad camera photo of me getting onto the Stillwater Ave off ramp at 3:37AM. I got to the light at the END of the off ramp at 4:02. Got parked and into Kohl's at 4:12. Turns out that was FAR too late to get to Kohl's as the lines for the sets of registers on each side of the store went all the way around to the back of the store and CROSSED EACH OTHER! There was nothing at Kohl's that I needed that badly, so I left and went to line up at Old Navy, opening at 5am. MUCH better idea since it got me one of the 50 free mp3 players that I have no idea what to do with since we all already have mp3 players...lol!! Old Navy had tons of great deals and the kids both wanted and needed lots of stuff there, so that was a great stop! Next stop... TARGET. Standing room only there... and since it was now 6am and everyone'morning beverages were kicking in... the line for the bathroom was crazy and then the women even decided to bumrush the men's bathroom!! MAYHEM I TELL YOU ..... MAYHEM!! There was a bunch of stuff I wanted there though, so not only did I stick it out... but later on I went home and got the kids and went back! I also hit Burlington Coat Factory for the fake UGGS for 9.99 for Jessi (ok... I got some too...lol), and it was dead there. How the hell does that place stay open!? People going to Walmart were parking by the road by Burlington and WALKING to Walmart because the lot was full!! Buncha WACKOS!!!

It's TURKEY DAY!!!!

The bird is all bagged up and ready to go into the oven. The house is ....not quite clean.... and I have not yet showered or anything, so of course I am blogging! I was making a chocolate cream pie, but Jessi came and took over. Someday I will probably not be allowed to cook anything in this house, which stinks because I love to cook...lol!!

Last night Jessi went all "pioneer woman" and made her recipe for...

Caramel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake

I think it was the most complicated thing she has made so far and she didn't even miss a beat. The only little glitch she ran into was when she filled her springform pan (that she bought in North Conway and has been DYING to use and FINALLY was able to) with the cheescake mixture and had A TON left over! I guess Ree's pan was much bigger! No harm done though, we had to gingersnaps left over, so we just made another little one :)

HEY... did you know you could make collages/storyboards in Picasa now!!?? LOVES IT!!! All you do it select all the photos you want in the collage and then up at the top hit "create" and "collage." SUPER EASY!!! If you click on it you can see it bigger. I am LOVING the collages!

Are you ready for some turkey!?

I love turkey day. Mostly because it's the day before my REAL favorite day... BLACK FRIDAY!!!! But also because I love cooking and eating and having a house full of people! This year is easy peasy for me. All I have to cook is the turkey and stuffing and maybe a side dish or 2. I am also going to attempt to make HOMEMADE cinnamon butter ....hopefully just like the stuff at Texas Roadhouse. (unfortunately I am a little at a loss of what to get for rolls to go with it...) Where did I get such a crazy-ass idea like making my own butter, you ask? Well..... I recently came upon another 'foodie blog' that I am obsesssed with. The food she makes is different and fun and her photography is FREAKIN' AMAZING!!!!

Not sure what I'm going to make for sides yet. I kinda wanna make something in my crockpot and I am also pondering a thousand of the pioneer womans side dishes!!

No returns or exchanges please.

Well.... Lucy had her first vet appt today and it wasn't the best appt I have ever been to. Turns out our little lady is a bit on the defective side. I always thought her ribs stuck out too much and wondered sometimes if we were feeding her enough. Turns out we are feeding her plenty, and only one side of her ribs stick out too much... 3 inches more than the other side. The vet said the birth defect diesn't appear life threatening, but he is eager to see her anatomy on the x-rays and when he "opens her up" (ew) when she is spayed in a couple months. So... not terrible news, but not exactly the 'here's some shots, your dog looks great' typw appointment that I was used to... well... up until this year anyway... Now Rick calling us the King and Queen of deformed and dilapidated dogs.

On a much more fun note... I took Jessi an Mikayla to see 'Twilight' this evening and I did not expect to say this at all but WOW!!! that was the best movie I have seen in a LONG time. It has it all... action... romance...humor... violence... beautiful cinematography.... native american folklore... vampires.... LOVED it and just ordered the whole series from Amazon to read... for Jessi for Christmas... yeah... for JESSI!! LOL

Cast pics as promised!

 

 

There's a sucker born every minute....

So Rick let the cat out of the bag, so I guess I have to face the music. I got totally caved and got another dell. I am a dumb, stupid sucker. I got a dell mini cuz... well I don't really have a good reason except that it's really cute and I can take it places and it's really cute ;-)

Jury is still out on it. It is very tiny and the keyboard and touch pad definitely take some getting used to. And I initially thought it was really slow, but it turned out it was downloading and windows updating stuff in the background, so it's not really slow at all. I do love the small size and handy-dandyness of it.

So.... I'll give it a week and then make my judgement on whether it says or goes.

For those of you out there wondering...

Yup. It's broken.

Tomorrow we make the appointment for the REAL cast... Sean is hoping they have camoflauge. I'm pretty sure they don't.

If you weren't there.... Last night at Nicole's dip party, the kids had a little TOO much fun playing ball around the stairs. Aiden threw a big ball up the stairs to Sean who was at the top of the stairs and Sean dove for it.... and dove himself straight to the 1st floor. Good times, folks. Good times. ;-)

Actually... the party really WAS a great time with great food and great company!! And Sean was even fine a few minutes after the fall so we were hoping all was well, but when this morning he yelped whenever he tried to open something or lift something, I decided we'd need to take a trip to Walk-In Care, I knew it was broken. Because of Sean's SUPER TOUGH demeanor, the doc didn't even think it was broken but did an x-ray just in case, and when it came back showing Sean's 'green stick fracture' he made Sean chant with him, "Mom's are ALWAYS RIGHT" over and over....lol.

What your house turns into when you have a cheerleader living in it....

(note the wardrobe change mid-session... to look better for the myspace photos.... ugh)

Of COURSE Sean had to get in on the action....

and Sampson had to come in to see what all the commotion was about....

"OK... OK,.. No more photos PLEASE!"

I actually dug out my external flash that I NEVER USE for these and bounced it from the ceiling... I should really use my flash more!

Guess who's a cheerleader!?

Jessi agreed to try out for cheering with her firend Caroline "just for support" because Caroline didn't want to try out alone. Jessi swore she knew she wouldn't make it and that she didn't care if she did or not, but all her BFFs were trying out, so she may as well too. Of course I knew she secretly wanted it... and she wanted it BAD. So I tried my best to keep it light and remind her that she is only trying out for fun and to support her friends, and it turned into a big joke around the house that there was to be NO crying when she didn't make it because I am still traumatized from that whole softball thing!

So as she went off to school this morning, I reminded her that if there is any crying upon my picking her up from try outs tonight, she would be sleeping in the school parking lot or walking home..... ROFL. She laughed and agreed and promised to only cry quietly alone in her room at bedtime.

Turns out the only tears were tears of joy! She made it and she is on CLOUD NINE tonight! My favorite part of it all was when the first thing she told me after she told me she made it was.... "Oh... and I have a list of stuff we have to buy...."

Damn you Ben... and Jerry!

Today I succumbed to my deepest darkest desire... B&J's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. I have been doing SO well with the low carb thing too! We even went to Olive Garden yesterday and I didn't cheat!! BUT ever since Nicole and I brainstormed up the whole "dip party" idea.... I have been completely consumed with thoughts of sweet treats!! If ONLY I could have WAITED til then to cheat!!!

Oh well... it's all in the past now. I'll just have to be extra super good for the rest of the week til D-Day (that's DIP DAY in case you couldn't figure that one out, Rick...lol)

Colleen the electrician! Yup... that's me!!

Most everyone who reads this knows that my funky kitchen fixture has been on it's last legs for awhile now. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and buy a new fixture and install it myself!! I ain't afraid of no stinkin' electricity.

(ok... that's not entirely true... it took me about 20 minutes to get the nerve up to touch the wires because I was afraid I somehow didn't shut the power off to them and it was just a coincidence that the light went off when I hit the breaker....lol. I would do a little teeny really fast poke at the wire and then try to assess if I felt like I felt a shock or not. I did this about 10 times....lol! And then when I stripped the wires, I still used my silicone pot holders... ROFL... like they would have made a difference!!)

I didn't get shades for it because I was HOPING my funky shades would fit, but of course they won't... so I'll be making another visit to Lowe's today! It's all good... they had some funky ones that will easily fill the old funky shades shoes ;)

Now the kitchen is lit up so brightly, you could remove an appendix, which is a really good thing because going by the "professional" photos that Sophie had done at cheerleading, she needs an appendectomy STAT!!!!

"BL....UD!!" "NOT FUNNY!!!!" (ROFL... I love messin' with kids, I'm just evil that way)

In the spirit of political blogging......

(Rick... you will LOVE the ending)

Welcome home "Jordan Family Computer"

Well.... for the bargain price of 69.99, Staples got the desktop computer back in action. THANK GOD!!! We were all about to kill each other sharing 1/2 a computer (I say 1/2 because using the laptop with it's cord issue is about as relaxing, enjoyable and fun as getting a root canal... and I KNOW that for a FACT!!!) We did lose all our "stuff" on it... but I didn't care at this point, there was nothing irreplacable... especially since all my "good" photos are online on my picasa album anyway. Plus now is all fresh and new and FAST again!

According to the extreme technical jargon of the Staples dude... "Vista Service Pack 1 and some disk errors totally ate the boot sector of my hard drive." OK then. I guess SP1 was hungry.

OK... off to download the ESSENTIALS like AIM and Rhapsody!!!!

P.S. Has that kitty on the side always breathed like that?? I never noticed it before and it's freakin' creepy.

You didn't REALLY vote for Nader.......

Yup. I did. I could not in good conscience vote for either of the "big boys," I wasn't going to vote for that green party lady cuz I think the green party is a little nutty, and I am not even sure what a "libertarian" even is (I should totally research that some day). Rick said, "So basically you threw away your vote. And I say "yup." But MOM said, "NO... you didn't throw away your vote, you made a STATEMENT!" and I say "HELL YEAH I DID!!!"

I really was eager to go out and vote on the other issues that were on the ballot. Yes I am fed up with taxes... especially when the increases are done in the dark of night without a public hearing. And I am also fed up with all the casino crap. Since Hollywood Slots went into downtown Bangor, it has gone to ghetto hell in a handbasket. (Yes I am obsessed with handbaskets, I understand this about myself and I accept it.) Last time I shopped at Shaw's in the evening was the first time I have ever felt uneasy about my safety.... I have never even felt that way walking through the Boston Common at night! So I am pretty solid on the "Casino's are a bad idea" thing.

That's my election update. An update I probably wouldn't have bothered with until I read Kristie's Blog and she was all "people who don't say who they voted for are stupid morons who eat poop" or something like that.

Off to continue watching the election coverage on Comedy Central.... cuz THAT is how we roll ;)

Halloween Party pics!!!!!!

The name is Bond. Sean Bond.

Happy Halloween!!!