Of course.

so I get up at 630 this morning to work out. I had it all planned out. I would wake up, come downstairs before my kids and do Pilates.
a few years back I purchased the Windsor Pilates off of some infomercial. I mean, Daisy Fuentes uses it and look how great her body is. However I used it about 5 times and shelved it to be forgotten.
I have been having lower back pain and heel pain and every night I go to bed and my legs are burning. I need a REALLY great stretch to loosen up to help alleviate all of these things.
I was actually looking forward to it. I really was.
I get dressed in my yoga pants and cute T-shirt, head downstairs and pull out my (dusty) Pilates DVD. I Open the case and one of the disks is missing.
I have Disk One, which is a 29 minute DVD on Pilates basics, showing you the moves etc.
I have the accelerated fat burning workout for those who dont have a lot of time. But the actual 20 minute workout DVD is gone. i cannot find it anywhere.
so I think to myself, well I can at least do the basics video, maybe get a few stretches in.
Oh no. Apparently that is not part of the plan. The basics DVD is all scratched and dented and the very center is cracked and broken.
So here I am, awake, trying to do the right thing by exercising and the fates are against me.
I thought I would go out and jump on the trampoline, but it had rained so it is all wet. Plus my kids are up and they would want to jump with me and I would get no peace.

Now that I am up maybe I will just go to the YMCA and work out.
I have about 9 weeks until I go to the Caribbean and am forced to snorkel in a swimsuit. If that is not motivation I dont know what is. But then I have to find my good workout shoes and socks, I have to find my MP3 Player, I have to get my water bottle blah blah blah.
I guess i am just finding excuses. But I really had it in my head to do some pilates.
I will have to run to Target today and pick up a new DVD.

Maybe I will just go back to bed...

Oh Walter Walter Walter

I watched this episode of Wipeout the other day.
This is my favorite contestant. I laughed so hard at poor walter.



"You will probably hear me scream like a girl"...
seriously I rewound this guy on my DVR like 5 times to watch it again and again and again.
It really made my day.

wanna know what else made my day?? i FINALLY beat my 6 year old at Mario carts!!!

Have a great weekend.

My New Toy

I have wanted a Cricut Cutter for quite some time.

Every time I walk into Michaels or A.C. Moore, I pass by the scrapbooking section, salivating over the personal cutter...then reeling back in horror at the tremendous pricetag.

I scour ads for coupons, only to realize in disappointment that they cannot be used on Cricut or Cricut products. blast.

Then last week, around the 4th of July, I walked into Michales with a sole purpose. To buy some Ribbon. what started out as a harmless 20$ adventure(MAX) turned into something 10 times as much.

As the glass doors of the craft retailer parted, there it was. Stacked in a beautiful pyramid, a light bathing it in a halo of wonder. A sign announced that the Cricut was on sale. And not just any sale 50% OFF!!! AND it came with a full font and basic shapes cartridge. PLUS all their other cartridges were 50% off!! Having just received a comission check AND a paycheck I felt obligated to stimulate the economy a little bit. And, as I told my husband, It was 50% off!! It was only 99 dollars!! Thats Less than 100!! I can do Christmas Cards!! I can scrapbook!! I can make cards!! Think of how much money we will save!! (trust me, I sold the heck out of this one)

All he said was " Thats fine, but thats your birthday present" (which is in 2 weeks, just an FYI)

Here is my New Cricut personal cutter:

I spent all day figuring out all the buttons and doo dads and rules and instructions. So after playing around, here are some cards I ended up with. I really love the cherry blossom cards(obviously. I made like 10 of them)

By the way...I completely walked out of Michaels without any ribbon.

Green Beans Galore

THIS WAS A POST I WROTE SEVERAL DAYS AGO AND FOR SOME REASON IT DIDNT POST: So HERE WE GO AGAIN.


This morning I went out to check on my garden. It had been a few days since I last checked the grrn beans. As of Wednesday they were smaller, not nearly sweet enough, not ready.
Well when I went out this morning to weed and water etc, I was STUNNED at the progress.

I actually had to harvest over a pound of Kentucky Wonder green beans! They are long, fat, tender and sweet, just the perfect green bean. I still have HUNDREDS of beans on the vines, which will be ready in a week or so. I am just shocked at how quickly they grew.
It was as if I were Jack and they were the magic beanstalk. Too bad there isnt a golden goose to go with it.

On a COMPLETELY UNRELATED SIDE NOTE: I have a ghost in my house.

Peter has a transformer toy that makes the tsch tech tsch transforming sound. But the switch is in an off position. This toy started going off by itself. I went to check it and it stopped. Then I come to sit back down and it started back up again. So I yelled out to my ghost" Please stop playing with it, that noise is irritating me"...and it stopped. Goosebumps yet?


My kids arent even home. Ironically, they are at the movies seeing Transformers 2. Apparently our ghost is irritated he wasnt invited to come along.


SPOOOOOOKKKKYYYYY!!!

What should I do with this red leather jacket and silver glove??

RIP Michael Jackson.

He was 50 years old.

I remember back in 1982 when Thriller was released. I WORE OUT the tape I listened to it so many times.

My neighbor Jerron had a grandmother who was a whiz with a needle and thread. She made him a red leather jacket and a glittery glove, just like Michael. We used to pop the tape into a boom box and he would practice his MJ moves on the front porch. he got pretty good. My moonwalk, however, looked as though I were wiping my feet on a doormat.

granted over the years he has gotten strange, wierd, eccentric...whatever you want to call it, however he was still amazing. He still had loyal fans. His music was still being played all over the world. He was and will always be a legend.

I am really kind of shocked and saddened.

My Favorite MJ Song: Man in the Mirror

My Favorite MJ video: Thriller

Jackson Memory: We did a Jr Jazzercise routine to Bad.

So the above album is how I will always choose to remember the great King of Pop.

RIP Michael, you will be missed.

Day at Monkey Joes

Here are the boys at Monkey Joes.

They had such a great time and it really wore them out. Peter and Finn just love to bounce and play and slide and act crazy. It is fun to just let them go nuts, and go sit in the parents station and play on the computer, or watch TV etc.

and here are some videos I took of them on the slides etc.

all in all a fun day at monkey joes.

gardening monday 6/22

Gardening Monday again. We have had lots of rain, lots of sun, great compost. So we have a pretty lush and thriving garden. However, I feel like I am watching a watched pot boil sometimes.

I have a ton of tomatoes on the vine...DOING NOTHING. I am just itching to make salsa and bruschetta, if these darn things would GET MOVING!!!

But I do have a few glimmers of hope on my cherry tomatoes and on my yellow cherry tomatoes. However I would need a heck of a lot of these to get my salsa on!

In a week or so I will have a nice crop of green beans to eat. They are getting longer, but still kind of skinny. My mom made some homemade green beans last night. She blanched them for a few minutes in boiling water, then sauteed them in a pan with olive oil, butter, salt and pepper. They were DELICIOUS! Everyone was trying to get the last helping, fighting over them in fact.My father in law said he would be happy for me to make those every night.

Of course the invasion has begun. I need to go to Home depot and get the Japanese Beetle traps/bags and get these nasties out of here.

lots of work to do still, but all in all I am feeling that this season will be quite fruitful...if i could just figure out a way to ripen those tomatoes!

what happened??

Last year when I discovered blogging, I felt as though I had found a great passion. I blogged every morning. I couldnt wait to get out of bed, turn on my computer and listen to the soft hummmmmm of the whirring internet. I posted. I uploaded. I scoured for funny things. I made lists ahead of time what I would blog about. I specialty photoshopped pictures into collages. I took detailed pictures and accounts of recipes and cooking and gardening.
I ENJOYED it. I looked forward to my inbox filling with nice comments from people i had never met. People as though I felt I KNEW, because I read their blogs too.
It really is amazing how alike we all really are. I blogged because it was a great stress relief, and it gave me satisfaction , knowing I was not alone and many people were going through the same thing. I had a peak of about 200 readers per day.

But then slowly, little by little, piece by piece, my hard work started to fall off. I would skip a day and think to myself "ohhh, I need to blog about (Insert subject here)" and then never get around to it. I found myself getting lazy with taking and uploading pictures. I would have 200 pictures on a camera card and not want to upload them and photoshop with them, therefore not uploading them to blogger. I found myself jealous of fellow bloggers and the numbers of readers they had, and the number of comments they garnered over certain subjects. I found my readership dwindling. I had no motivation to blog anymore.

I started school, which left me a full time cosmetology student AND a full time wife and mom. I found myself increasingly tired and grouchy. I found excuses for less and less time to devote to my blogging. I also crossed the line in my blogging that I swore I would never cross...politics and religion. I said things that I felt needed to be said, so people knew where I stood. I lost readers.
Some people didnt like the fact that I am not Obamas biggest fan. They didnt like the fact that I said Sean Penn was a self righteous douche for proclaiming that all those who didnt support Gay marriage would make their children ashamed of them. Again, I lost more readers. But I plodded on, half heartedly blogging, not really "feeling it". You know?


THEN the unthinkable happened. My computer CRASHED. Completely died. with EVERYTHING ON IT!! All my business cards, labels, pictures, scans, photoshop and illustrator programs. EVERYTHING. I lost about 3 years worth of pictures. I lost all my music(all 20 gb of songs, soundtracks etc). I lost all my labels for balmshoppe. Lip balms, scrubs, soaps etc.

I was memory lane destitute.

The only things I have is what I uploaded to blogger and what we had saved over to disks when we got a new computer 3 years ago.



So I have decided to come back my friends. Back with a vengeance. No more laziness. No more religion and politics. Just good old blogging the way it used to be. Sometimes funny stories. Sometimes pictures of vacations or gardens or recipes. I want to ENJOY it again. I want to look forward to it. I want to post pictures so the next time I have a crash I will have a digital copy SOMEWHERE. I want my readers back, clicking on my ads and making lots of comments.

LOTS OF COMMENTS.(It is kind of a sickness. I feel as if my self worth depends on the number of comments i get on each posting)

I am going to get into give aways and contests. I want to make blogging as much fun for me as it is for you, dear reader.



So thank you to all my loyal readers, please know I appreciate every one of you.

AHHHHH My ROMAS!!!!!

Last night we had some bad storms blow through here.
Tornadoes to the south and west and lots of heavy rain and wind.

This morning I woke up and peeked out my kitchen window to the garden.
I notice sometihng between the two back plots. I call charles over to investigate.

ME: Charles, what is that? Is that a tomato bush on the ground or is that a branch from a tree?
CHK: Where?
ME: Out there in the garden
CHK: Where?
ME: OUT THERE!! IN THE GARDEN.
CHK: well I cant see anything i am sorry. I dont know how you expect me to see anything around your big head.
ME: Back there, between the long tomato plot and the plot closest to the house/
CHK: Oh, I dont know. i THINK I see what you are talking about.

He then plops on the couch to watch the series finale of Pushing Daisies that was on DVR(Curse you ABC for cancelling the show and trying to wrap things up with a final episode. Ridiculous.)

So I head out to the garden to find one of my roma plants playing on the ground. The cage had fallen over and our plants could not support themselves.
So I had to pick it up and realized why it had fallen. My tomato plants are KILLING it this year. I have more tomatoes than I will know what to do with! The romas were so heavy and abundant, no wonder it fell over.

so i am off to Lowes to get some tall bamboo stakes to make sure our plants have plenty of room to grow and have some support so we dont have another mishap.
I need to do it this morning because we are expecting heavy storms and rain again today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER

Saturday was Peters birthday.

#9.

where has the time gone?

Peter did really well this year.

We are 6 months between biopsies. He did well in school. He worked extra hard with his PE teacher (Thanks Coach C!!) to increase his stamina, endurance and athletic prowess. He really improved!! He was a terriffic kid in school for the month of march, and had a great make a wish trip back in October. What a great year he had.

so Happy Birthday King! I love you!!!

Will post pictures later.

criss angel trick

I am not a huge criss angel fan. In fact I think he is a bit of a tool.
However, I watched this and couldnt figure out how he did it. every now and then he comes up with stuff that makes me shake my head.

It's alright, 'cause I'm Saved By The Bell

Jimmy fallon is probably the un-funniest man in the late night talk show scene, let alone hollywood. Although every now and then he has a bit of genius. This is one of those moments. Mark Paul Gosselaar is a great sport and very funny.
I am not embarassed to admit that I have seen every single episode of Saved By The Bell, including college years.
My friend Anna Marie sent this to me.



please to enjoy Zack Morris.

goopy eye

How old am I??
for crying out loud, it drives me crazy.

I woke up on friday with a really watery itchy eye.
saturday it was goopy and itchy and kind of painful.
Sunday was worse. It was really itchy and painful and goopy.

I think I have pinkeye.

I still have drops from my last bout, so I started using those and they have actually helped immensely. I get these things and feel like a child all over again.

So I have my contacts out and have to wear my glasses, which give me a headache.
come on drops, work your magic.

Gardening Monday is Back

Technically this is sunday. But I wont have time to do this tomorrow, so although it is gardening monday, I am posting it a day early and calling it monday...

Yay. I love to garden and I have missed it this entire winter.


But it is back. A few weeks ago Charles and I planted everything and have been working hard.We tested our soil (average pH where it needs to be, but SORELY lacking in Nitrogen and a few other elements you test for. So we had to get some special compost and fertilizer to help the garden soil get back to normal.)

This year we cut out the squash. We have had nothing but trouble with them. We would get one or two and then the plant would die and we just couldnt figure it out. So although I love summer squash and zucchini, it just wasnt worth the heartache. I would see these plants grow all big and beautiful and be full of flowers and get a dinky fruit here and there. Or they would start to grow and then the fruit for some reason would just mush up and die and fall off.



We decided to only plant jalapenos this year. Last year we planted jalapenos, anaheims and poblanos and had so many peppers that many went to waste.
So this year our garden consists of the following:

• sweet 100 cherry tomatoes(really sweet round red cherry tomatoes)
• yellow cherry tomatoes(sweet yellow cherry tomatoes)
• roma tomatoes(perfect for bruschetta)
• Juliet grape tomatoes(perfect for salads and snacking. SUPER SWEET)
• celebrity tomatoes(larger red slicing tomato)
• Texas white Sweet onions
• Green Bell Peppers
• Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
• Jalapenos
• Basil
• Blueberries(we bought two bushes, but wont see anything for at least 2 years)

I LOVE tomatoes.(can you tell, 1/3 of our garden is tomatoes.) I make salsa by the gallon practically. And believe it or not the sweet 100s and grape tomatoes grow like crazy and make a fantastic salsa. Just mix them in with the other tomatoes of your choosing.





But this morning I went out and took pictures of everything and made this little montage of the plants.

I also included a picture of the honeysuckle along the back fence, just because I like it(top center)

so yay to gardening, yay to perfect garden weather and the lots of rain we have gotten!

Cook It Blog it-another entry

Last monday, for memorial day, I braved the torrential downpours and grilled out.

I made Brushetta, with Basil from my garden, and grilled a really nice steak.

The bruschetta recipe feeds about 4.(this is a stock photo, not my own...)

3-4 roma or plum tomatoes

1 clove garlic, minced(about 1tsp from a jar)

1/2 TBSP extra Virgin Olive Oil

3-4 Basil leaves

1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

french baguette or italian loaf.(use whole wheat baguette for healthier alternative)

In a pot of boiling water let the tomatoes boil for 1 minute. Drain off water and rinse with cold water. Peel skins off of tomatoes.

Cut tomatoes in half and dig out the seeds and discard. Chop tomatoes fine.

Wash basil leaves, roll up and slice thin(chiffonade). Make sure basil is chopped fairly fine.

In bowl combine tomatoes, chopped garlic, basil, 1/2 TBSP Olive Oil, 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Take bread and slice. Brush olive oil onto the tops of the bread. Place oil side down on a baking sheet. Bake at 450 until golden brown. Top with tomato mixture and eat! YUMMMMMM!!

Preheat your grill, you want about a medium-high flame. Bring your chosen steak up to room temperature. If you start with a cold steak it will be tough.

with a knife make slits in the surface of the steak, just a few per side. Brush on Extra Virgin Olive Oil and massage in gently. This will help tenderize the steak.

sprinkle with Lawrys Seasoned Salt mixed with equal portions of McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning.(I use about 1/2 TBSP per side, I like a little zing.)

Spray a little pam on your grill and place steak. SHUT THE LID AND DONT MOVE IT FOR AT LEAST 6 MINUTES!!! Turn and cook 6 minutes on other side.

Depending on how pink you like your meat you can either take it off, or cook it longer.(It also depends on how thick the steak is. The thinner the steak, the less amount of time you want to put it on. I like my steaks medium, still pink in the center)

Less pink, leave it 8 minutes per side. You dont want to be flipping it over and over, that will dry it out.

Put it on a plate and LEAVE IT ALONE!!!! Dont cut into it for at least 6-7 minutes. If you cut into it right away it will dry out. By letting it settle it will stay moist and juicy.

ENJOY!!!

I am in love

I want these...BAD. These are the Kamisori "Emerald" 7 star precision shears from the Damascus collection.

Direct quote from Kamisori
"Our Damascus steel is unlike any other and is composed of 12 to 16 premium metals carefully layered together through a very sophisticated process. These layers can be seen by the cloud patterns on the shears’ surface.These highest graded "7-star shears" are world renowned as the finest and are used by famous platform hair artists all over the world. If you are a stylist fortunate enough to own a pair, you will fall in love at first cut!"
I am drooling right now.

Hand forged, 6" blades, so sharp you could cut off your own finger. Slices through hair like BUTTAH! It doesnt get any better than this.

All for the measly cost of $1300... Yes, that is THIRTEEN HUNDRED. Not thirteen, not one hundred thirty...but one thousand three hundred. The decimal goes AFTER the 2nd 0.

I guess I better get cracking!!!

Safe House

I had heard a rumor, and I dont know if it is true.

Bojangles Chicken is now a safe house.

Cant take care of your kids? Dont abandon them in the middle of nowhere, take them to Bojangles. If it is true, then it is a sad commentary on what our society has become.

Like I said I have googled this but am unable to verify.

No I am not abandoning my kids. the point is, if Bojangles Chicken is a safe house and i were the mothere of these kids, I totally would.

White paint. Hardwood floors. Leather couch. flat Screen TV.

'nuff said.

Dawns hair

Here are a few of the pictures from Dawns wedding and her hair that I did.

Dawn Before: (she started with thick, natually curly hair)

Here is Dawn after the flat iron, it was an amazing difference. She said she hadnt seen her hair like that since 5th grade!

It was so silky and smooth and long after that. i had a GREAT head to work with!!

Here I am working and coiling and working and coiling and working and coiling and pinning the heck out of it. That hair was going NOWHERE!!!

The side view of the masterpiece.(above)

ALMOST DONE!!!(below) Dawn had some pearls and we made some little hairpins with them and started sticking them in.

The Final product.(almost) I went back through with a TON of hairspray and a rat-tail comb and smoothed the heck out of it. It was really beautiful.

So thank you Dawn for allowing me to be of service to you on your special day. I had such a great time and hope you loved every minute!!!

Sometimes i wish i didnt know what I know

Being in cosmetology school has been a real boon and blessing.

It has also been a curse.

There are times i wish i didnt know what I know. especially about germs and sanitation.

ESPECIALLY when it comes to Nail salons.

On Saturday my friend and I were Bridesmaids at Dawn's wedding.

We went out in the morning in search of a nail salon to get pedicures.

We found one up the street from our hotel in Tinley Park.(Illinois)

The building itself was kind of an older strip mall, a little worn on the outside. The parking lot was a little bumpy and full of holes and there was zero landscaping to be spoken of. However it was in the same strip as a very busy Jewel/Osco, which really was the only redeeming quality.

As we were walking up I whispered "I'm scared". i dont know why.I just got that feeling.

But i kind of shook it off, thinking that I was just in unfamiliar surroundings and that all would be well.

We walk in and had to wait behind 2 other people. On the television screens they were playing ABC Saturday morning kids shows. So while waiting for an adult pedicure I had to watch Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. All of the magazines are somewhat out of date, and the walls are painted a really un-soothing purple.

They finally have a pedicure opening and I go up first.

There was a woman in the chair next to me and a woman in the last chair on the end.

They get started and she pulls out her instruments from a plastic cup and goes to town. She made me bleed while she was trying to nip my cuticles with her very blunt nippers. She is jabbing at them with her cuticle pusher and it hurts more than it helps.

The woman next to me gets done and the manicurist drains her tub and does a QUICK SWISH RINSE with tap water and fills it up for Lindsey to come in. Thanfully we were running out of time so she just said "I just want a polish change. We have to get going and i dont have time for a full pedicure".

They ask if she would like a manicure for her nails as well. She said no. They ask again. She said No, just the polish change.

She sits down in the chair and they start conversing in Vietnamese, apparently irritated that she changed her mind because we had errands to run and a wedding to get ready for and were running out of time.

So over the course of the 45 minutes i observed MANY things wrong with this little hovel Nail Salon.

Here were the list of infractions:

1. They were not washing and sanitizing their foot spas after every pedicure. It was a quick swish rinse with tap water. This is houw you get MFF and other contagious foot diseases and fungii.

2. The lady next to me finished her pedicure and the implements they used on her feet were all put in a bowl. Instead of washing, sanitizing and putting them in an autoclave, they were taken to the back sink and given a quick rinse with tap water and taken back out to be used on the next client. again, a really Top rate way to spread disease, bloodborn pathogens and other things.

3. The razor callus shaver used on my foot was given a quick rinse in my dirty foot spa water, the blade put back on and put back in the "clean" drawer. i now have a very red and sore area on my foot where I was shaved with this dirty razor. I think it is an infection. Do I really need to say it again about spreading germs??

4. They did eyebrow waxing. They used ONE STICK ONLY! They dipped it in, spread the wax in the face and kept double and triple dipping the stick and sticking it on the face. What if this woman had a skin disorder or infection? They are putting that wax stick on her face, then sticking it back into the wax, contaminating the entire pot of wax.

5. Their nail polish selection was old and clumpy. You couldnt even shake half of the colors they were all sticky and gelatinous. This is not a sanitary infraction, you can add thinner, but it was gross.

It was NASTY!! I am lodging a complaint with the Illinois State Board. It was HORRENDOUS. They were NOT careful and very blatant about their unsanitary habits. It was as if they were trying to get shut down.

The whole night i felt sick about it. Seriously. sometimes ignorance is bliss. I told Lindsey outside "tell everyone you know to stay away". It was THAT bad.

sometimes i WISH I didnt know what I know. I probably could have enjoyed my evening a lot better instead of feeling gaggy about my feet.

My cab ride of death

This past weekend I went to chicago for Dawn's wedding.

It was just so much fun. I really missed everyone, so it was just a blast going back and seeing all my friends. 

However my flight was fairly early the next morning and I had to get there a little early, as requested by the airport. 

So I took a cab to the airport from the hotel I was staying at about 45 minutes away.

This hunk of junk showed up at the hotel to pick me up ( it was 20 minutes late. )

 It looked like it had seen better days. The inside was a shell, I almost felt like the ill fated cab passengers in The Bone Collector. 

I am pretty sure the shocks were shot...and that if he went over 60mph we surely would have exploded. It made a really loud, strange, somewhat alarming rattling sound. In fact I wasnt even sure if we were going to make it at all. I had a vision of the car puttering to a stop in the Middle of the Dan Ryan and me having to hoof it to the airport, dragging my insanely heavy bag.

Everything in that car was duct taped or rubber banded onto something. But by golly he did have a Garmon GPS system.(which did not kep him from making TWO wrong turns.  Yes two. When the garmon says Turn right here, do not pass it then turn right at the next street. Thats not how it works, sir.)

This guy was about 192 years old, and he couldnt pick a lane AT ALL.  I swear we hit every pothole and at one point I am pretty convinced I saw an Orange construction pylon take a fall.

For one stretch of road it was 2 lanes and on either side was a cement wall. There were times that I was POSITIVE we were going into that cement barricade. If not the barricade on one side, then the car in the lane next to us. 

And he would just kind of start drifting into the other lanes. not looking before switching, just kind of easing in, unintentionally.

  I just shut my eyes and prayed like hell.

I thought the trip would never end.

Then this semi truck started coming into our lane. We were in his blind spot or something and my cab driver doesnt lay on the horn or anything. He just slams on the brakes, causing me to fly forward and smack into the back of the seats. (the seatbelt was broken...)  he didnt apologize. He just started back up (that car went 0 to 60 in 5 minutes) and we kept going on out way.

It was awful. I thought to myself, "If I dont die in this cab it will be a good day indeed".

So chicago and my friends in chicago, I miss you. I wish I could have stayed longer and I promise I will come back to visit much more often than I have.  However my next visit ONE OF YOU WILL TAKE ME TO THE AIRPORT!  i am boycotting taxis from now on. 

Rationalization always wins...

I was thinking about my diet and how badly I wanted to go to Brusters and get a sundae, or a shake...or SOMETHING.

I thought "well if I just get a scoop it will be fine".

then I thought "And maybe if I have them add a litle hot fudge".

My little fantasy kept going until I had a full blown Brownie sundae...but no cherry because I hate them.

I thought back to the time I was the general manager of Maggie Moos Ice cream.

Maggie Moos is SUPER PREMIUM ice cream. It is like 4000% butterfat and chock full of 3 days worth of calories...and thats just the sweet cream flavor. Never mind Maggies Fudge or Caramel which is made with like 2 pounds of Hot Fudge and/or Caramel topping.

We had these two very overweight ladies come into the store one night.  Apparently they were starting Weight Watchers the next morning and were going out with a Bang.

 They both got a Large Sundae with the Caramel Ice Cream. In that Ice Cream I mixed Wet Walnuts and Pecans. Then on top I added Hot fudge, Hot Caramel, Homemade whipped cream and  extra wet walnuts.  

I asked the ladies :Would you like a cherry on that??"

The one woman turns to her friend and says "Dont get the cherry. Thats where all the calories are.  Thats how these sundaes get ya." 

and no, she wasnt joking.

Needless to say i didnt get any ice cream. yay me.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

I love this video. I watch it and think "they must know my brother".

I feel like I am watching something that occurred 20 years ago in my own household.

Please to enjoy Tucker and Brad and "The Mothers Day Photo"

So Happy Mothers Day to all my friends and blogger friends. Not a mother yet?? Then happy future mothers day. Look what we have to look forward to??

My favorite place...

One more day until I leave for NAGS HEAD!!!
I am taking the boys up there to the beach house for a few days of R and R.
My only chance for a little vacation until i graduate from school in September.
So today I have done laundry and tonight after school I will pack and be ready to head out tomorrow afternoon!
I cant wait. I love Nags Head. Of all the placesI have been blessed to travel, Nags Head is my favorite place on this planet.
come on tomorrow!!

My Jeopardy Audition

Back in January or February I took the online test to become a contestant on Jeopardy. They of course ask where you could travel to for an in person interview should you do well enough on the test and get randomly selected for such an interview. Luckily Charlotte was one of the choices listed!! Usually it is Atlanta, or Raleigh, so I was thrilled to see my home city on the list. I felt really great about the online test. i thought it was super easy and felt like I had done really well.

About a month ago I received an email stating that I had qualified for an in person interview here in Charlotte. I confirmed that I would be there and they sent me all the information and directions etc. So for the past MONTH I have been studying world capitals and opera and writers and currency and flipping through trivial pursuit cards like crazy.

So yesterday the big day finally arrived! I woke at 2am, my mind racing, sweating with nervousness. I finally got back to sleep at 330 and slept until 7. When I got up I didn't feel nervous. I was surprisingly calm and cool and collected.
I got dressed and totally worked the hair and make-up. I don't think I have ever looked so good.
We had to wear something as if we were actually on the show. (apparently one lady will wear a track suit for her appearance...and talk on her cellphone.

I had to drive uptown to the Westin and fill out paperwork, and get my Polaroid taken(which was a lovely pasty white close up of my huge head. I would have to say that my drivers license picture is better than the one they took.
Well we sat at tables in groups of three and had a piece of paper for our written test. It was all computerized. On the large screen the question popped up with a category and we had 8 seconds to write down our answers. It was 50 questions. I knew all but 3.

then they randomly chose 3 people at a time to come up front and play a mock version of Jeopardy.
They showed us how to use the buzzers and the right time to ring in. There are lights that go on when you can ring in and if you buzz in too early you are locked out for 1/2 a second, giving the other players an advantage.
BUT they did tell us to click that buzzer up and down , not just one click. So that is why you see those contestants clicking away like there is no tomorrow. But the coordinators were very helpful in telling us "be louder!...be happier!! You are ringing in too early! You are ringing in too late! You were right on the money!" So they really helped us get a feel for the buzzers.
Then we had to tell a little bit about ourselves and go through the personality interview and testing. We had to bring in 5 facts or interesting things about ourselves, and they asked us questions, just like Alex Trebek. So we really had to be personable and interesting.
A few people were a little over the top. Some people thought super highly of themselves. Some people were kind of blah.

But after 2 1/2 hours of interviews and testing it was time to go. I was informed that I was now entered into the Jeopardy contestant pool for 18 months.

SO they can call me within the next 18 months to appear on Jeopardy. If they don't use me or don't call then I can re-test in another 18 months.

I am really happy I did it. I feel really good bout my interview. I feel like they really liked me and I knew all my questions and did really well on the written test.
So who knows, you may be seeing me win a buttoad of money on Jeopardy someday!

You must use the force...

I LOVE this video. so clever. My kids have listened to it about 450 times over the past week. (finn is SUPER into Star Wars, so anything with SW in it he has to watch over and over and over again)

I actually saw this video several months ago but until now havent put it up on my blog.
Yes, John WIlliams is the man. but I do notice that not a single star wars song is used throughout this tribute....hmmm.

sometimes it is really hard

The other day I heard someone say
" You will always love your kids. But it is Ok to not like them sometimes"

There are days where I find this excessively true.
I LOVE my children. They are my flesh and blood. I carried them, birthed them, raised them, potty trained them, have sent them off to school and have seen them grow up a mile a minute.
I am constantly amazed by their accomplishments and how quickly they learn.
I am flabbergasted by Peters resilience and dumbfounded by Finns Natural Ham and Class clown abilities.
I am always laughing at things Finn says or does. Despite the fact that I am always getting notes home about him being a social butterfly, he is still a great kid. Actually when I was his age my parents were always getting notes home from the teacher "Sarah needs to concentrate on her own schoolwork instead of being concerned with others around her" or "Sarah needs to stop talking all the time" or "Sarah really needs to stay in her seat and focus on her schoolwork instead of cavorting around like a social butterfly". Honestly Finn and I could have had the exact same teacher. It is practically identical.
I am always proud of Peters improvements in school and never lets his disability get in his way.
I love the fact that peter will try anything once. He eats his fruits and vegetables and LIKES them. I love the fact that he has been working extra hard with his gym teacher working on his endurance and speed and has been doing so well.

But, I wont lie. There are times where I dont really LIKE my children. Days where one innocent bump with a hotwheels into the others transformer suddenly turns into an all out brawl with head butting, kidney punches and hair pulling.
Days where I ask them to do one little thing, like take their lunchbox out of their backpack and put it on the counter, and within moments i am a horrible mother, asking them to donate their left Kidney to needy children.
Days where Finn asks every 27.4 seconds "Mom can I play the Wii?". I say No and it is an all out cry-and-whine fest.
Days where I catch them on the trampoline jumping and crashing against the net on purpose because they are playing spiderman. Now I have a trampoline with a broken net and they cannot jump until I find zip-ties big enough to fix it.
Days where I cook dinner and immediately they say "ewwww I hate that" before even trying it.
Days where we stop by my parents house to drop something off and I tell them ahead of time "We are only here to drop this off. We are not going in, we are not staying" and as soon as they get there they leap out of the car and head into grandmas house. Then when I say "come on time to go" they launch into screaming, agony and endless woe. It is like leading them to the Guillotine.

I was watching Oprah a few years back and it had some stay at home moms on there who really told it like it was. They didnt lie and say ';Ohhhh I love my kids. I just LOOOOVVVEEE being home with them. I adore every precious second" and other platitudes.
Some of them said "Yeah, 10% it is fantastic and I love it. The other 90% sucks." one lady even said "I really hate it sometimes."
Of course she had on the opposing viewpoint who CLAIMED they always loved their kids and being a mom was their greatest joy in life and they never felt anything but absolute adoration and joy with their kids. BLAH BLAH BLAH and total BS.
REALLY?? I find that endlessly hard to believe. In fact I think that is a downright lie. I dont think it is possible to feel endless joy and nothing but wonderful goodness with your kids all the time. I think there must be sour so you can savor the sweet. I think women need to feel like we dont like our kids on occasion so when they do something amazing it is even more wonderful.

So honestly, although i will always love my kids unconditionally, I do not always have to like them.

And I dont even feel bad for saying that.

A saturday in the sun

I know it sounds totally glamorous. Basking in the sun, getting a nice golden tan to go with my beautiful beachy bridesmaid dress next month...sadly 'twas not the case.

I am more a hot sweaty red mess than anything. Oh and my hair is a fright. I am really pretty today you know. The only way i could be even prettier is if I had spinach stuck on my front tooth.

 We tilled and raked and sifted garden plots. We bought bags of cow manure compost to mix in with it.(yes, I am up to my elbows in cow pooh. But apparently it is really good for the soil and this year my garden needs all the help it can get.)

We mowed the lawn out front.

 We picked up dog toys, downed tree limbs and branches and junk in the back. We mowed the HIP HIGH grass in the backyard.

It isnt that we are lazy. Really I am not as rednecked as I sound. I promise.

But it has been raining a lot and so today was the first day that the yard work could REALLY be done. But it is beautiful to have a nice looking yard again. Plus my azaleas are REALLY starting to bloom, so my front yard is a collage of white, red, fuchsia and pink blossoms. Of course there is that Jasmine that has gotten out of control and has climbed about 20 feet up the crepe myrtle tree. But thats another chore for another day.

 Now my neighbor can quit giving me the stink eye every time she goes out to feed those d*** nuisance squirrel pets of hers.

That seemed to work...

When our kids turn 8 and get baptised, they are allowed to pick one place they would like to go and we go there as a family for a vacation.  When Peter turned 8, he chose Disney World. (At first it was Texas. I asked Whats in Texas?" and he said "I dont know, I just think it would be cool. Maybe we could see Sandy the Squirrel".  Once I told him that Sandy was not real and just a cartoon Character, the idea of Texas was no longer that appealing)

Well, after Peters trip Finn got to work. Yes, he still had 3 years before he really needed to be concerned, but he is always thinking ahead.

He, too, announced that Walt disney World would suit him just fine as his birthday/baptism trip.

I did the research, put in dates and kids ages and found out it would cost $______ amount of dollars. SO we set up our coin and tip jar. All of our change, coins and part of my tips go into this jar to help pay for some of the souveniers etc. I even made up this cool picture on Photoshop of Cinderellas Castle with fireworks etc to paste on the outside . Actually it is a giant animal cracker bin from Sams that I washed out and pounded a coin slot through the lid. It works great. I am betting we can get a couple of hundred dollars in coin stuffed into it.  Right now we have about 22$.

WELL thank you Nickelodeon channel. My kids are no longer allowed to watch you.

They showed a commercial for a Nickelodeon Cruise. Said commercial shows promises of sliming and meeting the characters and fun and Games etc. It sails to the bahamas, St Thomas and Puerto Rico. For 1 week. Finn saw this and got it into his head that the Nick cruise was his trip. He REALLY wanted it.  so being the good mom I am, I looked into it.

For a family of four, the bottom basement, cheapest rooms in steerage START at $6000!! SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! (Oh yeah and this does NOT include airfare to Florida...or spending money...or tips) 

 And it goes all the way up to 17,000 for a royal suite...which by the way are all sold out. Wow, the economy must be suffering. Those poor people only able pay 17,000 for a family vacation. Whatever will they do?? They cant hold their heads with pride anymore.They will be humiliated at the club. (did you hear that Ken and Buffy could only pay $17,000 for THEIR vacation? Uhhhh, they had to go to the Bahamas...")

I told Finn that a Nick cruise is out of the question. It cost WAY too much money. I dont mind going to DIsney World,( which includes our dining plan, hotel, park passes etc. We can drive to WDW in 7 hours. In fact Disney world is 60% cheaper than a Nick Cruise.) In fact we could go to Disney TWICE for the amount of money we would pay for the Nick cruise.

But Finn unmoved. He persisted. begged. pleaded. bugged. annoyed. irritated.

He REALLY wanted to go on this cruise. It is all  heard. 

So I told him the boat sank.

It's that time of year again...

Oh my dear FAFSA form...why do you stare at me and say "Oh for crying out loud! Just get out your tax information and fill me out already!! Do you want to go to school or not? Do you want federal aid and grant money??"

For paper it sure is opinionated

I LOATHE FAFSA time.
I would rather scrub the toilets bare handed than sit and fill out all the FAFSA information.

But on the plus side i SHOULD be getting more money this year than I did last year. So all in all it can't be bad. I just hate actually doing it.

blech.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNSHINE!!

My brother Pat(a.k.a. Sunshine) is 41 today.
how did he get his name? Well he was always such a grouch, so we called him sunshine and it stuck.
One time we were driving past a Shoneys and it said "sunshine special. $3.49"
I laughed and said, HAH, sunshine special!
my mom said "I wonder what it is? Crab cakes and Sour grape juice?"

so Happy Birthday sunshine. I love you.

funny sunshine story:

This is set waaay back in about 1993.
Pat used to go out to the bar after work and come home "not all there".
one night, about 3am, I heard my door open and heard someone come in.
Next thing I know I see my brother at the window on the right hand side of my room. He is trying to open my window. Then I hear tinkling. he was peeing in my air vent. He went out of the room and back to bed, not even paying attention to me,.I thought maybe I had imagined it and it was all just a dream.(a very disturbing dream)
So in the morning I checked the vent, and sure enough he had peed on my floor.
A few nights later the same exact thing happened, except he went to the OTHER window on the left had side of my room and peed on the floor and around the vent. I tried talking to him, but he was sleepwalking or something.
a few nights later he came into my room again. This time he opened one of my drawers. I junmped out of bed and shook him and yelled.

me: PAT!
pat: huh??
me: What are you doing?
pat: hey im in here. get out of the bathroom and wait your turn
me: Pat this isnt the bathroom, this is my bedroom. You are about to pee in my drawer!
pat: huh?
me: This is NOT the bathroom, get out.
pat: oh, crap...

pat ran out of my room and kind of stumbled into the real bathroom.
from that night on i slept with my door locked.
when he got married my friend Lindsey said we should to to Home Depot and get one of those vent covers and paint one side pink and the other side blue abd write "his" and "hers".

Oh sunshine.

happy birthday, even if you are an April Fool.