Thankful!!

Yesterday made me reflect on how much I have to be thankful for!
*My family!
*My friends!
*My jobs -- and I actually enjoy them
*That we have food on our table
*That we have a roof over our heads

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have much to be thankful for also!

It was Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day today. I thought I would be celebrating the Buy Nothing Day but alas, not so. DH & DS went out at 4 this morning to get in line at Wal-Mart. Then after they got home and we had breakfast, he decided to see if Menards had any more shop vacs and since it was about 8, I decided to go with. No shop vacs but we got 4 gifts taken care of! :-)
Whatever you did today, I hope you enjoyed!

Oh and did I mention...I got some scrapping done today!

Wordless Wednesday

No more!

I have decided to reassess my life priorities. I have been letting too many petty things and people who don't seem to care anymore, bother me. I am ready to move on and concentrate on the people who are the most important to me!



Sorry for the bluntness I'm just tired of one-sided friendships....

Vivaaaaa Las Vegas!

We had SUCH a good time! The weather - mid to upper 70s every day and sunny! It made it SO hard to come back to the snow and cold we knew was here....

Saturday - we left Chi-town and flew west. We checked into the Hilton Grand Vacation Club - not bad, just a very cozy room. We drove out to Red Rock Canyon (see photo) BEAUTIFUL! For those of who live in the flat states, mountains are VERY exciting! It was worth every penny of our admission fee to hike a little and drive the 13 mile scenic route.

We certainly did our fair share of gambling and drinking while we were there (isn't that why you go?).

Sunday - We checked out of the Hilton; drove to Wynn for their brunch buffet. If you left hungry, it was your OWN FAULT!!!! The dessert room (yes, I said room) was incredible! We checked into the Bellagio - where they upgraded us to a junior suite corner room with a partial lake view. We could see a little of the fountains but the views of the mountains were amazing! We spent part of the afternoon exploring Bellagio and a couple of the other hotels. We saw "O" that night - we were quite disappointed in it. Very cool concept but the story was lost on us.

Monday - we slept in (ok, I did - DH went downstairs). We went "looking for breakfast" - which meant we walked around for about 4 hours taking it all in. (Yes, we did find McDonald's for breakfast). We visited the pool again that afternoon and relaxed. We headed out early evening to take in the evening "entertainment" (aka: Sirens of TI; Volcano at Mirage [being remodeled right now]; Show in the Sky at Rio [only runs Thurs - Sun]; so we headed back to Bellagio to catch a fountain show); then a big foofy dessert to end the evening.

Tuesday - packed; had Bellagio's breakfast buffet (YUM!). DH surprised me with a mini-massage and facial at the spa. WHAT A MAN!!!! Sorry ladies, he's mine! :D We took a snooze before check out. Then drove to Paris to check out the hotel and find one more dessert before leaving. Our flight home was with 28 passengers (including the crew from the 6:05 flight that had been cancelled)

I promised DH if he took this picture - I'd put it on my blog...this was my picture with the Chippendales.....

Proceed with caution!!!!!

Within 12 hours....Last night, I fell down our stairs - I'm lovely shades of black and blue. Then this morning, I burned my hand on the waffle iron. I'm a little leary to do anything for fear of injuring myself further.

I'm back!

Sorry - our lives have been a whirlwind the past couple of weeks. Between work, school, keeping the kids going where they're supposed to be going...whew! DH & I snuck away for a long weekend last weekend to Vegas. We had a great time and the weather was perfect!!!! (It snowed while we were gone) Thanks mom for watching the kids!

I will catch up with pictures over the weekend - have a good one!

What Eurpean city do you belong in?

You Belong in Dublin


Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

Update below......

Tuesday catch up - again....

Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you to any of you who do/have served and thank you to any of your family and/or friends who have done the same.

DS had a karate tournament on Sunday. He took 1st in his open hand forms event. He did not place in his weapon forms event. He did his best and that was all we asked of him!

Not much else is new - the weather has been COLD!!!!!!!!!!! Barely out of the 30s during the day. We had a few snow flurries over the weekend - nothing stuck but the flakes were in the air.

I had to do the dreaded this weekend - jeans shopping! Is there anything more torturous?! SERIOUSLY!!!!! After trying on I don't know how many pairs (all of which are made for someone with NO hips or who like to wear their jeans with their ass crack hanging out!) - I was getting frustrated. We finally found some at Kohls for those of us too uncool to wear "ultra low riders".

DH & I got a little Christmas shopping done on Sunday morning. Good start to things! Fortunately, we don't have too much to do this year.

Congrats to the Cubs' Geovany Soto for winning the National League Rookie of the year! WOO HOO!!!

Hope you had a good weekend and the week is going well, so far.

Catching up - finally....

Greetings! I know some of you (cough cough {marie...} cough cough) have been asking me to catch up. So, here goes...

First, thank you to those who stop by at least semi-regularly. I love your comments and it's nice to feel (sometimes) like life isn't quite as boring as I might think...

HALLOWEEN - our little "Belle" had a marvelous time trick or treating. The weather - couldn't have been better!!!! Mid 60s, sunny...super! Considering the week had started with highs in the 30s, we were slightly concerned. But Mother Nature came through!

Here is DS in his Halloween finery...

On a very sad note, my brother and his girlfriend lost their dog on Friday afternoon. He will be missed!!!!!

Sat., November 1 - welcome to a new month! The first thing DD asked was "How long until Christmas?" WHAT?! So I guess once the excitement of Halloween is over, on to the next thing....but come on, at least come down off the sugar high first! That evening we went to get groceries and guess what(?!) - Wal Mart was playing Christmas music.... I bought myself a new crockpot - and THAT was my excitement for that day! It's the little things in life...

Sun., November 2 - I made a pot of chili in my new crockpot (thanks, mom!). It was a hit in this house - it was gone by the end of the day. The temps were in the upper 60s - not complaints here! Other than that, the Bears won (YEA!). DS & I watched The Bucket List http://thebucketlist.warnerbros.com/ - we loved it!!!!!!! Laughed and cried our way through it.

Mon., November 3 - One day until election day. DD told us how the election works....

DD: John McCain and Rock Abomber want to win. People go into the little house (voting booth) and pick who gets to be re-present. I think it comes in a box.

Me: What?

DD: Re-present. You know, like you open.

Me: It's president, not present. President, it's a person.

DD: Ooooohhhh. Well, whoever wins gets to live in a big, white house.

If only 4 year olds ran the world...I'm sure we'd all laugh a lot more!

Tues., November 4 - ELECTION DAY! I hope you all voiced your vote - whatever it may have been. Good for you! We took DD with us to vote so she could see how it was set up - she was very quiet and got her very own "I voted" sticker. She was quite impressed with herself. Her class held it's own election that day between Mrs. Fox (DD), Mrs. Beaver and Mr. Bear. When I picked her up she proudly proclaimed "I voted for myself!" She lost by a landslide but I think everyone was ok with it. :-)

Wed., November 5 - DD's opening question in the kitchen.... "Who got bought for President, John McCain or Bara Obama (getting closer)?" After DH almost picked himself up off the floor - sorry, we both had to laugh over that comment. We told her that Barak Obama was going to be the next president. Her response "Oh. Can I have my cereal now?" Life goes on....

Fri., November 7 - Now that the temperatures have plummeted (complete with sleet and snow) it feels more like November. :) We took the kids to see Madagascar 2 last night - http://www.madagascar-themovie.com/. It was funny and DD didn't do too well, a lot of the jokes were over her head and she got a little bored.

Sat., November 8 - Still snowy mix today, cold and windy. Welcome winter! I finished my book today and I MUST say - you HAVE to read it! http://www.queenoftheroadthebook.com/orion-book.htm I haven't laughed that much reading a book in ages! Please check it out!

DH & I also started looking a photo Christmas cards....hopefully that will be taken care of in the next week - it's one of the things that always stresses me out!

Oh and I did get a couple of digital scrap pages done...

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend - thanks for stopping by!

Dashing through the leaves

Ladies & gentlemen - Christmas is coming!

Saturday morning (November 1) DD asked when Christmas was....sigh! It's going to be a long 2 months.

The TV commercials are in full swing now - it was bad enough in August.... "Oooo, I should ask Santa for that" is a common mantra the past few weeks.

And yesterday....the Wal Mart and Build a Bear Wish Books came in the mail. DH said DD sat on the floor almost drooling over them for over an hour last night. I fear what is on her "wish list" now.

Happy Holidays!

Life Lesson #783

A carafe of coffee spilled in the back of your van is a BIG mess!!!!!!!!!!!!