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!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catch-up Tuesday!

Friday afternoon, the carpet came!!!! It's down and our computer/craft room is functional!!!! WOO HOO!

Saturday, we had friends and their kiddos come to stay for the night. We had a great time and a nice visit. (She's starting to scrapbook too)

Sunday, was parade day! I didn't have my camera - sorry!!!!! DH & I were float judges so we had to be there early and worked with 3 other volunteers to look at them. It was SO windy (40 - 45 mph) and those poor floats were just falling apart! But there was a lot of creativity and time put into some of those and it was fun to be a part of it. We got to our seats a little before the parade started but had to run to get a blanket from the car. As I was heading back to where we were sitting, the color guard was coming through and it stopped me in my tracks to watch down the street as all those people got out of their seats as those flags went by. It made me very proud to live in this country. The parade was fun - the kids loved the bands. It sleeted during the parade. When we got home - it snowed. A lovely taste of winter....

It's been very cold the past couple of days - we had our first hard frost last night. No denying it, it's coming....

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Friday funny

Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got
to know each other so well, they decided to get married.

One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom.

The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress. The groom broom was
handsome and suave in his tuxedo. The wedding was lovely.

After the wedding, at the wedding dinner, the bride-broom leaned over and
said to the groom-broom, 'I think I am going to have a little whisk broom!'

'IMPOSSIBLE !' said the groom broom.


Are you ready for this?




Brace yourself; this is going to hurt!










'WE HAVEN'T EVEN SWEPT TOGETHER!'


..............
Oh for goodness sake... Laugh, or at least groan.
Life's too short not to enjoy... Even these silly
....little cute............. And clean jokes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds to me like she's ....... !
......been ....sweeping around!!!

A taste of autumn!

The weather has been perfectly fall here lately - 50s and 60s (but pretty cold [33ish] in the mornings). Pumpkin Fest is this weekend and we're hoping for a sunny cool day...

In the meantime, here are some fall pictures I've taken the past week.

Weekend review

It was a productive but WAY too short weekend! Friday night, I scrapped with some friends. I got a few layouts done (pictures to come). It was fun to chat, eat and scrap with others.

Saturday - DH, DS and I all had to work. My mom came and stayed with DD. Apparently, they had a very good time. Saturday night, I started moving stuff out of the back room of our basement to prepare for ceiling work and carpet installation this week. Yes, it was Sweetest Day but we don't do much other than to wish each other a good day. Oh and to DS's delight - Illinois kicked the snot out of Indiana. And to all our delight - our Huskies won their homecoming game!

The almost emptied, painted basement room.....

Running through the leaves!

Sunday - we emptied the back room by 11:30 a.m. Then it was bbq sandwiches for lunch and time for the Bears game. YEA, Bears! Since DD was a little wound up, she & I went out to look for Huskies for a couple of hours so the boys could watch the game. We had a great time and the weather was fabulous! The "castle" building is the oldest building on campus (VERY beautiful inside!) and DD almost fell out of the van gawking at it as we drove by it.

DD (squealing): IS THAT A CASTLE? DOES A PRINCESS LIVE THERE? CAN YOU LIVE IN IT?

Me: No, it's not a castle. There are no pricesses there. Sorry!

DD: That is SO cool!

Then we went to one of the historic home/parks in town and it was all set up for a wedding. She almost floated out of the van when she saw it.

DD: Are we going to the wedding?

Me: No.

DD: It's so beautiful!

Me; I know.

DD: Are you going to take pictures of the wedding?

Me: Not today. Just pictures of other things.

DD: Do you think we could walk by it?

Me: Yes.

We walked in front of the arch and she was just beaming!

I almost forgot, our "team outing" last Thursday. We had a perfect day - 60 and sunny. We stopped for apple cider donuts and warm cider - mmmm!!!!! THAT'S a breakfast of champions. Then it was off to the corn maze - we had a good time. I learned that giving a simple direction can be interpreted 3 different ways. Funny how everyone communicates just a little different....

Thursday ramblings

Yes, the weekend is JUST around the corner! Hang in there!

DD's daycare class had their open house last night. I love little kids singing! She's such a ham.... Thanks mom & dad for coming.

Today our office is taking a "team building" day. We are headed to a corn maze. The weather should be nice & hopefully I'll get some pictures taken.

The basement is progressing. DH has everything trimmed out and a small wall painted (so we could see how we liked the color - LOVE it!).

I am going to scrapbook with some friends tomorrow night and I'm really excited about it! I hope to get a few layouts done - there's much talking to be done, you know....

Have a good day and I'll catch you up with some pictures soon!

Zoo Day!

We took advantage of an incredibly beautiful day on Sunday and went to the zoo.

Can you find the giraffes? (There are 5!)

Happy Wednesday!

2 Peas Sunday Challenge & misc stuff

Are you good at remembering dates or do you write them on the back of your pictures?

I'm usually pretty good at a general time frame. If I have a calendar handy (and I try to keep a journal of things we do) then I can look it up. So, remember exactly? NO! :-)
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Even though the weather is a bit summerish this weekend - the trees are starting to turn - I can take NO credit for any of the photos in this collage - they were created using flickr. (You can click on it to see it larger)


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We watched a couple of movies yesterday/last night.

The Prince & Me

- it was a cute but predictable romantic comedy.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Don't waste your time and/or money!!!! It was BAD! The only thing we enjoyed about it is it was filmed at the resort we stayed at on Oahu and it was great to see other parts of it!

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Apparently when I changed my template - I lost my link list - hang in there, I will get back to your blog and add it if you were there.
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Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Silly hat day

Apparently last Saturday was "silly hat day" at our house...

Week in review & secrets

Let's see.....

Saturday - my friend Edith got married. She was a beautiful bride and her groom, John, was very handsome. I wish them many years of happiness and joy! We made it to the reception. Dinner was delicious. We enjoyed some dancing and visiting. Oh, and the Cubs season ended pitifully Saturday night.



Sunday - we went to Kite Festival for about an hour before the skies really opened up. So we got some lunch and came home. We watched the Bears game. After naps, the sun was out, so we decided to take the kite to the HS and so DS could play some tennis with DH & I - needless to say, I am VERY out of shape!!!!! (DS took this photo)







Monday - my parents celebrated their 35th anniversary! Congrats and Happy Anniversary!

Tuesday - we went to the mall after work to finish getting the rest of DD's Halloween costume. It was pretty quiet there and many of the stores had their summer stuff on clearance, so we got DS some new shirts.


Today - DS went to play disc golf with 6 (yes - 6!) girls from school. He was the only boy. Does this worry a mother? YOU BET!!!!! Bear in mind, this is after he said to me last night (when DH was teasing him about the girl he went to homecoming with not wanting to go out with him again playing hard to get) - "Well if that's how she wants to be, she can go to the back of the line because there's other girls waiting." I almost died laughing! Tonight, he's out with "the guys" for their annual pilgrimage to the local corn maze. They have gone every year for the last 3 or 4 and they have a good time.

Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet week - thank goodness!

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My blogging friend, Emily, tagged me with "6 Secrets". The "object" is to tell 6 secrets and then tag others. So I will start with tagging anyone who reads this!

My secrets (don't hold your breath on these):
1. In high school, I thought I would play piano or keyboards for a rock star.
2. I have a half-written romance story. My goal is to have it "published" by the end of 2009.
3. I really love my jobs but...I am somewhat envious of stay-at-home moms/dads. It's one of those things I've never been able to do and probably won't be able to. I hope you know how fortunate you are! :)
4. I have started watching General Hospital again - thank you, Soap Net!
5. I try to be the "sophisticated" library employee and read classics and good fiction - but I REALLY enjoy a good trashy romance.
6. I am a TERRIBLE housekeeper! The floor gets swept and the counters get wiped down regularly, other than laundry - not much else is done on a regular basis. I hate to admit it! My mom raised me much better than that - sorry mom!

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Enjoy your weekend!