I just finished my 5th week of classes and my grades are still strong. Still getting an "A" in all four classes! I just turned in my first literary analysis essay for my Literature class so we'll see what happens.

Today is our wedding anniversary!!

Look at us just starting out :)

And now..

Don't forget to check out the Daddy's Girl edition of WW

More Wordless Wednesday here

So far school is going pretty good. I just checked my grades and I'm getting an "A" in all of my classes! I hope I can keep this up. It's not the easiest thing to do - working full time and going to school full time and making time for my family. These aren't easy classes either, although they are probably the easiest I will have from here on out. I actually have to read and do research and spend time on the course work. Now that I've decided to go for Computer Science, the course work will probably get even more difficult. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can maintain these grades.

Well, the summer rush is over and now my shift is being moved back to 11 to 8. Blah. I'm not thrilled about it at all, but I was aware from the beginning that it was potentially temporary. As much as I prefer to sleep in, I was really enjoying my evenings at home with my family. I guess I'll just have to until the next major shift bid and see if I can get an earlier shift that way - something permanent. Either that or find a job in a branch office where I can work 8 to 5 and never work Saturdays! I don't know how well that would work out though. If the pay was the same I would do it in a heart beat. I'll have to check into that.

Classes started on Monday and so far it's not too bad. It's only the first week so there aren't too many actual assignments due yet, but I had a couple of discussion board assignments and a few chapters to read for each class and a quiz in one class. I'm done with everything except my Psychology 220 class. I have two chapters to read and an assignment to do before Monday. Not bad. I'll have time to do that. I'd like to try to get ahead on some of the stuff - like maybe the reading for my English class for next week. We'll see how things go at home between now and then. Jeremy has his first on-campus class tonight! All of his classes until this semester have been online.

It's been a very long and exhausting week and now I need to play catch up. I am selling stuff at a Mom 2 Mom sale tomorrow at our church. I have so much to get done today. My husband and I have been going through totes of baby/toddler clothes today and my washing machine and dryer will be working non-stop all day long. It feels strange being at home after being at my mom's all week and the funeral home all day yesterday. The only time I've been at home this past week was to sleep and shower. I feel like I should be going somewhere - other than crazy. =}

Classes start for both me and my husband on Monday. Talk about crazy! We're going to be extremely busy from then on.

Still looking forward to working on my new project for this site..... hopefully sooner than later. Stay tuned....

I'm in the process of making some changes here. This blog will no longer be on the main page, but will be located in a /blog directory. I'm very excited about the project I will be working on here and I owe it all to my sister. Stay tuned....

Look what my sister did with her blog? She's bloody brilliant! Now I feel motivated to make some changes here. Maybe my blog won't sit here empty - as it has been for so many months now. And I have the perfect idea....

I miss the good old days when we were slow at work and I actually had time to blog. It's nearly impossible now to find time. And I have next to no time at home because I have a husband and three kids that need my attention so blogging is the last thing on my mind.

Ten days until classes start... then I will REALLY have NO time to do things like this!

I have realized that between Facebook and Twitter, I don't blog as much as I once did. It's sad, really. I don't want my blog to just sit here empty. I'm going to try and post here more often. Unfortunately, with school starting in 3 weeks, I am afraid that it will actually be less. Perhaps once I become acclimated to all of my new tasks I will be able to spend more time here. Time will tell.

I had baked spaghetti for lunch which was oh, so yummy and now I am eating an Avocado and washing it down with my new favorite beverage - Fuze Green Tea with Honey and Ginseng. It is so light and refreshing. The perfect beverage in my opinion.

That's my favorite.. second bottle from the left side..

Although I do love the Orange Blossom White Tea also (not pictured).

The long holiday weekend is over and I am back to work. Blah. It was so nice being home for three days with my family. As you can see from the video in the previous post, we had a rocking good time over the weekend. It doesn't help that we are mandatory overtime at work and have to come in an hour earlier today and tomorrow. I know, I know.. it's only an extra hour, but it feels like so much longer and makes me feel like I'm never at home.

I have to work this Saturday which means I get the day off on Thursday. I will still be getting up early that day because I have to go to school to change my last name and update my records and then fill out a re-admission form to start this coming Fall semester. Then I have to see an advisor and register for my classes. The reason I have to get up early is because Elizabeth has her 4 month check up at the pediatrician in the afternoon and I want to be done with the school stuff so I can take her.

I feel like I am always running out of time. I get up in the morning, get ready for work, nurse the baby, leave for work, come home from work, nurse the baby and then bed. And now my company has mandatory overtime today, tomorrow and then Monday and Tuesday of next week because we've been so busy and will be closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I am really looking forward to having three days off!

My 2.5 year old daughter, Gabrielle, has finally given up the binky (pacifier)! It wasn't easy, but we decided this past Saturday night to tell her that the binky fairy came and took her binkies to babies that needed them. It has been easier than we expected the past few nights. She has only asked for it a couple of times. I think we're over the worst part of it and we are so happy that it's gone! Now we just have to get her to use the potty (and stop acting like the spawn of satan with her terrible-two attitude) and we'll be all set.

I didn't leave the house at all this past weekend. I spent much of my time nursing the baby and playing Texas Hold 'Em. I was trying to win the Shootout Tournament on Zynga because they are giving away 2 seats to the WSOP. I got to round 2, but kept coming in 2nd place which then shot me back down to round 1 again. Blah. Had they let you try round 2 more than once at a time, I might have made it to round 3, but that never happened. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

True Blood was fantastic last night! After watching the first season on DVD it's difficult to have to watch only one episode a week. I already can't wait until next Sunday!

Well.. on to game 7. We'll just have to win Stanley at home! That's the way it should be anyway. Not that I would have minded bringing the Cup home after the game tonight, but it will be more exciting to win it at home.

I have been sick for about ten days now and it's really starting to wear me out. I started to get better last week, but then went to work and everyone around me was sick so of course I got it back and worse this time. I finally went to the doctor this morning and lo and behold I have a horrible sinus infection accompanied by a fever. Fun stuff. So now I'm on antibiotics and hopefully within a few days I will be back to good. My husband just took the girls to the pediatrician because we want to make sure they aren't fighting an infection too. Gabby seems better, but Elizabeth is still very congested in her nose/sinus area so we figure better safe than sorry. And since he took both girls I am in the house alone. I can't remember the last time I was in this house and it was silent.

We ended up watching the season premier of Tori & Dean last night after the Red Wings. My husband made the comment "this show is dumb" several times, but I think he will tolerate it enough to watch it with me.

And can I just say... Let's Go Red Wings! That was one helluva game last night... and we're going to the Stanley Cup finals once again!

My husband recently pointed out that I haven't blogged in almost 2 weeks. It's amazing how quickly time flies by when so much is going on. Between the kids and work and then being sick the past 5 days.. I hadn't even noticed. I would probably be more likely to want to post something if I had my camera back from the repair shop and could post some pictures, but who knows when it will be returned to us. I do have more pictures from Elizabeth's baptism (the party after the baptism) and some from Jeremy's uncle's 60th birthday (both taken with my sister-in-law's camera) so I will post those when I am feeling a little better.

Phil Hellmuth confirmed you as a friend on Facebook...

How cool is that to see in your inbox?

I have become totally addicted to poker - Texas Hold 'Em to be precise. During my pregnancy my husband and I spent a lot of time watching WSOP on television and became hooked. Since then I have been playing online at Full Tilt Poker and also on Live Poker from my iPod. I just added Phil Hellmuth's blog to my blogroll and added him as a friend on Facebook. =) My new dream is to some day have the opportunity to go to the WSOP.

I just realized that I started slacking on my blogging again. I didn't feel bad when I was at home because I was more concerned with spending as much time with my kids as possible, but now that I am back to work I should have no excuse not to post here.

Things are pretty good. Elizabeth is getting bigger and cuter by the day. She has been flashing us her pretty smile for the last two weeks. I love her smile! It just melts my heart and makes my eyes get all teary. Evan and Gabby are still in love with their new baby sister which makes me very happy. I have some newer pictures of the kids which I will post here when I get the chance.

Evan is doing great in school. He's had nearly straight A's all year and I am very proud of him for that. I can't believe he will be in Junior High School next year! Gabby thinks she rules the world... but what 2.5 year old doesn't? If her attitude now is any indication of what her teenage years will be like we are in some serious trouble! lol.

I would love to do a Wordless Wednesday since I haven't in so long, but since my camera is being repaired I don't have any new pictures.

I feel like I am in hell right now. Elizabeth was sleeping so good during the night while I was at home, but since my return to work she has not had an easy time. I don't know if it's because she is trying to make up for the time that I am not there during the day or what, but she is refusing to sleep in her bed and only wants to sleep when I am nursing her. I didn't even get to sleep until 4:30 this morning and had to get up three hours later. I don't know how I will make it through this day! I know this is an adjustment period and it will pass, but it is very difficult. I hope she adapts to our new schedule quickly.

Well, it's my 2nd day back at work and it went much better. No crying this morning or when I left the house. I'm already feeling like I'm back to my old routine. It's amazing how quickly things fall back into place.

Well, it's March now and still no baby. I went to church today and prayed for God to give me the strength and patience to get through this next week. I hope He heard me. =)

Well, I was weepy and moping around for much of the day, but then we went out to dinner with my mom and that made me feel better. Then my mother-in-law came over to visit and brought me beautiful flowers and some pretty awesome gifts. I also got a wonderful gift from my mom and my kids. I'm in a better mood for the most part - although now it's night time and I'll be doing my late night ritual of watching Charmed re-runs and eating a bowl of cereal before hours of trying to fall asleep and that is slightly depressing.

Tomorrow morning my mom will be here so we can go shopping. I think she is hoping for a repeat scenario from when I was 9 months pregnant with Gabby. My water broke after a day of shopping with my mom. That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. It will just be nice to be out shopping with my mom.

We are celebrating Evan's 11th birthday today at Chuck E. Cheese's. His birthday isn't until the 20th, but I didn't want to take the chance that I would go into labor and "eff" up his day. He's so happy that we are having a special party just for him. We always do a Pisces Party for him, Jamie, myself, my brother and brother-in-law because we're all within a few days of each other, but I realized that he really needs to have a special day with his friends and not just family. We got him a lot of great gifts so I hope he has a wonderful day today. =)

I am so sick of being pregnant that I want to cry! I hate the last few weeks.. they are the longest in the world.

That is all.

I'm at work today - the first time I have been at work since the 20th of January. I've only been in the building for approximately an hour and I'm ready to go home already! I've only taken one call so it's not like I am overwhelmed (yet), but I just hate this place. I despise what I do and some of the people I work with and the way things are run here. Blah. I almost wish I would go into labor just so I could go home.

I'm still pregnant.. nothing has changed there. I just haven't felt like writing much lately.

Going to eat lunch now.

Well, it looks like I am going to have an extra long weekend. I've been home sick the past few days. I think I have a stomach bug or something. I can't even eat without it tearing up my stomach. I have a wonderfully painful headache to go along with it. So, the last time I was at work was Tuesday and I won't go back until Tuesday because we have Monday off for MLK day. It's a shame that I don't feel good while getting a break from work.

... something I no longer have. I'm not the nicest person in the world to deal with when I'm not pregnant, but these days I just want to rip the head off of every customer that I have to deal with. Not to say that I am a mean, horrible bitch on a normal basis, but I simply don't have a lot of patience with stupid people (something you need when you are a customer service rep) and it's just my luck that most people I talk to are at the top of the list of absolute morons. I wish I had more FMLA time available without ruining my maternity leave because I would love to just take the next month off work. It would probably be in everyone's best interest if I did.

I have become a Facebook addict. I don't know when this happened. I've had a Facebook account for over a year and rarely ever did anything with it. Now I can't stay off it.

With 48 days remaining until my due date... I have to look for some humor in all of this.

My parents are leaving to go back to Florida today for the rest of the winter. Well, my mom is going to come back the end of next month when I'm ready to give birth to her next granddaughter, but I'm still sad that they're leaving. I love my parents and I love having them close by. We live less than 2 miles from each other in the same city. At least I get to take them to the airport (since I took another mental health day) and give them lots of hugs before they go.

My children:

My 32.5 week belly:

Just over 7 weeks to go! Here is my prediction for this baby's arrival/stats:

Date of Birth: 02/28/09 (due date is 02/27/09)
Time of Birth: 4:23 AM
Weight: 7 lbs 9 ounces
Length: 22 inches

My 1st (and 2nd) meme of 2009! My lovely friend, Lydia, over at On The Verge tagged me twice because.. well, she was tagged twice.

The first tag is to open my photo folder to you all. Here are the official rules:

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder and then pick the 6th Picture.
3. Post it on your bloggy and tell the story that goes with the picture.
4. Tag 5 other glorious peoples to do the same thing and leave a comment on their bloggy tellin’ them ’bout it.

Gabrielle, my beautiful 2 year old daughter, showing off her birthday gift from another toddler on my November 2006 birth board (yes, I am still very good friends with all of the ladies and the babies after nearly 3 years). We had a 2nd birthday exchange and this is one of the gifts she got from her friend on the board. She loves that Dora Doodle Pro!

In the second meme, Lydia wants me to share 7 random things about myself. Here they are:

1) I despise my job even though we live fairly comfortably on my salary
(and I should just be happy I have a damn job with the way things are)

2) I am considering buying a Sangria Red Sony Vaio (even though I'm a Mac girl)

3) I am addicted to shoes, handbags and purchasing candles from Partylite

4) I am thirty-five years old and have never been stung by a bee
(or wasp or hornet or any other freaky flying thing)

5) I'm excited for my husband to start school this month!

6) I'm eating a Yoplait Light Fat Free Boston Cream Pie yogurt for breakfast

7) I crave Peppermint Mocha Twist Latte's from Starbucks on a daily basis

Ok, so I am going to pass both of these on to the following:

01. Uncle Vito
02. Kara
03. Jill
04. Scary Mommy
05. Meesh

I am exhausted! It's been nothing but back to back calls all day long. It's 5 pm and the calls are finally slowing down. Hopefully it's fairly quiet the rest of the evening. Of course nothing is working correctly today either. It's been a shit work week. I hope these issues get fixed soon because I can't take much more of this.

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had a fun and safe night last night. We didn't do much of anything. We transferred all of my files (pictures, music, documents, etc) to my husband's computer because I was actually running out of space and my computer was acting really funky so we reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled Mac OS X 10.4.11, ran updates, reinstalled a bunch of programs that I had on here and downloaded some new ones. My computer is happy now and so am I.

.. and I'm at work. Blah. Luckily it's been quiet so far *knock on wood*. I haven't had one call in the 46 minutes I've been logged in. I hear other people starting to take calls so I'm sure they are on their way. I'm actually hoping that it stays fairly quiet and they start sending people home. That doesn't mean that I will get picked to leave, but I can hope.

I hope everyone out there has a safe and happy New Years Eve.

Work really sucks lately. Now we have a whole new variety of computer issues today. Is it Wednesday night yet? I have to work from 8 to 4:30 tomorrow and then I'm off until Friday, but I do have to work Saturday.. blah. Heck I have to work three Saturday's this month. The 3rd, the 10th and the 31st! I got the short end of the stick here, don't you think?

I am in hell. Actually, I'm at work, but it might as well be hell. Nothing is working correctly today. Our computer system is screwed and calls are either not coming through or they are going to the wrong department or we are getting locked out of the system. This totally sucks! I'm getting yelled at left and right by customers because, of course, it's all my fault that this shit doesn't work. Why did I come to work today?? Oh, yeah.. because I need the money.

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope everyone out there did as well. I have to admit, I'm glad it's over. Jeremy and I have decided that we're going to slowly shop throughout the year for Christmas instead of waiting until the end. It will make it much easier on us that way.

I'm enjoying having a 4-day weekend. My oldest son is here and he made me watch the dumbest movie with him last night - Walk Hard. It's a "spoof" of Walk The Line and it was HORRIBLE. He thinks it's a funny movie. That just shows you the difference between a 35 year old woman and an 18 year old guy. =)

I think I'm going through a "nesting" phase. I've been cleaning since yesterday and haven't been able to stop. I've done the dishes about a dozen times, cleaned nearly every room and done every bit of laundry there was to be done. I figured I would take a small break and write something here since it's been a while. I'm enjoying a nice cup of coffee in my new Dean & Deluca coffee mug that my sister-in-law bought me when she was in New York. I've always wanted something from Dean & Deluca! I put a half piece of Ghiradelli Peppermint Bark in my cup so now it almost tastes like a peppermint mocha twist from Starbucks. Yum.

Netflix is freaking awesome! They ship so fast! We put one of the movies we had watched in our mailbox on Thursday and at 7:30 the following morning they sent an email saying they received it and were shipping out our next title. I wasn't expecting it to be so wonderful. We had signed up for GameFly several months ago and it was very disappointing. We canceled our account when we signed up for Netflix. GameFly is similar to Netflix, but they have video games instead of movies. It took forever for them to receive things and send out a new game. We also never got anything new because they were out of stock within minutes of the release. This is so much better. It's the best seventeen dollars I've ever spent.

I can't believe there are only six days until Christmas! I still have a few items to pick up and lots of stocking stuffers as well. And then there is the wrapping that needs to get done too. Yikes! I really need to wrap presents this weekend while Evan is at his dad's. I guess that will be my job on Sunday. Notice how I put it off until the last possible day of the weekend? Spoken like a true pregnant women with ten weeks left before the baby's due date. I'm am so ready for this baby to get here. I'm looking forward to getting my body back. Right now I feel like a human jungle gym.

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I wrote anything here. I've just been too tired to care, I guess. It's a snow day today. There are over 600 schools closed in the Metro Detroit area. Winter break started a day early. I am taking the day off as well. I am sick with a bad cough and horrible headache and I really don't feel like dealing with the foot of snow out there, let alone the annoying customers that call.

I am so tired these days. The third trimester is really kicking my ass. I can barely make it through a day without needing to rest. We went to my husband's grandpa's house today to help decorate his house and have lunch. There was so much food and candy and cake. I ate too much and then wanted to pass out. We got home a few hours ago and I needed to take a small nap before making it through the rest of my evening. I can't wait until this baby gets here. I'm tired of being pregnant and uncomfortable and tired. I am aware that once the baby gets here the fatigue will get worse before it gets better, but at least I won't feel like a whale.

So I finally signed up for Netflix and it's cooler than I even thought it was. Not only do we get 3 movies out at a time, but we can watch movies and tv shows on our computers and through our Xbox 360. Definitely a better deal than renting through the video store. I'm geeked.

Do you ever feel like you live at work? I do. I've had to work far too many Saturdays recently. At least after I leave here today I don't have to work another Saturday until January 3rd. Nearly a month without having to get up at 6am.. plus a 4 day weekend over Christmas.. that will be nice. Please let this day go by quickly!

I haven't been much into writing anything here lately. I've been so busy and so extremely tired lately. Having two Thanksgiving dinners (one Thursday and one Sunday) doesn't help keep my energy level up. Feeding an already-tired pregnant woman a big turkey dinner twice in one week does not promote productivity. I'm already looking forward to my four day weekend at Christmas time and it's still three weeks away.

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful day. Unfortunately I am at work already today. I have to work 8 to 4:30 today and tomorrow. How much does that suck? A lot. I didn't even go to sleep until almost 1am because I was watching The Strangers with my husband and my oldest son, Jamie. I'm going to be so tired by the time I get out of here today - especially since I brought T-day leftovers for lunch.

My favorite thing about the holiday season, aside from spending time with my family, is making Kieflies! We've set the date for about 2 weeks from now. I'm so excited! I love Kieflies and I love spending the day with the women in my family to make them. Kieflie day is one of the best days of the entire year!

I knew that they would never be able to capture the book on screen, but I really didn't think it was going to be THAT bad. I actually regret seeing it. It was horrible and took away from the greatness of the book. I might just have to read the books again. Although... now I'm going to see the badly cast characters from the movie. The only person they cast perfectly was Alice. Oh, and the acting was atrocious. What a disappointment.

The light at the end of the tunnel... my weekend is almost here. I am so excited about going to the movies to see Twilight tomorrow with my mother-in-law!! I only hope there aren't a thousand teenagers in the theater. I'm crossing my fingers that since we are going to such an early show (11 am) that there won't be a ton of them there. A friend went to see it last night at the midnight showing and said she was surrounded by nothing but teenagers and she felt so old and every time a new character would come on screen they would all yell and scream. I am a pregnant, hormonal person dying to see this movie. I dare some teeny-bopper to start screaming throughout my movie experience.

It's almost the weekend! I have so much going on this weekend though so I won't actually be relaxing - which kind of sucks. But I will be going to see Twilight with my mother-in-law on Saturday (woo hoo!) and then shopping with my mom after that. On Sunday I will be taking my daughter to my great-nieces 2nd birthday party (with my mom also) and then a candle party at my mother-in-law's house that evening. It's going to be a fun-filled weekend! I can't wait.

Someone should have warned me not to read the Twilight series while I am pregnant. My hormones must have something to do with the reason I am so depressed about having no more books to read. I am so obsessed with this story and the characters. I know I'm not the only one. I've seen the shirts and calendars and other paraphernalia in stores, but I just can't believe how this series has left me feeling. As much as I love the books, I almost regret reading them because I just can't let it go. Every time I see a trailer for the movie my heart literally stops and I have to gasp for air. That's not normal. This is worse than a break up.

I haven't dropped off the planet. I just haven't had much to write about. I took my time reading Breaking Dawn although it still didn't take me long. I was done with it by Saturday and I have been going through withdrawals ever since. I miss reading the books. I'm sad that it's over. I'm happy with the way things ended. I just wish there was more to read. I really want to see the movie now because at least it's something to hang onto. It sucks that there will be years between each movie though. I'd like to watch the entire story all at once, but I know it would ruin it to try to fit it all into one movie.

My wonderful husband just came home from the grocery store. Yes, I'm happy that our house is filled with food now, but most importantly.. he bought me the 4th book, Breaking Dawn! I won't be getting any sleep tonight.

I'm totally obsessed, I know. I finished Eclipse yesterday and I'm dying to get my hands on Breaking Dawn. I had my husband run to our neighbors while I was still at work yesterday to borrow it, but he had bad news when he emailed me back: she had already loaned it to someone else! I don't know what I'm going to do. I may just have to go out and buy the last book. It will be impossible to wait for that person to return it so I can get my hands on it. My husband calls these books literary crack... and he's not far off. I think I'm going to need a twelve-step program after I finish the final book.

I read New Moon yesterday. The entire book in one day. My husband wasn't thrilled that I blew off the shows piling up on our DVR, but I just couldn't put the book down. Now I have to wait for Eclipse. I am going to go crazy all day with nothing to read! This is seriously starting to become disturbing.

Yesterday was horrible. I had to train someone at work so they were sitting with me all day. It was shear agony. The biggest reason? I couldn't read. I have been sucked into the world of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. I have had the book with me for months and never had the urge to pick it up - no matter how many people begged me to start reading it. "Once you start, you won't be able to stop!" They promised. I finally decided to start reading it Wednesday night because I was bored at work and boy.. were they right. I finished the first book in less than 48 hours and proceeded to beg a co-worker to bring me the 2nd. I was so excited when I walked into work this morning to find it sitting on my desk! These books are like a drug. I've only just begun the 2nd and I'm already afraid of getting to the end of the fourth too quickly. I don't want it to end.

Happy 2nd birthday to my beautiful daughter, Gabrielle.

Her 1st day here:

6 months old:

1 year old:

18 months old:

and now 2 years old today:

More Wordless Wednesday here

My special assignment at work is over and I am now back on my regular team. It has been such an adjustment moving back. I was only gone for five months, but I feel like I am starting all over again. It's the strangest thing. And it's been a very long, busy day. I'm ready for it to be over now.

I've been Boo'd by Lydia over at On The Verge

Here are the deets:

Go to as many of your blog buddies as you want and tell them they have been boo-ed . Have them pick up this picture and add it to their blog and say with the link who boo-ed them . Put the picture in your sidebar if you want so then others know that you have already been boo-ed , if you post lots and it's not on the main page where everyone will see your boo-ed post!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

I've been tagged by a great blogging friend, Jaden, over at The Life and Times of Bendy Ruggles for a fun high school meme. So I am forced to think back a hundred years ago when I was actually in high school and dredge up seven things to share with you all. I hope you still love me when it's over.. and I've tagged you to do the same. =)

01. I went to a Catholic High School
02. It's the same parish my family belongs to now
03. I was a very bad Catholic school girl
04. Although I never skipped school
05. I did show up a few times under the influence
06. I was considered a "burn out" in high school
07. Many of the people who called me a "burn out" back then are now total losers in the real world. I know.. I've run into them along the way. I'm glad I got it out of my system early when I was young and dumb.

Tag... you're it!!

01. Indelibly Blogged
02. Jill @ Maybe Baby
03. Tasha @ Ms. Hot Tamale

and...

04. Lydia @ On The Verge

Have fun, my blogging friends.

I have been trying to catch up on all things I missed while sick over the last week. One thing I neglected to do was acknowledge the blogging awards given to me by Lydia over at On The Verge. She is such an awesome blogger. I look forward to visiting her every day. So.. here are the awards she has bestowed upon me =) I am one lucky girl.

and now I would like to pass them onto other bloggers I love.

01. Michael @ Ceiling Fan
02. Kara @ For The Love Of Blogging
03. Melanie @ Plaid Toaster
04. Teresa @ Scribble Scratch
05. Sarah @ Whoorl
06. Vito @ Uncle Vito
07. Jill @ Scary Mommy

So here is what you do:

1. Slap this baby up on your blog. Don’t be shy.
2. Link to the giver.
3. Nominate up to seven other fab blogs.
4. Post links to those super fly blogs your nominating.
5. Leave messages for your recipients on their blogs…so they can feel as special as you.

Spaghetti night - noodles and oodles of fun! Ahh, to be 2 years old again.

More Wordless Wednesday here

We had such a great time! All the bands were great - except for Panic at the Disco which really disappointed me. I was really looking forward to a great performance by them. They went on stage last and only played 4 songs. The Cab was great, Plain White T's were fantastic and Dashboard Confessional was wonderful as always. I would say the highlight was Plain White T's. They totally rock live and have a fabulous stage presence. I would love to see them again.

Evan was blown away. I asked him if it was what he imagined and he said it was not. I asked if it was better or worse than he expected and he said it was much better. We bought him a Rock Band Live hoody which he is already wearing to school today. It was so much fun sharing that with our son.

I'm back to work today. I still feel so drained. I feel like I could have remained in bed all day today. I'm off again tomorrow because I'm working Saturday. We're going to Ypsilanti for the Rock Band Live show tomorrow evening with Evan. I hope he has a good time at his first concert! I hope I feel better than I do today also. I've been looking forward to seeing Panic at the Disco for a long time now and of course Plain White T's and Dashboard Confessional as well.

So far I've had a great weekend - and it's only just begun. Last night after we put Gabby to bed, my husband, my son and I watched The Hulk. It was such a fantastic movie! They did a great job on it. I didn't see the first movie, but my husband said I wasn't missing anything because it was pretty cheesy. I love family movie night!

I have been tagged by Lydia over at On The Verge. Go on over and read hers and take a moment to say hello. Her blog is fantastic and I am so glad we "met."

Here are the rules:

Seven random things about me:

1. I am 8 years older than my husband.

2. My husband is 8 years older than my oldest son. (obviously his step-son)

3. My oldest son is 8 years older than my youngest son.

4. My youngest son is 8 years older than my daughter.

5. The pattern is being broken with this baby - only 2 yrs between the girls.

6. Even though there are times of struggle in my life, I wouldn't change a thing.

7. I drink far too much Mt. Dew

Tag.. you're it! Consider yourself tagged by Neptunebaby. Tell me 7 random things about yourself. Link to me and pass along the fun.

1. Vito at Uncle Vito

2. Rachael at Antithete

3. Julie at Donahue Happenings

4. Kara at For the love of blogging

5. Tasha at Ms. Hot Tamale

6. Meesh at Meeshalicious

7. Scary Mommy

Aren't these cool custom wine glasses? You can buy them here along with many other great hand-painted items.

More Wordless Wednesday here

It's been a really difficult Monday for me. It started with a headache yesterday and continued to get worse. I hate migraines. I took a migraine pill this morning that my OB doctor prescribed for me, but unfortunately it makes me sick and leaves me feeling ruined for the rest of the day. I still feel horrible - even though my headache isn't as bad as it was this morning. All I have to say is.. this baby better be perfect for putting me through such miserable times throughout the pregnancy. It better sleep through the night from day one and only cry enough to let us know when it needs something. Yeah, right. I can dream, can't I?

I live for coffee so as soon as I heard about the contest that Scary Mommy was running I had to race over and enter her contest. It's the most fabulously caffeinated prize! As I always say.. everything is OK with enough coffee. Head on over for your chance to win!

I've gone Pink for October! Show your support for breast cancer awareness month.

While you're at it...

As unfortunate as it is, I have known several people that have had addictions or disorders. I am quite sure everyone of my readers can say the same thing. It is too common a problem in this world. My own father suffered from alcohol addiction. Unfortunately he never got the help he needed and passed away at an extremely early age. Don't let this happen to someone that you know. There are good places that can offer help and rehabilitation from such afflictions. Cliffside Malibu has a wonderful Alcohol Rehab Center. Had I known about this when I was younger, I would have tried to help my own father.

I have also been in contact with many people who needed to be involved in a Drug Rehab Program. Those are people I came in contact with when I was in my mid twenties. I am not associated with them anymore, but I wish I could pass along this information I have now. Cliffside Malibu has the greatest Drug Treatment Center I have heard about.

If you know anyone that has an addiction to alcohol, drugs or even an eating disorder or suffering from depression, Cliffside Malibu is the place to start. They offer a detox program, individual therapy, group therapy and even alternative medicine. Please don't let someone in your life end up the same way my father did.

I'm so glad it's Friday! I've almost made it through the entire week. One more day of work to get through and then I can enjoy a couple of days at home with my family. Next week this time I will be so excited for my ultrasound that I won't be able to breathe. 7 days and counting!

I got my husband an account at GameFly for our anniversary. It's like Netflix for video games. I only got him the basic package to start (1 game out at a time) and for his birthday I decided to upgrade it. Since he's such a sweet man, he put one of my games at the top of the list and it's on it's way to my house now. As long as it gets here by Friday, this is what I plan to do for the weekend.

Rule of Rose

Don't forget to check out Two With A View

..and even More Wordless Wednesday here

I was full of energy all day today. I spent a few hours cleaning the house and then I made dinner. I haven't wanted to do either of those things in the months that I've been pregnant - and I love to cook. I even colored my hair today. Now I'm pooped and it's 5:30 pm. I'm just going to spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Tomorrow is my wonderful husband's birthday. The big 2-7. Still three years away from turning thirty. I'm so jealous.

I have not been feeling well this week. Today is the first day I came to work and my head is pounding so much that I wish I would have stayed home again. So, anyway.. just wanted to say that I'm still alive.

I mentioned just the other day that making a second, totally unnecessary Sex and the City movie was nothing short of greed and as it turns out.. I was correct.

Here's what Fox News reported:

Well, I did tell you a long time ago that Michael Patrick King thought there would be sequels to Sex and the City: the Movie. Thursday night at the Public Library party for the DVD of the film, he and Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed it. He's off to write the next installment. Both SJP and Kim Cattrall told me they're excited to see what he comes up with. At the same time, Candace Bushnell announced that she's writing a prequel to the ladies' lives, taking them maybe from teen through college years to the time they all met. King told me, quipping, I'm thinking of doing an animated version of them as babies. SJP added, "Let's wring everything we can out of this thing!"

I know I keep harping on this and I don't sound like a very devoted fan, but I truly am a fan and that is why it bothers me so much that they are going through with all of this.

I was up until after one this morning watching the Sex and the City movie and had to get up for work this morning at six-thirty. I am so tired! I don't know how I will make it through this day without passing out at my desk. I brought Twilight to read, but I can't even focus because my eyes are burning. This is going to be one long day.

It was great watching the Sex and the City movie with my husband though. I've waited nearly four months to be able to share the experience with him. He would never admit to watching the show with me and always rolled his eyes when it was on, but he got sucked into every single episode. When I asked if he remembered how the series ended (before we started the movie) he knew better than I had at first. He agrees that they did a perfect job on the movie and thinks it should stop there. There's nothing left of the story to tell. We all want it to live on forever, but television shows aren't meant to and sometimes you just have to let go.

The top two games I'm looking foward to playing

Resident Evil 5

Silent Hill 5

More Wordless Wednesday here

Does anyone remember the world-famous psychic, John Edward? I used to watch him years ago and had forgotten all about him. I didn't think he was on television anymore. Well, I was wrong. I was flipping through the channels last night and found him on the WE Network. This is the 3rd season of his show on this network. I've always found him very interesting. Luckily I caught this season right at the beginning.

I decided to go to his website and see if he was going to be in town any time soon. He isn't here in the Detroit area until October of 2009. Just for the heck of it, I checked to see what the price of two tickets would be and was floored when I found out. For two tickets it costs $366.50! And that doesn't guarantee you a reading with him (if you've ever watched his show you understand why). I wish I had that kind of money to spend because I would really love to have the chance to interact with him.

I love shopping on Etsy! Is anyone else out there a big Etsy fan? I think there are certain things that you can only find on Etsy - like unique hand-painted glasses! I am in love with these hand-painted martini glasses! I have a thing for daisies and well.. martini's too - when I'm not pregnant. They are not like the standard, boring stemmed martini glasses you see in stores either. Oh, and it doesn't stop there! There are a lot of fabulous, unique creations available at UsableArt4U with much more to come in the near future. With the holidays quickly approaching.. you can guess where I will be getting quite a few things that are on my list!

I have been searching for a unique way to get invitations for Gabrielle's second birthday party printed. I'm tired of sending out the same store bought party invitations that everyone else has already seen in the store. My children are special and so should the invitation to celebrate their lives be. That idea also got me thinking about Christmas cards and other cool and unique postcards and invitations.

After several hours of looking for just the right company I found PS Print Printing. They can turn any photograph or image into a custom postcard, greeting card or invitation and it's extremely simple to do too! They are very reasonably priced - which is important to us because we're not loaded with money - for a high quality product. It's not often you run into that. Normally you get what you pay for, but in this case you actually get a good deal for excellent quality.

I think that postcard printing is an awesome idea. I have a lot of friends online with mother's message boards and it would be really nice to be able to send them all a custom postcard of our family photo. I think it would be a very original thing to do and they would probably enjoy sending some of their own. I will definitely be passing on this great find!

It's September already? I can hardly believe it. Evan goes back to school tomorrow - which he's not really looking forward to. I don't know many kids that welcome the end of summer and the beginning of another school year though. He's starting 5th grade. Can you believe it? 5th grade!?! Where has the time gone? This is his last year in Elementary school!

I have a busy September ahead of me. I have a doctor's appointment on the 15th, my wedding anniversary on the 16th, a candle party at my mother-in-law's house on the 21st, my mom's birthday on the 23rd and my husband's birthday on the 28th. This month is going to fly right by.

My 9 year old niece and 21 month old daughter playing outside this afternoon. My son was taking video with his little camcorder so he was trying to stay away from the water. As you can see, my daughter was all about the splashing.

Ah.. there he is. I made him drop in for a quick shot.

Even my husband joined in on the fun.

More Wordless Wednesday here

My youngest son, Evan, is gone for the weekend with my sister on their annual mystery trip weekend. She and my brother-in-law have given my son and their daughter a certificate for a mystery trip the last couple years in a row for Christmas. Then they choose a weekend during the summer to go after my sister finds a very cool place to go. This is where they are going this weekend : 2008 mystery trip (plus a hotel with an indoor water park!). Sounds like so much fun! I wish I was going!!

Jeremy and I have been thinking about where we would like to go on vacation for quite some time now. We have never been on a real vacation together. It's a seriously sad thing don't you think? Sure, we've gone on small family trips such as spending the weekend up north, but nothing really spectacular. With a new baby on the way, I think it’s time we did something about that.

We have always wanted to visit Europe together. I’ve seen so many pictures from so many different people who have been there and I am just dying to go. We have been thinking about what kind of agenda to plan for this vacation. We've decided, among many other things, that we would like to see a few shows while we are away from home and away from children. I found the best ticket hub site in Europe for concert tickets. It took me a while to find a good site and now I would like to share that information with you. The company matches buyers and sellers of concert tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets and more.

My husband and I were going through the site together and found great seats at an unbeatable price for Stereophonics Tickets. Neither one of us has ever seen them live so we agreed that it would be a good show to see.

We also came across another show that we probably wouldn't think to see here in the States, but I think everyone should see Simply Red at some point in their life. Once again Viagogo had the best deal on Simply Red Tickets. You simply can't go wrong with this company! I've never found a better ticket hub site than Viagogo. It's like stumbling upon a ticket paradise.

We even found tickets that I didn't imagine we'd see for sale. I didn't know Barry Manilow was still around, but apparently he's still kicking and touring. Seeing Barry Manilow is not our style, but if anyone else is interested they are selling at an extremely fair price. Check out Barry Manilow Tickets at Viagogo.com.

Do you want to know what else I love about Viagogo? They also have a site for those of us who live in the States. This is quickly becoming my favorite site on the internet and has already been marked at the top of my favorites. I find my husband searching the site several times a day looking for new shows. You definitely want to pay a visit to Viagogo today. I promise you it is well worth your time.

.. had her baby today. They had another boy and named the poor child Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale.

Why can't people name their children nice, semi-normal names?

Gabrielle at 21 months old. Isn't she beautiful?

More Wordless Wednesday here

Well, we had a fabulous three day weekend! Shopping on Saturday was fun and we got everything we need for Evan to go back to school (clothes, no supplies yet - waiting for posting at school). The candle party on Saturday evening was so much fun and I got a lot of great things! I'm having another candle party at the end of October - sort of a Halloween themed party. That should be a lot of fun! On Sunday an old friend of mine, his wife and daughter came over. I hadn't seen him in about 12 years! We all had a fantastic time and look forward to getting together again soon.

Yesterday I went to my 12 week appointment at my OB's office. He couldn't find the baby's heart beat with the doppler, but I already expected that. The same thing happened when I was pregnant with my daughter back in 2006. It's because of my tipped uterus. I'm not worried and the doctor is not worried, but he is still sending me for a 2nd ultrasound on Friday morning just to reassure me that all is well. Hey, I'm not going to turn down an ultrasound. So that is my long weekend in a nut shell. I'm already looking forward to Labor Day weekend so I can have another 3 days off.

... minutes until I can get out of this place for the next three days! Friday's are always the longest day of the week. It drives me nuts. In the last six hours and fifteen minutes I've only handled 8 phone calls. It has been one slow-ass day. Come on eight o'clock!

Here is my three day weekend:

Saturday - Back to school clothes shopping in the morning, clean the house in the afternoon and having a candle party in the evening.

Sunday - Having a long lost friend, his wife and daughter over to visit and have a barbeque.

Monday - Doctor's appointment for me at 9:30 in the morning, orthodontist appointment for Evan at 11:45 and possibly more back to school shopping if needed.

It's Tuesday again which means that Tori & Dean is on tonight, but it's the season finale ALREADY. WTF? Didn't this season just start? I only get a handful of episodes per season? That's so not fair.

My mother-in-law took both of the kids today so my husband and I went out shopping. We went to Target first and bought lots of new things for our house. New cordless phones because our one cordless was ancient and barely held a charge for an hour. We bought a unit that actually came with two phones so we have one in my husband's "man cave" now too. They are very sleek and nice and we love them. We also bought a new floor lamp for the living room and tons of stuff for our main floor bathroom. Then we made our way over to Home Depot and bought a new bathroom sink and medicine cabinet. I can't wait to get those in. Heck, it looks fabulous already with the new shower curtain, rod, hangers and the shelving unit we got. Plus we got matching towels, washcloths, a porcelain garbage can, soap dispenser and cup. I love remodeling and redecorating!

Here is our brand new dining room set:

Savannah Dining Room Collection. This collection includes a counter height dining table and counter stools. Maple hardwood veneer top with walnut inlay. Butterfly leaf table. Counter stools have microfiber cushions.

Regularly $999.00 at Art Van, but it was on clearance for $529.00 and my husband and brother-in-law just picked it up for $300 because it was a floor model.

Last night's episode of Tori & Dean was fabulous! I cried just as I predicted I would, but heck.. these days I cry during commercials. It's the hormones. Anyone who's ever been pregnant or had a pregnant spouse can understand.

Almost half way through the week! I can't wait until the weekend. We're talking about possibly going to IKEA or perhaps somewhere a little more local to look for a new dining room table. The one we have is falling apart and the chair legs are starting to tear up my hardwood floor. It needs to go!

It's Monday once again. Blah. I have to admit that I'm having a slightly better day today than I did either day I was home this past weekend. I was so ill with morning [all day] sickness. I could hardly keep anything down yesterday. I will be so happy when it's done and over with. Hopefully only another couple weeks and I'll be in the clear. I think it ended somewhere between 12 and 14 weeks with Gabby. Sooner is better than later.

I just got an update from my husband. The doctor said he didn't see much on the x-ray, but since she is in so much pain when she tries to stand on it and when it is touched he put a hot pink cast on it for 3 weeks. My poor girl. He said she did really well and that everyone in the doctor's office loved her (of course).

I'm happy it's Friday! But I'm also very unhappy because my poor daughter might have a slight fracture in her leg. My husband is on his way to the orthopedic doctor with her now. Her pediatrician ordered x-rays yesterday afternoon, but wants the orthopedic doctor to look at the x-rays to see if she needs a cast. I can't believe it! She's not even two years old and she might need a cast on her leg. They said it's not uncommon for toddlers to fracture their leg in that spot because their bones are still not fully hardened yet. In fact, there is actually a term "toddler fracture" because of it. My poor baby girl.

I've made it over the hump and I'm on my way to the weekend! I can't wait until tomorrow night. Not that I'm doing anything other than lounging at home, but just to not have to be at work or worry about going to work the next day is the highlight of any day for me.

I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of August. This year is just flying by. My son only has about a month left of summer vacation and then it's back to bed times, early mornings, school buses, homework and tests. Fun, fun.

Well, this isn't recent. It was taken about 6 weeks ago, but here it is...

... adding another Pisces to the party on approximately
February 27th 2009.

More Wordless Wednesday here

I remember years ago when I used to go to costume parties for Halloween. I kind of miss that from time to time. Dressing up and going out was always a lot of fun. Even though we really can’t go out and party much anymore, that doesn’t mean we can’t dress up and have a good time with the holiday. I have no idea what kind of costumes we will get for Halloween this year. I have been trying to come up with something good, but there are so many options these days! It seems nearly impossible to pick just one idea out of the many. There are definitely some very interesting adult costumes these days. I’m sure my husband wouldn’t mind if I decided to buy on of those!

I don’t even know what the kids want to be this year. My son hasn’t been all that creative the last year or two so I would like to help him do something that will really stand out this year. My daughter was adorable in her little pink flamingo costume last year. I hope we can find something just as cute this time around!
I know it’s early, but I am going to start looking now because I can probably get a good deal this far in advance.

Isn’t this a super cute toddler costume?

It’s also perfect for our chilly Halloween weather here in Michigan.

Only at work is it possible to be super busy, but still bored out of your mind. I'm so not thrilled that it's Monday again. I'm counting down the days already until the weekend is here again. As a good friend recently said: It's a shame that we spend much of our time wishing our lives away just to get to the weekend.

I wasn't looking forward to getting up early this morning for work, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was pretty tired and managed to get my butt in bed by 10:30 last night (normally I'm awake until 12:30/1:00 am). I've almost made it to lunch time. I hope the rest of the work day goes by fairly quickly so I can go home and "veg" the rest of the day.

Today has been the total opposite of how I described my work days yesterday. I've been super busy and all of the calls are from really irritating customers that are getting on my last nerve. It's going to be such a long day. I need a nap already and I've only been here for two and a half hours so far.

It's the middle of the week and almost the middle of my work day. It's been so slow around here (at least in my department) that I'm running out of ways to entertain myself this week. Some days I'm happy that I took this temporary assignment because we are so slow and I'm getting paid for chatting with friends and surfing the internet, but other times I just hate being here altogether.

I need to start playing the lotto - it will greatly increase my chances of winning it and then I can stay home and stop bitching about my job.

It's been a while since I went this long without posting something. It's been a rough week. I haven't been feeling well lately. I came home from work early on Wednesday and took Thursday off. Today was a long day back at work, but I'm happy it's over and now I have a 3 day weekend ahead of me so I can relax.

Jeremy and I have been thinking about where we would like to go on vacation for quite some time now. We have never been on a real vacation together. It's a seriously sad thing don't you think? Sure, we've gone on small family trips such as spending the weekend up north, but nothing really spectacular.

We've narrowed it down to the fact that we want to visit Europe. Who wouldn't want to go to Europe? We have also been thinking about what we would like to do on our vacation. We've decided, among many other things, that we would like to see a few shows while we are away from home. I found the best ticket hub site in Europe for concert tickets. It took me a while to find a good site and now I would like to share that information with my readers. The company matches buyers and sellers of concert tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets and more.

My husband and I were going through the site together and found great seats at a great price for Nickelback Tickets. Neither one of us has ever seen Nickelback live so we agreed that it would be a good show to see in Europe.

We also came across another show that we probably wouldn't think to see here in the States, but I think everyone should see Tina Turner at some point in their life. Once again Viagogo had the best deal on Tina Turner Tickets. You simply can't go wrong with this company! I've never found a better ticket hub site than Viagogo. It's like stumbling upon a ticket paradise.

And for the final show, we thought we would take things in a different direction. My husband and I have been to so many music concerts over the years, but we have never been to a comedy show together. Isn't that odd? Well, we're going to remedy that on our vacation. We are going to get Steve Coogan Tickets! He is one hilarious guy and we are really looking forward to seeing his show live instead of watching on television.

Do you want to know what else I love about Viagogo? They also have a site for those of us who live in the States. This is quickly becoming my favorite site on the internet and has already been marked at the top of my favorites. I find my husband searching the site several times a day looking for new shows. You definitely want to pay a visit to Viagogo today. I promise you it is well worth your time.

I despise Mondays. I hate being back at work. I had a miserable weekend because I am sick and now I am having a miserable Monday because .. well.. I'm sick. This day needs to end soon.

Finally.. the work week is almost over. In six hours and twenty-five minutes I will be out of here for the weekend. I've not been feeling well at all and being at work this week has been pure hell. I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. I don't plan on doing much of anything. I know, I sound extremely lazy because I'm always happy to do nothing, but hey.. that's just me.

I really wish the weekend was here already, but at least we're over the hump. Tomorrow is Friday which means I still have eleven hours and 15 minutes of work left from now until my weekend begins. On the bright side, it's better than being back to Monday again.

I can't believe it's only Tuesday! I feel like time isn't moving at all. I'm bored out of my mind at work today and the day is just dragging. It doesn't help that I'm tired, feel like crap and it's a gloomy day outside. I just want to go home, crawl into my pj's and lounge on the couch all day long.

I had such a nice, relaxing, three-day weekend. I didn't feel like it went by fast at all - until today when I had to walk back into work. Blah. And this day is going by so very slow. I miss the weekend already.

It's almost the weekend! This is my last day in hell (at work) until Monday. I'm so excited! I've got one hour behind me; only 7 to go (8 if you include my lunch hour). I hope this day goes by faster than I'm anticipating.

What are your plans for the holiday weekend?

I want to take my son, Evan, to see Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D. I think he will love it!

More Wordless Wednesday here

It's only Tuesday and I am so bored at work. It's not as if we're slow; we've actually been very busy the last two days, but I am still bored out of my mind. There is no challenge here; nothing to hold my interest. Don't get me wrong, I do feel fortunate to have a good paying job with a secure company. With the way the job market is, I know I'm lucky to have what I do. It doesn't change the fact that it's become extremely boring.

Is it Thursday yet? I need the three day weekend.

I can't believe this is the last day of June already. The first six months of this year have flown! Why is it that the older you get, the faster your life passes by? The other day my son told me about something he wanted - a toy, I believe - and I told him to put it on his Christmas list because that is always what I say to him. Then I started thinking about it and he could very well start a Christmas list now because it's not really that far away! That's a scary thought.

It's rainy and gloomy outside today - the perfect day to be lazy. I don't plan on doing anything today. I did, however, get up extremely early today. I was so tired last night and there wasn't anything good to watch on television so I went to bed at 11pm. I woke up at 7am this morning and have been up ever since. It's strange, I've been waking up at 7am every day for the past week. Until this morning, I just closed my eyes and went back to bed. It was kind of nice being up before everyone else today though. I put on a pot of coffee and sat quietly surfing the internet.

Oh, and last night we sat down as a family and watched Bee Movie. It was so cute! We all enjoyed it a lot. It was well worth the four dollars to rent it. I love having a family night and spending quality time together. Last weekend we watched Yours, Mine and Ours. That was cute too, but not as good as Bee Movie.

I stayed up way too late last night watching television. I just couldn't bring myself to shut it off and go to bed. I was watching CSI re-runs and then What Not To Wear. I think I finally shut the television off a bit after midnight, fell asleep around twelve-thirty and then my daughter woke up crying at one-thirty. I didn't need to go into her room, but she still woke me up and it took me a little while to fall back asleep. So, the alarm going off at six this morning was not a pleasant experience for me. I'm going to be ready for a nap by lunch!

I inherited the love of gambling from my biological father. I've only been to a Casino a handful of times because I don't want to get myself into trouble, but I do like to pretend I'm sitting at the Blackjack table with a little online gambling now and then. I recently found a fabulous website for online Casino reports, gambling news and free online games (something safe for me). It's a very reputable site, not like the one's you find out about by opening your spam folder. It's a one-stop shop for anyone who loves to play Casino games as much as I do. My husband even gets enjoyment from it even though he's not as hard-core about it as I am. He likes watching Poker on television more than actual playing.

Online Casino Reports gives you the ability to watch gambling news and reviews in rich video format. It allows you to see the week's headlines, upcoming events (which is what my husband really likes) and even gambling tips for players like me! Take a look at the following review of 888 Casino.

I can find out everything I want to know about the gambling community online by visiting Online Casino Reports. Just one click on my favorites and the the gambling world is at my fingertips. It's the best online casino guide I have ever come across in all of my time on the web. One of the great things about the site is that you don't have to sit there and read and feel like you're alone. It's an actual community of people that you can talk to in the forums. You can discuss all of the latest recommended items and even read personal blogs.

No need to worry about whether or not something is legal in the online gambling world. Online Casino Reports has a wonderfully informative School and Guides section that tells you everything you need to know about gambling legality. All of the bases are covered on just one information packed website! It couldn't get any more convenient than that.

If you're looking for the best jackpots on the web, look no further. Online Casino Reports has a free service available to you that tracks the best online casino, poker room, bingo and sport betting bonuses on the web. They've implemented real time algorithms that scan the web and find the highest jackpots, best casino promotions , casino and poker reviews and other attractive information. You can't go wrong with this site! They're out there working to make it easy for you.

It has been a lovely day off so far. I slept until nine-thirty and have been lounging around for the last two hours. I do have to get in the shower soon though because my mother-in-law is stopping by. I also have some running around to do this afternoon and then dinner at 6pm for the June birthday people in our family.

In eight hours I will be home from work and happy that I have tomorrow off. I have to work Saturday so it's not really the weekend, but close enough. I love days off. I really hope this day goes by pretty fast. My fingers are crossed. I want nothing more than to get home to my family.

We have been so busy at work this week that I haven't had much time to do anything else except work. I hate being that busy. I feel like I have no time to catch my breath. One call after another after another. It's slightly irritating. I enjoy having my time to surf the internet and do all sorts of non work related things while I'm getting paid to work. Heh. I can't wait until tomorrow night when I can leave here and not worry about having to get up with an alarm clock on Friday.

My new favorite television show - Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood

more wordless wednesday here

Tori & Dean is on tonight! This has been one long week. I feel like it was two weeks ago that I was watching it instead of only one. Heck, this day alone is dragging on forever. I'm tired and I don't want to be at work today. I need a vacation; some serious time away from work. Unfortunately I won't be getting that any time soon. I used up all my vacation time for the year already. I have no will power.

That had to be the shortest weekend ever! I feel like it didn't really happen it was over so fast. I have this Friday and Sunday off and I have to work Saturday, but then the next weekend I get a three day holiday weekend. I am so looking forward to that!

In other news, our pool is worthless. It's one of those pools that has the inflatable ring at the top and you fill it and it raises. It was about 3 feet deep. Not much, but enough for us and the kids to swim around in and enjoy. Unfortunately, there was a hole in the ring and we thought we found it and patched it, but apparently there is another hole that we just could not find. So, every morning when we would wake up the ring would be deflated and half the water would be gone. It's all very depressing (as will my water bill when it comes). I'm hoping we'll be able to buy one soon. They have them on sale at Dunham's Sporting Goods for $200 and it's actually a bigger pool. It would be silly not to spend the money now since we already spent $150 on things for the pool; a vacuum, skimmer, cover, etc. Fingers crossed.

Hooray! It's Friday!! I can't believe I've almost made it through this week. It's been like a trip through Hell. I can't wait until the fourth of July weekend so I can get an extra day off. I have no plans for this weekend. I just want to relax and enjoy every moment of my time away from work. Hopefully we'll get the pool back up and running for this weekend. We've had some really irritating pool issues this week. I'm going to be really upset if we have to take it down. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll finally get it fixed for good this weekend.

Last night I colored my hair from a very light color (strawberry blondish) to a deep auburn red (like the girl on the right side of the banner over at Two With A View) and only one person at work noticed. There's no love here. What's amusing is that for the past several months people constantly asked if I kept lightening my hair and I hadn't colored it or lightened it at all, but I make a drastic change and no one pays any attention. Whatever. At least my husband loves me.

I just read that Tori Spelling's beloved Pug, Mimi LaRue, died yesterday. How sad! I just started to love that dog while becoming addicted to their show. Poor Tori. I know how hard it is to lose a pet. It's like losing a member of the family.

Thanks to Perez Hilton advertising the show on his site, I watched Tori & Dean (Tori Spelling and her husband's reality show) last night on the Oxygen channel. I didn't know it was season three. I caught up a bit watching the reruns of the previous season prior to the premier and now I am totally addicted to the show! I can't wait to see next weeks episode!

My pretty little girl

Don't forget to check out my other Wordless Wednesday at Two With A View to see my handsome son.

More Wordless Wednesday here

There won't be any swimming going on at my house most of this week. The temperature has dropped to the mid-sixties for the better part of this week and there is quite a bit of rain predicted as well. My poor kids and niece. They were so looking forward to spending a lot of time in the pool. Sure, they have the whole summer, but I still feel bad. It's supposed to get back into the eighties by the weekend. I hope that actually happens.

This has turned into a very long Monday. I can't believe it's only ten minutes before five. It would be nice if I was leaving work in ten minutes, but lucky me... I get to be here until eight. I love being able to sleep in, but sometimes I hate not being able to leave at five. I wish I could work from 11 to 5 and still get paid the same salary. That would be lovely.

The weather channel is predicting scattered showers and thunderstorms all week, but so far today it's been nice and sunny. That makes it even worse being at work. I would love to be at home right now with my bathing suit on. Is it Friday yet? Heh.

We had a fabulous Father's day weekend. It's a shame that I'm sitting back at my desk again, but I did really enjoy myself over the weekend. Our Mexican theme dinner was a total success yesterday. I'm actually still stuffed. I love spending time with my family. There's nothing better in life than having a family that you love and enjoy being with. I'm a very fortunate person.

Well, I got to work on my tan for a little bit today and jump in the pool once. Now it's starting to storm outside so we had to cover the pool and head inside. We're having a Mexican theme dinner for Father's day today. My sister and brother-in-law are coming over this afternoon and my mom is also coming for dinner. Our dad won't be here though because he is gone for the weekend fishing with his buddies. My in-laws might come over, but haven't heard from them yet. For dinner I'm making chicken quesadillas and quacamole with chips and salsa and my sister is going to bring her taco bake. Mmm, mmm good. I can't wait.

Well, I'm over the half way mark for the day. In less than four hours I will be done with this work week! Thank the Lord. I don't know why I am so cranky today, but I know I will feel much better once I get home and am able to relax with my family for the evening. Having two alarm-free mornings over the weekend is sounding really good too.

How are you spending your weekend?

I was in a good mood this morning. I walked into work with a spring in my step because I was so happy that it's Friday. But my day is turning to shit. I've had calls transferred to me that shouldn't have been and strange customers on the phone today. Grrr. I've tried not to let these people bother me, but a person can only take so much. I just need this work week to end!

Deep, cleansing breaths.....

Has it been a rough week for anyone else? I swear I feel like I've been on the go without a moments rest this week. I've gotten a good amount of sleep each night, but I feel like that is all I have been doing - work, run around, sleep - all week long. Enough is enough. Time for some rest and relaxation. Sure, gardening is still work, but at least it will be in my yard with my husband and children close by. I'm tired of hearing my kids say "bye mom" all the time. Heck, even when I'm not leaving the house my daughter says "bye mama" every time I stand up to go into another room. That's bad. It's a shame that people have to work so hard these days and spend so little time with family. It's just wrong.

It's finally Friday! Woo hoo! I don't even care that it's Friday the 13th. I'm not superstitious so it doesn't matter to me. Although, our computer system was down this morning. Heh. That was due to the thunderstorm, not the date. Unfortunately they got it working again. It would be nice to have an extra day off though, wouldn't it? I hope it's nice the rest of the weekend because we plan to get a lot of yard work done over the next two days.

I have not had a call in over an hour and I am bored out of my mind. I shouldn't be complaining because at least I'm not dealing with any irrate customers, but man am I ready to get the heck out of here. I still have two hours and fifty minutes left of the work day though. Blah. Is it Friday yet? Please, please, please can it just be Friday now?

My oldest son, the graduate! Doesn't he look handsome in his cap and gown?

Don't forget to check out Two With A View for my other Wordless Wednesday photo.

More Wordless Wednesday here

This has been one helluva week already and it's only Tuesday. I'm really going to enjoy the upcoming weekend after a week like this. I can't believe how slammed I've been at work. It's truly exhausting. I'm so happy that I have both Saturday and Sunday off this weekend and next. I'm going to cherish every moment I'm away from work.

It's hard to believe it's Monday again. I didn't really get much of a weekend and I'm kind of bummed. At least I have the next two weekends off. I hope it's warm and sunny so we can enjoy that pool. The kids are addicted. We took Gabby in it yesterday and even though she was cold (because we had just filled it) and her bottom lip was quivering she did not want to get out. It's going to be a fun summer! Maybe I'll have a better tan that I normally do since I'll be pool side on my deck half the summer.

I hear people talk about Craigslist all the time, but had never gone to the site. Today, since I'm at work and have plenty of time to surf the internet, I decided to check it out. I've been on the site for over an hour now and have found all sorts of things for sale (and free) in my local area. It's like garage sale hopping without leaving the house. There are some really good deals out there too! Does anyone else buy or sell on Craigslist?

It's Friday, but it sure doesn't feel like it to me. I have to work tomorrow and I had an odd schedule this week so I am completely off. I had Sunday and Monday off, then only worked 3.5 hours on Tuesday so it sort of feels like Thursday to me.

I'm hoping we can get our pool going this weekend because it is hotter than hell here in Michigan right now! I'm looking forward to having a pool this summer. I'm also glad that we have central air conditioning and that I work inside with air conditioning. I couldn't imagine working outside or in a machine shop in these temperatures.

Let's go Red Wings! and they did. It was an intense game all the way down to the last second, but we did it! Another Stanley Cup win for our team. It would have been nice if they won it here at home, but I'm happy they won.

Oh, and how could I forget that Henrik Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP! Go Zetterberg! You rock!

The graduation ceremony was wonderful last night. I'm so proud of my son. I got some pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet. The pictures on the stage didn't come out so well - a bit dark, but maybe I can lighten them and make them look alright. We got some good pictures of family outside of the auditorium though so I will post them once I get them off my camera. We all went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's after the ceremony and had a great time. It was a perfect night.

My beautiful girl...

More Wordless Wednesday here

Can you believe this game? Going into a third OT now! If Zetterberg would have just shot the puck down the ice in that last minute we would have celebrated the Stanley Cup win and been to bed by now, but nooooo... I'm having a heart attack waiting for yet another OT at twenty five minutes past midnight.

It's been a long, hard week, but I made it through and my weekend is finally here. I have today and tomorrow off and then a half day on Tuesday because my oldest son's graduation is on Tuesday evening. Woo hoo! I'm so proud of him. Jeremy is out in the back yard for most of the day today rotatilling and getting the back yard ready for greatness. Well, maybe not greatness, but a good start anyway. My mother-in-law is coming over to visit today and my aunt is stopping by too. I'm hoping my sister and brother-in-law are coming too and we can BBQ some good food for dinner.

I wasn't able to watch the hockey game last night, but Go Wings! I knew they would win it. They'll win the Stanley Cup next game here at home too. Mark my words!

Yeah, I'm at work. I don't want to be here, but I am. Let's hope this day goes by quickly, eh?

Anyone else feel like the Red Wings totally threw the game last night? That was one intense game and I'm highly disappointed with the ending score, but hey.. it's only one game. I think they purposely lost so that the Stanley Cup will be won here in Detroit. Then all the local restaurants can profit from our victory as well. It's all about the money.

If anyone read the post about Addison the other day and said a little prayer... thank you so much! I received an update from my friend today and here is the most important part of that email:

The doctors believe with medication and careful monitoring, she will outgrow this when the antibodies eventually pass through her (hopefully in about 8 weeks or so). Until then, she is on thyroid medication and we are trying to get her levels stable enough to go home and be treated as an outpatient. The NICU doctors think that this whole process could take about two weeks in the NICU. This was not music to my ears to hear that my baby couldn't come home and wouldn't for two weeks. But the Lord is healing her with the help of an amazing NICU staff and that is quite comforting. So for the next two weeks, my days will be spent there with Addison.

I am very hopeful that things will be OK! Please keep those prayers coming, folks. You gotta have faith!!

A friend of mine recently gave birth to her 2nd child - a baby girl. Her first child - a baby boy - died 2 short hours after he was born. We were both due the same month when I was pregnant with Gabby. The reason for his death was a thyroid issue that they had no idea was affecting him in utero. It's been a very sad 19 months. The doctors were very careful this time around and her daughter, Addison, was born perfectly healthy this past Friday. She is absolutely beautiful! Today she is 4 days old and her blood pressure has gone up, her thyroid levels have elevated and she is steadily losing weight. The doctors think it's just her body reacting to the thyroid antibodies that were passed to her in the womb. They admitted her to the NICU this morning and are hoping that it's something that can be controlled with medication at this point and that things will level out. This has got to be very scary for my friend, her husband and their family. I have been praying my heart out ever since finding out she was pregnant again and I haven't stopped. If you pray, please say a prayer for little Addison today.

Well, I've completely caught up on my "celebrity juice" after being away for the long weekend. Now I'm completely bored at work and still have an hour to go. I'm going to go catch up on my blogroll now. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend!

We had a great weekend! Well, other than yesterday because I was sick with some sort of stomach bug. Friday was good. My husband and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster and then went to see the new Indiana Jones movie which was fantastic. Saturday we picked up the kids around noon and headed to Saginaw to spend most of the weekend at my father-in-law's house. We had a fabulous time. The kids were covered in sunblock, but my husband and I are a bit red. It's better than being whiter than white though. I wish I hadn't been sick yesterday, but at least it's over. I feel better today. Still a little weak, but better.

I'm a bad, bad girl. We had Cottage Inn pizza at our work meeting today. I had three pieces of pizza, a breadstick and salad. I'm so full right now - four and a half hours later - that I can't think straight. Why did I do that to myself? I need a nap.

I was recently introduced to Red Heron by my mother-in-law. I didn't know red wine could taste so good. I had been trying out several different reds over the last couple of weeks and have enjoyed many of them, but this one really takes the cake. It's made by St. Julians Winery - which is right here in our own state of Michigan! The website is located here. I have been wanting a bottle ever since I had a glass at my mother-in-law's candle party on Saturday night. I don't think I can fight the craving any more. It is so incredibly delicious I may have to stop for a bottle on my way home from work.

I have no idea what White Heron or Blue Heron tastes like, but I don't like white wines anyway. That's my love down there on the left side. Isn't it beautiful? Heh.

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I have been so cranky all day. This is the worst hump day. I can't stand a single person I come in contact with. Well, at work, not at home. Although I did yell at my son before leaving the house on my lunch break for having to sign in for a missing assignment. I'm so tired of hearing "I don't know what happened" when I ask why he couldn't find an assignment or why he got into trouble or whatever the case may be. This day seriously needs to end - with a bottle of Red Heron. Unfortunately I still have three hours and fifty minutes left of my work day. I may start crying any moment. I really need this long holiday weekend coming up!

It's out for delivery! I can't wait to spend an entire day playing games on it. As my sister said in an email this morning, I'll have all day Monday to play with my new toy! Thank God for holiday weekends.

More Wordless Wednesday here

I am a total nut when I have a shipment coming in from an online order. I can't help but check the tracking number repeatedly throughout each day until the item gets here. My point.... our Xbox 360 should be here tomorrow! I'm going to have to run out and rent some new video games!! Dead Rising here I come.

It's ten thirty at night and my husband is outside in the dark changing the oil in my car. It needed it badly. He also put two new front tires on it for me. I still have to take it in to get them balanced and to get a front end alignment, but for now it will be better (and safer) than the tires I had on it. They over stayed their welcome for sure. I wish I would have done it sooner, but sometimes it's hard to fit things in. Since we are going away this weekend and have a several hour drive each way, we wanted to make sure all things were good on my car. I can't wait until the weekend gets here!

I'm so tired of being at work and it's only fifteen minutes past six. Another hour and forty-five minutes of dealing with annoying customers. I know.. I'm not very nice. I can't help it. It's been one idiot after another today and I'm ready for it to end for the evening. I'm much more chipper in the morning before I've been exposed to an over abundance of stupidity. Is it Friday yet?

It's only twenty minutes after one and I am already tired. We have been so busy at work that I can't even get a break between calls. Where do all these people come from? It amazes me that so many people call in every day. Do they have nothing better to do than call their insurance company? Sigh. I wish it was Friday.

Today is going to be a very long day. I'm working from 8am to 8pm. Fun, fun. It's not as bad as I anticipated though because they actually adjusted my schedule to give me 3 breaks and a lunch to make up for the extra hours I'm working. They normally don't do that. Usually when I work OT they pile the extra hours on top of my already planned schedule and I have to wait 5 hours for my first break. I'm so glad they changed it. That will definitely make it easier to get through the day. Although, my lunch is at 12:15 and I'm used to going to lunch around 3pm. I can't complain though. At least I don't have to wait until 1:30 pm for my first break.

It's been a pretty good weekend. I really enjoyed going to church with my mom and sister and then we had a good time at the candle party at my mother-in-law's house on Saturday night. I got a lot of great stuff. I can't wait until it gets here. Today wasn't as relaxing as I'd hoped, but it has been sort of "blah" kind of day. I'm already bummed that tomorrow is Monday. I am working a twelve hour day. I volunteered for it because it's three hours of over time, but I'm still not looking forward to it. What I am looking forward to is next weekend. I get to have a "date" with my husband on Friday night and then we're taking off for the three day holiday weekend with the kids. I hope the week goes by fast.

On a day-to-day basis I am a pretty tame person. Sometimes it's nice to spice things up though. My husband and I are going out on a "date" next Friday. Our kids are going to spend the night at my mother-in-laws house so we are going to go out to dinner and a movie. After that we will have the house to ourselves for once. Having no kids in the house equals time to get a little crazy. I've been shopping for a little something special to wear that evening. Perhaps a leather corset would be nice. I think my husband will be thrilled. I don't know what man would not enjoy his wife buying something leather to wear for him from time to time. We're going to have a good time. I can't wait until next weekend!

Leather Obsession is a great place to find anything you need to spice up your special times. And for you men out there that are looking for a gift, they even wrap your purchase in gold tissue paper and a glossy black box. If you're worried about not getting the right size there is no need. They will exchange for size issues at no charge. If for some reason you need to return your item, that is the easiest thing to do with Leather Obsession. They have a 30 day return policy - no questions asked - for a full refund of the purchase price. So what are you waiting for? Get shopping! There is a huge selection of fun things that you girl will love - and so will you.

This evening is going by way too slow. Why do Friday's seem so long? It drives me crazy. I don't want to talk to any more customers. I just want to go home and enjoy my evening. Is that too much to ask for?

Tick... tick... tick...

One hour and nineteen minutes to go....

This evening is going by way too slow. Why do Friday's seem so long? It drives me crazy. I don't want to talk to any more customers. I just want to go home and enjoy my evening. Is that too much to ask for?

Tick... tick... tick...

One hour and nineteen minutes to go....

I'm so happy it's Friday! Sure, I'm at work right now, but it's still the beginning of the weekend. My husband is taking our son to the movies tonight to see Iron Man. I'm sure they are going to have loads of fun. Once my daughter is in bed for the night, I will actually get some "me" time - silence in the house is what I'm looking forward too. A little computer time, maybe a little red wine, a little music. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Our Stimulus payment was deposited into our checking account this morning and we've already made the first purchase -- an Xbox 360. We'll call that my husbands early Father's Day gift. The rest of the money will go toward bills and we'll leave a chunk in the bank for safe keeping.

My oldest son's high school graduation is on June 3rd! I'm so proud of him. We are going to get our backyard in shape so we can throw a graduation party for him next month.

Tomorrow I think I will go shopping, get my nails repainted, go to 4:30 Mass with my mom and sister and after church we're heading over to my mother-in-law's house for a candle party. Sunday is my day of rest and I plan on doing absolutely nothing.

Well, dealing with my really long day has been much easier than I expected. Sure I still have an hour and fifteen minutes until I can walk away from my desk, but that is OK. I'm not letting it get me down. Before I know it my break will be upon me and once that is over I will only have 45 minutes until I can leave for the night. And we all know what tomorrow is -- Friday!!!

Tomorrow is Friday. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the long-ass work week. Today is payday so that is always good. It's beautiful outside today which puts me in a good mood too. The only thing I am slightly disappointed about today is my schedule at work. I have a meeting from 2:45 until 4:30 so they have me scheduled for a 1pm lunch and then I don't get a break until 7pm. The people that make up these schedules really must not care what they are doing. Why would I want to go to lunch only two hours after I get here? And then I can't get away from work until an hour before I leave? How freaking stupid. I asked my boss to submit a request to have it changed to a 1pm break and then my lunch hour after the meeting, but so far it hasn't been changed. I'm so bummed. It's going to make for a really long day.

And now they are just teasing me. I had an alert pop up stating that my schedule had been changed, but they were just adjusting my times for tomorrow. Grrrr.

It's almost Friday. It's almost Friday. It's almost Friday.

I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

It's hump day! I'm nearly half way through the work week - thank God. This has been a shit week and I'm desperately looking forward to the weekend. I'm super tired today. My daughter decided that she wanted to get up and play at about 11:30 last night. I don't think I went to bed until about 1am. Between the lack of sleep and still trying to get over the viral infection I had last week, my butt feels royally kicked today.

Well, I guess this week is just going to be a bad news type of week. I just got to work and found out that a girl that works here died last night. Everyone is crying and there are going to be grief counselors here. I knew her. Not well, but I knew her. She was extremely nice.. always smiling, always saying hello to everyone. It's very sad.

It's only the second day of the week and already it sucks. I've gotten bad news both days so far. I'm too "blah" right now to even go into detail, but yeah... this week totally sucks. I just want to go home, climb into bed and forget about it all. Is it Friday yet?

OK, a few minutes ago something crossed my mind that I wanted to write here, but by the time I got off the phone with my customer and opened MT to start writing, I lost what I wanted to say. I have absolutely no stinking idea what it was about. I think it was something good too because I feel really disappointed that I can't remember. Is that crazy or what? Apparently I've taken too many drugs for this viral infection because I have completely lost my mind.

On a brighter note... an email just went out a few minutes ago saying that there are several Chicken Ceasar wraps from our cafeteria -which are the best things in the world- left over from a recent meeting. Yum. I was on the phone, but had one of my favorite co-workers grab one for me!

Thank you all for your well wishes. I am feeling better today. Still hacking my lungs up, but at least I feel better. I got a good amount of sleep last night and woke up feeling like a different person. I am definitely not back to one hundred percent, but I feel like my body is trying to reach for it. Good stuff.

Also... happy Friday!

I am really looking forward to getting our Stimulus rebate check. I would have already gotten it, but we didn't file our taxes until around April 10th so we didn't fall into the schedule of when they were being deposited. The tax return has to be processed by April 15th, not just filed. I hope we won't have to wait too much longer. We could really use that extra money about now.

My poor daughter is sick and I was up with her all night last night. I thought it was just a simple cold or possibly even allergies, but she wound up with a fever last night. I've been alternating Tylenol and Motrin throughout the night, but the fever keeps coming back strong. I feel like the walking dead today. My eyes are literally burning because I am so tired. I am popping Zicam like crazy and drinking vitamin water because I feel like I am coming down with it too. If I make it through this day without collapsing, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Our upstairs master bedroom is in the process of being remodeled. My brother-in-law and husband have been up there for the past two days. I've already picked the color scheme - even though I know it will be a little while before we're ready to paint and decorate. We're doing two different shades of brown - Harvest Brown and Cozy Cottage; dark and light - and then we are going to trim with Shallow Sea - a lovely shade of blue-green. I think they compliment each other nicely and we will be able to accent it very easily. I can't wait to see it finished!

It turns out it wasn't as difficult as I thought with my kids away for the night. I had a fabulous evening last night. My husband made me a delicious dinner and then we watched Burn Notice and rented One Missed Call. We even had a few drinks. I got through my daughter's first night away from home. It should be smooth sailing from here.

My children are going to my mother-in-laws to spend the night tonight. I'm having major separation anxiety today! I'm not worried about my son. He's ten years old and has spent the night away from home more times than I could ever think of counting. My daughter, on the other hand, has never been away from home overnight. I know she'll be fine, but I still can't help but feel this heartache. It's going to be too strange walking in the door tonight after work and her not being there. I won't see her again until tomorrow evening when I get off work.

After two days of gutting our upstairs bedroom, it's completely cleaned out and ready to be rebuilt. I took pictures from before and now and will continue to take pictures as it progresses. I will most definitely post them here when it's all said and done.

We had a great team meeting and there was a ton of Mexican food. I ate quite a bit, but not so much that I felt overly full. I don't plan on eating again today though. That was my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'll be drinking water the rest of the day. I am, however, extremely tired and in desperate need of a nap! I still have four hours left here at work though so that isn't going to happen. I would trade my left arm for a little snooze though.

I don't mind Thursdays at work because we always have a team meeting. That means an hour off the phone and away from my customers. That's always good. Today we are having a Mexican Theme lunch for our meeting. I made a Mexican Chicken Lasagna which is oh, so good and the best part... it's Weight Watchers.

Here is the recipe:

3 Chicken breast Cooked and Cubed (I broil with Chipotle seasoning)
1 Can Black beans; drained
2 Cups Light sour cream
2 Cups Reduced fat Monterey Jack cheese
4 oz Green Chilies
2 tsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp. pepper
5 Large tortillas cut into strips
1/2 Cup Salsa

* Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray pan with Pam. Mix chicken, beans, sour cream, 1 cup of shredded cheese, chilies, cumin, salsa, and pepper. Mix well and arrange half of the tortillas overlapping in pan. Top with chicken mixture, then tortillas, then chicken again. Sprinkle with 1 Cup of cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

6 WW points per serving

One of my favorite new television shows is Eli Stone with Jonny Lee Miller

More Wordless Wednesday here

My husband and I have not always had the greatest credit. We did things in our past, when we were younger, prior to even knowing each other, that really hurt each of our credit reports. We have since fixed all of those problems over the years and now we get new credit card offers like there is no tomorrow. I am fairly certain that every day in the mail there is a new offer for one of us, if not both. As tempting as it is, I do not want to get in over my head again so I pay very close attention to all credit card reviews. It is so important to know what you are getting into when you sign up for things that have the potential of blemishing your credit report. I don't want to have any further dings on mine or my husbands. That is in the past and we intend to keep it there. I will never be careless with it again. I don't know what everyone else does when it comes to applying for new cards, but if anyone out there has questions about their credit cards or potential future cards, I would look into as much about it as possible. You can never be too cautious.

I've been at work for two hours and have had nothing but problems since I got here. Every call has been a difficult one - people complaining about things they know nothing about, banks calling on behalf of our customer regarding a financial problem, and on and on and on. I'm so ready to go home already. To top it all off, they started sending people home early again. I won't be able to go because I work the latest shift. Blah. Work sucks. I can't wait until the weekend!

I have never been a fan of drinking water. The only water I consumed was what I used to make my coffee with. Well, I bought some Crystal Light (only 5 calories per serving) and now I am drinking a lot of water. I bought the on-the-go packets so I fill a bottle at work and pour one of those in and I'm good to go. I understand that Weight Watchers works much better if you drink a lot of water, so that is my motivation. Plus, I know that drinking water is good for me and I should be doing it anyway.

We love our new bed! It's so nice having a King size bed instead of a Queen. There is so much room in that bed that both kids could crawl into bed with us and we'd hardly notice. It will be even nicer when our upstairs bedroom is done so we can sleep in our room instead of going to the basement to sleep.

I had a candle party yesterday evening. I had such a good time. I hope everyone else did too. I made a bunch of food and bought cream puffs for dessert. I ate way too much, but most of what I made was Weight Watchers so I don't think I went that far over my points. Besides, there are 35 bonus points to be had each week and I rarely use them so having a party was a good reason to do so. I weighed myself at my mom's house yesterday morning and I've lost 16 pounds total since I started; about 2 months ago now, I think. Not bad.

Anyway, I did really good at my party. I ended up getting over $400 worth of Partylite stuff for only $59.00. I can't wait until it gets here! My mother-in-law booked a party from my party so I'll have $50 "fast cash" to spend at her party next month. Fun times.

The lady that sits across from me at work keeps singing, "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't." That will be stuck in my head until next Tuesday, I'm sure.

I feel better today! Not 100% yet, but at least eighty-five. Much better than I have felt over the last week. It is absolutely gorgeous outside too. It's supposed to be seventy degrees out today! It's also pay day so that extra money in my bank account makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

Have a good day. Friday is just around the corner!

I can't believe it is only Wednesday. It's been one helluva week so far. I think I might be getting better, but it's hard to tell because it comes in waves. I left work early again, but I didn't end up leaving until 4:30 today. We were so completely dead at work that management was asking people if they wanted to go home. I, feeling like death, gladly volunteered. I feel a bit better this evening, but still very tired. I hope it's on it's way out now. Is it Friday yet?

It's gorgeous outside! Unfortunately, I still have this flu-like bug and I'm stuck at work for the next 8 hours so I won't be able to enjoy much of it. I spoke to my son's teacher yesterday and she said there is definitely a "bug" going around and it lasts a good week. Her whole family had it last week - which means my son probably carried it home from school with him and gave it to me. Nice. Here are the symptoms: headache, fatigue, nausea. I don't feel like I am going to be sick, but almost wish I could so that perhaps I would feel better.

I am at work and just got an email from my mom telling me that she and my dad put our dog, Kayla, to sleep this morning. She was 14 years old and was not doing well at all. She had been at our house all Winter while my parents were in Florida. I knew it was going to be soon, but it was such a shock to read that email while on the phone with a customer. I stopped talking and forgot what I was saying. It was hard to stop the tears while still on the phone. The man I was talking to probably thinks I'm a total freak. I had to go to the bathroom and let out a good cry after getting off the phone. I'm so sad that my Kayla dog is gone. I know it was the right thing to do for her sake, but it's still a very sad thing. I feel horrible for my mom and dad because they had to take her in to have it done.

Loud children and Blue's Clues blaring from the living room is enough to make anyone wish for nap time. Luckily, it has arrived and now I can spend some time on my computer without high pitched screaming and the word "mom" coming at me from all directions. Heck, I only got up three hours ago and I think I'm ready for a nap.

I wasn't feeling very well last night and went to bed early. I ended up sleeping twelve hours and now I'm not feeling so good again and ready to crawl back into bed. What is wrong with me? I think maybe I'll skip computer time and head for the couch with a pillow and blanket. Perhaps there is a good movie available On Demand that I can watch while I lounge.

I know I've mentioned this a thousand times, but I really hate when I have to work on Saturday. It's far too early for me to be awake, showered and out of my house. On a regular work day I'm still not awake yet! I've been logged in for 12 minutes and not a phone call yet. It would be lovely if the entire day went this way, but I know it won't. We're always busy on Saturdays. It just takes our customers a little longer to get going because normal people are sleeping in today.

It was so nice having three days off! Now I'm back at work and the day is going by so slow. We're having a rock, paper, scissors tournament at work today. How freaking stupid is that? I hope I get my ass kicked in the first round so I don't have to deal with any more than a few humiliating seconds of this nonsense. Fifteen minutes from now I'll be heading down there. Fun, fun. At least I won't be on the phone with a potentially annoying customer.

Update: I got knocked out in the 2nd round. No championship tournament for me next week - thank God.

I was very productive yesterday. I spent most of the day on the go. Today is another story. I have done nothing but lay around. I just woke up from a several hour nap while my daughter napped. It's almost 4pm and I feel like the laziest person ever.

My mini-vacation is now half over. I go back to work on Friday. I'm totally enjoying myself though. I needed this time at home with my family. My son is on break from school and it's nice to actually get more than an hour or so with him each day. It would be nice if we could just win the lottery and not have to deal with work anymore. Oh, yeah.. we'd have to actually play to win though and we just don't waste money on that.

The Channel 4 News truck is down the street again at that house where the guy murdered his parents. It's been days. What are they doing down there again? Maybe they are going to talk about the memorial that the neighbors set up and the flowers all over the porch? Who knows?

I am thrilled. I have the next three days off! My manager pushed through Wednesday for me even though there was no time available so now I don't have to go back to work until Friday. It's been nice already being at home. I slept in, went to the park with my husband and kids this morning, made a delicious lunch and have been working on my computer now for the last couple of hours while my daughter is napping.

A very sad thing happened down the street from my house. Every time I look down the street I feel a horrible twinge in my chest. Yesterday afternoon a 27 year old shot his mom and dad on their front porch from inside the house. Apparently the son was in the middle of a heated argument with his dad and from what I understand, has a history of mental illness. My son was outside in our driveway at the time and heard the shots before running into the house to get my husband. He claims he didn't see anything and thought that perhaps it was fireworks. I thank God for that. The scary thing is that he had raced me down to that corner only a few short moments before it happened. I was going back to work after lunch and he was on the sidewalk trying to "out run" my car. As I turned the corner I sent him back to the house and told him to stay away from the corner because of all the passing cars. Little did I know that had I not sent him back, he would have seen the whole thing and been in harms way. So disturbing.

It was all over the news last night. The street was blocked off for several hours. Even after I got home from work last night the news trucks were down there broadcasting live at the corner of my street. It's such a sad thing. I can't understand why people do the things they do. How could someone kill their own parents? or children? or anyone, for that matter? It just puzzles the hell out of me. It's sad to look down there and see all the flowers and balloons on the porch and the memorial wall that was put up over the boarded up window. To think that yesterday morning those nice folks were alive and well. Today they have people passing by, stopping and leaving flowers because they are gone. Friends and neighbors are crying and wondering how this could happen. The other two kids (daughters) are trying to mourn and pick up the pieces. It's such a tragedy.

I had a fabulous weekend! I went to Twelve Oaks Mall on Saturday to meet up with a handful of the girls from my message board and their toddlers. We had a wonderful time. It was great seeing them in person after sharing so much with them over the last two years! The kids played hard in the play center area. I will have to post pictures at some point this week. Here is one of my daughter that I have with me. She looks so grown up in this picture!

Saturday night I made the most wonderful Chicken Quesadillas and homemade Salsa for dinner. I got the recipe from my favorite Weight Watchers Blog. The salsa recipe is actually in a recipe for Salsa Burgers. It's the best salsa I've ever had - restaurant style! I will be making that again soon. Yesterday my family and I took it easy - lounged around the house all day. We made Shrimp Scampi (WW recipe) for lunch and a salsa meatloaf and baked fries for dinner. It was all very yummy. My husband and I watched several movies this weekend too. I will probably write a review here later today.

I am work now, but I took a vacation day tomorrow and I have Thursday off because I work on Saturday. It'll be nice to work every other day this week (other than Saturday). It's beautiful outside and my son is home this week for "spring break." I'm really looking forward to being at home!

I feel like shit today. I don't know what's wrong. It kind of feels like a stomach bug coming on or something. I'm not sick with a cold. I feel very weak and my stomach feels very blah. I really hope I'm not coming down with something! I am supposed to be meeting a group of girls that I have been talking to online since April of 2006 (a pregnancy message board I joined when I was pregnant with Gabby) tomorrow at noon. Obviously I can't meet them all because we're spread out across the country and some even in different countries, but a bunch of us from Michigan and a few from Ohio are meeting at a mall that has a large play center in it. It will be so much fun meeting them and having our toddlers play together. Cross your fingers that I don't get sick!

I can't wait for this game to come out!

More Wordless Wednesday here

My sister introduced me to Entrecard today and I am completely addicted. I can't stop dropping mine on other blogs! I wasn't so sure about it at first. It seemed very similar to the last widget I put on my blog which did nothing for me and ultimately just pissed me off. After a little more investigating and research, Entrecard seems like a pretty cool set up.

I had such a nice weekend! Saturday I did some shopping at Target and some other running around - getting snacks and alcohol for when my sister and brother-in-law came over Saturday night. We had a great time! Yesterday we all went to church together - both of my sisters and all the kids. Gabby did pretty good considering she doesn't sit still for very long. I'm so glad we went. I got a nap in yesterday afternoon, caught up on some CSI and chatted it up with my friends online. I had one too many cups of coffee throughout the day yesterday though because I could not fall asleep to save my life last night. I think I finally fell asleep at around 2:30 AM and then my daughter was up several times in the middle of the night after that. I'm doing a whole lot of yawning this morning. All in all it was a fabulous weekend though.

Today started out beautifully. It's still cold outside and there is snow on the ground, but the sun is shining and the snow is slowly melting away. I was in a fabulous mood all morning. My customers were even nice. Everything turned around right before lunch. We've been totally slammed on the phones and I've had nothing but idiots to deal with (including some people I work with). I'm not in such a good mood anymore. I'm dying to get out of work so the weekend can begin. Three hours and thirty-nine minutes to go. Lord, help me.

We began with computers that occupied whole rooms, to desktops. In the meanwhile we also received the cell phones wholeheartedly. Then we had laptop computers, and the progress of electronics has not yet ended. Now it is basically altering our present digital cameras.

OK, I decided to get off my butt and do one today - even though the day is almost over. This is an easy one!

Thirteen Things about Neptunebaby Thirteen things I hate about Winter (that won't seem to go away this year) 01. Cold 02. Snow 03. Ice 04. Bad roads 05. Cold 06. Snow 07. Ice 08. Bad roads 09. Cold 10. Snow 11. Ice 12. Bad roads 13. Cold Remember me posting that it was 50 degrees outside yesterday? Well, here is the advisory that just went out: Rain will completely changeover to snow by early evening. Snow will become heavy at times this evening, causing a reduction in visibility. Total accumulations will range from 3 to 6 inches. A snow advisory means that periods of snow will cause primarily travel difficulties. Be prepared for snow covered roads and limited visibility and use caution while driving. Where the F@$% is Spring? Did it get lost on it's way to Michigan?

Are you ready for my latest Weight Watchers update? Please check it out here. I'm very excited about it! I've also posted two sites that I use frequently to help with weight loss. If you're trying to lose weight, I recommend checking both of the sites out.

A few of the kids from Easter.

Once you fall off the dieting wagon it's difficult to climb back on. After having access to all the good food over the holiday weekend, I felt like I was starving all day yesterday. In fact, I was so hungry that I misplaced my willpower and ate fast food! Shame on me. I have to stick to this damn diet. It took me several weeks to get to the point where I was content eating less than the daily points allowed, but only a weekend to screw it all up. Dieting sucks.

Yesterday was the first day of Spring - a season I look forward too for many Winter months. Well, unfortunately, it doesn't feel like Spring to me just yet. It's very cold outside and they are even predicting snow! It's been a rough Winter and it doesn't look like it's ready to give up yet. It's 31 degrees (feels like 24 according to the weather channel) right now and the accumulation of snow is expected to be 3 to 5 inches tonight with continuing snow showers throughout tomorrow morning. This is not cool at all.

I have been a very bad Catholic the last few months. We haven't been to church in months. I've always felt bad about it, but lately I've been feeling extremely bad and I want to back to church desperately. I am sad that I missed Holy Thursday mass last night. It's the first time in several years that I wasn't there. The reason we haven't gone is simply because of laziness and not wanting to deal with Gabby in church. It was easy when she was smaller because one of us could just hold her and she would be OK, but since she started walking we're afraid she'll be all over the place and loud. There's a "cry room" though that we could sit in so there is no excuse for not going. We're going to go on Sunday and I'm going to change my ways and go every week.

Per Vito's request... here are two pictures of my hair from the front.

I'm sorry that they are a little blurry, but my camera batteries were about to die.

So, I finally got a chance to get a picture of my hair cut. I know it's short, but I LOVE it this short. It's so easy to deal with now. I know I said I was going to color it blonde, but I didn't like it and couldn't get it as blonde as I wanted. I did, however, get the black color out of it so now it's a light/medium brown. The lighting in the picture makes it look darker than it really is. Anyway... here it is...

I'll try to get some better pictures of it tomorrow since I'm off work. This one was taken quickly while I was home for lunch today.

I just realized that I haven't posted here since Friday. We had a pretty busy weekend. We got up early on Saturday and made our way to IKEA. We were going to get a new dining room table, but when we got there the one we wanted (and could afford) was not as nice as we thought. So, we took our time walking around looking for nice things to decorate the house with. We got the painting I originally wanted for our living room wall and a few other nice things. We left IKEA and went to Home Depot to spend that gift card from Christmas. We ended up getting new lights for our main floor bathroom and some other things we needed. Once we got home we all (including the kids and my mother-in-law) went to the mall. We shopped for new shoes for the kids and Easter outfits which are so cute! I can't wait to dress them and take pictures. I will definitely post some here. Then we all went to the salon (inside the mall) where I got all of my hair cut off. I'm still getting used to it, but for the most part I like it. I might eventually post a picture here.

This day is going by far slower than I had hoped. I still have four hours left at work. Blah. It would be nice if I didn't get any more phone calls today. I know some people like it busy because it makes the day go by faster, but that isn't the case here. The day goes by just as slowly when I'm busy and I don't get to surf the internet as much.

The fire alarm just went off in our building. How much fun is that? It wasn't a drill, but it was a false alarm. It scared the living daylights out of me. I was talking to a 98 year old man that could hardly muster enough breath for me to hear him speak and then out of no where the fire alarm starts blazing in my ear. That was a whole lot of fun. Too bad the building wasn't on fire. I could use a long weekend.

I'm getting my hair cut this weekend! I figure since I got my bonus check I have no reason not to do it. Here are the "models" for my cut.

The beautiful brit, Agyness Deyn:

And the stunning singer, Pink:

I've been awarded the Blog of the Month award by one of my all time favorite bloggers, Yoshi. As he stated in his post, I'm not sure what the criteria is for this blogging award, but I am going to pass it along to Jenn, Vito and soapbox.Superstar.

I love knowing that Spring will be here soon - especially since we've had such a rough winter with all of this snow, but I hate losing an hour for daylight savings time. I prefer the fall when we gain an hour.

I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that my comments for each entry are at the top of the entry (directly below the title), not at the bottom. I've noticed that many people leave comments on the entry below when they really mean to leave them on the current entry. Just thought I would clarify that for you. Have a good day!

I plan to look like Agyness Deyn by summer -- my goal for this diet.

More Wordless Wednesday here

I don't know what is wrong with me today, but I can't shake this "blah" feeling that is hovering over me. I feel like something is wrong or that I'm depressed about something, but there's nothing for me to be bummed about. It's the strangest thing. I really don't want to be at work today either. I just want to go home, crawl back in my pajamas and watch television all day.

I had such a great time at my sister's candle party last night. Too good, in fact. I'm not much of a drinker anymore, but I had quite a few last night - raspberry rum and orange juice (not much orange juice though). Today has been a lazy, nap taking, not doing much of anything kind of day. I haven't left my pj's and don't plan to until tomorrow morning when I have to get ready for work.

My horrible day at work is finally over and now my weekend can begin. I don't think I've ever been so happy to get out of work before. Almost every call I answered today had an asshole customer on the other end. I'm looking forward to going to my sister's house in a little while for her candle party. Did you see the line up of booze she's got in store for us? I could really use a drink about now.

I don't want to go to work today. I just know it's going to be super busy because it's the first of the month and the whole world will be calling to make their insurance premium payments that are due today. Why do people have to wait until the day the payment is due to call? We have a new phone system that allows people to make their payments without having to talk to an agent, but of course no one knows their account number so they choose the option to speak to an agent. Blah.

I feel like I'm starving today. I would love to just run to the vending machine and grab a bag of fritos or, better yet, run to Wendy's and scarf down a big fat bacon burger and fries. I could, but it would cost me far too many points and that just isn't worth it. I did really good throughout the potluck today. I had mostly veggies and a piece of chicken. I still have 11 points left for the day. I just need to figure out what I want to use them on.

On a happier note... I was able to go home for lunch (not that I ate anything, but I was able to hang out with my husband for a bit) because the main roads have cleared up quite a bit.

Now I just have to get through the next 3.5 hours of work. Hopefully they go by quickly.

It's only two-thirty in the afternoon and I am so tired of being at work already. I feel like I'm in such a funk. I haven't even made it to the half way point yet! My lunch is in 45 minutes, but I doubt that I will be able to go home for lunch today because it's been snowing all day and the roads are not good. This sucks. I hate not being able to go home for lunch. It's going to be a long day for me.

Happy Friday! Well, I have to work tomorrow too so it's not really like a Friday for me, but that's OK. I had a good day off yesterday so I guess it's worth it. Today is going to be a big test for me with the Weight Watchers diet. My team and two others are having a potluck today. There's going to be so much food, but I am going to behave myself. I am going to follow this damn diet if it kills me. I can already tell that I'm losing weight so I'm not going to ruin it.

This whole Weight Watchers thing takes quite a bit of discipline - especially when sitting at home on my day off. But I'm still doing good. Here's what I've had so far today:

Breakfast

2 cups of coffee with creamer = 4 points (2 points each creamer portion, the coffee is 0)
1 banana = 2 points

Lunch

Egg salad on 1 piece of bread = 6 points
glass of water = 0 points

So, I have 12 points left for the day.

My husband had a banana for breakfast (2 pts) with a cup of tea (0 pts) and egg salad on 1 piece of bread (6 pts) and he gets a couple more points per day then I do so he still has 18 points left.

Our plan for dinner is a hamburger (no bun) with ketchup, mustard and onion (5 points) with either stuffing (1/2 cup = 4 points) or mashed potatoes (1/2 cup = 2 points) and peas (1 cup = 2 points) and either water (0 pts) or diet Coke (0 pts). Yes, I'm going to have to force myself to start drinking diet pop (something I swore I would never do) because it has no point value where 12 ounces of regular pop is 3 points.

Fun stuff this Weight Watchers is. It's good though. We're totally aware of what we're putting in our mouths now. We already check the list every time we think about food.

We have a grocery list going for our next shopping trip based on the points list. Here's what's on it so far...

Avacados
Asparagus
Broccoli
Carrots
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Pears
Blueberries
Cottage Cheese (light)
Mayo (light)
Tuna fish in water
Reduced calorie bread (2 pieces = 1 point where as white bread is 2 points for only 1 slice)
Cream of wheat
Shredded wheat

Fruits and vegetables are great, of course. Not many points. In fact, a lot of vegetables are 0 points. So if we're hungry between meals we can chomp on some baby carrots and it won't hurt our diet a bit. Good stuff.

I'll be tracking most of our progress at Two With A View.

Well, I'm finally so tired of not being a size 6 anymore that I am doing something about it. After having Gabrielle, the weight just didn't stay off like it did with my other kids. I guess having a baby in my 30's really changed my metabolism. Luckily I am 5'10" tall so the extra weight isn't AS obvious as it would be on someone shorter. A lot of people tell me I don't need to lose weight, but those people haven't seen me without clothes on. *grin* I am definitely carrying too much weight for my liking. I plan to be back down to at least a size 8 by the summer. Then I can fit back into the majority of my clothes. Everything I've purchased in the last year is a size 12 and that is just not cool. So, yesterday I started using the Weight Watchers Point system. I didn't join so I'm not paying for it and I'm not going to meetings or anything (because I don't need to spend money to get back in shape), but a friend at work brought me the WW book that tells how many daily points I am allowed and gives a list of pretty much any food you can think of and how many points each is worth. I've been doing good so far. I know it's only been 2 days, but I feel like I'm making better choices already when it comes to the food I'm eating. Now I just need to convince my husband to jump on the WW wagon with me. We also need to come up with a good exercise routine to go with the diet.

If you have been taking levitra, that does not mean that you have damaged your health in any way. If advised of weight loss however, you should be on your fitness equipment in the first instant. Choosing plastic surgery is a puerile decision.

OK, so I'm seriously thinking about getting my hair cut again. It's growing out quickly and it's at a stage that I am really unhappy with. I was contemplating letting it grow back out to shoulder length and deal with the whole "in between" issues, but now I'm thinking about cutting it all off again. I love this picture of Pink's hair. I might even go with that color!

By the way.. I did NOT draw the heart on Pink's boob --- Perez Hilton did that. I just sort of borrowed the picture from him for the purpose of the hair cut.

It's Monday once again and I'm back at my desk talking to customers I would really rather not be talking to. My job isn't as bothersome as it was originally, but I still fancy being at home instead of work. Who doesn't though? After being off work for the last four days, I feel like I'm in a bit of a fog here. I think being somewhat sick (I have a touch of the stomach flu or something equally uninvited) and not getting much sleep last night has much to do with the foggy feeling though. I've only been at work for 90 minutes and already I'm wishing the day was over.

Well, it's 1:05 AM so I guess technically it's my birthday. I had the best time with my sister this evening. Dinner was delicious, the conversation was great and James Blunt was fantastic! Thank you so much, sis, for an awesome birthday celebration!

It was so nice being home yesterday with my family. We did almost nothing except watch television. Yes, mostly our CSI marathon and then some CSI episodes from Tuesday and Wednesday. We took a break late last night and watched the last episode of Nip/Tuck - which was totally intense and crazy - and October Road which I adore. I intend to be just as lazy today too. I love being on a mini vacation.

We're using our Olive Garden gift card for dinner this evening. Sure it would be nice to use the gift cards to actually go out and eat, but when you're having a rough money week and there's not much in the house to eat... it sounds like a good idea.

This is what I'm having...

Lasagna Rollatini with Chicken: Oven-baked lasagna rolls filled with four Italian cheeses, topped with sliced grilled chicken in a garlic herb alfredo sauce.

This is what Jeremy is having...

Lasagna Rollatini with Sausage: Oven-baked lasagna rolls filled with four Italian cheeses, topped with grilled Italian sausage, tomato alfredo sauce and melted mozzarella.

Of course, Evan is getting chicken fingers with fries because he's a ten year old child with inexperienced taste buds - although we are trying to correct that. Gabrielle will just eat a little of what we're having.

I would like to be having one (or three) of these for dessert, but unfortunately there is no carry out option attached.

My husband and I got several gift cards for Christmas that we haven't even used yet. We still have one for Home Depot, one for IKEA (drool) and a handful for different restaurants as well. We've been sitting here watching part of our CSI marathon and decided we were both super hungry and not in the mood for anything in the house. We called Chili's and to our surprise they are still open! My husband is now on his way to pick up our delicious late night snack. This is what I ordered....

... the Chicken Club Tacos. Yum! I'm so hungry.

Happy 10th birthday, Evan!

More Wordless Wednesday here

Well, so far I am the only one who's remained healthy this past week or so. *knock on wood* I'm really hoping I can stay healthy too. I would hate to spend my vacation days and my upcoming birthday under the weather. Especially since my sister is taking me to see James Blunt this Saturday night!!! I'm so geeked. Please keep your fingers crossed that I do not get sick.

I'm still fighting off the plague that's running through my house. Gabby seems a little better today and my husband and son are still getting over it. I've been washing my hands like crazy lately trying to keep the germs away. I feel a bit crappy this morning, but quickly popped a Zicam in my mouth so hopefully that will help.

I'm so glad I have a short week. I can't wait until Wednesday night when I get out of here. A four day weekend is looking so good right now.

This day is not going by as quickly as I had hoped. Fortunately for me, when I have nothing to do at work and I'm done catching up on my message board and my friends blogs.. I have Perez Hilton to keep me entertained for much of my slow evening hours at work. Who doesn't love celebrity gossip?

I am starting to have so much fun with Two With A View. I'm so glad that my sister came up with the idea! She's the queen of buying new domains -- even for her princess bassett hound. I'm so glad because having a site together is starting to be a helluva lot of fun. Now that I've got my blogging mojo back, I'll be posting there a lot.

My silly little girl...

More Wordless Wednesday here

I came into work and found out that our systems are all down. How much fun is that. We're taking calls and can't do anything with most of them. We're not even getting the correct calls for our department and can't transfer them to where they need to be. This is ridiculous.

In other news, there is a shift bid going on at work right now so I may get an earlier shift. I won't know until the end of the month. I am concerned about the fact that there is a possibility that I could get a shift that only has a half hour lunch. I like my hour lunch and I love going home at lunch. I guess I'll just have to take whatever I get.

I lost my blogging mojo for a while, but I think it's starting to come back. I'm feeling a little more like myself again. I don't know what happened. I guess I just needed a break for a while. I'm not making any promises, but you may be seeing a bit more action around here. Hopefully I will get in the mood to express my opinion here too. My sister is doing all the work right now. I have quite a few things I'd like to write about, but haven't felt compelled to actually do it. Soon..

Where is my blogroll? I can't catch up on my blogging buddies from work if I can't see my blogroll! Stupid blogrolling. It better come back soon. I need something to entertain me. I can't get through a Saturday work day without blogs to read.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I truly despise having to work every third Saturday. It completely ruins my weekend. I should be at home in bed right now or, at the very least, lounging on the couch watching Sesame Street with my kids. I couldn't sleep last night so I am so tired. I think I only got about 3 hours of sleep and even that was interrupted. Is it time to go home yet?

Oh, geez.. it's February. Do you know what that means? It means that my birthday is this month - which means I will be turning 35 years old. When the hell did I get to be so old?!? Thirty-five years old? Are you nuts? I can't possibly be that close to turning 40 years old. This is insane. I'm filing a complaint!

Two blog posts in one day? I know.. totally unlike me lately. I don't know what my problem has been the last couple of weeks. I'm just tired and stressed and haven't felt like writing at all. Hopefully that will change soon. I do have another website with my sister to keep up with as well. I haven't done shit there either. I really need to shake off this BLAH feeling! Maybe it's just because it's cold and snowy and I can't stand winter. Yeah.. I'll blame Mother Nature.

That is crazy! I was in shock when I heard it, but it's all over the place. Heath Ledger was found dead - possible drug overdose - in his lower Manhattan apartment on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. He was only 28 years old. How sad! I feel so bad for his baby girl, Matilda. Read more on CNN.

I haven't felt much like blogging lately - as you can tell. So much for blogging every day this year. I didn't even make it through the first month. Oh, well. Life goes on.. right? Not much is going on with me. Just enjoyed the long weekend and spending time with my family. Now I'm back at work. Blah.

I have done absolutely nothing today. I'm still in my pajamas, for crying out loud. I played a little Resident Evil: Nemesis on the GameCube this afternoon, played with my kids, watched a little television. Yep, I think that is about it. I have to work tomorrow and Saturday, but definitely looking forward to having Sunday and Monday off. I will probably do absolutely nothing then also.

Plans for this evening: cut my son's hair, read part of a book with my son, play with my daughter and then.. once the kids are in bed.. my husband and I are going to rent Mr. Woodcock from OnDemand.

Two of my favorite people are getting married!

More Wordless Wednesday here

Everything about today is going so slow. My computer is running slow, the internet is running slow and the day is going by so slow. I'll be happy in another hour and fifty minutes when I can get the heck out of here. I am excited to watch our shows tonight. We are watching October Road which is on our DVR from last night and then Nip/Tuck is back after the holiday break. I'm hoping they will both be good episodes. We watched the Sarah Connor Chronicles on Sunday and watched the second part of the premiere last night. It's a good show and I'm glad that it's on. Not so happy that it's in the place of K-Ville, but I'm assuming that K-Ville has been cancelled and that is why. At least we have something decent to replace it.

I have been trying to catch up on all the emails that were sent while I was on vacation last week. I've been here for two hours and just finally read an email that states we will be closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day! That's so cool! So, even though I have to work this Saturday (which means that I get Thursday off), I still get a two day weekend. I also requested two days off in February so that I will have a 4 day weekend for my birthday. I couldn't help myself.

After nine wonderful days with my family I am now back at work (in hell). So far, so good. It's not overly busy so that's one positive thing. I miss my husband and kids already! I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I'm already looking at the vacation schedule to see when I can take more time off. Heh. Not that I will any time soon. I don't want to use up all my vacation time at the beginning of the year.

Well, it's almost over. My vacation, that is. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Blah. I think that's the first time I've used "blah" about anything since I've been on vacation. It's been an extraordinary nine days with my family. I know I didn't do much of anything, but it was great just hanging out and seeing my kids and husband for such an extended amount of time.

Tonight we got to leave the house without the kids. We did a little bit of shopping and then went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and drinks. It was fantastic. We're both completely stuffed and barely able to make it off the couch, but that is quite alright. We plan to lounge in our pajamas and watch a few of our shows before heading back to reality.

I know I said that I would never have a Myspace page, but as of today I do. I set one up for me and my husband. I'm totally addicted to changing the theme and adding things and finding friends and so forth. I've been sucked into the world of Myspace. It's all down hill from here. I have a very old picture of me and my husband on our profile because I can't find one on my computer that I like. Until I can have someone take a decent one it will have to do.

Add us if you have a Myspace page: Neptunebaby and Venusboy

Well, folks.. my vacation is almost over. I only have the weekend left. It's been so nice being at home with my family.. making lunch for me and my husband, cooking dinner for the family, playing video games and watching movies, staying up late and sleeping in. I already can't wait for the next week I take off. The good thing is that it didn't fly right by. Sure, come Monday morning I will feel as though it did, but in reality it has been a nice, long, relaxing week and I'm thankful for it.

My daughter and the new love of her life, Elmo.

More Wordless Wednesday here

Today is Elvis Aron Presley's birthday. He would have been 73 years old. Even though he is no longer with us, he will always be the King of Rock-n-Roll and continues to be missed by many -- especially me.

Happy birthday, Elvis!

It was so nice not going to work today. We didn't really do much of anything - which is exactly what I wanted to do today. I do plan on doing a few things while I'm on vacation, but I have no schedule and that's the way I like it.

Today is my first day of vacation. So far I've slept in until ten thirty, watched Happy Feet with my kids and made pancakes and cheesy scrambled eggs for all of us to enjoy. Now my daughter - who is 14 months old today, I might add - is napping, my son is playing a video game downstairs in the "game room" and my husband is playing Final Fantasy X on the PS3. I think it's about time I got back into playing Final Fantasy III on the DS. I haven't played in days and I've started to lose interest, but I'm sure as soon as I pick it back up I will be hooked again.

Today is my last day at work until January 14th! I know damn well it's going to be the longest day too. It always is when I'm excited to get out of here. All I can think about is how nice it will be not having to do anything for the next nine days. I hope it doesn't fly by too quickly.

I think this pretty much sums up the last week:

More Wordless Wednesday here

I've been busy spending time with my kids, my husband and playing Final Fantasy today, but wanted to pop in and wish everyone a happy new year! I hope 2008 brings great things to everyone.

When I come back to work on Wednesday I am putting in my request for time off next week. If it gets approved - and it better because I'm really counting on it - I will have nine days off after working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. It's going to be so nice spending time with my husband and kids and not worrying about work.

Forty-eight minutes and I am out of here for the day!

Why is it that the day goes by so slowly when I work a half day? Perhaps it's because I don't want to be here. I expected the few hours to fly by, but that isn't the case at all. I feel like it should be time to go home and I've only been here an hour. We're totally swamped too. It's amazing. There were approximately 60 calls holding when I got here. Blah. Just a bunch of people I don't care to speak to. Can I just win the lottery so I can stay at home, hang out with my kids and my husband and play Final Fantasy? That would be fantastic, wouldn't it?

In other news, I'm very excited because my fabulous web designer is going to be starting on the new design for this site in fifteen days! I will still have this skin available for your viewing pleasure, but the handful of other skins I've had on this site will be gone. I am only interested in keeping this one and the new one on my skins menu (which currently isn't on the site because the other skins weren't supporting the file sizes I was posting so I yanked it). I can hardly wait until it's done and installed.

I have been having so much fun playing Final Fantasy. I didn't even want to go to bed last night because I was so hooked on it. I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted here. I know it's only been a few days, but I normally post here several times a day.

My poor daughter has been sick the last few days. We even had to take her to Children's Hospital yesterday morning because she woke up with a fever (she also had a fever the day before) and had huge red blotches on her that were hot to the touch and seemed blistery underneath. I called the pediatricians answering service and when the doctor called back she advised us to take her to the emergency room to be seen. By the time we got there the blotches were half gone and her fever was down because we gave her Tylenol. The doctor said he thought the blotch that was left was from a bite of some sort and didn't prescribe anything. He said she has a lot of congestion in her sinuses and just to give her Benadryl and continue with the Tylenol. We weren't too thrilled with that, but what could we do? Nothing. She seemed fine the rest of the day, but she woke up this morning with all new blotches and a fever again. My husband took her to the pediatrician's office to have her seen by her own doctor. There is obviously something wrong if she's had a fever for three days. Her body needs help fighting whatever is going on. And it's obviously not a bite that's causing the blotches if they're now in different spots. It seems more like fever blisters or something. We'll know soon enough.

My sister and brother-in-law are coming over tonight to hang out with us for New Years Eve. We're going to play a few games like Buzzword and Scene It and have some drinks. Hopefully I can stay away from Final Fantasy long enough. *grin*

Well, I have to get in the shower and get ready for work. Yes, I have to work four hours today - 12:30 to 4:30. We're only open until 4:30 today and they split the day up into four hour shifts. I almost wish I had the early shift because I'd be leaving work in ninety minutes from now if that was the case. Oh, well. Life goes on...

Happy New Year to everyone! Stay safe. Don't drive drunk. Don't let friends drive drunk. And all that other wonderful advise that people give and commercials spew. This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Oh, no.. sorry.. wrong commercial. Heh.

* * * * * * *

Update: My husband just called. Gabrielle has an infection, but it's not anything too serious. What I really love about her doctor is that she does a blood test right there in the office to check her white blood count so she can tell if it's serious or not. She said the red blotches are hives from the fever and infection. She prescribed prescription strength Benadryl for the hives and an antibiotic for the infection. She also pretty much said the doctor that saw her yesterday was an idiot --- in a nice, professional way.

It's a good thing that Santa has already come and gone this year because I've been a naughty girl the last couple of days. I called into work yesterday and today. I've been very *cough, cough* sick lately. Well, no.. actually I was playing hooky. And do you know what I've been doing for the last two days? Not posting here, obviously. Heck, I haven't even been on my computer other than to check my email now and then. I've been playing video games. First I played The Darkness on our new PS3. I haven't found a game that I like that much since Resident Evil. It's definitely not easy and gets frustrating at times, but I had a lot of fun playing it. Then I started playing a game that I swore I would never be interested in playing on a system I was sure I didn't like playing games on - Final Fantasy on my son's new Nintendo DS Lite. I've been making fun of my husband for many years now for being so addicted to Final Fantasy and now I have to take it all back. I've been converted and my husband is loving it. I also turned my nose up at everyone who's ever suggested that I play any game on a hand held system such as the DS or PSP. Why would I want to play on such a little thing when I can play on a large television? Well, I can't put the damn thing down now. Ooh, sorry.. I have to run. I can hear Final Fantasy calling my name.

One of our most anticipated Christmas gifts -- which I'm sure my husband is playing with as I type this...

More Wordless Wednesday here

Oh, back to work I go. It was so nice having four days off, but now that I'm sitting at my desk at work it feels like it went by so quickly. We're totally slammed this morning too. I guess everyone else in the world is off work this week so they have time to call their insurance company. We did have a wonderful Christmas though. My husband and I got everything we could have wanted and the kids did too. My mother-in-law is going to watch the kids one of these days so that my husband and I can go spend our gift certificates and have a nice dinner out alone. That will be incredible. I can't remember the last time we left the house for any length of time without our children. I also can't wait until I get the week off in January. It will probably fly by too, but I am really looking forward to having nine days at home with my family.

I'm truly amazed at how many people have contacted me regarding the Pownce invitations I am offering. I didn't realize there were so many people still wanting to join that haven't gotten an invitation from someone. Well.. good news. I still have 21 invitations left because I have never given them out. Feel free to leave me a comment and I will send you an invitation - while supplies last, of course.

My beautiful daughter... ready to party this holiday season.

More Wordless Wednesday here

I had my husband make a pot of coffee when I was on my way home for lunch. I've had two cups now and I'm back at work with a travel mug full of coffee, but it's not doing it's job. I'm still just as tired as I was before I starting drinking it. Perhaps I've been drinking coffee so long that I've become immune? Nah. It's funny how it works when you don't want it to (like when I have a cup at night and then can't sleep), but not when I really need it to.

Is it Friday yet?

I am so tired today that my eyes are burning. I'm even more tired than yesterday and I'm not sure why. I got more sleep last night than the night before, but I guess not a significant amount. My daughter woke up again in the middle of the night, but I got her to fall back asleep - in bed with me, of course. I just have to keep looking forward to the long weekend I have ahead of me.

It's Monday again. My son got his wish - his school, along with nearly 570 other schools, is closed today. He'll be happy when he wakes up and finds out. I, unfortunately, have to go to work today. My daughter decided to get up at 4am today even though I didn't have to get up until 6am. It's going to be a long day.

This is what it looked like outside of my window yesterday morning:

Here is Gabrielle watching her daddy shovel snow for the first time:

OK, mom.. I'm ready to go outside and play!

We woke up this morning to find at least a foot of snow this morning. The Christmas party we were supposed to attend today has been postponed until tomorrow evening. Unfortunately I will be at work so my husband will be taking our kids. My nine year old is praying that it will keep snowing s he won't have to go to school. I have to go to work either way so I would be perfectly happy if it stopped now.

Since we are pretty much snowed in (not really, but who wants to go anywhere in this crap?) we are going to spend the day watching movies and playing video games. I'm feeling quite domestic today too so I am going to make Fettuccine Alfredo with Jamaican Jerk shrimp for lunch. Mmmm.

Oh, and yesterday was a blast. Gabrielle absolutely despised Santa Claus. As soon as we started walking toward him sitting in his chair she grabbed on tight and started screaming like she was deathly afraid of him. I sat on one side of his lap with her on my lap and my son sat on his other side. The picture is great. She has her mouth wide open screaming in panic. I told Santa not to worry.. she'll like him some day. I'll have a scan the picture and post it here some time today. I also ended up going very drastic with my hair cut. It's pretty much gone. I love it. It's so much fun to play with! I had already gotten my hair cut when we had the picture taken with Santa so if I get off my lazy ass and post it here today you can have a look.

We're getting a pretty slow start on our big shopping/Santa/hair cut day today. I was a tad hung over this morning after a night of drinking B&B and chatting with a new friend online. I'm hoping we can get out of the house by 2pm. I still have to shower and it's already 12:45! I just got done coloring my hair and eating lunch. Gabby's in the bathtub now, then it's my turn to shower and get ready. We just have to get to the mall in time for our hair cuts. We can always shop and visit Santa after that. Off I go....

I have a lot to say today. Mostly because I'm bored and work is driving me crazy today. Well, no.. that's not true. Being at work is what is driving me nuts. I don't want to deal with these stupid customers and their fucking insurance issues. It's one of those "could you be any more obtuse?" days for me. Not one person I've talked to has a functioning brain cell in their tiny little skulls and they make me want to kill them.

I'm such a pleasant girl at times, aren't I?

I want to go home, throw on my black Adidas track pants and a t-shirt and a suck down a bottle of .. something. I haven't purchased anything for the much needed TGIF celebration at my house tonight. Yes, my sister and brother-in-law are coming over tonight to hang out, drink and be merry. I think it's going to be a B&B night tonight. More potent = faster buzz.

I'm going to get my hair cut tomorrow. I am trying to find a picture to take to the salon that matches the image in my head. It's not really a drastic change since I already got eight inches cut off several months ago, but I always feel like if I'm making a change to my hair, no matter how subtle, I should probably have something tangible to take with me for the woman to use as a guide.

I am also taking my kids to see Santa Claus tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to see how Gabrielle reacts to the jolly old soul. She's probably going to flip out and instead of having a picture of her and Evan on his lap, it'll be a picture of Evan on Santa's lap and me holding her standing next to Santa at a safe enough distance (just inside the border of the picture, most likely).

I'm sure that even though I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping (which I was fortunate enough to get done online) I will feel the need to wander around the mall once we are done visiting Santa Claus. I would like to pick up a few things for my oldest son at PacSun to go in his stocking. I also need to get a few pairs of knee high socks for myself which means that I will be in the shoe store - not a good thing because I love shoes. I have my eye on a pair of knee high black dress boots for work. I'll have to stop at GameStop to check out current prices on video games and see what I can reserve for the future. Oh, and I also need to go to Borders while I'm there to pick up a gift card for my secret santa thing at work. After all of that, I still need to go to the grocery store to pick up a few items for the house and something that I am making for a holiday party on Sunday afternoon. I probably shouldn't drink too much tonight since I can't imagine getting through all of that with a hangover.

Does anyone out there want/need a pownce invitation? Probably not, but I have 24 of them that I've never given away. So, let me know if you're interested.

My wonderful husband....

More Wordless Wednesday here

I love eBay. Do you know why I love eBay so much? Two reasons that I can think of..

1. I love looking at all the different items in one place and seeing a range of prices for them. You don't see that in the stores.. do you? If you're shopping at a regular store, you know that when you click on a certain item it's going to be the same price no matter what time of the day or how many times you click on it. eBay is always changing and I thoroughly enjoy that.

2. The second reason and probably my favorite is... I love to swoop in at the last minute and swipe an item that people have been trying to outbid each other on for days, hours, minutes.. whatever. I spot my prey and watch it until there is only about a minute or so left and then I throw down my bid. If someone hasn't put a high enough bid in to have the system automatically bid for them, they scramble to jump back into the lead. There are two reasons why I wait until the end of the auction to make my move.

a. There is no point increasing the amount of the item when there are hours or even days left.

b. Whoever the high bidder is at that point feels relatively comfortable and confident that they will win. They're not really expecting anyone to jump in at that point.

Of course I'll fight for it until the end because I have a strong need to win, but even if I don't.. at least I feel better knowing that I made someone jump out of their seat in a panic and, at the same time, jacked the price way up on them. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Yes.. I am a cruel, competitive person when it comes to eBay shopping. You can't knock people down in the stores like that without getting into some kind of trouble.

I feel much better than I did this morning. I'm still tired, but I am in a much better mood. Perhaps it's because I shopped online at NY&Co and bought myself new clothes for work. Shopping always makes me feel better - especially when I get a great deal on what I'm buying. The sweaters were "buy one get one 75% off" and the dress pants were "buy one get one 50% off." I got a couple hundred dollars worth of clothes for less than half of that. Ah, shopping... there's nothing better. All the places I shop online need to stop sending me all of these promotional codes in my email though. It's far too tempting.

I actually got some sleep last night, but I'm just as tired today as I was yesterday. I feel like I'm in a daze. I really don't want to talk to anyone today. Unfortunately there isn't anything I can do about that. Yesterday I took approximately 140 incoming calls; each call lasting anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. I imagine today will be quite similar. Blah. Here we go.. round 2. If I had three wishes, my first would be that today is Friday.. the 21st.. so I could enjoy a four day weekend.

It has been non-stop at work today. It's ten minutes before six in the evening and it just now started slowing down. I've been here for nearly ten hours and I am seriously exhausted. I can't believe it's still only Monday. I didn't sleep well last night because I napped during the afternoon and then couldn't sleep for anything last night. I think I finally fell asleep at around 1:30 this morning and had to get up at 5:45am. I have a pounding headache that my husband was supposed to alleviate by making sure I took some sort of pain medication when I went home for lunch, but he didn't. Yeah, I know... if my head hurts I should be able to remember to take something, but I don't. I've got a history of migraines so I've grown accustomed to having a headache and trying to block it out without medication. While talking to people on the phone I must sound like I've got some serious issues because I'm so tired I can't speak like a normal, intelligent woman at this moment.

I'm now investing my time in three blogs. This one - which will always be my baby, a vox blog that I recently started, and the third blog is one that my sister and I have in the works called Two With A View. We are still working on the design for it. Right now it's just a basic template. I just started playing around with it the last couple of days, but I think it's going to be great. We are currently using Word Press for publishing which neither of us can stand so that will be changing soon. And we have Mel, our fabulous web designer, working on a specific look for the site. Right now it's just in the experimental phase, but we're hoping it will be a lot of fun working on this blog together.

Oh, and speaking of Mel.. I'm on the list for a new design for this site. I scheduled it for some time in February. It'll be a great birthday present for me from my wonderful and very loving husband.

I am not doing a damn thing today. I'm going to enjoy my one day off this week by being the laziest person I can possibly be. I didn't get to sleep in too much because my daughter wouldn't allow it, but that doesn't mean that I can't take a nap during the day. That's almost as good as sleeping in. Sometimes better, in fact.

There are probably people out and about on this cold and gloomy day trying to get their Christmas shopping done (or better yet.. started), but not me. No sir. My shopping is pretty much done and I didn't have to leave my house to do any of it. Shopping online rocks.

I watched part of the Barbara Walters special, The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2007, last night. The fellas that own MySpace were being interviewed when I turned it on. It totally amazed me how many millions of dollars those two men are worth and how quickly they gained that value. I guess it didn't really surprise me as much as it simply made me want to vomit in my cornflakes.

I don't go near MySpace. It's really not my cup of tea. There's too much bullshit to weed through, in my opinion. I've seen other people on it and what kind of crap is posted on there. I'm not interested in that. Sure, if there is a band I like and I can't find them or their music anywhere else on the web (which is highly unlikely) then I might wander over there, but 99.9% of the time I keep my distance.

I didn't realize how many "important" people have their own MySpace page though until watching it on television. I knew there were regular folks like you and me, bands, things and people along those lines, but I had no idea that the presidential candidates and other people who consider themselves "important" in this world have their own MySpace page. That's insane.

To give you all the answer to the little trivia question I asked in my Wordless Wednesday entry the day before yesterday... the man in the photo is Ben Lee - one of my very favorite musicians. He started his career with the band Noise Addict when he was 14 years old and then moved onto his solo career at the age of 16. He also appeared as the protagonist in the Australian film The Rage in Placid Lake (2003). Check him out. You won't regret it.

Hurry up, Christmas! I know.. an odd request, but I just confirmed my overtime schedule from now until Christmas. I will be working 8am to 8pm every day starting on Monday. My paycheck will be so fat it will hardly fit in my bank account. Well, that's not true, but you get the idea. I can't wait until Christmas gets here because I will have Saturday, the 22nd through Christmas day off work. Nothing like a four day holiday weekend to make it worth working all those hours.

It's amazing how long this week has been even though I had two days off. It's Friday, but it feels like a Monday. I have to go to work today and still have to work tomorrow as well. I would love to call in today. I'm not in the mood to deal with the outside world. Unfortunately I have to be responsible. I have no more paid time off this year so I'll just have to wait until after the first of the year before I can blow off work for no reason at all. Off to the shower I go.

Do you know who this is? I'll give you a hint:

This Australian began his career as a musician at the age of 14 with a Sydney band through an independent label with Fellaheen Records. No cheating!

Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts!

More Wordless Wednesday here

OK, so what I really mean is Happy Hump Day, but I needed a little bit of amusement. So far today has been a far better day than yesterday. My morning was nice and relaxing and work hasn't been too horrible yet. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I have the day off and it is Kieflie day! I am getting up early and heading to my mom's house at around 7:45am. I will take lots of pictures of our family tradition to post here. It's a wonderful, fun-filled day of family, laughter and making (and eating) cookies for the Christmas season. I can't wait!

Yesterday I had a fantastic day! It's a good thing I enjoyed it so thoroughly because today.. not so much like yesterday. My morning sucked and I'm stressing out about things I now have no control over. Work is completely insane today too. I came back in after being off for one day and people starting swarming before I could even get logged into my computer. I feel like my chest is going to explode any moment now. I'm so stressed out and overwhelmed that I can't even think straight.

Well, I reported for jury duty this morning. It was pretty cool, actually. I was dismissed after my questioning because my line of work is too closely related to one of the parties involved, but it was a great experience. It didn't take all day as some people that have done it suggested. It moved fairly quick and I was out of there by 11am. Now I have the whole day to myself and I'm still getting paid more than if I had gone to work. It's been a great Monday so far. I hope everyone else's is just as fabulous.

I woke up feeling like I was coming down with something this morning and it's getting worse. It feels like the flu coming on. Achy, tired, a little congestion and a whole lot of blah. My mom gave me a bottle of something called Zicam that she bought over the counter. You're supposed to take it when you first feel sick and take it until 48 hours after your symptoms are gone. She had a bad head cold on Monday, took this stuff and woke up Tuesday with no cold at all. Miracle drug? Let's hope so. I don't have a cold though so I don't know if it's going to nip it in the bud or not. We'll see. I came home from the birthday party this evening and slept for about 2 hours on the couch while my husband played Final Fantasy XI. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow because we want to go to noon mass and then hang out at my parents house for a little while tomorrow. They're going back to Florida after Christmas and won't be back until May so I'd like to spend some quality time together before they go.

So far the weekend is going well. I stayed up late last night to watch Super Bad with my oldest son and husband. My son has been insisting that it's the best movie and made me promise I wouldn't go to bed before we watched it (even though I was super tired last night). I kept my promise and watched it. It wasn't the best, but it was entertaining. It was stupid quite often, but funny sometimes. Whatever. I watched it. I laughed several times. It's all good.

It's almost noon and I am just waking up. I can't believe I slept so long! I have to get moving soon. I have to go to my mom's house with the kids and then we are going to my great-niece's 1st birthday party. My husband and oldest son aren't going. They will get to enjoy some time without anyone here to play video games and do whatever they want. I'm surprised my mom hasn't called yet to see what I'm doing and when I plan on coming over. She's all about having a plan and a schedule. I'm like that most of the time, but not today.

Today is the last day of November - which means that it is the last day of NaBloPoMo and I made it through the whole month without missing a day! I post almost every day anyway so it wasn't as much of a struggle for me as it was for others. Congratulations to everyone who pushed themselves and made it to the end! I hope you all win prizes.

I miss working for a company that allows their employees to wear jeans on Fridays. Where I work they call it casual Friday, but that just means business casual, not jeans casual. It sucks. By Friday I'm ready to stop dressing up for the week. I don't see what it would hurt to let us wear jeans on Fridays. I realize that I work at the corporate office and there are a lot of important people here and important people that come to visit the important people here, but why should the unimportant people (we who make the company the most money, that is) have to suffer because of them? They're not here to see us and we don't see our clients in person so I think we should at least get to dress "down" one day of the week. Don't you?

I'm so tempted to go down to the cafe and get some lunch right now, but I don't want to get in trouble for being away from my desk. I've already gone down there once this morning to see if they had any breakfast sandwiches left. They didn't therefore I am still hungry! It's five minutes before noon which means that this place is going to start smelling pretty tasty very soon. Do I stay or do I go? Hmmm....

I was thinking, as I struggled to wake up this morning, that I only have one more day to get up this early and then I have two days off. It's funny because I have been getting up later and later each day this week. I normally like to get up an hour before I have to start getting ready so that I can drink my coffee, read a few blogs and wake up. Today I got up twenty minutes before I had to get in the shower. By the time I had a few sips of coffee, checked my email and read one blog post it was time to get moving. Come on, Saturday.. I need you!

It's the last hour of the day and once it's over I'm done with Wednesday - over the hump. The crazy thing is that after tonight I still have to work another twenty-four hours this week. Blah. I'll be so happy when this week is over. Then again, if I don't get stuck with jury duty on Monday, I might just pull another long week next week if the overtime is available. Hey, the money is good. I'll sleep when I'm dead, right?

Kieflie Day last year! You can see my daughter wasn't too thrilled to be a part of the tradition at 4 weeks old. Heh.

More Wordless Wednesday here

It's 6:30am which means I have to jump in the shower and get ready for work - again. This week seems endless. I'm trying to talk myself through it. The day after tomorrow (night) I will be happy that the week is over and the weekend is here.

I'm in a slightly better mood this evening. I'm still at work and not too thrilled about that, but at least the calls have stopped pouring in for a little while. I feel much more relaxed when I'm not being bombarded with stupid inquiries. Now I just wish that the time would go by a little faster. I would love to be on my way home for the night. Unfortunately I still have an hour and twenty-five minutes to go. Blah.

I'm really trying to be in a good mood today, but it doesn't seem to be working out for me. Every person I have spoken to has either been an idiot, an asshole or just plain annoying. I don't know what's wrong with me today. Is it PMS? Is it raging hormones that make me want to jump through the telephone and rip their heads off? Probably.

Let me give you a couple of examples...

1. A man called in and became completely disgusted with me because his bank charged him an NSF fee for not having the funds available when we tried to take the money for his premium. --- Here's an idea, buddy... try having the fucking money in your account next time! I'm a rocket scientist.. can you tell?

2. A woman called in and said that she just wanted to verify that we received a fax she sent at the beginning of the month. It's the 27th now. Need I say more?

I need a drink.

Update: The idiot from the first call just called back to complain to another agent about the NSF fees! Same answer, buddy. Not our problem.

Just so you know.. I may be whining a lot this week. I may also be bitching and complaining as well. It's only 9:05am and I am already sick of talking to customers. Half the people calling want to pay their bill over the phone. Why can't they pay their bill like everyone else - through the mail or online?

It's Tuesday morning at 6:10am and I am barely awake. It's cold and wet outside as it should be at the end of November in Michigan. I'm not looking forward to going to work today. I'm seriously afraid that it's going to be just as busy as it was yesterday. I'd like to just fast forward to Friday night, please. Oh, well. One day down, four to go.

Sometimes I can be a real bitch. OK, a lot of the time I can be a real bitch. Especially when it comes to dealing with ignorance. I really have no tolerance for it. Even the simplest things can set me off.

A woman calls in and begins our conversation by saying, "Yeah, I was calling to ..... "

No! Let me stop you there, you fucking moron. You are calling. Not was. Not past tense. Why? Because you are on the mother fucking phone with me right this minute. If you happen to be explaining the phone call to another person at a later time, then you can say "I was calling to... blah, blah, blah..." but you can't talk to me in the present about something that is happening in the present and use the past tense. It makes me want to SCREAM!

Hello, I am calling to inform you that you are an ignorant fuck. Learn the English language, please.

OK, I'm done venting now. Thanks so much for listening. Sorry if I have offended anyone. I just had to get that out.

This has been one of the craziest days at work. I can't even believe how busy I have been all day long. It's nearly seven at night and I am just now able to take a moment or two to breathe between calls. It's like we were having a major clearance sale on auto and home insurance today. It has made the day go by a little faster though. Monday is almost over. Yay! One more hour to go...

OK, well now I've spent $300 on eBay in the last twelve hours. I think it's time to quit! I might need some help though. I seem to be having a problem closing the page. I just love eBay so much! Especially when spending the money is justified because I'm shopping for Christmas. I still need to stop though before I spend more than what I intended. Oh, wait.. I've already done that.

It's so nice having the day off and not having to do anything. I've been sitting on eBay for the last two days bidding on Christmas gifts. I got my son, Evan, several things already. I'm almost done shopping for him. Only a couple items left that I'm watching and hoping to win on eBay. I get so addicted to bidding when I get on that site. It's like a drug. It's almost like gambling - which is why I stay away from the casinos. It's bad enough I have eBay at my fingertips.

I have no idea what this means because I haven't looked into it enough to figure it out. Obviously it's a joke regarding NaBloPoMo - which I am a member of - but the specifics are unclear. I stole (actually borrowed) it from her and will have to read more to find out. Anyway, the point is.. it cracks me up every time I see it so I thought I would share. Perhaps it will make someone else laugh today too.

Someone tagged me to do a meme last week. Who was it? I can't remember to save my life! Apparently dementia is setting in at an early age for me. I'm sorry that I forgot, but whoever tagged me, please remind me. Either send me an an email or leave a comment. Thank you.

Update: I remember now!! That's a good sign, right? My mom always says that when she remembers something she's forgotten. Alzheimer's runs in our family so she always worried that when she forgets something she will never remember again. No dementia here - yet. Anyway, she is the one who tagged me. I'll post mine over the weekend. And watch out... because I'll be tagging you next. *grin*

Yesterday was a great day. I didn't over stuff myself, but I was still tired - eyes burning and all - by 3pm. We came home around 4pm and I napped until 6pm. That wasn't really the smartest move because I had to be up at 6am this morning for work and I couldn't sleep last night. Oh, well. I'm out of here at 4:30pm today. I can't believe there are people callling in already. Who gets up at 8am the day after Thanksgiving to call their insurance agent?

I figure most of the women in the world are out shopping this morning so that leaves most of the men at home to call in here today. I hope Black Friday doesn't extend to car dealerships because that means I will be extremely busy today transferring insurance for everyone out there buying new cars. I'm already ready to go home and go back to sleep and I've only been here for thirty minutes.

My morning didn't really start out too well today. My car was frozen and took far too long to warm up. It snowed a little yesterday - nothing that stuck though - and went quite a bit below freezing last night. My windows were frozen shut, my windshield wipers were (and probably still are) stuck to the windshield and the inside of my windows were even iced up a little! Winter is definitely here.

It's a little late in the day, but I made it. Here's my "wordless wednesday" post for the week!

Can you guess where it came from?

More Wordless Wednesday

I feel like a little kid today. I'm not sure why, but today I feel like I did when I was a child and had a half day at school before the holiday break. I still have to work on Friday, although I work 8 to 4:30 instead of 11 to 8. It's just the atmosphere in this place today. They got the whole insurance department pizza for lunch today and tacked on an extra 15 minutes to our morning break so that we could enjoy our pizza and still have our normal break.

I feel like the day is going by pretty quickly and that is always good. I'm already going to lunch in an hour. And I plan on getting a little (if not a lot) "tipsy" this evening after I get home. I'm trying to talk my sister and brother-in-law into coming over to drink with us, but they may have plans of their own for the evening. Either way.. we'll all be having fun and no one has to work tomorrow. I'm very happy about that.

I'm hoping that today is slow at work. Not that it goes by slowly, just that it isn't as busy as it was yesterday. I was totally swamped all day yesterday. It's amazing how many customers this company has and how often they call here. Before I was an insurance agent, I never called my agent. I just paid my bill (through automatic deduction) and it was just there. Even now I have automatic deduction through my checking account. I never have to think about my insurance other than once a year when I get a new certificate of insurance and have to throw the old one away. I guess if they didn't call I wouldn't have a job so I should just quit my complaining.

I have to stop at the grocery store on my way home from work. It's not something I normally do during the week, but we were quite lazy on Saturday and then busy on Sunday. I generally spend an hour or more at the grocery store because I love grocery shopping, but tonight will be a record time for me. I need to get home as quickly as possible so I can play RE: Umbrella Chronicles with my husband! Yep, I'm hooked. I don't see a good night's sleep in the near future.

Today is going to be quite eventful. First of all, I should have been in the shower a long time ago so we could make it to church, but I just woke up. We'll never make it now. I'm so bad.

Anyway.. we have to be at my parents around 1pm for a birthday celebration for my aunt. Then we're coming home, putting Gabby down for a nap and I am going grocery shopping while my husband is here with the baby - most likely playing Final Fantasy XI online while she naps. Then, at around 4pm, we are going with my parents out to Brighton (which is about an hour away) to a memorial for my cousin who died last week.

It's going to be quite a busy day today.

I had to drive to the airport to pick up my parents last night because they are home for the holidays. Their flight was delayed an hour so it was nearly midnight before I left. I drove to their house first - which is 3 miles from ours - and dropped the dog off. We had been dog sitting while they were gone the last 6 weeks. I parked my car in the driveway and hopped in my dad's Durango because I figured we would need room for suitcases - not thinking that they wouldn't be bringing too much home since they are going back right after Christmas for the rest of the winter. Yes, we'll be dog sitting again after the holidays for about 4 months. Fun, fun.

Anyway.. as I was heading out to the airport in the wonderful Durango that has heated seats, I reached over to turn the radio on. If it was my car, 89X would have been blaring once I turned it on, but being my dad's vehicle, 100.3 WNIC was on. Anyone who lives in the area and gets that station on the radio knows that at the beginning of November they start playing all Christmas music all the time. I decided to leave it on because I haven't been in the Christmas spirit and that usually kick starts something inside of me. Well, it did make it feel closer to Christmas, but also made me a little sad. I swear if I had just been driving around, without having to see my parents coming out of the airport at the end of my journey, I probably would have started crying. They were playing a lot of the old tunes - Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Silver and Gold, etc.. It made me think of how the holidays used to be when my grandparents were still alive. The melodies took me right back to being in their house on Christmas Eve when all of the extended family came to hang out before the big day. I miss my grandparents. I miss looking forward to seeing my cousins so we could hang out on that special day of the year. Sometimes, with memories like those, I miss my childhood.

I've been reading a lot of different blogs lately that state the following: Bloggers should be focusing on providing quality content to bring new/more readers to their site instead of focusing on page rank and stats. I understand that theory and I totally agree with it, but what exactly does quality content mean? It's got me wondering.. is what I write here not enough to bring people to my site?

This is my journal. I write about a variety of things - music, family, kids, work, video games and once in a great while I might mention something on the borderline of an X-rated category. Am I supposed to be constantly publishing information on world events or technology and gadgets? I've noticed that there are a lot of folks out there that have a "theme" to their sites and they post about a lot of the same type of information all the time. That's not what I'm interested in doing. I'm not saying that having a theme isn't a good thing. I find it interesting as hell to go to a technology/gadget blog and read about all the latest and greatest... but I don't have it in me to publish things like that. I like the variety. Not to mention there is no pressure involved with my site. I don't have to race to be the first to publish the latest gadget or movie or flavored condom on the market. It's just me being me.

God must be punishing me for writing such a nasty post (see previous entry) because my lunch did not sit right with me at all. I am having serious regrets about what I had for lunch - McDonalds. It's been a while since I've eaten anything from there so apparently my stomach was not prepared for such crap.

I'm sorry, Lord, for writing such a horrible post. Please take away my intestinal problems now as I still have three hours left at work.

Well, take a really good look because Google stripped me down last night to a big, fat fucking zero in the page rank department. I'm sure you aren't interested any longer since my entry title implies that there should be a display of tits and ass on this page and there's nothing more than a random blogger whining about her pank rank disappointment.

I know I'm not the only one who's been stripped down to nothing. I've just come from a message board where hundreds of people have just realized this about their own websites. I went to Google's Webmaster Tools last night - when I noticed my poor, naked, rankless website - and for some unknown reason they had my site listed as UNVERIFIED. When that happened, I have no idea. It was fine last week. Whatever. I re-verified my site and I'm hoping that the next time they crawl my site it will increase my page rank to at least what it was yesterday. Otherwise, I give up.

I am starving today. I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon. I'm so tempted to run down to the cafe to get something, but I really don't want to keep taking the chance of going down there when I'm supposed to be working. The thing that sucks about it is that I work afternoons so by the time my lunch hour rolls around, the cafe is closed.

I'm not feeling so good today, as you might have noticed from the title of this post. I have something going on that makes me sick to my stomach every time I think about it. I hate having personal issues. To be honest, sometimes I hate feeling anything. Emotions suck - and not in a good way. The worst thing in the world, in my opinion, is not being able to trust someone that you should be able to trust. What the fuck is wrong with some people? That's what I'd like to know. I'm seriously trying to hold out until Friday for an alcoholic beverage-fest, but It's getting more difficult each day.

More Wordless Wednesday here

Well, my guest blog post has been published on the Work it, Mom! website today. If you're at all interested in reading what I wrote, feel free to wander over and take a look at Making Creative Dreams Come True by none other than yours truly.

You can also do a guest blog spot. There is information on the above page telling you how to submit a guest blog post. It was fun coming up with something to write and I've met a lot of other great moms out there by joining the website. I'm glad they found me!

I'm back at work again after a very short, but eventful weekend. The only thing to look forward to this week is my huge paycheck from working all of that overtime a couple of weeks back. Well, that and having a few drinks with my husband, sister and brother-in-law on Friday night, but that seems a long way away at this time. Here's hoping for a quick week!

I've met a lot of really cool people on NaBloPoMo this month. There are a bunch of groups for people who are interested in video games, movies, television, parenting.. all sorts of things. One of my favorites is music and in that category I have made a great new friend with a fantastic website. If you're a music enthusiast or just want to hear about the latest and greatest, then please visit him here. He usually has a sample or two for your listening pleasure. His site is a real treasure; a great find.

I was recently contacted by the co-founder of Work It, Mom! - a community for professional moms - who invited me to write a guest blog piece for their site. How exciting is that? I am so honored to be offered such a wonderful opportunity! I just finished my post and sent it off to the editor. It will be published on Tuesday!

Thirteen Things about Neptunebaby

Thirteen (out of the hundreds) of musical artists I like
and have listened to at some point this week:

01. Gogol Bordello
02. Frank Sinatra
03. Bedouin Soundclash
04. Sublime
05. Neverending White Lights
06. Panic! at the Disco
07. Johnny Cash
08. Coheed & Cambria
09. Dredg
10. Elvis Presley (of course)
11. Jack's Mannequin
12. Modest Mouse
13. Rise Against

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. WF Mom
2. Geek Betty
3. Wolfie
4. Jenn
5. April
6. Penelope Anne
7. Comedy Plus
8. Nicholas

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

OK, folks. I've just started doing shots of Absolut Citron Vodka. Who's with me here? Anyone from my Blitzed Blogging group on NaBloPoMo?

Come one... come all.. tie one on with me!

What are you waiting for? Grab a glass, grab a bottle, grab whatever does it for you and come party with me!

Thanks to my sister I've joined NaBloPoMo. I had almost forgotten about it! It's been a lot of fun and I've met a lot of new people and had wonderful conversations with people that I already knew. I'm thinking that next year I may even try NaNoWriMo. That's my goal anyway. Anyone else want to join me?

I accept all friend request so feel free to click on the link to my profile above and take a whirl at NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). All you have to do is post every day in the month of November.

First of all, I have to say that I'm happy that I don't have to work tomorrow. I'm not thrilled that I have to work Saturday this week, but I'll deal with those emotions when the day gets closer. We didn't get the chance to watch Reaper last night so we'll be watching that tonight along with Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money. It's another opportunity to have a few shots of vodka, post some drunken words here and have a good time without worrying about having to deal with an alarm clock in the morning.

My husband took our son to the dentist this afternoon. I'm horrible about the dentist and I feel so bad. It's been much longer than 6 months since he's been. I just talked to my husband while I was on break and he said the hygenist told him that we would have to start monitoring him while he's brushing because he's missing a certain area of his mouth. They even gave him those pink disclosure pills that you chew on and it shows where you're not brushing. I remember those from when I was little. I think they used to give them out in school when they had "dental week" or something like that. Too long ago for me to remember the details. Anyway, I feel bad about not getting him in every 6 months. That's going to change right now.

In other news, I had a voice mail from a potential employer. He left a message stating that he came across my resume (because I probably left it on Monster after I got the job here earlier this year) and that he would be very interested in setting up a meeting with me. Hmmm... what could it hurt to check it out? I hate interviews, but I can't really stand my job either. Although, they would have to pay me quite a bit more and be just as close to home in order for me to consider it. I doubt that I'd be so lucky, but I may just call the man back and see what he has to offer.

I couldn't wait any longer. I had to go get some food. I was so hungry and couldn't take the smell of everyone else's food for one more minute. I saw my manager and supervisor sitting down at one of the tables, but I don't think they saw me.

Geez, I'm like a child sometimes. Sneaking down to the cafeteria when I'm not supposed to. Then again I am an adult, not a school girl. I should be able to go get food whenever the hell I want anyway. This place is almost prison-like. Not that I know what it's like to be in prison, but I can imagine after working here. What a joke. It's amazing what people, myself included, will put up with for a paycheck.

I logged myself into "not ready" on my computer to run down to the cafeteria for something to eat. I got half way down there (it's not a short journey in this building) and noticed I was not too far behind my supervisor and manger. I had to turn around and come back to my desk. I don't need to get busted for making a food run when I'm supposed to be working. I guess I'll have to starve a little longer while I'm tortured by the wonderful aroma of food that my co-workers have in this office. I don't know how much longer I can hold out. My supervisor isn't even supposed to be here today! She sent us all an email last night stating that she'd be in a training class all day today. I guess that class is in the building. Oops.

More Wordless Wednesday

Not so wordless today, eh? This is a picture of my beautiful daughter, Gabrielle, on her first birthday. She looks like she's had just about enough cake, doesn't she? To me it looks as if she's thinking, "OK now, you can get this stuff off of me." So cute. I love my daughter so much. More with every day that passes. I can't believe she is already a year old.

I'm such a horrible sister. Well, not really, but I should have "plugged" my sister's newest addition long before now. It's a fabulous idea for a site and I would like everyone to go check it out immediately. Right now. Go ahead! What are you waiting for? Go Now!

I can't wait to see what kind of hits I get on my site with a title like this. Can't you almost see the shit-eaten grin on my face? Hahaha.

Well, Summer is definitely gone and Autumn is here, but who knows how long that will last. Winter will be here before you know it. It is cold, windy and drizzling outside right now. I just stepped out on my break and I thought I would get blown away. And it's dark outside already. That's what happens after Daylight Savings hits us. The days are shorter, but I swear they feel longer because it's dark out and you feel like you should be going to bed soon, but bedtime is a long way off. Silly, I know, but that's how I feel until I get used to it.

It's 11:19 PM right now, but technically it's only 10:19 PM due to daylight savings time. This is one of my favorite days of the year because I gain an extra hour to do with as I wish. My choice this time around is drinking vodka and listening to Elvis Presley while my husband plays Final Fantasy XI online. He's been waiting years to be able to play this game. He's as much of a FF freak as I am a Resident Evil freak. Yeah, we're a perfect pair of "vidiots." A marriage made in heaven, if you will. We decided to sacrifice some of the movie channels on cable (that never have anything good playing anyway) in order to comfortably afford the twelve dollars a month it will cost us for him to maintain an online character. I have to keep my man happy, right?

Speaking of video games.. did I mention that we are getting a PS3 for Christmas? Yes, indeed. My brother called a few days ago to find out what the kids wanted for Christmas. Of course I told him that my boys wanted a PS3. He asked how much a PS3 cost. I told him the truth - in the neighborhood of $500. He said that was a little above his budget for the kids, as I expected he would, but then he suggested that all of my siblings go in on it and I was perfectly happy with that proposal. In less than two months we'll have a PS3 in our living room! I couldn't be any more excited!

I've been trying to put myself out there into the "blogosphere," but I'm not so sure that the techniques that people claim to work actually do work. There is a social networking site called BlogRush and you'll notice I have the widget on my right sidebar. I even put it in place of my previous desktop because I haven't changed my desktop (on my site) in quite some time. I thought it looked good there - like it had it's own little spot on my blog. I was told the better placement it has on your site, the better it will work. That doesn't seem to be the case, as far as I can see. You can't make someone click on your post off that widget. They're either going to or they're not. I don't think anything really works. I'm just going to blog the way I've always blogged and stop worrying about "putting out" to get more traffic. I've never been much of a site traffic whore before so I don't know what has come over me lately. It's got to stop now.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the last two days off. I sure as heck didn't miss being at work. I wish I would have taken today off as well. I would have had five days straight at home. Oh, well. Life goes on. As you can tell, I didn't blog much while I was off. I totally missed Thursday Thirteen, but I'll somehow make up for it next week.

Halloween was great, but now both of my kids are sick. We will probably have to postpone Gabrielle's 1 year pictures that are currently scheduled for tomorrow because I don't want pictures taken with her sore, red, runny nose. Poor baby. I hope she's feeling better by Sunday because that is when we are having her party. She is already on antibiotics from her mysterious fever last week. Hopefully the antibiotics will keep it from turning into anything more than what it is - a miserable cold.

Well, it's a busy day at work. I'll try to post more throughout the day. Have a great Friday!

November is here and so is the fall weather. It's chilly and rainy and the wind is blowing like crazy here in Michigan. What I wouldn't give sometimes to be somewhere else in the world where the weather is always in the seventies. I say that every time the seasons change, but in all honesty... I do like the change of seasons.

Trick....

... or treat

More Wordless Wednesday

I haven't had a buzz in so long, but I definitely do right now. Let me just apologize now if my grammar isn't proper or if I ramble incessantly. We just got done watching the season premier of Nip/Tuck and it was fantastic. Actually we got done watching it about an hour ago, but having a vodka buzz makes the time just fly. Hmmm, maybe I should drink vodka before I go to work and then I would actually enjoy my job. Just kidding. My sister bailed on me already. My brother-in-law came over after work to pick her up so she wouldn't drive intoxicated. Yes, we're quite responsible. Well, my husband and I are going to watch tonight's episode of Reaper now. Then we might watch Eragon if I haven't passed out by then. Ooh, maybe we'll rent Hot Fuzz from On Demand instead. That might keep me awake for a bit longer.

Let me just conclude this drunken post with my old favorite phrase from the movie xXx: "Everything is OK with enough vodka."

Thirty-four minutes and counting. I have to admit this day really did drag, but now I'm near the end and very happy about that. In thirty-four minutes I will be heading out of here and over to pick up my sister and her laptop for a night of drinking, blogging, surfing and watching the season premier of Nip/Tuck! Stay tuned to my blog and hers for potential "drunk and blogging" activity.

I have a feeling that today will not be flying by as yesterday did. Knowing that I have a fun-filled evening planned and two days off, I imagine that this day will drag. I am hopeful, of course, that it doesn't. I have so much to do over the next several days to get ready for Gabrielle's party which makes it difficult for me to sit at my desk. I get a restless feeling when I'm tied to a desk with so many other things that need to be done. I just want to go and get the things done so I can stop worrying about them. Yeah, I'm a worrier... just like my mother.

I'll be leaving work shortly. The day has simply flown by! What a great thing to say about a Monday, eh? Only one day more to go - hopefully it will go by just as quickly - before I get another 2 day break. This time tomorrow night I will be getting ready to leave work, pick up my sister, and head home for a night filled with cocktails and a brand new season of Nip/Tuck. I am so excited about the new season! Does anyone else out there watch Nip/Tuck? It's perfect that the show premiers on "devils night" because the show is quite Devilish [ous].

I'm in such a good mood today! I know, it's Monday... what is wrong with me? Well, I only have to work today and tomorrow and then I'm off Wednesday and Thursday.Then I work Friday and I'm off work Saturday and Sunday. Plus, I got to sleep in this morning. No alarm clock going off at the crack of dawn. It's going to be a fabulous week!

Highlights for the upcoming week:

1. My sister is coming over tomorrow night to watch the season premiere of Nip/Tuck and have some cocktails.

2. Trick-or-treating with my kids on Wednesday night.

3. Gabrielle's 1 year pictures on Saturday

4. Gabrielle's 1st birthday party on Sunday!

It's been a fantastic weekend. Lots of hanging out with the family and watching movies yesterday. We watched Spiderman 3 and License to Wed last night. Spiderman 3 was better than the first two by far. License to Wed was pretty cute and during one part Jeremy and I were laughing so hard that we had tears in our eyes. I don't know if it's because we were up way past our usual bedtime and were a little slap-happy or what. Robin Williams is awesome though. I like just about anything that has him in it.

Today we spent the day with even more family. My sister, brother-in-law, both nieces and great-niece came over for the day. My husband and brother-in-law worked on putting the new doors on the bedrooms while the girls (and Evan) hung out. We took the kids to get more Webkinz - which is a ridiculous fad for children these days. If you don't know what they are - they are stuffed animals that have a code on their collar and the kids use the code to log into the Webkinz site, which is like an online community for children. When the kids log in and register their Webkin, it tells you all sorts of things about it and who it should be best friends with - therefore your child begs with tears in his/her eyes for you get them the other one. It's incredible. Webkinz are worse than Cabbage Patch kids were back in the day. My son now has three of them and my niece has five, I believe. I'm using them as a way to keep Evan in line at school . Webkinz are only between $10 and $15 each - much less than a Cabbage Patch kid. Unless, of course, they retire that one and then you have to search on eBay for it and pay ten times the original price. I haven't gone there yet. If it's not at the store, I'm not buying it.

Spiderman 3: (5 cup rating)

License to Wed: (3 cup rating)

I am no longer addicted to the chicken caesar wraps at work. I've eaten one every day for lunch for the past two weeks. Blah. I won't be having another one for a long time. I can't even stand the thought of eating another. I thought that yesterday morning too. Wasn't going to have one, but when lunch time rolled around I went down there and that is what I ordered. I'm not doing it again.

I'm so tired I can't even see straight. I feel like I'm floating around in a haze and everything looks blurry because of it. I can't believe how much this long week is taking out of me. I feel like I could go to sleep right here at my desk. It's taking every bit of energy I have just to talk to my customers. Other than the two hours left today, I only have tomorrow left and then I'm out of here for two days. That should make me happy, but the thought of doing this again tomorrow makes me want to cry. It'll be quite some time before I volunteer to work 12-hour days again.

I didn't even eat anything for lunch when I went home during my lunch time. I'm so tired that I had my husband make coffee and I slammed a big cup while I was there. Unfortunately it didn't wake me up at all. I will be so happy when this week is finally over. I love the extra money, but hate being at work so many hours every day and being away from my husband and kids. I can't wait to sleep in this weekend! I realize that sleeping in doesn't involve spending time with my family, but I really need to catch up on some sleep after this week in hell.

I am completely addicted to the chicken caesar wraps that they sell in our cafeteria. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but our cafeteria is catered by Marriott - very good food. I love caesar salad as it is, but this is mixed with grilled chicken and wrapped in a pita-type thing made out of spinach. It is heavenly! I grabbed an extra side of caesar dressing today which makes it even more delicious.

More Wordless Wednesday

I am out of here in five minutes. I hope no one calls at the last minute and prolongs the joy I get from leaving this place. I feel like I've been here for a week straight. Again, it's only Tuesday. Oh, crap.. that means that tomorrow is Wednesday. I don't do well on Wednesday's for some reason. Hump day and I just don't get along well.

Four minutes now. My heart races every time I look at the clock in the lower right corner of my monitor. I'm frantically anticipating that annoying beep that rings in my ear to warn me of an incoming call. Please, no. I can't handle another customer tonight. Let me leave on time and in peace.

Two minutes left. I'm almost in the clear.

One minute.

I'm waiting for the closest supervisor to yell "all clear!" so I can quickly hit the button to log out of the system preventing anyone else from calling in on my line.

Still waiting..

Any second now...

It's 8:00. Where is the signal? Are they not watching the clock? Come on now... I need to get out of here. They're giving them a chance to sneak in! Don't they understand that? Of course they do. They like to screw with us.

Oh, no! It's 8:01 and no signal to log out!

Sigh... there it is. I'm gone.

This day kind of sucks so far. It's only Tuesday and I didn't want to get up this morning. I'll be fine though. I'll get through the week and get to spend a wonderful, lazy weekend at home. I must be the laziest person I know. A good time for me means having nothing to do except lay around my house in my pj's for the weekend. Is there anyone else out there like that or is it just me?

It's amazing to me how quickly the weather can change here in Michigan. Yesterday it was beautiful outside; seventy degrees with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect really. Today, on the other hand, it's fifty degrees, raining and windy. Blah. I don't know what's worse.. working all day when it's beautiful outside or working all day when it's like this.

I can't stop yawning. I'm so tired. Two hours left to go and I will be out of here for a whole 12 hours. Wow, that's not much time when half of it is spent sleeping. I'll be home long enough to see my kids before they go to bed, watch our 2 shows - if they're on tonight (last week they weren't on because of the baseball game), get a few hours sleep and do it all over again tomorrow. *sigh* It's going to be a long week. Well, one day almost down... four to go.

My lunch is over which means that I have three hours and fifteen minutes left to go. I hope the rest of the day goes better than the first half. I talked to some of the biggest assholes this morning. Actually, a lot of the people were nice, but the few assholes I did talk to make it all seem like a bad day. It's amazing how that works. My fingers are crossed that the rest of the day goes smoothly.

Friday is only the longest day of the week when I don't work on Saturday. I'm in HELL here, people. I've been here for sixty-eight minutes and I'm ready to go home. This is going to be such a long day. I feel like I'll never get out of here. I still have more than an hour just until my first break! Someone put me out of my misery. Just give me the winning lottery numbers, please! I swear I'll give half of the money to the poor.

Let the fun begin. I'm at work for the next eight and a half hours. I really hope it's not busy today. It probably will be, but I can still hope, can't I? I realized driving in this morning that it's going to be dark when I go to work and dark when I leave work all next week. That's really going to suck. I just have to keep reminding myself that the following week I have two days off and that my paycheck is going to be a wonderful thing with all the overtime on it.

It's way too early for me to be awake today. I stayed up too late, didn't fall asleep for an eternity after I did go to bed and was up several times because Gabby had a rough night. Now I have to go to work and deal with that crap all day. I'm too tired. I'm going to need a lot of coffee today.

Can someone please explain to me why when I am sitting here at my desk working the time crawls by like someone put a hex on the clock, but when I go on break or go to lunch time starts to fly right by? I know that I'm not the only one who notices this. Fifteen minutes seems like an hour when I'm working, but my break is over before I know it. I walk away from my desk happy that I'm getting a break and then I blink and I'm sitting back at my desk. It totally sucks.

What is it about Fridays that take so long to get through? They are by far the longest day of the week. It's not even like I'm excited about having the weekend off because we all know I have to work tomorrow. So, what's the deal with the everlasting Fridays?

I have scheduled myself for twelve hour days all next week - 8am to 8pm. Blah. It's going to be a helluva week, but it's also a lot of extra money working an extra 15 hours at time and a half. We're saving for the holidays - and for a PS3 - which is sort of like a Christmas gift for the entire family. I'll have an easier week the following week. I have Halloween and the day after off work so I can relax then.

My sister is giving us a futon for our basement. She was going to sell it, but she has been nice enough to let us have it. It'll be something good for Jamie to sleep on when he comes over and if he happens to move in. My sister is the best, isn't she? Jeremy is going to pick it up in a little while.

Could I have been any lazier today? I don't think so. I have done absolutely nothing productive today. I'm still in my pj's and haven't showered. I've watched television and played on my computer all day. I feel like such a bum.

I'm back from lunch which means I'm half way through this day. Hopefully the evening is as quiet as the day has been. I love not having too many phone calls and being able to post here and surf the internet while getting paid. Is there anything better? I don't think so. Well, aside from being at home anyway.

More Wordless Wednesday

I am going to have a good day today. Why? Because I'm willing it to happen. I have tomorrow off because I'm working Saturday so that means I get to stay up late with my husband to watch all of our shows. We may even get the blender out and have margaritas or make some martini's so we can use our new martini glasses that my mother-in-law purchased for us. It's going to be a good day. I'm going to have the nicest customers all day today with no complaining or yelling. The day is going to fly by and before I know it I will be at home for the night. I insist on it.

I have twenty-nine minutes until it's time to leave work - as long as a customer doesn't call again at closing time and want me to rewrite his/her home and auto policy, that is. Twenty-nine minutes must be the count down of the day because if I remember correctly, I wrote earlier that there were twenty-nine minutes until my lunch break. Regardless, I'm out of here soon!

I feel like I'm in the slow lane today. I'm tired and I don't feel like being at work today. It's rainy outside which immediately triggers something inside me that makes me want to put my pajamas on and lounge on my couch with a good video game. Lunch is twenty-nine minutes away. I wish I was leaving for the day.

Today has totally sucked. I normally start the week out in a good way. Most people don't like Mondays and I don't either because it means the end to my weekend, but I normally have a good day once I get to work. It's usually the end of the week that sucks because I'm tired from working all week and dying for the weekend to get here. This has not been the case today. It's been a stressful, exhausting day and I'm already wishing it was the weekend again.

I got my second wind. I'm still not fully awake, but it's nearly eleven and I'm still kicking. Jeremy and Jamie just left for the video store to get 28 Weeks Later.

The freakiest thing just happened. Before they left for the video store, as the credits of last weeks Smallville episode were scrolling down the screen, Jeremy suggested I check on Evan and Allison because they had been too quiet for too long. I went to the door of Evan's room and it was dark. I turned the light on ready to yell at them for something and they were both sound asleep - Evan in his bed and Allison in the sleeping bag on the floor. HUH? They went to bed without being told? In what world does a nine year old boy and an 8 year old girl who can stay up late on a weekend playing video games or watching television go to bed on their own? I'm still in shock.

Well, the guys are back from the video store and they didn't have 28 Weeks Later. What a drag. Instead they rented The Reaping with Hilary Swank. I do want to see it, but I was really in the mood for a zombie movie. Oh, well. Such is life.

We just ate dinner and now I feel so tired. I shouldn't be this tired on a Saturday night at only a few minutes after 8pm. I'm supposed to be ready to hang out with my family. I look forward to this all week. It's the only thing that gets me through each day at work. Perhaps a second wind will come my way soon.

Today has been an extremely lazy day for me. It started out productive, but that only lasted long enough for me to do the dishes from last night (drink glasses and such) and clean up the mess we left in order to go to sleep by 3am. The rest of this day has been spent playing Resident Evil II. That's been my day, at least. My husband decided to go upstairs and start ripping more things apart to get ready for remodeling. Our house is a bungalow and we haven't even started utilizing the top floor because it needs to be completely redone. We ripped out the walls and ceiling and we need to drywall and there are other modifications that will be made eventually. I'm considering jumping in the shower. Maybe after a cup of coffee with Creme Brulee creamer.

Well, my good mood is gradually starting to wear off. Everything is slowly going downhill this afternoon. The day has begun to move at a snails pace and the calls (read: the people calling) are getting crazier and crazier. I'm REALLY looking forward to a blender full of strawberry margaritas now! *Sigh* Thirty more minutes until my next break and one hour and forty-five minutes to go from there. Lord, help me.

The work week is almost over. Sure, I haven't gone to work yet. I haven't even gotten in the shower to get ready for work yet, but at this time tonight my sister will be here and we'll be blending our first drinks of the night and ordering pizza.

I'm feeling a little better now after going home for lunch and seeing my family for a little while. I'm half way through the day. I need this next four hours to go by quickly so I can go home and spend more time with my family. The weekend can't get here fast enough!

I feel totally blah today. I would love to just stay in bed all day long. It's been raining and cold since yesterday - which doesn't help my mood. I feel like crap this morning too. It's going to be a day of complaints. I can tell already. Just call me whiny. My coffee tastes like rubbish and my head is pounding. Care to hear anymore? I didn't think so.

Have you ever had one of those days that seems to go by quickly, but at the same time seems to have taken forever to get through? That would be today. It seems that all Wednesday's are like that for me. I don't know why that is. Getting over the weekly hump isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, in my opinion.

The decorations I ordered for Gabrielle's birthday should be arriving today. I'm so excited. I am going to start sending out the invitations this week. It may seem silly to some people that I am as excited about this as I am, but it's my little girl's first birthday!

I need to remember to get in touch with our cake lady. She hasn't called me back yet and I want to get the order in. I don't know why she wouldn't have called me back. Maybe she was on vacation. I remember the last time I called for another birthday cake she was having problems with her phone, but I think that was in February so I can't imagine she's still having problems. Oh, well.. I will call her at work tomorrow morning and hopefully get in touch with her.

I'm half way through the work week. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My sister is coming over on Friday to hang out and drink strawberry margaritas. Woo hoo! Fun times. We'll actually have to watch MoonLight before we do anything else on Friday because we finally watched the two episodes that we had recorded and we really like it. We're hooked already! I'm sure my sister won't mind having a margarita or two while we watch the show.

Happy hump day to everyone!! I hope your work week is going smoothly.

Here we are at the beginning of another work week. Today has actually gone by pretty quickly. There's only 2 hours left of my work day and then I can go home, relax and watch Prison Break and K-Ville with my husband. Weekdays aren't necessarily all bad because we look forward to the shows we have to watch every night. Speaking of our shows, we are television freaks this season. Here is our list for the week:

Monday: 1. Prison Break 2. K-Ville 3. What About Brian (CORRECTION - it's been cancelled) *sniffle*

Tuesday: 3. Nip/Tuck (soon to start) 4. Reaper (directed by Kevin Smith)

Wednesday: 5. Pushing Daisies 6. Private Practice 7. Dirty Sexy Money

Thursday: 8. Smallville 9. Grey's Anatomy 10. Big Shots

Friday: 11. Moonlight (we have it recorded, but haven't actually watched it yet)

Sunday 12. Brothers and Sisters

Pathetic, is it not? Could we have any less of a life? I remember when I could honestly say that I didn't watch television. Can't say that anymore!

I can't believe I missed Thursday Thirteen this week! I just realized it too. I'm so bummed. I'm going to blame my sister because she should have reminded me. How horrible of her to let me miss it. I guess I'm not going to let her come over and watch the Justin Timberlake concert I recorded for her. *grin* Just kidding, sis. I'll llet it slide this time.

I only have half the day left and I am free from work for the weekend! Woohoo! I have been busting my butt today and trying to stay as busy as possible so the day will fly by. So far, so good. I'm hoping that before I know it, I'll be on my way home. This week has actually gone by a lot faster than I anticipated. That's always a good thing. I just hope the weekend doesn't go by just as quickly.

I'm running out of steam as the night wears on. Only a few more minutes and I am out of here! One more day to go and the weekend will be mine to cherish. It's funny how having two days off makes it worth getting through each week.

I've actually been a lot nicer to my customers lately and have enjoyed doing my job more than I had up until a week ago. I made a mistake (I was pretty snotty to a customer) and had to listen to that mistake in a room with my supervisor. Yes, we listened to my recorded call that was not nice at all. The prior debt collector in my took over and I let this woman have it. That's not how things are done here. Worrying about how much trouble I was going to get in for this made me change my ways. I haven't said anything even remotely snotty since. In fact, I've been a joy to do business with.. so I've been told many times this week. It's amazing what a little fear will do to whip your butt into shape.

Well, here I am at work... being bad. I'm sitting on hold while a customer calls her mortgage company to get their correct fax number. Fun times. I figured I would take the time to write something here and feel somewhat connected to the outside world.

I hope today goes by fast. Tomorrow too. I am looking forward to the weekend. I will be taking Evan to Halloween USA to get his costume for this year on Saturday. I'm also going to be ordering decorations for Gabrielle's first birthday party and ordering the cake to match. I already ordered Gabrielle's Halloween costume from a baby website for only ten dollars. She is going to be a little pink flamingo! I'll post the picture from the catalog when I get home. I'm also going to post the pictures of the theme I picked out for her birthday party. I'm so excited for both!

OK, well.. phone call is done. I have to get back to work - for now.

Well, it's hump day once again. I have to get in the shower and get ready for work. I would love to just stay home with my family, but then again.. who wouldn't. I don't know anyone that really enjoys going to work every day. I'm sure there are some people out there who do, but I can't imagine it for myself. I would much rather spend time with my kids and my husband than be on the phone all day with people I don't know.

This year is just cruising by. I can't believe it's October already. I love Fall and I'm looking forward to so many things; Halloween, Gabby's birthday, Thanksgiving and yes, even Christmas - even though I have no idea what I'm buying for anyone yet. We're not going to do much in the way of Christmas presents this year. It's pretty much for the kids and that is all this time around. With us moving into this house and having all new bills, we have to be careful with our spending this holiday season.

I had to work today and let me just say that working on Saturday sucks at this place. It's the first time I've worked a Saturday since starting this job five months ago and I thought it would be a piece of cake. It wasn't. It was busier than it is during the week. I don't like it at all. It's a good thing I only have to work every third Saturday - which works out to once a month most of the time. I have to work two Saturday's in December. Blah.

Our son is going to spend the night at my sister's house tonight. Even though I have to work in the morning, we are planning on having a nice, relaxing evening and will probably stay up late watching movies or playing video games. I started playing the Resident Evil series again this morning. Now, after seeing the third movie, I want to play every game again. Perhaps that will hold me over until the next RE game comes out in 2008. Fingers crossed.

I've been thinking about the next Thursday Thirteen I'm going to do for this week. I'm trying to come up with a list that is interesting and informative. Is there anything you can think of that you want to know about me? Anything that's still a mystery after all this time? *grin* What thirteen things do you want to know about Neptunebaby?

I've made this week an extremely easy week to make up for all of my hard work last week. I got off work at 4pm today and I have Thursday and Friday off. I do have to work Saturday, but at least I have 2.5 days off during the week. My husbands birthday is this Friday so we have lots of plans to do things during the two days I have off.

On Thursday we are both getting our hair cut - something we both desperately need. I have decided to chop more off because it's past my shoulders again and I'm tired of spending the majority of my time getting ready blow drying my hair. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'm thinking of doing the short in the back to long in the front style. I might change my mind, but I doubt it. I can't stand layers in my hair because it takes more work to style it (totally defeating my reason for cutting it) and layers have never looked good on me.

After our hair cuts, we are going "window" shopping. We might pick up a wireless Playstation controller because our daughter can't seem to leave the cord alone when anyone plays a video game, but other than that.. we'll just be looking. On Friday we are going to see Resident Evil Extinction. I can't wait to see it!

I am home for lunch today. Well, I'm usually home for lunch because I only work about 4 miles from home. But today I have an hour and a half lunch. They gave us an extra half hour because it's "clean your desk day" at work and since my desk is always clean and organized, I have nothing to clean. They even let us wear jeans today because we're supposed to clean. Nice. I will only have to work 3 more hours when I get back to the office. It's a nice little break from my long day. I can't wait until tomorrow is over though and I have two whole days away from the office. I also have two days off next week. That will make up for all this overtime I've been putting in.

This has been the most enjoyable day. It's been so nice to be at home for most of the afternoon and evening with my family. I think work would be much more tolerable if I could have every Wednesday off to break up the work week. Obviously that won't happen, but one can always dream. Two more twelve hour days and the weekend will be here.

I'm sitting in my living room watching Rock of Love starring Bret Michaels with my husband and getting paid for it. Our company picnic let out at 2pm, but I'm getting paid until 5pm. How cool is that? So, anyway.. Rock of Love is a "reality" show much like The Bachelor except it's got a group of skanky want-to-be rock-n-roll bitches with their boobies hanging out trying to win the "love" of a washed up musician. It's absolutely hilarious. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Wednesday afternoon.

I'm working 8am to 8pm this week to make some serious overtime cash so I'm sure I won't be posting much this week. I'm tired already and it's only Tuesday. Come on weekend!!

We had so much crap to put out on the front curb last night. I think it's expected when you first move into a house. The funny thing is that half of our garbage is gone now because the "garbage pickers" have come by several times. I couldn't imagine driving around the city and picking through the garbage of others. It always amazes me to watch people rummaging through rubbish.

Yesterday was the longest day ever. I'm so glad it's over and the weekend is in sight now. Only two days of work left and then I get to relax - finally. I'm hoping that today goes by a lot faster. I am NOT volunteering to work overtime next week. I need a week off from that. I think it will be an every other week thing.

It's Wednesday and I am hoping that the next couple of days goes by as fast as possible. The weekend is finally in sight! It's the day after tomorrow! I know, I'm a bit excited about it, but I really need a day to relax. Plus, our wedding anniversary is Sunday so I'd like to spend some time with my husband to celebrate it.

I am trying so hard to keep my eyes open for just a bit longer. I have been so tired lately when I get home from work, but if I don't try to stay awake I will never have any time to myself. I don't imagine I will be up much longer, but it's nice to be able to sit at my computer and spend a little time blogging - even if it's about nothing at all.

I am working overtime all this week to make extra money for all the new bills we have. I feel like all I am doing is getting up, going to work, coming home, going to bed and starting all over the next day. All work and no play makes Neptunebaby a very irritable girl. I'm already needing the weekend to get here and it's only Tuesday. I'm so tired, but I love our new house so it's worth it. I just wish I got to spend more time in it.

I am so tired. I can't seem to wake up this morning. I don't know why. I got sleep last night, but I feel like I could go back to bed and sleep half the day away. Unfortunately, I have to go to work. Blah. I'm so glad it's Friday.

I'm also excited that tomorrow is moving day. I can't believe this is our last day/night in this house. I think my dad and husband are going to take a lot of stuff over to the house today. I know they are taking the appliances over and getting them all set up. I'm sure my husband will be so excited once they get moved in that he will start moving other things. He already took a big load of boxes over last night. I have one big tote left empty to pack the last minute things that we needed to get through this week. I can't wait to get everything set up at our new house. I'll take pictures after we're all settled in.

Today is the last day of my three day holiday weekend. I have to work tomorrow, but then I took a vacation day on Wednesday so I can get some last minute things done before we move. It's also Evan's first day at a new school so I am going to take him and help him find his class. Then I have to go to the Secretary of State to change the address on my drivers license, then spend the day making phone calls to all the people that send me bills (the kids doctor's offices and such) to change my address with them. I've got just about everything packed for the move. I think I might have one more box full of stuff to pack and then we're all set. I'm so excited. I can't wait until the weekend! The only bad thing is that I believe I will have to wait until next Monday before we have cable and internet because I don't think they will come out on Saturday to install it. Can I live without the internet for a weekend? I guess we'll find out.

I actually got motivated enough to start packing today. I would say that we are officially half packed. I'm taking a break for a while since Gabby is taking a nap and I still have things to pack in that room. I think I'll go kick back in the recliner with my ice cold soda and watch a little boob tube.

I haven't done any more packing since my last post. I've decided that since I have tomorrow and Monday why do it today? Yes, I can be quite the procrastinator. Instead of packing, I've been vegging on the couch watching Curious George with the kids. Now I am one of my moods and have decided that making dinner sounds like something fun to do. It's been a while since I've felt like making a real dinner. It's nice to be at home with no real obligation to do anything other than what I want to do. That's what holiday weekends are for.

It's hard to believe it's September already. This is going to be a pretty eventful month for this family. Evan starts school on Wednesday, we move into our house next Saturday, our wedding anniversary is 15 days away and my husband's birthday is 27 days from now.

I started packing up our things today since we are moving in seven days. I began to realize after packing only one box that I don't like packing. We're only moving 2.81 miles away. Can't we just throw the stuff into several trucks the way it is and ship it over there? I guess not. Well, I guess I should get back to it. I really don't feel like doing anything today. It's my first day off for the three day weekend so what I'd really like to do is just camp out on the couch with the remote control and be super lazy. It doesn't look like that's going to happen.

I can't explain it, but I get so choked up on this day every year. As I'm getting ready for work this morning I have been watching and listening to the television present footage of Elvis Presley and how we still remember him this day, 30 years after his death, I have to fight back the tears.

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. I didn't know the man, but I miss him just the same. If I could have been at just one of his shows. *sigh*

My uncle Scott is here from California for a visit. He's a really awesome artist who paints murals all over California and is well-known in his parts. He was showing us a few local papers where they featured him and his work. He said he is going to paint a picture of Elvis for my living room wall. One of my favorites...

Have you downloaded the Alexa toolbar yet? What are you waiting for?

It's going to be a beautiful day - other than the fact that it's Monday. The weather claims to be nice today - sunny and 83 degrees. That's a nice change from what it has been the last week or two - raining and 95 degrees (like being in hell every time you walk outside). I have to drive my mom's car to work today and most likely tomorrow. After all the running around we did yesterday, we pulled up in the driveway and the shifting cable (or whatever it's called) broke on my car. I knew it needed to go in for repair last week because it was really difficult to move the shifter, but somehow it got overlooked. At least it waited until we were in the driveway! We would have been screwed if we had been out at IKEA and had it happen. Apparently I need to upgrade my AAA membership to the "plus" version so I get a hundred miles of free towing instead of just five. You never know when something like that can happen. Anyway, my car is under warranty so I just need to get it to the dealership.

Well, after tearing the house apart several times yesterday the camera has been found. It actually did get up and walk away - with a little assistance from my husband. He took it off the dryer and put it in my AAA bag downstairs when he was straightening up a few days ago. It's surprising that he didn't remember doing that. He normally has a great memory. I guess with everything going on around here he is starting to lose his mind as well. Hopefully after we are settled in our new house, everyone will be able to think straight again.

The inspection on our potential new house is this afternoon. I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it. I hope everything goes well and the inspector doesn't find a million things wrong with it. Heck, I hope the inspector doesn't find one huge thing wrong with it. We really want this house. If everything goes well today we have a closing date around the end of August. I don't know how I will get through work thinking about this all day! I hope it doesn't make my day go by slowly. I'm going to try to focus on work and not on the house. Yeah, right.

I have been tagged by Reese to do a tattoo meme. So...

As I stated here once before I have seventeen tattoos. I won't even attempt to take photos of them to post here because that would take up far too much of my Sunday. What I will do is tell you that I got my first tattoo at the age of eighteen - two very small connecting hearts on my chest - and continued to get them every so often until about 4 years ago. That was my final inking. My last tattoo was a Celtic design that I chose to have placed on the back of my neck. I forget that I have it because no one can see it unless I pull my hair up. I honestly wish that I could start over. I don't necessarily wish that I didn't have any tattoos, I just wish that I would have either gotten one fantastic, large piece instead of all the individual "pictures" or that I just had one small design somewhere that no one knew about except my husband.

Vito tagged with me with this meme, so here it goes:

5 people who will be annoyed you tagged them.

* Yoshi
* Megan
* Reese
* Suzanne
* Danny

4 things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth.

* George W Bush *must agree with you on that Vito*
* dog hair - it's never ending. I doubt I will have another dog any time soon
* germs - I have no more sick days at work until January (yikes)
* stress - I've had enough for a while, I think

3 things people do that make you want to shake them violently.

* When people say "on accident" instead of "by accident"
* When someone thinks they know everything
* Any random act of stupidity - I have a very low tolerance for it

2 things you find yourself moaning about.

* My propensity to eat too much junk food
* It's difficult for me to avoid spend money on things I don't really need

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself.

* I have no willpower

RULES

* Link to the original meme at freelancecynic.com so people know what it’s all about!
* Be as honest as possible, This is about letting people get to know the real you!
* Try not to insult anyone - unless they really deserve it or are very, very ugly!
* Post these rules at the end of every meme!

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Jeremy and I had so much fun "hanging" with Yoshi for the Blogathon yesterday and last night. We ended up winning two $5 gift cards to Think Geek throughout the day for winning his Movie Quote game. He had moblog entries while driving to McDonalds for breakfast and Panera for lunch with a detour to Cold Stone Creamery. There was also a period in there where we were all in a live chat. We hung out until about 2am and then just had to go to bed. The Blogathon ended a few minutes ago so we missed about 6.5 hours out of 24. Not too bad, I think. I will definitely be hanging out with Yoshi again next year! I would also like to say congratulations to Yoshi for raising $329 in pledges toward such a great cause!! All in all, I believe the Blogathon had in the neighborhood of $119,000.00 in total pledges. That is so awesome!

My good friend, Yoshi, is posting for the Blogathon today! He is blogging for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Please stop by and support him when you have time. He will be posting every half an hour for the next 24 hours. It's for a good cause!! He's got all sorts of wonderful things going on today. He has a Movie Clip Quote game that is a lot of fun to play and you can win prizes when you participate. I'm sure you can still sponsor him too, which would be a great thing. No donation is too small or too big!

I really need to improve my blog's ranking. I need to get my Google page rank up another notch or two. I am currently at four out of ten. That's better than some, but I need to get it higher. Now, as far as my Alexa ranking goes, I'm slowly but surely bringing it down. The lower my ranking is the better my site is. I started at over a million and now I'm down to seven hundred thousand and some change. I have no idea how I'm doing it, but whatever I'm doing it's working.

Why do I care about my site's ranking? It's simple: the better my ranking is, the more money I can make advertising. With us getting a house soon we need to make as much money as possible. Does anyone have any tricks on getting my ranking up without spending money to do it? I have submitted my site to a bunch of search engines and other sites that are supposed to help such as Open Project Directory and the likes. So far my Google ranking has not moved. I need all the help I can get. I need more people to link me. Important people. So, if you feel like you're important, or even if you don't, throw a link on your site and help out a fellow blogger pay her mortgage. *grin*

I am really beginning to love Pownce. I know, a lot of you have tried it and think that Twitter is better, but I've met a lot of cool people on Pownce and it's much more interactive (in my opinion) than Twitter. If anyone wants a Pownce invite, let me know. I also found a pretty cool site called Invite Share which allows you to give away any invitations you've come across and acquire some from other sites you might be interested in.

I am far too addicted to my computer and the internet. My husband will attest to that. He tells me all the time that I spend too much time on my computer. I should have been in the shower twenty minutes ago, but I'm still sitting here on my laptop. It's amazing how quickly time goes by when you're having fun. I woke up an hour ago and it feels like only a few minutes. I suppose it would be a good idea to get my butt in