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Thursday, July 29, 2010

The "G" stands for "Greatness"

I'm sure you remember that our anniversary was actually a little over a month ago (a month and 8 days, actually), but today the present was completed!
Well, it will be in 4-7 days, according to ticketmaster.com :0)
I do not remember what all I included as to what I got for him, but I think I'll give you a quick rundown. If it's still on this page of feed, suck it up- or just skip to the next paragraph! I gave him the following things (and in this order): Reservations to a hotel in Atlanta, a walking map from the hotel to the GA dome, and faux Greenbay tickets that I made myself (since they weren't for sale yet) for the Falcons/Packers game on 11/28/10. In case you didn't know, D is a big Packers fan. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned these things before!
Single-game (non season-ticket holder) tickets for the Falcons home games went on sale today at 10am EST. So NATURALLY, I had 2 alarms set and a giant post-it note stuck to my computer screen with the time, what sections are OK, and the maximum amount I need to spend on the tickets written on it.
8:55 hits, I log on to Ticketmaster.com (just in case their clock is fast)
nothing.
8:57 I decided to waste some anticipation by doing a little work- I wrote up two families service plans...
8:59 I went back to Ticketmaster.com and following took place:
REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
BEST AVAILABLE *CLICK*
BEST AVAILABLE *CLICK*
SEARCH *CLICK*
...
searching...
Your results will be ready in less than ONE MINUTE
...
...


RESULTS NOT FOUND
Try expanding your search criteria to find more results


Are you KIDDING me!??! NO- There ARE results to find. YOU FIND THEM, INTERNET! That is your JOB! There ARE NO MORE RESULTS POSSIBLE!
So, I tried again... I did not put any search criteria in at all, and got the same thing two more times, then I tried all possible combos of the options... SAME STINKIN THING!

I then followed the link to the right to NFLTicketexchange through Ticketmaster... I proceeded in ordering two tickets in the section I had previously picked out for $10 each cheaper than I expected to pay. They will be delivered by 8/4/10 (supposedly)!
I'm pretty excited!


The view from our seats:
Yeah, that's right. (haha I say that like it's close... it's not. It's not really close, but the stadium isn't very big, so it really IIIIISSSSSS close!!)






This evening, I looked up PackerBacker clubs in GA, as there are a couple here in the Ville, so we expect that there MUST be such a thing in every major city.
I didn't find too much that was current for Packer Backers in ATL, however, I did find out that there is ONE MORE Packer Backer club in Nashville than we knew of. As far as D and I knew, the official meeting place was in Franklin @ the Franklin Family Entertainment Center (Bowling Alley). They go there and watch all the Packers games during FB season... D used to be the server for this freak show weekly display of cheesehead devotion, and I would occasionally go to watch the crazies games. HOWEVER, there is apparently another such place. We will have to check this out. Nashville Packers is the other PackerBacker club in the Ville area... found the site, looked at it, and saw some familiar faces. Most notably "Greenbay Mike"- Bet you can't guess which one is him in the pictures- Two hints: Green and Yellow Contacts, FACE PAINT. I also saw that their summer party just passed, which makes me very sad. I wonder if they watched the Packers Fan Forum on NFL network tonight? Crap we should have DVR'd that stuff!!
- Just a little secret- I tend to talk about D being crazy and how he yells at the TV and everything.. and how he's a big fan, but since being in this family, I have learned a whole lot about the Packers... and I now can discuss such things with random people. And, I actually enjoy watching the games and I know many of the players' names (so I can join in the yelling at the TV since they can hear us if we yell together), and... you'll be proud, I requested to NOT work support groups the night of September 28th... BECAUSE THE PACKERS PLAY THE BEARS ON MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. I CANNOT WORK THAT NIGHT! HELLO!
I have learned not to wear any of my Packers gear unless others in the party I'm with (Namely Donnie or Don) are also outfitted in such a manner, as random out-of-towners tend to come up to me and tell me how they're a Bears fan... or that they Hate Brett Favre (which I don't mind hearing one bit), or how Aaron Rodgers became the first NFL QB in history to throw at least 4000 yards in each of his first two seasons ... They also like to ask what part of Whisk-ahhhnsin I'm from... Nashville. That's the answer. Nashville, Whisk-ahhhnsin, Tennessee.

So, yeah- I'm pretty excited about our trip to ATL in November... and if anyone else is going to this game, let me know. PS if you need a place to stay, we may have an extra bed- I might have booked a room that sleeps 6, I don't know.
I'm just really excited about getting the tickets... and getting to wear my Clay Matthews Jersey to a REAL GAME... and Tailgating with the cheeseheads... and not getting shot in Atlanta... and taking Donnie to his first ever live Packers game... and watching my first real live Packers game... (!!)

Oh sweet baby Jesus, I'm becoming one of them...

Monday, July 19, 2010

Got to work on this Day/Date thing...



OK, so apparently I need to work on this whole "knowing what day it is" thing.
I know.
It sounds weird.
Mostly because I write case notes all day and have to sign and fill out the date... then STILL don't know what the date or day is. I say this because I spent half the day thinking today was 7/26 even though I knew it was 7/19. I even talked Donnie into going to dinner to an event that is planned for NEXT MONDAY NIGHT. Holy moly. You'd think they'd have some kind of contraption that could tell you what the day/date was so you didn't have to keep up with it in your head. Someone should invent that... and name it something crazy- like CALENDAR!
(the name is still in the works, not too sure that's the right word for the idea...)

(There is no point to this picture, it's just pretty.)

I'm thinking that it may have something to do with the total of 8 hours of sleep I got this weekend? Or maybe something to do with the amount of work that I feel like I have left to do this month and the lack of time I have in which to do it.
Who knows?
Anywho, my weekend:

Saturday, we "slept in" (9 am) and bummed around alllll day until about 3 when we started getting ready for a photo session with Kate Whitmore.
We met her in Mboro and she took a bunch of pictures of us being all lovey dovey and stuff... the couple she cheated and let me see on the back of the camera looked SO GOOOOOD! (Check out the sneak peek here) I can't wait to see the rest of them!! I have never had someone take pictures and get so excited- I loved every second of it! She definitely made it easy to feel comfortable and pretty and stuff with her excitement she radiated from behind the camera.

We then went to eat with the free meal tickets that we got the last time we ate at Ryan's (it was disgusting... but this time it was better...) Then to Wall Street, where we sat for about 5 hours. Apparently they sell Long Islands for $4. Ginormous. We came home (with an additional passenger) about 2. Donnie and I were going to bed at 3:30, heard Screeeech, POP! Yeah, someone lost control, skidded through a yard, and slammed into the side of our neighbor's house. So I called the cops, and we had a neighborhood block party in our jammies until about 4:30 am. Everyone is fine- house not really hurt, truck pac-man shaped, but driver was fine. He "wasn't drunk" but admitted to drinking previously in the evening. Apparently was just mad and lost control of the car, then you know what happened- bc I just typed it 3-4 lines ago.
(Did you forget already??)
We met several neighbors that we hadn't met yet, so that was exciting! And found out about the people who lived in our house before us. Mom & 2 sons; good kids, joined bad group of kids and then potentially began breaking into houses. One day, truck shows up, never see 'em again. The kids have been seen a couple of times, and probably were the little crapbags that broke in to the house between our first and last contract and smoked stuff in the bathrooms. Whatever.
So, that was fun. Then woke up at 8:30. Couldn't go back to sleep.

Sunday we spent most of the day trying to fix our washer (yeah, overflowed again. Sweet.) and cleaning camping supplies to give back to my bro.

Mostly best part- Saturday evening. LOOOOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVED it!
If you ever need pictures for something, I would HIGHLY SUGGEST using Kate Whitmore.
She's super fantastic! But be prepared to listen fast, because she talks as fast as I do when I get excited! I had forgotten how fun it was to talk to other people at speeds most individuals just hear as buzzing. :o)

I don't like picture-free posts much, so I had to add something.
This, my friends, is Donnie's favorite female-restroom-graffiti.
In anticipation of football season...
GO PACK GO
(Yes, that's green nail polish on the side of a bathroom stall)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Another reason...






Another reason that I should be a stay at home dog-mom...
Yes, this one also revolves around food.

That's Rice Penne with chicken, asparagus, and (extra)tomatoes in vodka sauce.

And the dinner table:


And that's what our dining room/area looks like for those who wonder. :-)

(OH! And PS I had that horrible craptastic day the other day and STILL came home and made an AWESOME dinner- Ask D!)

I'm doing better about the whole blogging more than once a month thing! Hooray!

The past two days at work have been crazy- I've been WORKING.
ALL.
DAY.
While at work.
I KNOW!
It's insane.

Yesterday 9-7 (I took about a 10 minute lunch break to go get my food)
and today 8:40-4:30 (no lunch break bc I forgot)

Tomorrow we have a record review bc we have an audit coming up, so I went through all my charts that will need to be reviewed (almost half) and, naturally, had to go through them and pre-review them so that when they're reviewed I don't get pissed and bombarded by the mistakes other people may potentially find in these things that I might have overlooked.
And, since one person was let go, the other three of use have had to absorb her caseload, so I've been trying to integrate the 8 I took from her into my caseload and my swing of how I do my visits/charts... and it just so happens they fit right in! I'm so glad she did her job, and did her job well... I would have probably just sat in the floor, played candyland and cried if it were any other way.

Time to go sit in front of the TV and zone out to whatever is DVR'd for the day... Ahhhh Satan, your devices are so entertaining. Thank you for the invention of the DVR.

(PS, as I type this, my wonderful husband is cleaning
up from the delicious dinner I just made... and I didn't even ask. Isn't he super?)


Sunday, July 11, 2010

C is for Camping


We went on our first ever camping adventure this weekend.
What an adventure it was.
I have not uploaded any pictures or anything yet, other than this one:

Martini was WOOOORN OOOOOUT After our morning hike yesterday.

So, yes, our first ever camping adventure was just that.
D, the girls, and I went up on Friday afternoon as soon as we got off work to make sure we could get a campsite since Rock Island only takes reservations 1 week out, and none had been made for the group of us yet. We left and it started raining... it rained the entire way, until it stopped raining for a few minutes to begin POURING. We eventually made it in about 2:15 (It was supposed to be 1:28 according to google maps), and tried to figure out how to set up this tent... you know, in the rain. It stopped for about 10 minutes, which was just enough time for us to get the tarp down, tent up, rain cover on, and run back into the car for the next downpour. Then it quit for a few, and we had made a list of things we didn't bring but would like to have (i.e. playing cards, massive amounts of liquor, gigantic rainwater-powered wind fans, 100-foot in diameter umbrella, etc.) and D went to the market, while I took the big plastic bin and blew up the air mattress, then put the fitted sheet down, made the bed, fluffed the pillows, put the dogs' beds in the tent... and OH YEAH THAT IS ALL THAT FIT IN THE TENT! hahaha

---> We borrowed this tent from my brother and his fiancee'. We've never been camping before, so we didn't have one, and didn't feel like buying one if we didn't LIKE camping, so we borrowed. Didn't realize that tents aren't all the large ones that you can basically walk around in and sleep 10. Oops.

SO, I get all this crap set up, he gets back... with cards and candy. NO massive amounts of liquor to entertain ourselves, no industrial-sized rainwater-powered FAN to keep me cool, or 100 ft diameter umbrellas... Nothing to do, 80 degrees and humid/still kinda raining, what can we do? We sit in the tent and talk about playing cards... we then laid there for the next 5 hours and covered and uncovered the tent with the rain and listened to the crazy lady across the way talk to someone LOUDLY. Her children also kept getting things out of their car, which made the Jeep's lights TURN ON and shine right into our tent all 5 times they did this. Saturday 5 am sunup time was incredibly pleasant for me.

---->Apparently, tents also mean you wake up when the sun comes up bc it shines in them!
WHO DOES this for FUN?

We did some hiking, then went back to our campground and waited on Shannon, Blaine, and Carolyn to get there while we played cards.

I don't remember a whole lot more stuff because I'm so tired, but eventually we made hot-dogs and veggie burgers, had dinner, and played Rummy... which we had to work on some people learning, and I got told that I am apparently "intense" and "high strung" and that "it's just cards" and all this crap. Whatever. It's a GAME, which means there has to be a WINNER and a LOSER and I need to be the WINNER and if I WIN I get to GLOAT. Seriously. Where is the issue?

So I'm a little competitive.

After that was S'MORES time, where we all demonstrated our inability to build a fire. Thank God that one of the other campsites' people had diesel fuel, and they dumped it on our logs to start our fire. :o)
I then proceeded to get S'more remnants all over me. As in Chocolate all over my mouth, arms, chest, clothes, etc. Because I like to make my S'mores differently than most people. I like to heat the mallows, then put them on top of the chocolate on the graham cracker, and then hold that open-faced s'more over the fire so it allllll melts together... Seriously. Try it.


Today, up at 5:30 (SLEEPIN LAAAATE)
Picked up after ourselves
Packed up tents and crap
Made breakfast (leftover hot-dogs on sandwich bread)
Went hiking/rock climbing/tried to kill our less-experienced friends in the gorge
Went to the "beach" and played ball with the dogs/tried to drown Carmen by throwing two balls in the water at one time and she couldn't figure out which one to get... and laid in the sun, got sand in all cracks and crevices, etc. and then came home.

So incredibly tired.

It turned out to be a great weekend for camping- with the exception of Friday night. The weather was perfect- sunny, hot, crazy hot, but then pretty nice in morning and night (at least Saturday), and waking up to the sunshine in the morning gradually is a very gentle way to do it. Much easier to get up at 5:30 that way than 5:30 to the alarm or 5:30 to a LIGHT TURNED ON haha It was nice.
No shower. No hair brush. Dirty feet. Smell like firewood. Exhausted. Almost sunburned.
Overall- I think we'll do it again... with a bigger tent, better cooler, battery powered fan and radio, and tethers to tie the dogs to so we don't have to keep up with them/their leashes constantly. And in the end of September... when it's cooler at night!!!

Maybe I'll post pictures one day when I upload the suckers. :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Emily and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So, Alexander's day I believe started off something like this:
- "I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."

Mine was just a little more like:
- "I got ready for work and was looking real cute, then walked into the laundry room to put the clothes in the dryer and the floor was flooded, so I took the NEWLY CLEANED TOWELS out of the DRYER and put them in the STUPID floor to dry up the water from where the washer had overflowed, and then I worried that the house would burn down from a short in the wire/water on the electric cord on the dryer and so I cleaned it all up and made 20 trips outside with all the soaking wet towels and got water all over ME and the kitchen floor and then I took the dogs outside to potty and locked myself and the dogs outside; my phone was inside with
my keys and my dignity as I spent the next 20 minutes trying to weigh which I would rather do: wake a neighbor to use their phone or bust out the back door to get back into the house and then pay for it later? I tried to wave down Hector (across the street neighbor) as he left and he just waved "Hi!" And drove off so then I tried to escape the back yard to no avail as I am
apparently not
strong enough to get the best of our ghetto gates- which are made of screwed on plywood and I
eventually got one broken so I could escape and went to our neighbor Miller's house, called my mom who was busy and doesn't have a key so I called D and he didn't answ
er and I left him a message but didn't know if he would ever listen to it before his lunch break and so I got myself back in the back yard and prepared myself and the dogs to bake to death in the boiling hot sun and so I sat down on a lawn chair and THEN noticed the pervert 12 year old next door (above the garage) had his
binoculars out trying to get a good upskirt shot so I walked over towards that side of the yard and flipped him off and then turned my chair around and then I could tell that it was going to be a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day."

D showed up 15-20 min later, walked outside, and almost laughed, then I just looked at him and said, "I've had a bad day already." (I may have started crying at this point and the next words MIGHT have been unidentifiable, but at this point, he was hugging me and I was just mumbling/crying into his clean work shirt... with my nasty sweaty nasty nasty self)

This was 8:20.

My hair was SO pretty this morning, too. But at this point, it looked as though I had sat in a sauna for 5 hours, since I had been outside in the morning heat for about 1 hour and 13 min by normal people standards; by my standards: 8 FREAKIN HOURS and 79 MINUTES!

So, I RE-got ready for work, left, and half way there, my oil light came on.

I almost turned around and came home.

But I stuck it out, it was ok the rest of the day, got home super tired, was almost finished making dinner when D got home and he had a DOZEN ROSES in his hands! :-)
What a sweeeeet peeea!
That's them up top :)

So, now we've finished dinner, I'm stuffed to the gills, and thinking of doing some jumping jacks so I can make some room for some ice cream... lol

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

DVR is of the Devil

Serviously.
It disguises itself as super-duper awesome, but deep down, it's evil.
I could totally quit my job just to watch the things I've DVR'd.

And, no, I'm not talking about the wonderful workouts I've DVR'd, I'm talking about all the other stuff.

Must... get up... shower... have to bathe today...

Then I have to go back to work tomorrow...
OH! GET THIS!
I thought I had a Dr. appt at 11 today, so I took off work today (and yesterday, just for fun)...
I look at my phone calendar, TURNS OUT July 8 is TOMORROW, NOT TODAY.
So, I have to go back to work tomorrow, but can't leave for 3 hours to drive to mboro and go sit on a table for 2 hours. I guess I'll have to reschedule it... haha CRAP! Must work on this!

(2 blogs in a row- YES!)
Martini Enjoying herself in our newly fenced backyard...

Pictures- just for fun!
Carmen likes it, too! :)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Why I should be a stay at home dog-mom

As I continue my trend of posting monthly, I would like to share with you why I should be a stay at home dog-mom.
Not just plain stay at home mom, mind you, because then I would have to have HUMAN children, which I do not. I just have dog children.
So-
Exhibit A

That would be Wasabi Seared (Left side) and Sesame Seared Tuna, with special sauce, steamed rice, and hand tossed salad.

I did it all by myself.
And it cost a grand total of about $12 for both of our dinners...

Exhibit B-
Tomorrow night's dinner menu:
(Rice)Penne Rigata with Cubed chicken in a Vodka Sauce, with Steamed (or maybe grilled?) Asparagus and salad
OR
Mexican dinner in a pan! Rice, Tomatoes, Fake Ground Beef, Jalepenos, and stuff all mixed up - kinda like a casserole, but on the stove top!

Exhibit C-
Donnie's Lunch today:
Ready for him when he walked in the door!
(I hadn't gone grocery shopping in about 6 weeks, so this is pretty much all that was left in the house)
-Grilled Turkey and Cheese Sandwich
-the breakdown:
Bread
Super thin swipe of EVOO Mayo
Cheese
Egg w/Fake bacon bits
Cheese
Turkey
Cheese
Super thin slice of EVOO Mayo
Bread
HAHA I know, it sounds terribly unhealthy, but our Mayo is really low cal, and I put is on so think you hardly know it's there, the bread is 100% whole grain, 35cal/slice, the turkey is all natural organic stuff (only 1 1/2 slices), the butter it's cooked in is all natural healthy stuff, and the bacon is fake. The only unhealthy thing really is the cheese- but according to the Kraft people, it's good for you! :)

Other reasons:
-Got all the grocery shopping done today
-The children and I went outside to play 5 TIMES!!
-Finished the laundry
-Finished the dishes
-I got to sleep in (that's more my reason...)
-Got the dog's grocery shopping done today, and everything I bought was on sale

Here's pictures of the prep of dinner, enjoy!
Ground Wasabi Peas, Special Sauce, and Sesame Seeds


ASSEMBLY LINE------->



OK so Recipe for the Tuna- (It's RIDICULOUSLY easy!)
- 2 1/2 lb Ahi Tuna Steaks, cut into strips- about 1- 1 1/2 inch wide 2- 2 1/2 inches long
(This should give you about 12-16 pieces)
- Juice to put them in before rolling them in topping
-I used Soy Sauce + Sriracha Sauce + Wasabi and stirred with whisk until it was evenly mixed
- Topping-
-For the wasabi stuff, I put about 1/2 cup wasabi peas in food processor and made them powder, otherwise, white sesame seeds are really good on the tuna!
Here's how it works:
- Pan on stove @Medium, Sesame oil in pan (just enough to coat the bottom)
you have to have these things all ready to go before starting, because they do not wait on you!
The assembly- for all 16 pieces while pan is heating, before putting oil in pan and starting to cook tuna-
Tuna->Soy mixture, coat it well-> then roll in sesame seeds or wasabi peas, coat all over->move to side (Of that plate or new plate) repeat until tuna is all covered
THEN, when you've done all pieces, start with tongs, 4-6 pieces at a time cooking.
Place tuna in pan, then get next piece, etc. until you get all 6 in there, then immediately roll to next side. The tuna should be seared- meaning still pink/cold in middle, so basically it's cook, 1, 2, turn, 1, 2, turn, 1, 2, etc. So, I have to do the 6 pieces at a time, and basically just turn, turn, turn, turn until they're all turned 4 times, and flipped on end, then put them in a paper plate lined with paper towels.
Repeat!
(This should be the last thing you do, because the tuna should basically go from skillet to paper towels to plate-table with minimal time in between.)