Here, there, everywhere...

Wednesday night fun times!

2012-01-18T21:03:00.000-06:00

On Wednesdays, D bowls in a league... this means I'm home alone and free to play as I please!

Tonight's project: Transfer images on to stretched canvas.

I'm cheap. Since this was the first try, I wanted to go as cheap as possible, so I printed out 2 pictures of our kiddos at an undisclosed location (that's right, SECRETS!) and got the smallest canvases I could find. Because they're cheapest. Yep.

Step 1: Print picture on regular printer paper. Use gel medium to adhere picture (I flipped the picture around before printing it, as they transfer backwards) to canvas. Cover canvas in one good flat coat of this stuff. I was told (by Pinterest) to get medium gloss gel medium or something, but I ended up with this stuff and it apparently worked just fine!

Glue the pics on to the Canvas with ^^ That stuff... looks like this...

Step 2: Smooth out lines on paper with something flat... credit card, ruler, or... you know, cardboard from the new glitter you just bought... :)

Step 3: WAIT forEVER for it to DRY. (And by forever, I mean about 3-4 hours)
Step 4: Douse the paper with water from a squirt bottle til it soaks through... pull/ball/roll off the paper slowly.

Rub gently and the paper will start to rub off.

I rubbed the edges of each picture to make them look all jagged, too. So that's neat. :) ALSO, Carmen is too dark. I kept re-wetting and re-rubbing to get all the paper off of her picture so that I could see her & accidentally rubbed off some of the picture. Oh well. That adds to the novelty, right?

Carmen's finished picture... note the white spots where I rubbed the picture off. Haha oops.

Tini's completed picture...

Step 5: When the canvas is pretty much dry, swipe with a medium-thick layer of the gloss/gel medium stuff again to set it. This way- you won't continue to wipe off the picture! YAY!

I am so excited to know how to do this! You better believe that I will be doing this with every dang picture from NOW ON.

Oh- relatives, loved ones, etc... you're welcome. You're welcome for your awesome pictures you'll be getting done like this for the rest of your lives!

Enjoy!

♥

Shutterrific!

2012-01-14T19:43:00.001-06:00

Buying a house is dangerous business, I tell ya.

Here's why I say this: when we were house shopping, I had a tendency to see one thing I loved and notice nothing else. In the house we ended up purchasing, that one thing was our bath tub. It's a giant jacuzzi/garden/whatever you want to call it- tub. Jets and all. I saw it, jumped in in my clothes and shoes, and sat down while proclaiming, "I'LL TAKE IT!" And we did.

The following things were items that may have slipped by me:

- No fireplace

- No entry closet/LR storage

- No water pressure in the master bathroom shower

- TINY CLOSET to SHARE *(it looks like a "Walk-in" until stuff is in it, then it's a "Stand-in-&-don't-turn-around-too-quick-or-you'll-knock-over-my-shoerack" And our condo had 2 closets in the master- one normal for him, and one that slightly resembled a baby-sized bedroom for me. SO SPACIOUS. I lust while thinking of how badly I miss that closet)

- Tiny Pantry

- Ugly gold fixtures EVERYWHERE

Now, I don't want you to think I hate this house, as that list IS somewhat extensive, but I can say--- I may already be making a list of features that we MUST have in our next house. In 5 years. When we have a kid or two and have severely outgrown this 1222 square foot lovenest.

All that being said, I have solved some of the problem today. We have no coat storage since we have no entryway/LR closet.

ENTER $5 SHUTTER (and a bunch of hooks)

One day, once this room is painted, the shutter will be much more noticeable

Most people who know D & I well know that we both have an affinity for any clothing article that comes equipped with a hood and pouch. Maybe we love the way hoodies accent our svelte figures, maybe we really enjoy repping our teams/sports/etc, or maybe we just really like being able to throw something on that is comfy and alleviates our need to suck-in because of the adorable potato sack shape. Who knows? Either way, we have an extensive collection of all things hoodie. There's really no convenient way to store these wardrobe monstrosities, either. I mean, EACH ONE takes up an entire drawer if you fold them. Also, I needed a place to store scarves so I could find them, since "under the bed or on top of the table" has become my most frequently played game, but it has never been my favorite.

So here's how it worked.

Step 1. Buy a shutter from Habitat for Humanity for $5. Yep. $5. That is a STEAL. LOVE it!

Step 2. Figure out where to hang it and put screws/anchors in wall. I write all over everything when hanging stuff- thankfully, all my notes end up under whatever gets hung.

Step 3. Attach hanger thingies. Yes. That's the technical term. I began to do this myself, but he just wanted to help, so I let him... ♥

This makes me think of whenever there's a children's activity described on TV and they say, "Ask a grown up to help!"

Step 4. Attach hooks for hanging scarves, jackets, etc.

Step 5. Take oldest child to Target for the 2nd time today to get more hooks. Realize they no longer make the same chrome hooks as you have already put on the stupid shutter. Concede to using brushed nickel and dare anyone to say somethin!

This dog is ferocious. You've been warned.

Step 6. Hang the dang thing & finish putting hookers on!

Have a grown up help with this part, too, Kids!

Step 7. Decorate accordingly. BAM!

YAY! Now they can all cuddle and keep each other warm until I need them!

That's all I have for now.

Well, that and

GO PACKERS!!!

♥ EM

Twenty-Oh-Twelve

2012-01-07T22:01:00.002-06:00

That's right. Twenty-oh-twelve. That's what I said.
No, that's not what I call it... as far as you know.

By now, you have realized that I am an awesomely fantastic blog-updater, and you haven't missed a thing. Right? I mean, I update daily, so I don't know why you're making that face.

I haven't updated about how awesome my 101 in 1001 is going (or about anything else at all) in a while, so I thought tonight would be a good time to do so! You are welcome. In advance.

After this update, I have completed 27% of my list (well, actually more, but I haven't blogged about the others, so I'm only counting 28/101 items) and I am 37.3% through my 1001 days. That's not too bad!

I have (since last update & strikethrough) completed the following:
#35. Spend time in California
This was a LONG and EXCRUCIATING story. Basically, in October, D had a conference in Vegas (Yeah- 2 birds w/1 stone. #54.) and we flew out American Airlines. Our layover was in LAX, and our plane had to be rerouted due to bad weather... so we- and 10 other people- were stranded in LS for 16 hours. I thought- LET'S GO TO THE BEACH!!! So we hopped in a cab to Santa Monica at 10:30pm and went to a bar by the pier. I'm not counting this as #1. Visit the Beach because I did not get sandy. haha

A picture from our bench in Santa Monica... where we sat. and froze. waiting for a cab at 1:30 am on a Tuesday. Because we're smart.

#38. Build a fire pit
   This is interesting. Basically, here's how it goes.
  - Step 1. Buy way too many concrete blocks
  - Step 2. stack them in a square
  - Step 3. Light stuff on fire inside of said square

Yep. That's it. It isn't pretty, but I have every intention of buying some scrap tile @Habitat or something this summer, beating the crap out of it, and tiling in the outside of the concrete blocks in a mosaic-like style.

#41. Buy (and successfully wear) flat boots
   I don't know that anything else needs to be said. I bought flat boots. I look cute in them. :)

#47. Get a new TV for our LR
   For Thanksgiving, I bought us a new 51" giant tv. It is beautiful. I don't have any pictures of it, so you'll need to come see it yourself! Yay!

#51. Build seating area around fire pit
  You know how I said "Buy way too many concrete blocks"?
The "too many" is what I made 2 benches out of. They aren't permanent. But I'm counting 'em!

#54. Go back to Reno or Vegas
   It was uhm... an experience. That's what I'll call it. It was interesting. D had to go for work, so I tagged along. We got stranded in LA for half of the trip, but I made the most of it!
Some pictures:

View from our floor... SIGH

The View from our ROOM! Thanks Planet Hollywood for the complimentary upgrade! ♥

Holy MOLY our room was sweet! The thing you see on the far side- that's a WALL of a WINDOW with a remote controlled screen/blind thingie that rolled up on command. I felt like such a poor person because I found this so exciting. hahahah

#61. Get a new mattress/box springs
   King. Size. Bed.
   That's right- I can sleep with my husband in the same bed and NEVER EVEN TOUCH HIM. Not that I want that... but I kinda do sometimes. You know. We're both wild sleepers. This thing is amazing. I'll post pictures of it one day. That way you can see how pretty our bed is with the headboard. :)

#76. Put a desk (of sorts) in the office
   Another thing I need to post a picture of is this DESK! I have 2 baby filing cabinets (the 2-drawer ones) and for Christmas, my brother gave me a giant piece of granite!!! It's BEAUTIFUL! and lays perfectly across the 2 cabinets to make a desk.
I. Love. It.
Makes me want new countertops... hmm...

There are some more that I don't think I've updated, but I'm just going to mark them out anyway.

Also: I'm counting #93 as complete as well. For Christmas, D's dad got Carmen and Tini Packers Cheerleader uniforms. I'm using those as their new outfits. SO CUTE!
They're really short, so the girls look a little slutty.. but we all knew that about them all along.

And now I'm sleepy. That's all I have time/energy to update about tonight. Maybe more this next week... or next month. You never know! I like to keep you guessing!

Enjoy!
♥ EM

Good to know

2011-12-09T11:21:00.000-06:00

A friend told me today that they saw something sparkley and it made them think of me.

Life Mission: Complete.

BAM!

♥ Em

Merry McChristmas to you!

2011-12-08T13:21:00.002-06:00

Last night, D left to go bowling and the house was normal.
He came home to a Christmas Wonderland! I think there's still more to do, though, so he will probably be surprised when he gets back tonight as well.
Sneaky Snake, I am!

Some pictures for you---

Our Tree! I'll put another picture when I wrap the other presents :)

This is beside the tree - against the wall you walk in and see. I wrapped the lamps with tinsel to make them Christmas-y! So fun! Who needs fancy crap, I use $1 tinsel and bobby pins!
Also, Note the Green and Yellow/Gold Balls. 12-0

My boyfriend Santa greets you at the door. Be careful- he's watching even if he does appear to be winking! And he might be staring at your butt a little, too. Who knows. We've had to get creative with him because he's old and fragile and Carmen's whip of a tail will kill him with one good lick if we're not careful!

The Children's Stockings. Tini on L, Carmen on R with Brown Dog on it

Even our DVDs are in the spirit!

Yes, Santa dancing singing bear-Elvis and Large Elvis ornament that sings and dances and lights up. Love it!

Baby Christmas Tree on the table

More pictures are to come, I'm sure... but there's a little hint of how crazy our house looks right now.

Enjoy!

♥ EM

***UPDATE***
There is now a second Tree. It's 4 feet tall and in the window on the opposite side of the room :) That's what happens when D goes to Franklin 2 nights in a row. We'll see how he takes it...

Baby Tree with niece presents under it

Crazy about Pallets!

2011-12-05T15:26:00.002-06:00

(This post was from 11/15, but for some reason just posted today and I don't know how to change the date.. so just imagine that I posted it then!)

I went to town on some pallets this weekend...

Wanna seeee?

Headboard for our KING SIZE BED we're getting for Christmas. This is a QUEEN in front of it. Do not think I'm measurement-stupid and over-did it. I did that on purpose :) ALSO bed will be on a platform eventually, so the plywood won't be showing!

Shelf for my cookbooks. I sliced a pallet in half (my craftsmanship is remarkable with a sawzall. Look at those straight lines...) One day I might fix that.

Inspiration: http://www.theroosterandthehen.com/how-to-make-a-pallet-headboard/

But, this is what I did instead...
I bought a boatload of pallets (literally, you could load them into a boat) and white washed most of them. I had some Kilz Ceiling paint leftover, so I mixed 1 part paint to 3 parts water and whisked it to a milk-like texture and just overinduldged all my pallets with said waterpaint. It gave them a weathered- almost mold covered- look and I LOVE it. Obviously, you can see the ones that hadn't gotten it yet, but this was step 4. (1- purchase pallets fpr $1 each from sketchy individual named Stooooneyyyy 2- paint 3-rip them to pieces)

We'll start with 4. Lining them up how I want them on the headboard. I kind of wanted to stagger them like bricks, but due to how anal I am (the ends wouldn't have matched up because they would have been fresh-cut wood edges against the weathered looking sides and I would have had to repaint every SINGLE piece to make it work), and how lazy I am (see previous parenthesis comment about the amt of work it would have taken), I thought this was better! It also was more sanity-saving than staggering would have been. Oh MY, someone would have gotten hurt!

Step 6. Complete.

Step 5. Then I made sure all were painted and lined up. Again. And took 4 of the insidey pieces from the pallets (they're like 2x4s but I don't know the measurements other than it's not 2 OR 4...) to give it an outside even edge on each side...
Step 6. Have children sit in front of it and look freakin ADORABLE.

Step 7. Nail to perfectly-measured plywood. This SHOULD HAVE been the easiest part, as I sawed most of the nails off and just had to pop out 3 per board to nail in the original holes and leave the rest of the original nails, but my foresight when ripping the pallets apart was not the greatest and half of them had the center nail still in them... but beaten down into submission. That had to be removed from half of them--- which took us well past dark and into 50 degree weather. I was soon told to come inside and stop playing out in the dark & cold.

Step 8. Completely unnecessary. Come inside and not freeze to death.

I brought this inside, too, just so it didn't get eaten or infested with bugs on the ground... or bird-pooed on over night. At this time, we realized why other people just NAIL the BOARDS into the WALL instead of putting it on Plywood. It weighed about 200 pounds at this point. (Or maybe 70, but 200 sounds more realistic. I don't know)

After step number 7 was completed the next morning, we had to hang this. At this point- with all the planks on it- the board now weighed about 500 pounds (again, probably more like 100, but really... 500!).
Step #9. Find Studs, make fancy-pants stud-marker-things out of thumb tacks, yarn, and heavy objects.
That's right, Fancy. Pants. We had to know where the studs where the whole time D was screwing this bad boy into the wall, but couldn't really think of another way besides my extra special way.

Step 10. Find 10 friends to hold this 1000 lb beast to the wall while someone who knows how to use a screwgun thing screwguns it to the studs.

Don't have 10 friends, you say? I guess I could just hold it while D screws it into the wall.

I could just hold it while I remove my arms from their sockets. Yeah. Heavy. Hard to hold. 2 people.

But I wanted it hung that day, so I had to hold it all by myself. I may have gotten splinters in my chest and face at this point, because I was just using my whole body to push it against the wall. I'm thrifty like that.

(Speaking of splinters... you would not believe how many baby splinters I had in my arms, legs, and butt from sitting on and moving this stuff around. Next time, don't wear leggings/tights. Wear real pants. Good to know. Note taken.)

FINISHED PRODUCT

So beautiful. Now we need to redecorate the bedroom...

This will look so good when we get our new King Size BED!

I am excited!

♥ EM

Way Past-Due Stuff-making updates

2011-12-05T14:44:00.003-06:00

This post was from 12/4 but just posted this morning when I realized it never made it... oopsie

So, I know all my updates have been about making stuff- stuff I've made- stuff I'm going to make...
Suck it up, because more is COMING!
This is my first ever experience playing with canvases and putting them where people can see them. Yes. That's right, it's like I'm an artist - except not a really good one!

This has been completed since October--- well, kinda completed. I'm still not 100% sure that i'm finished. I need to cut the edges off and wrap them, but I kind of think I need another bird.
What do you think?

So, yeah the Edges need cleaned up. Here's the pretty much finished product.

And if you would like to take a tour of my brain... here's the step by step! But be careful, you may get lost in there...

#0. My inspirational stuff that I looked at and morphed into my own thing:

(Both pictures taken from Pinterest)

#1. I taped (yes, classily taped) the canvases to the wall like I thought I would like. Don't underestimate me, now... this was tape job number 387290 and picture number 30. And calling D freaking out about "ARE YOU SURE THIS IS OK" time number 6. It's a tough job he has, but someone has to embrace my crazy

#2. I then- Everrrr sooooo carrrrrefullllly ripped pages out of my Alice in Wonderland book and started modge-podge-glue-paper machet-ing them all over the canvases for texture...

#2.5/3ish. I also cheated and knew where i wanted the branches to be, so I strategically covered the branches in the parts of the book I wanted to be visible. It looks like an accident, but it was 100% plotted out step by step.

And yes, in some of these there is wax paper on the table I'm using. That's because I'm 4 years old and I can't paint or glue anything without getting ie EVERYWHERE. We're talking in hair, on clothes, on the dang dog, and oopsie on the carpet. Maybe my creative artristry is better reserved for the garage...

or maybe I'm just making the place festive with my whoopsie marks? It might be on purpose. You don't know!

#3.5/4ish. Painted all non-branchy parts with pretty sky colored paint. Thanks, Martha. You are the stuff. Martha Stewart Craft Paint---- WORD

Just a little bit of some of the words and pictures under the paint show, so it's PERFECT!!!

#5. We'll go with 5 because I have lost "ish" count. I took water colors and colored all the branch parts with those. I tried brown- but that was disgusting, so the color I went with in the end was like a mustart and yellow and brown and something else mixed together. It worked...

A Close-up for you...

#6? Is that where we are? All the texture pages on, paint dried, and branches painted... I picked where I wanted the birdies to go and couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them. I was torn between painting the craft paint around and making them with black watercolor or making them black craft paint... I think I am glad I chose the craft paint- Much easier and prettier. I like the boldness better than if I had made them water-colory and muted.

Closer-up of the birdies:

I'll eventually slice off the edges of the paper that doesn't want to stick to the sides (no matter how much glue I use) and take ribbon and wrap around for smoothness like I did the other 2... But for now, I'm ok with it.

What have you made recently? Please share!

(please oh please share my 2 blogger friends who sometimes read my blog!)

Don't you worry- there will be more.

I have done a lot since I last wrote...

Enjoy!

♥ EM

More stuff I made...

2011-10-15T14:31:00.000-05:00

I made some more stuff today...
Totes stole idea from Pinterest. New favorite website on which to waste my days!

I made hanging Ball Jar lanterns to hang on the fence.
Plan- To put citronella votives inside them and light them on evenings we want to play out in the yard. Much cuter than our Tiki Torches that used to be screwed into the fence!

This is the beginning... Quart-sized Ball jars, steel wire, wire clippers and some pliers. Once I got the hang of it, I was pretty quick at making them!

That is our back-door neighbors' massive house. Yeah- house is the little triangle in the front... then they built a million-square-foot recording studio with rooms above it on to the back of their house.
Look silly? Yes.
Make the house hard to sell in the future? Obviously, yes... as it has been listed on Zillow for 3 years.
Awesome.

Oh and there's Teenie Weenie licking her shoulder bc that shirt tastes deeelish!

Here's the final product!
I had a brain fart and couldn't think of HOW to get little dots on the inside of the jars, so I thought- OOH! Swirleys like an iced coffee!!!

I then figured out that you PUT the DOTS on the OUTSIDE.
Viola! I may not be the brightest, but now all the little jar babies in the yard will look like they're full of lightening bugs when they're glowing.
YAY!

I am excited.

Maybe one day I'll post pictures of the canvasses, fabric squares, and other things I've made recently...

One day!

(PS 2 blogs, 1 week. This might be a record)

I made some stuff.

2011-10-13T07:05:00.000-05:00

I made some stuff and I wanted to share.
I'm only going to share a couple things, though, as some of the others aren't perfect yet... be looking for more updates, because I've been pumping stuff out like there's no tomorrow!!

Tuesday night, Carmen got sick in her bed... this lead to throwing away everything that was in it- mostly her pillows that she slept on. Martini is a jerk and she has eaten the stuffing out of all the pillows I've bought for her. Carmen's pillows were ones I had made and somehow Tini hadn't eaten through them yet, so we thought it might make sense for me to just make them both new ones. This is the result:

Isn't she so cute hanging out on her new bed? I think she liked it, especially since she went and laid down on it the second I tossed it into the floor! :)

Martini (the snot), even loved hers! I put it in the floor and asked her to try it out, she then refused to get up.

That's all I got for this morning, but I thought I would try to update and toss out my precious pictures :)

More witty banter later, for now I must prepare for worK!

Overdue update

2011-08-23T20:59:00.001-05:00

Am I the only one in the contest to see who can go the longest without updating?? Because that would mean I'm WINNING!
June 14th was my last update... oopsie.

Since then, the babies have graduated from their Doggie Class:

I'm a little too tired to really do a huge one, so I'll just update on my 101 in 1001... it seems like that's all this blog is for right now!

Click HERE for the rest of my 101 in 1001

Complete:
#9. Go on a surprise super romatical date with my hubby -
   Our 3rd anniversary was in June- D surprised me (blindfold and all) and took me to the Melting Pot. 2 items marked off the list at once? Total WIN

#18. Figure out what I want to do when I grow up (or at least the next couple of years)
   I think I've figured it out. I guess we'll see...

#19. Get a tune-up for my car
   I don't think I need to describe this one. I got a tune up. Only 25,000 miles too late

#55. Dye my hair almost completely blonde

ALMOST there!

#69. Eat at the Melting Pot (again)
   See #9. :)

#79. Do all my Zumba DVDs
   Yeah, by far- the ones withOUT Beto in them are better. He just looks stupid and makes me mad when he's on the DVDs. I even got D to do the Abs one with me!

In progress:
#66. Read 12 books- I should probably keep a list, since I don't really remember everything I read... but I have read 1-2 more since last update. I have finished My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler, What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, and The Help by Katherine Stockett.
Just a little gush- The Help was by far one of the best books I have ever read. I couldn't put it down and am torn as to whether or not I want to see the movie, as I am afraid it could never live up to the book. I cannot say enough about how much I love love love this book. So much that I'm even going to BUY it! I know, crazy!

And that's all I have for now. I'm going to go try to update all my links and strikethroughs :)

And then to BED! So that I can be less grouchy at work tomorrow. I know what you're thinking-

"You, Grouchy?! NO!" Sadly, Yes. Yes, it is possible.

Missed a whole month!

2011-06-14T21:46:00.001-05:00

So, I missed an entire month! I am so sorry to the 2 people who read this blog.
I'm sure your life has been empty and boring while awaiting my next words.
Well I would just like to say...
You're welcome.

I'm feeling pretty crappy tonight (allergies), but I thought I would update a little bit again.
As far as my 101 in 1001, I think that I have only completed 3 more things...
Here we go!

#33- Keep fresh flowers in the house for 2 months straight- Thanks to my husband (and my nagging, of course), this was completed May 26th. However, it is still going on. I have 2 still-live flowers currently in the house. We'll see how long they last- or if they get replaced.

Currently, these are hanging out around the house...

#42- Wear a scarf as an accessory (not just to keep warm)-
While in Denver for work, I pulled this look off.

Impressed? You should be! Also in the picture, you can see the progress I'm making toward blonde(r). I will get there, slowly but surely!

#95- Stay up all night with my husband (for no good reason)
- This was also thanks to our friends Kris, Jeannie, and Danny- we went out a couple of weeks ago, and didn't get home til almost 4... then were playing darts until almost 5 and someone noticed that the sun was coming up, so we went out on the front porch and watched the sun come up, then went to bed for the next 5 hours. It was a super fun night, and I wish all weekend nights could be that awesome! However, I am sure our neighbors are glad that doesn't happen often, as several most likely heard us talking loudly while waiting on the sun. I'm just glad none of them woke up and came outside!!

OK that's all I have for now; I'm going to bed with a bottle of nyquil!
-EM

Cinco de Mayo!!

2011-05-05T06:54:00.000-05:00

Good morning! Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Guess who had guacamole for breakfast today?

That's right, me!

More updates later- for now, I have to hop in the shower so I can get to work almost on time!

Completed-12, 14, 45, 56, 68; 4, 30, 33, 55, 66, 73 in progress... TAKE THAT

2011-04-24T18:18:00.001-05:00

Since we have been internet free, several things on my 101 in 1001 have occurred. I will try to update briefly!

The following have been completed:

12- Decide what to do with the extra shower in our bathroom. THAT SUCKER WILL BE A CLOSET. Of course, I haven't had this DONE yet... but I KNOW what I want to do with it! YAHOOO! :) I can't wait! I just need a plummer to move the pipes, put a shower in our tub, replace our tub, then tile in the walls of the bath tub... and we're IN BUSINESS.
Yeah- see why it hasn't been done yet?

14- Decorate our naked wall in our living room.

Check! You can sort of see it behind Ms. SanDiego's fat head in the picture.

45- Take an entire week off of work STRAIGHT.
I did it and it was AMAZING. I did nothing. I went nowhere. However, during this week was when #71 also was completed. D & I went for pedis Mon March 28.

56- Go to a Preds game IN Preds gear.
I do not have a single close up picture of this, but I swear it happened!!

68- Get a new surround sound system.
Thanks to my parents, this was completed free of charge to me! haha Happy Birthday to me, new blue ray surround sound thing!

71- See #45 description

The following are in progress:
4- Pay off the truck.
Slowly slowly slowly but surely!

30- Figure out if Carmen IS deaf and HOW bad it is!
We went to the Dr last week. There's nothing obscuring her ears, so it may be inflamed inner tubes. She's currently on drugs to see if that's it.
Cross your fingers!

33- Keep fresh flowers in the house for 2 months straight

Hopefully this will be easy. For my Bday I got some gorgeous flowers from D. Some are still alive miraculously! I have flowers outside that are now blooming, so hopefully this will be easy- as I really just have to go CUT something once a week to have it work! Those are my ghetto irises. They're too heavy to stick up on their own, so yeah. I tied those bad boys up to the front porch!

55- Dye my hair almost completely blonde.
I don't know if that's going to happen. I'm starting to think blonde isn't my color! haha We're doing this in phases.

66- Read 12 books
I'm about 1/3 of the way there? I read Strengths Finder 2.0... and some other ones that I don't remember right now

73- I have Spring, Summer, and Fall!!! Just need winter and I'm DONE!

OK after that, I need a nap.

Here's a quick picture of my precious Tini since we have a fathead picture in here as well :)

INTERNETZ!!

2011-04-19T16:13:00.000-05:00

We HAS internets!!!
I am so excited... if anyone has noticed, I have been Blog-MIA for quite some time due to our neighbors recently placing passwords on their internet. I don't consider it "stealing" so much as "using my resources"

We are now paying for Clearwire, and if anyone wants internet and doesn't have it- I will give you my info to refer you to them because they have been amazing so far! I called the guy at 2:20, he set the appt for 3, got here at 2:59 (Yes, I KNOW!) and was gone by 3:20.

All set up, good to go, router attached to my blue ray player so we can download movies and watch them there, or through our Wii...

I. Am. Amazed.
lol

If you're bored, watch this video-
I hope to one day be as awesome as this girl that is rapping... 1:00 mark is the magic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khCokQt--l4

That's All.

2011-02-24T07:17:00.001-06:00

So, Can I just tell you how much I love my husband?
Not only does he NOT push me out of bed when I tough-talk him in my sleep, but he also does such a fantastic job of being patient and understanding when I'm being irrational/overly-emotional, he sings stupid songs to me (& makes them up as he goes), and he does some other pretty ridiculous things in order to surprise me or make me smile.

With the help of one of my friends, I recently had an epiphany! She and I were talking about random crap and something came up about stupid little arguments that we get in as couples. She then looked at me and said something like, "Yeah you argue about the direction the towels should be rolled, and he leaves his underwear in the floor, but really you should consider yourself lucky to have someone you love that you can share your life with."

That hit me pretty hard. I don't know why, but I have assumed that people would rather hear the negative than the positive. I suppose it could be that I remember when I was last single... I was incredibly bitter for a lot of that time. I would see happy couples and say, "awww so sweeeeet..." then in my head call them phony or stupid or whatever other horrible thing I could think of. I was only happy when I saw other people miserable, because that's where I was. I wanted friends there with me! I wanted to hear about the stupid crap that makes people mad at each other and all the negatives of relationships, because I wanted to convince myself that they're all like that. That it wasn't just me who was unhappy in a past relationship, or it wasn't just me who had been struggling for the past couple of years just to put on a happy face while in public with my boyfriend.
Why do we do that? Of course now, I think that was so stupid and immature and petty and horrifically hateful of me.

So, yeah. We do nit pick at one another. He may leave clothes in the floor or look at the same dirty dishes for days on end like they're going to clean themselves. (And it would have to be him because I never do that... right?) We may get irritated with each other over something stupid and one of us (also, of course, not me...) may sit and pout for a couple hours on a Saturday morning. He rolls over and snores/breathes in my face; I have been known to roll over and accidentally throw an elbow to his cheek/nose... But all of that stuff, that crap that really doesn't matter in the long run? That's all the absolute minority of interactions between the two of us.
Really, I feel incredibly blessed to have found the one person with whom I wish to spend the next 1039389021 days and months and years. I feel so very lucky to be "SO YOUNG" and already wake up beside the person I'll be waking up beside when I'm old, wrinkly, and listening to our grandkids run around. The honest truth is, I long for weekends not ONLY because I'm not working during that time, but because that is additional time that I get to spend with him. Whether we're doing anything or not, I'm perfectly content just sitting together. We have an amount of fun together that should be considered illegal. In fact, some times it may be... I'm kidding... sort of.

What I guess I'm trying to say is, marriage is pretty awesome. You should try it!
I love my husband more that I ever knew it was possible to love another person... ever. It's actually a pretty incredible feeling.

Yes, today's pictures are from us @Halloween... we were a S'more.

Gag, ick, so cheesy, I know. Sounds like somebody's just jealous.

WORLD CHAMPIONS

2011-02-07T20:29:00.001-06:00

There was this one football game last night... Only a few people watched it, though, so I don't think everybody knows what happened yet!

Apparently there were these two teams playing for this bowl? :) It must be pretty awesome because people keep saying it's super.

Yes, this was the scene during the game. He sits right in front of the TV so that they can hear him better. If you didn't know, we are Packers fans. The Pack beat out the Steelers last night to win the Super Bowl and become the world champs! It was pretty exciting! I don't remember much about the game, since the party was at our house and I was running back and forth the entire time, but what I saw of it was GREAT!

Once the Packers stopped the Steelers' drive in the very end of the 4th Quarter, this is what we saw:

That's right, everyone giving him High Fives because--- I don't know if I've told you before or not, but--- D not only coaches the team, he's also the Offensive and Defensive Coordinator, QB Coach, Lineman coach, and best friend of every member of the team. Yes, that's everyone giving him high fives for him winning the game! haha

I love my husband. He's perfect in every way!

So TIREd!

2011-02-02T21:35:00.001-06:00

So, do you ever have one of those days where you just want to whine and complain about EVERYTHING?!
How about one of those... weeks?
I feel like I complain to everybody that I talk to.
AAaaaannnd I'm sorry, friends!

The truth is, it's much easier to complain and then continue complaining and talking about people/things than it is to shut up, deal with it, and do something about it. Or even to just accept the things that we have no control over and focus on the things over which we have influence.
Why is this? Why is it that we are so hard-focused on talking about the negative instead of focusing on the positive?
I don't like it. And I'm tired of hearing/saying, "I'm normally a pretty optimistic person, but..." I hope to start catching myself before I get 6 feet into the hole of talking about how much stuff sucks. I'm pretty much tired of finding myself 30 minutes into a contest to see whose story makes them seem like more of a martyr. SO, as of right now, I'm going to try to start remembering to monitor myself.
If you're my friend and you read this (both of you), I hope that you will help keep me accountable!
I have a bunch of cool things to write about, but right now this is the only thing I could tick tick out.
Happy February!

In Honor of Green Bay's winning the NFC CHampionship and heading to the Superbowl, here's a picture of me sick and kind of asleep during one of the games this season. It's rough, but Martini looks cute. This is tradition. We have to wear our outfits! Sick or not!

22. Update resume- Complete! Working on 12, 17, 55..

2011-01-24T21:07:00.002-06:00

SO, I am currently updating my resume(Number 22). Mark that off the list!

I think I have decided on what to do with the shower (#17)

I have made 1-2 meals in the Crock Pot- so I'm almost half way to that goal! (#12)

ANNNND I'm one step into my blonde mission(#55). Got highlights a couple weeks ago, YIPEE!!!!!

To see the rest of my 101 in 1001, click HERE.

Here's some pictures for you of the children! We're just now finishing up Christmas with different parts of the fam... here's Carmen eating her big bone/treat thing from Christmas;

ANnnNNnnnnnD the Weenie killing her hedgehog we got her. Such a jerk.

26. Get current on Criminal Minds Season 5- and SNOW DAY!

2011-01-10T18:56:00.004-06:00

Last night it snowed 4-5 inches, which means SNOOOOOW DAY!

Snow day means watch DVDs of stuff all day! Which means we finished Season 5 of Criminal Minds. Now I can check #26 off... YESSSS! :-)
(If you would like to see the rest of my 101 in 1001, click here)

AND we made a snow man & snow cream! Today has been super fantastical!

The girls also enjoyed themselves... See? If they aren't the most precious things ever, I just don't know what could be!

32. Give a friend a gift for no reason

2011-01-06T21:31:00.002-06:00

Yay! Another to mark off-This is super fun!!

This is part of the gift. And it kind of was 2 gift...s... ?

You see, we took a friend of ours to another friends' house for NYE and friend 1 may have accidentally broken 2 wine glasses that belonged to friend 2. Friend 2 did not expect the glasses to be replaced, but I replaced them anyway. Since glasses come in packs of 4, I kept two and was going to give her the two to replace her broken ones. I then decided that 2 other friends that we also have enjoyed the large-ness of these glasses, and it would be nice to get some and give them presents! I don't typically like using people's names in my blog, but screw it, this is too hard, I'll use initials. The friend whose glasses were broken and replaced- S. The two friends who loved the large glasses that S had- J & C. I went after work today and picked up another set of these glasses and split them up so that both J & C had a pair/set, wrapped them, and presented them all to S, J, & C at dinner/drinks this evening.
It was SO FUN! I love giving presents- not so much love getting them unless they're really good ones. hahaha
SO, I can now mark off # 32.
YIPPEE!!
Click HERE to view my whole 101 in 1001

(And, yes, that is a collection of feather boas and mardi-gras like beads under the glass inside my coffee table. That's my current post-Christmas-I-didn't-know-what-to-do-with-this Decor!)

Crock-Pot Lasagna

2011-01-04T20:49:00.004-06:00

First things first- PACKERS WON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Everyone cheer, go ahead, it's ok!)

I thought I'd add a picture of some crazy friends we sat near at the Falcons game to celebrate

This evening, I set out to make Crock-Pot Lasagna. I got the recipe from Jamie Ivey, who I blog-stalk religiously. The link to her recipe is here. I can't follow directions, so here's what I did- (in a 7Qt Crock-pot)

*If you don't want to make your own sauce, you can probably get 2-3 things of Spaghetti

Sauce and use them... actually- that would make this an "easy crock pot recipe," as it really

wasn't that easy once I spent half the afternoon making the darn sauce!* If you do this, skip the next 11-12 lines :)

Her recipe basically walks you through making your own tomato sauce, so I used what she had and went with it a little...
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 handfuls of mushrooms chopped up teeeeny tiny (however much you want- I don't like them, but D loves them, so I put them in and bare it)
- 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1/4 cup bell pepper (red blends right in!) chopped pretty small
- 1/4 cup frozen corn (come on, you've seen the Garden Style Spaghetti sauce!)
- 12-16 oz ground meat(like) product - I use Yves Meatless Ground
- 2 Large cans organic crushed tomatoes
- Salt, pepper to taste; I also add Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Garlic Salt, a little Rosemary, and fresh German Thyme- all by what you like stuff to taste like... I just add and taste and add and taste and add stuff until I think it's juuuuuust right! - Oh and a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper just because I'm crazy.

Other Stuff:
- 1 box of lasagna noodles (I use Tinkayada Rice noodles because they're gluten free!)
- 24 Oz Cottage Cheese
- 8-12 Oz Skim Ricotta Cheese
- 4C Mozzarella Cheese
- Parmesan Cheese sprinkles as needed

Sauté the onions for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and mushrooms and other veggies (besides frozen stuff), then add the meatless ground, cook everything a couple of minutes, and then add the crushed tomatoes, spices, corn, and turn back down to a simmer while you get the other stuff ready!
**if you are using real meat, of course brown the meat before adding the onions and stuff***

Other things:
- I mix the Cottage cheese and ricotta cheese together to give it a little bit of flavor, then you want to layer the stuff in the pot in the following order:

- CROCK POT LINER is a MUST HAVE!!-
- Thin Layer of Meat Sauce
- Layer of noodles- broken up to make a single messy layer
- Cottage/Ricotta Cheese mixture
- Sprinkling of Mozzarella cheese
- Repeat- using more generous layer of meat sauce

Out of my massive amount of sauce and stuff that I made, and my one box of noodles, I got a good 5 layers- maybe 6.

Put in crock pot and cook on Low for 5-6 hours, or on High for 3!
Just make sure you test the noodles with a fork before you cut into it so you know they're ready!
Enjoy!

PS- if you have any good Crock Pot Recipes, please let me know about them! This is my first thing I've ever made in a crock pot!! I am EXCITED!

My turn! 101 in 1001

2011-01-02T15:27:00.016-06:00

Several blogs I follow did this last year. It has taken me a year to decide to do it! I'm a stalker, it's ok. Today is January 2nd, but I'm going to say I started it yesterday, as that is when I hand-wrote some of it out. This should make my 1,001st day September 28th, 2013.

I'll get started- the 101 in 1001 is a to-do list of sorts. Definitely 7943182 times better than a New Year's Resolution. I am excited and nervous- which sounds really silly to me, but I want to do all these things and not have one left. I guess I better get ON IT!

1. Visit the beach

2. Attend a Georgia Bulldogs game (preferrably in GA)

3. Go to a(nother) Joshua Radin Concert

4. Pay off the Truck

5. Use a free night (or two) on my Marriott Rewards card

6. Get term life insurance for D & me

7. Change my name on my passport (I should probably pre-post a "FIND my passport" one...)

8. Travel somewhere and actually get my passport STAMPED

~~9. Go on a surprise super romantical date with my hubby~~

10. Attend a Packers game at Lambeau Field

11. Finish painting our bathroom

~~12. Decide what to do with the extra shower in our bathroom~~

13. Stabilize our fence

~~14. Decorate our naked wall in the LR~~

15. Save up an "emergency fund"

16. Participate in the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart

17. Learn how to use my Crock Pot (I will measure this by completing 5 meals in said Crock Pot)

1~~8. Figure out what I want to do when I grow up... or at least for the next few years~~

~~19. Get a tune-up for my car~~

20. TAILGATE (Like a pro)

21. Travel across an ocean

~~22. Update my resume~~

23. Re-cover our dirty storage ottomans

24. Get a storage bench for the LR (against the naked wall!)

25. Make butt pillows for said storage bench (I'm thinking leopard or giraffe print...)

~~26.~~ ~~Get current on Criminal Minds Season 5~~

27. Attend a Braves game in ATL

28. Re-landscape the front of our house

29. Plant *(& GROW) grass in our yard

~~30. Figure out if Carmen IS deaf and how bad it is~~

31. Get down to the weight I was at in 11th grade

32. ~~Send/give a friend a gift for no reason~~ (1/6/11)

~~33. Keep fresh flowers in the house for 2 months straight~~

34. Eat ABSOLUTELY NO Gluten for one month

~~35. Spend time in California~~

36. Host a dinner party

37. Blog 2x per week for 3 months

~~38. Build a fire pit~~

39. Go to NYC

40. Buy and wear an outfit that is not my normal cup of tea

41. Buy flat boots

~~42. Wear a scarf as an accessory (not just to keep warm)~~

43. Go to Washington DC

44. Visit a winery outside of TN

~~45. Take an entire week off of work (straight)~~

46. Retip some of my favorite shoes

~~47. Get a new TV (Possibly for the BR or a big one for the LR and put the LR one in the BR)~~

48. Make our driveway 3 feet wider

49. Get a hot tub

50. Build a pergola over said hot tub and back porch

~~51. Build seating area around fire pit~~

52. Put furniture on our front porch

53. Have friends over to play cards

~~54. Go back to Reno/Vega~~s

~~55. Dye my hair almost completely blonde~~

~~56. Go to a Preds game IN Preds gear~~

57. Get a professional massage (again)

58. Quit biting my nails/fingers

59. Go to the chiropractor

60. Visit NOLA

~~61. Get a new mattress/box springs~~

62. Co-build a bed for said mattress and box springs

63. Babysit for a friend as a gift

64. Do yoga for a month straight

65. Make 10 things out of one of my cookbooks

66. Read 12 books

67. Make "gourmet" doggie biscuits for all my dog friends

~~68. Get a new surround sound system... and actually have it hooked up and SURROUNDING the LR~~

~~69. Go on a date with my hubby to the Melting Pot~~

70. Make a curtain/something to cover the window in our back door

~~71. Get a pedicure (it's been a loooooong time!)~~

72. Put crown molding in our bathroom and/or bedroom

73. Find 3 add'l pictures to put in my big frame in the LR to complete my seasons idea

74. Participate in "10 Days of Love" either for Vday or our anniversary... I haven't decided yet

75. Buy new bedside tables

~~76. Put a desk (of sorts) in the office~~

77. Put shelving on a wall in one of the BRs

78. Take a (good/sober) picture of Donnie & Myself once per month for a year

~~79. Do all my Zumba Dvds~~

80. Buy bright colored shoes

81. Ask about/possibly invest in contacts

82. Go to the dentist

83. Repaint our bedroom

84. Go to a Notre Dame game

85. Obtain a pearl necklace to match my beautiful studs that I got for a wedding present

86. Have a "top tier" of a wedding-ish cake made by Jay at Maples Wedding Cakes for an anniversary dinner

87. Buy something awesome at a yard sale

88. Tip a server 100% of the meal or more

89. Read the whole new testament (I've seen where some of my blogger friends want to read the whole thing... I think I'm going to skip the begats and begots this go-round)

90. Go out for a "girls night"

91. Host a game night

~~92. Re-decorate my blog~~ (1/2/11)

~~93. Make Carmen a Packers shirt (and possibly make a new one for Tini since hers has 12 taped over the 4 that it came with)~~

94. Talk seriously about making a McBaby...

~~95. Stay up until sunrise with my husband (for no good reason)~~

96. Make a wreath

97. Buy an issue of The Contributor for $20 (instead of $1)

98. Go camping for more than one night - and possibly even enjoy myself?

99. Swim in water I can't see through (ocean, lake, whichever)

100. Go to Cedar Point

101. Get a new tattoo

So, there you have it! This will be done, however in no order whatsoever. I'm excited to attempt to take pictures of me crossing off some of these things and blog about them. Maybe putting this list up here will help me complete number 37 at least?

If there is anything on this list that you have ideas to help me complete, please let me know. Also, if you happen to post one of these babies- please link to it in the comments section!

Some of these, you may notice, might also be hints for things that I can't necessarily do... and they may take action from someone else- namely D. hahaha That's not wrong, is it? It's just being nice by dropping explicit hints!

Because I like putting a picture on each post...

Here's a pretty pic of the park where we had to walk our dogs in ATL when we were there in November... it was a gorgeous little potty spot!

Now, if I start walking immediately, I may be able to cross off number 1 by February...

REEAAAADDDY.... GO!

Lazy Sunday

2010-12-05T17:15:00.008-06:00

Today is a lazy day. We haven't had one of these in a while.

I think I'll try to do a quick little update on the past week or two!

SO Last weekend we were in Atlanta. The Packers played the Falcons at the Georgia Dome and we went down there Friday - Monday. It was some of the bestest fun I've had with my hubby and our kiddos in a while!

We drank a lot of this:

The girls went with us, and lounged around our room...

It must be SO HARD to have their life. :)

On Friday we got there and walked to the closest pub for dinner- it was ridiculous!! The food was a really strange combo of stuff that went perfectly together! Meehan's Pub had a "Holiday Hangover" menu that was only non-holiday food, so it was a pleasant surprise!

Saturday we decided to take 3 hours to find IKEA (I was not impressed. There were 79023281 people in there and you couldn't even take a deep breath without hitting someone. Maybe next time it won't be

so crowded and I'll see what all the fuss is about?) and then ate lunch at The Vortex. Good burger, great atmosphere. We then came back to our hotel to find that our room hadn't been cleaned yet, so we went for about a 13982 hour walk. Only to come back to see that they STILL hadn't gotten to us! Seriously? It was almost 5. DidI mention that we didn't take coats/jackets? Because it was supposed to be kind of warm all weekend. It was not that warm. In fact, it was down right FREEZING at times!

Saturday night, we met some of the people we had met on Friday night (the city was overrun with Packers

fans... it was like we were in Wisconsin!!) And hung out at the pub, then followed them to a 24-hour karaoke bar where they proceeded in drinking until 3 the night before the game... Don't worry, they're PROS. After we left the bar, we heard that one of the guys tackled the Karaoke machine and they were asked to leave. Not to mention they were yelling "FREE BEER! FREE BEER FOR ALL PACKERS FANS!" into the karaoke machine which plays on the street. hahaha They were so much fun, it was like we were with family or something!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

We got up (sloooowly), had breakfast in our

hotel and saw all the other Pack fans, and started our 1 mile trek to the stadium. Everyone had already beat us to tailgating (granted, we had nothing with which to tailgate), so we walked around and watched the crazies.

We then made our way into the game and it was SO MUCH FUN! This was our first Packers game... and it was a good one to attend. I just wish it would have ended with our team having the higher score.

This is the view from our seats. Not too bad, but not the best. Next time I'll pay the extra and we'll be MUCH CLOSER.

That's about all I got. Pretty boring post, I know, as I have nothing really witty to say today... but there's all the pictures from my phone that I took on our trip! :)

I suck at blogging!

2010-12-02T14:29:00.007-06:00

Check out how much I suck at this! I keep forgetting to blog stuff!
Oops!
I guess my month of thanks was only half a month! That's better than I expected.
Good thing I only have 1-2 people who read this besides me.

While you're here, please check out my fishies I added to the top of the page. They're cute, right? They're going to get fat because I keep clicking food into their box to make them move around.

Because I don't believe a post is complete with out a picture...

It's cold outside, which made me want to show this picture. This is Martini when is snowed one time last year. Look how cute she is! LOOK! :) She does have a slight problem with the white stuff, though...

OoPs! THanks Days 7-13!

2010-11-12T10:25:00.005-06:00

So, We all know how wonderful I am at remembering to blog frequently... Right.

Here are my days 7-13 of Thankfulness!

7- I'm thankful for my parents and the fact that they would do anything for me to see me happy.

8. I'm thankful to have such a loving and gracious savior who loves me despite my almost moment-by-moment downfalls.

9. I am thankful to have friends who send me uplifting text messages or emails at just the right moment- without even knowing how they brighten my day.

10. I am thankful for my health. This one's difficult, as that's a day-to-day kind of thing with me. But- I am healthy and able to do the majority of things I want to do without issue, and for that I am thankful.

11. I am thankful for my freedom. So many people have given so much for me to be able to complete school, attend college, have a job, and live my daily life without constant fear of mortar attacks... or without seeing armed guards at every corner. I am thankful to the soldiers who have fought and given the ultimate sacrifice in order to ensure that I live this way.

12. I have today off... and for that, I am INCREDIBLY THANKFUL! :)

13. I am thankful to have clothes to keep me warm. I get up every day and lament that "I have NOTHING TO WEAR!" Then resolve to just go to work in my bathrobe, and give up on life because I don't like to wear the same thing over and over. The reality of it is, I have more than enough. I have plenty more than the majority of people with whom I work, yet I whine about it daily.

Maybe I'll do better with the next few.

Month of Thanks- Day 5.

2010-11-05T22:03:00.002-05:00

Apparently November is the Month of Thanks. People post something daily for which they are thankful.

I am officially 4.9 days behind on this awesome trend... so I will have to catch up! I'll go ahead and do #6 since it's almost midnight.

Nov 1. I am thankful that I have a husband who loves me and accepts me for who I am. At all times. No matter what.

Nov. 2. I am so very thankful that I live in a land in which I can vote and at least feel like my voice is heard.

Nov. 3. I am thankful to have a job that I enjoy 99% of the time.

Nov. 4. I have an abundance of food, clothing, and material goods which the majority of the rest of the world does not, and for that I am thankful... and also humbled.

Nov. 5. I have parents who love me unconditionally and would do anything to ensure my happiness and help me with anything I need.

Nov. 6. I have in-laws who love me like I am their own child and treat me like I've been their kid for the past 24 years, not just the past 4.

That's it for the past week almost!

I think I like this "thankful" thing... it's good stuff to focus on!!

More later!

New Car? No Car?

2010-10-29T06:51:00.004-05:00

My Car has been making some noises, so I finally got it in to the mechanic yesterday.

His words were as follows, "Yep, it's going to cost more to fix her than she's worth... I'd get it to a dealer who'll offer you $4000 on a trade in- ASAP."

You see, I have been driving a 1999 Altima since I turned 15. My parents drove it from 13-15, as they bought it new for me, but I wasn't old enough to drive it yet. I never named the car, but I somehow feel that was the right thing to do. It has been wrecked twice- once into a ditch, where the only damage was to the alignment and the tire; and once into a curb... where there was $1500 worth of damage, broken shank (Whatever that

is), rim, etc. So, it really hasn't been mistreated- never even hit another car (that had to be reported)! All repairs done on time, oil changed, tires rotated, etc. But apparently that was not enough. I was in for a new axle, as the one I had on the front was starting to creeeeeeeak when I turned- apparently that's normal to need replaced at this point. So, I had been driving it until that got louder- which is what the mechanic told me to do. Then last week, it got louder- but ALL KINDS OF CRAZIER, too!

Anybody ever heard a car that sounded like it was pulling cans on a string behind it? When it's not moving? Apparently that's a TIMING CHAIN. And

replacing that would be more than my car is currently worth, according to KBB. Especially since there are sparkly things in my oil now- which must mean it's ground some metal off of something and is not coursing that through my car's veins at a quick pace.

So I got home and looked up my car on www.KBB.com in the "fair" condition. Just to see what it is worth. $640 TRADE IN VALUE. Crap. No one will sell me a car for that! (At least not one that will run... so, one like mine!)

Now we are faced with the following decision:

-Buy a new car? One that loses 1/2 of its value the second you

turn the key and put on your seat belt? But I could get $5000 for my trade in... and possibly my mom's Nissan Discount?

-Buy a used car? I'm talking Certified Pre-owned, people! I'm thinkin Rogue, Murano, Equinox... Apparently those run about the same as a used one with $5000 off would- except they already have miles on them and butt prints in the seats.

-Buy no car and save up for a new(to me) car? That wouldn't work... would it? I'd have to go in to work much earlier and get off earlier (kind of). But I think we could swing it- with the exception of days that I would have home visits that las

ted past 4, or days that I have to work Support Groups, or Enrichment is later... eh- it wouldn't work for long.

-Buy a beater and save until we can buy a real car? This one probably sucks the most. This is the reason I currently will tell you I hate my husband for brainwashing me. My car needs to be moderately reliable- as I drive 50-150 miles in it per day, and am often in neighborhoods (for work) in which I would like for my car to ALWAYS WORK, ALWAYS turn on, ALWAYS be able to drive quickly away from a potential drug deal or shoot-out... You think I'm kidding. This option would leave me driving Donnie's car, and him getting the crap car once we come up with the $3000 to pay cash for it. I know what you're thinking: Oh, you get the newer one, and he gets the junker! No, I'll be getting his 4-year old, 100,000+ mile car, while he will be getting something that is $3000

or less, but still not ridiculous. He is getting a new (to him) car. I keep getting screwed here! :)

His/My car with E & Das Boot

I hate this plan

I hate not being able to get a brand new car (yes, I am 4 years old!)

I hate being an adult and having to make "responsible decisions"

I hate our lack of social life for the next 6-8 weeks while we "save up" money... UGH!

I hate* my husband.

I hate* my husband for the following reasons:

- His vehement refusal to purchase a new car and put us $27,900 in debt

- His ** belief in not financing stuff (including a VS Angels Card- but that's another story for another day!)

- HIS insistence to drive my car until it croaks so that we can "save up" enough money to purchase a $3k car for him to drive

* By hate, I really mean LOVE. I mean love love love love love for being the kind of man who is willing to make the sacrifice now and withhold gratification in order to have something better later. By HATE, I mean love- for helping me understand the importance of not putting ourselves (and eventually our children) into massive amounts of debt that we wouldn't be able to afford if something happened to one of our jobs. By Hate, I mean love for being willing to let me drive his nicer car while he drives mine that might explode at any minute---just until it won't drive anymore- driving my car until we have the money saved up to purchase a beater for him. By hate, I mean LOVE for being smart enough to present this in a way that I kind of thought it was my idea so that I would agree to it...

** By HIS, I mean "Ours" (due to the aforementioned "brainwashing")

WHAT. A. JERK.

I will update on ways that we intend to save some money later. Right now- I have to get ready for work! :)

♥ Emily

Para-diggem

2010-10-24T15:45:00.004-05:00

I try to come up with some good stuff to blog about, so that the one other person besides me who reads this is entertained. Every time I think of something good, I get distracted and/or am not home and forget. I keep getting these awesome witty ideas and funny stories to tell, but then they float away before I can get a good grip on them.

Look at my sweet sweet sleepy babies! Yes, Martini is in her Packers Jersey... and that's a TMNT shirt on Mellow.

SO,

I have this friend who has been urging me to read this book for a while. It's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. I don't know if she's trying to get me to read the book because it's good, or just because she wants to ensure she has a job by pumping up Covey sales... I'm just kidding, I know it's a good book! The other day I hurt my back and I haven't been able to do much movement since then... so I thought to myself, "What could I do that might be a good idea and make me feel better?" You see, I'm not good at this whole "relaxing" thing. I get antsy when I have to sit still for very long and I start getting anxious that something's not getting done if I hang out too much. SO I decided- some people like to take a bubble bath and read- I'LL TRY THAT!

Heads up, though-

Bubble Bath+Music+Relaxing+Wine+Reading= Wet Book.

It has since recovered, but I only got through the first 45 pages before this tragic event happened and I decided to get out and dry off. So far, I'm liking it! I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm starting to think that the book is going to do this horribly mean thing by telling me that I'm the problem. Since I know that can't be it, the book must be flawed. :-) I'm kidding, but really... the book is definitely showing me that it's me that is the issue. Not my job or my clients; not my coworkers (whom I adore) or my hours; me. It's the paradigm from which I am viewing the things that I do that is making me unhappy and overwhelmed; nothing else. I had begun to come to this conclusion after I was talking to someone I know one day about what we want to be when we grow up. I was asked the following question: "If money was no object and you could do any job you wanted, what would it be?" I couldn't answer it. That either means that I am supposed to do just that- nothing, (I think I can go for that idea!!) or that I have begun making myself miserable to the point where I can no longer come up with anything that I would be happy doing. So- it's me! And, please don't think I'm saying that I'm in any way miserable- I actually really enjoy my job 98% of the time- I had just started focusing so much on that other 2% that I was convincing myself that was how it is all the time.

Since I have started the book and actually made a slight dent in it, I am going to do my best to follow through. I'm going to stop telling myself that I'm too busy (because I'm not) or that I'm too tired (because I'm not too tired to stare at the TV for 2 hours per night) and do this stuff! I think that if I can read just 30 pages per day I can finish the book by the middle of next week. I know that's a small goal, but I've talked myself out of reading for so long that I have to start small!!

Also, I stepped on the scale today and realized that I have gotten back into fatty status. As of tomorrow, I am never eating again.

I'll let you know how that goes.

♥

Busy, good, super fantastic day.

2010-10-17T11:02:00.007-05:00

We went to Arrington Vineyards last week- forgot to tell you about that...

here are my favorite pictures from that day...

So yesterday, October 16th, was a very busy day in the McKee household.

Wanna know what was on the agenda?

- Surprise birthday breakfast (consisting of cake and ice cream) at my brother's house at 7:45 am.

- Pink Panther volleyball games at 9am and 10am.

- Naptime... lol

- Amy's Wedding at 4pm

- Bat Mitzvah at 7pm

So, written down, that doesn't look like as much as it felt like yesterday.

Let me break it down, though.

- My brother's bday was yesterday- but we all had a bunch o

f stuff to do, so my mom and I decided to surprise him in the morning! D and I left the house at 7:35 to get there at the same time as my parents- cake, ice cream, presents! He was not up yet, so we got to surprise him with a wake up party!!!! It was fun. I love ♥ having cake for breakfast.

- I'm helping a friend coach a volleyball team of sorts. It's

a "rec league" sort of thing, and half the kids have never played a sport before and/or are home schoolers, so it's "Non-competitive; Just to learn the basics." I don't know if you've met me, but I'm what some would call "slightly intense" or "very competitive." I don't know the meaning of the term, "non-competitive." I believe that if it's a sport, there is a score, and my team needs to have the HIGHER score. I don't believe in the kids games of soccer or t-ball where they don't keep score; I keep score in my head when attending these games. I hate LOSING. I even dislike ugly winning. I don't know how it happened, but somewhere along the line (I'm going to blame my HS Volleyball coach), it was instilled in me to play sports like each play is the game point, like each and every thing you do is what the game hinges on, never surrender a point without the other team EARNING it. This, you see, is why "non-competitive" is a challenge for me. I've coached before, both for a club (travel- highly competitive) team and for a HS team. I've been the one on the sidelines with kids who think the same way as me about playing. I've broken clip boards, instructed children to run suicides/do wall-sits/push ups/etc. for consequences of not playing in the manner of which I know they are capable. I now have to sit and be mannerly and clap with a "you'll get it next time" when balls hit the floor. This is probably the biggest feat of self-control I have ever exercised. And, I know, that sounds crazy. But I'm crazy, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Our girls yesterday played OK the first game and we lost it in 2. We then played a team that only had 4 players and had to take it to 3 GAMES (we play 2/3 instead of 3/5). I thought I was going to have a heart attack. It was ugly, but we somehow pulled it out. haha I just have to keep reminding myself that these are kiddos who aren't as concerned with winning as much as having fun; they like being out and hanging out with their friends and playing. They aren't competitive, it's a game. Eh, maybe I'll master that when I have my own kids...

Probably not.

- Amy's Wedding- Donnie and I agreed that it was a good thing we are already married. This was the most beautiful wedding I think I've ever attended. From the colors and decorations to the spirit of the two people joining together. It was perfect in every way. The two of them are clearly made specifically for one another... and I don't even know him that well! (Well, technically... I read his blog a lot, but don't know him face-to-face, you know). To see how he very obviously is every single thing that compliments her, and how pure the love between the two of them is... it's refreshing.

(my favorite image from my camera...)

Every time we/I attend a wedding, I think of all the things I would have done differently. We would have paid more for a photographer who knows more about weddings; we probably would have had the ceremony in a church... or maybe it would have been outside. Would we use the same colors? No. I would want to do it this time of year because chrysanthemums are my favorite flower, and we would have had the entire place filled to overflow with mums of every color and size. My bouquet would be a million spider mums. It may have been more formal, maybe. Or maybe we would just go to the beach (like my original idea) and get married in the sand at sunset... nah. Probably not. But these are all the things I think about when we attend a wedding. It's enough to make a girl go crazy (not to mention possibly $25k into debt!)

Then I think about this: we got exactly what we wanted out of it. There are a thousand things we could change (and probably would if we could go back in time...) but the general goal was accomplished... We're married- all these other things are just details. Pretty, colorful, well-photographed details. :-)

- Bat Mitzvah- I've never been to any type of Jewish celebration, but this was fun! We weren't able to attend the morning ceremony (although I wish we had had the time!) but the evening party was super. I really enjoyed hanging out with some of my co-workers and getting to know them outside of work! It was also really fun to see how much fun the kids were having. It was wonderful! I highly suggest future Bat-Mitzvah attendance to any considering it. :)

SUCK DAY

2010-10-13T17:21:00.003-05:00

I got bit by a dog today. What kind of dog, you ask?

It could have been a big, "scary" Rott or Pit or Doberman or Chow.

It could have been a nice family dog, like a boxer, heeler, or a golden.

It also could have been a precious little fluff ball like a Martini dog or Pompom.

NO.

Was

Chihuahua-Weener Mix.

It almost made a chiweenie-sized hole in the wall, as I contemplated punting that little dog through the dining room.

But I was the bigger person (both literally and figuratively) and just yelped loudly and tried not to cry, as it got a good piece of skin.

I then laughed as it's momma chased it through the house with a fly-swatter.

Stupid dog.

♥ Emily

Because no blog is complete without a pHOto...

This is the barn at my great grandmother's house. Mom and I went up there a few weeks ago. She's currently in the hospital bc she had a really bad infection and her son wouldn't take her to the Dr... so her great nephew had to take her to the ER where they found out that her infection was incredibly worse than they thought and they have forced her to stay since then. She's 96. And still 100% Fireball! ♥

TOO LONG!!

2010-09-29T18:20:00.002-05:00

It has been tooooo long since I last blogged... :)

SO so sorry to my one whole person (besides me... 50 times) who reads this!

Since last blogdom, a lot has happened- I guess. Nothing too big, really. We've gotten about 1593 invitations to weddings and baby showers. I guess that's exciting.

My day off!

2010-08-23T16:17:00.008-05:00

SO, I was off Thursday and Friday this past week, then today! It has been lovely, but I can't really tell you that I've done much that has been productive!

The plan was for me to be off in order to prepare for, then clean up after, our fence party. Said party was moved to this next weekend (8/28), so my time off was kind of worthless. I no

w cannot take off this friday before the party because I have to attend a day-long tr

aining with work on Fri... so, what do you do?

Thursday- I don't really remember what I did, but I'm thinking I did some house-work. ??

Friday- I went to the Dr., came home, thought I was dying, and then took a nap. I then proceeded in Happy Houring my way around Nashville with friends from my work, then friends from D's work, and then Ihop with Evan & Carol after that!

Saturday we didn't do anything all day until we went to Amy & Wes's Wedding shower...

Sunday, D & I mulched the front yard and redid part of the flower beds... we are now PROS at mulching!

Today, I haven't done much of anything. I had my alarm set for 8:20 so that I would get up and get going... didn't happen. Martini spent the evening puking again last night, and Carmen then threw a fit until we let her sleep with us... I got up at 10:20. I then decided to do some laundry and make a grocery list. This turned into me sitting in the floor for two solid hours watching Jerseylicious and coupon clipping to no avail. I did, however, make a pact with the dogs that Jersey is the ONE STATE I will never consider living in... mostly because of the hair, makeup, and complete insanity of that show (as well as Jersey Shore) it's like this place is a completely different PLANET!

At some point, I cleaned the front porch and moved all the rocks that we took out of the flowerbeds.... I went to the grocery store and spent $101 on fresh fru

its and veggies and veggie meats and free-range chicken. I then came home and decided I was going to make lasagna for dinner. I had Rice-Lasagna noodles already here, and I had purchased the fresh stuff to make spaghetti sauce to go with it. I just decided that the sauce tastes too good to go IN something and needs to be the star, so D has to get rice-spaghett

i noodles on his way home. Love him!

OK PICTURE TIME

I am really slow at uploading pictures from my camera... so these should have been put up here about 2 weeks ago. Rachel's Surprise Baby SHOWERRRRR!!!

...

This was (obviously) the second she walked through the dooooooor

Aaron, so proud to have pulled off a surprise for the un-surprise-able

Opening my present... she loved the shoes!

...

Crap. Neighbor's internet is not holding up. I'll put more up later when other people aren't stealing internet at the same time as me. :)

Monday... not to be confused with Funday

2010-08-16T19:36:00.004-05:00

Picture of the day: My great grandmother (96) and "Elvis" (my uncle Larry) at my and Donnie's wedding.

This would be in Honor of the King's Death... RIP Elvis, 42 was too young...

There's your little pep for the beginning of this blog :)

SO today was OBVIOUSLY monday.

I'll spare you all the details, but let's just say it blew.

I can't particularly pick out a certain moment of suck, it just seemed to permeate the majority of the day somehow!

Now, I don't typically like to be a downer, but I just thought I'd share.

I came home and tried to decide what to do to make the day better. I ended up deciding to put on workout clothes so I could pretend I was going to go work out. Instead I cooked- how is it that I usually feel better after cooking something?

OH PS- I made AWESOME cupcakes for my mom's bday. I'll PROBABLY post some pictures soon.

OH!! I had a coupon for $1 off a MorningStar meal thing, so I got the Sweet N Sour Chick'n one (for real meat-eaters, that's fake chicken)... Uhm, how about TASTY! I now love fake chicken. lol

Yes, the highlight(s) of my day have revolved around food.

Tell me again why I don't weigh 135? Do you think these things are related?

So, tonight's dinner: Rice noodles, diced tomatoes, jalepenos, Meatless Ground (Have I told you that I FREAKING LOVE vegetarian food? LOVE LOVE Meatless Ground!!), and Velveeta cheese. It was quite deeeelicious, really! Check it out!

Looks like vomit a little bit, but it tasted awesome!

FRIIIDAYYYYY!

2010-08-13T07:01:00.003-05:00

Today is FRIDAY!!!

Do you know what this means?!!?! Fun day at work, then no work for the next 2 days!

And this particular friday is extra special-

1. It's Friday the 13th

2. It's my momma's Bday

3. It's FRIIIDAAAAY!

In honor of my mom's Bday, I thought I'd put a cute little picture up of how unfortunate ~~their life was before me~~ the 80s can be on ones' sense of style.

(she'll most likely never see this since she doesn't follow my blog... wait, only 2 or 3 people follow my blog... Crap. No one will ever see this!!)

I love my momma and her hair and her tan.

She's 35 today. (which means she had me at 11?? Hang on a second...)

SURPRIIIIIISE!!!!!

2010-08-07T16:43:00.003-05:00

Terri Beth and I drove to Louisville today for a surprise baby shower for Rachel... it was probably the best 2 hours of my week!

More pictures coming soon, once I take a little nap and then upload them.

Just a couple of pictures

2010-08-04T22:24:00.005-05:00

I love this man...

Just thought I should let you know...

The picture is from our trip to Rock Island... here's a couple more to enjoy!

Scary Scary Dreams!!

2010-08-03T21:13:00.011-05:00

So Martini is laying beside me on the couch whimpering in her sleep, which makes Donnie think she's having nightmares... I think she's having fun!

WHO KNOWS?!?

This is a picture of my lovebugs with Memaw and Papaw McKee in Athens, TN.

We went there a few weeks ago to visit bc Papaw was in the hospital again and the news we kept getting kept getting less-good. The rest of the pictures on here will be from this trip, although not in ANY WAY related to the post. They're just silly :)

Like THESE!!!!! :)

I don't have much to write about today, but I felt the need to do so.

Just a few things I'm thinking about today:

1. It is ONLY TUESDAY

2. My back hurts

3. I CANNOOOOOT WAAAIIIIIT To get the PICTURES I ordered from Kate Whitmore

4. I am excited for the weekend

5. I need to take a few days off to do nothing but sleep!!!

To break these down:

1. Apparently, Tuesday is not the same a Friday. You are still expected to work 3 more days in the week. What is this all about?

2. We played Volleyball at Brad's hous

e on Sunday- I played the first couple of games shoeless... it was not too bad until I felt like part of my back cracked in half, then I took a break and put my shoes on. Still, though. Back=Hurting. Wore my back brace yesterday because I couldn't stand up straight without it... today, I tried to be tough, but it didn't really work out.

3. I ordered pictures last night from Kate Whitmore... if they had come an hour before I ordered them, it would still be too slow for me. I'm just THAT excited. I have since cut out paper in the sizes that I ordered (plus the mattes and frames) and taped them to the wall in the design I think I want these things hung. I don't think that's crazy. Do you think that's crazy?

4. Stuff is happening this weekend, but some of it isn't stuff I can tell you til after it happens... then I will post pictures! There is a bday party.. and I think the Nashville Rollergirls have a Roller Derby game we're supposed to attend, and I think we might go to the movies... and lots of fun times.

5. I can never seem to get enough sleep. One of these days I will, but I have a feeling that day will = retirement. Suck.

One of the pretty places we passed on our way home from Athens.

The "G" stands for "Greatness"

2010-07-29T20:44:00.007-05:00

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*

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...

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

2010-07-19T20:32:00.006-05:00

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)

Another reason...

2010-07-13T19:01:00.006-05:00

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?)

C is for Camping

2010-07-11T18:10:00.004-05:00

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. :)

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

2010-07-08T18:04:00.004-05:00

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

DVR is of the Devil

2010-07-07T09:22:00.003-05:00

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! :)

Why I should be a stay at home dog-mom

2010-07-06T18:07:00.007-05:00

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

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.)

Voluntary-Mandatory Reading List

2010-06-21T20:22:00.006-05:00

Yeah! 3rd Post! Wow... Each post in a different month. I would consider myself a bad blogger if I cared a whole lot more... :o)

SO-

Today is my and Donnie's 2 Year Wedding Anniversary! (Go ahead, cheer!)

It's pretty cool... if you're into that sort of thing.

This is the reason that I'm blogging today- NO, not to talk about how much I love him and how he's my best friend and I'm so blessed to spend the rest of my life with him and build a family together and go through everything together... or to talk about how he somehow loves me even though I have days where I flat out just CHOOSE to be mad, or days that I don't bathe and refuse to get off the couch, or times where I'm consistently negating his every word. And I'm not blogging today to talk about how I have daily/weekly/monthly realizations that I am so incredibly blessed and lucky to have him in my life, and I have no idea what my life would be like without him (other than incredibly boring and unfunny...)

I'm blogging today about presents! :) You like that? How I snuck that lovey dovey crap in there?

He got me the following:

-Zac Brown Band CD

-My Horizontal Life, by Chelsea Handler

-The Lovely Bones

-3 Movie Johnny Depp DVDs thing- Benny & Joon, Edward Scissorhands, and From Hell

-Purple Daisies/other assorted flowers

and a super sweet card. :)

BOOKS! I LOVE BOOKS!

This feels funny to say, but for the first time EVER, I have made myself a VOLUNTARY Summer (and probably on into Fall and winter...) Reading List.

I am currently working my way (ever so slowly) through Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass'... LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT!

then, I think I'll try to knock out the following:

- 'The Lovely Bones' -So I can see the movie

- 'Charlotte's Webb' -My dad found the book @their house recently and sent it home w/me bc I haven't read it since I was wittle wittle

- 'My Horizontal Life' ---Chelsea Handler is hilarious- I loved Are You There, Vodka?

- 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' -Because I need to pick up some other habits besides nail-biting

- 'The Time Traveler's Wife' -So I can see the movie...

- 'Parenting the Hurt Child' - No, I don't have children, but I want to read it anyway!

- 'A Paradise Built in Hell- The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster' by Rebecca Solnit

- 'Yours, Jack' By C.S. Lewis

- 'Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang' - To complete my series of super-serious Chelsea Handler books

- 'The Shack' by William P Young

- 'Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office' - by Jen Lancaster

Annnnnnd that should do my til my 26th birthday.

PS- I've decided that I know what I want to be when I grow up:

A professional candy bar/junk food buster-upper... I mean, really- I would LOVE to be the one who works for DQ and breaks the Oreos and Heath Bars up to put in the Blizzards... I think I've found my calling!

-EM

Apparently I watch a lot of TV...

2010-05-26T20:51:00.004-05:00

So, apparently I must watch a lot of TV. I don't think I do, but lately all the stuff I've been talking about or referencing has been related to a show I've seen recently.

Tuesday night was a night of wonderful TV. There was the Biggest Loser where everybody looked crazy different and the transformations were nuts. Even the people I didn't like turned out on this episode to be worth clapping for! It was Great! haha

2 shows really stuck out...

I'm thinking I'll talk just about one of the two tonight... we'll see how that goes.

SO, on gLee...

First off, it was the Lady Gaga episode... after the Madonna episode a few weeks ago, I was anxiously awaiting this masterpiece. While it was less Gagalicious than I was hoping, it was incredibly fun and costumes were impeccable.

So, I watch the show, but not so religiously that I remember every single person's name. I typically refer to them as "dude with mohawk," "pregnant girl," slutty cheerleader," "stupid and innocently slutty cheerleader," "guy in wheelchair," etc. I'm sure anyone who watched (or is my friend on FB) remembers the part that I'm about to talk about...

SO, Kurt is the flamboyantly gay kid on the show, and throughout what I've seen this season, his dad has had some difficulty with this. Obviously, it would be difficult to initially deal with the fact that your son, who you want to take to ballgames, talk about girls with, burp-fart-drink beer together, etc, is gay. Not just gay, but no-questions-about-it-this-kid-is gay, Gay. Well, I've felt bad for Kurt and his dad while watching them deal with this, and I have to give it to his fake-TV dad, he's doing a great job! The past few episodes, though, he has been spending a lot of time doing "man" stuff with Finn. Finn is Dad's GF's son. Finn is also Kurt's current crush. Dad asked GF and Finn to move in with him and Kurt, Kurt was excited, Finn was very unhappy. So at some point, Finn and Kurt were down in their room arguing about "decorations." I say that with "s because the argument was about much more, but that's what the surface argument was about. Finn went on to tell Kurt what he didn't like about the room and referred to something (several things, actually) as "faggie." "Faggie" in itself was something that would have probably just awkwardly slid on by were it not for the fact that Dad had been walking down the stairs at the time and heard it. (Keep in mind, this is the dad that didn't seem to know what to think about his gay son, who had been spending time with Finn doing straight guy stuff, and who wears FLANNEL in almost EVERY episode)

SO, Dad walks in and asked Finn what he said. Finn had a little difficulty explaining, so Dad spelled it out for him. The word "faggie" isn't ok. It's something that people use a lot and completely disregard the meaning behind it or the emotional weight that it carries. Dad goes on to ask if Finn uses the "N" word- No? Because it's disrespectful and hateful? Really? Does Finn call the little differently abled- precious as can be girl on the Cheerios a Retard? No? because that would be mean? Because it would be hateful and shameful to call a girl with downs syndrome a retard? Really? Where is the difference? Obviously, I'm throwing in a little of what I think, but in a nutshell, this is what Dad did- only I'm pretty sure he made Finn feel much much worse about it than I probably would have been able to do on a network TV show.

I just thought this was so great because the past few weeks, we've been watching dad interact with Finn like Finn was his son, and Dad has been kind of ignoring Kurt while doing so. Kurt has been obviously bothered by this. I thought that scene was a great display of this Fake-TV father's love for his son. Although his son is not what he had originally thought, he loved him and stuck up for him. Although his son is the complete opposite of himself and dad isn't able to fully understand how/why/etc, he stepped in and took up for him. Although his son is flamboyantly over-the-top with his sexuality and it makes his father moderately uncomfortable, he still stepped in when someone was saying something to his son that was hurtful and hateful, and made sure that person knew it was wrong. Although he has had difficulty figuring out how to connect with his son, he stepped in- and in that one moment, it was perfect.

Exactly where a daddy is supposed to be when someone is intentionally hurting their child .

Exactly what a daddy is supposed to do when something like this happens.

It was just a show, I understand, but it was a great illustration of a Father's love for His child. His child.

A child He loves no matter...

who he is,

where he is,

what he is.

You just don't see stuff like that on TV every day...

especially not surrounded by the wonderful music of Gagaloo :)

Next TV show: Parenthood.

This is a GOOD ONE! lol

NO CLUE

2010-04-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

I am so excited, I have no idea what to write.

It only took me about a month to decide what url to use... and yes, I went original on it. First initial-last name. It was difficult.