Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Let me just say, I'm not SO HAPPY to be back home. We didn't have a great time seeing family but it also wasn't a little too long. We did not take 103 video clips of our awesome time with our new Flip camcorder (so worth it)! I'm not so happy to sleep in my own bed again which I'm so thankful is not an air mattress or a bed that my feet hang off the end. I didn't deal with both issues over Thanksgiving.

And I do not believe I may have put on 10 lbs of holiday chub all in one holiday.

We stopped at McDonalds for lunch on the way home yesterday. Superman and I both did not super size our meals just to get the coke glasses they have now. And I did not eat every bite.

We did not also stop at a McDonalds for breakfast yesterday. Who would eat McDonalds twice in one day? Not us, that's for sure! While Superman and the kids were in the drive-thru line, I did not hop out of the car and rent a movie for the kids at the Redbox, then run and catch up with them again. Someone would look pretty silly doing that!

I wasn't so excited to see the dogs when we got home that I actually forgot they were at the kennel. Before remembering, I didn't stand for a second to try to hear Jack's whining. I wish the kennel was open on Sundays because I am not so excited to go get them this morning!

With that being said, I'm outta here! I gotta go get my fur-babies!

Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic

Howdy y'all! Hope you're having a great, relaxing time off with family.

I am too. And seeing how our families know nothing about my blog (and I want to keep it that way) and seeing how Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic is a post where I take pictures all day and post it that day, I am not able to keep up with it today while protecting my blog from the fam.

My dear friend Aunt Nikki is hosting Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic today! Go see her and link up there!

See ya Monday!

Blowing Bubbles in Traffic

{waves} Hi fellow bloggers!

I know you were expecting to see a post by Ace today, but I’ve taken over!! World Domination, one blog at a time!!!

Ok, I’m kidding {left eye twitching}.

I am Aunt Nikki, the super aunt of 14 nieces and nephews. My blog tells it all. Come and check me out at Auntof14. But first, let’s discuss something, shall we?

I ♥ Ace. If you’re here today, that means you love her too! Yeah, she’s the bee’s knees, isn’t she? She is also very busy this week and has asked if I would step in today.

So, what should I talk about today? Let’s see. I broke a nail getting ready for work this morning and it is annoying the heck out of me. {nibbling on edge of right pinky fingernail} Oh, oh I’ve got a secret! Don’t tell Ace, okay? Did you know that she…? Wait, I can’t share that. She’d kill me. And then I wouldn’t be able to guest blog for her. And then I would have really let her down, wouldn’t I? Okay, nevermind then. Let’s move on, shall we?

Right, we need a topic… Ok, here goes!

♥One day after work, I was on I-5 and traffic was much worse than usual. I didn’t see any accidents, can’t hear the radio to find out what’s up… but I figured that maybe the University of Washington was having their graduation ceremony. Happens every June, and it always backs the I-5 up for miles and miles.

For years, people have been telling me how awful traffic is in Seattle and I honestly never felt it was THAT bad. Coming from Los Angeles… with its 6 lane freeways and two carpool lanes, backed-up traffic was horrendous. Here in Seattle, everything is remedial. We only have a maximum of 3 lanes in Seattle (maybe 4 lanes south of Seattle but I don’t go there often) and only one lane for carpools. I rarely ever had to sit in traffic for more than an extra 5 minutes here and there… to me, it was always flowing. Always moving, none of that bumper to bumper go-stop-wait 10 minutes-go-stop-wait 10 minutes-go-stop… you get the idea.

That is, until yesterday. I got off at 4:00, had an appointment to catch in downtown Seattle at 5:00. Normally, I can get from work to there in half an hour. Sometimes 20 minutes if I am lucky. 45 minutes at the most, when traffic is more congested.

I was so tired, having woken up every.single.hour the night before. And every time I woke up, I couldn’t go back to sleep fast enough. Because of that, I was irritable and the traffic was all stopped up something awful. It was more like stop-go-stop-wait 15 minutes-go-stop-go-stop-go-stop-go-stop-wait 20 minutes-go-stop-go-stop bumper to bumper hell. The rich man in a fancy BMW behind me, the same Mini-Van Mommy that stayed to the right of me… and to the left the same 16-year-old pimple faced teenage boy with his bangs hanging down to his chin and slapping his hands on his steering wheel to the beat of some heavy rock music blaring in his car was following me for an entire hour. *sigh* My car was swelling and vibrating with the bass of the left car's stereo.

Not to worry, I had company. A little spider was creeping along the driver’s side window. About the size of a brick dime. INside the car. Not my favorite kind of company, but I knew I wasn’t alone and I also knew that if frustration got the best of me, I had something I could kill without guilt on my conscience. For now, as long as it stayed 100 feet from me, we were cool. Not that 100 feet is achievable when I am sitting in the driver’s seat and the spider is creeping along the driver’s side window. As long as the spider minded its own business and didn’t turn its creepy eyes on me. I could have opened the window and shooed it out, but I was too afraid that if I opened the window, Spider would flee towards me instead… or the wind would blow it in my direction. Totally not acceptable. No. Nuh huh. Thank you Sir, but NO.

In front of me was an ancient looking beat-up Toyota. Its paint was either peeling or rusting. I couldn’t tell if the paint was supposed to be orange, red or brown. Its muffler was hacking up something awful. A plastic sheet was covering one of its back passenger windows, one corner having gotten free and was flapping in the air. One side of the rear bumper was hanging by a thread.

I decided to pop in a piece of chewing gum. Ok, so I popped in two pieces. I wanted to blow bubbles, and everybody knows you can’t really blow good decent bubbles with just one Trident gum. But I could, if I was chewing two pieces.
Suddenly, traffic started to speed up a little. Everyone got excited and hit the gas to move ahead. The ancient camaro roared to life in front of me, its muffler spewing a heavy, intense cloud of smoke that actually engulfed my car. I was blinded for a moment while it went rolling around me. The traffic came to a standstill. Again.

Once the smoke cleared, I could tell we had moved about 3 inches. Woohoo! THREE whole inches!! YES, that is progress! I grinded on my gum and glanced at the dashboard clock. 4:35. I’ve been on the freeway for 35 minutes and hardly even came three miles. I still had more than 10 to go!! And only 25 minutes until my appointment. I started feeling nervous… I’ve never been late to an appointment before. EVER. I’ve always arrived right on time or earlier. It’s a thing of mine. I don’t like being late to anything. Even though doctors are famous for making you wait and wait and wait before they would see you… I still couldn’t handle being late. I was sure it was punishable by the power of conscience or something if I was a minute or two late. I know I’ve got to loosen up but hey, that’s not the point here. The spider crawled back along the window in the opposite direction. More towards me. Icky poo. *shudders*

I blew a bubble which failed. It popped and shriveled up against my lips. I gathered all the gum with my tongue and my teeth and chewed, getting ready to try another bubble. This time, the bubble was bigger, more of a success I would say! Back to grinding my teeth on gum. It was actually helpful, as I was getting frustrated and agitated with the time and traffic. I glanced over at Mini-Van Mom and she was dully staring back at me. I smiled and turned away. I peered in my rearview mirror and the same rich man in his fancy BMW was behind me, his head cocked to one side. I don’t know what he was thinking. I blew on my gum again and whoa-oa! This was a large bubble! It didn’t pop instantly, and I wondered how long I could hold it. It didn’t last very long, but longer than usual. I was proud of my little achievement.

The large bubble whistled flat and shriveled against my mouth again. Again, I gathered the gum in my mouth and started to grind. There was an extra mound to chew, which was strange but I chewed anyway. *splinch with a little crunch*

Ugh. What was that?

…WAIT.A.MINUTE!!!!...

I immediately glanced at my side window. The spider was GONE! Something foreign, something alien was in my mouth!!! Something OTHER than my gum! AND THE SPIDER WAS GONE!!! What to do, what to do??!! I desperately wanted to open my door and flee, run down the freeway amongst stilled cars and scream my head off “I’VE GOT A SPIDER IN MY MOUTH!!! ARRRRUGGHHHH!!!!!!” I am not sure I did NOT do that, actually.

I felt little legs struggling in the sticky goo of my gum. A new flavor emerged. It was tangy and sour. I gagged and glanced around the interior of my car for something to spit my gum in. Terror was swelling up from my lungs to my throat. 7 minutes went by before I finally found something to spit my gum out in. Poor Little spider was mutilated into pieces. I gagged and dry-heaved. 7 more minutes went by and I was still struggling to keep the bile from rising in my throat.

What if it was poisonous? What if I am going to die and it happens right here in my car in the middle of I-5? People around me would honk and screech at me because I was holding up more cars… with traffic already so horrendous. The cops would be called and when they came, they would see my lifeless body laying limp in the drivers seat, my torso held back by my seat belt, my head lolling to one side and my open eyes staring blankly at nothing. My car automatically locks when it has been moving for 1 minute, so they would struggle to gain access. What would happen to my mom, my dogs, my family? They cannot survive without me (or so I like to think). What about that rather hot love note from my ex thats hiding in the garage-- what will my family think when they find it? I should have gotten rid of it a long time ago!

What if...

My mouth agape, I happened to look up and my eyes met the 16-year-old pimple faced teenage boy with his bangs to his chin to the left of my car. Amazingly, from underneath that mess of long greasy hair, I could see his eyes looking back at me. He started to smirk a little. Then his car moved forward and disappeared from sight.

The fact that he disappeared from sight startled me so, because we had been sitting forever in non-moving traffic. Nothing was supposed to be moving. We were in traffic, for petes sake! Once I was startled, the REAL smoke from the ancient camaro cleared up as it rolled towards the back of my car. My heart was beating wildly and my teeth were grinding on gum, my eyes were wide open and staring straight ahead. The spider was still crawling on the window, creeping closer and closer to me. I glanced at the dashboard clock again. 4:36.

Wha?

I was daydreaming a.g.a.i.n.?.! With my hands shaking, I dug into my purse to take up my blackberry. Law be damned (you can’t use the cell phone and drive at the same time in King County, where I was at the moment) I fumbled and quickly texted my doctor to let her know I was running late because of horrid traffic and she.had.better.be.ready.to.see.me.immediately.!.!.!...

Good thing, my doctor was actually my therapist!♥

------------------------------------------------

Thanks for giving me the day off Aunt Nikki and for the great post!

Thursday Thirteen - Edition U

Courtesy of Izzy 'N Emmy. Inspired by Kimber.

1. Um - this is gonna be hard

2. Uber - a German word incorrectly used in place of "super"

3. Ugh - probably what I'll be feeling later today after stuffing myself silly

4. Umbrella - you use these when it rains

5. Up - a direction. Also an excellent movie

6. Ugly - duckling. Sorry, it's all I could think of without being mean

7. UHF - a frequency. Also a Weird Al Yankovic movie

8. Ulcer - I had one in high school. It's not a fun time when it flares up

9. Unappetizing - green bean casserole

10. Uncomfortable - again, my tummy later today

11. Underwater - uh, under the water

12. Underwear - hopefully you wear them

13. Undesirable - turkey. At least until this time next year!

Now go check and see what Kimber's listed!

The Po-Po came a knockin'

I've kept you waiting long enough for this story.

And really, the title sounds much more exciting than it really is.

So here's the story. I noticed a truck pull up outside one morning last week . The guy in the truck started taking pictures of our house and then checked inside the mailbox. It freaked me out! I called Superman and we decided I should call the rental management place to see if they sent someone out or if the homeowner was in town for some reason. I had to leave a message. In the meantime we thought it would be a good idea to call the non-emergency police number and just report a suspicious vehicle. I talked with them and she said she had to send an officer out but if we found out it was someone from the rental place to call back and she'd cancel the call to the cop.

So anyway, I didn't hear anything back and the cop showed up. He just asked a few questions about the vehicle, what the guy looked like and what I saw him doing. I felt really silly but he reassured me that's their job and don't feel stupid because you never know. I ended up calling the rental place back because I hadn't heard anything. I wanted them to know that if they did send someone out the cops would most likely pull them over! But she said it wasn't them. Then I freaked out even more.

It wasn't until like an hour later that Superman asked if the guy happened to put something in the mailbox. Duh. I didn't even think about that. So I go out and look and sure enough there's a card in there. It says to call a local mortgage company. I called the rental place back and she tells me that if there's no name or account number that it's just a generic note and to not worry about it. That obviously wasn't a good enough answer for us so I called the number. It was the collections department but of course they couldn't tell me anything because the house isn't in our names.

Superman came home at lunch and took the card with him to call again and try to get more info. He talked to someone different who informed him that they only send people out to deliver those cards when payments are over 30 days late. He couldn't get anything else out of her for the same reason I couldn't. So he called the rental place. He talked to someone else who told him to scan it and email it to her. She said our landlord has many rental properties with them and he's never had any problems but she's going to look into for us.

Anyway, I've had a bad feeling about this whole thing. If he's already 30 days behind, is he going to be able to catch up before they'll foreclose? So many questions and uncertainties. I've learned not to worry so much about moving. Moving is moving, we've done it twice in the past 2 years and while it's a pain in the butt, it's not the end of the world. The problem for me is the sitting and wondering if they got a hold of him and if he's able to catch up and if we're going to have enough warning if we do have to move.

So today, as I scramble around getting things ready for our trip, I am thankful. Thankful we do have a place to live that's warm and safe. Thankful it was just a non-emergency call. Thankful to see our families tomorrow. Just thankful.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

2012

I hope all of my blog friends out there can tell me you're not honestly worried about this 2012 Mayan calendar hype.

Are you?

Because that's all it is: hype.

Remember Y2K? Remember how the computers weren't set up to move on to the year 2000 and the world ended? Oh wait, that didn't happen.

And have no fear, nothing will happen this time either.

Before I go on, I expect this post will be found by people doing online searches for 2012. I expect you'll remember this is my blog and I expect you to know that negative comments are not published.

We were watching a show the other night on the Syfy channel about 2012. People looking into building underground bunkers just for the occasion. People that will likely spend their life savings (times 10) to build something to sit in and wait while the rest of us go on with normal life. Holy cow, can you imagine the kind of debt they'll have after this hype is over?!

But if something does happen I pray God takes me fast, because with those kind of people left to repopulate the earth I wouldn't want to be here.

Do you want to know my reasoning for not falling for this?

Read the Bible.

⁹"Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;

¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.

¹¹"I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth."

¹²God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations;

¹³I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

I'm no biblical scholar, but I take this to mean the earth won't be destroyed anymore. The next time anything this catastrophic happens would be after the rapture.

³⁴"Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

³⁵"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

³⁶"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

³⁷"For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

³⁸"For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

³⁹and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Did you catch that? "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." For the people thinking 2012 will be the end of time, not one person will know when that will happen. Not one person can even guess. And in my opinion, when so many people are making guesses about a certain time, it's definitely not going to be that time.

But hey, if I'm wrong at least I know where I'm going.

What do you think?

(First set of versus are Genesis 9:9-13, second set Matthew 24: 34-39)

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Last week was not a tad stressful.

I did not call the non-emergency police number last week. And you'll have to wait for the rest of the story sometime this week!

While some of you think we had a super busy Saturday, that's not the way we like it! We haven't found that if we loaf around with no plans for the day the weekend is over before we know it. Then we don't feel depressed Sunday night that the weekend went too fast. Not staying busy on Saturday makes the day super long and the weekend longer.

This week won't be super crazy preparing to travel but we're not looking forward to seeing family this week! My ear is not still bothering me so hopefully it won't get worse with the temperature difference. And it sounds like we might not get to see some snow while we're there!

Happy Not Me Monday!

Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic...On Sunday

What a day yesterday was! It was the perfect day to help us forget our hectic week.

We started with the chiro like normal. We were going to do the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop afterwards but the kids got a little rowdy at the chiro and lost that privilege. So we went on home and got ready to do some yard work.

And I mean massive yard work. I ended up having to hose the remains of one pumpkin off the steps because it was so rotten! We pulled weeds, raked, swept spiderwebs away from the front, trimmed 1 huge bush and several smaller ones and seriously pruned another one and a small tree. I didn't take a picture of our final pile of limbs and leaves but it's almost as tall as Princess! We were getting hungry so Superman and Princess left to get lunch while I finished mowing. I like mowing. It's my thing.

I finished while they were gone and we all sat our tired bodies down for some McDonalds. We didn't sit too long because we wanted to get some shopping done before surprising the kids with a movie! I think yesterday was the first Saturday in a long time where we didn't take at least a short nap.

So we headed out to Opry Mills Mall. That was a mistake. Who knew it would be so crowded already. It was so busy in there you'd think Christmas was only a week away! We only really wanted to go to Old Navy and the theater in the mall so we could've gone somewhere else but Superman was in need of a deep tissue massage for his hurt back and you can't find Chinese people doing massages just anywhere!

Anyway, he got his massage and we did some shopping at Old Navy. I left the store while they were checking out to buy movie tickets but the movie started in half an hour and it would've taken that long to get through the line. I don't know why we didn't think of it before but Superman got on his phone and bought our tickets online to save time. We saw A Christmas Carol in 3D. It was good. I have to admit I kind of dozed off a little sometime during the ghost of Christmas present. Not because it was boring but because it was the first time we really sat all day and I got super comfy. But I'm not really sure what else to say about the movie. I mean, the Disney Digital 3D is awesome so that was fun. But I think some of the ghosts scared the kids a little. I know Marley scared Princess, especially when his jaw fell apart. I guess it just wasn't what I was expecting. I think because Jim Carrey did some voices we were expecting something a little more funny at times but the movie stuck with the book and it was all very depressing. But I guess that's how it was supposed to be. I prefer the musical with Kelsey Grammer, have you seen that one? It makes me smile and cry and it's one of my faves.

We left the mall after the movie and had to run home real quick. I wanted to go to Joann's to spend some gift cards... and I forgot the gift cards at home. So we got those and left again. I could've stayed in that store until they closed, which we almost did. Superman kept looking around with the kids so I could drool in the yarn section for a while. I only bought a couple small things because I just couldn't decide what yarns I liked best.

I feel bad that we ate out twice yesterday but after Joann's it was late and we were hungry so we stopped at Chick-fil-a before heading home for the night. After that, the kids got ready for bed and Superman and I watched My Sister's Keeper. Again, not what I expected. I heard it was a major cry-fest and I just didn't think it was that sad. Cameron Diaz was a jerk and it was kind of boring. I cried a tad at the end, but it wasn't The Notebook tears, not even close. I don't know, maybe I was just too tired and couldn't get in to it? Anyone else see it? What did you think?

From November 21, 2009

How was your day?

Healthy Friday

Please tell me it's really Friday. This week has been completely... well... weird. We just want this week to end so we can move on.

Before I get too far into this, I need you to know about 3 people that need prayers this morning. Superman called me and has had a very rough morning. He was shaken from the morning events. He was almost to work when he came upon an accident. Without giving too much detail, someone hit a pedestrian. The driver was in complete shock and even though it was an accident, I can't imagine the guilt she'll feel later. Pray for her. I tear up thinking of the details Superman gave me of the pedestrian. He was coherent enough to give his name but had a head wound and said he couldn't feel his legs. Pray for Charles. And please pray for my Superman. He is just that, Superman. He stayed until the police and firemen arrived and is a hero just for stopping and doing what he could until help arrived. I am so proud of him. But things you see don't always leave your mind easily.

It's hard to concentrate on writing this after such a weird week. Thinking about this morning, all the running we did this week, 2 more accidents and a fire Superman drove passed this week and I even called the police one day (I'll blog about that later). We just want this week over.

But since this is called "Healthy Friday", I will go ahead and tell you that my weight's not budging. I'm frustrated. But thanks to Sara for this post because I was able to do the program she talks about twice this week! So that's something at least!

This week's recipe is from Kraft foods. This is the Perfect Zesty Chicken Tortilla Bake.

What you need:

1/2 cup MIRACLE WHIP Dressing

1/2 cup flour

3 cups milk

1 pkg. (8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked, cut into bite-size pieces

1/2 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

16 flour tortillas (6 inch)

Heat oven to 375°F.

Mix dressing and flour in medium saucepan with whisk until well blended. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to boil on medium heat, stirring constantly; cook and stir until thickened. Add 1 cup cheese; cook until melted, stirring constantly. Reserve 1 cup sauce.

Stir chicken, salsa and parsley into remaining sauce; spoon 1/3 cup down center of each tortilla. Roll up. Place 8 roll-ups, seam-sides down, in each of 2 (13x9-inch) baking dishes sprayed with cooking spray; top with reserved sauce and remaining cheese.

Bake 25 min. or until heated through.

540 calories for 2 rolls ups. Source.

Healthy? Probably not. But Oh.Sweet.Heaven. This was positively the BEST thing I have ever made! Highly recommended. I usually wait and watch Superman take the first bite so I can see what he has to say about it. But I was totally engrossed in my Spanish rice and by the time I looked at him he'd already smothered his with the rice and some sour cream. I didn't even have to ask what he thought because he was raving! This will definitely become a regular menu item! This rating picture doesn't even do it justice, I would need to fill up the rest of the post with these...

I think you already know this, but I'm so glad the weekend is here. We have to make sure we get to the chiro tomorrow morning because Superman has had some bad back pain this week, then some yard work and some shopping. Man, after this week I can't wait for some shopping therapy.

And of course, Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic. I know you wanna join in!

Thursday Thirteen - Edition T

Courtesy of Izzy 'N Emmy. Inspired by Kimber.

1. Thanksgiving - next Thursday. Time for turkey, talking with family and tummy aches.

2. Thudding - what my head has been doing this week with my new found allergies.

3. Time - somehow it always slips away. I never have enough of it.

4. Travel - what we're doing next week for turkey day.

5. Twitter - I'm there, are you?

6. Thursday - today. And tomorrow is Friday.

7. Toot - as in fart, poot, stinker, pass gas, lay one down or as said by our niece when she was little... "fluffy puff"

8. Tired - what this crazy busy week has made me

9. Towel - I actually have some kitchen and bath towels from when we got married 13 years ago. Let's just say it's probably time to replace those. They don't dry very well with holes in them.

10. Temperature - it's starting to dip here overnight but still feels pretty decent during the day

11. Tiddlywinks - fun game when I was a kid

12. Teddy - the bear, not the nightie. I sleep with a teddy bear every night. He's like a pillow for my arm and his name is Bubba. (I also prop my leg up on Pete the stuffed frog. Seriously, I don't know how Superman can sleep in the same bed as me)

13. Tantrum - this mom has seen enough to last a lifetime!

Head on over to Kimber's to see what everyone else wrote!

Wordless Wednesday - Preds Win!

*Check your speakers*

Tidbits

Just throwing some stuff out there today. I feel like I don't have much to say but I'm sure once I get going I'll be surprised!

I'm still having severe ear pain. I'm not one to run to the dr but with how bad it's been hurting and a fear of infection/rupturing led me to the clinic yesterday. I got the all clear! I've been feeling completely fine except for the sharp earache but while running through symptoms I did mention I've been a little stuffy lately. Nothing major though. I left with a diagnosis of Allergic Rhinitis and Otalgia. All that means is hay fever and ear pain. Apparently I have some fall time allergies causing tons of pressure in my ears. I'm starting on Claritin and using some prescription ear drops to help with the pain.

It made me wonder if that's what my problem was last winter. For those of you that have been around here for a while, you might remember I spent about 4 months with bronchitis/sinusitis last winter. I wonder if it started with allergies last fall and just escalated. Make sense? Anyway, hopefully this winter will be much better for me if I get this under control right now. Especially with us going up north next week. We always feel poopy going up in the fall with the weather and altitude changes.

Speaking of going up north, we're going up north for Thanksgiving. We just decided one day last week all of a sudden. Superman asked for Friday off, I made boarding reservations for the dogs and we called the parentals to surprise them. We weren't going to go but it's just not the start of the Holiday season without going. We always get new Christmas ornaments from his parents at Thanksgiving and load up the kids' candy ribbons*. And after this chicken incident there's no way I was making a turkey if we would've stayed home. Yes, I'll travel 450 miles for turkey that I don't actually have to touch raw.

Princess went to the eye dr last night. Her vision wasn't terrible to begin with but she did have some changes. In this past year, she actually went from 20/40 to 20/20 but she also developed astigmatism which still causes fuzziness and keeps her far sighted. We're all excited for her new glasses to come in! The ones she has now are crap. The nose pads are so flimsy that it doesn't matter how many times we adjust them, they will not stay in front of her eyes. She's constantly looking over them. The new ones should be much better.

Cross your fingers for Peanut. We filled out her application for a local magnet school for next year. Most of the magnet schools are academic schools and you have to meet certain grading requirements and be advanced in reading and math. Peanut more than qualifies. These schools around here get most of the state's money and are like going to a private school except it's still free. After living the public school life in a metro area, we really, really want our kids out of that. Anyway, the one we applied for is one of the best. If she gets in, the following high school is one of the best and we've heard kids who go there can mainly get into any college they want. Keep your fingers crossed though, the kids who get in are chosen by a lottery. But if she gets in and if Princess and Little Dude's grades qualify when they're old enough, they are also guaranteed a spot in that school. We will find out early January.

Some of your comments about putting the Christmas tree up blow me away! I guess it all comes down to preference and traditions. It blows me away that some of you don't put your tree up until it's actually December the same way it blows you away that people actually put it up this time of year. We always have, always will! Like I said, preference and traditions. This might sound wrong but I consider Thanksgiving a minor holiday. Let me explain, everything we are extra thankful for on that day are things that we should be thankful for every day. To me, it's a day that everyone gets off work and you sit around with family stuffing yourself until you're in pain. It's also the day in our family where we talk about Christmas lists, get the new ornaments and fill the candy ribbons. So Christmas has already been thought about way before Thanksgiving. Does that makes sense? Or do I sound like a complete moron? Anyway, after Halloween we have Christmas on the brain and do until it's over.

We're going to our first hockey game of the year tonight! I can't wait! We love our Preds! We had a minor league hockey team (would you call it minor league or is that only for baseball?) up north that we enjoyed watching sometimes, but there is nothing like an NHL game. We are so blessed to be able to experience these things too! With Superman working for a ministry, bonuses are non-existent but we are blessed that people see that and donate tickets so the employees actually do get a little something. So if you're flipping channels tonight and happen to see the Nashville Predators vs. San Jose Sharks, look for us in the crowd!

Told you I'd have more to say than I thought! Have a great Tuesday!



*Candy ribbons. It's a Christmas thing that holds 1 piece of candy for each day in December. They start getting 1 piece of candy every night starting December 1st and when they take the last piece of candy off, there's a jingle bell and that means Christmas morning is the next day!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We did not walk 4.2 miles as a family on Saturday! It wasn't hard yet rewarding. And it wasn't really cool that two ladies actually stopped their vans to tell us how nice it was to see a family walking and how proud they were of us for getting out and walking as a family.

I do not think I might possibly have an ear infection. It doesn't hurt so bad! If it is indeed an ear infection, it really makes me feel bad for little kids.

We do not have kind of a crazy week. Princess does not have her yearly eye exam tonight and is not so excited to pick out new glasses! While we're there, Superman does not have a business dinner and tomorrow night we aren't going to our first Preds game of the year! We can't wait!

We do not have a harder time getting in the Christmas spirit since moving to the south, so we did not buy a new Christmas tree and put it up over the weekend! And we did not watch the first of many Christmas movies last night!

I didn't post winners to my giveaway last night! See below!

Have a not great Monday!

Giveaway Winners announced!

My little birthday giveaway is over and I have a list of winners courtesy of Random.org!

Would the following people please email me your name/address and I'll get your prizes out this week!

1. Heather, aka Jake's Mommy, one CD heading our way!

2. Too Many Hats! CD coming to you too!

3. Mendie! You are the only one of these who specified the picture frames so you get 'em!

Congrats!

Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic

This had to be the longest Saturday in history!

We were up and at 'em this morning to get to the chiropractor. We were planning on going to Lowe's today too for the Build and Grow workshop but the chiro was crazy busy. We figured Lowe's probably ran out of kits by the time we were done at chiro so we just skipped it.

We wanted to take a walk with the kids when we got back home. A long walk. We've been talking about walking to our little grocery store a couple miles away. We set out to do it today! After we left, Superman leaned over to me and said we should walk to Subway instead (it's right by the grocery store) for a little lunch surprise before walking back home. We made it! We walked 2.1 miles there, had a nice lunch to refuel and walked 2.1 miles back home! Let me just say, my hips and legs are achy tonight! I can't believe we walked farther today than the 5K.

We got back home and took a short nap because Little Dude had his best friends' birthday party to go to. Superman dropped him off and we started talking. Ignore the fact there there is a rotting jack-o-lantern still on our steps outside, we were talking about putting the Christmas tree up! Now before you go all crazy, you have to understand some things. We love Christmas! "It's the most wonderful time of the year"! We usually put it up right around Thanksgiving but have done it as early as Veterans Day before. And we do it this early since we moved to the south. We lived 30+ years where it's already cold out now and they've already seen snow this year and we moved to a place where we had 74 degrees a week before Christmas last year. So I have to admit, it's a little harder for me to get in the Christmas spirit when the grass is still green and you can still wear short sleeved shirts outside. So we put it up early and it helps get us excited! (and we just decided this week that we're going up north for Thanksgiving so we wanted to get it done now.)

Anyway, we were talking about putting the tree up but there were a couple minor problems. 1) The tree we have is pre-lit with clear lights. We've had clear lights on our tree for probably 13 straight years now. It's old. 2) Our tree was in the garage. I've seen a lot of spiders in that area. We knew we'd be fighting big nasty spiders and I don't know about you, but neither one of us wanted to have our hands stuck inside the tree and possibly have spiders pop out. No thanks.

So we looked online at a couple places to look at new trees. We found one at Wal-mart that we wanted to check out so we took off. We ended up getting it and a new tree skirt and new colored lights! I love the tree, it's taller, more full and it's not pre-lit so we can do the lights however we want now. I'm so happy with my Christmas tree makeover this year!

Anyway, we got the new stuff back home and Superman went to pick Little Dude up from the birthday party. Then we threw on some Christmas music and got busy assembling and decorating the tree!

And I promise to throw out the jack-o-lanterns this week!

From November 14, 2009

And your day? I bet I'm the only one that can say we are decorated for both Halloween and Christmas!

Healthy Friday

Can I get an amen for Friday?

I am exhausted this week. But it's a good exhausted for the first time in a long time! I was able to talk myself into getting on the treadmill this week just like I wanted to! I've had 4 days straight of walking/jogging. I am so proud!

Last Friday I talked about getting Wii Fit Plus but I hadn't had a chance to really play it. Well, it's been played every single day since then! I love it! And it's being enjoyed by all of us. I think it's pretty much the only Wii game that's been played since we got it. If you already have Wii Fit and the balance board, then you need to look into getting this game. And for only $19.49 here? Seriously worth it. If you have a Wii but don't have Wii Fit/balance board, you can skip the regular Wii Fit and go straight for the Wii Fit Plus bundle. Wii Fit Plus has every feature the original Wii Fit game has but with all the extras. Check it out here. (Nintendo has no clue I love their Wii or even that I exist. This paragraph was strictly my opinion for no compensation whatsoever.)

Anyway, I am so excited about heading down the right track exercise wise. It feels really good to be tired at night because you know you worked hard! And I bought a bunch of fruit on Wednesday to have on hand and it's almost all gone already. We are finally on a good path. I think I'm still going to refrain from updating my ticker this week though. Hope you understand. It doesn't help that mother nature brought me a birthday present this week. Stupid mother nature.

This week's recipe is from Kraft Foods. It's the Marinated Steak with Caramelized Onions.

This isn't my picture. I totally forgot about the onions and burnt them to a crisp!

What you need:

1/4 cup KRAFT Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

3 Tbsp. A.1. Original Steak Sauce, divided

2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 boneless beef sirloin steak (1 lb.)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

Mix dressing, 2 Tbsp. steak sauce, sugar and garlic until well blended. Pour over steak in shallow dish; turn steak to coat both sides. Refrigerate 1 hour to marinate.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions; cook and stir 5 min. Cover; cook on medium-low heat 15 min. or until onions are golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, heat broiler. Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Place steak on broiler pan. Broil steak, 4 inches from heat, 8 min. on each side or until done (160ºF). Remove from heat; cover. Let stand 5 min. before cutting across the grain into thin slices. Stir remaining steak sauce into onions. Serve with the meat.

200 Calories. Source.

Don't forget you have until 5:02pm Sunday to enter the giveaway.

You gonna make it for Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic this weekend? I thought so.

Happy weekend, Ganstas.

Thursday Thirteen - Edition S

Courtesy of Izzy 'N Emmy. Inspired by Kimber.

1. Samsung - my cell phone

2. Seriously? - See Idiot, Jerk, Knucklehead, Loser, Moron, Nimrod, OH.MY.GOSH., and PEOPLE!

3. Sweetness - what Superman calls me sometimes

4. Sugar - you can't eat Cheerios without about 5 spoonfuls of sugar on top

5. Socks - I hate socks, my feet need to breathe

6. Slippery - Slippery When Wet was an awesome Bon Jovi album

7. Superman - Hubs. My hero

8. Sorry - something Superman claims I never say

9. Spongebob - my favorite little yellow cartoon character

10. Savior - God is good

11. Snickers - it satisfies

12. Spanish - I took 3 years in high school, got all A's and "bathroom" is the extent of what I remember. What can I say, I had the same teacher 2 years in a row and she just loved me.

13. Stop sign - apparently I roll through them without completely stopping.

Wordless Wednesday

P.S. GIVEAWAY HERE!

I'll grant you any wish you want!

Don't forget to get in on the GIVEAWAY!

I have so much I want to do today. I wasn't even going to blog today but you know how I hate to leave y'all hanging.

I have piles of laundry to do from when the kids cleaned their rooms. I probably have 4 bags worth of clothes to sort and wash. I don't know, if I'm taking them to Goodwill do I need to wash them first? Will they wash them? What do you think? I'll probably end up washing them.

I could finish my hoodie in probably an hour if I just did it (minus the zipper, I had to order it online and am waiting for it to get here). Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since I started the hoodie. If I would've concentrated on it more it would already be done. And I wanted to make 2 more before Christmas. I'm really going to have to pick up the pace.

I want to get on the treadmill this morning too. That's one of those things that if I don't do it as soon as the kids are off to school, I'll dawdle until it's the one thing I give up to get other things done. Not today. I've put it at the top of my list and it WILL get done.

And then I look at my bathroom floor. How hairspray gets stuck to the tile and looks nasty. Part of me so badly wants to get down on my hand and knees and scrub that gunk off and another part of me absolutely hates the thought.

We were talking at dinner the other night. You know that dinner at the table is awesome if you have kids, right? We used to eat in front of the TV a lot, we still do but it's more like once a week now. But eating at the table really does allow for more talking with the kids. We enjoy it and we usually have some pretty good laughs while we're eating.

Like the other night. I'll leave you with a quote from Princess that's had Superman and I laughing every time we think of it. We were all eating and chatting. I think it started with somebody saying something was gay, as in dumb. Which led to one of the kids saying that women couldn't be called gay because that's called a lesbian. That's when Princess announced, loudly, with both arms up in the air,

"I'm a lesbian, I'll grant you any wish you want!"

We're still not sure what that was supposed to mean, but we sure had a good laugh!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. And pray hard for Stellan today.

I did not have an awesome birthday this past weekend! And I'm not having a super fly GIVEAWAY HERE to make it last just a little longer! Superman did not make me feel like a queen and I did not eat it up every second!

I also didn't color my hair this weekend. I was ready for something different and fun! And because the pictures here weren't very good, here it is this morning...

Like Christa mentioned sometime overnight, we also did not have a terrible time sleeping last night. It must have been something in the air. I wasn't exhausted yet didn't start dozing off until after 2am. I'll be paying for that today!

Hope you have a great Not Me Monday, and remember to keep Stellan and the whole MckFamily in your prayers today.

A surprise GIVEAWAY!

Because I love you...

And because it's been way too long...

And because TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY and I feel like giving something back...

It's GIVEAWAY time!!!

Want this CD?

How about this super cute set of picture frames?

My new friends at CSN Stores* are offering these awesome picture frames for my little birthday giveaway! I spent some time perusing their stuff and if you are pregnant, thinking about being pregnant, know someone that's pregnant or just want something new you have got to check out their crib bedding! So completely adorable. Why did they not have stuff this cool when I was birthin' babies?

To enter this giveaway:

I'm turning 32 today! Leave me a comment with 32 reasons why you love me!

Okay, okay.

1. Just leave me a comment!
2. Tweet me a Happy Birthday message, then come back and leave another comment letting me know for a 2nd entry!

I'm offering 2 Francesca Battistelli (click for preview) CDs and only 1 set of picture frames. You may specify in your comment which you would like but I can't make guarantees. (because I know you'll all want the picture frames... heck, I want the picture frames!)

Your chance to enter ends one week from today, November 15th at 5:02 pm! Why 5:02? It's what time I was born! (Okay, so I was actually born at 5:02 AM but really, who's awake at that time? You know, except for my mom 32 years ago)

Now go!

Run Comment and tweet like the wind!

P.S. Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic is below.

*I was not compensated in any way for the advertising in this post. I was contacted by email inquiring if I was interested in having a giveaway and I accepted. I'm just nice like that. The above product (picture frame set) will be given away and shipped from the above company at their own costs.

Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic

Another good Saturday!

I can't believe we were up in time for the chiro this morning but we made it, barely! We stayed up way too late last night. The kids were given 1 week to clean their rooms or drastic measures would be taken. Trust me, they were bad. Princess had an after school art class on the line and Peanut would lose her TV. They wasted all week "cleaning" their way so we spent all night last night teaching them how to clean. I think we worked until about 11pm! Little Dude's wasn't a problem and he has enjoyed a free day but the girls have been slaving at it again. Seriously, I had no idea how much trash and junk they were holding on to. Anyway, after working that late in their rooms we needed some time to wind down and I went on to bed about 1:30 this morning.

We came back home for a little bit after the chiro before heading out again. Princess and Little Dude's school was having their fall festival today. It's kind of boring but they like going. They played some games, walked a couple rounds in the cake walk and got some cotton candy. Then it was back home for lunch, naps for the adults and more cleaning for the girls.

We always go out to eat for birthday's but I was having such a hard time deciding where to go this year. We've lost so many good restaurants because of the economy. The kids don't really like Chinese and I'm burnt out on our Mexican restaurants. That pretty much leaves Logan's, Applebee's or going downtown. I hate Applebee's, I'm not a huge fan of Logan's anymore and we didn't feel like messing with the traffic, parking and tourists downtown. Papa John's to the rescue! Sometimes there is just nothing like delivery. You don't have to leave the comforts of your home and still get yummy pizza! And waiting for it to be delivered gave me time to color my hair.

Wait. Did she just say she colored her hair? Yes, friends, I did. I've been thinking about it for a little while now. Last summer I was almost blonde and it just doesn't work for me. I have strong brassy tones in my hair so it always goes a little red. What color did I do? Well, you'll just have to look at my pictures now, won't you?!

From November 7, 2009

Remember yesterday when I said I had something up my sleeve? I bet you all were expecting something to happen during this post, weren't you. Well, you'll just have to wait longer! How about a hint... even though I was born early morning hours, it will technically be my birthday at midnight!

What did you do today?

Healthy Friday

It's Friday!

This week wasn't half as crazy as last week, and I'm so thankful for that. No getting pulled over or dragging things out of ditches this week!

You may have noticed that my ticker hasn't changed for a couple weeks. I kind of stopped weighing myself when I stopped working. Okay, that's not completely true. I've still been weighing myself but haven't updated the ticker. Why? Because I don't like it to move backwards. Snacking has become a little bit of an issue again since I've been back home. I knew it would.

Let's be honest though, it hasn't been a good week. It's the week after Halloween. We already had candy out the wazoo before Peanut brought home the chocolate covered peanuts I ordered a while back for her band fundraiser. Not cool.

I don't think the problem is all snacking though. Remember when I was working and I added up all of my calories for a day? It came out to something like exactly 1,000 calories, I think. So I know I wasn't eating enough when I was working and I was also very active. Just ask my glutes, all that stair climbing at work was not in vain! So I'd say my problem isn't with the snacking, it's with my current activity level. I'm no where near as sedentary as before though. I enjoyed being active at work and now that I'm home I find I have a hard time sitting still. My mornings are spent cleaning now instead of blog hopping (sorry I've been absent from so many of your blogs). But even being up and around, loading the dishwasher, folding laundry, sweeping and the likes no where match the repetitive 3 flight stair climbing I was doing just a few weeks ago.

But I'm fixin' to remedy that. Have you seen the new Wii Fit Plus game? I've had my eyes on that. We were at Best Buy the other evening and there it was, in all it's $19.99 gloriousness. $19.99 for a newly released Wii game! How can that not excite you? I have a birthday coming up so I took the game to Superman and started begging. That was what I wanted for my birthday. Anyway, I wish I could tell you how awesomely fun it is but we got it home and every single battery we own was dead. We have 8 rechargeable batteries and not a single one gave me more than 5 minutes. But the chargers are all giving me the green light this morning so I'll let you know next week after I finally get to play for real!

Superman and I also bought new running shoes. Obviously they will be used for walking at first but I plan to have those shoes run me across the finish line at next fall's 5K!

In other healthy news, I had new x-rays taken at the chiro. When we started going I had a slight curve in my spine and the arch in my neck was -2 (it's supposed to be 45 degrees, mine was starting to curve the wrong way). My new x-rays showed that my spine is now completely straight and my neck is 18 degrees! Almost half way to where it should be. That means my immune system is working better than this time last year and hopefully I won't spend 4 months with bronchitis again! I now go to the chiro twice a week instead of 3 times and have some equipment at home to do daily exercises. My neck will have the perfect arch in the next few months!

I cheated a little this week with my recipe. It's not actually a recipe. It's this box.

It came with everything needed. You just had to add chicken. Talk about easy! That's what I like!

I know I looked at the calories and I want to say it was under 300 per serving but I can't remember. And the box is long gone. Sorry.

It was pretty good! It's not something we'd have a lot because I think it would be easy to get tired of it. But for now, Superman says...

You know how I said I had a birthday coming up? It's Sunday! I must be getting older though because Superman mentioned something about where I wanted to eat this weekend for my birthday and it kind of took me by surprise. I mean I knew it was Sunday but I forgot. How do you forget something like that? Anyway, there will be some fun pictures included in Saturday Cell Phone Mosaic this weekend!

Even though you all love me so much, please don't feel the need to wish me a happy upcoming birthday in this post. You will get your chance. I might have something up my sleeve! *wink*

Oh, the suspense!