Last day of 2007

Wow, I can't believe 2007 is almost over. Only about 10 more hours to go. We're spending the rest of the day with the kids, heading out to see a movie in a few minutes then going out for dinner. They of course want to stay up until midnight and ring in the new year. I'll leave that up to my hubby. I'll be in bed early since I have to work in the morning.......I've done that the past 5 or so years since no one else ever wants to get up. Yeah, I'm a real party animal! Not.

Have a great night everyone!

Australia?

What do you think? Does it look like Australia? This is on the wall outside one of the doors at the middle school my daughter goes to. Looks like the concrete is chipping away. We can't enter that door without her saying how much it looks like Australia, she was studying it in Social Studies class so she knows what it looks like! lol So I just had to take a picture. It's only taken me a month to get in on the computer though. The dang wireless phone people turned off my ability to text and send emails when I added my daughter's phone to our plan. I just figured out yesterday what the problem was.

BTW, I've always wanted to visit Australia. Anyone want to join me?

How Cute

I wanted to share a cute little thing I witnessed yesterday. My daughter would probably be quite embarrassed if she knew I noticed.

I was driving a couple of her friends home yesterday morning after they slept over at our house. I dropped off the first one, then to get to the other girl's house we had to pass their "old" elementary school. (They moved on to the middle school this year for 7th grade.) I happened to glance in the rear view mirror as we passed the school and at the same time they both turned and stared kind of longingly at the school. Then they both turned to each other and smiled, turned forward and rode the rest of the way quietly.

Neither of them said a word as they passed but I could tell exactly how they felt.

Merry Christmas

Good Morning! I want to wish all (4) of my readers a very Merry Christmas!! Again today it will just be the four of us and my mom. We'll spend the day playing with all the new toys. The kids and hubby are playing with the Magnetix iCoaster we got for my daughter right now. I have a couple ipods I have to set up for them and we'll probably watch "A Christmas Story" at least once today. Gotta love the 24 hour marathon on TBS! My oldest wants to sit and watch it from beginning to end. I think she's seen the entire movie but it bits and pieces throughout the years. We're planning to have a turkey dinner tonight.

My brother and niece will be coming down on Thursday for a few days. We will "celebrate" again with him and he's planning to make some more Polish food. Yum! My mother in law is out of town visiting family so we won't see her until the weekend.

Oh, the present I was referring to yesterday........an electric blanket! I know I've mentioned here I'm always cold in the winter. Hubby knows it too. I always complain about getting into an ice cold bed at night. Now it will be REALLY hard to get me out of in come morning!

Better be going, I'm being summoned for ipod and cell phone help! Yup, got my oldest a phone. She's one happy camper!

Santa Claus comes tonight

glitter-graphics.com


The night the kids have been waiting for. I can't believe it's Christmas again already! Time sure flies. We usually spend Christmas Eve at home with my mom. We go to mass in the afternoon and then come home and have Kapusta (polish cabbage soup). We've had that on Christmas eve as long as I can remember. Then we build a fire, open gifts and track Santa online at http://www.noradsanta.org/.

For as long as I can remember I've loved to try to guess what's in my presents. It drives me bonkers not knowing what they are! I have one sitting here now in front of me from hubby that I have no clue on. I didn't think he was going to get me anything since he let me buy a certain Rick Springfield book. Now it's driving me nuts to know what's in there. He said it was something I needed, but I can't think of anything that I need in that big of a box. So I asked if it was something I knew I needed or something he thought I needed and I might get insulted. LOL He said I would not be insulted. Then my youngest told me she wanted it. Hmm? Something I need that she wants. Now I'm really curious!

Hope everyone has a wonderful night!

I'm losing it

Geez. As if it's not hard enough already to get my youngest in the shower, she tells me today that her teacher told them lice prefer clean hair so she shouldn't shower. Nice try. Get in there! I know that is true but you're not getting out of showering.

I'm losing my mind lately too.........well, I think it's been going on for quite some time! Between yesterday and today I realized there were 4 bills I almost didn't pay. I get most of my statements by email and pay online. For some reason I either missed or skipped over these four. Luckily 3 of them were due today or later this week. One was Friday but I payed it yesterday. I hope I got it in time to avoid the late fee. Crossing fingers. I get so pissed at myself when I do stuff like that!

Just over a week until Christmas. Is everybody ready? I have a couple things to pick up this week then I need to get wrapping. I tried to spruce up my blog for the holidays with a Christmas layout I found, but I quickly realized I didn't know what I was doing. So it's staying as is for now. I thought I lost everything because it all went back to the default settings. I went to start over and put things back the way they were and luckily it all came back when I set it back to this template. Whew!

Don't wait until the last minute!

I've used that line on my kids I don't know how many times. I should have known it would come back to bite me in the a$$ eventually. For some reason unknown to me I decided to join a cookie exchange a few people are doing at work. I'm not much of a baker.

So, I decided on what I was going to make and got all the ingredients this past weekend and decided I was going to make them late yesterday afternoon after my hubby went to work. Well, it was a recipe I had never done before so that should have been my first clue. Long story short, they turned out terrible! The bottoms are burned and they are as dry as the Sahara desert. I cooked them according to the recipe but I think it's way too long. Even my second batch that I shortened the time on were bad. My oldest came home toward the end of the fiasco and wanted to try one. Sure, at your own risk! We decide they were gross and she asked "When are these due?". "Um, tomorrow. " I said. Here it comes......"Mom, you always say don't wait to the last minute!" Doh!

Yup, lesson learned. So next time one of 4 things will happen.
1. I will give myself more time to prepare cookies.
2. I will use a recipe I have made before that I know I can make.
3. I will get hubby to make them. (He's a much better cook/baker)

OR (and this is the option I like best)
4. I will NOT even join the freakin' exchange in the first place!
What the hell was I thinking anyway??

I would now like to wish a Happy Birthday to my bestest Rick bud! Hope you have a great day and may the coming year be better than ever!

Holy White Stuff, Batman!!

Well, the kids got off of school today because they were expecting ice storms. Which I was kind of glad about, because that meant after school stuff is cancelled too so I don't have to go driving around in this crap tonight. I also got to cancel an appointment I didn't want to have to drive to either so that was nice.


We aren't getting so much ice in our area but man are we getting the snow! This is insane. It's only the 11th of December, not even winter yet and we have had so much snow we almost have nowhere to go with it. Our driveway entrance seems to be getting more narrow every time it snows. We've already been out shoveling today........TWICE and it's looking like it could use it again. Hubby said he'll get at it after work tonight. I came in this last time and my hair was soaked! I looked like I had just showered. I took a couple pics while out with the kids this morning. The pile by our front porch is almost as tall as my 8 yr. old. It's even higher now that we've been out again.

Our bare trees in the front yard.

You can see the top of the base of the lamp post in this last pic. Now those piles are at least a couple inches higher and you can't see that part at all.

And yes, for those that watched it, I now have that snoopy song from yesterday's post stuck in my head too!! Sorry.

Who didn't want one of these as a kid?

My mom and I saw some at Walmart today and she still wouldn't buy me one! From what I can find online they originally came out in 1979 so I would have been 9.

Half Way There

Well, we went and got our Christmas tree yesterday. It was frozen and had a bunch of snow on it so we left it in the garage overnight to warm up a little and brought it in today. Now it just needs decorating! Not sure when that will happen.

We also got a portion of our outside lights up. We usually put icicle lights all across the front of our house and up on the two peaks we have in the front. But since the snow came before hubby got out there this year looks like we're just doing a partial job above the garage and porch. Looks kind of sad compared to what we usually do. That's it, I told hubby next year he's putting them out on the 4th of July! My daughter is excited though because we have a couple light up penguins on the front porch! Those are new this year. If we just keep adding each year eventually we'll have a Griswold family house! LOL

I'm anxious to get my Christmas cards out but I'm waiting for some prints from snapfish and they are taking forever!! I participate in an exchange with other Rick Springfield fans and I want to get those out but can't yet. This year I also took a cute pic of the kids I want to put in the family/friends cards so those can't go out yet either!

Man am I out of shape. My daughter was the only one of 3 in her tennis lesson to show up yesterday so the coach had me grab a racket to play too. I should do it more often, I couldn't keep up with her (the coach) and she's probably in her 60's. She had taught two lessons before ours and had two more to go later in the afternoon. Now my arm is sore today!

Time to go catch Amazing Race! Later,

My nose is hot

Yes, hot. Not cold. And no,not mine. My daughter's. That's her latest in her long list of excuses as to why she can't sleep and is up out of bed. Don't ask me what it means. I just told her not to cover it with her blanket and go back to bed. Almost every night there seems to be some reason she needs to get up within minutes of being tucked in. I think she's afraid she's missing out on all the excitement that goes on after she goes to bed.
Yeah, because all the fun stuff happens while she's sleeping.

Movie Night

I'm such a bad blogger! Here it is Wednesday and I'm just talking about the movie we watched on Saturday! It was the first night in a while that we were all home and my hubby wasn't working overtime. So we had some snacks and popped some popcorn and all watched a movie together. We had a little scuffle right before the movie, but I smoothed that over and we all had a nice night together.

The flick for the night was "Night At The Museum". For some reason I had it in my head that it was going to be a little scary and kept asking if it was gonna be OK for the kids to watch. It wasn't scary at all. In fact it was quite funny, a very cute movie. But then it was Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson! I don't think I've seen a movie with the two of them that wasn't funny. The kids both loved it. Two thumbs up from them. In fact the next day they were asking when they could watch again. We got it from Netflix and still have it, so we plan to pop it in one more time before returning it.

We've gotten another snow fall since I blogged about shoveling. Just great! Our snow blower is dead so we're going to get a ton of snow now. And it's not bad enough that I have to shovel at home, I have to do it at work too. Remind me why I live in Wisconsin! I don't know if we're going to be able to get the Christmas lights up anytime soon with all the snow in the way now.

St. Nick comes tonight. My daughter put stockings out for the fish and the hermit crab. What the heck is he gonna leave for them??

I'm gonna be stiff tomorrow

Ugh, we had our first measurable snow fall of the season (we had just a dusting the night before Thanksgiving). Our snow blower has seen better days so time to get out the shovels. Nice wet packing snow out there, man was that $hit heavy!! My oldest and I were out there for about an hour and it barely looked like we touched it. Hubby and my other daughter finished up when they got home from running some errands. Winter is definitely not one favorite seasons!

Have a great night!

Peep Update

Back in September I posted about our participation in the JDRF's Walk for Diabetes. Well yesterday I received a letter with our final total which was $1605, a little more than I calculated. Must have been some stragglers in there. Anyway, we were also informed that we qualified for a bronze level plaque! I guess they give out plaques and awards for what teams raise. So, as team captain my family was invited to the awards banquet next month where they recognize the teams and hand out the plaques. Thanks to all who donated and walked with us!!

I shoulda been a bear!

Because then I could hibernate through the winter and not have to go out in the cold! It's starting, I'm constantly walking around the house in winter saying how cold it is, dressing in a million layers, wrapping up in blankets. I'm wearing socks and slippers and my feet are still cold. And winter's not even technically here yet!

I could handle 6 months of sleep too! Yup, I think I want to go into hibernation :)

What's for supper?

I'm sure you've had those nights. When you haven't planned ahead for supper and everyone is hungry but nobody knows what they want or can agree on anything. We seem to have those quite often! Like tonight.

I ended up with a hamburger and rice. Not fries, not chips, rice. My youngest wanted Chinese. Her idea of Chinese is pretty much anything with white rice. So my hubby made a pot of rice and a package of steamed veggies for her. He had what he called "Chinese Thanksgiving". Some leftover turkey and stuffing along with some rice and veggies covered in turkey gravy. My other daughter had scrambled eggs and cereal or breakfast for supper. We do that a lot too.

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble! Gobble!

I just want to take a minute to wish everyone reading a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving!! We are spending a quiet day at home as a family and will be joined later today by my mom and mother in law for dinner. Most of my family is spread out over the country and it's days like these that I realize how much they mean to me and how much I miss them.

My hubby and younger daughter are working hard on her mouse trap car today. She is in third grade and she joined her school's Einstein club where they learn about different inventors and try inventing and building things themselves. Their assignment over the break is to build a car using a mouse trap. Hmm. Third graders with mouse traps? How many do you think will be crying by the end of that meeting? The teacher provided some websites for help and ideas. Here's a
high school class page, there are some pretty cool ones there.

I'll try to remember to post a picture of the finished product.

All about Rick

Rick Springfield that is. Well, as I mentioned before, my hubby and I went to see RS this past Saturday. What a nice bday present that was!
We left around 1pm to head down to Illinois. Can someone explain to me why I still use mapquest? It sucks. For some reason, unknown to either of us, it took us in a random 10 mile circle. We didn't realize until we were actually driving it that it took us off the highway we knew around in a circle and right back on the the same highway we had just been on. Argh! Other than that it was a nice drive, saw lots of farms along the way and went through some interesting little towns.

We got into town just after 3pm and checked out the venue area, then found our hotel, checked in and called the friends we were meeting for dinner. We went to a local family owned restaurant, it was nice but a little "fancier" and of course pricier that we're used to or feel comfortable in. The hostess was kind of snobby too, so that didn't sit well with me the whole time.

The show was wonderful of course. It was held in the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL. Very nice older theater. Only problem was that it was lacking in the restroom dept. lol We had great seats, 3rd row on the aisle on the right side of the stage. The show was scheduled for 8pm, but Rick didn't come out until about 9:10. The Squirts opened for him, then the owner of the entertainment company spoke for a while and they had one of employees sing at Rick's request. A little more stalling and then some technical difficulties and we were finally underway with the video montage just after 9pm. This was the first time I had seen the video and loved it, would like to see that show up on a DVD sometime. Though maybe with a little more detail.

As soon as Rick come out there was a bit of a stage rush from some fans behind us. I ended up with the this huge dude in front of me. I was not happy about that, but with the looks and the size of this guy I wasn't about to say anything!! lol Luckily a couple songs in the owner and some security came down the aisle and made people return to their seats. There wasn't a problem after that. Just a few people here and there coming down for a closer pic or two. That I can handle, but I just hate the stage rushing!!

The show lasted for close to two hours. Rick seemed in a very good mood and was having fun. So were the rest of the guys. Matt and George were wireless and were wandering all over the place! It was hilarious at times. I'd been fighting a cold for a few days prior and by the end of the night I could barely speak. Well worth it though.

Here's a pic from when Rick was out in the crowd just across the aisle from us. Love the pics where he's looking right at you!



We also got treated to hearing "Christmas with You" live! I have the CD and had caught the video a time or two before the show but loved hearing it live. Here's that video..

You can find out more about the CD on http://www.rickspringfield.com/, the proceeds are going to help the families of fallen soldiers. You can also hear any or all of the songs at many clear channel radio stations (Christmas with you list). A few songs from his "Live in Rockford" DVD are also available for viewing (Live in Rockford list).

And that brings us to the end of my Rick rant........for now!

You cannot lick your own elbow

A proven fact according to my oldest daughter. She and her friends were discussing it at school and saw it on some Disney channel show or something. She had to come home and share this tidbit with me. Obviously a piece of information I could not live without. Now what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't share this info with you? She even provided a demonstration. That was an interesting sight!

So, go ahead.

Try it.

I know you want to.

You know you're getting old..

When you can't pronounce the brand of clothes your daughter wants to wear. I thought I was safe from that whole thing for a while because she has never really cared what she wore or where we shopped or IF we clothes shopped for that matter. One of her best friends is a little shop-a-holic already but my daughter never really gave it much thought.

Until now! I mentioned that while her younger sister was at a girl scout activity this past Friday night we'd hit the mall to kill time. Yeah, whatever mom. But then all of a sudden she came home from school on Friday and she needed to get something from Aeropostale. Seriously, for some dumb reason I really have a hard time saying that name. Obviously it has nothing to do with my age like I said.....cuz I'm NOT getting old. I can't be. I haven't figured out what I want to do with my life yet and I just don't feel like I'm gonna be *cough* 38 this weekend. That's getting dangerously close to the big 4-0.

But at least I get to spend my bday with my two favorite guys!! Hubby is taking me to see Rick Springfield this Saturday! WooHoo! Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it and share a pic or two.

Hey there!

Been out taking some fall colors photos recently. There are still a few trees with leaves remaining. I'll be posting them over the next few days in my photo blog. The link is on the right if you'd like to see them. It was quite chilly out there today with the wind. Still trying to warm up my fingers.

My creepy drive to work

I went in to work for 6 am this morning. Yeah, it sucks, way too early. I am so not a morning person and hate having to work at that ridiculous hour. But anyway, not my point.

It was, of course, still dark out and the clouds were super thick. As I got on the highway heading east I could see the clouds come to an abrupt end in the distance. A straight line across the sky, beyond which was completely clear.

As I was driving I got the weirdest feeling of being enclosed in some sort of box with the lid closing down on it. We were all driving toward the opening. Drive toward the light! Save yourself!! (yes, I'm a little wacko sometimes)

It was like one of those dreams where the faster you run the more you stay in one place. The more you drove the more it seemed like that was so far in the distance that you'd never reach it.

**************************************************
Just also want to send a little shout out to a friend having gallbladder surgery tonight! My thoughts are with you and hope everything goes smoothly and you feel better real soon!

I send a prayer to Heaven

Today is a sad day in the Rick Springfield community and of course the Aldridge home. I've been following the story of 13 year old Sahara Aldridge's fight with a nasty brain tumor. I'm sad to say that last night she lost that fight, but NOT for lack of trying!

You can read her story here: http://www.saharaaldridge.com/ and to read the beautiful words that Rick wrote, visit his website here: http://www.rickspringfield.com/full/rsmain.html

She was a brave little girl and touched the hearts of many. May she rest in peace.

Blog neglect and a free haircut

Blog neglect is what happens when you work twice as many hours as you're used to. Which is what I did this past week. I was too tired and otherwise preoccupied to think about what I wanted to blog about. Never mind having the time to post it!

I know some of you may laugh at the 33 hours I worked last week, but when you're used to no more than about 15, it's a lot. Especially when you still have all the household stuff to take care of and kids to deal with and cart all over town for various activities and appointments. I worked full time before I had kids and a little while my first was young but quit to be home with the kids and I don't think I could do it again.

I always feel guilty not working more and contributing more to the family finances since hubby works two jobs and tons of hours. But this is what we decided for our family and he's great about it and doesn't mind it. We'd much rather have me around when the kids get home and be able to get them to activities than the alternative of day care. Though my oldest is getting to the point where she is Ok alone and ready to babysit, but she still can't drive and what good are volleyball practices and tennis lessons if you can't get there?

So I have the day off today and have way more I want to get done than the hours available, but what's new? First on my list was a haircut. I've been trying to grow it out for Locks of Love but my hair is super fine and the longer it gets the more unruly it is. It's been driving me crazy but I didn't want to give up just yet. I still had a few inches to go to be able to cut the 10 they require and still have a decent length left. So I went in not sure what I was going to do and mentioned this to the stylist and she measured my hair and told me about another organization they donate to called Wigs for Kids that doesn't have the length requirement. I was able to cut off 7 inches and still have shoulder length hair, donate to kids who need it and on top of that get the haircut for free! I had forgotten about that part.

Not a bad start to a dreary Monday morning with a chance of ............. do I dare say it?.............flurries. Nooooooooooooo!

Are you superstitous?

Maybe just a little stitious! (For any Office fans out there)

Of all nights for a black cat to cross our path. It had to be on Halloween! Well, it was mostly black, the front legs and under it's chin was white.
I was bringing my daughter to church for her religious ed class so we should be OK right? LOL

Happy Halloween!!

From my vampire witch and my pirate!

I've been tagged!

My friend Amy over at http://writeonetwo.blogspot.com tagged me, so here goes:

Four Jobs I've had
1. Retail (you name it, I've probably done it except for manager)
2. Bank teller
3. Accounting Clerk
4. Pharmacy Technician

Four Films I could watch over and over
1. Dirty Dancing
2. Finding Nemo
3. A Christmas Story (you'll shoot your eye out!)
4. Hard To Hold

Four TV Shows I watch
1. Friday Night Lights
2. The Office
3. Survivor
4. Lost

Four Places I've Lived
1. Ware, MA
2. North Carolina (not sure of the city)
3. West Allis, WI
4. Oconomowoc, WI

Four Favorite Foods
1. Pizza
2. Chocolate anything
3. black olives
4. potato chips

Four Websites/blogs I visit everyday
1. http://writeonetwo.blogspot.com/
2. http://rickspringfieldandus.blogspot.com/
3. http://www.pogo.com/
4. www.givememyremote.com

Fave Colors
1. Purple
2. Purple
3. Purple
4. Black

Places I would rather be
1. sleeping
2. at a Rick Springfield concert
3. dinner with hubby
4. permanent vacation

Names I love but would/could not use for my children
really can't think of any

Don't know too many other bloggers, so if you are reading this consider yourself tagged. Comment me if you do it so I can read yours :)

Wax on, wax off

So we watched the Karate Kid over the weekend with the kids. They love to "play karate" with their dad and anytime he'd say some of the lines from the movie they'd look at him weird. So I said that he needed to show them what he was talking about.

Well, I guess the movie didn't really translate well to their generation because although they watched the whole thing, they were sitting there looking bored out of their skulls! Plus there was a lot more swearing than I remember but I think they were a lot more lenient with the ratings back then.

I still don't think the younger one got the point of how he was being taught. She just kept saying "he's not learning karate, he's just doing a bunch of chores". So of course my husband tried to tell her that that's why we have her do chores.......she is learning karate. She didn't buy that!

Casino Night

Well, I was right. No tales of winning big money on Saturday night. But it was still a fun night. Got to spend some time with a couple friends. We went to The Outback for dinner. We were having fun with all the Aussie named menu items and practising our Aussie accents. Trust me me, we weren't very good! Even got to eat dinner outside. It was a beautiful night and they opened a few of the outdoor tables.

Our money didn't last too long at the casino. Imagine that! I did think for a bit that luck was going to be on my side. We were just wandering around looking for the right slot and I spotted one called "Snapshot" with a big camera on it. Of course I couldn't pass that one up. I doubled what I put in plus a few bucks on the third spin. WooHoo! Spun a few more times and cashed out to move on. Of course I wasn't quite so lucky at any of the other machines I tried.

So after only about a half hour we had hit our limits already! Luckily there was a free comedy show going on in the Northern Lights Theater so we plopped ourselves down in there for a little over an hour.

Oh well, not any richer than before I went, but we always still have fun :)

Happy Saturday

Just checking in because it's been a few days.

Happy Sweetest Day!! If you know what that is. I don't think all areas celebrate it, do they? I know I had no clue what it was before I moved to Wisconsin. Just another version of Valentines day, I guess. Too bad my hubby is working the entire freaking day!

My kids are busy creating masterpieces with their perler beads. If you have kids and don't know what they are go check out the website. They're very cool and they keep them occupied for hours. Only downside is I think I have ironed more in the past couple days than my entire life! They decided they are going to make stuff for everyone for Christmas.

I'm heading out to dinner with some friends from work and then hitting the casino. Hopefully I'll have some tales of winning to share tomorrow! But probably not. lol

But, mom!!

Decisions, decisions.

Let's see, do I make my daughter go to her religious education class tomorrow night where they are doing a service project and collecting food for the local food pantry. She is required to put in at least 5 hours of community service this year and this will count for 1.5 of those.

OR...........

Do I let her go with her friends to the mall to see (gasp!) Ashley Tisdale!!?

Hmm? What's a mom to do? lol I think you know my decision. She was not too happy with me. Hey, I'd normally be Ok with that kind of thing. Though, I'm guessing it will be a zoo there. But, why oh why do they have to schedule these things on a school night??

Down on the pumpkin farm

My daughter took this one. Not too bad after she took some crappy ones and got a little instruction from mom :)



Choosing the right one...

Look at the gourds on her! LOL

Interesting spot for an atm machine, notice the boot on the left tire so you can't just pull the entire trailer away.

Calgon, Take me Away!!

I'm going crazy! I'm sitting here trying to organize all our recent medical bills. Yuck. They just keep coming. Just when you think you have them all you get another for some other doctor in some lab who read one test result and wants his share too!

Let's see, we went to the pumpkin farm this weekend. I'll share pics of that shortly in another post. I just needed to get away from the bills for a second.

Hubby has had a couple Netflix movies waiting to be watched for the past week or two. He's been working tons of hours and hasn't been able to get to them. We finally sat and watched Troy last night. Long movie, pretty good but a little too much on the fighting scenes for my taste. Yeah, I know that's what the whole story of Troy is about. It's amazing how much of it I remembered from reading it in college or whenever the heck that was. At least it had Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in it, both in fine form which made the fighting scenes bearable (how do you spell that? Even with spellcheck that just doesn't look right). Whatever!

Later~

Mr. Sandman....

Bring me a dream
Ahhh! I've had that song stuck in my head since last night. I was watching some first season episodes of Friday Night Lights and there was a sweet scene where one of the guys was singing that to his grandma and I can't get it out of my head now! BTW, I am loving FNL. I'm sending the second DVD back today and the next one can't come soon enough. Imagine that, my mom was right about something.

I've got the second season episodes being recorded and waiting on my tivo. I've seen a couple preview scenes on commercials and it looks good, though I'm trying not to pay attention to them because I'm not there yet.

Just heard hubby come in, better move, we're going pumpkin hunting today!

What's on your ipod?

My friend Amy at WriteOneTwo did this yesterday (and I've seen it on various other blogs in the past). So I thought I'd give it a try today. Maybe you can learn a little about me by the music I listen to or just laugh at the songs I have on there! :)
I don't have nearly as many as I'd like, my ipod is only about half full and I have a bunch of CDs I want to get songs off of and many to download.

Amy and I are both Rick Springfield fans so we both have a lot of his songs on our ipods. She made it to 10 without a Rick song showing up......let's see if I can do it!

Here goes:
1. Sugar, We're Goin Down -- Fall Out Boy
2. This Side of Paradise -- Bryan Adams
3. Wasted -- Rick Springfield
4. Collide -- Howie Day
5. Blue Rose -- Rick Springfield ( unfortunately not a favorite, I should take it off of there)
6. That Was Then, This is Now -- Mickey Dolenz & Peter Tork (Monkees)
7. In Your Eyes -- Peter Gabriel (Visions of Lloyd Dobler holding the boom box over his head every time I hear this!)
8. Love Somebody -- Rick Springfield
9. Gathering -- Nomad
10. Who Killed Rock n Roll -- Rick Springfield

See 4 out of 10 are RS. I do have other stuff on there, I promise!!
So what's on your ipod?

Mmmm! Cake

glitter-graphics.com

Happy National Cake Decorating Day!! This goes out to one of my best girl friends who likes to make and decorate cakes. I know the day is almost over but I just happened to find this online now while looking up holidays. Everyday is a holiday somewhere!

Apple Picking

We took the kids apple picking this weekend. They loved it! Both of them asked why we don't do this more often. They didn't realize there is only a certain time of the year good for picking. Both of them got to climb up in the trees to get their apples. The bottom of many of the trees had been picked but plenty were left in the higher brances of the trees.

It's starting

"Anybody who's anybody will be there and if I don't go, I won't be anybody!"

My daughter's exact words while asking me if she could go to the Homecoming game with her friend last night. She never used to be like that but she's a whole different beast now that she's in middle school. Been there, done that, but I guess I'm just wasting my breath trying to explain to her not to let what others think dictate what she does. In one ear and right out the other. Not that I didn't want her to go. She did go and I guess she's somebody now. Good thing, I didn't want a nobody living in this house!

She's also asked me to help her to find music that other kids her age listen to. She never has really been in to music much and any time I asked her she was not interested. By her age I had already gone trough, Donny Osmond, Shawn Cassidy and had moved on to Rick Springfield! But now kids are asking her about it and she doesn't want to seem out of the loop. The few things she does listen to are made fun of by some of the other kids (though I bet some of them listen also in private!) So, anyone have any good suggestions for a 12 year old that I won't get the eye roll on?

Photoblog

I decided to change the direction of my photoblog. It will now just be a variety of photos taken by me rather than just focused on my city. You can check it out by clicking the Lynn's photo booth link under "my other blogs" over there on the right---->

You know it's been a long day when....

You go to pick up your daughter and when you get to the exit of the subdivision you have to stop and think about where to go. Why? Because you forgot where the heck she is! Luckily it was only a momentary lapse and she is home now safe and sound!

Goodnight! :)

Aaaay! It's the Fonz

Hmm, they are planning to put a statue of the Fonz in downtown Milwaukee. Check out the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I used to love "Happy Days" and who is cooler than the Fonz, right?? But a statue?

What to blog

I've been slacking a little in my posts! I promised myself I wouldn't do that if I was going to start a blog! Just trying to adjust to my "new" schedule I guess with working a little more and helping my 3rd grader with all her homework every night. She has more that my 7th grader some nights. I need to learn to get organized and stop procrastinating.......pick a project and do it. I have a list of things I want done but when I think about it I get overwhelmed thinking it's too much and do none of it. Instead of picking something and just doing it. Argh!

I also sometimes wonder if I get myself started on too many things I don't need to be doing. Like the daily photo blog I mentioned a few posts ago. I like the idea of a photo blog and sharing my pics but I guess with this, now that I actually started it, I'm not so sure it's what I want. I just feel so limited and restricted in what to post. It's a city daily photo (and you're part of a group of other city bloggers) so they pretty much want you to stick to your city or close to it. I also feel kind of pressured to go out and take pics so I can stick to the city. I have tons of pics on my computer but not a ton from my own city. So not sure if you checked it out but I'm not so sure how long I'll be sticking with it. Maybe I should just start posting more pics here instead. Then I can post what I want, when I want. I also have a few other photos sites I want to get more involved in that have classes and contests and a couple with ways to earn some extra money.

Speaking of the photo contests I've been meaning to post about this. I belong to betterphoto.com and right now only have a couple pics on there. But I entered the pic of Multnomah Falls in Oregon that I posted here in July, in the monthly contest. I didn't win but it did get labeled and "Editors Pick"! Check it out here.

Have a great weekend!

Go Peeps!!

Yesterday we participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk to Cure Diabetes at the Milwaukee County Zoo. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather! There were over 7,000 walkers. I sure felt sorry for anyone who just showed up at the zoo not know this was going on because it was packed.

We had a small family team named Paige's Peeps with a purple stuffed peep named Penelope as our mascot. I think we did a great job. We had 8 registered walkers and a few tag along family members and we raised $1575!!! Yay us! They had some activities for the kids before hand. All of them got peeps painted on their faces and Paige got to make a hand print in the shape of a heart for a quilt they were making. There were checkpoints along the way where they could get treats and stickers and have their hands/arms stamped. It wasn't just for the kids, many adults had stamps up their arms including me......see the pic at the bottom. The first pic is the start of the walk. I have pics of our team but didn't want to post others kids pics without permission.

Addicted to Netflix

I've only got 60 titles on my Netflix cue. What do you think? A little excessive? lol Actually, many of them are TV series with multiple discs per season.

I just started watching the first season of Friday Night Lights. My mom has been raving about how good the show is. I never started watching last year because I had something else going that night I think. So since the first season is on DVD and the second doesn't start until Oct 5, I thought I'd add it to my list.

Netflix is great though. Choose your movies or tv shows and they come in the mail within a couple days. You can keep them as long as you want, then just stick them back in the envelope and send them back. Before you know it you're next one is here. The turn around time is super quick. Usually when we return a movie, it gets there the next day, another is sent out the same day and we get it on the third day. Not too shabby. Beats taking the time to go to the rental store and not being able to find anything because of limited selection or all the good stuff is out.

Survivor: China

One of my favorites is back.....for the 15th season! Wow, I can't believe I've been watching it for that long. Well, for the past 7 years anyway, since they do two seasons per year. It's always fun "getting to know" a new set of castaways. I always joke with my hubby that one of us should do the show. Though I KNOW I never could! The kids and I watched tonight, they love the show. We always look forward to watching it together. We're ready for another interesting season. One team already seems to be standing out as the "stronger" of the two....but we'll see.

New photo blog

I came across a website a few weeks ago called City Daily Photo . It's a community of bloggers who post a photo from in and around their city on a daily basis. It's a pretty cool site, there are people from all over the world participating and it's a way to see these cities through the eyes of those who live there. Since I love taking photos myself, I've decided to start my own blog. Like I don't already have enough to keep me busy! But this will hopefully be something I will enjoy. And it will hopefully get me out there and see some new things around town. Feel free to check it out http://oconomowocdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Go Fly a Kite

We spent Sunday afternoon at the lakefront in Milwaukee at the Annual Kite Festival. It was fun, the kids loved it and there were kites everywhere. I loved watching the stunt kites. These six kites.......


were being flown in formation by these six people...

That's gotta take some practice! One of my favorite shaped kites was this dragon ;-)

Of course we had to get in on the action. Here's the kids getting instruction from dad.

On Saturday while running errands the kids and I stopped to check out the Lineman's Rodeo that was being held in our town. Here's a pic from the beginning of that. We didn't stay long because it was taking a while to get going and the kids were hungry. Neither of them wanted to take a ride in the bucket because you had to go up with one of the linemen. Then by the time we walked over there a line was forming and they didn't want to wait.

September 11, 2001 Never Forget

I'm not usually one for country songs, but I really like this one by Alan Jackson. Where were you that day? I had just gotten my oldest daughter on the bus and a neighbor and I were taking a walk in the neighborhood with our pre-school kids and another neighbor yelled out her door to us. We had a neighborhood play group that day and we all just sat around in shock listening to the news.




(Alan Jackson)
Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you in the yard with your wife and children?
Or working on some stage in LA?
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of
That black smoke rising against that blue sky?
Did you shout out in anger
In fear for your neighbor?
Or did you just sit down and cry?

Did you weep for the children
Who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don't know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below?

Did you burst out with pride
For the Red White and Blue
And the heroes who died just doing what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself and what really matters

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, Hope and Love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is Love

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?
Teaching a class full of innocent children?
Or driving down some cold interstate?
Did you feel guilty cause you're a survivor?
In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her?
Did you dust off that Bible at home?
Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened?
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages?
Speak with some stranger on the street?
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow?
Go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent home movie you're watching
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns?
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers?
Stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family?
Thank God you had somebody to love

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, Hope and Love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is Love

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in our rock and our wren
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, Hope and Love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is Love

And the greatest is Love
And the greatest is Love

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?

It wasn't on the list!

There are some things that no matter what, when you go grocery shopping you get them. I'm sure every family has them. Things you use or eat daily and by the time you go shopping again you need them. My husband can't seem to get that through his head and he'll forget them if I'm not shopping with him. And of course usually they are things that I want.

I went to have a ham sandwich today for lunch.......same thing I eat almost everyday. There is just enough ham to make my sandwich and no new package. I know if I ask him when he gets home he'll tell me.........."It wasn't on the list". I hear it every time he goes without me! I have plenty of cheese for my sandwich though!
But that's only because it was on the list.

Eating out alone

I try to avoid it at all costs. I don't know it's one of those things, like going to a movie alone that just has a bad stigma for me. But I did it the other day. I was out running errands, it was around lunch time and I was starving. I wasn't close enough to stop home, plus I don't like to do that. I like to get it all done in one trip. So, I went in to Cousin's for a sub. I made sure I brought some stuff in that I had picked up earlier to read. Had to make it look like I was "busy". Too busy to eat with anyone else! lol
It just always reminds me of having to eat by myself everyday in Junior High when I was the new kid.

BTW, I have never gone to a movie by myself!

Nap time

*yawn*
This getting up at the crack before dawn everyday to get my daughter up for school is wearing me out already! I'm not a morning person and got in the habit of sleeping in over the summer. Now she needs to get up around 5:45 to have time to take her meds, get ready, eat, have her shot and pack a lunch before catching the school bus which comes before 7am. School starts at 7:25.

I had to work for about 5 hours today and I'm beat already. I'm practically falling asleep as I type zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Uninvited guests and Ellen D

Ants are invading our home! Ewww! We noticed a bunch by the front door the other day so we cleaned it up good and vacuumed the area and sprayed along the whole entrance. We kept and eye on it for a few days and thought we were good. Until tonight. I came upstairs from the basement and into the kitchen and there were dozens of them swarming some cracker crumbs one of my kids graciously left on the floor for them. Who do they think they are coming in uninvited?
Oh, and the mosquitoes are joining us lately too. Not too happy about that.

But I am excited that Ellen's back! She started her season yesterday from New York. This is one of my favorite shows, one of the [too] many I've been looking forward to coming back this season. If you're not watching her, you should be. She is hilarious! I've been flipping through the fall preview TV guide trying to decide if there are any new shows I'm interested in. Not that I need another show to keep track of!

A million things went wrong today

At least that's what my oldest daughter claimed of her first day of school. Oh no, my fears for her came true. Not really. Turns out it was more like 5 or 6. I taught her something, she sure knows how to exaggerate! And all my worrying throughout the day for was, of course for nothing.

My younger daughter....no worries for her. Sounds like she had a pretty good day.

One day down.

Dueling polar bears

Hit the zoo yesterday, one last time before school starts tomorrow. As did about a gazillion other people! I hate crowds. Lucked out though and got a front row view as the polar bears got into a little spat. Seemed as though the big one in the water didn't want to let the little one in. They were growling and biting at each other for quite some time. Usually they do a whole lot of nothing when I've seen them before.

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend and had a nice Labor day. Back to 20+ hours a week for me now that the kids are back in school.

BOR-ING!

I know it's been a few days since I posted. There hasn't been much going on with me, pretty boring lately. And I just really haven't had much to say. But is there really anyone out there waiting with bated breath for a new entry from me?? :)

We just visited my brother and niece for a couple days. Finally saw his new house. Well, not quite so new. He's actually been there a year now. Oooops! Bad sister! He has a dog and this is the first time we've stayed with him since he got it. Spending a couple days in a house with a dog just reinforces the reasons we don't have one. Sorry dog lovers, nothing against them at all. But living with one is just not for me. We came home with black dog hair over EVERYTHING!

Then I turned on the TV to sit and watch some stuff I have recorded on Tivo and find out 3 of my episodes of Army Wives have disappeared. Upon further investigation I realized we were running out of room. My daughter taped umpteen hours of tennis and didn't delete the one she finished watching. Guess this will teach me to save so much stuff. I better get moving on putting the stuff I wanted to keep on DVD!

I guess it's back to laundry and cleaning for me. See I told you......BOR-ING!!

Messing with the camera

Yesterday we got to see my daughter's old babysitter. Or Nana as they called her. We hadn't seen her in a few years. They were a little quiet around her because they haven't seen her in so long but it was a nice visit. She was the best babysitter! I was so lucky to have found her when I did, just before my first was born.

Last night I was hanging around outside with my oldest and I decided to bring out my camera and was playing around with it. I tried a different setting and ended up with this:

She thought it was so cool that she wanted to try some other movements and see what we'd get. So here are the others.

I also tried taking a few of the moon, but they kind of suck! lol I need to work on that, I usually end up with an ugly white blob. There is one that is semi OK but I think I need to play with it on photoshop a bit. You can see some of the detail on the moon but it's a little dark and the sky is black but when I was taking the pic it was still fairly light out and the sky was still blue.

Hmm, there is supposed to be a lunar eclipse at around 5 am tomorrow. Maybe I'll get up and try to catch that. Haha, who am I kidding?? I'm so not a morning person!

One more week!

That's when the kids go back to school. WooHoo! But really, I don't know if I'm more excited or nervous.

Excited because they will be back on a more regular routine and out of my hair for a few hours a day....some quiet time for me! I'll be able to get out and work a little more. Not that I love my job but it gets me out of the house and the extra spending money is nice. They won't be here constantly bickering about EVERYTHING! And driving me bonkers! I know it was just a few short months ago that I was looking forward to them being out of school, so we could sleep late and spend more time together. That changed fairly quickly.......it's a vicious circle.

Nervous because my older daughter will be going back to school for the first time after being diagnosed with diabetes. I'll constantly be worrying about her and hows she's doing. Also because my younger daughter ended up with the toughest teacher in 3rd grade, after having the complete opposite in 2nd grade. I was worried enough as it was that she'd be behind the other kids, now more so! Who knows maybe that toughness and structure will be good for her. She can be a handful!

Where's Noah with that ark?

It's raining yet again tonight. It's like day 6 or 7 or 8 in a row now! I don't know, I've lost count and I'm about to float away! It's getting quite soggy and by the time we'll be able to mow the grass we're going to need a machete to get through the yard. At least the grass is green.

Army Wives

The army has its code.......the wives have their own.

I'm really enjoying this new series on Lifetime about living life as an army spouse. I'm just a tad behind in watching it though. I think the season finale is this Sunday but I still have like 6 episodes waiting for me on my tivo! I sneak them in when I can. I don't think I've made it through one episode yet without shedding a tear to two.

I have to give those in the military and their spouses credit. It's not an easy life. I don't think I could handle all that comes with it. My husband was in the reserves for a few years and I didn't like when he was gone for his two weeks each year. Desert Storm was going on right before we got married and there was some talk of his unit possibly being called up for that and I freaked!

August 23, 1949

Join me in wishing my favorite singer, songwriter, actor Rick Springfield a very Happy Birthday!!

Here are a couple pics I've taken in concert this past year.

Not bad for a man of 58, hey?? And here we are when I met him at a sound check in May of 2006.

Whew! TV crisis avoided!

First I must say my husband and I watch quite a bit of TV. Now that we have the Tivo.....forget it, we are taping everything! lol I love it though, I'm able to watch some of my favorites when it fits my schedule and not miss them because of other appts. etc.

Anyway, hubby turns on the TV today and there's sound but no picture! He comes into the bedroom knocks on the bathroom door telling me that we are in crisis mode. What? We can't live like that. Especially now with Rick Springfield's Noah/Eli storyline finishing up it's run this week with him performing on GH for the first time ever!!

So he calls Best Buy to set up a service call. We just got this Sony Wega about 1 1/2 yrs ago and it's still under the extended warranty. They told us the bulb would last much longer than this so we were a little miffed. A short time later I turned it on to see what was up, no pic. But I asked if he had changed the channel, tried this, that? I changed the channel and boom we have picture! Whew! Because who knows how long it would have been to get a technician out here.

So now he is happily watching TV (and eating dry croutons, what's up with that?) as I type this. Just finished watching The Take Home Chef........now who wouldn't want to take him home??

Mount Rainier pics

I thought I'd share some more pics from our trip to Washington. These were taken the day we visited Mount Rainier National Park.
An uprooted tree...


My daughter wanted me to get a close up of the rain drops on the leaves.

One of the waterfalls we stopped at on the way up the mountain.

It was cloudy and rainy that day so much of the mountain was hidden.



I think this is one of my favorites from that day.




I like this one too. It has kind of an eerie feeling to it.