I used to love winter, but seeing as it looks like I'm going to be sick all freakin' winter this year, I HATE IT. I think freezing my butt off at the game on Friday did me in. I was feeling crappy yesterday and then today when I was at Kohl's with my mom and the kids, I about fell over. Think that's when your equilibrium is off or whatever. Got the stuffy head, runny nose and sneezing fits - nice.


The kids slept over at my mom's last night - fun for them and nice for us to enjoy some peace. I have all the Christmas presents wrapped except for Rob and the kids and my mother. The Canadian packages will be mailed out this week - we are on the ball!


Got my little crafting area set up in my room - although the table is right in front of the bathroom which can soil the mood - pun intended - heh. I was jonesin' to make something, so I decided to make 3 little books for K's church class teachers. They aren't perfect, they were kinda rushed, and I felt like shit - but, they are the homely kinda folk and I think they will love them.

Day after Thanksgiving.

BSU won - 61-10 - another perfect season; yippeeee!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mother's stuffing - which I make and is always fantastic - was HORRIBLE. She has like no kitchen skills...or patience. Things were not finely diced...and didn't cook long enough - it was just....not good. Rob forgot the marshmallows for the yams - which was a bummer for those that ate those nasty things. A *sweet* potato has always been odd to me. Ohhhh - and the pumpkin pie - courtesy of Sara Lee - and nobody doesn't like Sara Lee....well, I hate to tell you - but we didn't like Sara Lee. Heavy on the nutmeg - just not fantastic at all. But overall the evening was good - the kids had fun, the turkey and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole were all great and I ate bunches.

Then we came home for our tradition of watching The Polar Express for the first time of the year on Thanksgiving night - and it typically stays on through New Year's Day.

I saw a few deals that interested me for this morning, but not anything super. Rob went to work for a few hours so I'm having him stop on his way home for a couple things. I'm thinking the way the economy is this year, you can go out later and there will still be good deals left.

Getting my hair done at 10:30 and then off to the BSU game this afternoon. We're 12-0 and today is the last game - going for a 13-0 undeafeated season. We'll be on ESPN2 at 4 o'clock my time. We're usually on TV because of our seats - last time D was on and the time before that, I was on; national television superstars we are!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at Grandma Mary's

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Thanksgiving, girls - even if you are a Canadian - LOL

Hope you all have a wonderful day with your families....and some good food!

We got up early - got pumpkin pies in the oven and got caught up on Top Chef and Survivor. Then I did a couple of gift baskets - I did a gourmet one for this lady at work who is on dialysis but she brought me some clothes which was much needed and very nice. And then I did one that we'll take over to my mom's tonight - used the Mario Batali kitchen utensils that I was going to give to someone who is no longer on my Christmas list - heh. We're doing the pumpkin pies, green bean casserole and cranberry relish - I make a really good relish - and my mom is doing everything else. Kind of makes for a nice day of just lazing around, picking up, little bit of laundry and cooking and then we'll head over to my mom's mid-afternoon.

Thankful for the friendship I have with each of you....

Michelle

K is sick again! So now the good part of my mother being here kicks in - I can leave her there today so that neither Rob or I have to miss work. But I'm calling her Doc this morning - this is crazy...she's been off-and-on sick for like 3 weeks with fever and looking sad and lifeless...and then puking for a couple days every 4 days. Not sure what is going on with her but I'm starting to get worried.

My mom took us out to dinner last night...and then we took her shopping - she's running up his/her charge card before he gets served with divorce papers today - LOL She bought me 3 new Martha Stewart punches and some Martha embellishments! If I can't craft right now, I can sure shop for stuff to outfit me for when I get started again - heh.

My mom also offered to have Thanksgiving at her house - making the bird and everything! So we're going to do that so we don't have to commando-clean this house by Thursday; and I think it makes her feel good to be able to do that for us and the kids.

Working today then off the rest of the week - yipppeeeee!

What a long weekend! Long, sore AND exhausting. Rob and my mother got in after 9 o'clock Saturday - the kids were so excited to see her. She spent the night here Saturday and then us and some friends of ours got her moved in to her apartment yesterday. We got home early afternoon and I did more Christmas wrapping! Then D and I took a quick trip to Target to get a few last minute goodies to go with some packages.

Been paring down my Christmas list and knocking people and things off the list right and left. So I could get done sooner than expected and get back to crafting! We made a trip to Craft Warehouse on Saturday and I bought some BSU paper! Think I'm going to make Rob and the kids some books for their little Geocaching adventures.

Back to work today - working today and tomorrow and then off until Monday - yipppppeeeeeeeee!! In all the fuss, I haven't even thought about Thanksgiving. So, I guess we'll be making a plan for that. I'd imagine we need a turkey or somethin'....

Busy day.

Edited to add:

Check out the packaging that my stuff from Emma's Paperie came in!

How nice is this?

And here's what was inside - well, not her - LOL; she's eating a green "titsee roll".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Got up this morning and made breakfast for the kids - I NEVER MAKE BREAKFAST - got laundry going, and now I'm making the shopping lists. The kids and I are going shopping to get my mother's new apartment stocked with food and essentials like toilet paper and all that stuff. Her soon-to-be ex-husband has left her penniless; he locked her out of the checking account, returned her car, and, she went to Gottschalk's to buy some panties and jammies and the card had been reported stolen! She didn't ask, but knowing she has essentially nothing, how can we not help her out? So I told the kids that Grandma needed stuff - and they said "like the poor people?" - LOL - and I said "yes, Grandma is now a poor people" - ha. So we'll go to Target and Albertsons....and maybe Wal*Mart if I can stomach it. I don't shop Wal*Mart, but, to save a buck or two, I may have to this once.

BSU is at Reno today - goooo Broncos!

Another sick day.

Home with K again today. She actually seems the most normal today than she has in at least a week. But she has to stay home today because she got sent home from daycare yesterday. I'm keeping her on the bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and Gatorade diet still today and probably tomorrow just to make sure her little belly OK. Here's a picture I took of her on the couch yesterday - she crashed right when we got home. Hey, Jennifer - that's a Giants blanket - LOL
Rob brought in a few things for me to wrap, and I have some real mail to work on. So, I have a few things to do today. Might even sneak in a little something to craft - no major projects though. Of course my mother has been calling and e-mailing all morning so I may not get nuthin' done. Man, I seriously need a cake right now.

So it's official - after 13 years of living here in Boise and not having any family here, my mother is moving up here. No, not coming up for a visit - MOVING UP HERE. She married a seemingly decent minister guy less than 2 years ago and he ended up being a real jerk. Well since this is her what, 4th marriage or something, she's totally embarrassed and doesn't want to face her family or friends back in California, so, she's moving up here. My husband is the greatest guy in the world - no one asked him to, he just said he would fly down there and go drive her and her moving truck up here. So he's flying down to Oakland on Friday afternoon and they will drive up here on Saturday. We haven't told the kids yet because if something happens at the last minute - a change of heart, or drama, I don't want them to be disappointed. They love my mom to bits and are going to be so happy having her to see whenever they want.

I, on the other hand am STRESSED. My mother is the reason I left California. Well, sure, Rob invited me to come up, but having the opportunity to leave that crazy woman was something I had waited for my entire life. So, I'm not sure how I feel. I think I'm worried and stressed - but I have to admit, excited at the same time. I'm sure that excitement will wear off by Thanksgiving - ha.

I usually stress eat - but we have no goodies in the house right now - which is a good thing. So I stress shopped online last night. I spent $60 at Office Depot buying stuff to craft with, and I spent $181 at Papertrey buying some of their new stuff. I told Rob that I has stress-shopped and he didn't even ask how much - told you - good guy.

Anywho - I am still hacking up gross things, and K is still puking. Gotta love the winter time.

Made some stuff.

Hey Girls - welcome, Lisa :)

First off - let me just say that I appreciate you all commenting. I love this blogging stuff - but if no one comes by or says they are reading it, I'll get bored and start looking up old crushes from grade school and that just won't be good at all - LOL

OK - I made some mini composition books. These are SO fun to make and I plan on making WHACKS of these in the new year - ha. I made bunches with the Chocolate Remix paper from Papertrey, and then I made one for my Aunt Connie for her birthday with some scraps left from when I made K's book.

And then I made some goody bags for D's 1st grade class. We aren't going to be here for the party but the room mother said I could still make them? Um - but my kid won't be there? I did it anyway because I LOVE being the goody bag mom and I didn't want to have someone else take over - LOL Got the little frosted tin tie bags from Papertrey and then some random paper and Papertrey's Rustic Snowflakes stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Re-gifting.

As I was sitting here wrapping a gift for a dear friend this morning, I stopped and thought "she didn't give me this, did she??"

I'm a re-gifter, I'll admit it. Can anyone really say that they have NEVER re-gifted? Never? Really?? I think I can safely blame my re-gifting characteristic on my mother. She was a single parent, trying to make ends meet, so when gifts would come in to our home, if we didn't really NEED them or couldn't use them, she would wrap them from us and give them to others. Kinda sucked because I remember things that I LIKED going away, but, I think the shame of not being able to give to someone else was far more important.

Anyway - so I re-gift. Is that wrong? Mind you, I buy A LOT. I re-gift a lot less these days because the friends that I have give me good stuff. And, I think now that I am getting older, I appreciate things a lot more than I did before. But there are some people that I get gifts from - mostly family and distant friends who maybe don't know my taste or my style or my size, so, they give me things that try as I might - I just cannot use. Big thing for me is necklaces and bracelets - I don't think skinny people know that fat people have bigger necks and bigger wrists than you skinnybutts. So those cute little boxed sets that come out at Christmas time with a necklace and earrings - not so much...the necklace won't fit on my big, fat ankle much less my neck and the earrings, well, they should stay with the matching necklace! So those always go in to "the pile". I'm also very picky when it comes to scents - let me just say I hate the smell of vanilla scented anything. And here's why: everybody and their mother has a vanilla scented can of poop spray, potpourri or a candle in their bathroom. So you give me vanilla lotion - I think BATHROOM/POOP - and I just can't like it....no way, no how. Oh, and remember last year when I was losing all that weight? - I had a friend who gave me a Betty Crocker chocolate calendar. The thing had a chocolate baked good staring you in the face every single day - that was just wrong on so many levels.

I have also been known to re-gift gifts that my kids have gotten. Yes, I have. But it's ONLY when things are too small for them, or too young for them. Come on - my son is in 1st grade and people are giving him the little puffy vinyl baby books - WHAT??

I also re-gift because I think while I do not like/want/need the gift, this person probably would. So I don't re-gift just to dump more junk in to your lap, I did it because I thought you would take more joy out of it than I did. I guess what I'm saying dear friend, is that if you happen to open a present from me this year and it's something YOU gave me (ROTFL), I'm sorry - but I think you would like it more than me.

...on my new couch!!!

So K got everything out yesterday morning, didn't have a fever, insisted she wanted to go to daycare - so I let her. - stop the e-mails calling me a bad parent for sending her to daycare after she puked in the morning - I know that sometimes when I throw up it's just something I ate and then I feel better - and she did. So I let her go...knowing that I was home if anything should happen and I could be there in 3 minutes. She was fine at daycare, came home, had dinner and fell asleep on the couch. I'm sitting back here on the computer and I hear commotion out in the living room - K had thrown up ON D AND ON MY NEW COUCH!!! OMG - vomit on my new carpet in the bedroom that morning and now on my new couch!! So I throw D in the shower and K in the tub while Rob works on the couch. Ugh - fortunately we got it ScotchGuarded but he's out this morning getting some Febreeze for the stench. Going to pull out the ScentStories too - this entire house smells like PUKE. God....
I woke up feeling like crap - again - hacking up chunks of brown/green gunk...nice, eh? I have done nothing but laundry from puke incidents for the last 24-hours and I am ass-up in to the Christmas wrapping.
Hope you have a fresh-smelling day!

- a *sweet* idea -

This past summer I went with one of my sales reps to a little hole-in-the-wall Russian cafe. The way the economy is going right now, I don't think they are going to make it - that's if they haven't already gone under. Now that I think of it, we actually had to pick up some money to put on their account while we were there. Anyway, the owners were your classic Russians....and the wife was short and stocky and really cute. She asked if we wanted to try anything and I noticed something and asked about it and she had me try it - DIVINE.

Do you like sweetened condensed milk?

If you do, this is for you. Take the can of sweetened condensed milk - the entire can - and boil the can for 2 hours. What you will open to after that time is a thick, dark, pasty sweetness like you have never had! Try it! I just had it on cottage cheese pancakes and the contrast of the sour from the cottage cheese with the sweetness from the sweetened condensed milk was DE-FREAKIN-VINE!

TGIF

I hate it when days off aren't really "days off". I have been sick as all heck Wednesday and Thursday. And yesterday I had a dentist appointment that added to the feeling miserable. I have managed to get a whole 5 presents wrapped in 2 days. Hoping to do more today, but as I was sitting here reading news online this morning, K decided to throw up THREE TIMES on my brand new carpet. Gotta love it. She doesn't have a fever and feels otherwise fine, but I may be keeping her home today which means I won't get anything done.
Nice - now she's throwing up on my bed....

ETA (means edited to add): K is at daycare and I've started wrapping. NOTE TO SELF - do not buy personalized gifts for people you have not been friends with for an extended period of time because you could lose touch, lose interest or otherwise not be friends and then you're stuck with personalized gifts that you can't re-gift! Ugh....

Woohoo - 3 days off!

Yes, I am off for the week!

Took the rest of the week off to bust it doing Christmas stuff.

The timing worked out great because I don't feel that great still - not miserable, just not great - , and the couches and chairs are coming today too!

My plan for today is to work on the invitations to our annual Holiday open house, get a plan together for a kid Christmas party (like the Halloween one that we had) and make some chocolate stout (beer) cupcakes. I might do some laundry too as it would drive me nuts to be here having piles of laundry to be done and not touch it - so I may do one load to put my conscience at ease - heh. Oh - and I'll be working on my Christmas list too for my mom and R - they always say I'm hard to buy for but this year there are bunches of things that I want for my new hobby and if I don't spend the money on it, I won't feel guilty if I walk away from it - haaaaaaaaa.

People are weird.

K took her apple cider goodies to church class this morning and she had about 4 leftovers. We stayed for breakfast after - pancakes, sausage, potatoes, eggs, sweet rolls, OJ and AJ - who could turn that down?? Anyway - so we're sitting with this mother and her 2 daughters who were about 3 and 7 and K took the basket over to the girls and offered them some of the little treat bags and the mom said to say "no thank you". Isn't that odd? She didn't even know what it was. So I said "we're not selling them, and they're just apple cider..." Weird.

A little somethin' before church.

I woke up feeling horrible.....but already feel better. So I guess that means I have to go to church!

Today is K's last class for the month, so she's going to hand out her little apple cider packages.

I found these tins at Target - not sure what is going to go in to them, but I just topped them this morning. And then I found this little box of fall paper clips on clearance for 48-cents and figured I could do something with that too - so I added a lil' to it so that D could give it to his teacher tomorrow.

Off to church...and then watching the race - goooooooo CASEY!

My Saturday.

Made my burritos - I didn't think they were fantastic but my kids and husband don't know what's a good burrito and what isn't and they LOVED them. K ate 2 of them at the game and that's a lot for her! Here's a picture of the kids - Daniel eating his burrito - LOL

And here's some more pictures from the game - you can see how good our seats are and why it's a really good time.

After the game we went to the furniture store to get some new couches for the living room and some new dining room chairs. The couches we have had for about 6 months are the most uncomfortable couches in the history of time. I can't remember the last time I had a good Sunday afternoon nap and that is just not a good thing. And the dining room chairs, well, they have like metal or wrought iron legs and let's just say that they aren't meant to hold fat people for more than a few years....uh-huh.

And then, tonight after dinner I worked on making some composition books. I used the kids as my guinea pigs - gonna give these to them for Christmas and then I thought what the hell, I'll make one for my friend Vicki for Christmas - think it's good enough? You can say it isn't, it won't hurt my feelings. I just want to make sure something is nice enough to give as a gift.

Now I is parked for the duration because I am WHOOPED; goodnight!

Football Saturday.

Yippeeeeeeeeee - the weekend is here! We're off to brave the RAIN!!! at the BSU game this morning - game is at noon, have to leave the house at 9 to go stand in line and get our seats. We have season tickets in the end zone but we get there super early so that we get "our" seats - the front row in the middle. Perfect seats for the kids because they can get up on the front and cheer and see the players and high-5 them; it's a good time. Rob told the kids I would make warm burritos to take with us (sneak in) - so I'll be doing that as soon as I get done here.

Shhhh - don't get too excited - but I think the rats are gone! I haven't heard them in like, I think a week now. And speaking of things being gone - so are our couches! I put the living room couches on Craig'sList and they sold in a week. So now there is NOTHING in the living room right this second; looks like we are having a going out of business sale - ha. So today after the game we are going to the furniture store to get some couches....and maybe a dining room set....the dining room chairs are falling apart. Isn't it always something?

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Happy Friday!

I don't know how to take professional home pictures like Dawn does so that is why this looks washed out, but these look a lot cuter in person - I swear! I got the smallest glassine bags from Papertrey and they were the perfect size for a little Ghiradelli chocolate. Then I just punched different size snowflakes and stacked them on each other and tied a ribbon on top - these will be for the kids' church classes for Christmas. Not sure if we'll be here for the kids' Christmas parties at school and pre-school so I haven't done anything for those yet.

Our plan is to be in Disneyland before Christmas and be here on Christmas. But now with BSU kicking butt and taking names, we may be headed to a Bowl game which changes everything. We went to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix last time - looks like we could be headed to the Orange Bowl in Florida this time! Thing is - I don't fly...at least not THAT far. Need to see how long it would take us to DRIVE there - ugh - can't believe I'm even considering that.

TGIF, girls - I get up and in the shower at 4am - Rob screwed up the clock and got me up at 4:51...so I'm late and irritated this morning; hope this isn't a sign of how my day is going to be.

Hot Apple Cider.

I made these little bags with hot apple cider in them for the kids to hand out at their church classes for Thanksgiving. I'm still learning about being "matchy matchy" like Dawn says - LOL - and also what kind of paper to put together and how ink would look on this kind of paper and all that good stuff, but, for little kid things, I think I'm doin' OK so far.


And no - I don't post at 3am - I have been posting at 4something a.m. and just figured out how to change the settings to reflect Mountain time.


I have D's parent-teacher conference today - kind of excited and hope to hear good things.


It's 31 degrees this morning here in the City of Trees - hope you're warm wherever you are!

It's a whole new world this morning.

I got my first million dollar Papertrey order yesterday. It was a huge order - but I got lots of things: the giga rectangle punch, several sets of glassine bags in every size offered, whacks of ink, some chocolate DP and the cardstock and ribbon to match. AND - after I voted yesterday, I trekked over to Costco for cocoa, apple cider and 4 different bags of assorted chocolates for all my stamping/crafting/packaging I will be doing.

This stamping gig is fun, but I have to admit - it's totally derailed my Christmas wrapping plan. I usually start Christmas wrapping on October 6th - but with the rats in the attic follies, moving for the carpet, and now the new hobby, I am so behind. I guess it's a good thing I don't plan on starting later or I would be even more behind.

Picked up Chinese food and then watched election stuff all last night. So tonight for sure I will be working on something and have it to share tomorrow.

Election Day.

Busy couple of days - well, not really busy, just got a bunch of things going on and it prevents me from keeping my routine - and I hate that! We got new carpet put in on Friday - the entire house: living room, hallway, our room, and the kids' rooms. Which meant that everything had to come out of all those rooms and in to the kitchen and the dining room and the garage. After the carpet got put in and they are gone, Rob thinks there's something wrong with some of the carpet so he holds off putting the house back together until he talks to the carpet place. So that means the bed is not put together and my back is killing me from sleeping so low to the ground, the kids are eating dinner standing up at little tray tables in the kitchen, I can't get to my crafting table, and my bras are under a mountain of dirty clothes in the closet! Anyway - he talked to the carpet people yesterday and all is good...

K had the sniffles all last week which turned in to a fever Friday night and all day Saturday, so we took her in to the Doc who said it was viral which means no prescription. Naturally she was better the next day but now she's got this gross sounding cough.

Today is a busy day for me - Tuesdays usually are, but even more so. Sales meeting this morning, need to vote middle of the day, the kids both have dentist appointments at 5 and then I need to go find some cocoa for my latest crafting endeavor. I am looking for a specific kind with specific packaging - gotten it at Costco before but looked last night at Fred Meyer and Walgreen's and nothing. So, I think I'm going to trek all the way to Costco tonight just for that.

It's gonna be a long day, but hey - it's election day, and I'm grateful we live in a country where you actually have a say and get to vote.

Halloween.

We had a Halloween party for the kids and some of their friends last weekend (weekend before Halloween) and it was a huge success. The kids had a blast. I, however did not have so much of a blast because one unruly child - not mine - drove me crazy...jumping on the couches, feet in the wood blinds, running up and down the hallway.

This is D&K by the treat table before the party started.

The kids went as Davey Jones and an American Idol contestant for Halloween last night. Unfortunately K had the sniffles so she didn't get to go trick-or-treating, but they both got to trick-or-treat at my office in the afternoon, so that was nice for K.

I'm just now getting in to stamping. I have always done the goody bags for the kids' school/daycare/church class parties, but this time I actually did some crafting to go with. I even stamped some labels for the Hershey nuggets that are in the goody bags. Oh, and for the Halloween party, we played Halloween BINGO that I printed out from the internet but jazzed it up a bit.

Welcome!

I have thought about doing a blog for a while now, just never really sat down and did it. I love to talk - I can go on and on without a comma. I've got a story for everything and I will talk your ears off.

I'm not a stamper or a crafter per se, so don't plan on seeing new creations on here every day. But I like to dabble, and will share things occasionally.

I do have a full-time job, so I'll try and be here every day, but, you never know what curve balls may be thrown your way.

I don't really have a vision for this blog, didn't sit down and do a business plan or anything, but I imagine it'll be what blogs are about - talking about whatever is on your mind...what's going on in your day or your life, sharing pictures, recipes, ideas, tidbits - whatever.

Thanks for stopping by - looking forward to entertaining you; and reading your comments. Oh - and about comments - you don't have to be a Blogger person or a Google member or whatever to post a comment, you can just click where it says COMMENTS below this post and in the little box, click the name/URL button and just type your name there.