Some comfort...

Bebo Norman - I Will Lift My EyesFrom the album Between the Dreaming and the Coming True

God, my God, I cry out
Your beloved needs you now
God be near, calm my fear
And take my doubt

Your kindness is what pulls me up
Your love is all that draws me in

Chorus:
I will lift my eyes to the Maker
Of the mountains I can’t climb
I will lift my eyes to the Calmer
Of the oceans raging wild
I will lift my eyes to the Healer
Of the hurt I hold inside
I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes to You

God, my God, let Mercy sing
Her melody over me
God, right here all I bring
Is all of me

Your kindness is what pulls me up
Your love is all that draws me in

Chorus:

‘Cause You are and You were and You will be forever
The Lover I need to save me
‘Cause You fashioned the earth and You hold it together, God
So hold me now
Chorus:

Lyrics may not be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

BTW: I'm not sad. I just find this song to be full of hope and right now I need some.

funny stuff in the car...

tonight on the way home we had some funny discussions and thought that you might enjoy them. Warning it could very well be that you had to be there to get this, but here goes nuttin...

I noticed a flashing warning sign that read "HEAVY DEER CROSSING AHEAD" after reading this to Darly, I say..."Hummm I've never seen any HEAVY DEER before!" She of course was in a fit of giggles.

Next we noticed one of the patrol suvs for the police dept of the town we were traveling through. These vehicles have a lot of lights on them, red, blue, yellow & white all strobeing and I like to refer to them as lit up like a Christmas Tree. So we call the vehicles the Christmas Tree cop car. So our next funny statement/question was "Is Santa Clause giving that guy a ticket?"

So closer to home we pass where we have spotted deer before so I say "I wonder if we'll see any Heavy Deer through this part?" and Darly says..."Nah, they're on a diet...it's after New Years!"

Jokes from Darly:

Why did the deer cross the road?

Because he was crazy!

Why did the deer cross the road?

Because he was following the chicken!

Exciting News!

Guest Blogger Darly here!

YIPPY!!! I got chozin to be a flower girl for my cuzin's wedding and my other cuzin is going to be a flower girl too. I am so happy becuze I have wanted to be a flower girl forever!



More details from Mom:

My SIL called today at 4:30 to see if we were planning to come to the wedding. When I said that we were she said that my neice had something to ask me. Neice asked a bunch but the main thing was if it was okay for her to ask Darly if she wanted to be a flower girl. I of course told her that Darly would be beside herself with excitement to be the flower girl as she has been wanting to be one since she was 4 and was beginning to worry if she ever would get to be one. My telling her that the only wedding that I've ever been in was my own didn't help matters at all.

So now we are in search of an Olive Green dress, not a formal dress for our flower girl. I bought a pattern Simplicity 5641 that might work if I get the bride's approval...if not I'll use it to make a Easter Dress and maybe some more casual dresses for Church.

I guess I need a dress too. oh poo... I have to go shopping

Have Pitty on me!

Some how (or because NO ONE else would do it!) I ended up as the Troop Cookie Director for Darly's Girl Scout troop. So far it seems much to do about nothing as the cookie ordering system is pretty idiot proof... but I keep getting these emails full of doom about this process. I'm hoping that the process really is as easy as it appears to be and that everything goes smoothly. The yucky part is that I have to get up early tomorrow and take our order to the Unit Cookie Director (aka Mrs Crankypants).

Mrs Crankypants isn't at all happy that our first cookie director had to quit (Family emergency for petes sake!) She isn't happy that I did not attend the cookie training (duh, our first cookie director did since she thought she was doing the job.) She isn't happy that I live 20 minutes away and I refused to rush right over to her house to fill out the cookie director agreement. I asked politely for her to mail me the agreement, she refused. So I had to get a mom in the troop to drive to her house, find the form among a ton of other stuff she had in a folder on her porch and mail me the form. Then I signed the form and mailed it back. *sigh* Mrs Crankypants said that I also needed to bring proof of our Troop's bank account...proof that she's already seen from our first cookie director. :I need an eyeroll emocon here!:

So today I get to collect the order forms and enter them in the system. That looks easy enough. Just hope I get all the order forms (including the one that DH took to work as he sold about 3 cases of cookies.) Then print out the forms and deliver them to Mrs Crankypants tomorrow at 9am.

So you may not hear from me today. Sorry. I'll be back on Monday to tell you how it all went.

Update: #1
I got all the orders into the system quite easily. No worries at all except...

Before I reported to you that I had to get up early Saturday morning to go see Mrs Crankypants about turning in my order. Well I was wrong.

See Mrs Crankypants sent me an email that I got sometime this afternoon saying I needed to sign up for a time to see her...and the email also stated that she sent this same email to me last week...I never got it last week at all. The email had a list of all the times she has set up for taking the forms. She had 5 spots open. Two very early in the morning and the other 3 were after dinner. I emailed her back that I would like to choose from the first two spots. She did not respond until after 11pm this evening that those spots were not available anylonger...but she didn't bother telling me which spots were open.
Man I just don't understand why she's being so crabby. She certainly isn't following the Girl Scout Law. And because I'm just that kind of gal, the council is going to hear about this...along with my resignation as a Girl Scout Leader...at least officially. This is SOOOOOO not worth my time and energy.

I'll keep you posted on how tomorrow goes...unless you see me on the news wanted for murder. ha ha just kidding. that isn't worth my time either.

Update #2:
I emailed crankypants that I would sign up for the last 3 spots since she didn't tell me which ones were open. And I also mentioned that I didn't get the first email and that yesterday was the very first chance I had to sign up for a time to do this.
Email from Crankypants this morning... I can have my first choice out of the remaining 3 time slots. small victory...
She said that the sign up for the meeting today was only available at the Cookie Training and that she didn't have the time to chase down troops who did not have a slot yet.

Hello? I think that she could have mentioned something in all the transition emails from the other leader to me. I had no idea until yesterday that I needed to do this.

She said that the other leader should have told me...remember the family crisis? I'm lucky that I got what I got. *sigh*

I really do like Girl Scouts and most of the work to provide this for our kids is not that big of a deal...it's just that every time our troop has had to deal with our Service Unit we run into a bunch of very cranky women. Yeah, we're all busy and volunteers here...but dropping the attitude and remembering that we are Girl Scouts goes a long way here folks!

Update #3:
Well the meeting with Mrs Crankypants went very well this evening. I had done all the paperwork correctly and I had all the permission slips. So I'm done with that part. She asked if any of the girls might sell another 100 boxes of cookies by Wednesday as they could get a prize if they did. I laughed and told her the only one who wants to sell that much is my kid (who is already past 200) because she wants the Dance Mat prize. She told me that her DD wants that too. I told her how I told my DD that we could just buy her one and she thought that was a great idea.

Funny thing... There was another troop Leader there with her two kids who was still filling out her paperwork. I don't think that she even had done her internet order yet. The poor kids were bored out of their minds and she finally finished when I was done. I wonder how that one went.

Its on my "to do" list!

Items on my to do list for today:

Laundry
take down Christmas trees
clean rabbit cage
wait for book delivery
buy groceries


Items actually done @2:00pm:

Laundry started
Christmas trees down and put away
got books
vacuumed bottom floor of house because of tree needles

I need to run to the grocery store right now because I hate when it gets busy.

What I finished yesterday:

Laundry done and mostly put away...the air dry are still hanging in the laundry room.
Darly vacuumed her room.
We went to Wal-Mart and got almost everything on my list except for DH's deoderant...they don't carry it there. I also need to run to the grocery for all the stuff that wasn't on my list...doh!


So the poor bunnies had to go another day in their dirty cage. But before you get too upset with me...their cage is 5 foot by 8 foot, so its not like they're wallowing around in their own filth. But their litter box does need to be emptied. Today's plans of going to the movies got canceled so I can take care of them today.

And for those of you commenting about the Christmas trees. I normally keep my trees up until Jan 6th. And I had brought up the boxes and taken the ornaments off the trees (we have 3) but I hadn't bothered to take the boxes back down or to finish the job because frankly I don't like getting poked a bazillion times while removing the lights and squashing the branches back so they fit in the box. I have a friend who just stores her tree assembled in her basement with a sheet over it...but I know that DH would have a cow if I suggested that.
So the trees are completely disassembled and the boxes are under the basement stairs. Outta sight outta mind until next Thanksgiving.

Where did I go?

In case you're wondering what happened to me over the last few days... well I didn't go anywhere. I just haven't had anything blog worthy to put up here. You may have noticed me leaving a comment or two.

I caught some little virus a few days ago...I think that I nipped it in the bud with Zicam because it feels mostly over. But it did make me pretty tired for a few days.

Then I was doing Girl Scouts stuff... Darly is selling Girl Scout cookies right now and we're trying to send some over to My Brother in Afghanistan and our Neighbor who is in Iraq.

Then Saturday we went to Kidz Kulture and learned about Japanese Drums (they're really loud!) and Darly also had a make up Gymnastic's class because her usual class on Monday was canceled for New Year's Day.

Sunday we learned about Jesus' baptism and our own baptism at Sunday School and I signed us up for the next Homeschooling Coop session. Here are the classes we are taking:
Aesop's Fables at the Denver Puppet Theater
First Aid - that's a Girl Scout badge.
PE at Paradise Playground - the kids will run off some steam at an indoor playground.
Tropical Rain Forest
Solar System Class at the Museum of Nature & Science - could be a badge.
Button Manufacturing & museum - I didn't even know we had a button manufacturer in Denver!
IMAX double feature Dolphins & African the Serengeti
Rites of Passage - learning about different cultures way of celebrating events.
Irish Music & Dance - more culture!
Early Peoples, pottery of the Southwest
PE Ice Skating -not learning how to skate...just going skating.
Visit the Aquarium - I've lived here how long and we've never been...probably because it costs a fortune, but we're going at night as a group...discount!
Map Quest - map reading and compass use. I think that might be a Girl Scout patch.

Yesterday we went shopping for some winter wear and dress pants for Darly...didn't find much out there. Why don't little girl coats come down to cover their bottoms? She doesn't like sitting on cold.

And Darly had gymnastics again. This is her regular day. We talked on the way home and are going to try going twice a week for the next month to see if it fits in our life and if she likes it. I'm really hoping that her going more frequently will help her improve enough to go to the next level. Her current coach would "dumb down" the class every time a new girl joined it. I was getting pretty disappointed because Darly could do much more stuff but wasn't allowed because they had to do what the new girl could do. Then I was really disappointed when the coach came and talked to another girls mom about her moving up. Darly has been doing this for 3 years now and hasn't been able to move up yet. *sigh*

Today I went to help at Church. I usually answer the phones but today they had me putting their 2006 payables files together so they can get moved. I felt like a trained monkey...but someone needs to do it. Another lady who helps out says she thinks that they really need someone in the office full time. We have someone who works Wed-Fri...and now they have volunteers come in Mon & Tues (I'm one of them). I think a full time person would be really helpful for them, but our current secretary doesn't want to work full time. They would still need someone to come in and help them continue to reorganize their old files...as the new office manager has a different way of doing things than the old one.

Okay, that catches you up. tomorrow I am supposed to be getting some LLL Library books from a closed Group.

Thursday we are supposed to go see "Night At The Museum" and Friday is Presentation club...so I need to help Darly with her presentation. bye

HEALTH QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION

Remember, I'm exercising for comments...

Got this from my Dad's cousin and couldn't resist.

HEALTH QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION



Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?



A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.



Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?



A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.



Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?



A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!



Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?



A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.



Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?



A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!



Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?



A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!!... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?



Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?



A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.



Q: Is chocolate bad for me?



A: Are you crazy? HELLO . Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!



Q: Is swimming good for your figure?



A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.



Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?



A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!



Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.



And remember:



Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "Whoo! What a ride!"



My BEST wishes for a healthy, serene and fun-filled 2007

A to Z of Me tag

I got tagged over at Denise's place

Click on the ********** if you wanna read it. Don't worry, I don't tag.



A to Z of Me!

A. Available or Single? Neither! Married.
B. Best friend? I have a lot of friends, but I don't think any is the best. I should say DH, but we're still working on that friendship thing.
C. Cake or pie? pie
D. Drink of choice? water
E. Essential item? slippers
F. Favorite color? Purple
G. Gummi bears or worms? neither
H. Hometown? none, moved around too much!
I. Indulgence? blogging
J. January or February? January
K. Kids and names? Darly - that's her alias
L. Life incomplete without? family.
M. Marriage date? Aug 22, 92
N. Number of Siblings? 3 brothers
O. Oranges or Apples? apples
P. Phobias/fears? getting a papercut on my eye
Q. Favorite Quotation? "Lack of planning on your part does not creat an emergency on my part."
R. Reason to smile? Darly
S. Season? Summer!!!
T. Tag three people: nope
U. Unknown fact about me: gosh, if I tell you everything, then there won't be any way to answer this next time!
V. Vegetable you hate: beets
W. Worst habit? procrastinating
X. X-rays I’ve had: Dental, Ankle, Chest, back
Y. Your favorite food? Steak
Z. Zodiac? Capricorn

Helping out

SugarMama is going out of business to devote more time to her growing family. But reality is – What the heck is she going to do with all the darn sex toys in her inventory??? She can only have so much in her personal collection you know! Hehe. Well, if anyone of you are interested of unloading her of this problem – here’s what she can do.

Everything Must Go! 50% off for all her blog readers! (She'd have to charge a measly small amount for shipping of course) But since you cannot order from the site using that discount, you can email her directly @ wantsugar(at)gmail(dot)com and list the products you want from IntimatePursuits.com, and She will send you an invoice so you can pay thru paypal using any major credit cards.

I can't imagine having to unload that many toys. So I'm hoping that if you can't use any, maybe you know someone who can. Let's help this gal out.

Stock Show!

Our trip to the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo http://www.nationalwestern.com/nwss/home/index.asp

On Tuesday we went to see the Stock Show with our Homeschool Group. Here are our pictures of the trip…

When we first arrived we got to watch the Dressage riders





We then headed over to the Petting Farm, but Darly wasn’t interested in petting goats…we see them all the time.

So next we headed over to see “Behind the Scenes with a Rodeo Clown” where one of the clowns showed the kids how he gets ready for the rodeo and some of his magic tricks. The kids seemed to enjoy it pretty much but I thought it was too long…but then I didn’t have a seat. Oh and it didn’t help at all that the tent that we were in was raining condensation down on us for the entire time… but as we were leaving, I noticed that someone had dropped a $10! That paid for my lunch! YAY.

Next we headed over to see the Bunnies!!!! YAY! I was so happy.

A lop

English Lop

Angora











Dutch


Baby Dutch!



Lionhead this is a new breed…they’re so cute!





Baby Lionhead

Rex





Baby Netherland Dwarf

Disapproving Bunny (Netherland Dwarf!)

Flemish Giant

Baby Flemish (10mo)

Next we headed over to see the horses…it was actually a horse riding competition. So while Darly was picking her favorite horse, the judges were picking their favorite rider.

On the way we saw this guy




Darly’s favorite horse wins!

And of course we had to get

Llama

Llama

Duck!

Extreme Makeover - Gingerbread House Edition!

Extreme Makeover – Gingerbread House edition!

Opening: Ty Pennington is heard telling the rest of the crew the sad sap story of how the family is forced to live in a poorly constructed gingerbread house. The house isn’t level and just look at it! We can do so much better.

So the crew arrives in the bus and quickly sends the family away on a wonderful vacation…so quickly that the camera crew didn’t even get to shoot them. Oops! Oh well, we’ll edit that in later.

So now Ty’s favorite part! The demolition! Let’s bring in the equipment and knock this baby down!



Here we see the front end loader moving in for the kill



But wait! It seems that more power is required here. Let’s bring in our Darly2000!







Wow! This is a really tough job…we need a containment system to keep the house from flying all over…bring in the Momcade.



Ahhh now we’re getting somewhere



Get that front end loader back in here to clear out some of this debris…


Ummm, hey this gingerbread tastes pretty good. Munch, munch munch. Oh man, I’m stuffed and can’t move.

Utoh! The homeowner has returned. The work crew is in gingerbread stupor…they haven’t rebuilt anything!



Oops! Sorry folks but that’s the way the cookie crumbles! Tune in next week for another episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition! Bye!

today's rants.

My very good friend Kukka-Maria has a post that I think that everyone here will agree with. She is complaining about how retailers put up holiday decorations wayyyy too early. Go check her out and show your support for her boycott by leaving a comment.

and then there's this...

We've been having a problem with our garage door not working properly when it gets cold for at least the past two years...maybe longer (who can keep track of these things?)

Anyway, this year has been the worst. Before the garage door would not want to close when it was cold out. But this season it decided at first to not open for a few weeks and then decided to not open or close when it's cold out. (btw: you can get it to work, but you have to go push or pull the door while holding down the button.)

So I do a search on line for what might be the problem.

They say... pull the red handle and open & shut to door to make sure the problem is not the track.
We do this...it's not the track.

One guy says then it must be the spring...call a garage door place.

Another guy says it might be the chain...especially if it hasn't been cleaned and regreased in a long time.
Ours hasn't been cleaned since we moved in in 2001!

DH Swears that it must be the spring...look around for a good garage door guy.

I ask "can we at least try the greasing? The second guy says that spraying it with WD40 is a quick fix." DH says "no, it's definately the spring!"

Today, I was really frustrated with the door because it wouldn't work up or down. So when I came home, I got the WD40 and the ladder. I sprayed down the entire chain.

Guess what is working just fine now?

Silly Questions Meme

I got tagged by Coco

Click the ******* to read it..


1.When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I need to color my roots!...so I did.

2.How much cash do you have on you?
Beats me. Do you really want me to get up and go count it? I know I broke a $20 yesterday to buy some apple dippers and a chocolate milk for Darly and there was a buck or so in there too.

3.What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?
SMORE!!!!

4.Do you label yourself?
Nope! Why? I think the label maker is in need of batteries.

5.Bright or Dark Room?
If I'm cold, I want bright...and vice versa.

7.Why is there always a missing question?
HEY! What happened to number 6?

8.What does your watch look like?
I have two...the digital has a velcro sports band and the analog has a blue fake leather band.

9.What were you doing at midnight last night?
Asleep on the couch!

10.Where is your nearest 7-11?
Right next to the King Soopers...really kinda stupid if you ask me. Save some money and drive next door.

11.What’s a word that you say a lot?
I'm not sure...lately it's SNOW.

12.Who told you he/she loved you last?
I think it was Darly. But DH huged and kissed me last.

13.Last furry thing you touched?
That would be my fluffy dog, Lilly.

14.How many rolls of film do you need developed?
None, I need to finish off a roll from Christmas though.

15.Favorite age you have been so far.
This age has been very good so far!

16.Your worst enemy?
procrastination!

17.What is your current desktop picture?
None...my video card is dying on this machine so my computer geek suggested I take off my picture to make the card last as long as possible since we are waiting for Microsoft to finally release Vista and for it to be out on the market for a while so I don't have to be their guinea pig.

18.What was the last thing you said to someone?
Ewwwe! That's gross. (while looking at the clog that Dh pulled out of the bathroom sink!)

19.The last song you listened to?
something on KLOVE...I don't remember.

20.What time of day were you born?
As my mother frequently reminded me, I was born at 12:22 am!

21.What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Haven't had that happen.

22.Do you consider yourself kind?
Usually

23.What’s your life motto?
"Commit your work to the LORD, and then your plans will succeed." Prov 16:3

24.Name three things you have with you at all times.
I couldn't come up with an answer to this, so I asked Darly. She says "Your Head...hopefully." My wedding band & GOD.

25.Can you change the oil in a car?
Yes. But DH would rather that I didn't. He figures that an oil change is cheap enough that we can afford to have someone else get dirty.

26.When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
before Christmas.

I Tag: anybody who reads this and hasn't already been tagged.

No good deed goes unpunished...

any my city's public works department is a bunch of IDIOTS!

You may remember that the city sent out plows this afternoon and made more snow for me to shovel...

Well this evening when I returned from Darly's Gymnastic's class all my hard work was gone! and all the snow that was on either side of the street was now in a line down the middle of the street! The plows were back!

To get to my house, I had to drive up the court I live on...then make a u-turn at the top of the court and drive down the court back to my house...because there was a wall of snow in the middle of the street. I considered driving through the wall for about 1/8th of a second...but then I remembered all the chunks of ice that we've been shoveling and didn't want a dead car.

It appeared that the city had sent out the plows to remove the snow. So we sat down to a beep beep beep dinner and expected to see no more snow.

WE WERE WRONG!!!!

After dinner & dishes I looked out my front window to find that the snow had NOT been taken away...they had simply pushed it up into almost everybody's yards. I say almost because some of us are lucky enough to have retaining walls in our front yard (myself included) and they of course could not pile snow in my yard. But my neighbor, the single lady who hasn't had a chance to buy a snow shovel yet, has a 10 foot pile of snow in her front yard.

I don't know what the city was thinking. We were just fine without this! We were just fine without ANY plows coming through at all. I'm so sick of snow. I think that we may just have to complain about all of this to the city.

more shoveling...but no more snowfall

that sounds weird, huh?

Well today I was sitting down to my lunch and I started hearing large trucks outside. Large trucks that kept backing up... beep beep beep! I knew that could only mean one thing. I didn't even bother getting up to check until I was done eating and reading a book.

I looked out the window and sure enough, they had plowed the street again! Leaving more snow at the end of the driveway.

So I grabbed my shovel and headed back out there. I noticed that many of my neighbors were not at home. So I decided that once my drive was cleared I would do theirs too.

I was about 1/2 done with mine when my one neighbor (the one I wanted to get done the most because he's older and can't do it) came home. I told him that I wanted to do his next and he said it wasn't necessary.

When I was finished with mine, I went to do his and he came out and told me not to... see this guy has a real problem with women doing "men's" work. I guess because he's older or something...it must be a real kick to his ego to have a woman out there doing something for him that he can no longer do. Oh well. DH will probably sneak out there this evening and do it while he isn't looking. And the guy won't have a problem with that.

So after I was shooed off from there, I did my next-door neighbor's and the neighbor across the street. It didn't take long as most of the snow was still soft...thank goodness. Hard chunks of icy snow are heavy.

The plows were out to try to clear off as much as they can before the next snow...

I should have taken some pictures!

Today I decided to go do some more shoveling because my back finally stopped hurting. (I never said I was smart!)

Our driveway and sidewalks were all cleared by DH... but from the end of the driveway to the path cut by the plows in the middle of our street is a good 15 feet that had about 4 inches on the top of a good 2 and a half inches of ice. So I decided that I would go tackle that.

It was a beautiful sunny day...so I put on over my jeans & sweatshirt, one fleece jacket, snow pants and my stadium Parka from LLBean. Oh yeah, don't forget the mittens and ear headband thingy (my ears hate to be cold!) and I had my hat in my pocket...just in case.

I get out there and start shoveling off the snow. That went really well except for the shovel sticking on the ice in some parts. I get all the snow off and start working on the ice. The ice is stubborn and I'm shoving the snow shovel into it and trying to get the ice to break with the corner of the shovel. Finally after getting about 1/4 of it to move, I decide to try our square nose shovel that's for the garden and yard work. Oh yeah, I've already ditched my parka at this point.

I find that the ice is much easier to remove with the "new" shovel and start chipping away. I was able to get the shovel to wedge up under the ice and pick up huge plates of ice...I had to drop some to break them small enough to fit on the shovel. I debated on if I should remove the ice from the gutter or not because DH HATES the gutters (his parent's house has the gutter flattened out so there's no bump when you drive in and he hates that ours isn't exactally like his parent's house...there's many more issues there but that's a different show.) but I did end up taking the ice out of the gutter. I also ended up ditching my gloves and ear headband thingy.

It felt so empowering to break up the ice and be able to throw it out of the way. I could picture something that was making me mad and just hack away at the ice to get all my frustrations out. It was great. And I was proud of the job I did...until...

DH came home. He wasn't happy at all that I cleared out the ice because now the bump is back. (I need an eyeroll smiley here) Oh well, can't win them all.

I wish I had taken before and after pictures though...you would have been proud of me too.

After I did all that work, Darly & I went out...just to be out! We went to Michaels and bought up some left over Christmas stuff that was 70% off. and then we went to Walmart to get some dishwasher detergent (hey Jen!) because we were totally out and some milk too...I also grabbed some cleaner and Salsa! and then we went to the library...bumped into our friends at Woodstone Prairie...they managed to get out too...but they have their own plow (course they need it too!) Then we headed home and WE HAD MAIL! That may not mean much to you but since the first blizzard hit our mail service has been hit or miss. If the airport was closed, no mail...if they can't get to the mailbox, no mail...if the roads haven't been plowed, no mail...you get the picture.

I got a card from my grandmother apologizing for it being late for my birthday. ha ha, she was probably expecting it to arrive yesterday or maybe on my birthday. I should call her.

My Mom called while I was out. She said that the unwrapped stuff wasn't for my birthday...it was just some stuff she got me because it was a good deal and that I should have gotten another package. I had to explain the whole mail thing to her. I'll get the box Monday, I'm sure. But I teased her that it would be here in time for Valentines.

I'm tired now.

Changing how I exercise...

I used to exercise 1 minute on my eliptical trainer for each comment...but now I need to change that to shoveling 1 inch of snow for each comment. And since the snow keeps commin, y'all are going to have to get chatty so I can get rid of it all. hee hee

so let me hear from you.

BTW: don't miss yesterday's post below!

All in all, this was a pretty good day!

we woke up to a LLL call and DH snuck into the shower while I was on the phone. So after he got out of the shower, I hopped in...
And wouldn't you know it, the phone rings again...and it's another LLL call! I couldn't believe it. So I call this lady back after I finished my shower and got dressed ('cuz I have a rule...I don't get out of the shower for the phone...especially not LLL calls!) And she has a really bad case...the baby isn't gaining weight. So that call took a good hour to work out.

But after all of that I suggested that we all go ice skating. And everyone thought that was great and we did and had a blast! Unfortunately the rink was busy with lots of kids who needed the metal helper bars...so Darly had to wait for one. If she had gotten the bar sooner she would have been able to skate sooner... we both need to "warm up" so to speak before we can skate. but by the end she was skating. It was really fun.

After that we wanted to go to the Mall, but I wanted to check out the new Mall (Darly wanted the old one, she got out voted.) We went there and it's no big deal except all the shops are outside. We also drove by it's ice skating rink...I'm so glad we decided to go to the other ice skating rink! The Mall's rink is rinky-dink! It's like maybe a 1/4 of a regular rink.

We then went to JCPenneys and I bought some pants on sale (the whole store is 60% off clearance!) and Darly got a shirt. DH didn't find anything he wanted.

After that we headed to Black Angus and had dinner. My dinner was great...Darly's wasn't so good... we've got to remember that their chicken strips aren't good. But since DH told them it was my birthday we got a free brownie sundae! YAY! Darly's meal came with a hot fudge sundae.

Then at home I got to open my gift of a Instand Read Thermometer (I asked for this! and I'm happy!)

And then we turned on the TV and watched Northern Exposure. I told Darly that she's actually been to the town where that show was filmed and she was shocked. I've got pictures to prove it. We drove through there on our way to Seattle (it was filmed in Roslyn, WA for those of you who didn't already know that.) I wonder if I should pull out the pictures for her? I really don't think that she cares. Joel's office is now a gift shop (or it was then.)

This turning 40 isn't too shabby. although the card DH got me stunk. I've got to remember to tell him to stop buying me cards. LOL

Now I've seen everything!

I found out last night that some folks have been auctioning off Colorado Blizzard SNOW on ebay! The one lady even made the news. I have to admit that her auction ad was very cute...she says they Overstocked and are selling off the excess. LOL!

I have a better deal for you... if you pay the shipping, I'll mail you as much snow as you want. And if you come to my house to pick it up yourself, you can have all you can carry...I'll even loan you my shovel!

Bonus! We're supposed to be getting more of this cra/lovely snow tomorrow!




I have to be honest and say that since I dug us out of the blizzards and threw my back out, I haven't gone anywhere near my eliptical trainer. So I really need your motivation to get me back on track (or eliptical trainer as the case may be.) Luckily I haven't bothered to step on my scale in a few weeks...so I don't know how much damage my cheesecake and all the other goodies I've been scarfing has done. I also haven't been stupid enough to try to run upstairs and get winded.

Just so you know, I plan to pig out bigtime tomorrow. Scroll down to the bottom of my blog to find out why.

oh and my New Years resolution, even though I don't make them...

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Slap stupid people in the head. Get your resolution here.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I sure wish I could do that though.