Me fertile?

I understand that there's some sort of contest going on about posting preggo pix. While I have no expectations of winning, I thought that I would dig these out... now lets just hope that I can figure out how to get them up here.
This is me at my first baby shower at about 36 weeks preg. Sorry it looks so bad. It was taken almost 8 years ago and I didn't know anything about this contest back then! ;o)

This is at my second baby shower (I got 3 woo hoo!) at 37 weeks.

I never made it to the 3rd shower as I delivered 3 days before it, but since it was for 2 other gals too they still threw it and I got all the loot I was supposed to.

Forever 21

Okay, I admit that I am nowhere NEAR 21 years old. Hee hee Actually I'm closer to 41, well it's 34 days until my 39th birthday... so get ready to hit those virtual after Christmas sales for my gift ;o)

Back to the title... As you may have saw in my Thursday 13 post I hit the malls in search of something to wear for Christmas this year. I searched and searched. And like I mentioned before the designers of women's wear are SADISTS! (okay, I didn't say that) Everything that was intended for "Holiday" wear was sleeveless or frumpy. So I started looking at skirts that I could wear with one of my new sweaters. I found the same 3 skirts (seriously, same exact cut different label) in every store.

I had passed up the store with the name Forever 21 thinking that the clothing in there must be for the 20 something crowd...and maybe it was... but they had those exact same 3 skirts only much cheaper! So that's where I got my holiday skirts... yup, I bought two of the 3 skirts. And the nice thing was they actually had my size. I'm a small person and a lot of stores don't even carry my size...as if I don't exist?

So that's my holiday wear story...

I also got my hair cut yesterday. I went to the same lady who cut it last time and got the same cut and the same hair coloring lecture. My hair is really really damaged... I know this, I did it. But I'm not obsessed with how my hair looks. I like to have fun experimenting with my hair color... shoot I can only do this for a few more years before I get funny looks. But Ozzy had to give me a hard time. LOL! I still like her and I'll come back and I'm sure she'll give me the same lecture again...unless I let her color my hair... but who has the time?

Oops! I forgot to title my Thursday 13!

Thirteen Things about Renée 1. Okay, it’s almost Thursday here, so I’m gonna do this while I’m still up and thinking. 2. Today (Thursday) is my Mom’s Birthday. I sent her a card and ordered her some presents that should be there soon, but not in time for her b-day… bummer. 3. I need to try to call her. I just don’t know when or how that will happen. 4. I got an appointment to get my hair cut today. No idea what I’ll have them do to it… it needs color too, but I’m sure it’s still too damaged for that. 5. I looked at 3 different stores yesterday for some sort of dress to wear for Christmas this year and couldn’t find anything. Everything they had was either sleeveless (burr in CO!) or too frumpy for me. And stupidly I walked into Dillards…nothing good, but everything that was kinda okay was over $100! I’m not paying that much for sleeveless in December. 6. I may have to get a pattern and make my own dress. Look out folks! I can sew, when I have the time. 7. Wow, I’m only at #7. It’s been 2 weeks since my last 13 and I can’t think of much else to say… this is pitiful! 8. Thanksgiving went pretty well. There is still turkey in the frig, but no one will touch it…except DH says that he still wants it. I won’t serve it outta fear of killing him… but if he ticks me off…. 9. I was bad, I peaked at the computer while DH was trying to shop for my Christmas present. He was looking at digital cameras. I would rather have the bunny picture that I put on my wish list bookmark. 10. I really really really need to call and get two more field trips set up for my Homeschooling group by tomorrow. I hate that I’m such a procrastinator! 11. Chic-fil-a had a pretty cool quiz on the kids meal bag today. Darly did pretty well on it with some help. I guess she doesn’t know the world quite as well as I though, but she can tell you where all the continents are and she got 2 of the 6 countries on her own. I just gave her extra clues for the other 4. 12. I took down the Hallmark star and tried it out in my bathroom this morning. It seems to work best from a height of 4 feet. So to get it to do what I wanted it for, I would have to either raise my ceiling or lower my tree. I took the star back and got my money back. The one lady was very nice and no problems. The other lady (older) was asking “are all the parts in here and the directions?” while she’s digging in the box to make sure. What a crab! 13. I don’t feel too bad about not calling my mom because she doesn’t call me and she doesn’t call her mom either. We’ve got a totally weird family. When I do call her, I know she’ll just hog the conversation. She doesn’t have a working computer because it got a virus and they haven’t bothered to get that fixed… oh bother! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Lisa 2. Running2Ks 3. Jen 4. deejay 5. barbara 6. Leanne 7. Chickadee 8. sallwood Okay, I got lazy 2. the toothfairy 3. Jennifer's World 4. squashedtoad 5. uzicue 6. Holly 8. Veronika 9. bone 10. Sheri & SuZan 11. Audra 12. Sally 13. Katy 14. Rock Bitch 15. Mommy D 16. Tommi (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Okay, fess up!

subject: *Re-Gifting

Do you?

Have you?

Would you?

Why or why not?

*Re-Gifting = wrapping up and giving a gift that you received but didn't like or couldn't use to someone else.

My Christmas list...

Darly: done shopping! Although I did see a cool thing to get for her at Big Lots...hummm? Maybe next Monday. ;o)

DH: done shopping!

MIL: done, I think...I got her a gift card.

Mom & SD: done...got gift cards too. Mom's b-day is Dec 1st & got real present then.

DB & SIL: don't know yet... have one item

nephew/god child: don't know what to get yet, waiting for SIL to tell me...last year I did it on my own and SIL bought him the same thing! So I guess I chose correctly...just not fast enough!

Gift Exchange: I have an idea, but they were out of them...

Darly's God Parents: she's making a craft gift for them

Christmas cards: almost ready. DH wants to include a pix from his trip. I make a pix collage.

Other Sibs: we only exchange gifts when we're in the same town. Yay! Some don't even bother to send out cards... oh well.

This looks so cool!

I found this at WalMart and didn't pay nearly that much for it...at least I hope that I didn't...running to check receipt! Whew! Only 1/2!


http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=841456&&An=text


Dh said that I already have something like this...but it's on paper. This will save paper as I can re-use the magnets. Yay! A new toy to play with. I can't wait until my old calendar is used up.

I tried to upload a picture for you, but blogger is being contrairy tonight.

Great big ol' waste of money!

I admit it, I fell for the ad! I went to the store and they were out of it, but called another store and had one sent over for me. They said it would be in on the 28th, it showed up on the 25th and they were annoyed with me for not rushing right in to get it.

I picked it up on the 28th, and set it up this morning. It's going back tomorrow if I can get it down.

Here's what it is: http://www.hallmark.com I removed the rest of this link in an effort to clear up what it is doing to my formatting. Look for the Illuminations Tree topper.

I suppose that part of the problem is that I just don't have the 2 to 3 feet of space between the top of my tree and the ceiling. But it so totally doesn't do what I was expecting and I don't feel it's worth $50! Thank goodness they threw in the power box for free! I thought it plugged into the extension cord.

I'll figure out something better. And it won't cost that much either!

In a Turkey coma...

still in my pj's in a turkey coma and thinking of going back for more! LOL! The turkey came out great as always and the sides were all yummy too...

need to get dressed and go shopping... I hate shopping on this day. But all I need is milk so it should be painless.

Christmas Heart-Attack

I've managed to get a lot of my Christmas shopping finished already...YAY! See my earlier post about how I like to be all done by Thanksgiving...

So today since DH was taking Darly to a program, I thought that I would run out to Target and pick up a few items that I still needed. Well first off they didn't have everything that I was looking for. So instead of just zipping out to one store with 1 and 1/2 hours I had to hit 3 stores to get everything that I was looking for.

I get home with "time to spare" and rush upstairs to hide the items. Had to come up with another location to hide one of the items because it was so big. Run downstairs to hide the rest, realize that I forgot to close the closet door...run back up and shut the door...run back down and hear the garage door. Oh Crud! They're back already!

Manage to get everything outta site before they walk in. Whew!

Darly runs off somewhere and I tell DH that I had just run downstairs because I heard the garage door. He laughs.

BTW: There is a box of ordered stuff sitting right here in plain sight in the computer room that no one has said anything about. Why? you ask? Because the computer room is such a mess that no one can tell that it's a new box. LOL! Being a slob pays! HA HA HA HA

It's Thursday 13 time again!

Thirteen Things about Renée 1. I’m a La Leche League Leader. What’s that? LLL is a support group for breastfeeding & pregnant women. We provide information and support for moms. Well, yesterday I got a call from a new dad. He was pretty nervous talking to me about this, but his wife speaks only Spanish and they needed the info. I was okay talking to the dad…even if it wasn’t a real call (we do get pervs calling sometimes) we treat it as real and just hope for the best. This call sounded very legit though. I hope that everything works out for them. 2. I’m also Homeschooling my DD and I plan field trips for our Homeschooling support group. Sometimes they are great…sometimes not so great. Lately, I’ve been very lucky. The kids and parents have both been pleased. YAY! 3. Part of our Homeschooling group is a coop that you don’t have to participate in, but it sure is fun. That’s why I’ve been so busy. I printed out all the classes and let Darly (my dd) choose which classes she wanted to take. She picked most of them. LOL! It’s a good thing I edited out a few before she picked. 4. As part of LLL, I’m also the treasurer for our area. This means that I keep the money and pay the bills. I also have to attend planning meetings 4 times a year. Our last meeting was on Saturday. It’s pretty much an all day affair and they held it about an hour and a half away from my house this time (the location changes). But we didn’t get all the people who were supposed to be there because of the distance. Funny, everyone wants the meetings to be in their backyard before they’ll attend…but they also think that we should have folks from all over to be there. Go figure…whine whine whine! 5. The best part of the meetings are the pot luck lunches! Everyone there are great cooks…well at least everything that I tried. I stay clear of those weird looking bean salads. And everyone loves my cooking. I brought pumpkin soup again and they all want my recipe. It’s good stuff…I saved some for Thanksgiving, even though I still have 8 more pumpkins to cook up. 6. The bad part of the meeting was telling everyone that we need more money. But we came up with some really good ideas for fundraising. And we’re working on getting an on-line donation website. Hopefully that pays off as it ain’t cheep. 7. Speaking of pumpkins and Thanksgiving, DH has arranged that I will cook our turkey at MIL’s house. But I need to talk with her to get all the info. I don’t know if I’m supposed to bring the entire meal and cook it there or if just the bird. I don’t mind any of it, just need more details. This came about because I said that I was cooking a bird anyway and it didn’t make sense for MIL to have a bird too since she can have our left-overs. So I’ll just get a bigger bird. 8. The grocery store that I shop at puts turkeys on sale for $5. In the past I’ve looked for the smallest bird I could find..since we’re a family of 3 and we usually have Thanksgiving at someone else’s house first. But this year, I’ll look for a bigger bird so that MIL and us can have the right amount of left-overs. I’m figuring on about 3 days worth of bird each. 9. I’ll go shopping for this today. That should give me plenty of thaw time and time for oops I forgot something trips too. 10. On to a totally different subject now. Our Museum of Science & Nature has a Grossology exhibt going on now. If one comes to your area, you should see it. It’s really cool and educational. We were at the museum all day. I thought the IMAX movie on The Human Body might bring up some questions for Darly, but her only question was “Why did they show so much about the pregnant lady?” I explained that’s how the body starts growing…and that was the end of the discussion. Wondering if this kid is ever going to ask about how pregnancy happens at all? She knows a lot…just not how sperm gets into the female. Although she knows that other animals mate to do this. I think that she’s still too young to get that humans do this too. Or maybe it’s too young to care about it. She has a book that explains this pretty graphically, but I don’t think she has read that part yet. I need to ask her. 11. Yesterday Darly went to a symphony concert with a friend. She had a great time and loved the music. This is even though she whines when DH plays something that isn’t one of her CDs on the sterio. So we’re getting a copy of the CD they put out. 12. I don’t think that I’ll be posting this next week. I’ll be spending the day at MIL’s house cooking up the bird. I hope that you all have a great week. I’m sure I’ll post something before T-day though. I wonder if someone will come up with something special for next week. 13. In case you wondered or cared… I actually typed this all out yesterday (Wednesday) and saved it to my ‘puter to post it today. I didn’t want to forget about it or be late. I still don’t have a catchy title yet…but I’ll come up with something by then. (okay, I’m typing this all on Wednesday but acting like it’s really Thursday…how messed up will my week be??? I’m already messed up with DH staying home yesterday…it felt like a Saturday.) TTFN! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Jen 2. the toothfairy 3. Jennifer's World 4. squashedtoad 5. uzicue 6. Holly 7. Running2ks 8. Veronika 9. bone 10. Sheri & SuZan 11. Audra 12. Sally 13. Katy 14. Rock Bitch 15. Mommy D 16. Tommi 17. Lisa (leave your link and I'll post you here)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, (I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TRACKBACKS & PINGS ARE OR HOW TO ACCEPT THEM! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!)comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday is coming...

I thought that I had better get ready for the next Thursday 13...

My A to Z

Swipped from Texas_Ivy10
who Snagged it from Scooter Commuter.

A is for Age - 38
B is for Booze I don't drink anymore. I'm too much of a control freak for that. ;o)
C is for Career Professional Mom! I also volunteer for LLL & our Homeschool Group
D is for Dad’s name HUH? Don't know what that is.
E is for Essential items to bring to a party - food
F is for Favorite article of clothing New purple zipper sweater
G is for Goof off thing to do Computer time!
H is for Hometown Benton, LA
I is for Instrument you play piano, clarinette, recorder, drums
J is for Jam or Jelly you like - Cherry Jelly
K is for Kids 1 girl
L is for Living arrangement Live with my DH & DD.
M is for Music I like Contemporary Christian... KLOVE
N is for Name of your first pet Penny
O is for overnight hospital stays Adenoids & birth
P is for Phobias hummm
Q is for Quote you like I found a really cool one about education a few years back... but can't remember it now.
R is for Reason for blogging Why not?
S is for Siblings 3 brothers
T is for Texas , Ever been? Lived there '92-96
U is for Unique trait I usually remember everything
V if for Vegetable you love I like just about all veggies! My MIL once asked if I was vegetarian because everytime we went out to dinner I ordered veggie meals...LOL!
W is for Worst traits lazy
X is for X-Rays you've had chest for surgery, ankle for sprain, orthodontia for braces.
Y is for Yummy food you make I'm a really good cook. Everything that I make is good.
Z is for Zodiac sign capricorn

Thursday thirteen! these weeks are going by wayyyy too fast for me!

Thirteen Things about Renée Edited to add: I figured out that I wasn't showing up on my list of other TT's so I've edited my title to see if that helps... wish me luck! 1. It seems like I just did this yesterday...or maybe it was the day before that, or the day before that. 2. Loving the new purple code for this... can't wait to see the whole thing. I'm a purple loving person. As a kid I had two purple bedrooms (not at the same time!) My DH won't let me have a purple bedroom anymore because he doesn't want one. 3. I also love rabbits. I only have two live ones (and it's better that way) but I collect pictures, figurines, and yard art. And it may be silly but when I see live wild rabbits anywhere I believe that I'll have a good day. Hasn't failed me yet! =;3 4. Today was super crazy busy. I had a field trip for my homeschool coop... it wasn't so great. The place had a bunch of stuff closed down for repairs & winter...but failed to let anyone know this. Then we headed to a regular homeschooling field trip. That one was much more fun. Then I had a homeschooling board meeting. My kid should know everything by now...hee hee 5. According to my counselor, I homeschool because I'm a control freak. NOPE! I homeschool because I want my kid to live... I homeschool because of Columbine which is not too far away from where I live. I also homeschool because I believe I can do a better job of teaching her in her style of learning and because she can do a better job on her own than the schools can provide. LOL 6. Darly my dear daughter went to her first slumber party on Saturday and had a great time. Made it the whole night and didn't miss us at all. :o( My baby is getting all grown up! She's 7. 7. Dh left for Vegas this morning. Hopefully he brings me home some money. That would be nice for Christmas. And I hope that he comes home w/o his cold too...he's been sick for like forever! 8. Hey! I was just reading over #5 above and realized that my counselor gives me such grief for projecting my feelings onto others... assuming that they must feel this way; but I just realized that by his comments that he is projecting feelings onto me. Gotta call him out on that. He doesn't even begin to know who he's dealing with! 9. Darly had a science fair this past week. For her experiment we choose the air pressure one where you get a peeled hard boiled egg to drop into a thin necked bottle. Well all of our trial eggs got fed to the dog, because no one here likes hard boiled eggs. When I went to make up another batch of hard boiled eggs, the dog started licking her lips! 10. I've been cleaning the house (well DH & Darly helped too) because MIL is coming over tomorrow night to watch Darly on Saturday for me. DH did a lot of the cleaning. I'm not sure if he did it because he wanted it done right for MIL; he did it because he wanted to be sure I let him go to Vegas; or he did it because he cares about me and wanted to help me out. Hummm? I'm sure he'll only admit to the last option. 11. Darly is trying to get her reading program finished up... I just found her asleep on the couch with a book on her chest. So sweet! 12. Oh goodie! My hold on the newest "Series of Unfortunate Events" is ready for me to pick up. I don't know when I'll get to read it, but I wanna. 13. Tomorrow we have another field trip, MIL is coming and I have to make something for a potluck lunch on Saturday... pray for me. :D Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Mar 2. Better Safe Than Sorry 3. Jen 4. Texas_Ivy10 5. The lady who started this all...Leanne 6. Audra 7. uzicue 7. Jessica 8. Star (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I had no idea!

width="240" height="180"
alt="Fearsome Evil Fury-Yearning Farmer-Obliterating Maiden-Abducting Nightmare from the Ninth Abbey"
border="0">

Christmas & DH RANT

I like to have ALL of my Christmas shopping done BEFORE Thanksgiving. Why? Because shopping after Thanksgiving is a mad house and I like to avoid all places of commerce during this time. When did Christmas become such a pain???

Anyway. So I show DH some of the items that Darly wants. And he says that he thinks I should scale things back a bit. Okay, how so? He says that we should have some sort of budget. Okay, how much? He says he doesn't know, just not as much as last year... He doesn't need 7 presents. But he inferred at first that I shouldn't get so much for Darly this year either.

I guess this is all coming from last year when I finally figured out some good things that he NEEDED* (more on that later) and bought all of them. So he looked like a shmuck when I got him way more than he got for me.

NEEDED: DH won't tell you what he wants for a gift...EVER! You have to listen really carefully. And if he didn't ask for it and he doesn't NEED something, he won't use it at all...it will just sit there (unless I return it.)

So I still have no idea how much or how many gifts I'm ALLOWED to buy this year and time is ticking away.

Why won't this man say what he is thinking??? Why does he have to make gift giving such a pain? BTW: I have no idea what to get for him this year. The closest thing I have is a replacement watch because he lost the watch that I gave him for our first anniversary on the trip to MS...but he hasn't given up hope on finding it again.

What? It's Thursday again already???

Thirteen Things about Renée 1…. Wow! That week went fast! I'm so out of it this week, DH stayed home Tues and I've got my days all messed up. Dh needed to get his car emmisions tested and then went to MIL's house to do yard work...but brought home 2 bags of her leaves for my compost heap! Yay! isn't that a lovely gift? hee hee (actually, I thought it was quite nice of him... my strawberry plants are loving him right now.) 2. My computer is making chunking noises (terrible things are downloading themselves onto my computer w/o my knowledge) and making my 'puter freeze up. NOT GOOD! Must remember to run anti virus & spyware. 3. Apparently, I'm a HUGE Control Freak. Well at least my counselor thinks so. This all comes from me telling him that I told DH that he could go home and hand out candy on Monday night instead of coming to talk to me. I should have asked DH if he wanted to talk or go home to hand out candy like he said that he wanted to do a few weeks ago when I originally told DH that I wanted him to come and talk to me. When will I ever learn? 4. Oh this freezing up is really ticking me off. Half the time I can't even see the typos that I'm making on this list!!! I so need a new 'puter! So freeze up all you want, stupid 'puter...you're history soon! bawha ha ha ha ha! 5. Things with DH seem to be going really well lately. Of course he's sick right now so he won't kiss me (no germ spreading) but he did play our song on the sterio and we danced to it. We made Darly & the dog jealous of us...he he. 6. hummm... only at #6? I guess I can talk about foreign languages that I know... I know a little spanish (lived in FL), a little korean (lived there too!), a little german (DH's family is german), a little french (failed that in college), and a little latin (took that in high school). ouuuu you just learned a whole lot about me there! ;o) 7. since last Thursday, we went to a Halloween Party on Friday...and then to the grocery store in our costumes... I'm not sure that anyone noticed. hummm... 8. On Halloween we went to a party, Darly had gymnastices class but only 3 other girls showed up... so they wore her out very well! I left the class to go & buy dinner so that I didn't have to cook...it lasted us 3 nights. Yay, no cooking! 9. Dh took Darly out for trick or treat and they had a lot of candy. And since DH said to give each kid only 1 piece of candy, we still have a lot of candy from our hand out bucket. Anyone want some? 10. I should figure out how to get rid of the carmels before they are all riding on my hips. 11. I worked out for 10 minutes today, but I climed the stairs a whole bunch too...it was laundry day. 12. Darly was sick this am. Don't know what was up with that. She did that a few weeks ago too...really weird. Puked until empty, took a nap and all fine again. Eating like nothing ever happened. I wonder if she's getting into something or if she keeps (like we suspect) drinking old milk from the frig. 13. My counselor wants to talk about my parents next week. Oh boy! I come from a long line of disfunctional families! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Jen's Hoard 2. Texas_Ivy10 3. The lady who started this all...Leanne 4. Audra 5. Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture 6. uzicue 7. Jessica 8. Star (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. comment links accepted!

Don't have the cute template...

but I am thankful for a bunch of stuff...so I wanted to post that.

Here's what I'm thankful for today

1. Today's Halloween! and it's supposed to be warm (for a change!)

2. We had a great weekend.

3. DH seemed happier than he has been in a long time.

4. DH & I were dancing together last night and we made the kid & the dog jealous...hee hee!

5. I'm healthy!

6. I don't have any boy children (teaching Sunday School yesterday was an experience!)

7. Most of the ladies that I work with in LLL are great (there are only a few that get on my nerves)

8. The procrastination of others means that I don't have to work. :D

9. That even procrastination is in my nature, I'm able to "force" myself to get my jobs done.

10. That I have so much to be thankful for...especially my family...my biggest blessing.

LOL! It's much higher than I would have thought!

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

Where did the week go? It's Thursday again...

Thirteen Things about Renée Oh my... let's see. Last Thursday we did a field trip to the Plains Conservation Center. Apparently we ended up in the right group as our friends told us that one of the ladies was very cranky and we missed all of that. LOL Friday we got very lucky again as we went to Chadfield for a guided hike and our tour guide was AWESOME! The kids learned so much...like why it's a very bad idea to use Indian tolite paper as tolite paper... trust me, you don't wanna go there! Saturday I sewed Darly's Halloween costume. It came out great and she is so tickled to have it. She can wear it tomorrow to a party. I agreed to let DH go to Vegas... but he has to talk to me first. HA HA! Sunday I agreed to teach two more Sunday School lessons... "why, oh why doesn't anyone else want to do this?" We also went to MIL's house where DH proceded to do her yardwork. MIL said he didn't have to, but he insisted... My friend calls this "argument 12b" Monday we went to a fun coop class on making beaded charm bracelets. Darly loved it...she's so crafty. We also had gymnastics... and DH came to talk to me. He was sure ticked about it. But he did talk. I thought that I had the easy answer for our problems, but DH says it's not that simple. He says that I'm not the same person that he married. DUH! neither is he for me. I've learned to live with him. I guess it's that thing where "Women marry a man hoping that she can change him into the man she wants and Men marry a woman hoping that she'll never change." But what I'm seeing is that he doesn't like that I became a mother and started giving my attention to the baby. Hummm... I didn't do this by myself. It wasn't even my idea. Tuesday saw my counselor who told me that it will probably be a long time before I see DH putting any real effort into this. GRRRR! Why must I do all the work? Wednesday we went to park day and had lots of fun. The winter park is really nice and only one kid fell into the creek... he wasn't trying too hard to stay out of it. My pumpkins that I picked early (to keep them from freezing in the frost) are all orange now... I hope that means that they are ripe. I've got big plans for these babies! Today is the last day of the www.KLOVE.com pledge drive. I actually got a call from the morning DJ's asking me to pledge. I had already done so online. That's 13! Wow that isn't as hard as it sounds. If you're reading this, you should try it too. You don't have to spill as much of your guts as I have... we'll still love you just the same. :D Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. Jen's Hoard 2. Texas_Ivy10(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

trying thursday thirteen...go easy on me

Thirteen Things about Renee I don't know if this will work or be a huge mess...I'm so not computer literate. I'm also not sure that I know 13 things to say about me today. I finally heard back from my PCP about my mamogram results...they filed my paperwork wrong. Idiots! I still need to go in for my follow-up appt... I have a cyst. I don't know when I'll have the time to do that as we are so busy. My marriage has been in serious trouble for years and we have both been ignoring it. I started seeing a marriage counselor who thinks that I am a doormat. The counselor thinks that I need to talk to DH in person instead of emails. Dh doesn't want to talk to me, I think that he would rather get emails. I sent DH a email this morning and I don't know if he will get it or not...I didn't get the copy that I bcc'd myself. I tried to talk to DH last night and this morning...he wants to go to Vegas for a slots tournament. I don't want him to go by himself. I suggested that I go too, but DH doesn't want to leave Darly(& the animals) for that long with his mother. And DH says that I would be bored as he intends to spend the entire time at the tables. In other words (and my counselor will kill me for saying this as it is an assumption) DH does not want me to go with him. (that should count for more than one thing...right) other things about me... I love rabbits and have two live ones + a bunch of figurines. made it to 13, I have a coop class this afternoon and I still haven't taken my shower yet! Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. Jen's blog (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Okay Jen, here's how the "boob festival" went...

LOL! That title ought to get a bunch of looks, huh? ;o)

Well Thursday I drove over to the hotel to get set up. I arrived there right around 2pm (okay, I was 5 min early as normal) . 2pm was when we had agreed to be there. I had dragged the 7 45lb boxes of books up to the second floor where we were supposed to set up. I broke DH's hand cart/dolly because I was stubborn and instead of putting only 2 boxes on it at a time, I put all 7. I now owe DH new castors for the front of it...no big deal. He wasn't even all that upset with me...at least I don't think so (he never really says).

So the person in charge shows up at around 2:30pm, meanwhile we are standing around waiting.

Once she shows up we get checked into our room and then start getting things set up. It was a lot of lugging things around. Lots of boxes of supplies. I think that I ended up putting a lot of signs up. Thursday is kind of a blur now. I know that I didn't get to bed until after 12am and had to get up again at 5:30am... but I woke up at 5am thanks to my bladder.

Friday I had to run to the office supply store and the copy place. They were so happy that I didn't really have a set job and I could sign the checks to pay for everything. I was perfect for getting things and they took full advantage of it. I also learned how to register folks. We did a ton of directing traffic...oh and looking for food. For lunch I got to see a really great speaker who had some neat tricks for helping moms. (and today I even used one of those for a mom...sure wish that I had the outline for that talk.)

Saturday I did more running to get supplies. (why they didn't get all the copying done before I don't know.) I took some pictures for one of the speakers (getting to meet them) and I also drove the speaker from Friday's lunch to the airport. The speaker was really nice and fun to talk to. She was all excited that she had done her last engagement with our headline speaker. Our headline speaker was fantastic and he even stayed to see the other speakers (usually unheard of!) I had to eat my lunch in a hurry and miss the speaker's talk so I could drive to the airport...but the person I was taking wanted to finish her lunch and speak to someone. I didn't have to inhale my lunch afterall. I don't know if she made it in time for her plane or not.

Sunday I woke up to more copies to be made before 9am and had to get change for the book store. No one had thought before that we would need change and it was SUNDAY. Luckily the King Soopers gave us change. THANK YOU KING SOOPERS, I'm so glad that you're my store! They were also able to do my copies...as the copy place didn't open until 10am.

I missed most of the sessions that I had signed up for although I did make it to two of them, both totally worth it. I sure wish that I had made it to the first one on Sunday AM, but that's when I was getting copies and more office supplies. I didn't get any of my Saturday sessions, but those weren't as important to me.

We finally got out of the hotel at around 6pm and I drove threw Bronco's traffic to meet the family for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.
I should have gone to bed hours ago. I'm hoping that I'm just tired.

Image Scavenger Hunt

I saw this over at Jen's blog and it just looked like fun.

First you go to Google Image Search and look up the following categories. Post the first (appropriate) picture that comes up for each question. Have at it!-

The name of the town where you grew up:

Well this map actually shows where I grew up...not very imaginative, I know. I thought about posting the pix of the grave or the memorial brick, but those would have taken a whole lot of explaining.














-The name of the town where you live now:

But I prefer this pix:









-Your name:


I bet you thought that I would post Renee Zellweger! That's Renee O'Connor. See there are more of us out there! ;o)











-Your Grandmother's name (pick one):


Chu's Alberta English Angora by Betty Chu
Chocolate Tort Doe. Winner of 12 legs, 3 BOBs and Best in Show. Best Overall Wool in 1995 ARBA National Convention.

most of the images for Alberta were either of Alberta Canada or taken in Alberta Canada. So when I found this little sweety, I had to grab it! My other grandmother is Catherine...zzzzz




-Your favorite food: I don't know why but my computer or the internet is not letting me post any more pix here. I had a nice pix of a steak from www.omahasteaks.com here.

-Your favorite drink: And here I would have a Pepsi, but I would also have water
-Your favorite song: I'm not sure what song I would have here... I like a lot
-Your favorite smell: Vanilla

End of summer!

Well yesterday and today marked the official end of summer here in Colorado. They predicted 3-6 inches of snow...we got at least 8 inches. Everything is white and it's still coming down.

Lilly our dog refused to go potty all last evening because she hates getting her paws wet (it was raining then) so she held it all night. Then this morning was all covered in snow and she didn't want to go out in it. So I get all suited up...boots, gloves, heavy coat and go out there in the yard. I call her to come to me...she comes but then runs back to the door. I call her again and she comes and I tell her to go potty.
She goes potty on the porch...oh well she can't really tell that it's not the yard and at least she went.

But then, get this, she decides "wait a minute! This is that fun stuff!" and starts romping around in it... "let's play!" So we play for like a nano-second and then go inside.

Later Darly goes out to sled. Dh thinks she's crazy (It's Columbus Day, federal holiday so he's home today). Even later DH goes out to knock the snow off our trees which are all bent over like gymnasts. Lilly can't stand it anymore and beggs to go out again. So she's out there running around like a squirell on drugs or something. They are all still out there as I sit in the cozy warmth of the house.

Last week was crazy...as usual. But it came with the added benefit of finding a lump in my breast. This week I get to have my first mamogram a diagnostic not a scanning where they are looking for lumps (since I already have a lump.) Funny the experts recommend that you get your first mamogram at 35 (which I didn't) but then you can wait until you are 40 for the next one... that would have missed this lump by two years. You have to see the humor in things when your are scared out of your mind.

So today we aren't doing anything except snow removal...which should all be gone by tomorrow because this is Denver. he he
Tomorrow I have an appointment and then TNO! Yay! I so need to get out. The roads better be clear or I'm putting the car into 4x4 and going anyway! I'll go pick up all my friends too! I need this.
Wednesday we have a coop class and then my mamogram. I'm taking a friend who can wait with Darly while I'm having my breast smushed beyond recognition. I still have to let her know that there is a lump...somehow.
Thursday MIL is coming to stay with Darly & DH while I go to a conference. I just found out that my room will be used by day as a nursing room... ha ha. I guess I'll leave a note that someone is using the room at night...don't get all snoopy. :D I won't be back until Sunday evening.
Oh Shoot! Next Monday is my LLL meeting. I may have to just wing it or talk about the conference...yeah, that'll work!

TTFN!

since no one reads this anyway...it should be okay to say this

EVERYTHING SUCKS!

Now that I've gotten your attention... I'm really really really unhappy right now.

And while I highly doubt it, it would be really cool if MIL was reading this...because she needs to come and smack her boy upside the head!

DH is home!

He got back Friday night a little later than expected, but all in one piece.

He called us on Wednesday (the 28th) to say he would be home on Friday. He said that he should be done with everything on the base by 5pm (or 17:00) and would need to be picked up at 18:00. I said that would could work out that when he actually got here.

So on Friday, Darly & I are sitting around w/ nothing to do waiting for DH's call. We had already cleaned the house like a madman. Finally he calls after 6pm to come & get him...tells me to come to the main gate.
I jump in the car and drive to the gate...IT'S CLOSED! No lights, no sign, no nothing...just a closed gate! I call DH's office and he can't believe the gate is closed either...he thinks I'm at the wrong gate. Finally he asks a guy in the office and he says "Oh yeah, they've decided to use the BX gate now."
So I get directions outta DH to the other gate and pull in there. This gate does NOT have Visitor's parking and I have NO ID card (confiscated by the guard at my last visit to the base...mind you, I HAVE NEVER TRIED TO GET ONTO THE BASE AT ALL, but anyway!) There was an area that I could pull over into...very small. Luckily the guards didn't pay me much attention...however, everyone else who drove past had to look.
Soon after I get there a news truck shows up. The guard tells the news truck that someone from PA will be with him soon. Then later says that everything they have to say has been said. We're not sure why they were there as all the news was there to catch DH's plane landing...he even got interviewed...but they didn't use him on the news...I guess he didn't tell gorey enough stories. (and he tells a very dry story anyway ;o)

So we got him home and he didn't freak out over the painting job that I did...of course he hasn't said what he thinks of it yet. He was okay with having to mow the grass...I couldn't get our mower to start (doesn't help that he installed the new start/stop lever upside down...so stop is start & vice versa.) The dog was overjoyed to see him.

Speaking of the dog...ever since we took her camping she doesn't go willingly into her room when we leave the house anymore. I have to bribe her with a treat. Before she would be dancing around when we were putting on our shoes (that's when I feed her). dunno what's up with that. We're thinking that maybe she thinks that we'll take her with us if she protests. LOL

It figures!

Your Career Type: Conventional
You are orderly and good at following a set plan.
Your talents lie in working with written records and numbers in a systematic, orderly way.
You would make an excellent:
Bank Teller - Bookkeeper - Court Clerk Mail Carrier - Post Office Clerk - Secretary Timekeeper - Title Examiner - Typist I've done everything in this color, at least sort of.

The worst career options for your are artistic careers, like comedian or dancer.

7 Answers to 7 Questions

I've got a few minutes and I noticed Jen tagged me so I thought I'd give it a go. I don't know how to do the ... thingy so you get the see the whole thing here...

7 things I plan to do before I die:
1. update my will.
2. try really hard to be happily married.
3. Go back to Hawaii.
4. Get my log cabin.
5. Admit my past to my DD, so hopefully she won't make the same mistakes.
6. Have a grandkid, at least.
7. Give my DD the best education so she can be whatever she wants to be when she grows up.

7 things I can do:
1. I can sew pretty good halloween costumes.
2. I can cross stitch just about anything, although I haven't touched one since 1996.
3. I can do a pretty darn good job of singing along with almost any song that I like.
4. I can help women breastfeed their babies.
5. Help my kid learn anything she wants to know, and learn a lot myself in the meantime.
6. Remember a lot of useless trivia.
7. I can quote classical literature as an analogy.

7 things I cannot do:
1. Shut up while I'm ahead. <-sorry to borrow that one from Jen, but I suffer from foot in mouth too.
2. Get my stupid shower clean!
3. Have everything that I want.
4. Get the whole house clean at the same time. <-share that with Jen too
5. Talk Darly into trying new foods.
6. Burn candals in my house when DH is at home.
7. Keep very organized.

7 things that attract me to another person:
1. Right
2. Now
3. Isn't a
4. Good Time
5. For Me
6. To Answer
7. This Question.

7 celebrity crushes:
I don't really do crushes... much. ;o) But Pierce Brosnan is a hottie! (note: my DH doesn't look ANYTHING like that...oh well!)

7 Things I say the most:
1. I love you.
2. Is this where this belongs?
3. Lilly! Get In HERE!
4. I can't see the coffee table!
5. Lord Help Me!
6. This can't live here.
7. Thank You, Jesus.

7 bloggers I am tagging:
If your name isn't listed below and you are reading my blog, then YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED!
HA HA HA! Actually I don't know of anyone else who is reading this blog, so if you are SAY SOMETHING, PLEASE! :D
Julie
Renee
Lady
Sheri
Dawn
Scott
Aimee

Moochas Smoochas!

Moochas Smoochas to whomever it was that fixed the code on my blog so that my profile is up near the top instead of hiding way down at the bottom below my last post. Yay!

now I can click on my friend's blog links to go & visit them. Yippie!

Still more craziness!

I think that things will slow down next week, at least I hope so.

I heard from DH on Monday night. He is doing fine, but very busy. They had them out on Saturday handing out supplies of Ice, Water & MREs (that's Meals Ready to Eat or military food) to people. He said it was really hot that day so the guys were "fighting" to be in the truck to move the ice. There were a lot of people. He also said that he got interviewed for a Alaskan News program...LOL, I don't think I'll catch that one. :D

Here's what we did on Monday... I started off the day with a La Leche League meeting. I had 3 people that I wasn't expecting show up and one of their kids caused all kinds of chaios. Let's just say there was stripping, lots of trips to the bathroom & a vacuume cleaner involved. This person says that she'll try to get a sitter next time. I sure hope so!

Mid day I had an appointment to go to. So Darly stayed with a friend. She had a good time, they played Monopoly, a version different than hers (the Monopoly Jr Princess edd) so now she wants that version too. *insert rolling eyes smiliey here*

Then Darly had her gymnastics class. Our gymnastics gym has a very small parking lot with very lousy access. Last winter I found out the HARD way that the 4x4 on my car had gone out trying to get into this parking lot. So I tried to park in the lot of the building next door. It was after 5pm and all the businesses are closed. I was also parking behind the building. I came back to a note on my car that it was PRIVATE PARKING. I guess they're pretty ticked that 3 businesses are trying to share the building with the Gymnastics and there isn't enough parking... someone has installed No Parking signs along the road, but they've all been covered with plastic...probably at the pleading of the gym owner. Oye! It's a good thing that I like this gym. Oh shoot I just remembered that I forgot to pay her tuition. shoot! Maybe if I run it over tomorrow?

So then Tuesday we had a field trip to Anderson's Farm. The kids had a blast. We had the whole place to ourselves because they aren't really open for the season yet (they do a HUGE Pumpkin Festival each year) so the kids had the run of the place. This year they planted at least 10 different kinds of pumpkin & goard seeds in the same field. Some of the plants cross pollenated so there were some wierd looking pumpkins out there. The kids got to see all the baby animals and feed the goats. And they got to run on top of the haybale maze. We have sugar pumpkins in our garden, so Darly picked a "white" pumpkin. I'm glad we went.

And for the past 3 days we have been camping with Darly's Girl Scout troop. Our troop is very different than your typical troop. Families are all invited to be a part of everything that we do. So Moms/Dads & siblings were along for the campout. I'm glad that we had a dad with us too because in the campsite near us was this man who gave us a wierd feeling. I also had our dog with us because there was no one to watch her at home. The dog was great at learning who was okay and who she needed to growl at and she was also great at cleaning up the ground after meals. :D The first night was very cold and raining. Darly slept right threw it, but the dog was nervous. The second night was still very cold but no rain. I think that I slept better. I'll probably do much better tonight... Darly is already sacked out on the couch.

While we were gone, MIL called from the airport to see if we had heard from her son. I'm pretty sure that he's calling her just as much as he does us. He's a really good son.

The weekend looks like it will still be busy, but Monday should calm down. Maybe I can get some more painting done next week. I would really like to get all the painting done before DH gets back on the 5th... but he could be extended (which would be bad) I would rather not be finished and have him back.

TTFN!

Still wayyyy too busy...

Well we last left off on Thursday...

Friday afternoon we went to Girl Scouts. That was fun. The girls exchanged their Secret Sister notes, presented their Water Conservation "projects" and we planned for the camp out. Darly didn't have a water conservation project as her mom has been too busy to think straight lately and didn't even tell her that she had to do one. So at the meeting Darly took a sheet of paper and drew pictures of one way that we conserve water around here. Then she presented it to the group. She did so well, I'm so proud of her. She doesn't seem at all nervous about public speaking. Yay! 'cuz her mommy is a great big old public speaking turkey!

Saturday was crazy. Darly has gymnastics class on Mondays and of course there was no class for Labor Day...so they re-scheduled for Saturday. We were already scheduled to go to Kidz Kulture (a program put on by the local Art Guild & Library...using our tax dollars.) Kidz runs from 10 to 11:30...Gymnastics was scheduled from 11 to 12. Darly wanted to ditch Gymnastics...but at over $14 per class and we've already missed one this month, there was no way.
So the compromise was that we would go to Kidz and just do the art project. So we missed out on what looked like a really cool presentation on the solar system by the local Science & Nature museum...bummer! Then we went to Gymnastics class. Which turned out really good as Darly got one of the better coaches this time (lately she's been stuck with the same beginner coach for almost a month.)

Sunday was our first Sunday School class of the "new year". I'm teaching the Drama class. So they were acting out the story of Abram/Abraham & Sari/Sarah. The kids were awesome, even the 1st graders did really well. I really loved how well the 3rd graders were helping the 1st graders with their lines. :D And then after acting out the "play" twice, I asked the kids if they knew what the point to the story was. I gave them the hint that it was one of the points from Vacation Bible School and "A" got it right away. And the class got it! Yay! Then because we had more time, We sang "Father Abraham" and did most of the actions. The crew leader was thrilled because that was one of her favorite songs...so I didn't have to be a dork and sing all by myself. Then Darly says, "that's a lot like the Hokie Pokie." and the kids wanted to do that song. blech!

Last night was our homeschooling Not Back To School Party. It was great picnicing with a bunch of homeschooling families. And of course anytime to visit with adults is fun for me :D. But soon after eating, Darly wasn't feeling well and we went home. She conked out on the sofa for a few hours and was then feeling great...go figure! ;o)

Wow! How time flies!

first: Yes, Julie that was a DSN call.

Okay the zoo was totally great. It was fun hanging out with my bro, SIL & god child. Boy he is growing up so fast! He's walking now and that's about all he wants to do.

We took our waggon with us in case anyone (kid sized) got tired of walking. I warned Darly that DN might want to pull the waggon himself and she said that was okay with her as long as he didn't get hurt. But wouldn't you know it, Bro asks if he can have a ride in the waggon too. I told him that we had already informed SIL that he could not. DN spent a lot of time in the waggon and Darly rode some too, sometimes with DN. They were very cute together. DN hates to have his hand held, so we don't have any "buddy-buddy" shots of the cousins. But we do have them both riding in the waggon.

DN was about ready for his nap so they took off at about 12:30. Darly & I stayed for a little bit after that. We decided to see the animal show and they asked Darly if she wanted to be in the show. She was so excited. We've seen the show before and wanted to help with the trained dog, but instead they had her try to break open a Brazil Nut with her bare hands in a contest versus a Macaw. Well you know who won that! Poor Darly was pretty dissapointed. But I got her picture on stage and they gave her a button.

Sunday was Ralley Day at Church. It was actually pretty boring. They really need to do something better for it next year. All we were supposed to do was register (which most of us have already done), see our class rooms and meet our teachers (most of them were not there!) I scoped out the costume closet for my Drama class that I'll be teaching... not sure what kind of costume to put on God. Hummm. DH called again that night (totally unexpected as once a week is usually too often for him. He said that he still doesn't have email...bummer!) Oh and I signed up for our Coop classes at midnight...I guess that would technically be Monday morning. huh? ;o)

Monday I had to get up early to help out at Church answering phones. (a group of us take turns to do this) When we got there we noticed a burning smell. Pastor D explained that the kids had burnt popcorn the day before downstairs and the smell was just still lingering. But as the day went on the smell got worse...then Pastor D realized that he had put an egg on the stove to boil for his lunch and forgotten it. The pot had run dry and the egg was making all the smell...blech! He opened up the back door to get the smell out. I worked on creating a spreadsheet for all of the folks who signed up for the Music ministry. But it was a pain because whomever designed the sign up sheet didn't put in enough room for the addresses so lots of folks just skipped filling it out and I had to look them up in the directories.

Tuesday I had to clean the house because my friends were coming over for a meeting. It was totally worth cleaning the house and fun to have them over. It's too bad that I live way out in the boonies from them. I would like to have people over more often.
Wednesday was Park Day and Darly had fun playing with a new friend. I had to keep reminding her to stay in my sightline. At one point she really freaked me out by "hiding"/playing under a bush on the other side of the park from us. It made a cool fort for them, but it's proxmity to the street just made me too nervous. Later that day we began painting my bedroom. It was looking totally cool.

Thursday we worked more on my bedroom and didn't go anywhere. Believe it or not I still didn't get it finished. I was so bummed.
I finally finished my bedroom this morning and moved all the furniture back into place. It looks so cool. Now I can dig out my pictures and hang them up on the walls. They've been in boxes since we moved in here because I refused to hang them until the walls were painted.
Where's my hammer? ;o)

I wanted to paint my master bathroom too, but I was checking out all the stuff that I have to tape around and am seriously wondering if it's even worth it. But the walls need a paint job, so I guess I should do it. We're scheduled to be very busy until the 26th and I want to get the family room painted too...so we'll see. If DH's away job gets extended I'll probably get the bathroom done too.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

We've been too busy.

Yesterday, after spending all day helping with the bake sale, we ran home to shower, eat & get ready for TNO. Oh I also found out that UPS had brought me 7, 45lb boxes of books for LLL and left them on my front porch! I drug them all inside my foyer. lovely bruises

TNO is the monthly Teacher's Night Out that my homeschooling support group does. I asked a friend's teenager to watch Darly so that I could go and she agreed. I took Darly to her house because it was right near TNO and it didn't make any sense to get K bring her here, go to TNO, drive back here and then drive K all the way back home right next to TNO. It was probably the easiest money she's ever made as Darly played with her younger sister the whole time. But soooo worth it! I really needed a time out.

TNO was great, a little chilly but fun. I drank a medium sized coffee...bad idea, but it tasted good. We all were tired (from the bake sale) and left right at 10pm. I went to pick up Darly, she had a great time.
Since I was so buzzed from the coffee, I was up pretty late.

Then this morning we had to get up early to go to our field trip. I called the guy this morning to confirm, it took a while before it clicked who I was. But we were all set.

Then I tried yet again to get my paperwork straight with Paypal. I tried to fax the documents to them, but their line was busy. Then I tried again and again. I left the documents open on my computer and left for my field trip.

The field trip was nice and it was fun to ride on the Trolley. But I think the best part for everyone was that the seats flip over so you sit forward even when the Trolley goes the other direction. Darly sat near the engine, so she didn't hear much...but she didn't miss much as the guy wasn't all that informative... "over to your left is Invesco Field... and on the right is the Denver Skyline......but over there you can see it better." he says the last part after I had already snapped my picture! Oh well, the kids had fun.

So on our way home I stopped by my Church to see if I could borrow their dolley to move those boxes mentioned before. Almost everyone had gone to a meeting, so all I could do was ask the Music Director. I told her that she was in charge of everything and what I wanted and I could have it back in an hour. She laughed and said that she really didn't care if I used. So I said that I would even put more air in the tires as someone mentioned that they were low. She laughed even more and said that I could use it for two hours. Got home, moved boxes with ease and returned the dolley.

Before I returned the dolley, I tried yet again to fax my paperwork to Paypal. It went through...but then I noticed that it had also gone through 3 times while we were gone! Oops! I forgot that it tries 3 times to send a fax and I had tried myself 3 times so it kept on trying for 9 times. I bet they're happy with me!

We stayed at Church and helped get ready for Rally Sunday & a fundraiser for a family who's father is now in hospice...3 kids around Darly's age.

We then got ice cream! And then went to the grocery store.

After all of that Darly & I both conked out on the couch! Dinner was noodle soup for me & yogurt for her...too tired to eat.

Tomorrow is the zoo with my brother's family. Wish me luck! :D

DH finally called...

We finally heard from DH this evening. He called us using a Morale call so the caller ID showed his work number...kinda weird, but I was pretty sure it was him.

He is doing fine, working very hard. It's very hot and humid down there...I'm sure he's loosing weight (something he doesn't really need to do!)
He just moved into a dorm on the base. It has power, a microwave & a TV but there aren't any working TV stations nearby so it's worthless right now. They just got power back on today (guess that news should have come before the TV part?) Oh, his room doesn't have any carpet because they had to remove that for water damage. But he does have AC, he also had that in the tent. The major improvement is he doesn't have to sleep on a cot anymore...he's got a mattress. (totally forgot to see if he got his supplies...oops!)

His job there has been to build Tent Cities to house all the military personelle staying at the base. They are currently housed in the hangars, and starting tomorrow 550 will get to move into 20 man tents. They will also have latrines, showers, laundry facilities & mess tents.

Some of his guys have been out in the community handing out supplies. I forgot to ask, but I'm guessing that the personelle that are about to get the tents are out in the community helping. Some have been at the docks clearing out debris so that the ports can be re-opened.

They have water service, but none of it is potable.

And that was about it for my update. If you knew my DH that was a ton of info, but for me it all fit onto a 2.5 x 3.5 inch peice of paper. And knowing him, I probably won't hear from him again for at least a week. If it's all the same he doesn't bother updating. Just the way he is.

Still no word from DH yet...

We haven't heard from DH since Sunday morning. I'm guessing that he still hasn't been able to charge his cell phone.

Darly & I have been pretty busy since Tuesday. Monday we did mostly stuff around the house.

Tuesday we went to Church to put together the newsletters. I got to talk to our Pastor and let him know. The Pastor also asked that I contact the new Sunday School Superintendent and help her take over the job. I sent her a long email and told her I would be happy to show her around. Afterward we went shopping for paint, a new plug for Darly's tub and a tent.
I changed out the plug in her tub. It was actually very easy. The guy at the hardware store said that it would be. "I'm a plumber and didn't know it!" ;o)

Wednesday (today) was Park Day. I got caught up on my email and then woke Darly up. I sent a fax and then we went to my garden to pick what we could to share with my friends. At the park I got to visit with my friends and Darly played with her friends. My friends enjoyed the cherry tomatoes that I brought...next time I'll just put out a box for them to have for a snack! I can't eat them like candy like that...gotta have a fork to poke the juice out first.
After the park we went to the mall for lunch and I bought two sweaters. Then we came home to bake for our bake sale tomorrow. We're going to have a bake sale/lemonade stand to raise money for the hurricane vicitims. The kids are excited. The stuff we baked looks great and peliminary testing concludes that it's yummy!

A happy ending that choked me up...

A child in charge of `6 babies'
By Ellen Barry Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles TimesTue Sep 6, 9:40 AM ET
In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Thousands of human stories have flown past relief workers in the last week, but few have touched them as much as the seven children who were found wandering together Thursday at an evacuation point in downtown New Orleans.

In the Baton Rouge headquarters of the rescue operation, paramedics tried to coax their names out of them; nurses who examined them stayed up that night, brooding.

Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans.

"It goes back to the same thing," he said. "How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"

Children reported missing
So far, parents displaced by flooding have reported 220 children missing, but that number is expected to rise, said Mike Kenner of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which will help reunite families.
"When my kids were little I used to lose them in Target, so it's not hard for me to believe," said Nanette White, press secretary for the Louisiana Department of Social Services. "Sometimes little kids just wander off. They're there one second and you blink and they're gone."

At the rescue headquarters, Deamonte volunteered his vital statistics. He said his father was tall and his mother was short. He gave his address, his phone number and the name of his elementary school.

He said the 5-month-old was his brother, Darynael, and that two others were his cousins, Tyreek and Zoria. The other three lived in his apartment building.

The children were clean and healthy--downright plump in the case of the infant, said Joyce Miller, a nurse who examined them. It was clear, she said, that "time had been taken with those kids."

All evening Thursday, volunteer Ron Haynes carried one of the 2-year-old girls back and forth, playing with her until she was calm enough to eat dinner.

"This baby child was terrified," he said. "After she relaxed, it was gobble, gobble, gobble."

Late the same night, they got an encouraging report: A woman in a shelter in Thibodaux, about 45 miles west of New Orleans, was searching for seven children. People in the building started clapping at the news. But when they got the mother on the phone, it became clear that she was looking for a different group, said Sharon Howard, assistant secretary of the office of public health.

"What that made me understand was that this was happening across the state," she said. "That kind of frightened me."

The children were transferred to a shelter operated by the Department of Social Services, with rooms full of toys and cribs where mentors from the Big Buddy Program were on hand day and night. For the next two days, the staff did detective work.

One of the 2-year-olds steadfastly refused to say her name until a worker took her picture with a digital camera and showed it to her. The little girl pointed at it and cried out, "Gabby!" One of the boys had a G printed on his T-shirt when he arrived; when volunteers started calling him G, they noticed that he responded.

Deamonte began to give more details to Derrick Robertson, a 27-year-old Big Buddy mentor: How he saw his mother cry when he was loaded onto the helicopter. How he promised her he would take care of his little brother.

Late Saturday, they found Deamonte's mother, who was in a shelter in San Antonio along with the four mothers of the other five children. Catrina Williams, 26, saw her children's pictures on a Web site set up over the weekend by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. By Sunday, a private plane from Angel Flight waited to take the children to Texas.

In a phone interview, Williams said she is the kind of mother who doesn't let her children out of her sight. What happened, she said, was that her family, trapped in a New Orleans apartment building, began to feel desperate.

Wrenching moment
The water wasn't going down, and they had been living without light, food or air conditioning for four days. The baby needed milk and the milk was gone. So she decided they would evacuate by helicopter. When a helicopter arrived, they were told to send the children first and that the helicopter would be back in 25 minutes.

It was a wrenching moment. Williams' father, Adrian Love, told her to send the children ahead.

"I told them to go ahead and give them up, because me, I would give my life for my kids. They should feel the same way," said Love, 48.
The helicopter didn't come back.

While the children were transported to Baton Rouge, their parents wound up in Texas. Days passed without contact. On Sunday, Williams was elated.

"All I know is I just want to see my kids," she said. "Everything else will just fall into place."

At 3 p.m. Sunday, social workers said goodbye to the children who now had names: Deamonte Love; Darynael Love; Zoria Love and her brother Tyreek. The girl who cried "Gabby!" was Gabrielle Janae Alexander. The girl they called Peanut was Degahney Carter. And the boy whom they called G was actually Lee--Leewood Moore Jr.

The children were strapped into car seats and driven to an airport for the flight to San Antonio to rejoin their parents. Deamonte was hanging on to Robertson's neck so desperately that Robertson decided, at the last minute, to ride with him as far as Lafayette.

Robertson said he doubted the children would remember much of the evacuation, or the smell of the flooded city.

"I think what's going to stick with them is that they survived Hurricane Katrina," he said. "And that they were loved."

top 100 songs from the year I graduated High School

Top 100 from My final highschool year!
Got this idea from Scott at Carpe Diem, Tomorrow

The top 100 songs from the year I left High School Highlighted
in Red are my favorite songs. edited to add: the ones I don't like are in italics.

1. Careless Whisper, Wham!
2. Like A Virgin, Madonna
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham!
4. I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner
5. I Feel For You, Chaka Khan
6. Out Of Touch, Daryl Hall and John Oates
7. Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Tears For Fears
8. Money For Nothing, Dire Straits
9. Crazy For You, Madonna
10. Take On Me, A-Ha
11. Everytime You Go Away, Paul Young
12. Easy Lover, Phil Collins and Philip Bailey
13. Can't Fight This Feeling, REO Speedwagon
14. We Built This City, Starship
15. The Power Of Love, Huey Lewis and The News
16. Don't You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds
17. Cherish, Kool and The Gang
18. St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion), John Parr
19. The Heat Is On, Glenn Frey
20. We Are The World, U.S.A. For Africa
21. Shout, Tears For Fears
22. Part-Time Lover, Stevie Wonder
23. Saving All My Love For You, Whitney Houston
24. Heaven, Bryan Adams
25. Everything She Wants, Wham!
26. Cool It Now, New Edition
27. Miami Vice Theme, Jan Hammer
28. Lover Boy, Billy Ocean
29. Lover Girl, Teena Marie
30. You Belong To The City, Glenn Frey
31. Oh Sheila, Ready For The World
32. Rhythm Of The Night, Debarge
33. One More Night, Phil Collins
34. Sea Of Love, Honeydrippers
35. A View To A Kill, Duran Duran
36. The Wild Boys, Duran Duran
37. You're The Inspiration, Chicago
38. Neutron Dance, Pointer Sisters
39. We Belong, Pat Benatar
40. Nightshift, Commodores
41. Things Can Only Get Better, Howard Jones
42. All I Need, Jack Wagner
43. Freeway Of Love, Aretha Franklin
44. Never Surrender, Corey Hart
45. Sussudio, Phil Collins
46. Strut, Sheena Easton
47. You Give Good Love, Whitney Houston
48. The Search Is Over, Survivor
49. Missing You, Diana Ross
50. Separate Lives, Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin
51. Raspberry Beret, Prince and The Revolution
52. Suddenly, Billy Ocean
53. The Boys Of Summer, Don Henley
54. One Night In Bangkok, Murray Head
55. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Sting
56. Obsession, Animotion
57. We Don't Need Another Hero, Tina Turner
58. Material Girl, Madonna
59. Better Be Good To Me, Tina Turner
60. Head Over Heels, Tears For Fears
61. Axel F, Harold Faltermeyer
62. Smooth Operator, Sade
63. In My House, Mary Jane Girls
64. Don't Lose My Number, Phil Collins
65. All Through The Night, Cyndi Lauper
66. Run To You, Bryan Adams
67. Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen
68. Voices Carry, 'Til Tuesday
69. Misled, Kool and The Gang
70. Would I Lie To You?, Eurythmics
71. Be Near Me, ABC
72. No More Lonely Nights, Paul McCartney
73. I Can't Hold Back, Survivor
74. Summer Of '69, Bryan Adams
75. Walking On Sunshine, Katrina and The Waves
76. Freedom, Wham!
77. Too Late For Goodbyes, Julian Lennon
78. Valotte, Julian Lennon
79. Some Like It Hot, Power Station
80. Solid, Ashford and Simpson
81. Angel, Madonna
82. I'm On Fire, Bruce Springsteen
83. Method Of Modern Love, Daryl Hall and John Oates
84. Lay Your Hands On Me, Thompson Twins
85. Who's Holding Donna Now, Debarge
86. Lonely Ol' Night, John Cougar Mellencamp
87. What About Love, Heart
88. California Girls, David Lee Roth
89. Fresh, Kool and The Gang
90. Do What You Do, Jermaine Jackson
91. Jungle Of Love, The Time
92. Born In The USA, Bruce Springsteen
93. Private Dancer, Tina Turner
94. Who's Zoomin' Who, Aretha Franklin
95. Fortress Around Your Heart, Sting
96. Penny Lover, Lionel Richie
97. All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Don Henley
98. Dress You Up, Madonna
99. Sentimental Street, Night Ranger
100. Sugar Walls, Sheena Easton

To join in go to Music Outfitters Type in the year you graduated school under "Search" and then just cut and paste, not forgetting to highlight your favorites

the last two days...

Sep. 3, 2005 - Fly on the wall...
I got tagged today for the Fly on the Wall tag...so here it is...

My last post should give you a hint as to what went on today...

Dh got up "early" and went to our Church to clean up. It has been bugging him that the rain water has been pushing the mulch out of the beds and into the parking lot.

I got up a while later and was brewing my coffee and reading some papers...the phone rings. It's DH's boss. Dh needs to call him back ASAP and I'm looking at DH's cell phone.

So I take down the number, grab the cell, wake up DD and we drive over to Church. Let DH know and wait for "further instructions." DH gets off the cell phone and says that he has to go to help with the hurricane relief effort. He says that they can be ready to go today, but he doesn't think it will happen until Monday or Tuesday (since Monday is a holiday). The last time DH didn't think that he would leave until a few days later they sent him that night.

DH goes into work and we begin our day. About an hour and a half later DH calls...he is leaving today and he gives me a list of things to do while he is driving back to our house to get his bags packed.

When DH gets home, I've got out his bag and a bunch of things that I think he should take with him. DH takes some but others doesn't have room for or doesn't think he'll need...which reminds me of some putting things back that I've still got to do. He packs, gets a shower and wolfs down his lunch. Then we drive him back to the base.

While going threw the checkpoint they ask if he has a radar device in the car...nope just cell phones. Okay and we're off.

We arrive at the hangar and a News Truck is outside. DH didn't want any news of this. Inside no sign of the news...yay. DH gets a brief, I get a family support brief and some General tries to make small talk with Darly who isn't having any of that!

DH is about to get another brief and I suggest that we leave. He agrees, we say good-bye and leave.

Darly suggests that we head to Big Lots & the Dollar Store on our way home...so we do and we picked up a bunch of stuff including some nice fleece blankets that I'm going to use for fabric since you can't buy fleece for that price.

We get home and I tell my neighbors about DH. They of course are wonderful but talk my ears off for about an hour.

Darly & I have just been "chillin" ever since. We should start thinking of dinner soon.

Sep. 2, 2005 - I probably shouldn't post this...but...
I'm going to anyway...

After telling someone today that it wasn't very likely that my DH would go down to the gulf coast to help out...he comes home and tells me that it is very likely that he will go. LOL

I think that I have mixed feelings about him going. I mean part of me wants to be selfish and have him here with us...but a bigger part wants for us to do more than to just donate money or supplies...donate my DH for a while. I suppose there couldn't be much more of a sacrifice, huh?

Considering some of the places that his job has wanted to send him, this sure seems much better and it's temporary. I hope we find out soon for sure...I think the waiting to find out is the worst...but that comes with the job...hurry up and wait. blech!

Sounds like a great idea to me!

Anti-rape condom aims to stop attacks
Thu Sep 1,12:02 PM ET
A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker's penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.

"Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time," Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex," a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.

Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.

Ehlers said the "rapex" hooks onto the rapist's skin, allowing the victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.

"He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage," she told reporters in Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100km (60 miles) east of Cape Town. "I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital."

The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and ultimately, the police, she said.

It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a female condom.

South Africa has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country, with one in nine of its 45 million population infected.

Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.

But the "rapex" has raised fears amongst anti-rape activists that it could escalate violence against women.

"If a victim is wearing such a device it may enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more harm being caused," said Sam Waterhouse, advocacy coordinator for Rape Crisis.

Other critics say the condom is medieval and barbaric -- an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape. SO WHAT??? I agree with Ehlers!

"This is not about vengeance ... but the deed, that is what I hate," she said.

The downside that I see to this device is that the attacker has to actually penetrate the victim for it to work...which to me doesn't prevent a rape, but just prevents the attacker from continuing the rape. But if they come out with it and then sold t-shirts that said "I'm wearing a rapex" that might prevent the attack.

sick of being on hold...

I wanna whine about being stuck on hold and voice mail systems too. I have been trying to get a name change on an account for the past couple of days. And trying to call and get a real person is a royal pain. Everytime you go through a voice mail menu that takes forever (and some are picky...they get mad if you enter your exenstion before they're done talking!) And then I'm waiting and waiting for a service rep.

Today I gave up figuring the reason that no one was answering was that they were all at lunch. I once tried to call the bank before banking hours and found out that the person I wanted to talk to was in the break room from another person who was kind enough to answer the phone!

OH! And what really ticks me off while waiting on hold is being told over and over that I can get my questions answered by going to their website...especially when the website said "if you don't find your answer here, please call our customer service."

At any rate, back to the trying to get the name changed. The last time I got a person they gave me a list of instructions to follow for faxing them all the doccuments that they need for the name change. I have faxed the doccuments twice, but they have not acknowledged receipt...so I was calling to verify that... terminal hold.

Of course, I'm a pain too. When I get a chance to leave a message, I leave all the details with my phone number and then I go online to blog so they can't get threw to me because I have dial up. hee hee hee