Soap Gripes

So, I tivo (is it really a verb?) Day of Our Lives and Passions daily. Pretty soon the winter olympics will start on NBC and I won't be able to watch it, but for now I have some comments.

DOOL:
Ok - Chelsey is such a BITCH! I want her to get locked away. She's so selfish and a backstabber and just plain ole mean.
We all know eventually everyone will find out that Shawn is Claire's father, so yes Mimi, you are right, you should tell him. Because he will find out you knew and didn't tell him. But you know what I think will happen -- when she tells Shawn, he & Belle will hook up even though she is still married to Phillp, and then we'll find out that Mimi is pregnant (they make too big a deal out of that she can't get pregnant again for her not to wind up pregnant) from that night her & Shawn spent together. And then he'll have to decide between the married woman who he has a kid but has always loved with or his fiance who is pregnant with his child.
I never really liked Carrie. She was always too goody-goody (until she hooked up with Mike), but she's back to being goody-goody and that's just boring.
With all the schemeing that Lucas is doing, he is no better than Sami. I still think they will end up together.
Who the hell is Alex North? I HATED him in the beginning, and then he was beng all ushy-gushy with Marlena and that was annoying (thank god for tivo to quickly get through that). I didn't like that they were turning him into a good guy. I'm glad they made him bad again. He may be more interesting to watch now.

Passions:
I just love that Theresa is in control. This will be so much fun to watch. I hope she makes Gwen pay for everything. I can't stand Gwen. Although I don't want her to end up with Ethan. He's a pansy-ass and she deserves someone with a backbone and some balls.
Sheridan drives me nuts. I just can't watch her. And Chris is even more annoying.
What is with these strong women on Passions who like pansy-ass guys. I mean - come on Pilar. He's never going to love just you. Katherine drives me nuts too. I kinda like Rachael. She's tired of all the shit that went down and is doing something about it.
I wonder what type of excuse Kay will give Fox for turning down his proposal. I like those 2 together and I hope she makes Ivy and Vanessa pay for being meddling bitches. I am glad they stopped showing Chad and Whitney - their song & dance was annoying. We'll find out in a few years, or maybe after she becomes a full-fledged nun that they really aren't related. Noah is turning out to be a pansy-ass just like his father. I thought maybe he would be differnt, but nope.

Wild Grape Jam

I am devoting a whole post to talk about Wild Grape Jam.

My mom gave us kids a variety of homemade jams at Christmas. One of mine was Wild Grape Jam. It's been a long time since I had WGJ and I missed it. I forgot that I missed it. I opened that jar today and it was so delicious. There is just something different about WGJ that you can't get in regular ole grape jelly. You miss that tangy wild flavor.

I made my Natural Ovens Bakery Whole Grain bagel (if you have never tried their bagels, you are missing out, you can find them in the natural foods section or store) and topped it with the WGJ. Don't bother addng butter, it takes away from the natural tanginess of the jam. I wish I had made 2 bagels, as I really want another bagel with WGJ.

I am not sure if Andy likes WGJ, but that doesn't matter. I don't think he experienced WGJ growing up and might like the sweetness of plain 'ole grape jelly. There will be more for me if he doesn't.

So - great job on the Wild Grape Jam mom! Gifts of WGJ are welcome anytime. I've had the peach jam too and that is good. The pear has not been opened. Mmmmmmm.

Redbox Codes

Just got an email from Redbox about FREE rental codes for the month of February. Yeah!

1/29-2/2: GROUNDHOG
2/5-2/9: FEBRUARY
2/12-2/16: ABRAHAM
2/19-2/23: PREZ

Take notice that the dates are Sunday - Thursday. So, not good on Friday or Saturday.

I always like when these come out.

My Weekend

I was feeling more social than I have in a long time, so I actually got out of the house a little more. Andy was indoors (actually since Wednesday evening and is taking antibiotics for a sinus infection, but now he thinks he may have a cold virus on top of it), with the excepton of me dragging him out on Sunday evening.

Friday, I met with Carrie & Kyle and went to dinner. I was quite chatty and I think that may have annoyed Kyle. Sorry Kyle.

Saturday, I took an hour long walk with Linda & her kids at the Nature Center. It was nice to get out and get seom fresh air. Then ran errands and spent A LOT of money on groceries. I honestly think I stocked up for enough food for a month. And then for dinner I made Spinach Cream Soup....mmmmmm! That was exactly what I needed. I like spinach.

Sunday, I made some lowfat whole grain cranberry banana muffins as part of breakfast. Dinner I made some chicken fried rice (very tasty.) We went to HoM for their 5:30 service.

Beauty & the Geek

Ok - I admit it, I watch this show. Last year I only watched the last couple. Honestly, there is nothing else of interest on, so I started watching.


But I gotta complain about one of the geeks -- Chris. What a dumbass!

He's smart, but has absolutly NO social skills whatsoever. He's just rude & mean and doesn't get it. This guy knows book stuff and pop culture (c'mon he knew Gwen Stefani's clothing line name), but he has no idea how to relate to other people and doesn't seem to have an interest in relating to other people. He just wants to prove everyone he's smart. But being smart at everything will only get you so far. If you can't get along with people, you've got nothing.

You can tell no one wants him on the show. They all hate him. Even his teammate hates him. He screwed her over big time by making her switch to him. They made it through the elimination round last night, but unless they start winning competitions, they will ALWAYS be going to the elimination round.

It says he's "Only Kissed One Girl" -- who was that? An aunt? Grandma perhaps?
I don't know that he will ever kiss another girl ever. He needs to not be so cocky. He tried apologizing for his behavior, but it didn't seem sincere basically because he still doesn't understand that he doesn't get people.

Plus, the fuckwad was dissing on Psych majors (at least 2 of the contestants are psych majors) saying it was a soft major. Hmmmm.......trying getting a kid in your office who is suicidal, or one that is seeing things, or one you know could have a psychotic break any day.....I could never imagine how he would relate to them. He couldn't. He can kiss my ass. The stupid fucker.

Long Weekend Trip

The highlights of our trip revolved around food. We discovered Popeye’s biscuits – so very tasty, and we discovered Gelato (Wow! Is that stuff fantastic.) I think I may have to make some of my own in my ice cream maker. They had a sign in the store saying it was so much lower in fat & calories than ice cream, but it sure didn’t taste like it.

The hotel was nice. We liked that it was a 2-room suite, so one could be sleeping and wouldn’t hear the other watching tv, it was actually pretty sound-proof. Right now I am typing outside our room, apparently once you get to our room the wireless connection is lost (we were the last room in the row). So, a bit of an inconvenience. It was also nice to have a room with a kitchenette in it, that way we could keep cold beverages and reheat food. The hot breakfast (they cooked) was a nice freebie, but I kinda wish they had fresh fruit too, which we bought at the grocery store and had a stock of food in our room.

As far as attractions are concerned. We went to the Pier in St. Petersburg and that blew. Then we drove along the beach towns there. We also went to the outlet mall about 45 minutes out of Tampa. I bought some more maternity pants and some cute items from Children’s Place for the baby. We went to Lowry Zoo. The baby elephant w/ mom was very cute. The zoo was pretty nice, but it seemed like EVERYONE there had a kid or 2 under the age of 5 with them. Andy was freaked out by a rhino there, as it had a very erect penis and it seemed to follow Andy as we moved away (kinda like when the eyes of a painting follow you.) I was more freaked out by the chimp with the semi that seemed to have splooged on itself. Ewwwww…… I would recommend the zoo, especially if you have kids. We tried to check out the Tampa Bay History Center, and after some difficulty finding it and paying for parking, turns out the place is closed until further notice. We also went to MOSI, which basically sucked. Lots of the stuff was broken and it was less than half the size as the Science Museum of MN. The IMAX was about Mount Everest and was pretty good. People who climb that are just nuts. I would say yourself the admission price on MOSI and try some place else.

Tampa seems to like businesses that us ‘n’ in everything, like Kash’n’Karry, Beepers’n’Phones, Beer’n’Kegs, there are more I just can’t think of them.

For food places, we checked out Popeyes (since we don’t have those by us – highly recommend the biscuits), Mama Mia’s (a pizza joint, decent pizza), Shells Restaurant (a chain thing in FL, seafood type place, the food was good),Krispy Kreme (yes, we have those in MN, but I only ever eat any when we go on vacation), MacArthur’s Deli (got sandwiches and salad, was ok, would have preferred Subway), The Bamboo Club (in International Plaza – which we would have found that place before tonight – highly recommend it. HUGE portions.) and Scully’s Hut (in Madiera Beach, decent food). Oh, and we can’t forget the gelato place called Gelateria del Duomo (A MUST!)

The weather for the entire trip had highs of 80+ degrees. The sun wasn’t out much until today and it was fantastic today, mid 80’s and sun. We actually sat out by the pool for a while. I’m not looking forward to seeing snow in MN and feeling the cold, but oh well. Looks all week it is supposed to be in the mid-upper 30’s and no pre-cip, which is amazing for January.

Decreased work time

Well, a couple years ago they extended the school day for students by 20 minutes, but did not extend the teacher contract day and were not honoring vouchers for meeting times outside of the contract day. That was a pretty big sore spot between the teacher's union and the school district (among other things, but it is something that affects me).

So, starting next year they are taking away the extra 20 minutes, which means the students are dismissed at 2:30 (at the high school, start & end times are staggered throughout the district to accomodate bussing.)

Anyways - I am paid on a 12-month contract and need to be present when kids are (including summer school) and then any meetings outside the school day that I may need to attend. I basically only can take vacations when the kids have off from school.

But the decrease in time means 59 hours accumulated that the kids are not in school & I may or may not leave at that time due to meetings that may be scheduled. But the possibility to leave @ 2:30 is there and that makes me happy. I wish they wouldn't wait until next year to reinstate that.

Why I Exercise......

Sometime I just need to remind myself why I am doing this, as a sort of intrinstic & extrimstic form of motivation. Also, I thought it would be good to post my reasons, as some people might not have thought of that as a reason.

I'm not in elementary/junior/high school and no one is forcing me to exercise. Although when it came to gym class there were plenty of girls in class that would walk up & down the court in the direction the teams were going and just gossipped the whole time, you know those girls. I was NOT one of them. I actually took pride in being able to steal the ball away or kick some boy's ass on the court. Please tell me why you choose to exercise.

• To prevent additional weight gain or lose weight (exercising builds muscle, which will increase your metabolism and cause you to burn more calories in your every day tasks.)
• To look better in my clothes & out of my clothes (who wants Oprah flags anyways, tone those arms ladies!)
• To be able to eat more (Hmmm.....didn't see that one coming did you. Well, I like food and like to eat. I enjoy preparing and consuming food -- but not in any sort of pathological way. And if I am burning more calories I can consume more.)
• To catch up on reading my magazine subscriptions (I have a lot and the only other time I read them is when I am taking a bath.)
• My animals need the exercise too. If I go for a walk outside, I bring the dog. If I exercise in my exercise room, my fat cat Larry joins me and runs all over the weight equiptment. He would never do that if I didn't go exercise, he would stay sitting on the couch. But his favorite is when we do yoga. He lays right next to you and does stretches right along with you -- it's neat.
• I will be a role model for my children. (Children learn in their early years by modeling and thier best source fo modeling behavior comes from their parents. They will continue to model as they grow up, but they also begin to learn your value system and if they learn you value exercise, then that is something they will value as well. Now, if I could get Andy to move a little more. I don't think his parents moved too much when he was growing up.)
• I work out some of those kinks in my back/shoulders/etc. It loosens everything up.
• Stress-relief......need I say more.
• To hang out......I sometime like to workout with another person so that we can talk. For me it works best if we are walking and we walk roughly the same pace, or if we go to the gym and can used machines side by side at our own pace. I exercise not just to hang-out, so I don't want to be going too slow.
• It helps to keep my cholesterol at a decent level. You would think that at under 30 years old I wouldn't have to worry about that, but I do. There is a long family history of heart disease on my maternal side and my mom lost 2 siblings before they were 50. The first time I had my cholesterol checked (3-4 years ago) I was surprise it was over 200 (not a good thing) and I made minor changes because I ate a reatively healthy diet, I just added in more fiber, took supplements, and started exercising more. That helped and lowered my cholesterol.
• I want to be able to keep up with my kids and not be gasping for breath as I run after them (that is once I have them and they are old enough to run faster than me.)
• I find workout clothes very comfortable and like to buy them & wear them.
• I teach a walking/jogging class at the Community College and who wants to take a class like that from a fat person.
• It is supposed to help you get back to your pre-pregnancy weight faster (I'll let you know about this one) and helps you to not gain more weight than needed during pregnancy (seems to help.)
• It is supposed to help with endurance during labor, to have a shorter labor, reduce the risk of tearing or needing an episiotomy (do I need any other reasons?!?!?!), decreases the risk of a premature birth, helps prevent gestational diabetes, and reduces the need for a c-section.
• I think a lot on the treadmill and come up with topics for my blog (actually, exercising is supposed to increase brain power due to the increased consumption of oxygen and increased blood flow. Also, helps reduce your risk of developing Alzheimers.)
• It can be fun. Really -- it can.
• I need to be able to carry around a baby in a carseat and not feel wiped from doing that.
• I actually like seeing my muscles work. We have mirrors up in the exercise room and if I can see my muscles working, it's pretty cool. It's sad when I am all flabby and soft and can't see my muscles hidden under there.
• I want to.

It's a Crazy World Out There

Check out this post on Cat Woman's site: The World is Nuts.

To give you a preview of what you will find:

In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.(Like THAT makes sense.)

Another One Gone

Weekend that is -- Andy slept for about 12 hours on Saturday. He better appreciate it while he can.

Friday we had Andy's work holiday party. It was nice time. Good food, decent music, Andy got some gambling time in (it was a caino theme). We managed to get our table to get called to go to the buffet line early by one of the guys at the table telling the wait staff that there were 3 pregnant ladies at the table and they needed to eat (yes, 3 of us at the table were really pregnant and REALLY hungry.) I was going to just go up and start getting my food, but some people were afraid of getting yelled at by the waitstaff and wanted permission.

Saturday we stayed home during the day and relaxed. Then in the evening we went to Javalive and they had this group there called "Happily Ever Laughter". They were pretty good. The best we have heard there in a while. Andy bought their recently released cd. I like going to Javalive because the music is a decent volume and there is no smoke, plus you don't have to wait until 9pm to see a show. We also watched "Puddle Cruiser", a pretty awful movie. Made by the same guy as "Super Troopers"and has the same cast, but are much younger.

Today -- relaxing again. Then to the Cities to go to Best Buy to pick up some stuff, House of Mercy, and then finally we went to the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe for dinner. The food was good, but a little pricey. We had a coupon from our Happenings book, but it wasn't good on a ton of items and especially not what we really wanted. I liked da Afghan better than this place.

And tomorrow -- no school, so another day to relax and I'll go to my Meditation Practice Period in the evening.

BTW - Temperature in Tampa for Friday is supposed to be mid-70's and upper-70's on Saturday, Excellent!

Worshipping the Porcelain God

Our cats were worshipping the porcelain god a few days ago. You can see there is nothing interesting in the toilet.

I caught Lucy trying to drink out of the toilet (which she never does, but has apparently has learned from Larry.)

Then he had to come barging in to see what she was looking at and she just watched him, taking notes perhaps.

Meditation

So, last night Andy & I went to the practice session Buddhist Meditation Center. It was not structured for the person who has never meditated before and has no experience with it. I didn't think we would have a sitting right off the bat and then have instruction after. As soon as the sitting time started it dawned on me that Andy has probably never meditated before and has no idea what is is doing.

I think that was a very long 30 minutes for him. He said he was ready to go insane during it because he has this constant ringing in his ears from damage to them from years of playing the drums. He said the only thing that saved him was the music coming from a bar down the street. I am even more convinced that Andy could benefit from meditating, but he just isn't in that place right now. Maybe some other day.

He was so frustrated with the whole experience that he was contemplating homicide if anyone annoyed him more. So, guess meditation won't work for Andy at this time.

The practice sessions are 30 min. of sitting time and then an hour of discussion & lecture. There are 5 practice sessions and 1 half-day retreat. I will continue to go to them. The book we are reading for our assignments is by Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron.

We plan to go to House of Mercy on Sunday. Since we moved out of the Cities we have not been back there, but we have not found a place we like, like we liked HOM. So, we're gonna go back and see what we think. We may not like it or we may. They may have changed, or we may have changed. So, we'll see.

Another thing - I think family may think I am the whole "reason" behind our feelings on baptism and organized religion. I am just the messenger or the voice. Andy laughs that he ruined me.

Funny.

I saw a bumper sticker today that I found funny. It said "I Never Thought I Would Miss Nixon".

Last Trip for the DINKs

I just booked our last trip as DINKs (Double Income No Kids). It will only be a long weekend that I have coming up because of a day off from school. Can't swing the spring break trip this year since it occurs too late and the doctor said I can't fly then.

So, a long weekend trip means we need to fly domestic. So, we're going to FL, Tampa to be exact.

I booked it all on Orbitz. I am a bit of a reasearcher with a need to be thrify, so I made up all these spreadsheets looking for the bext deal.

We are flying Midwest Airlines. Chose them because we wanted decent seats (2 large leather seats in a row); they call their flights business class. Non-stop flights were significantly more expensive and MWA only has a stop in Milwaukee for 40 min., so not even a stop really. So, that became our choice. I might have paid the extra money to fly 1st class on Sun-Country, but since I am not drinking it makes it not as worth it, and we still get the same types of seats on MWA (just no free booze for Andy.) We have liked flying MWA.

Booked a mid-size car through Avis. Could have been really cheap and got the economy size, but for the extra $40 (entire time) it is worth it to have more room and not have Andy complaining that his knees are tickling his nose.

I wanted to stay some place decent. For some reason I kept convincing myself to spend more money on everything -- TOTALLY NOT LIKE ME. I kept thinking would I look back and regret spending the extra money for a nicer place or would I regret not spending it -- or the chance everything would have been fine and there would be no regrets. I decided to spend more money, besides we're only taking a long-weekend break and aren't going someplace for a whole week.

We are staying at the The Best Western All Suites Hotel - Busch Gardens. The things that did it for us was the suites (has a 2 rooms each w/ TV, kitchenette, sitting area), free hot breakfast, free wireless interent in the room, king-size bed, 2for1 happy hour in their bar & grill, free ping pong tables and pool tables, heated pool (most pools in Tampa I find are heated, but you don't want to go to one that isn't), free parking, etc. It seems much more resort like than hotel like and I want more of a vacation.

Granted, we could have stayed at even nicer places, but I didn't find spending the extra money to be worth it, once I found this place.

We thought we might go to the Museum of Sciene & Industry, Lowry Park Zoo, The Pier, & Yuengling Brewery. I know - a pregnant lady going to a brewery -- well, I don't have to drink it, and since I am not normally a beer drinker I don't feel so bad, but I do like doing the tours and some places also brew root beer & cream soda at them. Andy thought that Yuengling was just in PA, but apprently their other location is Tampa. Go figure. Not sure if we'll do all those things, as we want to do a lot of sitting too.

We are all about the relaxing sitting vacation with a few events thrown in.

Thoughts on Breastfeeding

Ok - Alison - here you go. I don't think you will find me arguing much here.

My mom said she stopped breastfeeding us kids when we were about 6 months, got teeth, and could bite her. Who wants their nipples bit? Ouch!

But I have talked to other mothers who have nursed past the acquisition of teeth and they said that the baby will quickly learn they don't like the response (they get scared too) from mom when she is startled from being bit and the baby learns to keep their teeth away.

I have done quite a bit of reading about the benefits of breastfeeding and I have always planned on breastfeeding (as long as my body will produce enough milk to feed my child and my child can digest it.) Although, I had always thought I would stop around 6 months, but over the last 6 months I have done a lot of reading about how they recommend feeding until the child is 1 year old and that breastfeeding that long really helps them develop a strong immune system, breastfed babies tend to not become overweight children as often, there are also studies to show that breastfeeding helps increase brain development, as well as attachment with the mother.

So, I guess between 6-12 months for me.

Now, the flip side of this, is I think there has to be a time when you call it quits. I don't want to personally knock people who breastfeed past a year, because that is their choice. My choice will be that once the child can walk up & get it or ask for it, then it's been too long for me. But if they are in school and you are still breastfeeding, then I think there is honestly something twisted going on and a mother should get some therapy to find out why she insists on getting her needs met by having a child who knows his ABC's and can tie his shoes latched on to her chest.

I am also not sure how I feel on public breastfeeding. Our society is not very accepting of it and I am not sure that I really want to whip my tit out (or even have it concealed) in front of people that I don't feel completly comfortable around & who wouldn't feel comfortable with me doing it. What drives me nuts about public breastfeeding is the women who feel they need to do it to make some kind of statement and feel they are entitled to it and that if someone is not comfortable around it then it is that person's problem. What I want to know is what is that mom's problem that she can't be considerate of others? I think you can breastfeed in public and not call attention to yourself and there are wonderful tops and dresses that disguise the breastfeeding, but when it borders on public nudity -- then there is a problem.

Playing with Barbie Dolls

For some reason I started to think about when I used to play with Barbie Dolls and thought I would blog about it and see if there were things that people played with a little longer than what was "typical" for their age.

I use the term Barbie Dolls loosely, because between my sisters & I we didn't have a ton, so I used any other small doll or action figure we had as "barbies".

It was in 8th grade that I stopped playing with dolls. I was 13 and the last time I played with them I was bored and it was xmas break. I remember thinking I was too old for this stuff and this would be the last time and I needed to grow up. It was the last time. A couple of months later I had to grow up and get my first period.

When I played with dolls I never made them talk out loud, the conversations always occured inside my head and I played quietly just moving the dolls from "house" (which was a bookcase that was segmented off to make apartments or dresser drawers as houses) to "house". I rarely made a sound. I wonder why that was that I never made my dolls talk outloud. I don't ever remember making them talk out loud. Maybe I did once and was made fun of and stopped. I would make my dolls deal with issues I was learnng about or that were going on in my friends lives (sex, boyfriends, divorce, popularity, etc.) I guess it was a way for me to think through the issues myself.

When I worked with junior high kids they frequently would take action figures and other toys and do play therapy with me as they worked through issues that were bothering them. I guess in a way I was doing play therapy on myself. I don't do much play therapy with high school kids now, but I do some.

I guess I just felt like sharing that information today.

Favorite Desserts

I was thinking about my favorite desserts the other day. I like a lot of desserts, but are my faves:
* Anything with carmel & chocolate together (mmmmmm!)
* Plain cheesecake (or could have raspberry or chocolate w/ carmel topping)
* French Silk Pie (drizzle some carmel on the top and you have heaven!)
* Dolly Madison Raspberry Zingers (not a big fan of coconut, but you don't taste the coconut in these, just the raspberry)
* Plain vanilla ice cream or even better with carmel sauce on it (don't really like the hot fudge stuff though) Haagen Dazs makes a Light Dulce de Leche that is fabulous.

Ok - so give any dessery with raspberry in it and I love it or stuff with carmel & chocolate together.

My favorite candy bars are carmello & Rolos - go figure, huh! Or those hershey kisses w/ carmel in them.

What a Week!

It was so nice having time off to sit around and do nothing. I am finding the idea of having to work tomorrow very disheartening.

So, what did I do. Well, not much. A lot of sitting. Went to WI for a few days for xmas with my family. We went to the doctor and found out we are having a girl and then entertained many phone calls from people about that. Took time to visit with one friend. Surfed ebay (A LOT!). Went out for Mexican food & rented a couple of movies on New Years' Eve. Ran a bunch of errands (mainly to get out of the house daily). Saw King Kong @ the movies w/ Andy. Had 3 new windows installed in our bedroom & master bath (what a difference that makes - no drafts and sooooo much quieter). And now today I am de-christmasing everything while Andy tends to some plumbing (that always seems to be an on-going job for him).

Yup, I think that's it. Time to go de-christmas now.

Ultrasound

For info about our ultrasound, check out our baby blog.

What Celebrity Do You Look Like?

Compliments of Alison's Blog, check this out. It's kinda fjun, as you can see by what I did below.

Here are my results: Consuelo Velaquez, Anita Ekberg, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Cate Blanchett, Sophie Loren, and below that it's less than 50% match. Not sure how much I look like any of them, but interesting nonetheless.

I did my friend Jessi and what I came up with for her is this message: Sorry, no faces were detected. Guess she has her own unique look.

When I did a picture of Kendra it gave me: Naomi Watts, Demi Moore, Olivia Newton-John, Julie Christie, Halle Berry, Sophie Marceau, Hillary Swank, Aaliyah, & Isabelle Allende.

I did the picture of Tim from their blog profile and here's what it gave me: Saif Ali Kahn, Kevin Smith, Marat Safin, Michael J. Fox, Billy Bob Thorton.

When I did Andy I got this: George W. Bush (Yikes!), Juan Antonio Samarach (Who?), Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Alain Prost. I don't think that Andy looks like any of these either.

I scanned in a different picture of me and got different results: Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan, Kate Winslet. Again -- I don't think I look like any of these.

Letting Go.....

It all started about 6 years ago in grad school when I was taking a class on CBT and I volunteered to use myself (in front of the class) because I was frustrated with the interactions with my brother. It was that moment that I chose CBT as my theoretical basis and began to apply it to my life. It started out slow with choosing how I react to being stuck in traffic and then started applying it to have I react to other people.

I think I have done a fairly good job at being able to separate what things I can make choices about and which things I have not control over, the latter mainly being other's people thoughts and actions.

Oh, I am certainly not perfect. Far from it. But I sit here at 5 in the morning thinking about how I am frustrated that people do not let go of things from the past and keep drudging it up. Honestly, I wish they would let things go, especially when things have changed. But I realize that I cannot make them do that. I can only change how I react to them. I do not know how I will do that exactly until I am in that position again, but until then I just have to remind myself that I can choose to react differently and find a way for myself to let go of the fact that some people may never let go of something.

You Gotta Get This!

This was one of my xmas presents from Andy and we love it. It's a Egg'n'Muffin from Back to Basics.

The toaster part is a wide slot, perfect for bagels. You can make toast by itself, egg(s) by itself, or and egg(s) and toast simultaneously. It's perfect. Well, plus you can heat up pre-cooked meats as well.

The toast gets perfectly browned, and you choose the level of egg hardness (soft, medium, & hard) by how much water you add. It basically steams the egg(s) to cook them.

You can make one egg poached (or scrambled if you choose to do that) or you can make 4 hardboiled eggs (2 separate trays). There is also another try to add your pre-cooked meats to, in case you want to have meat with your sandwich as well. We haven't done the meat thing yet, I think I'll pick up some canadian bacon so that I can try it out.

Both yesterday & today we both had egg & cheese breakfast sandwiches. So yummy! So quick! So easy! Almost every day I would make a breakfast sandwich to make and eat on the way to work, but it involved lots of steps and timing on my part. With this I can just start it and walk away and come back in a few minutes to a perfect egg & english muffin.

So, Steph - you definitly should buy this for Jason for his birthday. You will definitly get a lot of use out of it. And if you buy good quality english muffins (there are some light ones by Lakeland Foods, or WW ones -- which I like better), add an egg, and some LF cheese you can make a sandwich for 2.5 WW points (3 if you use regular cheese, 2 if you use egg beaters instead of an egg). So, you can definitly keep your points down for those of you doing WW.

My Weekend

Friday -- Christmas with the in-laws. We did the appetizer thing where everyone bring an appetizer to share. Good food. We both got some nice gifts, some for the baby.

Saturday -- Made nut brittle, divinity, chocolate banana bread, and 5 gallons of carmel corn (the 2 latter or gifts for co-workers). Of course after all that there was a lot of dishes to do. Watched Rudolph (have the tape) and then went to dinner @ Pizza Hut and went to Javalive for some hot cocoa & entertainment. Javalive is a coffee shop that has free live entertainment on most Fridays & Saturdays. Sometimes when you get free entertainment that is all it is worth. This lady (who did most of the singing) was pretty awful. She kept forgetting the words to popular Christmas songs. What the hell? The guy sounded fine and played nice. We have heard some really good performers while we've been there, so we keep checking out what's there. Plus it's smoke-free and something to do.

Sunday -- Filled up Andy's trunk with a crib (we picked up from Raoul -- don't ask) that my parents will use and a bunch of presents. Andy picked up my car from the repair shop (finally got it back!) and I did some grocery shopping.

Tim & Kendra's Blog

Our friends Tim & Kendra (you might remember her from some pictures previously posted on here) are seriously considering on moving to Manila (in the Phillipines) for a year for a project for her work. They have started their own blog. I wanted to post it here, as I am sure my mom would be interested to hear how they are doing. Plus, I tried updating my sidelinks the other day and gave me an error and I just haven't had time to figure it out, so now I at least have the blog linked somewhere.

Molly Likes Loony Toons

Well, I am not sure if it is Loony Toons in specific, or just cartoons. Since there are no kids here yet we don't watch a ton of cartoons, rarely any except Simpsons, King of Hill, you know Fox cartoons.

Anyways -- HBO Family is Gremlins 2 and the introduction before the movie starts was a short Loony Toons clip and she was just fixated on the tv, once the Gremlins movie started she was back to chewing on her ball.

Anyone ever have a dog like cartoons or Loony Toons in specific?

Snow Day!

Well, not quite a snow day. We had a 2-hour delay start, which was nice as I could get some laundry & dishes done & ate a nice breakfast at home. So, I only had to work for a few hours, then had my 1-year follow-up for my Lasik, which was a good appointment. Then I visited with my neighbor Mary for a while, which was nice. And made a good supper -- Seafood ala King (with shrimp & scallops.)

Today has not started so well......I have been awake since just after 5 (due to the cat) and finally got up and did some dishes and surfed the internet. I have been feeling a little nauseated this morning, which I am not pleased with. And I forgot my cell @ home, I hate when I do that. It's sitting there in the charger -- bah! Tonight I was planning on going to the holiday party for our department, but we'll see how I feel later on. I am pretty tired and stomach is upset, so maybe I'll just skip it.

Now that's a Mouthful!

Wow! You gotta check out all the adorable pictures on this website: http://www.cuteoverload.com/

Weekend Review

Hmmmm.....this was a really laid-back weekend.....

Friday -- stayed home and watched movies on cable

Saturday -- took our time and finally went out and bought a couple of presents we need for this weekend, and then ate dinner @ El Tequila in Northfield. El Tequila is our favorite restaurant down here. We have never been to the location in Northfield, just in Owatona & Faribault. They also have a location in Farmington. Then home again.

Sunday -- hmmmmm.....ran a few errands and spent most of the day at home. Did manage to clean out the closet in the nursery which was over-run by photos and pictures we took down from that room and others, and donations to Goodwill & the humidifier that needed to come out and start being used. That was our one thing we set out to accomplish this weekend. We waited to the last minute, but we did it. Now it's just a closet with some baby things, a hamper and my maternity clothes.

Lunch-lady Memories

Alison gave me the idea for this post, as when I was commenting on her blog I started thinking of all those foods I liked that we had in our school cafeteria.

See, before you read this, you need to know that I went to a VERY small Catholic school for K-8, so there was not hundreds or thousands of kids to cook for. There weren't even a hundred kids at the school, yes it was that small. Most things were homemade. It was great. A lot of kids went back for seconds (in a small school you can do that). The head lunch-lady was also the owner/cook of a popular local restaurant/bar that was open in the evenings.

These were some of my favorite dishes:
* Pizzaburgers (not like a patty, but layers on a bun) Kinda like this recipe using the tomato soup, but on open-face hamburger buns.
* Tunaburgers (they were a creamy mixture on a bun, this recipe sounds like it.)
* Homemade pizza (crust & everything, this was a real treat!)
* Peanut Butter Dessert Squares (check out the Creamy Dessert Squares)
* Tater-tot Hotdish (recipe here)
* Pizza Casserole

I didn't care for the tacos. I was the weird kid that would take someone's refried beans on taco days in exchange for my taco, because you had to have a clean plate. I also didn't like peas and would try to get rid of those. Oh, and I detested these pork chopettes. A lot of the boys like the pork things so that was an easy thing to get rid of. I also didn't like when they made us take the raisin & peanut cups. I was not very fond of raisins thenand the peanuts were unsalted. What the hell? Who wants to eat unsalted peanuts.

Why can't I remember the other foods. I remember getting tomato soup and grilled cheese -- that was good and chili. I don't remember a lot of other soups. I also remember eating ravioli and loving that. Mom didn't buy us canned ravioli, so getting it at school was a treat, although I don't like the ravioli in the high school I work in. We always had a fish or vegetarian main course on Friday -- as we were a Catholic school. On fish days she always made her homemade potato salad. It was good, but since you knew you were going to her restaurant that evening and would have it, it did get old. I never did like the fish fillets (like those Van De Kamps breaded triangular ones) or fish sticks. I gave those away too. Oh! And I never likes the mashed poatatoes -- they were instant. Still don't care for instant mashed potaoes. I did like baked potatoes, but as a kid I didn't like skins and would get hollered at for not eating my skins. But that is why we always traded, so you got to eat the foods you liked and didn't get hollered at for not eating everything, because they made you take one of everything.

I guess I didn't care much for a lot of the pre-made stuff, except the ravioli. I always liked the homemade stuff and have fond memories of those things. Even now that I work in a high school, I tend to eat the lunches that require more assembling (as nothing is "really" homemade when you have 2000 students to cook for). Although they make the tatertot hotdish homemade (can you get tatertot hotdish pre-made?) and this great homemade potpie. I tend to eat a lot of salads there. They have a great salad bar with tons of things on it. They also always have a few choices for fresh fruit, which is great to get a variety of melons in the winter.

The good thing I notice about the high school and about the public high school I went to, is that they don't make you take anything.

You know, now that I re-read this post I am starting to think I was a little bit picky. I never thought I was a picky kid, as there were kids who didn't like things A LOT more than me. As I got older my tastes changed and I like some of the things I used to not like (peas, tacos, ok mayeb that is it). Hmmmm.....I wonder what my kid is not going to like.......

Another Take on Vegetables

Ok - maybe this is someone else's idea of vegetable (& fruit too!) garden planning,

These pictures on "Tiny Grain of Sand" are hilarious.

Vegetable Gardening Plans for Next Year

This baby business is going to cramp into my vegetable garden planting this year. I am due right around the time that I need to be tilling and getting the garden to plant.

Do you think with a big belly with a baby ready to pop out of it I am gonna want to want to do any digging? Or after that when a 8 pound baby (I'm hoping it's not as big as I was when I was born) comes ripping through me (yes, I am scared of ripping! ouch!)? Or what if I need to get a c-section and am not going to be able to do digging stuff for a while?

So, I've decided that I am finally going to do something different with my garden. I started it last fall a little bit, but this spring I am going to do the whole thing. I am going to do a Lasagna garden. No, I am not planting pasta, cheese, & tomatoes (well, yes I will be planting tomatoes). It's a type of gardening that layers organic materials that composts and provides the plants with valuable nutrients, that my compact rocky soil is missing. There is no digging, no wedding & no tilling! Convinced yet?

I bought the 'original' Lasagna gardening book on the above link. I've had it for a couple of years and read it a couple times. I couldn't sleep last night so I read it again (a very easy read!)

Last fall I had Andy cover the garden with chopped leaves to see how just one layer affected the garden. I then had our tiller-guy (Tiller-guy went to college this fall and said he would probably not be moving back to the area until after 4 year.) go through the composted garden. It was amazing how just this layer of leaves composted over the winter made a difference in the garden. That was step one in my small test.

Step two was creating the small areas in my garden that were separated by walking paths made of an organic material (I used cut grass!). These paths cut down on my weeding tremendously. No longer did I have to weed in between rows of plants. I had also planted groups of plants in boxes rather than rows, which is supposed to allow more plants because you have less space for walking. Step 2 worked nicely as well.

What was also great was that I had some place to put my grass clippings and leaves and didn't have to bag them all. I have 2 compost bings behind the garage and both are basically full, so I don't really have room there for more clippings.

So, my plan is to go the Farmer's & Feed Supply Store and buy some straw, an inexpensive purchase. There is a layer of composting leaves and grass on it now, which I will rake to the side as I layer the bottom with newspapers (I actually did this newspaper things with some flower garden I put in, works nicely for most weeds, but somehow those persitant picker plants find a way to get through.) Then I will rake the composted layer back on, layer with some straw, and I'll have to make a trip to Wal-Mart or Lowe's to get some peat moss and maybe some bagged manure to add to the layers, then empty at least one of my compost bins on the garden and I have wood ask in the firepit, although I will have to be carefull sprinkling it as we have burned things with nails in there and such, so I'll have to watch for those things. And I imagine we'll have mowed the lawn once already and I'll throw that in the layers too.

To plant you just pull apart the layers and put in you plant or plant seeds on tops of the layers and cover with another layer. Oh, you do plant in blocks and have the paths too.

The first year is when the greatest cost is involved because you have the most layers to make and if the supplies are not all available for free to you, you make have to go buy some. After the 1st year you just keep adding more layers. It doesn't get all tall and huge because it composts down. You start out with an 18-24" pile when you start, and it composts down to 6" in no time at all and continues to compost after that even further.

So, that's what I am going to do. And now that I told you all about it, you can do it too.

My Sleeping Boys

Camera phone doesn't take the greatest pictures, but here are my sleeping boys, Andy & Larry.

Holiday Traditions

Andy & I have talked bits over the years of our own holiday traditions and those that we would like to have with our kids.

I just thought it would be nice to reflect on the good things from the holidays that I remember enjoying.

* I always liked having Christmas Stockings from Santa
* I never noticed it growing up - but Santa presents came in Santa wrapping paper, that's a neat idea.
* I liked that Santa always gave us a gift to the "Family" which was something we could do that night or the next day, like a movie or a game.
* I like listening to the Disney Christmas albums, it's what my mom played (on record) when we were young. It always cracks me up when Goofy sings "Five Onion Rings"
* I like how we take turns opening presents, so that when you are done opening you pick something from the pile for someone else.
* It made me laugh when my dad would put on a clown nose and a santa hat, like he was Rudolph & Santa all in one.
* I like that we do a bunch of appetizers (Andy's family does this too) for xmas Eve, and then a dinner on xmas day.
* I like that we have my grandpa say prayer at xmas day dinner and I always liked that we invited them over for that day. Since everyone else has to share them on the eve, we get their full attention on the day.
* I alwas thought it was nice that mom made people pies, fruit cakes, candies, cookies, etc. for holiday trays as gifts and delivered it to them. They always seem to appreciate it. I like to do that too.

Ok - it's time for lunch. But I will have more to comment on. What holiday traditions do you like that you did with your family?

Bah Humbug?

If I don't xmas cards this year - or maybe ever again - does that make me a Scrooge?

I hate the feelings of guilt about having to send out cards to anyone & everyone.

Does it make sense to send out cards to people just because they send me a card?

Honestly, there are some people I would want to send cards, but do you need to send a card if you will see them in person? Isn't a verbal greeting as good or better?

Isn't it ok to just send cards to people you want to but cannot give a verbal greeting to? Or maybe I should just call those people instead -- I'm thinking of those people out of state that I do not have the opportunity to wish a Happy Holidays to.

I feel a little like the card business has made such a push at commercializing the holidays and making you feel guilty if you don't buy a $5 box of cards and send it out.

Really, what is a card if all it is, is a card with no letter or anything and is just a signature on some pre-printed words.

I'm not doing xmas cards this year, well, I might send out to a couple of friends out of state I will not see and call them too. But other than that, I am giving myself permission to not feel guilty about not doing cards. And maybe next year I will feel even better about not doing it.

Bitterly Cold

Andy took this picture this morning and sent it to me on his way to work. Yikes! The joys of living in Minnesota.

First Weekend in December

Friday night I met Linda for an early dinner at the Peppermill, early for me is anytime before 7pm, we were there around 5:45. It was nice conversation and good food. I was home and in bed around 9:30.

Saturday I put up some Christmas lights in 5 windows and an illuminated hanging snowman and 2 illuminates hanging hollys, and some non-illuminated holiday decorations & a wreath & holiday flag. It looks even more Christmasy here. I like it. The colorful lights make me happy. That night Andy & I went to an early dinner, coincidentally the same time as yesterday's early dinner. We decided to check out The Pinecone Restaurant, which is a truck stop restaurant in Northfield. We saw a sign saying they had a huge salad bar and that sounded good to me. For $7.95 we had the buffet (salad bar, soups, and hot foods including fried chicken, ribs, turkey, all the turkey trimmings, mac&cheese, & macaroni casserole). Pretty good and pretty nice inside. Although we ate too much food. Then we came home and watched The Longest Yard, which we picked up from Redbox. I did make some holiday rice krispie treats that are very good.

Today I ran some errands and did grocery shopping. Yup, that's really it. I don't plan to do much more than make dinner for us in a few hours.

The Long Holiday Weekend

I can't believe I have to work for 4 weeks now before I can get another break. At least then it will be for just over a week, as we go back to work on January 3rd. Andy has no sympathy for me at all. He keeps forgetting that he has a ton of vacation that he can use.

So, it started on Wednesday evening. I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good, I just didn't like how packed the theater was. I should have waited another couple of weeks and seen a late show, then it might just be a little less busy.

Thursday we went to the in-laws for Thanksgiving.

Friday, I got up early and did some Christmas shopping. I had a lot of my Christmas shopping done, but I can't resist the bargains. So, I did some xmas shopping for my brother. That night we put up the tree & I wrapped the presents in the afternoon. See previous post for more details.

Saturday, went out and did a little shopping again. I have never really went out on the Saturday after. It's pretty disappointing, not all the bargains. Then we went to Carrie & Kyle house and played Texas Hold'em & Scattegories with them and Kim & Travis & ordered some Dominos.

Sunday, so far so good. So far I have felt great today, but it's now the evening and my stuff sets in and I can feel it a little, but so much better than before. Did some laundry and some cooking, which has been rare as I have not felt like cooking or wanted to smell cooking much the last 4 months. So, I made us a big brunch of wheat&honey pancakes, eggs, & peaches. For dinner I made a Costa Rican dish called "Chicken w/ Mushroom Sauce" served over the top of rice. Also made some chocolate pumpkin bread - this is absolutly fantastic - and some califorina rolls (my craving, these with some wasabi and soy sauce just go down so easily.) Mmmmm..... We also went grocery shopping and I did my prenatal yoga dvd. While I cooked Andy watched football.

Phone Camera Pics

So, I took these pics with my camera phone. It doesn't have the greatest quality, and I was too lazy to run upstairs and fetch the digital camera and put batteries in it. So, I just took these yesterday.

The first one is of my fat cat, Larry. Sometimes he rests on his back. Strange.

The second one is of the xmas tree & presents (so far!) this year. On Black Friday, I go out early in the morning and go shopping and when I come home I spread all the presents out I bought that day and before and thn start wrapping. It took me a good 3 hours this year to wrap. We still have a few people left to buy for (well, basically presents we ordered online and am waiting to be delivered) and of course Andy still needs to finish buying presents for me and get them under the tree as well. I shop for presents for my brother to give (sometimes presents my dad tells me to get for my mom too), so we usually end up with a pretty impressive spread under the tree. Wait until next year, when we have presents for the baby.

So, last night we put up the tree and decorated it. You can't have a pile of presents just sitting there; they need a tree to be under. Larry likes the tree. We have a little path through the presents so he can go sit under it in the back. Plus he has this things about chewing on the artificial tree, I think that is comon for cats.

I also have the manager and figures set up, but I need to go get some straw. It's not the same without the straw. Andy thinks it would be funny to carpet the manager. JoAnn Fabrics & Wal-mart usually have a "tiny" bale of straw in their craft area. A couple of years ago I bought one and used half that year and half last year.

We also got some other holiday decorations up around the house, but no outside lights. I am not sure if I feel like doing that.

A Great Feast & Breakfast

I was very thankful we planned our Thanksgiving Feast (Raoul's 9th Annual Thanksgiving Feast) to occur the Saturday after the cleaning lady. It made it so much less stressful to not have to worry about a lot of cleaning and cooking.

So, I did some cooking on Friday night and then finished the rest on Saturday. It was also very nice that the guys were in charge of frying the turkey (we have now acquired a turkey fryer that Raoul bought and gave to us).

There was 12 for the Saturday Thanksgiving Feast and then 6 of us for breakfast today.

Here was our menus:

Saturday Feast:

• 22 lb. Deep Fried Turkey
• 7.5 pounds of mashed potatoes (these were awesome)
• 2 acorn squash
• 2 bags of corn
• coleslaw (was gonna buy pre-shredded stuff, but the store was sold out so I had to shred my own green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots) (dressing recipe in the most recent Lena cookbook)
• Jello Salad (jello, cream cheese, pears, abd whip cream all blended together - awesome! In a Holy Cross Cookbook)
• Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (Andy's Aunt Dee's recipe, in Deal cookbook)
• Fresh Wheat Bread
• 2 dozen white dinner rolls
• Candied Sweet Potatoes (recipe out of Deal cookbook too)
• Stuffing (used Brownberry stuff and increased recipe by 50% and added a chopped apple and 3/4 C chopped cranberries)
• Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
• Pies (1-pumpkin, 1-peach, 1-apple)
• Lots of wine and beer!

Yes, there are plenty of leftovers. We also had appetizers that included: Harry & David Chocolate Macademia Shortbread Cookies, H&D Pepper & Onion Crackers, mixed nuts, candy corn, a huge veggie tray with dip, and california rolls (glad Jessi brought these as I was craving them, it's the flavor of the seaweed & wasabi I like).

And included in Breakfast was:

• Sausage, Hasbrown, & Egg Casserole (I added a layer of freash spinach to this too! Mmm!)
• Apple Cheese Danish (It was a Kraft recipe, but this is basically it plus a can of apple pie filling spread on top of the cream cheese layer)
• Juices (Orange and V8 Splash Smoothie Tropical Colada)
• Coffees (Caramel Chocolate Brownie flavor & Costa Rican coffee {which we did buy there})
• Fresh Wheat Bread
• Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Yes, again there are leftovers. I won't have to cook this week at all. And considering we are going to Andy's parents house for Thanksgiving, that will be another meal I don't have to cook.

Mmmmmm! Leftovers!

Snow

It's the first snowfall of the season. The power went out last night for a couple of hours, that was a pain in the ass since the thermostat is electric and basically we had no heat. It started to get cool awfully fast. Not sure why the power went out; there was probably a lot of ice on the lines and it was really windy.

The weather this season has been weird; it's been a warm fall and all of a sudden it just got cold. It was like, "Ok, it's winter now."

I had to drag out my winter coat and was reminded that I have that issue with the zipper.......I figure I'll buy a new coat next winter since this year I can tolerate wearing my old one until it no longer fits around my stomach and then I'll claim one of Andy's as my own.

It's kinda pretty to see the snow on the trees, but driving in it sucks.

A Custom House

Last year, almost to the day, we had 3 companies come out and give us quotes on replacing all the double-hung windows in the house.....we're talking around 15 windows....yikes! That's not including 7 picture windows (included only one) or the 2 bay windows (which, other than the 3rd floor window we replaced are the newest windows in the house). Well, every window in our house is custom. There is not one window that we could go to Menards or Lowe's and buy the window and install it ourselves. Every single window has to be special-ordered, which means spending more money. So, needless to say we cannot afford to replace all the windows in our house at one time. So, this year we decided to do one room at a time (which means about 3 windows each year, including the picture windows). So, it will probably take us about 7 years at that rate, but hey, that's what we can afford right now.

Damn house with too many windows!

So, I signed the contract and we will be getting 2 new windows in our master bedroom and 1 new bedroom in the master bath. So, we can be warmer this winter. Save us from the drafts. Next year we will do the nursery for sure (2 windows) and maybe the kitchen (1 window).

Now we just have to wait for them to do the work.

Interesting Places......

Here are a couple things I find interesting that are in Northfield that I didn't know existed:

Northfield Buddist Meditation Center

Capati (Indian Restaurant)

Free Movie (@ Theatres)

Glamour put in their magazines some movies that they will be screening in select cities before it is released.......Andy & I are hoping to get to go see Just Friends. It will be in Edina on Thursday. You have to go to their website and register to get free passes. They are also doing a screening for Rent, but that one isn't being shown in MN anywhere.

Weekend Wrap-up

A pretty calm weekend.....somewhat relaxed.....some puking.....some accomplishments.....

Friday -- Went to Culver's (I've been neglectful of feeding Andy red meat, so he needed a burger & I needed ice cream)

Saturday -- Puked. Went to the movies and saw Zathura. It was a decent movie. Stopped @ Wendy's & nearly lost it from the smell of Andy's chicken nuggets (haven't had a good response during this pregnancy to Wendy's), although my Frosty went down just fine. Went to bed early.

Sunday -- Puked. Then felt decent the rest of the day. I put new flooring down in one bathroom while Andy put a new toilet in another. Today is the start of my 2nd trimester....what happened the promises of magically getting better??!?!?! EMPTY PROMISES.

Did find out that there are 2 other people at work pregnant & due around the same time as me.....one is due 5 days before and the other is due 12 days after me. I've been eating a lot of ice cream this past week, so I think I will be seeing a weight gain at my next doctor visit.

This weekend we have our Thanksgiving Feast with Raoul. We'll see what kind of mess he manages to get himself into. We did fix that door from his last episode. Funny.

Material Girls

So, finally blogger would let me post this picture of Carrie & I in our Halloween Costumes.....

Yes, we did buy most of the stuff......we did not save it....although I have to admit that the banana clip I am wearing (I'm in purple for my readers who do not know me) is my own banana clip from the 80's. Not sure why I never parted with it. Maybe a part of me always hoped it would come back.......my hair is naturally curly so it always worked well for my hair.

So, let me walk you through my outfit from head to toe to help you relive the 80's.

Ok - got the banana clip in the hair, you probably can't see it but I have purple paint streak in my high bangs and in the curls in the back. I have the big hoops in, light blue metallic eye shadow and frosty lips, big hoop earrings, layered plastic beads around my neck (the long set is tied in a knot), wearing a Walk-man, have fingerless gloves on and bangle bracelets, and oversized top over leggings, a large belt worn hanging off the hip, 2 different colors of slouch socks in penny loafers (I did put pennies in them for the night).......

Carrie has her hair crimped -- funny.....it crimped very well.....she actually had a crimper yet....

I'm not sure what is more sad....me keeping my banana clip or her keeping her crimper.....

Friendly Pictures

Here are some photos that friends sent me. They are funny so I had to share them.

The first one is of my friend Molly in her Halloween costume. I don't think there is any need to explain it. It's funny.

This next picture of Jessi & Alex. He has such a funny expression on his face.

Black Friday Stuff

Here are links to some places that are listing Black Friday sales:

Wal-Mart Don't think I will go here. Not worth it for justa couple things I maybe interested in, would need to see the actual pictures first.

Ace Hardware Think I will go here.

Toys'R'Us Some good prices on things, but not sure I want to go to the Cities.

Best Buy Here's info on the laptops out there, will try to get one from BB.com

Radio Shack Not sure if I will go here, seems like they always have the stuff available, even the door busters, so it's not as urgent to get there right away.

Wal-Greens Probably not.

As a side note - we are getting a Kohl's down here now too. They are starting contruction on it right now.

List of online deal sites.

So, Glad it's Friday

It seems like such a long week.....it really wasn't......just feels like it.....I'm so glad that it's Friday.

We're doing more home improvement projects around the house this weekend, as next weekend we are having this Thanksgiving feast at our house next weekend, so we wanted to do a few things.....

But other than that, hopefully it's a pretty relaxed weekend.....

New Door Lock

We got this keyless door lock and just love it. Granted, it was kinda a pain in the ass for Andy to install, basically because our door is old and had an old hardware setup. This would probably install very easily in a newer door with newer hardware.

But we just love that all you have to do when you leave is press 1 button (the lock button). And when you return you just need to enter in your combination number and the unlock button. No fussing with keys! And if you are in the car and realize you forgot something, you don't have to turn off the car. No accidentally locking yourself out......and when we are gone we can easily instruct the neighbord how to get in the house to make sure the cats have food. Very cool.

Playing Catch Up!

Ok - so I have not been blogging very much.....been tired and sick A LOT.......well, because I'm pregnant......which we are excited about, but certainly am not a fan of the constant morning sickness. But you can read more about that on our baby blog.

So, we had this Wine & Specialty Beer Tasting party a couple of weeks ago. It was a very successful party......I managed to stay up pretty late......the guys got pretty shit-faced on all the international beers there were drinking (then to the vodka or Jager and Red Bull). Raoul got himself locked in the bathroom, which was freaking hilarious.......we ended up having to hake the door knob off the door & door of the hinges....very funny......I almost let them break down the door....things like that happen when Andy gets drunk with his friends.....now we need to put the door back on the hinges and replace the doorknob (which is where the problem lie.)

Last weekend, I went to Jenny's Halloween party with Carrie.....we were 80's girls......got together ahead of time and got all dressed up. I took some pictures and have been trying to put them on blogger, but for some reason it keeps giving me an error code. I think I will try uploading them again in a different format. The party was fun and I was kicking ass atTexas Hold'em. Carrie fell asleep mid conversation on the way home and I had a good laugh about that. She started talking about getting rid of dog hair, while the conversation was about the price of diesel....very funny......guess she was a little tired.......

This weekend we are getting together with April, Jason, & Molly @ Benihana's. I have been VERY sensitive to smells, so I have my fingers crossed that I will do ok there. I have had A LOT of food aversions, but everything there should be fine.......And today we have our 2nd prenatal visit and get to hear the heartbeat.....

The in-laws stopped over last weekend.....they were in the area because they are thinking of moving down here (around the time the baby is born)......Andy seems pretty excited about that.....if they do move down here it will be the closest we ever lived to them.....

Today is the last day of 1st quarter for the kids....the time has sure flown by......I had let something slip to a kid the other day about being pregnant....and once one knows they all know.....so I have pretty much just annouced it. I am due right at the end of the school year and have plans to go back, which is a relief to many.......

I can't promise I will be any more diligent about blogging.......but I'll try.....

Monster Mash

Alison had a link to this on her blog.

Your Monster Profile

Iron Destroyer You Feast On: Grass You Lurk Around In: Shopping Malls You Especially Like to Torment: Dentists

What's" Your Monster Name?

DOOL Frustrations

Ok, ever since we got the DVR, I record DOOL and Passions everyday and watch it. I usually get through both soaps in an hour, and on good days when I am sick of certain characters or stories, I can get through the 2 soaps in 45 minutes.....it's fantastic.....

Usually, I spend most of the time watching DOOL because the story lines move faster and I find some of the characters more interesting.....but not lately......I gotta say I HATE ALEX NORTH! I wish Jon would just come and axe him.....go back to your mercenary days and kill the bastard......Ugh! I've got frustrations with other characters, but I don't HATE any of them the way I hate Alex......I never even hated Stefano that much....this guy just really irks me.....

It bothers me that Phillip is so clueless....can he get any more dumb......I think he must be related to Ethan (from Passions) Both dumbasses and just don't get it......I'm getting pretty pissed at Belle too......just leave Shawn alone.....speaking of leave Shawn alone, I'm glad that Jan isn't there anymore....I hated her too......I kinda like Shawm & Mimi together though.....

I am sick of Sami always trying to find a way to get her parents back together....when is she going to get with it? And what is with naive goody-two shoes Austin....it's a little over the top....

Did you ever notice how many of the guys in soaps are naive and easily manipulated......take Bo for example.....apparently he can only act on fears of jealousy or sex, 'cuz him & Hope are always jumping on each other......and why can't Max and Patrick see what a Bitch Chelsey is?.....Those 2 guys just need to drop her and move on with their lives.....

You know - watching soaps is like watching a trainwreck over na dover in slow motion....you just can't stop looking even though you know it's not going to lead to anything good.....

Pets that Communicate

So, the other day Andy & I were watching a show on the Discovery Channel about Pets that Communicate........it really got us talking about our own pets and how they aren't nearly as amazing as the ones on the show (otherwise, I suppose they would be on the show).

But what I find amazing is that it is a Saturday morning at 5:30am and here I am on the computer.......no, it's not Christmas and Santa did not come.......I'm not watching cartoons......I'm not getting ready to leave on an early morning flight......I did not get a call to say that someone I know is hurt or dead.......

It's Freaking Larry.......oh, he can communicate......especially when the cat food dish is empty and he's hungry........so I have been up for about an hour.......tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't happen and not I've got some nausea setting in and not making me happy.....

But do you want to know what he does......he used to come in and knock over our water glasses.....boy that would piss us off....then we wised up and started bringing in bottles with caps....ha! Ha! Take that! We out smarted a cat.......well, not so fast, then somehow he figured out if he digs at the mini-blinds it makes a lot of noise and we wake up......he only does this when he needs food......so 4:30 this morning after he dug in my blinds, then went to dig in Andy's blinds, I finally got up........

Most of Larry's communication revolves around eating and sleeping....either he wants you to feed him (letting you know the bowl is empty or it's dinner time and he wants his tuna) or he wants you to sit or lay down so that he can come sleep on you......luckily for me the 16 pound cat always sleep next to me.....he likes to sleep in the crook of my arm resting his head and front paws either on my breast or ribs (always on the left side)......he's a pretty verbal cat and will meow about things that bother him, like if there is a hairball somewhere he wants cleaned or if he wants the litter box cleaned (probably 'cuz he took a really smelly dump)....when he meows, if you just follow him he will lead you to what is bothering him......

Lucy on the other hand.......she understands the word no and will leave if you tell her no......she comes when you call her name (actually both will, but Larry won't if he's too comfortable sleeping somewhere)........she lets you know that she is either feeling sick or proud (proud if she just killed a mouse) by becoming overly affectionate (neither of which you want her on you yawning, those times her breath stinks)....and if she wants tuna she'll rub your legs by the fridge.....she relies mainly on non-verbal communication.......when she's really happy and loves being pet she drools....kinda gross, but she drools all over you......and if she's mad at you, she turns away from you and seems to make it a point that she doesn't want to be by you or look at you.......

Now Molly.....she's dumb.....but she does communicate......like how she quietly sits there while we eat looking at us with those big dumb eyes that say "I'll take whatever you have leftover, even if I just get to lick the plate".........she knows that Go to Bed! means shut up in your kennel (or we're putting you in your kennel and you have to shut up)....she knows what go get your ball or go get your bear (she loves to demolish stuffed animals) or go get your stick means......She knows Where's the kitty? means where is lucy (we had molly & lucy before we got larry) and will go find lucy......it's actually kids cute......she lets us know that she has to go to the bathroom by wagging her tail fast and pacing in front of the door.....she has different barks in her kennel that tell us either she is out of food or she's lonely....sometimes she throws in a different bark when a mouse gets into her food in the kennel in the garage and she's killed it.....they're not heating her food, she kills those mice....although it's gross to see she drowns them in her water dish....YUK!....She knows Go into the House and loves those words......she knows go to your kennel (just as they are), but sometimes she doesn't want to go to her kennel and will lay on the ground and make herself deadweight......She knows what go for a walk means, even though it means she has to sit there and get her gentle leader put on.....

So, our animals do communicate to us.....they may not tell us that a tornado is coming (Larry hides for the smallest storm, while Lucy comes out and laps up the attention she gets because he's hiding and he won't get any) or that we have cancer or that a Tsunami is coming, or that Andy will be home in 10 minutes.......

Now, how do I get back to sleep.....

How Cruel Can You Be?

So, you're having a bad day and want to take it out on someone. How about a blond with flat abs? THIS is funny. Steph sent to me. I just love making her squeeze through 2 circles that look like they are connected. When she comes it the other end it's like 2 white butt cheeks pooped her out. And then -- stop her falling in mid air and drag her around and pound her head against stuff. This is great.

Here are the instructions to the above link:
Note: When she gets stuck, left click and drag her free..

That's it! HAVE FUN!

So Tired......

I've been busy and tired and have been neglectful of blogging. It might also be that things have been a little uneventful, which is sometimes good.

Although the cleaning lady came for the first time yesterday.....that was nice. My sink and tub were so sparkly....it's great!

Next Saturday I teach a couple of classes for a group of child care providers. My friend Rebecca is the director os the organization that is providing this series of classes. I am teaching the classes that I teach at the Community College. I am pretty excited to do the Stress Management one. I am going to do a progressive relaxation as part of the class. When I did this for my college students they really enjoyed it and had a lot of positive feedback.

This Saturday we are having dinner over at Rebecca & Dave's house. Not sure what we'll do tonight.....during the day this weekend we plan on finishing painting. We're re-decorating some stuff upstairs.....Andy wants his office to be more masculine (flowers be gone!).....and we're changing wall colors and bought some new windows treatments, new art, and am adding a reading nook area......should turn out nice.

What A Start to a Day!

Sometimes you just gotta love living in a rural area. I called into the local radio station to answer a question and win soem prizes and I WON! Well, actually they could have said Too bad! because it was a 2-part question and I only got the first part right. But they almost always give you a 2nd chance to answer it correctly. My question was how many fingers does Fred & Barney (of the Flintstones) have? How many toes?

I guessed 4 fingers since I knew that the Simpsons have 4 and thought maybe that was a cartoon standard. But guess how many toes.....Three! That seems weird. I think I may have to find an episode on cable and check it out.

For the loot I collected it is a gift certificate to a local restaurant (probably $10 worth) and 2 passes to a haunted corn maze.

Woohoo!

October Movie Month

Ok - so if you have not done Redbox DVD rentals yet, you gotta try it now. It's the most affordable entertainment you can come across this month. Here's a link to a post I made on Dealofday.com. I just put in the info that was in the emails I got from Redbox.

We like Redbox. Basically, during October you can rent up to 15 movies and pay $5 plus tax. Now tell me you can get around 30 hours of entertainment for cheaper than that.

Yesterday

I lost my crankshaft pulley on the drive up to the Cities yesterday, taking with it a couple of belts, making my battery light go on and lose power to a lot of stuff. That was a real downer. Luckliy, I was paying attention to how far the next exit was and everything worked out so I could get off the highway (with construction, no shoulder, and down to one lane) and pulled into a Wal-Greens parking lot. My neighbor John, who owns the gas station, came up last night and towed my car home. Guess what Andy gets to do this weekend.

We ate @ Woody's Grille in Eden Prairie. It's a nice place. I highly recommend the Creme Brule Cheesecake. Mmmmmmm! We're at the Spring Hill Suites right now. It's a very nice place. Would highly recommend it. Almost missed breakfast though, got up at 8:50 (ended @ 9am) & ran downstairs and grabbed some stuff to take back to our room. The room is a suite (obviously, by the name) and has a fridge & microwave, so we kept things cool and reheated until we were actually ready to eat.

Have a headache this morning,but I am sure it will pass. We're going to go the Arboretum this afternoon and maybe run some errands, and then finally meet Jill & Tim (she is in town for a conference & they are both running the Twin Cities marathon on Sunday) and have dinner @ Buca's.

Recent Purchase

We just bought this Tahoe today. Great price on it. It has an exhaust issue, so we dropped it off at Exhaust Pros tonight and they will get it fixed. Now we have to sell the truck.

Weekend Re-Cap

Friday: Had that conference all day. It was pretty good. Andy & I went out for Chinese (huge buffet and we ate WAY TOO MUCH!) and then "The Ring Two" and "Ladder 49"

Saturday: Went to rummage sales in the morning until it started to POUR! Found some good deals. We also did some home improvement work. Finally finished the upstairs hallway. It needed to be trimmed out around the floor. Andy did most of that. I did the caulking to fill in gaps by the door frames. Damn! I love the caulk. It looks very nice now and that area is all finished. I guess I shuold take some pictures now and post. Sent out invites to a Wine & International/Specialty Beer Tasting Party that we are going to have next month. That should be fun. Rented & watched "Million Dollar Baby" and "Guess Who" Don't rent Guess Who, it's not worth the money. It pretty much sucked.

Sunday: Didn't really do a who helluva lot. Did some grocery shopping and laundry, took a nap, made Lentil Tomato Soup, and drove to the Cities to pick up the Tahoe. Yup, that's it. Just got the invite to Jenny's Halloween Bash on October 29th. I want to go, but not sure if I can get Andy to go. He hates dressing up. I might have to bring a friend with me.

Next Week: It's our anniversay (4 years) on Thursday. So, we are going to stay up in the Cities that night. I think I will be **cough, cough** sick to work on Friday. We are staying at the Spring Hill Suites in Eden Prairie. We'll go out to eat. The plan is to eat at Buca's. We talked about going to see a play, either at the Plymouth Playhouse (8pm show of the Church Basment Ladies) or at the Brave New Workshop (8pm show of The Brave New Others in: Five People to Avoid in Heaven), but we'll see how we are doing on time. We might just decide to go back to the hotel and crash. And on Friday, as long as the weather is nice we want to go to the Arboretum and possibly the Imax (@ the zoo.) But we'll see what we have time for and feel like doing.

Something to Aspire To

So, this guy apparently must not work if he can spend almost 70 hours sitting on the couch, and almost 77 hours standing on one foot and 100 hours bowling. Who the hell kept their bowling alley open for that long in the first place? I am willing to bet he didn't have to pay anything to bowl in exchange for all the publicity they would recieve. And who has 16 Guiness World Records? What do he do - sit home and look through the record book trying to find a record to break. Maybe I should buy the most recent book or go to their website and have each of the kids come up with a record they think they could break.

Larry

Larry is such a poser. The moment he sees the camera he turns into such a ham. I had to take a couple pictures of him. The poor thing still doesn't get it that he is too big to fit into most things, but bless his soul, he still tries.

Come & Gone

Another weekend has come and gone. Although it was a very tasty weekend (no particularly forgiving to my hips though.)

Friday - Went out to El Tequila (had shrimp fajitas & plenty of free chips & salsa)

Saturday - Went to that auction I mentioned (just a bunch of crap, bought nothing), planted tulip bulbs in new (this year) landscaped area and covered with red cedar mulch, went to the party @ Cathy & Keith's house and had lot so great food (gumbo, rice dishes, crawfish boil, bread pudding, pecan pie, watermelon, chili, buttered garlic beans, keg of beer, Handgrenades, many other dishes) and played volleyball and had a campfire too.

Sunday - Went to an auction here in town (more crap, only spent a buck), then went over to the outlet mall and bought new walking shoes and some snacks & Harry & David, ran to the Cities to pick up some stuff and stopped @ Subway & DQ (had a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)

Guess I better put on those new walking shoes and burn off some of that Blizzard.

Need a Kidney?

I saw this ad (#12). Some dude is selling his kidney for $200,000.

A Cleaning Lady

So, I think we are getting a cleaning lady. People that Andy work with often wonder why we have not already gotten a cleaning lady and I think it was for a couple reasons 1) we couldn't budget one before and 2) I was thinking they would cost as much for one in the rural area as in the Twin Cities (foolish girl.)

So, a co-worker had recommended his cleaning lady and I met with her last spring and she only had an opening on a Tuesday, which is not what I was hoping for. I was looking for a Thursday or Friday. That way I knew the house would be all cleaned before I had people over.

She costs about 50%-75% less than some people in the Cities pay. So, really she is a bargain. She is only going to come every other week and I am mainly goingt o have her clean bathrooms (since we use 3 of the 5 on a regualr basis and I hate cleaning the bathroom). And dusting - she can do dusting - there is always dusting to do.......And vaccum the stairs, that never gets done often enough and there is always cat hair on the stairs.......

I've never had a cleaning lady before.....I feel so special.....

Sure, I can clean my own house, but if I can pay someone a little money to do the jobs I hate, then we all can be happier......and I can schedule happy hours at my place every other week......guess we can start drinking down the plentiful supply we have in our bar......

This Weekend & Next

This weekend -- well, what can I say. It started out with a 3-hour Happy Hour at my place. Alicia, Trudi, Linda & Misun came over. It was a good way to end the first week of school. I didn't need it until Friday, and when Friday came I REALLY NEEDED IT! I like to have people over to my house for drinks for several reasons: 1) it's cheaper 2) no smoke 3) plenty of snacks available 4) clean bathrooms 5) more privacy. Then Andy & I went and rented Hide and Seek. It was a pretty freaky movie.

Saturday: Not much happening here.....went to some rummage sales.....found a lot of crap! so I only spent 75 cents.....stayed home in the evening and made us a nice meal and homemade strawberry pie.

Sunday: Another day of sitting around.......I can ge used to this......only ran out to pick up a few groceries and met Carrie & Kyle @ the Muni for some drinks. Made Eggplant & Spinach Lasagna, which is in the over cooking as I type.

Next week -- LOTS of meetings....welcome back to work....yikes!

Next weekend -- Cathy & Keith are having a New Orleans party on Saturday night....I guess this was something they were planning before Katherine...she just wants to cook a bunch of food....I have some Hand Grenade mix I had bought in New Orleans and never used, so I think I will bring that with some vodka (don't have the grain alcohol it calls for.) I asked her if she plans to flood her house too. Probably bad taste.

During the day on Saturday Andy & I plan on going to this auction (click on Saturday's date). Looks like a lot of nice stuff. I am excited to go. We've only been to one auction this year and it rained so we didn't stay long. Auctions just get my adreneline pumping (maybe that's why I am addicted to ebay so much). This one is indoors, so it will be fine either way.

Sounds Interesting...

I think I want to go to this Open House for the U of M Southern Research and Outreach Center. I have never been there, so it will be nice to see. Plus - free food & wine. I'm game. I think I will offer it as extra credit to go to for the classes I teach at the community college. It fits in nicely with both classes I teach there in the evenings.

I am going to this conference on Adlerian Play Therapy in 2 weeks. I am looking forward to that. I get 5 conference days per year to go to (it's great being contract into the school district, as there is more flexibility.) I used 2 conference days in March and now one this month. So, guess that means I have 2 more to go.

I Made It!

I slept like crap last night because I was so excited about being back at work from summer break. I made it through the first day of school. When is the first break? No, I'm just kidding. We have some really challenging new students and one of our 4 periods is overloaded -- too many kids. You know what happens when there are too many kids with emotional and behavioral disturbances are together -- well, I can tell you it isn't good. They certainly don't sit around scrapbooking. So, we'll have to do some arranging of schedules to make sure big problems don't arise.

Innocence Stolen

Well, my innocence was stolen much before this. But this still does not make me happy. Andy had his Rio Carbon (mp3 player) in the garage and left it there last night and it was stolen. Fuckers! Didn't steal anything else, even though we have a lot of tools in there. So, it makes me believe it was probably teenagers. When Andy talked to the Sheriff he had no idea what an mp3 player was and said, "So, is that like an iPod." Yes dill-hole, it is. I sometimes hate that mp3 players are only known as iPod, just how all copy machines are either copy machines or Xerox Machines, or all tissues are Kleenex and all gelatin products are Jello. One brand gets known for an item and that is all people can associate with it.

Anyways, it sucks that his Rio was stolen and that we now have to feel like our little town is less safe.

The Long Weekend

Friday: We went to Carrie & Kyle's House. We were going to go out for dinner, but decided to run to Papa Murphy's & the liqour store instead -- which allowed the guys to watch the Vikings game while the girls talked. Kim & Travis joined us a little later. Andy got drunk.

Saturday: The morning I ran errands (bank, library, Farmer's Market, Fleet Farm, & get a dvd from Redbox) all in a 1 hour time frame. Then went over to the outlet mall to check out their Labor Day Weekend bargains. Found a bunch of recipes to make with my stuff from the FM. Cooked & watched Finding Neverland. Also watched Shark Tale on HBO. Then we sat in the candlelight and talked. The storms were pretty bad and I figured the power just might go out anyways.

Sunday: Pretty much stormed all night and morning. Ended around 10:30am. We had a Flash Flood Warning for our County & the one above us until 11am. Some more cooking. Made Raspberry Scones (ate some for breakfast) and have Chicken Wild Rice Soup in the slow cooker. Watched The Grudge and In the Army Now on HBO. Also, went to see March of the Penguins at the theater. Should not have gotten a Diet Coke that late at night. Read "The Undomestic Goddess" all last night and finally went to bed around 3am. Also, did some caulking of windows in the house, maybe that will help with the drafts in the winter. I'm not done yet (since we have sooooooo many windows and they are almost all 6-pane) but it's a start. God, I love caulk!

Monday: Made some Banana Cereal Muffins. They don't really rise much, but they sure taste good. For some reason I was really in a "homemade" cooking mood this weekend. For dinner I made homemade tomato soup. Never had that before, was very tasty. And some open-face ham,veggie& cheese sandwiches. Yum. Also ran to the outlet mall again. Went to a few stores I didn't go to the other day.

Tomorrow: Back to work. School starts.

Another Redbox Code

Code: LABORDAY to get your free night rental.

Farmer's Market

Today was a great day to go to the Farmer's Market.....there is so much produce ripe for picking.....so that means so many choices. I decided to pick up some stuff that I did not grow myself. I bought a lot of stuff.
* 1 Eggplant (Plan to make Eggplant Lasagna with this)
* 2 Yellow Tomatoes
* 2 Zucchini (my plants seem to be done producing) (Want to make Chocolate Zucchini Bread)
* Small Basket of Okra (never cooked this before, thinking about making some seafood gumbo)
* HUGE head of cabbage (am makaing cabbage rolls & cabbage soup tonight and still have leftover cabbage)
* 3 Onions (1 yellow & 2 purple)
* Jar of Pico de Gallo (she claimed it was very spicy...to me it's very mild)
* Bunch of Bok Choy (going to use this in a Chicken Stir Fry)

All that for only $6.50, pretty good I say.