Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Both J1 and J2 served as two term presidents of the French Club. Everyone's favorite activity was making Mardi Gras masks. I can't believe I don't have to dig out my feathers, glue and glitter this year and send it to school! These are pictures from last year's fete! (someday I'll figure out how to do the accent marks....but not today!)

Let the good times roll!

Yadda Yadda Yadda

Well, I finally went to Jazzercise. Not sure what the big deal was, it wasn't that hard (if you don't mind having to give a little scream everytime you want to sit down...ouch quads, glutes, etc. etc. etc.) Since this is Blue Devil Land, there were of course people there I knew who I didn't know were Jazzercisers. So far, so good. Three days in a row.

DOTR also finally decided to join the gym and has also gone three days in a row. We're moving around the house like a couple of geriatric patients, but whatcha gonna do? Our butts have been on the couch for so long there's an imprint. He decided to join the gym across the street from the one where everybody he knows goes, so he doesn't have to see anybody. The socializing aspect of Jazzercise is what keeps most people coming back, but men will be men.

I used to watch a lot of BBC America when we first got digital cable, but they stopped showing all the stuff I liked (Monarch of the Glen, the original What Not to Wear, Changing Rooms) so I hadn't watched much until recently. We usually sit in the sunroom and drink coffee and read the paper after we get back from our respective school drop off trips, and a few months ago we got sick of the Today show. I think it was when they spent 45 minutes talking about Don Imus and the nappy headed ho incident. I flipped it to BBC News and we found out what was actually happening in the rest of the world, so that's become our morning habit.

Sometimes, the tv out there just gets left on and I really don't pay a lot of attention to what's on until I wander in there and turn it off. A couple weeks ago I saw two shows that I'd never seen before and both of them were so gross, I couldn't look away.

The first was "How Clean is Your House?". I knew this show was on, but never really sat down and watched it. Two women, Kim and Aggie, go in to the filthiest houses I've ever seen and clean them up. They always have nasty toilets, disgusting kitchens, maggots and flies, lots of pet refuse....they look like the pictures that DFACs shows of houses where they had to take the kids away when they do those presentations for groups (I remember we had one at UMW once and I was horrified). The thing that gets me is that the people who have these nasty houses don't even care and really don't want their houses cleaned up. Usually a relative or friend begs the girls to come and clean it up. They come back two weeks later after they've sent in a crew of 10 people to clean it up and 90% of the time, there are dishes with dried on food sitting around and crap all over the place again. The two hosts are pretty comical, they're so dramatic when they smell everything and cuss out the homeowner left and right.

The other one is "You Are What You Eat". A dietician goes in and busts people who eat crap food, bullies them around and gets them straight. Yesterday they had a guy on who was in his mid 40's, had Type 2 diabetes, and was drinking 12 huge beers every night, eating giant plates of fries, meat, lots of curries and greasy stuff, then polishing off a couple bottles of wine. And he had 6 kids under the age of 7. He would wake up all night and drink sodas from the table on the side of his bed. The grossest thing they do on this show is take everything that the person ate or drank in a week and put it on a table for them to see. It is soooo gross. Makes you never want to eat again. Then they sit there and talk about how stinky their poo is. What's with that? I think the English must have much stronger stomachs that we do over here, because I can't think of one show that's quite as gross as either of these.

Have you seen either of these shows? Is it just me, or are they disgusting? In a creepy kind of "I can't stop looking" way, of course.

I can tell you one thing, it makes me want to clean my house and eat my veggies, that's for sure.

And the winner is.....

Dublin.

We only have to pay $200 more to fly to Dublin, so basically they gave us a round-trip ticket to Dublin with a 5 day layover in London on the way home.

We're leaving Tuesday night, get to Dublin about noon on Wednesday and then take an early flight to London on Saturday just in time to be picked up with the rest of the seminar people arriving, so we don't even have to find our own way from the airport to the hotel.

What a deal.

Hotel or B&B in Dublin?

Ideas, Opinions, Suggestions?

DOTR and I got all the papers yesterday for our trip to London in May. We have to check in for the seminar Saturday, May 17 and we leave the 22nd. We want to go a few days early and have been kicking around a few options on what to do.

At first, DOTR wanted to go to Ireland--pick up a cheap flight on RyanAir into Dublin. Problem, too much luggage. This is one of those seminars where you have to bring a tux and evening gown and change clothes twice a day. Could check into leaving our luggage at our London hotel.

Second option--take the EuroStar to Paris. I've been through the Chunnel, but DOTR hasn't, so he thinks that would be cool (yawn). We've both been to Paris twice, but not together. I'm less than enthusiastic to go to Paris without my "crutches" J1 & J2, who both speak fluent French. I can understand a good bit of what is said, and I can read French, but don't even ask me to talk. DOTR can ask for scrambled eggs and sing a song about elephants, so he's no help. And I know that you can get by with just English, but I feel a lot better being with somebody who always knows what the heck is going on. And since we've both been there and done most of the major touristy things anyway, my next trip will involve museums (days and days in the Louvre, and I've never been to the Rodin museum) and that is definitely not his bag of rocks.

Option 3--We went to Scotland almost ten years ago and loved it. We stayed in St. Andrew's at the Old Course Hotel, so we did a lot of stuff in that area and only spent one day in Edinburgh. I like this option. Or is that too much city? We'll be in London the rest of the time.

Option 4--go somewhere else in England. Any suggestions?

We think we'll probably leave here on Tuesday night, which would give us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to do something else, and arrive at our hotel by lunch on Saturday.

Tagged

Wow, my first tagging. Self Confessed Lamp Tramp tagged me to tell about how I met my husband. I'll give you the short version.

I was not even 18 years old when I went to college (turned 18 that November). I came from a really small town and had a sorta boyfriend ala Homecoming and Prom date, but that was about it. Not like we ever went out on actual "dates" or anything. So I thought it would be awesome to actually meet a bunch of boys and go out on real dates, like on tv. I did not join a sorority my first year of college, even though I wanted to ($$$$ issues), so with my dorm worm friends decided to go through a bunch of fraternity little sister rushes. I met my husband at little sister rush my third week of college. I remember thinking he was really cute and thought he might be a football player (remember, I went to Nebraska, so meeting a football player was a big damn deal.) Anyway, he looked pretty hot, blue green eyes, dark tan (later I found out this was from putting roofs on houses all summer long), sun bleached hair, lots of muscles, definitely a football player build. He actually had gone to one our state colleges and played football on scholarship his freshman year, but he didn't like the school and like a lot of kids in Nebraska, he just wanted to go to UNL, so he transferred. So at that point, he was a junior.

I saw him a couple more times, but never really talked to him. I got invited to be a little sister at a bunch of different fraternities, but I chose his even though it probably wasn't the most prestigous choice. About a month passed, and it was time for the first big philanthropy project of the year, which was a football relay from Lincoln to Lawrence, Kansas to raise money for St. Jude's Research Hospital. Basically, you sit in a van for 24 hours and run a football one mile at a time. Four vans filled with fraternity boys and little sisters. You run one mile, hand off the ball and drive four miles down the road and wait for the ball again. Tedious. DOTR was not running, but he did roadtrip with some friends down to KU, so they kept stopping at the vans to hand off beer, etc.

To make a very long story short, basically we got together that weekend. I wasn't even old enough to get into the 3.2 beer bars in Kansas at that time, but somehow managed to get in a few. Lots of dancing, walking around the campus, crashing in a big room in a fraternity house, etc. When we got back to Lincoln, I didn't hear from him for about a week, then suddenly he showed up at my dorm. And the rest is history.

Actually, it's pretty dramatic history. We got together and broke up so many times that I'm sure there are people we went to college with who are amazed that we ever ended up getting married, much less that we are still married and have 4 kids. And work together.

I ended up dating only one other guy in college, and that was after DOTR had graduated and "left me forever". Two months after he moved to Georgia, he called me and sent me a plane ticket to visit him for my spring break. Nearly six years after we met, we got married, almost 22 years ago.

DOTR was a terrible boyfriend, but he's the best husband I could've asked for, so in the end it all worked out.

I'm tagging Belle in Bloom, WSU Laura, Madras Matters, Tickled Pink & Green, and It's Toile, Y'all.

Ab Fab

An absolutely FAB-u-lous day ahead. DOTR and J3 away at a wrestling tournament so far past the airport that the team spent the night in a hotel last night so we didn't have to take them to the bus at 4:00 am this morning (good thinkin', Coach). DOTR left at dark-thirty, but managed to make coffee before he left, probably as penance for stealing part of the newspaper (grrrrr).

J4 is camped out on the sofa in the basement playing xbox live, probably with some perverts in Bangladesh for all I know, but hey, he's outta my hair. We hit the Cost-e-co on Thursday night, so we have Hot Pockets, frozen pizza and plenty of Mountain Dew, so hopefully he won't be whining for a gourmet homecooked meal anytime soon. No doubt in an hour or so he'll get the call from his other family and take off through the woods to spend the day playing with his best bud Z. Then I can expect a call about 7:30 or so either asking if he can spend the night there or if Z can camp out on the other basement sofa all night while they play Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Mother of the year, that's me. Already got it the bag.

I've been so busy already this morning. I've downed an entire pot of coffee, read both papers (Atlanta and our local daily) and watched a chili trilogy on Food Network (so far, Rachel Ray, Tyler Florence and that English guy, Jamie something?). Chili being the theme of the day, with that "Big Game" coming next week. Decided I could slip away from Semi-Homemade Sandra and her overdone tablescapes and barfilicious cocktails.

DOTR was "out of pocket" all day yesterday, and I was supposed to go the office, but I never made it over there. After reading about all the fabulous finds at Marshall's/TJ Maxx et al on Madras Matters, I decided to go shopping for home accessories and other possible treasures. Yeah, I know I hired another designer, but what the heck. I didn't want to go to work, so I wandered all day.

Freaking waste of time. Either we don't get the good stuff here, or there are vultures who descend upon these places when they unlock the door on restocking day. No good luck. Not even any lavendar linen water for my ironing fetish, which is usually my only purchase at Marshall's.

Then I headed out to two home decor shops out west that I've heard raves about. First one, well, they weren't even nice to me and the place was empty on a freaking freezing Friday. And they have the same crap that every other store in the world has. Most of it is not my style at all, so I was not impressed. And did I mention that I was the only one there and they couldn't even say hello to me? I was not aware that I was wearing my invisible shield, but evidently I forgot to leave it in the car. Yeah, not going back. The second place had pretty much the same stuff, but I know the owner from church and he is a good designer and florist, but the store....same old stuff. Everybody goes to the market and buys the same crap. I give up. Surrender. White flag. I'm leaving it to a professional, because it is truly a waste of my time. Used to be fun. Not so much now.

So now, what to do on my free day?!? Wowza, the options are endless. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, scrubbing toilets......where SHALL I start?!

Or I could just put on another pot of coffee and join the chilifest.

What's a girl to do?

Scroll Down Saturday

Here's another re-tread, one of my first few posts, actually. I've gotten a lot smarter since then and figured out how to add pictures.

I flew for the first time ever when I was a senior in college. It's hard to imagine that we just didn't travel at all...ever. Every one of my kids flew on a plane before they were 6 months old.

When I was a kid, we never went on vacation. My dad would use his week of vacation in the summer to paint the house or something like that. I still have that feeling that we're wasting time going out of town while we should be home taking care of our "place". Not taking care of your place was a big no-no in our little corner of the world. That and "running". You did not "run", especially if you did not take care of your "place". The two biggest insults you could get from my dad were "they don't take care of their place" and "they sure do a lot of running". We still always laugh about my dad's most famous line to us when we were teenagers...."run, run, run...if you're not on the road, you're cookin' up someplace to go!"

Imagine my surprise when I married somebody who didn't feel guilty about "running" whether his "place" was in good shape or not! My husband loves to travel and we have done so much since we got married 21 years ago. I still get really stressed out about how things are at home, and I usually end up staying home for one or two of his many trips every summer. Mainly to enjoy the solitude and get something done around the "place" without a zillion interruptions....like "what's for dinner?" and "can you take me here then pick me up there?"...and fight, fight, fight. Usually the trips that I miss involve a baseball tournament in Florida in the middle of the summer or something to do with fishing. So I never feel like I'm missing anything, that's for sure.

So this summer, DOTR & I went to Bermuda courtesy of an insurance company. My favorite kind of trip. A FREE trip. We were home for one day and then he loaded up the kids and took them to Panama City for a baseball tournament. DOTR was coaching/J3 was playing and his whole team was there to hang with, so DOTR let J2 & J4 each bring a friend. Then the boys went to wrestling camp for 5 days, so we left J2 home alone and went to Charleston for the weekend. So many restaurants, so little time!

Bermuda

We stayed at this adorable inn for a few days before we "reported" to the resort hotel.

Our hotel's "private beach"Dad on the Run

Charleston

That's about it for pictures of Charleston, because DOTR is always on the run (unless he's in his second favorite position, lying on a boat with a beer in his hand) so I never get to stop for a photo op

So, I said...that's it! We have to stay home for awhile! We need to save our money with two in college! We can't be out "running" all the time!

That lasted for about one day. This week we made reservations to take the boys to Nebraska for Homecoming, and today we bought tickets and made reservations for the 4 of us to go to Wake Forest to see Nebraska play. We feel so footloose and fancyfree with just 2 kids to drag around!And we'll be "running" down to Tech for all the other weekends, since DOTR bought 4 season tickets.

My "place" is never going to get taken care of, not with all this "running"!

At Wake Forest

The 1997 National Championship Team at Homecoming
Sorority and Fraternity Homecoming Display

Loyal Husker Fans still there at the end of the game (aka, the bloodletting)Then, poof, we turn into Georgia Tech Fans!

And so we survived it, our first fall with no sports. Last year we had football, cross country, travel baseball and fast pitch softball. When J1 was at home, she was a cheerleader and before that, there was always a fall ballet show that ate up every weekend and free moment, along with all the various "ball" teams. We found ourselves with a few free weekends, so we did things unheard of around here....like cleaning out closets, scooping out the crap in the pool room, organizing the garage. And there was plenty of time for "running" as you can see.

FYI

If I wanted to freeze my ass off, I would've stayed in Nebraska.

Sheesh.

Parlez-vous francais?

I got the coolest thing in the mail yesterday. For several years, J2 attended French camp at Concordia Language Villages (http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/). She started out the year between 7th and 8th grades with the two week session in Savannah, and then did the 4 wk HS credit sessions in Minnesota. She went with a friend from our old neighborhood whose parents were from Minneapolis, so she did all the arranging of taking them up there, having somebody pick them up from the airport, drop them at the bus, etc. And she drove them home from Minnesota after visiting her parents. A godsend. The last year, her daughter decided not to go, and J2 opted for the Les Voyageurs camp where they follow the route of the French fur traders by canoeing and portaging the Boundary waters between the US and Canada. For a month. Speaking only French. And she'd never camped before. Brave girl.

The Lake at Lac du Bois-Hackensack (J2 took this picture)

J4 has a reading disability and we didn't know if he would be able to take French in school, so he has gone to Savannah for the two week sessions for three summers. It's an immersion program with more speaking and listening than reading and writing, which works well for J4.

Anyway, yesterday I got a flyer for their Adult Immersion program. DOTR was so envious of the J2's canoe trip--he said that sounded like his ideal trip ( someday I'll tell you about the time he got dropped off on a river in Alaska and the pilot said, "I'll see you in a week down the river!") Me, not so much. I'm liking the session in September at the permanent campsite in a building that looks a little more like a French hotel. (J2 went to a satellite camp that was more rustic before her canoeing adventure, she thought the main site was "too much like a hotel"--sounds like my kind of camping!)

So, last night I told DOTR that I want to go. I'm registering today, otherwise, I'm sure I can find a million reasons why I shouldn't go and I never do anything like that.

Anyone care to join me?

So How's that Diet Going?

Not so hot. I think I used up all my extra points for the week by Tuesday at lunch.

And Jazzercise? Still haven't gone. But I'm going. Tonight. I swear.

Gotta get back some of those points or I'll never make it 'til Sunday.

In the words of DOTR......

This sucks.

Hump Day

You'd think with a day off Monday, I wouldn't be wishing for the weekend already. Oh wait, I worked most of the day Monday and wasted an entire day with baby shower business on Sunday. That's where my weekend went. I was trying to figure it out.

Usually by Thursday, all the things I managed to get done on the weekend are falling apart, we've stayed up too late, and my butt is dragging. I'm feeling that already today. Lethargy is in the air.

Finally got the last pillow from Ethan Allen today. The cherry on top for my sofa (same fabric as the new striped chair, perched like a princess between the four huge sofa pillows). But....I found out they brought me the wrong rug for the dining room, so they have to bring me the right one. Geez, I was just getting all the crappy dustballs vacuumed off of this one, now I have to start over. It's the same pattern, but they brought one that is too pink/salmon and now that the red curtains are up there, it's obvious it's the wrong one.

The deal for the "ranch" fell through, so I don't know how we are going to break that to J4. He is going to be crushed. We were going in halfsies with somebody, and he's a worrier, so when we got the inspection back, he freaked. They didn't disclose that they had polybutelane pipes, and evidently their handyman had done quite a bit of wiring on the garage/bunkroom that in the words of the inspector "looks like an 8th grader did it". So it needs at least $20,000 worth of work right off the bat. While they were messing around renegotiating, somebody came in with a higher price and bought it. I imagine they plan to tear the house down, so all that doesn't matter. I'm not sure what we're going to do now. DOTR didn't expect his buddy to be such a pain, so I don't know if we're up for this halfsie stuff or not. We tend to be more like "if it feels right, buy it and we'll deal with the problems when they come up". Our old house was the poster child of class action suits, you name it, we had it. Stucco, polybutelane piping, Louisiana Pacific siding....I thought we were starting our own little class action club over that place. This house we bought from the owners "as is". If we'd had an inspection, we'd probably gone running the other way fast. But it all worked out because our gut told us that this was our house, and whatever happens, happens. I never went up to the ranch, so I don't know if it was the right place or not. I just know I'm going to have one very sad boy.

Two wrestling meets tonight, so I get the middle school duty. Thankfully, the season is almost done and then we can jump right into baseball with both feet. Can't wait. Not.

Someday I'll go into my diatribe of how I used to love baseball, but now I detest it with my very being. But not today.

Too tired.

Call me bored.

Call it raining. I'm sitting here in the office answering the phone while some ob-frickin'-noxious sales guy is trying to tell my husband that a TPA is not our competition. What...ever.

Anyway, found this in a few places, so what the heck.

1. What is your occupation? Domestic goddess with a sideline as an office slave

2. What color are your socks right now? black

3. What are you listening to right now? a lot of BS

4. What was the last thing you ate? chips and salsa

5. Can you drive a stick shift? duh. everyday.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? aqua blue

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? someone from church about the acolyte schedule

8. How old are you today? 45

9. Favorite drink? Diet Coke

10. What is your favourite sport to watch? college football

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? I'm still blonde thanks to root day once a month

12. Favorite reality TV show? Jon & Kate Plus 8--otherwise I absolutely do not ever watch reality television. none. zero. detest it. (ok, I peek at Bridezillas once in awhile)

13. What was the last movie you watched? at the theatre--National Treasure, Book of Secrets. not a movie lover.

14. Favorite day of the year? any day that I can sleep until my eyes open and I don't have to go anywhere.

15. What do you do to vent anger? scream and swear

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Malibu Barbie

17. What is your favorite, fall or spring? fall

18. Hugs or kisses? hugs

19. Cherries or blueberries? cherries

20. Do you want your friends to email you back? ya think?

21. Favorite dessert? cherry cheesecake

22. Living arrangement? husband, two boys in a house

23. When was the last time you cried? no clue

24. What is on the floor of your closet? dust bunnies

25. What did you do last night? cooked dinner, then wrapped up in a blanket and watched btbtb episodes of CSI

26. What inspires you? I am so uninspired right now, I have no clue

30. What are you afraid of? something happening to one of my children

31. Plain, cheese, or spicy burgers? plain

32. Favorite breed of dog? dogs? ick. we are and have always been a petfree house

33. How many years at your current job? Domestic goddess--21 years; office slave--2 years

34. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

35. How many states have you lived in? 2, Nebraska and Georgia

36. Celebrity crush? Howie Long

37. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? does a riding lawnmower count?

38. Who is your favorite NFL team? none. DE-test NFL football. love college football.

39. Do you have a house phone that is not cordless? no

40. 10 inches of snow or 100 degree weather? 100 degrees

Promises, Promises

So we were supposed to have snow. No wrestling meet Saturday, every church in N. Georgia was cancelled (except ours, and it was packed, believe it or not) on Sunday. We didn't get a whole lot, but it was pretty while it lasted. We still have a lot on the ground because it's so darn cold.

I grew up in the great tundras of Nebraska, so I've seen enough snow to last me for the rest of my life. The kids go skiing every year with the youth group at church, but we've never been mad about skiing because DOTR and I just don't like to be cold. I'm freezing now, have been for days and I can't get warm. I think I'd last a weekend in my former domicile and then I'd be outta there. Last February when J2 was looking at colleges, we went to Nebraska for Red Letter Days for high school seniors. She had applied at Nebraska as one of her back up schools, and even though she'd been accepted at UGA in December, (and all her friends were going there) she just did not want to go there (apologies to all you Dawgs). Luckily, the weekend we were there was the only one last February where the temperatures were above 0 (yeah, that's ZERO), or there's no way she would've ended up with the Huskers as her number 2 choice and a viable option if she didn't get in to Tech. I guess I didn't realize that my kids had never really seen real live, piled up, middle of the winter, shoot me-kill me if I have to look at it one more day SNOW. The southern ski resorts where they've gone don't really have big drifts and most of it is manufactured, so she was AMAZED at all the snow.

"You mean the snow just stays there all winter?"

Our filthy rental car from the 90 mile trip from the Omaha airport to my parents' house

She was amazed that you could see for miles down the road

Gotta love the hat

Yes, you're a Legacy and a mother's hope springs eternal

I was just looking forward to a long weekend with no commitments, but unfortunately we had the "perfect storm". It snowed at the right time of day, got out of here fast, the wind dried up the roads before they could get icy and we were back in business. I had to go to a baby shower in "'pert near Alabama" yesterday, so the girls came home from school yesterday morning and we had roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy before we hit the road and headed west.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another good one in a couple of weeks and maybe we can squeeze another sleep in day out of our freebie for the primary elections.

Scroll up Sunday

Well, since we all know I've never had an original thought in my life, I'm copying Jill at Caffeine Court and bringing some of my side-splitting posts from the early days up to the top. Just kidding. They're not side-splitting, just more of the same old, same old.

I'm just bringing this up in case there is some show you liked and it suddenly got cancelled.


The Kiss of Death

If you like any of new tv shows that come on this fall, don't tell me. I am the kiss of death.

If I like it, it's sure to be cancelled. If not now, then soon enough it will get the axe. It's not just tv shows either. Restaurants close, clothing stores, furniture showrooms...you name it, if I like something, it'll be gone tomorrow.

The first time I remember this phenomenon clearly was when I was 15 and NBC had a show called "James at 15". I used to babysit every Thursday night, so since I was in charge of the tv that night (I can assure you, we wouldn't be watching it if I was at home...remember, one tv/5 people) I never missed it. For the half season it was on.Then poof. It was gone.

thirtysomething, you won't see fortysomething....bye bye. My So Called Life...so long sucka. Once and Again...see ya. Last year I killed The West Wing. Crossing Jordan is the latest casualty.

I'm almost afraid to say that 7 years after it debut, I've been watching reruns of CSI on Spike. In case CBS finds out and decides to pull the plug on it. Before we find out if Grissom finds Sara under the car in the desert.

So don't tell anybody.

The good news (for everybody else) is that I haven't started watching anything new. But you can't blame me for the writer's strike.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 19th Birthday to our little "blonde with strawberries" girl!

Dear Boys Who Live in this House,

The sister who had the job of taking out the recycling has been away at college for 2 1/2 years. You were assigned to share the job then, but you have had to be reminded every Wednesday night (which, crazily enough, comes around every week) since then to take out the recycling. Every week you say you will do it later, fight over who has to take out the one in the basement, leave one of the bins in the kitchen because by the time you got back to the house you forgot there was another one, etc. etc. etc. I did not put the recycling in the foyer in front of the door last night after you neglected to take it out again, and alas, there it sits, in the closet. And there it went.....the recycling truck. Around the corner, until next week.

I took the spell off your magic sock and underwear drawers until you can remember to do the one and only thing you are asked to do every week.

Love, Mom

Voila!

Or if you're on HGTV...."Wah-la!"

Living Room - Before

Living Room - After

Dining Room - Before

Dining Room - After

Random Closeups

Crazy Wild Impulse Buy Sofa that started it all 10 years ago

On to the accessories.

Help.

You Gotta See This

I am such a technotard, so if this doesn't work, let me know. Someday I'm going to sit down and read how to post the actual video, but this will have to do for right now.

"Bumpin in the Burbs" by Notorious D-A-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxj5EEksI1I

A friend sent this to me and I'm pretty sure DOTR has watched it 25 times and sent it to everybody he knows.

Amnesia

I forgot how much I hate to paint.

Someone. kill. me. now.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I'm seeing it on the living/dining room. I have to paint under the chair rail before the drapery installation on Wednesday. I have another designer working on realistic accessories. She also came up with the idea of painting and I thought....DUH! that's what's been bothering me about this room. I complained about my pillow and "we'll see what we can do when I'm there for the installation on Wednesday".....then, you're fired.

And finally.....drum roll, please......I got the Christmas decorations put away. I had to buy seven (7!) new tubs because I got so many new decorations this year. Sure didn't seem like it. A trip to Target here, a stop at World Market there, swing by Old Time Pottery....and before you know it, you are over the limit of what your measly 20 tubs can hold.

It's a sickness.

It's official

I am fat. My jeans hurt.

I signed up for Jazzercise last week, but still haven't gone yet. (yeah, I was gonna go this morning, but it was cold...and I was tired......)

I also signed up for Weight Watchers online last week, too. I lost a pound since I signed up. Umm, I think it was water weight. Oh well.

Blech.

Ramblin' Wrecks

This is from Parents Weekend. Can you tell which one is the older sister?

This one is from the first football game. They look more alike here--must be the sunglasses.

TGIF

For some reason, this week has been so long. Maybe it has something to do with actually going in to the office everyday? Dragging myself out of bed and into the car in the pitch black darkness to drive crabby boys to school every morning? Possibly.

DOTR is frantically trying to get our website up and running. We really don't need one that's interactive, so basically we have to make up a bunch of BS to put on there in the unlikely event that someone actually looks at it. Call me "Chief of BS", all week long.

Our office is right next door to our US Rep's campaign office (love him, he lives on my street and delivered all my babies). It's usually really quiet over there with just one or two people doing whatever it is they do. Not so much this week. Congress is still on break so the office has been hoppin' all week (this being an election year). His office is directly on the other side of the wall from mine and ALL DAY LONG, ALL WEEK LONG, he has been making phone calls. He's puts it on speaker phone (buzzbuzzbuzzbuzz), then dials (blipblipblipblipblipblip), then waits for somebody to answer, then talks. And talks. All day. And all the people in there working this week are parked in all the parking spaces. So annoying.

We always laugh about one of the cars--a Jetta, of course. It belongs to a young guy, and he's there daily for awhile, then he's gone working somewhere else for awhile, then he's back. We have our offices in a condo type complex, and the same cars are parked in the same spots every day. Anybody with even the slightest powers of observation could see this. Well, when Mr. Jetta (Georgetown Alum, btw) is there, he is always parked in "my spot" if he gets there before me. If I leave and come back, and he leaves and comes back before me, he'll be parked in "my spot". You'd think if he was smart enough to go to Georgetown, he'd be able to figure out he's parking in somebody else's regular parking spot. He parks in one of the two in front of our door and leaves an open space between the car that belongs to the woman who works at their office full time and his car. Again, so freaking annoying. When we were in one of the "Jetta in the shop" cycles, I came in one morning and DOTR said, "guess which car they were towing this morning when I got here?" Well, of course, it was Georgetown boy's Jetta!

On an entirely different subject, Ethan Allen left a message that my pillows were ready to be picked up, so I drove over there and only one was there. And it is about half the size I expected it to be. I am soooo not happy about that. Especially when I am having one of those "what was I thinking?" moments about buying the accessories from them anyway. I know how to make a pillow, and this pillow is just pissing me off. It's a tiny little accent pillow that is swallowed up by the huge chair it's supposed to go in. There are no dimensions at all on any of the invoices, but I clearly thought I was getting a big 22-24 inch down-filled pillow with trim. This pillow couldn't have used even a yard of fabric and half yard of trim and I won't even say what it cost because I might throw up. The designer is off on Thursdays and Fridays, so I haven't talked to her about it yet, but I am royally ticked. I better be getting a new pillow and it better be free.

And yay, we are going out to dinner with friends tonight. Granted, it's just our favorite dive Mexican restaurant, but the company is much needed.

TGIF.

911

I thought I was going to have to call Maggi's fireman last night!

We had to return to the country to the orthodontist's office to pick up J4's new retainer, so he skipped wrestling and we went up there before the traffic became unbearable (yeah, that's why I DON'T live in outer suburbia anymore). Had to make a stop at the shopping center on the way home that houses Old Navy and Super Target (found a coat for J4 for $20--with boys I have discovered that coats are disposable products), so I bought a new magazine. Shocking, I know.

DOTR and J3 were at a wrestling meet, so J4 and I ate some chicken noodle soup for dinner and he actually got busy with his homework. Doubly shocking.

I was sitting in the living room reading my magazine and I looked into the kitchen. I wiped off my glasses because I thought they were dirty because I could see a schmear near the ceiling. Put them on top of my head.....nope still there. What's that burning smell? Gee, that schmear on my glasses must be......SMOKE!

We ran all over the house investigating (old house = many small electric space heaters), found nothing, then noticed smoke rolling out of the dishwasher. I turned it off, opened it up and it had water in the bottom and smoke rolling out. So of course, I freaked and thought there was some kind of electrical fire behind it and the house was going to burn down. It stopped smoking and the smoke alarms never went off (I know they work, they go off when we make toast!), so evidently it wasn't a "real" fire.

DOTR examined it when he got home, and by smell alone diagnosed the dishwasher as expired. Cause of death: burnt motor.

It was 12 years old, so we knew in the back of our minds that it was on its last legs, but now what to do? Get a sleek stainless steel model or look for another that we can put the cherry panels on that match the cabinets?

This wasn't in my kitchen remodeling plan for this week, so I haven't pondered it over and over so I can decide on something, change my mind and then change it back again.

In the meantime, those dishes are piling up.

Grrrrrrr

Had to pay my speeding ticket today. Of course, I read the letter ages ago when it came in the mail, and just noticed that I could pay online if I'd done it YESTERDAY. Saw that little paragraph while I was in the bank getting my cashiers check for $111. But had to pay it before my court date of 8:30 am tomorrow or else, so I went over to the courthouse, thinking I'd just breeze in there and pay my fine and be on my way. NOT.

OMG. I am so naive. This is only the second speeding ticket I've ever gotten in my life, and the last one was in the city (this was outside city limits, so it was a county mountie) and you can just write a personal check and pop it in the mail. I put this one off forever because I had to get a money order or cashiers check if I wanted to mail it, as was my plan. Well, of course I waited too long and had to pay it in person since evidently I don't read well.

The line to pay fines/bonds/etc. looked like the line to Space Mountain at DisneyWorld. Supposedly, it was so long because they had to handwrite receipts because the computers were down. But I guess I didn't realize that everybody who went to court also had to get in the same line to pay their fines, so people were streaming out of courtrooms and trying to cut in the line. I'm the no-cut nazi, don't even try it. So when I was stationed on the "turn" where people were trying to merge in unnoticed....well, it wasn't pretty. You pretty much see the dregs of humanity at the courthouse.

I am so sheltered.

Six Years and $5,000 Later

Ready to leave school for the ortho

Still showing his Christmas colors

Showing off for Mr. Bear (the office is decorated with a wilderness theme)

Showing off his parting gift--a water bottle filled with Jolly Ranchers, Starburst, Tootsie Rolls and Bubble Gum (and tied with an Auburn bow--our ortho is a diehard fan!)

Often Copied, Never Equalled

I love this book. I have a good friend (also a Kappa Kappa Gamma) who is from Mississippi and is living proof that everything in this book is true! When her daughter got married a couple of years ago, her fiance's family (from a small town in South Georgia) kept complaining about the "City Wedding" plans. My friend said she had no idea what they did in the city, but they were doing it the way you do in the Mississippi Delta and that was that.

I bought a new copy of this book for my daughter for her 18th birthday because being a midwesterner by birth, I'm sure I have been remiss in her upbringing. I know for a fact that it shows in my preference for Miracle Whip over real mayonaise, but I just can't help it.

Had I not spent 25 years here, I'm not sure I'd find this so amusing because frankly, I'd never believe it was actually true. I know differently now. I've seen them in flesh. They walk among us, especially here in Bluedevil land.

(Quick, list the six sororities named in "Sisters, Sisters Everywhere" and you too can be considered an expert on Southern Belles!)

*******

Okay, since nobody will take my challenge, I'll spill......

Kappa, Theta, PiPhi, Tri-Delt, Chi O, Phi Mu -- are you Southern enough?

He Bought the Farm

Or the ranch. Or whatever you want to call it.

DOTR and his friend went halfsies on the five acre property in Cherokee county with A-frame house, large garage and attached office/soon to be bunkhouse, on a small lake, plenty of woods and four wheelin' trails.

Looks like I'll be getting some more new furniture.

Bonus.

Mona Lisa

I'm pretty sure I've admitted here that I used to be totally addicted to soap operas back when my kids were little. Like, it was so bad that we had to be out of the swimming pool and home by 1:30 so I didn't miss The Bold and the Beautiful (barf!) I didn't watch Y&R then, although I did in college, but did catch the rest of the CBS lineup, As the World Turns (ATWT) and Guiding Light (GL). I actually liked those two better, I think because they were NY soaps and got better actors. I remember both Sherry Stringfield and Parker Posey making their acting debuts fresh out of SUNY Purchase on GL and ATWT.

Anyway, on ATWT everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, in town ate dinner every night at "The Mona Lisa", Lisa Shae Hughes' blah blah blah (been so long I can't remember all her many surnames and I'm sure she's picked up a few more in the ten years since I stopped watching) restaurant. So of course, everybody knew everybody there, and there was always lots of stopping at tables and talking going on.

Back when we used to live in outer suburbia/subdivision land, when we went out to dinner we rarely saw anybody we knew. We'd hit one of the mall restaurants or even the local Micky D's and rarely see a familiar face. For years we travelled the ten miles to Bluedevil land for ballet repeatedly, but we still lived in outersuburbia....one foot in each world, so to speak. I could never pinpoint what was really different between the two worlds, because despite being so close together and in the same county, they truly felt like different worlds. It finally hit me one night when we went to dinner at a great (now sadly out of business) restaurant right next door to the ballet studio. I'd been there many times with the ballet moms, but that night DOTR and I met friends there and that's when it struck me that the place was just like The Mona Lisa. Everybody knew everybody else, and stopped at tables to chat (my OB/Gyn was there, and he even stopped to chat at our table). Now that I live here, this is totally the norm in almost any restaurant in town. J1 is very particular about where she will eat when she's home because she normally doesn't want to see anybody she knows. And you can't just go in your grubbies, not even to the grocery store....ever. Because you will not just run in to one person you know, you will see at least 30. If I walk in to a restaurant on the square and don't see at least 3 tables with people I know, then it's the 4th of July or something.

That's why we left "spin yourself around you could be anywhere outer suburbia/subdivision land" for this place we like to call Bluedevil land. It's a lot like Mayberry. Or Oakdale.

It's home. Where everybody knows your name.

Exciting News

Drum roll please..........

Tomorrow, J4 gets his braces off. Finally.

He's had them, with a short break that was less than a year, since he was 7 years old. He's almost 14. Yeah, trainwreck in that mouth.

His teeth are so stubborn (and he's so bad at keeping track of retainers) that in a couple of weeks, the ortho is actually going to glue his front teeth down and together so they'll stay there.

Oh, happy day.

My goal for the new year

It's just an enormous goal... to actually take the time to figure out how to do all those links so when you're talking about something or someone all you have to do is click on it. (I'm sure it's easy, but I have never spent the time to figure it out).

And make a blog roll. I enjoy reading a lot of different blogs, so I really need to get this done. Thanks to everybody who has added me to theirs. I'm flattered.

Back to work. Blech.

Have a good day.

They came....they went....

and we spent. Plenty of money.

The girls are back at school, took off in the Jetta about an hour ago after we ate lunch. I made pork tenderloin, mushroom risotto, and salad and they didn't want to miss it, or I'm sure they would've been outta here long before 2 pm (considering a lot of their friends are already back).

Had to do lots of shopping before they left, of course. They live in Atlanta, but the lame mall here had the advantage of me paying. Always a good thing. They got new North Face jackets, new shoes, stocked up at Target ($200 worth of toiletries, tampons, vitamins, etc.....they save the expensive stuff like new brush heads for their electric toothbrushes for the visit home). Along with oil changes, emissions, dental appointments....the fun never ends.

I finally got my car fixed and then yesterday I had to get new tires when one went flat and they told me it was not repairable and the others looked pretty scary, too. Cha-ching.

I guess it is really back to reality around here.

Rice and beans, anyone?

The new furniture is here

So, finally some pictures of my new dining room table, chairs and the new chair in my living room. Sorry, no photos of the washer and dryer (I forgot about that!)

The window treatments are currently at the workroom and should be done soon.

A few pillows, a table cloth that doesn't cost $900, and I should be done with these two rooms.

Thankfully.

Oh Christmas Tree

Just a few photos of our Christmas trees (J1 undecorated the one in her room before I got a photo--same with the one in the basement--DOTR took it down on New Year's Day).

This is our big tree--we usually get one real tree every year. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo before it bit the dust about a week before Christmas and at least 500 of the 1400 lights I strung on it suddenly decided to stop lighting. It's a Nutcracker tree and holds all the many ornaments we collected over the years when the girls danced in The Nutcracker.

Here are a couple of the Clara ornaments J1 got for the the years she was Clara (one needed repair and I never got it done before Christmas--there's always next year!)

This is probably the worst picture, but I think it is our prettiest tree. It's in J2's room, which is decorated in blue and green. I'm going to get a bigger tree for her room next year because I really like the ornaments on this tree (and I bought more at the 50% sale at Pier One!)

This is the tree in the boys' room...baseball theme, of course.

This one was in the powder room--we have toile wallpaper and antique postcards from Paris for art (that's why there's an Eiffel Tour ornament on the tree--I need to find more for next year!)

This one is in the butler's pantry--it's blue and white with blue lights and lots of snowmen and snowflake ornaments. It goes with the snowman kitchen decor.

The one in J1's room was pink and white and the basement tree was red and white with all the kids' creations from preschool on up (and lots of Santas).

I have waaaaay too many ornaments, so I've had to farm them out to a bunch of trees. Some years I put up a tree in every room and some years I only do one. I guess I was ambitious this year since I was hosting Christmas.

Yummy for my Tummy

If your new year's resolution is to lose weight and eat healthier, here's a recipe for overnight oatmeal. Since we have to leave really, really early for school, I have done this a lot in the past. The girls always loved it, but the boys....not so much. Well, this morning since they decided that we only have DISGUSTING cereal (Life, Frosted Mini Wheats, etc. instead of Coco Pebbles), so they both mixed up a package of my organic oatmeal with flax seeds. Go figure.

Overnight Oatmeal

8 cups water
2 cups steel-cut oats (same as Irish Oatmeal...don't use rolled oats or it will be mushy and burnt)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Nutrition Info
Per Serving
Calories: 176 kcal
Carbohydrates: 34 g
Dietary Fiber: 4 g
Fat: 2 g
Protein: 5 g
Sugars: 6 g

Cooking Directions
Combine water, oats, dried cranberries, dried apricots and salt in a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Turn heat to low. Put the lid on and cook until the oats are tender and the porridge is creamy, 7 to 8 hours.
Stovetop Variation: Halve the above recipe to accommodate the size of most double boilers: Combine 4 cups water, 1 cup steel-cut oats, 3 tablespoons dried cranberries, 3 tablespoons dried apricots and 1/8 teaspoon salt in the top of a double boiler. Cover and cook over boiling water for about 1 1/2 hours, checking the water level in the bottom of the double boiler from time to time.
Yield: 8 servings

You could leave out the dried fruit and add a bunch of cinnamon, apples and real maple syrup

Copycat, Copycat....lend me a cat

Okay, I'll admit that I'm at the office and I should be working, but I can't quite get into that mode after months of lazing around the house again, so I lifted this from Clemsongirl's blog.

However, as you see, I'm not that interesting.....oh well.

5 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO

1. Getting settled into my "new" old house.
2. Recovering from three weeks of The Nutcracker.
3. Crying tears of joy when J4 finally peed in the potty.
4. Cruising around town in my stylin' forest green Chrysler Town and Country minivan.
5. Teaching 5th grade Sunday School, serving as president of UMW at our old church and treasurer of our Circle's twice yearly used children's clothing sale. Shopping at Gymboree 3 times a week to keep the consignment sale pipeline running.


5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST

1. Finish getting rid of all the bags of crap from my marathon closet cleaning.
2. Put away the Christmas decorations.
3. Attack the ironing pile (although it's very small and under control, thankfully).
4. Hang pictures in my bedroom.
5. Call plumber to fix toilet at the office.


5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE

A million bucks ain't what it used to be.
Ask me what I'd do if I was a multi-millionaire and we could talk.

5 THINGS I WILL NEVER WEAR

1. Animal prints.
2. Camouflage.
3. Appliqued sweatshirts.
4. Stiletto heels (I don't like broken ankles)
5. Mary Kay

5 FAVORITE TOYS

I don't have any toys. Seriously.
Unless you consider my Wolf stove a toy.

Consider yourself tagged if you'd like to join in.

Chick Lit...sorta

I don't know if this qualifies as Chick Lit or not, and I can't even remember when I bought this book. Sometime this summer, I think. I found it on the bookshelf and decided, what the heck, these decorations can wait a day or two to find their way into their boxes and I need to watch another bowl game like I need a hole in the head (and I think I have now seen every single episode of CSI, so I can back off Spike reruns for awhile)....I'm gonna read a book.

This book was pretty good. Two of my favorite things, food and France. Little bit of sleaze, and the good news that there's a sequel in the works.

Who could ask for anything more for $12 and an afternoon?

Back to Reality

Well, my kids had to go back to school at the crack of dark-thirty on the coldest day in the past three years. Oh joy! Made J3 get the Bug cranked 10 minutes before we were ready to leave so it would be very, very warm on the drive to the HS.

I'm at the office catching up on all the stuff I have been piling up for the past three months while I've been at home "getting organized". Almost there.

Took my car in for the repairs it's needed for months. (yeah, if your car breaks down and it's been making a bad noise for a long time, then it's nobody's fault by your own....luckily we have a few spare cars, so I've been Buggin' for awhile).

I actually took pictures of my Christmas decorations so I can remember what I did that I liked (and didn't like) for next year. This afternoon I swear I will get all of them put away. Not even waiting for 12th Night this year (ok, so it was about 24th night when we finally got them stashed in the storeroom in disarray last year, but I paid for that little mess when I was trying to get everything out this year...not going there again!)

We actually had more fun than our kids on New Year's Eve (well, maybe everybody except J2, who spent the night at Tech with both her college friends and her MHS '07 Reunion group). We saw old friends from the ballpark and our former church, so it was fun. We sorta moved away 10 years ago, to a different school system and church, but we stayed at the same ballpark so we had some contact (DOTR more than me, since I was in charge of girls and he was in charge of boys). Had fun catching up with two couples we spent at least two summers worth of all-stars with back in Pinto (7-8 yr olds)...yeah, my kids are allowed to grow up, but it's freaky when theirs do, too!

The big news for the new year is that DOTR is thinking about buying "a ranch". Actually, it's more like a guy camp, and he wants to go in half with a friend (the ones who had the New Year's Eve party). This guy is always looking for something to "invest" in, first he wanted DOTR to buy a condo in Atlanta for our daughters at GT and his daughter at GSU to live in, then it was 35 acres in Kentucky (!?!). This one is more feasable, five acres up in Cherokee County with an older house and garage, a lake, and lots of woods for hunting stuff and lots of places for 4 wheelin'. Yeah, baby, that's got my name written all over it! NOT. Anyway, I think if I agree I can score some more new furniture, so I haven't put the kibosh on it just yet.

It's always something.