Plumerias make me happy.

These flowers make me happy. I found the photo on flikr. Posted by chaletgirl13.

Thank you chaletgirl13.

Ready, set to go in 5 days

I am so very ready for this vacation. I haven't had a vacation without kids or hubby in along time. Since right after we got married. I'll tell you about the Alaska trip another time.

I am ready to leave them all for a week. Let them see how I cater to them. I am tired of being the only one that can come up with an idea for dinner. Only to have it shot down like an enemy plane. I am tired of not being able to make what I want to for dinner. Because this one doesn't like it and that one doesn't FEEL like having it and the other one had it for lunch.

I am ready to take care of myself. I am ready to take responsibility for my actions. And only mine. I am ready to only worry about getting myself out the door. I am ready to take only what I will need for the day. I am ready to cut only my meat at mealtime.

I will be a better mother when I return from my vacation. I will be ready to cater to them again.

But for now, I NEED to pamper myself. I am getting the fake nails. I am taking 3 bathing suits. I am going to shop this week for another cute outfit. Even if I have enough clothes as it is. I just want something new to wear. Heck, I may go wild and get two new outfits. And shoes. Gotta get new shoes. So I need the pedicure too. And better see if Robby can fit me in for a hair appt.

Sorry if I sounded whiney just now. I am normally not a whiney person. I will stop now.

Cruise

There are only 8 days until I fly to Florida for my own personal vacation. I am going with my girl friend Stephanie. We are going on a cruise to the Bahamas. I have always wanted to go on a cruise. Danny has never wanted to go on a cruise. So when Stephanie was given a couple of vouchers for a reduced price cruise and asked if I would go with her, I jumped at the chance. I talked it over with Danny and he is all for it. It takes the heat off of him.

I have started thinking about what I should pack. Should we plan on going to the formal dinner? Should we just blow it off? Should I take 2 or 3 bathing suits? (I only had 1 until Stephanie gave me two that she bought that don't fit her. She is better endowed than I have ever hoped to be.)

Also have to think about getting ready. I need a pedicure. Should I spring for fake nails? I guess it's time to sharpen the razors and shave my legs again.

P.S. I am not rolling in the dough. I just happen to have a boss that thinks I do awesome work and has put the money where his mouth went. I got a bonus in October and another one on this paycheck. Have I mentioned how much I really love my job. And my boss. Right now.

Update on Blizzard 2009.

Yesterday was spent indoors. We watched the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America. The girls watched IGOR, played games, argued with each other and snacked. We all watched "The City of Ember" and "Ghost Rider". And the whole time outside it was cold and NOT A SINGLE SNOWFLAKE FELL OUT OF THE SKY.

Snow. At the beach. Sounds wrong, doesn't it?

I am being forced to take the day off from work today. (Thank you for the heavy sigh. I really appreciate the sympathy.) The Hampton Roads area is expecting a winter storm. Sounds pretty dangerous, doesn't it?! Don't let panic take hold of you. We will be fine. The schools all over the area have closed in anticipation of the storm. It is roughly 9:30am, and so far no snow. I am home from work with 3 anxious little girls, and there is no snow. Keep in mind that we are only expecting 1-3" of this demon, frozen water. This area just isn't equipped to handle it. We don't get that much snow normally. And when we do, everything shuts down.

Except for WALMART. I took the girls there at 8am to get another mouse. DD2 and DD3 have been fighting over the disco mouse that DD2 got for Christmas. And DD3 didn't have one at all. Santa really didn't think this one out. We also got Igor, City of Ember and a Wii game. The girls are all watching Igor. So, I am typing this from my daughter Melissa's netbook. The home computer s#cks. I have given up on using it. I have ordered a beautiful laptop from HP. It should ship by January 27. I LOVE this little acer ASPIRE ONE, but it just doesn't have enough power for me. Plus my hands get cramped after a few minutes of typing on this little keyboard. But, it is better than that piece of junk sitting in the computer cabinet.

Anyway, my new computer will have 3G to think with and 250G to store things and run other programs. It's a 14 inch little beauty. Onyx. Bluetooth. Okay, I have to stop, cuz that's all I know. I got it for a pretty good price. $686 after taxes. Free shipping. The price was so good, that I ordered myself an iTouch too. I ordered both of these awesome little toys on Friday of last week. The iTouch showed up yesterday. I am so kicking myself for not getting one sooner. I am loving my little toy. And I haven't even tapped into it's potential. I am so thrilled that I have it for my Cruise in a couple of weeks.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I am going on a cruise the first week of February. Danny refuses to go on a cruise with me. My girlfriend Stephanie presented an opportunity to go on one, and I jumped. I am SO EXCITED. We are flying into Orlando and the ship sails out of Port Canaveral. She is flying in on Saturday. Me on Sunday. We will stay with her son, Marc, and his wife Sunday night. The cruise leaves Monday and returns to Port Friday after taking us to the BAHAMAS. If I like the island, I am going to try to convince Danny to go with me via airplane.

More later. Gotta see what is going on with the girls...

I yelled at my mobile phone because I'm sexy and I do what I want.

Pick the month you were born:
January------I kicked
February-----I loved
March--------I kissed
April--------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June---------I smelled
July---------I did the Macarena with
August-------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friend's boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19-------a smurf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an ipod
29-------a surfer
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White---------because I'm cool like that.
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink-----------because I'm crazy.
Red-----------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Green---------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple---------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray----------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange --------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown---------because I can...
Other----------because I'm a Ninja!
None----------because I can't control myself!

Now type out the sentence you made, in the subject line and try it on your blog.

Marie Antoinette Award. For me?? Really??

The Marie Antoinette - A Real Person, A Real Award!

WOW. I was given an award. I am so honored. I really don't think I am a special blogger. I'm not. I just get on here and chatter. Mostly boring stuff. But I feel like getting things out there. No rhyme or reason to it. Any how, I was so very surprised by Lisa passing this along to me. Thank you Lisa. You really should go visit her.


Now for the acceptance part.


There are 5 simple rules -
1. Post the logo on your blog (above pic of Marie Antionette herself)
2. Post a link to the person’s blog from whom you received the award (thanks, Lisa!),
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs (see below listing)
4. Link to the blogs you’ve nominated, and
5. Post a comment on those blogs to tell them of their nomination! Simple!

(These are in no particular order.)

Rosemary @ Free Advice, Worth Every Penny

Jana @ Just Jana

Amy @ Caffinated Cropper

Karen @ A Little Bit of That

Diana @ A Place for Me

Denise @ A Day in My Life

You can count right. I just didn't nominate the full 7. Bad me. But, that's me.

CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES

I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find
inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the
things you have started and have never finished. "

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos and a box of chocolates .

You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

Thought it was too good to not share.

Birthday Book

I used my bind it all on this one. I just took 12x12 cardstock. Folded up at the 4 inch mark. Printed out each month on plain white cardstock. Trimmed. Punched the holes into the book. Glued the months down. Covered chipboard with festive b-day colored paper. And assembled.

The plan is to make b-day cards and put them into the book to be ready for the year. I also hope to address and stamp them so they are ready to go. On time. For a change. I still have birthdays to add. And I have to finish the cover. But, so far so good. If you don't count the fact that I didn't send Dad a b-day card. We gave him his b-day gift while we were there for Christmas.

Project 365

Yup. I am doing it. I am taking a picture or two, or twenty everyday this year. I have already got the first 4 days worth in an album. I am not using the CK kit. I have SO much stuff already, that I decided to use what I have. Snicker all you want, because it didn't work. I had just bought an album from Michaels. So I decided to use it for this project. The problem was that it only had 40 weeks worth of pages. I went back and bought another one to get the additional pages I needed and wound up buying a stack of Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper to use for the album. In my defense, both the album and the paper were 40% off AND I had a coupon for an additional 20% off my purchase, sales items included. My logic is that if I were to try to put papers together from my stash, I wouldn't get going on this project. I am viewing this as a jumping board to getting my juju flowing in 2009.

I put the required pages into the album, cut the papers into 4x6 pieces and choose 52 of them to type out "the week of____________". These are the title pages for each week. I also designed my own title for the album. Font is Elephant. Below is the first week. I decided to go outside of my comfort zone and start with January 1st. Usually I would start with a Sunday. That is what my little pea brain registers as the first day of the week. But, I made a leap into the un-done. (Un-done by me before anyway.) The yellow sheet will maybe stay with a bit of journaling covering the mistake. My printer just stopped in the middle of the print. ?????

Below is a blank week just waiting to happen.

Let me know what you think.

Shadow Boxes

I haven't been a slug. (completely, anyway) I made some things. Before Christmas I made some really cool shadow boxes for my mom and sister. I couldn't show them then, but here they are. I really like the way they turned out. I let them "fight" over who got which one. I couldn't decide if one was better suited for my sister than the other one.

They are simply shadow boxes that I disassembled. I covered the back with UHU glue and Making Memories papers. Then added a piece of ribbon to split the backgroud. Added some dimensional stickers to create a bit of a scene. The words JOY and PEACE are Autumn Leaf rub-ons applied to the outside of the glass. To finish them off, I put some little ornaments as shakers inside the frame.

Happy Birthday Melissa

Happy Birthday Baby. This is your last year as a single digit. I can't believe that you are already 9. You are such a little pistol. I love your imagination. I love your sense of you. You really know who you are. I love that you have the confidence to be yourself.

(Insert photos here)

(Melissa's pictures will show up. I took them during the day. My computer is bad. Won't listen to me - much like my children.)