Confessions

...of a Shopaholic was so cute!! I loved it and I'm buying it when it comes out on DVD. As quickly as it came out, it's already about finished playing. There was only 1 showing out of the 3 places I checked. Great fun to watch with my neighbor as we munched on Jr. Mints and a Slush.

The day...is beautifully SUNNY!!!!! Weather that is like this invigorates me into Superwoman or something. If I was tired before...no longer. I have the gardening ITCH in a major way. Since it is nice and there isn't any planting to be done and I can't really rake (since yard waste pick up doesn't occur for several weeks), I fixed all of my solar lights and items that have fallen down and become messed up as the ground has been frozen/thawed/frozen--you get the picture. Just doing those little things makes me feel better about it all!

Now, if I could get the tiny little section of my trim completed on my cabinets today--that would be awesome. He's supposed to be back today to get it done--I'm hoping. If not, oh well.

I hope that spring makes you happy like it does me!! Happy Saturday & weekend.

Fun Stories

I don't remember why, but last night Josh and I were talking about these stories. Most of them happened during my college years and all of them are true.

*Story 1--on a flight back to college several WWF people were on the flight. Actually they were sitting right by me in the airport--I believe in Atlanta. I think they sat in the waiting area by me b/c they figured I would have no clue. I had a suspicion, but didn't know exactly who until they announced it on the plane--the large men kind of gave it away. Come to think of it, we were all together for awhile in Atlanta during a layover.

Story 2--Chris Sligh (top ten finisher from American Idol)--went to college with me, in fact same class.

Story 3--the guy that sat right next to me in my freshman college math course won $1 million dollars because he got the gray M&M from the package. He bought the pack of M&M's on campus and then was mysteriously missing for a little over a week. He was gone because he went on the Rosie O'Donnell show as well as Letterman and maybe others.

Story 4--My great friend from college and roommate met and hung out with Shaq for several hours while she was modeling in NY one summer. It was at the Waldorf Astoria. Yes, she has pictures of it.

Story 5--While at a Chicago Cubs game, Ryne Sandberg came and was standing next to us before the game and this lady got his autograph and started crying--literally. I'm pretty sure I was laughing.

Story 6--In Chicago this summer, we saw Chris Rock & his wife up very close, Oprah, and many Olympians. Yes, this was the day my camera was dead from all of the pictures we had taken earlier in the week. It's ok, we don't like go crazy when we see people, but it is cool to see people that you have only always seen on TV or in movies. Honestly, they look exactly the same as they do on tv.

Story 7--when I was a senior in HS, one of our teachers heard that the Governor was going to be coming in to the local airport. It was Governor Edgar, NOT any of our several infamous BAD Illinois Governors. Anyway, as it turned out he did a press conference and our class got to meet him along with several other of the people that held office at the time including the lady that ran against Blago unsuccessfully in 2006.

I could tell you that Josh was nudging/hitting me in the back a couple of years ago because now Congressman Schock was at an event we went to and he was making sure I saw him--umm yes thanks, Josh I did see him. A few weeks later, he was eating at Chili's with his then-girlfriend. I guess she is no longer b/c when the Today show interviewed him a few weeks ago he said he was single. He's Congress hottest freshman you know--not that there's any competition since he's the only 20 something in Congress--lol!

Anyway, there's a little stroll down memory lane for fun. If only I had purchased more M&M's that year in college....

Pictures

My pictures from the last 3 years are in the process of being transferred to a "jump drive". It has the capacity to store like 3200 photos. This will do it for sure on what I have on here plus more. I am not going to have a panic like before if my computer goes down. Lesson learned.

I just finished mixing up a breakfast casserole and putting it into the oven. The variation on this one as opposed to last week's casserole is the hashbrowns in this one. Dinner for tomorrow night is enchiladas. This will be the first time for me to make enchiladas. I'm excited to see how they turn out.

My crown moulding and valances are complete with a minor section of moulding that needs to be finished near the end. It will be done on Sat. YAY!

Tonight, we went to Bergner's. It's like a Parisians, Younkers, Elder Beerman, Carson Pirie Scott etc... They are all the same just in different sections of the country. Anyways, they have their Goodwill sale going on. If you donate an article of clothing, you get a coupon for 20% off almost anything. This includes Coach =), cosmetics, and other items that rarely if ever go on sale. You also know that coupons do not normally apply on items like those. They send out some 25% coupons ahead of time to people and we got 4. Well, you know what I was looking for--a Coach purse. Yes, I know Coach sent me a 25% off coupon, but I didn't find any purses their that just did it for me. I have mentioned before that they are scrimping in various areas on many handbags and that to get one of what I would consider "quality", you have to spend quite a bit. They have basically made all of the straps very skinny (to save on leather), made the fabric of vinyl or pleather, or jacquard. The leather that once graced the bottom at least all the way or on the corners is pretty much gone etc..
Well, I knew Bergners previously had one that I liked--a.k.a it met the quality standards of me--lol. They had it and better yet it was already 25% off AND I got to use my extra 25% off. Thus, a $400 purse for like half price. I LOVE it. It is a Zoe and has browns, tans, and golds. It even has a thicker strap than the ones they are making , leather on top, leather on bottom and leather on much of the patchwork. YAY, now I have my big Coach purse for the year or how ever long. I bring them out and re-use them in various seasons. I had been using my red Dooney and a small wristlet Coach for the past several months.

Time for Bob Harper's Weight Loss Yoga DVD. We are loving it--truly we are.

Dolls

As it rains outside, I am blogging and the girls are in the corner of the LR next to me playing with their American Girl dolls. Between the two of them they have several to play with. I hear that they are having dinner soon. I'm wondering what is on the menu =). I already ate my dinner of wonderfully delicious leftover PF Changs Crisy Honey Chicken.

Last night, contrary to my post about maybe doing nothing, I did do some things.

Aliyah just announced that Keirah went potty in her seat. The cool thing is that Keirah announced that she had to go and ran into the bathroom!!! YAYAYAYAY!! I'm off to get a treat. It turns out that she went "ock". Of course "little DIVA" is all into wearing panties and has favorites. myohmy what will we do when she gets older?

Back to my list of things...the girls assisted in cleaning up various items that were missing from their correct place in our house. I organized Aliyah's dresser drawers, folded and hung up a load of clothes, organized the toy room closet and shelves, and started straightening up the hall closet. In the meantime, I have uncovered more items for the garage sale we will have in the next month or so.

Get this...Josh called me today and asked if I knew how much the house was that just went up for sale on our street. I told him I didn't know--thinking he was simply curious. He said that he had thoughts of fixing it up and selling it to which I replied "WHAT"?? Granted, we've talked about doing this many years ago and have always been fascinated by houses and such, but now he's telling me he wants to do this?? I guess we'll add that one to the comment the other day that he made about one day building a house. Don't worry, we have enough going on without having another house to fix up. I want some time where we aren't working on projects or thinking about the next one.

This week's new meals I think will be enchiladas and then hashbrown breakfast casserole. We also now have butter so we can try out our new panini press.

Tonight looks to be RAIN, RAIN, RAIN (that's ok b/c it's making the yard turn green & I would much rather be having rain than snow) as well as Biggest Loser and more things to get done on my list!!! Have a happy Tuesday night!

Lagging

The spring ahead with the clocks is making me feel like I'm lagging today. I know, only an hour lost, but combine that with a late night on Thursday & Friday and a busy weekend = tired Monday. There are several things on my to-do list for this evening, but who knows. I may just enjoy the new season of DWTS and "forget" the list for today. It will still be there tomorrow.
I'm excited to see how Shawn Johnson & Melissa (former Bachelor "winner"/dumpee) do on the show.
Last night during Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice, I cleaned out/rearranged 3 totes. I took out stuff for our annual garage sale and put away clothes of Keirah & Aliyah. It felt nice to get that done, but it left me feeling like I didn't accomplish much since there was still so much left to do around the house.
I'm in spring cleaning mode I guess. Now that I'm back I've gotta be careful not to spend too much time on the computer since there's things to be done. I think I'm caught up on reading blogs =). It's a nice "chill" for me.
It's either off to work on the list or do nothing. We'll see!

March

When March officially arrives on the calendar, I feel hopeful again that warm weather will return for awhile. I also get the ITCH to get out in the yard and plant my flowers and landscape. Well, the flower planting obviously can't happen for a few weeks outside, but we have started in our house.

Back in the fall, I mentioned that I was collecting seeds from my flowers for Aliyah's science project that we would do this spring. We pulled those seeds out the other day and laid out towels to fill up little cups with dirt. I think there are 30 something cups. She was happy to do this. We have them all sitting in a south-facing window so they get sun when it appears. If they do well, Aliyah will be thrilled and momma will be too! I will be thrilled because that will eliminate some flowers that I have to purchase. This is my first time trying to grow a geranium from seed, we'll see how it goes. If it works, then next year I will do many more.

Since it was a rainy day yesterday, we enjoyed it out shopping. We found some SUPER deals at one of our favorite dept. stores. I found it amusing that I saw my OB/Gyn shopping there--well not that she was shopping there, but that she was shopping the 85% off clearance rack =). I guess everyone loves good deals right?

Tonight is Celebrity Apprentice and Amazing Race and cleaning our house. As the March winds blow like a lion outside...

HELLO Again!!

I'm BAAAAACCCCCKKKK!! It's been two weeks, but it seems longer. I really missed blogging and blog world. WOW--we've been busy. Where do I start?

Maybe I will start from today and move backwards--haha. As of today, Aliyah will complete 1st grade. Just in time for the great weather that has come our way--FINALLY! We do her school year like this for several reasons: it's much easier to stay motivated in winter when not much else is going on outside, the busy season at work picks up about now and there's times when I don't want to delve into schoolwork when I get off, the kids need spring to run off all that built up energy--man they have plenty of it.
The girls went outside a couple of times on Thursday and jumped on the trampoline, climbed trees, etc... Aliyah had terrible "growing pains" in her legs that night. She hasn't had those since she was like 4. They are the kind where she wakes up just screaming because they hurt so bad. My mom told me that I used to have them when I was little just like that.
Oh yes, new developments in our home improvement projects!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The new cabinets and counterop are in and WONDERFUL!! It's amazing what a difference this makes in the kitchen. We call it our re-remodel. In 2005, we got new cabinets and a countertop to replace the horrendous ones that were there when we moved here. When we did it, we did exactly what we already had--no additional. Does that make sense??? Our kitchen is probably the smallest room in the house aside from the bath--what do I mean probably--IT IS! I could only have the bare minimum of stuff it seemed because there was so little space countertop-wise and cabinet wise. We added cabinets all along the very top of the existing ones, added wood valances across the window spaces, and have crown moulding. I have 9 new cabinets. Granted, many of them are tiny cabinets that go above cabinets, but they still hold stuff =).

This new kitchen change has given me an urge to make things I've never made. It has been so fun. Since Josh works a combo of 1st and second shift, there are many evenings where he isn't home. I don't see much of a need to cook a whole dinner for just myself and my two little bird eaters. He works evenings like 4 nights a week. This leaves 3 nights where we are home together. We obviously like to go out to eat, but that gets old really quickly especially when you get tired of the choices. We aren't exotic eaters by any means--kind of picky actually.
So, this week my two new dishes that I hadn't made before that we love to eat were lasagna and breakfast casserole! They were awesome--I was told by all of the family members eating =). The cool thing was, we had leftovers that the girls and I could eat when Josh was at work. There's more new things to come this week in the kitchen for us! The cool part about this re-remodel is that the tax refund paid for a big chunk of it--YAY!

Yesterday after work we left and went up to the burbs of Chicago. Yes, we've made it there at least once a month since August. This was our quickest trip by far. It reminded me of the days where I was coaching cheerleading and we had a Friday night game a few hours away. We had time to go to the stores we wanted to, eat at Changs, and be home before midnight. Man, we saw a TON of red/blue lights both ways. They were out on radar like crazy yesterday! We also saw tons of cars pulled along the side of the road with flat tires. I'm not sure why, but maybe there's just lots of junk on the road after a long winter--or maybe those horrendous GAPING potholes that are everywhere!!! We had fun that's for sure. Josh drove it on less than four hours of sleep and after his work for the day. Don't worry, I didn't twist his arm to go, I even told him that we didn't have to go, but he insisted. He stopped at Wendy's and got himself a GINORMOUS drink and everything was fine.

Speaking of GINORMOUS drinks, I have given up one of my little "addictions". It's called Dr. Pepper. I still love it, but it's not good for me. It's been almost two weeks now--YAY! We also purchased the Biggest Loser's "Weigh Loss Yoga". Yep, it's a tail-kicker, but we love it! I have no idea why Josh wants to do this, but he wants his arms and stuff to be stronger and more toned. That means, he will have a perfect body and I will move closer to normal I guess--haha. The coolest thing is that you could be shaking and your arms/legs cooking and you aren't sore after you do the workout. We also have a huge boost in energy. There's a 50 minute total workout, but we are at 25 still as we are working up to the 50.

Enough for now, this is really long. Off for a fun Saturday with Josh and the girls!!!