Resolutions.........Got'em?

New Years Eve holds a lot of good memories for me. One year my sister and I went spent it on 6th Street partying in Austin Texas, I had a blast partying it up in Hawaii for 1999/2000. One year my mom came down to visit my sister and I in North Carolina and we went for drinks as grown ups. Another time I spent it in Kansas City but couldn't stay up late because I was flying to meet my husband in Germany after being seperated for 6 months because of the war. I just have really good memories of New Years Eve!!

This year we didn't really make plans. A couple of people were having parties, some were going to the beach to party. We just didn't commit to anything and guess what today is New Years Eve......no real plans................which means no babysitter.

We decided to just have a fun night at home with our boys and a couple of friends. Were gonna partake in some adult beverages and rock out with Rock Band!!!! Sounds like a safe fun evening.


Whatever you do tonight please be safe!!! Enjoy yourself and make some great memories..............I want to hear all about them!!!

Found something new and exciting......

So ...........I always aim to please, this is true in my real life and my blog world. I have discovered something so new and fresh and really exciting. A cool way to pimp your blog, meet and keep up with friends. You really have to check it out, it is TWITTER.


What????

I am behind the power curve here?

Everyone that is

anyone

is already on

Twitter?

Your Kidding Right??? Ok.......ok........I know it is not new..........I have heard about it for a while now from my friend Jodi. She has mentioned it a time or two.

I just never checked it out until today, well actually a few minutes ago and I must say it is easy enough I am catching on. I likey this Twitter thing!

I am excited because now those giveaways that give extra entries for tweeting, I can do. I fore see this as a way to many happy winnings! I can now tweet away, look out giveaways here I come.

If you want to be tweet buddy's, friends, pals (still learning the lingo) just follow me here My Twitter!!!!


PS......Is it completely obvious I took today's hint from SITS to heart and worked it out!!!!! Look at me now SITS!!!!

Holiday Hits and Misses

So I know I am really late talking about our holiday but I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We sure did. Oue holiday was filled with plenty of hits and a couple of misses.

Let's start with breakfast, we do a huge breakfast/brunch. I started this tradition early on because it is the one meal I feel confident in cooking and it is easy to feed a bunch of people. So my breakfast is the place to be for my in-laws. The hit of my breakfast was the French Toast Casserole I tried this year, it was yummy and ennjoyed by all. The miss would have to be the biscuits. I don't think there was anything wrong with them because honestly all I had to do was open the can of Grands and bake. I just think that there was so many other things no one want to fill up on them.

Moving on to presents, the major hit for me was the Wii Fit. I love this thing and have dubbed myself the step aerobics queen. Even Kye the 3 year old got in on playing, he was pretty good at the head butting soccer game. Kye loved his Fisher-Price Smart Cycle, really loved it. As in played for hours on the thing. Kastan hit the jackpot, he loved his Flip Camera and his desk that we set up the old PC for him. Keith looked hot in his shades.

Misses in the gift category would be Kastan's MP3 player and that is only because I can be a technotard and do not know how to get music on it. I thought the trick was an ITunes giftcard, well guess what that is for IPODS not his MP3 player. I am working on this and hope to get things worked out and get some jammie-jams for my little man.

The other miss was the cologne for Keith, it was just not delivered. I paid for 2 day shipping that gauranteed delivery by Christmas. No such luck. FedEx let me down on this one. They decided my address was wrong and didn't bring it to me. I called them, they repeated the address. I informed they in fact had the right address so they said they would deliver on Friday. Friday I get a call from FedEx asking for a good address because mine was wrong. I again let them know they had the correct address, they asked for directions and even laughed about how easy it was. They still did not deliver it Friday, when I called they said.......yup you guessed it, my address was wrong. I thought I was on candid phone. I asked them how this was such an issue because UPS had no problem the week before. We ended up getting it today, only 5 days after it was promised.

I contacted Macy's to ask about a refund on the shipping and their current response is that it doesn't meet the criteria for a refund because I provided a bad address. We are corresponding through email because getting a human on the phone is pretty much impossible. I wrote them back and told them that I did in fact give a correct address, the one that they deliver a bill to every month with no problems. I explained to them that it was not my problem they chose a delivery service with limited direction following ability. I am waiting to hear back from them!

With our few little misses I must say it was a great holiday and I enjoyed the day with my favorite K's!!!

Quotable Sunday

Well I am finally getting my days in order. I just realized yesterday was Saturday and not Friday. I did Fantasy Friday yesterday really thinking it was Friday but Toni and her Quotable Sunday has put me back on track.

This time of year is when people begin to think of resolutions and ways to make their lives better. I think we all want to start the new year out fresh and make improvements. This week my quotes are on motivation.

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
--Arthur C. Clarke

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
---Author Unknown

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
---Confucius

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.
---Winston Churchill

I really like the theme of being in control of your destiny and realizing that your actions or inaction takes you where you are. I really hope to stay more focused on what I want in life and taking the steps to get there.

If you have time you should share some of your favorite quotes. Just stop by Toni's to find out how. Enjoy your Sunday!

Fantasy Friday Hand BagCollection

Well it is Friday again, time for me to go off in fantasy la la land. Today's trip is to my fantasy handbag collection. How cool would it be to just order as many handbags in as many colors or styles as you wanted too? Well guess what today you can if you decide to join me in Fantasy Friday!!! Here are some of my picks:








Oh that shopping trip was so much fun and Keith will be so happy that it didn't touch the wallet at all. Go ahead you should try it. Which one do you like the best? Well after all that shopping I need a break! Enjoy your shopping!

Hot Liquid Drinkers Unite

Do you enjoy a cup of hot liqiud every now then, or even every day? Well my girls at SITS are having a great give away. It will defintly tickle the fancy of coffee, cocoa, hot tea drinkers every where. Just go check it out yourself here.

Busy Bees

I do love the holiday season, I feel the need to put that out there before I go into my mini rant here. It is so freaking busy EVERYWHERE. I feel like a little bee whose work will never get done. Work is crazy, I only had to work 2 days this week but wow, I packed alot of work into those two days. I had to leave my desk in shambles. Of course I had a couple of last minute things to take care of and every store is absolutely crowded. I like the feeling when I am out leasurely shopping but when I am on a mission to get something specific it is annoying. Kye has a fever, I needed to pick up some Motrin. It was like going into battle. Which brings me to my final gripe of the day. The express lane, SERIOUSLY people it says less than 20 items. Follow the rules, please. It is a system that woould work well if you would just follow the rules. Cashiers of said lanes become the police and lay down the express lane law. We need enforcers, I would of left in a much better mood if only everyone took the code of express lane as seriously as I do.

Oh well tomorrow is the last day and then it will be good times had by all!! I am done complaining and now going back to my regularly scheduled holiday spirit!

Quotable Sunday

Today is Sunday that means Toni is having Quotable Sunday. After you read mine you should go checkout hers and the others that particapates. This week I am going to focus on love because it is just something I need right now.

"You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her."
-Anon

"Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up."
-James Baldwin

"The best proof of love is trust."
-Joyce Brothers


"The art of love ... is largely the art of persistence."
-Albert Ellis


These are just great little reminders on how powerful and great love is. It also says that it is work and isn't always easy, it does take work.

Fantasy Friday Wedding Edition

Well last week I forgot all about Fantasy Friday. I do have an excuse, my family was in town and I was off work so that left me a little distracted. This week though I was all about dreams and fantasy. This week is my fantasy wedding. See when Keith and I got married 8 years ago it was at the justice of the peace. Nothing fancy at all, we were in the military and didn't even have family there. I used to be really insecure about the fact that we didn't have a huge wedding. Now I realize a wedding doesn't make a marriage and I am ok with our lunchtime wedding. I always said we would renew our vows on the 10 year mark with a huge ceremony and lots of people. I realize I was still trying to justify my marriage to everyone. Now I know that regardless of how we got married we are just as married as the next couple. Now I still want to renew our vows on our ten year anniversary but it will be a ceremony for Keith and I, whoever wants to come can but it will be our day. Now on to our fantasy wedding.........

I would love a pink dress


and pink flowers


with a pink cake


With pink table settings



a pink beach setting

Invisible Glasses

I really need to find where invisible glasses are sold. You know the kind you put them on and no one around you can see you. I know they exist because Keith has a pair. He has to, I mean he comes home from works and he can go to the bonus room and watch tv uninterrupted. The boys never bother him, never ask him anything and never go to him to tattle. It has to be because they just don't see him so they come to me to do all those things.

I will be in the bathroom taking care of business and they will walk passed him sitting on the couch to come bang on the bathroom door and yell through the door to ask for a drink. It really makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil. It just drives me crazy.

I don't think they have ever muttered the words "I'm hungry" to him, they tell me every 30 mins. I really do think he is invisible to them. The exception comes when it is time for fun stuff. Kye pretends to play his toy guitar when Keith is playing Guitar Hero. The other day he took off running upstairs telling me I am going to rock-n-roll with my dad. Then he went upstairs and said "You ready to rock dad".....
Kastan plays all kinds of games with Daddy.

I am the personal servant that has to enforce rules regarding homework, cleaning up and going to bed. I guess I wouldn't want to rock with me either. I could actually deal with that if I had at least one night with the invisible glasses!

Photo Tag

Lauren tagged me with a really funny tag.
The object of the picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same

NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)

Here is my number four picture, I actually got lucky because recently I got a new laptop so I don't have way old pictures. This one isn't even of me. It is Kastan and it is a picture from this summer when I took him to the Air and Space Museum in Hampton. It was a good, fun day.

What drives me crazy about this is the way he can not take a picture without a silly looking face, he is getting better but he was in the ugly picture face for a loooonnnggg time!

I am tagging.......
Tooj
Yaya
Jodi
Jess

I can't wait to see your 4th picture


.

Mother of the year award, I get it!

I breast fed Kye for 14 months and was a stickler for introducing foods at the prescribed time. I stayed away from the high allergy food until at least a year. Around a year I tried whole milk with him. He immediately broke out in hives all over. Reported to the doctor and she said it could be a sensitivity try soymilk. He also had the same reaction to peanut butter and eggs. The docotor said I could try them all again later to see if he would out grow them. After the reaction I was scared to try them again and just kept him on soy milk. Kye has eczema and has been itching a WHOLE lot. Today Daddy took him to the allergist for an allergy test. Guess what on of his biggest allergens is SOY. For the last 2 and half years I have been giving him soy, I have been causing him all the issues with scratching and being miserable. I feel like a jack-ass.

Other things that he is allergic to are eggs, nuts, mold, dogs and grass. The grass he is allergic to grows all year long here in Virginia. I am excited though that we now know what to do and what not to do. I just went through the cabinets and read the labels and I am so surprised at how many food have soy in them. It is like we have to start a whole new lifestyle for him.

Anyone have any tips on handling a soy allergy?

Is Mean the New Black?

Are any of you Survivor fans? I am a hit or miss fan but I did watch this season, it was pretty good just because it was different. I wasn't really attached to any one particular person so it was as exciting as some of my other shows that I develop an emotional connection with.

However I must say I was so turned off by one survivor's desire to be the bad guy. She was just down right mean and wanted to own it like it was cool. I just don't see how anyone can take pride in being mean. During the jury she threw in a really low blow to one of the other girls. I just don't get how that is ever ok.

She has a pretty face but just her actions and her attitude made her so trashy. I guess she might of been going for the villian role but instead she just came across as disgusting.

I hope to raise my boys in a way that they always respect people and would never take pride in being able to hurt someone.

Quotable Sunday

Today I am participating in Toni's Quotable Sunday. I am going through a lot of self healing and I think a majority of the progress comes from attitude, my quotes are based on attitude.

Carlos Castaneda:
The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

This has been such an eye opener for me when I realized how much effort I was spending on making myself miserable. Step one is too learn that you do truly own the power to have a good day.


Helen Keller:
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

This one is just a reminder to not get hung up on things we can not change and to roll with the punches. I do play the what if game a lot in my life and don't realize all the opportunities in front of me.

Dish Wish

OK I am really torn here because I really want to win this giveaway so I don't want anyone else to find out about it so I have a better chance but then if I blog about it I get extra entries which gives me a better chance at winning. I then remembered it is the holiday season which is about sharing so here I am telling you about a great giveaway. Jaci is giving away fiesta ware. Go check it out!

Well They're Gone

My family headed back home yesterday. I can't believe how fast the week they were here went. We did a lot of fun stuff and here is the week in pictures, enjoy!

Bitter Booties

With my family here I have been doing a lot of shopping, I mean a lot. I just seem to be getting the most rude and bitter sales people. I don't understand it. It seems like in our economy evey shopper and purchaser would be appreciated. I know it is the holiday season and things can get crazy but still. The way people are losing their jobs, having their hours cut, wouldn't a little customer service be helpful.

I was at Macy's yesterday and 3 different sales people in 3 different departments were just miserable and wanted to ensure everyone around them was also. The first lady was in the shoe department. She was put off when I asked her to get a certain pair of shoes for me to try. She actually walked over to a couple of other customers and said do you want me to get you anything since I have to go back. I guess my one pair of shoes wasn't worth the time or effort.

The next was at the jewelry counter, she really did not want to be there or want me there either. Asking to look at more than one piece was really a pain in her side. I mean I do understand that at the time I was the only customer so she could of been aimlessly watching the world pass if I wasn't there but still I did need to make a decision and a purchase!

The final lady was in customer SERVICE! She was in charge of the gift boxes and gift wrapping and wasn't afraid to let everyone know. I swear it was like a scene from a sitcom. She asked my sister how many items for gift wrapping and before she even got the answer out the lady snaps 4 is the limit. Then she asked how many boxes and you can imagine how that conversation went........downhill fast. My sister is 6 months pregnant and so not in the mood to play gift box derby. It was funny. I sat and watched this lady for a good 20 mins as we waited for the gift wrapping to be done and she was like this to every person that came in, even fellow employees.

I will say the two people at the sunglass counter was so helpful and full of the holiday spirit. They went out of there way to help an indecisive shopper (that would be me) and just full of spunk. Instead of one bad apple spoiling the bunch these two gave me hope that some where out there customer service is alive!


How has your shopping gone this season?

Break Ups

Have you ever had to break up with a friend? I have and it is such a weird process. I mean its not like when you have a break up with a boyfriend there is a big discussion or argument, your girlfriends comfort you and you get to eat lots of ice cream to pity yourself.

One time I had a friend, we were so-so friends but we did hang out. We used to live by each other and then we both moved and then we both moved again and ended up living close to each other again. During the moves she ended up getting a divorce and remarrying. When we renewed our friendship I met her new husband. He was just mean, that wouldn't of been a deal breaker except he was mean to her son. The Mommabear in me came out and I couldn't understand how she could let him be mean. So the break up began. I just stopped calling, didn't return her phone calls and just avoided her. Of course it was a slow process but finally she quit calling.

Sometimes I feel bad but I did try to have conversations with her about the situation but she just didn't get it. She would vent to me and tell me the things that would happen but she would not change it. Really I lost all respect for her.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, I am being broke up with. A friend has stopped the calls and doesn't return mine. I sent an email to ask what was up and the reason was lame. It was because when we were buying our house I didn't let her referr me to an agent so she could get a referral fee. Yes she through our friendship away over $100.00.

Really I am a good friend, I don't want you to get the wrong idea but I guess life happens.

So fun

I forget how much fun it is being with my sisters, they are in town and we have been hanging out, shopping, eating and I am loving it. I miss having them around all the time. I am so happy, I hope everyone gets the chance to hang out with their loved ones some this holiday seasons!

I promise a real blog coming soon!

Holiday Fun

I am sooo enjoying this holiday season, yes I knnow the economy is in the dumps. I haven't won the lottery so I am not out spending crazy money but I am enjoying it in a more grown-up mature way.

First of all my sisters, mom and niece are on their way down here as we speak. That truly makes me so happy, I love hanging out with them. I love the way our kids interact. We shop, eat lunch, watch movies and chit chat, it is the best time!

Now that I am embracing the life of a small town, I appreciate the small town activities. We had the holiday parade today and it was a blast. Kastan was in it for his school and their theme was "sugar plums dancing in our head". Here is a picture of him in his 15 mins of fame

Kye is really at a great age, he notices all the small things and it is refreshing. Reminds me of how happy life should be. Watching the different things go by it would crack me up on what he pointed out and what he was excited about. Here he is waiting for it to start.

Tonight they are having an outdoor viewing of the movie Elf on an inflatable screen and also campfire with holiday singing and smores. As much as I say I am embracing it is too cold to be out there but we walked by as they were setting up and it had the whole holiday vibe about it.

Tomorrow we are having an open house for all the shops on main street. These quaint shops are exactly what you picture when you thing of small town. After that there is the tree lighting and a visit and pictures with Santa.

It just feels like people are so much kinder and loving this time of year, I wished it lasted all year long.

Fantasy Friday

I am going to start something new for me, I am going to turn Fridays on my blog into Fantasy Fridays. This week it is off to a great vacation

I would love to spend my days here

Drinking lots of these

Having this for dinner

Spending the night dancing here

Coming back to a room like this


To do all kinds of sexy things with this guy



Come back next week for a new fantasy!