Just What The Family Ordered

2 Weeks Notice

2006-12-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

I was hired (and they knew about my subbing during the week)…knowing I would work weekends and possibly a Friday OR Monday (but not both days). I accepted the job, did the weeks worth of training, and got the TB test done and my badges for two of the hospitals. After all that…the schedule finally came out and that’s when I noticed that I would be working a four day weekend. That left me with 3 days during the week to sub. But wait…now if I wanted to have two days off that would only leave me with one day to sub. Not what I had planned. This weekend is my last…I gave my two weeks notice.

Ahhh New Toy

2006-12-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

Also...Alice finally did get her new toy!! She's swinging from as I type this post. Just wanted to let ya know...now back to what you were doing.

Online Shopping Here I Come

2006-12-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

I know someone that needs to get busy Christmas shopping. We’ve bought a few things for each kid…but for some reason, I’m just dragging it out. I need to get to the mall, during the daytime. I just haven’t had the time since Thanksgiving. Raye had a Christmas party with her friends and I’ve been busy with work. I was in a mad race trying to get the house decorated for the party. Now that that is over…time to get back to the lists. Oh and…stocking stuffers. OMG…I’ve got stuff to get mailed, too.

No Toy

2006-11-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

See the bird below? Yeah...I forgot to stop at the bird store. I really hate going in that place alone. The lady that works with the birds is a little scary.

We had pizza last night...so she got some pizza crust. She loves pizza crust. Don't feel to badly for her! LOL

I need to get up from here and get the rest of our Thanksgiving going.

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!!!

Alice...not Cooper

2006-11-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

Isn't she cool? She wants a new rope toy to pull apart...but we keep forgetting to buy one for her. Now that I'm working at the hospital...I drive by her favorite store. I just need to remind myself to STOP before getting on the freeway. So, hopefully tomorrow...Alice will have a new rope toy.

The New Job

2006-11-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is my first day...and I'm a bundle of freaking nerves. Why? I'm worried that I'll forget to say something or forget how to log in/out of the cart...transfer the photos, etc.

So...with that I'm going to take a shower and head to bed.

Girls and Clothes

2006-11-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

Raye loves the clothes from Justice Just For Girls. The other day she, yeah…Raye got a phone call from Justice telling HER about the Veteran’s Day sale! She got so excited!! I told her we’d go this weekend, but I wasn’t making any promises on what day we would actually go. They’ve got some really hip clothes for the younger girls.

Paige is here, she comes over every Sunday to do her laundry. For those of you that still don’t know, we’re like her 2nd parents, we’ve known her since she was four. She’s a sophomore at Southwestern. Paige wanted to go to Old Navy, because, you know she’s a girl and a girl can never have too many clothes. So, while her laundry was in the wash, we decided to go shopping. After we shopped for Raye at Justice, we walked next door to Old Navy to shop for Paige. I got nothing. Sad, I know, because Old Navy has got some cute jeans.

I told her when she goes home for the summer that she could leave her clothes here! LOL

White kids can't jump...no really they can't!

2006-11-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

All is loud in the A house tonight. I think the ceiling may fall in, because Raye and Dylan are up in his clean room playing basketball.

Dylan's clean room...

They must be having a blast up there, because all I hear is giggling and them bouncing off the floor, which is just above my head as I’m sitting here in the family room watching TV. I love nothing more than my kids all getting along with each other. That doesn’t happen often, but lately and I hesitate to say this, but lately, they all seem to be getting along a lot more than say 2 months ago.

Well, its bedtime and I need to make sure that all the homework is finished and back in the backpacks for tomorrow. I know Justin is finishing up some of his homework. I’m staying on top of everything this six weeks. Both of the boys decided to screw off a bit last six weeks.

ODD NEWS: Dylan’s AP just up and quit yesterday. Hmmm…

Time for harvest

2006-11-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

Are you still here? Yep, I told ya to stay tuned. Well, as you know, I removed all of the Halloween décor and threw it into the garage.

Today, I spent a few hours organizing the mess and finished putting the stuff back in their box and into our Halloween container. I had some help from Justin and Stephen, however, the majority of the work, I did on my own. Go me!

Now that all of the Halloween décor is put up, I can hang the harvest leaves up and the welcome pumpkin sign can go on the front door. That’s all of the harvest décor that I have, with the exception of a few gourds that I’ve collected over the years.

Oh and our singing turkey!!

Until next year

2006-11-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

I didn’t want to be the last person in the neighborhood to take down their Halloween decorations. I was taking Justin to school on Wednesday morning and one of the more decorated houses had their things picked up, nothing was in site. I think witches live there. LOL!!!

So, today after I picked Justin up from school, I decided it was now or never. I really didn’t have the energy to deal with it; I would have rather rolled up on the sofa with a soft blanket and taken a nap. But alas, I’m the adult in the house tonight and the crap needed to be taken down.

As of 6:00pm, every Halloween decoration had been removed to the garage. Now the garage is a different story. Stay tuned.

Don't Trump the Trump

2006-11-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

Yep, you signed it when you bought your house. That is if you bought in one of the newer subdivision or in a fancy area of town.

I remember like it was yesterday. It was the summer of 1990, a hot and humid day and with a mortgage brokers ink pen we signed the papers to our first house. It was that quick. It doesn’t seem to be that big of an issue, as we could put one of those wooden poles on the house and hang a flag a month on it, but in signing those papers, we lost the right to have a modest flag pole to support our countries flag in our yard.

I drive through the older neighborhoods and get goose bumps seeing the patriotism. It’s just not the same, our countries flag belongs on a flag pole in the yard. Not hanging sideways on a piece of wood that’s attached to your garage.

Go Mr. Trump!!!

Happy Halloween

2006-10-31T13:52:00.000-08:00

From pumpkins past...

Howl O Ween

2006-10-30T18:27:00.000-08:00

No, they aren’t our pets…our cats would be really pissed off if we dressed them up. We have, however, taped their feet for entertainment. Not duct tape…just regular old scotch tape. It did not harm them at all…they are purrrfectly fine.

I'm here

2006-10-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

So, When I'm not here...I'll be here!!

Fax it over

2006-10-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Just thought you should know that I'm TB free.

Training starts for the photography job in about a week.

Carry on...

I have a new love

2006-10-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

I bought these today to wear while working at the hospital. Yeah, I do have other shoes that I could wear...but a girl can always use another pair of cute shoes!

Their network was installed by a monkey

2006-10-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, so ya’ll know that I worked for a small family owned real estate office. For some reason, I started to think about them today and it wasn’t because I missed the living hell out of them. It was because I really love doing what I do now. I couldn’t be happier!!

For starters, my computer knowledge was used (some of you may guffaw at that comment, that’s alright). I’d seriously like to know how you can become (or be a veteran) a real estate agent and not know your way around a computer? How can you not know how to save a picture to a folder? How can you not know how to make a flyer? My favorite one was…how can you not know how to resize a picture for your own website? They knew nothing and it drove me insane on a daily basis. Huge pet peeve was three agents coming to me constantly and asking me for help, to resize their photos and email them out to their clients and upload them to their sites.

While I’m at it, I really enjoyed doing the work (credit checks and employment/rental verifications) of their leasing agent (daughter) and not being paid any type of commission. I did two thirds of the work she should have done for leasing a house all the while she sat over on her side of the office revamping her MySpace. She couldn’t even figure that out by herself! She’s an obnoxious a cow!

The majority of the calls that I answered for the office were for her. She should have had her own number for the leasing side of the business, but that would have meant for her to work. God forbid! Being the owners daughter meant you could show up when you felt like it, leave when you wanted, and stay gone for as long as you wanted during your lunch hour. What a life! She will never be able to work in the real world. As long and mom is there to catch her every fall.

For a real estate office, you would think that they knew how to manage and market themselves. There was no reason for them to have hired me, other than their daughter didn’t want to do ~~everything~~ anything.

Working for them was just lovely!!!

to blog or not to blog

2006-10-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

I'd like it to be my decision...so I'll be moving my blog back to my MT blog soon. That way I can blog and not worry about the server going down. Yeah, I know...blogger is free. Blah blah blah!!!

Another hat to wear

2006-10-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

I applied for and was offered a photography position with a company that takes newborn photos. It's just a tiny part time position...works for the time I'm available. I'll get to wear scrubs and tennis shoes!!

The only draw back is...tomorrow I'll have that dreaded TB test.

Monday Monday

2006-10-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

How did you sleep last night? Last night was an awfully short night of no sleep for me. I went to bed around 11:00 pm, that’s pretty early for me. I even remember falling to sleep pretty quickly, but I didn’t sleep. I never made it to that deep dark realm sleep. I’m hoping that tonight brings a long peaceful deep sleep. I’m begging the sleep fairy!! Please let me sleep tonight!

:::violent rant ahead:::

Also…I’m so tired of hearing Stephen cough and snore; I swear if he coughs and snores tonight I will ~~push~~ kick him off the bed! He’s been warned!

:::end violent rant:::

Hope everyone has a good nights sleep!!!

This weekend:

2006-10-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

~ Raye made the A-B honor roll for the 1st nine weeks!!! She was beyond thrilled.

~ She can do a round off back hand spring. She wants to start competitive cheer now that she can do that.

~ Raye is a Timberwolf pack pup for our high school! She gets to run through the tunnel after the football players and cheerleaders during home games.

~ We went to the football game…Friday Night Lights, babe!!! Texas style! We won!

~ We went to the Renaissance Fair on Saturday. Raye ran all over the place, she had a great time!

~ Texas beat Nebraska!

~ We went to Whole Foods today.

He's home!!

2006-10-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

My neighbor’s son is home from Iraq.

Ross and a few of his friends graduated high school after 9-11 and still joined the Marines. I believe he’s been in the military for two, maybe three years now. Even though he’s not my biological child, I still worry about him. We've known him since he was in middle school.

How do I know he’s home? I heard him leaving the house this morning…with the radio in his truck blasting 70’s tunes!!

His dad is throwing a party to welcome him and his friends home. (His mom passed away before me moved into our house...she never lived in the house next door.)

Welcome home Ross!!

New Season

2006-10-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying the new season of The Bachelor Rome.

It's been fun seeing all the historical locations we saw in June and July on our cruise. We flew into Rome the day before our cruise, dropped our luggage off at our hotel, we walked to the nearest tobacco stand and bought our public transportation tickets for the day. Everyone spoke English, but the signs were not in English…so finding our way to the right bus/train stop was a little bit of a challenge, although fun. Earlier in the planning stages of our trip, I made reservations for the Vatican that afternoon (yes, after flying ten hours, we went on a 4 hour WALKING tour)…we made it with time to spare. With blisters on our feet we spent nearly four hours touring the Vatican. Not nearly enough time!!

I guess what I’m saying is…watching The Bachelor Rome is brining back such great memories of our trip. A trip I want to make again!!!

It's Costume Time

2006-10-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

Raye picked out her Halloween costume today. This year she’s going as a devil.

This was last year.

Dallas Filet

2006-10-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner tonight. Dylan’s wanted to go there since he saw the foundation poured. It was better than what I remembered. If I was to rank it, it was much better than Texas Land and Cattle, but not as good as the Salt Lick. Price wise, it was perfect for our family!! We brought home half a rack of ribs for Justin…he wasn’t feeling well when we left and decided to stay home. I secretly think he stayed home so that he could bake the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies alone! I’m not sure if I mentioned this or not, Justin’s taking culinary arts this year as an elective.

I did it!

2006-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

I know, I know…I didn’t write the code myself. But, I did have to revamp it a tiny bit to be the way I wanted. I’m still updating my links and adding more fun stuff to the side. Oh if anyone knows of any Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas free templates…please point me in that direction!!!

Getting hungry

2006-10-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

Our teachers get a planning/conference period, however, if you’re a sub, you may not get to enjoy the free time. I don’t really mind being sent to another room to cover for a teacher that doesn’t have a sub. I actually like making the rounds. So, today I had a note on my folder to spend 3rd in the German classroom. Fine, no problem…so I thought. I went to the Spanish classroom, read my sub notes and saw that I would have lunch at 12:45pm, I texted Stephen to let him know. If he’s in town, he’ll come have lunch with me. Two 90 minute Spanish classes came and left before I had to move to the next class. The bell rang and I head to the German classroom and waited for the kids to arrive…finally one showed up and informed me that this is their lunchtime. Its 11:55am OH CRAP! So I called Stephen and told him…he put a rush on our order and made it to the school…for me to enjoy my last 10 minutes of lunch.

TGIF...the 13th

2006-10-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

Anything exciting happen to you on this Friday the 13th?

Nothing out of the ordinary here, Stephen flew home from FL. I subbed Spanish and German. The kids went to school.

Raye’s school had their annual transportation day parade this morning. Frankly, it’s one of the reasons I hate living on this corner. We live across the street from the school…on transportation day…many types of transportation vehicles arrive at the school…very early in the morning. The kids have a great time crawling through the ambulance, fire truck, and the police car. The hook and ladder truck is the main event, they extend the ladder and shower the opposite end of the parking lot with the water from the hose. The kids love it!!!

It has been a long week

2006-10-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

My friend Audra mentioned how long this week has been.

I agree it’s been long!!! We were off Monday for Columbus Day...and I think that threw me for the rest of the week.

I’ve subbed Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. I’m subbing tomorrow, too. I’ve had classes in Art, Multi Media, English and ICAP (Sped) and tomorrow I’ll be in Spanish. Hola!

I haven't slept well this week at all. Early this morning I was up at 5:30am. I don't need to be up until 6:50am. YAWN!!

Here's hoping that tonight’s sleep will be restful and peaceful!!!

I hope this weekend goes by rather slow.

French Riviera ~ July 4, 2006

2006-10-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

During our 12 day Mediterranean cruise we made many stops and on July 4th, we celebrated on the French Riviera. We were a little late tendering into Cannes, because we were told only Carnival tours were allowed to leave early and we didn’t book our tour through them. We met and became friends with several people on a cruise website. A couple from Memphis, found and booked a private tour for this stop and we joined them along with another couple from the site.

Once we were able to tender into Cannes, we found our driver and the other couple and headed off for our all day tour of the area. We stopped in Eze for a quick tour of the medieval village.

Our driver dumped us off and told us where to go and how long we could visit the village. There’s a lot of history!! As we made our way back and got into the car, our driver said, I’ve got a surprise for you! I did a lot of research for our trip, but, I'd never heard of this place. So, this was my favorite surprise while on our tour in France.

You can see the medieval village right above Fragonard.

I bought several products while we were there. I would love to be a nose, but, that’ll never happy, since I love spicy foods!!! I could have spent all day in the store!!

I have so much to say about our tour, but just wanted to quickly tell you about a product that I bought and use daily. I highly recommend this make up remover.

Burn, Blister and Bruise

2006-10-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

What do they have in common?

ME!

Wanna know why?

This morning I burnt the back of my neck with the curling iron, while getting ready for work.

My sweet leather Keds gave me 3 blisters on my wittle toes. I got to visit the school nurse.

And to top it all off I thought I cleared the door enough when I was leaving the Art building…I didn’t. I'll have a beauty of a bruise on my right arm for tomorrow.

All in HALF a days work. That's right...I only worked HALF the day.

It's a keeper

2006-10-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

I put this together last night for breakfast this morning.

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 8 hours
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
Praline Topping, recipe follows
Maple syrup

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Praline Topping:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

COOKS NOTE: OMG this dish was delish...even without the praline topping. I didn't make the topping...I had the ingredients, but didn't feel like it this morning.

Lost and Found

2006-10-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

Lost...one Starbucks gift card worth $25.

I would have sworn that I'd given it to Stephen. No, I did swear that I gave the gift card to Stephen. No, I mean, I was pretty darn sure that Stephen had it, not me! He was so worked up about it that he dug through the garbage can. He didn’t find the gift card, but he did find one of our dinner knives.

I asked Stephen to bring me my calendar earlier this evening…and it fell out on the floor, the gift card, right there in front of Stephen. He didn’t have the gif card.

I did!

Found...one Starbucks gift card worth $25 in my 18-month calendar.

Tasted Like...

2006-10-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

Honestly, it tasted like baked chicken. I do solemnly swear never to bake a pumpkin pie again.

Seriously

2006-10-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Your Scholastic Strength Is Developing Ideas

You can take a spark of inspiration and turn it into a full fledged concept.

You are talented at brainstorming, visualizing, organizing, and independent thinking.

You should major in:

Natural sciences

Computer science

Creative writing

Math

Architecture

Journalism

What Should You Major In?

No Doubt

2006-10-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

You Belong in Summer

Energetic, creative, and very curious about the world...
You're not going to let anything hold you back, especially a cold day.
Whether you're chilling out at the beach or partying all night, you live for the warm weather.

What Season Are You?

Hook'em Horns

2006-10-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

Longhorns 28- Sooners 10

Nuff Said...

Smell That?

2006-10-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

No, no one cut the cheese.

It's pumpkin pie!!!

A few days ago, I promised Raye that I would bake her a pumpkin pie. I found the infamous can of pumpkin in the pantry, but needed a few more things. So, today I ran to the store for the ingredients.

I preheated the oven...and 45 minutes later Stephen was pulling this amazing smelling pie out.

I’ve baked sweet potato pies, but never a pumpkin pie...so I'll let you know how it tasted.

Here Kitty Kitty

2006-10-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Spike and Smokey have roamed freely in the house with out their collars...for years.

While we were working out in the garage last weekend, Spike ran out of it. Ooops! He didn’t go too far and turned around and headed back to the front door. Crazy cat!

Have you ever put tape on a cat’s foot? Yeah, I know, but it was free entertainment. Well, try putting a collar back on a collarless cat. You think they walked funny with taped up feet?

Family Update

2006-10-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Justin's 15 1/2 and in 10th grade this year...I know...don't remind me. He grew up way to fast. He's having a great year so far!

Dylan's 13 and in 8th grade this year...thankfully this is his last year at the middle school. He's doing great this year, too!

Raye's 8 and in 3rd grade this year...yes, I know...seems like preschool was yesterday. She's amazing!! She's loving 3rd grade!!!

We still have the zoo here. Beau, Buttercup, Spike, Smokey, Alice, and Pip...plus the many fishtanks!

We're still camping, all though, we didn't camp alot over the summer, due to my "cough" job "cough" and our 12 day cruise. Our cruise was out of this world!! I will get some pictures posted!!!

I'm no longer working said job (if you want the truth...beep me)...I went back to subbing. I added middle and high school to my list of availability. I love subbing!

Stephen is as busy as ever...still at Panasonic, even though he's been treated like crap. He's surviving!!!

I think that's all of our recent updates.

Under Construction

2006-10-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

Constant state of link upgrades!

I'm in the process of adding blog links.

If you're not linked yet...and want to be let me know.

I've got to hit the shower...then the bed.

"Yawn"

Howdy Ho Neighbor

2006-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I've been here...actually it's been a long time since I've blogged period.

I'm hoping to blow the dust off of this thing and get moving again.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T21:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not new to blogging. I've actually blogged on and off for several years.

I'm thinking about moving over...back to blogger, though.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Testing

2005-12-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

Ok...so, it is late and I'm tired of coming up with super cool names and then can't use them...because someone faster snagged it frist.

Eh, whatever! HA