april showers...

Musical Monologue

2009-11-08T13:31:00.000-05:00

Life is crap.

2009-11-07T01:57:00.004-05:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I really just had no idea what to say. I've had so much happen over the past few months. We lost our baby, Shawn's job was cut back, Abbey started school, and our house flooded. Yeah. My life has been on the sucky side. I must say I've grown quite fond of the Life is crap line of stuff that mocks Life is good. I can relate.
I'm trying to get motivated to get back to into life and come out of my bubble that I've been living in the past few months. Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

(okay, I was trying to find a life is crap tshirt/logo pic to put here, but my stupid internet isn't working. Maybe later) <----see.....crap

A poem

2009-07-19T18:42:00.001-04:00

I found this on the internet last week and it made me feel better, so now I'm sharing it with you.

WHAT MAKES A MOTHER?

Written by Jennifer Wasik
In memory of Zachery Wasik.

I thought of you and closed my eyes
And prayed to God today
I asked "What makes a Mother?"
And I know I heard Him say.

"A Mother has a baby"
This we know is true
"But God can you be a Mother,
When your baby's not with you?"

"Yes, you can," He replied
With confidence in His voice
"I give many women babies,
When they leave is not their choice.

Some I send for a lifetime,
And others for the day.
And some I send to feel your womb,
But there's no need to stay."

"I just don't understand this God
I want my baby to be here."
He took a deep breath and cleared His throat,
And then I saw the tear.

"I wish I could show you,
What your child is doing today.
If you could see your child's smile,
With all the other children and say...

'We go to Earth to learn our lessons,
Of love and life and fear.
My Mommy loved me oh so much,
I got to come straight here.

I feel so lucky to have a Mom,
Who had so much love for me.
I learned my lessons very quickly,
My Mommy set me free.

I miss my Mommy oh so much,
But I visit her every day.
When she goes to sleep,
On her pillow's where I lay

I stroke her hair and kiss her cheek,
And whisper in her ear.
Mommy don't be sad today,
I'm your baby and I'm here.'

"So you see my dear sweet ones,
your children are okay.
Your babies are born here in My home,
And this is where they'll stay.

They'll wait for you with Me,
Until your lesson's through.
And on the day that you come home
they'll be at the gates for you.

So now you see what makes a Mother,
It's the feeling in your heart
it's the love you had so much of
Right from the very start

Though some on earth may not realize,
you are a Mother.
Until their time is done.
They'll be up here with Me one day
and know that you are the best one!"

What ever happened to.....

2009-05-19T22:03:00.001-04:00

I was grocery shopping at Ingles today and noticed something odd as a prize from a Frosted Cheerios box....A coupon for a free haircut! What ever happened to the cool toy prizes we used to get as a kid??

Mommy, can I change my name...

2009-05-07T13:18:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a very eventful day. It started as I woke up that morning, soon to be met by horrible thunderstorms and tornado warnings. The scary part was the thunder that would just keep thundering beyond the normal few seconds that had me second guessing if it was actually thunder. Not fun. After all that excitement ended, I went to my moms and put together her new grill, for that I should get a medal. Not because I was nice to put it together, but because it was tough to put together. Finally, after dinner without Shawn (he worked late), Abbey and I went to the gym. I ran my 3.1 miles in the start of my prep for my upcoming 5k that I still haven't signed up for yet. That's today's to do list.
After leaving the gym, Abbey had a dilemma. She has a friend at the gym named Aurora, just like Sleeping Beauty. Abbey was quite upset that she didn't have a Disney princess name and wanted to know why I didn't name her after a Disney princess. She continued to ask which princess she could change her name to and to hurry because she has to tell her friend her new name when we got to the gym the next time. Ugh, I hate deadlines!

One more thing, I googled "Asheville chamber 5k" and my husbands blog came up on the first page! He was excited, how funny is that!

Abbey hearts Sierra!

2009-05-02T01:23:00.002-04:00

We are HUGE Survivor addicts. Really. Never miss an episode. Imagine our delight when our 5 year old actually wants to watch it with us! She sat down and watched it one night and immediately started cheering on this 23 year old girl named Sierra. Why? Because Abbey thought her name was beautiful. Every Thursday since then, she loyaly watches with us and cheers Sierra on through the challenges and tribal council. Until tonight. Sierra was voted out. Abbey cried for 5 minutes. Really cried. This is the reason reality tv and 5 year olds don't mix.

Abbey will miss you, Sierra!

Trying to readjust to normal life.

2009-03-24T16:12:00.003-04:00

It seems like just yesterday that I was cruising to exotic destinations, no responsibilities, everything I could possibly want at my fingertips...Sigh...It's been so hard readjusting. I'm so disorganized at the moment, and if you know me, you know that is definitely not me. I'm extremely organized. I'm still not unpacked. I just can't get motivated to put the last few things away. Or to do anything for that matter. I miss vacation.

Which moron thought of this dumb idea???

2009-03-05T17:14:00.002-05:00

I'm shopping at Target and come across the Nad's wax kit and think, you know, that might be neat to try just once. Maybe I won't even have to shave as often on my cruise. I even found a guinia pig to try it on first, the hubby. Yes, he agreed to let me try it on a small area of chest hair. He didn't flinch and I thought to myself, I gave birth and I'm tougher than the hubby. Time to do the legs. Let me just say, there was not enough liquor in the house for me to do more than about 3 square inches of ONE leg. Enough said.

PS...Shawn now thinks that because he could handle the "waxing trial", he's now capable of handling getting a tattoo. We'll see.

Where has the time gone?

2009-03-02T20:47:00.002-05:00

So, I just noticed it has been a month since my last post. It doesn't feel that long, but a lot has happened that has kept me away from the computer. First was Abbey's birthday, which was great. Next, she got sick with pink eye (in both eyes). Boy, that was SOO much fun. Notice the sarcasm. Then, 2 days after finishing her medication, she got sick again! I almost decided to just move into her doctor's office. During this time, Shawn and I booked our cruise, which we leave for on Friday. Yay! Oh, and one of the most exciting (under the cruise) is that we finally got some snow! We got a little over 4 inches last night. Here is a video of Abbey and I sledding down our hill. Fun!!

You know your a Nobody when...

2009-02-09T22:35:00.002-05:00

I was reading the Fox News Celebrity post about the new Dancing with the Stars when something struck me as hilarious. Usually when reading the list of names you see mostly B listed celebrities with the occasional famous one (or two) like Jewel and Lil Kim. But this line was hilarious:

*Gilles Marini, who played the neighbor ogled by Kim Cattrall's Samantha in the "Sex and the City film"

You know your a Nobody when you have to explain who you played with great detail...

Yay, me!

2009-02-04T20:42:00.002-05:00

I've been really good this week at getting back to my gym routine of 4 times a week. Today's run (4 miles) made #3 and tomorrow will be #4. Go me! Especially since I practically dragged myself to the gym tonight in below zero weather (thanks to the wind). It snowed in Asheville/Madison yesterday, but yet again we barely got a dusting. I'm not even taking the time to put pictures it was so pathetic.
We are getting REALLY excited about our cruise! We got some of our travel docs in the mail today along with our luggage tags. As soon as Abbey's bday party is over, it will be time to plot and plan our trip! It's been a happy day!

Exhausted Rambling.

2009-02-03T18:41:00.002-05:00

It's been a busy few days. I've already made the chocolate candy strawberries for Abbey's cake, and I'm now working on her birthday outfit (via iron on strawberry shortcake) that I'm sewing. I'm also embroidering towels for fun and listening to Shawn drill countless holes in the wall to hang my super broom. I guess I also have to now patch about 6 holes in the wall. I finally made it to the gym in the morning (I have been going at night) and with my busy day today, I'm exhausted.

Girly, the turtle

2009-01-29T20:29:00.004-05:00

Abbey loved my turtle. So much, in fact, that she wanted a large one just like mine. She even named it before I made it, Girly. She names everything Girly.

In other new, Tad the tadpole has passed on... I think next I'll get a goldfish.

Shawn and I are going on a cruise in March! Yay! We're going to Belize, Honduras, and Cozumel, Mexico. I'm so excited! We're going to see the Mayan ruins! And by ourselves! Yay, couple time!

I've also started knitting again, and have sewn/embroidered a lot this week. I love my sewing machine!

My Sea Turtle

2009-01-23T17:16:00.003-05:00

I finally finished my sea turtle, I bought the fabric months ago but just got around to making him. Abbey loves him and is begging for me to make her one as well.

I think I'll name him Seaweed. Now I've got to make him a baby (for Abbey).

Water, Ice, Snow....and other stuff!

2009-01-21T12:47:00.008-05:00

So, I've been hibernating inside for the past few days, due to the "snow" (I quote them because it really shouldn't even qualify) and (main reason) extremely freezing temperatures. We got about an inch of snow, just enough for Abbey to play in but not enough to satisfy me. It started last Friday with the temperature only reaching 22 degrees, although colder with the windchill. It was below zero with the wind at night! This caused one of our pipes to freeze on Saturday morning. It also let to the ground shifting and therefore busting our water meter that is in the ground. That was loads of fun. Lucky for us, it was the city's property and they had to fix it. At 10:00 at night. In freezing temperatures. Fun.

I finally got my new sewing machine. I'm so excited because it embroiders on it's own! I'm also in the process of completing a few craft projects that I'll post soon.

That's pretty much all that's going on in my life....

I need a cardboard cookie....

2009-01-17T12:32:00.004-05:00

In case you haven't noticed....look up. Not at the ceiling, the top of my blog page. Notice anything different?? That's right, my very own custom designed picture/header thingy. I'm very proud of that (for you web design gurus, don't laugh...). I was actually in the picture, holding Abbey's hand while walking her up the street. My awesome hubby introduced me to the clone tool on Photoshop (my next best bud next to Google) and I proceeded to perfect the picture. I actually spent 2 hours last night perfecting it. (Glows with glee!)

I've got a list of "want to do's" today, starting with watching the Netflix movies that I need to send back. We're also behind of laundry, and I REALLY want to change the bedroom around. I'm NOT leaving the house today. It is freakin' cold! I think the high today is like 32 or something (yesterdays high was 22, low 5--not including windchill!). So, that's pretty much my day. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Oh, and Shawn says I need a cardboard cookie....;)

STUPID PEOPLE & Birthday Parties

2009-01-16T14:37:00.002-05:00

Not to be confused with stupid people AT birthday parties....I'm so glad that I'm in control of my own blog. I have complete authority to NOW approve any comment left from a certain STUPID PERSON who keeps "blog-o-marketing" (I really like that word) my comments. So, there, STUPID PERSON, I win....HAHA. (Now that I got that out of my system).

I let Abbey pick out her birthday plates and napkins/etc today. WOW, I forgot how expensive everything was (of course, I spent half of it on balloons). She always picks the ones that cannot be found at walmart, so I have to go to the expensive party store. Oh, well....You only turn 5 once. Which, by the way, she (on her own) chose Strawberry Shortcake, which is exactly the same as I had for my 5th birthday party.

Don't you hate it when....

2009-01-15T16:40:00.003-05:00

....you decide you really want to have , you decide you're going to cook it for dinner.....only to find out you're missing a key ingredient that there is no substitution for? Well, that's what happened to me today. Fortunately for me, I realized this at 2pm, instead of 5. I wanted pancakes. With scrambled eggs. And turkey bacon. Yum!! Only, I didn't have my trusty Bisquick box from which to cook. Lucky for me, I'm best buds with Google. Did you know that most homemade pancake recipes need buttermilk? Don't have that either. I did, however stumble onto http://www.breakfast-and-brunch-recipes.com/easypancakerecipe.html and found a super easy (and healthy) homemade yogurt pancake recipe which had stuff I always have on hand (minus the baking soda, but Google stepped in again and gave me a substitute). So I tried it around 3, just in case I need a back-up plan. Luckily, it's pretty tasty. In fact, I've now added it to my cookbook.

......you see you've got a comment from a newbie to your blog, only to discover it's really like the blog-o-marketers leaving a link to their blog with a reference to something you've never even blogged about (aka snake wine). I find this really irritating. FYI if you're going to link to your own blog, at least take the time to read the post and reference something that I actually typed! He HAS been deleted. =P

....you suffer through all this freezing weather (I know, so do you) and don't even get the reward of a dusting of snow.... Just saying.....

If I had a million dollars....

2009-01-13T18:58:00.004-05:00

So I was checking my email while talking to Shawn (who was in another room) when I opened an email.....and screamed "oh, my god"!!! Shawn comes running into the tv room wondering what part of my body I had chopped off. Instead, he finds my drooling over an email update from NKOTB Fan club....apparently, they are going to have a NKOTB Cruise in May. I know, exciting, right!! Well, I guess I'm the only one in my house who thinks so. Shawn says I can go with my girlfriends when we win the millions from the lottery.

On another note, while visiting family over Christmas, I had the chance to read several books I'd been putting off. I finally got the chance to read, "Are you there vodka, it's me, Chelsea" . This book was so funny! It read like a girlfriend sharing her stories with you and I laughed so much! Chelsea Handler is a comedian, who also had Comedy Central's Girls Behaving Badly show, for those who don't know. So, if you haven't read it, add it to your list! It's great!

Karma, baby, Karma

2009-01-12T15:47:00.004-05:00

You know, the news IS depressing....wars everywhere, murders, robberies....It really makes you wonder about the world we live in. However, every now and then, karma steps in....

Did you hear about the Somali Pirates? The ones who hijacked an oil tanker for ransom (something like $3 million)? Well, in case you weren't keeping track, they've been hijacking stuff for a while (even tried to hijack a cruise ship!) Anywho, Karma finally stepped in. As the pirates were leaving in a little boat with their millions, the boat overturned and they drowned. With their millions. Karma's a bitch.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479168,00.html

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-09T12:53:00.002-05:00

So, I'm a little late with the resolutions (and with a blog post). But lots have happened, including the passing of our beloved teacher, Mr. Fullington. Last night, Jaime and I went to his memorial service at Erwin High (my, how I miss high school, no adult responsibilities, no bills...). It was a wonderful service as it truly encompassed the man. I truly felt like he could be sitting right there, smiling and laughing (and tearing up) with the rest of us. While sitting there, listening to the words of the song, "I'll follow the sun", I came up with another item for my list.

April's New Year Resolutions

1. Add a few of Mr. Fullington's favorites to my song list--I think the best way to remember him is to be able to pass down the love of music (which I already have) to my daughter and future children. Not just listening to the music, but to teach her to know what the lyrics are about. So often, as busy as we get, we sing the words without really LISTENING to the meaning...I'm going to change that.

2. Finish my mosaic turtle (that I've been working on for a year now sporadically)

3. Continue running 5K's and maybe another 8k

4. Get back into my routine of going to the gym 4 days a week (that I've seemed to not do over the holidays)

5. Try to be more patient with things I can't control.

6. De clutter (waayyy to much stuff in the house!)

7. Be more optimistic.

One thing I don't have to put on the list, because I'm already thankful for it, is to have such great friends. Two friends, in particular, that no matter how far apart we live or how busy our lives get.....Have always been there (since like middle school!) and always will be....I'm realizing that our friendship is a rare one, not everyone keeps in touch after high school.....and for that, I'm thankful!

Attention passengers...the Captain has turned on the seatbelt sign...

2009-01-03T18:04:00.007-05:00

My daughter takes after me, personality wise, and is always working to perfect her perfectionism. She always wants to be aware of what's going on, much like myself. That being said, our time spent on the airplanes have pretty much become routine.

Stewardess: Please review your emergency manual in the pocket in front of you.

Abbey grabs the emergency manual and begins studying all the pictures (because she can't read). This usually happens for about 10 minutes, and then she goes on to other things, like coloring.

BUT NOT THIS TIME.....

This time, she had a few questions.......

"Why are they opening the door?"
"Are we going to watch someone jump out of the airplane?"

"Are they going to let us go swimming?"

If I'm ever on a plane that's crashing, I'm following my 4 year old!!

I'm being lazy...here's another funny email

2009-01-01T21:38:00.001-05:00

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES (That Really Work!)

1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU SLICE.
2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.
3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.
4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.
5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.
6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.
7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

DAILY THOUGHT:SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES - NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.

The Silver Screw

2008-12-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, a young lad was born without a belly button. In its place was a silver screw. All the doctors told his mother that there was nothing they could do.Like it or not, he was stuck with it ..... He was screwed. All the years of growing up were real tough on him, as all who saw the screw made fun of him. He avoided ever leaving his house.... And thus, never made any friends.
One day, a mysterious stranger saw his belly and told him of a swami in Tibet who could get rid of the screw for him. He was thrilled. The next day, he took all of his life's savings and bought a ticket to Nepal . After several days of climbing up steep cliffs, he came upon a giant monastery. The swami knew exactly why he had come. The screwy guy was told to sleep in the highest tower of the monastery and the following day when he awoke, the screw would have been removed. The man immediately went to the room and fell asleep. During the night while he slept, a purple fog floated in an open window. In the mist floated a solid silver screwdriver. In just moments, the screwdriver removed the screw and disappeared out the window.
The next morning when the man awoke, he saw the silver screw laying on the pillow next to him. Reaching down, he felt his navel, and there was no screw there! Jubilant, he leaped out of bed ...... And his butt fell off.
The moral to this story : 'Don't screw around with things you don't understand --You could lose your ass.

HO..HO...HO...

2008-12-19T17:14:00.001-05:00

the "bribed with ice cream" smile

Before I go...

2008-12-19T14:10:00.003-05:00

I'm supposed to be leaving today for Charlotte, where we will spend the night and fly out tomorrow. I'm normally soooo organized, however, for some reason I just can't seem to get it together this time. I still have some packing to do and we're supposed to be leaving in a couple of hours. Needless to say, here I am, instead of packing...

I wanted to show everyone the Christmas dress that I made Abbey and her doll that Santa is bringing her for Christmas. I finally completed them which I'd been working on for a couple of weeks (Procrastinating). I also made an Ariel dress for my niece.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

The Over 30 Crowd...

2008-12-16T15:13:00.003-05:00

I received this in an email and could TOTALLY relate....Jaime and Stephanie, this is soooo us!!!

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!! When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears With their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning ... Uphill... barefoot...

BOTH ways Yadda, yadda, yadda And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, There was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of Thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my Childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you Don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the damn library and Look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write Somebody a letter, with a pen!

...Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! There were no MP3' s or Napsters! You wanted to Steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you Were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, Your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you Just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video Games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games Like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You Actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or Screens, it was just one screen Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting Harder and harder and Faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a Little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it Came to channel surfing! You had to get off Your ass and walk over to the TV to change the Channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons On Saturday Morning. Do you Hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK For cartoons, you spoiled Little rat-bastards! And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat Something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that! (Now, we did have a microwave at our house)

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids Today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted Five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

Gingerbread Houses and Pyschological Testing...

2008-12-11T13:31:00.007-05:00

One of our family Christmas traditions is to buy a gingerbread house kit and let Abbey decorate it (we have to help with the icing, of course). I noticed how you could see some of her personality traits reflected on her gingerbread house. For instance, she's very orderly. Things are to be lined up together. She also likes to look at the pictures on the box and copy them. She's very detail oriented as well.

I then wondered....what would a gingerbread house look like if made by....say.....Jeffrey Dauhmer? Or Charles Manson? Or any other serial killer? Well....leave it to google....

The scary part of this is that the above were made by children....Meet the future serial killers of America.....

There are some others (adult made) on this website: http://www.gingerbreadghetto.com/gingerbread_serial_killer_h.html

me as a kid....

2008-12-09T23:10:00.002-05:00

Haiku Friday

2008-12-05T12:38:00.002-05:00

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Continued......

I'm glad I don't have
The disease of the liver
Like Mary Poppins.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

2008-12-03T15:43:00.002-05:00

I've had the stomach flu for the past few days and have felt a little guilty for not updating my blog. So, here's a small attempt. I loved this Mary Poppins skit on SNL.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

The Parrot

2008-11-26T00:01:00.002-05:00

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep, was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the Freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."
John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, when the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

I'll be out of town through the weekend, I'm going to visit my family in SC (yay!). I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Crazy Life

2008-11-23T19:09:00.004-05:00

This past week (and the coming week) has been pretty crazy and hectic. First, Abbey had several appointments last week (all on different days). She's started speech therapy to help her with some of the consonant sounds that's she's not developing on her own. She has it at her school that she'll be starting next fall, which has introduced me to the madhouse it is around the time school lets out. Parents line up 45 minutes before school even lets out! What ever happened to just driving up, pick up your kid, and driving off? I guess she'll just be one of the last ones to be picked up because there is no way I'm sitting out there 45 minutes ahead of time. And no, she's not riding the bus (don't even get me started on the buses).
Also, this past week, Shawn and Abbey have both been sick (thank goodness I haven't caught it!). We've pretty much been hermits this weekend because of that, and hoping they'll rest up and get over it before the holidays next week!
Friday night, I went with some girlfriends to see Twilight (based on the book). While I had a good time because of the company, I must say I was disappointed in the movie. While I had expected that some parts from the book would be left out (which they were), I had not expected the horrible acting! It was almost like a B rated movie! I will see the sequels, but I hope they will send those people to acting classes or something.
Next week will be hectic, but I'm looking forward to it. My mom and I have this tradition of going to the after thanksgiving sales which start at midnight at the Gaffney Prime outlets. They have Pottery barn, Gymboree, and other name brand stores which have HUGE discounts that night. We pretty much stay up all night (thanks to Starbucks on the way) and then, on the way home, swing by the local walmart to catch the remaining deals. We always have a blast, and it's the only time I can really get away with coming home with tons of stuff and Shawn tell me not to tell him how much I spent. It's awesome.

Here.... fishy, fishy.....

2008-11-18T17:03:00.004-05:00

I'm not usually a big video game person, I leave that to Shawn and Abbey. However, I make an exception when it comes to Animal Crossing. It's a cute, all age encompassing, violence/vulgar language free game that Abbey and I can both play.

I was playing this Sunday night after we came back from SC and Abbey was watching (she had a tummy ache and couldn't sleep). I was fishing in the game.

Abbey: "what kind of fish did you catch?"

April: "It says it's a barbel steed."

I catch another fish.

Abbey: "what kind of fish is that one?"

April: "Bluegill"

I catch another fish.

Abbey: "Oohh, a seahorse!"

Still fishing.

Abbey: "You know what kind of fish I want to catch, Mommy?"

April: "what kind?"

Abbey: "fish sticks!" (she says happily)

Save the ???

2008-11-15T14:54:00.002-05:00

At 4 years old, my daughter has a passion. She gathers each one carefully and faithfully to keep them safe from harm. She's not saving whales, dolphins, or trees. Her mantra........SAVE THE BALLOONS!

Haiku Friday

2008-11-14T16:13:00.004-05:00

I saw on a few blogs "Haiku Friday" and thought it would be fun to participate. This Haiku is inspired from my 4 year old asking if the trees dropped their leaves because they wanted to be naked.

the leaves are falling
bright colors float all around
the trees are naked

Tag....You're it!

2008-11-13T15:15:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your family and friends. Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then post the answers on your blog, make sure you leave a link to your blog in the comments! Have fun and be truthful! I want to see your answers!

1. What is your occupation right now? Stay at home mom, need a raise =)
2. What color are your socks right now? I don't like socks
3. What are you listening to right now? I Carli
4. What was the last thing that you ate? sandwich
5. Can you drive a stick shift? no
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Jaime
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Hmmm…..let me think……Yes =)
8. How old are you today? 30
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Reality TV (Survivor is a sport!)
10. What is your favorite drink? Raspberry iced tea
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? No, but have highlighted
12. Favorite food? Italian
13. What is the last movie you watched? Tinkerbell
14. Favorite day of the year? Christmas
15. How do you vent anger? Vent to Hubby
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Rainbow Brite
17.What is your favorite season? Spring, I love thunderstorms
18. Cherries or Blueberries? blueberry
19. Favorite Color? Aqua/turquoise
20. Who is the most likely to respond? Stephanie
21. Who is least likely to respond? Shelly
22. Living arrangements? What??
23. When was the last time you cried? last night-a little girl almost fell off a cliff on the news
24. What is on the floor of your closet? Not much, my closet's pretty organized
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to? Jessica (since birth)
26. What did you do last night? Worked on my blog, stalked some people
27. What are you most afraid of? Spiders…..eww…yuck!
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? I don't like cow beef, but love turkey burgers with cheese
29. Favorite dog breed? Any dog that I don't have to take home.
30. Favorite day of the week? Thursday (Survivor Addict)
31. How many states have you lived in? 2 - NC, SC
32. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, definitely
33. What is your favorite flower? daisy

Hey there, Delilah.......

2008-11-12T23:53:00.004-05:00

You've probably heard of Delilah, the relationship guru on the radio late at night to tell you whether to love him or leave him, then gives you a mushy song to make you cry even more. Well, tonight I was watching nightline news and they were interviewing her about her story. She's had several failed marriages and is currently single (with 10 kids, most were adopted which is awesome). This made me think about the people who give you advice and write books about advice. Why is it that most of the so called "educated" advice people REALLY shouldn't be the ones to give the advice? It seems to me that if you don't have kids, you really shouldn't write a book about it. If you aren't having successful relationships/marriages, should you honestly be giving relationship advice? That's not to say that I don't like Delilah, I have found myself listening to her on the long trips back from South Carolina. However, a lot of the advice she gives is common since that I trust my friends would give under the same circumstances. The only difference is I'm sure my friends' answers/advice probably wouldn't be allowed on the air of radios!

I want to live in the White House....

2008-11-11T15:38:00.001-05:00

With all the news about Pres. Elect Obama and Michelle going to view the residence of the White House for the first time, it made me curious about what the residence part looked like inside. I have never been able to actually go to the White House, but would love to take a tour one day. Anywho, I Googled it to see if there were any pictures or building plans to see the size of the place. I found this website : http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/Floor2.htm , which shows not only the floor plans for the residence, it also shows pictures of how the previous Presidents' and First Ladys' decorated the rooms, and the history of the rooms. It's the next best thing to actually taking a tour of EVERY room (obviously you can't really tour every room of the White House, so this is really informative). I've decided that I want to move into the White House. Not because I want to do anything politically, just because they have an insanely huge living space that doesn't even include the actual President/job/office part of the building. Surely they wouldn't mind if I only take up a couple of rooms!

Check out this blog...

2008-11-10T00:06:00.000-05:00

While surfing through blogspot, I came across this blog:
http://queenofshake-shake.blogspot.com/2008/11/in-laws-assholes-opinions-can-you-tell.html
She talks about her inlaws with quite a bit of humor.
I must say, she should write a book...I find myself intrigued to read more of her blog, as I'm sure you will too.

Also, this one is funny too....
http://queenofshake-shake.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-heroes-were-never-cowboys-my-heroes.html
and if you click on the link "i even raised my hand..." after reading the post, it will take you to miss Britt's blog for you to read her story...It is hilarious!

Another list....

2008-11-08T13:07:00.000-05:00

I seem to be in a list mood... so here is another one.

David Letterman's top ten list:
Top Ten Things George W. Bush Wants To Accomplish While Still In Office

10 Finish those little projects he keeps putting off like fixing the economy
9 Get Cheney a "goodbye" defibrillator
8 Challenge Lincoln's ghost to rassle
7 Host farewell mixer for the detainees at Gitmo
6 Now that he's got nothing to lose, nail a hefty intern
5 Cement his legacy with a two month vacation
4 Put Chuck Norris on the nickel
3 See if Obama can take over sooner, like Tuesday
2 Get Condi laid
1 Hasn't he done enough already?

Top 10 most irritating phrases...

2008-11-08T13:01:00.000-05:00

I was watching the news and saw that the Oxford University researchers composed a list of the most irritating phrases in the English language. So, here they are....

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

Snake tries to eat a kangaroo....

2008-11-07T18:46:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boShHwTEl54

I saw this video online and, in my morbid sense of humor, thought it funny to see a snake trying to eat a kangaroo...

I still Heart NKOTB...

2008-11-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

For some reasone, it's leaving off my NKOTB pics at the end of the NKOTB blog post. So I'm going to try this again....

Lovely Lady Lumps.....Check it out!

2008-11-02T23:38:00.000-05:00

The Power of Pink Relay was on Saturday and our team, Lovely Lady Lumps, didn't do too bad. Our team consisted of myself, Jaime, Melissa, Carol, and Aileen. Each team member had to run 4 miles in what I consider the toughest course yet, for a team total of 20 miles. Our team time was 3:32:25. My time was 45:38, which wasn't too bad considering it was a hard course. They called it "rolling hills", I would call it "mountainous"! There were several steep hills to climb, and it was freezing outside. I normally would be like, "oh, it was a pretty run", but it was so cold my eyeballs were frozen and I really didn't care about anything but getting back to the finish line so I could go inside the warm building! That being said, it was fun competing with a team and I would love to do it again, especially since I now know the course and what to expect. Best of all, it's for a great cause!

I Heart NKOTB!!!

2008-11-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

The boys did not dissapoint! After all these years, they are still hot and know how to drive women wild! Jaime and I headed to Charlotte Thursday afternoon, giddy about the concert that night. We checked into our AWESOME Hotel (The Blake Hotel) that Jaime got us at a great price. After taking some pics in our room, and reading the safety sheet that they so graciously left us in our room (such as "don't look/act like a tourist" and "carry a dummy wallet"), we started getting ready.

We took the hotel shuttle to Brixx Pizza and Bar, which was great. It was overflowing with women and we ended up sitting at the bar. We each had two cosmos and one "pint" (as Jaime calls it) each of practically all liqeour. Jaime had a red bull and vodka and I had a blue motorcycle which was a blue tinted drink consisting of I think every liqeour in the place. Needless to say, we stumbled to the concert, about two blocks away, when we were done. Jaime summed it up as we left the Brixx saying, "I can't see straight". The pic below is us walking to the stadium. As you can see, Jaime is quite happy.

Here are some concert pics:

I will post a video or two of the concert later. They sang a lot of their old songs as wells as lots of their new ones. It really was a great concert and I would LOVE to see them again (and maybe get some "face time" with Donnie-- I'm sure Shawn would understand). We got a cab to go back to the hotel, and saw crazy women climbing a fence to try to see NKOTB. I think Jaime has a picture of them. They were nuts! Our hotel bar was closed when we got back, so we had to call it a night.

Pineapple plants and tadpoles...

2008-10-27T18:19:00.000-04:00

As promised here is my tadpole and pineapple plant update. First, my pineapple plants. I started one back in August and ended up with 3 pineapple tops that I was attempting to root. I googled it and found two ways recommended to root pineapples. First was putting it in a clear glass of water and the second was just sticking it in the dirt. Well, the original pineapple top is still alive and after being transferred to dirt ( I decided to try both ways-2 in water 1 in dirt) it is developing roots AND has a pup (new growth plant) growing on the side. Of the two in water, 1 started rotting and the other (after quickly transferring to dirt) is now producing roots as well. The pineapple on the right is the original, and the light green spot towards the base is the new pup.

As for the tadpole, years ago I saw a Grow a frog kit at a teaching store but was never able to get one. Shawn found this one for me in Florida. You buy the kit, they send the tadpole, and you watch it grow into a frog. Once it is a frog, it will continue to live in water. He's already starting to get his hind legs, but they're still tiny. You can't determine the sex until it is a frog (by the color on forearms) so right now I'm just calling him Tad.

Republican Rally

2008-10-27T16:06:00.000-04:00

My mom and I were excited when we heard Sarah Palin was coming to Asheville and decided to throw ourselves into the mob at the civic center to see if we could get inside. So, on Sunday, we headed up to the civic center around 1 o'clock and found the line starting to wrap around the building. Other lines formed as well which made it interesting when trying to fit through 2 or 3 tiny doors. We actually were towards the top half of the line and were oblivious to how many blocks long the lines were (I was amazed by the pics on citizen times). It actually didn't seem that long that we stood in line because there were lots of people to talk to and the 4 hours until they opened the doors went by pretty quickly. When we finally made it within 20 feet of the doors to enter and go through metal detectors, I can only describe it in two words.....mosh pit. Everyone was so packed together, mainly due to the lack of organization of the lines of people and the ones who thought they could just show up and go to the front of the line. We finally made it in and got great seats on the ground floor to the left of the stage. Another highlight of the rally was that country singer Gretchen Wilson was there and performed. I've always wanted to attend a political rally and was not dissapointed. Its always exciting to be with a big/huge group of people who have the same beliefs as you. I was a little dissapointed that a lot of my pictures were blurry, but I think that was do to being on bleachers which were vibrating half the time due to all the people and noise vibration. I did get awesome video, though. One is of Sarah Palin getting everyone to sing happy birthday to her mom (don't worry, I'm leaving off the political video), and the other is Gretchen Wilson singing Barracuda.

This was a great experience and think everyone should attend at least one rally in their lifetime of their party choice.
Asheville Citizen Times has great photos to show just how many people attended.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=photo

Random thoughts...

2008-10-23T18:27:00.000-04:00

I had said a week ago, while it was still 80 degrees, that I really wanted it to snow this year. I did NOT mean right away. No, it hasn't snowed, but the 30 something degree weather outside at the moment feels like it could. I just wasn't ready to go to sleep warm and wake up cold. I wanted to ease into winter.

I am very excited about my busy week next week. Jaime and I go to the NKOTB concert next Thursday night, followed by trick-or-treating with Abbey on Friday, and finally ending with the Power of Pink relay Saturday morning. It's going to be busy, but very fun. However, I'll be glad when things slow down.

Finally, I've got a tadpole (it's actually from a growafrog kit) that I just got in the mail. He's so cute! I'll post more on him with a picture later......Ok, that's what's going on in my world!

No, really, this is it!

2008-10-01T22:14:00.001-04:00

Jaime and I keep saying that we're not running anymore this year, that we need a break. However, it seems we have one last run to fit into the year. Haywood Regional Medical Center has The Power of Pink Relay that we are planning to run. Jaime is trying to finish forming our team of 5 women who will each run 4 miles for a total of 20. The proceeds go towards giving women free mammograms to prevent breast cancer. I think it will be lots of fun! (Stephanie, if you were closer, you know you'd be part of this team! =) )

http://www.haymed.org/foundation/events/pop.php

Great Ebates offer!

2008-09-29T16:36:00.000-04:00

Ebates has a great offer that ends October 31. Sign up now and you will get a $10 sign up bonus which is normally $5. This is a great way to get extra money. Simply go through Ebates.com and click on whatever store you are going to buy from (ex:Target) and make purchase from ebates link. They give you a % back on what you spend where they will send you a check a couple of times a year. My friend got me hooked and I have $72 in my account and growing that's helping to pay for my daughter's Christmas. The link for this promotion is below.
http://www.ebates.com/refer-a-friend/0809promo.htm?referrerid=XqOaEC6yNLv2V2eX%2B0nMJw%3D%3D

Thomas Wolfe 8K

2008-09-27T22:09:00.001-04:00

I decided the day I finished the Citizen Times 5K that I wanted to do more than a 5k and immediately signed up that evening for the Thomas Wolfe 8k. I have to admit, this morning I was think that I must be crazy to get myself up at 6 am and go run in the cold and misting rain. I was shivering the first 2 miles (5 miles total), but then I warmed up and did better. My goal for this race was simply to finish under 1 hour. I finished in 55:56, which is roughly an 11 min mile (I was doing just over a ten min mile until I had to run up Patton, which greatly slowed me down). Mile marker 1 was 10:12 and mile 3 was 32:24. I'm happy with my time though. I can tell my times are improving with each race and with practice (that I've been slacking on lately). The picture was taken in the cemetery

It was a pretty run. It started out in front of the Mellow Mushroom and went through downtown in front of the Civic Center. Then, over the bridge into Montford, down to the Cemetery where Thomas Wolfe is buried, back out to Montford. It continued back over the bridge heading away from downtown before turning back and up Patton Ave all the way up to the monument, before turning and finishing in front of the Thomas Wolfe House.

Shawn sat this one out, he said he's exclusively a 5ker. Jaime's already planning the next run, I'm not sure if I want to do anymore for a while. However, this is very addicting and I probably will. After all, what's another 4 miles?

Follow the leader

2008-09-23T21:06:00.000-04:00

Shawn and I were driving one day (probably looking for gas!) when we noticed the birds flying in the infamous V formation, indicating that fall is coming. It was a perfect V, not one bird out of formation. That got us wondering. What made the birds decide on a V and not a Z or an X? And who decides which bird gets to be the leader, or do they take turns? How do they know who goes in which place in the V? Another day in the Pyfrom family......

Asheville Citizen-Times 5K

2008-09-14T22:50:00.000-04:00

Shawn and I ran the Citizen Times 5k on Saturday, both of us achieving our best times yet. I ran it in 33:21 and Shawn 31:35. It really was an awesome run, considering neither of us had a good night's sleep (shawn worked late the night before) and we've slacked off a bit on our training. My next run will be in two weeks at the Thomas Wolfe 8k, which will be my first 8k run. I will be doing this one alone as Shawn has declared he will not go above a 5k. I'm looking forward to it!

http://www.thomaswolfe8k.com/

EBATES.COM

2008-08-29T23:25:00.000-04:00

I wanted to tell you about Ebates, a shopping site that gives you up to 25% Cash Back every time you shop online. You can shop at over 900 stores including Barnes & Noble.com, Gap, Target, Buy.com and Expedia. Plus you get additional savings with exclusive coupons, free shipping offers, and limited-time sales!
Sign up with Ebates today and we'll each get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase!
Click here to sign up: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=XqOaEC6yNLv2V2eX%2B0nMJw%3D%3D
I already have $67 in my account just from buying things I normally would buy.
Happy shopping!

Twilight

2008-08-25T22:41:00.000-04:00

I've always loved to read, but rarely find the time anymore. I've seen this book everywhere and its increasing popularity. Being a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fan, I hesitantly decided to try the first in the series of four this past Friday night. Around 4am Saturday morning as I finished "Twilight", I knew I had to go get the next one that day. It's now Monday night and having read the first 3 volumes, I'm anxiously awaiting the 4th to come in the mail from Amazon. I had seen a few bad reviews from other Buffy fans and wasn't sure if I'd like it. I LOVED IT. I'm also anxiously awaiting the movie that comes out in November. If you like vampires and love stories, you've got to read this book!

Abbey rode a horse!

2008-08-11T19:29:00.000-04:00

We went to my cousin's daughter's 1st birthday party this past weekend and ended up at my other cousin's house to ride their horses. This was Abbey's first time on a horse and her first reaction was "it's very high". She loved it and rode Ginger several times. They also had a miniature donkey named J.B. Abbey liked feeding him as well. It was a lot of fun.

My uncle David and his favorite ass. Shawn wishing he had an ass.

A room fit for a princess!

2008-08-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

When we moved to our new house a year ago, the first thing my daughter said was "I want a pink room". I had just repainted the whole house that we just moved out of, so I wasn't jumping to paint anything. A year later, I finally decided to paint her room as I promised. We picked out a deep, pretty pink (not pepto-bismol pink) and on one wall added rolling green hills and wall stickems. The stickems were purchased online (i googled them) and included all the Disney princesses and a beautiful, large castle. Abbey LOVES her room.

July 4th Weaverville Firecracker 5K

2008-08-04T13:06:00.001-04:00

Shawn and I ran the Weaverville Firecracker 5k on July 4th. This was our second 5k (the first being the Asheville Chamber Challenge June 6th) and were very pleased with our times. We both took 5 minutes off our times, which I partly contribute to the early morning cool air which we didn't have for the chamber challenge where it was 95 degrees. My time was 36:05 and I ran the entire thing, which I'm proud of (Shawn walked some, haha). Now to plan our next 5K...

The picture is from after the race.

Trying to root a pineapple

2008-08-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

So I read somewhere that if you save a pineapple top after you eat it, you can root it to grow your own plant. I thought I'd try this out. I just started it today so it should take several weeks for the roots to form. I'll post on the progress. Wish me luck!

Ipod Birthday Cake

2008-08-02T12:44:00.000-04:00

My husband's birthday was Friday and he wanted our daughter and I to bake him a cake. My daughter chose to make an Ipod cake. I think it turned out great! I frosted the yellow cake with cream cheese icing, and made the "ipod parts" using fondant and edible food dye markers from Michael's craft store.

We are what we do

2008-08-02T02:11:00.000-04:00

http://www.bzzagent.com//p/6275585327/shawns1

Okay, so I am a buzzagent which is someone who tells others about products and such by using "word of mouth". This is a really great website which shows you different ways you can make the world a better, happier place. Ex: smile back, read to a child, refuse plastic bags when possible....etc.
They have a list of more than 50 actions you can do, I was shocked that I only do 10-15 regularly.