Happy Birthday D!!

Happy Birthday D! Ahh...another year where your birthday is on Thanksgiving. Fun times...at least you are assured to be well fed for your birthday! :)

Hope you had a great birthday....and keep those messages on your mirrors till at least Sunday...so then you can celebrate just a bit longer. :)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving! So far it has been a nice relaxing day for me...although this being off on Thursday and for the rest of the weekend is throwing me off kilter a bit. :)

My brother Luke and his fiance Leslie came into town for the holiday. :) Stayed up late last night talking to Luke, then got to sleep in till around 9 a.m. or so then it was onto lazying around the house and playing on our laptops. L & L both brought theirs and I got on mine to look up movie times...kinda wondering if mom was feeling left out as she was the only one without a laptop. :)

We then went to my other brother's in-laws house and had a great Thanksgiving meal. After that we went and saw Four Christmases...which really turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It was kinda hard to find a movie we all agreed to see...three girls and one guy...and way more chick flicks out than action movies...I'm sure you can imagine. :) But as it is a family tradition in our home that on most major holidays we go out to see a movie...we had to find some kind of middle ground. :)

Anyways...we then stopped off at a gas station on the way home to get the newspaper with all the black friday ads and came home to see if there was anything we wanted to shop for tomorrow. Funny thing...Luke is an avid Black Friday shopper...have no idea where he got that. :P Definately not a normal family tradition. Overall...nothing really hit us as to where we have to get up early and fight those insane crowds to find some good deals. We'll go shopping...just later in the afternoon when it has hopefully calmed down some. :)

I'm now updating my blog...and Luke is snoring/sleeping on the couch. This boy seriously likes to sleep more on a couch than he does a bed. Kinda weird....oh well. It's also kinda funny. :) Love him anyway...but man can he get loud...in his snoring. :) And I can totally say this without fear of retribution as he has no interest to ever read my blog. He loves to play on the internet, but blogs just aren't his thing. :)

Well, that has been my thanksgiving. Fun times, I know. But I hope you all had a great day, and good luck shopping those sales if you are daring enough to brave that insanity! :)

Weekend

YAY! So I had a busy and fun weekend. Friday did some shopping around, and actually knocked out some Christmas shopping...seems like it's so close since I'll be leaving for vacation half way through the month. :) We also tried shopping for new lights for our kitchen and came up with nothing that really stood out or seemed doable. Anyone...suggestions on good kitchen lights that'll give lots of light? PLEASE!

Then Saturday was the early, Happy Birthday D!!! When I got to D's she was still laying in bed, so I got to fully "wake her up" with my camera. :) Me suck a stinker. We then went to an early showing of Twilight...which was totally awesome. I love how it stuck to the book so well, and there were tons of close ups of Edward and Bella. Sigh...me want an Edward. :) We liked it so much...we went and saw it again later that day! I know...so bad, but it was sooo good! And sadly, I'm dying to see it again! Each time you pick up new details that just makes it more enjoyable. I'm too addicted, too bad I don't want to stop bad enough. :) I've only read the first book, but I have all four...was putting off reading the second one as I read the beginning of it was kinda depressing...I wasn't in the frame of mind to read depressing without it bumming me out pretty bad, so I put it off. Now I don't care, I just want to read. But, no time really this week so I can't...cause I know I won't be able to put it down. Another thing that may have to be done while I'm on vacation. :)

So funny/ironic story, as D and I were sitting down for lunch after the movie, she got a call from her sis Kris...she was so upset. See...she'd gotten pulled over on the highway for not using her blinker to change lanes...which she swears she knows she did use, the officer just saw she was on her cell phone and was using what he could to pull her over and give her a ticket. Well...apparently the last speeding ticket she got, her dad paid the lawyers to fix, but the actual ticket didn't get paid...that step of the process didn't get conveyed well apparently. So, there was a warrant out for Kris's arrest. Yup, Kris got arrested, and her car got impounded. If you know this girl, you know that is seriously the last words you'd ever think would come out of her mouth, "arrested".

Anyways, to speed this up a bit...we left the restaurant right away and went to get $ out to pay bail bond for Kris and went to the T&C police station to bail her out. She was so upset, and looked so traumatized. Poor Kris, I felt so bad for her...it really sucked. Kay, so here's the ironic/funny story...she was driving on Sunday to Steak'n Shake with some roomies of hers, and got in an accident. Luckily, not her fault, unluckily...the other driver rear ended them pretty badly. Wow, I so wouldn't want to get behind the wheel again anytime soon if I was Kris. So...it's not really "funny" but so...out of the ordinary you kinda groan and chuckle for her all at the same time.

Anyways, back to me. :) So Saturday kinda ended up being one of those, run around everywhere days because the plans to work from one place to another fell through due to the police station run. But it seemed like a fun b-day day for D, she at least says she had fun. :) YAY! One more down. hehe, jk.

Then Sunday when I got back from church I was moving the leaves from the back yard to the front pile for the city to come and collect...I lost count after 15 trash can loads of leaves that I had to take from the back to the front. Got my workout for the day I guess. Then, later that night mom made her "buns" as her recipe calls them. She only makes these once a year, and they are soooo good! They really are crescent rolls from scratch...so yummy! We are taking them to the "in-laws" house where we'll be having Thanksgiving this year. They are my brother Matt's in-laws....but we go to so many of their family functions...they are just the "in-laws" for all of us. :)

So really, not too much down time this weekend, and the holiday won't really slow down either. Then only two and a half weeks and I'll be in sunny AZ till almost the new year. Ahh...finally vacation is so close!!

Kay, had better get working now. I'll post pictures later...left camera at home and didn't have time to download them. Happy short week!

Twilight Movie

I going to see this movie tomorrow....I going to see this movie tomorrow...I going to see this movie tomorrow!!!

Can you tell I'm excited about it? Ahhhh...pretty Edward. :) Thanks D in advance for wanting to see this as your "birthday" movie. I really like this gift for you...it's a gift for me too. :)

Sigh. So...do you want to see this movie?

On the Roof

So, my bro Matt came over last night to help us clean out all the leaves from our gutters...fun times. We even happened to find a few dead rats that had decided to make a home...or at least die in our gutter downspouts...never know...a bird could have been putting them there for safe keeping to eat later. Just really glad I had on gloves....shudder.

We technically have two stories of gutters to clean out...as the upstairs doesn't go across the whole first floor. Anyways, it's always interesting when I get on the first floor roof from the back as I can see directly into the kitchen window of our neighbors to the west of our home. Now there is about 8-10 feet between the homes on my street...so I could see pretty clearly. Last night...as the sun is setting pretty quickly...there sat my neighbor with their cat in her lap, both just staring at us as Matt and I are on our roof. (Now that I think about it poor neighbors...having the view of our house out their kitchen...oh well) So anyways...the neighbor and her cat just keep staring and staring...so as we are about to get down I finally look over and wave...to say hi. She kinda blushes but just keeps staring. Doesn't wave, doesn't look away, just stares. Kinda glad we were getting down then.

Well, then Matt went to town with his leaf blower...Mom mainly just wanted her gardens de-leafed...but he went for the whole kit and kaboodle. In order for us to see though as we were cleaning the yard...I was on flashlight duty. That's right...I held a flash light and shone it around the yard so Mom and Matt could see what they were doing. This early dark thing is a bit annoying. :)

There's now a couple big piles of leaves in the back that I'll have to pick up soon...so then they don't kill our grass. Our other neighbor, to the east of us, came out near the end of our cleanup and starting chatting saying he was wondering what in the world that noise was (Matt's leaf blower). Anyways...finally done...and around 7/8 of the leaves were down on the ground from the trees all ready...so I think the yard is finally prepped for winter...at least I'm hoping. :)

Now to finish cleaning up the inside for Luke and Leslie's visit and the fun construction to happen in our kitchen. Mom wants to tear down the low florescent lights and put in some new lights in our kitchen...over the holiday weekend. DIY...fun times. (Do it yourself projects around the house.) Anyone good w/electricity? jk.

DWTS

Lance made it to the finals!!! Happy Dance!



Now, wasn't he funny! Wanna dance now? :)

Productivity

Oh goodness...this last Saturday I was so productive....I'm still kinda shocked at myself. You know how you have those times where you are like, "I'm going to do this...I have to organize that...This needs to be cleaned up". And you are totally in the "mood" to do it at the time but you are stuck at work. So then in your head all throughout the day you plan on what all you are totally going to get accomplished...and by time you get home...you do nothing? Cause the "mood" has totally passed. Then all that planning keeps popping into your mind, but you have no real energy to pull it off?


Yeah...that's been me for a long while now. I be lazy. Anyways, last week on Oprah she started a new thing she's doing, having a professional organizer drive across America cleaning up random messy households...they literally stop at strangers places and show them how to organize the clutter they have let take over their homes. Mom got infected with the bug of "let's declutter". I watched the show and did also get a bit of the bug myself. So I made a goal and I actually stuck to most of it. :)


My plan...work from the upstairs down and organize/throw away stuff i've been meaning to for awhile now. I started in the office. From my graduation from college up until 2005...I didn't organize any of my "papers" shall we say. I had literally thrown them into bags that were just piled around my computer. ughh. So i went through everything in there....the papers in the bags, the old college filer with even older papers that I have no reason to keep what-so-ever. There was a recycle, shred, and re-file in current system that I like and have had in place since 2006 piles. (Yes...I have been putting off doing this organizing since 2006...I told you I'm lazy. This older stuff was just out of sight out of mind.)

So, I got through three trash bags full of shredding....and I killed our shredder. Ooppps! Well, technically I'm pretty sure I just over heated it...but I do think it is finally on it's last legs. We've had it for at least 2 years now, so it did last pretty long. :) I still have a stack of stuff to shred though so I'm working on what I'll do next. I waited a bit and it shred one more piece of paper after I though it was totally dead...but then again stopped working. I think I'll just have to go shopping later this week to get a new one so I can finally finish my project. :)

Next I moved onto my room and went through all of my clothes and put into bags for donation anything I haven't worn in a year (did keep some older stuff that I absolutely refuse to get rid of like old school shirts and such, I could turn them into a quilt of something later...maybe). Anyways, ended up with three bags of clothes and old purses to donate, even took them and dropped them off in a drop box. Even got all my laundry ready and started some loads...so now it is all picked up off my floor. That project complete...YAY! Upstairs projects I'd been putting off are done now. Now upstairs I only have to dust and vacuum my room and clean my bathroom and I'll be all clean and organized. Joy! Yes that does sound pathetic, oh well. :)

Then onto the main floor. I was going to get all my filing done for this year...it all ready organized...just have to throw it in folders. But since I couldn't finish my shredding...I wasn't in the mood to file still surrounded by junk. So I gave up on that for now...till i get a new shredder. So instead...I played with my new ipod which got delivered that morning.


Hehe. Since my last post talking about my cross stitch I kept thinking I just need a new mp3 player (as my old ipod...the originals 4GB size won't hold a charge unless it is constantly plugged in...not helpful on a plane.). So online I was just looking for a relatively cheap mp3 player that I could use on the plane to help me block out distractions so I can cross stitch. Seriously the cheap ones looked it and weren't worth it to me. So I checked out ipods to see what the new prices are...yeah for the 4th generation new ipod nanos...they are half the price of the original I got for double the memory and about less than half the weight of the old ones. Me love my new purple ipod. :) And i've even filled up about 1 GB so far. Not much I know...but i'm all ready putting it to use at work this morning. Fun times.



That is where my productivity ended for that day. Yes, this is all I have to talk about...I'm still proud of myself. :) So...are you as bad as me? Do you have projects around your house that you have been putting off and putting off? Don't tell my I'm the only procrastinator around here. :)

Cross Stitch Goal...Not Reached Yet

Okay, so when I first mentioned my project I said I had set a due date of the end of October to finish up this cross stitch. Unfortunately...I did not reach this goal. Now...the unfinished part seems a lot bigger because of the angle in which I took these pictures, but here is how far I am:

On this legend there are four colors (green, blue, black and red) that also all each have different symbols to represent the colors needed to produce this cross stitch. I have finished up all the green, blue and black squares...I only have the red ones left. Which again, from this angle seems like a lot, but I'm really close to 3/4 the way done with this.

This is how far I am right now. The aida cloth is tan so some of it is hard to see...but all I have left is the fill in on the robes of Christ, a bit on the path and the main white part on the sheep at his feet. All of the rest is totally completed.

Well, I do then have to do the outlining, but it's not totally extensive.

So....new goal....I hope to finish this by the end of the year. Still will be pushing it...but I seriously want to get this done. I'm hoping the trip out to Arizona for Christmas will help as I can do it while waiting in the airport and on the plane....which should be a good dedicated 4-5 hours each way. The really hard time I have is sitting down with no distractions and getting this accomplished. Maybe I should bring some music to plug my ears with so I won't be distracted while on the plane.

Anyways...I'm working on it. Again...angles are weird as I took the pictures in my lap. But...please encourage, badger, bug me about this. It's taken 6 years....off and on...it's time I got it done all ready.

Thanks for all the help!

CISR

So, I got my paperwork in the mail today. I am now a member of the Society of Certified Insurance Service Representatives. Fun times.

I now get to put CISR after my signature on all work documents. Not as cool as an MBA or something of the like but in the insurance world this is a step up in the "I can trust you with my business" ladder. I will get some kind of "bonus" (probably some cheesey gift card to a restaurant) from my office, a party to celebrate this new certification, new business cards showing my certification, and in March sometime I get to go to a commencement ceremony in Columbia, MO and receive a CISR pin.

And hopefully, when raise time comes around...I'll be in line for a bigger jump...if I'm still there.

So overall not really a huge change...but at least hopefully I will stop being the total lowest member on the totem pole. :) Handy thing though being in charge of the web site for work...I all ready updated my info on the Employee listing page. hehe. :) Oh, the small joys of working in an office, and feeling you have some power after all. :)

Too many people born on November 9th :)

So currently I know of 4 people who have their birthday on November 9th. Busy day...good thing for Facebook. :)

So this last Friday we had a family and friends birthday party for my niece BeCa who turned 14. Seriously can't believe she is that old...remember pretty clearly when she was born. Man.

On Saturday Shane and I "sneaked" into my friend Krissy's apartment to leave her a birthday surprise...a decorated bedroom. :) She was out to Vegas for the weekend to have some fun and get away...so we had our fun...

Sign over her window
Posters to decorate her wall

Cookie Cake

Flowers and her present


Bedroom view from the door. Streamers are the handy work of Shane...attached to each blade on the ceiling fan. All together we both blew up 142 balloons. She now has a large balloon ball pit in her room. hehe.

It also was my old roomie Renae's and Jenni's birthdays. Renae is currently in New Zealand so I all confused on the time differences so on Friday I just emailed all of them birthday wishes. Now next birthday is on Thanksgiving. Time to plan. :)

I Passed!

I finally have passed all 5 of the CISR courses for work! Which now means I am a certified insurance services representative!

I just so glad it finally over! Got an 82, but I only had to get a 70 to pass so I still all good! (Was kinda hoping to Ace it, but beggars can't be choosers) Now I get to skip my lunch so I can leave work early to go and vote. I'm hoping everyone was trying to cram in voting time this morning so then this afternoon won't be too bad.

Keeping my fingers crossed on that one. Hope you all go out and vote and have a great day!

(Can you tell I'm excited from all my exclimation points? hehe.)

Cake Mania 3

So, about a year ago McDonalds was doing it's Monopoly thing...and one of the prizes when you played online was a free game online RealArcade.com. Most were boring games like Yahtzee, and Monopoly. But there was this one free game called Little Shop of Treasures. Pretty much a seek and find game (bit like Where's Waldo but you're not really looking for a person) that has a storyline behind it.

Long story short...Mom and I kinda became addicted to playing these games. It's a great way to let loose but still work your mind. So as time goes on I download a new game here and there from the site. For awhile I've wanted to play this game called Cake Mania. Pretty much you have customers, make a cake in a certain shape, size and frosting options the customer picks and serve it to them. Never went ahead and got it though...till a week or so ago.

A new version, Cake Mania 3 came out and I finally broke down and downloaded it. It is fun...but can get really complicated really quickly.

Friday night starting around 11:30 or so I played this game with Mom looking over my shoulder. We didn't stop till 1:30 a.m. and my whole body was tense and my hand/fingers were cramping. We had figured out a way to make it a bit easier to keep completing the levels...but each time it still got stressful. Those serving days of my past only coming a bit in handy.

All night long I then dreamed that I was the main character in this game and there was NO WAY for me to stop dreaming about making cake after cake and serving customer after customer. Even after I would wake myself up to stop it I would fall back asleep and just dream I was in a different location still doing cake mania.

Needless to say I woke up feeling like I had worked the whole night. Saturday night with Daylight Savings was a blessing for me to get a bit more sleep...where I finally didn't dream about making cakes.

Yes, I know. I need a life. Only these things are so fun (usually) for me that I want to play to see where else the lite plot will go, good or stupid. I am just now afraid the dreams will come back if I play Cake Mania.

So I think I'll stick to cross stitch when I have free time. No it's not done yet. Goal not reached. I'll give you some more details on this later. For now...don't play Cake Mania....unless you love serving. Seriously.