Calendar is filling up and curls are officially gone

Wow, my April and May calendars are filling up quick. So many things coming up, appointments, etc. I called the Elementary school that Brendan will be going to a couple weeks ago and talked to the secretary. Found out that there are all sorts of things he is supposed to go to in April/May. Good thing I called! Since he is my oldest and the first to enter school, they had no idea we existed. So, today the P.A.T. rep for our area called me at work and got me all set up on their mailing list and such so we will receive notices about these things, and she is forwarding Brendan's name on to the Kindergarten teacher. So now "Meet the Teacher" night, Kindergarten screening, Kindergarten registration, Literacy night event, and our first Parents as Teachers visit have all been added to my calendar now too, in addition to all the other stuff I have coming up. We also have plans every weekend between now and Memorial Day. (and most of the weekends in June, July and August already too! Yikes!)

I need to get a move on and go pick up the boys from daycare. Then I need to make 2 dishes to bring to Granny's party for tomorrow, watch for end of this week's Scrapping Survivor challenge and do whatever crazy immunity challenge Melissa dreams up for us (love ya girl!), do laundry, clean up the house some, and do our taxes sometime this weekend too. No, we haven't done our taxes yet. We have procrastinated. Not sure why, as we will hopefully be getting money back! But, who knows, we did actually have to pay one year, so we could potentially be in for a sad surprise this year too.

Last night I finally attempted to cut Adam's hair! It had gotten so long in the back (cute little curls, but starting to look way too girly for a toddler boy! lol). I had to do it while he was taking a bath, it was the only way he was distracted enough to not try to look at and grab the scissors. So, while he splashed and played, I straddled the tub, trying not to fall in, while I cut the back of his hair. It was a funny site to see, I'm sure! But it's done, and now I don't have to wonder if people are quietly wondering if he is a boy or girl anymore. heehee. (although my mom says that Adam is so masculine looking that we could put a frilly dress on him and people would still not mistake him for a girl. I'm not willing to test that theory though! lol)

Oh well, I really need to get out of the office and go get the little ones now. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday Thirteen: Granny is Turning 90!

Thirteen things about Courtney's grandma (Granny)

My grandma, who we all call "Granny", will be 90-years-old on Tuesday, so I thought I'd do my Thursday Thirteen about her today!

1. She was born on April 4, 1916.

2. She has been married 3 times, but has never been divorced. She has out-lived all 3 of her husbands!!!

3. Her first husband died when they were very young...I don't know the exact age, but upper teens or early 20's not long after they were married. They didn't have any kids together. (I also cannot remember what caused his death! I know I've been told, but it escapes me right now.)

4. Her second husband was the one she had her 2 children with (my dad and my uncle), so he was my grandpa. He died when I was around 2 years old (of lung cancer), so I never really knew him. I do remember seeing pictures of me with him, one of which he had set me on top of the refrigerator for some reason? lol

5. Granny was then single for a few years after he died, before she eventually married again sometime in the early-mid 1980's. Her third husband was someone she had been friends with for years, and his wife had also died. He had done some carpentry work for her on her house, and eventually they got married. His name was Herman, and that's what we called him too.

6. Granny and Herman loved to travel together. They bought an RV and took many wonderful trips together for many years. We went with them a few times in the RV. It was fun. They also owned a cabin near a lake (that Herman built), where they would go stay several times a year. I remember going there with them a couple times when I was younger, and I had so much fun fishing and hanging out by the lake and at the cabin with them.

7. Sadly, she became a widow again when Herman died of cancer around 1998 (give or take a year, can't remember for sure). This happened the day I had left to go out of state for a week. It was a required trip for a college class I was taking at the time, so once I did find out, I couldn't get back home (we had all taken a van together, so I didn't have my own transportation or anything). The funeral was during that week before I returned home, so I missed it. I still feel guilty about that! My husband was asked to be one of the pallbearers, which he was honored to do.

8. You cannot go to Granny's house without being fed. She always has a meal, or at least lots of snacks and drinks made up no matter what time of day you stop by. And breakfast was our favorite, which always included biscuits and her own homemade white gravy that we all called "Granny's Groovy Gravy" Yummmmy! I have lots of memories of our family and my uncle, cousins, etc being at her house and everyone sitting around the kitchen eating, talking, drinking, telling dirty jokes, and just having a good time. Granny likes to laugh and likes dirty jokes, and listening to various comedians. And when we were younger, she would always pull me and/or my sister aside and give us some money. We would always tell her she didn't need to do that, but she always insisted.

9. Granny always has a fire burning in her fireplace (except in summer). I love fireplaces, and I'm sure that is where I first developed my love for them. Her wood-burning fireplace and hearth and mantle are huge and the focus of her family room, and I could sit and just stare into those flames.

10. She can sew, knit, crochet, do wood-working, and make just about anything. She taught me some of this when I was younger, although I have forgotten so much of it! She has made a lot of her own clothes, and they look professional. She still takes classes sometimes just for fun to learn new things (like painting, doll making, etc). She also loves to do crossword puzzles.

11. I have always admired and looked up to Granny. She is a strong lady with many talents. She's one tough country chick!!!

12. Even now within days of turning 90, she is still active, lives alone in a large house on a big farm, and takes complete care of herself. She still has many hobbies and interests, gets her hair done almost every week, and still goes out with her friends (although she has out-lived most of them too). As I mentioned in a previous post, she even still runs around in shorts in the summer time, and looks good in them! She helps people whenever she can, and although I don't ask her for anything, I know she would give me the world if I needed it.

13. I can only hope that I will live as long and healthy and as full of a life as she is living!

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY GRANNY!!!

If you are participating in Thursday Thirteen, please add yourself to the auto-linky thing below.

Feeling better, and EXCITED even!

Thanks for the nice comments. I am feeling better now. Luckily the funk only lasted a day or two this time :) I've even suggested to hubby that we take the boys on a weekend getaway to a city about 2 hours from here where they have a fun amusement park with Camp Snoopy inside for the little ones. I think the boys would love that! And I would love for us all to have some fun family time together too. We haven't done much lately together, except the normal daily grind type stuff. I thought just a weekend away that is fairly close by would not be asking too much. And when I mentioned it to Joe, I about fell over when I didn't get the usual "lecture" and negative response about all the reasons why we shouldn't do that, blah, blah, blah crap that he usually goes through any time I want to go somewhere. He didn't do it! I'm so proud of him! So, we will be doing that in about a month or so. Wish we could go NOW, but we have several obligations to fulfill the next several weekends first. I'm so excited! I know the boys will have a blast!!! And it will feel so good to get out of the house and just have FUN.

(By the way, I can't believe I forgot to put up my Wordless Wednesday today! Now it's so late in the day I'll just skip it)

I'm slipping

Ugh, it's happening again. I can feel myself starting to slip back into the tired/sad/overwhelmed/frustrated funk again. I hate that. I'm trying not to let myself be that way. But I just can't seem to keep up and stay on top of things. And his stuff is everywhere, and I'm constantly picking up after everyone, only to have it a mess again within hours. I'm getting snippy and frustrated. I need a vacation. I need to recharge, rethink, reorganize, replan, and get back on track. But alas, if I even mention a "vacation" we start the whole other battle (if you've been reading long, you know that battle- the one where he freaks out over money, no matter how little the amount is and I get upset that he doesn't care about my wishes and needs for having a life outside of work and cleaning the house, and so on and so forth), and if we get in that battle again, it will only intensify the tired/sad/overwhelmed/frustrated funk into something worse. Again. *sigh* It is a vicious cycle.

My addiction

Yes, I admit it, I am addicted to Mountain Dew. I love that stuff. It is pretty much the only soda I drink. I can't stand Coke or Pepsi or any colas, but man I love Mountain Dew. (and NOT Diet Mt. Dew- that stuff is nasty). I know it is really bad for me, and I keep intending to quit drinking soda all together, but, well, key word there is intending. Yes, I have read about the negative effects soda has on the body and mind. Yes I know it has 12.5 tablespoons of sugar per can (yikes!). Yes, I know I would feel better and probably lose the last 20 lbs after having 2 kids if I would quit drinking it. But somehow, I'm still drinking it. Why is this? Why can't I seem to make it through a day without at least 1 can of Mountain Dew? And really, I usually do only have 1 can a day, sometimes 2, but never more than that. I use to not drink any soda at all. I went for 2 years without a drop of soda when I was in high school...you'd think that now I'm an adult and more mature that I could do even better than that, but that hasn't been the case. Every night I tell myself, okay, I have to stop drinking it. And every day there I am drinking it. I must quit this! No, I'm not quite as bad as THIS person, lol, but still. My next plan of attack is to try to go down to those little half cans that they sell now. Allow myself only 1 of those instead of a full can. Then, once I've mastered that, go to none. Don't know if it will work, but I will once again try to kick my Mountain Dew addiction. *sigh* I'm hoping that by posting about it, that I will feel more accountable if I know I have all you people out there "watching" me. LOL

Values Profile Test

Your Values Profile

Loyalty: You value loyalty a fair amount. You're loyal to your friends... to a point. But if they cross you, you will reconsider your loyalties. Staying true to others is important to you, but you also stay true to yourself. Honesty: You value honesty a fair amount. You're honest when you can be, but you aren't a stickler for it. If a little white lie will make a situation more comfortable, you'll go for it. In the end, you mostly care about "situational integrity." Generosity: You value generosity highly. So much so that you often put your own needs last. There's nothing wrong with having a caring heart... But you may want to rethink your "open wallet" policy. Humility: You value humility highly. You have the self-confidence to be happy with who you are. And you don't need to seek praise to make yourself feel better. You're very modest, and you keep the drama factor low. Tolerance: You value tolerance a fair amount. You are open to new cultures, beliefs, and ideas. You have very few prejudices that you're aware of. And while you are tolerant, you do stand true to what you believe.

The Five Factor Values Test

Wordless Wednesday

(LOL- I bet that phone was ringing off the hook!)

Pantry Makeover!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I cleaned out and organized our pantry the other day. It had gotten SO bad! It looks much better now!

Here are the very embarrassing before pics:























...and here are the much improved after pics:





























Let's see how long it can stay cleaned out & organized this time!!!

Quick and Dirty IQ Test

LOL! Well, I guess we can't all be "above average" on everything, huh?! I would have thought my results on "logical intelligence" and "mathematical intelligence" would have been reversed, as I suck at math! lol But, I guess a lot of others do too. heehee.

Your IQ Is 95

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Above Average Your Mathematical Intelligence is Above Average Your General Knowledge is Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Spring?

Well, after an unseasonably warm winter, for the first day of spring yesterday we got snow! Not as much as they were calling for though. They were saying we would get about 6 inches, and we ended up with about 2. And the streets were just wet. So, no school closings or anything. Joe's work closes when the local public schools are canceled, so he was really hoping the school's would get canceled. We even stayed up late last night and finally watched the movie Walk the Line. lol So, now we're both tired today, but oh well. It was a good movie...although I found myself saying "Jerk!" outloud to the tv several times. heehee. This might sound kinda weird and you may think I'm crazy, but I've noticed for many years now (started noticing it when I was around age 10 or so) that when I hear certain songs/music from around that time period I get this weird feeling...kinda like a de ja vu mixed with haunting feelings come over me. Especially with a few of the Beatles songs and some of Elvis's songs, and several others too. It is so strange. I can't really describe it in words very well. But it was the reason I put off seeing Walk the Line, even though I knew it was probably a great movie. I did get a little of that feeling at certain parts during the movie, but not nearly as bad as I do with some other songs. Very strange. I guess I'm just weird.

Oh! And guess what I did a few days ago? I cleaned out and better organized our pantry! lol Real exciting, huh? But it was HORRIBLY messy and cluttered and unorganized before and it looks SO much better now. I took before and after pics...I'll try to remember to post them later when I get home. lol

Bathtime Fun!

Just had to share this picture of my boys playing together in the tub! Makes me smile every time I look at it :) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

My 4-day Weekend Report :)

I’m back in blogland after my 4-day birthday weekend. I had a good time! Thanks so much to all of you for all the nice birthday wishes and comments you left for me!!!! (Melissa and Laura even featured me on their blog entries, how fun is that?! Thanks!) For anyone that is interested, here’s how the weekend went:

Saturday: Was the "surprise" party for me in the city we use to live in. It was funny to watch Joe try to keep things a secret, seeing as I knew, but he didn't know that I knew. He did pretty good, although kept checking his watch the whole drive, and commenting on we might be a little late. We got to the restaurant, and walked to the back room where everyone shouted "Happy Birthday" when I walked in. I smiled and said Thank You and didn’t act shocked, but tried not to look too unsurprised either. My family and Joe’s family were both there, as well as a few of our friends. Unfortunately a lot of the friends couldn’t make it. One of my friends from high school that I still keep in touch with but who now lives on the complete opposite side of the state was there- she drove all that way to come! There were about 35 people there total. We had a nice lunch get-together. Joe and I both used to work at this restaurant about 14 years ago (it’s where we met), so it was kinda fun to go back. Funny enough, a couple of the same people even still work there!

After lunch, Joe’s family watched our boys while we went to the movies. Well, actually first we went to the tool store. LOL Then we went to the movie theater (which has changed a lot since we were there many years ago). They now have an Imax along with the regular theaters, and we saw "Deep Sea" in 3-D in the Imax. It was great, because we could actually get a beer and bring it in the theater! Don’t know if this is common in other states/areas, but I’ve never been able to take beer into a movie before! Unfortunately we didn’t know that the Imax one was only 40 minutes long, and we were a few minutes late, so it was over very quickly. We then went across the street to a little pizza place to have a beer and hang out. They had one of those old video game tables, similar to THIS so we played Ms. Pac Man at that table and drank some beers. It was fun to just play together and be silly and not have to worry about being parents for the moment! I kicked Joe’s butt the first game, but he badly kicked mine after that. We then were planning to go over to a good friend of ours house since he was working during the lunch party and missed it, but Adam was suddenly extremely fussy and tired, and we knew he wouldn’t make it through another get-together, so we had to cancel on that part and drive the boys home & put them to bed.

Sunday: I went to the 6-hour scrapbooking crop in the meeting room of Pizza Hut. Enjoyed hanging out with my sister and some friends there. My sis had another birthday cake for me there too. Unfortunately, the storms started while we were there, and when the tornado sirens went off, we had to go into the bathroom to take cover. (It was the restaurant’s policy). So, we all crammed into the bathroom. Sirens stopped, so we went back out and back to scrapbooking. Then they went off again, so this time we brought our chairs into the bathroom with us! lol (and yes, being the good little scrapbookers that we are, we did take pictures of us in the bathroom! LOL) This happened 3 times. Finally we decided to drive home when there was a break in the storms. That night we had tornado warning after tornado warning all around us. Our house was without electricity or phone line until the middle of the night. Since we couldn't cook, we drove back into town and picked up some Chinese take-out. Yum!!! Got back and ate it by candlelight since we had no other choice! I was awake til about 3am hearing all the warnings every few minutes on the battery-powered radio. We can’t hear the sirens from our house, so that’s the only way we could know when to take cover. Luckily we were not affected too badly at my house. We lost 1 tree, it snapped in half. But that appears to be the only thing. Other towns around us were not that lucky.

Monday: After being up most of the night, I was not too thrilled about getting my picture taken for our family photo! And it was still SO windy from the storms. I got blown all to pieces getting in and out of the car, so by the time we actually got the pic taken, any curl/style that had been in my hair was completely gone. *sigh* Oh well. We got the family photo done anyway, and it is okay. Not good, but not as terrible as I expected. See the results HERE. The 1st one would have been our pick, but Brendan had this devious demon-child smile on his face (which you can’t tell too much from the computer image, but it’s very obvious in person), so we had to go with the last one. Then after that we dropped the boys at daycare, we went to lunch at a restaurant I’d been wanting to try, and then went to see THIS. I thought it was supposed to be a very funny comedy, but it wasn’t at all! Joe thought the movie sucked. I thought it was okay, but it just wasn’t what I expected. I had wanted to see 16 Blocks, but the show time didn’t match our schedule for that one. (By the way, anyone out there that has seen the movie, did you find it as creepy as I did all those live "angels" dangling from the ceiling at the wedding?! Looked like a bunch of people had hung themselves or something...I know it was supposed to look neat and "beautiful" but I thought it looked ridiculous and creepy! LOL)

Tuesday: My actual birthday and the official beginning of being 30. Joe worked, boys went to daycare, and I had the day to myself at home. I did a little scrapbooking, a little tv watching, and a little cleaning around the house. Not very exciting, but was nice to just be by myself for awhile.
Today: I’m back at work, and back to reality. *sigh*

Almost the weekend...

...and it's not just any ol' weekend, it's almost my birthday weekend! Woohoo!!! Yes, I get a whole weekend, not just 1 day :) True, my actual b-day isn't until Tuesday, but I'm taking off Monday & Tuesday so I have a 4-day weekend. As I was leaving for work this morning, I told my husband that at 5pm when I leave work today, it will officially be the start of my birthday weekend. He laughed and said, "that's funny, most people only get a birthDAY, but you always have a birthday WEEKEND." Yep! He's got it! All year long I take care of everyone else, my birthday is when I demand to celebrate me. LOL!

Growing up my parents always made a big deal out of my birthday (and my sister's too of course). My mom would spend months planning our birthday parties and everything would always have a theme, depending on what we were interested in at the time. It was just awesome. She would decorate the house with balloons and streamers and various other decorations in our "theme". There would be colorful plates and napkins and cups, and a centerpiece on the table to match. Party games would go along with the theme too. And she would go way overboard on gifts as well. Every year was different. Sometimes it would be at home, sometimes at the roller skating rink, sometimes at the bowling alley, sometimes horseback riding party, and then the best ones when the parties were sleepovers and the fun lasted all night long! She really made us feel so special (every day of the year, but especially on our birthdays!) So I blame (thank) her for my obsession to make sure I enjoy my birthdays, even now that I'm an adult. lol And probably why I get so disappointed and hurt on the years that hubby doesn't do anything for my birthday, some years not even a card.

BUT, he has been getting better lately (he remembered to get me a couple Christmas gifts this year), and I happen to know that he's got something planned for this year's birthday- my 30th! Yippee!!! So, I am just itching to get out of work today...is it 5:00 yet? No? Only 4 more hours to go. I started laundry last night, and will finish it up tonight so that I do NOT have to worry about laundry this weekend. Tomorrow we are going to (a city I won't mention) and "eating lunch with hubby's brother and his fiance". That's code for "surprise party for me!" LOL! Ssshhh...I'm not supposed to know about that.

On Sunday I'm going to a scrapbooking crop with my sister and friends. 6 hours of kid-free time for me, woohoo!

On Monday, Joe is thinking about taking off too. If he does, then we might finally go get a family photo taken. Ugh! Have mixed feelings about that. We really need to, the last family photo we had done was when Brendan was 1 yr old. He's now 5. And poor little Adam has never been in our family photo yet. So we really need to. But, I'm dreading it because I still can't get over the fact that I still have 20 lbs to loose after having 2 kids. I hate to have "proof" of this in a photo that lasts forever. LOL! But, maybe I can get over that...maybe...I'll have to do some self-convincing. If the pics look too horrible, we don't have to buy any, right? We could always try again in a few months when I've lost more? *sigh*

Then, maybe we'll drop the boys off at daycare for part of the day, and go see a movie. I love to watch movies in the theater. I don't know why, I just do. But every year, I am reminded that March is usually a terrible month for movies. I really can't decide what I want to see.

Then on Tuesday, my actual birthday, I will have the day to myself. Joe will be at work, the boys will be at daycare, and I will have the whole day to myself. I haven't decided what exactly I'll do that day yet. But I love time alone, I crave it, so it really doesn't matter what I do, I will enjoy it.

Just curious, what would you do with a day to yourself???

So, anyway...if I'm not blogging much the next four days, then you know I'm having fun celebrating! Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

Wordless Wednesday

Look what I just ordered!

I just ordered THIS for the boys to have fun playing with this summer. It is so cute and looks so fun (and so affordable!) that I couldn't resist! Heck, *I* want to play on it too! LOL

Evil?

Found this from Melissa's blog...I'm not quite as evil as she is though. LOL!

You Are 34% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Here's a funny!

Skipping Monday Memories this week!

I'm skipping the Monday Memories this week, sorry! I'll jump back in on that again next Monday :)

Sharing Pics

Just thought I'd share some pictures from the birthday party the boys went to last weekend. It was for one of Brendan's little friends at preschool. Both my boys had a blast!

What do you think?

Okay, so a few days ago I mentioned that I thought something was up, and that I was suspicious that Joe was planning something for my 30th birthday. Well, yesterday I found out I was right! lol There was a message on our answering machine from the restaurant asking for an expected headcount for that Saturday before my b-day. Too funny. But now I don't know what I should do. I deleted the message so Joe wouldn't know that I know. But, then that means their phone call won't get returned. So, I'm not sure what to do. Should I go ahead and tell him about the message? I don't want him to be disappointed that the surprise is ruined, but the restaraunt needs to know a headcount. Hmmm...what do you think I should do? lol

Wordless Wednesday