Here we go again

Remember last week when K saw Cody (a.k.a. "little turd") erasing other students' PowerPoint presentations? Well, now we have a whole new can of worms, smashed open and crawling all over the friggin' place.

Below is an email I sent to K's teacher this afternoon. (I grow weary of having to babysit teachers and administration....)

Mr. Jones,

When I spoke with you last week regarding the fact that K witnessed Cody erasing PowerPoint presentations, you told me that when/if K was called down to the office to tell the principal what he saw, Cody would not be there. K's coming forward would be confidential; in fact, I specifically asked you about this and you assured me that he would be protected.

Yesterday K was called down to the assistant principal's office. Then D (another witness) was called in. Then Cody. All three boys were in the office at the same time. This is completely unacceptable.

Today Cody began bullying K and calling him names such as "fag" and "tattletale." Again, this is unacceptable.

I would like know what you and/or Mr. F plan to do alleviate Cody's bullying tactics. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.

Thank you.

I can't wait to hear what they have to say.

Memoriam (sigh)

Farewell to my grandfather, who passed away yesterday. Your memory will live on through your five children, seventeen grandchildren, and countless great-grandchildren.

May you rest in peace.

Recovering

This weekend we held P's 8th birthday party here at the house. In addition to the three little girls she invited, we also had lots of family members and friends in attendance. It was crowded around here, but also very warm and cozy. I enjoyed visiting with everyone (especially playing poker with T & J & siblings - heh).

The only problem was that I didn't order enough pizza to go around. Not nearly enough. Next time I'll do better.

Two of P's friends stayed for the slumber party. I don't know why they call it a "slumber" party, because there sure wasn't much slumbering going on! The girls were up until midnight, then up again by 7:00 a.m. They had a great time - the mess in P's room is certainly proof of that. The way I see it, though, a slumber party is not a success unless it takes you at least two days to clean up afterwards.

Hmm, wonder why I don't host more slumber parties.

Today I'm heading back to Tnk's house to work on getting it shipshape so she can move into it. Our biggest project today will be installing the new kitchen cabinets. I spent Friday priming and painting the kitchen, and can't wait to see the finished product.

So - this entry is a short one because I've got to run. Y'all have a good day now, ya hear?

It's Wednesday

Today I accomplished a major feat: I went to the grocery store. I had not been in well over a week, and our list was getting rather long. So I clipped some coupons and headed to Kroger this morning. I spent $114, after saving $24.14 with coupons. That's 21.17% off my grocery bill. Can't beat that with a stick. Go, me.

After grocery shopping, I drove K to school. (Yep, I got moving early.) During the drive, K told me about a kid in his Social Studies class who has been up to no good. Apparently, each class has been working on PowerPoint presentations. This little turd has taken it upon himself to open other classes' presentations, delete the information within, and re-save the file. That really ticked me off. I asked K if he'd told the teacher, but he said he had not because he didn't want to be obvious. I told him I'd contact the teacher for him, but in the meantime he was not to hang around Turdboy. He told me not to worry, that he'd already realized that "Cody is a jerk."

I'm so proud of my kid.

I spent the rest of the day working on sis's house. Today's adventures included painting the laundry room and shopping for crown molding for the living room. Tnk's cabinets were delivered today, and they look awesome. I am getting excited about seeing the finished product. After all this work, though, Tnk and I both wish we could snap our fingers and make that happen! Don't we, Tnk?

Tonight we celebrated P's 8th birthday. Dear Lord, how did eight years go by so quickly!?! Her little "party" was a study in simplicity - she wanted Burger King for dinner because they have the new Star Wars toys. {sigh} Then she wanted dump cake for dessert, which is incredibly easy to make. Then she opened two presents - one of which was the Barbie Karaoke Cam. Man, you'd have thought she won the lottery! She was so happy. I took pictures, but I was wishing I had a video camera to capture that moment.

Maybe I'll ask for a video camera for Christmas. Then *I* can do a happy dance.

Hap'Bur-day 2 Me

Today has been so good. I started it off by letting R & P miss their bus. Okay, that was unintentional - the driver was early again. Luckily hubby was here to drive the kids around to another stop so they could get on. Thank you so much, hubby.

K made his bus no problem. I think his driver was even a couple of minutes late, which was very considerate of him.

After the kids got off to school, I drove down to the DPS office to renew my driver's license. Yes, folks, that's always an enjoyable way to spend the anniversary of your birth - spend half the morning with surly people who don't like their jobs and are going to take it out on you. Oh, and don't forget the other surly people who are there for the same reason you are, and who are also going to take it out on you.

Heh, not today. There was no line at my DPS office this morning, and the workers I dealt with were very pleasant. For a moment, I thought hell had indeed frozen over. But then two morons got in line ahead of me. They were so unprepared that both of them actually left the window to go get money/registration/social security card from their cars! Even worse, the workers held their place in line. This was really only annoying because there were only two workers doing driver's licenses in the first place. So the nonexistent line turned into one about ten people long before I left.

Still, though. Only ten people + DPS office = happy fun day!

I, of course, was prepared, so my whole process took about a minute. That was a great birthday present, DPS. Thank you from the heart of my bottom.

I was back home by 9:20, and my sister Tnk came over about an hour later. She brought me a small but suspiciously heavy present. It was a picture frame stuffed in among packing peanuts. Well, a new-and-improved version of packing peanuts. Packing "peanut butter candies" - my favorite halloween candy of all time. Sweet of her to remember that.

Sis then drove me out to have lunch with her and my other sister (EMT) and my stepdad (T) and J. We went to Chuy's (Mexican food; GOOD stuff).

EMT had bought me some balloons, which were tied to the back of my chair. I felt very obvious, lol. She always gets people balloons on their birthday, which makes us feel special. Several people told me Happy Birthday just because of the balloons - that's always nice. Oh, and EMT gave me the BEST present of all - she's telling everyone I'm 32. She so rocks! :)

T and J brought me a gift of some Mary Kay products. I'd mentioned to J about a month ago that I liked a certain type of MK lotion (a sample had come in the catalog I'd received in the mail from her). She somehow remembered that one comment. She gave me a large bottle of the lotion, plus a large bottle of the same-scent body wash. I'm gonna smell very very good.

After presents, we ate lunch. I got the Lite Plate, which consisted of a taco, a small dish of queso, and a dollop of guacamole. We then had sopapillas for dessert. Good food, but not so much that I'm full. In fact, I'm not full at all, which is great because I think tonight's dinner will be a big one. My dear MIL is cooking steaks, plus she asked what kind of wine I like. I foresee a fun, sparkly-eyed evening.

After lunch, T and J brought me home because they needed to go to a store near my house. Tnk had a business appointment up near where we had lunch (about 10 miles away). She was going to bring me home anyway, then go back. I thought it was very nice of her, but there was no reason for her to burn all that gas when T and J were coming this way anyway. It was so sweet of her to offer anyway.

It's now 1:38 CST, which means I've got a lot of birthday-ing left to do. Perhaps I'll indulge myself with peanut butter candies and some lame TV. Sounds good to me.

Boo and Hiss!

To the weather, that is.

We had beautiful weather all day yesterday. I mean, picture-perfect: low humidity, cool breezes, and sunshine. Utopian, I tell you. This morning we're having the exact same weather.

But last night at 5:00, the skies opened up. But it was not just rain; oh no, the halloween deities decided to play the cruelest trick ever. Thunder, lightning, and a torrential downpour pelted us until nearly 9:00 p.m. By then, of course, it was much too late to take the kids trick-or-treating.

So K did not get to be Harry Potter (and he would have been the BEST one, seriously). R did not get to be a Jedi. And P - poor miss P - did not get to be a rock star. Y'all, she had leather boots and everything. Her little heart was just broken.

But all is not lost! Next week is P's birthday, and we've decided she can have a rock star party. Her friends will all dress up as rock stars, and they'll make rock videos all afternoon. (P doesn't know it yet, but she's getting a Barbie Karaoke Cam for her birthday. Her cousin has one, and the girls spend hours upon hours rocking out.)

So now I'm off to do some shopping. My list looks like this:

Barbie Karaoke Cam
Toilet Paper

So, which store sells both? I'm all about minimizing my errands, you know. Although if I can't, I won't run out of energy - I've got six tons of chocolate in my living room. We weren't the only ones who didn't trick-or-treat last night.

Boo!

We are three hours away from even leaving the house to trick-or-treat, and I am sick of candy already. I knew I should have bought big bags of Almond Joys or Smarties, neither of which I like. But noooooo, instead I picked up large packages of Skittles, M&Ms, Snickers, and Whoppers. Darn it, I am in love with all of them. Well, I was. Now I loathe them. I loathe them all.

[gag] I swear, if I could just puke right now, I'd feel so much better. Stupid candy. The good news is that I will mostly likely be leaving the kids' trick or treat bags alone tonight. See, children, the sacrifices I make for you?

Hubby, just so you know, tomorrow you may be taking a bunch of chocolate bars and other assorted candies to work. Nay, not a bunch. A friggin' boatload. All I know is, it's not staying alone in the house with me anymore.

Tomorrow I start working out. Yeah, y'all check up on me, wouldja?

Speaking of working out, I've decided not to join Curves. As much as I enjoyed getting out there every morning, I wondered why I was never sore. No matter how hard I pushed myself, I never felt like I was doing anything that would help me tone up (which, at my age, is pretty much A-Number-One on the get-fit list). Don't get me wrong - Curves can be a really good thing. But I just don't think it's for me. So on I go with the fitness search.

First step: rid house of all chocolate.

Tomorrow.

Happy trickin' and treatin', y'all!

Writing and Scouting and Schmoober, Oh My!

I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Check out the cool new icon at left (props to Katie for making that happen). I am filled with excitement and dread, although the latter is rather a stupid feeling, since it's not like I'm being graded on what I write. It's all good, though, because I am counting on myself to be successful in this endeavor. Go Trace; go Trace!

As if spending countless hours at my computer next month weren't enough, I have taken on a whole new endeavor as well. At her request, I took P to sign up for Girl Scouts last night. There were lots of girls there, but unfortunately not many from P's school. It takes five children to make a troop, but as P was the only 2nd grader from her school at the rally, she was put together with all the 1st graders. To say that she is less than thrilled would be a heavy understatement. I told her that if she was unhappy, she didn't have to join, but she said she still wanted to try it out.

So I and four other moms are sitting at this munchkin-sized table in the cafeteria at one of the neighborhood elementary schools. Two were breastfeeding; one was dressed like she either has a high-paying job, or married a man with one (either way, the process seemed to bore her), and the other one had apparently signed in at the start of the meeting and then vanished. Weird.

Then there was me, whose breasts have not nursed an infant in seven years, and who has not held a decent-paying job in five. Apparently, this means that I am automatically troop leader. I don't actually recall saying that I was the man for the job, but when not one but TWO harried-looking mothers with babes at their chests look at you pathetically, what are you going to do?

The "rich or married so but either way so very bored" woman said that there was no way she could be troop leader because the only camping she is willing to do is at Camp Hyatt. Well. Who wouldn't rather rough it with room service? I have a feeling she's going to annoy me for years to come. Or weeks, depending on how long P wants to stick it out. (Hey, I can dream, can't I?)

The next step in this process is that I have to go to a four-hour seminar next weekend on how to be a troop leader. I hate to give up a Sunday afternoon, but I suppose P's happiness is worth it. She'd darn better appreciate this, for I shall be reminding her for the next forty years or so of all the sacrifices I've made throughout her life. Am I evil? Nay. I am a mother. And not the "f'er" kind, either, lest you are thinking so.

Speaking of bad language, which of course I never, ever, use, we heard "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" on the radio tonight. The kids love that song, but I won't buy them the CD because one line says, "What's f'ed up and everything's alright." Why can't they just say "What's goobed up and everything's alright"? Or maybe use "dorked." Or "schmoobered." Just not the almighty F.

Man, I've had to erase u-c-k every time I've typed F. I don't want to spell out the whole word, but my fingers type much faster than my brain thinks sometimes. Thank goodness for delete and backspace keys.

Also speaking of bad language, a few choice words were heard around here this week. The Astros didn't win a single game in the World Series. "Shucky-darn" and "balderdash" were about the only bad-type words that went unsaid. But as bad as it feels to lose in four straight games, I am still very proud of my boys. It's an amazing feat to even get TO the Series, and most other teams didn't make it that far. Some didn't even come close. So hats off to you, 'stros - you're still hometown heroes to me.

Should I do it?

Katie does NaNoWriMo every year. Despite the fact that I really don't think I have The Great American Novel (hereinafter to be known as "TGAN") in me, I am really tempted to sign up. But can I write 50,000 words in 30 days? That's like a 1,666.66 word paper every day - and I don't know how to write .66 of a word. Would "a" or "I" count, maybe?

With all these questions and hesitations, why am I even considering signing up? I think it's just so I can say "I did it!" I mean, this year is practically a bust for me - I'm not in school this semester; I'm not working outside the home (not for money, anyway - my sis is paying me in Wendy's and Whataburger, which I think is a fair trade for stripping wallpaper and painting doors, don't you?); and I'm not having a baby, either, like Amy is going to do any day now.

So, okay then. I've talked myself into it. I'm going to write 50,000 words. In 30 days. Holy cow, that's a lotta words in a little time. Do you think I'm allowed to plagiarize my blog sometimes? After all, I'm the original writer of all the words before you; I should be allowed to copy myself, right? I have to write about what I know best, and that would be, well, me. One might ask if I really know myself, but philosophical and psychological discussions are not my cup of tea today. Ego, Id, all that jazz. Bleh.

Why is "Ramblin' Fever" going through my head? Follow this post and you'll figure it out. Heh.

Off to sign up for NaNoWriMo now. Hubby, will you join me in my quest? I know you have got TGAN in you. Time to see that bad boy!

La de da

Don't have much else to write about, but I wanted to get the depressing post off the top of the page....

Recent thoughts I've pondered:

Why is it that no matter how many ways I try to steer company AWAY from the laundry room (which currently houses no fewer than five mountains of laundry), they always manage to see the mess anyway?

Why is it that I feel responsible for so many people's happiness? What is this urge within me that wants to please everyone, many times at my own expense? How the heck can I plug it up?

Why is it bad to be a little selfish sometimes? Or is it?

Why do I not want to go to school anymore? Not that I'm quitting, mind you; I just don't want to put forth the effort. At all.

Why am I excited about Christmas? I love love love that time of year. But why, exactly? This one has baffled me for years.

Why am I so happy to be helping my sister with her house? I mean, it's work. Hard work. But I love it. Maybe it's the sense of accomplishment that comes with manual labor. Maybe it's that I love socializing with my siblings. Maybe I feel closer to Mom in that house...? Maybe it's all those things. Maybe I should stop analyzing it and just go with the flow.

Why did Mitch Hedburg have to die so young? His comedy routines make me laugh hard, even though I've heard them over and over and over. Drugs suck.

The kids just got home from school, so I'll stop now. Well, maybe just one more thought: Tomorrow, GO ASTROS!

Seven Years

Today is the 7th anniversary of the day my mother passed away.

Mom had started complaining of a headache on Wednesday evening, October 21st. On Thursday, she stayed in bed all day long, only getting up twice to use the restroom. Both times, she had to inch her way down the hall to the bathroom because of the pain in her head. By Thursday evening, she was incoherent - and my dad was getting scared. He made her get up and come sit on the sofa, and he peppered her with questions like "how old are the grandchildren? what is your name?" She answered him, but slowly and with her head bobbing because she kept drifting off to sleep.

My parents finally went to bed around midnight, but around 2:00 dad felt something was wrong. He jumped out of bed, told mom they were going to the ER, and somehow got her to get up and get into the car.

At the ER, the nurses started questioning Mom again - "what's your name, address, etc." Same type of response. They put her into a room, and my dad stood by her and held her hand and told her he loved her. She replied "I love you, too."

Around 4:00 a.m., Mom gasped, threw her head back...and stopped breathing. Dad ran into the hallway screaming, and the nurses came in and put Mom on a respirator.

The doctor ordered CAT scans on Mom the next morning, and found that there was no activity in her frontal lobe. We were all there (all five of us kids, plus our spouses) when the nurses came in and unhooked the machines to see if she could breathe on her own. It was heartbreaking to watch and see that she could not. Despite the fact that her heart was still beating, Mom was gone. She was 51.

It was very hard to watch her go. As the years go by, I expect the ache in my heart to get better. And in some ways, it has. But as I relive that day, I find that the pain is still very raw. Writing it all out is therapeutic in a way. Many of my friends hesitate to talk to me about Mom because they're afraid they'll upset me (and I understand that), but sometimes I need to talk about her.

"Don't cry because its over. Smile because it happened."

Thanks for the memories, mom. And thanks for giving me life. I miss you so much.

Because it's been four days

...without a post from me. Here we go.

Astros lost last night, but it was actually a good game. The armchair quarterback (or the baseball equivalent) in me had a bad feeling about Roger Clemens pitching, but I am no one, so he started and we lost. Of course, he only pitched two innings, and left because of an injury, but still. If only Phil Garner had asked me what my feminine instincts were saying, the 'stros might have pulled this one out.

There's still hope - next game is tonight. Please, Pettitte, pull some tricks from up your sleeve. My feminine instincts are not overly optimistic about your throwing arm, either. Surprise me.

Moving on, because I know my non-baseball-fan readers will appreciate a new topic.

I helped my sister work on her house again last Friday. We had our first-ever experience with vinyl tile, which sis and I put down in her laundry room. That stuff is sticky. We're talking airplane glue times ten. When we finished tiling the room, both of us had to use a soapy Brillo pad to get the goop off of our hands - and that STILL did not remove all the goop. Lesson learned and lesson shared: if you ever do sticky vinyl tile, for Bob's sake, have some GooGone nearby.

One more home improvement lesson: if you ever need to trim down a door before you hang it, always always always do the trimming on the hinge side. Not the doorknob side. Trust us on this one. This is particularly important when hanging a bathroom door, as privacy is probably an issue in your house, too.

By the way, Tnk, the new laundry room door looks amazing.

Moving on again.

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous. We slept with the windows open last night, which was a real treat because we have not done that since we moved here. The windows are still open, and as I type this, I am watching the sheers in my living room blow gently with the breeze. I imagine this is what my grandmother's childhood home was like: air conditioning did not exist at that time, so their windows were always open. And they had large windows, like we do. I never saw their curtains blowing, but like I said, I imagine this is how it was.

Oh! My windup pendulum clock just chimed 12:00! A clock just like grandma's childhood home used to have.

Wow, have I somehow tripped back to 1937? No, wait, a 747 just flew by. Never mind.

By the way, Evil One, you're in my thoughts today. I hope the hurricane's path does not include your home. Take care.

Have a good week, all. And GO ASTROS!

Suh-WEET!

They did it! For the first time in franchise history, the Houston Astros are going to the World Series, baby. At the moment, I'm the embodiment of the commercial: I live for this!

Next on my agenda is how I can score some World Series tickets....

Rassin' Frassin'...

The title is for my beloved Astros. I hope they get their act together tomorrow night and kick some Cardinal ... uh, rear. (Do birds have kickable rears?) Last night's game sucked, except for the glorious home run by Berkman. And the pretty good pitching by Pettitte.

Okay, maybe just last night's 9th inning sucked. I still can't believe we were down to ONE STRIKE and blew it. Is it the Houston sports curse? I lean towards "not" because after all, the Houston Rockets have kicked butt and taken names in the recent past. And they count as a Houston sports team, right? (I hate basketball, but I still back the locals.)

Today my brother told me that if the Astros don't get to the World Series this year, he's never going to watch them again. I think that echoes the sentiments of many fans, although truth be told, I think that's a knee-jerk reaction. I mean, come on. We all know that if the Astros go far next season - or heck, fifteen seasons from now - we'll be cheering them on.

Anyway.

I spent a rather enjoyable day helping my sister and brother demolish and reconstruct her house. My sister is buying the home we grew up in, and it's in dire need of a facelift (really, more of a total-body makeover, lol). So we spend a couple of days a week tearing down wood paneling and taking out old flooring and tiles, plus painting walls and trim. There's a long way to go, but I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. It helps that my sister was gifted with a decorator/architect's eye - she knows what she wants, and it all fits, if that makes sense.

I would love to lock her inside my house all alone for a day and see how beautiful she can make it. (Waddaya say, Tnk? I'll even cook for you.) Not that cooking for her is a big deal. She was also blessed with wonderful culinary skills.

Hey, where was I when all this talent was being passed out, huh? I excel in scrapbooking and ... uh ... bowling. Wow, I bore myself.

And now that I've bored you guys, I shall sign off with this thought. Again.

GO ASTROS!

Fifty-seven channels and there's nothing on

Hey there. Miss me?

I've been sick with a cold for the past few days, and haven't spent much time on the computer. I would be going through some serious withdrawal, had I not been so achy and sniffy. Instead of compute-ing, I've been parked on the sofa for hours on end, wondering why the heck we pay for digital cable because there is nothing on.

I have watched so much crap the past few days that I probably should be hosed off. Daytime programming is so very bad. Not only did I watch the season finale of "Surreal Life," (OMG Janice Dickinson has problems), but I also watched an entire season of "America's Next Top Model." In.one.day. (Again with the Janice Dickinson! Gack!) That's eight hours I'll never see again. On the other hand, I did get some rest and dozed off from time to time. Daytime TV is almost as good as Galavision soccer at putting me to sleep.

When I wasn't stuck on VH1, I checked out the local channels. In doing so, I caught a couple of episodes of "Ellen," which I used to really enjoy. Ellen was funny as always, but I didn't get into the show all that much. I felt a little lost, actually - what's up with the smiley-face potato chip? And now it's missing? What the heck? Is this worth getting all worked up over? I don't know, but I AM! Gack!

Today finds me better physically, but sick ... car-ly. (Huh?) My van decided it wanted to give me trouble last night, then this morning it gave up starting altogether. So my stepdad came over and jumped it, then followed me to the dealership (thanks, T; I enjoyed our visit so much.). Anyway, that was hours ago. I'm not optimistic about getting my vehicle back this weekend, which is going to make all the running around I have to do quite difficult.

Maybe I'll just sit home and watch TV. I'm sure Janice Dickinson is on some channel. Gack!

p.s. GO ASTROS!

Proverbial Little Me

This is probably about right...except for the not speaking much part. Sometimes I am overly loquacious. But that's not a bad thing, right?





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About time!

This weekend, hubby and I celebrated our 15th anniversary in style - in no small part due to the fact that the grandparents took the kids for an overnight visit Saturday night. (Thanks, Boppa & Beaner!)

The weekend started off right because the Longhorns pummeled the Sooners (take THAT, Stoops! HA!). And Mack Brown? About damn time, is all I'm saying.

Hook'em!

Anyway...

Saturday evening, hubby took me out to The Melting Pot, which is an incredible fondue restaurant. If you've never been there, GO. You might need to save your pennies for a few years first, but after that, GO. We had a four-course meal, after which I was so grateful that I'd had tea instead of wine - I was uncomfortably full, and sure didn't need a hangover to go along with my upset stomach.

But don't let that dissuade you; the food was great and the service was very good. I highly recommend this place to anyone who has a special event coming up. Or if you don't want a big meal but are craving a very cool dessert, go there for the chocolate fondue. It's to die for. Skip the one with the peanut butter, though - it was so heavy I could hardly touch it. Of course, I was already about to explode, so maybe that had something to do with it.

After dinner, we drove 30 miles back home. We had talked about stopping for coffee or something, but I was seriously f-u-l-l and couldn't even think about ingesting anything else. Ugh, I feel sick just thinking about it.

Yadda yadda yadda on the rest of the evening. No details here, as this is a family blog. (Y'all, my husband is rolling his eyes at me as he reads this. Embarrassing Hubby? Fun! Heehee!)

The next morning, we were still full from dinner, so for breakfast we went to Starbucks. Hubby got a Chai Tea Latte (yummy), and I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte (yummIER). That's all we had until lunchtime, when we went to The County Line. That place has awesome barbecue, and even better, I had a coupon! So we ate ribs and potato salad and other stuff, then ordered apple pie a'la mode. Very good, by the way. Not all places have good apple-y desserts, but County Line does. (For the record, Grand Lux does NOT.)

By the way, we did do one foolish thing yesterday: we turned down tickets to see the Astros play the Braves. Granted, six hours of straight baseball doesn't sound appealing even now, but how cool would it be to have been in attendance at a history-making playoff game? [sigh] We're consoling ourselves with the fact that at least the Astros won! (Again, 'bout damn time. I'm sure we weren't the only ones who were thinking that.)

Overall, the weekend was fantastic. It was so nice to reconnect with my spouse - and actually finish a conversation without interruption. Hubby and I have been thinking that we'd like to have a date night once a month or so, and are hoping the grandparents will be receptive to that idea. That would be sooooo great.

As for spending time together as husband and wife? It was about damn time.

Fifteen years ago today

I married the man of my dreams, thereby becoming the happiest woman in the world.

I am struggling to find what to say next because thinking back on that day makes my heart overflow. After all this time, I still can't believe that he chose me. I thank God all the time that he brought us together. We are so unbelievably happy and have so much fun together ... sickening, aren't we?

I love my husband so much, and am so grateful that my life has turned out the way it has. He's my sun, my moon, my starlit sky. Without him, I dwell in darkness. That sounds weird, but hubby will know what I'm talking about [heh, so will his sister {hi, Amoo}]. Anyone else seen "Willow"? Then you will know, too. lol

Had to put a bit of levity in there. I was making myself cry. And I hate when I make myself cry. My mascara gets all runny and so does my nose. Nothing worse than a runny nose on your 15th anniversary. Okay, I'm sure there's something worse, but I can't think of it right now because I'm all sappy and stuff.

Anyway, here's to US, hubby. I love you so much, and can't wait until we can celebrate our anniversary this weekend.

[mwah!]

10/05/05 = Fake entry...

... because Blogger decided to take a powder last night. Yes, I'm pre-dating this entry. Ignore the title of this thread, cuz it's actually October 6th now. So, hi! How the heck were ya yesterday?

I tried to get in for over an hour last night (on the 5th), but fifty-three "This page cannot be displayed"'s later, I gave up.

Blogger, get your crap together before I'm forced to take my crap elsewhere.

Katie, go to Kohl's!

Today my sister came over to my house and took me shopping at Kohl's. Okay, she didn't take me take me - she had a coupon to share, and she drove. But I paid for all my stuff. Just so we're clear.

Aside to Gimpy: Thanks SO much for driving, by the way. I really appreciated riding around in your cool car. :)

Anyway, I finally found some really nice stuff that - get this - actually fit me. I couldn't believe it. And everything I got was on the clearance rack, reduced 66% or more. Happy dance time! Last time I was this thrilled with a purchase, it was yellow and sucked (in a good way - don't be gross).

All right, all right. My last happy dance was over a Dyson. Just so we're clear again.

The outfit I bought included a white button-up 3/4-sleeve blouse and a pair of tailored khaki capri pants. Nice enough for dinner out, PTO meeting, or wiping boogey noses. Okay, maybe too nice for that last one, but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. I also found a nice tan belt off a rack marked "final clearance" (read: no can bringo backo) for $1.50. I needed a new belt, so this was a major score for me.

Last but not least, I bought a couple of pieces of jewelry for myself. This is a BIG deal because I.do.not.wear.jewelry. Okay, I wear my wedding ring, but that's it. But the lure of the jewelry aisle was overpowering. This very very very cute bracelet kept calling out to me. I tried very hard to resist its charms (punny, ain't I?), and I even tried to put it back on the rack over a dozen times (my sister can totally vouch for this). But when the fat lady sang, it was in my cart. Now it's on my wrist.

I also bought a cute cross choker-necklace. Those words are probably not-hyphenated. Oh-well.

New clothes, new jewelry, and new lingerie, too. I won't post a description of the latter here, but suffice it to say that it's hot.

Katie, I know you've been looking for casual wear, so if you have a Kohl's anywhere near you, get there. Find a coupon if you can. And avoid the jewelry aisle - it's evil.