My List

I stole this from somebody, don't remember who, thought it would be cool

10 years ago... Lets see, I would have been getting ready to start my Senior year of High School, (go bulldogs). If I remember correctly, I was spending every morning(7:00am-9:30am)the week before school started at cheer practice. The spring before we qualified for state and that was coming up. Working as a 3rd key holder at Vanity in Mid Rivers Mall. Driving my parents crazy and getting into all kinds of trouble I'm sure.

5 years ago... August 2000. Have to try to remember. This was a bad year. Gary died in May, I moved home from Arizona in May. I was living in an apartment in Bridgeton with my cousin Madeleine getting ready to start UMSL. Trying to find my life.

1 year ago...August 2004. I was somewhere in South America. My step-father took, Me and my husband and my brother and his wife on a week long trip to Costa Rica and Peru. It was the most amazing thing that I have done in my life so far. We stayed at the base of an erupting volcano, climbed Machu Picchu, and ate some food I don't even want to know what it was. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!!

Yesterday... cleaned the house, grocery shopped, cooked dinner(FYI wax paper doesn't bake well), went to my brothers to finish Mikes poker table.

Today...Finish cleaning the house, running to Costco, babysitting my neice and nephew for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow... Sleep in, then clean up the house after the poker party tonight. Head to my inlaws house that evening for more poker.

5 snacks I enjoy... Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies! Chips and Salsa, Buttery Popcorn, Slim Jims, Doritos

5 bands that i know the lyrics of MOST of their songs.. This one is a little tougher.... Garth Brooks, Jessica Simpson, Chicago, I'll come back to this one.

5 things I would do with $100,000,000... Travel the world with my honey, donate a chunk my community, Buy a bunch of cool toys, share with family and closest friends, invest a bunch to live off the interest comfortably.

5 locations I'd like to run away to... Australia, Hawaii, Carribean, Italy, London (I've heard they have great shopping there).

5 bad habits I have... Smoking when I'm drinking, Picking my lip (nervous twitch), being very shy in new situations, not keeping in touch with old friends, forgetting to recharge batteries

5 things I like doing...Surfing ebay, reading, sleeping, eating, spending time with Mike.

5 TV shows I like...Friends, Anyone loves Raymond, any reality show, Days of our lives ( I know, I know), cooking shows

5 movies I like... The Sweetest Thing, Step-Mom, Napolian Dynamite (flipping sweet), Beauty and the Beast, Dirty Dancing

5 famous people I'd like to meet... Robin Williams, Oprah, Jessica Simpson, John Travolta and Albert Einstein

5 biggest joys at the moment... Mike, sigma the cat, our new office, knowing that my house is clean....

My mother was right....

As a kid my mom always told me that the older I got the faster the years would go by and to enjoy as much of life as I possibly could. Man was she ever right. I just realized that in less than 2 weeks it will be August. Where did the summer go? I do have to say though that this summer has been one of the more memorable ones. Lets see, we had memorial day parties at all my friends houses, Mikes Baddabing casino birthday party, fourth of july homemade slip n slide and dunk tank. Up next came the infamous drunkfest 2005 floattrip. The first annual film festival is quickly approaching at our friends house and after that is the kids floating trip. We then have a short break until labor day and then we remake the homemade slip n slide.

What a crazy summer! Between mike and I, we could have bought a liquor store by now!!

It's raining, It's pouring, agh, there's a leg in my yard!!!

So I'm cruising through CNN checking out the latest news and came upon this article,
www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/08/plane.body.ap/index.html.
Can you imagine? You are going out to sit in your backyard and sip some ice tea and you stumble on something. Thinking its a stick you look down and see a HUMAN LEG??!!
That would be a little strange and a little scary. Body parts are falling from the sky and landing in your yard. What is going on?

So this guy from Africa is hiding in a plane wheel well. How did he survive the freezing temps that he had to of encountered? What was he thinking? Uh, Hello, its an airplane, its flying really high, its cold up there.

Age of the Innocent

Remember being a kid? When you spent your summers playing in the hose, riding your bikes through the woods and eating ice cream cones on the front porch? The picture below is of a friends little girl playing in the neighbors sprinkler. Too many times now days, I see parents freaking out when their kids get a little dirty. Man, back in the days the dirter the better. We rode our bikes through the puddles left by a passing rain storm. You would be covered in mud, ride home, mom would come out, smile and make you change clothes. There was no yelling or getting into trouble.

I say let kids be kids. It won't be very long before they have to worry about bills, work and all the things that parents have to worry about. Have fun, go play in the sprinkler, catch a lighting bug and chill out.

Sprinkler Fun 

Home Depot

So during a conversation last night, I learned that Home Depot has bathrooms, for the public. Here is my concern: Do people really spend that much time in Home Depot at one time to have to have a potty break? According to my brother, the king of Home Depot, yes. HE even informed me that they have a coffee station that you can get coffee. Where is this secret mecca for the Home Depot junkies? I have never even seen a sign pointing the way to the restrooms.

Don't most people go into Home Depot, buy a light bulb or whatever and leave. I don't spend hours scouring the aisles looking for a bargain. Do they really do that? Bill (my brother) went on to tell me that he knows how many steps,(yes folks, he has counted the steps), it is from the Contracters enterance to _________. (insert where you are going).

This is sad!! Maybe we need to start a Home Depot annoyomous.

This and That....

We just got back from our Cruise to Key West and Cozumel. What a blast!! I didn't think I would like that big boat floating in the middle of the ocean (think of the Titanic) but it was so much fun.

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This weekend Mike was out of town on business and I was here supervising the installation of our new patio. It is going to be so nice to have some place to sit in the backyard. My house is a mess from all the rock and such being dragged in, but I guess that is the price I have to pay.

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There is this new Italian resturant in our town called Carrabbas. They have some of the best food. Right now, Mike is sleeping off his dinner before watching the last two episodes of House MD. By the way, that is a great show!! If you haven't gotten the chance to watch, you should. Tonight as we were getting ready to pay, my husbands goes to reach for his debit card only to realize, its not there. He had changed clothes and let it laying on the dresser. Thank goodness, I happened to have mine with us otherwise we would have been doing dishes.

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My silly cat Sigma 

my new vacuum

I never knew vacuuming could be so much fun!! Got a new Dyson vacuum and this thing rocks. I highly recommend it. I'm not the worlds best housekeeper but its not filthy. I brought this thing home and after snapping a few pieces in place, I was off and running. It sucked up so much cat hair and dust it was gross.

fun game

http://www.joeykatzen.com/alpha/index.html


This was harder than I thought

Introducing Sigma!!!

This is my crazy cat!! The one I am going to vacuum......



http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3cc01b3127cce9b1e19805bc000000016108AcN2jNs0ZtW

Spring Clean!!

I hate this time of year. The house has been closed up all winter and now with Spring coming, its time to clean. Whoever came up with the concept? Do people actually wait until Spring to clean their houses? I am washing curtains today, which is a pain in the arse only because after they are cleaned I have to iron them, they are made out of linen or something that wrinkles.

On the topic of cleaning, my vacuum crapped out on me the other day. It was cheap and is about 5 years old, time for a new one. I have been checking out the web looking for the best one, so far I have heard nothing but rave reviews on the Dyson Animal vacuum. It is supposed to suck everything up out of the carpets. They say it comes with a pet attachement tool....hmmmm, I wonder if I could vacuum the cats with it? They won't let me brush them, maybe I could vacuum them......

The girls at New Years Eve 2005 

Swing of things

I'm am finally back to work. After 2 months of becoming a vegetable and being held hostage in my home by some unknown viral infection, I am back in the world. After 1 week I am starting to think that I should of stayed home. Things are crazy in the office!!! There is so much to do, get caught up on, that it's going to take me until June to finish all of it.

It's nice to know that our patients missed me. I have had so many people tell me that they are so glad that I'm back. I think that they missed someone knowing what they were doing. (sorry Mike :)) Life is slowly getting back to normal, whatever that is. In a previous post, I think I mentioned that I had lost 20lbs while being sick. I have spend 3 years and lord knows how much money trying to lose that 20lbs and all alone all I had to do was go and get a severe case of food poisoning. Not that I would recommend this to anyone, but if you have tried everything else and had no results, go eat a piece of undercooked chicken and see what that does for you.

Losing touch

How does it happen? One minute you are friends with someone and the next you haven't spoken to them in 5 years. It becomes physically impossible to lift up the phone and call them. Trust me, I've tried. I get to the phone and there is this magnetic force that prevents me from picking up the phone. The little voice in my head takes over and says, try tomorrow, not a big deal. Or, you sit down to type an email to them and your fingers become paralyzed, unable to type a single word.

I was married before Mike, to a wonderful man named Gary. We were only married for a short time, as he was killed in a plane accident. He was a pilot and loved what he did. He used to say that one day, when he got old, he wanted to buried in the cockpit of a airplane. He was Canadian and his entire family is there. This didn't give me much chance to get to know them very well. I tried to stay in touch after the accident but for me I tend to push these kinds of things to the back of mind. I don't like to deal with things, so as far as grieving goes, there wasn't much. I promised to stay in touch with them and for awhile I did but it got really hard. Everytime I would see them, I would be reminded of Gary. Everytime I would email or talk on the phone, I would be reminded of Gary. I wanted to forget that part of my life, (at the time) and get on with my life. I was 22 and this is not what I was supposed to be doing.

I kept putting it off and putting if off. I met a guy, my current husband, Mike. We dated for about 2 years and then he proposed. He knew my past and was willing to accept it. When he proposed, I knew in the back of my head I had to call Gary's parents and tell them, except my body physically would not let me. Mike finally convinced me to write a letter, which I did. They got the letter called the house and we talked. Everything was fine, they came to our wedding and we talked some more. I was so glad to have gotten over that hump. Almost 3 years later and I haven't spoken to them since the wedding. I feel awful about it but don't know what to do. Every once and awhile I get an email from Garys sister and I respond with limited conversation.

What am I so afraid of? I am a grown women and shouldn't have these feelings. I feel like a 5 year old that has done something bad and doesn't want to tell the parents. I know I haven't done anything wrong but I feel like it.

m 

My Hubby and Me at the Winery 

I love me a Cadbury Egg!!! Love this time of year!! 

working from home

As posted before, I've been sick for the past couple of months. Before that, I was working in my Husbands Chiropractic office doing it all. Lucky for me, he has found a way that I can log on to the office computer and do the work from the house.

I don't know how people do it. This is hard to do. I mean, I can get up, eat breakfast, sit down in my PJs and work. Thats the easy part, the hard part is staying focused enough to do the work for more than 10 minutes. I have to keep telling myself that I'm at work, I have to get this done. I'm starting to think that I'm more of an office person. My brain gets too easily distracted with the TV, whats in the fridge, do I need to do laundry, or maybe I'm missing something good on the internet. Like right now, I should be doing insurance billing, instead I'm writing in my blog complaining that I should be working! How silly is that!!

House Bound

It has been a long time since I posted. Since the 1st of Jan I have been sick. Fighting off just about everything you can think of. I think my stress level finally hit its peak and caused my immune system to collapse.

Can I just say that daytime television is about as boring as being forced to stare at a wall for 8 hours a day. I have resorted to the really bad stuff, Full House, Boy meets world, Days of our Lives. These soaps that are on are totally funny. I watch them for the comedy. I mean really, how can one person die, come back to life, get kidnapped and taken to an island, fall in love with another man, have a baby, age 10 years and then come back to their home and everyone acts like its no big deal. This all happens over the course of 2 weeks. Its amazing to watch.

I have learned lots of trivia watching Jeopardy, how to lose weight, talk to my kids, dress for less and generally revamp my life by watching Oprah. I'm fully aware of everything going on in the St. Louis area from watching the news 4 times a day (9am, 11am, 5pm and 9pm) and Show me St. Louis. I have learned how to make everything from Italian to Mexican, how to throw the best parties, how to decorate cheap and shop at flea markets, thanks to the food network and HGTV. I have learned that too many people don't know who the father of their childrenare, are overweight, have cheated on their spouses from watching Maury, Dr. Phil and Jane Pauley.

Their is nothing on the TV during the day. I am tired of being in this flipping house, I feel like its a jail.

Okay, enough whining for now, I have to get ready for Oprah