Tidbits

-12 days until Christmas. Wowie! Sunday we went to get our tree and we finished decorating it Monday night. I haven't really started shopping yet...ick. I do this every year-wait until the last minute then it's hard to enjoy because of all the crazies!

-Last night my friends, Nikki and Peggy, and I had what has become our annual holiday dinner at the Olive Garden. We even sat at the same table as last year... Peggy got me a $25 gift card to JC Penney, and Nikki gave me a pretty necklace and a Willow Tree angel. Nikki also got Cait a really pretty sweater and matching necklace. Such great friends I have...

-As of last Friday I was down 11.4 lbs. in 5 weeks...still keeping up my average of a little over 2 lbs./week. Yay for me!!

-Jason is coaching Cait's basketball team this season...and they WON last Saturday. Woo hoo! We're looking for win #2 this coming Saturday. What a treat that would be!

-It's really cold in our basement so I'm going to go back upstairs and warm up my fingers...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Yesterday afternoon/evening we got our first "real" snowfall. I haven't seen any official totals, but I'd guess it's around 5-7 inches in parts. I absolutely love the first heavy snowfall of the year. My favorite time is after the snow has ended, and its late at night when everything glows. Last night it was about 10:30 and I looked out side and just stared...it was so pretty! The snow in the backyard was so smooth and untouched...even without any outdoor lights, I could see clearly.

The not so pretty part of all of this is having to clear the snow away from the stairs, sidewalks, and driveway. Luckily, Jason ran into the daughter-in-law of our neighbor who passed away in September and she is letting us use their snowblower as long as we take care of the snow removal at his house too over the winter. Works well for both of us. She doesn't have to worry about it, and we can use a snowblower instead of shovels. His drive/sidewalks aren't as big as ours (ours aren't huge either), so it won't be too much of a hassle.

Today I cleaned, and I'm getting ready to pack up all of the fall decorations and get out my snowmen! I'm not quite ready for Christmas stuff yet...I'll wait and do that when we get our tree. But my snowmen can come out, and they'll stay until spring.

*Phew*

This last week+ has been a whirlwind! Jason's production of Aladdin started last week Thursday and lasted through Sunday 11/18--5 shows total. It was a superb show and Jas did a great job. Cait and I really enjoyed it! The same weekend, Jason's aunt, sister-in-law, and niece stayed with us Friday and Saturday. Monday was the first evening in a long time that Jason didn't have rehearsal. It will sure be nice to have him home most evenings. Tuesday afternoon Jason's friend Jonah came and stayed with us until Wednesday, and Wednesday afternoon my brother and his family arrived. Crit worked on my pantry/closet (I forgot to take before and after pictures...darn!) and got it pretty much done. We're going to add a couple of shelves to make good use of the space, but the important part is done...our heat can no longer escape up the old stairway. Yay! Thursday we all piled in (except for Jason) and went to Waupaca for the day. It was a nice day and great to see everyone! I think all totalled we had 41 for Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about a full house. It was a lot of fun, and the food was superb, as usual. :o) And, sticking to my Weight Watchers program, I didn't stuff myself until my pants burst. What a novel idea huh? I was pretty comfortable after dinner for once! The drive home was not so nice. Not bad--we were all just really tired and it seemed like a looooonnnnnng ride. We all crashed within minutes of getting back to our house. Friday Crit and Brandy went shopping for a bit and then left around noon. After they left I got a cleaning bug...I pulled out the couches and swept/mopped underneath. Moved the dining room table and chairs and scrubbed the floor. I did a lot of laundry too. It was so nice to have a few days off from work. Saturday seemed like Sunday, but, BONUS, it was only Saturday and I had another day off! Today I did more laundry and started loading up my new pantry and moving stuff into the kitchen from the basement that didn't fit before. I sorted and organized in the basement too...we're getting there! I have just a few things left to go through before we can move stuff out and start our major cleaning/painting job down here to make it a little more homey. Shortly I'll be off to get Cait, and then we'll have dinner and lounge around until bedtime, which I'm sure will come pretty early tonight.

Have a great Sunday night!

When I am Bored...

I take self portraits! :o) AND, I figured out how to add the profile picture...YAY for me! On Tuesday, my day off, I styled my hair with a little flip. I knew I needed new pics to post here, something other than my wedding photo from over a year ago, so I whipped out my camera and started shooting! This is just one of the many pictures I took of myself. And no, I'm not that tan...I used the scene effects in the Kodak program. This one is called "forest". Not sure why...in the forest I think of shade, but maybe it's supposed to be the sun showing through the trees...ahhhh...sounds nice, doesn't it? Too bad I was actually in my dining room! Hee hee...

A Day Off

I took the day off today. I felt I needed a little breather, and today was a good day for it. I have weekends off, but I still "work" around the house, etc. Sometimes we need a day just to be alone and, well, be alone. :o) I did accomplish quite a bit though, too. I did several loads of laundry, mostly blankets and comforters. I've been storing our extra blankets in our basement since we moved so I washed all of them today and will be putting them away in Cait's closet. She so graciously (or not) gave up the top shelf in her closet for our extra blankets. My bro is coming the day after Thanksgiving to build my "pantry", where I can then store the extras. I'll definitely have to do some before and after pics of that project. You'll be surprised! So I did laundry, organized a little bit in the basement (I have a long way to go), washed dishes, watched the Today Show, watched the news-twice. I found a new way to style my hair, ran to Wal-Mart and the mall, and took my cat to the vet. After that I met my girlfriend Lori and her two kids and her niece at Applebee's for dinner. Lori's little guy is just 3 weeks old. He's a peanut, that's for sure. He fit pretty good in my arms...hmmmm? ;o) I had Applebee's Confetti Chicken. Wasn't too impressed. I'm on this little plan called Weight Watchers (for the umpteenth time, but this time I AM GOING TO DO IT! I have alterior motives for this weight loss i.e. 3 sentences ago) so thought that would do me good. It was okay, but I'd have much preferred a nice salad or quesadillas or a burger or chicken strips. Now I'm off to the couch to watch Dancing With the Stars and The Biggest Loser. It's my Tuesday night thing. Jason and Cait are both gone every Tuesday evening, so that's what I do.

Ahhhhh...

Sunday. My favorite day. Well,usually. Today's not so bad. I didn't sleep in, even though we had an "extra hour". I still don't understand why we throw our natural clocks out of whack for an extra hour. I think I blogged about this a while back, and Brandy gave me the reason for the bad deal. Apparently it has something to do with saving energy? I don't know. But I don't really like it, except that it's a little easier to get out of bed in the a.m. when it's light outside. But it's no fun coming home from work in the dark. Oh well. It's temporary, right? Let's see...what else? I'm in the midst of cleaning today. I've already dusted, swept, and mopped. I'm doing laundry inbetween and I just changed the cat's litter box and swept the basement. I'm waiting for Jason to get out of the shower so I can clean the bathroom, then I'll be pretty much done except for a few odds and ends. I might take advantage of the nice day and clean my car one last time before winter. I hope to spend a nice evening with the family. Starting tomorrow Jason has rehearsal every day (including weekends) until the show, which starts the 15th. So, two full weeks of little husband time. It's worth it though--he enjoys what he's doing and I really enjoy watching the shows. Cait has a friend over for the afternoon so I'm sure they'll keep busy doing girl stuff. :o) Other than that not a whole lot going on. After the first week Jason's job is going well. He really likes it, except for the 1 hour drive each way. I hope he can adjust to that soon so it's not so hard on him. Last Monday was my 7 year "anniversary" at my job. Wowsa. I haven't decided if that's good or bad. Good, because I'm gainfully employed, but bad because I don't want to be stuck in a rut there. I don't really have anywhere to move there anymore besides sideways (hopefully not down!). We'll see. I've been contemplating going back to school, but that is put on hold until Jason has some security at a job. A lot could change between now and when I could enroll in August...

Anyways, Happy Sunday! Enjoy your day.

Halloween Fun

We had an every day Halloween...I came home from work and sent Cait off with a friend. Then I loaded up the candy bucket and waited! I was excited this year, thinking we'd have a few more trick-or-treaters than we have in the past, being that we moved. We did, we had all of 23 (including Cait + friend). It was fun though. Cait was her favorite football player-Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears. I think her Great Gramps and Great Uncles would be proud. Her friend was the enemy-Brett Favre. We carved our pumpkins on Monday night. I'm glad I took pictures of them that night, as Tuesday was very warm and they kind of wilted. Cait did three of them. My favorite is her "Starry Night". I tried to be fancy and carve the word "Boo" but it didn't turn out the greatest. We didn't use any patterns or anything and I think they turned out pretty well.

P.S. I still can't figure out how to post a picture, write a story, post another picture, write another story, etc., so all the pics are at the top and my story(ies) are at the bottom. I'll have to work on that...

Meet Mitnik

Today was an exciting day! We adopted Mitnik from the Eau Claire County Humane Association. :o) We've been talking about getting another cat ever since Maggie Moo died, but wavered on whether or not we really wanted to. Originally we went to find a kitten...and we found one. I filled out an application online and called the next day to check the status and they said they didn't get it. So, I rushed over there and filled one out at the shelter and when I got there to fill it out Fozzy (the kitten) had already gone to his forever home. We went back today as a family to pick out another kitten, but this cute little Mitnik caught our eye. She's such a pretty girl-very unique markings. She's a "diluted calico" and she's just precious. We brought her home and she's spent her afternoon/evening checking out her new surroundings (which for the time being is the basement--don't worry, it's finished for the most part). She even has her own twin bed, so I'm sure she'll be fine down here. We decided to keep her down here for a couple of days until she's really familiar with where her food/water and litter box are. She has eaten and lapped up water, and she has pooped and peed in the litter box. (YAY!) She seems like a great little kitty. She's by no means a kitten--almost a year old, but she sure is sweet. And we're glad we chose her--it doesn't seem like any training will be needed. :o) This picture is from the shelter's website. She's a little bigger now, and a lot prettier! I'll post new pics soon. I just don't want to sabotage her with flashbulbs yet!

OH NO!

So I'm at work today, and every now and then I check in on Cait's stuff...Edline has grades, the school website has announcements...MyLunchMoney.com shows me what she had for lunch the last few days...MyLunchMoney.com also shows me the balance in her lunch account. THE BALANCE IN HER LUNCH ACCOUNT IS $.15!! OH NO!! I looked at the clock quick, 11:20 a.m., maybe she hasn't eaten yet?!?! I quick flipped back to the school website to grab the number, then while I was calling I flipped back to MLM.com to transfer funds to her account. Come to find out the 6th graders already ate. So, I thought maybe the $.15 was AFTER she ate. Nope, because it was updated yesterday. The person I talked to said if she was short $ she would be able to go to the office to get a ticket for hot lunch, and then we'd pay the office back. Sounded good to me. The poor thing, when I got home from work I asked what she had for lunch (you know, nonchalantly, like any other day) and she looked at me and said "I didn't eat." OH NO! I felt horrible. She didn't know she had the option of going to the office to borrow lunch, so she didn't eat. Ugh. Today was one of those I-feel-like-a-bad-mom-but-I-know-I'm-not-and-it-was-an-honest-mistake days. (I just checked MLM.com, and my transfer has posted. She'll be able to eat tomorrow. :o(

Grrrrrr!

Or maybe I should say BRRRRR.....! When we bought our house in June we asked for the seller to pay for a 1-year home warranty. He wasn't happy about it (as with a lot of things), but he did. I think it cost him around $400.00. Luckily we took that step--we'll be using it twice, at least. The home warranty covers a lot: appliances, hot water heater, furnace, roof, major mechanical/electrical, etc. It's really a good safety net, I think, for first time homeowners who really don't know what they're getting into. :o) Anyways, shortly after we moved in we discovered the dishwasher that was "included" doesn't work. I've been washing the dishes by hand (I know, boo hoo). I really don't mind it. Sometimes I find it relaxing, actually. Seriously. So we've kind of put that off. The first night it got really cold (around 30 degrees) was a while back, and we turned on the furnace. Then we didn't need it for a while. When we did need it again it only worked sometimes. When we would turn the thermostat, we could hear it fire up, but nothing was moving. Well now it doesn't fire up. And it's cold. The service people come tomorrow morning. Only problem is that with this home warranty program we're only supposed to pay a $100 deductible per claim. Okay, that's not a problem. The problem comes in when the home warranty company doesn't have an "approved" service company in our area for furances. Are you kidding me? Northern Wisconsin and they don't have a service company for furnaces. Their alternative is for us to find a service company (we called the guys on the label on the furnace), pay them out of our pocket, and get reimbursed "within 4 weeks". Great. What are you to do then? We have to get the furnace fixed--we just pray that it's reasonable. Funds are quite tight right now with Jason having been off work for a little over two months. Good news is he has a fantastic job that he will be starting on the 29th. Unfortunately that doesn't help us tomorrow when the furnace repair person will want a check on the spot. We really hope it's not anything major and won't put us in a big ol' bind. :o)

Victory!!

WE GOT ONE!!! We finally captured one of those dirty little rodents that is plaguing our beautiful yard. We tried one type of trap, nothing. Bought a different kind...the trap went off a couple of times, but no dice. I saw this morning that it went off and didn't think much of it because I assumed it'd be the same thing: nothing. Welllllll...after work I went out and pulled it. Didn't see any evidence so I was a little disappointed. Then I took a gardening tool and kind of dug in a little and poked around and BINGO. There it was! (By this time we were all gathered 'round) Of course we couldn't just leave it--curiosity got the best of us so we dug the whole thing out. Ugly little bugger! We dug the hole a little deeper and left it to the earth, where it belongs. (And maybe as a warning for his mole friends!) We moved the trap to a 3 way intersection this time...looks like high traffic there so hopefully we'll get another one. YAY!

Weekend Review

Cait didn't have school on Thursday or Friday this week because of the annual teacher's conference. I had planned on taking those days off, but since I was off the previous Friday for my grandma's funeral and we were fairly busy I decided to work anyways. Thursday Cait spent the day with a friend and they went to the Y to swim, etc. Thursday evening I ran her and 2 of her friends to a football game. While they were there I went dress shopping again with Peggy and Nikki. After we were done shopping we went to eat at Burrachos. It's like Subway for tacos. It was pretty good. Friday night Cait had a friend over and we just hung out at home. Saturday morning I ran a few errands and then worked in the garage. I was pretty happy with the results. As a matter of fact, BOTH of our cars are in it right now! After working in the garage I cleaned up and Cait and I made caramel apples. YUM! The apples are from a local orchard (we didn't pick them--one of the local grocery stores had them). They were a little pricey, but boy are they good apples. My new favorite-honey crisp. I used to love Granny Smith's, but they're just a little too tart for me nowadays. Here's a picture of Cait and our creation...

After that we ate dinner and watched a couple of cool shows. I don't remember if they were on Discovery or what, but one was about cockroaches and the other about jellyfish. Trust me. As icky as these creatures are, the programs were extremely interesting. This a.m. I got up a little late...after TEN. Yikes. Then I cleaned house and did laundry. Cait and I went to the mall for a bit to look around for shoes for her. After that we went to Wal-Mart, came home and had dinner, finished laundry, and washed the dinner dishes. Whew! That's about it...a pretty productive weekend, I'd say. :o) Oh, and my girlfriend Lori had her 2nd baby, a boy, on Saturday night. I believe he remains unnamed for the time being. She'll be going home tomorrow some time, I imagine he'll have a name before he leaves the hospital.

Freecycle

Wow! I just had to write this one down. When we moved into our house in June, the man who lived here previously left a bunch of junk in the garage. He thought we might be able to use it. (Yeah right!) It was miscellaneous lumber and some gutter pieces. Basically junk, not enough for any one project. We always joke that "it came with the house". Appliances "come with the house", little pieces of boards and gutters do not. Anyways, we need to get our garage cleaned out so we can actually park our cars in it so I posted all of this stuff on Freecycle. Someone responded (I always work with the first person that replies), and I told them the stuff would be in our driveway by 10:00 a.m. today. I had to run an errand and by 10:26 when I got home they had EVERTHING loaded and were on their way. Bless their hearts! I figured they would come and pick through it and take what they wanted and leave the rest. Nope. They took it all. Yay for Freecycle!

Links

I want to try to build my list of links, just because I know from experience that sometimes it's fun to wander from various blogs to various links. I was searching for a recipe online the other day and happened upon a gentleman's blog. I added it to my link list, but for some reason it's not showing up. I'm going to give it some time...maybe Blogger takes time to make those adjustments. Otherwise, I'm not sure what happened to it. But anyways, when I do finally get it in the right place you should check it out. This guy's blog has lots of neat ideas and recipes on the "healthier" side.

Oh, and last post for today. :)

100 Posts?!?!

I just realized that a couple of posts ago was my 100th post. Wowie! That's pretty cool. I've been blogging a lot more recently so 200 will come in no time. Woo hoo!

Brrrrr!!

The first day of fall has come and gone, true, but 47 degrees for the high? C'mon! It's crazy. We've had some pretty bizarre weather lately, that's for sure. Saturday was so stinkin' hot that at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning we put our window a/c back in because it was too hot to sleep. Sunday all day I spent watching Cait play softball (she had 3 games, beginning at 10:30 a.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m.). I think it was near 90 on Sunday, and I was sweating bullets just sitting there. It was so hot and humid that when I got home my capris were drenched. Ick. And now, it's just a little chilly--definitely jacket weather. Sheesh! Someone's confused. :o)

Prince Adu What?

Well Jason didn't get the part of Aladdin, just as he suspected, but it was awful nice of the director to throw him in the production anyways being that he missed the "official" auditions. He has 2 parts, one as Guard #1, and the other as Prince Dahdu Rahn-Rahn. I must note that there is also a character named (The) Prince Formerly Known as the Artist. Goofy! He'll also sing in most of the numbers, and he has one song with his good friend Kurt who will play Jafar. Another good friend is Iago, so it will be fun for them to be in this production together. Jason has kind of taken a hiatus from the theatre for a couple of years so it will be nice for him to get back into it. It's something he really enjoys and he's good at it too. So...stay tuned for backstage reporting. :o)

Happy Monday!

Well, not really. I guess it's not sad Monday either, just Monday. :) Usually on Sunday evenings I'm all ready to go to work on Monday morning; today was just kind of blah. My lovely morning started when I opened the bathroom closet to get a fresh towel and I saw a little centipede scurry by. YUCK. We found it (after taking all of the towels out of the closet) and flushed it. I dropped Cait off at school and came back home to get ready for work. I close the office 3 days this week while the regular receptionist is on vacation so I got to go in a little later. I always like the idea in the a.m., but when I have to stay at work until 5:30 p.m. it's not as likable. I had a dentist (hygienist) appointment this afternoon too, so my teeth are squeaky clean. The trip to the hygienist is less and less enjoyable every time I go. My mouth is super sore this evening from all the poking and prodding and scraping. And I go every 6 months. I can't imagine NOT going that often. Whew. I planned to make a quick dinner of some-type-of-pasta-and-another-type-of-sauce, but by time I got home I wasn't feeling like it and it would have been cutting it close on time so I went down the block to the grocery store and bought a rotisserie chicken and some microwave broccoli while Jason threw some bread in the oven. Have you had the micro veggies? I LOVE them. They're easy and taste really fresh. They are, however, a little more expensive so I don't buy them that often. Jason auditioned for a play at the very last minute last night and the director told him to show up for the first rehearsal tonight. He doesn't even know what part he has! The auditions last night were for the part of Aladdin, but Jason doesn't think that's the part he'll be asked to perform. He thinks he's too old for Aladdin and they just want him to be an extra something or other. We shall see! I'm off to watch Dancing With the Stars. Love it. And, have you seen Journeyman? I really like that show so far. At first I thought it seemed a little "out there", but it's not too bad. Have a happy Monday evening.

Grandma Myrtle

My Grandma Myrtle passed away on Sunday. She was 89 years young, and lived a long, happy, and healthy life. Even still, it's sad to see her go. She'll be missed! I have a million and one memories of Gram from childhood through the recent past. I'm so glad that Cait got to know her too. One of their favorite things to do together was play a card game that Cait taught Gram-Hong Kong. I'm pretty sure Grandma thought it was silly, but she played along anyways. I could write for days if I went through the memories...but I'll leave a few here. Some of my very eariest memories are going down the street whenever possible to get an ice cream cone from Grandma. Ice cream was never out-of-stock at their house! I also remember my 5th birthday party in Grandma's basement (I had the chicken pox!). Of course there were all of the Christmas Eves spent there with the whole family. Sometimes we'd walk home after the festivities, if it was warm enough. One of my favorite things to do was play in Grandma's basement office. She didn't care one bit if I rummaged through her desk, used her stapler and ink stamps, and even the telephone. That must be where I got my start! As I got older the visits became about life, talking about school and friends. She was always interested in what was going on. After I moved to Eau Claire our visits were less frequent, but she still liked to know everything. Most recently, we would talk about Cait, Jason, and work. For the longest time she called Jason "Chase". She must not have heard very well, and I never corrected her. Then all of a sudden she had it right. (Someone must have corrected her.) One of my more recent (and I think favorite) memories of Gram is from my wedding. She looked so pretty in her pink dress and pearls and she seemed very happy (although confused). It will be sad to go by Grandma and Grandpa's house since they're both gone. And will be strange to see someone else living there. My Grandpa and Grandma were both beautiful people, and now they're together in a beautiful place.

One more time!

Tuesday night I went for "coffee" with my friends Nikki and Peggy. Peggy arranged the meeting and I had a sneaking suspicion what it was all about. Sure enough...Peggy asked Nikki and I to be in her wedding. How exciting! She even gave us a little card and a gift-this handy canvas bag.

I'm glad she asked me...it will be a lot of fun. The three of us get together quite often (I work with Peggy so we get together almost every day), and we've all been good friends for a while. We all met while working at American Title. Nikki has since moved on to be a dental hygienist, but of course we keep in touch. Nikki was in my wedding in August. Peggy wasn't, but looking back I wish I would have had her be a bigger part of it. She was there for everything anyways, but I should have honored her with being a bridesmaid. Oh well. And then both Peggy and I were in Nikki's wedding last October (Me, Nikki, Peggy).

Boredom

So...the "important" football games are over for the day. Cait's softball game this afternoon was cancelled, and a dinner date with a couple of my friends was rescheduled to Tuesday. I read our local paper online, checked my e-mail, surfed around (saw that WI Badgers moved up to #5 in the rankings!). Wasn't sure what else to do...do you ever Google your own name to see what you find? I do every now and then, just for fun. It used to be that my work website would come up, but they must not have changed my name there yet because that didn't come up. I got a lot of Anna Nicole Smith references (her given name was Vickie Lynn Hogan), some references to an artist by the name of Vicki Lynn...and, this...isn't she cute?

Waahhhhhh!

Well that didn't work. I was searching the Net for a different template, other than those in/on Blogger. Found one. Loved it. Couldn't figure out how to use it. Oh well...I'll save that project for another day when I have time to study up on this HTML BMX PG USA computer stuff.

A Little Bit of Everything

-Does anyone have any advice for getting my tub clean? It's really bothering me, especially since we're not really dirty people. I've tried my "regular" cleaning supplies (Sprinkles, the foamy stuff, spray stuff) and nothing works. I even bought a new scrubber thinking that might help. Nope. It's not a nice, new fiberglass tub. It's old. Not sure the material, maybe ceramic, steel, iron? All I know is it's cold in the a.m. and it's not fiberglass. Anyways, I can't get the darn thing clean for the life of me. And I don't like a dirty bathtub (I tend to refrain from taking a bath, which I love to do). Someone must have a magic solution for me...?

-I have the day off tomorrow. The other day I was standing at my kitchen sink looking out at the yard and thought to myself how, since we moved, I haven't had a day at home to myself. We're almost always home on weekends, but that doesn't count because there's cleaning and laundry and this and that. I mean a weekday where I can just relax and lounge around and be by myself. So, since work is a little slow this week, I asked my 2 bosses and they said go for it! YAY! (Not to mention that the atty. I work for was on vacation the last TWO weeks and I worked my tail off!) I'm really looking forward to it.

-The Schwan's man stopped by on Monday since we were "new" in the neighborhood (how does he know?). Anyways, he gave us a catalog and said he'd be back on Wednesday. After looking through the catalog I decided we'd try a few things. Some items were reasonable. Some were not. At all. We ended up getting some French baguettes (We love bread!), some pancakes, and popsicles. I'm all about the pancakes! My dream one day is to run an IHOP. Even though I've never been to IHOP I still want to own one. Huh.

-Jason has/had 4 interviews this week. Hopefully something will work in his favor. He's been trying and trying to get into the prison system as a social worker. He had an interview at Jackson Correctional on Tuesday and another at Stanley Correctional tomorrow. This will be his 2nd trip to Stanley. The first time he interviewed there they called him and offered him the job, then called back 15 mins. later and said they called the wrong guy. He was 2ND on the list. Nice, huh? We're really praying that 2nd becomes 1st and they'll just offer him the job at the interview on Thursday. :-)

-Cait is doing well in middle school so far. She really likes it and seems to like her teachers (that's always key). She's made lots of new friends and is having fun. We have 2 more weeks of fall softball and then basketball starts up in November so we're still running, running, running.

-I'm going to work on my blog a little bit. See if I can jazz it up.

Mr. Rene

I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Rene, who is now looking down on us from Heaven. Mr. Rene was our neighbor, and although we didn't know him very well, we already miss him! He passed away last Wednesday and I saw his obituary in the online version of our local newspaper today. We knew something was up because Mr. Rene had a lady friend that went to his house every single day, like clockwork. The lady friend's car wasn't there one day and I knew something was wrong. Then we saw another vehicle and a woman there along with a contractor changing the locks. Mr. Rene was a very nice man. He was quiet and kept to himself. He kept a nice lawn and he let us borrow his phonebook when we first moved in and didn't quite know where ours was. I couldn't believe when I saw in his obituary that he was 91 years old. He rode his bike around the neighborhood quite often and still drove his car to the grocery store every Saturday morning. It wasn't too long ago that I saw him on his bike. He was the kind of guy that everyone would want as a neighbor. I think he secretly watched out for us, even though we didn't know him that well. And we watched out for him, even though he didn't know we were. :o)

Whoops!

That's a big squirrel, eh? LOL...oh well. I'm still learning about posting pictures. I chose the "small" option! Good thing I didn't choose large. Must be the original size of the picture I stole from Photobucket.

Squirrels Squirrels EVERYWHERE!

And they're so cute. At least I think so. Some might see them as an annoyance, but I think they're fun to watch. For the past few weeks they've been harvesting chestnuts from our lovely chestnut tree. We have one and our neighbor across the street has two, so they run back and forth across the street and up and down the trees. They go waaaaay out on the very end of the limbs to the point that the little branches bend and the squirrel is left hanging there. Just after work today I was sitting on the couch looking out the window and I could see 5 little squirrels all at the same time. It looks like they get the chestnuts and peel the outside (leaving a mess in my yard), take the nut on the inside and then bury it to save for a later date. It's fun to watch them in all of their scurriedness (? made up word ?). Must be a sure sign fall is here...yay!

Junior High!?!?!?!

Today was BACK TO SCHOOL! YAY!!! I don't know if I've ever been so excited for another school year to start. Part of my excitement was because of Cait's growing boredom towards the end of summer...the other part is because I am 100% certain that she is ready for this. And some because I really like her new school and I think she'll fit in well. She started today as 1 of 175 sixth graders at Northstar Middle School here in Eau Claire. Sounds like a lot of kids, doesn't it? Well the other 2 middle schools in town have even more of the little buggers! We were fortunate enough to find our little house on the "north side" of town, which enabled Cait to attend Northstar. She was apprehensive about the move and the whole bit until we got here, and until she visited Northstar back in May. Then 2 weeks ago she had Camp Middle School--a program for incoming 6th graders to go to school and hang out with the other students, practice lockers and bell schedules, and get to know each other and the school. Last week we had orientation, and of course she knew everything because she spent 3 days there the previous week, but it was my first time to learn about the school (other than our brief visit in May), so I insisted that we stay for the presentations. Anyways, here's a picture of her from this a.m. Not sure why the attitude, other than it was early. Exxxtrreeeemmely early for her! The bus comes at 7:10 a.m. and school starts at 7:40. She had her alarm set, and I set mine too just to make sure she got up. I didn't know she was up, so I hit snooze TWICE thinking to myself "she'll still have plenty of time". Well when I finally did roll out of bed she was already up and dressed and eating her breakfast. What a good kid! :o) We're looking forward to a fun year...

Fun Summertime Treat

Here's a recipe for a great summertime cool-down beverage...we got the recipe from our friends, Kurt and Jackie. They got it from a strawberry patch where they went and picked fresh strawberries. We went to their house for dinner that same evening and everything we had had strawberries as an ingredient. What a fun idea! My favorite was these smoothies though!

1 1/2 cans of 7-Up/Sierra Mist/Sprite
1/2 C. sugar
14-16 strawberries (hulled and rinsed...do you hull strawberries?)
About 14 ice cubes

Put ice cubes in blender. Add strawberries and sugar. Add soda. Blend until smooth. You may need to tweak it just a bit because I'm guessing on the amount of ice cubes!! :o) But once you get it just right these smoothies are the best! They're fruity with a little zip, I'd say.

New DOOR!!

I'm so excited!! Yesterday my brother and his family came down. Crit "helped" us put in a new door. Well, he put in a new door for us. We weren't much help! You know how the box that the door comes in has "easy installation instructions" on the side? Yeah, not so much. I really liked our old door; I believe it was the original door for this house. It was neat, even though it was old and beat up. We had two concerns with the old door: 1) efficiency for when we start up the furnace and 2) security. The deadbolt on the door did work, but really wasn't much use when the knob on the thing was pretty much pasted together. We're happy with the way the new door turned out--Crit did an excellent job!

Our Anniversary

Sunday, August 19, was our one year wedding anniversary. The past year sure flew by! I'm looking forward to many, many more anniversaries. We had planned on going to dinner, just the two of us, Sunday evening. By late afternoon I just didn't feel like getting all dolled up to go out to eat and come home miserable because I ate too much. (We were going to go to Texas Roadhouse--it's easy to eat too much there!) So instead we ordered in--we had Famous Dave's. We still ate too much, but at least we could flop on the couch immediately after. After dinner Cait said she was riding her bike to get "something" at the store. After she got home she decided to make brownies. No big surprise--she likes to bake. Soon after the brownies were done she called me into the kitchen (I heard a little commotion with her and Jason in there). Here she had made the brownies, put candles in them, and wrote "Happy Anniversary" on them. She had gone to the store to get the candles and the gel to write on the brownies. What a sweet kid!! :o) Well I didn't think to take a picture, so I pulled the candles out and started cutting away. Then I remembered the camera...so I put the candles back in and lit them again for the full effect. All in all we had a nice, quiet 1st anniversary.

It's Raining...It's Pouring...Well, Not Really.

It's raining! YAY! I love a good soaking rain, and it's been a while since we've had one. It's a perfect day for it too--we didn't have any outdoor plans (we usually don't). I planned on staying in all day to clean, do laundry, and sort.

I'm going to begin sorting for my first ever thrift sale, which I'll be having Labor Day weekend. I've heard holiday weekends are good weekends for thrifters...we shall see! I'm really excited about it. I think we're in a good location, and, of course, we can use the extra cash. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Other than that not a whole lot going on. Jason is still recovering from his kidney stone episode. Poor thing...hasn't felt decent in weeks. He's on the downhill side of it though, so things are looking up.

Cait got home Monday morning. She's glad to be home and we're glad she's home. She got us back into busy bee mode. Going here and there and everywhere. We have to get it all in before school starts, you know. She's looking forward to school starting (and so am I!). So far she hasn't shown any apprehension about starting junior high. That may change, but maybe not. She's definitely an extrovert and I'm sure she'll be fine.

I think the mail is here! My favorite time of day...it's like Christmas!

Old friends...fun times!

Saturday was my 10-year high school reunion. We had a blast! It was so nice to see some of "the girls". A few of them I had lost contact with, but it sure didn't seem like it--after we gave the 10 minute updates on life we were the best of friends again. We all have good intentions of keeping in touch this time--hopefully this is the case and we don't have to waste our 10 minutes catching up next time we see each other. My friend Lori and I planned the event, and it turned out extremely well...even better than anticipated. We had a good showing, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We all left looking forward to the next one...

I'd like to say something about each of the girls pictured here...

Me, of course, in the purple. I don't need to say anything about myself. In front of me is my friend Sarah. She was my maid of honor in our wedding and has been one of my closest friends since 6th grade. Next to her is Margo...Margo and I lost touch, but she's an all around great person and I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with her. Behind Margo is Jamie. Jamie didn't technically "graduate" with us. She left our sophomore year, but remained in contact and wanted to come and celebrate with us. Next to Jamie is Lori. She and I have been friends since 1st grade. She also went to college with me...we're very close! Next to her is Kylah...Kylah married one of my close guy friends, Zac, a couple of years ago. Funny how those things work out. They just had their first baby in February. Next to Kylah is Rani. My mom used to work with Rani's mom at the Shoe Revue...that's when we became good friends. I also worked at the motel that her mom and dad managed when I was in high school. And then again, there I am. :o)

All for now. Oh, and in case you're wondering...our school colors were black and gold (GO CANES!)

YUM!

Thought I'd share this recipe while I wait for it to finish baking!

Cheesy Pizza Casserole

3 C. uncooked rigatoni pasta (9 oz.)
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/4 C. sliced ripe olives
1 can (4 oz.) mushroom pieces and stems, drained
1 jar (26 to 28 oz.) vegetable primavera pasta sauce
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz.)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.

2. While pasta is cooking, cook beef in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is brown; drain. Mix pasta, beef and remaining ingredients except cheese in ungreased 2 1/2 qt. casserole.

3. Cover and bake about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered about 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

*Try your own variations--we use black olives instead of green. This time I put some chopped up pepperoni in too. And you don't have to use "vegetable primavera" sauce. Use any kind! We like to have this with french bread or garlic toast. Also makes great leftovers for lunch at work or tomorrow night!

This comes from Betty Crocker's One-Dish Family Favorites--I highly recommend this cookbook. I got it as a wedding gift from my friend Sarah's mom, Kaye. Thanks Kaye!

LOOK!

Look what I have! Isn't it pretty? I'm so excited about this lil' lily! Jason's mom bought us a few perennials a while back. She, Caitlin, and Jason's niece, Nadja, planted them. These lilies are around the brick patio, then we have some other lilies in our raised garden (no flowers yet). They also planted some hostas (I love hostas!) which, we hope, will really take root and be beautiful next year. I'm new to this gardening thing--hopefully I'll learn a lot and be able to name these things other than saying "that one bush" or "those flowers". We have a couple of nice bushes too...not sure what they are, but as soon as we seem some color on them I'll do some research. I also found this evening that we have a robin's nest in one of our "bushes". This particular bush has green leaves and bunches of small, white flowers. :o)

Whew!

A long weekend almost comes to an end...

Friday night I saw Cait off to California. Her flight left at 10:15 p.m., and I had to wait until the plane was in the air before I could leave. I guess that's policy-they want someone there in the event the plane doesn't take off. But it did, and it landed safely on the other side of the country. We've talked 3 times on the phone, and will probably speak daily while she's gone. I kind of miss her already. :)

Being that I didn't get home until almost 1:00 a.m., and then waited up until shortly after 2 for Cait to call, I slept in on Saturday morning. I think I got up around 10. After we got up and got moving we went to the apartment to wrap things up there. I thought it'd take a few hours...but not 7! Our "few things" left to move turned into 4 carloads. Ugh. And of course I wanted everything shiny bright because we have several hundred dollars coming back in a security deposit, and we could certainly use every penny. Our vacuum croaked on us at the apartment, so last night after we got home we went to buy a new one at Wal-Mart. After our little shopping trip we made pork chops on the grill and had a nice late dinner. And because I slept in, I wasn't really tired so we stayed up again until almost 1:00 a.m.

The vicious cycle continued this a.m. and I slept until almost 10 again. I got up and cleaned here and did a little laundry. Jason made lunch (steak!) on the grill and then I was off-back to the apt. for a final checkover, and then to turn our keys in. DONE! Yippee! It felt nice to shut the door there once and for all. After I dropped the keys off I went in to work for 3 hours...working on a project for my boss that I just can't seem to find the time for during regular business hours. After that I watered my plants and flowers outside, and when I'm done here I'm headed to Cait's room for a little work. But not too much, I'm beat!

Have a Happy Monday!

This evening Caitlin leaves for her annual visit with her Grandma and Grandpa in California. She's very excited--this will be the first time she is flying by herself. Grandma's got her all set up in a cushy seat in first class, with a guardian from the airline, of course. I'm definitely more nervous than she is. Cait has more experience traveling the airways that I do though. I believe the last time I flew I was about her age, and I went to CA. If my memory serves me correctly, that is the only time I flew; she's been there and back twice now. I'm sure she'll have a ton of fun. I'll start to miss her chatter after a few days or so. :o) After she gets back it will be 3 weeks then back to school already.

Have fun Cait!

SUCCESS!!

Jason passed his national board exam this morning...he is now an official social worker! Way to go, Jase! Well, he was an official social worker, but only had a temporary state license until he took this test, and passed. Woo hoo! What a relief...

Chippewa Valley Fastpitch All Stars

Here are some pics of Cait during the Allstar game. What a fun time! She was honored to be chosen for the team and she and the others did a great job! The "Golds" won the game 2-0. It was a close one though...we're very proud of how far she's come in just a couple of years on the field. She's unleashed one of her talents, that's for sure! Way to go, Cait!

Heeeeere's Toby!

Toby joined our family on June 24 as Cait's 11th b-day present. He's a pretty good dog, but definitely took some adjusting on all of our parts. He's still young, so very active and still isn't quite sure if we're going to come home to get him out of his kennel so gets a little anxious. (We got him from the Humane Association where he lived in a teenie tiny kennel.)

Also, our Maggie got very sick and had to be put to sleep last Friday (7/6). She was a great cat-we miss her a lot!! :)

And more updates...

House Updates...

Just checking in with a life update...

1. We moved into the house last Sunday and we're sure glad we did! We had originally planned to move this past weekend, July 7/8, but thankful we moved it up because it was HOT (in the high 90s) and humid. It would have been miserable! We had 9 people in total helping, and we had the truck loaded at the apartment and unloaded at the house two times in 3 hours. It was fantastic...definitely the smoothest move I've had in a long time!

2. Caitlin got a pooch for her birthday. His name is Toby and he's an almost-2-year-old beagle/spaniel mix. He sure is cute! We got him from the Humane Association and he's had his ups and downs, but all in all seems to be a pretty good dog and has adjusted well.

3. Since we moved early our Internet service hasn't been switched over and won't be until this coming weekend so I'm not able to post pictures because I'm doing this from work. As soon as we're up and running I'll post more pics of the house (after our lovely paint job) and Toby. :)

4. Cait's softball season ended a couple of weeks ago. Her team didn't do so hot, they only won 3 games all season and lost the 1st game of the year-end tournament. On a positive note, Cait was selected from her team to play on an Allstar team. That was a lot of fun for her, and her team won the Allstar Game. Since softball ended she's just been hanging out at home or the pool for summer fun. She spends a lot of time with friends and she is also taking band lessons to get ready for next fall. On the 27th she'll be leaving for California for 3 weeks to visit her Grandpa and Grandma Carlson. It will sure be quiet around the house! :)

That's all for now. Check back soon for pictures!!!

Woo hoo!!

Well, here's our house! I tried to do a cute little slideshow, but it's pretty big so it messes up the page. Oh well.

We've done some cleaning and yardwork so far...we have a lot more cleaning to do, and we'll paint most every room before we move it, so it's going to look different. I'll post again after we're in. :)

Bloggity Blog Blog

Wowsa. Long time no blog! Time flies...!

Let's see. We've been busy, I guess. :)

1. We found a house to buy. YAY! We're suppose to close on June 8. I say "suppose to" because we hadn't locked our interest rate yet, and they took a pretty big leap on Thursday of last week. We're really really really hoping they come back down, even a little bit. Where they're at now the payment is just out of reach. We desperately need a little dip to make it work. This week will be key...

2. Caitlin's back at the bat. She's doing really well this year and is one of the team's main pitchers. Her team, however, is not doing too well. Of the 12 girls, 7 of them had never played before this year. The other 5 were Cait's teammates last year when they won the league, so they've been a little disappointed, but their spirits are still up there. Cait does a great job-she's a good leader and role model for the young'ns. And we just bought her a new bat on E-Bay a few weeks ago. We got a steal of a deal-a $180 bat for $50! Brand new-sweet! :)

3. Jason is starting a new job on June 11. It's closer to home (he is currently driving 25 mi. one way) and the pay is more. This should work out good. When (if) we move, he'll be about 7 miles away on the new super-highway.

4. The MN Twins beat the Chi White Sox today...woo hoo! Oh how I wish we were at that game! We thought about going and getting cheap seats, but even the "cheap" seats add up with this fee and that fee, and with the price of gas we thought it best to stay home. Luckily WGN carried the game today.

5. Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner. Kurt was Jason's best man, and Emma was our flower girl. Kurt and Jackie are great people, and she's a superb cook! They have 3 super cute kids, too. :) After dinner we visited outside on their patio (the weather was beautiful) and then played a Friends trivia game. They were huge Friends fans when the series was still on T.V., and we have since purchased the first seven seasons, so we were pretty tough competitors. It was fun-Kurt won though. :(

6. That's it for the more recent past. We're hoping for a pretty exciting next couple of weeks...I'd like to come back here soon with pics of the new house. :)

Take care all!

Current Happenings...

Happy spring! Well, almost. Sure feels like it today.

Long time no blog huh? We've been pretty busy, as usual.

Just last week we started house hunting again. Last Sunday Jason and I drove around and scoped out 16 houses! Of the 16 we found 4 that we will be looking at with a Realtor. Thursday evening we looked at a house that some of the guys I work with own. It was nice, but we don't have anything to compare it to. Monday afternoon we're looking at 3 more. It's pretty exciting!

Cait's basketball season wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. Their team didn't do so well overall, but the girls were great and had super spirits. I was a little disappointed because the one time I did bring my camera I forgot to use it. They were suppose to have a tournament where I would have taken pics but that was cancelled because of snow. :( Basketball took up 2 evenings a week and every Saturday afternoon, so a little of our running has been temporarily relieved. Softball starts in a month or so, so we'll be right back at it. But that's okay-I'm glad Cait is involved. Last week we went to a meeting at her new school. I can't believe she's starting junior high already!! The meeting was for band...and she has decided that she is going to play the trombone. A girl after my own heart. :) Even better, we have a trombone...just have to retrieve it from my dad's house and get it all shined up. She was also busy with her Girl Scout cookie sale. She managed to sell 184 boxes this year. That's the least amount she's sold in all of her years of scouting. We weren't too aggressive this year. Unfortunately she's losing interest in scouts and probably won't join next year. I think she'll have enough to do with starting middle school, basketball, softball and band. Other than that she's doing well...she's spending more and more time at friend's houses (or friends here). She's a well-rounded girl, that's for sure.

Jason found out Friday that his temporary position will become permanent. What a relief! He's been job hunting and there's not much out there right now. He likes the job he's at, but he's not paid as a social worker. We'll manage for now. At least it's permanent and will be full-time with benefits. Benefits are key! I have benefits at my job but when we got married we couldn't afford to add him for health insurance--it'd be an extra $200+ per month! The only other downfall besides the pay is that it's 20 miles from home. We're taking that into consideration in our search for a house too. I'm thrilled that he'll only have 2 0r 3 more Saturdays to work at his other part-time job. Monday through Friday...finally! :)

This morning I did some work in the garage-cleaning. My cousin Karen introduced me to Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) on her blog (www.karens2cents.blogspot.com). Yesterday afternoon I posted a message and within hours I had several replies. This morning someone took 2 of Cait's old bikes and someone else took our non-working gas grill. That's a lot of bulk from our garage that left nice open space! Freecycle is great...I've been running through other things in my mind that I'd like to get rid of. We have a couple of old T.V.s in the basement...hopefully they'll be the next to go! It would be nice if we didn't have to move that kind of stuff.

All for now. I've got to get some laundry going and such. Cait will be home soon so I'll have to fix lunch. Today is Nikki's birthday-she's a friend that was in our wedding. Later on we're meeting at Cancun-a fabulous Mexican restaurant-she and I and some other friends/family of hers. Will be fun.

Rumplestiltskin

Here are a couple of pictures from Cait's play...finally! I wish I had more/better pictures. We didn't get tickets in advance (the "green slip" never came home from school...uh hmmm...), so we had to buy tix at the door. By time we got there they only had 11 tickets left so we were stuck pretty close to the back. One of these pictures is Cait in action as the Peddler...she's pushing "magic beans". The other is of her and her good friend Mackayla. Mackayla played Rumplestiltskin and did a fine job! It was such a cute play...a musical even! Not your ordinary "Rumplestiltskin" story, either. It mixed in many many other fairytale characters, from the Three Little Pigs to Mother Goose to Jack and Jill. A great production to say the least! :)

Week 4: -2.0

I'm so very excited today...I've lost another 2 lbs. during this past week! YAY for me! Total to date is -6.8 lbs. A little less than 2 lbs./week average. I've got a long ways to go, but it's pretty encouraging to see the fat falling off. Jason even said my legs look smoother...now THAT'S a compliment! (Thanks, Jas!)

Other than that not much going on around her. It's FREEZING cold. Not sure how much more of this I can take.

I still have to sit down at the computer at home and get some pics on here from Cait's play a couple of weeks ago...

All for now...I'm at work so I should work, but I just had to share my success for the week!

Cheese? I'm not so sure...

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

Jason works every Saturday from noon until midnight. And almost every Saturday I make a run there with some food or whatever. I went tonight...rang him and said "The ice cream truck is here". He came out to grab his Ben & Jerry's and I asked him a question. I said "Do you know what today is?" And without skipping a beat he said "Our 5 month anniversary?" I laughed and told him I hadn't even thought of that, even though technically it is our 5 mo. anniversary, going by the day and not the date. I was just surprised he had even known that! Anyways, today is actually the SIXTH anniversary of our first date! I had thought of having our wedding on this day, but decided that January weather is so unpredictable that I'd be taking a chance and wouldn't want out-of-towners stuck in a blizzard. And it is COLD today. And I like being married, so I'm glad it was in August. On our first date we met at the mall (woo hoo), went bowling, and back to the mall to eat at Garfield's, and then to my apt. to watch a movie. I totally remember everything about it. He was wearing khaki pants and a wool-type shirt (which has since been sent to Goodwill). I was wearing blue jeans and a brown zip up sweater. I called my friend Lori from the payphone at the mall because I was soooo nervous! I ate chicken noodle soup (that's all...how typical for a girl on a first date to not eat) and he had fish...and they didn't have any tartar sauce! He won the bowling game. We watched "The Green Mile"....ahhhhhh...the memories. :)

Week 2: -2.4 Yippee!

I'm off to a good start so far with Weight Watchers...5 lbs. in two weeks. This is encouraging...hopefully I can keep it up. I'm on a different "plan" than my past attempts. This time I'm doing the Core plan, which means that there are only certain foods that I can eat, but I don't have to count the points for each little thing. I just eat until I am satisfied, but not stuffed. So far so good. I think in the past 2+ weeks I've eaten more apples and applesauce (unsweetened, of course) than I have in years! Funny how certain foods are much more appealing when it's all you can eat. In the past if there were an apple or a chocolate covered granola bar I'd always go for the chocolate. Now I don't even look to the cupboard for a granola bar, of any kind! What do they say? That it takes 3 weeks to form a habit...well I'm almost there. Yay for me!!

Happy Birthday To....

ME! :) Yep, it's my birthday today...28. Yikes...I'm feeling a little older this year for some reason. Maybe because I'm really out of shape and such...BUT, we're going to solve that problem! I told Jason that I didn't want anything for my birthday for "me", but I wanted for all of us to get a membership to the YMCA. And so we did. Cait plays basketball there on Saturdays, but that's the extent of our experience with the Y. This evening after I got home from work we went and took the tour and signed up for four months for now. I'm excited to get in there and use the facilities! After we spent an hour at the Y we went to dinner to one of the best places I've ever been. It's nothing fancy--it's called Altoona Family Restaurant. And that's exactly what it is. It's a Perkins type of restaurant, but not as commercialized. We've been there twice. Once on a Friday night during their fish fry when they were swamped and then tonight. Both timew we had fantastic service and the food is delicious and very reasonably priced. I had their grilled chicken breast (it was 2 huge butterfly type pieces) and it came with a salad, a veggie, and a potato (I had rice pilaf)...all of that for $7.19! Jason had a huge plate of ribs with the veggie and potato for $7.59 and Cait had a kids meal for $3.50! With tax and our drinks our bill was $22. Can't beat it. I have the Golden Globes recording on DVR so I'm going to go catch up with all of the action... :)

Wow!

Has is really been almost 2 weeks since my last post? Sheesh...where does the time go?

Here's a quick update:

Cait's been busy at play rehearsal 2-3 nights per week, basketball practice 2 nights a week and games on Saturdays. Add that to homework and being a kid and she's filled to the rim with things to do. The play is this week, so after one more week she'll have a little more spare time, which is needed. She's barely had a chance to dive into all of the scrapbooking goodies she got for Christmas!

Jason has been working somewhat normal hours for the first time in years (literally). On the last day of his internship the county offered him a "temporary" position in their Community Support division. He works there Tues.-Fri. and at Triniteam (halfway house) on Saturdays. He has 2 full days off per week (in a row even!), and he's not working any crazy overnight shifts, so his days and nights are finally in order. Last week he sent out a couple of resumes for permanent positions--hopefully we'll hear from someone soon.

I'm back on the weight loss track...almost 2 weeks now! (See June 2006 post--I didn't make it very far). This is my 3rd or 4th time on Weight Watchers and I really feel good about it this time. (For real.) My head is in it, and a couple of times it just wasn't, which lead to failed attempts. I'm setting "mini-goals" for myself rather than always thinking of the end (which is 90 lbs.). Ten pound increments seem much more attainable--and I get a reward for every 10 lbs. My first 10 will be a trip to JC Penney Salon for a new do. The 1st week I lost 2.6 lbs. I'm anxious to go back Tuesday and see how I did this week. IAnd I feel a million times better, which is a bonus!

Yesterday we lost our sweet little Sparkle. A few weeks ago I had written a post about her. It was really a battle for the last week or so. We called a couple of vets to see if they'd give us any advice, but they of course wanted us to come in and pay for an office visit. I don't want to say that she wasn't worth it, but knowing that she had lived a long life and knowing that by how sick she was she wouldn't suffer long, we decided to let nature run its course, and it did. We were sad to see her go, but relieved for her because she was in Hamster Heaven.

Brrrrr!! It's cold! We've been so spoiled with the warm winter weather that the teens just don't feel too good. It's been mainly in the 40s so far all winter, and there's no snow to insulate from the bitterness, so it's rough. :)

That's all for now...I told Cait I'd watch "Best Gameshow Moments" with her, or whatever it is on GSN.

Have a splendid evening!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (Cue the bells and whistles)

January 1, 2007. Whew! Crazy.

Cait and I hung out last night--we never usually do too much on New Year's Eve. Jason had to work (hopefully his last 8:00 p.m.-8:00 a.m. shift) so we just ate cheese and crackers and watched GSN. GSN has become one of my favorites--I love Chain Reaction and Lingo. Cait likes the old game shows like Match Game and Password. Silly! We also watched part of the Packers/Bears game...

Cait said she'd pay me $50.00 if I stayed up until midnight with her. I said okay, so she brought me $50 in Monopoly money! At about 11:00 p.m. I went to bed and read for a bit. After a few minutes Caitlin came in and said she lost a tooth. I didn't even know she had any loose! Anyways, she left and came back and said sarcastically "You know Mom, I still believe in the Tooth Fairy." She proceeded to put her tooth under her pillow and when I woke up at 4:00 a.m. I snuck in and took her tooth and left her a dollar...and her $50 Monopoly money. She thought that was a ripoff! :)

That pretty much sums up the excitement of our New Year's Eve. I'd prefer low-key, so it was nice.

I hope your New Year is a prosperous one.