SCHMAPPLES!!!

Note: I'll get to the title name in due time!

Okay, so this post is beyond a little old...but it should get me caught up to the present up until the holidays!  I dumped all my pictures off my camera and went, 'Yikes!  I'm am uber behind here!'...so here are a few trips down memory lane over the past months and some fun stories to go with it!

For starters:  Here is our first snow that allowed me to go home early!  It's not that great of a picture, but that's the point I suppose.  Since then, we've had windchills in the -20's.  With that being said, I would like to say, 'Thank You!' to all the nice friendly motorists that waved at me as they plowed past me on the highway...I never knew there were so many one fingered people in this town?

Okay!  Well then, since we are rewinding, the next post I missed would have been Halloween. (Due to the economy, the Turkey Day post got cut this year!)

One joke I've had since we moved here was how we needed a 'Rupe Rock'!  You know what I'm talking about, every house in this town has one.  The limestone post/rock that has the family's last name etched in it and proudly displayed in the front lawn.  I will assume this is the reason we never got a welcoming committee, or a homemade pie delivered to us...everyone just assumed we already knew them because all you have to do is read their rocks!  It's a genius idea really, if you think about it!  Well, since we don't have one yet...because of course I refuse to pay money for one and really think that making my own would 'rock'!  (Tee hee!)...I made a temporary one for the season:

I called them our 'Rupe-o-lanterns' and proudly displayed them in the window for all to see!

This is my friendly, cackling witch!

And also my friendly jack-o-'lantern' lights!

The highlight I have from Halloween night is finding out the reason that we only had 10 trick-or-treaters as opposed to the 80-100 our neighbors had.  It was because the former tenants' of our house never 'hung around for very long'.  (Insert note: As in they were huge druggies!)  One little girl informed me that her friend had a cousin that lived here and that 'her mommy and daddy were really dirty!'  She peeked in and then said, 'Wow!  You have a beautiful dining room miss!  It's prettier than ours even!'  I proceeded to find out that high schoolers once rented it for a bit...real smart right?  And the last occupants couldn't afford the gas bill so they heated attempted to heat the house with the stove in the kitchen!  Niiiiice!  Oh you just wait until next year all you princesses and goblins!  Every kid in the neighborhood will want to come to our house...you just wait and see!

Moving right along and getting to the title of this post!  I have a list of all the bijillion things I want to explore in my new town and the area's around it and finally got a chance to one weekend in the fall.  We first went to Cain City Orchard in Bushton, KS!  Love, Love, Love this place and want this to be my future some day!

This is the cute little house that they sell homemade jams, jellies, and some produce from!

These are the fabulous apples we picked!

That bag is an 'official' apple-pickers bag that goes around your chest kinda like a backwards backpack!  I refused the offer of it from the nice man because I didn't wanna run around looking all dumb...and later discovered that perhaps I should have taken it.  My scrawny canvas bag got full, heavy, and annoying QUICKLY!

Ah!  'True Love Self-Portrait'  (Can't you just feel my happiness in this pic!)

Ginormous apple orchard!

Once you pick your hear out of apples (15 pounds to be exact!) you take them into this cute little shed where they dump them in this polisher to make your apples shiny and pretty!

You can also pay a $1.00 to shoot old apples that have fallen on the ground from a slingshot!

If only you could have seen the look on my face when I found out about this!

Conversation:

(Me reading a sign in the shed: 'Apple Shooting: 6 for $1.00' and having already eyed the slingshot and bull's eye...knew exactly what they were talking about!)

Me: OMG...can I do that J...please, please, please!

J: (Not having noticed the slingshot or the bull's eye and literally thinking they meant allowing me a real gun to shoot up apples with.)  Uh, no.

Me: Oh come on...it's not like we'll be back this year!  Let loose and have some good ol' fashioned fun for once!

J: We don't have time!

Me: Yeah we do!  (I then promptly bought one bucket of apples with a huge grin on my face!)

I got pretty close with my second apple.  Then I decided that since I was having so much fun, I should let J in on it (since now he has figured out they didn't mean apple 'shooting').  He didn't seem amused and I think was really just humoring me more than anything.  Until...

Check out that look on his face!  He was so getting into it!  Best quote of the day from him at the orchard:

'Man,  I could so sit here and do this all day while drinking some beers!'

Needless to say it was 'little kid' fun and those times are the best!

After that, we headed over to Dozier Winery to sample some of their homemade wines!

This is the sampling room / gift shop / old train depot!

This is inside the old train depot and the 'Santa Fe' sign up top is the original one!

This is another original 'Santa Fe' sign for the depot and was taken from the gift shop side.  The window there is the window where passengers would buy their tickets.

Mmmmm!  These are all the wines we sampled!  The one on the end is a Jalapeno Wine that they created for cooking / marinades...they had us sample just a swig...and yes...it was definitely made with peppers!!!

After all our sampling and purchasing of Sandhill Plum Wine and Concord Grape Wine (tasted just like grape jelly...so much so that I went home, made a peanut butter sandwich, and dipped it in a glass of the wine...shhh...don't tell anyone!) we decided to go for a stroll thru their forest!  How beautiful it was with the pretty leaves, a nice buzz (as noted in my smile!), my lovely man, and a perfectly crisp autumn day!

Well, that should get me caught up to December...and I might just skip right over that and move on to 2010!

Oh crap...SCHMAPPLES!...I forgot to get to that.  Well, needless to say we were getting pretty creative with our 15 pounds of apples.  We used a lot of them for making homemade wine (which we finally finished up last weekend!).  We then decided to slice a lot of them up in rings and throw 'em in the dehydrator.  Oh YUM!  The result was a crisp apple chip almost!  I got so excited and crazed over them, I started calling them 'schmapples' except I would say it in a loud, high pitched voice over and over and over like the big dork I am!  And so then every time I saw an apple...I started calling them schmapples...then J picked up on it...and now all apples in our house are 'scccchhhhhmapples!'  There you have it!

Honey Moon Part One

Since it's been almost 6 months since the wedding...I thought it's about time to get off my kiester and post some pics!  So this post is one of a lot to come from our honeymoon in Yellowstone.  One might be thinking, 'I haven't seen the wedding pics yet though?'...and that one might be correct.  But, A) That would require me getting out of the recliner of warmth right now and B) I figure I should post these pics before I break the laptop and we loose them forever.  (Similar to the broken hard drive we have right now with the last 6 years of pictures possibly lost forever...sigh!)  These were chosen in no random order and we have about 400 pictures of our honeymoon....so here is PART ONE:

Words cannot even BEGIN to describe the beauty, peace, and calm here!

We drove all day and all night to try and get to the Park for our reservations the next day.  We got so tired that we found a random campsite in the Grand Tetons at like midnight, leaned the seats back in the 4Runner, and just crashed...and this is the awesome view we woke up to the next morning...it's views like this that don't require coffee in the mornings to get going!

We went White Water Rafting, not our most 'intense' one yet, but we had a real dickhead in our raft which really got to me...I would have taken Class 5 Rapids over this guy!  The pics that the company takes were $35 a piece so this picture serves as our 'souvenir'.

NEAT!  Grand Tetons!

KS representing at Yellowstone with the Sunflower!

One of maybe 5 self portraits from the whole trip...which is odd because I LOVE self portraits and J is usually very good at taking them!

I think this was Day 1 Campsite...where our neighbors on each side of us had kids that were dropping food left and right and the people in front of us already had the Park Patrol on their site to lock up food they left out in the 'Bear Bins'...You either have to store it in your car or under lock in a big metal container.  I was convinced we'd get eaten alive thanks to our idiot neighbors (more pics to come on bear sightings!).

Words cannot explain the Geothermal Features either!  The more blue'ish green they are the hotter they are!  And let's not forget the LOVELY smell of rotten eggs everywhere you went from all the sulfur...gag!

We figured out the timer on our camera!  Woo Hoo!  (Disclaimer: Yes of course I look like crap...but we like to see how many days we can go before breaking down and showering...I think our max is 4 and this trip hit 3!)  If that sounds odd or gross to you...you don't know what 'roughin' it' means man!

This one looks neat in the picture, but sadly enough it's that yellow color because of abuse.  People think it's 'cool' to toss trash and such into those to see what will happen and it destroys and deteriorates the feature...hence all the yellow!

Once again...speechless...but just so cool!

So those are round one and I'll be sure and get the rest up sooner than later!  And for those of you contemplating driving across the whole state of Wyoming to get to Yellowstone...be sure and set your cruise to 'FAST'...there is NOTHING in Southern Wyoming...I mean nothing at all!!!  The only story out of that part of the state was the lady at the gas station who told me about this cat that ate a rabbit that had some deadly disease and bit one of the employees there.  They took pictures of her hand where she was bitten and had them posted all over the counter warning people of the disease and to stay away from rabbits!  The pictures were non-recognizable body parts that were rotting away from this disease.  Famous quote from that conversation (which ended rather quickly and abruptly):

Gas Station Lady: 'Yep!  Best rabbit I ever saw is a dead one...buried 6 feet under ground..those bastards!'
(My apologies for any spelling errors..it's late, I'm tired, and ever since I uploaded the new Blogger I don't have a spellcheck button anymore!)

Field Trip Pics!

I traveled to San Antonio for a work conference and took some fun shots:

I had to take a shot of this for J!

Full Moon at the Alamo!

The Alamo at night is so beautiful...once you're able to edit out the tourists!

There was a hand blown glass shop that had all these cool balls hanging from the ceiling!

And of course the water features along the Riverwalk!

Other Highlights From the Trip:

- The TexMex food...MMMMM!!!

- Seeing my co-workers reaction to 'street people'!

- The ability to go to dinner utilizing a trolley, your feet, and a cab all for under $5.00!

- Dick's Last Resort...(for those unfamiliar, it's the restaurant where they are purposely dick's to you)...and I note this as a 'highlight' to remind myself to never go back.  I pay people for 'service' for a reason!

- And then the rest was really just work crap no one wants to hear about!

Side Note:  As I kick back in the recliner typing this, wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket and sipping on hot tea, I look into the bedroom (yes...it's a small house) and can see my wonderful (but pretty icky sick right now) J asleep like a baby and our dog curled up in a ball at the end of his feet.  I sip my tea and smile to myself...'This is life I love!'  (Minus the sickness!)...(and the snoring I can hear)...(Oh God, my dog is licking herself now!)

And Who Doesn't Like Making Ice Cream Cones out of Play-Dough?

The last time we were visiting in KC, I snapped off these pics of my niece and nephew.  We had pulled out the Play-Dough bin (which now that we have done that, thank god we won't have to for like another year!) and starting creating!  They decided to make ice cream cones and so I took pics of there award winning masterpieces:

We're calling Jude's 'already eaten'.  Prior to the picture his ice cream fell off, then he thought it'd be cool to step on it first and then put it back in his cone.  Which also explains the coy smirk on his face!

Amazingly enough, Madi's really started looking more and more like the real shape of ice cream.  And the 'green sprinkles' were all her invention too!

Free Customized Card

I found this on my girlfriend's blog and thought I'd add it on mine:

"Send us an email to VIP@traylorpapers.com with your name & address and we'll send you a free customized card with your name. Tell us your favorite colors and/or style (i.e., whimsical, classic, girly..., etc.) and we'll try to make you a match ;) BONUS: post this offer on your blog or wall, send us a link and we'll send you a few extra! Good thru 10/28/09!"

Woo hoo!

Happy Birthday Jude!

We traveled to KC this weekend to 1) Celebrate my godson's 2nd Birthday!!! and 2) Try and sell our house...  I bet you can guess which one I had more fun doing!  Here are some pics of the little squirt and family from our outing to a Japanese Steakhouse to celebrate!

Mom and Madi cracking themselves up!

Group Picture (Minus J...who's taking the pic)

My Babies!

Check out those chopsticks skills!

Coolest thing ever!  This place had a sushi bar with a sushi train!!!  You just grab your plate of sushi that looks goods off the train and munch on down!  I think one guy had a bit too much sake...he kept missing his plate! 

Birthday cake and ice cream face!

BFF's

How cute are those two!  Now I know why Jude was all buddy buddy with J the rest of the weekend!  He got to give him the cake and icecream!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY 'JUDEEE-TOOTI'!!!!

Self Epiphanies

Some of these are more recently discovered than others...some were just discovered this weekend!  I had a long, boring, 4 hour road trip back from KC all by my lonesome to ponder on them all though and thought I'd share with you!

. I am the person to tell you that you have cilantro in your tooth, a boogie hangin' out, or a fly unzipped...whether I know you all that well or not!

. I am also the person on the other end of things that will self-assess myself to you...because let's face it...it was running through your mind while I was talking to you anyways: For example, 'Oh, yes, that is Poison Ivy on my neck; not a moldy fungus!'  or 'I know I need to wax my hairy eyebrows so quit staring at them!' or 'Don't get too close to me, I stink!'

. I'm a procrastinator...and damn good at it!

. I have a relatively small perimeter when it comes to what size of things I'm capable of stressing out about.  Large things are just out of my control, so why stress!?!

. Why pay for cool junk when you can get it for free (more to post on that later!)?

. I heart bangs today

. A car that's paid for will always look better than one that's not!

. The End

What are some of your self epiphanies?

Prove it!

Goodness gracious! For those of you out there that read my blog and aren't the brave 4 that actually identify yourselves as 'followers' (which by the way, thank you guys!) and you also are not related to me (now they're droppin' like flies!) let me recap my year so far:

- January: Start new job and move in with my fiance!
- Around March/April (I don't even remember now!):  J relocates 4 hours away and starts new job.  I give two week notice that I will be quitting my new job.  I search aimlessly for new job in soon to be new town.  Oh, but I end up finding two part time jobs to equal a full time job.
- April, May, June: J drives 4 hours back to KC every Friday night after work to be with me (did I mention at this point in time I'm living with my sis, brother in law, and niece and nephew...no slack off my back...did I mention I was living with my lovely niece and nephew!!!)  We work on fixing up our house every Saturday and Sunday so we can sell it.  J drives back home 4 hours (did I mention he is living with the 'rents at this point in time???).
- June:  I start my two part time jobs and we move!  Woo hoo!  Minus the moving part, having to learn 2 new jobs, 2 new sets of names, and still to this day not quite sure which direction North is in!
- July:  Did you catch my mention in January of 'fiance'!  We traveled to CO for our wedding (That we were also planning this whole time).  Then up North all over for our honeymoon.  (House is still not sold...we are still driving to KC every weekend to work on it....BIG FAT siiiiiigggghhhh!)
- August - Now: Still driving to KC every weekend.  House is finally complete...just waiting for a buyer now!  Finally starting to get all our crap settled and distributed.  By that I mean we took about 2,000 sq ft of stuff and consolidated it into about 700 sq ft of space.  A task that is not all that easy and if it weren't for J's parents allowing us to take over their storage areas...we'd be screwed!

I counted and last night was our 4th Friday night home at our new house since we moved here at the beginning of June.  The first Friday night here, we spent the whole night busting our tails to get stuff unpacked and somewhat clean and orderly because my mom was on her way to visit.  The second Friday, J went out with some buddies and I piddled.  The third one, we did much needed yard work and hung out with J's parents, and then there was last night...I worked until 8:30, we went to dinner...J got called into work!  Exciting...I know!  Lord only knows what we'll do with ourselves when we have a Saturday night here at home and not in KC.  Which, that would mean we sold our house...which that would mean we will be hosting a GREAT big party!!!

Not the most exciting post I know!  But, life has been very chaotic and things are finally starting to simmer down a bit!  Hopefully that will give me more time to post some crafts I have cooked up in my head!  Thanks for staying tuned in to our blog through it all though!  I have a ton of ideas for new posts on things that have happened during this chaos...soon to come!!!

Labor Day Weekend Recap!

In memory of our two year anniversary doing this:

...I didn't drive at all on Labor Day!  Whew!  We managed to 'keep 4 on the floor', 'the shiny side up', and 'black on black' as my family tells us everytime we talk to them and they find out we're traveling on the road in a vehicle.

On to happier (and more current) topics of the weekend though!  The theme of our weekend seemed to be this:

Yes, that's hot, sweaty, dirty, and working for food.  No, that does not mean we hung out with a creepy old bum that liked to hang ten alot!

J and I went to the good ol' state of Okie-homa to visit my grandpa.  Amazingly enough, I always find myself wannin' tuh tawlk lack this...after being there for more than a day.  And!  Should you ever get lost on the way to Oklahoma and in a tired stooper catch yourself asking this question at the gas station,  'Are we still in Kansas or did we pass into Oklahoma yet?'  Just look around you for the answer.

• 
  
  Ginormous bugs crawling out of the woodwork outside?  Check!
• 
  
  110% humidity?  Check!
• 
  
  Count the number of vehicles around you...are at least 12 of them trucks?  Check!
• 
  
  Of those 12 trucks, do the 12 drivers have a combined total of 1.5 sets of full teeth?  Check!

Sorry my friend, we're not in Kansas anymore!

So we were there to help Grandpa do some work outside around his house so that he didn't kill himself...which he has been known to come close to doing before (falling off a ladder, with a chainsaw in hand, and shattering his ankle!).  We spent Saturday and Sunday running a chainsaw and hauling the mess away.  After Day 1 we had this burn pile created:

                                              

(notice the rusty old barrel)

After Day 2, our pile looked like this:

                                     

(notice rusty old barrel is no longer visible)

Okay, so the pics don't do our hard work justice in my opinion.  That pile is about 12 feet high though!  Here are a few more pics of us working hard:

                                      

Justin on the ladder that he precariously perched himself on while running the chainsaw...eeek!

That's Grandpa parking 'Ol' Blue'!

This is the after view...I forgot to take before's but as you can see, all those brown areas on the ground were covered in trees!

Moving along!  In turn for all this hard work we ate the following (and my apologies to Kay and Grandpa if I forgot some of the deliciousness we had!):   *disclaimer:  All being homemade of course!

Buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, eggs, omelets, cooked spiced peaches and apples, banana bread, t-bones, salad, homemade jellies, hamsteaks, bacon, garden tomatoes, Senor Salsa's...mmm, rotel and cheese dip, homemade salsa, blueberry sponge cake, ice cream, margaritas, beer, juice, coffee...I'm sure I am forgetting a few...but good LORD!  We packed in the homemade YUM day after day!  I'm sure I've gained 10 pounds...I'm too scared to look!  We also took home okra, pickles, jams, and banana loaves with us.  It's not a trip to Grandpa's unless you leave with deliciousness as well!

Have you ever had one of those Oh.My.God embarassing moments?  You know, like when you accidentally walked in on two co-workers having an affair on the conference room table?  Or when you got busted snooping for Oreo's your brother-in-law hid from you?  Or that very terrible time you could have swore it was just gonna be a fart?  (Not like I'd know about any of these!)

(snicker, snicker)  Well now!  Heeeeeere's a story for ya!  Let me paint you a picture.  It's Saturday morning, J is long done with his shower, wide awake, and sipping coffee with Grandpa in the living room.  I on the other hand am peeling my eyes open, crawling out of bed, sleep showering, and getting ready to throw on some ragged work clothes whennnn...what's this?  Oh shit!  Noooooo waaaaayyy, I couldn't have!  No underwear!?!?!  You.have.got.tobe.kidding.me.  I packed not one sole pair of undies!  Now, I'm not one for being shy nor am I one for a little commando action if need be...but we were getting ready to go get all hot and sweaty...and that's just wrong!  So what do I do?  Go scavenging of course!  I immediately think of looking in J's bag...'Crap!  He doesn't even OWN a pair of tighty whiteys...let alone would have packed them for the weekend if he did.  And I can't wear boxers...all I have for work clothes is spandex yoga capri pants!'  My throat starts to tighten, my stomach is filling with rocks, I'm starting to sweat, panic is setting in.  I spy the dresser in the corner of the bedroom.  'Hmmm...wonder if it is in use or not?'  I open the first drawer, it's my grandpa's hankies.  'This could be promising.'  I open the second drawer, socks and boxers.  'Warmer.'  Low and behold, laying there in drawer no. 3...tighty whiteys!  (Now, here is where I tell my audience to stop reading if you are actually my Grandpa...whom my dumbass gave this blog address to while there!...or keep reading, know this is a confession, and NEVER talk about it again!)  I pick up what looks like a perfectly pressed pair of brilliant white Hanes...size 32!  'Sweet!  They might fit me!'  (I stress this last thought to convey to you that my grandpa is a VERY clean man and I have no qualms or doubts in my mind that perhaps he hasn't even worn these at all...right???...they look that new!)  I'm standing there, desperate, naked, and in a hurry by now.  Without having to make my mind process what I'm about to do, I quickly snatch up the undies, shove my feet into them, and go to yank 'em up as quickly as possible!  Urrrrrrrrrr-ch!  Screeching halt!  'Shit!  My fat thighs and those little chicken leg size 32 holes are not compatible!'  Right.then.and.there. J opens the door!  Talk about a deer in headlights!

J: What the hell are you doing?

Me: Get out of here!  Shut the door!  Go!

J: What the hell are you wearing?

Me: Sigh!  What's it look like!

J:  Why don't you wear a pair of my boxers? (By now I have crammed them up on me, the waistband is under my boobs, and my fat thighs are bulging out the bottoms...pretty picture to paint...I know!)

Me: No, I can't becuase I don't have my work jeans.  Now, go back out that door and pretend this never happened!!!

J:  What are you going to do with them when you're done?!?!

Me:  I haven't got that far yet!  LEAVE!

Needless to say, the tighty whiteys came home with us.  Sorry about that grandpa.

So, I also bought some of these over the weekend:

                                     

I also have confirmation that I must have rolled around in this as well:

                                        

Leaves of 3, leave 'em be!  It looks like Poison Ivy gave me a hickey on my neck!  Bleck!

And that was my fabulous Labor Day Weekend!  How was yours?

But what does it all mean? (said in British tones)

(Started this post in February and never posted it. Hence the reason it talks about shopping for a wedding dress. And for those wondering, the dress I ended up with is 10 times more amazing and also a thanks to the help of my big sis!)





These past two weeks I have been pondering the history and meaning of phrases. Not because I'm some huge English geek (sorry mom!) but because they just struck me as really odd and funny.



For instance:



As I am driving in the car with my sister and girlfriend, Rozanne, coming back from trying on a wedding dress. (A wedding dress that I might have bought had it not been for the saving graces and honesty of these two wonderful ladies) (A dress that I might have purchased before my sister said, 'Oh my god Kristy! You have a 'back butt'!')(A wedding dress that also, on that particular wet, cold, and snowy day made me feel rather 'sloth'ish'...especially since I then realized that I could have a 'back butt') So on our long, slow, wet, cold, snowy, blustery drive back home this conversation ensued:



Me: I am so sick of this weather! I have cabin fever so bad!


Sister: No you don't.


Me: Huh?


Sister: Cabin fever (matter-of-factly), you don't have that.


Me: Ohhh right, because it really doesn't exist and is just some stupid phrase someone made up when they were cooped up in their house over the winter. Well I don't care where it came from, I have it and am sick of it!


Sister: Actually, it came from way back when, when people lived in small hand built shacks (i.e.- cabins) with usually a wood burning stove or fireplace as the main source of heat. The cabin was sealed up tight to keep the cold air out and there was no place for the carbon monoxide to escape. Thus ensued sickness, fever, etc. from the people cooped up inside.


Me: uh-hmmmmm


Sister: Sooooo, quite literally you cannot have cabin fever because you are not suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, you don't live in a cabin, and you have no ill symptoms such as fever.


Me: touche (I am notorious for throwing this word into conversation. Yet to this day, I have NO idea how to use it properly in a sentence!)



Now, did I actually believe her at the time? Ehh, her 'story' seemed logical enough but this is my sister we're talking about. The same person that when asked, 'Hey, who sings this song?' could look at you with the straightest of faces, act like she was really digging deep for the answer, ponder it for just the right amount of time and then say, 'Nirvana' as matter-of-factly as if she was telling me that the sky is blue. Only to later find out that the song was actually sang by Queen. She's good at what she does, I'm tellin' ya!



Fast forward two days later:



I'm sitting at my cubicle, at my new job, chit chatting with the IT guy at my desk. Why? you might wonder? Because I have entered a new IT ticket for every day I have shown up to work this week. On this particular Friday (my most favorite day of the week) no one was in the office and I was rather the Chatty Cathy. So I tested his knowledge and asked him where he thought cabin fever came from. His story almost 100% reiterated my sisters. ERRGIN-SCHMIRGIN'!!! I'll give her just this one!



Well, this conversation somehow lead into talk about meanings of words and such, which ensued the following:



IT guy: Oh yea, and 'cake eaters'...uggghhh



Me: (Weird, confused look on my face.)



IT guy: You know, a cake eater?!?!



Me: (Wheels are starting to turn and it's not good. I quickly think, surely he's not 'politely' trying to call me fat is he? I don't look like I eat cake all the time! Okay, I know I've put a few on, but it's WINTER! What a JERK!)



IT guy: You know, like the kids that went to...(dramatic pause)...priiii-vate schooool.



Me: (gasp! He IS calling me a cake eater!!!)

Happy Friday Randomness

(Sorry the pics are so crappy and small!)

Well, so this is just a random blog to show off my 'art' project last night that took all of 3 minutes to put together. Our cute little rental (for now) needs a LOT of TLC*. We have been working our heiney's off on trying to make it our 'home' and little by little it is working. When I first created this blog, I thought to myself, 'Oh, I will instantly become a better decorator because I have a blog and all these other lovely people post lovely pics of their homes looking so lovely!' I have come to grips with reality (to an extent) and am opening up to you now: 'My name is K and I am not a decorator' (In unison, 'Hiiiiiii, Kaaaaaayyyy'). BUT, I can at least give myself credit for this attempt at decorating on a budget!
- The red shelf and twig bird house were from the Salvation Army for a total of $5.00.
- The garland and towel were from DG for a total of $2.50.
- The orange potpourri balls came out of a crystal bowl I have full of potpourri (FREE!).
- TOTAL: $7.50 TIME: 3 minutes

Now I don't care if it's no Martha Stewart, but that ain't bad for being frugal!

*Disclaimer: Just in case you noticed the line in the wall behind my decor.

#73

The number 73 has never really had any profound meaning to me. (Hmmm...I can't remember my brother's football number from high school, but now that I think about it...maybe it was 73!?!?) Anywho, there was #25 because that was my assigned 'number' in school growing up until stupid Randy Sparks left in the sixth grade and so then I got bumped to 24...but I'm not bitter! Then there was 13 because that was my basketball number in grade school...our team sucked...all four years!!! A few other numbers in my life have come and gone over the years as well. As of late, I'm a big fan of number 74 because it combines 07 (July) and 04 (the 4th) which is our wedding anniversary. That's about as close to 73 as I've came to really thinking it's a lucky number for me until...

...I got the mail yesterday! My name was chosen as a finalist to win a brand new 2010 Ford Mustang! This promo/contest has been going on since before we moved here in early June and I have driven by the Mustang a ton of times while on display at various participating sponsors. Well, one day, while at the local office supply store, I finally saw a registration box so I filled out the little slip of paper and stuck it in a huge, already crammed full, box of other hopefuls and really thought nothing of it. And low and behold, there I was holding this piece of paper letting me know that I was winner winner, chicken dinner! Now, I realize most of you might be thinking to yourselves, (or re-reading this blog) 'Did she say she won the car? I thought she said that she was a finalist!?!?' No typos, I said finalist. However, I already consider myself a winner because stuff like this NEVER happens to me! Not even as a finalist!

So, this Friday evening, starting at 7:00 pm I will have a 1 and 100 chance of being the proud new owner of 'Ol' Red'. I already named him just in case! Click here to see my name listed as lucky number 73! How EXCITING! Wish me luck! I'll keep ya'll posted!

Love it!

In a recent article I read here, I found the following words about my (I like to pretend they only cater to me like this!) fabulous Amazon.com:

'According to BusinessWeek, the 2009 Customer Service Champs — ranked by reader surveys and J.D. Power research — include Amazon.com at No. 1...'

'To start, customers want product value that exceeds the price they’re paying. Next, they want a level of service that rises above their expectations. As proof, two of the top 15 Customer Service Champs are Amazon.com and Zappos.com, both known for discount prices and exceptional service.'

Needless to say, 'Kudos to you again Amazon.com!'

Containers Rock!

So as I was running errands yesterday, I realized there were a few things that were putting me in an exceptionally good mood. First, the fact that I was running errands meant that I was not working. The sun popped out and it was a perfect day for the pool...but I was of course....running errands. Sooooo...I stopped in at my local tan shop and got:

1) A Mystic Tan! This is the first thing in a container that I am loving. I took before and after pictures of my leg...and then realized you all WILL NEVER have the pleasure of seeing those photos. Am I tanner? Of course! I even taught my niece to call me a Tahitian Goddess! Are my legs slimmer, trimmer, buffer, and longer? Uh, that would be no!

After the Mystic Tan, I realized I needed gas and figured I'd get a drink to quench my thirst. I stopped at the nearest gas station, which happened to be a QT (Quiktrip). Low and behold, they had their summer fountain drink sale going on!

Let me back up on that for a minute. For starters, when QT started this promo, they were .49 and it ROCKED! My mom and I would find ourselves there like every day in the summer. It was almost as if our cars knew the route on their own. We just got in and said, 'Go, go, gadget fountain drink!' Well, the next summer rolled around and we got all excited again for the sale and they jacked the price up to .59! Still cheap, still doable...a little annoying though. Come summer 3...by now mom had moved to Colorado where QT's don't exist (so sad!) and I was in Kansas City, but it's okay because now they were .69!!! It was an outrage! (However, kudos to you, Marketing Team of QT! Your evil ploy of reeling them in worked fabulously!) I was so over QT and their 'cheap' fountain drinks, because by then it's not a good deal anymore. But on this fabulous sunny day, I walked in and saw the signs hanging from the drink station, like an angel from the sky!

2) Containers I'm loving - .49 fountain drinks again at QT!!!! Woo hoo!

And lastly...

3) I am loving Container Gardening! Okay, well, I'm not necessarily doing one but my niece is! My mom got my sister and I started on it, as she has a whole mess of them at her house (hopefully they do better than her first attempt...bonsai tomato gardening!). So my sister got one started with my niece and every day after pre-school, Madi comes home and runs to the patio to see if her tomato plant needs water yet. It's too cute. Now, when doing container gardening, be sure that you don't substitute the word container for a synonym like pot. My mom's first email to me on this subject, at my federal job none the less, was something along the lines of '...I'm so excited to try this pot gardening! I'm not sure what all is involved in it, but it sounds wonderful! Maybe I'll go buy a pot tonight!'.......hmmmmmm.....

(This is not my niece's, but it looks close enough! I got lazy!)