I'm it!

My friend Mar has tagged me to share seven random facts about myself. I then have to tag seven people.

The Rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the Rules on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Seven Random Facts About Me!

1. I don't like my pancakes hot. I like them cold and I like the syrup cold to.

2. When I was 19 I got called for a part in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. They were filming in San Antonio and I had to decline because I couldn't get off work for filming. (What the hell was I thinking?! I so should have called in! LOL!)

3. When making dinner I don't ever have 2 food items that are the same color. It drives me nuts! We must have a balance of color on our plates LOL!

4. I used to work next door to where Erik Chandler of Bowling for Soup worked. He worked in the frame shop at Michaels and I worked at a place called 3 Day Blinds.

5. I want to be a Nascar driver

6. I can't stand the thought of sleeping on my stomach. I've always told Mike that if he wakes up and I'm on my stomach to wake me up.

7. I'm deathly afraid of long bridges and tunnels.

And here are the seven interesting people I have tagged!

1. Rachel
2. Patti
3. Nancy
4. Leigh
5. Debs
6. Dane
7. Gaby

Well my being bored problem is gone! I thought while Mike was gone I'd have a nice time of reflecting and what not. Instead I spent a couple of fun filled days taking care of a sick dog and now a sick bambino. Poor Cassie...she's sick again *sigh*. I took her to the doc today and got her some antibiotics. Same thing as always.....high fever...chest hurts, can't breath well, coughing up junk. Same thing, different month. Hopefully she'll be well enough to go to school on Monday.

Mike seems to be having a great time in San Francisco pffffft. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled for him that he got to go. I however am sitting up here trying to shrink while he's eating out at the Cheesecake Factory, Cold Stone Creamery, and various other fun places while I'm wishing my Special K bar was a Chicken Avocado Club with a big fat slice of cheesecake on the side LOL! I did however just find out that there is a Cheesecake Factory in Arlington so I think it's possible that after we pick him up at the airport in D.C. on the 7th that we might be making a little celebratory pit stop LOL!

Rare occurance- I'm bored!

Well, I can it's been a really long time since I've said that! I have things I could be doing but nothing interests me. I'm in a major stitching slump. I've not felt like stitching anything for more than a couple of weeks now. I started a few new pieces thinking it would help but it hasn't. Surely I'll snap out of that soon. Mike's working in California for 2 weeks, I'm sure that's contributing to my boredom as well. I've noticed that I have a lot more to do when he's here. The kids and I took him to the airport in D.C. on Saturday and we'll go back to pick him up late on the 7th. Boy I tell ya, one wrong turn coming out of Reagan National and you're going on a little journey. I don't know how I did it but I ended up way on the other side of the Pentagon. Anyway, he's in San Francisco now and will be there until Sunday. On Sunday he'll be flying to San Diego. This is the first time he's been to California. I'm really happy for him that he's getting to see so much but boy do I wish I was there! I am glad however that I wasn't there to go to Fisherman's Wharf with him. Seeing sea creatures hanging up ready to fry that were living only moments earlier is just not my cup of tea. I'm a lover of sea creatures, I don't consume them. Seeing the humongo squid hanging up that he was telling me about would have horrified me, I'm sure. The time difference between here and there is not working for me. We're on eastern time and he's on pacific right now. That makes it pretty hard to talk since he's working all day. I bet he's still got some serious jet lag.

Ordinarily if I was bored, I'd bake. I'm trying to not to do that because I don't want to eat it. I decided that I'd like to drop a few pounds so I'm lean-cuisineing it again. I did that a few years ago and along with exercise I lost quite a bit. I didn't gain it back (well if you don't count the wisdom teeth extractions, but that doesn't count because I wasn't trying to lose weight then. You eat next to nothing for a couple of weeks, you drop a few pounds...When I could eat again, I made up for it...lol) I'd just like to lose some more before the summer creeps up. I'm not a big fan of swimwear but I would like to feel half way decent in a suit. If that's even possible....does anyone ever feel good in a swimsuit? I didn't care in Texas because I never went swimming. I'm relatively close to the ocean here and plan to take full advantage of it. Speaking of those lean cuisines, they are not cheap! They cost much more here than they did in Texas. Good grief! Spending the $$ on them definitely makes you not want to cheat LOL! If I was loaded I'd do the Nutri System thing. Then they could just bring it all on and I wouldn't have to shop for it.

I tell you what I should be doing...painting. If only I was good at it. God blessed me with many talents but painting was not one of them....lol.

My mom and dad are coming early Sunday for a short visit, yay! This one will be really quick, they have to go back on Tuesday. We've all really had a hard time with adjusting to not being right down the street from each other. I wonder if there will ever be a time when they leave my house or I leave theirs that one of us doesn't cry. Sometimes I feel like such a baby but when you've had the same routine for most of your life and then it changes this much it's really hard. I really do like this part of the country, I just miss my family and friends soooooo much. I really am glad that Mike loves his job though. And I'm sure he's really loving it right now in sunny California....lol.

I need to blog more...I noticed I've been neglecting it a smidge.

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm feeling all sorts of Valentiney today! I'm all dressed up for the occassion even. That's not usually me, Valentine's Day isn't usually one of my favorite holidays. Then again, I'm not really a sappy mushy person, that could be why. While I was shopping for a card for Mike I think I spent more time gagging than anything. Some of those cards.....geez...I've decided I should start a new line of cards for what people really want to say....lol. I always end up picking a funny card because that's me. I did finally decide on a gift for him. He's been needing a really nice watch to wear to work so that's what I got for him. I had my brother take some pictures of the kids and I in the forest. We picked the best one and framed it for him so he could put it on his desk at work. I love this pic of the three of us. He got a really pretty bracelet for me and a box of candy. The bracelet has a bunch of sterling silver hearts dangling from it. You can hear me coming when I wear it because I jingle :). When he gets home from work my brother's gonna watch the kids and we're going out to dinner. My brother's heading back home tomorrow after a really long visit. We're leaving bright and early for an extra long weekend with my parents, YAY!! I really miss my mom.

You know what I love the smell of?! New carpet! Wahoo!!! I am pleased to report that those hideous black floors that were downstairs are no longer there! As of yesterday I now have beautiful, fabulous, milk chocolate carpet. It looks like a whole different place and I can't wait to do some decorating. I had no desire to before, it was just too ugly down here. We'll most likely get new carpet for the upstairs next year. Way too much $$ to do it all at once. Plus, I wanna save for some furniture for down here.

I'm off to pack, I hope you all have a great weekend!

80's Flashbacks

I tell ya, I've been having flashbacks ALL week long! LOL! It's nuts! My brother walked in about a week ago singing a song (he loves music too) that was one of my favorites back in the 80's and I've been having flashbacks ever since...lol! I remember the 80's hair I had (it was BIG!), the things I was doing, where I was at, what I was listening too. It's definately brought a lot of things back that I had nearly forgotten about. I loved music back then and still do now. I found a bunch of my favorite songs from the 80's on yahoo music and have been listening to videos playing on the computer most of the day. In no particular order here's a list of some of my favorite songs from the 8o's. I had fun making the list and will probably be singing some of these for a while lol...some of them not so often...lol :). What about you? Any of you listen to these?

1. Shadows of the Night- Pat Benatar
2. We Belong- Pat Benatar
3. I Get Weak- Belinda Carlisle
4. Heaven on Earth- Belinda Carlisle
5. Carrie- Europe
6. Here I Go Again- Whitesnake
7. Heaven- Warrant
8. Almost Paradise- Mike Reno & Ann Wilson
9. She Bop- Cyndi Lauper (LOL!)
10. Hysteria- Def Leppard (Geez...lol!)

There are loads more but I won't bore you with them. Some of them I really don't care to share anyway lol! I went through a phase if you will for a bit when I was a teenager...lol. At least it was limited to a clothing and music phase :).

Bitten by the redecorating bug

There are so many things that I want to do this house. Now only if I had an endless supply of money to do it! I am very very pleased to say that I have successfully talked Mike in to letting me get new floors in the lower level. I orginally wanted wood but when I found out how much it would cost I decided to settle for carpet. Except for the bathroom and another room of course. I'm getting new floors there to but not carpet. We'll probably get new carpet in the upper level next year. It was way too much to have it all done at once and looking at these black floors down here is about to drive me mad.....what in the world were they thinking?! I'm also pleased to say that my kitchen floor has been redone. YAY! It was SO gross! It had very obviously been here since the house was built. I think it may have been white at one time. Same for the bathroom upstairs. The old one's out and I have a new one now. I think at one time it may have been white too. I can't wait till they lay the new carpet and these depressing black floors are gone. It's supposed to be in Monday but I may wait and have them install it the following week. We're leaving either late Thursday or early Friday for my parents house and I don't want to be scrambling all week to get things done. I'll be super busy when they do the carpet, I'm sure. I also want to take this hideous wallpaper off the walls in the bathroom down here. The guy that owned this house made some very interesting choices to say the least. I peeled back some of the wallpaper to see what was under it. After the third layer I gave up. I'm wondering if those walls are made of the wallpaper! LOL! There are several rooms I want to paint too. I've been looking at a lot of wallpaper and borders when I've been out and about too and have found a lot of things that I like. One of these days I'll be going furniture shopping. We definately have a lack of furniture going on down here.

What's everyone getting their significant other for Valentine's Day? I like shopping for most holidays but Valentine's Day is not an easy holiday to shop for a man, IMO. Any ideas??

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I'm in a Valentine's Day heart exchange in a yahoo group I'm in. My partner received her package a couple of days ago so I can't post a pic of what I stitched for her. I found a beautiful piece of hand dyed fabric at the stitching shop. It's from Picture This Plus and the color is Phoenix. I stitched a heart for her in white on this fabric and I think it looks great! I made it in to a flat fold (imagine that!). I really like it and I think that she does as well :).

Keeping busy

I've been pretty busy doing this and that for the past week or so. My brother's still visiting too so that takes up some of my time too. I really like him being here. When I have one of my family members around I don't feel like I've *totally* left my entire life behind. He likes it here better than West Virginia so he's been spending some time looking for a job. One looks really promising. It pays really well and has great benefits so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him :).

I've been keeping pretty busy around here. Celeste asked me to make a couple of small flat folds for her out a couple of stitched pieces so I did that. One is a paisley pumpkin she stitched and the other is a punchneedle piece of an Easter egg. I think they turned out really cute. I'll be running them downtown here in a bit. She's going to the needlework market in Nashville this week and said she wants to take them with her. Speaking of punchneedle, I really want to learn to do that! It looks like it can be a pretty expensive habit though. That's not what I need but it sure does look fun! A couple of months ago when I stopped in Homespun Elegance, Sandra told me that they may be offering a punchneedle class as well as a needle felting class this spring. I hope she does because I'll definately have to see about attending.



I realized when I was looking through some pictures that I forgot to post a finish a couple of weeks ago. I finished stitching Checkered Liberty from M Designs. It was a kit that Rachel sent me a while back. It was the first time I had stitched on gingham fabric and really enjoyed it. It was nice to stitch on something different. I liked making those fun little stars too! I'll most likely be making this one in to a flat fold.

I also finished up a Valentine piece the past week. It's for an exchange though so I'll have to wait until she receives it to post a pic. Hopefully tomorrow :)

Close calls

I tell ya, this has been one of those weeks! My brother got her around 6 last night. We went out to dinner and then stopped off at a few places. We got back a bit after 9 and everyone wanted to play the Wii. I let them stay up until about 10 and then got them off to bed. Mike and my brother played for a while and I watched. I was pretty tired so I decided to call it a night around 11. I went in to our bedroom to get ready for bed but decided to check my email before I headed to bed. I noticed it started to smell like something was burning so I went back in to our room. It looked really really hazy to me so I called Mike down. He stood on his side of the bed trying to figure out where it was coming from and I was standing by my side. Suddenly we both saw a lot of smoke drifting in front of me. It was coming from an outlet about 3 feet from where I sleep. Mike and my brother quickly shut the power off in the house and I called the non-emergency number to the fire dept. I told them that I didn't see fire but that there was smoke coming from the outlet, the outlet cover was starting to turn black, and the wall was hot. She told me to get everyone out of the house because there was a possibility that there was a fire in the walls. I don't think I've ever hauled booty that fast. Cassie's room is directly over ours and her bed is right over where the outlet was. I took the kids to our car and the fire dept. got here really quickly. I think they must have been bored because thee ended up being 3 trucks. It was killing me watching them walk in to the house with axes. I thought for sure the walls were coming down. There ended up not being a big fire, it was just starting. The thing is, we weren't even using that outlet. It scares me every time I think about it. If that would've happened when we went to my parents last weekend, our house would've burned down. If I would've gone to sleep when I originally planned, I could've been shish-ka-bobbed :(. There's obviously a wiring problem. The power is shut off down there until an electrician comes. We're using our home warranty so it'll be Monday. The warranty company doesn't consider it urgent since we're not completly out of power. That makes me want to shut all of our power off before we leave the house because I'm afraid something might be wrong somewhere else.

On a another note, I got a new GPS today. I got a better one than what we had before and this time I bought a carrying case to go with it. Now it'll be put away so nobody can see it.