31 and counting...

One full year of my 30's down and 9 more to go. Last year was pretty uneventful & my 31st birthday was less than uneventful. Here is what I did yesterday to celebrate:

8:15 woke up & laid in bed
8:30-9:00 took a work conference call
9:00-11:00 played on the computer & answered some great birthday wishes
11:00-11:30 decided to wash face & brush teeth
11:30-12:30 went to rent a movie, tried to go to gym, came home
12:30-1:30 made grilled cheese sandwiches & chicken noodle soup
1:30-3:00 watched soaps, played on computer some more
3:00-5:30 played guitar hero
5:30-6:45 cooked & ate a ham dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing & green beans
6:45-8:15 watched Igor with boys
8:15-9:30 watched TV & went to bed

NOW please contain your excitement about what a funfilled day I had. Where did my day go??And even with all that I had to do I could not manage to blog, but I did manage to throw some laundry in there. So my next post will be about how I've gotten tickets to the Oprah show. For now, I hope you all will strive to have your birthday as exciting as mine!

Oprah Take 2

I got the opportunity to go the Oprah show again. The first/last time that I went was 2 years ago in January. My trip this time was not as much of an adventure.

Matt & I drove up on Thursday for the Friday taping. We did not know the show topic but knew it was her Oprah live taping. Usually there is a panel there and we were excited for that, but since they had just been in DC, the panel did not come back for this week's live episode. Caroline Kennedy was supposed to be on there but she canceled & Garth Brooks was going to perform but he couldn't make it. So they were just going to show an already taped episode. Then they remembered they were going to have a live audience there. So, they had one guest from the Chicago Sun Times scheduled and they threw the rest of the show together. And it showed.

Jeremy's mom came with us. So the 3 of us went to the show. It was a good experience just like last time, but again, I felt like I got ripped off on the show. Last time they changed the show to the boys that were kidnapped in Missouri and I was disappointed with that show because it was so sad. This time they just threw the show together & Oprah was so tired & it seemed very blah. During a taping of a regular show there are not any commercial breaks. Well on this one since it was live (in Chicago where it airs at 9:00 am there only) there were commercial breaks and Oprah was not very social during the breaks.

Since it was Oscar week they did discuss the Oscars and tired to Skype some of the Oscar nominees. They had problems with Skype Friday too.

Oh well. We got a Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. And Oprah is helping promote the volunteering/giving back agenda along with Starbucks. So we got a pledge card from Starbucks for a free coffee if we pledge 5 hours of community service and the whole audience received a $20 Starbucks gift card. I was pretty excited about that. And since I already volunteer then the pledge was easy to do.

After the show we managed to find the Oprah store, which Holly and I did not see last time. We even commented on how it was weird that Oprah did not have a store. So I bought something for Holly this time, since she could not make it this year.

Tomorrow I will post on how I got tickets both times to the show.

Hair Dresser's Nightmare

I guess that is me. I have had short hair for about 3 months now. Including the first time that I moved to my new do, I have had it cut 5 times. I am not going to post new pictures because I am sure it is just my own "issue", but you can refer to my original post to see the major difference. Although now it really doesn't even really look like the last picture. OH well.

But after 5 haircuts I'm still not very happy with my hair. I cannot decide if I like it short because I am not 100% happy with the style. I have gone to 3 different people & none of them have done it the way that I have asked. The first time it was too long, even after I went back a 2nd time to get more cut off. Then the next person cut it too short & stacked too much in the back, then the next person made it lop sided. Today it is ok, but I had to ask her to keep doing little cuts like 10 times. Then I came home today & whacked on it myself. Now I think it looks ok, but again maybe too short. I feel like just giving up!! I think I should just go back to longer less difficult hair.

I am really not blaming the hair people, maybe I need to realize that my hair just will not do what I want. I have come to that realization with several other hair styles. Let's just say I do not have white girl hair. My hair seems to be pretty difficult to "style" & cut. I know this so I try to not be too difficult, but I want it to look the way I want it to look. Is that too much to ask for? My "regular" stylist is my friend & she told me today that if we could still be friends after today's visit she must REALLY like me! I really don't obsess over my hair more than the 15-20 minutes in the morning that it takes me to do it, but that whole time I analyze exactly what is wrong with it.

What do you think, should I give up or keep pressing on to the goal of a perfect "short" cut?

My Grandpa

I went to visit my grandpa today in the hospital. He has been in the hospital off and on for the past 3 years. When this all first started I went through a lot with him so I thought nothing would be shocking to me when it came to him. Well...

Some might call him a cranky old man, even I might call him that. But I love him, he is his own person and he always makes me laugh. He wears his hospital gown backward so the gown will open in the front. He likes to leave it open when he gets hot. Today a nurse asked if she could do anything else for him besides leave him alone & he replied no, that should to it.

But the best part of our visit was that instead of going to the restroom (where he could actually make it to) he used the port-a-potty in the room. My grandma, mom, two boys & I all just sat there with him while he tried to have a bowl movement. Then my mom & two boys decided to leave while he was still on the toilet (he was constipated today) and they all hugged him good bye while he sat on the port-a-potty! Brayden didn't seem to mind to much but I think Cody thought it was a little odd. I just looked at my grandma & we both laughed.

I am happy that my boys get to have their Great Grandfather around life has been fun with him.

Sopa

I'm not sure if you have ever had my Grandma's Sopa but it is one of my favorite dishes. I am not really sure why except I love corn and this is just a good mixture of pasta, spice, crunch & cheesiness. She has been making if for YEARS & I have only attempted to make it a handful of times. It never seems to turn out as good as hers (except for the time she used cinnamon instead of chili powder that was not a good time). And I have tried all of her techniques.

So, I am going to post the recipe and anyone that would like to try it - go ahead & let me know what you think. Some tips would be that she just slices onions (doesn't chop them) and she adds a small can of tomato sauce to it.

Sopa De Fideo

1/2 lb. Vermicelli, broken in small pieces
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
2 cloves garlic
2 c. onion, chopped
2 c. chopped celery
1 1/2 c. chopped green pepper - I usually leave out - which could be the problem but doubt it
1 can whole kernel corn with liquid
3 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
2/3 tsp. chili powder
1 lg. can tomatoes
1 c. water
Grated cheese for topping (or sliced cheese) - Grandma uses sliced - it's better

Saute Vermicelli (watch carefully-burns easily) with ground beef until brown. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover and cook gently for 25 minutes. May need to add water if too dry. Uncover and cook 5 minutes.

Family Pet

I am not a fan of pets - for myself. Sometimes I think I want a dog, but then I realize not really. Growing up I had LOTS of pets. I like animals, I just do not want to take care of them.

I feel bad for the boys because I know they really want pets, as do most kids. I have thought a lot about getting fish, and I did get Jeremy a Beta fish to test it out. Fish are ok, but he has to clean the tank every week or two, still seems like too much for me. But still a possibility.

So, this is the best solution for now. The boys got Hermit Crabs. They really gross me out. The top crab in the picture below is totally brown & looks like a spider when it comes out of the shell. So I really dislike that one.

The crabs are really low maintenance. They do get bathed 2 times a week which only takes about 5 minutes and the boys can do that without supervision. They just put some water in the sink & put them in there for 1 minute. Then they air dry.

The Hermit Crabs love bath time. That is the only time I see them out of the shell & very active.

Brayden decided to spend some of his Christmas money on the Hermit Crabs. Cody lucked out because they were buy one kit get a kit free. So, Cody & Brayden split the cost of 1 kit (one kit comes with 2 crabs) and they each got two. Brayden named his Stripes & Pinchers and Cody named his Home Slice & Home something else.

Let me introduce...

??? - I don't know their names because I do not know who they are. I just decided to smile as I walked through the photo that Eric was taking of them. Eric works for Kodak at SDC & he was supposed to take their photo, but I do not think that I was supposed to be in the picture.

Happy 2009!!!

Happy New Year everyone. The boys are back to school and "vacation" is over. And as expected I did not manage to get anyother treats or crafts done except for the marshmellows. I did manage to take them to Silver Dollar City after Christmas one day when it was 60 degrees out. Everyone else must have had the same idea because it was PACKED that day.

I also managed to get the boy to do their thank you cards - so if you sent us a gift, you should be getting your thank you soon.

I have no resolutions by the way.

For New Year's Eve, we went to downtown Springfield to do First Night. Several businesses open for you to do various activites. It is family oriented and there are a lot of music performances but also several other activities. We actually ran out of time & did not have enough time to do all that we wanted.

We started by taking the shuttle from the car to the first location. 1/4 of the shuttle was taken up by singers & people playing music such as this man here! We decided after that we could walk every where else.

We started at the YMCA and did the rock climbing wall. Or at least the boys did the wall. Neither one of them made it to the top.

At first Brayden did not want to go to the YMCA because he thought that we were going to me singing the song. Then even after we got there, he asked if we were still going to see YMCA. He knows more about the Village People then the organization.

We had our faces painted. We had to wait in line forever for that. There was only one lady & she was super detail oriented. Brayden's is a dragon.

We went to 1984, which is an arcade. We had fun but WOW have video games changed.

We stopped by the Discovery Center but we did not have a lot of time to go there, we just stopped in to see what it was like, we will have to go back another day. It looked fun. Our final stop before the New Year was ice skating. At the entrance was this monkey. The owner had a service animal sign next to the monkey. She looked fine & when Brayden asked what the monkey did, she said it is a service monkey!?

We watched fireworks & drank some sparkling cider to ring in the New Year. It was fun!

Craft #1

I'm not committing to anymore posts. I have some great plans for some fun crafts with the boys this week, but I do not know how many I'll done.

But these are the first. They are chocolate covered marshmellows rolled in goodness. I am not a big fan of marshmellows but the ones rolled in nuts are yummy.

The boys got hermit crabs this week. They really freak me out but I will post pictures tomorrow. Cody will be bathing his today.

Merry Christmas

I'm stealing this idea from my cousin. Merry Christmas & this is your Christmas card.

I have no update on the Blue Screen of Death - still getting it at home & not at the computer repair place & still do not know what's causing it.

Blue Screen of Death

This is what my computer has been doing for the last week. The problem had been getting progressively worse, but it would make my computer reboot. Well this problem kept occuring & my computer was set to reboot every time this screen came up.

I have a friend that fixes computers & they refer to this screen as the "blue screen of death". They told me that the name is worse than the real problem but I did not believe them. My computer was doing this just once a day but it go so bad it was doing it every time I turned the dumb thing on. So I took it in yesterday to get fixed. I was there 30 minutes and the screen never came up. So, he fixed it so it would not reboot & then this screen would stay up & I could get the code from it so he could trouble shoot from there. Well, as soon as I got home the blue screen of death came up again. So I called & gave him the code. He told me to bring it back so he could check a couple of things. I took it back today & I was there for over an hour and it did not show up & everything he checked was fine.

Long story short he narrowed down that it was "enviornmental" and asked me what all I had plugged into my computer at home & when I told him, he informed me that it was my wireless mouse. And sure enough it is. BUT I am not sure if the whole mouse is the problem or just the fact that it needed a new battery. Because the light has been on for a week that it needed a new battery. But when I got home & turned on my laptop WITHOUT plugging in the wireless mouse it still gave me the blue screen, I had to actually take out the battery before it fixed the problem. I have not put in a new battery yet because I am afraid. I will try it tonight. Wish me luck, otherwise I will be getting a new mouse.

OOPS never mind all that - I still just got the blue screen of death - NEXT???

Citizen of the Month

Brayden was Citizen of the month for November, for his class. Every class chooses a citizen. Every month they have a “character word.” November’s character word was Citizenship. Which meant being loyal to your country. I asked how Brayden demonstrated being a good citizen and he said that he did not know. At least he is honest. They have the same character words every year & he has never been citizen of the month before so I guess some how he showed good citizenship.

My guess is that in October & November they did a lot of studying of the elections. And Brayden seemed very political, so maybe the teacher saw that & realized that he was loyal to his country by being so active in the political system. Or something like that. But seriously, he was very interested in the elections.

Leftover Night

I have been a bad blogger because I have been sucked into the Facebook world.

But last night was our first of many Left Over Nights. I do not like leftovers therefore I do not keep left overs. I guess I also thought that if we were going to eat leftovers then we needed enough of one meal to re feed all of us again. But the other night I was somewhere where we each picked out which leftover meal that we wanted. What a novel idea. It is weird how we just think in a box sometimes & the simplest ideas are right in front of us.

SO, last night & every Wednesday night will be left over night. It was as to be expected. Mediocre at best. I know lots of people that just eat left overs when they do not feel like cooking. And when I do not feel like cooking I microwave a dinner or some easy thing. If we ate them when I did not feel like cooking, I would not feel like eating left overs that night either. Looking forward to next week!

Do you eat left overs?

Thanksgiving Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving this year. We had 23 people, including all of the kids.

This is my mom with my 2 Grandpas. Her dad & Marvin's dad.


This is our group at the table.


The kids sat at the bar, expect Neviah, she sat next to her mom at the table.

Mom instructed everyone to take a picture of the couple sitting accross from you. This is my grandpa & Esther.

This was the couple sitting across from Marvin - empty seats (not the walker). Matt & Eric were not there yet. They both came late.

Grandpa & Grandma

Uncle Phil - Aunt Evelyn did not make it.

Mom & Marvin. She did a really good job with Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice time. The weather was great & we had TONS of food.

Sam & Teri. They left right after dinner to head to his family's in Arkansas.

Ashley & Neviah. They left right after dinner too to go back home to Oklahoma.

Eugene & Sarah or Richie is his real name.

Me & J

Uncle Rick & Aunt Mona came from Oregon.

Matt made it just as we all had started.

Eric made it too.

Brayden Video

Every Tuesday Brayden's school does Rise & Shine Assemblies & each week a different class does a "show case". This week Brayden's class demonstrated their progress of learning sign language. They signed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Another Weekend in the Windy City

I was off to Chicago again this weekend. But I brought a little piece of home with me this time. My friend Suzanne & I traveled to Chicago together. She has friends & family there so we decided to go up & hang out. We spent one evening together, but then she spent the rest of the time with friends.
Friday night Jeremy & I went to PF Changs, it was super good as usual. Actually it was better than usual, but it could be because I had a real taste for it. We went to the one downtown, which was a bad idea. We had a hard time parking, we had to fight traffic & we had to pay $19.00 to park!!!

Then we met up with Suzanne and a couple of her friends for a couple of hours.

Saturday we just hung out & did a lot of nothing. But we did spend some time babysitting Jeremy's niece/god daughter Sophia. As you can see we have some mad babysitting skills. We were having fun, but I do not think Sophia felt the same way. When Chris, Jeremy's brother, got there he informed us that she had never been left with anyone other than the sitter & grandparents & she had NEVER been left without her big sister. So we were pretty excited about that. But this was right when they left. It only lasted about 5 minutes then she was totally fine!

Sunday we went to see Role Models. UBER funny!!! Then we did some shopping. And I got to see my first snow fall of the year.

I refuse...

I refuse to fall into the trap of letting Christmas take over Thanksgiving. I took this picture of a house in our neighborhood on November 13!! Not only did they already decorate, they already have lights on!!

Personally, I find it very annoying. Thanksgiving in not a 2nd rate holiday. I understand that "Branson" starts celebrating Christmas in November to take advantage of the vacation season but we are not out to make money on tourists so the residents should leave the Christmas season to revenue generating operations.

I guess these people are thankful for Christmas!

MAHA

Missouri Association of Hospital Auxiliaries

The hospital auxiliary is a volunteer organization that raises money for the hospital. This past year I was the President Elect for our auxiliary so I was able to go to the annual convention at Tan-Tar-A resort in Osage Beach.

Like this picture demonstrates, I am by far one of the youngest volunteers. But I don't mind because I enjoy volunteering and I am hoping to re-evaluate my volunteering time & maybe going to expand into other areas of the hospital.

I will not be an officer next year and I am sad that I will not be able to go. Because believe it or not I enjoyed it AND I learned a lot about the auxiliary. Mainly, that I should have done more for the auxiliary and that we do raise money for good causes. So I decided to "rededicate" myself to the auxiliary.

Planes, Traines & Automobiles

I have had several posts regarding my different experiences with airplane travel. Most of my stories were about the airlines themselves or delays in the airport. I have not had too many about people that I have met.

On auto trips, it is usually me & the boys. So nothing too exciting there on road trips either. They all have been pretty uneventful.

BUT, within my 2nd train ride, I had one of the most unusual experiences we the passengers:

Part 1 - St. Louis to Bloomington Normal, IL

There is this middle aged lady sitting a row in front of me to the right. She is talking to a lady a row in front of her & I am just being nosey. So, she is telling the other lady that she is going home from St. Louis & she had some type of medical thing done in St. Louis. She proceeds to tell the lady that when she gets home she is going to a wedding on Halloween. The wedding is in the morning & the reception is a costume part at night. So this story gets my attention & I then start taking more of an interest in this lady. They finish their conversation and the middle aged lady goes to the snack cart & gets some type of Vodka drink. This lady is hard core because she makes the drink & downs half of it in one drink. I am thinking that this could get interesting. Some time later I notice she is throwing up. She is still in her seat! I walk past her to throw something away & on my way back I decide to assess the situation a little more. Well she has a cup & she is leaning over in her seat throwing up. I listen to her for about 20 minutes. The whole time she does not leave her seat & the whole time I am totally getting grossed out & thinking that I should do something. At one point someone calls her & she answers the phone & tell them that she is sick & hangs up. Then someone else calls her & she answers. She talks on the phone & continues to throw up while she is on the phone!!

Then she finally stops, composes herself & takes another call. I hear her telling the person on the phone that the Dr. in St. Louis told her that she is on the list for a new LIVER, but she cannot have a transplant until her cancer is in remission. I'm not quite sure what type of cancer she has but she has liver problems & I'm guessing the Vodka does not help. Well she tells the person on the phone that she thinks that she has the flu. I'm thinking it was the trip to the Dr. mixed with the Vodka. But whatever.

Then the lady makes ANOTHER call & tells the person on the other line that she LOST her teeth. Where? When? I'm not sure, but she had no teeth when I saw her again.

Part 2 - Bloomington Normal to Chicago

After the first part of the trip I was really looking forward to a quite end, no such luck. The guy sitting right in front of me apparently was aware of everything going on next to him too, so the told everyone that wanted to sit across from him that a lady was throwing up the whole time. Well a lot of people boarded the train. There was a guys sitting behind me that realized that he knew some relatives of the lady sitting across from him because he was CELL MATES with them!! So I find out that he has been in & out of prison for the past 10 years & I got to hear 2 or 3 of his stories on how he made it to prison. THEN he informs the girl that the guys in the front of the car all just got out of prison. There were like 10 of them. That made me EXCITED! I was never so happy to get off the train. (Did not take pictures of them)

Cards

I have recently started a small card group at my house. We play the last Wednesday of every month. This is our 3rd time playing. We decided (or I decided) to make it a dress up time. So here is our group. One - did not dress up...

So here are the non-party poopers.

We meet from 12-3 PM. That way we do not take away from "family" time. We bring food & we are done by the time school lets out - as we all have kids in school. It has worked out really well so far.