Time to redecorate!

I have my desktop decorated in a Valentine's Day Theme. Happy Pickings!

http://www.bhg.com/bhg/category.jhtml?categoryid=/templatedata/bhg/category/data/decorate_desktop.xml

One Red Hot Night!

I LOVE a good bargain. If you know me personally, you know my kids need for nothing because I am all about the clearance racks. I already have Greg's summer clothes for next year because Childrens Place had shirts and shorts for just over $1 each, right before Christmas. Wahoo!

While sitting in the doctors office yesterday with Beaudreaux who has some awful infection (sinusitis), I noticed he has a hole in his sock.... on top of his foot. How do you get a hole there? So while waiting for his antibiotics to get filled, we went to Target for new socks. 14 pair to be exact. All because of one hole. I promptly got my "chops busted" when I came home. My brother thinks I'm nuts because I got a deal! How can you pass that up?

My brother, Mike & Mary Ann are in from Greece. They found a house in South Carolina, and then came up here for a vacation. They are closing on the home after they go back next week.

So back to the bargains... This Saturday, we have a benefit dinner to go to. Shelby Township Firefighters are having their annual "Red Hot Night". This is a swanky event at Cherry Creek Country Club. All proceeds benefit the Great Lakes Burn Camp for Kids. http://www.greatlakesburncamp.com

Mike & Mary Ann are going with us. So Mary Ann and I went dress shopping today. JcPenny was our first stop. What amazing deals they had! Mary Ann found a stunning floor length gown in a very light blue/turquoise. It is beautiful... and on sale! She picked up a stellar deal on a shawl too. It was $48, but was on sale for 75% off. Well, when it rang up, one of the cashiers blurted out a code, and whatever it was... it gave her like 95% off the shawl! She ended up paying just over $3 for it, lol.



My dress is RED. It is floor length, strapless with a matching red wrap that goes around my shoulders. It was marked $100, but on sale for $70. Great deal... but that's not the best deal I received today... I have been in desperate need of a winter dress coat. I found a full length Gray Wool dress coat. It was regularly $239. I picked it up for a stellar... $53! Problem solved!


We were so excited about our deals. Dennis and Mike are going shopping Thursday. Saturday is the big event, then Sunday is the Superbowl Party. What a weekend it will be!

Ain't Ain't a word...

I am totally LOVING school. Things have started to even themselves out and life is good. I am doing very well and believe it or not, my psychology class is almost over. I am really going to miss it. It has been fun.

For both of my classes, writing papers is a major part of it. With that comes the need for excellent grammatical skills, which I hope I possess. I was sent this one day and I love it. When I'm reading some of the things that fellow students write in my classes, they sound fine until you hit a word that is misspelled or means a completely different thing. So here it is... enjoy!

I have run into the definitely/defiantly one before as well as someone who had their dog "berried" in a cemetery, people who do not "no" the difference and take things for "granite", grandparents who have "pasted" away, people who are satisfied "costumers" at a store, people who do "coarse" work at school, dogs that are "bread" to have puppies, work that people "redue" and the ever popular taking a village to "raze" a child. I am sure there are more, but those are the ones that come to mind. They often make me smile -- I think because I can so easily visualize things like a dog being "berried."

In the words of my sister..."Use that Blahsmic Vinegar stuff".

Let's Call Him Chuckie

At least that is what Emily wanted to name Greg when he was born. After Jeannie passed away 2 years ago, we inherited a lot of her personal belongings. One of which is a wooden box, that has a photo frame in the top of it. Tonight Emily was going through the box looking at all of Grandma's photo's. When she came across the one of her Grandpa, I noticed that she has his eyebrows. We never did meet him. He passed away in 1992, before I had met Dennis. I always wonder what our relationship would have been like. I have a feeling that we would have gotten along GREAT!

Speaking of Terrance (he does have a name), Dennis was speaking about his Dad today and during his compliments to his father, I suddenly saw his Dads face (in my mind). What does that mean? Was it me just picturing him or was he there? It was almost surreal.

Something else happened to me today that makes me want to reach for the nearest paper bag to hyperventilate into. We are having a Superbowl Party. This is Mr. Disconnected's party. That could also be why he is here, but not "here". So some people have been asking if kids were allowed to come. Our kids will be here and if people can't find anyone to watch them, they are more than welcome to come... (some kids are ALWAYS invited because we know they are great kids). So while waiting for said Chuckie's bus to come, Dennis was talking to a co-worker on the phone. Mr. Co-worker is bringing his 3 horrendous children to the party. He didn't even ask if he could. He just blurted it out to Den. I could have dug my nails into the dashboard (we were waiting in the car as it is well below freezing here.

Flashback to last year... While everyone was having a great time watching the Superbowl downstairs, their children were jumping on my living room furniture, they were in my bedroom and had knocked everyone's coats onto the floor, they destroyed both Emily and Greg's rooms, and they were fighting. I spent our party babysitting other peoples kids, or shoving them down the stairs to find their parents rather. I told Dennis NO WAY! I am NOT dealing with this again. The kids were extremely disrespectful of my home, and my childrens feelings (about their rooms). So... this year, Den is keeping all the toys out downstairs and is going to make a little area for them to play. All children are to stay with their parents or play downstairs. PERIOD. The QUEEN has spoken, and trust me. You think this is mean... YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET!

Strike a Pose!

On Sunday I paid a visit to our favorite fruit & veggie market, Nino Salvaggio's. Here's a little triva for you... The strawberries on their sign represent the first item they sold. Nino Salvaggio used to sell Strawberries on the corner of a busy intersection in St. Clair Shores. His little road side stand did so well, that he started selling other veggies too. Now they are a chain!

So back to Nino's... www.ninosalvaggio.com . As you walk into our Nino's, you go through the front door and are in somewhat large area that has produce on either side of the aisle. In the time it took me to buy 1 package of romaine lettuce, and 1 container of spring mix, approximately 20 people, buggies included, cruised past me. As soon as I walked in, the smell of hyacinths hit me. Spring is in the air. The mob that had blown my doors off in the vestibule had all congregated in the produce section. My immediate thought, "What was I thinking?! Who in their right mind goes to Nino's on a Sunday? I should have came on a Tuesday immediately after putting child B on the bus!"

I made my way through the section buying incredibly fresh bananas, fresh mushrooms to go with the prime rib I had planned for dinner, tomatoes, and 5 cucumbers for little boy blue, aka; child B, or Greg. It was a nightmare to navigate. Luckily everyone was cheerful and that made it better. Note to self... NEVER leave your buggy if even for a moment in that chaos. You will never see it again.

Prior to my shopping excursion, I had asked Mr. Disconnected to fax in a lunch meat order for me. This way they will have it done and waiting at the cheese counter. If you get anything at all out of his name, you will know that it wasn't done. I am chalking that up to Sunday being his Mom's birthday. She died 2 years ago on the 17th. I let him off the hook as he's been a little spacey lately. Pattie & Mark came for dinner that night, and she can attest that I did get a little snippy with Mr. D because I asked him 4 times to make a salad. Meanwhile, I had to build a barstool, clean the bathrooms, vacuum the living room, sweep the kitchen floor and cut mushrooms. I got all accomplished with the exception of the mushrooms which Pattie did a stellar job cutting and the salad, which I finally got the point across to Mr. D that I REALLY needed him to make. So back to Nino's.

After stocking up on the goods, I headed to the grocery section. Something happened. I think it happened right in that area. I found espresso. I have been looking for that! I have been looking for that for Y...E...A... R... S to bake with. Now I don't have the recipe and don't need it, but I was so blown away. It was like a revelation. After I got over my excitement, I continued on my quest, remembering to buy milk. I bought a few other things, and by the time I reached the check out, I was ready to strike a pose...

I have no idea what it is about that store. Maybe it's the stunning flowers all smiling at you when you come through the door with the rush of hyacinth in the air. The apples look like they've been rubbed with diapers. Almost every employee I have encountered there greets you with a smile. They have things you would never imagine to find there. Including a great selection of wines for connoseurs like me :o) . They have a juice section that would blow your mind. The Vitamin C blast won my vote last time. Next visit, it will be the pineapple banana variety.

Finally at the check out, I had a great conversation with the cashier as always. Different girl, different day, same great conversation. Their theory on the crowd had to do with the weather... the earth shattering 3 inches of snow that we never got. Regardless, the cashier said I was being good because I did succumb to 1 Lindt Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, and not her normal fist full. ;o) I wonder how she stays so thin? Ah it doesn't matter... Namaste.

Where's Waldo?

What a goofy cat. Never before has he done this. I was putting towels away and Pumpkin jumped into the linen closet immediately after I opened the door.

Oh and the frayed peach towel above him - (L) is the last gift I received from my Grandma right before she died... in 1988. I can't part with it and it's falling apart.

Goofy Kitty!

For Daddy

I have been thinking of my Dad so much lately. Today he consumed almost every thought. He is doing well and should be going home in the next day or two. I just wanted him to know how appreciated he is. In my English class, we have been reading a lot of poems and short stories. I have NEVER had something affect me as much as this poem has.


Those Winter Sundays
Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

Post Meltdown...

I am sorry that I haven't been on in a while. Most of you are already aware that on Monday night, my Dad had a stroke. It's been chaotic at best around here. We had just gotten back from catechism and Emily called Nana to chat. Nana immediately told her to put me on the phone. To make a long story short, he was having a stroke.

EMS driving skills come in handy when you are in a major hurry to get somewhere. I am the furthest away and beat the ambulance to the hospital. I waited outside the ER enterance because I didn't see the fire department truck there yet. They arrived moments later. When I saw my Dad, my heart broke. My very strong Daddy was a mess. He was very upset and even more so when he saw his family in the ER.

They found out he had a clot in his brain, so they gave him a thrombolytic drug to dissolve it. On Monday night when this happened, he had facial drooping, extremely slurred speech, and no use of his right hand at all. I can't believe this happened to my Dad when he just retired in August. He is supposed to be home watching Fog Horn Leghorn pick chicklets off of the bird feeder.

I saved my meltdown for today. This was the final straw... I had my meltdown. Emily woke up a bear this morning and I had to make her stay in her room until we left for school (it was safer for her there). Greg's bus driver decided to come early and as we were running out the door, she left. Dennis had to take Greg all the way to school. I sobbed to Dawn (my cousin) all the way to the hospital (via cell phone) about how overwhelmed I am with school, keeping the home straight, a new job starting soon, and most importantly my Dad. I just couldn't handle it any longer.

Not to mention that I would like to clean my English Teachers clock. She is so disorganized that I have NO idea what it is we are supposed to be doing... that is until today. I wrote down EVERYTHING she said today in my notebook. She flips between 3 different books, one of which has almost 2000 pages in it and very small print. She flips out at us for not reading a story in the book, until someone tells her that we're not supposed to read that story until next Monday. Hellloooooooooo!? So I'm hoping that my fabulous note taking skills will pay off.

Back to the hospital. (Now I'm sounding like the English Teacher). I walked into my Dad's room in ICU. The view was breath taking. My Dad was sitting up in a chair reading the newspaper, and across from him is my Mom, knitting. The TV was on and they were just doing their "thing". The only deficits that I can see on my Dad as of today involve his right hand. He can move his fingers, however not his thumb. It is very weak. It was almost humorous to see him try and fold a newspaper. Try doing this without using your thumb on your dominant hand. He successfully folded it into a ball, lol.

My Dad looks like not a thing has happened to him. He looks exactly the way he should, just in the wrong place. I thoroughly enjoyed this site and visiting with him. During the visit, my Mom says, "You won't believe what I did". My Dad and I both say simultaneously, "We'll believe it". lol.

I'm not sure what the next course of action is for him, but I do know that it involves his cessation of drinking, and that we will all be visiting him soon for a family meeting involving his newly acquired psychologist. No more sugarcoating, or "truth" altering will they be doing. Those days are over and Mark and I both agree... We're not willing to give up our Dad for a drink. It isn't going to happen.

That has been my week and here it is only Wednesday. I am worn out, and I've also decided that I'm going to take more online classes when they are available.

Oh and one more thing... I talked to my new "boss" at the Urgent Care today. He cleared the air on some issues for me. It sounded like the "chiefs" from the doctors office were going to be migrating to the Urgent Care to work. I was a little concerned, because I need a flexible schedule. A lot of them are working on "fixed" schedules. I was almost scared out of a job. He is my boss, he is my scheduler and I can tell.... it's going to be a great place to work. Nothing like having a boss that once held the position of a "tech". He knows my abilities, and he knows the job, because he's done it!

And that is my .02 cents for the day. Now back to my regularly scheduled program of psy 111.

Somebody slap me please....

Today I went to the doctors office to train on the computers. After 1 day of being there I'm asking myself... WHAT AM I THINKING?! Am I completely out of my mind? School and now a new job? Holy ****! The saving grace that I am holding onto, is the fact that there will probably be times that we are sitting for quite along time between patients. Not to mention that I will be working with Doctors and PA's. Just the tutors a girl needs in my quest!

It is very wild to be a patient in that office and to then see the other side. When we started going there, Emily was 1.5 years old. There were four doctors in the practice. They had paper charts in a rack that sat up by the front desk. Now, there are about 14 Doctors, 6 phone room people answering 28 phone lines, computers everywhere. It is insane. I love it. I love our Doctors because they are fresh, aggressive, and on the cutting edge of the latest technology and treatment plans. They are flexible with treatments and not so quick to pull out the prescription tablet before finding another "method". During their "transition" from not automated to automated, they had a MAJOR glitch with their phone system. I actually sent in a fax telling him that we were all sick. We had green "goo" and went on with the symptoms. Our amazing doc called in prescriptions without even seeing us. What a wonderful guy. Had my mom not been in Intensive Care at the time, we would have gone to see him, but it wasn't totally possible at that moment.

Anyway, that is the scoop. Oh.. the third practice is scheduled to open next week, however the IT people haven't been there and they can't function without computers. So that looks to be pushed back. The Urgent Care has a start date of 2/1, but they are hoping to push that back too. They would rather lose money and open when they are "ready" rather than rush it. I'll keep you posted.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.... Psy 101.

Somewhat relieved...

U.S. Embassy Damage in Greek Blast Scant

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/01/12/560931.html&cvqh=itn_athens

My brother Mike and sister-in-law Mary Ann are on a plane as I type this, moving back to the States. I am so relieved. They didn't work at the Embassy, but whatever wack job shot a rocket at the U.S. Embassy, may know that not too far away, there is a Naval Base. They flew out of Athens today.

Dietary Confinements...

It appears that a lot of us are on the same bandwagon with diet. (See comments from yesterdays post) Yesterday I took the kids to a birthday party at Pump it Up. Afterwards there was pizza and chocolate cake. Who in their right mind can resist chocolate cake? Well I did it. I didn't eat the pizza and I avoided the chocolate cake. In fact, the meer sight of the chocolate cake reminded me of the tremendous heartburn I've been having this week. I'm not having it any longer thanks to Emily's stockpile of Prilosec she is no longer taking.

Today in Emily's lunch I packed... PB & J, the jelly is from Tastefully Simple, the Strawberry Rhubarb spread that has less sugar than traditional jelly. A fruit cup packed in juices. A juicy juice (I even checked the label to make sure there was no high-fructose anything in it, and a small treat. When I see what kids bring into lunch (when I'm there), it is flooring. No wonder they come back from lunch all buzzed up. I am very careful to make sure they aren't eating a bunch of junk. When Emily, the resident junk food junkie, asks for a piece of candy or a treat, my first response is... how many pieces of fruit & veggies have you eaten today? She then knows she has to opt for a better choice.

Greg on the other hand is a GREAT eater. He will choose tomatoes over anything else. In fact, yesterday at the birthday party, he didn't want cake. He loves veggies, loves peppers, onions, tomatos. He's a great eater and we give him everything we eat, because he will eat it. We've also had to train Emily not to "Yuck my Yum".

Conner, who lives next door is a good eater. All of their kids are. He used to take tomatoes with lemon pepper to school in his lunch until a little girl yucked his yum. After that, he stopped. I had a little chat with him and apparently he is taking them again. Kids can be so bad.

Anyway, I have A LOT on my plate for today. I have lots of reading and writing between my two classes. Dennis is at work for 72 hours. He went in yesterday and won't be home until Sunday morning. I am training at the doctors office for my new job at the Urgent Care, which is slated to start Feb 1? I question it because if everything had been on schedule with the build-out and all, I would have been working since the beginning of December. Even now, I am hopeful that it won't start until after Feb 9th... which is when our house guests will be leaving.

Adios!

Oops I did it again...

Eewww, I shouldn't have titled it this way. I'm so sick of Brittney Spears, Rosie and Donald. WHO CARES ALREADY! But with my next paragraph, the title relates...

An update... First off, let me apologize for the delay. In my feeble attempts on fixing the desktop computer, I somehow managed to screw myself out of logging into the blogger. I can only access it from the laptop for some very odd reason. Any tips on this one?

Melanie and Pattie, you were both right. Starbucks does not franchise out. So I wrote them a letter. I told them where I want my store, and they are escalating my request to the people that handle that. I'm hoping for one on the main road that I take to school, since I will be traveling that road quite often in the next few years.

The lifestyle change... I've received a few questions on this one. We're being careful to avoid partially hydrogenated products. We're not eating things that are just "heated Up" unless we know what's in them. A veggie or fruit gets served at every meal. If it isn't a fresh fruit, it isn't packed in syrup. Veggies are steamed with a bit of salt on them. Sometimes little butter if I'm feeling nice to them, but honestly, with salt, you can't tell the difference between that and butter... to me anyway.

I'm down 4 pounds. My jeans are getting bigger. Almost sloppy looking, but that's fine with me. I did buy pop tarts the other day. First time in over 2 years... only because hypoglycemic boy had an issue that morning, and was requesting them. I know, totally tabu, but when his sugar drops, we feed him. Lots of protein, but initially we need the quickest fix possible to keep him from throwing up. So a pop tart works wonders, then we move on to good foods. The kids went nuts over the pop tarts, because they haven't seen them in so long.

I just want to be healthier, I want my family to be healthier. I want us all to live long, full lives and to me, the change is well worth it. They all agree.

GMA (Good Morning America) is doing this series this week on "What can't you live without?" Yesterday the girl was addicted to make up. I can live without make up. Wouldn't bother me at all. Today... coffee. Hmmmm. The test girl on there made it about 4 days I think. I missed the end of it, because Emily came in to tell me a story. Personally... I think I could live without coffee, but to me, it is so comforting. I love it. I just wish it would come in white so that my teeth would be whiter, lol.

It's been 9 days...

It's been over a week since I announced our family's New Years Resolutions. So far, so good. I don't know exactly how much weight I've lost, mostly because I am avoiding the scale. I wanted to do this to change my lifestyle and eating habits. Hopefully the weight loss will just be an added benefit of this. So far I can say that it feels like my jeans are getting looser on me. That is a key item that I wanting out of this.

It is so nice to have the family on board for this venture. It makes it so much easier. I am cooking a lot more too, and from those that know me on this level, you know that I can not cook, but I can bake anything. As Emily once said, "For someone that watches Food Network all the time, you'd think she could cook!". Yes... out of the mouth of babes.

I've been making a lot of things out of the cookbook that Donna gave me. "Sonoma Diet Cook Book". The food has been amazingly good. I made the Garden Pot Roast on Sunday and let's put it this way... The child that thinks her mom can't cook, went back for 3 extra helpings of a dish she "says" she can't stand.

I've noticed a couple of things already.
1. Bready things are giving me heartburn, as well as chocolate. I guess that's not such a bad thing. But the heartburn is bad enough to make me avoid them at all cost.

2. I feel amazingly good. I'm not craving anything. Wait take that back. I craved coke like you couldn't imagine. This weekend, I did break down and had one, but I did split it with someone. But that was only on Saturday, and I haven't had any pop since then.

So, wish me well on this journey as I wish you well and send good karmic thoughts out for you as well.... Namaste

Help Wanted...

I've come to a realization while driving to my English class today. I don't believe there are any Starbucks in Clinton Township. I would have given anything for a Gingerbread or Pumpkin Spice latte, but the nearest starbucks was out of the way.

So, for any of you that are looking for a niche... if you are in danger of being laid-off, or if you are a stay at home mom looking for something to do.. I urge you, open up a Starbucks Franchise on Garfield Road. If you know Starbucks, you have to know it will be lucerative and your dear old friend and/or sister (Mark & Pattie) will definitely be a good customer!

Today was my first English Class. It is very wild to return to college at this age. The last time I set foot through a college door was in 1994. When I stood at the front of the classroom doing my introduction, as we were all required to do, and made that statement, there were gasps coming from all over. By my returning to college, I have raised the age of Mrs. Barbara Haggerty's English Comp 101 by about 16 years. Approximately 15% of the class are people my age, and the rest have just gotten out of high school. Oh the joy.

I must say that it was very interesting to sit in that class today. The teacher has a quirky sense of humor which I throughly enjoyed. Comments were flying from all corners of the room on how bizarre this woman is, while I sat there just smiling and engrossed in her every word.

On the way out the door, Mr. 30 something-year-old Ford Buyout guy that I sat next too says, "She's nuttier than a fruitcake". This coming from a man that has taken this class, then Comp II, but has to repeat this class to get a higher grade.

The funny thing is that I can see myself making the same comments about 16 years ago, but today... I thought she was pretty cool. I think this is going to be a fun semester. Besides... It could be a WHOLE lot worse!

Now I'm off to find a "Functionalism for Dummies" book.

Tip O' the Day

Never go in to Meijer (grocery store) when you are in a hurry - and there are senior citizen busses parked out front. Today in my travels to satisfy the 5 year olds craving for a pop tart, I found out that Department 50 means "custodial" and when they are screaming it over the intercom, it must be something big. Personally I've never seen a gallon of milk explode that way... and I saw it twice within 15 minutes. On my way out, I also got to see Shelby' finest Firefighters coming to someone's aid.

I hope Greg enjoys the Pop-Tart.

Hook, Line and Sinker...

Microsoft got me. Yesterday, I worked very hard on my homework for my online class, then we went to a birthday party for Shelby. I saved my work on my little memory stick. When we returned, I plugged it in and pulled up my work. Thanks to Microsoft, it was completely locked. I couldn't access it at all. I could see it, but not move it, copy it, delete it. Nothing.

Out came the credit card and I bought the student/teacher verison of Microsoft Office. For $149, I must say that I now feel it was money well spent. I was able to work with my school work and get it all in on time. I still am not liking that company because of their ethics, but some of my hostility comes from dealing with the people at HP as well. Why on earth would they sell a program when you build your computer, that would force you to get a new full version of that same program?

Regardless of whatever their answer is... my mind is at ease on the laptop. Once the disk comes with the other information, I am going to try and put it on the home computer. I did call the family computer geek, and he wasn't sure what was happening, although I think with his current position at work, he is less up to date than before. If things keep acting goofy, I will most definitely be calling the friend -computer geek guy. He works wonders.

I would just like to add one more thing to put things into perspective. Our New Years resolution as a family included the following things: We will only eat out 1 time per month, as a family. There will be no stopping to "grab" something, and definitely NO fast food. Period. There will also be NO impulse buying. We are trying to save more money now, and of course, the computer is acting goofy, Microsoft was trying to get blood out of a rock, and oh... Thursday the garage door opener broke. A company is coming to install a new one tomorrow.

I need a good yoga class.

Please Send Good Karma

I think we are having a "disturbance" in this house. Many of you know... we used to have HORRENDOUS computer problems. They were so bad, that every time we would complain, we got the standard reply, "BUY A NEW COMPUTER". We dumped so much money into this computer that it is sick. How could we ever buy a new computer?

I found this awesome guy. He owned a computer store up the road from us. He is related to a friend of ours. He cleaned it out, tweaked it up, added software. He can make anything run. Unfortunately the rent on the store was $4,000 per month, and the ended up having to close the store. So he does it out of his home. Now I need to find that phone number!

There is something seriously wrong with our home pc. As I type this, I am on the laptop at the dining room table. I just finished doing a few things with my online class, and am taking a little "mental break" before jumping back in again.

So a couple days ago - Thursday as a matter of fact, I posted what a horrendous day it was. I have learned that I do not like Microsoft. I like their products, but the fact that they charge an arm and leg for them, then want $35 just to talk to you, blows my mind. I talked to them twice only to be told this. The girl on the phone the second time wouldn't even answer a yes or no question.

So, you know what... I'm going to throw this out to you in cyberspace. I think I made a huge mistake. With the laptop, I bought a program that has MS word on it. I knew I was going to need it for school. Well that same program comes with a bunch of other programs on it. MS money for one. We are trying to set up a budget here at home, so I thought that would be great on the home PC. So I downloaded it to the home computer. That's where everything has started going downhill. I think that the "product key" on the back of that CD went into my home computer, and now I can't use the product key on my laptop! Does anyone know anything about this? Is there a limit of 1 use per product key on MS products?

I have been through enough with these computers and with my online class going on now, I don't have time for this. I'm ready to pull out the credit card, and surrender at the mercy of another product key for the word program. Anything to make it work!

Tip Toe through the Tulips!

And these, my friends, are my tulips... coming up in January!

What happens to 300 tulip bulbs when the come up WAY before their time?

Post your answer on the comment section please.

First day of school...

Today was my first day of school in my online class. I fulfilled all requirements for the day. It is a 6 week online class of psychology. By Saturday, I have to read 46 pages, which is 2 chapters and do the online work. I have 20 pages all done.

In the middle of all my school work, I also had to deal with Hewlett Packard 5 times and Microsoft twice. It seems that the program that I purchased with the laptop, that has Microsoft word on it is only a "trial" version according to HP. I can't understand how they can charge $60 for a "trial version" of anything. So I think I was calling Bombay repeatedly today.

During all of this I was also chatting with Katrina, who does techincal support. She was trying to help the best she could. It was literally a nightmare. Not to mention that Microsoft wants to charge $35 just to talk to you. I never did pay it. I can't understand how it is that you can buy their product, then you have to buy their support for their product. That makes me crazy - sick!

So the jist of today's blog... the internet can sometimes suck, and for school work... I keep hearing how "hard" online courses are. I'll let you know when I hit that point. Intense yes, but hard? hardly.

I am trying to remain optimistic. I am still on my healthy resolution for the New Year. Today I broiled Asparagus in my Toaster Oven. OMG... It was fabulous! I coated it in olive oil, then used kosher salt, little garlic, and fresh ground pepper. I did mushrooms too. When they were fork tender, they all got cut up and put into an omlette with a little shredded cheddar. YUMMO! I also have not had any soda at all since New Years Eve. I am very excited about that, because I am a big time Coca Cola addict! Just can't get enough!

And that my friends is my scoop of the day!

Fresh & New...

I LOVE this time of year. I feel so... renewed. Last night Dennis worked, so the kids and I went to the haus of Solomon to celebrate the incoming of 2007. We stayed overnight. For Christmas, I gave Donna a handmade scrapbook showcasing the beauty of her gardens. She always complains about not having enough time to weed, or do whatever it is she does out there. Regardless, I LOVE her flower beds, and to show her what I see, I took lots of photos of her flowers this year and presented them to her the way I see them. She was very touched. She is a wonderful friend. I am so lucky to have her in my life.

In return, she gave me a very personal gift. I think it's personal because this year I have a goal. It is not only a "personal" one, but it effects my family too. I want to become a healthier person, and to get my family eating better too. Eating more natural things, instead of the artery clogging poisions they are putting in foods in the way of food preservatives. I love my family and I love my life. I can't imagine something happening to me that would leave my children without a Mom. Or us being without a Husband & Daddy. I worry about life threatening illnesses affecting my family, and feel that something needs to be done now, before they are right on the doorstep.

So starting this month... we are eating out less (our goal is 1 meal out as a family and NO stops for Fast Food - Ever see "Supersize Me" ? I am cooking more and not only that, I'm going to start cooking things in a healthy way. For that, Donna gave me a cookbook that I really wanted... The Sonoma Diet Cookbook. I am eager to look through it and to get started on this journey. I want my family to be healthy and the same for myself.

It is a New Year... Everything is new and fresh. It is a "do over". It will be a new spring, a new summer, and everything that happens this year will be a chance for a fresh start at a better life. I am very excited and ready for this change. As Emily heads off for a Ding Dong, she is telling me she is NOT ready for this change, lol.

I hope this year brings you everything you could ever want and more. I wish for all turmoils in your life to seem like tiny little bumps in the road, and that you are able to see past the negatives into what can be. Remember, that when things are bad, it may only be for a moment. Tomorrow you may be looking back thinking... that wasn't so bad. Keep your head up and remember... instead of placing judgement on others, be sure to see the positive side of them.

The light in me honors and reflects the light in you.... Namaste

Ironic that The Daily Om for today states the same way I am feeling today...
To many, the coming of a new year represents an opportunity to begin again. It is a time to step off of dead-end paths in order to create a fork in the road, disassociating from the old, and aligning with fresh possibilities. Harnessing the power of this transformative energy is a matter of truly believing that resolutions can conquer past patterns. If we believe we are capable of changing our lives, we are more apt to believe that we are capable of leaving our mistakes behind. Our dedication, which might otherwise falter, is buoyed by hope.