The Elf's World

Hey! for those in the DFW area

2008-12-21T17:40:00.000-06:00

Hey, with the cold weather upon us, just wanted to pass along a little note for you! If you have a wood burning fire place, my parents cut/split seasoned fire wood for sale. If you are interested, its $300 delivered for a full cord, $375 delivered and stacked. Email me if you need some, they are both retired and could use the extra income!
Thanks
Ellen

ok well....

2008-12-02T11:27:00.004-06:00

ha, little did I know when I posted last, what would transpire later that week. On Friday, November 14 I was laid off from ClubCorp AGAIN! You would think that after everything that happened at the end of 2006 that this wouldnt happen. Ah well.... they just said the company wasnt making enough profit for the owners and budgets were being cut again thus laying off another 45 or so people in the office and at regional levels. Soooo I begin again with the job search.

On the upside, it gave me time to get some doctor appointments out of the way that I hadnt had time to do during the first 3/4 of the year. I had the birthmark on my shoulder removed finally... Doctors for the past 18 years or so had been telling me to get it taken care of. I believe in intuition and something told me... time to get it done, so I did. Pathology all came back clear so that was good. Finally made it to the dentist and the ol' yearly woman check up I was a year over due on.

On a good note, we had a great Thanksgiving with about 20 people here. We had a fun time seeing the family and friends. Be sure to check out Theresa's blog (link to the right,) Im sure she will have some pictures up soon. She also gave me the cutest scrapbook showing the thanksgivings we've all had together over the past 8 years. Mom came over several days to help get the house clean and cooking done since I had so many stitches in my shoulder and the doctor said no lifting for a few days. Got up early on Friday morning and made a quick Best Buy run so we could get mom and dad a new TV. They had a 60" DLP Mitsubishi tv for $999. I think they are loving it a lot from the sound of it!

We were able to get Derek's senior pictures done on Sunday... here are just a couple for you to see. The rest are here if you want to see them all.

Not even going to look....

2008-11-11T08:33:00.005-06:00

at when the last time I posted was. All I can say is the first 10 months of 2008 were as hectic as I've seen since I was going to college full time and working a part time and full time job all at the same time. I can say that I know I traveled a LOT because I achieved Platinum on American Airlines by July and I usually have to work hard to get it by December.

Lets see, where all did I go this year?

Meetings in Dallas in January, February, May, August and October, Houston, 4 Classes in Dallas, Tampa, Palm Springs, Orlando, Jacksonville, Virginia, Austin, Raleigh, Hawaii (yes it was for work), Cleveland, South Carolina and Georgia, Houston, So Cal, DC/VA, Pinehurst, Austin, Raleigh, Detroit, Cincinnati... some other places, those are just the ones I wrote down. So ya, it was busy! I think it has taken me a good month to get on an even keel for not having to pack and get on a plane every week.

Lots of changes here at work as well... I have a new boss and things are going well so far, Im in a new department but dont really feel like I am part of it. That may have to do with the fact Im on the complete opposite side of the floor from them but since the people I work with are over here... it is what it is.

On an exciting note, I won tickets and passes for a meet and greet at the Texas Stampede this past weekend from KSCS 96.3. I took mom and we got to meet Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. Both were very gracious.

Derek is well into his Senior year. Here is a picture that will go in his annual... Im proud and sad at the same time!

We had his 18th birthday party the weekend before Halloween because the 31st was Senior night and since it was a Friday also, that meant he had to march in the band at half time.

I will try to upload more pictures but the way Im connected to the Internet it isnt letting me add any more right now. I even have some video I'd like to upload at some point but I am certain it wont let me do THAT when it wont let me upload a 3kb picture!

Ok... so thats my update, time to get back at it!

Backyard

2008-06-13T15:59:00.003-05:00

Here are the pictures I said I'd take and post of our backyard!

So its been a month

2008-06-12T23:26:00.007-05:00

I am still traveling and training as I have been since the end of February. I did have an unexpected break last week when my trip to Austin was rescheduled to August! I got to spend a whole week in town and was very grateful for it since I had let a lot of stuff around the house go. I had only been getting 1 day or less off a week there for a long while. I was able to start AND finish several projects in the back yard and I can truly say it looks better than it ever has! Kenny and I worked really hard on all of that.

Derek is doing well and at this moment is on one of 4 buses coming back from Orlando and their band trip to march in a Disney parade. He is still working at Chicken Express in Springtown and I think is really liking the spending money in his pocket. He is very glad that school is finally out for the summer too.

I leave for Hawaii on Sunday morning to work unfortunately but the up side is "if you have to work somewhere, why not there?" I may get a 1/2 day for the beach if Im lucky on Wednesday or Thursday before I fly home.

J, our friend's son is staying with us for the summer and seems to have settled in nicely. He is a Senior at UT Austin's College of Business and doing his internship at a local MAJOR company. He's great to have around and is probably the smartest person I know. I keep telling him to remember us when he's rich and famous.

Juju seems to have settled in well at the nursing facility mom and dad had to move her to a few weeks ago and mom has been working hard on getting everything sorted out at the house and figuring out what is to be thrown away, sold and given to different family members. We worked on a lot of that today and made great headway. Erin has moved into the house, has gotten herself a job and is really doing great. We are really proud of her and what she is trying to do for herself for the first time in over a year and a half.

I am not sure if I've blogged about it or not, but I have a myspace page and now a facebook page. You can find my by my email address so be sure to look me up! I have connected with a lot of friends from High School and thats been a lot of fun.

Thats about all for now. Today is Kenny and my 4th wedding anniversary and he is stuck in Hot Springs trying to get home. Here is one of my favorite pictures from 4 years ago today!

Holy Cow

2008-05-10T22:18:00.002-05:00

I had no idea its been 2.5 months since I posted. I cant really say much has been happening although Im sure there's been stuff going on.

Derek's High School Winter Drumline took 2nd or 3rd in every competition they were in this season and finished 2nd at Championships. This was fantastic considering it was the first time his school has ever had a winter drumline. Kudos to them! He ran in track this winter/spring and played soccer... I think I blogged about that right after he signed up. He's really glad all extra curricular activities are done till July... He got his first job last week and starts on Monday he thinks. Working at Chicken Express in Springtown.

Obviously Ive been busy to not have blogged in so long. Mostly its because Ive been working 6 days a week (75 hours per week on average) for the past couple of months... this week its 10 days without a day off. I'll have part of a day off next week then back at it. I've been all over the place the last few months including California a couple of times, Florida a couple of times, Houston... other places Im sure but cant think of where. I'll be going to Florida again, Raleigh, Austin, Norfolk, VA, Austin again, and Cleveland between now and the end of June with only a week at home late in the month. After that Im not sure but I know I need to go to Ft. Lauderdale and South Carolina soon too.

Kenny is doing well also. We've been keeping busy cleaning up the yard after the weekly storms and getting the flowers and pool ready for the summer swim season! Hopefully I'll get a chance to swim once or twice! Derek went for a swim today but said its a bit chilly yet at 76 degrees. Warm for this time of year so lets hope it gets to about 80 real soon.

Take care and keep in touch since obviously I cant seem to. If you wonder how we are doing... probably fine and probably getting onto or off of a plane somewhere!

The week is finally over!

2008-02-28T21:17:00.001-06:00

I flew out on Sunday morning to Houston at 7 and worked till 10 at night. Monday from 7 am to 6 pm teaching a class then working till 11 at night preparing for the next day. 7 am Tuesday till 5:30 teaching and then again till 11 prepping for Wednesday's class. Finished up around 2 and went to the airport to fly home. Got in about 6:30 and OMG I am tired. On top of that my ear starting hurting so very bad. Guess my ear infection didnt clear up from the beginning of the month.

Derek doesnt have school tomorrow so he has 2 friends over and they are playing Rock Band...
Gotta get up in the morning and give my students their mid term so I hope Im back around 11 and then I have a Dr. appt at 1:15 for my ear.

Hope your week was more restful than mine.

Friends

2008-02-16T21:45:00.002-06:00

Tonight I had dinner with some of my friends Ive known for well over 20 years. Thinking about how much fun I had it makes me thankful for how blessed I am. I have a wonderful Husband and Son, parents and friends. Some say the holidays are supposed to make you thankful for all you have. I have to say that the simple dinner we had tonight, catching up, laughing and having a good time is what does that for me. So I just want to say... Love you guys, thanks for being my friends and know how much you truly mean to me. If its been years, days or just mere hours since Ive seen you... it doesnt really matter, friendships and love last! Bless you all... because I sure am! And on a much lighter note... when the HELL did I get so old? D&B have been married 22 years next month.. thats just really wild. Their son gonna be 20 this year.... and next year is my 20th High School Reunion... it doesnt SEEM that long since High School...

As you could probably imagine, working 3 jobs is keeping me busier than Ive been in quite some time. Im enjoying the teaching but WOW I had no idea that my job at ClubCorp would get so busy at the same time!

We had the flu last week and thank goodness we are well now. Alright, I could probably write more and make this flow better (since I have a Master of Journalism) but Im tired and at the moment dont really care! LOL I slept for 12 hours last night... I havent done that in YEARS! I knew I was tired but WOW! Be good, Be safe and Hug someone you love and if you can... reconnect with an old friend. It sure made my night! (oh and this is a record.. I did the spell check, and not ONE misspelled word!)

Have I been a bad influence on my son?

2008-01-28T20:14:00.000-06:00

As you know I keep myself pretty busy.... Working full time with ClubCorp, part time at UNT as a teaching assistant and now as a part time professor this semester too. So yeah, I keep pretty busy... I always felt that by doing this, I show my son you can work hard and still have a decent quality of life, accomplishing a lot.

Well now as I may have mentioned Derek is in the Winter Drumline (first for his school ever this year) and he is running track, doing long distance. Well now he went and also joined the soccer team today. He's still running track, the coach told him the soccer practice will serve as his track practice thank goodness. They lost their one extra player on the soccer team and this coach has been trying to get him to join the team since last year when he found out that he'd played 10 seasons of soccer when he was younger. He joined today and will be playing in a game tomorrow night at 8. LONG day for him. I told him to go to his Dad's after school and rest well before the game.

I told Derek on the way home.... "SON, just because I keep my life really crazy and hectic, YOU dont have to do it too..." he just laughed and said Yeah.

So lets hope this doesnt wipe him out since he has early band practice on Monday's and Tuesdays, and late band practice on Thursdays. Soccer/Track practice every day after school for an hour to an hour and a half.... I asked him "Do you have homework tonight?" he said No thank goodness I dont! LOL

YAWN Its Monday

2008-01-28T07:33:00.000-06:00

Greetings and I hope everyone had a great weekend!

We didn't do a whole lot. I did get my natural color put back in my hair! And if you believe that, I've got a bridge for sale. Yesterday I didn't leave the house except to step out the back door to cook dinner on the grill.

Last week was SUPER Crazy. I flew to Savannah, GA and since I didn't map quest this when I booked it, I had no idea how FAR it is from Savannah to Atlanta... and if that wasn't bad enough I then drove to Jacksonville, FL... ok maybe when I agree to drive vs fly someone should tell me I'm an idiot and either reroute or FLY! LOL I'm not holding my breath and you'd think after doing this to myself 2 or 3 times that I'd stop and at least map quest one city to another to see exactly how long it takes to make that drive! On the sunny side of that though, I didn't have to fly into or out of Atlanta's Airport!

Derek is doing fine, he's running track and once that's over, he'll flip over into off season Basketball again. Winter Drumline seems to be coming along, I am really looking forward to their first performance! I wanna try out my new video camera!

I have a to do list a mile long and if I don't write it down or get started on it, its not going to get all done. Have a great day and a great week and maybe I'll have time to post again soon!

Oh, wait, did I mention I'm teaching a class at UNT? Yeah I'm sure I did. I had my first class and only 2 people fell asleep so I think that's a plus out of 62 students! Ive got to find some good interactive materials to get them engaged in the class! *scribbles down, find more handouts etc to discuss in class*

And I Thought I Was Busy Before

2008-01-12T16:37:00.000-06:00

Well as you know working 2 jobs keeps me pretty busy. Things have picked up at work, we are starting a couple of new training initiatives which will make my life at ClubCorp a lot busier in the months to come. Its good and I hope it makes a difference.... our theme for 2008 is "From Good to Great in 08". The job I do with the University of North Texas always keeps me pretty busy as well. I am a teaching assistant for one of the professors there and he averages 100+ students a semester.

So I thought I was busy before until Thursday. As another co worker and I were working on a schedule to make some aggressive goals for the first half of the year, I received a call from the Dean from the School of Hospitality where I graduated in 1999 and still TA for. She asked if I was interested in teaching a class this semester... can you say WOW? I'd been asked once before to teach a class this time last year but with all the uncertainty of my job and still recovering from my surgery I declined but said ask me again in the future! Low and behold, they did and I said YES! So now I'm "Professor" for the first time. It should be a great learning experience for me and Im excited to see what the months ahead bring.

Derek is doing well, he's gearing up for Track season, this will be a first for him since he's always played Basketball and ran cross country. Since he didnt do the Bball thing this year, guess he's filling in with this. He's also on the Winter Drumline where they have a whole show and march like regular marching season. Since I have the new video camera I'll be able to shoot this myself! Im quite excited about that.

Kenny is doing well but hasnt managed to get out of town yet for the new year. Each time he plans a trip something manages to make him have to cancel. Next week included. Maybe he'll make it out of town by the last week of the month.

Take care, be safe and see you... uhm... iono when. With my pending schedule through May, I just dont know... I might end up like Theresa and be posting at midnight... My friend told me "sleep is so over rated," and I may just find that out myself!

Video!?!?!?!

2008-01-06T20:37:00.000-06:00

I got a webcam and decided to try a video blog! Next time I may have to make notes so I remember what all I want to say... hehehehe

I finally gave in

2007-12-16T15:35:00.001-06:00

ok so now if it wasnt enough that I cant keep this blog updated, I broke down and started a myspace page. One good thing though, instead of starting a blog there, I put a link to this one on the page.... looks like it could be fun, I've fiddled with it off and on since Derek set it up for me. Im not really sure where he gets his sense of humor but the original page "sounded" a lot like his Uncle Lee... thats really really scary!

We got out early (before lunch and thats a record for Kenny) and did some more shopping today, got mom's present bought, we think she will be happy! We are now settled in to watch the Cowboys game and since it's Kenny's birthday I will be making him steak, baked potatoes, salad and mushrooms for his dinner. Happy Birthday Baby!

I may go play some guitar hero III and try to get past this spot Im stuck at....

See... I told you so.... AND Damn if it isnt cold outside!

2007-12-15T23:21:00.000-06:00

First, just as I said would happen, I posted 3 times in a row and then promptly got busy and forgot....

I just spent what I thought would be a warm and beautiful week in Phoenix. Well when I left Dallas on Monday it was cold and raining... low and behold when I got to Phoenix damn if it wasnt the same there... I thought it didnt rain much in the desert! It actually rained for 2 days I was there and never warmed above 59... I did have a wonderful view from my hotel of the mountains so that was nice once the clouds cleared on Wednesday!

What else surprised me about Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert, AZ was that they had orange trees everywhere! On the new course my company just acquired there were orange trees everywhere. Seems it used to be an orange grove! The last morning I was there, the Membership Director brought me a fresh picked orange. Its sitting on the counter and I plan on enjoying it in the morning with breakfast! can you say YUM?

I did have a couple of weeks at home and now Im through traveling for the year. I racked up 60 flights and all total since 1997 Ive flown just on American Airlines over 755,000 miles. Amazing when you think Ive not flown further than Hawaii mileage wise.

I already have a trip to Georgia and Florida on the books for January as well as a trip around Southern California again. Im sure I'll have to go back to Phoenix in the coming months but not sure when yet.

Lets see... oh yes... ITS COLD OUTSIDE and getting colder. We did a little shopping this afternoon and in 20 minutes the wind went from a steady 20+ to way higher than that and the temp dropped 2 degrees. Amazing what going from 39 to 37 with the added wind feels like! Its a fire in the fireplace kind of night. I made some wonderful Beer Cheese soup tonight and Kenny went on a hunt for bread bowls. I told him I wanted 5 (he didnt know mom and dad were coming over for a birthday dinner) because we were having Chili too. The soup turned out great, there was about 1 serving left and I sent that with mom for her lunch tomorrow.

You know, I always tell people Follow your hunches and Im sooooo glad I did this morning. I woke up about 7:30 and decided I needed to get up and go hunt for Derek's main Christmas present. Kenny and I had been doing some serious searching online and in stores for Rock Band for the XBox 360. I'd been calling around and the Game Stop had said they might have a few come in over the coming weeks but they didnt expect to get many. Sooo while I was on the hunt for that and something for Mom too, I got up and headed out a little before 9. I planned on going by to see what time Game Stop was set to open and WOW they already were at 9:15! I went in, was greeted warmly by the kid working and he asked how I was today... I'll be great if you have what Im looking for! He said, we dont have any Wii and said thats ok, its not what Im looking for... do you have any Rock Band? Why yes we do! We just got a couple in... no one seems to know we opened early... hurray for small miracles. I'll take one please and thank you! I whipped out the 'ol bank card and was on my way... They even loaded it in the Jeep for me! I headed off to my second stop but what I was looking for to get mom wasnt there. Off to Walmart for some much needed toiletries and Christmas cards yes I know Im late on that too. Back home all happy because I'd gotten one thing I thought I wouldnt get after being told repeatedly that none probably wouldnt be available until February!

Tomorrow we will head out to Macys to buy a few more Christmas presents and back to watch our Cowboys play.

More soon I hope....

The Weekend

2007-12-03T11:23:00.001-06:00

We really didnt do a whole lot this weekend. I wasnt feeling well last week on Thursday and Friday so I spent the days close to home, often on the couch. Saturday was much the same, although I did start to feel a little better as the day went on and I decided to run by my Boss's house to attend the retirement party of his AA. It was fun because I got to see quite a few people I hadnt seen in at least a year, some way more than that. My boss and his family have a beautiful house and 7 Christmas trees... SEVEN!!!! Heck I do good to get my one set up and decorated... well setting it up isnt the issue, its taking it back down... I threw away the box for mine last year and hubby went down to buy me a new one... yup he got a box it would fit in, but it wouldnt go into the attic. Sooo since he never went and bought another one, the undecorated tree sat in the formal dining room.... yup you guessed it... ALL YEAR. Sooo on Thanksgiving afternoon the guys moved it from the formal dining room to the living room and on Saturday Mom and I decorated it. Yesterday evening I hung lighted garland around the mantle. This turned out beautiful especially with a fire lit. I tried to take a picture of the tree with the few presents we've bought so far and of the fireplace and mantle and for some reason it wouldnt lighten up enough for the picture to be visible even with a little messing around in picture manager. Im guessing I need a digital camera 101 class from Theresa!

Ok so this morning Derek woke up not feeling well, I sure hope he doesnt have what I had.... Will see how he feels in a little while and see if he needs to go to the Dr or not. Did have the ex check to see if my Dr. is listed on his insurance... sure enough it is! YAY.

Im going to try and upload a short movie mom took with her cell phone of the Dogs playing. The chocolate and white Brittany is Hershey...... we sure miss him.. ok maybe I miss him so seeing the videos of him playing is way cool and makes me want to drive out to see "Derek's" pup. Asta barks a lot but doesnt jump in you'll notice (the schnauzer) because she is now pretty much blind. Watch how easy they are with her!

Anyways... Until next time... knowing me, now that Ive posted twice, it'll be weeks!

Holidays are Upon Us

2007-12-01T22:42:00.000-06:00

First I wanted to post briefly about our Thanksgiving holiday. About a week or so before hand, mom called and said "do you have room for 7 more?" Well of course we do! Im sitting there thinking... uhm where are we going to seat 25? Quickly counting the chairs in the kitchen, formal dining and game room... NOPE not enough. Well because of the usual add ons and subtractions we definitely ended up having room with a chair or two to spare. We were blessed with my 2nd cousins family having moved back to Texas after a 20+ year absence and since my Great Aunt and Uncle are getting older they decided to come to our house for the holiday along with his sister et. al. I didnt realize that my brother hadnt seen them since we were little kids so that started LOTS of discussions about back then and everything it seemed since.

The Monday before hand started my cleaning frenzy with emptying the pool, 22,000 gallons worth of water, washing the walls, scooping out 8 contractor bags of leaves, ickie water the sump pump didnt get and then refilling it. Tuesday, after I could move my arms and back, I started on the inside of the house. Clean, Clean and more Clean went on that afternoon and into Wednesday morning. Then that afternoon until around 7 pm I cooked and prepped for Thursday. I got up around 6 am and started cooking again until everyone arrived at 12 to start eating. Im always so grateful that Mom cooks the Turkey for me since my oven just isnt big enough to cook that and the 5+ sides I put in chafers. All in all, with the 1 baked turkey, 1 fried turkey, spiral cut ham and all the usual sides, it all went over well! Family and friends cant be enjoyed enough.

After that, I collapsed for a good 12 hours! We did get up and do a little Black Friday shopping but thankfully there were no all night waiting in line necessities this year! We picked up a few deals throughout the day though.

Now, Kenny did surprise the heck out of me on Friday evening with my Christmas present a bit early.

Can you say WOW? and Sparkly? He did goooood this year, yes sir he did.

I had already gotten him his present, a 61" LCD HD Panasonic TV! Figured he'd like it and boy howdy did he ever.

Now that we have made it past Thanksgiving and look toward Christmas, it reminds me of those friends and family we hold dear. Theresa reminded me of this on her blog (see the link off to the right.)

Until next time when ever that is!

As Usual

2007-11-19T10:01:00.000-06:00

I fall behind on updating my blog. Im not sure I really have much to talk about, SSDD around here for us. Now that band is done for the year, just not that much going on. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving around the house, mucho cleaning today and tomorrow and cooking starts on Wednesday. We will have somewhere between 21 and 30 people which should be lots of fun! My son wants to challenge all comers to Guitar Hero II and III. Good food, good friends and family and the traditional Cowboys game should make for a great day!

Everyone have a safe Thanksgiving and hopefully I'll have fun stuff to post soon.

Proud Mama

2007-10-07T15:29:00.000-05:00

Lots has been going on since I last posted but hey thats not so unusual for me now is it? FIRST though I want to talk about last night.

Springtown High School's Marching Band in Springtown, Texas competed at the UTA Marching Contest in Arlington, Texas. The contest has been held every year since 1988 and for many years it was ruled by Martin High School. However last night our kids out did themselves. They not only took first place in the 3a division they also took best baseline, best drum line, best music and best performance. Their first preliminary performance was at 2:00 pm and they performed again at 7:30 or so. The decision by the officials was that they would get to perform 9th (the most ideal) and Mr. Strickland the band director left the other directors protesting the band getting that spot. About an hour or so later, we got word that politics won out and they were moved to perform 5th. The band had received a score of 81 and the closest other band was a 78 so if you know anything about scoring you know that is a HUGE lead going into the finals.

The band came onto the field and blew them away. They ended up with another high score, well above the other 8 bands in the finals. This is a great boost leading into the regionals in two weeks in Denton and then Area in Odessa a week later. If they continue to do as well as they have to this point, they will then go on to State in San Antonio on November 6 so stay tuned for further updates!

In addition to this great news, I remembered to take the camera so you can go here and see some still shots of their show called "The Four Seasons." You can go here on You Tube and see shows from Friday night football games performed previously and Im sure there will be more put up periodically, let me know if you want me to notify you when something new posts or you can subscribe to their page and it will email you when it is updated.

Now after all that, how could I post anything close to how exciting it was last night? I really cant!

However, this past week for me was very busy, hectic and long. We had 26 new hire department heads in town for a weeks worth of training. It was a good week, no one got out of hand, and for the most part were polite, nice and easy to work with.

Friday afternoon found me leaving the group early to come home and take Kenny to the hospital ER though as he thought he was having a heart attack, chest and back pain, left arm numbness and shortness of breath. After multiple tests on Friday night and Saturday morning, including a stress test, he is fine and his heart is healthy. His pain was due to some kind of musculoskelotal (spelling right Theresa?) issue. BUT a positive is the Dr's really hammered him on his EXCESSIVE salt intake, alcohol intake, smoking, lack of any exercise (they told him walking through an airport doesn't count) and eating to much beef. It seems to have gotten his attention so lets hope he keeps up the diligent behavior on this.

That's all for now and I'd say its plenty so until next time...

Trials and Tribulations? or is this just normal?

2007-09-24T11:13:00.000-05:00

My week was semi typical for me, 1/2 the time Im in our home office in Dallas and the other 1/2 Im on the road somewhere. This past week found me on the road to Chicago after making a connection in St Louis. I spent Monday afternoon and evening in one of our clubs in downtown near the Lake in Chicago and then back the next morning to a different one in the Sears Tower. I have to say the rennovations they did were amazing. Taking a club that used to be what I always thought of as "old line" (i.e. dark wood, dark lighting etc.) into something really bright and trendy. In the middle of all of the Hurry Hurry in Chicago I received a call from our copy center stating they accidentally threw away my original materials for our Membership Director training manual. EEEEEK! I didnt think I'd kept a copy from the last class and I wasnt sure if I'd updated my boss's binder either. (Lesson learned there for sure.) Thank goodness I'd made copies of it for someone in another department in June, so my boss's assistant was able to get one of those to the copy center to make copies for the training class next week. I then hurried back to the airport at 12:00 to fly back through Dallas to Houston on Tuesday, amazing how much cheaper a flight can be taking connections rather than flying direct. I cant say I really mind that much since more segments mean I get to platinum that much faster. Seems to me it would be cheaper to fly direct = less fuel but hey.... what do I know? :-) I then went to three different clubs in Houston on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on the North, East and downtown areas of the city. For those familiar with Houston, I was in Kingwood, Spring, Katy and downtown next to the Galleria. Can you say LOTS of time on the freeways in traffic? Back to the airport at 1:00 on Friday to come home! With all of this going on, Friday morning at 7:10 am one of our clubs in Houston burned to the ground. My sister in law emailed me to find out where I was since she knew I was down there. She wanted to make sure I wasnt at the club when it happened... Wasn't me!

Saturday found me volunteering with mom and dad's volunteer fire department for their semi annaul fund raiser from 8:30 am to 8:30 PM setting up, prepping food etc for 350 or so people and then helping with their fundraiser live auction.

This week finds me getting ready for 30+ people to come in for Champions Club the binders mentioned above, for a week of training. This means verifying their travel arrangements, putting together the arrival and departure lists, going over the banquet event orders for each meal at each location, printing all of the materials and assembling all their "goodies" they get throughout the week. I also have to order 5 dozen roses and buy vases! eeek I just rememberd that part, buy candy for each day AND each person's favorite candy on top of that, etc etc etc.

Next week I'll be "hearding cats" around Dallas as our new hires come in. Should be another interesting few weeks to come!

On top of all of this, on September 15 at 1 am in the morning Derek was just getting back from their football game near Wichita Falls. He wasnt paying attention to what he was doing and backed his truck into a girls car. He didnt know he had done it until he was pulling up in the driveway at his dad's house. At first he thought it was a joke. He went back down there and the girl was being unreasonable. Said they were calling the insurance agent as soon as she got home. Thank goodness the number she wrote down off the insurance card wasnt right so we were able to get in touch with her parents to arrange to pay for it ourselves so it wouldnt make the insurance rate go up. Looks like its going to cost Derek $750 to pay for it. On top of that his phone stopped working the previous week AND then yesterday morning, he was getting his laundry out of his truck that needed to be washed and accidentally picked up his 30GB ipod from the truck seat. It ended up getting washed by Kenny with all the other clothes. It seems he has a little black cloud following him arround right now. On a positive note, he says his grades are all good, so thats a plus!

I should have time to collapse on October 6! I hope

Nothing New

2007-09-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

Just wanted everyone to know we are all still alive and busy with the usual day to day monotony of our lives. We enjoyed the much cooler day yesterday for sure!

I am traveling to Chicago for 2 days and Houston for 3 days next week and Im certain there will be at least SOMETHING worth telling when I get back off that trip!

Is Too Busy an Excuse?

2007-08-30T13:52:00.000-05:00

Well thats the one Im going to use as my reason for not posting lately. August has seen a semi normal return to my schedule and a very busy month for Derek. The last few days of July and the entire month of August he had marching practice for a minimum of 7 hours a day and as much as 12 Monday - Friday. I think he was actually glad school started on Monday!

I on the other hand, and im not complaining here, enjoyed sleeping until 7 am most days since last December. However now that school has started, its back to getting up at 5:15 am to get Derek up and moving and out of the house by 5:45. Since he cant drive himself all the way to school from the house I drive him to Boyd where he gets in his truck and drives the rest of the way. It relieves Dad from having to do that for the past 3 years since Kenny and I got married.

I now have to figure out where Im going to find time to work out and Im certainly not giving up! I know I can work out every Saturday and Sunday morning and definitely on Tuesday mornings since Derek stays at his dads on Monday nights because band doesnt get out till 8:30 pm. We still have to work out our Monday mornings because if he drives himself home on Friday or Saturday, we have to figure out a time to drive his truck back out there or he drives himself on Monday mornings only. Will see how it all goes on that front. Anyway, I'll continue to work out even if I have to fit in an afternoon here and there. To date, Ive now lost over 30 lbs! YAY. In fact here is a picture of me that was taken about a month ago for something here at work!

For me, Ive been all over the place literally in the month of August. I went to Boston and Washington DC one week, Milwaukee for a couple of days the next week, San Francisco and Cleveland last week.. WOW that week was a LOT of flying! This week I was able to stay home all week but tomorrow Kenny and I are flying down to meet Mom and Dad in Houston to then drive on to Kemah. A first for all of us! My friend Angela her daughter, my god daughter, and her Mom are going to meet us down there too! My hope is that my other friend Erin will also go along for the weekend. Should be a great trip for everyone.

Not much else has been going on really and as you can tell not much more we could have fit into the schedule and kept ourselves sane.

Im sure we will take pictures on vacation and if I keep doing as good as I have been, dont hold your breath, I'll have pictures to link up in my next post!

July

2007-07-31T10:36:00.000-05:00

I know, I get good at posting frequently then.... NOTHING for days and days. Well not much has been happening in our world really. Now that vacation was over it was back to the "ol grind stone." I did get to stay in town for the two weeks after vacation which was nice! After that, I made a marathon trip last week - Flew to Nashville, TN and worked there. I then drove to Memphis, TN and worked there, then drove 5.5 hours to Montgomery, AL and worked and then drove on to Birmingham, AL where I worked and then flew home on Friday. I drove over 650 miles last week but I got to see a few things I wouldnt have seen otherwise, including the town where Elvis was born.

I spent a good amount of time on the pool this month, more than 3 full days actually. Scrubbing, vacuuming, back washing, back washing, vacuuming, brushing, back washing and did I mention that I back washed the pool? I think I kept the water running for the better part of 2 days. I went to Leslies several times, once because I broke the handle on the back wash valve again. This was the second one in only a couple of months and the guy at Leslies said "well I think you probably need new gaskets, when was the last time you changed them out?" Trying to not look TOO stupid I said uhm never? at least not in the past 3 years, are you supposed to change them? not just lube them? Sooo after discovering they didnt have the gaskets OR the handle, off to another Leslie's to get them and the stupid woman there didnt give me the right ones... another trip BACK to Leslies to get the RIGHT ones (side trip to Hart Pool to see if they had what I needed... NOPE but at least THEY offered to order them in for me) and in the process of trying to install the new handle, I broke the pin that secures the handle to the post... GAH!!! Guess what? A nail for hanging pictures works GREAT if you cut it off at the right length! Anyway after 4 trips to Leslies I realize I've forgotten all 4 times to buy DE. big sigh I go back, buy the DE and head back home. I should have taken before and after pictures just so people could see the amazing difference! Well, before I could even take the filter apart to clean the grids, the pump motor went out. I disconnected it from the power supply, took it to Leslies, got a new one and hooked it back up... Im quite proud of myself for doing that without anyone's help (i.e. an electrician or service tech) Kenny even said "hey, you just probably saved us a few hundred dollars in a service call!" After I got that done, I finally disassembled the filter to clean the grids and low and behold, 2 are broken. ANOTHER trip to Leslies and everything is back to running really good. In fact better than it ever has thank you very much. The pool was clear by that next morning (3 days after starting to work on it.) Wheeee we've even gotten to swim in the pool now 3 or 4 times! Time for everyone to come on over and swim!

We had a birthday party on Saturday for a friend's 3 year old at the house. He was so cute as he'd never seen a pool bigger than a "kiddie" pool. He walked out, looked at it, turned around and said SWIM! He was a bit afraid at first but it didnt take long before he was all in on going off the diving board with his dad.

Alright, I said I'd post more pictures of some of our other trips so here are the links to our two Hawaii Trips - 2005 & 2006, Band photos & our weekend trip to Corpus and even some pictures from our wedding in 2004!

Puerto Vallarta Trip

2007-07-04T14:56:00.000-05:00

We had an absolute blast! If anyone is looking for a more than stellar experience on a vacation this is definitely the place to go! The rooms were wonderful and we had the basic room they offered! I understand the jr. suites had Jacuzzis in the room and I cant imagine what the ones up from that were like! We stayed at the Dreams Resort in Puerto Vallarta. It was all inclusive. They have stuff for little kids, teens and adults too! The beach was private and by that I mean, huge rocks/cliffs on each side so no one from a neighboring hotel could come over. They check who is coming in and out at all times, even if you are just going into town for some shopping or out to an excursion. Check it out if you are interested! The food was fantastic, they had entertainment most evenings, even a comedy show one night and a great rock and roll band in the sports bar that we really enjoyed.

They boys had fun playing ping pong, shooting pool, body surfing and of course eating. There was food available pretty much 24/7 including free room service. They werent shy about pouring alcohol either. 3 small margaritas on Friday afternoon and I was about drunk as a skunk. I think it was TEQUILA, TRIPPLE SEC and a very small squeeze of lime... the boys thought it was really funny to see me all giggly like that. Kenny was only slightly disappointed they didnt have Coors Light but he was ok with Modelo Light, it tasted a lot like Michelob Ultra and adding a squeeze of lime made it even better. They had plenty of Corona but that's not his favorite beer for sure.

We spent a lot of time sitting under the cabanas and enjoying the waves and relaxation. We didnt do any excursions but we could have gone on one of several canopy tours, 4 wheeler jungle excursions, horse back riding trips, snorkeling trips, deep sea fishing and even tequila factory tours where you get to try each of the tequilas from all of the manufacturers in the area.

We went into town a couple of times looking for the best deal on a good bottle of tequila, cheap/tax free cigarettes and souvenirs. We really lucked out in that department and were able to bring back a bottle of Don Julio Anjeo for $47, a bottle of Kahlua for $9.50 and a bottle of crown reserve for $28. Kenny also found some "cigars" for dad and a few of his friends, 5 for $60! We wandered into a couple of Farmacias and I was really surprised at what all you can buy down there! I think I was most shocked by the anabolic steroid syringes right there on the shelf! They had anything and everything you could imagine there from antibiotics, pain killers, stomach meds and migraine pills, all for a fraction and I mean FRACTION of the cost of what we pay here! If I'da taken our prescription bottles of Vicodin with us I would have gotten refills there for sure! I didnt want to chance bringing back something without a bottle that had one of our names on it! Sure as I had, I would have gotten caught for sure!

Anyway, we had a great and relaxing time and to prove it, here are a few pictures I took!

Now I dont want anyone falling over in a dead faint or anything but... I took 106 pictures, more but only 106 were good enough to keep. The link to the album is here...

I am also creating albums for other pictures I have taken on other trips so look for an email soon!

Well it finally happened

2007-06-28T10:06:00.001-05:00

With 4 years or so of full time travel, Ive been stranded somewhere! With all of the weather in Dallas... you know the story if you either live there or watch any kind of news. My flight out of Orange County, CA was cancelled last night. Problem was there were only 3 available seats all day today out of SNA. I think Im blessed because normally you have to wait until your flight is cancelled before they will put you on another flight but.... after talking to our travel department, I LOVE JIM, he told me to see if an agent could tell me about seats out of any of the So Cal airports. I was in the admirals club and I told the agent in there that while I knew she wasnt psychic and that I knew she wouldnt know (at that time) if the flight would cancel, I HAD to be home by today because we were flying to Puerto Vallarta on Friday morning. Laughing I told her if I didnt get out today that they would be flying me to PV from here and that my husband would be packing my bag... not such a good thing. She actually backed me up on a flight this morning (one of the 3 seats open the whole day) so that IF it did cancel I'd be able to get home. An hour and a half later, the flight indeed did cancel and I was already good to go! She even put me in an exit row that reclines on the window so I'll be comfortable much more than the original middle seat I had last night.

Anyway, mom and dad are on their way back from Hot Springs as I type here with my new toy! They should get home around the same time I am so maybe, just maybe I'll get to drive it before Derek does.

Lets hope this is the end of my drama and I get home without any other issues and I'll get to my luggage somewhat easily, as it flew out at 2:00 yesterday but didnt land in Dallas until 10:45 pm last night. Im almost glad I didnt get on that plane yesterday! I at least got to rest in a hotel room instead of sitting in an airplane seat for 6.5 hours!

Cheers and here is to none of us getting Montezuma's revenge while we are in Mexico!

My Birthday :-\

2007-06-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

it wasnt the best of days, but then they never are! Leeman and I think it is our lot in life to have suckay birthdays! LOL One great thing though was that Mom, Dad, Derek, Uncle Doc and Aunt Pat and Kenny took me to lunch! It was great to see them.

The weekend was busy, I spent Saturday doing a little of unplanned car shopping. After talking it over with Kenny we decided it was time for the PT cruiser to go. Its been in the shop 3 times so far this year with a rebuilt transmission, blown vacuum hose and the rear view mirror going out. Ive had the car now almost 2 years... a record since we've been married for sure! I went down and looked at Chrysler, Jeep and dodge vehicles and settled on the Caliber and the Jeep Liberty. We decided the Liberty was the better way to go. I also went and looked at the RX350 from Lexus and if the cruiser hadnt lost so MUCH value we probably would have gotten it. We were just too upside down in the cruiser and they didnt want to give us as much in trade that we needed. The dealer we bought Derek's truck from and the Cruiser from gave us a deal to good to pass up on it and a fantastic deal on the Liberty. Sooo, mom and dad are driving up to Hot Springs tomorrow to pick it up and leave off the cruiser. THANKS guys! I wouldnt be able to go get it myself before the 7th and I dont wanna wait that long! They are gonna spend a couple of days up there and bring it back on Thursday so maybe I'll get to drive it before we leave for Puerto Vallarta!

I will be taking the camera Theresa so I'll come back with pictures to post! Get well soon and I'll post when we get back! No internet in the hotel rooms so Im not taking my computer OR my cell phones! 5 days without, I'll probably go nuts.

Travel on Mondays are never exactly fun especially now that kids are out of school and families are traveling. Not that I mind having people checking in and going through security that dont exactly know what they need to do but heards of them tend to get on my nerves (and it seems the other experienced business travelers as well.) It was especially bad because they sent me out of the international terminal today so there were LOTS of vacationers who travel once or twice a year and are more interested in talking to their friends then paying attention to what they need to be doing. And if it wasnt bad enough, we get on the plane and then SIT THERE for 2 hours waiting to see if maintenance can fix a hook in the cargo hold that keeps cargo and luggage in the areas they are supposed to be in. They FINALLY figured out they couldnt fix the dang hook and proceeded to move cargo from one hold to another. Wish they had figured it out BEFORE we got on the plane! So, 5 hours later we finally landed in Orange County I was sure glad to get out of that plane seat! Someone remind me to get something to eat before getting on the plane next time would you? I didnt get to eat until 1:00 here which was 3:00 at home and since I didnt eat breakfast thinking, oh I'll be there at 10 which is 12 at home and my usual lunch time! Maybe I'll pay attention to my hunches a little better next time around!

Here is a picture of what Im getting... mine is white with tan leather interior, sun roof, fully loaded wooo hoo! Cute little car huh?

Webbed Toes?

2007-06-21T16:03:00.000-05:00

Well my feet were beginning to dry out there for a few days, but as many of you know, Texas, North Texas specifically has been getting hit with rain almost every day again. Its been so bad that our Ficus tree that we keep inside during the winter and outside in the summer was beginning to die because the pot it is in didnt have any holes in it for the water to drain out. Yesterday's project when I got home was to first, SPRAY with mosquito spray since as soon as you walk outside you are attacked by them. Then, since Derek has his DL, I sent him for potting soil earlier in the day, we moved the monster into the grass and took it out of the pot... good grief did that stink to high heaven. I removed as much outer dirt as I could without getting into the roots to much, drilled 5 holes in the bottom of the pot and the side, put new rocks, dirt and then the tree and root ball back into the pot. We then left it out on the patio so it wouldnt be hit by the run off from the house as well as any rain that went its way. Hopefully this will keep the tree from dieing!

Kenny is landing in about 20 minutes so I guess I'd better head for DFW and pick him up from his week of "meetings" and golf... ya 2 hours of meetings, and afternoons of golf.. dont you feel sorry for him? NOT

Bad Monday? How about a bad WEEK!

2007-06-20T09:32:00.000-05:00

Well as if Monday and Tuesday werent bad enough, I did get a decent nights sleep on Monday night as I mentioned earlier but last night... wasnt destined to be another good night's sleep. The cat at the exact moment I drifted off to sleep, chose that time to hoark up a hair ball... such a lovely sound at 11:04 pm dont you think? Ok so I get up, clean that up, resolve that spot on the carpet and get back in bed... after giving her a bit of hair ball meds. JUST as Im drifting off again around 11:44 pm she decides to try that again... Im back up to see where she is and since she threw up what she'd eaten just before bed already there was nothing to clean up but of course Im wide awake again! This was to be my night, waking up every hour or two... I was awake when Derek opened my door at 1:45 am, we keep it closed at night when he plays his video games in the living room, otherwise we try to drift off to the Godfather or Halo2. Then something caught my attention around 5:00 a.m. namely the reporter on the television talking about the storms coming in etc so of course I woke up for that, looked to see what we had coming in and decided it wasnt bad enough to warrant me getting up... so when the alarm went off at 7 I did not, I repeat DID NOT want to get out of bed. In fact I hit the snooze button until 7:40 and finally got up and hit the tanning bed, shower, made my lunch and was out of the house by 8:40!

Now if Derek will clean up the house where he's been there and making a mess for the past several days, I'd be a really happy camper! I told him he had to pick it all up AND empty and reload the dishwasher before I get home. I know he's hoping we can go sign up for the Lifetime Fitness membership today so he can go start working out! He was bored enough yesterday that he actually went down and hit range balls at TCCC.

AHHHHHHHHH I HATE Mondays!

2007-06-19T15:16:00.000-05:00

Often Monday's are just another day of the week for me but every once in a while I get hit by the little black cloud that used to follow me around all the time it seemed. Monday's bad day actually got its start back on Saturday... We had decided to celebrate Father's Day with dad by taking him to the Desperado's Arena Football game on the 16th. It was the final game of the season and they had been doing really well when I ordered the tickets at the end of March. I sent the email to my contact for tickets back on the 27th, telling him I needed tickets for the 16th because Derek wasnt home and Dad was going to be busy the weekend before and after that. I got the tickets picked up back in March and we were ready to go! In fact, I never even opened the envelope my first mistake! They had required us to buy 6 tickets even though we really only needed 5, so we told Derek to find a friend to go along. Last week he informed us on Friday, that he couldnt... well nothing like waiting till the last minute huh? So we scrambled around for 2 days and finally got Christy to agree to go THEN since Uncle D didnt stay to take care of JuJu, that meant that Mom couldnt go with us.. GAH... another ticket to find someone to go with us... well we never did find anyone and Dad came on over to join us and go have dinner and off to the game. Kenny made the comment, dont forget the tickets, I said no problem, go grab them now... he takes them out of the envelope THANK GOD and sets them on the table. I just happened to look down a little while later and glance at the date... JUNE 9... and it was JUNE 16... im sure you can see the problem there and can only imagine what I was saying at this point. We all agreed, after looking up my email request for the tickets that I HAD asked for the right dates but Scott always takes good care of me that it certainly wasnt on purpose. SOOOOO we decided to take Dad down and buy him a particular Jack he's been wanting at Northern Tool and Equipment. We got that and then let him pick where we were going to dinner. Joes Crab Shack it is! Well... Im not sure what happened, what we ate half of my plate of crab legs were still frozen and some of Kenny's and Dad's as well, managed to make Dad and I sick. Kenny ate the same thing too so we dont think that was it, I had a reaction like I do when I eat Soy and Dad I think might have just over eaten... So because my stomach was SO messed up boy do I feel for you Theresa! I didnt get hardly any sleep on Saturday or Sunday nights. Due in part to a FREAKING frog in the back yard that decided it wanted to call to it's mate 1/2 a block away... as a side note, Derek is now the official Frog Launcher in the family. I couldnt bring myself to kill it but I didnt have a problem with it being tossed a few yards over. He had to launch it the past 2 nights.. if it comes back again... well I dont know... as long as he's home I guess he can keep launching it! Anyway I get up really tired on Monday morning, kinda cranky because I'd finally found a spot to lay down where I could go to sleep for 15 to 20 minutes before my stomach started hurting again and had dozed off when Kenny called thinking I'd be up. I cant sleep sitting up or I would when I get these pains, otherwise I roll over ever 15 - 30 minutes which means not a good quality nights sleep. Ok so we are back to me waking up a little cranky and I hurt but I have to go in. Im on my way to the office and am thinking about having packed up and moved my office a week and a half earlier and that when I get in I can finish unpacking and setting up my desk/office because I feel sure them having had the whole week of me being out would have given them plenty of time to make the few changes that needed to be made. 1) to get me an under the counter file cabinet and 2) a couple of wall sections and a sliding door installed...

Remember now, Im already a bit cranky... I thought I'd remind you of that. Now, I walk up to my desk and not only do I not have the file cabinet how freaking hard is it to take an empty one out of one of the gazillion empty cubes and desks around here, there is no wall or door up, Im sitting right out in the open. ON TOP OF THAT, my chair is not where it belongs and LOW AND BEHOLD, some freaking, picture a much worse word here, idiot has taken my chair that I had set just right for me, height and tilt, and left me with one that sits all the way down on the floor. OMFG (insert your own words here) I am so pissed of by now, Im about to spit nails. I march down the hall to my bosses office and proceed to bitch, moan and even cry a little about how Im tired of being the Red Headed Step Child of this office. Ive been made to move no less than 10 times since August 16 of 1999 because someone else always needs my space. I march back out, go downstairs and ask facilities, where is my WALL, where is my DOOR and where is my FILE CABINET. On top of that I need a new chair!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so she gets me a chair that works and that I can set to my liking... Im then "informed" that it will be and I cant remember here because I was mad if she said it will be a while or a long time before I get the wall and door and they didnt know if they had a file cabinet that would fit. OMG how much different is the one I have now from the ones they have on the other 4 floors? Obviously a lot since its now the end of the day on Tuesday and they still havent come back.

Alright so I went through all of this and I go to hook up my headset and NO ONE CAN HEAR ME outside of the office and I know what you are thinking, I wasnt yelling but I was banging my head on my desk at this point. They bring me a new one, nope that doesnt work either. Sooo the really kind lady in Telcom comes up with her own wireless headset so as she says you can talk even in the bathroom. While I dont think anyone wants to experience that, its nice to know I can get up and go to my storage room and still catch my calls!

Definitely a Monday!!! Monday evening wasnt so bad but Tuesday around 10:45 kinda sucked as Im trying to get to Derek's Dr.s appointment, I press on the accelerator to pass a slow moving car on I-635 and I hear a rather loud pop then a odd hissing/grining/pssssst sound coming from under my hood! Well, temperature is staying steady, no lights are coming on the dash so I just keep on driving... typical Woman I know! I then call Dad and ask him what it might be, and based on symptoms and sounds, probably a vacuum hose has busted.... whew I can live with that. We take the car to the dealership and the dude asks me, how long can you leave it? Not a good way to start the conversation. I said, well I guess a few days why? Can you leave it Days and Days?.... uhm yeah I guess... Guess thats a good thing because they are either really backed up or the guy isnt sure they can fix it, hell I dont know! Anyway, Im afraid to see what is going to happen tomorrow! This may turn into "One of those weeks." Not just a crappy Monday!

Progress and...

2007-06-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well lets see. Ive been working really hard on losing weight over the past 5 months... really much longer than that but because of some medical issues finally taken care of back on December 1, I was able to get my journey of weight loss from a much better "starting" point. When kenny and I got married I weighed WAY to much at 165. Since Im 5'5" thats about 30 lbs over the middle of my "Ideal" weight range. Now I know that my range goes up to 145 and as low as 123 but I've weighed 100 when I was 18 and was very similar to an out of bounds marker on a golf course. Yes someone actually called me that once when I was in a white swim suit. For those of you non golfers out there, OB markers are often a decorative timber burried in the ground with white paint on the top half with the letters OB painted in black to let a golfer know when he's (usually me) hit the ball off the course (keep in mind back yard fences really do the same thing.) Anyway, while I dont want to be that skinny again, I would like to be a lot healthier and lighter than I was, lets say 17 months ago. Since my surgery, and might I add that explains why I could never get a flat stomach, no matter how many situps I've done in the past 3 years, Ive worked VERY hard at eating right and getting regular exercise. Last April I started jogging, walking etc to get in better shape and even though I pulled muscles in my shins and had to take 2 months off, yes I did it up GOOD, I managed to continue the routine well into the fall. When my health got the best of me, I did quit for a while. The Dr had been telling me for a few years to "pick a date" for surgery, but I felt like my other options were better... HA! Because I waited 2 more years and tried a couple of other options, (one worked ok but the side effects of that one were unmanageable, option 2 worked like a miracle but and there is always a but, it also contributed to 20 lbs of weight gain and my inability to lose it no matter how I ate or how much exercise I did) I was heavier than I'd ever been in my life, even with gaining 60+ lbs when I was pregnant with Derek. The Dr said the first 30 didnt count because I was so UNDERWEIGHT when I started... at this point 16+ years later, who would have ever thought I'd be at this point? Anyway, back to my original thought here.... oh yeah... Ive been working really hard at losing weight. Eating 1200 calories or less a day, which isnt that hard on the weeks I travel because of my usually self inflicted insane schedule. I have also been exercising 5+ hours a week by either walking/joging on my treadmill or now that its warm enough and when it isnt raining, riding my bike. I'd jog with Derek but since he has legs up to his ears, there is no way on god's green earth that I would be able to keep up with him, even if I wasnt 35 (36 next week) and still not in great shape. Crosscountry Boy can run 3 miles in around 16 minutes... even when I was his age and in JROTC there is no way I ran that fast! I think I did good to run 2 miles in 14 minutes (but that was with combat boots on too!) Sooo with all of this diligent work on my part, the use of Balance Log to track my food and exercise, support of Mom and Kenny and even Derek who regularly invites me to go out for a run with him... I CAN keep up with him on my bike with it in 7th gear, since December 20th I have lost (still retaining some fluids from my surgery, at least thats the story Im telling myself) Ive gone from 199 to 166! Wooo Hoo! My clothes of course fit mucho better, in fact at this moment Im wearing shorts I havent put on in quite some time... well I did but then the pleats were smooth! My goal is still to get to 145 so I have 26 lbs to go! But wow, in 6 solid months, Ive lost 33 lbs! Can you say SWEEEET? Ive slacked off on the working out the past couple of weeks but Im back to it and boy am I paying for it now! Who would have thought that 2 weeks of no treadmill, bike or situps that I'd be this sore after 40 mins on a stationary bike and 60 situps... ok maybe doing 60 after not doing any for a while was a bit much but hey, gotta get going again somewhere. Anyway lets see what the next 6 months bring and maybe the pictures that Teresa takes I wont look like stuffed sausage in my chef's coat.

Derek's Driving - Well... he's now been driving for 2 weeks and 2 days... and in that time here I go again with a big SIGH. His second weekend of driving resulted in a gash, and I do mean gash, puncture, screwed up paint etc in his tail gate... dont you know the ex LOVED having to call and tell me about that Derek was too afraid to call me himself. It looks as though someone backed into his truck with something in the back of theirs at the paintball place in Boyd. They drove around to all of the places that Derek had been that day and couldnt find anything that looks like he could have backed into that would cause that kind of damage... 5 inches long, 1/4 inch wide and the paint is ALL gone around this hole. He immediately wanted to take the bed off because the truck was no longer "pristine" but we decided it would be best if it was left on there because if something falls out of the back of his truck while he's driving such as the lawn mowers etc... thats another issue I just dont want to have to deal with! We told Derek he would have to pay for 1/2 of the cost of repair or replacement of the truck bed... needless to say he wasnt happy about that with but I didnt do it. Ahhhh the lessons and cost of growing up and owning your own vehicle. THEN, this past week, yes within 7 days of the first problem, he hit something, possibly going to fast into one of his friend's unpaved drive ways, broke the black plastic ground effects on the front of his truck. His dad made him take it off because he was afraid he would get pulled over by a police man or it would come off and hit another car. So thats 2 things he now has to help pay for and replace. Me thinks we will wait a while for that though so if something else happens maybe it will be to the tail gate and no where else.

He also had a new lesson in keeping track and balancing his check book and bank account. He is wanting to buy a really nice paintball gun so he was supposed to be saving part of the money he earns from mowing yards to pay for 75% of it. We have repeatedly (his dad and I) told him to check his account balance every day, gotta love online banking, so that he would always know what he has outstanding and pending. He is rather or has been rather laid back about the whole thing. A few times he has come close to over drawing it by a dollar or two and we have always covered it with the lecture of "dont do this again or we arent going to cover it." Well he finally did it, and did it GOOD. In the past few weeks he has gone from having over $100 in his savings and $75 in his checking to completely over drawing the account and getting whacked with not one, not two but THREE over draft charges... to the grand total of $102. That means he blew all his $$$ in both accounts and then some. He was convinced that it was the bank's fault but after he met with them this morning he discovered NOPE... it was all Derek! Now he's not only behind... he is in the negative... makes all the work he's done this week essentially FREE... lets hope its lesson learned... we shall see.

Travels - I had a marathon week from H-E-double hockey sticks this week. I got up monday morning and went to DFW, flew out to Knoxville, TN. Spend the night... of course worked all day Monday and Tuesday and flew home Tuesday night.... Got up Wednesday morning and flew to Cincinnati, OH (and yes I know its only an hour flight from Knoxville to Cincinnati, and yes I know there ARE flights between the two cities but would you believe it was $250 more to make it a round trip flight than it was to fly home and then back out?) worked all day Wednesday and Thurday and took a late flight home last night. At dinner I told Kenny, WOW, Im surprised Im not more tired that this... HA famous last words, by the time we got home I felt like I'd been hit by a rather large truck... and wouldnt you know, I was to dang'd tired to sleep! As you could imagine Im beat today. I did the work from home thing today and spent the better part of 2.5 hours on the phone helping one of our clubs in California... at least Im in shorts and yes as my usual atire, a golf shirt. At least Im not wearing heels today, wooo hooo... actually Im barefooted!

For those of you interested, my birthday is the 22nd... gifts, cards and well wishes are welcomed! Especially gifts... but I'd settle for a well wish from everyone! I'll officially be in a new age bracket... no longer the 26-35 group.. its the 36 - 44 group... AAACK! chant to myself, Im not old, Im not old!

Well guess what... this past week it was Kenny and my 3rd wedding anniversary! And some said we wouldnt make it a year... well they might have but they never said it to me! wink wink Believe it or not Im going to post a picture now. Here is a picture from that happy day, 3 years ago on the 12th.

Hola From LA!

2007-05-30T14:32:00.000-05:00

Well the weather isnt that bad here, at least it isnt RAINING! Although I think they could probably use what we have been getting for the past month. I dont mind not having to deal with LA traffic AND wet roads, one of the two is bad enough.

The air is a little smoky because of some fires around here somewhere I think.

My travels yesterday were wonderfully uneventful! Very few people actually at the airport in line and I was expecting hoards of people trying to get home from the holiday! Woo hoo no wait to get through security.

I stayed in a REALLY nice and really LARGE hotel last night. WOW I wish I was staying there again to night but thats alright Im getting out of downtown and up towards north LA this afternoon. Man oh man I hate parking garages.... This one at the hotel took 10 minutes to get me my car and then when I got over to this building.... grrr would it be SO hard to have at least one person on each floor that speaks English? I couldnt find self parking, FINALLY found valet 2 floors up (by accident) and all this waiting/driving and I was 15 minutes late getting up to the club.... I hate being late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I fly home on Friday morning and what I didnt realize until I was leaving the airport yesterday is that Im flying back out of the same airport but Im driving even further north than I am right now so for me to make my 10:00 am flight on Friday and deal with "rush hour" traffic (which is pretty much 24/7 here) I will probably have to leave the hotel by 5:00 am (7:00 am at home) to make it to the airport on time... YIPEE not. Oh well, we do what we gotta do!

Derek finishes school this week and is supposed to get his license today or maybe tomorrow so everyone be on the look out for him on the roads! Actually if you need your yard mowed every week or every other week he has a business on the side doing that... also washing windows on the outside of your house!

Ok everyone be safe and watch out for the thunderstorms in Dallas and I'll see you next week!

Where did I leave off?

2007-05-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah. I was wrapping up the MARATHON week from Hell two or was it 3 weeks ago? Yup 3 weeks ago. I finally got all my chickens on their respective flights home, took one of the local girls home because WOW she lives in Grapevine too! How cool is that? Ok so get this. The Palm Springs group, that I wrote about that missed their connection in Phoenix, in my last post.... well the story didnt end there. THEY FREAKING MISSED THEIR CONNECTION IN PHOENIX AGAIN! Can you believe that? Well they called at 9:30 that Friday night but darn it I didnt hear the phone ring, to tell me that they had missed it. They decided to just rent a car and drive on to Palm Springs. I got an email on Monday from one of the girls saying "DONT EVER, EVER, EVER put her on a US Airways flight again." I passed on the "feedback" to our travel department, but I sincerely doubt that they care, its all about the money saved not customer service.

Alright so after that... my back had been bothering me again to the point I've started going to the Chiropractor again. Now for the past 3 years (not all the time) they give me my adjustment but there is one spot that just KILLS me for them to attempt to adjust. My ribs in my mid back. Well good golly, holy cow and heaven help me they FINALLY moved and let me tell you that hurt like a ... well... lets say I said a couple of choice words but ever since that spot doesnt hurt at ALL! Yipee... on the down side I guess since the ribs finally went where they were supposed to that now my spine just below that REALLY hurts when they get adjusted... I guess little by little I will get my spine straight. I hope!

Sooo lets see what else has been going on? Oh I was supposed to fly to Boston last week but on the Friday before I get a call from the manager... the person you are supposed to train just quit so dont come up. Well yipee for that, NOW WHAT? A little scrambling and a few phone calls later (to travel, 3 managers and a regional) I changed my reservations and off to Houston I went! That was a good week. I got to catch up with a few friends, a few people I've worked with/for in the past that live down there now! Nothing really exciting happened that week so we can all be grateful for that! I got home on Friday and the first thing Derek asks me is "Has Micheal been able to fix my laptop yet?" he says with a very hopeful look on his face. Uhm well Im sure he has but we have to call to see if they are home yet. Nope not yet and as we get into their city, can't we just go by there? Ok, another phone call as we take the exit! Wheeee Tab answers the phone... "When are you coming over?" tee hee that was so cute. I said how about now... as in, Im pulling into your neighborhood! SURPRISE! Micheal is an Angel with a capital A because he got Derek's laptop fixed, all new software loaded AND something that will allow Derek to get his songs off his old ipod that was sync'd with the dead hard drive! another YIPEE! I owe Michael and Teresa at least 2 Tab sitting nights! Im sure she wont mind coming to the house to play and hang out!

Now... this week WOW. Its been a Derek High School Band marathon from hell. Monday was drum line tryouts, final concert of the year AND the band banquet on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday respectively. Long days, late nights etc has made us a couple of really tired puppies. On a side note here, Derek tried out for Drumline leadership but didnt get it - he was VERY disapointed! However in drumline tryouts this year, he tried out for the same drum he was on AND snare drum... he didnt get either one! They moved/promoted him to 4th base drum which is the hardest one (and just so you know) the typical spot for the drumline captain!

On top of that we are getting to the end of Derek's parent taught Driver's Ed so we are completing the "in car" lessons. So I picked him up on Wednesday in his truck automatic notice to Derek that he's driving. We head off to 114 in Southlake where there are 3 lanes of traffic to complete 3 of the modules.

Now one module is entering and exiting a 3 lane highway smoothly and at appropriate speeds. He's done this before a bit but we are trying to do this right and be as legit as possible so this seemed like the perfect area and at 5:00 pm the right traffic for the required risk aka "stress" level. Doing good, take the first exit, 4 way stop, he waits for cars to go and then heads on across. WAIT I really do try not to yell at these moments but often its my first reaction. A woman decides she is going first even though she is to our left and its our turn to go. Derek is all pissed off, BUT IT WAS MY TURN... good lesson here! Son you always have to be sure no one is going when they shouldnt so you dont hit them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT IT WAS MY TURN. sigh son she probably wasnt paying attention that is why YOU have to!

Ok so we get through that short lesson, back on 114, nice speed etc. Ok I want you to go across all 3 lanes to the other side. Ok mom... blinker, mirror check not over his left shoulder gotta work on that with him and ZOOOOOM all the way over to the far lane with me again I really do try not to yell telling him NOOOOOOOOOOO you cant do that! deep breath one lane at a time son, one lane at a time. You have to move over one, check your mirrors and then move to the next, check your mirrors and move over to the final lane. another deep breath ok lets move back across to the far right.... it was a little better but still way to quick. This is a good time for a lesson on that is BREAKING THE LAW and you can get a ticket for that. Another trip across the freeway and back it was a bit better but we have to work on looking over our shoulders before moving over - mental note to cover this with his Dad.

We exit into Southlake and head to Southlake Town Square for work on parking in angled and regular parking spaces. Up to this point in his lessons he's always parked where there was no one beside him so he didnt have to worry about hitting anyone. This went fairly well. parking space #2 he came within about 6" of a really nice jaguar... gulp. I decided we were gonna try this where there were less expensive cars... lets head to the employee parking area HAHAHAHA Ok so that worked better, smaller vehicles etc. We finally found an angle parking spot (those are hard to come by in this shopping area.) He did great on this so we are heading home! OOOO round about! Another one off the list!

We find a narrow street by the house and he executes a perfect 3 point turn! Another one down.

NOW with a bit of a nervous laugh we have to work on parallel parking... He's never tried this before at all and Im not doing that in southlake town square, to many people and expensive cars for this lesson. I pull our two cars out of the driveway and park them rather far apart to start with, out in the street. Alright, you can go at this 2 ways, try it nose in first and adjust then back in and adjust. He finally got the nose in part done, kinda and Im grateful that he didnt booger up his wheels running in to the curb so many times. Next we try the backing in. Car car car, curb curb curb... I watch the neighbor across the street come out of his house, wave a white towel where Derek cant see him, laughs and goes back in. He actually got this bit a little quicker than nosing in... the tip he needs to remember is SLOWLY AND use your mirrors to see where you are. He was just backing in without looking... its the little things that can make a difference huh?

Alright so we are to Thursday afternoon... weather starts moving in, my former boss has 5 people in for a meeting and flights are getting delayed and cancelled. I offer to help get some of them to the airport since its on my way home, so I drop one lady off at 4:45. Flight is supposed to leave at 7:30, now delayed until 9. Check again, delayed until 9:40, check again delayed until 10:05. AAACK, I told her to call and I'd come get her and let her stay at my place until she can fly out but we never heard from her... i do hope she got back to LA at some point last night!

RING RING RING... 2:50 am... automated system from American Airlines calling to notify Kenny (who is in Little Rock) that his flight back to DFW - now how stupid is this - is cancelled at 10:30 am and they re booked him on a 5:30 PM flight home. Now if he's not home, why are they calling there? Why not call his cell phone (which decided to crap out on him last night)? The system asks, "is this ok?" NO... I get transferred to an agent... uhm, whats the deal, lets get him home early... by now its 3:00 AM in the morning. Well we have a 9:10 am flight with a seat but the cost is.. uhm.... ahhh.... she pokes around long enough oh well that seat is gone now. OMG Im gonna shoot someone! ok we have a seat on the 5:20 am flight.... LADY he's to far from the airport to make that flight. are you sure? YES IM SURE (hey I didnt yell! but I wanted to ask her if she was an idiot) Alright so that flight is out, you poked around long enough that the earlier seat was booked what else is there? nothing ma'am. (BIG SIGH) Ok well I guess he's on the 5:30 pm flight but be prepared and make a note that you'll be getting a call from him.

Fast forward to 6:00 AM - I want to rip the alarm clock out of the wall. Get up, shower etc and try to get out of the house by 7:00 AM... just not happening... oh well, not my fault if Derek is late... I dont think he knows what hurry really is. I get him dropped off and head on in to work. WHEE less peoples... fast trip in for a Friday morning!

Kenny calls... he has called American Executive Platinum Desk and they say oh she shouldnt have gotten a call at 3:00 am, thats not acceptable. YOU THINK? they should have put you on one of the morning flights sir, Im sorry! YOUR SORRY? PFFFT. ok so sir, we are already preparing to start cancelling flights and you probably wont get home today, would you like me to rebook you on a flight for 9:00 tomorrow morning? (SIGH, yes I know Im sighing alot here today!)

So now we arent sure when he is going to get home! Its to expensive for him to rent a car and drive back because the drop fee's for Hertz are outrageous. BTW Avis doesnt do that!

Now all I have to do today is figure out how to get Derek his truck (its a long walk back from Wise County,) get the auto insurance paid (dont get me started on that) and then figure out when/if my husband is coming home... boy am I glad this is a 3 day weekend!

Well everyone have a fantastic Memorial Day Holiday and I'll see you from Los Angeles next week! cough cough

What?

2007-05-03T11:38:00.000-05:00

Two days in a row posting on my blog? Have I lost my mind? NOPE hehehe Im just now getting a chance to sit down for more than 20 minutes and my email at work and home is all caught up! The end of the semester is near at UNT so my grading is FINALLY all caught up which is a feat in and of itself because this semester we had well over 100 students in the two classes, which meant I had to grade some where around 10 assignments in a class of 30+ and 5 assignments in a class of 80+. Add that up, thats a LOT of reading and me trying not to get irritated at the lack of care that some students put into their papers. I always feel like when these students leave UNT and the Hospitality program, we should be proud not embarassed at their ability to at least write an email or a memo! Ive now been working for UNT for over 10 years, in fact last October was my 10 year anniversary.

At ClubCorp, my 10th anniversary was Friday, April 13 and what a hum dinger of a day that was with the weather moving across and making a NEW mess of the back yard, pool etc. I worked until 7 that evening to protect my car from the hail AND get a bunch of stuff done I needed to before I left for Jackson, MS and Jacksonville, FL the following monday.

This week I have 36 people in town for training... it started out to be 43 last Thursday but 2 people quit the company, their co worker that was coming with them was then pulled from the class, 1 person on Friday called to say, I cant come, I just found out Im pregnant and its high risk so the Dr. wont let me travel. THEN Monday morning provides me with an email, one attendee herniated a disk playing volleyball over the weekend, thus she wont be coming in and then to top it all off, one girl no shows, no call no nothing. Her boss doesnt know where she is and finally Tuesay we find out her mom is sick in Houston but she's not bothered to call ANYONE to tell them she wouldnt be back in town to work OR to the 5 day meeting. Anyhoo, its been a usual week of 10 - 14 hour days, lots of running around from place to place where my people are, one missed the shuttle from the hotel to downtown Dallas yesterday because he over slept which caused a major ruccus! Today all the little chicks were on the bus when they were supposed to but one was so hung over she couldnt even answer "here" as my friend Angela did the roll call.

Im used to the - in bed by 10:30 and up at 6:00 am thing - but this week it's really not nearly enough rest! I plan on planting my butt in a chair when I get home tomorrow and not getting it back up until I absolutely have to! I almost drove on home this morning without thinking and just barely made it across 6 lanes of traffic to get to the Luna Road exit off 635! Obviously I wanted to be there because I said I was going "home" instead of to the club or to the office to mom at least 4 times. Tomorrow at 2:30 cant come soon enough! that is when they all get on the shuttle to fly home tomorrow so boy I cant WAIT! Uninterupted sleep will be wonderful. I got one call on Sunday night at 11:15 that some people couldnt be found, they were not outside baggage claim etc. Call at 12:45 "we are in phoenix" we didnt make our connection and none of the 6 of us had any phone numbers to call to notify you. now I know that in at least 4 emails they were told, "print this out and bring it with you" and not one of them did it! Now what does that tell you about the people who live and work in Palm Springs? lol WAY too laid back I'd say and the next day he had the nerve to say to me "gee you arent very friendly at 1:00 am" YOU THINK? lol

And then one girl had a carry on full of shampoo, conditioner, hair spray etc what rock has she been living under? and a purse full of makeup etc.

OK so thats been my week and now I have to run, their lunch should have been delivered at 11:30 and hasnt been yet, and I didnt even tell you about what happened with that on Tuesday and I gotta remember to tell you about the wine dinner last night... YUM!

Wow

2007-05-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

has it really been a month since i posted. Well that ought to tell you how busy I've been. While it DID take us a bit to recover from Derek's Paintball weekend and my escapade into making sugar free cakes and icings.... Life at work and at home have been crazy busy. Now that the weather has gotten better (and by better I mean warmer) its been keeping us busy (and by us I mean me) working in the gardens, yard and even the house getting everything ready for spring and summer. Flowers planted and just about every weekend or every other weekend, cleaning up the yard and back deck from storms!

My job seems to have gotten a lot more stable as it can be. They went from laying me off as you know to having 6 months to having a year and a half to now, on my 10th anniversary with the company, to being permanent again.

I cant say we are doing anything really earth shattering just typical busy stuff, work, home etc. Everyone have a great afternoon and maybe I'll have more time to post the little things going on in our life some time soon!

Frosting

2007-03-28T09:42:00.000-05:00

Just as a follow up to my marathon post there... I pulled out my handy dandy recipe for chocolate frosting... substitute an equal amount of Splenda for powdered sugar. I get it all mixed and it doesnt look half bad once it all melds together. Time for a taste to make sure it balances out right... HOLY COW... at this moment I recall hearing on the news recently that splenda is something like 600 times more sweet than sugar... NO KIDDING!?!?! Why yes, yes it is. Because of all my "fun" over the weekend and its 5:15 pm - thats 45 minutes before we are supposed to be at the restaurant - I have to come up with something to cut that "sweet" out of the frosting. Im sure if Derek had been standing in the Kitchen next to me he would have seen the little light bulb go on above my head. I pick up the phone to call Mom, because she's supposed to be the all knowing cook (even though Im better ;o)) "Cant you throw cream cheese in chocolate icing?" Yup you can! So in it went, heck what did I have to lose at this point? Turns out it cuts the sweet quite nicely, doesnt help the calories but pfffft. At this point who cares!

The cake turned out a little dense but all in all it was alright for sugar free! Personally, I happen to like the fully sugared kind myself.

The dinner was fun, I wasnt sure about going to dinner with 15 people where I only knew Keith and Ruth Ann - the birthday girl, and of course Derek. I enjoyed getting to know their family since they know all of mine! Man they have a bunch of kids AND grandkids.. and one very cute and very sweet great grand daughter. One of their daughters is an Irving policewoman and she just happens to know Matt. Go figure! One of their grandsons goes to Abaline Christian University and he's on their drumline... he happened to sit next to Derek and that was a good match! Not only did he carry the #5 Base Drum his first 2 years on the Drumline it seems that Derek's fascination with his hair color and such must be part of it. They were the only two with "spiked" hair at dinner and I was informed to not be surprised if Derek wants hair another color than Blond... he went through all that too! hehehehe good to know. Nope no pictures either... are you kidding? Maybe I'll take a few for posterity next week while Im home on Vacation. Anyone wanna come have lunch with me? Ok its time to get some work done!

The Best Laid Plans...

2007-03-26T22:20:00.000-05:00

You’ve heard that saying.. “the best laid plans…” well that has been the last 24 hours for me. To tell the whole story though, we have to back up a couple of days. Lets go back to… FRIDAY! Derek had his yearly spring paintball party out at mom and dad’s place… 35 acres.. woods… ravines, what more could a pack, no a herd of 16 year old boys armed with paintball guns, roughly 32,000 paintballs, multiple tanks of air, masks and boots want? Not much I’d say… WE came armed with 72 cans of soda, 36 bottles of water, 6 square feet of pizza, 60 sausage biscuits, 2 gallons of orange juice, 8 lbs of hamburger meat and 2 packages of hotdogs (with all the fixings.) Now the boys pretty much at 8/10 of that food and all but 4 cans of the soda! Im glad I don’t have to feed that group all the time that’s for sure! So Im sure you are wondering what this has to do with my day today and Im getting there.

Like I was saying this is his yearly spring 24 hour paintball event. He sent out his notices back in November I think just to be sure everyone had it on their calendars. (Happy Birthday to Mom!) This always seems to get planned on her birthday… she says she doesn’t mind though. Anything to make her grandson happy! So with all of the excitement there was something Derek forgot to give me on Friday or for that matter over the whole weekend that would come into play in my day… The event went off without a hitch and all the boys left tired but happy I think. What was kind of sad for me was that several of the boys, for the first time, drove themselves out, instead of all the parents dropping them off… This group of boys that Derek has been friends with all his life are growing up too… (insert sad tear here.)

Saturday night when we got home, I hit the treadmill for an hour of mostly jogging at 4.0 mph (that’s a 20 minute mile for your information) not bad for me 3 months after my surgery…. Then did a bit of a work out with my resistance bands… (Im up to about 4-6 hours of exercise a week trying to get back in shape and healthy) now you read my post from last weekend so you know I had 4 hard days of work outside (lots of exercise) and didn’t get the house cleaned… I was out of town all week so it didn’t happen then either and as I mention above, we were tied up all of Friday and Saturday. Sunday comes along and Im determined to get the house all cleaned up if it kills me and the boys too! Im up and about getting everything set so cleaning can commence! We get going but only after I finally decide that Ive had it with Kenny’s old vacuum and go buy myself a new one, on sale, with a coupon it was $85! On a side note, these new canister, no bag vacuums work GREAT, and I thought my rainbow was doing a good job until this thing changed the color of the carpet in our bedroom. Anyway, ask me sometime if your interested in knowing more about that. We got to cleaning house, Derek cleaned up the kitchen, Kenny got all his stuff put away in his office area in the bedroom and the game room and I did the floors and dusted, all in all the house looks much better! So I bet you are still wondering how this affected my day today… I know… Im getting there. While all of this activity was going on, our neighbor from across the street comes over and asked if I would bake his wife a cake for her 70th birthday coming up on Tuesday… sure no problem, I can bake one from scratch made with Splenda including the frosting. Derek and I made a grocery list of things I needed to get since we haven’t bought groceries in over 3 weeks because we’ve been gone on the previously mentioned trips. We had no milk, eggs, bread NOTHING in the house. Because we had worked so hard on cleaning I was to tired to buy groceries last night (this will come back to bite me in the ass today) so Kenny just went for boneless skinless chicken breasts so I could grill them with some canned veggies for dinner… we were all tired of eating out. No problems there! I had Monday all planned out.

Ok so with that done, no matter how hard I work on Sundays or the whole weekend for that matter, I never sleep good on Sunday nights. I don’t know why, its probably a mental thing (NO IM NOT MENTAL) so many Sunday nights you will find me sleeping in the office because I HATE laying there in the dark tossing and turning, I might as well sleep in here where I can watch TV and not bother Kenny who must sleep in absolute silence and darkness (the colder the better.) Kenny comes in to tell me good night and says “You sure you feel comfortable sleeping with that window open?” This also will come back to bite me in the ass in just mere hours. I say yes, of course! Im not a paranoid person but that little comment put my subconscious to working. I settle in with the TV on low and listen to it raining lightly, hear the leaves shuffle with the wind, etc. Nothing major sound wise outside, maybe a cat… as it nears midnight… that must be a DAMN BIG CAT! I begin hearing noises that small animals don’t usually make… no, im being paranoid… thanks for that not so subtle suggestion dear. As the noises get louder and closer, Im thinking, “Gee I bet that’s Kenny out there trying to prove that its not safe to sleep with the window open!” Then I hear the rattle of chain link fence (growing up with them in our yards in the neighborhood you KNOW what they sound like when someone is climbing over them) next door. I know that it isn’t the neighbor because he is 91 and you NEVER see him outside except in the mornings when he comes out to get his mail in his bathrobe and pajamas. Now Ive got my glasses on and Im ½ sitting up. When I hear this noise coming from the gate outside my window I actually sit up as I see someone walk past my window… without thinking (and probably not really smart on my part) I yell “HEY” loud enough Im surprised it didn’t wake up Derek but then he sleeps like Rip Van Winkle. I jump up and grab the phone and dial 911 as I head through the house turning on the lights out front. Kenny at this point hears me talking to the dispatcher, describing what happened and that no one should be between the houses and certainly not in the neighbor’s back yard. We then realize as we wait for the officer to arrive that Kenny’s car interior light is on. Until this point Ive been able to convince Kenny to stay in the house but that did it. He had about 10 dress shirts and 5 golf shirts from the cleaners in the car… He goes out to see that they are all still there and that nothing is missing from the car. All is ok there and about that time the officer arrives. I tell him what I saw and heard and what the guy was wearing best I could tell in the dark. He tells us Im the 3rd call they had last night with people hearing someone in their backyard. He looks around with his spot light and flash light and says they will continue to look and thanks for calling. We head back inside and of course close the remaining open windows and Kenny heads back to bed, me to the office to sit down at the computer since now I KNOW I wont be sleeping any time soon! 15 minutes later we hear a BANG BANG BANG on the front door… I was thinking it was Kenny hitting something (hey it was late… what do I know) Then I hear Kenny say, no I cant see, I don’t have my glasses on. I walk up and its another officer with some items he is asking us to see if we can identify them. It seems they caught the guy who had been going through the back yards as he matched the description the 3 of us gave. He was drunk and covered in mud, probably from where he came over this fence here and fell where there is no grass and of course it has been raining. He had items that did not belong to him, including some girl’s college ID. I didn’t recognize the CD’s but I went down to Derek’s truck to check and all was well there, his tool box hadn’t been touched either. With the bad guy in jail.. I think I finally laid down to sleep some time after the outer limits went off at 2 or maybe 3, Im not certain. Boy did I NOT want to get up when the alarm went off at 6.

Ok so that starts my day… Midnight does technically begin the day you know! So the daylight starts off alright, got my car back from the shop after I took Derek to school… boy do I love that 2 hour drive but that’s another story! I get to work and start playing catch up and working on my big upcoming meeting in just over a month. I was away from my desk when I miss 2 calls from Derek… never a good sign to get a call from your kid at 9:45 when they are at school… then the text message comes in… School till 8… something with band…. He’s not happy. (You see, there was this note I mentioned above that Derek forgot to give me… that was the note about school late today AND a concert.) I text back, and I hate doing that because I don’t want to be the cause of him getting his phone taken up again. The return messages state it’s a clinic… I ask.. is there a concert? Anything I need to be there for? See I had the evening planned as I mentioned above, pick him up, hit the grocery store, come home and bake and ice a cake (remember from scratch) and cook dinner. Nope just a clinic… ok I can still manage the cake and groceries and still get him by 8! HAAAAA HAAAA I get a late afternoon message from the ex stating… there IS a concert at 7…. OMG Im so gonna have to punt here. I am able to get away from work at 4… and because of our lovely mother nature (Im not complaining that we are getting rain mind you) the rain has caused the idiots to come out who cant drive! It takes me an hour to go 16 miles… I figure skip the grocery store and get the eggs and milk at the corner “convenience store” (boy is that an oxy moron if there ever was one.) Well guess what? NO EGGS. By the time I go ahead to the store and get back through traffic home, its well after 5. Did I mention the cake was from scratch, not out of a box, ready to go in a pan in 5 minutes? Oh and did I also mention the cake has to bake for 40 minutes? Well I finally got it in the oven but by now there is NO way I can make it in time to hear Derek play so Im majorly bummed. I figure ok, Ive got time and my calendar keeps reminding me to update my blog (yes even with a reminder I cant manage to keep this updated every week, yet you expect pictures too?) I sit down to regale my story of last night, get it all written out and decide that I want to copy it before I run spell check so that if it gets lost when I publish (yes that has happened to me) then I would still have all this I had typed (this version has taken me about 45+ minutes to write because Im putting in all the details I skipped in the last one.) Well I get the whole thing highlighted and bam it disappears before I can hit CTRL + C - OMG… who’s rainbow did I poop on yesterday that THIS would be my day today? No matter what I do I cant find or retrieve what I’d written. (Im currently writing this one in MS Word so if I do delete it… I can click UNDO, boy do I love that little button.) Well, I head on out to get Derek from school because now the cake is done, and doesn’t taste half bad for scratch and no real sugar in it. I’ll let you know how the frosting goes another time, thats my PLAN for tomorrow evening (get Derek, make the icing and put it on the cake and be to the restaurant with said cake and what ever Gifts Keith wants brought to the restaurant by 6 pm.) I then realize… all Ive had to eat today is a piece of birthday cake because I was that busy at work and then had to go running out trying to get the cake ingredients, groceries and to Derek’s concert on time… well I got the cake done anyway. I hit a drive thru (I know not so healthy but hey I gotta eat something) So now its 20 minutes past when I want to be asleep and Im typing this up… go figure…. Best laid plans and all….

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

2007-03-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

I know, I keep saying I will keep this updated but man oh man. Ive been busy but with nothing really noteworthy. Well that is until the past week or so.

If im just traveling for work then usually there isnt much to tell. Palm Springs, LA and Phoenix - nothing out of the ordinary.

However last week we took a little vacation to Tampa and Orlando for Derek's spring break. We went to Universal Studios and that was a LOT of fun. We rode almost every roller coaster/ride they had between the 2 parks. We especially liked the movie set themed areas such as the 50s, New Orleans and the movie set recreations were awesome. Twister was REALLY cool, they put you in a simulated tornado with all the special effects to go with them including high winds, rain, explosions and debris. Definitely a must see if you go. As was The Mummy Returns, that was a great indoor roller coaster. They dont hose you on the food prices either which surprised us! Of course Im not sure why we own a camera. We did remember to take it with us to Florida but it never came out of Derek's carry on bag. We did make the drive down to Clearwater and spent an hour on the beach where Kenny found some really cool shells. I found a couple and Derek picked up one too! Im not sure what Im going to do with them yet but I'll figure it out (THERESA.)

We got home last Wednesday and Thursday morning found me up early and at the rental place to get a sump pump and 150 feet of 2" hose. I proceeded to empty our swimming pool, scrub, scoop and generally clean/powerwash the pool (with the help of Derek and a friend of his - John) we got that done, I took the filter apart and found where it was broken, bought the new manifold and cleaned all that out and it was REALLY nasty. I also got all of the gaskets lubed up and hopefully this stuff wont get stuck again!

We had to bring in the big guns - aka Leeman - to get the cover off the little filter because Kenny, Derek and I could not get it lose ourselves. Im so glad he did because our next option was to either break the lid or cut the whole dang thing loose and install a new one. I also used the "leave sucker" (backwards leaf blower) to pick up the last of the leaves in the back and side yard, then swept and cleaned off the deck and pool deck and side deck off. I also emptied and cleaned out the shed and threw out a bunch of junk and in the process discovered that along with my bicycle being exposed all winter, my golf clubs (including my titleist driver) were ruined. I worked on my bike a few weekends ago and about have it back to complete working order, I just have to get a new rear brake cable.

Anyway that was pretty much my 4 day weekend working outside. I intended to clean house but by the time I was done I didnt have it in me!

Alright... so that brings you all up to date. I hope to post again sooner than a month but with me you never know!

Anyone Notice the Cold weather is coming in 2 week swings?

2007-02-12T21:30:00.000-06:00

Seems that each time Derek comes home from his Dad's we have bad weather mid week. This has been going on now for the past month and a half or so. They are calling for snow on Wednesday AGAIN.

This afternoon, late, the weather turned great and I opened the garage door and aired out the game room, took out all the trash etc I've been putting off because it hasn't been warm enough. Im ready for it to be like that all the time.

On another note entirely, last Tuesday my company laptop started lagging and then all of a sudden... BLUE SCREEN. I hate that... its NEVER a good sign.. a person could learn to hate blue because of that. Anyway, so I'm without something I NEED for training for the rest of the week in Phoenix. I go to the office on Friday, hand them the laptop and tell them it pass all 3 hard disk tests but windows still wont start. They email me that afternoon that they are ordering a hard drive and it should be in on Monday (today.) I get an email after that from another IT person that they are reloading windows and the HDD is fine. Move forward to today. Loading windows FAILED getting the same message I was. SOOO still no computer so no reason to go to the office, I cant work from there! NOW they say they have ordered the drive but it could be Wednesday before they get it.

Guess I'm going to have to hang out at the house again tomorrow and work from here. Wish it was going to be warmer so I could get on my treadmill but with tomorrow's high supposed to be so cold that isn't going to happen I don't think... grrrr. I'm so damn ready for spring.

On another front, Derek lost his truck keys on Friday. He isn't sure if they were taken, thrown away or what so now it looks like we are going to have to have his Truck re keyed and we aren't sure what that's going to run. So because of that, he was grounded from playing paintball on Sunday (yesterday.) Seems to be the most effective punishment with him right now.

Well I think that brings us up to date for now. ( I apologize for the disjointed flow of my message but its the way my brain is working, or in my opinion, not working. I dock points off students papers for theirs reading like this!)

Snow? but... but.. but.. its Texas!

2007-02-02T14:00:00.000-06:00

Well now it wasnt a whole lot of snow but hey, we will take what we can get. Im sure mom's blog will have pictures from out there so be sure to take a look.

Last weekend we did make it to the Fort Worth Exposition and Live Stock Show! Havent been in a couple of years so that was a lot of fun. We walked all but 2 of the barns (skipped the swine barn, the goats were bad enough) and we also skipped the horse barn because Kenny is VERY allergic. Derek was NOT entertained by any of it so next year I guess we go without him. He was bored by it all. We enjoyed the booths and the well tended animals. Driving out, we passed by Dos Gringos and it never fails to remind me of Cindy and her 16th Birthday and the surprise we played on her! She thought that is where we were going for dinner and it turns out we were having a party for her at the house. BOY was she MAD! Not that she didnt enjoy the party but I think she REALLY wanted to go there for dinner.

So where have I been? I went to Chicago... Ive been there before but never in the Winter. Can I say OMG how the heck do people live there year round? For goodness sake there was ICE on that lake, now I knew that happens but WOW that means it gets really cold for THAT much ice. No I didnt get pictures (sorry Teresa.) It was really cold the entire week I was there, as in 8 - 10 degrees in the morning and not really out of the 20s during the day. Locals said that this was rather warm for them. Now I want to tell you about the hotel I stayed in. You kind of figure that Chicago is going to be Modern, especially when you are right in down town. The hotel they put me in was OLD. They are in the process of remodeling but of course I was in one of the old rooms. When I say old, I mean, decorated in the 40s, mustard yellow/kind of orange tile in the shower, old handles you might find in restoration hardware but in better shape than these were, the heat was provided by radiators! RADIATORS for goodness sake! One of the windows was all messed up and leaked COLD air all the time so you had to turn the heat WAY up to even be remotely warm. The paint was all cracked, the toilet was a power flusher and no tank. OLD TV's and only one remote for bedroom and living room. I could go on but you get the mental picture (no I dont have a picture of that either Teresa LOL.)

Next week Im off to Phoenix (pronounced PA-HO-NIX for those that remember the fed ex commercial a couple of years ago) and Im sure hoping that it will be warmer there than here!

Sunday is Superbowl Sunday and since no one is coming over maybe I dont have to cook for a horde of people and we can go somewhere else to watch the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so it seems Ive been "tagged" to answer some questions from Teresa's Blog and since she tagged me and I only know one other blogger and thats MOM, SO she's tagged and must copy and paste this on HER blog and answer the questions too!

Fill this out about your YEARS of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be.

1. Who was your best friend? Cynthia Carol Tyree - I really think she was my long lost sister since she looked more like mom than I did! God rest her soul I still miss her today and its been 10 years ago last week that she's been gone.

2. What kind of car did you drive? Lets see, first it was a 76 Cadillac BOAT with a long whip antenna for the CB that was installed in the dash. Then it was a green, Volkswagen rabbit diesel that I burned the engine up in so I know, dont give a teenager a car with an oil leak cause they wont check it. I still remember mom trying to teach me to drive that stick shift.

3. It’s Friday night, where were you? Lets see, Cindys, my house, maybe working, possibly and more probably eating at Panchos, Whataburger, or Taco Bell and/or going to the $1 movie.

4. Were you a party animal? Nope, wasnt allowed! hehehehe

5. Were you considered a flirt? No, not really.

6. Ever skip school? No, I couldn't. Phyllis worked in the attendance office and all my teachers knew to ask her where I was if I wasnt in class...

7. Were you a nerd? Not in the book sense but probably so.

8. Did you get suspended/expelled? No.

9. Can you sing the fight song? Maybe, what song was it? Dixie right? Might could if I thought about it!

10. Who was your Favorite teacher? Mrs. Lunsford

11. Favorite class: Woodshop and Computer Math.

212. School mascot? The Rebels!

13. Did you go to Prom? Yes, Geri made my dress and it was BEAUTIFUL... wish I could still wear it if I had it.

14. If you could go back and do it over, would you? Not only no but HELL NO.

15. What do you remember most about graduation? Uhm, not much. Just that the year before the kids were out of hand in a big way so we had teachers 2 to a row.

16. Who was your high school sweetheart? I only had one and Im not gonna answer that one.

18. Did you have a job your Senior year? Ya, Hathaway's Catering I think. Not sure where Bratwurst and Life Uniform (NE Mall) fell in the mix.

19. Where did you go most often for lunch? Ha, not sure. Probably the cafeteria

20. Have you gained weight since then? UHM Ya! How bout 70 lbs!

21. What did you do after graduation? Worked during the summer and then went to TCJC in the fall.

22. When did you graduate? 1989

23. Who was your Senior prom date? Eric, Cindy, Christy (4 of us went together)

24. Are you going to your 10yr class reunion? Yes and Im glad I did. I got to see a few old friends and caught up with another one that I hadnt seen during that time that I'd known since kindergarten and it figures we've lost touch again.

25. Who was your home room teacher?? No Idea...

26. Who will repost this after you? Guess that would be MOM!

Nothing New To Report

2007-01-19T11:52:00.000-06:00

Its been a quiet week this week... mostly because Monday the weather was still bad and Derek didnt have school... Kenny was enroute to the airport and his boss calls and says dont get on that plane, you might not be able to get back home on Friday.

Came to work on Tuesday and moved my desk. They decided an AA down a few cubes should have my spot so they offered me an office with a sliding door (no window, its an inside office) so I need to find a picture of something I can hang up and at least get the feeling of looking outside. I think it needs to be a sea scape of some beach in Hawaii.

Wednesday, weather was bad again so we stayed home! Thursday weather was good again, came in and finished opening boxes from 3 moves ago and decided that since I hadnt needed the stuff in over 2 years the majority of it (coffee cups) could go in file 13. I need to find an FM antenna because my radio wont keep a good signal in here. I also need to find some inconspicuous rabbit ears for my mini tv... I wonder if I still have those from the office tv at home? Never know when I might wanna listen to the TV instead of the radio because I'd NEVER watch TV at work.. nope, wouldnt do it!

Well Im headed to the windy city on Monday... GREAT time of year dont you think to go to Chicago? NO!!!!!!!!! but hey... at least I have the job and I get to see a new club we bought AND have dinner at one of our clubs that just got a $6 million renovation. Frank told me to be sure and order something from the sommelier because he's really good and really funny... NO PROBLEM FRANK! My next stop on the internet will be what the weather is up there right now so I know what to pack! I hope I have enough warm clothes.

Now that Ive gotten the OK release from the Dr. Ive begun my work outs again... it sure doesnt take long to lose what muscle tone I had! Im the walking sore right now! Legs and butt really hurt but hey, if I wanna slim back down and lose the weight that I couldnt before, it means a little pain and I hope a WHOLE lot of gain (i.e. lose 40 lbs.)

So now that I dont have anything to report I think I'll head out for some lunch and hope the weather holds this weekend like they say it is and maybe I'll go to the Stock Show! I havent been in years!

The Governor Sent Down a 6 Month Reprieve

2007-01-12T12:21:00.000-06:00

OK! wow... I had my meeting with the regional and it wasnt much better than the conversation I had with the manager. A lot of 'i dont knows, etc" so I finally resigned myself that I was out of a job for sure. I set up interviews for next week with another company and have arrangements to make a call on another job.

I wasnt planning on coming to work today but I forgot some papers that I needed to get some work done for my 2nd job so I had to come in. I didnt do my hair, Im not wearing any make up cause I wasnt gonna be here long! pfffft. Thats what I thought.

I sit down at my desk and fire up my computer... check my email and find those papers I needed. Did that in the first 10 minutes and the girl next to me hears me clear my throat and says Hey! Frank is looking for you. Wants to see you right away.

I wander down the hall and he is in a meeting. I figure I'll come back after that and see whats up. I walk by his office and in the middle of what Im told is an important meeting, he hollars my name. Rushes out to tell me that "Ive gotten you a 6 month extension on your job."

I can honestly say I was shocked. I dont know what to feel cause I'd finally resigned myself to leaving, sent out my fond farewell email to all my friends and co-workers etc just yesterday and was feeling pretty emotional about the whole thing again... keep in mind though, Ive been that way pretty much since they told me Dec 8. Lots of sadness and admitedly some anger which I understand is normal considering the circumstances.

Now I get to feel like an idiot because they decide to keep me the day AFTER I sent that email. Soooooooo I think I'll wait for the details before I send a follow up saying SURPRISE! Im still here to all those people who I just told... sorry I wont be here to help you anymore.

Im not sure my boss even knows yet. (correct this... boss just walked by and her AA told her)

In any case, Im heading home soon since they are now saying that we are going to get this ice worse than they thought and sooner than they thought. I need to get some milk cause we are totally out at home and maybe get the propane bottle filled in case we have no power, I can cook on the grill!

Are you hiring?

2007-01-10T10:51:00.001-06:00

Well so the story goes... its been such a roller coaster. You know from earlier posts that I've been laid off. The company says they want me to stay, they will put me in a club, blah blah blah. Well now that "budget cuts" have been handed down by the new owners... my future isnt so sure now. Now the EVP says he cant mandate a club take me like he said he would back in December. That he knew before Christmas that it was going to be that way... when did he tell me? This past Monday. Ive not been seriously looking outside the company up to this point... grrr.

Ok! so now I've had one interview with a manager... wasnt all warm and fuzzy, in fact it was rather odd how it was left... as if he really wasnt interested in hiring me, he was just going through the motions because he felt obligated to talk to me. So then... I also set up a meeting with another manager last week for today at lunch... he emails me (not calls me mind you) to tell me never mind. He's got thinking to do about these new budgets and wont know for a few weeks whether they will hire anyone at all... (keeping in mind it took him a week and a half or more to answer 2 phone calls and an email)

So now... I have a meeting with the regional either tomorrow or Friday (he said he would be talking to those two managers before we meet) to talk about options from his point of view. In the mean time... Ive met with my long time mentor and he has passed along my resume to two fantastic lady's who maybe can point me in the right direction for a new job. Ive also been in touch with two other companies somewhat similiar to ours about any openings they may have.

Im begining to go through nervous spells, today I woke up sick at my stomach, Im not sleeping well at all (understandable I'd say) and people keep telling me, "it will be alright" but then they have jobs!

Yes I have 12 + weeks of severence but then that means no medical insurance (I can do cobra for $400 a month) or go on Kenny's insurance at 300+ a month so thats not SOOOO bad.

I know that everything happens for a reason. Maybe Im supposed to leave this company to go learn something new and maybe in the years to come, I can come back with a different perspective and maybe even a little new knowledge in the process.

As many of my friends know, Im always optomistic but in this case I cant let that keep me from looking for the job that is right for me, its not going to come to me this time Im betting, I think Im going to have to go out and find it. SOOOO if any of you know of any jobs out there... please let me know. I have about 3 1/2 months of severence and vacation time after the 23rd to find SOMETHING.

On the bright side... Derek wants to go out for the High School football team as a Field Goal kicker... gogogogo Derek... never give up on a dream until you know for sure thats all it will ever be.

Beads... Beads... Beads...

2006-12-31T09:48:00.000-06:00

We are in the town of "show me your...." for new years (aka New Orleans).

I hadnt realized its been a month since I posted. On December 1 I had a hysterectomy and have spent the whole month recovering. It was a very rough first two weeks after the surgery and I hope to never go through that kind of pain again. I asked why no one told me that it would hurt that bad! I woke up with horrible horrible cramps on Sunday after my surgery and it pretty much stayed that way all day. I cried pretty much the whole time.

On top of all that, on December 8, I received a call telling me that my job was being eliminated with the buy out of our company. Also not a good day there either... At this point Im not sure what I am going to do. I have the opportunity to take a postion at two different clubs but this isnt starting out the way I thought it would. My first choice... the manager hasnt returned my call or email yet (not a good start but Im trying to be optomistic about it.) The second choice, the manager is moving here from out of town and I guess I will meet with him next week some time. My job officially ends on the 23rd so I have to figure something out by then.

Really not much happened after that THANK GOODNESS!

We had a good Christmas! Derek pretty much got what he wanted (Xbox 360 and paintball pants,) Kenny got a brookstone sound machine, massage table (so I can give him massages) noise cancelling head phones, palm 650 phone (birthday present) a few new ties, pictures for the game room walls and new cuff links... did I forget anything? I got a sony PSP and I think I have a total of 6 movies and 4 games... its a really cool little device.

So here we are, in New Orleans for New Years. It rained the first two days we are here but it looks to be a good day today. We spend Friday afternoon and Saturday shopping in a couple of malls. The one here at the Hilton Riverside is not quite back to normal since the Hurricane but its up and going better than one might expect. We decided to go to Lakeside Mall yesterday but round trip it was $55 in cab fare because we dont rent cars when we are here. The mall was much like North East Mall and the boys had a great time shopping. They spent most of their time in Hollister, Aeropostale, Abercrombie and Fitch and American Eagle. Go figure, Derek's a clothes horse (you can blame Kenny for that I think.) One really funny thing is I guess the split up at one store while shopping and ended up both buying two of the same shirts and didnt realize it until we got back to the hotel.... Also, while shopping at some point yesterday the boys bought a fart machine that has a remote and 2 laser light pointers. So for 7 hours yesterday they rode the elevators, walked the hotel and attached mall and some how managed to NOT run the battery down on one laser light and the fart machine. Typical 16 year old boy fun. They even made friends with the hotel manager who was throwing the football with them somewhere in a hallway down stairs. They couldnt make the xbox 360 work on the tv's here in the room so Im glad they found some harmless fun to keep them occupied while it was raining.

So today we head down to Jackson Square and Decatur Street. Bubba Gumps HERE I COME! woo hoo a place that cooks in all Canola Oil so I can eat all the fried shrimp I want and no worries about Hives!

Hopefully I will remember to post again tomorrow about what we see and how the French Quarter looks to us post hurricane.

Arent You Impressed?

2006-11-27T13:28:00.000-06:00

I finally posted some pictures and will even post a few on here.

It was made apparent on Thanksgiving that I hadnt posted any pictures nor had I updated my blog.

So lets see, whats been going on the last three weeks? 8 or 9 people here at work (mostly executives and their AA's) have been laid off or will be once the sale of our company is final. I have a feeling they arent done yet and I can only hope they want to keep me!

Our thanksgiving was wonderful, we had a great time and as always there was plenty of food left over. Not for a lack of trying on everyone's part to eat as much as possible. We did finally start counting how many cookies that Kenny's grandmother was eating... I think she ate at least 7 and not sure how many mini pumpkin pies... was cute!

I realize I havent posted since the final marching contest for Derek's band so here are some pictures from their group. While they placed 7th out of 10... (not being biased here but they got screwed) because they by far, had the hardest performance of all the bands!

On a seperate note, Im having surgery this Friday Dec 1 so my blogs for the next 6 weeks may be really boring and be comprised of mundane things such as movies watched, games played on the PSP and what happend on Days of Our Lives!

Derek and I lost our minds and decided to do the "day after thanksgiving" shopping thing. We headed out at Midnight (I hadnt slept and Derek only got 45 mins of sleep) and went and stood in line at Best Buy, chairs, blankets and Derek's IPod in hand. I was surpised that there were so many people in line when we got there at 12! We were probably 75 or 80 people back in line!

We sat for an hour or so... got bored.. stood... sat some more... we finally started messing around, talking etc to stay awake. One group behind us in line came for about an hour and a half without having looked at an ad. Once they did they decided the sales werent good enough and left. Odd but what ever!

At 3:30 the line started moving up taking up the spaces that had been all spread out for big chairs, tents and such from the die hard shoppers. When the line moved some guy came walking from the parking lot and tried to get in line in front of us! The NERVE! I was like "DUDE I dont know what you are doing but you need to go to the back of the line." He said "Ive been here all night" I told him NOT HERE YOU HAVENT! He mumbled something about finding his "pack of friends" and tried to get in line behind us... the people back there did the same thing. He finally left but BOY did that piss me off! hehehehe

Anyway, we got 2 vouchers for "items" we wanted but didnt get some that we did (not saying what cause its xmas presents.) We left there, drove by Circuit City to check out their lines and voucher status... All was good there for what we wanted so we left and went to IHOP for breakfast and WARMTH! We went back to Circuit City and got Derek's XBOX 360 but stood in line for 2 hours to check out... OMG I was so tired by that point and we saw the idiot we saw in line at Best Buy... I wanted to walk over and get in line in front of him! hehehehe

We finally got out of that disorganized mess that was C.C. (they only had 1/2 the check out lines open... go figure the stupidity of that move!) and headed back to Best Buy and low and behold NO LINES so we got the 2 items we wanted and were out of there in less than 10 minutes.

We went home and promply fell asleep (Derek in his bed and I made it as far as the couch.)

Later in the day we hit Linens and things and got me a Scuba (brother to the roomba) and it works like magic... it sweeps and mops the hard floors and I didnt even have to be there! WOOO HOOO!!!! Boy am I happy with that little invention. Will come in handy over the next month and a half while I recover from surgery!

Ok here come the pictures from Aledo Marching Contest

I Know... I Know

2006-11-07T14:38:00.000-06:00

I suck at posting pictures so I say that now before I tell you where I was last week.

Last week I was in Colorado. I flew to Denver and then drove through the mountains to Glenwood Springs. I figured I would enjoy the drive and sure enough... it was as beautiful as I expected. I will now say... I took some great pictures and will post some soon... Im sure you are thinking "Yeah Right." I truly have good intentions but it always seems like I remember to update my blog when Im not at home and that is where the pictures are.

We finally decided to get a new couch. Every time Kenny or Derek sit down the couch cracks and pops.... I keep telling them that its gonna break! We decided to look into the Macy's sale and sure enough, they had some nice ones on sale. We got a sectional that seats 6 including one prone! It will be interesting to see who gets that spot more often, Kenny or Derek.

Derek's marching season wrapped up on Saturday, more pictures that need to be posted, yada yada yada. They finished 7th (and it was a bogus ranking) They should have ranked higher!!! And thats not just "mom" talking. Im looking forward to getting the video back because I felt they did a better job this time around than at regionals and they received a 1 there.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we are getting ready! The couch is step 1. From there its down hill to Christmas.

These pictures were on my drive across the mountains and back... most were from the moving car! Man i'm either nuts or multi talented! No comments please! ;-)

BOO!

2006-10-30T10:52:00.000-06:00

I know that just scared the crap out of you didnt I? Well tomorrow is one of my very favorite holidays of the year, and not JUST because it is Derek's birthday. He will be 16! *sigh and a little tear*

This past weekend was beautiful. Sometimes I wish the weather would be like that year round but then I remember I like to swim so it has to get HOT some now doesnt it?

I know I keep promising to upload pictures from hawaii but that means I have to get my poop in a group and while I've gotten the pictures off my camera they are still on my computer at home and not WITH me when Im updating the blog. HOWEVER Mom did get some picture website uploaded with HER pictures if you wanna see some of what we saw.

Derek ran varsity cross country again at two meets last week and in the 4 meets he has ran, he has improved his 3 mile speed about 1 minute from 19.46 to 18.40. So Im really proud of him on that front.

This week after we celebrate Derek's birthday tomorrow evening, I am headed off to Colorado! Im flying to Denver and driving to Carbondale/Glenwood Springs. My hope is that the roads will be clear for this flat lander to pass safely. I also hope to take my camera so I can be a tourist and stop to take pictures as I pass through the mountains.

We are gearing up for Thanksgiving... already thinking about and planning what our menu will be. I think we will add a bit of texas flair this time around and do Baked and Fried Turkey but instead of Ham, have Dad smoke a brisket! One of these days Im going to have him show me how to do that! Then maybe I can try doing my baby back ribs that way too! MMMM mighty good! That may be the next thing I ask for as a gift... A goood smoker. Its that or one of those Roomba's the automatic floor sweeper. Anyone know if those things work? I saw where they have the one that mops now too! You know me... Kitchen gadgets are my thing. I need a bigger kitchen!

Alright everyone have a good week and I'll post more if I deem anythnig noteworthy!

Howdy Folks!

2006-10-23T09:46:00.000-05:00

Well. We are back home now. I cant necessarily say "happily" but hey... you cant stay in Paradise all the time can you? Then it wont be paradise anymore! The remainder of the week was much less eventful than our first full day on Oahu but we did get to see some Monster Waves on Friday, coming in ahead of some storms. The swells were between 12 and 18 feet just off the beach of our hotel. We got to see quite a few surfers out there but of course my camera was already packed up. I have yet to download what I took but I will get to that this week and post a few of the better ones.

Derek ran with the Varsity Cross Country group on Thursday and placed 53rd but he's not sure how many ran. They beat Haltom High School completely as a team!!!! Gotta LOVE THAT! He placed 3rd to the last for his School in the Varsity group so he seemed happy with that since this was only his 3rd meet ever to run. The Band received a Division 1 for their performance at Denton on Saturday... THEY DID A GREAT job! I really enjoyed seeing their changes from the last time I got to see them march from the "home" side of the field. They definitely deserved the scores they received.

North Shore... WOW

2006-10-18T11:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went to the North Shore and stopped to watch the surfers at several locations including the banzai pipeline. I took some really good pictures of some surfers on Sunset Beach and at Banzai. We drove around to the tip of the Island and then back down to Hale'iwe and ate at this little "hole in the wall" place called Giovanis which is actually a converted delivery truck where they serve 2 kinds of shrimp. Garlic and HOT and Spicy. OMG it was some of the best shrimp we've ever eaten, we all agreed.

Went to Compadres for dinner and that was a great time!

More soon...
Ellen

These are pictures of the surfers on the North Shore!

Aloha!

2006-10-16T10:30:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Waikiki Beach, Hilton Hawaiian Villiage and land of Shake Rattle and Roll.... or as Christy puts it... Tub Surfing.

If you hadnt heard, we had an earthquake here yesterday and was without power for 15 hours yesterday.... so here's what happened.

around 7:15 yesterday morning, mom and I already had my shower and we were sitting on the bed reading, talking and watching a little tv while christy took her shower. All of a sudden the building began to shake a little and I looked at mom... eyebrows raised... "earthquake?" and she said yes, I think so! we got up to go look outside and as we passed the bathroom, christy said, "Are we having an earthquake?" Mom said yes and then the power went out. Then it came back on... back off.... back on then off for good. Me not thinking... Christy is in te bathroom in the dark... mom kindly opens the door so she can see! I didnt even think about that... HA!

Well as you can imagine we kind of waited to see if it would come back on and NOOOOOO it had to stay off all freaking day. We are on the 15th floor of our tower so that meant we had to walk down the stairs to find food cause we hadnt had breakfast yet. The line at the ABC store was about 45 minutes, thank goodness they opened for people to get what they needed. We got pepsi and coke (gotta have our caffene!) sandwiches, chips, cookies etc to keep us happy. We then walked back UP the 15 flights of stairs. Ate our lunch, cookies, hohos, and drank 1/2 our softdrinks... figured we earned it walking up and down those damn stairs.

We sat and talked, read, napped etc most of the day... talked to the people a lot on either side of us... one couple is from Ireland... here on their honeymoon, they laughed and said they could now honestly say that the earth moved on their honeymoon! The couple on the other side is from Cumings, GA and before that Houston. So we talked with them a while. They were really nice.

Eventually they got one elevator working in each building so we rode down and went straight to the bar... Christy and mom had tequilla sunrise and I had a Mai Tai. We went for a mile or so walk down the beach and back, went BACK to the bar and had a drink called a Hoola Girl... OMG it had over 3 shots of alcohol in it... Yummy but damn cant have to many of those thats for sure! We went and stood in line again for more food and when we went back to ride back up... ELEVATORS were back down again *grumble* ok so a kind security guard gave us a flashlight and we headed back up.

We ate our chips and salsa throughout the afternoon and evening so we didnt eat our lunchmeat/cheese/crackers we intended but hey... we are on vacation!

Anyway... we are heading down to breakfast shortly and then we are off to see SOMETHING... not sure what yet so stay tuned for more adventures of Ellen, Anna and Christy!

For those of you who remember Gilligans Island, this is the marina where they shot the opening sequence... Its the view out the front door of our room...

There were so many flowers around the propert I thought I'd snap one or two of the orchids.

This is a picture from our Balcony!

Diligence

2006-10-13T16:40:00.000-05:00

Well I guess Im officially on vacation! Im at home... working on getting Kenny's Lyra loaded with shows from the TiVo so that the plane ride doesnt seem so long to LA then on to Honolulu. I know you feel sorry for me having to spend 8 hours on a plane tomorrow... I guess I'll play a little Diablo II: LOD while I wait for Kenny to get home. Hi Jen, John and Doug (not that he will look at this) but hello just the same.... Oh and Hi SW... thx for reading.

I got my desk put back together, although I took time to clean everything before I put anything back out, reorganize my drawers and desk top and then put out my tchotchkey crap back out! Everyone kept coming by and saying "wow look how clean your desk is" which made me think it must have been dirty yesterday!

I thought I'd tell you about my lunch today... its one to remember! I went down to our deli in the building cause I was to lazy to get in my car to go get anything else and ordered a chili cheese baked potato (I know you can hear my arteries clogging from there!) and OMG! they brought out a 2# baked potato... IM NOT KIDDING... it could have fed a family of 4... or Ed. Everyone that went by asked me if I was gonna eat the whole thing... one exec kept coming by checking my progress... I gave up before I ate half of it and 3 hours later Im Still FULL!

Anyway... I'll post from vacation.

Aloha!

I should have waited

2006-10-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

until the end of the day to post! I created the blog while taking a break from packing up my desk. After much wrangling on the part of my boss... doing the office politics thing etc, they finally decided to move me into an office with a door. I get my desk all packed up except for one or two boxes and they come around to tell me, "DONT PACK" your not moving. *BIG HUGE SIGH* Ahhh well, such is life huh?

While Im creating a new post, I might as well break the news to you... Im going to Hawaii on Saturday, I know, dont you feel sorry for me? I know I do, NOT! Mom and my friend Christy and I are going for a week. I do have to work for two days but the rest is supposed to be FUN, FUN, FUN.

Im sure we will post pictures when we get back!

Aloha *hugs*

Pictures from Crowley Drumline Competition...

2006-10-12T14:41:00.000-05:00

and his first Cross Country Meet!

He's the one with the white hair if you couldnt tell! He's easy to pick out of a crowd right now thats for sure!

Welcome to my world

2006-10-12T13:38:00.000-05:00

I probably should have named this Derek's Mom's Page or Kenny's Wife's page but hey! I have to have a bit of my own identity dont I?

I have to say this could be cool, provided I remember to keep it updated! I hope to keep you entertained on all of the trips I make and maybe an interesting fact or two about the cities, clubs or areas that I go to.

Ive had some great trips lately. In September I went to Pinehurst in NC, Palm Springs (thank goodness it finally cooled off, since I thought my brain was going to cook in my skull this summer when it was 114 on my car thermometer,) San Diego and LA. In October so far Ive been to the Homestead in Hot Springs, VA as well as PA-HO-NIX (I loved that commercial) this week.

I will do my best to post some pictures from Hot Springs because the leaves were changing there and it was breathtaking. I also took the time to do something I'd read about a year ago and finally had the opportunity! At the Homestead they have only 1 of 4 Falconry programs left in the world where you get to interact with the birds of prey. The Falcon I got to hold, Her name was Lexi, the red tail hawk and the european horned owl , her name was Delilah, were all magnificent! I'll try to get those pictures up as well! We got to watch the hawk in action so to speak, by having her fly just over our heads where her wings brushed our hair or fly between us when we were standing only 6" apart!

Derek is doing well. He is busy with athletics - cross country JV team and with Band. He is the 5th base drum and happy as a lark right now I think. I'll post some pictures from the Crowley Drumline Competition where they came in 2nd out of 9 schools! He wasnt happy that it wasnt first but I thought they did great and had a lot to be proud of!

They will be competing at UTA this weekend, Denton next weekend and Northwest ISD in November. If you want to attend, shoot me an email and I'll let you know times etc!

Ok I think this is enough for my first post and I hope to update it at least once a week!