Cut Backs.

I honestly don't know how long these candy bars have been around, but as a kid, it was a favorite of mine.  Maybe because I was a kid, it seemed like it was a fatter candy bar??? I really thought there was more of the crispy crunch to it than there is today.  Have they slimmed down the bar to save money???  I wonder???

I'm finding a lot more cut backs on things,... went to Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble with hubby, and we get cold coffee's,... I always get one of their little sleeves,... (which were also scaled down in size btw!) and the sleeve helps it to fit perfectly inside the trucks cup holders PLUS absorbs the moisture.  We get into the truck, I set my drink down,... and well,.... it doesn't fit as snug as it used to.  Yup, they've slimmed up the cups!  What I wonder is, are they taller now???  Are we still getting what we used to or is it actually less and we're paying the same???  

Just food for thought.

Cleats.

So, hubby returned to work last night.  It always feels so weird when he's been home for so many days, and then the house is empty again.  Yes, I say empty, because while the kids are here,.... his spot on the couch is empty and sure I get to hog the remote for the tv and all, it's still much more fun when he's home :o)

Yesterday was grocery day,... so while hubby slept (sorta) that's what I was off doing.  Gina and I got goodies to color my hair,... going a bit lighter, BUT we got stuff to do highlights!! She's going to do multi color highlights,... I can't wait to see how it turns out!! Hopefully do that tomorrow.  Between my running around and hers, we'll have to see how it goes LOL

I picked up Geoffery some cleats for soccer.  He has his first game Monday evening.  He's pretty excited about it too.  This morning as I was taking Chris some breakfast, Geoff came down the hall, fully dressed and holding his soccer socks in his hands..... ???? "whatcha need Geoff?"   "I wanna wear my cleats today"  "Uhhh..... nooo"  LOL  I took Chris his food and relayed this bit of info LOL Goofy kid. 

I went down to his room to explain that cleats aren't meant to be worn in school, or on the hard concrete/classroom floors.  They're made so you don't slip around when you're running on the soccer field *sigh* Goofy boy.  Glad that he's looking forward to playing.  I just wonder how much playing he will do,... he is more of a visitor.  Sits around, chats with his friends,.... game? what game???

Tonight, was the school's Fall Festival.  Due to the construction this year, it wasn't as great as it's been.  No bingo.  The one year I decide I'm gonna play and what happens? No bingo.  Oh well.  The kids had a good time though running around goofing off.  Doing the slide and bounce house.  I got to talk with some friends,... was a quick 2hrs for the kids to run around and play.

Tomorrow, Sydney has piano at 11am, so will be up and gone by 10 for that.  Will pick Jessica up on the way back home, as she's at her friends house tonight.  Tomorrow evening, Sydney is going to a party for a friend, and has the option to stay the night,..... but I need to call and double check on that.  Yup yup, busy kids.  Sunday should be nice and quiet at least!  Minus all the laundry I'll get to do.

Anyhow.... I think I'll go scrub down the kitchen and bathe the dogs.

Have a nice weekend!

What A Weekend!!

My honey took some vacation time this month.  Just in time for our 13th Anniversary ♥  TWELVE WHOLE DAYS!!!  Vacation started on the 11th.  We enjoyed a few quiet days together as a family.  The kids were out of school for a long weekend from the 9th - 12th.  That was pretty nice :o) All of us home and relaxing.  I think? I honestly can't recall exactly what we did that weekend.  *mental note: need to blog more*

Anyhow, kids went back to school on the 13th.  We had been trying to decide what we were going to do for our anniversary??? We had thought going to Hot Springs for the weekend.  Supposed to be really nice up there, lots to see/do.  Not to mention lots of great food to eat!!  But the more we thought about it, the more it seemed not so practical.  We knew we could have a kid free weekend at home and enjoy the time together just as much as we would there.

Boy have we!!!  Cousin Gina said she would take the kids Friday night, so after I dropped the kids off at school, came home, and we were ready, we took off for Jonesboro and went to eat lunch at The Brickhouse Grill.  We'd never eaten there before and have been wanting to for awhile.  We each got a big burger.  Mine was the California,... (of course? lol) It was loaded down with lots of veggies, incl. avacado! YUM!! It was VERY filling.  I couldn't even eat the whole thing.  The steak fries were awesome too!! Was a wonderful lunch.  Chris enjoyed a couple of darker beers too.

Not dark enough for his liking, but still good enough that he had two!

We left there and went to wander around the mall awhile.  We got the kids each a little something.  Sydney a Paramore Tshirt from Hot Topic, and Jessica the book she's been wanting,.... Richelle Mead's "Spirit Bound"

I had already gotten Geoffery's surprise and stuck it in his backpack Friday morning.  One of his Pokemon Adventure Series comic books :o) He liked that!  Anyhow,.... we got coffee from Starbucks and headed home,.... picking up ribs from Couch's BBQ on the way for dinner later :o)

Got home, and flopped down,.... still full from lunch, and watched some Smallville,.... we had picked up season 9 a few days ago.  We finally ate dinner around 7:30 and later fixed some Espresso Martini's that we had seen Giada fix on FoodTV.  While ours came out rather strong, they were still really good.  We decided that rather than the 10oz of vodka, maybe make it 6-8oz instead.  Look at how pretty they are! And hubby got to use the shaker mom got him too!!

Tastes as pretty as they look!

We finished drinking our martini's and watched one last episode of Smallville and crawled into bed.  *Yawn* Was a really nice day together!  Eating, talking, laughing.... *sigh* I love my honey!! ♥

Now, Saturday,.... we got up, showered and stuff.  I decided to just pull my hair back and throw clothes on and we took off for Jonesboro and went to eat at Cracker Barrel for breakfast! By the time we got there, it was lunch time, but we still got breakfast food!! YUMMY blue berry pancakes :o) He got an asst of food.  Grits, eggs, meats, biscuits, gravy... the works let me tell ya!  Was very good, and filling.  

From there, yes,... back to the mall.  We had been looking for Lord of the Rings video game, it's supposed to be co-op play, but we haven't yet found it for the PS3.  So, thought we would look again for that.  We ended up in Dillards, and found Chris some new shirts.  They were having their end of season sale, so we really racked up :o) Got like 5 shirts for about $13/ea.  I love a good sale :o) LOL He was pleased too!!  We looked around at the "ladies" section,.... but bleh,... just not much I could find on sale that interested me.  I also learned that Reba McIntire has a clothing line.  Some neat stuff too.  

Wandered around some more,... ended up back in Barnes & Noble and got coffee's again for the ride home :o) YUMMY!!! By this time, Gina had already dropped Sydney and Geoffery off with my MIL Linda.  All was moving along well.  We headed for home so that we could get ready for our evening out with Gina and Glenn.  We had reservations for 7pm at Omar's Steakhouse.

Thanks to my mom, she put the taste of salmon in my mouth/head, so yeah, we HAD to go there for sure.  I needed their parmesan  encrusted salmon!! Mmmm.  We were all looking forward to a nice dinner out.

Got to Gina's around 6, she wasn't quite ready so we visited with the kids and Glenn while she finished up.  Then we were on our way!! Thanks to our chauffeur Glenn, we knew we could enjoy the night and not worry about getting home in one piece.  So, once there, I ordered myself a White Russian! YUMMY!!!

Cheers!

Was rather surprised at how quickly that went to my head.  I mean, really I ate nearly ALL my pancakes when we had breakfast (that is a LOT for me) so didn't think my stomach was that empty!?!  Well, it was alright, I was in a GREAT mood and enjoying the evening.  By the time dinner arrived, I was on my 2nd drink and pretty darned giggly.  Gina had ordered the lobster tails, and I actually go to sample!! I've never had lobster like that before.  It was very good, but I love my salmon!!! *drool*

While we were sitting there waiting on our creme bruele for dessert, Gina got this idea to go and get tattoo's!?! I don't know where it came from, but hey, sounded cool.... she suggested just a simple star,... matching,... on the tops of our hands.  Well, hubby says "whatever you girls wanna do..."  Cool!!! So, we ate dessert, surfed the web on my phone to find something that was like what we wanted.  Chris had already called the place we would use,.... The Zen Factory.  They would be open until Midnight.  We ate and headed that way!!

Gina wanted to look around a bit,... but we still decided upon the stars that we'd found online.  Then we had to wait as they were rather busy,.... but the artist took the time and drew up a nice design for the both of us.  We had decided on a large star, with stars to represent our kids.  So, 2 little ones for her, 4 little ones for me.

Here we are waiting our turn,.... it's WAY past Gina's bedtime!

Is it our turn yet??

 Hubby thought we should have a picture of our virginal hands.... 

Virginal hands?? ahahaha!!!

Gina said left hands,... which was fine with me,.... might seem lame, but since it's the hand I wear my wedding ring on,... well, your wedding ring hand,... just kinda seemed to tie it all up ya know? Hubby says "yeah, and the ring you can take off when you do the dishes" Bah.  It seems right in my head LOL

Finally when it was time to go back, Gina wanted to go first.  This is her first tattoo ever!

Who's idea was this???

Right here, he's just getting everything prepped up.  She looks pretty nervous to me!!  

Why did I suggest this idea?????

Here she is,..... she doesn't look very happy does she??? She really said it hurt LOL  I don't know that she will want another one or not now???  She had thought about getting this awesome sun/moon deal.  Hmm... guess you'll have to stay tuned to see how that turns out ROFL

Then it was my turn,.... I was a tad bit nervous thinking that maybe this area of the hand was more tender than my shoulder tat??? Maybe it WAS going to be terrible????

Piece of Cake!

Or maybe my poor cousin has a REALLY low pain thresh hold??? LOL  Poor girl.  Yeah, of course it's not pleasant,... and there was one part that hurt, but it never lasts so long that ya can't stand it.

The final products!

Turned out great!!!!

So, I think it was a wonderful idea,.... and well worth the touch of pain,.... not sure if Gina feels the same LOL

We got home after midnight, took the dogs out and all that,.... by 1:30 or so I was dead and went to sleep.  

All in all, it's been a WONDERFUL weekend.  Dinner was superb!! The time we've had together has been so great.  I so enjoy vegging and watching tv together, the trips to Jonesboro,... laughing, talking.  

Almost hard to believe it's been 13yrs!!  I am truly blessed with a husband, that is my best friend.  I am grateful for how well he takes care of me, and our family.  It's been an incredible 13 years and I look forward to so many more!!!

I love you honey!

♥♥♥

9/11

REMEMBER

Damned if you do,.... damned if you do.

So, yesterday, had a major dental day.  Dentist SCRUBBED my bottom teeth.  We're doing this in sections.  Bottom, then left top, then right top along with tooth repair.  Fun stuff.

Because of this, I was sure to fix hubby something simple for dinner as he was working last night.  Frozen pizza.  Piece of cake, preheat, throw it in,... no fuss no mess right????  WRONG.

As I went to put the pizza into the oven, a waft of smoke came pouring out.  CRAP.  I had forgotten that we had dripped juice into the bottom of the oven from when we were doing our ribs last weekend.  Huge stinky mess.  Lovely.  Hubby ran to Sonic and got some burgers instead.  I made a mental note to put the self clean on on the oven before bed.

About 9:30 I was wrappin up to head to bed,.... turned the oven on, said good night to the kids etc etc.  Crawled into bed.  Right about 10 the house alarm went off.  I figure one of the cats did something to set it off, knocked something over etc.  When I flew outta bed to shut it off,.... the house was full of smoke and cats were freaking out.  2 were tryin to rush into my room!  I was like screw this, shut the alarm off, and then the oven.  Turned the stove vent on HIGH to see if it would help clear the air some.

Then I crawled BACK into bed, my eyes were tearing up from the smoke.  Took a good while to doze back off again.  Then about 11:30ish I wake to an alarm.  I fly out of bed again, turn off the house alarm and I'm thinking something is wrong with it, because it's just making a single beep sound,.... loud but beep, beep, .... I wasn't all the way awake, so I had no idea what was going on.  Then realized,.... it was the carbon monoxide detector.  GAH! I pulled it down,.... tried to muffle the sound under a blanket, then tossed it into my room,.... still wouldn't shut up.  Pulled a battery out and ran into the living room to open doors.  The air was still very warm, we had no breeze of any sort.  For a good 15 mins I had front and back doors open in hopes of airing things out.  I popped online to see about self cleaning modes producing carbon monoxide.  Surely this was some weird fluke????  Well, little did I know, when burning food bits in the oven like that, it can turn into carbon monoxide.  GAH!! I swear.  Try and do something good and this is what happens???? *sigh*

Closed up the doors,.... opened up the two windows hoping that it would help.  Crawled back into bed and text hubby about the whole ordeal.  My eyes burned from smoke still,.... and then I had mosquitoes in the house.  Lovely.  I dozed off waiting for hubby to text me back.  It wasn't until 1am that he did.  Wasn't much else we could do, everyone and everything seemed fine after all that.  I went back to sleep.  I had cracked the bedroom door so the cats could come/go since the house was still smokey and smelly.  I woke at least 2 more times in the night, paranoid I guess. 

Hubby got home just before 6:30.  I had already gotten up around 4 and closed the windows up and turned the alarm back on, so the alarm being turned off woke me up.  Talk about a long rough night.  It's 12:30pm and the house still stinks.  Not a smoke smell, the smell of self cleaning oven smell.  Just yucky.  I've sworn off self cleaning, and am sticking with Easy Off from now on.

Back to School

August 19th, the kids returned to school. Jessica isn't in this picture because she was over at Cousin Gina's getting ready. She wanted help with hair and make up :o) She's turning into a real big girl *sigh*

Anyhow,..... first day of school. Sydney & Geoffery. They were both very excited. Can't you tell? LOL In all honesty, Sydney was looking forward to seeing her friends, but starting "Jr. High" was a bit scary to her. She felt like she wouldn't know anyone, or where her classes were or any of that scary stuff.

Let me paint a picture for you though. The school is one big cluster of rooms. You have sections though, but they all adjoin to each other in one way or another. I forget how many students hubby's class was when he graduated, but it wasn't many. Not compared to where I went to school. Sydney's graduating class might be 100 and that's probably pushing it. My graduating class was 300+ if I recall. The cool thing with here, is that there's one elementary school, one middle/jr high school, and one high school. All put together. So, that also means that the kids you went to 1st grade with, will join you in 6th grade, 9th grade etc (provided they don't move outta town) Are you getting all this? LOL I tried to explain to her, that she wasn't going to be sitting in rooms with totally new kids. There would be plenty of students she would know. "I might KNOW them but I probably won't LIKE them" *rollseyes* Yes dear. She can be so stubborn/negative sometimes LOL As for finding her classes,.... well, she's not far from where she had classes before, so I didn't worry about that either LOL Silly girl.

Geoffery, he was thrilled to get back to school. In 4th grade he would be going from class to class more so than he did in 3rd. More than anything though, he just wanted to see his friends again. He is the most social of kids. I still think he will either be a comedian or a politician . Stay tuned to find out ;o)

Their first 2 days went very well. Schedules were a bit messed up for the girls, but Sydney's was taken care of quickly enough. They had her in beginning band class, and she's now in the senior band class. Big difference. She was glad to have that moved around. Since she's now in "senior band" there's a lot more going on. Generally there's beginning, juniors and seniors. 6th grade is beginning,... then 7th & 8th is Jr,.... all high school would be senior band. He lost a lot of seniors last year at graduation, and there just aren't enough kids to for both Jr and Sr bands. She got bumped up!! *gasp* Means she is learning to march!!! This is fairly new for our school,... Brian's last year was really the first year they started marching.... so fall of 2009 they were working on it I think it was. She's not sure how much she's going to enjoy marching, but she's not said much negative so I think she'll manage fine :o) She likes all her other teachers,... even her math one. I hope that lasts through the year as math is her weakest subject.

Jessica on the other hand. I hope things get cleared up quickly, as I am waiting on a call from the counselor. She spent a semester I guess it was in Texas with her dad. Upon her return and getting classes here, things were really messed up. Here, certain grades get certain classes. She had taken one of those classes there, so they gave her the other one in its place. She was in a class w/ Jrs and Srs when she was a freshman. Because of that, this year, things are still messed up. A class she's already taken is being replaced with one she needs, spanish I guess. But she's also in yearbook club, and has to have a class for that. The only place they could put her is with the Senior yearbook class,.... her teacher told her yesterday she'd not get credit for the class. I guess because she's not a senior???? While her classmates that are in yearbook are in the sophomore class (when she's in spanish) will get credit for taking the class. Yeah, not too thrilled about that. So, we'll get that sorted out. I'm hoping as hubby has said, that it's just a misunderstanding on Jessica's part.

I think Sydney has already come home with a cold and has given it to me. My head has been stopped up since last night. I thought allergies at first, but not so sure now. Yeah, school is back in session.

One in 4th, one in 7th and one in 10th. Where does the time go???

In other news, Brian is doing well in Texas. He says/thinks? he has a job working at a nearby theater. He said he's to start working there soon??? Guess I'll have to follow up on that to be sure.

Well,.... just thought I would do a bit of catching up here. Maybe I'll stick with it? lol I'm not holding my breath.

Parenting....

Can really really suck.

I wish I had a wonderful guide for all those little things that we have to deal with. You know what I'm talking about,.... messy rooms.... boyfriend troubles,.... cell phone calls that use up all your minutes for the month, or how about loss of scholarships and wanting to have a boy you've never met but only online to visit you over the summer??? Yes, there really should be a guide for all these wonderful trivial things.

It's been awhile I know since I've posted. Lots to jabber about :o)

My cousin and her family are working on moving out our way. They even made a week long visit here,.... they're from Las Vegas. Moving to Arkansas,... CULTURE SHOCK! lol It's been a long process since her husband not only is driving loads out this way to put into storage, they need to find a rental home, and he needs a job. Busy busy!!! BUT they hope to be headed out of Vegas by the 15th. I'm really looking forward to it. They're very nervous about starting over again. Sure can't blame them. I want them to have a new and better life here,.... with ME! My cousin is more like a sister than anything to me. We were VERY close growing up. Pretty well inseparable. She has a daughter Sydney's age (year younger) and while they were here they got along beautifully!!! It was great! Kinda like when we were kids :o) Very exciting.

Since I'm not sure how she'd feel about me posting pics of her and the kids here, I'll refrain,.... but we had a great visit that's for sure!!

What else?? The school year is nearly over :o) Looking forward to that!!! Maybe I'll get to sleep in some???? Wouldn't THAT be great?? :o) The kids would be getting out in two days but we have snow days to make up, so now it's 7 days. Well, 6 since today is over.

Brian is already done with school. We went last week and got his transcript in hopes of sending it in so he could get his scholarship reinstated since he bombed so bad the first semester. He paid for the second semester. Well, he bombed again. SOooooo he not only loses his scholarship for good,.... but he lost the money he paid for the 2 classes. I'm so disappointed. He's not been able to find a job here, not to mention that he blew his car money on those classes that he won't ever get back,.... so he has no car. Just a mess. His plans now are to go live with his dad in TX. He'll be within walking distance to places that he can apply to, so it will be a good move. I hate it, hate that he's leaving,... but I know this is the right thing for him. I'm also grateful that his dad and step mom are willing to help him out.

The girls already know he's more or less leaving,.... but aren't realizing it's "for good" but Jess is looking forward to having his room. LOL I can't blame her. Sydney is a slob. Jess isn't a neat freak by any means, but she's a whole lot neater than Sydney is.

Oh, and while I'm talking about Jess. She met a boy in a chat room (she's an anime freak, found some kid type chat place) and she tells me how he's got some beanie babies he's going to send her as he doesn't want them anymore. Todays news is that he wants to drive up here this summer to SEE her. HUH? How OLD IS this boy?? 18. Riiiiiighhhhttt. You're 15,.... this is SO not going to happen. We're just 2 1/2 yrs apart,.... Mmmhmm..... what part of this is SO NOT going to happen did you NOT understand??? LOL

Sure I tossed it around, maybe I'm being too strict??? "I'll talk to Chris about it,.... but don't hold your breath" Maybe it was false hope I gave her??? But I couldn't make it anymore clear to her that I didn't like this idea even a tiny bit. "you would never be alone with him,...." "he is NOT staying at our house" ROFL That sort of thing,..... to which I got "I know.... " "I know...." no,... she did NOT know.

Text hubby about it,.... "Tell her to tell him not to waste his money" :o) LOL Good way to put it,... so yup, that's exactly what I told her. I'm sure she's bummed out about it big time, but eh, she's 15, she'll live :o) Lots of time for boyfriends when she's older right????

What else can I share????

Took Geoffery to the Drs last Friday. He'd had this up/down low grade fever, sore throat, wanted to rule out strep since its going around at the school. While there waiting, was a sweet little blonde headed baby girl with her parents. She was in her mom's arms and watching Geoff and I. I waved to her which in turn she waved that cute little baby wave back. Such a doll.

"Isn't she cute Geoffery?" he was playing on his DS, pokemon game of some sort,... ".... hmm? yeah..." in his "whatever" sort of voice. "Don't you want one???" "A BABY??" "yeah! Shouldn't we have another one???" "....NOooooo!!" *giggle* I was pretty amused.

"Babies are like puppies,..... they always chew on things... don't they?? and whine...." ROFL!!!

I cracked up. I've always told people that having a baby is like having a puppy. You're cleaning up pee/poop, vomit,.... you've got the whining/crying thing going on,.... the teething stage is always fun,... Dr visits for shots or illnesses you can't treat at home,.... yup yup you want to experience having a baby, get a puppy first.

Granted once your puppy is house broken,.... having a puppy in the house is tons better. You don't have to hear the whining about why they can't go over to a friends house, their room isn't THAT messy,.... or "ewwww do I have to eat THIS for dinner??" Well, I could go on and on and on with that one,....

Yeah, there really should be a parenting guide for all the little things that we don't know how to deal with. Just say NO! I think will be my motto from here on out.

1 Question - 3 Answers

Very frustrating I tell you!

It's tax time!! We filed and got our money already!! Yay!!! We've paid a ton of bills already and our one big splurge this year, is going to be a pair of iPhones!! YAY!! We've both wanted one for,... well,... since they came out??? But of course we'd already bought our phones, and couldn't do it for the upgrade price until recently.

Well, I am eligible for upgrade, which we can't figure out since when we paid for our new phones last time, we got them together, so technically if I'm eligible, so should hubby. But no, he's not eligible until March 3rd.

Surely we can get this taken care of right?? I can plead with the reps that I really want to get my husband this phone for Valentine's Day. So, I call AT&T directly.

I get this woman,.... I can only assume that it was a woman,.... she had a bit of an accent,.... as soon as she spoke, my eyes rolled to the back of my head. OHHHH NOOoooooo. *SIGH* Grin and bear it and put on my best polite voice and hope to God that she's with the program to do what I'm asking.

"Hello, I'm wanting to get an iPhone for my husband for Valentine's Day, only he isn't eligible for an upgrade until March 3rd, less than a month away,... I was hoping that you could help me out, by doing an early upgrade for us?"

She said a LOT of stuff that I couldn't understand. But the jist was that no, she couldn't do this,... that sure she could put him in for an early upgrade, but he's still going to have to pay full price.

Umm.... then what's the point??? To her the point is, that do early upgrade, you can then buy a new phone. Well, if you're paying full price in the first place, what's the point of doing early upgrade at all?? Any Joe Blow can walk in off the street w/ the money and buy any phone he wants right?? This was just not making sense and as much as I tried to explain it to her,... the less I was able to even understand her. I decided she was talking with a mouth full of bricks,.... but now I'm thinking it might have been more like rocks. Defiantly rocks. I gave up and hung up,... I didn't say thank you, I didn't say good bye, I just hung up. Rude I know, but I had had enough,... and I sure wasn't going to say thank you for her help,... because she didn't help!!! ARGH!!!!

All the while, I'm trying to call the local AT&T store,... nice new fancy store that opened up right near our new fancy mall. But I kept getting the message that all the reps were busy at the moment. I just kept redialing,....

During this time, I'm popping into the "Online Chat" that the AT&T website provides,.... surely this person can understand what I want and I won't have to hear some horrid accent that I can't understand right????

It really went along quite well. I could understand her, she could understand me. Good deal!!! However,.... she too said that we'd have to pay full price for a phone, even though we're like 26 days from his actual upgrade date!! This makes NO sense at all. We've been with them for umm.... gosh,.... too many years now!!! This is just ridiculous!!! I did thank her for her time, considering she gave a lot of detail and explanation.

I still wasn't happy. See, once upon a time, I dropped my poor old clam shell type cell phone into a toilet. Yeah, was great fun. Short story is that the phone was pretty well dead,... wouldn't hold calls etc,... I called AT&T and got an early upgrade, I could go into any store and purchase any phone for the upgrade price. Piece of cake. So, they're telling me that in order for him to get early upgrade, he'll have to flush his phone???? *sigh*

I finally got through to the local store,.... I explained and the gal put me on hold to verify if they could help or not.

She returned,... promptly I might add, and said "So long as you're within 30 days of upgrade, we can assist you"

To be clear, I asked her "and we can purchase him an iPhone 3Gs for the upgrade price of $199.00 correct???"

"For the 16gb yes, that's the price"

TA DA!!! I knew I could make this happen, I just sure didn't expect the long major ordeal. Such a pain in the rear.

Welcome February!

We have kissed another month goodbye! Hard to believe. Time flies when we're having fun????

Speaking OF fun,... the 29th was my 41st Birthday. Wow huh?? Yeah, I know. Who would ever guess that? LOL I dunno, most days I don't think I'm THAT old. Other days, my body says I'm older ROFL!!!

So, the plans for my Birthday?? Enjoy a nice quiet day by myself as the kids would be in school, hubby at work. He was going to take off, and we would go for lunch or dinner, but you know,.... bills and all that??? So, we planned for dinner on Saturday night :o) Olive Garden!!! We just got one here in our area!! Mmmm Mmmm!!!

Well,.... OF COURSE it's my Birthday and all, so we had a nice threat of some lovely weather. I do say lovely sarcastically of course. The 28th I went and got groceries, and prepared for the worst. I bought batteries and flashlights, I bought cans of soup we could easily heat up with the propane deep fryer, I got lots of milk, bread and sandwich meats. Yes, we would NOT have a repeat like last year!!!! I would NOT allow it!!!

Hubby went to work Thursday night, made sure he took my truck as it has traction control, he and his buddy prepared Thursday morning and bought some de-icer stuff for the windows etc,.... so yes, we were prepared for the worst right???

I stayed up until about midnight, watching and waiting to see what was going to happen. I was hearing sleet coming down starting around 8pm and it didn't quit!! But still nothing was posted online about whether or not school would be open or not????? I gave up and went to bed.

I woke at 5:30am, pulled up the site, and TA DA! NO SCHOOL!!! Cool :o) I peeked outside and it was pretty white looking, and if I remember right, snowing??? (hey, I've slept since then, give me a break!) I went back to bed and got up with the alarm at 6:30, shoo'd Sydney back to bed who then told Jess that there wasn't any school. I patiently waited for Chris to get home, I knew with all the sleet the roads would be terrible.

I wasn't wrong. When he finally got home, it was about 7:45. A good 45 mins + more than usual. He pulled into the garage and good grief!! The ice on the truck was a good 1/2" thick!!!! Dang. It was solid. I wish now I'd taken a picture LOL

He came in and vegged for a bit before going to shower. He was wore out from the drive home. I don't blame him!!! He popped out to have a cigarette in the garage and found that the ice was melting off the truck, and puddling up really good. We have the girls twin beds out there from when Jess left and we put the full sized bed in for Sydney. One of the beds was getting wet!!! GAH!!!! Quick thinking, was grab towels and plenty of them.

HA! There was probably about 10 gallons of water stuck to the truck,.... a few towels no matter how big, were NOT going to save us. Sooo.... Chris backed the truck out, and Brian and I beat on the thing w/ brooms to knock as much ice off as we could. It was snowing at this point REALLY good!!! We were freezing, but we got it done :o) Then they moved the mattress to a dry part of the garage and we were done!!!

Plans were, he would shower, sleep till about 3 and was going to stay home :o) Sounded like a GREAT idea to me :o) Sure didn't want him driving in that mess!!

Well, he woke up about 2:45pm, and called the guy he was to work with, and found that HE was going to work,.... so Chris couldn't hardly stay home :o( Bleh. Friend also said he'd pick him up, he had 4wheel drive :o) So that did make me feel better. Just BLEH. I couldn't wrap my head around him going in LOL I jumped up like OHHH I need to feed you!!! (duh Shannah) Got him some food going, got a few things ready before hand so he would be ready to go.

Chat for a few,.... and towards the last, he asked if I thought he should get the fireplace ready??? Hmmmm nahhh.... I'm sure we'll be okay..... well, maybe we should JUST incase,... we already had the power flickering earlier,... so he ran out and turned the propane on and went to light the pilot, and dang if we couldn't get it lit!!! His ride came, told him no worries,.... that we could live through the night :o) LOL Off he went.

The day had gone pretty good. I had a nice pkg from my Aunt and my Mom :o) My inlaws had given me a few goodies the day before,.... plus a yummy chocolate cake :o) I had Brian fix dinner for us LOL Frozen pizza's. He also served me :o) Yup yup,.... I did as little as possible Friday.

I watched my soaps,... I think I had 3 episodes,... then I watched Desperate Housewives, been Netflixing that :o) LOVE it!!! Once I finished watching those, I was going to watch Mercy,.... by then it was around 9:30.

The power flickered.

The power went out.

The power came back on.

The power went out.
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The power did NOT come back on. Yes ladies and gents,.... THREE years in a row, I have no power on my Birthday ROFL I'm picking a new Birthday.

I got the kids their flashlights ready, called my MIL to make sure it wasn't just our general area,.... which it wasn't. I then called the electric company, the recorded message guesstimated around midnight for the power to be back on. Well, not terrible I suppose.

The kids were all wound up,.... once they calmed down, the girls were huddled in their room doing whatever, Geoffery fell asleep in the recliner while I read (thank God for booklights!) and who knows what Brian was doing.

At about 11:30, the power came back on :o) YAY!!!!! I led Geoff to bed, did a few things and headed to bed myself.

It snowed all day and night,.... when Saturday rolled around, Chris got home and was walking through our driveway in snow that was knee deep!!! We had some wind as well, so it was drifting high around the house. It was pretty darned cold too!!!

It was enough snow/ice that the kids didn't go back to school Monday or Tuesday!! Nice long 5 day break LOL We're wondering now if they'll have Spring Break?? Or will the time off cut into their Summer break??? Hmm... guess we'll see!!!

Since everyone was either at work/school, I got off my lazy rear and got some major cleaning done!!! I still have a few more things left to do, but wow the house sure needed it :o)

Well,... I guess that's it. I've got some pics and a video to put up soon,... will have to get to work on that :o)

Have a good one!
**HUGS**