{Sexy Beast}

Kids say the darnest things! My son has one of the biggest heart's of most nearly 11 year old boys that I know. He is very tender hearted, he is very sensitive about a lot of things. But he is also one of the weirdest little odd balls that I know. He only wears a very few things and he is very very particular on what those things are and then if he gets new things that he likes, the "old" one's, he will no longer wear. So, I rarely buy him new clothes because he doesn't technically need them because its not like he will just add them to his other clothes. I wish that he would because it would make my life as a "laundress" just that much easier. If I do not wash his "favs", he will drag the dirty out of the dirty clothes hamper and wear them to school. In my defense, most mornings I realize this and battles ensue. I get very tired of fighting because he has every excuse from its not that dirty, it doesn't smell that bad, it doesn't have that much ketchup on it or, even worse, you can't really see the snot that I've got up and down on my sleeve! Its just gross and disgusting! But he's 10, he doesn't really care. Or so I thought!! This morning was no different than a lot. Here comes his happy little hiney, with his dirty smelly shirt on that he has worn and it might actually be day #3 and keep in mind, I am doing laundry most every day!! But its really hard to wash clothes while your child is wearing it ON their body!! Its a concept he hasn't grasped! So, battle ensues!! It goes something like this, "You smell Action!! You will be the stinky kid", so he tells me, "no Mom, I'm good. I am still the Sexy Beast because I am just covering up the smelly clothes with my new Axe body spray and deodarant that I got for Christmas". I about died because in the mornings, the child has been about to knock me over the with smell of Axe. I had no idea that this was part of the goal. And where did this Sexy Beast come from. Is that on the label somewhere???

{pages, pals, & plantains}

Today was a pretty great day. I started off "pea-ing" only to find out that most of my fellow "peas" were freezing their tooshies off, so, I have to sit back and appreciate my 60 something weather!! I am wearing flip floppies and sweatpants, that is the life. No shoveling snow and no power outages due to high winds (that was my former life! wink! wink!) Anyway, on to the highlight's of my not quite so snoozy snoozerville day........I had a friend(non-stalked and non-coherced) come over today that I met up at the scrapbook store and we did a little scrappin' and some yappin', I'm not sure which we did more of. We went to lunch at a place here that I have decided that I like, its called Mango's and they have the best Carribean inspired foods and they have fried plantains that are to die for!! I might just make it one of my spots. I think that I will add that to my list, along with a tea room here called the Mad Hatter's that I love. Very yummy! But I don't get over there too often. I think that I am getting my scrapbooking Mojo back though, I thought that I had lost it and was wondering if I was ever going to get it back! And now, I've got to work tomorrow and I would rather stay home and scrap!

Hey, and just for kicks check out my VA peeps blog, she wrote it based on my last 2 blogs and it is hillarious!! here's the link: http://lifewithmykidsandothermisadventures.blogspot.com/ its great for a few laughs!

Notice that i updated my slide with my last two layouts.

{to Stalk or not to Stalk, that is the question?}

I almost became a "scrapbook stalker" today. Looking back, I should have. I should have just embarrassed myself. Who knows, the payoff could have been high or I could have really really embarassed myself in this small little town that I live in, I could have ended up on the post office wall as the town scrapbooking stalker freak and therefore, would never have a scrapbooking peep again!! Never invited to a crop, or for a cup of coffee or a trip to a LSS, or just a day of good old fashioned scrapbooking. Okay, you ask "what the heck are you talking about?" Mark and I went out for a really nice breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel and what did I see in the parking lot???? I saw a Jeep, a really cool, hip Jeep with a rub-on that said "I'd rather be Scrappin'" Wow!! Who did that belong to?? So, we went into Cracker Barrell and I scoped out all of the tables and there was a table of 4 ladies chatting and enjoying their last cup of coffee (lookie there, I LOVE coffee!!). Could one of these ladies be the scrapbooker with the cool Jeep? Did she need a new scrapbooking buddy? Because I am totally available! Mark told me just to go over and ask, I thought about it and the whole time I sat at our table and instead of asking, I eavesdropped and probably did a lot of starring. Trying to figurre out, is this the scrapbooker or better yet, is this the group of scrappers??? Do they exist here? I whimped out and now I have a severe case of scrapbook stalker remorse. Sad, but true. I have will say that I cannot totally complain, I have managed to make a friend to scrap with and I am very excited about that, but you cannot ever have too many "peeps". Right?

{snoozerville}

Snoozerville.........that is where you will go to if you read my boring blog. You know why? Because my life, right now, this very moment, could not be more boring if I tried!! I have cleaned, I have eaten oatmeal for breakfast (see? even that is boring!), I have gone to work (I did credit and debits, yippee skippee), I came home for lunch for what I thought was going to be leftover chili and to my surprise was already eaten. It seems the mouse in the house has returned......? Markie Mouse! Came home, went to the high school for some meeting on how our children are going to be put in "academies" according to their desired career paths. AND that is for another post that will bore you not into snoozerville, but to tears!! You'll be begging to click the out button! Oh, the big news is this and its big, so, buckle up and get ready for the ride of your life! Action's party is scheduled @ a laser tag place and I put down a deposit, but silly stupid silly stupid me, did it for Super Bowl Sunday!! Yeah, right?? I know. And that folks, is all she wrote. OH!!! I did have a bit of excitement today!!! I got a counterfeit 100 dollar bill in a deposit!! Yeah baby!! We had to FED ex it to the FED's! It felt like it had been bleached, and looking @ it it had the fibers, and holding it up to the light it had the watermark of LINCOLN! Do I rock or what?? so, is snoozerville averted?

{nothing much but Mad Money}

Today was a gloriously, delicious snoozy, laid back, goin' and hangin' Chic Flick kinda day. I slept until nearly 11AM, can you believe it? I mean seriously, I am the queen of getting up at 8 no matter what and getting going. But after I got home from the crop around 12:30AM, I was way too wired to go to sleep and Mark had to go to bed because he had duty today. So, I sat on the couch and watched my tivo'd "stories" AKA "All my kids" and "GH" and tried to pea, but their website was down. I wanted to be the first to say good morning to all my fellow peas.

Anyway, getting back to 11AM, I only woke up because the phone rang. I am still not believing that I slept that long. But I ended up spending the afternoon with a friend of mine, doing a little shopping and hitting "Mad Money", which was really good. It was the kind fo movie that you don't want to go pee during. I know, crude right? But you know what I'm talking about. You have to go at some point because you bought the mega coke and now it hits you, you wait until you have to go, hoping that you don't miss a critical moment in the movie, and then you run to the bathroom, speed pee, and wash your hands, and air dry them while your running back to the theatre hoping against hope that you didn't miss the big moment. This was one of those movies and darn it all, I had to go and yes, I missed a critical moment. So, "Mad Money" is now on my Blockbuster que, its a do-over!

Okay, I gotta say it, is this election stuff making you crazy??? I should do a poll, because I want to know if I am the only one who is already sick of it!!

{Caution: Dangerous Road Conditions Ahead!}

Its True, if you live near us!! Our little Lex has once again entered another rite of passage, she got her learner's permit today. So, if you value your lives, stay where you are and don't come out of your homes!! LOL! I am totally kidding, she will probably be a great driver, her Dad is teaching her!

Well, today I am pulling a "double" shift....I worked all day at the bank (I am really starting to dig that job, I love the girls that I work with!) and I left work and I am right now, as we speak, working a crop up at Scrapbook Heaven. There were originally 17 people signed up, but only 8 people actually showed. A few popped in to say Hi that were signed up, but didn't stay. I am having a great time hanging out with my fellow scrapper's, but I am getting really tired and its only 10:30. This weekend is going to be so laid back, I can't wait. Markie has pootie duty tomorrow and I might take Lex out to spend some of her Abercrombie gift card that is burning a hole in her pocket book. I am really wanting to see Mad Money. Oh, and my Action has decided that he is dead against an Amazing Race party. He was excited about it and then he started back tracking, so, I don't know who's more disappointed. Well, obviously its me!! I was so looking forward to it!! I always love a good party and theme parties are even better!!

{Got toothpaste?, Need toothpaste!}

Do you ever just need to go to the store for just one item, one item and that is it?? You don't need to go to Wal Mart, the store of a million things that you probably don't really need, but will end up buying anyway and then wonder how you ended up going into the "savings" store and walking out spending a 100 bucks on a whole lot of nothing..... Right now, I need one thing, I need toothpaste. That one thing is very important, its right up there with toilet paper. My thing is, I have been running all week, mostly in circles, but running none the less and I had not planned on leaving the house today. I planned on cleaning, laundry, and maybe, just maybe if I am lucky one itty bitty scrapbook page (not looking too promising right now). Anyway, its not like we are right around the corner from anything, its a trek into "town" to get a tube of toothpaste. So, I could call Mark and ask him to pick up a tube or two on his way home from work, but this is what that scenario will turn into, and I think that most of you ladies can relate, he will come home with $50 worth of stuff that we don't need and can't afford and he may even forget the toothpaste in the process. Bless his little heart. What to do? Put on the make-up? Take off the sweats? Head out into the land of the living, waste a few dollars of gas. (Gas is up to $3.09 a gallon, TRUE STORY!) for a tube of toothpaste or maybe just let our teeth rot for a day??? hhhhmmm..

{dirty laundry, airing soon!}

So, did my title get ya?? Is your curiosity sparked? Must you know more? So, you are a little busy parker aren't ya?? You want the dirt just like everybody else. So, you cannot judge me when I say this: Big Brother 9 is coming to a television set near you in just a few weeks and I am totally stoked and completely excited!!! That is the dirty laundry that I'm talkin' about! It is my thing, I have watched it since Season One, it has been my little summer guilty pleasure and now we can thank those writer's for striking because now there is a Winter season!! February 12th we kick off and, if you don't like BB9, be fore-warned it will be taking up 3 hours of your prime time viewing on CBS each and every week. I don't feel much guilt because all of you nuts that love that Dancing with the Stars crap, Carriann Vs. Bruno crap, The Biggest Loser crap, and The Bachelor crap have it comin'!! Its my turn and I can hardly wait!!!! The countdown begins....(p.s. i want to note that while I enjoyed this post very much, I am quite disappointed in the response to my previous post and would like to say thanks for nothing you little stinkers!)

{One AMAZING Idea}

Warning: this blog is written with the intent of getting some feedback from my "fans" LOL!!!Alright, here's my idea. The idea is not original, I actually got it from my friend Karen who got it from either the #1 rated reality TV program or somewhere else. But here it is....for Action's 11th birthday, we are going to do an Amazing Race birthday. I want to pair the kids in teams of two and actually have relay type races all around the neighborhood and have "pit stops" with prizes and I am going to get a few nomes (travelocity roaming nomes) for something. What I need from you are some ideas on some different relays and things that I could do because right now at this exact moment other than the nomes, I got NOTHIN'!! Its like there is nothing up there but nomes!! Nomes and pit stops and prizes and birtheday cakes and even then, what kind of birthday cake. Help me, please?

{the payoff}

Every scrapbooker painstakingly works on pages and puts their hearts and souls into the pages and the memories that they create, so not only will they themselves enjoy looking thru them and remembering the memories that they had, but let's be honest, we have in our minds that we are crafting treasures that we are passing on and will one day be appreciated by those that we hold near and dear. I am no exception to that rule, I have always loved it when my children look thru my scrapbooks, but as the years and the multitude of albums have progressed, they are less interested. I know that this happens with kids that get older whose Mom's have been scrapbooking most of their lives. I have had points where I have thought, I love this craft, but if they are just going to sit on shelves, what is the point? Well, my spirits were lifted and my heart filled with joy this weekend as Lex's friend was here and the 2 girls loved looking at the pages that I created long ago of the 2 of them. They looked back and enjoyed recalling memories of a joint 8th birthday that they celebrated together, which I forgot about until I saw the page that they were laughing at because they had matching dresses and got Mary Kate and Ashley Oleson matching video 's. (I have included a picture of a snapshot off of that page, aren't they cute?) So, all of your scrapbookers out there, if you ever think that maybe your wasting your time, they will love it and they will consider it precious memories, one day. I have NO doubt!! Also, I would like to footnote my post by saying this: I feel like maybe I have given my sweet Mark a hard time in my last few posts and I just want to clarify that mostly I am just kidding and giving him a hard time is all in fun and I love that man of mine!! (insert wink!)

{one margarita too many}

alright, first of all, i am going to start off by stating the simple fact that I don't generally drink very often. I, on occassion have a margarita and generally only when we have mexican and tonight we had mexican. Ole! You may ask yourself, so why Darleen did you decide to have not one Medium margarita, but also drink another Large all by yourself? Well, pull up a chair Bessie because this is how the store goes: The fact that i am lucky to have had any breakfas tthis morning is in no way thanks to the fact that I spent half my morning, when i should have been getting ready for my "job", instead dealing with the drama of contacts for one beautiful brown eyed baby boy. He cannot get them in by himself and after a half an hour of pure drama,he wore his glasses to school once again and honestly, my heart was breaking for him. If you would like to know more regarding this story, please reference my blog post entitled: "I told you so". Then when I was finally ready and running late, with coffee in one hand and what was left of Action's leftover poptart in the other hand out the door in my work clothes, i had to take the garbage out to the curb even though it was over-flowing and ON THE GROUND and I am so very late running to work. I decided eating "my" pop tart would have to wait until I got to work because I didn't have time to run back into the house to wash my hands from my what is most likely "maggot" and germ infested garbage can, I decided instead to give my little Markie Poo Head a ring a ding ding just so that I could give him the 411 on the events of my morning (also known as the "I told you so"). I got his voice mail. How lucky was he?? Not only later did he say to me, "yeah, I saw that the garbage wasn't out, but I didn't have time to do it. " I could have crowned him, i was running late too and now I smell like "maggot de funk parfume" instead of Japanese cherry blossoms.Then i missed lunch, and my best friend is having her biggest birthday bash ever without me (rock on Karen, the 80's were great!), and its just been the kind of day when you say, Margaritaville, here I come!!

{Exit 109, Halfway}

Exit 109, Savannah, Georgia is halfway between our house and Lex's best friend since she was 6 years old.

Since we have moved here we have had the luxury of being able to meet @ that exit (or on a good day @ the awesome Mall there!). Then the girls can go home for the weekend or whatever with each other. Tonight, with the long weekend, Ashley is @ our house. Lex is so excited because since our move she has really struggled to make any close friendships here and the one that she has made seems to maybe be hitting a few "bumpy" spots. It really bites being a military brat. I never was one, but I really see with her how difficult it is for her and she has really tried to let it all go, even though after we initially moved here she was never going to forgive us for moving her from Virginia. I really am seeing a lot of the pain from the move in trying to adjust to an area where there is such a different ideology and their priorities are so different than what she is used to. It is so hard to try to fit in. I love that she can actually say that she has maintained a friendship from first grade and they get along so well. Its going to be a fun weekend. I can already hear them chatting away and just being the silly girly girls that they are.....bringing back those days when they were Brownies and played with American Girl dolls. {P.S. If you want a good laugh, click on "Tracy" in my "online favs", her blog regarding Browzilla is absolutely hillarious and she is also doing a poll on her blog that you should definitely give your input on, it could be a matter of life and death!!!}

{De-Skunked & Disorganized?}

I am showered, shaved, and lookin' good!! I have my scrapbook area so organized I just might move right on in! It could be my own room!! I don't think its ever been so organized, now I want to really, really scrapbook!! Really!!! Not much else to report on the homefront, the kids got their report cards today, not too happy. They aren't terrible, but they aren't to the standard that they were in Virginia. I don't understand it because both of them say that school was harder in Virginia, but school is much more boring here and the teacher's are more disorganized. So, I don't know what the answers are...........(restriction, beatings, basements??what??) Just kidding. We are at a critical impasse for Lex and we can't be letting anything slide. She actually did better when she was cheering or had a heavy drama schedule. She started cheer gymnastics last night which is twice a week. The poor kid is miserable today, she is so out of shape that she can hardly move. She is hoping to get into shape for cheerleading try-outs, tomorrow she goes back to practice, hopefully she'll be able to move without screaming out in pain like she has been today. Action starts soccer soon and Mark and I are getting our rears in gear, we are startig tennis lessons soon. We will be lean and mean tennis playin' machines, soon enough! Watch out Andre' Augassi (I think thats how you spell it, he!he!, is he still playing tennis?)

{Hoodwinked}

I've been hoodwinked by a series of unfortunate events. My much anticipated day of leisurely scrapbooking in sheer bliss in a house that echoed with emptiness, minus the 80's music channel booming from the TV has gone terribly awry. First of all, my chatty cathy little self always gets in the way, I ended up on the phone with a few friends that i haven't talked with in awhile so it was time well spent, but I started to scrap and about halfway thru I ran out of my hermafix only to pull out my new mack daddy, totally tubular ATG Gun that I bought only to discover that the stupid thing doesn't come with ANY adhesive, NONE!! It is a 50 dollar adhesive gun with no adhesive. So, I had to call the store where I got it, Picture to Page, and speak to the owner, Tonya to lodge my complaint. (Anyone who knows me knows that I'm just kiddin' because Tonya is one of my bestest buds so it became a bit of a conversation and I got to hear about all the new yummy stuff that the scrapbook store had just recently gotten in & the popular conversation as of late: thong underwear, sorry, but we DID!!). Then what do my wondering eyes appear, "no!! It wasn't no stinken' reindeer!!", it was my stinken' husband coming home at lunch for the end of the day. I told him to stay at his end of the house and play his little WII games because I may not be scrapbooking, but I had a plan, I was going to re-vamp, reorangize my scrap area which has kind of gotten disorganized over the last few months, but by the time the kids started coming home it kind of fizzled out. Now I still have a mess to finish cleaning up tomorrow!! I'm hoping that a little "Brownie" sneaks in in the middle of the night and clean sweep's it for me!! But I have been quite successful in one area, I have not taken a shower, I am still in my jommies, but for the sake of those around me I did brush my teeth and put on deodarant.................hey, it was cold outside and I didn't want to take my comfy stuff off!

{Mine! ALL Mine!!}

Its Mine, ALL Mine, at least from 8AM until 2:30PM....I'm talking about my Tuesday! I am talking about tomorrow. I am so excited about tomorrow. The house is mine, my scrapbooking area is mine, the day is MINE!!! What to do is the question, I could go to the grocery store, I could do more laundry (it never seems to be done), I could clean a little more, I could, but I am not going to. I am going to get up with the kids, make my coffee, eat my oatmeal, do a quick sweep of the house, then I am scrapbooking and I am so excited! I may not even shower, I may not even put on deodarant or make-up. I may stay in my jommies ALL day long. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it. I know all you SAHM's out there are thinking to themselves, "yeah? so what's the big deal, I do this everyday..." Well, I used to be a SAHM and trust me, one day it will all come to a end so enjoy it now Sister!!! Your days are numbered!! (you SAHM's know that I am just kidding, it s a very hard job and yada yada yada!) Anyway, I am hoping to get a lot of scrapping done if I can get my mojo back. I seem to have left it in Virginia back the first weekend of December. I will have to channel all of my peeps to get a successful page, I think. I really miss you guys and I miss our crop Tuesdays whether it be at Jules or Picture to Page.

{I told you so!}

the weekend has been so very "normal", so ordinary that I have been bored out of my skull. The upside, my house is clean and my laundry is done. And I am currently caught up on "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and I am super excited that the Real Greenlee is coming back to "All My Children" because they have been promoing it all weekend on SoapNet. I know that some of my scrapbooking friends are asking, why aren't you scrapbooking/???? Why? Because when my family is home they make me crazy when I am trying to scrapbook and I just decided to not even attempt it this weekend because last weekend it was a disaster. The big drama this weekend was my husband doesn't ever listen to me, I know that some of you are finding this completely shocking, but its absolutely true! He took both kids to their eye exam and it was completely understood that Action wasn't going to get contacts for at least a year. The kid doesn't brush his teeth unless he's told, at least twice, he doesn't cut his dirty little finger nails (I do), he only showers when I tell him, then he argues that he's not "that dirty", he will wear clothes that he has dragged out of the dirty clothes that could probably walk on their own because they are just THAT bad and I know for a fact that he's not ready for the responsibility of contacts. But Mark decided otherwise and all weekend Action has been wresting with them and there has been feet stomping, fist pounding, and tears and I am sitting in the background wanting to scream, I TOLD YOU SO!!, but I think that the look on my face is probably saying it all!!

{its a date!}

Today was supposed to be "normal", a day of routine, a day where the kids went back to school, Mark went to work, and I enjoyed a cup of coffee, watched a little news and then became the cleaning, grocery getting, laundry doin' machine that I have become quite famous for (in almost 50 states!).But at my husband's request I gave all that up for a date day! The kicker is, my date day would be 3 hours to Port Canavarel and 3 hours back with a lunch and a little shopping at the world's most famous surf shop, Ron Jon's. Mark had to go out there to pick up samples out of the ocean and river's to check for radiation and I went along for the ride. It was fun, but I will say that I am now the one saying, I don't think we will be going anywhere for awhile. I don't think I want to crawl back in that car for any lenght of time. Tomorrow will be normal, or maybe next week. Anyway, I'm just glad that the kids are back in school and Mark and I had some alone time and to be honest, it was needed. Its been go-go-go and with the kids and our schedules lately, it was great to just have some "chill" time.

{Land of Mouse}

"You make my heart go pitter-pat!"

Our life is insane!! Gotta tell ya! Insane good! We just got back again from Orlando, Mark said that we aren't going anywhere for a LONG time! I give it a month or 2! Any-who, we took a somewhat last minute trip to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando with our neighbors who will be moving to Japan soon. They were going to be down there for several days and had mentioned that it would be fun to come with, but with my work schedule and Mark's work schedule it wasn't possible, but the kids were STILL out of school (they have been out of school for nearly 3 weeks!!). We decided that it would be kind of fun to do a quick trip and so we began to hatch a "plan" because we love them so much and its really going to be hard to see them move (if she's reading this I hope that I am winning brownie points!) We got a really good deal on the military hotel and an even better deal on season passes for Disney, that is another story for another blog that I cannot even begin to go into, but its still freaking me out!! Action even took a friend with us, which was a huge treat for both the boys. The Plan: Monday after I got off of work we made a run for the border, the Georgia/Florida border that is, and headed to Orlando. We spent the day in the Magic Kingdom where we thought that we might have to give Lex's hand over in marriage, or at least a date, to Goofy who literally had her blushing. She was so excited to see him and then he made over her even as she was going out the door, I told Mark that I hoped that that was an 18 year old boy in that costume and not a 45 year old man or we were gonna have problems! We are back today and things should start to get back to normal with the kids starting back to school tomorrow. Do I hear a hip hip horray for me???

{Pea Post & A Putt}

I finally got a itsy bitsy teeny weenie bit of scrapping done today, but I had Lex home and Mark was in and out with Action. It just doesn't work with so much going on, they are constantly "mom this", "mom that" and I still didn't go to the grocery store. Mark and Action went for their very first golf game on the links, 18 entire holes. Mark called me from the 8th hole, to come take a picture of Action on the greens, I am no "fashionista", but I am thinking the grunge cargos and polo with the Vans and no socks is pushing the envelope for the club, I'm sure. Good thing he's a kid!! But even with all of that going on, I managed to publish my very first layout on.........yes,,,,,its happened just a little bit, twopeasinabucket.com. The layout is at the very bottom of this page. Its one that I did awhile ago, but one of my favs. Its done with KI's Pop Culture and a little Daisy D rhinestone Bling! I love bling. Its a picture from Lex's homecoming in 2006, she's such a ham. I am currently trying to scrapbook Christmas 2005, but as usual, I have the hardest time doing Christmas after Christmas, I am ready to move ON! That is why I skip Christmas, hence, I am 3 Christmas' behind! AAHHHHH!!!!!!

{those stinken peas & cordial kisses!}

I had a plan today, a very, very fine plan I might add. A plan that included a quick clean up of the house, throwing in some laundry throughout the day, and hitting a movie if a certain georgiastorm gave me a buzz, but if not, my day would be spent cropping!! Yes, its true!! I haven't scrapbooked a single thing since the first of December due to the insanity that has become my life and hence, that was the plan. Markie and Action were heading out to hit some golf balls, Lex was at Gabs for the day. My plan was grand and I was looking forward to it........until I made the big mistake of logging on to twopeasinabucket.com.............it was all she wrote. I will admit that this has happened to me before. Its not the first, so you would think that I would just walk away, but with this new laptop, putting it on the kitchen bar and "playing" around on the message boards are WAY too easy!! So, easy that I find myself dwindling my day away chatting about scrapbooking, figuring out how to do "avatar's" and "blinkies" (which, by the way, I still don't get) posting photographs to the gallery in between dusting and vaccuuming and laundry. That's right, I like to pea, I have turned into a pea-nut. I spent my day pea-ing instead of scrapbooking and to make matters so much worse, I realize that while I have been pea-ing in beween everything else that I am supposed to be doing, I have managed to eat an entire stinken bag of those addictive cherry cordial kisses.I kept buying them over Christmas, why do we have so many and why do I keep eating them, why??? Because I love them and I have actually developed a perfect system for eating them to get the very best cherry cordial kiss experience. It is kind of like the oreo cookie, there has to be a method to the madness. You have to bite the very tip of the kiss off and then you can enjoy the "cordially cherry" goodness inside, but you have to do it in a perfect harmony with the chocolate. Its very difficult to explain, but you must trust me on this. I have to kiss the kiss goodbye and tomorrow I told Mark that I am going to scrapbook, he said to me "what about going to the grocery store?" He got "the look", you know "the look", the yeah, I don't think so look. Yeah, that one!! Well, gotta go pea now!

{Look whose 40!!!}

Holy Moley, you know your getting "up there" when your best friend hits the big 4-0!! I want to give a big shout out to Karen Jo on her 40th birthday. I so wish that I could be there to help celebrate with you. We would party like the rockstars that we are!!! We would put on those orthopedic pumps and head out to the scrapbook store and load up on supplies and, hey, tonight we might even stay all the way until midnight!! Tonight, we might even try a jell-o shooter and not care what kind of page we got, we probably wouldn't even care how you spelled apple or pumpkin (inside joke). Anyway, happy birthday, i wish that I was able to be there to give you the 80's birthday bash that you wanted. Thinking about your birthday reminds me of your birthdays when we were growing up, all the sleepovers, even the one' s that didn't quite happen (I still haven't gotten over that, I am in therapy now though so don't worry your old decrepit head over it!) I miss you girl, happy birthday!!

{Ice, Ice, Baby!!}

Warning: Do not touch or lick your computer screen, the following images are not real. They are pictures.

Ice, ice, baby!! That's right, @ 9 degrees, we put on parkas and saw a magnificent display called "Ice" at the Gaylord Palms Resort http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordpalms/ in Orlando. It wasn't something that was planned, more something stumbled upon. You could see the sign on the hotel from I-4 and we thought we would check it out and give it a whirl and we were not disappointed. It was a wonderland of everything ice!! Polar bears, a candy land and train that you can walk thru, the nativity scene that was incredible. They use tube lighting on some of the displays to give it that extra "bling" and then in the last room, the penguin room, they have ice slides. The parkas that they give you to wear are long enough to cover your tooshie, then you can slide down,it was a lot of fun for Mark and the kids. I opted to sit it out. By the end I was afraid that I was going home with frost bite from Florida, that would be a hard one to explain. But I literally could not feel my fingers. Its the 5th year for the display and normally there is Santa at the end, but being that it was after Christmas, obviously we were over that anyway. But it is a must-see for anyone going down during the Christmas season (I do not collect any commission for this endorsement, nor am I employed by the Gaylord Palms Resort). I hope that everyone enjoyed their New Year's and a blessed '08 is in their future's. I am glad to be back home, although I am "putting on the taco suit tomorrow" (anyone who knows me well gets that joke!)

{some people think its funny when your nose is runny, but its snot}