A day in the life...

What's new?

2006-10-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

I can't even begin to try to update you on everything that has happened to my family in the last month and a half but I can share a few things.

I dusted off my stamps and starting making time to create a few new cards every now and then. I actually took some time to make some extra special ones to send as thank you's to everyone that really supported us with bringing the girls into our lives. Many people gave us donations of clothes and toys. Without that we financially would have had a really rough time.

Speaking of that, we may have to make the decision for my DH to quit his job to stay home and care for the girls full time. We found out yesterday that we will be losing our child care benefits from the state. This is a very scary feeling but we have come a long way and will be able to handle it. We have come through some really tough times in the last year and now we are both financially and spiritually able to take on this huge life change.

I am posting today because I am off work to go to, hopefully, the last court case for the girls. We are legal guardians now but have to go today for child support. We aren't fighting for it but the state is taking the girls mom to court to collect from her. We receive a benefit from the state for kinship care and they in turn try to collect from the parents. It's really kind of ridiculous because if someone cannot care for their children and give them up how are they ever going to be able to pay child support. This is just one more thing that will hang over her for a long time. I don't want to post too many details here but she has so many things stacked against her that it must be miserable to be in her shoes.

Anyhow, I am going to shorten this post because I have a ton of things to do around here. I have to take advantage of the few opportunities I have alone at home to straighten up without all those little feet right under mine.

Long time no see.

2006-10-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

It seems I have been gone for a while and I really have no good reason. Another blog I read Lucy's Island made me realize this. She posted some wonderful comments about my blog and it made me feel kind of bad for not keeping my blog updated. Lucy posted about the lurkers she may have and I came out and told her that I am a faithful lurker. In fact her blog really cracksme up. She has a real way with words. Her blog is one of the first one's I check for new posts on a daily basis. So here is my official thanks to Lucy for outing me and making me feel so special.

This poses a question I often have had. I have a way of checking my stats and I know I have a few lurkers. I wonder how many of you want to out yourself. It can be kind of hard to do at first but you never know how good it may make you feel. And, if you don't want to, just know that I appreciate you taking the time to read about little old me.

Exhausting week

2006-09-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

I am terribly exhausted and I don't know why. I have spent the last week dreading each day. Much to my surprise and happiness when I entered the office on Thursday it really wasn't Tuesday.

Have you ever had one of those days where you totally forget what day of the week it is anymore? It's kind of strange. Usually it is later in the week than I thought so it ends up better than I thought.

I don't even remember most of what has happened this week.

Wait! It's coming back.

One night we decided on pizza for dinner. I chose Little Caesar's because they have it "hot and ready". What a joke. I get there and there is about 10 people waiting for pizza. So much for "hot and ready". I decided that since I was there it would take less time to just order and wait than to go somewhere else. It took me about 25 minutes to get my 2 pizzas. The funny thing about that trip was that there is a sign carrier outside to advertise their hot and ready pizza. At one point she came in and spoke to the manager. Apparently she was being verbally abused because for some reason people didn't think waiting 25 minutes for their pizza qualified it as "hot and ready". I think the other 20 some people now in the waiting area all laughed at that one.

On a positive note, I had a great experience at Target. I had gotten a gift card from my co-workers in celebration of the finalization of the guardianship of the girls. I thought it would be best used to purchase a new set of car/booster seats so that I can pick up the girls from daycare if need be. I decided which style I wanted but there was only one on the shelf and I needed two. I picked up a customer service phone to call for assistance. They give you a message that someone will be by within 60 seconds to help. I barely had hung up the phone and someone was already coming to serve me. I told him that I need 2 of these seats and asked him to check in the back. About a minute later he rolled out a flatbed cart with one more seat on it. He told me this was the last one. The box on the shelf was pretty crushed so I asked if I could just check to make sure it was all there and no dents or dings on it. We opened the box and the seat was fine. He then walked me up to the front of the store. The lines were pretty bad so he offered to check me out himself. He then asked me to pull my car up so he could load it up for me. He tried to put a box in the backseat but it was a little too large so he told me he would just take them both out of the boxes so that they would fit and then I wouldn't have to worry about disposing of the big boxes. It doesn't seem like much but it was a great experience and not something I ofter experience around here. Customer service seems to have gone out the window where I live.

Another thing that happened this week was my husband's brakes took a crap. He suddenly started hearing a horrible grinding noise. He told me he was almost afraid to drive it. He took it in and got the repairs done the next day. The speed was nice but out pocketbook is still crying over that one.

The rest of the week was pretty ordinary except it was all very exhausting. I wish I could just sleep the whole weekend away but then we would be starting another exhausting week and I would be back to square one.

Vote for me or...

2006-09-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

at least check out the contest.

http://www.mkeonline.com/people/blogcontest.asp

I have made serious changes to my blog since the last time I was included in the contest and I have posted a ton more content. I think if anything I should get a vote because I have the most improved blog. Wait! They don't have an entryy for most improved. Either way, check it out and vote!

Finding my niche

2006-09-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting into the groove of this blog thing. I have 5 different blogs going and I am regularly updating all of them. With the exception of this one, I have been making each one about a different niche topic. These are all things I am enthusiastic about and can find lots to write about. The problem with this is finding the time to do it. I have added a daily reminder onto my Outlook calendar and set it for 9:00 everyday. This seems to be the quietest time around here since the girls are usually asleep by 9:00. The only problem is deciding which I am going to focus more of my time on each day. I am sure that once I get a routine going it will be easy to make that decision.

I don't think I can do it.

2006-09-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

I have been absent for a few days because I have been attempting to get a few other blogs going and I have been trying to quit smoking.

I have no idea starting many many blogs but I am afraind I can't manage the smoking thing. At this point I wish I could be put into a deep sleep for about a month so that when I wake up I could be smoke free.

This has got to be one of the hardest things in the whole world to do. I have read that it is easier to quit heroin than to quit smoking. Why aren't their treatment centers to deal with this?

AAAAAAARRRRRGGGG!

Full of information

2006-09-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last few days gathering as much information as possible for my weight loss and Freedom from smoking. I have posted all of this in my Healthy Ways blog.

That is the other things I have been working on. I have been transferring my blogs from Blogger to Wordpress. This has it’s advantages and disadvantages but I am giving it a try. I am keeping all posts at both for now to see which gets more hits. Although I like posting these for the sake of keeping a journal of my life I also hope that someone can benefit from the things that I post.

The last few days have been mostly me sitting in front of a computer filling my brain and spilling that information into my blogs. I hope you enjoy.

What a roller coaster ride...

2006-08-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

I was just apologizing to a friend because I haven't been a very good friend lately. I have been so preoccupied with my own life that I haven't taken the time to have much communication with my friends. I sort of let them go by the wayside when I am riding this roller coaster called life.

This last week has been one heck of a ride. Last Thursday my hubby woke up with a pain in his hands. He said it felt like he slept on them funny. Friday he woke up and they were worse with additional pain up his arms. Saturday when he woke up he had lost a lot of strength in his hands and they were sore almost up to his shoulders and his legs were starting to ache. He headed to the Urgent Care. I was in Wisconsin Dells but he called me while he was waiting for test results. He called after he got them but was only told that most of his results were fine. The told him that his blood sugar was elevated and if his condition got worse he should go straight to the ER. He called me Sunday morning and told me I needed to take him in to the ER as soon as I got home because he had no strength in his hands. He couldn't even turn on a faucet or open a door anymore. He knew he couldn't drive himself.

I got home about 6:00 PM and we ate a little dinner and headed to the ER. My niece stayed with the girls and the plan was to take her home that night depending on what time we got home. I ended up getting home at about 3:30 AM. They ran a number of test. A lot of different doctors and nurses came in. They had him on a saline drip because some level in his blood was elevated and so was his blood sugar. After much convincing they admitted him into the hospital.

The next day he didn't get much information but there was one doctor/nurse that indicated that he would be there overnight again. He had a muscle test done. His description was that it felt like they were electrocuting him. They couldn't explain his muscle loss or why his nerves were reacting as they were. They told him he would be there another night and he apparently had an argument with the doctors because we had court the next morning. After his threat of removing his own IV they consented to giving him a day pass.

I picked him up at 7:45 AM and we headed over to children’s court. We sat for a while and weren't sure if the girls Mom would show up. By the time we were called she hadn't shown up but the last court hearing she surprised everyone and walked in as the judge was about to postpone the case. She never did show and the judge found her in default. He listened to our testimony and asked for the Guardian ad Litem's opinion. She stated she thought it was in the girls best interest if Guardianship be transferred to us permanently. The Judge agreed and we are now permanent legal guardians of both girls.

When we got back to the hospital there were 4 or 5 doctors reviewing my hubby's case and they were trying to decide on the best course of treatment. They told him the options and wanted to know what he wanted to do. One thing to do would be treat it as Diabetes related symptoms and have him follow up with doctors and get on a regimen to treat Diabetes. The other option would be a spinal tap and based on the results he could have a treatment that sounded pretty severe. My hubby decided on the less evasive treatment and is treating himself as a diabetic. This was a tough pill to swallow but we are using this as an opportunity to change our lifestyle. We are going to quit smoking and start healthy eating and exercise. With any luck he will be Diabetes free in no time at all.

Through all this there really seems to be a big stressor done in our lives. I learned to appreciate everything you have rather than dwell on what you want. I am turning to God to help pull us through whatever else comes our way. Only he can help us find the correct path to be on. That may even include a few detours such as Diabetes.

Hug your spouse. Hug you kids. Let everyone know just how much you appreciate them. And be sure you don't forget about your friends. They can life you up when you are on the downward slope.

Vacation

2006-08-25T06:48:00.001-07:00

The girls and I are headed out today to Wisconsin Dells and the Sandy Beach Resort. We are going with Grandma, all the aunts and uncles, cousins and a few more. Uncle Richard has to work tomorrow so he gets to miss out on all the fun. He doesn't fell well anyhow so it is probably for the best.

I post more about our trip when we get back.

May you be blessed!

2006-08-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com

Bummer of a day

2006-08-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

Today just seemed to fall to pieces. Without revealing too much I can say that most of it was work related.

A co-worker had some issues and we had a very emotional conversation. This helped me as much as it helped her. We came out of this with a much better understanding of each other.

I was called about a job I applied for and had 2 interviews for and was told they job had been offered to someone else. It was a pleasant call because I received a lot of compliments. I am sure that they went with someone more qualified for the job and not because they didn't like me. It was a downer but I am very accepting of not getting it. Everything happens for a reason and I know my time will come.

Personally there was an issue with the girls mother that I thought would be resolved yesterday. She had to go to court but after checking on the results today I see that her court appearance was adjourned.

Nothing awful happened but the day seemed to progressively go downhill.

On an upside, I learned a lot of management skills and things I needed to work on when I was at my training last week and I put what I learned to good use. I held a meeting with my team today and I felt like a real manager and like we will make some serious progress together. I told my team that I have a renewed spirit as a manager and hope to bring the positive aspects of that to them to help them personally and professionally.

The whole day wasn't so bad but I can't wait to wake up tomorrow to get a fresh start.

Figuring things out

2006-08-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

I am trying to keep up with life in general. Between work life and home life I don't know which end is up. I need to find a system to organize myself and try to keep track of all the things I need and want to do. I will be going about my normal business and a though will pop into my head of something I want to do and no sooner is the thought there and it suddenly disappears from my mind. Sometime later it will pop into my head and I wonder why didn't I remember it the last time.

I have tried a PDA type thing and that failed. I tried a normal calendar to carry in my purse and I keep up with updating that about once a month but that idea always seems to fail. I tried adding things into my outlook calendar at home and that never went anywhere. I even tried adding things to my work calendars. Nothing works for me. What other options do I have other than to get a brain transplant to add more memory space?

Currently I have a number of things I have to do but always remember at very inconvenient times. I am going to end up missing the opportunity to make appointments when I need them. I am going to become an outcast to my family and friends because I seem to always forget to call them even to just say hi. I almost never remember to acknowledge birthdays. I might forget my own birthday if people didn't remember it for me.

What's a girl to do?

Catching up

2006-08-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

What's new? A lot has happened since I last posted. Nothing extra special but a lot of things that made it so there wasn't much free time.

Last weekend was my birthday. We decided to head out to the Wisconsin State Fair. We were going to have my mom watch the girls so that we could have some free time but we decided at the last minute that the girls would have a good time so we took them along. I neglected to take any pictures but they really enjoyed themselves. Their biggest moment was being able to pet a live horse. They were really excited about all the animals but I think we have 2 horse lovers on our hands. They were grossed out by seeing the cows going to the bathroom but it helped them see another side of nature. The hardest part was that my hubby got me a chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick and told me to enjoy it all myself. Try explaining that to 2 toddlers that want to eat it all themselves.

Sunday was a lazy day because I knew I wasn't going to be around much the rest of the week. I cleaned up a little in hopes that I would come home to a half way clean house.

I left for a business trip in the afternoon on Monday. My hubby had the girls in his hands for the next 3 1/2 days. He certainly had his hands full. I was away at a management training. I learned a lot and it renewed my spirit as a manager. I made some new friends and got to see the beautiful mountains in San Jose California.

I got back at about 1:00 AM and could not fall asleep until about 3:00 AM. I blame that on the time change and being wound up from the flights. I was woken up by the sounds of my hubby trying to keep the kids out of my bedroom. This was about 7:30 AM. I decided to get up and spend a few minutes with them before they headed out to daycare. After that I was wide awake so I got ready and headed to the office. This day is exactly why my spirit was shot down as a manager. I am still going to use some of the techniques I learned in my training in hopes of making things better in the future. I wanted to leave the office early to try to catch a little sleep before the kids got home but that certainly didn't happen. I got home well after they did.

Yesterday we attended the 2nd annual Katie's Kids baseball outing. My family attends a Brewer's game in honor of my grandma's favorite pasttime. She loved watching the Brewer's. This is the 2nd anniversay of her death. It's kind of a sad thing and hard to have a good time when you think about the meaning behind us being there. It seemed as though everyone had a good time but who knows what happened after we left in the 5th inning.

Today is my time to catch up on cleaning. So far I have only finished the bathroom. I started with the room I hate cleaning the most. One thing I learned is that the Clorox Bleach pen works wonders on the grout in between those tiny tiles we have on the bathroom floor. I also used a tip I learned from a cleaning show on cable. I took the shower curtain liner down and filled the bathtub with some water and poured in some laundry soap. You then stomp on the liner until all that mildew comes off. It makes it pretty easy to clean the liner. I cleaned down all the walls and the shower curtain rod. I had a shower curtain I won on an online auction sitting on a shelf for a few months. I decided it was time to whip that out. Let's see how long it takes for hubby to notice I switched it out.

ALl in all it's been a pretty busy few weeks around here. I am happy to be home but cannot wait for August to be over.

Zoo pictures

2006-08-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

These are the better animal pictures from the zoo.

The seal waving to us.

The polar bear relaxing.

How many peacocks do you see?

A sun bathing seal.

Not a total waste

2006-08-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Not long after I posted this morning the rain started to slow down. At about 11:30 I called a friend from work to ask if the zoo was still on. The biggest concern I had was that our office planned for months and spent a lot of time and money on organizing this event and if no one showed it would have been a total waste. My friend said she wasn't sure what was happening but she was going to make sure there were no issues since she was one of the planners. I hemmed and hawed and finally asked my hubby (who was trying to take a nap) if we should try to go since the rain was now just a slight drizzle. We decided to go and if it started to get too bad we could always leave. We live only about 10 minutes from the zoo so it wasn't like we had to go far.

We packed up the girls and got to the zoo about 12:15. By the time we made it to the picnic area we were pretty soaked. I was surprised to see a majority of our group had shown up. We were the last ones to show. After standing in line for who knows how long to get our food, there was no place to sit under the covered seating area so we settled on a picnic table that was soaked. I figured since we were already wet it wouldn't hurt to get a little wetter. By the time we finished eating we had about a half hour to kill before we had to go to our group seating at the sea lion show. We slowly wandered our way to the show and took in a few other animals. We saw the sea lion show with front row seating and then headed out to see more animals. We decided to let our visiting niece pick what to see since she hadn't been to the zoo in a long time and we were just here a few months ago. We headed to her main choice, the Expedition Dinosaur. She loved it but the 2 younger ones were a little frightened. When we were done there we headed for the train ride to finish off our day. We didn't do a whole lot but we were still there from 2:15-4:15. The kids had a blast and we mostly enjoyed our time there.

Rain, rain...go away.

2006-08-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to go to the zoo for my company summer outing. It's been raining all morning with no end in sight. You can't very well go to the zoo, which is mostly outdoor walking, with it raining outside. We have one of our other nieces with us for the weekend and all 3 girls we looking forward to the zoo. I was even looking forward to spending the day with them someplace other than our apartment. It's no fun spending the day inside. I really wish the rain would just go away. I would still take them even if it is a little wet outside but dashing from building to building when it is raining sounds like no fun at all.

America's Walk for Diabetes

2006-08-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

I’m writing to share some good news and to ask for your help. I recently signed up to participate in America’s Walk for Diabetes, a premier walking event held to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Participants walk in locations across to country to fight diabetes and join in a healthy activity together.

As a participant in America’s Walk for Diabetes, I have accepted two important challenges. The first is to live a healthier lifestyle and to get in shape to walk the distance for diabetes. By accepting this challenge, I have also made a commitment to raise funds to support the mission of the American Diabetes Association— to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.

Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease in the United States and contributes to the deaths of more than 213,000 people each year—more than AIDS & breast cancer combined. Over 20 million men, women and children are estimated to have diabetes. Unfortunately, since diabetes can be symptomless for years, more than five million of them do not even know they have the disease. . If improperly treated or left undiagnosed, diabetes can cause serious complications including blindness, kidney disease, heart disease, stroke or amputation. The American Diabetes Association is striving to prevent and cure diabetes through valuable research, educational activities and advocacy programs.

I think both of these goals are worthy of my best efforts and hope you will help by being one of my sponsors for the event. If you wish to donate you can go to my Walk Page to learn more.

I am proud to be a part of this worthwhile endeavor. With your support I will be able to walk to make a difference!

Keeping up

2006-08-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it can be so hard to keep up with all the life events that are planned for my family. I keep a calendar but find it difficult to remember to keep it updated. If I can't remember to keep it updated then how am I supposed to remember all the events. This month is insane with all the plans I have.

Tomorrow I am going to dinner at my bosses house.
Friday my sister wants to go to dinner to celebrate my brother and siter in law's 15th anniversary.
Saturday is a 1st birthday party for my nephew.
Sunday is a day at the zoo with my company.
The following Friday I am taking my team out for a night of bowling and pizza.
Saturday is my birthday with no real plans as of yet.
Sunday my friend wants to grill out with her daughter and my girls.
Monday I leave on a business trip to San Jose.
Return late Thursday evening.
That Saturday is a family 2nd memorial Brewer's baseball game in honor of my Grandma.
The following Friday we are going to Wisconsin Dells for the weekend with all my nieces and nephews.
I am then on vacation.
The next Tuesday in another (hopefully last) court date for the girls guardianship.

This month is out of control. It appears as though my whole month is already planned for me. How is anyone supposed to get anything done?

What's New?

2006-07-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon. My hubby is napping because he doesn't feel well. The girls are watching cartoons. Basically, I am doing anything to avoid cleaning. This gives me some time to blog.

I think I finally found a template that suits me and is compatible with Blogger. I have to spend less time searching for a Blogger Template and more time posting in the blog. This is the last time I will discuss this topic. I will spend more time blogging as time allows.

News with us includes much improvement with the girls behavior. We installed the chore chart which rewards them with stars at the end of each day. Each night after brushing their teeth and before heading to bed we recap their day and give them a star for each item they successfully completed. It has done wonders for us. Because we had such a great week and both girls earned almost every possible star I took them shopping Friday at Barnes andNoble and they got to pick out some books for themselves. I also picked up Jillian Michaels book for myself.

My book of choice.

2006-07-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

I loved watching The Biggest Loser. I didn't especially care for the red team trainer, Jillian Michaels. Although, for some reason I am drawn to Jillian's training style. Bob Harper was the blue team trainer and he seemed much more down to earth but I saw some softer sides to Jillian as I watched each show. I love Jillian not that I dislike Bob.

Friday night I bought Jillian's book
Winning by Losing: Drop the Weight, Change Your Life". I am not an avid reader but I downed 80 pages in just one night. I think she has a great weight loss plan and I am going to give it a try. I am spending this next week getting a plan together to change my lifestyle and to get back into an exercise routine. I am going to make my weight loss goals happen and nothing stopped me from accomplishing this before except myself. I put a link to Jillian's site in my Links section. Go check her out. She even has an online program if you want to make that commitment.

The Chore Chart

2006-07-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

One of the things we have mostly struggled with is the girls behavior. We seem to have more time outs than anyone I ever met. To help with this I was searching for a chart to keep track of chores and behavior. I found a perfect chore chart at Target. It is a write and wipe board so I can adjust what the girls are striving for. It also is magnetic and came with a number of magnetic stars to indicate when they successfully completed a task for each day. They love trying for stars are are very proud of themselves when they earn every possible star for a day.

We started out with some simple tasks because, afterall, they are only 1 3/4 and 3 years old. You can't expect them to be making beds or washing dishes. The first 3 weeks worked well and included tasks such as brushing their teeth, putting dirty clothes away, throwing away garbage, behaving with no timeouts, going to bed nice and cleaning up toys. There is also room to add a few more tasks but I don't see a need for much more at this point. This has helps with helping us get into the habit of brushing teeth every day.

After we learned that J doesn't ever take a nap at school and therefore is super crabby every night we made an adjustment to the chart. We already mastered the teeth brushing so we removed that and added a spot for naptime at daycare. This has gotten us great results.

For any parent struggling with behavior or discipline problems I recommend trying this type of chart. I know that after the girls are a bit older we are going to have to make some reward adjustments because the simple little star isn't going to satisfy them but for now it works for us.

Card samples

2006-07-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

Fun times

2006-07-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah! I finally am dedicating some time to stamping. (You know that just as I say that I will no longer have the time to do it.) I made some sample cards for someone at work. She had me make some baby shower invitations for her and she loved them so much that she might want birthday invitations. The only drawback is that she is not sure if she is throeing the birthday party yet so she doesn't know if or when she will need the invitations. I made the samples anyhow because I really want to start making cards to sell. I enjoy making the cards anyhow so I might as well make so $ while I am at it. I didn't take pics of these yet but I will follow this post with some other cards I have made.

A few of my favorite things

2006-07-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

The card above was made for my Father-in-law for his birthday.

This card was made for someone at work who is adopting a baby from Russia. We are having her baby shower tomorrow.

This was made as a thank you for my husband's aunt. She sent us a huge box of clothes for the girls.

Besides blogging, one of my favorite things to do is find time to hand stamp cards. It has to be my all time favorite hobby but it is extremely rare for me to find any free time to work on it. Tonight I had the pleasure of working on a few new creations. These are all made with images from Stampin' Up!. I tried my hand at being a demonstrator but I think I was more of a hobbiest. Maybe someday I will find the time and dedication to give it another try. For now I will just try to find the time to stamp a little more often.

Blog Templates

2006-07-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

So I commited to myself to post in my blog a lot more often but I find myself online searching fruitlessly for a new blog template. If you have visted before you can see that I did update with a new tamplate but it just isn't screaming me for some reason. Now I am spending hours on end searching for just the template. I have even been learning some CSS so that I can possibly write my own code. In the last week I have learned enough that I can creat my own template but then I am going to be spending hours and hours creating the graphics. Something is telling me to give up or I will never get an posts done in my blog. What's the purpose of a blog if all I am doing is spending time making it look all pretty.

Here are the girls!

2006-07-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of the girls. They are a handful but aren't they the cutest???

Back at it!

2006-07-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am finally back and making the time to blog. Things have been super crazy for me and I haven't found much time to post. Wait until I tell you about the newest additions to my family.

We now have 2 little girls. My husband and I have gotten temporary guardianship of them and we are continuing to seek permaent guardianship. Obviously I am playing with a new template for this blog and learning some coding so when I have some time I will tell you a lot more about the girls.

Cancun

2006-07-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of me and my husband on a recent trip to Cancun.

Not a good blogger

2006-01-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

I feel like a blog failure. I keep at it for a little while and then get busy and forget that I even have a blog. I also have a fitness blog that I have committed to updating weekly so hopefully that will bring me here weekly.

Not a bad week.

2005-11-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

I came back as promised to update you on my week. I stuck to one goal. How about that?

I started a new diet on Monday. That lasted for 2 days and the rest of the week was shot. I will be starting fresh on Monday morning so hopefully I will have better things to report about that next week.

Wednesday we got out of the office early. A bunch of the girls wanted to go for drinks. How do you refuse that especially when you don't have to work the next day. I proceeded to eat too much and not care about how that would affect my diet.

Thanksgiving was uneventful. The phone was ringing at 11:00 AM and I was woken up by that. I don't get to sleep in too often so that was nice. It was my niece asking when I was heading to my Mom's. At that point all I wanted to know was what time I needed to be there. They wanted my to come over right then and there but I finally got them to tell me that we didn't need to be there until 3:00. We ended up getting there at about 3:15. We never seem to make it anywhere on time. It was cozy. It was me and my husband, my Mom, My Aunt, My Brother and his wife and daughter, and my sister-in-law's brother and mother. My other Brother's girlfriend was supposed to come with my 2 other nieces but she never showed. That wasn't a big surprise but a bit disappointing to not be able to see the girls. We did all eat too much but we had a pretty good time. After dinner we played a few games that had us laughing pretty good.

I didn't get to bed until about 11:30 last night but we managed to get up at 3:30 AM to head out for some shopping. Nothing was a super good deal but it is a tradition for me and my husband to brave the early morning shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We usually get about 95% of our shoppig done by 5:30 AM. Today we got about 75% of our gifts bought and were home eating breakfast by 6:00 AM. I did have to go into work today so I couldn't brave more than one store so we couldn't even go out and look for anymore bargains. Before I went to work I did go to Michael's but there were too many people so I wouldn't have had time to buy anything and wait in line and still make it to work on time. They have coupons that are good for tomorrow too so I might head there and to JoAnn's tomorrow. That all depeneds on if we get more snow tonight.

We got about 2 inches of snow today. I started when I was leaving the office and snowed pretty good for a few hours. The weatherman says we will get 2-4 inches and that the rest of the weekend it should warm up and be melted. If that's the case it should make for a nice weekend of shopping. Maybe I can get the other 25% of our gifts bought. I do need to get the wrapping paper so I can get all these gifts wrapped before the weekend is done. I also will be addressing and mailing out my Christmas cards this weekend. I made the cards myself so I can't wait to see what people think of them. I think after everyone receives them I will post a picture so you all can see.

I am heading off to sleepy land pretty soon so I will leave you with a goodnight until next week. :)

What's up?

2005-11-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's been a while. I guess I am not good at keeping this daily journal. I think from now on my goal will be to update you weekly. Things have been crazy at work and that takes so much of my energy that I don't even want to think about sitting down and recapping my day.

I have been so busy with work that my stamping business never got off the ground. I would call myself a hobby demo now. I have been making my own Christmas cards and I can't wait to see the reaction of my friends and family when they open them. They turned out really cute.

Today is the last day of a weeks vacation for me. No, I didn't go anywhere. It was nice to sit around the house and get a few things accomplished. We took my neices and nephews to the Christmas parade yesterday. It was cold but a few of them had a lot of fun. Today I am just being lazy and might just clean up around the house. Mostly I plan to sit around and have some alone time with my husband.

It's hard to even think about what this last month has been like to tell you everything that's new. I guess next week when I update you I will be better equipped to give you all the musings of the week.

I did something bad.

2005-10-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

I am a little in shock right now. I just got home from getting a hair cut. A few hairs actually. I had shoulder length hair that was almost one length. I chopped it all off. I now have hair that is super short in the back with lots of short layers all around. My husband hates short hair. I am lucky he is sleeping right now because I would be teased to no end. I had bangs as long as my hair all around and now they are above my eyebrows. I really do look like a boy. I can't believe what I have done. Maybe, just maybe, after I color my hair I will post a before and after pic. That's a big maybe.

I am off to color my hair and cry.

I said it before...

2005-10-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

I keep saying that I am going to update my blog more regularly. Life has seemed to have gotten in the way. I have been working 50+ hours a week and just haven't had the time to get online as much as I would like. Hopefully within the next few weeks this will change.

My goals right now are to get back to working regular hours, get my blog updated, and to really get my Stampin' Up! business off the ground. Please pray for me that these all happen soon.

So much to do and so little time

2005-09-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

I know I don't post her often enough. I have had so much going on lately that I find it hard to sit at the computer for any length of time anymore. I PROMIS that I will start posting more regularly. I want to share more of what is going on in my life and my business world. In the next day or two I will devise a plan to fit my blog more into my life.

I cannot wait to share with you all the joys Stampin' Up! had brought into my life.

Stay tuned for more about me....

I'm official!!!

2005-08-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

I sent in my paperwork to Stampin' Up on Monday and by Thursday I received an e-mail and phone call welcoming me as the newest Stampin' Up demonstrator. My starter kit is on it's way. I am so excited. I have been talking with a few people about it and I already have 2 people interested in having a show for me. They will have people in attendance that are outside of my "normal" circle of friends. This is soooo big for me. I think I finally found the right direct sales company for me.

This will be my 3rd direct sales company.

The first was a well known candle company. Yes it is a gret company and yes they have a great plan but the downfall is that it is oversaturated in my area. People got so sick of having shows for me and it fizzled out really fast.

The second company is a Bath & Body company. They are also a fantastic company but they aren't very well known. That can be both a good and a bad thing. For me, I just couldn't get people to try a new product. Their products are fabulous and I will continue to use them personally. I just won't be actively trying to sell them. I will still take orders but if I don't get any I won't be disappointed.

This last company is something very close to my heart. I only recently dicovered my love of stamping. I went to a weekend craft get together with some friends of a message board that I frequent regularly. Someone there introduced me to stamping. I really enjoyed myself but didn't think anything would come of it. When I returned home my cousin invited me to a stamoing party. From then on I was hooked. We made 10 cards for $10. I knew from that very first night that I would someday be a demonstrator.

Now I just sit and wait. My starter kit will be here on Wednesday. I am thinking of writing a letter to my local churches to see if they would be interested in letting me come in one night a month to host a stamp club. I am eager to see what comes of this. Until I get me kit I am researching everything I can on how to grow this business rapidly. I know there are lots of other reps in the area but I figure that if I hadn't heard of this company until a few months ago there must be other people who haven't heard of them either.

I will post more once I receive my kit and share even more of my excitement.

Amazing, simply amazing...

2005-08-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was reading a few other blogs and discovered that I have been nominated for blog of the week at mkeonline.com. What? How did this happen? I just got my blog listed there and I am nominated. How cool is that?

I have been nominated for Round 17, which will be voted on for the next week, August 18-24. Please vote for your favorite at Blog of the Week!

A list of the other nominees are as follows:
1. Upright and Breathing
uab.blogspot.com
2. From Behind the Cheddar Curtain
http://shanawoodman.blogspot.com
3. A Day in the Life
www.kathib.blogspot.com/
4. McBride's Media Matters
http://mcbridemediamatters.blogspot.com
5. Jon Baas: Daily Musings
http://www.jonbaas.com/weblog.html

Please vote for me. I have no idea what the prize is, but at least a few other people can read about my hum drum life.

Ho hum...

2005-08-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a very relaxing weekend so far.

Yesterday I spent most of the day just being lazy. I slept in until 10:30. I got up and spent way too much time on the computer playing between a few message boards I frequent. I took a nap in the afternoon. Hubby ordered in pizza. Then I spent the rest of the night hopping between the tv and the computer. Because of the late afternoon nap I couldn't fall asleep until well after midnight.

Today I got up early. I woke up around 7:30. Had a nice cup of coffee while watching a little tv with hubby. Then we both got to work. He cleaned the bathroom and I was in charge of the kitchen, dining and living rooms. We both finished around 9:30 and have been sitting around some more. I have to head out to Walmart to spend a gift certificate I received from my Dad for my birthday. You just know it's burning a hole in my pocket. I think I will see what stamping related goodies I can find. Then I have to stop at my mom's to drop off her Country Bunny order. Then I have to try and figure out what to get my mother-in-law for her birthday next week. After that I am sure I will just sit around the house some more going between the computer and the tv.

These are the best kind of weekends. It's been a while since I had any time to sit around let alone two whole days to do it.

Things do not always turn out as planned

2005-08-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

I had lots of plans this week and most of them fell through. The only thing that really panned out was my meeting with my Stampin' Up demo. I met with her to get a current catalog to pick out the stamp sets I want to get in my demo starter kit. That's right! I am signing up as a demo with Stampin' Up. This was my big birthday present from Richard this year.

As of August 22nd I will no longer be persuing my Country Bunny business and will be able to start taking orders for Stampin' Up. The reason for all of this is twofold.

For one, I just do not have my heart in the Bath & Body business right now. I will be able to continue taking orders but I am not really getting anywhere with any of the marketing avenues I have tried. I appears that everyone is content with buying their bath & body products from the chain stores at the mall or their local drug stores.

The second reason is that I found a new hobby that I love and that is stamping. It's so easy and you can get lost in the card making process. I was hooked from the first stamp-a-stack I attended. I signed up mostly for the discount and to be a hobby demo but if things work out I could really get a nice little business going.

Once I get my new kit I will post more details but for now I have to just figure out which of the many stamp sets I want to get in my kit. I think I have narrowed down the choices and I will be mailing in the paperwork early next week.

When will it end...

2005-08-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Life seems so dull and boring at times and then there are times like this where everything hits at once. Sometimes it feels like I have all the time in the world and I am so bored with life and then there are times that I have so much to do and not enought time to do it.

Early last week there wasn't much to do but as the week ended it all caught up to me.

Friday was my birthday. I got up and was getting ready for work and I thought my husband had forgotten that it was my birthday. I was really starting to get ticked. I was already to leave the house mad at him and went to get my keys out of my purse and he had tucked a card inside. He said he wanted me to think he forgot. Earlier in the week he had given me my gift but I will get back to that in the next post. I got to work and my desk had been decorated to the nines. I had a giant balloon and a huge arrangement of roses waiting for me. The remainder of the day was spent answering the question "Is TODAY you birthday?" I wanted to pin something on my shirt that said "yes, in fact, today really is my birthday." Anyhow, after work my husband took me to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. That was awesome.

Saturday we were supposed to go to a Brewer game. This was a memorial game in honor of the 1 year anniversary of my Grandma's death. It sounds morbid but it was exactly what she would have wanted. I was supposed to make an appetizer. I tried out a recipe from Pampered Chef. It was some sort of Zesty crab salad in cucumber boats. That took a lot longer than I had expected but they turned out great. We had to stop at hubby's bosses house to let out their dogs since they were out of town for the weekend. We got to the game a little late but still had plenty of time to have fun. We all got t-shirts that said Katie's Kids est. 1918. They were adorable and very fitting. During the game they had our group name (Katie's Kids) up on the scoreboard welcoming us to the game. That was neat. We left the game early but that's a story I'd rather not rehash.

Sunday was my nephews 6th birthday party. It was a big deal because they had to cancel his party last year because of everything that happened with my Grandma so my nephew was really looking forward to this. I was in charge of making the birthday cake. It was a bug theme so I made a huge cake with a caterpillar on top. I will post pictures at a later time of a number of different cakes I have made over the years. Everyone loved the cake. Again we were late but this time it was all my fault because I had not planned well for the time it would take to make the cake. We had gotten my nephew a spiderman pinball game. He loved that so much. You really could see the excitement in the kids face. It was a really nice party.

We had plans for almost everyday this week and so far nothing has gone as planned. I was supposed to go to the Taste of Wisconsin at the Grand Avenue mall on onday night but that was listed wrong on their calendar and really isn't happening until Thursday night. That worked out well because I could clean up our messy house that I hadn't been able to touch all weekend. Tonight we were supposed to go to someone's work anniversary party but we didn't because hubby was too tired after work. He must have been tired because he fell asleep about 7:00 and hasn't been up since.

Tomorrow I am supposed to go to 2 friends houses. First I am going to L's house to pick up a Stampin' Up catalog from her and then I am going to M's house with some people from work just to sit and talk and be friendly. Thurday we are doing some boat thing on the river going from bar to bar. I have no idea what to expect but I hear it should be a fun time.

I will tell you more how the week pans out as it happens.

All's fair at the Fair

2005-08-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

As a child, since my birthday always falls during the state fair, I used to go to the state fair about 5 or 6 times a year. Getting older certainly changes that. It's been about 4 or 5 years since I have been there. So today my husband Richard and I headed to the Wisconsin State Fair.

It all started out innocently enough. Last night while watching a movie I told him that I wanted to go this year. When we looked at our calendar for the week, we decided that today would be our only chance. We called my neice to see if she wanted to go along, but all I could do was leave a message which I am still waiting for a return call from. Richard decided that he wanted to go early to beat the crowds. HA! I got up at 7:00AM, which is a feat for me on a Sunday morning. I decided to color my hair before we left because I knew I would be in no shape to do it tonight and I really needed it bad. We were finally ready to go about 9:00AM. We get to the grounds and drive for about 20 minutes just to get to the parking lot entrance. We park a mile away, walk to the gate and wait and wait and wait. The line for tickets is enormous. I guess eveyone had the same idea to get their early.

When we got in we walked through the place with the rabbits and poultry. Then moved on to the cow barns. After that we headed over to view the horses. We got to see a lot very up close. So close that I could have gotten stomped on by a few of them if I wasn't careful. We couldn't leave out the sheep, goats and pigs so we headed over to see them too. By this time we were very thirsty. I HAD to have a hawaiian shaved ice. I waited in line and Richard went to find a lemonaid. By the time he got back I will still in line. I guess those shaved ices looked good to everyone.

We walked around a little more and looked at some of the outside vendors. We found some shade. Did I mention that it was about 90 degrees with not much shade anywhere. We couldn't find any place to sit down so we walked some more. We finally decided to go into one of the buildings with lots of different vendors. As a kid, I loved going into these buildings and finding some treasure to buy. This year I came to a realization. I told Richard that I knew I was a grown up now just because looking at all these things all I could see was a bunch of crap. We bought nothing. At least we got to cool off and find a place to sit for a short while.

We headed outside again and walked and walked some more. We went and saw the display that his company had set up. The guys in there had it made. They are set up inside a semi trailor and it was beautiful in there plus it's air conditioned. They show off all the modern technology that Best Buy has available now. They took our picture and that really gave me some motivation to lose some weight. I can't believe I go out in public looking like I did today.

After this we only had one final thing to do. We had to get a famous creme puff. The line for that wasn't too bad but you have to go through this enormous roped off area which means you have to walk and walk some more. By this point my feet and back were killing me. We got our creme puffs and we had no choice but to eat them at a stand up table. We quickly ate those and headed out the door. We decided that we had enough. It was time to head home. That is after we found our way back to the car. We were on the opposite end of the fair ground. At this point we were just hot, thirsty and hurting from walking and standing so much.So we walked and walked and walked to get to the car. At one point my back hurt so bad I didn't think I could even make it to the car. We finally did and headed home.

When we got home I think we both were ready to crash. Richard headed to bed and I tried to stay up but knew I couldn't make it. We both took very long naps. I would guess that is why we are both wide awake and on the computer.

All in all, today was a good day. Who knew that 4 hours walking around the fair would take that much out of you? Maybe it will be better next time. That is if there is a next time. Also, next yea we both plan on being a lot smaller so maybe it will be easier.

My vote for this years fair is that it was just fair. I do recommend it but make sure you take plenty of money and be prepared to sweat. You will sweat A LOT.

See ya next year.

Isn't it fun to get gifts?

2005-08-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

I received my order today for my mystery hostess show. Dixie was the grand prize winner and received the hostess benefits. She got a mystery gift bag. I can't believe the value of it. Laura also ordered a mystery grab bag and she got some great stuff too. As the person who placed the largest order Laura is receiving an Oatmeal Milk & Honey soap from me for free. I packaged up the rest of the orders and I think the girls are going to love their gifts from me. Everyone is receiving a gift just for placing an order with me.

Remember, if you or anyone you know are interested in hosting a spa show you get a gift from me for just being the hostess. If you refer a customer or a hostess to me I will give you a 20% discount on your next order. Scan the names of all of your family and friends and see if you have time to invite them over to have a pampering treatment from me. If you aren't local or aren't able to have them over, think about doing a book show. You can show the catalog to all of them and collect the orders and then you get all the benefits as the hostess. If you host a in-home spa show and the sales are over $400 you win a free Oatmeal Milk & Honey Lotion Bar and there is a prize inside. Until August 26th, Country Bunny Bath & Body will double that prize. I have even heard of one hostess winning a years worth of Shower Gel so she earned 2 years worth of Shower Gel. I don't even know what I would do with that much Shower Gel but I am sure you could find a way to use it.

I'll post the greeting from my webstore just in case you have some questions about what Country Bunny Bath & Body has to offer.

Why should you love Country Bunny?

We use no mineral oil or petroleum products!

Petroleum and mineral oil leach moisture from your skin, and are horrible for skin problems. You end up using more and more because the ingredients are causing the dry skin/chapped lips! How many tubes of chap stick do YOU have laying around? How many half-used bottles of lotion?

Our lotions use wonderful ingredients like beeswax, shea butter, apricot and almond oil and aloe gel.

No animal Testing!

We are committed to never testing our products on animals.

Summer is a great time to try our premier scent, Oatmeal, Milk & Honey!

Our customers have discovered that all of our Oatmeal, Milk & Honey lotions repel mosquitoes! It wasn't intended to, but we're happy it does!

Now you can smell wonderful, have beautiful skin, and no bites!

Sunscreen!

We now carry sunscreen. Our new Kiwi scent comes in a 30 SPF+ sun block, which is also resistant to water, so you can play ball, swim, bike, and still be protected from harmful rays!

Have you experienced a Spa Retreat yet?

Now is a great time to have a show to have gifts ready for wedding and baby showers. Don't forget to stock up for your vacation with our Kiwi Sun care Set!

Country Bunny might be just the business for you!

You start earning money with your first order as a Country Bunny Representative.

Hop into your own bath & body business! Our new representative kit includes everything you need to start your own business! From full size products, to samples and catalogs, you will find everything you need in this kit. PLUS receive a CBBB logo briefcase. Now just $89!!!! Sell $300 in your first 2 months and receive a sassy logo tote bag and a selection of our specialty products
FREE!

Want more information?

Visit my webstore at www.cbunnyrep.com/6668 or e-mail me at kathib@bunnymart.com and put "Country Bunny Catalog" in the subject line, and I'll send you out a new catalog, and a sample of our wonderful body butter!! If you are interested in more information on the business opportunity be sure to state that in the email and I will include that information as well.

Business Networking

2005-08-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

I found this great website to start networking for my Bath & Body business. It's www.ryze.com and there is a lot of great information if you really hunt. If you want to see my networking page go to http://www.ryze.com/go/kathib and you can see what I have started.

I have also decided that since I haven't been doing much in my business lately I really have to get my butt in gear if I want to make this work. I am currently looking for new hostess in the Milwaukee area to host an in-home spa show. It's a great way to pamper yourself and a few of your friends and get the opportunity to try some fabulous products. As a hostess you even have the opportunity to earn free products. Be sure to let me know if you are interested.

It's a BOY!!!

2005-08-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

He's here. My new nephew that is. Emerson Kraig entered the world on August 1st at 8:45 AM. He came in at a whopping 8 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

On Sunday night his big brothers Delano and Elijah came to my house so I could take them to the hospital for the big event. We played video games, played at the park and them got to bed early for our early morning wake up call.

We got up at 6:00 AM and had a pretty easy morning considering that none of us are morning people. We had breakfast and talked about the impending arrival. Delano seemed pretty excited but Elijah didn't really know what to think. I think he was more worried about losing his status as the baby of the family. We headed to the hospital and made it there just after 7:30 AM. Mom and Dad were all ready to head to the operating room and Grandma was pacing in anticipation.

About 8:10 AM the docs came in and took Mom and Dad to the OR. We waiting in the visitor lounge and watched cartoons, did puzzles and paced the halls waiting for the first glimpse of the new baby.

Here's the neat part. Dad wheeled Emerson out of the OR into the recovery room where the nurse started to clean him up and then they invited us in. A few minutes later Mom joined us. We all got to stay together in the recovery room together with the baby while they did all their measuring and cleaning him up. Delano was pretty excited at first but after seeing him for a few minutes he was maze book he had brought along. He didn't really want much more to do with the new baby. Elijah on the other hand didn't want to stay away from his new brother. He was loving all over him. I would say he long forgot about losing his role as the baby.

We went to the park across the street and headed out for lunch. WE came back and spent another few hours with Mom, Dad, Grandma and Emerson. About 5:00 PM we headed to drop the Big Brothers at their Grandma's house. I went home and was fast asleep by 8:00 AM. It was a loooonnnng day and I was very happy to be home and able to get some rest.

I'm sure I will have more pictures to share really soon so keep checking back.

Tomorrow's the big day

2005-07-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know that I said there isn't much in my life to add excitement lately, but there is one small thing. My sister is having a baby tomorrow morning. Her other 2 sons are spending the night at my house and we are headed to the hospital tomorrow morning to meet our new newphew and brother. From what I hear, the kids are more excited to be spending the night at Auntie Kathi's house than the idea of a new baby brother.

Tonight we are going to go spend some quality time at the park playing on the playground. After that I am sure we will get to play some video games and then relax with watching a movie and eating popcorn.

I'll try to hop on in the next few days to post some pictures of the new baby. By the way, we know it is going to be another boy and his name is probably going to be Emerson.

Catching up

2005-07-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's been far too long since I posted. I have been in a major funk lately. Life can be very dull and right now I fel like I am just going through the motions. Hopefully something will come along very soon to add some excitement.

Online Dating and Marriage

2005-07-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is so long, but I love to read these whole stories so I thought I would share my whole story.

I met my hubby back in August of 1997. Of all ways, I met him through an online Yahoo personal ad that I had posted.

He lived in S. California and I in Wisconsin. He was originally born in the same city as I live but moved out west when he was about 12. He said he was initially attracted to me because I was a Packers fan. We started out slowly with emails that were all about 5-6 pages long. I was hooked after a few emails. After a month or so he insisted on calling me, but I was way to creeped out to do that. I said there had to be a way for us to "talk" without the phone. I then heard about this newer thing called AOL instant messenger. I had been accessing the internet through AOL so you would have thought I would have heard of it before but I was a little slow on using the internet. After using my little dial up connection and getting booted off many times, I finally got instant messenger downloaded. We "talked" every night after that. I couldn't wait to hop on the computer as soon as I got home from work. It took me another few weeks to finally get the courage to let him call me. I was so nervous and scared but I was already in love. I remember one line in an email he sent me. He said "I am falling for you quickly but it's way too soon to talk about the L word, so if I do, please hit me over the head with a frying pan". From that moment I knew he was all mine.

After 6 months of talking and endless phone calls, I had a trip out to Las Vegas for work. I was only going to be about 3 hours from him so he said he was going to come meet me. I never told anyone. I was pretty stupid because he could have taken me away and noone would have even known. Anyhow, I spent the day setting up a booth at a trade show and I was all dirty and dingy and decided he was going to meet the real me. I didn't get cleaned up, no makeup, and pretty bad looking. He called my hotel room and I about had a panic attack. I almost didn't answer the telephone. Finally I did and he said he would wait for me by the elevators. I took a back route down so I could get a glimpse of him before he saw me. We hadn't even seen pictures of each other so I had no idea what to expect. Well I saw him standing there in dress pants, dress shirt and tie and I was in LOVE.

He came to my room and gave me a huge bag of gifts. He even bought me an answering machine because I didn't have one. He took me to a really fancy steak place and man did I feel underdressed. I could hardly eat because I was so nervous. He drove me around the back road of Vegas because he had lived there as a teenager. He took me to some beautiful places that most tourist would never find. It was a very romantic evening. He spent a few days in Vegas, even when I was working.

Every time I had a trip to Vegas he drove out to be with me. I finally told my boss about him and he eventually became one of the workers each time we were there. They all liked him. The only problem was my boss and coworkers had met him but my family hadn't.

I decided this was pretty serious and that I may consider moving to California to be with him. I took a trip out there and spent a whole month living with him. I thought a week would be too short to see if I really liked living in CA and a month worked well. I asked him to come to WI to meet my family. He did the following month and that's when we told them all I would be moving to California. They weren't too please but they liked him and could see I was in love. The resigned themselves to the fact that I was going to do this no matter what.

A few months later I packed up my belonging and moved to Sunny Cal. Within 6 months we were engaged. My family kept fighting withe me about the wedding which we had planned to happen in April of the following year. We finally decided that enough was enough and we just wanted to be married. We planned our wedding in 2 weeks time and said our vows in his parents back yard on 1-1-00. It didn't make my family too happy but oh well.

It's been 5 years of ups and downs but I wouldn't trade it for anything. A few months after we were married we though we might like living in WI better because I could be with my family. I applied for a job in the beginning of April and they wanted me there in 2 weeks. He couldn't get a job transfer so he had to stay behind. It took 6 months to get him back here with me but he's here with me and I wouldn't change a thing. Life happens and we aren't always the perfect couple but we are content.

Aug 97 - met online
Feb 98 - met in person
Sept 98 - went to test the waters in CA
Feb 99 - moved to CA
Aug 99 - engaged
Jan 00 - married

Ours pretty much went in 6 month increments.

It's funny because when we first met and told people we met online line they would give us that strange look. Now it soesn't get the same reaction. It's so much more prevelant now then it was back then.

My family is full of online love matches.

The same year I met my hubby my dad met his wife. They met after us and ended up married before us.

My step mom has 2 sons that met their spouses on the net.

My little step brother has been dating a girl for a year that he met online.

I tell friends these things and they think we should go on the Jerry Springer show because our family is so "Strange".

What did I get myself into?

2005-06-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

So I told a friend at work I would make her this HUGE diaper cake. It is for her sister in law and there is a train theme. I have to finish it by tomorrow night. I got off work early today with every intention of coming home and getting it all done today. I am make a big cake and 4 small ones to make a "train". I have barely gotten the small ones made and I am worn out. That may be why I am sitting here and not working on it. I know I will finish it but there is so much more work to do on it. Why oh why do I procrastinate so much???

All around fun.

2005-06-08T01:55:00.000-07:00

I am a member of a volleyball league. We have been playing for about 4 years now. We have a lot of fun together. Our team really doesn't play very well and we rarely win any games. We really don't care about the winning. It's more about getting together and having fun. It's nice to win once in a while but it really doesn't matter to us. Last night we won two games. That is the best I think we have ever done. I guess winning doesn't matter to us unless we win. You should see us. We get so excited about winning. It's like seeing your favorite team win the championship in some major sporting event. We brag the rest of the night about how well we did. It probably makes the other teams sick. Did I mention that we won 2 games last night. Winning one game gets us excited but we won two games out of three. That was a major accomplishment.

Here we are again.

2005-06-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy week. Yes, I have been nutso at work and I haven't had much time at home or on the computer. I promise to start keeping this up better.

I spent last Sunday at my aunt and uncle's house for a pre memorial day picnic. We saw a pretty amazing thingg. We were sitting there and out from behinf the bushes jumps a momma and baby deer. They ran across the street and over a fence so we only got a quick glimpse of them. It was just amazing to see them running and jumping together.

The rest of the week flew by and I don't really remember much of what I did.

Friday night I went with a girl from work for some relaxation and a few drinks. We sat on the patio of a bar called Slim's. I enjoyed some fresh mozarella sticks and she had some reuben rolls. Really nutritious dinner! It was nice to just get out and enjoy the fresh air. Yesterday we went shopping together. She's going to her sister in laws baby shower next weekend and she wants me to make her a diaper cake. I'll try to post a picture. I make these all the time for shower gifts. They are adorable and not many people have seen them before.

I had my neice Jazmine overnight last night. We got up early today and headed to the park. When her mom called to tell me she was home and I could drop her off at anytime, I was more than happy to run her home. I was glad to get some sanity back into my day. I had to run out and buy some fans for our house. It is getting very hot an humid and the 1 fan we had broke. My husband spent the last hour putting together 3 brand new fans. What a relief.

Here's a picture of one of the diaper cakes I have made:

Is it even worth trying?

2005-05-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got a few brilliant ideas. Let's experiment with a few things and see if I have any other hidden talents.

First off, my mom wanted to redo the backsplash in her kitchen. I told her it would be easy to do a mosaic design. I ran off to the local craft store. I decided to surprise her for her birthday by making a mosaic vase. Uh, yeah. Let's just say it didn't turn out as beautifully as I had hoped. I instead gave her a boquet of fresh flowers. :)

Secondly, I decided to start a garden. Is that a problem? I live in an apartment. I have a very small balcony. Sun shines on said balcony for a good part of the day. I have everything I need to start a small garden on my balcony. After hitting the craft store, for my previous experiment, I headed to Home Depot to get some gardeniong supplies. I only needed to get a couple of planters, some soil, and or course something to plant. Well, Home Depot didn't have any planters. After circling their garden area for about an hour I decided to give up an head to Menard's (another local hardward store). They had some planters but nothing that really appealed to me or fell within the budget I set to do this. They also had no plants to speak of and I don't think I saw any soil either. I was about to give up when I remembered that K-mart has a garden center. I really only go to K-mart for anything as a very last resort. I'll have to tell you the dreaded"K-mart" story another time. Back to the gardening. I stop at K-mart. This is after I have already been shopping for about 3 hours. I start to browse the plants they have outside. There are some nice vegetables that could work. There were some geramiums. There really wasn't much else to chose from if I wanted flowers. I go inside the garden area to see what planters thay have. Fantastic, planters were on sale. I picked up 2 recatngular boxes. This should work to start a small veggie garden. I figured I can put in about 4 plants to each box. I found soil. I am on a roll... I have to decide what veggies I want. I go back outside to make my selections. I proceed to go through just about every veggie plant they have. I think I spent about an hour picking these out. I did it. I picked up 2 green peppers, 2 cucumbers, 1 beefsteak tomato, 1 cherry tomato, and 1 patio tomato. I go back in and walk around the store a while. I am very wishy washy when it comes to shopping. I totaled everything in my head to be about $30. I started to think this is too much $ for a few vegetables. I finally ended up getting everything I has already selected. That was a big step for me. I go home and start "gardening:. That is, as much as you can call pouring some dirt in the planter and sticking a few plants in, gardening. The first thing my hubby says when I tell him how much I spent was "do you think you are going to grow $30 worth of vegetables?" Sometimes I wonder if he is in my mind. That was exactly what I was thinking. So far the plants look good. Somehow it looks like they already grew overnight. Is that even possible?

2 experiments.
1 failure. I learned that doing mosaic tiling isn't as easy as it looks.
1 success (to be seen).

It's definitely worth a try.

A long week

2005-05-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

I had some fun this week and right now I can't seem to remember everything.

Tuesday, my husbands's first day home from his work trip, he locked himself out of the house. I was so swamped with work and I get a call. The number on the caller ID was a little strange but I was on another telephone call so I couldn't answer it. I hang up and check the new voice mail message I received. It was my hubby calling from a neighbors to tell me he locked himself out and wanted me to come home to let him in. Remember, I said I was super busy at work. There was almost no way I could leave, but I told my boss that I had no choice and I had to leave. I get on the road home and it is so super gorgeous outside. I can't imagine going home. I let him in the house and see that someone had left a message on our answering machine. I know I was dreaming, but I was hoping that my boss had called while I was in route to tell me I could have the rest of the day off. Yeah. I know. KEEP DREAMING. Of course it wasn't my boss so I head back to work.

Wednesday we went to see the theatrical production of Hairspray. What an awesome show. The music was fun and the actors were fantastic.

Thursday and Friday were pretty ordinary. Now, I am looking forward to a nice long holiday weekend. We are thinking of taking my neice and nephew to the Chocolate Fest that is in Burlington. I'll let you know how that goes.

The beginning of a problem

2005-05-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

So, I told you yesterday that I got the Tracfone. I think it might just tick me off to no end. I registered the phone on Sunday. Within 10 minutes of registering the phone there was 1 missed call. I check to see the telephone number of the call I missed. It's a long distance number within my state. Obviously it was a wrong number since I had just registered the phone and noone had my number. Well, today I took the phone with me to work. Late in the day I pulled it out of my purse and I see that I have 2 voive mail messages. I called to check the voice mail and it is 2 different calls. One was some collector telling "Joseph" that he better call or he is going to be in for some trouble. The other call was Blockbuster calling someone to tell them they forgot to return 2 movies. I guess there is no point in me having recorded a message for people to hear when they call and don't get me to answer. People obviously do not listen to that message. I surely hope that this doesn't mean that some loser had this same phone number before me and I am going to get all their collection calls. Uggggg.

He's coming home!!!

2005-05-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

My husband was out of town for work for the last 10 days. I have never been alone that long ever. I missed him so much. I especially learned all the little things he does for me that I take for granted. He is such a wonderful man and I can't imagine not having him in my life. I leave in a just a little while to pick him up at the airport. I can't wait to see him.

Prepaid Cellular Services

2005-05-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

After hearing so many times that I am the only one of my friends that doesn't have a cell phone, I went out and purchased a Tracfone. Come on now. I am only 31 years old. It's not like I am ancient or anything but I really see no need for a cell phone except for emergencies. Don't get me wrong. I have wanted one for a long time, but I can't see spending the ungodly amount of money required for a regular cellular plan when I will hardly ever use the phone in the first place.

So I did it. I got a Tracfone and some minutes to get me started. Now we shall see if I stick to using it just for emergencies. I could have created a monster.

Where does the time go?

2005-05-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I never really got this blog thing going yet, but this is my new goal. I have been working some very long hours and this past week, when I wasn't working, I was out everynight. I plan on coming here and just sharing some daily ramblings about the things happening in my life.

Finding time for myself

2005-04-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

I find it harder and harder everyday to maintain my calendar. With work, my Bath & Body Business, and new time commitments being added all the time, I find it difficult to make any time for myself.

Today for example, I worked for 11 hours. I came home and ate dinner. I am taking a 15 minute break to come on here and check my email. After I am done, I have to make a diaper cake. When that is complete I have to go right to bed so I can get up tomorrow and do it all over again.

How do people find time? I have no social life but if I did, how could I keep up?

Where to go from here?

2005-04-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Since I am so incredibly new at the Blog world, I am at a loss for what direction to take my blog. I do not know what anyone would find interesting about me. I could tell you about so many different things. I guess I will peruse the internet some more. Maybe by reading a few other peoples blogs I can find a few topics that I know about that I can share information about.

Welcome!

2005-04-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone. Welcome to my world. I will be working on the maintainence end of my blog for a few days and eventually I will get to posting about myself.

For the time being if you would like to learn a little about my business, Country Bunny Bath & Body, you can check out my webstore byt clicking on this banner: