Tuesday, February 27

Commemorative Speeches

Tonight in class we had to write a commemorative speech. It was impromptu, which meant we had about 20 minutes to prepare it, then stand up and give it. For those who may be unsure, a commemorative speech is one given at an event, to COMMEMORATE it... a wedding, a funeral, a graduation, anniversary, etc.

I chose to do mine as if JP and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. It's only 11 years away, might as well be prepared, right? I hate to sound so full of myself, but I really liked the speech I wrote, and so did several of my classmates. I thought I'd share it here...


I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight, it means so much to JP and I to be surrounded by family and friends as we celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. If you will indulge me, I would like to say a few words as I look back on our time together.

I fell in love with this man 27 years ago, in a Hardee's in Southern Minnesota. I didn't even know his name, but I knew I would marry him. It truly was love at first sight.

I fell in love with this man 24 years ago when he went out at 3am to find sardines in mustard sauce and strawberry yogurt for his very fat, very pregnant wife.

I fell in love with this man 20 years ago as he met his newborn daughter for the first time, and fell in love with her.

I fell in love with this man every day for the past 25 years because he puts up with me, he tolerates me, and he accepts me. Whether I go behind his back to buy a kitten, a truck, or even, yes, a house, he loves me.

I don't know how I got to be so lucky... the man I fell in love with... fell in love with me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you again for being with us tonight, please, help yourself to the open bar!!

Big round of applause, and a big A from the teacher... It was a good night at class...

Monday, February 26

Tagging Lurkers

(I admit, I stole this off a blog I found today. BUT, there's a perfectly reasonable excuse, officer!)
I was goofing around with my site meter, which I admit, I have had for some time now, but only just recently started paying attention to, and I noticed a few 'weird' locations. Locations of visitors to my little blog. I decided to call them out...
So, in no particular order, here are some of the locations that caused a raised eyebrow and a "really? wow, cool" or maybe a "interesting, verra interesting"
California
Illinois
Colorado
Pennsylvania
Texas
Mississippi
Virginia
(then there were the countries)
Canada (think that's Ellie)
Australia
Chile
Peru
Ireland
Great Britain
Philippines
Italy
Spain
China (3 different locations in China actually)
Of course, I did not even mention Flat or Scott, cuz they know where they are, and they're here more often than most. And JP too, of course, we all know where you are babe!

SO, here's the plan: Lurkers, and you know who you are (And now I know WHERE you are!LOL) Please intro yourselves, and take this little tag with you to your blog homes, comment here when you have, so I can come peek on you! It's only fair, really!


What curse words do you use most?the big F word... sorry

Do you own an iPod? Yes, I do now, as of Valentine's Day (Love you honey)

What time is your alarm clock set to? Depends on what time I have class, within 20 minutes of 6:30 am though.

Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture? I'll take it, hate being in them.

What was the last movie you watched? I don't do theaters, but the kids and I watched Benny & Joon last night.

What CD is currently in your player? Nothing, not since the Nano. All my CD's are loaded into my iTunes library now.

Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk? Chocolate milk is too thick. I prefer white milk.

Has anyone told you a secret this week? No, but it's early yet...only Monday.

When was the last time you had Starbucks? My birthday in '05, in Minneapolis, alone, after JP dropped me off.

Can you whistle? barely.

Did you watch cartoons when you were little? Hell, I still do! Scooby Doo is the King!

Do you own any band t-shirts? Yeah, a couple of AC/DC

What will you be doing in an hour? Taking Emma to hockey practice

What was the last song you heard? "Sweet Child of Mine" G~n~R... the kids are playing Guitar Hero.

Last time you cried? Last night, Forrest Whitaker's acceptance speech... such a sap, I know.

Desktop or laptop? All laptop, all the time!!

What’s the weather like? Melting snow, so the 9 inches we got over the weekend is reduced to 6 now.

What were you doing an hour ago? Walking in the door, letting the girls out to pee.

How many hours of sleep do you need to function? Minimum of 6

Do you eat breakfast daily? If you count Diet Pepsi and a cigarette as breakfast, then, YES.

What did you do last night? Watched the damn Oscars, too late!

Do you use sarcasm? Sarcasm is my most favoritest ever thing... and this time, I am NOT being sarcastic, I really truly love it!

Do you sleep on your side/back/stomach? Tummy to sleep

Do you watch the news? I get the headlines delivered to my email... most times I skim those, too depressing and most of it hits a little too close to home anyway.

Do you have any scars? Yeah, had my appendix out a couple of years ago, smashed my left FU finger a few years before that... nothing major or horribly disfiguring though.


OK, People, you lurking buggers... come out come out wherever you are!

Flat's 3 little words

Three Little Words~ the idea is to answer each using 3 words, no more, no less...
Thanks, Flat!

1. Where is your cell phone?Front left pocket
2. Boyfriend/girlfriend? See last post
3. Hair? Yes, it's there
4. Your mother? My best friend
5. Your father?Not around enough
6. Your favorite item(s)? Cadbury Creme Eggs
7. Your dream last night? Can't remember it
8. Your favorite drink? Mike's Hard Berry
9. Your dream guy/girl? I married him
10. The room you are in? Want to sleep
11. Your fear? Losing my man
12. What do you want to be in 10 years? Employed, happy, skinny.
13. Who did you hang out with last night? Alex, Emma, Eric.
14. What are you not? prissy frou-frou girl
15. Are you in love? In every sense
16. One of your wish list items? just him...home
17. What time is it? Seven -oh-five
18. The last thing you did? Woke up kids
19. What are you wearing? Jeans, Tee, Hoodie
20. Your favorite book? By Harper Lee
21. The last thing you ate? Special K bar
22. Your life? put on hold
23. Your mood? Up and down
24. Your friends? Not too close
25. What are you thinking about right now? Oscar's The Departed
26. Your car? Kia Sedona Minivan
27. What are you doing at this moment? Typing on laptop
28. Your summer? Taking six credits
29. Your relationship status? So very taken.
30. What is on your TV screen? Good Morning America
31. When is the last time you laughed? Dogs playing outside
32. Last time you cried? Back in January
33. School? Gotta go now.

Well, that was harder than I thought it would be... limits like that are very...limiting! LOL

Sunday, February 25

Forgot my flashback Saturday, so it's flashback Sunday...sorry

This one is not about my brother, I don't like him much, so I decided to go with someone I DO like this time... my wonderful husband, and how we met...

I met JP about a week after I decided to marry him. About the same amount of time after I learned his name. It truly was love at first sight for me.I was a senior in high school, he was applying for a job at the fast food joint I worked at. He was a college student, looking to make enough money to be able to turn on the heat in his apartment and possibly eat on occasion.

It was a slow day, mid afternoon when he walked in. I was hanging out behind the counter with a work friend. He walked in

(Hello Sailor! Damn!)

and asked for the manager. I noticed that he was holding an application. I fetched the manager and walked away. I knew he would be hired, low standards at those places pretty much guarantee a job for anyone with a pulse without a criminal record. He was a decent looking guy, pretty safe bet that he didn't have a criminal record. Mind you, this was a few years ago, when you didn't worry so much about the nice looking ones, just the creeps.

I quietly got my friends' attention and made sure she noticed him before he left. After he walked out to the lobby with the manager to sit down for an "interview", I politely let her know that she was not to put any moves on this guy. I believe my exact words were "Keep your paws off him"... Something to that effect.

She asked me if I knew him, and my response is something I will never forget, because I had never said it before, and God willing, I will never utter or even think these words again:

"No, but I'm going to marry him"

I then proceeded to explain to her that it would just be awkward for her to be pawing up my future husband. She was incredulous, she didn't believe me! She actually suggested that he could be an ax murderer.

"He's not, I can tell, and I'm going to marry him"

A few minutes later, the manager went back into the office, and my husband left. I rushed into the office doing one of those whisper/shouts at the manager. " I need to know that guy's name" I blurted out. She said "Why, do you know him?""Not yet, but I need to know my future husband's name, now don't I?"

She, too was tough to convince. But she gave up his name, and when she did, I almost fell over.

"His name is Jean-Pierre, but he goes by J.P."

Years ago when I was about 13, Steven was 15... We had a Ouija board. You know, those "games" that could channel the spirit world? Yeah, what a bunch of crap. Here's a tip for you: THEY'RE NOT REAL!!Every time I had my hands on one of them, I WAS THE ONE MOVING IT, NOT SATAN or any of his minions for that matter!!

So years ago, Steven and I are playing with this thing, Mom was sitting nearby watching us while she was knitting or something, not really paying attention though.
Steven thought he would be funny and asked it to name my future husband. Steven was looking for something to tease me about.
I had to think fast, it had to be a name that nobody in our small town had. I was thinking quickly, as I was moving the damn pointer. I went to the "J" because there are so many names that begin with J... I was sure I could easily come up with one and then I froze. Yes, many many names that begin with J, and all of those names are used by ugly, boorish, stupid or otherwise "tease worthy" boys in our school. Crap, I had painted myself into a corner. All of this was going through my mind very quickly. I decided very fast to stick to initials. I went to the "P"...

And immediately wanted to kick my own ass. As soon as I stopped on the second letter, I realized that there were two unsavory candidates in town: Jason P and Jonathon P... One a complete moron, the other a sweat laden slovenly character who lived just down the street.

So I had named my own future husband, JP... And waited for Steven to tighten the screws. He never did, maybe he wasn't that bright, and didn't get the connection. I do not know.

But five years later when I saw the application with JP's name on it, I froze.

OH MY GOD, I AM PSYCHIC!!

That whole Ouija board story is one in and of itself, and it will wait for another day, because JP was not the only thing I was right about that day.But it was the best.

We became friends at work, although I was secretly drooling over him. It went on like that for about three months. Eventually my friend discovered his friend, and begged me to hook them up. So Chelle and I went to JP's apartment to meet JP and his friend Pat. Chelle and Pat did leave together that night, but only because I kicked them out. I wanted JP and that apartment to myself.

He was such a gentleman. He walked me home at 4 am, then took me out for lunch the next day. I was so sure that he was the one, that I had no qualms about spending the night with him before we even had our first date.
He is the man that I was destined to be with. No other man could put up with me. He is the most tolerant, understanding loving man I have ever met. He is a good man, in every sense of the word. He is my best friend, my lover and co-creator of three beautiful smart funny children. I will always love him and always wonder how I got to be so lucky.

Some Pictures





So I took these pics this morning, of the dogs, they really do enjoy the snow. It was hard to get good pics at the arena, and I'm an idiot, I should have taken a picture of the scoreboard when it said "Home 1, Guest 0" because it didn't last long... the other team came back from our (EMMA'S) goal to score 8 of their own... unanswered, of course.

BTW, as I'm sitting here typing, I am listening to MY FAVORITE music on my iPod!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the Nano!!

Hockey, on and off

Yesterday's hockey was ON... I actually shed a tear at the arena yesterday... Less than 2 minutes into the game, EMMA SCORED!! It was one of those bloopers that shouldn't have happened. She did a slap shot from the blue line, and their goalie was overconfident in her abilities to close her legs. Puck scooted nonchalantly between her skates... Our girls went insane screaming and hollering. Every one of them popped Em on the helmet "Good Job Pip!!" Emma is small, one of the smallest (and yet one of the older) girls on the team. They have given her the nickname "Pipsqueek", or Pip for short. This was the first goal I got to SEE, and it was exhilarating, holy crap, I don't know of any other way to explain it. So very proud of her... and the look on her face, when she looked over at me... she loved it, it was so fun to watch her.

But today's hockey is OFF. I doubt I will be getting out of my driveway. Yeah, there's THAT much snow. It is still snowing, too. I got a call this morning from Todd, the head coach, he said the roads are not good, so they decided not to attempt the drive over for the game today. Good, I wanted to stay home anyway.

Guess what happened yesterday with my fence? After Em's game, I put on JP's big knee high winter boots and went trudging out to try to fix the fence panel that had blown out in the wind... It was gone! i stepped through the hole, thinking maybe it had broken off completely and maybe blown a little to the side. Nope, gone. About this time, Molly, the neighbor dog sees me and starts barking. I whined at her "Shut up Molly, whatja do with my fence? Where is my damn fence?" I hear laughing. Keith, neighbor guy steps out of his work shop...located right there too. He said "Missing something?"... He had picked up all the pieces, and brought them into his shop. He was almost done reassembling it. I asked him if he needed any help, nope, almost done. He then proceeded to put the damn thing up in a matter of minutes!
And, while he was doing that, Dan came over and plowed the driveway for me! Good neighbors, and good friends...

I took some pictures just now of the girls outside playing. Mom came over last night, spent the night, and she brought Kate over to play. Those girls do love snow! That's a good thing, because there is plenty of it now for them to play in! I will post the pics in a bit.

Time to clean house now though.

Saturday, February 24

Balls again, this time :glow in the dark, and snow

My bowling ball, a lovely 10lb'er in shades of fuchsia/lavender/turquoise swirls (and sparklies, too) also GLOWS IN THE DARK... well, in black light. Our bowling alley here in town does this "Moonlight Bowling" every Saturday night, they shut off all the overhead lights, and use just these strobe types, and twinklers that run up and down the sides of the lanes. They blare music, and you can win money if you get a strike when you have colored pins show up... it's very bizarre, but lots of fun. ANYWAY, I wish I had thought of it earlier, I should have called to make a reservation (Yes, you have to make reservations to BOWL on a Saturday night) so I could try out my ball before league on Monday.

I will post a picture of my ball (I even got it personalized... "NIK", it is so verra cool!) as soon as I can. I can't do it now because I am charging my NANO and trying to get it figured out. I already have some songs transferred on there from my laptop, but I've got a stack of CDs about 12 inches high, several of which I will be completely putting on the Nano, others I will pick and choose songs.

Oh, the snowballs, yes. It is snowing, it has been snowing since shortly after 11pm last night. Not just a little either. I had to shovel a path just so I could get the girls into the back yard to do their morning business. It is supposed to continue throughout the weekend.

The fence broke in the wind yesterday. I'm pretty pissed off about that. One of the cedar panels just sort of split up and popped out. Of course it's one of them along the back, so our girls, when out there for 'business' can see the neighbor dog in her kennel, and I have to holler to keep them from going through the fence. It just happened yesterday afternoon, and I had the Fargo trip, hockey and now it's just too damn cold/snowy/windy to go out and try to figure out how to fix it. It will have to wait until Monday when the snowstorm is passed. I'll take a pic of that too, it really makes me cranky.

Em has hockey today (well, it's scheduled, don't know that it will happen) against the W. Fargo 'poor sports'... ok, ok, I don't know what their team is called, but I think they are sucky winners. I wonder if they will be able to make the drive over here for the game though. Tomorrow we have a game in the opposite direction, wonder if WE will make the drive there... it would just break my heart if both games were cancelled (sarcasm, gang, it's sarcasm) due to weather.

Well, that's all then, snow makes me want to crawl back into bed...

Thursday, February 22

Sweet chocolate balls, and bowling balls

Cadbury egg, that is.

Oh, what a glorious day, the first Cadbury creme egg of the Easter season. Happy taste buds...

Today was nice, I had classes scheduled from 11-3. Short day, nice. The classes that happen from noon to 3 are both held in the same room, with the same instructor. She decided (with our input) that we could sort of meld these two classes together, everyone could work on what they needed to, both classes are kind of work at our own pace (one is financial accounting, the other is computerized accounting). we had a test to take for computerized, and since I was up to date on my financial accounting, I took the test right away at noon. I walked out of school today at 1... done for the day... 2 hours ~ easy peasy...

I should get to bed, it's just too late for me to be up, but I have become addicted to David Letterman lately. Sometimes I even stay up really late and watch that funny British gay guy... I think he's gay... anyway, what's his name? He's funny though, funny enough to keep me from falling asleep, that's the pisser.

Tomorrow I am going to Fargo, I must buy something. Yes, yes, I know, every extra penny goes to Kia, BUT, I must have my own bowling ball. I have a serous problem with my thumb. It expands during the course of my league night, and I end up scrambling to find a ball with a big enough thumb hole in the middle of a game. And in the rare instance that I find a hole I can fit my thumb into, the ball itself is either too heavy or too light, OR the finger holes are gianormous... anyway, sounds like a ball will cost me between $40 and $50. I can handle that.

Gina is coming with me tomorrow, she is getting a ride and cigarettes, and in return, she is going to help me get my Nano up and running. We figure we can take my laptop along, and she can monkey while I drive. We are stopping at Target too, so I can get a shield/skin type thing for the Nano before I scratch it.

Time to let the girls out one last time before bed...

Wednesday, February 21

Plan of Attack begins

I got my stipend check today.
I deposited it, and wrote a check for March's Kia payment. Of course, when March actually comes, I will be paying the Kia payment again, only adding the bonus of tax money to it.

Today is the beginning of the Great Kia Paydown Event...hehehe

Between now and the end of July, it is my goal to pay off the Kia... instead of 5 years, I want it gone in 2 years.

I love having a goal, helps pass the time.

Can I just have a quick word about LOST, that show is getting really freaky (Yeah, I know, it has been weird for some time now, but I guess I just have a higher tolerance for weird...it's just now getting too bizarre for me)
Anybody? Please? Was it just me, or was there a VW Bus on the "Next week on LOST" preview thingy at the end of tonight's episode? WTF??
Thing is, I am too addicted now to stop watching it, so I guess I am just in for the long haul, whatever the outcome... but come on, polar bears in the jungle, hatches and buttons,and now they throw in a VW Bus? Who thinks of this shit? Who are these writers?
sigh....

Monday, February 19

Bowling scores: above average

My average before tonight was 107... tonight I had a 110, a 114 and a 127. So next week my average will be better. What was the difference, you may ask?

Mike.

Good ol' Mike and his hard lemonade. I truly believe that is what did it... if not, then at the very least it made it more fun!

Time to get the kiddies off to bed, or at least downstairs watching a movie...

IT'S DATE NIGHT BABY!!!

No school today


The kids and I are all home, no school today for President's Day. I have a long list of things to get done... and I am procrastinating (shut up!)


I did fold 3 loads of laundry, and get a package of condiments ready to mail to JP tomorrow. Yeah, you read that right, he asked me to mail him pickles, mayo and relish... don't ask.


I have a hockey parents' meeting tonight at 6 right before Em's practice, then I have to bail on her and bowl. She is going to have to find a ride home, because she gets done at 7:15 and I won't get home until 9-10.


After bowling tonight, I have a date... tehe, can't wait...


I really should clean up the rest of the house, and holy crap, I'm as bad as the kids, I need to tell myself to CLEAN YOUR ROOM!


I have a ton to do today, but I really don't feel like it. Alex spent the night at Shitball's house last night, I have to go pick him up in about half an hour, then maybe he and I can get a few electronic things taken care of.


Well, shit, I should get things done. I have to color my hair today, too, roots ya know... damn I hate getting older.

Saturday, February 17

I'm starting something new

Since my February Bitchfest didn't work too well, and Saturdays are usually the day I have the most time, I have decided to make Saturdays my FLASHBACK days... no updates for JP, just things from my past that make me laugh to this day...

Below you will find the first installment of Flashback Saturday.

Bored and alone in the kitchen

My brother Steven and I spent a lot of time together as kids. We also spent a lot of time alone together. Our parents worked very long hours, most times they left before the sun came up and came home from work after the sun had gone down.
We learned to be very self reliant people.We also learned a resourcefulness far exceeding normal children. We knew how to cook, we knew how to do laundry and clean the house. We could make real meals, too, not that garbage that comes in boxes these days, we made actual meals that required measuring and more than one skillet. We were wives to our parents. Many times I felt like we really got the shaft on our childhood. Looking back now however, I see that we were really blessed. It has made us stronger people, more self sufficient.

But we were still kids, and if a child does not have a parent to whine "I'm boooreeedddd" to, they will skip the whine, and head right for the cure. Mischief. Shenanigans. Tom Foolery. Ballyhoo. Whatever you want to call it, we raised it, got into it, made a mockery of it and in general had a ball with it.

One favorite pastime was creating things in the kitchen. I was raised in the day of those brand new 'micro wave' things. We were so lucky, we got one, and it was wonderful to play with.We experimented with different things in the microwave, seeing how long it takes for something to blow. Eggs take a little longer than you'd think, but when they blow-- they really blow. We managed to get one out before it blew once... It sat on its end, upright. It looked like a weeble wobble man. We drew a face on him. We decided to give him a hat. After much debate, we decided that he was a Mexican egg, so he needed a sombrero, we reasoned.

Being the resourceful children that we were, we already knew what we needed to make him a sombrero. We learned that lesson the week before, when we had "meat in the microwave" experiments. We needed summer sausage.

Thinly sliced round summer sausage luncheon meat will rise in the center. The outer edges will harden, and there you have it, a sombrero. We were so pleased with our creation that we decided to cook Jose a bit more.Mexican eggs with sombreros make a very bad smell when they are overcooked. The poor guy never really stood a chance, and we ended his time by scraping him off the ceiling of the new appliance with a spatula.

We did not limit our experimentation to the microwave however. We were, after all, seasoned chefs who cooked for our parents on numerous occasions. We decided one day to make a nice pasta salad. We had seen the bright rainbow rotini noodles in the grocery store before, but could never convince our mother to buy any. We decided one day to make our own.

There are 4 burners on a stove. There are 4 colors of food coloring in the kit in the cupboard. Coincidence? I think not.We fired up all 4 burners, and placed saucepans of water on each. Just as they were all reaching a rolling boil, we added noodles. And food coloring. Red, blue, green and yellow. I thought the yellow might be a bit redundant, and as it turns out, I was right, but what the hell, 4 pots, 4 colors, right? We used simple elbow macaroni, we were not fancy folk, we ate simple noodles. No one ate noodles THAT day, but in general, on normal days, we ate simple noodles, elbows or spaghetti noodles.

I should mention at this point that we had a family dog, a Benji-on-steroids looking mutt. Her name was Smokey. Quite often she was involved in our adventures, or at the very least was the start of some very good side aching laughs. Smokey was a member of the family. Smokey was with us in the kitchen on Menoodle day. In hindsight, I bet she wished she had just walked away, I know I did.

Steven decided partway into the noodle fest that our 'salad' would be called Menoodles, a sort of play on the original boy band "Menudo"... I should have known then that my brother was gay.

We got out the big bowl, the kind that every Midwestern woman with her own kitchen owns. The majority of those are made by Tupperware, of course. This was the potato salad bowl, and the monster cookie batter bowl. It might be big enough for our Menoodles, we thought. We drained and rinsed each color in turn, with the appropriate "Ohh, Ahhh" to signify our awe at the lovely colors we had created. We did not however notice how long the Menoodles had been cooking. We were very concerned with the colors being deep enough, showing up enough. Our menoodles had turned to mush, they were incredibly over cooked. We each tasted 2 noodles, a sample of each color, as if they might taste different from each other just by virtue of being boiled in different colored water. It was truly the worst thing I have ever eaten.

We decided that Menoodle salad should just disappear. The parents were due home soon, and we needed to get rid of the evidence. We were no longer great chefs preparing a wonderful and visually stunning dinner, suddenly we were reduced to kids who had wasted a 2 pound box of elbow macaroni and and entire kit of food coloring. We decided that Smokey could help. She was, after all, a member of the family. Surely she would be happy to take one for the team, eat the evidence. We set the bowl down on the kitchen floor. Smokey approached it, tail wagging, thanking us for sharing our wonderful people food with her. She got up to that bowl, took one whiff, and high tailed it out of there. I was rather insulted. She who licks her own rectum would not eat our creation. That hurt. And caused a bit of panic.

We could not dump the noodles in the garbage, they would be discovered. We had to get them out of the house. Did I mention that it was winter? Snow everywhere. We walked down the path in the yard leading to the horse barns, each clutching a side of the Tupperware bowl. We trudged through snow up to our knees. We didn't make it far, it was cold, windy and we had to hurry. We did a heave-ho off to one side, and tried to cover the pile of color with some snow from the path we had created.

One lesson to be learned here: Room temperature noodles will melt any snow placed over them, but will not melt sufficiently the snow on which they lay. Not enough to sink all the way down to the ground below anyway. We found this out less than an hour later, as we trudged down that path again, with our parents this time, to do our chores at the barn.

Even in the coming darkness of winter, my parents could see the neon noodles against the pure white snow. There was no time to confer and come up with another dog in the road whopper. We were busted by hot neon Menoodles. The truth had no choice but to come out. Steven and I both took one for the team that night. Smokey slept the peaceful sleep of a traitor. A traitor who did not have a Menoodle induced stomach ache though. I don't blame her really, I mean, we sure as hell weren't going to eat it, and yet we expected her to?
Kids can be cruel.

Friday, February 16

Taxes

I had an appointment today at 4 to get our taxes done. Things went... well.

While there, she, upon hearing what I am going to school for, said that this time next year, I will be "out here working with me"! Oh, that would be great.

So it was a good day, a BIG refund from Federal, a BIG refund from State, and a possible job offer for me!!

Gina and I are going out tonight for a couple of drinks to celebrate.

And AGAIN, nothing to bitch about...hmmm, funny how I thought I had a ton of stuff that annoys me, and when I go looking for it, it's just not that annoying. I like that. I like being NOT annoyed. It's Feb. 16th, and I think I only have 4 bitches in for the month? Wow, that's kind of nice.

Thursday, February 15

Is it just me?

(real quick here)
Is it just me, or does Emma look like the daughter in "Family Guy" in that picture in the previous post? It's the hat... and the haircut... and the glasses, I think...

Anyway, maybe I'll ramble more later, but for now, that's all I've got

(She does, doesn't she??)

Wednesday, February 14

Emma's treasure chest



I went to pick the kids up after school, knowing they'd have their backpacks, their valentine's boxes and a ton of candy etc to carry. I got a chance to talk to Emma's teacher in the hallway when Em ran back into the classroom to grab something she forgot. Mrs. Larson told me that she was very impressed with Emma's project. I believe her exact words were "This is one of the best ones I have ever seen in all my years assigning this project, she did just an excellent job with the whole theme of it, really brought it all together beautifully."
Yeah, that's my girl. Oh, the rose in the picture? She got that from her Daddy today. She was kind of sad, seeing that I had gotten something from Dad, and she didn't think she'd get anything. So I took care of it, so if she thanks you next time you talk to her, just tell her you love her.
We are doing Taco pizza out at Mom's tonight, Dave had to go down to the Cities for a safety meeting tomorrow, so she's all alone. The kids and I are going to grab it from Godfather's and head out there in about an hour.
Now I have to figure out when I can use my 13 year old son to set up my NANO!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! THANK YOU SO MUCH HONEY!!! It's so tiny, I just love it!! It's so cute!!
I feel bad, all JP is getting for Valentine's day is the stuff I sent off last week, deodorant, razors, a couple of magazines and newspapers and some chew. But ya know, Valentine's Day is really about gifts for women anyway. Most years the gifts I get for JP are technically for me anyway (lingerie, etc) But I will still figure out something wonderful for you honey, a present for when you get home sort of thing... nudge nudge, wink wink....

Valentine's Day, part 1

I got a present today by FedEx.

Thank you honey, I really love it!

(He listened to me!! He remembered when I said that I really liked the kids' iPod Shuffles, but would need a bigger one, HE LISTENED!) I got an iPod Nano. Now I just need to learn how to use it... I'm sure Alex will be happy to show me.

I will post a picture this afternoon/evening of Emma's Valentine treasure chest.

Thank you honey, I really love it.

Monday, February 12

Scores


143, 99, 100.
Apparently my bowling skills come and go like the friggin' tides.


We bowled against the little old bitches. Swear to gosh, two of them are named Lucy and Ethel.
(Luuucy, you got some 'splainin' to do)
They have appointed themselves the Bowling Police, and they are MEAN OLD LADIES.


Yup, we smoked those old hags! We won 2 out of 3 games... take that granny!


Feeling a bit feisty this evening, so be it! HA! It was a good time.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this day

It's been a great day... I am not sure why, nothing extremely wonderful has happened (yet) but I just feel pretty darn good about today.

I did get back that Accounting (open book) test we took last week. Got myself 67 points on that bugger. Out of a possible 66. Surprised the hell outta me, too! So that was nice.

My friend Jason stopped over for a bit tonight, he is so fun to talk to. He is the happiest I have ever seen him, ever since he came out. It's like it's finally the real him, ya know? He is a good person and he deserves to be happy.

I bowl tonight, should be interesting. We went on Friday, some of the girls from school, those who are also on my team, and I brought Mom along... even made her bowl with us. Surprisingly, she does not suck. I think she had fun, too. Today in school when I asked my friends who had met her what they thought of her, they all said "She is just like you" "You two are so much alike" and "You sound exactly the same, not just your voices, but the things you say!"

Awww, thanks girls, you say the nicest things... more later, kids are whining for food. Better feed them before I go bowl.

Saturday, February 10

Best line

I'm feeling all raggy and emotional, so I'm watching a movie. Probably not the best idea.

Phenomenon.

Didn't think it would make me cry, but i forgot how it ends. Dammit.

Best line in a mushy love movie:

He: (knowing he's dying) Will you love me for the rest of my life?
She: No, I will love you for the rest of my life.

Shit, I have to stop watching soggy sappy movies. I have Excel homework to do, and a speech to prep for. but here I sit playing Free Cell at Pogo.com and watching this crap...

UPDATE: Say Anything... that damn song... and he's holding the boom box over his head...

GAWD, I am such a silly girl! Damn!

Thursday, February 8

Pushovers

Today we had an Accounting test. The first hour of the class was review for it.

As several of us were sitting around the commons before class, we were discussing the fact that we didn't feel ready for the test. I felt it last night, when Karmeen called me and asked me what the difference is between the LIFO method in periodic accounting versus the LIFO method in the perpetual accounting. It made me realize that I had no idea. Kind of freaked me out, actually.

But here's the kicker, it's our own damn fault that we all felt unprepared for the test. In class, as Michelle, the teacher would cover each different method, she would then ask us if we "got it", if we wanted to go over it more, or if we felt comfortable moving on to the next thing. None of us said anything. Now, I don't know, maybe the others didn't want to feel dumb saying "I don't get it" in front of the class, but for me, I really thought I understood it, until Karmeen called me and asked me that question.

So we whined and complained and finally voiced our concerns to her, and although we didn't get what we were hoping for (getting her to push the test back until Monday) we did get something better. Open book, open notes.

I will say, even with the review before she gave us the test, I still felt like I didn't know some of it, and I was grateful for the open book.

But at the same time, I am a bit disappointed in Michelle. I think she should have handled it differently. I don't know how she should have done it, but to let us basically bully her into changing the way she gave the test... not right.

Anybody else ever have something like that? Worked out nice for me, but lost a bit of respect for her at the same time...

Wednesday, February 7

Little Bitch (#4) and good stuff, too



OK, right off the bat, gonna get rid of the bitch. Get it out of my system so I can move on.

I have to take the KIA in to the shop soon. Apparently there is a neon flashing sign on the roof that says PULL OUT IN FRONT OF ME on it. With the frigid temps lately and the fresh inches of snow, it's made for some pretty icy slippery roads... not easy to stop or even slow down without cruising sideways when some MORON pulls out in front of me. AND IT HAPPENED ALOT TODAY.


GGGRRRRRR.


There, that's done. Now, what a nice day I had otherwise! Normal Wednesday is class from 8-10, break til 11, then class from 11-12, then break til 1, and class from 1-3. Today, the teacher for my 1-3 block was sick. I got done with classes at noon. I had time to run those pesky errands that have been nagging at me at the end of a long day when all I really want to do is sit on my ass and relax, but I can't because there's always laundry, cooking, or homework to do. BUT TODAY,


TODAY, was a great afternoon. I came home, let the girls out to play (we had a bit of a heatwave today, it got ABOVE ZERO!! Yeah, only 4 above, but still!!) and boy, did they play!! Then I had to run to Walmart, get some padded envelopes for mailing some books, and some VANITY light bulbs for the bathroom... 2 out of 3 were burned out. When I got home I got the books ready to go, along with a package to JP, and ran to the post office. When I got back, JP was online, and I finally got to talk to him for a few minutes. Then I went outside and shoveled the snow for the mailman... whom I dislike anyway, but I am just such a nice friggin' person! We do not use our front door, (the mailbox is hanging on the house by the front door.) So it stands to reason that the recent snow fall we had would still be all over the front steps of the house. Our mail carriers get cranky if they have to walk in snow to deliver the mail. with the recent temps, I am willing to cut them a break and not be my usual bitchy self though.


Tonight Emma and I went out to Mom and Dave's to work on her Valentine's box again. How sad is it that 3 adults can have their asses kicked by a 4th grade electrical project?? We couldn't make the damn light bulb LIGHT!!


(JP, little help here? This is your area, we need to talk ASAP about this, we need HELP!)


But she did get the 'wood' contact paper on the 'treasure chest' and it looks really nice. We got as much done as we could without having the electrical crap to shove in. Can't do the pretties until the electrisicals are in there to be hidden by pretties. (Fairly obvious that I have no knowledge of most things mechanical, isn't it?)


Well, tonight is the return of my favorite show, LOST, so I must go, but JP!! Find me on IM ASAP so we can (ok, YOU can) figure this stuff out!


Tuesday, February 6

It's all about me today, baby!


I love a good Tuesday!

Tuesdays are good for me, and good TO me.

Even though I have class from 11 am to 6 pm, feels like I'm there for-frikkin-ever, I just love what it does to me.

Makes me get things done!
Emma had hockey practice at 6, so I have to leave class about 15 minutes early to go home and pick her up and run her over to the arena. While she was gone, I got Accounting homework done, I got Computerized Accounting homework done, and I got started on my Psych-note-transfer ordeal.

Then I picked her up, came home, made supper and got back to the homework. I moved it downstairs, sitting in my wonderful husband's big comfy chair, took care of almost half of the notes I need by Friday while watching TV.

Let me say that I have never done that before, watched TV while doing homework. I always thought it would be too distracting. Not so, as it turns out. Now, I'm willing to concede that it may not work for all homework types, say... my Excel spreadsheets crap I have to do. But for transferring notes, it was great.

While downstairs, taking notes, I was also doing laundry, got 3 loads done between 8 pm and now... yeah, it's after 11, a pretty late night for me, especially with an 8am class tomorrow, but I just felt energized... now it kind of sucks, because I'd like to go to sleep... guess that's why I'm doing my online banking, and catching up on the blogs I read and doing an entry here... I'm hoping it will chill me out and make me sleepy.

So, holy crap, I think I have nothing to complain about AGAIN today... I can always use the old stand-by... MY HUSBAND IS NOT HERE, AND IT PISSES ME OFF... but holy crap, how many times can a girl drag that old thing out? We all know I am "pissed off until further notice" (although I did change that recently) but really, I need to just get to getting to it. Hopefully time will fly by the less I think about it. I remember the Bosnia deployment, I used paydays to look forward to. Paying bills is a big YIPPEE for me, I'm such a geeky accounting student, so I think I will just grab that one again, it worked before, it can work again...right?

JP, I hope you're doing OK, I haven't see you online for a couple of days... I hope it's just that we've missed each other in passing. You know, you COULD post a comment here, or..hell, I don't know SEND ME AN EMAIL... It's not like I'm asking you to send a letter (anymore)

OK, OK, enough guilt trip, sorry babe... you know I love you and I'm just goofing on ya!
XOXOXO
Nik

Monday, February 5

Those Damn Kids

That's the bitch of the day... those damn kids.
I bowled tonight. Mom couldn't come stay with them, so I told them to be good, reminded them when their bedtime is, and made sure they had eaten supper. They know I carry my cell with me, pretty much all the time.

I got a call during the 2nd game. It was Emma, she was howling and bawling. Those boys were picking on her and would not leave her alone. I can believe this, TO AN EXTENT. Those boys are pretty bad about ganging up on her. I told her to go to her room and play in there, she says she did, but they still bothered her. I asked "They came into your room, followed you in there, and kept after you?"

"YES!!"

Bullshit. I got Alex on the phone... what's going on?

"Emma was in grandma's room and I told her to get out. she was playing on Grandma's computer, and she wouldn't get out." (This is a big no-no, the kids do not go into Grandma's room, even if she doesn't live here, she's still got a bunch of her stuff in there, and it's still HER ROOM!)

I told Alex to have each kid grab a phone (there are 3 in the house) Got them all on, verified that they could all hear me and shouted

GO TO BED!!!

and hung up. This was about 8pm. Their normal bedtimes are:
Emma:8:30
Eric: 9 pm
Alex: 10ish

Then, just because I'm evil, I waited about 15 minutes, then called the house. Sure enough, Emma answered. I could hear Alex in the background, too.

I shouted again

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ANSWERING THE PHONE, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN BED!


GRRRRR, and to top it off, I bowled like shit tonight. Time to go to bed, things will be better tomorrow... right?

Nothing to complain about

I actually had NOTHING annoy me yesterday.

I wonder if the KIA will start this morning, when I let the girls out, the temp gauge said -30. She was protesting yesterday when it was only negative 20. But she did start. I have class at 8. Wonder if I'll be there. Wouldn't mind not being there, I am very tired, might be nice to crawl back into bed for a couple more hours, make it to my 11 am class. Maybe by then it will warm up to 20 below zero.

Maybe I'll have more later, but for now, I'm too tired. Stayed up last night working on copying notes from my Psych book. Damn woman.

Saturday, February 3

Bitch #3... the hockey coach

Emma's team played a game today against Brainerd. As I have mentioned, our girls are... not great. But holy cow, they are improving. They've been working on their offense, I can tell.

So the one coach for Brainerd... what a piece of work, he missed his calling as a Drill Sergeant. Between the 2nd and 3rd period, there is an intermission, the teams go to their locker rooms with their coaches, and the Zamboni comes out and cleans the ice. I don't know much about ice, but from what I can gather, that clean ice is very fast, and slick. After Mr. Zamboni does his job, the teams can come back out on the ice. The Brainerd girls come out first, and they make a lap around the rink, then, once they get to the straight away on the backside, the lead 3 girls go hell bent for election and about the blue line, they do a face first slide. I could hear them laughing from waaaay up in the stands. They were having FUN! Their coach sees this, and immediately screams out onto the ice from their bench "Knock it off! You should be doing sprints" He is just a jerk. I'm sorry, I think it's fine to expect your girls to play hard, and be "in the game" when they're IN THE GAME. But to yell at them when they're having fun.... they're KIDS, THAT'S WHAT THEY DO!

Later on, he was screaming at the Refs for not counting a goal they scored (goal #7, vs our 0). The reason the goal was not counted? Their player scored it by plowing the puck into the net on the face of one of our girls. Kayla did not get up. Our coaches were on their way out to attend to her and this jackass was still barking about how that goal should count. Kayla sat out a few minutes and ended up being OK, just had the wind knocked out of her, thank goodness.

I am just glad that the coaches here allow our kids to be kids. They are taught the fundamentals of the game, they are also taught to win and lose gracefully. I have no doubt in my mind that this Brainerd style of coaching is the reason for several of their girls checking our girls into the boards and (I heard from Emma, and a couple other girls) calling our girls 'bitches' as they knocked them down. That is not the kind of athlete I want to have, and thankfully, with the great coaches we have here, I think it's safe to say that MY daughter will be a better player in the end because of it.

Now that I have that out of my system, HOLY CRAP, what a busy day! I got up this morning and got right to work on my outline for my speech... rough draft done, just need to type it up and polish it a bit as I do. Then I took Emma to the arena, and almost an hour later, went myself and got there in time to see the beginning of the game (not usual for me) and hear them announce the STARTING LINEUP FOR THE LAKERS... at Right Wing, Emmalee G. I just like hearing her name announced, gives me goosebumps.

After the game, Miss Em and I went out to Mom & Dave's so Grandma could help Em with her Valentine's Box. It's a project they do every year, they have to create their own box, it must have a moving part, and a light-up feature! Emma wants to give out PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN cards to her classmates, so we decided to use that as a theme. Her Valentine's box is a treasure chest. AND IT IT AMAZING. We aren't done yet, but everything is in the works, and with some parental and grandparental guidance, she is doing great.

We get home from that little chore, and I see that Shitball is still here. He is Alex's friend, and we haven't seen much of him lately, he's a parent-driven wrestler. He currently has a black eye from wrestling practice... I asked him if he was spending the night. He said "I can if you want me to"
I don't WANT you to, but you can.

Kid eats like a bear. A starving bear. Good thing he's a nice kid with good manners.

Well, I should get to typing that outline up, one less thing to freak out about tomorrow.

When Hell Freezes Over


It looks like this
I believe it was Creedance Clearwater Revival who said "DO DO DO Lookin' out my back door"
I doubt this is what they had in mind.

Friday, February 2

Work in progress & Bitch #2

As you can see, Scott and I have been working on my new banner... isn't it just wonderful? I will have to monkey with the template, and wiggle it over to center it, but Scott and I have a "date" for Saturday morning to get it done. Turns out, (Scott can attest to this) I am not a patient person... who would have known? Even when I don't have the foggiest idea what I'm doing, I STILL want to work ahead... Sorry about that Scott, I promise to follow directions on Saturday... to the letter!!

Emma has a hockey game tonight in Moorhead, and one on Saturday afternoon, AND one on Sunday afternoon. The Saturday and Sunday games are here in town though, thankfully. According to the weather geeks (and they're ALWAYS right) this frigid weather is supposed to continue through the weekend. Won't get above zero, in fact, the expected highs for the days are only -10, with wind chills of -40 or so. I wish I could just hole up for the entire weekend, watch movies with the kids, do some homework, and NOT go out... damn hockey. I love Emma, and I love to watch her play, but holy crap, does it honestly have to be this friggin' cold??

OK, a quick bitch today, it's about my Psych. teacher, or rather, the way she teaches. She reads right out of the book... that's not a big deal, several of my teachers do that. BUT, here's where it gets annoying. When we have tests (which we do, next Friday) they are not open-book, but they are open notes. We can use any notes we take in class. These cannot be on a Word document, they cannot be the pages of the book photocopied... HANDWRITTEN notes only. The reason this annoys me so much is that my handwriting is atrocious, and I don't write much by hand, so it's not like I've got the whole "practice makes perfect" shit going for me either. PLUS, to get everything she says down on paper, I'd be better off only going to class on test days, and spending the rest of my time copying text directly out of the book. So between now and next Friday, I have to get the first 4 chapters of the book transferred into my notebook... BY HAND. I really dread this.

That's the end of my bitch, but I want to add that I also have a speech outline due Tuesday night, and I need to start that. It has to follow the guidelines in the book, and she wants us to bring 4 copies to class, for critique by peers, and one for her to cover in red ink, I'm sure.

OK, plenty to do, even though it's the weekend, I still have to get things done. Sounds like I have a date with JP on Sunday night, wooohooo, looking forward to that, and if I'm a good girl, a SMART girl, I will get everything done before then so I can just enjoy his "company" and relax.

Y'all enjoy your weekend (Is hockey season over YET?)

Thursday, February 1

Almost Forgot


Yeah, so this freaked me out a little

My February Plan

I read a blog by a lovely young lady in Tennessee... she is a happy, cheerful person, I can tell. She gave me an idea for some posts. She is doing one post for each letter of the alphabet of things that she is thankful for, things that make her happy... stuff like that. See, I told you, she is just a peach, very sweet!

I am not.

But I like the idea of a theme of posts. So I decided to put my own little tweak on that concept. For the month of February, one post per day, 28 posts... all of things that annoy me. In no particular order, just observations I make each day... believe me, I see enough things each day that annoy me, I WILL NOT run out of things to mention!

And, with it being February 1st, I will begin tonight.

I came up with this idea as I was out at Walmart tonight. I just had a few things on my list, some groceries, some household type things, some things to mail out to JP. Everything was going along fine, kids were along, and doing their own shopping, staying in areas where I knew I could find them (toys and electronics) and I was happy to do my shopping in relative peace.

When I went to check out, I saw something that disturbed and annoyed me. It disturbed me, for reasons I will get to, but it annoyed me mostly because it made me feel old. I am about to complain about teenagers. Young girls, probably about 16 or 17 years old.

They were ahead of me in line, buying (I find this most ironic) make up. At first, I only saw the back of the one girl's head... her hair was 2 different colors... dark dishwater blond at the roots and straw yellow on the ends. Speaking of straw, that's what her hair looked like it was made of. I have seen this 'look' before, it is attained by globing gel into wet hair and allowing it to dry. Her hair was in chunks about the diameter of a string of yarn... and pulled back into, what I assume she thought was a pretty little up-do.

I gave an inner eyebrow raise to the hair, then noticed her clothing. Let me preface this by saying that it is 10 degrees below zero outside, and the wind is HOWLING, roughly 30 below windchill. There are advisories on the radio saying do not leave your pets outside, and that the elderly and very young should not even go out unless absolutely necessary. This little tart was wearing a very low waisted pair of what used to be jeans, 'fashionably' ripped at both knees, AND right under her left ass cheek. I mention the low waist because I could also see her thong riding higher than her waistband... (if you're that curious, she was wearing a baby blue g-string) I could see her waist clearly because her shirt was riding very high... it's the fashion, ya know. As she turned to pay the cashier I could finally see her face...

You know, just because you CAN wear make-up, doesn't mean you have to wear it ALL AT ONCE! She was made up like a hooker on Valentine's Day... I didn't even bother with the INNER eyebrow raise then, I gave her a full blown up-and-down look and raised those eyebrows HIGH as I sighed and looked away.

There you have it... my February 1st BITCH OF THE DAY

Now, I see I got an email from Scott while I was typing, so I will go see what we can do to change the banner in here. Also, as I said, Lovely 'Flat Coke & Flies' in Tennessee, and of course, Scott in Oregon, I read their blogs. They have links to my blog on theirs, and I want to know how to do that, so that I may be a reciprocal blogger... someone gimme directions?