6ws - Happy Holidays?

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words.

Still in a funk. Bah humbug!


Check out the rest of the 6ws entries by clicking on the graphic below.

 

Bloggity Blog Blah Blah.....Highly Unlikely

........Yep, I'm sitting here staring at the monitor trying to come up with something to write about. Anything. I've looked for writing prompts and read some of my favorite blogs. Nothing. I've been in a crappy mood for days and it doesn't seem to be getting better. It's the holiday's. I don't normally get like this, but this year things are different.

The thing with Keith's family has still not blown over and this whole thing is now just an awkward mess. I sometimes feel like I should just suck it up and act as if everything is ok, but I have been doing that for years. I don't want to be the bigger person. I want to be immature and rude. I want to scream and yell things that I have been holding back. Will I do these things? Highly unlikely.

A nice Christmas shopping spree would normally pull me out of my slump but money is still tight since the beginning of the year when both Keith & I lost our jobs. Yes, Keith did get a new job and I'm getting unemployment, but we are not making as much as we were. Will I go on a huge shopping spree this year? Highly Unlikely

My kids are driving me crazy. Seriously. Between Amber's recent meltdowns over EVERYTHING and Andrew's attitude, I'm done. I want to tell them both that Santa is NOT coming this year. Will I do this? Highly Unlikely

Yep. This post is as crappy as my mood. Gonna hit send anyway. Will you care? Highly Unlikely

Do YOU get the blues this time of year?

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Save a boob! Donate by clicking here for Keep a Breast or here for Susan G Komen.

I'm a Farmer. He's a runner. You're a winner. There's more.....

For those of you that have been kind enough to friend me on facebook, then you might know what I'm talking about....
Yes, that's it. FARMVILLE.  I farm online because I am as close to being a real farmer as I am to becoming a man. I am totally addicted. I find myself "farming" at all hours of the day and night. I have even set my phone to remind me to harvest my crops. Well, what do you expect? They WILL wilt if I don't harvest them in time. DUH! Most of the people on my friends list are farmers too, and it's great when they "find" some sad animal on their farm that I can adopt. I seriously get excited and rush to adopt hoping that someone else hasn't already given the animal a home. This month, people are finding Turkeys, and I'm hoping that we get reindeer next month. I even have my daughter addicted to the game. The first thing she wants to do when she wakes up is watch mommy farm. Where's the 12 step meetings when I need them?

Now I know that there are certain people out there that despise Farmville. All I can say is, if you can't beat 'em you should join 'em. You never know, you may become addicted too!

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Andrew will be coming home today for the first time since his escapade and I have yet to figure out exactly what I am going to do or say about the situation. He left our house on Thursday night, and ended up at school on Friday. Thankfully his friends were kind enough to message me as soon as they saw that he was at school. I knew that if he came directly home from school on Friday that it would turn into another argument because I was still angry and there was a possibility of him taking off again. I had been in contact with one of his friends father's who Andrew has deep respect for, and when he volunteered to pick Andrew up and let him stay the weekend at his house I immediately said yes. I figured that this would give us all time to cool down and hopefully provide Andrew with an opportunity to talk to an adult that is not a part of the situation. We will see how this one turns out.....

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I have WINNERS!
Here are the 12 winners for the Giveaway Extravaganza.
I was going to announce them by video, but my batteries died halfway into it :(

See, I paused it so I could cut the names up and get Amber, but it was dead by the time I came back. 2 other sets of batteries were tried with no luck so I used www.psychicscience.org to pick 12 random numbers for me.

Eyeglass Chain    14        Carma
Fight Like a Girl    20        Carma
Angel Cell Phone Charm    37        Naddez
Dragonflies & Birds    2        Rebecca Smith
Pink Floral    15        Carma
Owl Gift Bags    25        michellesmall1
Cupcake Tags    35        Kelly
Memories Journaling    10        Tanya
Think Pink Cards    12        Tanya
Heart Cards    23        michellesmall1
Pendant    13        Carma
Checkbook Set    26        michellesmall1

Congratulations everyone! I will be sending out personal emails to all of the winners later today!

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Randomness;

Don't know if you noticed, but I gave my blog a Thanksgiving facelift. I kinda like it.

I have updated my blogroll and also added a section called the players. You can find both of these at the top of my blog. Please check them out :)  I have been horrible about checking blogs lately, but I have cleared my reader and am starting fresh. So, be on the lookout for me in your comments section. I won't mind at all if you comment on my posts either.

I will be cooking my first Christmas dinner for the entire family this year. If you have any tips/suggestions or recipes to share, please send them over!

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Save a boob! Donate by clicking here for Keep a Breast or here for Susan G Komen.

Country Bumpkin? Not quite.....

Moving from the "suburbs" to a more "countryfied" location has been quite an adjustment for me. I am not used to having to drive into "town" for 15 minutes just to get milk. I'm not used to walking outside of my house and hearing goats and horses. I'm not used to a lot of things that Hernando County has brought into my life. BUT, I absolutely love it here. It's so peaceful and a much slower pace than what I'm used to. It has given me the opportunity to really appreciate this beautiful state that I live in!

One of the neat things about living out in the country is that there are farms here. Yes, I'm sure that is pretty basic information but just in case you weren't "in the know" I figured I would share that little bit of information with you. I had the opportunity to spend Halloween morning at Sweetfields Farm in Masarkytown with the kids.

The main attraction at Sweetfields Farm is their 4 acre corn maze. We took a hayride from the front of the farm to the maze. It was quite bumpy and Amber kept complaining about how "pointy" the hay was.

When we arrived at the beginning of the maze we were met by a sweet little lady who explained how the corn maze was made and showed us some aerial shots of the maze.

Amazing!
The maze says "Sweetfields Farm" and there is a tractor and 2 pumpkins with 2009. Here's a drawing that shows it a little clearer;

The lady then handed us a set of questions. We had to answer each of the questions at the different checkpoints along the maze. Whether we would go right or left at each checkpoint depended on our answer to the question. We managed to only make a wrong turn one time and completed the maze pretty quickly. Of course, we had to stop and take some pictures along the way!

The corn had already been harvested and the sunflowers were mostly wilted. We were able to find a couple of small ears of corn still left as well as one beautiful sunflower.

There were different games set up across the farm including a water pump rubber ducky race and also a corncob shooter. Amber claimed that she won EVERY race, and Andrew came very close to winning $20 shooting corncobs but walked away with nothing.

We had fun climbing on the hay bales,

swinging on the swings,

and posing for pictures.

All in all, our day at the farm was a success!

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Want to help save some tata's? Click to donate here for Keep a Breast or here for Susan G Komen.

Current Giveaways;

• Cooking For A Cure 11/7
• Giveaway Extravaganza - 12 Great Prizes 11/7

Photohunt - Nautical

The subject for this weeks Photohunt is Nautical. Check out the other nautical pictures by clicking on the graphic.

With us trying to buy a house for the last few years, money has been a little tighter than normal and we haven't done much as far as vacations go. So, for this weeks Photohunt I am resorting back to this camping trip for my photo.

Keith and I aren't real big on celebrating Valentine's Day, so we decided to just hang out around the house and relax. We planted a bunch of flowers and cleaned up some of the ones that got hit by the cold weather. I also spent about 3 hours just laying in the sun and reading a book. Today has been a good day. Now, on to grill up some steaks and relax for the rest of the night. Who knows, I may even get some scrapping done.

New Years bust.

We decided for New Years that we didn’t want to go out and that we would have a few people over instead. Some people told us right off the bat that they wouldn’t be able to make it. (We live out in the middle of nowhere) But there were some people that suggested we have the party at our house that said they were definitely coming and didn’t show up. Well, Steven, Keith’s brother showed up, but that was it. Needless to say, that didn’t put me in the best of moods and I took a Xanax and had a few drinks. We played a couple of games of darts. I lost them all. Keith and Steven decided that they were going to “fix” our flatscreen (it doesn’t turn on), and I laid on the couch. While they were “fixing” the tv, we missed New Years. Keith went “oh no, it’s 12:13. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until Steven had left. Right now I’m hoping that this doesn’t set the precedence for the rest of the year.

By the way, the tv still dosen’t work.

On another note, I signed up for NaBloPoMo again. If you are unfamiliar with NaBloPoMo, it’s where you agree to blog everyday for a month. I tried last month, and failed miserably, so I joined a group, Challenge for 2009, where the goal is to do 75%, or a total of 274 days for the entire year. I’m not promising anything, because I tend to start things and then lose interest. A year is a long time. The theme for this month is CHANGE. I’m hoping my luck changes. See above paragraph.

I have also joined two groups on Flickr and I am trying to decide which one I want to participate in. The first groups is 52 1/2 of 2009 and the goal is to upload one photo a week according to the theme. The second group is 52/52 Self Portraits For 2009 and the goal is to try to upload 52 pictures of you, but there are no “rules”.

Are any of you participating in either of these groups or something similar?

Reflecting on 2008

The year is coming to an end and now is the time to look back at the good and bad of the last year before starting anew in 2009. I cannot say that 2008 was the greatest year, but there were some good parts too…..

2008 started off with me having to find a job because the job that I had worked at for the past 5 years was given to a family member. («<Enough about that, I still get angry when I think about it.) Luckily, I was able to find a job and start in the end of January. However, to get to work I would need to drive, I never wanted a driver’s license and was terrified of driving (watch out world - Teenie is on the road!). Getting my license was a BIG hurdle that I had to cross, and I did it!

Another big moment was sending Amber to daycare for the first time. With my last job I was able to work from home so this was a new to all of us. Amber had always been at home with me, and it was hard leaving her behind. Luckily, Amber jumped right into the swing of things (as did Mommy & Daddy) and loved going to “school”!

I was at my new job for about 2 weeks when I pulled up to the house and there was a man in the driveway. He was there to inform us that the house we were living in was going into foreclosure and that we had 2 weeks to get out. Now, we were supposed to be buying this house after our year lease was up. We had been paying an extra $300 a month towards a down payment. With 2 weeks to find a place, and no money for a down payment, things were not looking good. We managed to find a mobile home on 1 1/4 acres that was in the same school district.

We had a huge Memorial Day party at our house because our friend Corey was coming from out of town. Alcohol & dirtbikes don’t mix. Keith wrecked our son’s dirtbike and almost killed himself. Literally. He spent 3 days in the hospital with internal injuries. Luck was on his side and he has since recovered.

Andrew did very well in school this year, making the honor roll in every quarter. Then he got caught skipping school….. What else is there to say about that?

We got a puppy - Jake(Catahoula bulldog/Boxer mix). Someone stole him. :(
We got a new puppy - Sasha. (Black Lab/Pitbull mix). She is sweet.

The best part of the year was in November when Keith and I bought our house. We have been trying to buy a house for 4 years, and it finally happened. Whoo-hoo. Go us!

On to next year…….

Oh Yeah, Jenny is a dork.

Pinging Monkey's

OK I wasn’t sure if this would work or not, but it looks like it did!

I have just found a neat little website called Ping.fm and I am playing with it to see what the features are and if this is something that I want to use. What is Ping.fm you ask? According to Wikepedia, Ping.fm is a free social networking and micro-blogging web service that enables users to post to multiple social networks simultaneously.

Making an update on Ping.fm pushes the update to a number of different social websites at once. This allows individuals using multiple social networks to update their status only once, without having to update it in all their social mediums individually. Ping.fm groups services into three categories – status updates, blogs, and micro-blogs – and updates can be sent to each group separately.

BTW - that is a picture of me in my monkey pj’s that my Sissy bought me for Christmas. Isn’t it adorable?

I was lost but now I'm found......

We had our Christmas party at work last Friday, and I had a great time! We had a gift exchange and our limit was $3. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent gift for $3? Needless to say, I think we all may have went a little over our budget, but it was well worth it!

Marie is really into frogs….I hunted on a great auction site and managed to get her a frog magnet & also a decoration for her tree.

Chris likes Alfred Hitchcock and I found these really cool address labels that I also got on the auction site listed above.

Now, the best gift that I bought was for Rachel who is a HUGE Snoopy fan. (Thank you auction Gods for allowing me to get this for so cheap!)

My favorite present that I received is this awesome gift from Marie:

She even kept the price tag on it so that we could see she spent under $3 (she got it for .99 - can you believe that?)

See the monkey stocking above Chris’ head? He sewed that on there for me because they were unable to find a monkey stocking. Isn’t that sweet!

If you want to see the rest of our party pictures you can check them out here!

Redneck Christmas Tree

I received this awesome Christmas Tree made out of Mountain Dew cans in my email, and wanted to share the photos with you. I think it came out absolutely stunning! What do you think?

Go  to their website to see more pics! http://mdewtree.com/

Thanks David, for allowing me to post these on my blog!

Bricks & Gravy?

Saturday night, our niece and nephew slept over. We decided to make biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I made the gravy while Chelsea was making the biscuits. The first batch (made from scratch) didn’t rise and came out hard as bricks, so I got out the biscuit mix and Chelsea tried again. Unfortunately, the second batch came out the same way. So, instead of eating them, we made Christmas decorations with them.

Getting to know ME @ Christmastime

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here’s what you’re supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this entire entry and paste into a new blog post on your site. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then tag 3 of your blogging friends so that you can learn a little about them.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper - Even though I absolutely HATE wrapping presents, I will not allow myself to take the easy way out when it comes to Christmas presents.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. I love the smell of real ones, but cannot stand the needles that get stuck in the carpet and tracked all over the house.
3. When do you put up the tree? Normally it is up the day after Thanksgiving. With us buying the new house this year,  the tree didn’t get put up until last week.
5. Do you like eggnog? Love it! Don’t forget a dash of ground nutmeg on top!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Jelly Shoes - I wanted them so badly and was ecstatic when Santa brought them to me.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Mother-in-law. What do you buy a woman who has everything she wants?
8. Easiest person to buy for? Amber - Buying for a 3 year old princess is simple!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes!
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both. I mail cards to my close friends and family. Then I email everyone on my contact list.
11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Underwear with the days of the week on them - When I was a  teenager
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Black Friday
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, I have regifted some clothing that didn’t fit me.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pumpkin Pie
16. Lights on the tree? I like white lights, but the kids talked me into colored ones this year.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? We “travel” for Christmas every year. Not far, but  3 houses in 2 days (not counting ours) is a little much.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Cupid, Rudolph - Nope I sure can’t
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both - Since we have so many places to go, we usually end up opening gifts on Christmas eve & Christmas day
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not being  able to “run” into the store for one item - You get stuck in line forever
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have all of the ornaments from when I was a kid. I love pulling them out every year
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I am not a ham or turkey person. I would much rather have an Italian dinner (Lots of Pasta!)
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To spend a wonderful day with my family

I am tagging the following people:

• Lelly


• Katie


• Frankie & Bella

I failed (Holidailies & NaBloPoMo)...

….but I am gonna keep on keepin’ on!

My Sister-in-law & I took the kids to the Brooksville Christmas parade on Saturday and we met up with some girlfriends there. All of us together ended up being quite a nice size group. We had 4 Moms, 4 teenagers, 3 elementary school boys, & 2 toddlers.

The parade was nice. Not what I am used to (The New Port Richey Parade), but nice for a small town. Had I grown up here in Brooksville, I am sure I would have known half the people in the parade. There were some “visitors” to the parade that I was not expecting to see (See Pics)

Yes, Even the king was there! Amber, of course was extremely excited to see Dora!

After the parade, Michelle & I took the kids to the Golden Corral for lunch. By that time we were pooped and headed home.

Dagnabit - I was getting ready to start adding the pics and I see that my Fotki failed me. 23 of 104 photos uploaded. Grrr - Well, I will add the pics when they are done uploading.

Miracles do happen........

My father is 54 years old and married a Filipino woman 20 something years younger than him. Together, they had my sister Katelyn who is 5 years old. My father has been out of work for about a year now with back problems, and has been worried about how that will affect Katelyn’s Christmas this year.

Last year, my father purchased a Christmas tree for $30, so he put aside $30 this year to get the tree. However, after going to multiple stores and tree stands, he was unable to find a tree cheaper than $40. He decided to make one last stop at the local Home Depot before heading home. Again, the cheapest tree that he could find was $40 and they only had 3 trees left. He hunted down a Home Depot employee and asked if they were going to be getting any more trees, and the employee told him to come in first thing the next day. Upon my Dad’s arrival, he found that they had indeed recieved more trees, but they were only the $40 + ones. He found the Home Depot employee again and asked if he could please save the cuttings for him and that he would come and pick them up later that night. (Don’t ask…..My Dad has some cockamamy idea that he was going to build his own tree with the cuttings).

Dad went back to Home Depot that night and found the employee to see if he had saved the cuttings. He had saved them, and then stated that he still didn’t understand why my father wanted them. My dad explained that he was unable to afford a tree this year and had promised never to have an artificial tree in his house, so he was going to make one. The employee looked at my dad and handed him a $50 bill and said that he was going to buy the tree this year. (He even let Katelyn pick it out) After my dad purchased the tree, he went to give the guy back the change and he would not accept it.

That night, they were baking Christmas cookies, and Dad decided that he wanted to bring some to the Home Depot guy as a thank you. He went in on two different nights, but the guy was not working. So, dad decided to talk to his manager about the wonderful gift that he had provided and to drop off the cookies.

About half an hour ago, dad received a phone call from the home depot guy. After the manager heard my dad’s story and how the employee purchased the Christmas tree for Katelyn, he decided to start a collection for Katelyn’s Christmas presents.

It is so wonderful to see strangers helping strangers, ecspecially at this time when the economy is not looking all that great. People like Paul, his manager, and the Home Depot team know what the true meaning of Christmas is and shared that with my family.