Deer Welcome Us Home....

As Alex and I pulled up to the house to what our wondering eyes did appear........
Our two tiny yard reindeer.....how nice, I guess they could of stolen them - there has been a rash of large yard ornaments going missing according to the local paper....oh, big crime in hooterville!

The girls both tried to get them apart, but they will have none of it, they are now lying sideways in the yard, my neighbors would have a fit if they stayed there to long, good thing they weren't lit yet! - still it's funny......

Alex gets Braces -

And I get 2 more years of Orthos visits and payments - I am so excited.
They were kind enough to give me a little discount since Kelsey just got hers off in July!

Black Friday....Generous Saturday....

I was woken by my neighbor needing an egg for her souffle - it was time to get up and I realized - I do have good kids, they cleaned the house for me while I prepared the pies, Kelsey got up and ran down to the grocery store for me. And we were off to share dinner with my brother. A wonderful meal was prepared at my brother's house and good company was good.

Fat on a holiday meal I returned home to scour the ads for a few good deals for Christmas and drink a pot of coffee to keep me awake through it all. Yes, I am one of the stupid people who find it amusing and entertaining to deal with large crowds all vying for the best bargain!

This year took a new spin, some retailers at the Edinburgh Outlet Mall decided to open a midnight, Coach being one of them. Jen on I decided to take on the challenge (see earlier Shopping Spree). New this year, her husband Steve decided to join us, a blessing for us - he had the patience to stand in line, promptly took our packages back to the car and catered to two very strong women - brave soul he is and the gentleman!!! We got to the mall around 12:15am. It took us 40 minutes just to get into the mall parking lot, I kept encouraging Steve this was a new form of hunt and he should be ready for the kill, he was not amused. He got us parked in the forgotten interior parking lot and off we went.

Coach had a 2.5 hour wait just to get into the store, we forged on through the other stores. My longest wait, 40 minutes getting jeans for Kelsey at PacSun, our best deal, Banana Republic, 40% off everything and we had coupons for another 25% off our entire sale - nice. Just as we were leaving, we did manage to get into the Coach store, for me, worth the wait.

We heard people saying the highway was backed up 4 miles in either direction and some people were just parking on the highway, there was a fight (yeah a fight with blood) in the Coach stores line (ladies, is the really necessary?).

It was now 5am and most all the other sales were opening, we decided to hit one each the key stores we saw the best deal - Steve to Walmart, Jen to Kohls, I to Pennys....at 7am, I received a call from Kelsey - uh mom, where are you? We were finally headed home, she was just getting up to go to work - it was all good! Are you ready for next year Steve?

The weekend's weather was gorgeous, 62 during the day and everyone took advantage of it, after I recovered I too had the glorious task of getting in the attic to sort and dig out the Christmas decorations, and discover what baby clothes and maternity clothes I had *yeah* - new babies in the family. It was also a good time to sort through and get some organization back up there as well, Kelsey and Alex began to put the lights up until Kelsey had to go to work, poor girl worked all weekend.

I made a few of my $$'s back Saturday evening at a friend's poker game, all I have to say who knew 10-6 suited is an awesome hand, I was all in and took it with trip 6s - yeah!!!! That made me a quick $70....hope you like your new shelves Alex!

All in all a good weekend - good food, family, friends, fortunes and forecast!

Happy Thanksgiving

What I am most thankful for in my life!

Wishing all my family and friends an enjoyable holiday
filled with great food, great football games
and of course, great shopping!

I Killed the vacuum

I am a pet owner and as such deal with a great deal of hair around my house, cat, dog and kid hair all manages to find its way to my floors....it is a battle I take on daily and rougher during shedding season. Last year, I purchased a 'bagless' vacuum to possibly rid myself of the messy bags and hoping that my vacuum would maintain it's suction to assist me with my daily battle - wrong - since the day I purchased it, it's been a pain in the ass.....the filter clogs, the canister fills to quickly and it leaves big lumps of hair on my carpets! UGH! Having spent some $$ on this, I have battled with this particular machine over the year - my battle came to head on Sunday afternoon.

Again, I have pets, and as such they occasionally do or leave items for us human owners - it was the dog's turn this time - having not been let out for his last 'evening' release the night before and having ate a bunch as well - he could no longer contain himself and deposited a present for me on my living room carpets - now in my furor of cleaning I neither smelled nor noticed this present because you see - the dog is smart, he knows he was doing wrong so he choose to 'cover' his mess with some paper - good boy. So now, I am dealing with the above vacuum attempting to get at least 1/2 of the hair off my carpets when I encounter this paper, now being the lazy sweeper I am, I swept right under - you guessed it - as I backed the vacuum up, a long dark streak of dog poop was left in it's wake - then the smell hit - damn!!!! Okay, frustration level just went up a notch. I go out and get the trusty carpet shampoo machine and set about removing said streak. Mission accomplished and I am now behind in my chores and still need to the vacuum cleaner - well, seems it finally decided to get some suction, I was cleaning poop from the brushes, inside the machine, filters - it was everywhere and on me - I had it - with the cleaner and the poop - out the front door the vacuum went (children read so I won't reveal the expletives that were said) - mad at the damn thing, I felt 'Good Riddance' and off to peruse the Sunday ads for a new vacuum, determined to get one that once again had a bag in it - I was tired of the whole filtered/bagless scamp - worthless I say!!!!

Forgetting my parents were still in town, they arrived at the front door greeted by the pile that was once my vacuum, mom hugged me and understood my frustration - dad said, get dressed, we need to look for a new one....being the good child I am (yeah right) I fought a bit and conceded so off to the store we went. We hunted for a 'bagged' vacuum cleaner to no avail - nothing - Dad finally said, I bought your mom one of these and it works well - it was a bagless and I was skeptical. It even said on the packaging 'For Animals' - still skeptical, but alright I have always trusted Dad's judgment on these things. We purchased said vacuum and brought it home, after some 'assembly' we got it going and off we went. I am here to say - okay, I am now a believer. So for those of you who suffer pet hair syndrome, I am here to recommend - the Dyson Animal bagless (DC-7 or 14) - it was amazing - here are some of the things I like - a REALLY long cord, the fact the container empties with one push - from the bottom, the hose reaches my entire stairs without having to move the machine, the container has enough space to handle all the hair (and there was bunches), it easily goes from floors to carpet, it's light weight and easy to maneuver, the attachments were useful and best of all - it never lost it's suction.

Now, I know that no vacuum can deal with sucked up dog poop, but if it can assist me to easily deal with my floors, woodwork and carpets and do what it is supposed - sign me up!~ I can now say, my house is once again vacuumed and looking much better - even the stairs!!!! And there is a consumer report for 'ya - recommended by KATS~!

Another Week flies by.......

And I am accomplishing nothing - not really, but still trying to catch up on rest from the 10 day spree I went through.

Wednesday, the school had their Fall Sports program which was 4 hours long, ugh, we appreciate it but dang, why so long.....the soccer girls were again impressive with 17 out of 19 girls on the varsity team earning the state academic honors maintaining a 3.5 and above GPA - Kelsey received an additional academic athletic honor for being one of 5 maintaining a 3.65+ GPA.....I am always impressed CG focuses on academics as well as their sports programs. All the girls teams combined came in first for the state of final finishes - go girls!!!

Managed to get out on Thursday when the weather was a beautiful 70 degrees here and get the lawn mowed, gardens weeded and enjoyed just being outside, with weekends having been taken up by soccer, playing in my yard is not something I get to do very often.

Winter came back with a vengeance late Friday night with a horrible storm blowing through, my parents rolled into town to attend my sister in laws baby shower and we went out for dinner - I have eaten more food in the past week, than I have for the entire month of October - sleep is on the agenda, figure I am storing up my winter fat.

Saturday we attended the baby shower while Grandpa and my brother took Alex to her indoor game, Dad said he likes the indoor games better than outdoor because he says there is more action, personally I think because it's indoors and warm - Alex scored a goal and April (my sister in law) scored lots of awesome stuff for baby Jade due in February. Mom, Kelsey and I enjoyed the shower held by her sisters and caught up with all April's family, it was fun - well except for all the silly shower games. I had the opportunity to try out April's sister Teri's massage chair (she is a dr of reflexology, massage and colonics) - it was awesome, saw the colonics table and setup - not so much for me.....

Today I am hangin' at the house and will jump out for the COLTS game at 1pm, haven't been out all week and I think I need a beer! ;)

Have a great week all........

Saturday - Shopping Spree

My good friend Jen called to say she had Saturday free, it's been since July the last time we could get together for our Saturday morning coffee and a couple of store stops - we had some catching up to do.

And we did.....our mission.....find all gifts for my sister in laws upcoming baby shower (baby's name Jade Alexandra) - my Alex is very excited, but I digress - our mission took us to several stores seeking what we needed and Jen made the mistake of saying we should check Edinburgh (outlet mall) - let's go - it's to far - no it isn't, I can get us there in 20 minutes, okay 30 with the lights, game on....Jen munching her wonderful breakfast of chocolate animal crackers, us gabbing away and her again stating I would not have her foot in the parking lot by 1pm (I did Jen....) - we made it there (safely) and well within the timeframe.

Off we went, oh, let's check here, and here, and here until we finally landed in the Coach purse store - uhoh - it was a female frenzy of women all trying on how different purses look, comparing, chatting and bonding over purses. I looking splendid carrying my Payless purse dove right in. It's not that I am opposed at spending money on a good purse, it's just I don't like to carry the same purse all that long, I change with the seasons - it seems a waste. Sorta like a volvo, yeah it will last forever, but after awhile, it's just ugly! BUT! I do love purses so I felt compelled to at least look......okay, I broke down but at this time cannot disclose.... To be continued - on Thanksgiving day at Midnight, when selected stores in the Edinburgh mall have chosen to have some truly 'early bird' specials, the plans for the trip are in the works!

Spirts on Halloween......

More than just the kids in costume - Halloween in the burgs is from 6pm - 9pm, lights on the house means you are being nice and giving out candy.

Getting off work, I charged home to arrive at 6:05pm, I run in the house, light the pumpkins, get the candy bowl - I am ready. The girls are gone, one trick or treating with her friends, the other just out. Hmmm, mom left me meatloaf and I do have a bottle of wine chilling in the refrig, sounds like a plan....I began to dole out candy to all the princesses, army warriors, ghosts (aka teen with sheet over head) and various others - some absolutely sweet, others just a pain in the arse....it was an enjoyable evening and truly over by 8:30, by which time so was the bottle of wine.

My girls found me happily dozing in the family room upon their return, a good evening at home!