Day 59

On Friday, I finally picked all my stuff up from work. Giant box full of the things I had accumulated over 4 years. It was sad! I loved my job & miss it something terrible!

This is a pile of Mardi Gras beads I had at work. I kept them there for special occasions: St Pat's, Red White & Blue days (school colors), Halloween. I always participated in the funky school spirit events: Pajama Day, Crazy Hat day, backwards shirt day. I loved doing stuff to make the kids smile. I had vinyl clings for every holiday and put them up just to make things cheery. Now, I'm gone & I KNOW no one else will do anything like that. But, the beads look WAY COOL piled up like this!!

Day 58

I found my camera.

Years ago, Coke came out with Diet Vanilla Coke. I fell in love with it. Apparently, I was the only one. They stopped making it. But, Pepsi still made a diet Vanilla product. Then, it went away. I found that it was only St. Louis that didn't have Diet Vanilla Pepsi. Anytime Scott went out of town, he picked me up more DVP. When I went to visit my parents, I bought as many cases as I could find. Then, it started disappearing from other places. I thought that it was gone for good.

Imagine my joy when, while shopping at WalMart, I looked down and found this!! Diet Vanilla Pepsi is available in St. Louis!!! I'm happy again!

Day 57

I GOT HIM!!! I've been trying to get pic of this cardinal all winter!! Everytime I move to get my camera or open the back door, he flies away. Well, I saw him when I got out of of the car today & he was still there when I grabbed my camera. When I got inside, I walked on the back deck, to see if he was there. He was. Isn't he pretty!!

Day 56

I posted this on my Facebook account & thought I'd use it for my picture of the day.

This is my "light gun". I can not toss out a $2 set of Christmas lights! I have to fix them! I had a little $3 light tester that I used but the batteries went dead. In past years, it has been cheaper & easier to replace the tester than the batteries. Well, this year I couldn't find a replacement tester so I bought this fancy pants (expensive!) thing. I thought it was a bunch of bunk!! Well, the first time I used it, IT WORKED!!!

You plug an empty light socket into the gun (just in front of the trigger) and pull the trigger. Sometimes you have to pull it a few times. Then, usually, the whole set magically lights up. Then, you can replace the burnt out bulbs & all is good. I figure it must be satan's work but dad says it's all understandable & proceeded to explain it to me. It's satan's work!! It doesn't always work (I had to toss a set of white lights that I keep on year round above my cabients earlier this week.) but it works often enough to make me happy. Plus, if this gun doesn't fix the lights, I figure I can now toss them w/o guilt!

Day 55

Scott & I got new Debit cards in the mail plus I got a new Macy's card. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone can see my card numbers & steal my identity from this pic???

Day 54

This is how I spent a good portion of my day: moving digital elements to more descriptive folder. I had previously downloaded a TON of free kits from 2Ps in the hopes of (finally) getting PhotoShop. Well, I wanted to use a brush the other day & could not find it anywhere. I have the elements arranged in complete folders; the whole kit together. So, I left that arrangement as is but I ADDED a color folder & each embellishment in it's own separate folder. That way, I can find the digital tag I want & I can also add the whole kit.

This is all if/when I ever figure the whole PSE thing out!!!

(BTW, after spending today doing this, I found an article in CK about how to organize your digital stuff. I guess I'll read that & see if I want to change the whole kit & caboodle)

Day 53

Don't it just figure??? We turned the van over to 100,000 miles today. I took a pic before we left home & was going to take a pic of 99,999 & 100,000. But, in the mean time, my kids took about 50 pics, just goofing off. When I got my camera back, at 99,997, the battery was DEAD!!! I took the pic w/my phone but I have to buy a micro SD card to get them out. I wanted to actually do a s/b page on this. And I bought a cute Changito stamp to go w/it. Oh well. Best laid plans. And, the car is ready in the next couple months.

Day 52

Woke up to SNOW this morning. I'm sure it'll all be gone by 10am. Pretty coming down tho.

Day 51

COLD has moved back into the area. The car was pretty frosted this morning (since I'm out of work, I've been taking the car to drive the kids to school. Saves a tiny bit on gas & I'm trying to save every penny until I know where my life is heading!) Scott went to pull the van out of the garage (a intricate dance if you try to keep the cat from running OUT of the garage) and he scrapped my windows for me. But, he didn't scrape the sunroof (as if I would have if I had scrapped the car. LOL). This is the veiw from the inside of the car out the sunroof. PRETTY!

Day 50

Lookie!!! A post ON TIME!!! Will wonders never cease?

My kids go to school in South Roxana IL. I never thought much about it growing up but I'm guessing not everyone had a bunch of refineries in thier back yard. The smell is not the most pleasant in the world. You'd think we'd have lower gas prices, huh?

Day 49

Homemade Coconut Cream Pie!! YUM!! I LOVE CCP. I posted a month or so ago about buying one from Josephine's. It wasn't very good. So I made my own. I think the difference is the crust. It needs a substanial crust w/enough salt to counteract the richness.

I cut the pie VERY CROOKED tonite. Oh well, since I'm the only one eating it, doesn't matter

Day 48

I LOVE popcorn!! I'll eat it anytime of the day or night. I don't love microwave popcorn! It smells good when you first pop it but tastes so icky like 2 minutes later. And your mouth feels greasy! So, we have a Stir Crazy popcorn popper. We buy loose popcorn (which is harder & harder to find anymore. For some reason, Walmart only carries it in the winter). When we go on family vacations, the popper comes with us. We even took it to the drive-in with us once. Yummy Popcorn!!

Day 47

Scott & I had to run to his mom's. He had to move furniture for her party, I had to "fix" her computer. As we were leaving, I noticed Jack. He LOVES to sit in this window and look out on the world. I'm sure its a coincidence that most of the time, when the whole family is out, he's sitting in this window watching for us to come home. Yes, I know he's a cat & doesn't give a rip about us & couldn't care less if we were home or on the moon. BTW, if we don't leave the blinds open for him, he goes over & hits them w/his paw until someone comes & opens them for him. Or, he bends the blinds & sticks his head thru them anyway!

Day 46

I have a beautiful cardinal couple in my back yard but I can never get pics of them. As soon as they see/hear me open the door, they fly off. I really want a pic of those birds!! Anyway, as a typical Sunday morning, we were sitting in the dinning room reading he paper when the kids asked what kind of bird was out on the telephone pole. My mom insisted it was an owl but I know it was a hawk. He didn't mind getting his pic taken. In fact, after I got his front, he flew to the other pole & let me get his back. How sweet. Wonder if he caught the mole that's destroying my yard?? I hope so!!

day 45

Toilet Cake! Sounds yummy, huh?? As always, there is a story. We were playing cards w/Tim & Sarah & my parents. We used to play all the time but my parents moved so they never get to play anymore. It's Valentine's day & my dad's birthday was yesterday. So, I made a cake. For some reason, the cat was VERY interested in the cake. Scott put the cat in the laundry room to keep him away from the cake. Jack did NOT take kindly to that & whined. I moved the cake to the top of my computer desk & let Jack out. He jumped up on the desk and Scott was afraid he was going to jump up & get the cake. So, he decided to put the cake in the bathroom and close the door. Hence, toilet cake.

In retrospect, it might have made more sense to put the cake in Scott's office & close THAT door. It was yummy!!

Day 44

Friday the 13th!! My dad's 69th birthday. My parents came up (over) from Bolivar, MO to celebrate dad's birthday. We went out to dinner (reservations for 13 on the 13th?!?!) and had a whole lotta fun! I could show you pics of my dad, pics of my kids, pics of my bros but no, this is what I show you to commemorate the evening: the garnish from my plate. It was pretty. The lighting is funky but I think you get the idea :P

Day 43

The Room Princess Strikes Again! You'd have to go back to my "regular" blog to understand this. Today I had to make cookies for a special event. My boss suggested I throw some sprinkles on the sugar cookies since VD is 2 days away. (Cindi, I thought of you & your glitter comment as I sprinkled "glitter" all over these cookies.) Anyway, I thought why not make some for Sarah's class since they are room mother-less. So, I made pink & red cookies for them to have on Friday's party.

I had taken another pic for this blog. I encountered a deer while driving to work. He just sat there (or maybe it was a she?) and waited while I got my camera out, rolled down the window & took the pic. Unfortunately, this is what it looked like after it was cropped. As Erin would say, it's POOP!! SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE PICS!

Day 42

Today was the 100th day of school. The kindergarten had lots of 100 projects to do. I took this pic off 100 choc chip cookies in honor of the occasion. (the cookies will actually go to the Middle School for thier ISAT kick off. Former Gov Rod stopped us from selling cookies & cakes to elementary kids 'cause they are getting too fat. So, we can sell them fruit roll ups & gushers but no cookies. Go figure!)

Day 41

Nick's last basketball game. The couch (finally??) put the "b" team players in w/the "a" team. All the boys played, played a long time & got a chance to make a basket. Unfortunately, none of them made it but I'm sure they all had a great time!

Ok, this picture shows that I clearly need help taking pics at ball games (now that VB & BB is over!) I can't get good action shots unless I use the manual setting. The problem is I can't zoom in w/o loosing clarity. I thought I'd be able to crop & zoom AFTER the pic was taken; I can't. Even the fancy pants PSE7 doesn't help. Any thoughts???

Day 40

Driving home from the kids' school the rain started (on my nice clean van!!) The window was so clean (and maybe even treated w/something) that the medium rain didn't even require me to use my windshield wipers. The rain just beaded up & then slid off the windshield. It was really cool to watch. These pics don't even begin to show how cool it looked but, they are still pretty nice in my opinion.

Have I mentioned I LOVE rain!! I'd move to Seattle if I liked coffee.