It Pretty Much Goes Without Saying.....But I Will Say It Anyways.

I have the best sister in the world! Sure some of you may disagree, especially if you think YOUR sister is better but you just may not have met mine, so we will leave the discussion for another time ;)

So anywho - I got these flowers pictured below for my anniversary....from my sister! Yes, she drove up to my work and hand delivered these BEAUTIFUL flowers to me! Um, thoughtful. They were absolutely gorgeous and I was SO surprised! It made my day :)

So thank you K, you are so thoughtful.....you must get it from your attractive, considerate and completely modest older sister.

Yep, I think she is a keeper.





Just so you don't think T is a slacker in this surprise flower department - we had a deal - NO GIFTS (flowers included)! :D

Happy Anniversary Terry!

Here are some pics from our wedding on September 16, 2006!!

The song is from our first dance. It is Otis Redding, "That's How Strong My Love Is" (FYI: you can turn the music off by hitting the volume symbol that pops up when you put your mouse next to the "slide" button in the top left corner.)

Happy Anniversary Terry!
Thank you for all your love, support and encouragement over the years.
I feel so blessed to have found you and to be able to share my life with you as husband and wife.
Forever yours,
Jenn

Fun For All

Visit http://www.yearbookyourself.com/ to make up your won yearbook pics!

Thanks Quiet Oasis and Athena's Bee's for this site!!
I can't stop with the pictures :) I even did one of Terry!

The Ancient Secret of Salsa Making

So the other night SP, Terry and myself attempted to make salsa.

Now we had a basic salsa recipe. MEANING we had a list of what items to put in our salsa and a very approximate amount. These are our attempts…..

Attempt 1: D-
We tried in the magic bullet following the recipe as close to possible. What it yielded was a very soupy and VERY pungent flavor. I am talking hello onion, hello garlic, hello cilantro – where the heck is the tomato?!?! Terry thought he could help it out by adding vinegar but he added balsamic vinegar. Ugh, I mean it sucked anyways – but that helped it suck more very nicely. Outcome - It was "edible", barely, but this salsa went straight into our garbage disposal.

Attempt 2: C+
We moved from the magic bullet to my amazingly awesome mini food processor. I love this thing and should have tried it first. We decreased the onion, garlic and cilantro and increased the tomato. Terry also felt vinegar should be used but grabbed the right kind this time. I personally don’t think vinegar needs to be used. The salsa tasted ok, but needed more tomato and salt. Outcome – We poured it in a bowl and kept adding chopped up tomatoes to the batch. Not a complete loss, but not amazing.

Attempt 3: B+
We thought we had it figured out this time. LOTS of tomatoes, a little bit of onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. No vinegar. Pulse the mixture together. We mixed it with the previous attempt (as it was edible) and had what turned out to be an ok batch of salsa. Of course we had to add more salt and pepper, but overall pretty tasty. Outcome - We are still eating it and it actually tasted better after being in the fridge for a day. Not marketable yet, but tasty.

Attempt 4: TBD
We talked about our next attempt, as we called it quits for that night because we ran out of time and also went through a half a bag of chips during the taste testing periods!! Our future process as discussed over dinner that evening: We will chop the tomato (LOTS and half of those seeded) and cilantro together and then in a separate batch we will chop the garlic, jalapeño pepper and onion (not a red though, maybe a Spanish or yellow). Then combine and season with salt and pepper and additional hot sauce if needed. Also, add fresh lime juice to the finished product for this batch.
Outcome - We'll see!!

I think salsa is so hard to perfect. It depends on what tomatoes you have, how juicy, how much flavor, how pungent the cilantro is…there is no set recipe that works….it is just a guessing game. At least for me. It is good making it, but I honestly don’t think I would do this all the time, just on occasion.

So in conclusion:
The Ancient Secret of Salsa Making is DON’T and instead just let the professionals handle it by going to the store and buying your favorite kind.

I Don’t Know How I feel About This

I have been reading articles about how Scientists have successfully launched a machine in a tunnel deep beneath the border of France and Switzerland in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe. STORY

“The Large Hadron Collider is a $9 billion particle accelerator designed to simulate conditions of the Big Bang that created the physical Universe. In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions.

Skeptics, claim that the experiment could lead to the creation of a black hole capable of swallowing the planet. To which physicists acknowledge that the collider could, in theory, create small black holes, they say they do not pose any risk. A study released Friday by CERN scientists explains that any black hole created would be tiny, and would not have enough energy to stick around very long before dissolving

They are claiming that this scientific investment without precedent in the history of humanity will be essential not only for the intimate knowledge of our universe, but also for the direct applications in fields as varied as intensive calculation or even medicine,".

So I don’t know how I feel about this. Are we going too far with our need to know everything? What will happen if this proves or disproves the Big Bang Theory? Um, I don’t know about you, but I would like to know more about those black holes they were talking about! Is this a waste of A LOT of money that could go to other things? What are the benefits?

Has anyone heard anything about this? I am going to read more about it and talk to my hubby who is interested in all this stuff, but until then….any thoughts?

I Just Had To Show You...

I twittered about how huge my seedless grapes were and I decided I just had to show you. They are crazy. Look at it next to my chapstick! Awesome. These pics don't do the grapes justice, but lets just say they are two biters! It is the simple things that make me happy :)

I know - a random post, but these blow my mind....and I don't want to work.

CONGRATS!!!

Congrats to my friend Jen S. (yes of the infamous Jen's*) who just found out she will be having a baby boy in January. This is her and her husbands first child and I am beyond excited for them!!

I am also honored that myself and Jen J. will be helping to plan a shower for her! FUN :)

* Yes, all three of our names are Jennifer. We use to work together in an office of 6 and half of us where Jen!

Sonic Is A Mystery No More.

So according to a couple co-workers who waited for 30 minutes for lunch, the new Sonic Drive-in is open in Perrysburg. Now instead of seeing the commercials and going "what the heck is a Sonic" or "where is the closest Sonic" or "why are there Sonic commercials when the closest one is over an hour away". Now we can go "oh, that looks good, lets go to Sonic right now!"

I have never been to one, but I think I may have to be taking a trip up there sometime in the next couple weeks to check it out!

Menu

Side note: Not like Sonic is exactly the same, but we have an old fashioned rootbeer stand back home. I love it! They serve the best rootbeer and shredded chicken sandwiches ever! It is such a fun place to go in the summer! Small towns are always great for these types of things...we also have a drive-in movie that still gets tons of business.

A Food Filled Weekend

So this weekend my family was in town and besides enjoying each others company and having a great time together, we had a rather delicious weekend!

Saturday we shared some yummy food from the Black Swamp Festival which consisted of fair fries, a funnel cake, a philly cheesesteak and then a cajun sampler feast of fried alligator, crawfish, red beans and rice, etouffee and jambalaya.

Then Sunday my dad decided to make his WONDERFUL Andouille sausage and chicken gumbo! (pictured above) It was delicious and my dad always does it perfect.

And if that wasn't enough, my mom went out of her way and made a six layer, triple chocolate cake..aka crack cake! (pic) Chocolate cake, with chocolate mouse filling, chocolate icing and dark chocolate shavings on top. It. Was. Amazing.

Food has always been something that bonds us as a family. We cook together and love to enjoy good food together. It is pretty great

Snapple "Real Facts"

Snapple "Real Fact" #175

In 1634, tulip bulbs were a form of currency in Holland.


I think even today tulip bulbs probably have a stronger value then our dollar currently does. ;)

Photo Parade - Breakfast

So I only really crave "real" breakfast type foods (eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc) a few times a year and it is usually for lunch or dinner when I want them. Like Dr. T., a bowl of plain Cheerios with milk is the perfect weekend breakfast. During the week a cup of coffee and a breakfast bar is a must.

HOWEVER, when I was in New Orleans a few years ago I loved breakfast and that is because of the two places we went. Café Du Monde and The Camellia Grill (which, on a side note reopened in 2007 after it had to close b/c of Katrina after being open since 1946)!

Cafe Du Monde makes these beignets (fried donuts with powdered sugar) that are amazing! (pic above) You will leave a powdery mess craving more! The Camellia Grill is this very very small diner that has just fantastic diner food in a fun atmosphere. We had breakfast there but it serves more then breakfast, I think my parents had their famous pecan waffles and I had an omlet. The cooks/servers wear bow ties and when they shout back your order they use slang for what everything is called. It is great!

So to me - when I think the best breakfast I think of these two places in New Orleans!

Letter Writing – A Lost Form of Showing Others You Care

So my dear friend April (who recently just entered the world of occasional blogging here at A.D.’s Blog) does something that I think is very uncommon in today’s society. She writes letters. I truly love this about her!

Today I got a letter from her and I have to tell you, IT. MADE. MY. DAY. She always picks the cutest card to mail the letter in and the prettiest matching paper to write a nice little letter. She is so good at this, probably because she is just a genuinely sweet, creative and thoughtful person.

Unfortunately we don't always get to talk on the phone as much as we would like and though we email, there is just something extra personal and special about a hand-written letter. There is something so fun about pulling your mail out of the mailbox and amongst the bills, ads and junk mail you find this special envelope containing a letter from a friend. It is truly great!

I wish I was someone who did this more often for my friends. There should be no excuse, but I am sure I can come up with at least 20 right now. So , I think I am going to try to remain in closer contact with my friends by writing the occasional letter to them. Just random thoughts, pleasant stories, or just a kind “Hello” to bring a smile to their faces. Yep, back to the simpler times before the ease of technology took over our lives. Of course this doesn't mean I am stopping the emailing...I mean, come on.

Do you write letters? Would you rather write letters or do you enjoy the instant gratification of texting, IM, or emailing?


I know before I start writing letters I need to email and call my friends more often….it’s a flaw of mine, but do know I care and I try!

Photo Parade - THE END

Ok, this may seem random but this picture represents THE END of my attendance at makeover/make-up parties & taking advice from others that "yes, those colors really do look good on you".

A few years ago a dear, sweet lady I use to work with invited some of the girls from our office to a Mary Kay makeover thing. I don’t really wear make-up and when I do it is a little on the eyes, powder and some mint chapstick only. However, I thought it would be fun to try a bold evening look so they set me up with the color palette that "best" suited me and the steps to "perfectly apply" the make-up.

Well this is what happened. It was HORRIBLE. It looked worse up close, I was a mess…a hot tranny mess. I am fair skinned anyway so I looked even more pale (if that is possible) with this dark make-up except for the little patches of blush on my cheeks. My lips were way too dark and then the eyes…oh the eyes were crazy. Maybe I did it wrong, but when there are 10 steps needed just to apply eye shadow then I think that is about 7 steps too many! It also felt like I was wearing tons of make-up - which I hate. It was really just too much and not the right colors for me.

But we still had fun & a really good laugh, didn’t we Mickey D.? And luckily, for the innocent bystanders in the area, it was dark when we left and the only person other then the people there who had to see me was my husband. Who, by the way asked when I returned home that night if I just got back from Clown College. Answer: No, they don’t even use that much make-up.

So goodbye makeover parties. It was fun, but I just don't think we were meant to be.

I am Just Saying….

…..I wish I had invented Post-it notes. I LOVE them. They are genius.

Post-it notes were invented by 3M's Art Fry using an adhesive developed by a colleague, Spencer Silver. Lucky bastards.

Some Rebates Are Just Not Worth It.

So here are two examples of rebate offers that Terry and I got this weekend that I just find funny.

#1 – I got a printed out rebate on my Staples receipt for …..wait for it…..$1.00! Yep a whole dollar! Yippee. Now I know a dollar is a dollar and if they would have just given me a dollar off at the store (which seems more logical) I would have been pumped. But by the time I mail this off with my 42 cent stamp my rebate Check for $1.00 is more like 58 cents. I mean, come on. Really! I think I will pass…..and I think that is what they are hoping for. No one is going to want to waste their time for $1. I don’t think mail in rebates should be less than $5, everything else should be given discounted at the store. The best part was the cashier was like – “Oh you got a rebate! You just fill this out and send it in to this address and you will receive….um…a dollar.” You could just hear the tone in her voice change as she thought it was a waste too. I replied,…”Oh, I can’t wait to spend that rebate check!”

#2 – Terry enjoys the candy Mallo Cups. Why, I have no idea - blech. So there is a little cardboard card inside each pack of Mallo Cups. (I still haven't decided if this is for real or a joke) Each card has a 5 point value and the card says that if you save 500 points (i.e. 100 cards) then you can send it in to receive a $1.00 rebate check. Again with the $1.00 people. But the best part is that Terry and I did the math. A pack of Mallo Cups are approximately 89 cents. If you have to get 100 that is $89.00. And then you have to mail them and lets remember you have 100 thin pieces of cardboard so you are looking at spending at least a $1-2 on postage to mail. So we are at around maybe $91.00 so that in 4-6 weeks you can get a $1. Eat up babe!

Oh how I love illogical things.

I Love...

Excel Spreadsheets!

Yes, I fully embrace my dorkiness.

So yes, I love excel spreadsheets. I love to create them and mess around on them. I enjoy creating them to calculate things such as my budget or bills, lists, or whatever I feel needs to be organized in list form. (It is part of my obsession with lists)

My newest excel spreadsheet is a list of foods I prepare on a regular basis and how much the foods cost me on average to prepare. That way I am able to tell ahead of time how much I will be spending at the store for groceries that week. It calculates out the meal, the ingredients, the quantity of each ingredients, the price per ingredient, and the total cost both per ingredient and per meal. AWESOME!

Friday I spent a good chunk of my evening in front of the computer formulating this excel sheet. Yes I did this on a FRIDAY night. You know right before I watched Stargate Atlantis, Pysch & Monk with my husband. Talk about a wild Friday!

So if anyone wants an excel sheet created for anything – I volunteer my services ;)

A Change is Coming (long post)

This is where my mind has been the last few weeks:

So a little background about my husband. He is a manager at NAPA in BG. He has been with the company for nearly 12 years. He completed about 1 ½ - 2 yrs at BGSU where he was studying chemistry. Shit happened and he made the decision to put his degree on hold and work full-time. (Thank goodness or I may have never met him!) I met him in 2000 while I was in college. During the time we dated he took a couple classes at Owens here and there, but he just never found something that interested him and motivated him to complete a degree. I may be bias, but my husband is extremely smart which can also be a hindrance b/c though he could do pretty much anything he wants he over-analyzes everything and gets bored with things that don’t keep him stimulated and constantly thinking/learning. And there is no point in wasting your money & time on something you are not sure you want.

So fast-forward to the past couple years. Ever since they got new management at his work in 2006 T. has had to deal with broken promises, decreased pay, a lot A LOT of bullshit, extra long hours and just a stressful work place. During 2007 I had lost my job and then started something new in the fall so it wasn’t the best time for him to leave his job. So he deals with it, because that is how he is. He is amazing because I am convinced anyone else would have left that situation long ago to look for something else…but Terry is loyal and knows that he can’t just leave b/c things are tough. He decided to stick it out until the right moment came along.

Now present day. T. & I were talking one evening a couple months ago and he told me he has figured out what he wants to do for a career. Now for the past 8 years he has said one day he wants to open any or all of the following shops: coin, wine, record, or antique so I had it in my head that is what he meant. But boy was I wrong….

(out of nowhere conversation)
Terry: “I know what I want to do with my life. For a career.”
Me: “What are you thinking?”
T: “Well don’t let this catch you off guard but I have been thinking about this for awhile now and I really see it being a good job. A job that we can make a future with.”
Me: “Ok. What is it?” (Intrigued)
T: “Ok, I think I want to be a mortician. Go to Mortuary school.”
Me: “huh”…silence (I was not expecting that answer and I was letting it process)
T: “I mean someone has to do it and I like science and anatomy. And I think this would be something I will be good at.”
Me: “You know, I am really not that surprised. In some weird way I can see you doing this.”
T: “Yeah, me too. Cool. I think I am going to look into this.”
Me: “Well at least you should always have job security.”


So there it is ….my husband is about to go on a new and exciting journey! I am SO unbelievably pumped for him because I know this is something that will make him extremely happy career wise, something he has not been for some time now. To finally see him with some career goals, making plans for a future and excited about this new direction in his life makes me SO proud.

It will be an interesting transition, but it will totally be worth it. He is still looking into tuition and details for Owens and is looking to finish his associate’s degree starting in January for the next year or so and then he will be down in Cincinnati for about a 1 ½ (5 quarters) to complete his degree at the College of Mortuary Science. (His curriculum is actually pretty interesting, well except for the embalming classes.) It will be interesting being away from my husband for that long (if we stay up here)….I mean obviously we will try to get together on as many weekends as we can, but that is all part of getting to where you need to be, right? Sacrifices from both ends need to be made to complete a common goal – the goal being our future.

So now our plan is, get Terry through school. That's it. Of course I still want to go back to school to get my Masters in College Student Personnel, and we want to move go to Ireland and possibly have kids….but none of that is possible without this first step.

I know this isn't the biggest news ever but it is truly exciting for us! We have just kind of been in limbo about so much for the last year and a half it is so fantastic to finally have an idea of where we are going! And for my husband to finally be ready and excited about a new career is awesome!

On a side note. I WILL NOT be living in a funeral home. Nope, not happening.

So Tired I Can't Think of a Title

How old do I think I am to believe it is ok for me to stay up till 4:30 am Friday AND Saturday night (only getting a combined 10 1/2 hours of sleep both those nights) and till 1am last night?!?!

Sure, we had a wedding and friends in town, but what did I think I was in college again?? It is noon at work and I swear I have fallen asleep 5 times at my desk. I am to old for this shit and am just exhausted. I will be going to bed as soon as I can get home.

Seriously, what was I thinking?

I Think I Need This...

It is the Pancake Puffs Pan!!

Terry & I saw a commercial for this last night and we both decided we needed to get this. Website is here.

"The Pancake Puffs™ Pan is revolutionary, just pour, flip and fill to make the perfect Puff every time. For only $19.99 and just $9.99 shipping, you'll get the Pancake Puffs™ Pan, the recipe book and a set of flipping sticks! They make meal time more fun for the entire family! "

Make an Endless Variety of Pancake Puffs™:
Buttermilk Pancake Puffs * Blueberry Pancake Puffs * Meatball Sandwich Puffs * Fruit-filled Puffs * Pizza Puffs * Pigs in a Blanket Puffs * Banana Bread Puffs * Brown Sugar Puffs * Applesauce Puffs * Cinnamon Raisin Puffs * Sugar Puffs * Apple Puffs * Crab Cake Puffs * Brownie Puffs * Strawberry Cake Puffs * Omelet Puffs

This just looks way cool! And the clincher for me was at the end of the commercial they said..."It is Pan-tastic!" Um - Awesome! How did they know I loved cheesy marketing like this!

Terry's 11 Inches of Love

So tonight was the night that Terry donated 11 inches of his hair to Locks of Love!!!

I think it is fantastic and really makes me happy that he actually WANTED to do this. (Not only because it is for a good cause but because I get to use this post title!!)



Before










Cutting the hair









It is SO cool to know this hair is going to go to someone who needs it.









Now his much shorter hair and a little nub of ponytail hair :)

If You Need Me I Will Be Watching Movies

Update: The movies were shipped monday, we got them Tuesday, watched two Tuesday night, will be sending them back today and hopefully will get more in the next couple days! This is great! P.S. When I told Terry I would just wait to watch one of the movies friday he said "Jenn, we have to watch them now so we can get more. I want to watch as many movies as I can as quickly as I can." When I told him that was not the point of Netflix and asked him why he wanted to do that he said, "Because I can". And there it is.

So this weekend T & I finally decided to subscribe to Netflix! We have heard great things about it and thought to give it a try. We always get frustrated between the cost of renting at Blockbuster and never finding what we want there.

Our first batch of 3 movies will be sent today!!

Better Off Dead
Dario Argento: Vol. 1: Phenomena
Premonition

I know, not the most exciting choices but T & I have different movie tastes so this is what we get.

It was funny watching Terry choose his movies. He was researching and making well thought out decisions before adding them to the list. Me on the other hand just started clicking! Oh, the other great thing that I was unaware of was the fact that some of these movies you can just watch online! How great is that.

I think that Netflix is going to be a great addition to our family. I can’t wait for the mail in a couple days!!

What’s A Girl To Do.

So I have a love/hate relationship……with my purse.

It is a rather big purse. Though I have tried smaller purses, they do not work for me. I can never fit everything I want into them, well at least without stretching them out to their capacity. Over the years my purses keep seeming to get bigger and bigger. And now I have the biggest purse (valise) I have ever owned.

I love big purses because you can put whatever you want into them. My oversized wallet, checkbook, beauty products, bottle of water, a notebook, a small dog, everything! But I also hate my big purse because I always seem to loose things I am looking for. My chapstick, my phone, keys, change, a small dog. It can be SO annoying.

And it is annoying for others, like when I am the one who drove and because my keys have fallen to the unknown depths of my purse I have to climb into my purse to try to look for them while people wait for me. Of course, they do love my purse when I can put tons of candy and pop for an outing to the movies or even when I can fit the entire Encyclopedia Britannic collection into my purse just in case we may need reference material while we are out and about. See it is love/hate.

One day I hope to become more of a simple person and not feel the need to take everything I own with me when I leave the house and therefore be able to get a much smaller purse. But I think until that day comes I am going to continue hulling around my satchel and the 10 pounds of accessories I carry inside it. I mean, that hand held vacuum does come in handy sometimes.

(That pic above is when I dropped my purse on the ground….thank goodness someone found it!)

Because I Can't, I Have To.

So our restrooms at our office are out of order. We have some sewage leak thinging (technical term) outside of our office - blech.

It started at 11:45 am today and a contractor won't be out until tomorrow between 10-12...boo.

I went over to my trusty hotel where I eat lunch on occasion to use their facilities. But now it is nearing 3pm and I am starting to get that feeling again. Of course I think because I have been thinking about NOT having the restrooms available when I need them that it makes me have to go more!! (I know, weird)

Of course our one boss told us that when we have to go we can just go home for the day. Which is great but no one wants to be the first to leave...so us girls are all trying to hold it - at least until it gets closer to the end of the day. I wish they would just tell us to go home!

I Know I Shouldn't But.....

.....I may have gotten excited when a Michael Buble christmas song found its way onto my Yahoo radio today! Yeah, I know it is just turning August and it is still over 4 months till Christmas, but I love me my Christmas songs and I love Christmas so this was a nice little treat.

It also reminded me I need to get started on my shopping! I like to have most of it done by the end of October so that all I have left are some last minute, small gifts come Nov. & Dec.

YAY!!!

So it is finally here, The Tales of Beedle the Beard…from the Harry Potter books! YAY

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers’ attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump,” and of course, “The Tale of the Three Brothers.” But not only are they the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter."


Click here to pre order from Books A Million or from Amazon here TODAY!

The standard book, pictured above is only about $10 or less….however the very fancy hard cover book is $100! I know what I want, but I also know which I will get.

Update: I really thought I was the first to post about this, but alas MD beat me.

Snapple "Real Fact" #122

"A duck can't walk without bobbing its head."

Interesting.....neither can I.

This Made My Day...

Today my sister came to my work and surprised me by taking me out to lunch!!

Don't tell her, but she really is a sweetheart and this totally made my day :)

Photo Parade - Frustration

There is a bit of a story:

So this picture represents frustration to me. This is my husband sanding the wall in the dining room of the house we bought in 2006.

We purchased this house just about 2 months after we got married. As we were still renting we decided to do as much work in December as we could before we moved in. Yeah, didn't think that one out much.

Basically we thought this room would be simple to update. Take down the wallpaper, throw on some primer and a couple coats of wine colored paint and presto....a beautiful dining room!

Um, not so much. The person before used industrial strength wallpaper with NASA approved adhesive. We tried every wallpaper removal technique suggested but the paper just didn't want to come off without taking parts of the top layer of wall with it. Basically it was just a matter of spraying with liquid wallpaper remover and then taking our wallpaper steamer and just scraping small sections off at a time. *Annoying*

This is how the project went:

Week 1 - remove wallpaper. Sand walls and wipe down walls to remove dust.
Week 2 - Prime the walls. See that the primer alone is not going to cover up the damage that was done to the walls (we didn't think so but the surface was easier to work with now) so then I proceed to re-mud (joint compound stuff) ALL three walls. This also took forever.
Week 3 - Terry then had to sand down all the walls to create a nice smooth surface. I think we are STILL finding dust from his sanding around our house....that stuff goes everywhere. Then wiped down all the walls again. We then primed the walls and then finally painted the walls with 2 coats of paint.

This little project put us a good 2 weeks behind our anticipated timeline to get stuff finished in our house before we moved in. And of course we did not get everything completed like we wanted. We did become great friends with the people at Sherwin Williams!

This was truly frustration.

You can even visit my "old" blog Renovation, click here, to read about our frustrations with the dining room and to see other pics!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I want to wish my (great great) Aunt Halsene a VERY special birthday!

This young whipper-snapper is celebrating her 102nd birthday today!! Yes that is 102!!!

I love this women dearly and wish I could just give her a BIG hug today. I hope she knows in her heart how much she is loved by not only me but by SO many people. She is a true gem and a unique, funny, and caring individual.

Love always to you Halsene. *HUG*

Oh Twitter.

My Twitter is not working. (Literally and Figuratively)

I am two days from removing it entirely from my blog, which is sad because though we were only together for a few short weeks.....I grew to love you.

Please feel better soon twitter so that we may twitter together again.

Talk To Me....

So I don't really know how we got on the topic, but during our drives home from work tonight Terry and I started a conversation about some of our favorite beverages from when we were younger.

The first thing that came to my head was the delicious New York Seltzer, Black Cherry flavor. So good. I use to drink this so much, it was truly my favorite drink. I hate that it is gone. I loved the cute little bottles it came in and when I was done I would peel the thicker Styrofoam wrapper off and shred it to strips. Oh how I miss you!

I then mentioned the Little Hugs Fruit Juices. Um, yum! They may actually still make these, but I had one maybe 5 years ago and they were not as good as I remembered. Probably not as much sugar or something. Anyways, it was always a fun treat to pull the little foil off my plastic barrel filled with juice and enjoy my orange drink!

Terry's favorite beverage was the Hi-C Ecto Cooler. He said he use to drink the shit out of that stuff!! According to T. this is the best Hi-C flavor they ever made.

So what was your favorite beverage from your childhood? Something you wish they would bring back, something you enjoy now as much as you did then or something that brings back childhood memories?

Don't Mess With Me....Or You'll Be Sorry

So today I had a new friend with me on my way to work.

Meet Godzilla.

Godzilla rode with me this morning on the dashboard because I drove my husband's car to work today.

Yes, my dear hubby has a Godzilla "action figure" attached to the dash of his black Jetta.

This is just another reason why I love him. His last brown car had the Taco Bell dog bobble head, this black car - Godzilla. I have to admit every time I looked at it, it put a smile on my face. So I am just sharing, hopefully the pure randomness will put a smile on yours as well! :)

I am off to have lunch with godzilla. I wonder if he would like a tuna sub from subway?!?!

Really?!?! Come on, Really?!

I just saw this on MSNBC.

The newest Spa trend for the people who have too much money is that you can pay to have little tiny carp nibble your calloused feet during a particular pedicure.

Click Here for the story.

I really don't even know what to say. I guess I can go get a poop facial and then get my feet nibbled on by tiny little fish. Yep, that seems like a relaxing trip to the spa.
(insert eye roll with sigh)

The Dark Knight....

....did NOT disappoint.

It was an all around FANTASTIC movie.
(Possibly more thoughts to come once others have seen it.)

In Honor of the new Batman Movie!

I would like to say I answered this AFTER I did TLC's Friday Feast!! hehe, it is meant to be :)

Your Superpower Should Be Mind Reading

You are brilliant, insightful, and intuitive. You understand people better than they would like to be understood. Highly sensitive, you are good at putting together seemingly irrelevant details. You figure out what's going on before anyone knows that anything is going on! Why you would be a good superhero: You don't care what people think, and you'd do whatever needed to be done Your biggest problem as a superhero: Feeling even more isolated than you do now

What Should Your Superpower Be?

I Want A Martian Child...

So Wednesday night before Project Runway K & I watched a movie.

Martian Child.

I have to say this was such a good movie, very very heartwarming. Of course I am in love with John Cusack so bonus right there, but the little kid in the movie was so adorable that you couldn’t help to just instantly want to adopt him yourself.

This is one of those movies I would like to own b/c it is just an uplifting/touching story that I could watch over and over. The movie is also based on a book, of the same name. I am not much of a reader, but this is one of the books I think I would truly enjoy reading…in fact I think I am going to go get it.

I highly suggest this movie; I really don’t think you will be disappointed.

(Mom and Dad, there is a golden retriever in it. But beware; there is a sad scene where I just lost it.)

Photo Parade – Excitement

Dr. Turtle, Photo Parade.

Ok, one of the most exciting days in my life was when T & I got married! It was so perfect and exciting to know I was marrying the person I loved in front of some of my closest family and friends.

This picture was taken as I was walking up to see Terry for the first time on our wedding day. We actually choose to meet before the wedding, inside the church with no around. I loved doing that because we had a quiet, relaxing and special moment between just the two of us.

I had NO idea this picture was being taken, completely a candid shot. I was looking over at some friends and family on my way into the church completely excited to see Terry when I made this silly face. Though it is not the most “perfect” picture, every time I see this I seriously remember how I felt at that very moment and how as hard as I tried I really could not hid my excitement. This is one of my favs.

(you may have to click to make bigger, don't really know how to do that myself for the post)

My Own Personal Video Game…In My Head.

I felt like frogger this morning as I drove through BG to do some errands before work!

It's a garbage truck in my lane, must go past…boop, boop, boop. Oh no, one of those street cleaning trucks…boop, boop, boop. Look out, girl on bike…boop, boop. Get over, the city is cutting down tree branches....boop, boop, boop, boop. Watch it, orange construction barrels.....boop, boop, boop.

Great Job! You made it – HIGH SCORE!

Yep, that was my morning. And yes this is how my mind thinks and I did make those sounds in my head as I drove past all these objects!!

Play frogger!

My Afternoon Delight

Today I decided to take my lunch and the 30 minutes I have and just get out of the office. (I typically just stay at my desk) I don’t live close so where does one go that is close and where I won't be bothered…..well how about a hotel parking lot! Sure, why not?! Just me and those other people looking for a little weekday afternoon delight.

No phones. No people talking. No computer. No questions. No one walking in and out of the office. No drab surroundings. Basically NO interruptions at all. Just my music, fresh air, sun, and a chance to unwind. It was lovely.

Note to self – hang out at hotel parking lots for lunch more often.

For You Two Pretzels

So K, I saw this in my Rachael Ray magazine and immediately thought of you! And as a lover of all kitchen gadgets I thought I would pass this along!

It is called Eiko, and it is an eggcup that you can hang on your pot to boil eggs in. Can’t say how well it works, but it looks like a great idea and way fun!

"EIKO is an ingenious solution for the perfect breakfast egg: Simply hang the egg cups containing the eggs over the edge of a pot of boiling water, use the colors to differentiate cooking times, remove the eggs by grasping the cool handle, run under cool water, and carry to the table where Eiko functions as an egg cup!"

Click here for the egg cups website.


I love all things kitchen!

Talk To Me...

So do any of you use teeth whitening products?

I used the strips when they first came out. They were ok. I mean for having a semi-tasteless, jelly consistency, plastic strip in your mouth for 20 minutes. Blech! Plus I just have sensitive teeth and these just made my teeth more sensitive.

Since then I have tried whitening toothpaste, but frankly I just don’t like the taste and don’t think they leave my mouth as clean and fresh as say, Colgate total mint – yum!

So any suggestions on teeth whitening products?

I have a coffee addiction and I am starting to notice my teeth are, lets say, not as sparkling white as I would like them to be.

Talk To Me....

….About Laundry. More specifically, why am I getting white patches possibly from my detergent on my black pants?!?! grrrrr

So here is the deal, and I hope others know what I am talking about. I seem to get soap marks/residue or something left on my pants. Sometimes it isn’t bad and a damp cloth will easily take it off and sometimes, like this last wash, they are HORRIBLE. I have tried everything that I know of, so maybe I am just doing something wrong – b/c I see other people’s black pants and they don’t like mine. I wash in cold, I have tried washing them inside out, I have tried different soaps (I currently use a liquid concentrate soap), I have tried less soap, I have tried additional rinses, I air dry….but still there is always at least a little mark on my pants. And now my pants seem to be fading b/c of all the extra rinsing I do to get these marks off….and it is still not always coming off. I honestly don’t know what to do, do you know of something else to try?

I am so annoyed and seriously about one wash away from throwing these pants in the trash, which is unfortunate because I really don’t have money to be spending on clothes and frankly I don’t want to buy pants until I decrease the size of my current pants.

So help! Any suggestions to prevent this most annoying problem?!?!

I Love....

Neil Patrick Harris!!

I think he is so adorable and funny! We actually started watching How I Met Your Mother just this season b/c of him! So, last night when we were watching TV we saw this Old Spice commercial featuring him. It is AWESOME! My favorite line is in the comment section!

M. I know you don't always do videos...but this is a good one! :)

Movie Review

Wall*e

This weekend T & I went to see Wall-e!! Yes, by ourselves. We went to the first showing (11:50 am) Friday morning. We wanted to beat the crowd and we sure did. There were only about 10 of us in the theater – awesome!

So overall I have to say I really liked this movie! You just fall for Wall-e; so adorable, innocent, childlike….so cute! I loved that there really wasn’t any talking for the first part of the movie, it is so relaxing and really just lets you enjoy the character without distractions. And there is a message in the movie as well, because it isn’t a Disney movie without some lesson learned. I loved the color and look of the movie, it was actually very good visually and the music was fun.

It is hard to say too much about what the plot of the movie away without giving too much away. It really is just something you should watch. Kids will love this movie and so will adults. My husband was actually the one who suggested we go see this! Plus there is a little bonus short cartoon at the beginning! Love that

I have heard reviews that this is the best Pixar movie ever. Don’t know if I can really say yes or no to that because it was very much it’s own/unique movie. But I will say it was very very good!

Click here to build your own robot and play games! I did :)

I Love.....

My Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine!!!

I use to have a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine when I was little. I loved it! There was nothing better then grinding up a pound of ice for a couple delicious tastes of icy goodness! And the Snowman full of flavoring, awesome!

I never knew what happened to my old one. Maybe got sold at a garage sale, or perhaps broke, or it could be hiding somewhere in my parents house. But no worries anymore b/c I found this little gem at the store and of course, I had to have it! I haven't taken it out of the box yet (no, not because I am that kind of person) but mainly b/c I really don't want to use right now...I just want to have it!

Any toys you would like to have back from your child hood?

more in comments...

Find A Penny.....

Random but what are your thoughts about picking money up off the ground?

My husband picks up anything that even resembles money (I call him a coin whore b/c he is so into coins and he is always digging through my purse and car looking for coins). He collects old/rare coins so he is always picking up coins off the ground no matter what it is and studies it to see if it is valuable. I have seen him pick a coin out of the mud. Me on the other hand, well I don’t like touching coins that have been on the ground. I already think that money in general is disgusting (think of all the places it has been and all the people who touched it and what they have done with it - blech) and I just won’t make the effort to pick up loose change on the ground.

Now we start talking about bills….well then that is a totally different story!

I Personally Like My Soul, We Do Well Together.

So I was reading on FoxNews today that a man from New Zealand is selling his soul online. Story Here. Currently the bid is at $189. Hmm…..really?!?! Sure the guy is being stupid and maybe thinks it is funny to sell his soul, but the really stupid people are the ones actually bidding on this…come on folks, really. If this guy can take some money from stupid people, then more power to you.

There is a New Gang in Town...And They Are Badass!

Terry called me tonight as he left the house to go get dinner and a beer with one of his friends. This is what he said:

T: "Jenn, Look out the front door."
Me: "Why?"
T: "You have to see the new gang that is about to come around the corner."
Me: "Gang, what the heck are you talking about?"
T: "We have a new gang in our development, just wait they are coming. You should see them any second."

As I am looking onto the outer circle of our development I see three old women in their hoover rounds (mobility scooters) scooting along the outside of the circle.

*Insert T & I laughing HYSTERICALLY while I continue to watch them go around our circle!!!!

I really tried to get a picture but they were too far away. So instead I have a clip of the Seinfeld episode with George and the Scooter Gang! This is what I am picturing these ladies are like....they probably run this development and won't take shit from a young whippersnapper such as myself! hahaha