365: 2

I joined the Fickr 365 days group. I hope I do better with it than I did with the whole "a blog a day will keep the wookies away" thing. Admittedly, it's much easier to just take a picture than having to write something. I failed miserably at posting every single day. Man, that's hard. Being creative and witty on a daily basis is SO not my thing.

This is day 2 in the group. I just went to uploud some pictures and guess what? Flickr is having a "massage". Hey, atleast I tried. I thought I could slip my little picture in before midnight, but no. The internet gods are working against me.

I'm not much of a joiner but I like the idea of having to do post a picture every day for a year. I wonder about the days that I don't come out of my PJ's. Will I be courageous enough to post a bad picture. You might be seeing a lot of pictures of my feet. I just hope I can keep it up. I am the great starter of everything, finisher of nothing.

This is the best self portrait that I could do today. If I could have, I would have taken a self portrait of myself chasing my escaped dog. I sprinted, ran, panted, cursed. For an hour. Oh boy, was I a sight. Everytime I got close to the dog, he'd take off running. Running real fast. I was steaming mad. Luckily, my son helped me catch him. He did it. My little boy. Is it bad that at one point I just said "screw him, let him get run over". I started to walk away, and then the stupid dog decided to follow me. I'd turn around to grab him, and he'd run again. Hmmm, maybe dog fur isn't a such a bad idea after all.

Happy, Happy, Happy

It has been a wonderful weekend. It has been a wonderful holiday. So wonderful in fact, that I almost don't mind being at work right now. Almost.

Travis and I had a date night on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary. At one point, I looked at him and said "I can't believe that you've been my buddy for 15 years". The best part was waking up to a childless house. The kids were with the grandparents, we were in heaven. Our kids never, and I mean never spend the night anywhere. It's not for lack of somewhere to stay. They're always invited, but they never want to go. So, we were thrilled. The best part was that our kids were thirlled to go.

Sunday morning we met them all at church. Travis and I actually went to church. And you know what? It was fun. We sang Christmas carols, the whole nine yards. It was just what I needed to get into the Christmas groove. We had a great time with the in-laws. They fed us really good steak. I love my in-laws.

This morning was all about my family. It was a very noisy, messy morning. It was a bit unconventional to have a breaksfast, Christmas celebration, but it worked out well. I didn't even shower for it. Which if you ask me, is the best part. We were all in our pajamas. Not on purpose, I just didn't have time to worry about what we were wearing. And when you're feeding people things like pancakes and lil'smokies, they tend to not care what you're wearing either. So, success all around.

And my day wouldn't have been complete without the Christmas surprise I recieved. My Dad showed up, at my door and surprised the crap out of me. I knew he might be passing through town, but he forgot my phone #'s and decided to just come over. It was a trip opening the door to see him standing there. Not a sight I get often. Unfortunately, I was needing a nap for work tonight, so there was a lot of grandfather, grandsons bonding time.

That's my holiday in a nutshell. It's been a good one, but I still can't belive that it's over. It's 10pm, and it's over. All the build up, shopping, cleaning, worrying, budgeting, spending, eating, it's all over. Wheew!

I hope yours was a good one too. I hope Santa filled your stockings with lots of goodies, assuming you haven't been too naughty this year. Now it's time to look towards the New Year, and all that's in store.

Faux Fur, Faux Pas

Learn more at SaveTheSheep.com

The blogosphere is on Christmas break.  Me?  I'm still in the real world, working.  It's hard to get into the spirit. Somehow work puts a damper on the whole thing.   Something else that put a damper on my weekend was this video.  It's so sad.  Don't watch it if your eating, remember you've been warned.  And it might make you feel a little guilty for purchasing that merino wool sweater for your best friend's Christmas present.  I looked at my tag and to my horror, I'm wearing wool right now.  I may have to rethink wearing this favorite sweater of mine, and be more like Pink.

Pink looks for leather alternatives, like pleather.  A lot of vegetarians don't wear leather or animal skins.  Well, imagine if those are your ideals, you go out of your way to avoid anything that might be cruel to animals.  So you venture into Macy's, but a lovely jacket that boasts "faux fur".  You'd never buy real fur, so you're all about the faux fur.  Then you find out that it's not faux at all, but dog fur.  DOG FUR, people.  This is the scandal that P. Diddy finds himself in today.  The Humane Society blew the lid on this scandal,  and it indicates that P. Diddy isn't the only one.  It seems that a lot of faux fur is actually from the raccoon dog.  A canine species they say.  So don't buy faux fur made in China.  More than likely, you'll be wearing a dead dog, which isn't very fashionable after all. 

I hope this little public service announcement isn't too depressing.  We're all supposed to be happy and merry after all.  Well, at least those of us that don't have to work.  I also get to work on Christmas night.  With no holiday pay.  I guess that's the problem with working for a company that's open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Bah Humbug! 

What I'm Thinking About Right Now

• I learned today that my silly husband will not wear pants to work. I don't mean he goes pant-less, although that would be kinda funny. No? He wears shorts year round and this morning it was like 37 degrees. For our thin blood and desert, scaly skin, thats pretty freakin cold. The reason he won't wear pants is that he's in a contest with a guy at work. It's been on going for 12 years and they're both holding out to see who will break and wear pants first. Why are boys so silly? He wears like 3 shirts and 2 sweatshirts on top, with shorts. Good thing mailmen aren't supposed to be fashionable, because those white socks and black shoes...there really aren't any words.
• The other morning I was late to pick up my car pool. When I pulled up, the family van was gone so I figured that they had taken Emma to school since I was so late. I pulled up and honked once, then drove off. What I didn't see was Emma run out after me. And when she ran out, she locked herself out. She had to wait for her mom to get back from taking her brother to school and she was 30 minutes late. I couldn't find my cell phone so I could call her mom. That afternoon, karma bit me in the ass. I was trying to get one of the dogs inside and didn't realize I had locked the door.  I went out into the yard to coax the stupid dog in and closed the door behind me. I was locked out. Fortunately my neighbor was gracious enough to let me use her phone and my sister was down the street. Karma is a bitch I tell you. Please don't tell karma I called her a bitch. She'll come back and bite me in the ass again. Also, I need to stop being so paranoid about my personal safety so that I'm not constantly locking doors behind me. Also, stupid dog.
• I had my eyebrows and mustache waxed yesterday.  I broke out in a rash and today my face still itches.  Does this happen to you?  I don't know how women tolerate bikini waxes, much less Brazilians.  If I ever get a Brazilian, just call me fire crotch.  That's probably what it would feel like.
• I haven't been as thrilled with my weight loss as I am tonight.  In the winter I wear these tight camisoles under everything.  Last year, the rolls around my belly would make the camisole ride up, way up to right below the boobage.  Today I wore one for the first time and it stays around my waist, where it belongs.  All the sweat and soreness is paying off. 

Could this attempt at posting be more pathetic? Probably not.  That's what happens when you listen to too much Christmas music and eat too much chocolate.   I keep hearing Miss. Piggy's voice in my head, singing; "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please to put a penny in the old man's hat/If you haven't got a penny, a hen penny will do, if you haven't got a hen penny, then God bless you, God bless you.  I need some sleep!

The Fat Man

I can't believe how very busy life has become.  Clean, wrap, shop, clean, wrap, shop, oh and a whole lot of driving around.  The worst part is that I'm actually tired of shopping.  I even ventured into Walmart this weekend.  Talk about insanity!  Mr. Wally is making lots of money.  His employees, not so much, but that's a different post all together.

I'm at work, so I'll keep this post short.  The walls have ears, I feel like I'm being watched, people are getting in trouble for their Internet use.   So what do I do?  I'm on a break, so I figure I'm in the clear.  I don't want to be dooced.

Tonight I had to make some arrangements for someone in Rovaniemi, Finland.  I'm not a well traveled person and I never paid much attention in Geography classes, so when I get to deal with a new city that I've never heard of, I Google it.  This is my favorite part of the job.

In my Google search, I discovered that Rovaniemi is Santa land.   Go here to see where Santa lives, and find out what elves like to eat.  And if that wasn't enough, there's Santa TV.  Santa's official internet television.

So go visit the fat man, and be extra nice.  He's watching you after all.  And if he's not the one watching you, rest assured that someone is.  Geez, I sound paranoid.

Oooh, the Pretty Lights

Further proof that Trav and I are the biggest dorks in the world. Not that further proof was required.

Recently we went to take a family portrait. When we got home, we realized that we forgot to ask for one of just us. We haven't done that in like 10 years. Just the two of us. So we decided to do a self portrait of us in front of the Christmas tree.

We moved the camera a little to soon, and discovered a cool effect in the pictures with the lights in the background. This led to us taking lots and lots of pictures whie trying to make some kind of design out of the lights. That is until one of my poor neglected children came and said "Would someone PLEASE tuck me in". They always ruin the fun, I tell you.

Apperently, it doesn't take much to amuse us.

Recipe by Betty Crackhead

Now, this is how I like to bake.  Don't let the recipe fool you, read the directions.  I got a good laugh out of this.   You might have seen it circulated in e-mail, but if you haven't enjoy.  I have many a fond memory involving tequila.  Okay, not so fond but more pukey.  I feel like baking up some tequila cake right about now.

Tequila Christmas Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup of water

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup of brown sugar

Lemon juice

4 large eggs

Nuts

1 bottle tequila

2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the tequila to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the tequila again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one egg. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the tequila is still OK. Try another cup...just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Pick the frigging fruit off floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Check the tequila. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degress and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the tequila and wipe counter with the cat.

Cherry Mistmas!

Letter to Santa

These are the mommyblogger moments I live for. Ethan's letter to Santa. We still believe in our house. You should see the handwriting. I didn't correct the spelling, this is the voice of a 3rd grader.

Dear Santa,

I don't know what I want. I'm not trying to be rude, but do you like where you live? Have I been nody or nice? On cartoons they say your fat but I don't. On Nightmare Before Christmas they talk bad about you. Well I would Like a Wii and Red Steel, it's for Wii. Please, I asked for this last Christmas a Yu-Gi
-Oh GX Duel Disk. Also Ray Mar Raving, Rabits.

Well that's it.

P.S. Merry Christmas

What a nice short list. Santa will be very pleased, and for the record he has been nice. For the most part atleast.

How We Met

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my oh so romantic wedding. So, to top that, I thought I'd write about the oh so romantic way we met.

We met at a bar called Spanky's. SPANKY'S. Just saying that name brings a smile to my face. It was this little dive bar across the border from El Paso in Juarez.

Growing up in a border town is a trip. We have our own culture, a unique spanglish type of language, and best of all, legal drinking age in Mexico is 18. My first drunkin experience was in Juarez when I was 15 years old, as a matter of fact but I won't go into that because it involves a lot of vomit and a lot of Tequila. Lots of great memories in Juarez. Which is amazing since that city stinks. Literally. In the past few years it's also become very dangerous. Jennifer Lopez is doing a movie about the Juarez border and how many women disappear from there, and are often found murdered. That isn't what this post is about, but it paints a picture. Not pretty.

I was all of 18 years old, and I was there with a bunch of friends from school. We were at the Tequila Derby, which is where the local kids hung out. It was where we could legally buy a bucket of 10 Coronas for 5 bucks. One of the girls I was with was really into GI's, and she wanted to meet a guy. So, I agreed to head over to Spanky's with her. Spanky's was the GI hang out.

We were there for a while when I started complaining that I was bored and ready to head back to the Derby. My friend Dawn had just met a guy, and I was bugging her to leave. The girl was hooking up, so she wasn't about to leave.

At that point, Travis just happend to be the guy walking by when Dawn grabs his hand and my hand. She put our hands and said "here, be with him and leave me alone". Travis and I just looked at eachother, shrugged and said "okay", 10 minues later, we were making out.

We dated hot and heavy for 3 weeks, but the fire kinda died out when a friend of mine returned from Desert Storm. I started hanging out with him, we started dating and suddenly that really cute guy I met at Spanky's was but a memory. Trav was angry with me, he was hurt. I was young and scared. I had feelings for Travis that I never had, and he told me that he loved me very early on. I was so young and didn't know how to react, so I reacted by dating someone else.

That guy and I dated for 6 months, but I never forgot about Travis. I even hooked up with Travis a couple of times while I was with him. No, I'm not too proud of that, but I was young and having fun. I was confused and Mark wasn't always all that nice to me. I know I sound like a floozy here, but I'm not. I've only been with 3 people, one of which is my husband. In hindsight, I think it was probably a good experience to have with this other guy since I got married so young. I sowed me some wild oats.

The thing with that guy died out and I moved to Arizona. Travis was still in El Paso, and on one of my visits there, I called him so that we could meet up for dinner. At first I could tell he was being stand off'ish and indifferent. He was still hurt. But by the end of dinner, we were hugging and not too much after that it was on to Scenic drive for a little make out session.

3 months later, we were married. Long engagements are so overrated.

I Like Bullets

• I've been lost for the past 3 days.  Lost in a cloud of self pity and mucous.  I sat on my couch most of the weekend, in a vegetative state.  Good thing the in-laws are in town.  They took the kids all day on Sunday.  This is the season that the kids go to church, this is grandparent season. The snow birds have landed.  Sunday was spent in the same position in the same spot, mesmerized by America's Next Top Model.  That's a testament to how sick I must have been, I never watch that show.  I missed out on great cousin bonding. 6 of them came in to town to see Grandma.  And I missed out on the fun.
• I did learn from one of my cousins that Melrose wins America's Next Top Model.  He knows a friend of a friend of a friend, or something like that. 
• I just paid 150.00 more that what I should have for the thing the kids want for Christmas.  I should have braved the crowds on 11-19 when it was released and saved myself the money.  Or maybe paying a little extra was worth my sanity.  When I got the message from E-bay that I won, my palms got all sweaty.  I'm not sure if it was excitement, or stress.  Whatever the case may be, at least I can hold on to my title of the coolest mom in the whole wide world.
• Rockstarmommy.com had some great gift ideas.  She's the cool girl that everyone wants to be friends with.  Me, not so much. 

And that's about it.  Life's just not very exciting when you're laid up with a bad cold.  So, whatever you do, don't let a gay guy put his hand over your mouth, ala Kelly Rippa.  It's cold and flu season ya know.  I've really got to stay away from celebrity gossip.

Adventures in Love and Marriage

I'm looking forward to this new month for many reasons.  First and foremost, our anniversary is on December 23. We've never really made a big fuss over anniversaries.  Or any other holiday for that matter.  We don't exchange gifts on any of the holidays.  Including Christmas.  I know, we're weird.  We used to at the very beginning.  Like the first few years, but we don't like all the hype and pressure involved. 

But this year feels different for some reason.  15 years feels like such a huge accomplishment.  I think the biggest accomplishment is that we still like each other.  A LOT.   But 15 years...that's a mighty long time. 

On December 23rd 15 years ago, being the silly kids that we were, we eloped.  We knew we wanted to be together forever.  You know how people say that you just know when you find the right person?  It was true in our case.  I wanted to be with this person, I wanted to live with this person.  I was all of 19 years old and he was a really good kisser, still is. 

At the time, I was already living in Arizona and Trav was in El Paso.  Well, Fort Bliss to be exact.  He was in the army.  I flew in to town to see my family for the holiday and on the 26th, we were to fly to his home town in Illinois where I would get to meet the parents.  I'm not sure how we came to the conclusion that we should get married, but somehow we thought it would be a good idea to apply for a license before our trip.

So, on the 23rd we headed to the court house thinking that we would have to wait the requisite 72 hours for a marriage license.  No one in either of our families knew what we were up to.  The lady at the courthouse told us that we could go right up and get married that day since Travis was active duty military.  We both looked at each other and gulped.  Wow, are we really gonna do this.  Like right now.  Today. 

We didn't chicken out though.  All I remember is that I giggled the whole time.  I could not stop giggling.  I was 19 years old.  The bride and groom both wore jeans, sweatshirts and tennis shoes.  We were stylin.  Not to mention that I had very short hair and braces a'la Ugly Betty. 

It wasn't the ideal wedding, or what every little girl dreams of, but that was us.  No fuss, just do it.  The truth is that I didn't want anyone to know because of the negativity we would receive. I didn't want to hear; "why don't you wait", "but you're so young".  I was a know it all teenager so there was no way anyone would talk me out of it.  But I didn't want them to make me feel bad about it either. 

When we got back from Illinois, I went back to AZ and he stayed in El Paso.  2 months later, we finally told our parents.  His mom did not react the way I expected her to.  She was relieved.  She said "I'm so glad.  When you were out here, I thought I heard you kids taking a shower together, and now that I know you were married, it's okay!"  My mom was bummed that I hadn't told her.  The parents survived the shocking news (it really wasn't all that shocking, it's not like I was pregnant or anything).  So, two months later, we decided that it was time to live in the same state.  Thus began our married life.

I realize I won't have anything to post about on my anniversary  since I just said it all here.  Oh, I forgot to tell you about the wedding night.   We went back to the barracks, kicked the roommate out and had sex on a twin sized bed.  We're all about the romance.  And the honeymoon, I guess it was our trip to Illinois to meet my in-laws. 

Like I said, not the ideal.  But we were young and stupid adventurous.  And it's one little adventure that I wouldn't change for anything in the world.