Funny Pet Photos

Dogster just announced the winners of the 3rd Annual World's Coolest Dog and Cat Show photos. The photos are pretty funny. You can check out the dog and cat winners here. I love this one:



And this one:



Check it out!

Phew!

Talk about scary! I have this notebook that I've kept since we got married (2000) of anyone who has sent me a Christmas card and who I sent one to. Well, I thought I lost it. Last year, I decided to cover the book to look more Christmas-y. Did I put it back when I was done? No. I had to look through totes of Christmas decorations and wrapping paper, and then through my scrapbooking stuff. Thank God I finally found it in a pile amongst my scrapbooking stuff. I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't find it!! Now I just have to start my cards this weekend and get them out. Once they're all out, I'll put a sample on here.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I don't know why I keep posting about what I'm doing at work, but here's another one! I've been working on maps of the salesmen's territories all week. This is our southern Iowa salesman's map. I have to put down what schools they have, how many calls they've made there, how many buses in their fleet, and how many and what type of buses they've purchased in the last year. Thank God I only have 2 left to do! At least it gets me away from my desk and computer for a little while. It's always nice to do something different. The only problem is that I'm working in a drafty hallway, so it's cold there.
It's snowing right now. It's been snowing since noon. We're predicted to have up to 12 inches of snow by tonight. Here's our deck - I love how the snow falls through and makes the cool patterns.
Today I have to do laundry and work on what I'm doing for our Christmas card. Hopefully it'll be another good one. Have a good snowy day!

New Fridge?

Did I get a new Fridge? Nope. The same old one from when we moved in almost 8 years ago, just cleaned. It's one of those things that you never want to do and just put off, but finally it was time. Too many spills to ignore any more. I even pulled it out and washed the floor underneath. Hopefully a job I don't have to do for a long time, but it is SO nice that it's done. Now for the rest of the house....

More Snow!

It's snowing out! The dogs love it - they get to eat snow again! I love seeing their paw prints in the snow.

Here's wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving tomorrow! We're going to my parent's house to celebrate. I'm so excited to see my niece and nephew, and to have some pumpkin pie!

Get Smarter and Help People!

I just found out about this cool site called Free Rice. What you do is correctly guess the meaning of words, and for every one you get right, you donate 10 grains of rice. It's fun and addicting! Plus, you get to learn the definition of a lot of words, if you didn't already know them.

The other cool thing today is that Amy Winehouse's first album was released in the US. It's called "Frank" and it's awesome. It's a little jazzier than her recent one. Plus, you gotta love that she's got a song called F-me pumps! I just purchased this on iTunes and am loving it! I've posted the video as well, so you can enjoy it now!

Amy Winehouse - F-Me Pumps

DH is so Funny!

DH had to go to Wal-Mart today, so I asked him to pick up a few things that we were out of. Normally, I do all of the shopping for the house, so I tried to make clear exactly what I wanted. The one thing I wasn't worried about was the kleenex. In the almost 12 years I've known DH, he and his family have used Puffs exclusively. No lotion, no extras, just Puffs. I just wrote kleenex on the list, assuming he would know what I meant. Obviously, he did not know that I use the word kleenex to mean all facial tissue or whatever they call it. So what did he get? This:

First off, it's Kleenex brand, not Puffs. That wasn't the worst part for me. The print on the box is hideous! It doesn't match our bathroom at all! I usually pick the marbled kind that's mostly one color, either in green, purple or gray. He obviously never noticed that! I'm not upset by this at all, I just think it's funny. And I know I should be grateful that he goes at all!

Snow

Today we got our first snowfall of the winter. Nothing really stuck, which was nice. Here's a picture of my drive into work. It's with my camera phone, so it's not the best. And yeah, I need to get my windshield replaced!
What did I do at work yesterday? Made a banner for one of our customers who was picking up his bus on his birthday. Ah, what we'll do at a bus dealership when it's our slow time. I was just happy that I had something interesting to do for an hour. He was really happy to see it and we took a picture of him in front of it for our newsletter. Nice bus with the chrome, eh?
I'm off to scrap tomorrow (finally!). Have a good weekend!

What's Your Color?

It's not completely me, but interesting nevertheless!

you are paleturquoise #AFEEEE

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is low - You stay out of stressful situations and advise others to do the same. You may not be the go-to person when something really needs done, but you know never to blow things out of proportion. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Come On Baby Light My Fire

Dh had some wood to burn, so we went out and purchased a fire ring today. It's the same one my parent's have at the cabin. It was VERY warm!
We decided to enjoy the cool November day and watch the fire. We got out the packed away deck furniture and have a couple of drinks. Of course the dogs had to be right there!
Hope you're enjoying your weekend too!

Mosaic

Everyone else is doing them, why not me? My flickr mosaic:

1. namsan tower ii, 2. wheeeee!, 3. Welcome to Hudson - Got any Light Bulbs?, 4. It's" 'Fun with Signs' Week, 5. Cross in pairs plz, 6. Watch For Dears, 7. Ghost Ship, 8. Untitled, 9. Rusty Train Bridge, 10. Stone-washed, 11. DSC_6165, 12. In the Woods, 13. Golden, 14. day of the dead feet, 15. Love in Vain, 16. Eye of the Mother-Ship, 17. In the Neighborhood, 18. PINK, 19. Argh!, 20. Letters to Friends, 21. Slowly fade away, 22. big.brothers.are.the.best, 23. Synchromie rouge, 24. no parking, 25. Untitled

Weekend Update

Another great weekend. DH and I carved pumpkins on Saturday night. This is his free hand approach: I used a stencil with mine. I thought it turned out cool!
Orion made a pillow house for himself on Saturday night - I'm glad I was able to take a picture before he destroyed it!
I went and saw my parents and the niece and nephew. My niece was playing around with my camera. I was able to back the camera enough to see her eyes, otherwise, it would have been a picture of the pores of a 1 year old!
This is my nephew's picture of his mom with my camera. He didn't really get the concept of getting the whole person in the shot.
A great weekend, as always. Isn't every day away from work a great one?!? Hope everyone else had a good one too!

Layouts

Here's some layouts I've done recently. This one is using the Kristina Contes Kit from Cocoa Daisy. This is my cousin's daughter. I love this picture! I used the April kit from Those were the Days Kits.
This is when I met Cathy Z and Donna D at Scrapbooks Two. They were both so much fun!
This is also from the Kristina Kit from Cocoa Daisy. This is when Beth, Nicole, Linda and I took her class at the pre-CHA party hosted by Those Were The Days. She's such a sweetheart and her NY accent was great!
Hopefully I'll get to scrap more soon - I'm getting behind!

My Office

Friday afternoon I was bored at work and decided to take some pictures of my office. I have a pretty small office, but it at least has a door, which is nice. This is what I stare at every weekday. Notice the iHome, Dwight Stress Ball and Bus Stress Ball.
This is the other part of my desk. It's very deep, so I'm able to put some pictures on my desk. I have pictures of my niece and nephew, more buses, and my certificate for completing the class in Tulsa this spring.
This is probably the coolest part of my desk. My salesman gave me a rearview mirror because my back is to the door all of the time. It's nice not to be surprised all of the time now!
Nothing fancy, but it's mine. Too bad you can't paint the walls or anything! So, feel free to take your own pictures and post them on your blogs. Hell, I just used my camera phone, so it was really easy to do!

6 Random Things

The other Nicole had 6 Random Things on her blog and asked others to join in if they wanted to. I did, so here I go!

1. I don't know where I got this idea, but I've always felt that dogs were telepathic and could read thoughts. No idea why.

2. I pick on my husband for not liking or trying things, but sometimes I'm just as bad at it! I hate green peppers, onions and mushrooms!

3. I can't watch the surgery scenes on Grey's (or any other medical show) because I imagine them happening to me!

4. I aim for puddles with my Jeep!

5. If I had one wish, I'd wish to be a better singer, after all of the standard world peace and the like.

6. I have TERRIBLE vision - my contacts are 7.5 in the right eye and 8 in the left! Thank God for contacts!! But I'll never get Lasik because I already get bad halos around lights at night.

There! If anyone else wants to play along - go for it!

Have a great weekend - and thanks for the great day B!

Gray Days

This isn't the greatest picture, but it's how most of the week has been. Gray. Rainy. I look this as I was driving home from work tonight. We need the rain. When we were at Mille Lacs Lake this summer, it was down 3 feet. It's going to take a lot of rain to get that back to where it needs to be. However, it would be nice if we had one or two days of sunshine in between. But I guess it's not like I can see it most of the day - I don't have a window in my office. Ah, more bitching by me about the rain. Can't you just wait until I start bitching about the snow? Ha!

Dh and I went to Michaels tonight. He got a picture he wanted framed. Almost $400 later, even with a 50% coupon, he's getting his picture framed. We don't even have walls to put it on! It's going in our unfinished basement. Hopefully this will give him motivation to finish. Ha again!

I'm super excited for Sunday. My friend KH is coming on Sunday with her new boyfriend for dinner. I've never met him before. It should be a blast.

Blog Action Day

I hope I didn't scare you! Just one of my Halloween decorations for this year. I got the letters at JoAnn's for $.60 and used ribbon I had. I'd like to do more with it, but for right now, it's just hanging there for inspiration.

Today is Blog Action Day. This year, the focus is the environment. I do what I can, but like most of us, there's more I can do. I'm one of the few people on my block that actually recycle, but after reading Ali Edward's blog about how to recycle with Scrapbooking stuff, it really made me think. I'm not sure if recycled paper would work, as in, could it be acid free? But I'd really like to make an effort to recycle my scrap paper. I'm sure it's something that stores could do after crops as well. I'm going to have to check the requirements for our recycling program. No matter what we all do to help out, there's always something more we could do.

Dh and Orion start their trip home tomorrow from North Dakota. I'm excited to see them, but I'm worried I'm not going to get all the cleaning I wanted to do (and have been putting off!) done before they walk in the door about 24 hours from now. Oh well. Either way it will be nice to have them home. Baron will probably be more excited than I will - he really misses his brother!

Curious

I do find it curious that every there is an anonymous post or post from Jennifer, someone using Frontiernet.net in Mound on a Macintosh MacOSX is logged on. EVERY time. Very Curious.

Jennifer, I'm sorry you don't agree with me. I can handle people not agreeing with me. Most of my friends are liberals. But what I don't agree with is attacks. If you want to try and convert me, go ahead. You do catch more flies with honey.

Ignorance

I have this blog for me. I wanted to share a little bit of myself with the world. I am completely fine with anyone disagreeing with what they read here, but I'm not going to let some bully just run free. The last post I made must have hit home for "anonymous". I'm glad you have so much conviction in your (note how "your" is being used in the sentence) opinions that you won't even sign your name. When people call people ignorant, it really makes them want to consider your side. I have disabled comments on the previous post because I don't want it to get any uglier. And I have also removed the name calling post because that was uncalled for. Again, if you want to convince someone to change their opinion, that's not how you do it.

It's The End of the World As We Know It

I fear for the world....Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. It now has lost all credibility in my eyes.

On Strike! Oh, wait - Not On Strike!

It's been an interesting week around here!

Monday DH got notice that the Union may strike again Chrysler. He was in a funk and really worried all of Monday and Tuesday. Then Wednesday, the UAW decided to strike against Chrysler. I came home for lunch and DH is making phone calls and getting ready for his strike duty at 10pm that night. By 2pm, the strike is off! It's a good thing, but it made for a weird week!

Because of all this, I was able to go out to dinner with DH last night. I must really love him, because I had to miss America's Next Top Model! Luckily, it will repeat on Sunday. Now he's in North Dakota hunting all week with Orion. It's just me and Baron holding down the fort. Baron's been a little crazed without Orion here, but we're managing. He'll be happy to have Mama time by himself.

(Photo Courtesy of ABC.com)

Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated my nephew's 4th birthday. He had a Cars theme party. It was really fun to hang out with my niece and nephew for the day! It made me want to move closer to them. Here's a picture of my niece - she's saying "cheese!". Gotta love those 6 teeth!
Here's my nephew swinging at the pinata, of course it was Cars themed!
My nephew with his Cars cake - he really doesn't like getting his picture taken!

Good Cop, Baby Cop

If you love Pearl the Landlord, you're going to love this!

Good Cop, Baby Cop

It will definitely chase away the blues!

Blah

I hate this. I hate feeling like this. I was so excited today. Today was the day we were finding out who moves on for Last Scrapper Standing. I checked the site about 500 times today. Finally, the results were posted. My name wasn't on there. I'm disappointed with myself. This is why I don't try things - because it makes me feel like crap when it doesn't turn out. Maybe I need to wait a few more years before I enter another contest. I can't handle them.

By the way, I'm not bitter that they didn't pick mine. There were a lot of really great layouts and I'm sure it was a tough decision. I'm bitter at myself for how I feel after I'm not chosen. It's my own damn fault I feel this way, not the contest's.

I'm going to try and sleep this off. I see much ice cream in my future.

Weekend Update

Another great weekend for me! I went on a scrapbook retreat for four days with an awesome group of people. I don't get to see them too much, so it was nice to hang out again. These ladies are a riot! My Mom also brought my niece and nephew to see me. My nephew was so happy just to cut paper. One of my tablemates also let him use her dog paw punch, which he declared he wanted for his birthday! My niece tried to color, but just ended up getting green marker all over everything. Here's a picture of them:

My space wasn't that messy until they came along! :) Oh well, they're so cute, I can forgive them! Sunday I spent time with Dh, which was nice. Monday was back to work, to clean up what I missed last week. This week it's my Mom's birthday and my nephew's birthday party! So exciting!

Last Scrapper Standing Part 2

After some prodding from Dh, I decided to try the Last Scrapper Standing Part 2 Contest on the Efferdare website. The first challenge was to use 8 clear elements on one page, no more no less. At first I was like, how in the hell am I going to do that? After careful consideration and a little help from my friends, I'd like to present to you my entry:

Here's what went into it. I've numbered each clear element for you.

1. Hambly Brickwall in White
2. Hambly Mod Circles in Brown
3. Hambly ¾” Graph in Red
4. Hambly 5 Dandelions in Yellow
5. Hambly Chic Circles in Lime Green
“Hi My Name is” graphic downloaded from http://delarge.co.uk/stickers/
Basic Grey Recess Rub-ons in Black
Basic Grey Homeroom Patterned Paper
Basic Grey Classmates Patterned Paper
American Crafts Thickers in Red Vinyl Sprinkles
American Crafts Remarks Letter Stickers in Charlie Jr Brown
6. Window Envelope – Unknown - This is actually an envelope from work - I got my paycheck in it on Friday!
7. Badge Holder – Unknown
Junkitz Red Brads
Folk Art School Bus Yellow Paint
8. Heidi Swapp Ghost Alphabet in Reason Lower

The title is from the song "Hi my name is Joe, I work in a button factory". I thought it was hilarious!

I'll find out by next Wednesday if I get to advance or not. Wish me luck!

I'll leave you with this. It's outside my window right now!

September 25 is the 268th day of the year

What events happened on this day?

*1789 - The U.S. Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment, the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights. Only the Bill of Rights were ratified at the time, while the other two were proposed by James Madison but not ratified. In 1992, the Congresstional Compensation Amendment was ratified as the 27th amendment to the Constitution,

*1911 - Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

*1957 - Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated through the use of United States Army troops.

*1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor was the 102nd Justice sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the first woman to hold the office.

*2006 - The Louisiana Superdome reopens after 13 months of reconstruction necessitated by Hurricane Katrina.

*2007 - Besides the release of Halo 3? The anniversary of my blog!! One year ago today, I decided to start this nonsense. It's been a great ride so far, thanks for hanging with me!

By the way, all of this information is from Wikipedia.

Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend has gone so quickly! Saturday, Dh, the inlaws, and I went to see Bill Engvall at Grand Casino Mille Lacs. We first ate at a great resturant there called the Blue Goose. They have the best Walleye dinner! Then we went to the casino and played the machines a little. I lost!! Then we went to the show. Bill Engvall was hilarious! The only bad part was that Dh and I had heard a lot of his act before. Oh well. It was better live. Then we saw him walking through the casino after the show. I was so pissed I didn't have my camera with! Some people asked him to sign their ticket stubs, but for whatever reason, I didn't. Stupid me! Today we celebrated my MIL's birthday. We had brunch and then did a little shopping. Now Dh is sleeping and I'm doing laundry. Fun stuff!

This week will go fast - it's premire week for new (and old) TV shows, our open house at work is on Wednesday, all of the salesmen will be at a meeting on Monday and Tuesday (yeah! free time!), and I'm going to a scrapbook retreat on Thursday until Sunday! Then it will be October - can you believe it?!?

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Arrgh! I'm a Mean Momma!

It's National Talk Like a Pirate Day today. So I looked up my pirate name. It's Black-Hearted Bob. You can look up your name here. You can also look up the name of your ship. Mine is The Doom of the Corsair. So much fun on Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I must have felt like a pirate today. I had a BLT for lunch and put the sticker from the tomato on Baron's head. He didn't seem to notice it, but was sulking when I was trying to take his picture. What a mean puppy mom am I!
First the thunder storm, and now this! I don't know how he survives!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

It's been raining since last night here. If DH didn't screw with me and fill up the rain gauge, we've gotten a little over 3 inches here. And it's still raining. Last night, it was thundering, so Baron was scared. Believe me, you can't rationalize with a 80 pound dog to just go to sleep. It's hard, because if we threw him in his kennel, he would just whine and bark. Needless to say, I'm tired today.

Work wasn't much fun today. I'm trying to restore a computer in our Service department, and the tech guy on the phone got pissy with me because I wasn't completely sure of what I was doing, and told me I'd have to cut him a purchase order (in other words, pay him) to continue. We have a service agreement with him and he told me before this would be covered. I was so pissed! I got what I could up and running and now have to give the project to the guy who should have done it in the first place, but is "too busy" to take care of any of it.

I do have some good news - my Uncle came home today! Hopefully he'll continue to recover quicky. He's already told my cousin he's going out to North Dakota on the annual trip in the middle of October, so we'll see if that actually happens. It's good to have a goal, I guess.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. America's Next Top Model starts again! I'm also curious about Gossip Girl, which premires right after ANTM. It looks like it will either be really good or stupid. I guess we'll have to see.

Good News! and a Little Bad News

Good, no wait, GREAT news! My Uncle is completely awake, most machinery is off of him, and things are looking good! My other Uncle just called and said that he remembers up until he collasped and remembers everyone there. They are going to have him get up and move around in 3 hours or so. So wonderful!! Thank you to everyone for all your support and prayers! I just know they helped in his recovery. I know he's got a long way to go, but everything is looking up! My Brother told me that less than 5% of people with that much blockage live, so we are certainly lucky!

The bad news? I have another sinus infection. I just went to the Dr. today to confirm it. She told me that I shouldn't go see my Uncle for at least a couple of days to make sure I don't infect him with anything. I'm bummed, but there is so much family around him (probably around 30+ people) that one more isn't going to matter. He knows I'd love to be there with him if I could.

Other good news - Chrysler and the UAW union have extended their talks - so no union strike tonight! It could come any day soon, but hopefully they'll resolve it. Of course the issue is health care that they are fighting on. Gotta love living in a union household!

And the final great news? Run, don't walk, to Target - they have the Office stuff in the dollar spot!! Of course I went crazy.

My favorite part? The Dwight stress ball. I might have to pony up for his bobble head one of these days for my collection.
Don't worry, anti-Target girl, I picked stuff up for you too!

May your weekend go as well as mine has started out!

Prayers Needed

Today, my Uncle and Godfather went to the clinic in his hometown. He didn't feel well. He was short of breath. As he walked into the clinic, he collapsed. The staff had to use the paddles to get his heart going again. He was rushed to United Hospital in the Twin Cities (about a 45 minute ride from where he lives) and was rushed into surgery. He had a severe heart attack - one of the main arteries into his heart was completely blocked. They put two stints into his heart. He now is in a drugged induced coma and they have lowered his body temperature to hypothermia levels to hopefully prevent anything else from happening. They said the next two to three weeks would be critical for him. Most of my family is there at the hospital to see him (I have a cold and didn't think it would be wise to go), so hopefully he feels their love and support. My Uncle is only in his mid-50's, a couple years younger than my Dad. I worry that my Grandma, who's 96, won't be able to see him. She doesn't get around without oxygen any more, and I don't know how that would work for her to be in a hospital. Please, any prayers or good thoughts would be appreciated. I usually don't give out names on my blog, but I feel if it helps that much more, please say a prayer for my Uncle Clay. He's a wonderful person and our family would be so much less without him.

September 11 - Remembered

September 11, 2001 - I was working at the Court House, we had just gotten done with a meeting. Someone said that some planes had hit some buildings in New York. I was worried for the whole country. I just wanted to go home and be with DH and the doggies. We all couldn't stay away from the radios. I couldn't believe they didn't cancel work. I couldn't believe I still had to do Juvenile Work Crew that night. All of the TV stations were only running news or nothing. It was hard to get away from it all. I cried and cried - how could anyone do this to anyone, let alone innocent victims?

Fast-forward to September 2004 - I went to New York City with my SIL (brother's wife) and two of her friends. On September 10, we went to Ground Zero. I couldn't imagine going there on the 11th and taking space away from the victim's families. It was still a huge hole then. Most of the debris had been removed. It was so eerie there.
Plaques with the names of the victims were lined up on the fences, along with names of people who were still missing. It was hard to take photos - you wanted to remember, but you didn't want to be disrespectful.

Photos of the site from construction to the days after were lined up on the fence.
If you can't see - the banner under the flag says "We will never forget".

On September 11th, we took a night tour of the city on the top of a double decker bus. That night, they had two beams of light representing both of the towers. We were in Brooklyn looking back on Manhattan taking these pictures. These photos aren't great, but in person, you could see something floating up in the beams, almost like souls going to heaven. It was very moving.
I wish I never would have been able to see this site, in the case that it would have never happened, but I was glad that I was able to pay my respects.

You will never be forgotten.

Cool Whip and 1 Year Olds

So, we found out my niece likes Cool Whip this weekend. I was making a cake that was topped in Cool Whip, so I thought I'd give her a little taste. After the one taste, she says, "Bite!". So I give her another taste. She just kept yelling "BITE!" if she didn't get any Cool Whip, so I gave her the spoon. She wanted more after that, so I gave her the rest of the bowl (not much left in it). Don't mess with a 1 year old and her Cool Whip!

By the way, she's not going to drink that Coke. She just likes carrying around unopened cans. Don't ask me why.