What is a kosher prostrate?

So I'm watching TV tonight and this PSA (I guess) comes on:

I actually rewound it back and listened again. Sure, preventing prostrate cancer is important and all, but really, give a prostrate exam as a gift? Interesting...... I have to say that this is one thing I have NEVER thought of to give any man I know. It sure does open up all kinds of possibilities, though.

Anyway, I just had to blog about this. Thoughts?

Jenn

10 Days Til Christmas

So it's 10 Lords A-Leaping today. I'm good on the lyrics for the 12 days of Christmas until I get to about six or seven. Then forget it after that! While shopping this weekend with Courtney & Hana, I got to hear some Christmas music. But I also realized that I haven't really heard much Christmas music this year. I'll have to listen to some more.

I saw from Courtney's blog that Josh & Angela are halfway here! Tomorrow they should be arriving. It will be good to have them here. Too bad it's not permanently, though! And from mom's blog I saw that she's finished with her Christmas stuff. Must be nice!! LOL I'm about finished. I just need to get a couple of other things and then wrap up what I have.

Glad the Cowboys won last night. It wasn't a super exciting game offensively, but not bad. And I'm not so sure Romo isn't the player he was last year. He only had 10 missed passes and 3 of those were drops. So he wasn't bad. And no interceptions! LOL The Giants just have a good offense. And Romo's bad was messed up. When he went down in the first half, my thought was if Johnson came in the game was over! Thankfully Romo was able to continue on and they won the game. Now they really need to win the next two. Or at the very least beat the Eagles in the final game.

That's it for me now. Off to do some work (and warm up!)

Jenn

12 Days Til Christmas

Well, it's 12 days till Christmas and I have nary a present bought! This weekend's mission is to get most, if not all, of my Christmas shopping done. I've got a list and I'll be checking it twice. I'm going to meet up with Courtney in Frisco (her old stomping grounds) for a bit tomorrow. She's so good she's got most of her shopping already done. If I get mine done this weekend, it will be the earliest I've been done in a long time.

I've also got to get stuff to make some baby shower invitations. I've got some stuff to return. I got the cutest little boots that I really like, but they hurt my heels when I wear them. I was gong to wear them one day last week to a depo and I got ready early and was walking around the house and after about 15 minutes my heels were hurting really bad. The last couple pair of shoes that have hurt my feet that I've kept have never got broken in good and continue to hurt my feet. So I'm going to return the boots. No point in keeping them if I won't wear them. Then I got a pair of pants for work and I got the tall by accident. Well, that's about a foot more material than I need and too much for me to mess with trying to hem.

I was supposed to have a short depo on Friday. It ended up being 3 witnesses and all day. I was soooo tired, too. Thursday night I went to a girls' game night of Pokeeno. It's a new group of women. I was invited through Julie. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get home until midnight! You bring $5 for the pot, a gift and a bottle of wine (or Diet Coke in my case). It's kind of like Bingo. I won a game in the first round. I picked this Wine & Cheese try and napkins. No one ever stole it from me. But the exciting news is that I won the Jackpot! Beginner's luck, I guess. Anyway I won $85!! Nice little gift. LOL

Here's another blog to check out: http://backporchmusings.blogspot.com/
Courtney, this is what I expect to see at Christmas! LOL

Jenn

I'm back!

Wow! It's been nearly two months since my last post. I can't believe it! It's been a busy, busy, busy time. And Christmas is just around the corner! The time has really flown. I'm going to try to at least post once a week, if not more often.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Christmas. Of course, I've got to get my shopping done. I don't have a ton to buy and it's not surprising I haven't got any done. I'll probably be scrambling to get it done, but that's just me. LOL Work wise, I haven't been incredibly busy since Thanksgiving. Just so-so. I did get hit hard before Thanksgiving and so now anything feels better than then. We'll have to see how the next week is. I know the week of Christmas is dead.

And it's cold!!! And I think I'm getting a cold. Not sure if it's just the drop in the temperature, but I think it's probably a cold. Scratchy/sore throat, sneezing, stuffy nose. I guess I need some Nyquil. LOL

Check out this blog: http://bigstormpicture.blogspot.com/
Incredible pictures and mom & nana's favorite topic! ;-)

Have a great day!

~Jenn

Weekend

The weekend is here and it's going to be a busy one! I've got photos with Annie & Family today. Then I'm coming home to get some work in. This evening I'm going to a birthday gathering for Julie. George has put together something that she's totally unaware of. Dinner and then we're going to Pete's Dueling Pianos (or whatever it's called). Should be fun. It'll be interesting to see if we make it to the piano bar in time to get a table for the whole group. Tomorrow I've got The Color Purple to go to (and more work to get done!) It's been crazy busy.

I talked to Brad Boy last night and found out the gang is coming up next weekend. Fun!! We'll have a chance to celebrate all the September birthdays & Joe's birthday. Plus, they'll get to check out Courtney's new house. I hope this wasn't a surprise! Nobody told me it was!! LOL

To the right you can see the "card" I did for one of Sissi's customers, or someone she knows. It ended up turning out pretty good. I don't know if the picture really shows it, but there's little rhinestones on it, too, just to glam it up a bit. I've gotta figure out what to charge for it. There's a poll to the right. Tell me what you think, please!

Off to get my stuff together and to take some photos!

No GBC

So I won't be going to Gun Barrell City come Friday. First, I had depos for tomorrow & Friday called in from one of my clients. Then Julie's day fell apart and she's going to GBC now. While I'm bummed I won't get down there and see everybody, I still have soooo much to do! LOL I'm editing a real humdinger of a deposition now. I can only stand so much of it at a time. It's really bad grammer, run-on sentences, and fast, fast, fast. So I'm really having to go over it slowly and carefully.

Plus, Sunday is my last Summer Musical of the season. It's The Color Purple. I loved the movie. I hope to like the musical. I don't wanna be depressed! This means I'll miss the Cowboy game. I'm going to set it on my DVR, but how knows if I'll actually go back and watch it. I just hope they win! Also, isn't it Texas-OU weekend at the fair? At least our tickets are on Sunday. Maybe there won't be all the crazies out there then.

I talked with Mary Ann (who was my musical going partner) and we decided to NOT get season tickets next year for Dallas. There just aren't enough shows that we really, really want to see. For that matter, that we even kind of want to see. I did see where Grease is coming to Bass Performance Hall next summer and Taylor Hicks (yes, the Season 5 American Idol winner) is going to be in the show. I'll for sure be going to that!! I do love Grease!! And I've never seen a stage production of it.

Loving the cooler weather! I've actually turned all the fans off in my house. I may even turn off my bedroom one. Although, that one tends to run 24/7/365.

Guess that's it for now.................

Hana Time

So I had to get the pictures out of the way! I have more on Flickr that are uploading right now. I'll link them, of course, as soon as they're uploaded.

Yesterday I took a break from my work and went up to the Massey's new place. It is really nice! Hana has such a big play room!! And her room is so much bigger, too. In fact, all the bedrooms are so much bigger. The Masseys have really found a great home! (I really, really LOVE their hardwood floors!!) There are a few pictures mixed among all the Hana ones.

On to Hana. She's changing so much!! It hasn't been but a couple of weeks since I saw her, but she's all into hugging now. As soon as I got there and held her, I got a great big hug from her and then she laid her head on my shoulder. She's just such a sweetie!

Also, got to Sis & Doug. They were helping out with the big move. It was good to see Doug. It seems like everytime I'm at the lake he's working. We all watched the Cowboy game. Or at least, Sis & Courtney watched as they were unpacking. The game ended up being much closer than it should have been. Not sure what's up with the Cowboys right now, but they just seem out of sync the last couple of weeks. Hopefully they'll have their act together for Arizona.

After the game, Joe cooked a fabulous meal. He grilled steaks (turned out awesome) and we had his great baked potatos and a vegetable mix. We all sat at the table liked civilized adults and had a very nice meal.

Got some nice rain this morning. Talked to my mom and she said we could have some more tonight, I think. It sure did cool things off. Had two short depos today. I actually don't have a depo tomorrow. It canceled, so now I'm going to get to stay home and work, work, work! I just need to stay caught up and try to get a little ahead!

It's time to renew my season tickets to the Dallas Summer Musicals. I'm on the fence about this. While I LOVE my seats, I'm not interested in many (if any) of the shows this coming year. They are: Tarzan, A Chorus Line, Legally Blonde, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Happy Days (who knew there was a musical based on the TV show?), Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz. There's nothing really calling to me to see. I think what we're going to do is just get tickets to individual shows or see what Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth has. It's $652 pp for the season. Just not sure I want to spend that money on shows that I'm not excited about. For just a little bit more money I could go to NY and see two or three plays ON Broadway that I really wanted to see.....LOL Oh, decisions, decisions.

That's about it for now. Oh, as promised, here are the photos. 10-5-08 Masseys

Friday, Beautiful Friday!!

It's Sissi's birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I am so glad this week is finally over! It's been a crazy, crazy week, and month. I had an all day depo yesterday. Didn't get home until 8:20 last night. Then they wanted rough drafts of the transcripts. Oh, my! Not good! I had to do some editing to make it semi-okay. Although, it still wasn't good. The witness & attorney kept talking over each other, even after being reminded several times not to. And, of course, I don't find out they want rough drafts until the end!! Let me know at the get-go, please!

I'm going to be spending all day at home working like a slave on transcripts. Then I have the photos at 7:00 tonight in Allen. Looking forward to that. Then more work over the weekend. I hope to get a lot accomplished this weekend. Julie just asked if I'd cover a job for her in Gun Barrell City on October 10, which is a Friday. So if it goes, that's the plan. It's at 9:00 am. Then I can stay (hopefully) the weekend at the lake. At the very least stay until Saturday. It'll just depend on how the next two weeks are.

As y'all know, I've planned a cruise for February. I do love cruising. Such a relaxing vacation!! At least to me it is. Anyway, while we got a good deal, I've been checking for a price reduction on our cruise. If we had booked it the day before we did we could have saved $50 per person. So I've been checking and checking. Mary Ann, who's going on the cruise too, says I'm obsessed with it and we got a good deal. And we did get a good deal. But I'm cheap!! I want a better deal!! LOL So daily, or at least several times a week, I'll check the price. No drops at all. In fact, the cruise had gone up $200 pp. So I was really feeling good. Yeah, we did get a deal. So today I go to check and guess what?? There was a price drop!! We ended up changing our week. We were originally going Feb 15. Now we're going Jan 18, which works better for me since January is usually slow work-wise. Still out of Galveston (or Houston if Galveston isn't up and running by then). We're saving $150 pp off our original (great) price. This will be the cheapest it gets I think. I haven't seen a seven-day cruise for lower than what we got. Now it just needs to get here! Now I've just got to save up enough Coke rewards to get the free soda package. LOL I'm getting there.....

Oh, and, Sis, I got your comment about the card I'm making for you. She really wants to add more verses?? She can. I haven't started yet. It is going to be a book, though, and not a card. LOL

Back to work ~

Hump day

Oh, it's a wonderful Wednesday. And now we can slide right into the weekend. I got to talk with Courtney today for a bit. You should of heard the sounds Hana was making in the background!! She's going to be quite vocal, but then who's going to be surprised by that?? LOL

My job for today at 1:30 got cancelled at about 9:30 this morning, so I got to stay at home (in my pajamas!!) and work. And I still have so much to do. It's been a busy, busy, busy month for me. Glad for the work and will love the paychecks later on for sure! LOL

So Dancing started back up on Monday. I watched all of Monday night and parts of last night. I was proofreading during last nights so I wasn't paying as much attention. No great standouts right now. I'll be glad when it's narrowed down a bit, though! The show just drug on. I had started it on the DVR because I was finishing up on work and then dinner. So started watching it an hour in. I was caught up with Live TV within about 30 minutes. Crazy!! Too many commercials. Being I don't have any crushes this year, not sure if I can make it the whole season. Last year was the first time I had watched every episode since the first season.

Let's see. What else? Oh, found out Doug's birthday is the 23rd (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!) and Sissi's is the 26th (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ~ EARLY!!!!) I'm also making a card for one of Sissi's credit union members. Still working out how/what I'm going to do on that. I've got to get a few things in the mail.

So this afternoon I'm in the kitchen cooking something in the oven and washing some dishes and hear this big popping noise. I wonder what it could be, hope it's not something snapping on my house like a beam or the foundation cracking! Go to the oven a few minutes later and discover s what the popping noise was. The pizza stone I had gotten from Pampered Chef totally cracked down the middle!! I gotta say they have excellent customer service! I called them up and they're going to send me another one. All I have to do is send them a palm size piece of the broken one. Guess I'll have to get the hammer out!

Last Sunday evening I went and watched Maggie play her very first baseball game ever. She was sooooo excited. She told me she had dreamed of baseball. She's loving it. She's the only girl on her team. Plus, it's all about her. Matt isn't playing because of the broken arm. And she's got a cool uniform and cleets and a hat and glove. She's in the "ready" position there. She got to bat three times. Struck out each time, but did have two good foul balls, one right down the third base line that was just barely foul. She got to play left field and then third base. The coach was telling her when she was on third if it came her way, to throw it to second base because that's where the out was. She looks at him and is concentrating then asks where second base is. LOL They hadn't had a practice at all. Just met before the game and had their first practice of about 30 minutes Julie said. I took lots of pictures of her. I put them up at Flickr and she called me (via Julie) Monday night to let me know she loved her pictures.

So that's been my excitement so far this week other than working. I'm going to be taking photos Friday evening of Baby Thomas for his birth announcement. I'm really looking forward to that. Then on Monday I have the photos of Ashley's coworker to do! Wow!!

Lastly, here are a few pictures I had edited/tweaked. I thought I had included them in the Flickr pictures, but I looked and they're not there. What do you think? Yeah or Nay?


Bye for now!

Howdy

DSC_9447
Originally uploaded by JennEllenTx

Long time no post! Just been busy, busy, busy. I did get a chance to pop up to Frisco and take some stuff for the big Massey garage sale. I think everything but maybe one or two of my things got sold. Yeah! When I was up there, I did snap a few photos of Hana. Here they are. Didn't get too many and didn't get to stay long. She did take a few steps, though. Won't be long before she's all over the place.

Just working and staying busy, which is good and bad! LOL It always seems like it's all or nothing. I'd like it spread out a bit more, but gotta work when I can.

This is a big week in the family. We have four birthdays. (Hope I'm not missing anyone ~ let me know if I am). We have Doug & Sissi's on the 23rd & 26th. I'm horrible, but I always get it mixed up, which is which. I want to say Sissi's is the 23rd?? Then we have Nana and Jeff's birthdays on the 29th. Fun!

Lastly, how 'bout them Cowboys?? I've watched every game this season so far. I hope to see them all. They're 3-0, and aren't playing as well as they could. At least I hope this isn't as good as they can play!

Talk to y'all later!

Monday, Monday

So the weekend is over! What a bummer. It was such a great weekend, too! My mom and Nana came up, along with Aunt Sissi. We all met up at Courtney's house and visited (watched) Hana. Then we went shopping and I got all new bedding for my new bed. I really, really like it. Check out the picture of it. The colors don't right in the picture, but I love it. Then we had dinner at Posada's. Yummy!!

Then Sunday, I took my mom & Nana to Costco & Sam's Club. It was fun. We then went to Courtney's and watched the Cowboy game. They won!! It was fun. Hana really put on a show for us, too.

Now it's back to the grindstone. Work, work, work. Here are the pictures I took of Hana (and others). 9-7-08 Weekend

Another week gone

I didn't realize it had been a week since I last posted! Oh, my, how the time flies.

So I didn't get down to the lake last weekend due to work. I did buy a new mattress though! It was delivered yesterday and I slept on it last night. Very nice. It'll be even better the more I sleep on it. And it's sooooo tall!! I can no longer sit on the bed and have my feet touch the floor. And there's absolutely no way Rowdy will be jumping up on the bed. He can't even stand up against it and see on top of it.

Otherwise, the weekend was pretty boring. I just worked and stayed around the house. My computer is still messing up. I've talked with Dell and they're supposed to call me back. I missed the call yesterday. I'm able to work on my laptop and I've hooked a keyboard up to it so I don't have to type on the little keyboard, but I hope my desktop can be fixed!!

I've talked to Courtney a few times and she's busy packing! They're going to be moving soon. And although they're moving to McKinney, it's not too much further from me. Of course, I'd love it if they were closer to me, but it's not too bad. Their new house is like six or seven miles further from me, but they just opened the 121 toll road that goes ALMOST to their new house. So I'm looking forward to going over there and hanging out.

I emailed with Ashley today and I'm going to be taking pictures for one of her co-workers! Oh, my! I'm excited and nervous. I just really want to do a good job and have her like the photos. Then once it cools off (more permanently) I'm going to take some family photos of the Dietz. That will be fun!! Ashley said that they got Dylan a car for his 16th birthday! I can't believe he's 16!! Crazy!!

My mom mentioned that they may come up this weekend. I really hope they do. It'll be fun to have a girls weekend!!!

Well, I've got to go for now. Rowdy just came and up-chucked. At least he stayed on the chair mat!

Jenn

What a week! And it's only Wednesday!

Oh, what a week! It seems like everything is converging this week to just screw with me! And really it started last week! I don't know what it is, but work has been crazy the last couple of weeks. Just weird depos and then wanting everything NOW! So that wasn't too bad. I'm staying on top of things. I had Monday off (no depo) and was caught up on work enough that I went and ran errands that I don't like doing on the weekends (groceries, bank, etc.) Plus, school started on Monday, too, so there weren't near as many people out and aout as usual. Also, I decided since I knew I had Monday free I'd head up to Frisco and get some new pictures of Hana. The last ones I had were from August 1st. So while technically I had August pictures, I wanted some new ones! She's growing, she's changing, we've got to document this!! LOL

So I get up to Frisco and see Hana and Courtney. Hana was being fussy at first and then perked right up. She's now standing on her own. Can just pretty much get to standing without holding on to anything. While I was there, she took a couple of little steps! She's almost there. I'd say within a couple of weeks she's going to be walking. She's already trying to climb out of her "condo." So I had a nice little visit with them and then I headed home. Actually I went by Joann's & Ulta while I was up in Frisco. Got stuff at both places. I love me some Bare Escentuals! I probably have enough for several lifetimes at this point!

Then Tuesday morning started off with a real bang. For some reason I thought/had in my head that my depo started at 9:30. Oh, no. It was 9:00!! When do I realize this?? As I'm loading my stuff into my car at 8:30. Even with NO traffic it's a good 20-25 minute drive to the depo location! So I call and let the attorney know that I'm going to be a little late. He was nice about it, said he was running even further behind than me. I actually got there in good time and was only about 12 minutes late. The attorney showed at 9:35. Had a short depo that finished at 10:10. We had another one in Rockwall. Why the attorney didn't schedule them both for the same place and allow more time, I don't know! So I was on North Central and had to get to Rockwall for a 10:30. That didn't happen, but he wasn't on time either.

I got finished and am in my car heading home around 12:15. As I'm on 635 in Garland I get a call from the Lewisville ISD. Matt got injured on the playground at recess and I'm his emergency contact. Julie was tied up in a depo and George couldn't be reached right then. While the nurse is on the phone with me, they both call her back. Julie couldn't get free and George is on his way. The nurse lets me go before I find out what's happened. Julie calls me in a bit and tells me Matt fell and needs to go to the hospital, that George is on his way, but has to get back to work because his backup is on vacation this week and his boss is out of the office, so George is the "boss" and there's some major mix-up or something going on. I end up meeting George at the hospital. Matt gets an x-ray and he's broken his arm. Not a big bone, but one of the smaller ones on his outer left arm. They set it in a splint and he's going to an orthopedist on Friday (first appointment Julie could get) to get a real cast. Ends up he was being chased by a little girl and she pulled his shirt and then pushed him down. So Matt comes home with me until Julie got out. He was a little trooper. When the nurse said they were going to put a splint on it, he really started crying and yelling, No, No, No, don't split it. He thought they were going to cut it open! He's pretty proud of the arm now. Plus, one of his classmates last year had a broken arm and everybody got to write on the cast. So he's excited about getting a real cast. Crazy kids.

So today my depo ends up being a big bunch of waiting around so they can all talk and settle, but I had to stick around in case they didn't. Then I come home to put the pictures I had taken of Hana on the computer. I get them uploaded and even edit some of them. I get them uploaded into Flickr. Then I'm doing some work and get the dreaded BLUE screen on my computer! It will NOT do anything. It will restart, but always back to the blue screen. So there goes the rest of the afternoon working on it. Luckily I have my laptop (which I'm using now), but I've got to get the desktop fixed. I'm soooo much slower working on my laptop!!


And it's only Wednesday! Hopefully Thursday & Friday will be better. I have a short job tomorrow and then will see about getting the desktop fixed. Then Friday I have an all day job.

Here are the pictures of Hana: 8-25-08 Hana

Weekend Update

What a weekend! The Clarks (with Hana & Courtney) went to California this weekend to visit Josh & Angela. I got some extremely adorable photos of Hana on her v-cay. She sure looked liked she enjoyed herself. I sure can't wait to read her blog and find out how her trip to see her Uncle Hollywood & Aunt Beverly Hills went.

I went to the movies this weekend. I seems like forever since I went to the actual theater for movies. Saw Step Brothers. Very funny! Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly are very funny together. Then that was followed up with Tropic Thunder. Again, very funny! I was nice to see two good movies. I enjoyed both quite a bit.

On Saturday I had my first photo session with someone other than family! Very exciting. It was for friends of Courtney. It went well. Helen, the two-year-old, wasn't really very excited to have someone take her picture. She was very shy and got a little upset. Ultimately, I think I got some good shots. I took around 80 and I think there were about a dozen good ones. I hope that they like them!!

Also, I had a birthday party to go to for a friend that turned 40. It was a great time. We all watched Micheal Phelps win his 8th Gold medal!! It was very exciting. Not as close as the other relay that they had to come back and win or the butterfly race that he BARELY won, but it was cool seeing him break a long-standing record. We also watched the Cowboys lose to the Broncos. I sure hope the regular season is much, much better than these preseason games have been! There was a huge spread of food, too, at the party. All mexican and soooo good!!

Since I had my camera with me, I took some pictures at the party, too. Mainly of the kids, and then mainly of Maggie. She decided she was going to "model" for me and kept coming up with new poses for pictures. She really enjoyed herself. LOL

Today, Sunday, I went to Kohl's just looking around. Ended up getting Hana a couple of outfits. I also saw something else I have to find for her! Kohl's did not have her size, but I am going to find it and get her one.

The rest of Sunday was spent doing a little bit of nothing! LOL I read the paper and watched some Olympics (of course) and sorted through the pictures I took Sunday to upload.

Everybody have a great week!

Soup!

So I finally made homemade potato soup for dinner. Yummy!!! You know, it was only in the 80's today. Right chilly! LOL

Also, I'm going to have to be getting some more lamp oil. I've been using my lamp like crazy (everyday basically) and am already running low on the oil. Courtney tells me that the Lamp Berger store at Stonebriar is gone now! Oh, what to do! I've looked online. For all your lamp burners out there, which oils aren't any good? I know Lamp Berger is the best, but even ordering online, to get decent or free shipping you have to order 12 bottles!! That's quite a few. Or I may just have to go to Big Daddy's next time I'm at the lake and get some more of the Sophia's oil. Oh, decisions, decisions!

Off to watch some Olympics. That swimming relay last night was amazing! I think men's gymnastics and more swimming is tonight. And I've really been enjoying the beach volleyball for some reason. It sure ain't because I want to be playing it. I watch and see them sweating and the sand sticking to them and you know it's got to be going EVERYWHERE! But it's fun to watch and it seems go pretty quickly.

Oh, What a Show

So today was Jersey Boys. It was really, really good! I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend it to anyone, regardless of age. The Four Seasons had so many hits, you're bound to recognized something by them. I knew lots of the songs. It's a very entertaining show, and extremely loud! LOL The first number is some guy rapping in French and the bass what just thumping through you! It was something else.

Otherwise, that's about it for today. We went to Uncle Julio's afterwards. It was, as always, great! So now I'm watching some gynmastics. The Chinese team has some really young looking girls on their team! I thought there was a minimum age requirement. What is it, 12? Wow. Now the USA girls are going, but I thought they already went yesterday. They must be replaying it. Oh, well, it's still the prelims. Hopefully we'll do good.

I'm going to go work on a depo now. Talk to y'all later!

Olympics

Last night the opening ceremonies of the Olympics was on. I, of course, had to watch. I still enjoy watching the Olympics for the most part. I'm not sure how many others watch the Olympics unless they're aspiring athletes or know someone competing. The Olympics just don't seem to generate the same hub-bub they did when I was younger. Granted, when I was younger we didn't have hundreds of TV stations to choose from. You had your basic four or five stations. Then once cable came about, we were so far out in the country we didn't have cable. But then there still were not the options there are today.

The opening ceremonies were interesting. There were some amazing aspects of them, especially the huge LED or LCD screens they had up. It was cool seeing Dirk carrying the German flag. He seemed pretty happy. During the coverage, the announcers mentioned that this would be the last year for softball and baseball as Olympic sports, which seemed strange to me. Yet they have kayaking and badminton as sports. I guess there aren't enough countries fielding teams for softball and baseball.

Everyone have a great day! ~Stay cool~

Crack Cookies

So over the past weekend when I was at Sam's I got Rowdy a big (8 lbs) bag of dog treats. It was Sam's version of Milk Bones. I was a bit hesitant to buy them, because Rowdy can be picky on his treats. I've bought many a treat that he's turned his nose up at, but he was out at home and it was only $6 for the whole bag. A great deal! So I was with Julie and told her if Rowdy didn't like them, Hank & Hannah would be getting some biscuits.

Well, let me tell you something: There must be crack in those dog cookies!! I think Rowdy has gone outside and begged to go outside more this last week than I can remember in the past. And if I don't already have his cookies out for him when he comes back in, he immediately barks to get me on task. He LOVES them! More so than his Marrow Bones, which was his favorite. Not anymore. So he's a happy, happy boy now with his new treats!

This week I also schedule a cruise for next February (or this February). It's Feb 15-22, 2009. Seems so far away, but it will be here before I know it! Got a really great deal on it and it's out of Galveston. I'm going with my friend Mary Ann. She's been after me for a while to schedule one. Anyway, we started talking about it (and I do love to cruise) and we started looking at possible times to go and came across this great deal, all things considered. I don't think I'll ever get as good a deal as I did on my very first cruise ($500 total). This one is going to be right at $700 for everything for seven days. Not too bad. Plus, we're just going to drive to Galveston day of departure (at least that's the plan now). We'll be going to Cozemul, Jamiaca and Grand Caymens. Now would be a great time to be on a cruise, but they're so expensive in the summer and there are so many kids on there in the summer. I love kids I know, not all kids! Sorry!! Plus, summer is always crappy for me money-wise. I have way too many things I'm having to renew for work (software support, writer support, memberships, tax payments, etc). It just seems to always hit in June/July/August.

Mary Ann & I travel well together, also. Which it's nice to find someone to travel with when you're single. I mean what fun is a trip by yourself! She's much easier to travel with than JB. I would love the thought of the whole family planning a cruise and going, just don't know if that would ever happen. Either people love to cruise or not. I happen to love it, but then it's right up my alley of doing nothing! LOL Actually it's one whole week that I never ONCE think about work. Plus, pretty much all decisions are made for you and you don't have to think, if that makes any sense. I have a hard enough time turning my brain off to sleep at night anyway, so a week of nothing to think about is wonderful for me!

Otherwise, nothing much happening. I've got Jersey Boys on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it. The one thing Julie would say about it (she didn't want to ruin it) is that it had a lot of cussing in it, F this, F that, MF you, etc. She was surprised and glad they didn't take the kids. So it'll be a colorful afternoon! LOL

I see there's two days left in the ice cream poll. If you haven't voted, be sure to vote.

Also, Doug, I had never put together the Dove beauty products with the Dove ice cream/chocolates! Now I'm wondering if they're the same company and how strange it is to have the same brand name. And when I went to have more ice cream I did think about it just being hardened lotion instead! lol Great thought to put in my head. LOL

Crazy Maybe?

So nothing much happening here. Just working and staying cool. I ran my errands on Monday. Got some gas and was pleasantly surprised to get it for $3.63 a gallon. Sad that I was happy it was only $3.62! Felt I got a bargain. LOL I didn't go to Happy Hour at Sonic. I was coming up on it and almost turned in. Then at the last minute decided against getting a Lemon-Berry Fruit Slush. Oh, they are so yummy! Just wish Sonic would seed their lemons. Nothing like sucking up a lemon seed.

Saw on Courtney's blog that Hana is teething majorly. Poor baby!! Sounds like we may be having some top teeth coming on in. I hope it doesn't get too much worse for the Masseys. I know it's got to kill Courtney & Joe not to be able to fix it and make Hana all better right now!

Here's the reason for the title of the post. Yesterday while I was out doing errands, I went to Kroger's and did some grocery shopping. Of course, I picked up some of their tortillas! They are sooooo good. Yes, I've already eaten some (not all) of them with butter. And real butter, not margarine! What's a few clogged arteries? So I'm shopping and right on an end display they have Fritos and on the end display on the next aisle is soup, namely tomato soup. Well, of course, I had to get some Fritos and tomato soup. That's what I had for dinner Monday night and again for lunch yesterday! Yes, it's 100+ degrees outside and I'm having soup! It was so, so, so good. Then that got me thinking about soups and I'm thinking of make homemade potato soup (mom's recipe). That sounds really good to me. I may end up making some tonight.

Then after the soup, I had some ice cream. Gotta cool down, ya know? LOL It was pretty darn good, too. I got something new (on sale). It's from Dove (didn't know they made ice cream) and it is called Caramel Pecan Perfection, and it was perfection. Very tasty. Their "signature" thing to do is have a chocolate ganache on the top of the pint. Basically a thin layer of creamy Dove chocolate protecting the ice cream. Yummy!

Otherwise, I'm just ready for the fall TV to be back on! I was all ready to watch Wipeout last night and it was basically a clips show. Very disappointed. Then I have my DVR set to record Rock the Reception. Anyway, I got to watch the recording and it's not Rock the Reception. It's the 750-lb Man. So didn't want to watch that. I don't know what happened to Rock the Reception. I do have to saw that I'm getting into Jon & Kate Plus 8. I know a lot of y'all watch it and I'm getting hooked into it. The kids are just so cute!

Monday & Tuesday nights there isn't much on. Tonight there's So You Think You Can Dance, Shear Genius, Project Runway. It'll just be nice when regular TV is back!

TTYL,

Monday, Monday

Well, it sure was a hot, hot, hot weekend! Nothing much happening in my part of town. I went and hung out with Courtney, Hana & Baylee Friday night. We had a nice, relaxing evening. It was a good way to unwind after the rush to get my big job out. And I'll agree with Courtney. It's hard to remember that Baylee is ONLY 12!! She sure doesn't look 12 and she's much more mature than what I remember 12-year-olds being. What a great girl she is, though! I had a really nice time talking with her and just hanging out. Here are the pictures I took: 8-1-08

As Courtney mentioned in her blog, we decided to have Taco Bueno for dinner Friday. (I'm very much more a bueno girl than a bell girl.) Anyway, Baylee & I decided to go get it while Courtney was finishing up feeding Hana. So as we're pulling into the drive-thru, I'm looking at the menu. Because, of course, Bueno had added something new to their menu. It seems like everytime I go (which isn't really that often) they've got something different going on. So we're pulling up and Baylee says, "There's a boy in that dumpster!" I'm like, "What?" She says again, "There's a boy in that dumpster and his mom is right there." So by then I look over and sure enough, there's a boy of about 8 years old perched on the opening of the dumpster for Taco Bueno. He's obviously been in the dumpster and is getting out. Baylee notices he has gloves on, too. So I go ahead and place our order, and we continue to figure out what's going on. Baylee is grossed out completely by the thought of the boy being in the dumpster. (Me,too.) I speculate that he must have thrown something away of value, possible a retainer (although he looked too young for that), and his mom is making him find it. As we're at the window waiting for the food, he runs across the car to the door and we noticed his "gloves" are those really thin, cheap, plastic food prep gloves. So he wasn't getting much in the way of protection. So Baylee and I are talking and we both agree that Courtney would never make her child go into a dumpster after something, no matter how expensive. We also both agree that Ashley would possibly make her children go after something expensive if they threw it away like that. So I told Baylee to always remember the boy in the dumpster once she gets her braces off and gets a retainer, but she will NOT want to be digging through any trash! She got a big laugh out of that, but said she'd remember. LOL

We got back and had our Bueno and talked some more. We, of course, played with Hana. She was right in the middle of it all. She most definitely didn't want to be ignored and "caged" for the evening. LOL She's such a sweetie. Also, Courtney had some ice cream that was AWESOME! It's Haagen-Dazs's Sticky Toffee Pudding Courtney & Baylee had gotten some ice cream the evening before. Baylee had Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, her favorite. We all agreed to really liking that one, too. That brought up the discussion on how do you eat it? It was interesting that we all three eat it differently! So we'll take a poll on it to see how y'all eat your ice cream. (I'm always jealous of Court's polls!) Look on the side bar for it.

On Saturday, I didn't do much. I did some laundry and ran some errands. Then Saturday night I went and babysat Matt & Maggie so George & Julie could go see Jersey Boys. (My tickets are this coming Sunday. Really looking forward to it.) We had a really nice night. I got to hear all about their trip to California. They were there for the earthquake, too. Matt told me all about it (several times). Although, he assured me he wasn't scared and it "wasn't a big deal" really. LOL We played some games, which Matt won every time, with the help of his sister a couple of times. We watched iCarly (thankfully NOT Hannah Montana). It was cute. Maggie is ALL about Hannah Montana, though (and Miley Cyrus). She's got one of her CDs. She played it for me (a few times) and danced and sang along to it, too. It was a great night.

Sunday, I went to Sam's & Costco with Julie (and the kids) and Mary Ann. It's kind of like when we'd all go to Wal-Mart for hours. More talking than anything. I did find some really cool scrapbooking paper at Sam's though, which was cool. Costco was crazy insane busy. I mean crazy!! It was soooo hot yesterday, too! Matt told me it was even too hot to swim! LOL I got home for the shopping and laid down for a little nap. Mainly just trying to get cooled off again.

I watched Next Design Star. The person I wanted to win did not, which is good. That means there's one less show I'll be tuning in to watch. I saw that Sunday Night Football was on. I too am glad to have football starting back up. I can't wait for the regular season to start!!

Be sure and take the poll. I'm off to the post office, bank and to get gasoline. And maybe I'll swing by Happy Hour at Sonic! LOL

Snowballing

I feel like everything just snowballed on top of me the last two days!! My week was going really well. I took some depositions, worked on some at home, worked on finishing up the invitations at night.

Yesterday (Thursday) I went to Greenville for a deposition. Saw 3 police/highway patrol within 2 miles of each other on 30 on the way on there. Didn't get stopped! Yeah!! LOL So I take my deposition and am heading home. I'm thinking how I don't have a deposition to do for Friday and I can work a bit in the morning and then head over to Courtney's and see her and the girls (Hana & Baylee). Then my phone beeps with all the emails and messages I have. The most important was that the HUGE deposition I had taken last week (300 pages) HAD to go out today (Friday). Well, I wasn't anywhere near complete. I still had 200 pages to edit and then proofread the whole thing. Not good! Also, Melissa really wanted the invitations, if they were finished, to send out. Luckily, I was just about done. I just needed to finish putting the insides in. Finished those in no time.

So needless to say, it is not coming up on 5:00 and I JUST finished the transcript. The invitations have already been picked up. Now I'm going to see if the girls still want to do something. I did speak with Courtney briefly earlier and told her it would be around this time before I could think about doing anything.

This is the way it always seems to go, though, in the exciting life of a court reporter. Sure don't know when I would have jet ski'd in this whole time! =)

It's been a while

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post! My, oh, my how time flies.......when you're having fun and working! Sorry for the super long post!!

This past weekend I went to the lake for the big July birthday celebration. It was a great time!! We had a great crowd and some grilled burgers and lots of other yummy, yummy stuff. Plus, my birthday was in the celebration, too. I got some awesome gifts! In fact, I got a big gift from my mom, nana, The Clarks & The Masseys that was beyond awesome. It's something I've been wanting but wouldn't buy for myself. Crazy, I know! I love, love, love it!! It's the Cricut cutter. I can't believe they did it either. But I do love it and will use it. I've already played with it. The picture at the top, I cut out Thanks and the flowers with it. So cooooool!!! And as luck would have it Michael's is having a huge sale on the cartridges that go in it this week. Let's just say I've already been and I'm not admitting at this time how many (if any) I bought. shhhhh......

Also, I got (finally!) one of those oil lamp burners. I don't know what the correct name is for them, but everybody else has one in the fam and I've been strongly hinting (lol) for a while how I'd like one. Well, my mom (and nana and brad) got me one with two scents. My house now has the lovely Mediterranean Fig aroma. It really covers the whole house rather nicely.

I also got a gift card to Pottery Barn from the Dietz family. Oh, the time I'm going to have trying to figure out what to get! Oh, the choices I will have. I'll have to start perusing their website and store. Speaking of the Dietz family, I just have to say they all looked awesome!! Ashley looked great and I absolutely LOVED her hair!! I wish I had nice, thick hair like that! And Baylee! What's to say?? She's a beauty, just like always, but now is towering over us all. I can't believe she's only 12! Nathan (and Dylan) are gonna have to watch out for those boys. And then before too long they're going to have to keep those boys away from Karlee! And I can't believe Dylan is going to be a freshman. A freshman! In high school!! It was great seeing them all. And I want to kick myself because I didn't get any pictures!! Looking through I have one of Ashley. One!! Then we all got to talking and visiting and I totally didn't pick my camera back up. Shame on me!! I'm going to see how my schedule works out on Friday and Saturday and see if I can't get up to Courtney's and see Baylee when she's over there. If it works out, I'll definitely get some pictures of her then.

I've uploaded what pictures I do have from the weekend. Again, mostly Hana. What's new! LOL And there's some of the flowers and stuff around the house. I was just messing around while Brad was grilling the burgers and Brandon and Joe were messing with the slingshot that Joe (and Court) got Brad for his birthday.

I got to stay over at the lake on Sunday because I had a deposition in Athens on Monday. It was nice. My depo wasn't very long, just a couple of hours. Afterwards, I went and had lunch with Sissi (she treated ~ thanks!!) and we got to chat. Then I headed back to mom's and picked up Rowdy and beat the traffic home. Wahoo! And no accidents from Rowdy on the trip home. The trip down was another story, for another day. All I can say is my mom is the greatest!! There's not enough thanks for what she did for me when I arrived a the lake!!

Then yesterday I'm listening to The Ticket and they're in Oxnard for the Cowboys camp. Anyway, they're talking and all of a sudden mention there's an earthquake going. Just a small one (5.4) near LA. Of course, I was concerned about Josh & Angela. Talked with Courtney, figuring she'd be the point person to go to, and she said she'd already spoken to Josh and he was good. Then got an email from Josh today saying all was well with them out in LA. So glad to hear that. Now he's got another story!

As far as for this week, so far I've just been working during the day and working on finishing up the baby shower invitations I'm making. I'm nearing completion on them. Yeah!! I work on them in the evening while I'm watching TV. So the picture to the right is my "craft table" right now. What a mess! LOL I've got to get my craft room situated!

Finally, here are the pictures from the July Birthday Celebration.

The Dark Knight (Batman)

So I went and saw The Dark Knight Sunday. I really enjoyed Batman Begins and I wanted to see if this one would live up to all the hype. IMO, it does and it doesn't. This incarnation of Batman is much darker than the series ever was or even the Batman movies of the '90s. I like Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Gary Oldham as Detective Gordan. Of course, in The Dark Knight Heath Ledger plays the Joker. It's not Jack Nicholson's Joker from the '90s. He's good and he portrays the Joke as a sociopath. Is it an Oscar worthy performance? Not so sure. There was something about the Joker that was tugging at me and I realized about halfway through it's that he's like a demented Stuart Smalley, which was a character Al Franken played on Saturday Night Live. The Joker's voice, face, etc., was like an evil Stuart Smalley. Plus, this time around Rachel Dawes (Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriend) is played by Maggie Galleynhal instead of Katie Holmes. While I like Maggie G quite a bit as an actress and she was good as always here, I actually think Katie may have been better. I thought Katie was good in the first movie and would have liked to have seen her again in this one. Maggie G always comes off as more cynical, sarcastic, which works for most roles that she plays. Not sure about here, though.

Anyway, The Dark Knight was good, but probably 30 minutes too long, imo. It is 2:30 hours long (with previews 2:45). It kind of drag in places and there's not a huge story really going on. I'm sure there will ultimately be another installment and this will be the middle movie in a triology. So if you're a real fan of the comic books, I'd say go see it. Otherwise, it could be a rental.

Weekend Fun

So last night I got to babysit Hana while her parents had an evening out. As always, she was a perfect little angel. She stuck to her schedule that Courtney had laid out like clockwork. It was a nice evening. She does love to stand up! And she's really mastered her rolling walker. She was enjoying moving all around, until she'd get hung on a rug. Then I'd hear some frustration! LOL

But of course I took some photos. Not too many, though! We had things to do: play, change diapers, eat, play, change diapers, sleep. LOL

But here are the latest: Hana Grace She's such a cutie!

So this weekend I've got a bit of work to do. Plus, I'm making some invitations for a baby shower and I need to figure out what I'm going to do. Also, I may go to the movies. Not sure on the last one. Will have to see. Also, I'm just planning to stay nice and cool this weekend!

Have a great day!

Something new

So early last evening I went to Sam's Club with Julie and the kids. We were walking around and came across some kids' clothes. Well, of course I had to see what they had. I got this adorable (at least I think so) outfit for Hana. It's 12 months. So she should get to wear it this winter.

I can just picture Hana walking around in it! Can't wait until that happens.

WARNING: This next picture is weird, strange, gross looking. This is the end portion of Rowdy's tail. That's about the only portion he is still messing with. He continues to just pull the hair out. Not so much while I'm here, but when I come back from somewhere there will be clumps of hair strewn about. It's like a little rat's tail! Yuck!! Then the only picture is one of his eye the day after he had scratched it so badly it bled. Still don't know what that was about.

So that's it for me for now. TTYL,

Teeth, teeth, I see teeth!

Check our Hana's two front teeth! This is from one of the pictures I took. I just cropped it to showcase those two bottom teeth coming through! And it even looks like the two on each side may be making an appearance before too much longer!

Here are the rest of the pictures I took of Hana on 7-11-08. There's one that just smacks of her Mom, Grandma, Nana, Aunt Dian, etc. Which one do you think it is??

This is my pick!

Everyone have a great night!

High School Musical

So just got home from High School Musical. It was as I expected. Not great, but not the worst I've seen. Would I see it again? No. Would I recommend it to y'all? Only if you're a 10-13 year old girl. There were lots and lots of kids at the show, even many that were just 4 and 5 years old. Saw lots of cute girls and boys, but just couldn't imagine bringing kids that age to this. The movie would be good enough to watch. And this was one of the MOST expensive shows of the season. There were probably 25-30 members of the cast and they had lots of energy and all, but it just was okay. I enjoyed yesterday's play, Avenue Q, much, much more.

Tonight I'm watching my shows, Next Design Star, and Next Food Network Star. Although, I'm losing interest in both. Neither really has any contestants that I'd watch a show by. And I watch plenty of HGTV and Food Network.

Here's one of the opening numbers for Avenue Q. This is the performance when it was nominated for the Tonys.


Have a great night!

Theater Weekend

This is/was a busy theater weekend. Saturday I went and saw Avenue Q at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. OMG, was it funny!! It was really, really good. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who isn't easily offended. Just really enjoyable. I'd see again in a heartbeat.
Today (Sunday) we have our season tickets to High School Musical. Not sure about this one. I saw the movie version on Disney and wasn't that impressed with it. Everyone says how it's "like" Grease, but it's not to me. I mean Grease! Come on, don't mess with that greatness! LOL I'm hoping the live production will be better/different than the movie version. After this one, our next show is in August (Jersey Boys) and then the final show is in October (The Color Purple).

Otherwise, it's been a pretty uneventful weekend. I've done a bit of work and then got sucked into Project Runway on Bravo. Bravo just knows how to make a reality show work, at least for me. I don't really have any interest in design or high fashion other than to think a lot of it is a bunch of nothing, but I'm into Project Runway now! LOL

Rowdy seems to be doing better. The cone has come off for now. He's still licking a bit, but not near as much as he was. He doesn't seem as miserable anymore either.

Friday I went up to Frisco and went shopping with Courtney & Hana. As usual, Hana was great while we were out and about. We went to Ikea, Michael's, Ulta and Hobby Lobby. Although, we hit the last three stores in about half the time we spent in Ikea! They just herd you into Ikea and then you have to weave your way around to the end. By the time we got to the area of stuff we were actually interesting in, we were both ready to just get out of there! LOL And it was soooo busy! We saw lots of college-bound kids with their parents getting stuff. I did pick up some stuff for my craft room, that is slowly coming together. And I think I found the desk/countertop at Ikea. I've got to double-check the length. When we got back to Courtney's house, after she fed Hana, I snapped some pictures, of course! LOL I'm on my laptop right now, so I'll get them uploaded at some point today.

Let's see. Also, last night I started watching two different movies and stopped both of them. The first was Shoot 'Em Up. I was interested in this because it's got Clive Owens & Paul Giamantti. The opening sequence showed Clive Owens' character delivering a baby in the middle of a gun fight. Insane! Then it's just more gun fights and more and more. There wasn't really a story as far as I could tell. So off it went. Then I started an independent film Numb with Mathew Perry in it. Just wasn't working for me. Plus I feel asleep. Enough said!

Off to get ready for the theater.....lol

What to do?

So this is what Rowdy did to himself before he went to the vet. I don't know if you can tell, but his skin has a day-glow pink going. I could just look at him and tell he was miserable. Plus, he was licking, licking, and licking, biting himself and pulling out hair. I'd find clumps around the house. Wednesday the vet gave him a steroid shot for "allergies" and his skin has lost the day-glow pink look. Wednesday night things seemed to be much better. He wasn't licking so much and he wasn't glowing anymore. Then around 4:00 AM Thursday morning he wakes me up digging on the bathroom floor. At first I couldn't figure out what the noise was. He had gotten off the bed, which I can't believe since he will NOT normally jump down at all being he's not seeing as well anymore. So I hear this scraping noise and try to figure out what it is. Can tell it's coming from the bathroom. I get up and he's in the corner by the closet doors "digging" into the pergo floor. I call to him, which does no good. I go up to him and nudge him and he jumps and looks back at me. He's got a bit of blood around his right eye. Then I see some blood on the rug in the bathroom. He'd rubbed, scratched, something his face enough to tear the skin around his eye. (Didn't get a picture. Sorry!) And he's still licking.

So this is now what he looks like:

I got the cone out and he's been wearing it. He's not happy with me at all. But he's not licking, scratching, pulling himself anymore. I've taken it off of him for periods of time and he goes right back to licking. Although, not near as bad as before the steroid shot. Plus, the hair on his ears has static and is sticking to the cone. So he's been going around running into everything with the cone on.

On another front, I got rid of my headache! Wednesday after the vet visit and getting Rowdy home, I went up to the store and got some Excederin Migraine and took it. The headache is gone and hasn't come back. Yeah!

So I'll talk to y'all later. I just spoke to Courtney a bit ago and we planned out our shopping trip. We've got lots we want to do. Hopefully we'll get it all done.