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Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope all you moms out there are having a wonderful day. I’m sitting here enjoying the quiet (and trying my best to stave off the headache that accompanies the rains like we’ve been having so much of lately!). I’ve called my mother and spoke to her a good while. I’ll soon call my mother-in-law and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day as well.

Jim, Jessie, and I had our celebration Friday night, as this was her mother’s weekend to have her. I received beautiful cards from each of them and a new mp3 player from both. A bright shiny red Sony Walkman!

Wow.

I couldn’t help but tear up just a little when Jim later told me that Jessie got her mother a DVD and a card “not as nice” as the one I had received. (I had gotten the “good” gift!)

And yeah, I allowed myself to enjoy that just a little.

While we were out, I stopped in Books-a-Million and picked up the latest installment of the Sookie Stackhouse series: Dead and Gone. I finished it last night and will say this — it’s an emotional roller coaster!

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and am a little saddened that I’ll have to wait a while before the next one comes out to see what direction the next book takes. There’s no cliff-hanger at the end, but I did pretty much cry all the way through the last chapter. The author killed a character I really liked. Well, actually, several had perished that I liked, but one had been a pretty big supporting character for the last few books. (but I won’t spoil it any further for those of you still reading it!)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, and hope the weather is better wherever you are than what it is here!

My own blizzard

Boy, such a flurry of events have been whirling around me and my kin lately!

An American Visit

Friday I chaperoned Jessie’s class field trip to American Village in Montevallo. Even with the bad weather coming through (tornadoes and rain galore, yuck!), we still had a very good time. And I tell ya, I really wish I had visited American Village when I was Jessie’s age … I think I would have looked at history a whole LOT differently!

I’ve suggested to Jim that we head down there one weekend for one of their events or sometime in the summer when the weather is a little more accommodating!

Despite the bad weather and dampened spirits (my Lord, I’ve never seen so many pouty faces in one place! LOL!), I did manage to snap off a few shots:

The Home Front

We had our first interested party view the house last week. Friday night, to be exact. Our realtor called this weekend to let us know that they liked the layout and wanted to come back and see it again. So this weekend we busted some tail and cleaned and painted the entire bottom level. Jessie hasn’t packed a whole lot because she’s with her mother more these days, so we’ll get around to finishing her room last.

I’m trying not to get TOO excited, but I can’t help but want to get my hopes up!

We still haven’t gotten an answer yet on whether or not we got the loan on the new house. More paperwork was needed and faxed off last week. I’m hoping we hear something this week.

OMG … snow? In the South?!

Yes, it snowed here. We received between 3 and 4 inches here. Some parts of Birmingham received up to 7 inches!!!

Jessie was at her mother’s, so I’m sure she had a good ole time in it. I did manage to get a few shots of the pretty white stuff before the other neighborhood kids ran amok and transformed it all to dirty snowballs and lumpy stick-wielding snowmen. :lol:

Pass the Halls!

Either it’s the irritants in the cleaners, the paint fumes, or being out in the rain all day Friday (or a combination of all three), but I have been sick all weekend and feel generally like death warmed over today. I traipsed in to work to discover that my machine was hosed, so I couldn’t have done much of anything productive even if I wanted to.

Everyone kept telling me I should’ve stayed home because I sounded terrible — I think I’ll take their advice and stay in tomorrow. *ugh*

And last but not least …

One of my themes has recently been featured in a WordPress tutorial over on YouTube:

A big thanks to Kristie for letting me know about it, and to ktinboulder for selecting my theme!

Humpday Hilarities

Note: I spazzed and forgot about future posts in WordPress … so yay, funnies posted while I’m gone!

This football funny was sent to me by one of my co-workers:

And this one is from Jerri:

And last but certainly not least, this one from Cookie:

Back in the Heart of Dixie

Well, things are slowly returning back to “normal” … I was greeted this morning with 600+ emails in my work Inbox, 100+ in my personal, and ~3000 feed entries waiting to be read.

LOL! Miss me much did they?

I see that WordPress has released 2.6 finally. The blogosphere is all a-buzz with the news. Suggested reading: Doug Campbell, Keith Dsouza, and Ryan Boren. So now I’ll have to update all my blogs, themes, and plugins.

Yay … I’ll get around to it (hopefully!) this week …

We had a great time in NOLA. The drive down and back was pretty pleasant. We took the “scenic route” passing through Montgomery, stopping by Jim’s mom’s both ways (she kept Jessie for us). I was reminded why I love living in Alabama. I remember thinking to myself, “My God, we live in a beautiful state!”

We stopped briefly in Waveland, Mississippi, and in upper Louisiana. It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve been down there … everything I remember is gone. Katrina and Rita really kicked the collective asses of coastal cities in lower AL, MS, and LA.

Otherwise the drive down to New Orleans was nice. We had great weather (outside of the heat and OPPRESSIVE humidity!) I took the time while in New Orleans to see some sights, have some great food, partake in local (and interesting) spirits, and just enjoy myself in general. The reunion was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see the people Jim grew up with.

I was lucky enough to meet up and have lunch with two of my Cotillion sisters: Greta Perry and Conservative Belle. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but the heat royally kicked my butt and Jim and I had so much planned, LOL!

Hopefully I’ll be making another trip down that way pretty soon!

We stopped by so many shops in the French Quarters that I loved! Many had beautiful clothing and jewelry that I could have easily gone “ga-ga” over. We stopped in one vampire shoppe that had many cute novelties and some interesting books covering local and Southern folklore. The shop owner had a BEAUTIFUL German Sheppard (the “head of security” LOL!) that was just as sweet as he could be!

I want another dog!

We also stopped by a local mall to pick up a few amenities that were forgotten in the hurried packing process. It was pretty much like what we have here back at home. I checked out one store that sold a lot of cell gear, drooled over some bluetooth cell phone headsets and considered getting another micro sd card for my Helio Ocean. (nah, will wait and get them cheaper online! LOL)

One thing that really sticks out in my memory is how “available” alcohol is down there. I kid you not, we walked into a Wal-mart and there was a HUGE section with every type of liquor and beer I could ever want! And you can’t walk 50 feet without coming across a daiquiri shop!

There’s so much more to tell, but we’ll leave it at this for now …

It’s good to be home!

Mobile links

One of the things I hadn’t thought of looking into backing up on my Helio Ocean was my bookmarks. Sure, I have my custom bookmarks for Opera Mini stored on their server, but the ones to my native Helio browser are gone. I had quite a few that I can’t seem to find at the moment. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d pop a few in a post so I can surf back here and recover them later.

Note: feel free to add your own via the Comments box below!

Sources: MyOpera, Heliocity & Heliocity Forums, Great Mobile Sites Directory

Kickin’ weekend

Had a full weekend. Jessie’s karate school had a “Kick-a-thon” benefit for St. Jude’s early Saturday. She did pretty well for her first time. She made 300 kicks, but then had to drop out because she had gotten overheated and was about to be sick. (that room was SO HOT!) It’s a wonder nobody passed out. The winner was a little girl about Jessie’s age who had been taking karate since she could walk; she won with 3400 kicks.

That’s impressive, I don’t care who you are!

Afterwards, there was a potluck breakfast. We had a good time hanging out with the senseis and other parents. We left directly from there to head to Montgomery to see Jim’s mom and his brother’s family. The ride down was a bit of a pain — the out-of-town traffic was IMMENSE! Seriously, I haven’t seen traffic like that since Jim and I were stuck in the Hurricane Ivan evacuation.

Otherwise the ride down was nice. Jessie and I pointed out the state tags on cars that we passed and giggled at funny exit signs. There was one exit sign that was particularly funny (and not very work friendly, LOL!) … if Jim’s snapshot came out, I’ll share on here.

We went out to lunch at a nice Chinese place once we were down there and stopped by a farmer’s market on the way back. I LOVE going to places like that. Just smelling all the fresh fruit and veggies brings back memories. I told Jim’s mother, “This smells like home.” Or rather, it reminds me of Corner (the way it was when I was little).

Once we were back at the house, Jim’s mom showed me several art projects that she’s been working on. We sat and caught each other up on work and general family gossip. Jim helped my sister-in-law put together a plasma tv mount in the guest room. All in all, it was a very good time. We left early that evening because some pretty heavy storms were coming through that area. I had a horrible headache Saturday night because of it, and woke up with another yesterday.

I hated having to leave so soon, but we’ll be back down there in a couple of weeks. Jessie is staying down there this week and next week — though her mother is none too happy about it. She showed her ass a bit Saturday, especially when it came time for us to leave to head to Montgomery. She wouldn’t speak to any of us, and said not a word to Jessie. :roll:

One of these days, that woman is going to realize that the world does not revolve around HER.

So today it’s back to work. I’m waiting to call my insurance company to chew them out for delaying my migraine medicine’s refill AGAIN. They do this about every 6 months or so, and I’m getting pretty sick of it. They will be lucky if I don’t just reach through the phone and choke them! ??:

Better weather weekend

Considering the way the weather has been the past couple of weekends (hello, tornado season!), this weekend is looking a LOT better. I can remember last weekend my co-workers laughing at the local meteorologists suggesting people gear up with bicycle helmets and medical ids “just in case” … personally, I thought it was good advice! I never go anywhere without my license and EPI (emergency patient info) card.

But I digress … we’re heading down to Montgomery to see Jim’s mom. We had originally planned for Jessie to skip the last week of school and stay down there for a couple of weeks; but because she’s missed so many days, she HAS to attend next week. (which sucks for her, I remember what that was like!) There’s a gun show this weekend as well, so we’ll probably hit that on the way back to B’ham.

Sweeeeeet. :mrgreen:

Busy weekend and belated ‘thanks’

I swear, I think our weekends are getting to be busier than our weekdays! ;P Friday was pretty hectic, and add the bad weather on top of that, it made for an interesting start to the weekend. Jessie’s karate test was Saturday — she’s now moved up from orange belt to a purple belt! Jim and I took pictures and filmed, so hopefully those will be up soon. We had a chance to talk to Jessie’s senseis for a bit, and both had nothing but good things to say about our little ray of sunshine. I noted that ever since beginning taking karate, she’s shown so much improvement … both in the dojo and outside of it!

Jessie left after the test with her mother. Jim and I went over to see my folks and saw my brother Jeremy and his wife Christy. They had Ryland with them, so I got to spend a little time with my favorite niece.

Isn’t she precious?

Stupidity knows no bounds

Today Jim and Jessie took me to brunch for Mother’s Day. I got a little aggravated earlier because I specifically told her mother that I was picking her up early and that we were going out to eat. Originally it was supposed to be breakfast … I pick Jessie up and find out that her mother had her EAT BREAKFAST right before I was to pick her up!

*beats head into wall repeatedly*

I swear, one of these days I’m bound to say something to this woman that I know I will regret, but that she also fully DESERVES.

So we waited a bit and went for ‘brunch’ … Jessie was hungry enough and Jim and I were starving! There was a slight ‘incident’ with a group that cut in line infront of us and another family. When I said something to one of the party members, she muttered something about us being ‘racists’ — the party members were black. :roll:

They moved on before I could say anything else, but I was fully ready to retort with, “It has nothing to do with race. The color of one’s skin does NOT exempt one from using common courtesy and manners!”

So I fumed a bit, but got over it. We were at Ryan’s and the food and service were great, which fully made up for the inconvenience before being seated. In their defense, it WAS packed, which made it a bit hard for the staff at the front to keep track of who should be where. However, that being said, I find it hard NOT to notice the general lack of manners by people I run across in public nowadays.

To most of these people, I am dying to say, “I *KNOW* your mother taught you better!”

A heart-felt and belated “Thanks!”

If all goes well, it looks like I’ll win this round in the Lunarpages’ WordPress theme design contest. I am completely overwhelmed by the response and surge in votes from family, friends, and extended community. I emailed a few close to me, and just about every one of them emailed their friends and family, and so on and so forth; and I posted on here and you each voted and responded in kind. (thank you!!) My Cotillion sisters rose to the occasion offering support and votes (thank you, girls! I love y’all!). Jim reached out to his guild and the guys have been very supportive with votes and feedback. (thank you!!) And last but certainly not least, the gargantuan legion of members over at the Soldiers’ Angels forums were a tremendous help in attaining and keeping the lead. (thank you very very much, Angels!!!)

Good grief what’s with this weather?

Several of you have emailed me, wanting to know if I’m feeling better. Thank you for your concern. I’m doing better. I had a slight headache last night, and woke up with it again this morning (nothing near the monster I had last week!) — but I know that’s from the crazy roller coaster temperatures (good grief, what’s with this weather!?) we’ve been having (hooray for full term insurance [sic]) and the lack of sleep from last night. Jessie is sick, so I was up most of the night with her.

This morning I went to check on her before leaving for work. Poor thing was crouping/coughing all night and could barely speak. She had a temperature and was having a hard time keeping the medicine down when I gave it to her. At one point she asked if I was going to stay home with her. I told her that I couldn’t, that I was about to have to go to work. She grabs my arm and says in a weak voice, “But I want YOU to stay with me!”

That broke my heart.

I’ve been uber-busy this morning and luckily don’t have anything pressing to attend to this afternoon, so I’ll most likely head home after lunch. Her favorite thing to eat when she’s sick is egg-drop soup, so I’ll probably stop by our favorite local Chinese place and pick up a couple ‘to go’ containers.

In other matters, I’ve applied for a CTL (Community Team Leader) position at Soldiers’ Angels. Hopefully I’ll hear back from them within the next few days. Everyone at SA has been really great at answering all my questions and has made the whole process seem a lot less overwhelming than I initially thought.

There are tons of other things I want to share, but am a little short on time and have a sick little one who’s been asking for me. Hopefully I can catch up one evening this week, (heh, my desktop is FULL of shortcuts to articles and things of interest that I’ve been dying to comment on!) but for now this will do.

Getting to Know Your Friends

Teresa sent me this, so I figured I’d post here instead of emailing the whole world.

Welcome to the 2008 edition of Getting to Know Your Friends. What you are supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto a new e-mail that you will send. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time did you get up today? 5:15 am CST.

2. Diamonds or pearls? Both.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I Am Legend.

4. What is your favorite tv show? MythBusters, Dirty Jobs, CSI, Animal Cops, Smash Lab, The Closer, Saving Grace, Inuyasha, Futurama, … I have several more

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Either a biscuit or a protein bar.

6. What is your middle name? Nicole.

7. What food do you dislike? Ooh, I have a lengthy list … I’m a picky eater

8. What is your favorite cd? Right now it’s a mix CD of Seether and Three Days Grace songs.

9. What kind of car do you drive? Hyundai Santa Fe.

10. Favorite sandwich? Either a BLT or turkey and provologne.

11. What characteristic do you despise? Deceit.

12. Favorite item of clothing? My new ‘Bama jersey.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Ireland, Japan, Galopagos…

14. What color is your bathroom? Mostly blue.

15. Favorite brand of clothing? Right now, Chicos.

16. Where would you retire to? Nowhere. The South is where it’s at!

17. What was your most memorable birthday? Last year’s.

18. Favorite sport to watch? Football. ROLL TIDE!!

19. Furthest place you are sending this? The internets. :mrgreen:

20. Favorite saying? WTF?

21. When is your birthday? April 15th.

22. Are you a morning or night person? Definitely a morning person.

23. What is your shoe size? Don’t you know never to ask a woman that?

24. Pets? Not anymore.

25. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with us? I’m in the middle of fscking up my website, isn’t that great?!!?

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher.

29. How are you today? Can’t complain, and yourself?

30. What is your favorite candy? Oh, I have many favorites. Let’s just say chocolate … that should cover most of them.

31. Your favorite flower? Roses.

32. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Saturday.

33. What is your full name? Are you a census taker?

34. What are you listening to right now? The Essential Ozzy Osbourne.

35. What was the last thing you ate? A piece of Altoids gum.

36. Do you wish on stars? No, I leave that to Jessie now.

37. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Flame red.

38. How is the weather right now? Kind of soggy.

39. Favorite soft drink? I dumped soda … but he still calls sometimes.

40. Favorite restaurant? Oh, I have several! Cajun Steamer, Bento, BK, Doodles, El Carreton, China One, Styx, … there are several more, but can’t think of them at the moment.

41. Siblings? One brother.

42. Favorite day of the year? Any of the “eating” holidays.

43. What was your favorite toy as a child? My NES.

44. Summer or winter? Definitely summer!

45. Hugs or kisses? Both.

46. Coffee or tea? Tea is my poison of choice.

47. Chocolate or vanilla? What kind of question is that? Chocolate, fool!

48. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Sure if they don’t wanna comment.

49. When was the last time you cried? This morning.

50. What is under your bed? Dust bunnies, a baseball bat, and probably the odd sock or two…

51. Who are the friends you have had the longest? Let’s see … Big Jim, Teresa, Mara, Jeff, John, … I’m sure there’s a couple more…

52. What did you do last night? Vegged out.

53. Favorite smell? Lavender.

54. What are you afraid of? Why do you need to know?

55. Salty or sweet? Definitely sweet.

56. How many keys on your ring? 10.

57. How many years at your current job? Not quite 1 year yet.

58. Favorite day of the week? Payday.

59. How many towns have you lived in? 5.

60. Do you make friends easily? Usually, yeah.

61. Many people will you send this to? The whole internets.

62. How many will respond? If I lie and say ‘10,’ will you come back later to check?

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