Giveaway break... Sorta

We interrupt your regularly scheduled giveaway hopping program to tell you aboout another... GIVEAWAY! Sheila at GoVisit Hawaii is hosting another fun giveaway. Head on over and take a peek. While you are there read up on all the wonderful information that she has on her site. I'm hoping to get back to Hawaii soon but just in case it's longer than we plan, this will help us pass the time.

And just because I think this is so cute:

Now back to the show!

Bloggy Giveaways!!

***Comments Closed. I will announce winner on Saturday***

It is once again time for the massive Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. For my giveaway this time, since I know ya'll can't get enough of Christmas,

I have put together a little package of stuff.

Who needs Valentine's Day anyway????

For a chance to win, all you need to do is leave a comment. Not just any comment though. "Hey", "Hi" or "Pick me" won't work this time. I am going to make you work for it. Just tell me what one thing you'd like to do or place you'd like to visit before you die. I'm all about my Life List and I am currently working on accomplishing my life goals. Thing is that my list keeps getting longer because I am afraid that maybe when I'm done with it all, it's ok to go. :)

Anyhoo, this drawing is open to bloggers & non bloggers, but you must leave a way for me to contact you should you win. I can only ship to US & Canada. Since I don't have a cute kid to pick a name out of a hat for me. And since my girls would more than likely roll their eyes at me if I asked them to, my winner wil be chosen by Random.org on Saturday, Feb.2nd. I will contact you and post on my blog. One entry per person.

So you want me to stop yakking and tell you what's up for grabs? Like I said, it's a collection of Christmas Stuff. Here is a picture:

Making Memories Vintage Snowflakes Ornament Kit

Includes: 6 preglittered snowflakes, 6 Ribbons, 18 self adhesive gems, 3 self adhesive metal charms, & a sheet of rub ons.

Pack of 12 sheets Holiday Paper Plus Matching Envelopes and Card Attachments

Light Blue & Snowflakes

Pack of Red, White & Green Cards & Matching Green Envelopes

Plus Matching Card Attachments

Finally, I am also including a Jim Brickman Christmas Romance CD

In total this prize package retails for about $50.

But, it can all be yours if the Price is Right your name is drawn!

Have fun bloggy hopping!

I'm soooo lucky!

I must be the luckiest human being in the world! Every single day I get notice in my email that I have won a lottery. Or that some kind soul in Nigeria or in the UK has left me a gazillion dollars just because. These oh so kind strangers in the UK generally greet me in their email as "Dear beloved in Christ". This one poor lady has "limited days to live due to the stroke and cancerous problems"[sic] She wants to donate 17.5 million pounds of bullsh*t to me!!! How exciting is that???

In the last week or so, I have also won a brand new BMW 5 Series,
M Sport Saloon car and a cash prize of £250,000.00 GBP. That of course is in addition to all the other cash that I have been awarded.

I'm off to buy out Target!

Morphed

I'm sure that this would scare the beejezzus out of Miss Eva. Just knowing what could possibly happen should she gain weight! Man! My face has sure gotten quite round! I remember when I had cheekbones like that!



And while I was playing around on that site, I did this meter thing. Which scientifically proves that my girls look more like me!

Giveaway Heaven

First of all, I want to point you all in the direction of an awesome Valentine's Giveaway. Not only is it chock full of yummy scrap goodies but included in this awesome prize pack is an assortment of Godiva Chocolates! Yummo! I can hear my thighs putting up a fight. NOT! Hurry over and get a closer look at all the loveliness.

I also wanted to let you know to get ready for another HUGE Bloggy Giveaway Carnival hosted by Rocks in my Dryer. I will once again be participating and offering up a giveaway of my own. This is quite fun and I normally find a few more blogs to add to my addiction! It all starts January 28th, s mark your calendars. You can read the guidelines here.

Rest in Peace Sweet Juju

May 12, 2003 - January 19, 2008

They are not gone who live in the hearts of others

I'll Lend You A Child
by Edgar Guest

"I'll lend you for a little time a child of mine," He said.

For you to love - while he lives And mourn for when he's dead.
It may be six or seven years Or twenty-two or three,

But will you, till I call him back, Take care or him for Me?
He'll bring his smiles to gladden you, And should this stay be brief

You'll have his lovely memories as solace for your grief.

I cannot promise he will stay, Since all from earth return,

But there are lessons taught down there I want this child to learn.
I've looked this world over In search for teachers true,

And from the throngs that crowd Life's lanes, I have selected you.

Now will you give him all your love, Nor count the labor vain,

Nor hate Me when I come to call to Take him back again?"
I fancied that I heard then say, "Dear Lord, Thy will be done,

For all the joy Thy child shall bring,
The risk of grief we'll run.

We'll shelter him with tenderness, We'll love him while we may,

And for the happiness we've known Forever grateful stay.
But should the angels call for him Much sooner than we've planned,

We'll brave the bitter grief that come And try to understand."

Got Gout?

Danny does. He went to urgent care on Thurs. because his foot was bothering him and was swollen. They told him that it is gout. I thought that was an old folks thing. They told him that he has to stay off of it for at least a week. Which means he also can't go to work. That sucks. Not only moneywise, but it also means that he will be whining & complaining in.my.hair for at least a week!

We had outdoor, lotsa walking plans for this weekend. The Art Deco Festival in S. Beach plus we also wanted to go to Everglades National Park to act like tourists. Both outings scrapped. Maybe I'll rent him one of those electric buggy scooter thingies for old folks. He can zip around knicking peoples heels and honking the horn. Nah, I'm not bitter. I just like my heels, and between the scooter thingies and the stroller commandos, pretty soon I will have just bare bones back there!

I hope everyone his having a nice weekend.

Kitty Eyes?

Not sure if these are real or photoshopped. Looks kind of photoshopped to me. Either way they sort of freak me out! I have seen all these, so I wouldn't be surprised if Sanrio added this to their ever growing product line!

Eye Candy

We have been in this house for 5 1/2 years. We bought straight from the builder so we have been slowly making improvements to the house. I might post before & afters soon. We have hired a stream of "professionals" along the way. From carpenters, to painters, to landscapers. But none of those that have come to work here look remotely like any one of these:

Left to Right: Carter Oosterhouse, Trading Spaces
Marc Bartolomeo, In a Fix
Rib Hillis, Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Can someone please tell me why our guys always look like Jed Clampett????

A little bit of this, a little bit of that and a little rant!

“Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations.

I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty,

believe in them and try to follow where they lead.”

-Louisa May Alcott

I have yet to make an attempt at any of my non-reslutions resolutions! At least I didn't make any resolutions, so I don't have to feel guilty about not keeping them! But I do need to do something about losing some weight.

Plus, it looks like we will have to cut back on some things. This college thing is waaaay too expensive. We only have to pay 25% tuition due to Kat getting 75% Bright Futures Scholarship. But between our portion of the tuition plus the astronomical price of books, we average about $700 out of pocket per semester. Plus guess what? Kari starts college this year too. On top of that, taxes & insurance are through the roof. And can someone explain to me how in the world we used $500 in electricity in December????? FPL is driving me to drink! We are rarely home. I don't run the dishwasher. We have HE Duet washer & dryer. The A/C runs only when we're home. PLUS we don't run on fuel, they have a freakin' power plant. I see us in the poor house!

Rant over.

I did finally get all my holiday decorations down and put away! Yay for me! Actually, I need to give a double yay to my daughter's boyfriend who actually helped Danny with most of the work. It's nice to have a man servant another guy around to help with the heavy stuff!

Please don't forget to keep the Avery family in your prayers. Julian is nearing the end of his journey and hopefully he is at peace and not in pain. I have been folowing his story for a while now, and it amazes me how I have become so attached to a little boy that I have never met. The one thing that I definitely will not cut back on unless I absolutely have to is our St. Judes donations. It's only $19 a month. I would like to think that if it comes to the point when we can no longer afford it, that maybe I can donate my time. But knowing myself, I'm sure that my heart would not be able to handle it. It takes a special kind, and I know that I am not it.

No stinky Hubby in '08

Although I am sure that ya'll are quite bored with my Target talk, I must confess that my annual massive hoarding continued today. I say annual because I normally only Target hop when they are at 90% off after Christmas. Maybe someone can benefit from my posting all the stuff I got. Yeah, I got a bunch of holiday stuff but I also got a bunch of stuff that is not holiday-ish at all. For example, I bought ladies wallets for .99 and nice wood jewelry armoires for 2.99. Check the kids clothing and scan all holiday looking stuff too. I also got tons of scrapbook/card crafting stuff. Forget about the 4pk of linen napkins in my faborite color, burgandy, for .79 cents. My best score was deodorant! Who would've thought that I would get so much joy out of deodorant. I bought Danny SIX twin packs of Speed Stick with earbuds bonus for freakin' .50 each! Oh the the joy! It's a thankless job. But I'm sure that Danny's pits will thank me! :)

So another day has passed and my tree is still up. I pulled the plug on the lights so I wouldn't be called the lazy neighbor. D works tomorrow, so it probably won't get done till Wednesday. Hopefully. Now I'm off to find a place to store my new crap!

Let the holiday continue!

I had every intention of taking down my Christmas decorations today. I did. Truly I did. But as always, I got distracted.



Yesterday, I spent $19.21 on about $200 worth of stuff. At Target of course. So today, Danny wanted to go see if there was anything left. After he twisted my arm, I agreed! I'm such a good wifey! Anyhoo, I found a bunch of hidden stuff today. This makes me very happy. In total, today we spent about $40 on $400 worth of crap stuff. We bought a bunch of coffee creamers for .17 cents. Most of it is going to the station though. I can't even buy gum for .17 cents! Practically everything I bought was between .09 and 1.69.



Maybe tomorrow we can take the stuff down. Or we can just leave it up till Christmas.

Raining Lizards!

This is from the Miami Herald.
It rains iguanas at Bill Baggs park
Posted on Thu, Jan. 03, 2008

By TIM CHAPMAN
tchapman@MiamiHerald.com
TIM CHAPMAN/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Wednesday night's bitter cold came like a giant Sominex for the tree-dwelling iguanas of South Florida.
When the temperature falls below a certain level, the large green lizards drop out of the trees and litter the ground.
They aren't dead. At least a lot of them aren't. It is as if they are in suspended animation, said Robert Yero, park manager at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne.
It was raining iguanas at Bill Baggs Thursday morning. There were a couple underneath buttonwood trees and a third beneath a sea grape. All were about 30 yards from the beach, in the coastal hammock.
''We have found dozens on the bike path after a major cold snap,'' said Yero. ``When they warm up in the sun, they come back to life.''
Yero isn't too fond of the comatose critters. They are exotics from Central and South America, brought in as pets and then released to the wilds by their owners when they got too big for the house.
They munch on the foliage, literally nipping in the bud efforts to revive native vegetation.
''They really are taking over,'' Yero said.

Yuck! All those who know me know that I DO NOT like lizards of any kind. Small brown ones are all over my yard and I hate it. Big green ones are worse. Fortunately, I haven't seen any big ole iguanas in my yard but my husband snapped these pictures of one on one of our trees out back. I would not feel bad at all if they froze!

Oh, and if you are ever in Miami and go to Fairchild Tropical Gardens... although the place is beautiful, you will run into a ton of these! Triple yuck! They look like dinosaurs and some are easily 0ver 5 ft long.

Bunch of Pea Brains!

We get service from Orkin every 2 months t prevent creepy crawlies from living in my house. I pay the guy when he finishes. Apparently, I inadvertently made the check out for 90 cents less. Well, so far I have received TWO statements for 90 cents! The idiots have spent 41 cents each time to mail a 90 cent statement! Plus the paper used for the bills and the envelopes! The guy comes next week, they're gonna get their freakin 90 cents! It's not as if they don't charge an arm and a leg anyway!

Brrrrrrrrrrr

Ok, I know that I shouldn't be complaining. Especially after Melissa tells me that it's in the 20's and it is 6 degrees for Linda in Wisconsin! Holy Macaroni! As it is, we are currently at about 47. From 91 to 47 in one day. And it's supposed to get down in the 30's over night. I am in my jammies, under my down comforter, contemplating bringing out my electric blanket while sipping hot chocolate. With marshmallows, of course! So could you imagine what would happen if we ever got below 20???? The coldest that I can handle comfortably is about 60 or so. Guess I will have to stay in Florida forever! Or maybe Hawaii....

It is January isn't it?

This was the temperature when we got in our car today! Notice the a/c is on full blast. But a cold front is supposed to be coming through, and tomorrow, I should be complaining about the cold! Ya know, I'm all about complaining!

I so want to take all my decorations down and get my house back in order! We probably won't get around to it till the weekend though. At least I took my decoration off this blog. That's a start. Right?

We went to Knaus Berry farm yesterday afternoon to get some yummy cinnamon rolls & milkshakes. Then we took a break at the mall and then went to dinner at Flanigan's. I do love their ribs, but for some reason, I have not been very hungry for food lately. I guess that's a good thing.

We spent a quiet evening at home last night. We watched the ball drop, then went to bed. Happy New Year to us old farts!

Today, we did more of the same. Being the fatties that we are, we spent a better part of the day eating. First we went for lunch at Cracker Barrel. One biscuit stuffed me. Had a bit of my roast beef and yummy mashed taters and gave Danny the rest. Although, I do love this place, I hope that I don't get my appetite back! We drove around for a bit then we went to Robert is Here. Yes, that is the real name. It is a fruit stand that sells all types of yummy produce, plus all types of jellies, sauces and flavored honey. They even have Moonshine Jelly. I've never tried it, but I get a kick out of the name. It doesn't take much to amuse me! I shared a yummy key lime shake with D, and brought home some produce & Mango Butter.

This old man was sitting in an antique car in front of the fruit stand. I stood and stared for a while since he wouldn't move. I thought he was dead. But he finally twitched a bit and all was well. I wonder if they pay him to sit there? An antique in an antique.