TWO!

That's how many trick or treaters came to my door. Technically, there were 3 but 2 were together. So only two knocks on my door! The streets were deserted! We get les & less each year. Granted, there is a threat of a Tropical Storm. But it wasn't even drizzling! Sure is not the Halloween that I remember from when I was a kid.

I purposely buy the type that I don't like, so that I won't be tempted. So now I am stuck with 2 huge bowls of candy!

So how was your Halloween??

Another HUGE Bloggy Giveaway!

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*************I have a winner**************

It's time for another huge bloggy giveaway!! Head on over to Shannon's @ Rocks In My Dryer to join in the fun! Last time there were over 400 hundred contests to enter. They will go live on Monday, October 29th so be sure to check back then. I am posting my giveaway now, in case I forget or get too busy on Monday.

My little giveaway for today is the following:

For all you crafty people out there, I am offering up Punch Your Art Out & Punch Your Art Out 2. Both copies are new and ready to be put to good use. I will probably be posting a couple more giveaways before the week is up so check back soon.

Now for the details.

* Please be sure to post a comment and sign the Mr. Linky so that I can have a number record. I will be using Random.org to pick the winner. Only one Mr. Linky entry per person please.

* This giveaway is open to both bloggers & non-bloggers. If you do not have a blog, be sure to leave a valid email addy so that I can contact you.

* I'm sorry but at this time, I can only mail to US addresses.

* I will draw a winner on Saturday, November 3rd @ approx. 5PM.

So have fun visiting blogs, meeting new friends & maybe winning a prize!

If you have a chance,sign my guestbook at the bottom of the page.

Meet the Jetsons!

I used to watch The Jetsons religiously when I was a kid. I wanted the moving sidewalks, the tv phones, the robot maid. I wanted to be zoomed up to my living room in a clar plastic tube thingy. Even now, I would love that instant dressing, make up & hair machine. Oh & that instand food machine too!

I wanted to live in that house! That's not unusual for me though, seems like I generally suffered from "home envy". I also wanted to live in the Brady House. I don't think it had anything to do with the house itself though. Except for the Jetson house of course.

It probably had more to do with the family & way of life portrayed in the shows. Not that there was anything wrong with my family. Quite the contrary, I had a great family & a great childhood. I had both my parents & 2 brothers. But I was always fighting with one brother. And you never saw that on TV!

I even at one point wanted to live in the Walton's house (g'night John Boy) or the Ingall's house. For crissake. "Little" freakin' house on the Prairie. Walking a gazillion miles to school & back. No indoor plumbing! But, they never fought! Just for the record, we were not scarred for life due to our constant bickering. We both get along. Now.

Anyhoo, I just went off on a tangent. The point of this post is to see if you had seen this. That it may actually be around in the near future is quite scary. It was fun to imagine as a kid. But now, knowing how it is to drive in a metro city & being very familiar with road rage, I'm not too sure. What do you think???

Oh and here is a funny video from my YouTube addiction.

Halloween Costumes

Dawn over at Because I Said So! just posted a really funny post about Halloween Costumes. Funny because I can totally relate. I remember the boxed costumes of the 70's although I only had a store bought costume once. All other halloweens, I had my costumes lovingly handdmade by Mima (grandma). Each was original & guaranteed to be te only one like it. The one time that I did have a store bought plastic costume was one time when I wanted to "be like everyone else" and have a msk to stick my tongue out of! Who would have thunk that i wouuld ever want to be like everyone else!

Be sure to visit Dawn, she is one funny lady!

Giveaway Fun!

Ok, I've been meaning to post some contests that I have come across but I just keep forgetting. So, here goes. Remember, someone has to win right?

First off, the girls @ 5 Minutes for Mom are giving away this super cute pink camera from Casio.

The Casio Pink EX-Z75 digital camera is specially bundled with a camera case with pink stitching and a pink ribbon-clad lanyard to show support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF). How cute is that? And for a great cause too!

Hurry and check it out before Oct. 26.

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Next up, we have Sheila @ Go Visit Hawaii. She is giving away another great Hawaii prize pack. She has awesome & helpful information for anyone who is planning a trip to Hawaii or just dreaming about it.

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Finally, Shannon from Rocks In my Dryer is hosting another ginormous blog giveaway party. It all starts on October 29th. The Dog Days of Summer was a blast and I'm sure this one will be too! I'm already looking around to see what I can give away! Hope ya'll will join in the fun!

Days Like These....

Days like these make me happy that I have big girls! There are days that I find myself wishing that my girls were babies again. This usually happens when I see some cute kid somewhere or I happen to hold a baby. But then, there are days that I am so glad that they are not babies, or even toddlers. I am glad that they are self sufficient young women. Today, is one of those days..

I still feel like crap. My throat hurts. My bones hurt and my body is sore. I can't stop coughing. I have been in bed for the past 2 days. Had my girls been younger, that would not have been the case. Sure, I still would be sick. I would still feel like crap. I could feel like I were on my deathbed. But, I would still have to get up and tend to the girls. Unless, of course, Danny was home. He has always been a great daddy & hubby. If he was not at work he would tend to the girls and their needs. Still does. But now, even when he is at work, I can stay in bed and not have to worry about my kids not eating or being bathed. I don't have to help with homework or get them ready for bed. They do that all on their own. PLUS, they bring me my water and my meals. To.my.room.

Tomorrow is another day. When I feel better, I will miss not having little ones again. I will miss that the girls really don't need me as much as they used to. That they can, basically, make due on their own. But at the end of the day, I am still their mom. And if I had to, I would get up in a heartbeat and do whatever they needed me to.

Sick

I rarely get sick. I've been feeling something coming on since we got back. Yesterday, I started coughing and feeling achy. We went to Carrabba's for my birthday dinner, although I didn't really feel like going out at all. Went to bed and didn't sleep at all because my throat was killing me!

The one time that I don't take Airborne before a flight and I get sick! Coincidence? I'm not sure anymore. I wonder if that stuff actually works?

Anyhoo, I need to feel better by Monday. I have not been to Target in over 3 weeks! I need my Target fix! I'm sure that I have missed out on some awesome deals! : )

In other news, I went to pay Danny's Amex today and I see 2 charges for airline tickets. LA-Minneapolis and MN-LA. Both while we were in Hawaii. According to the AMEX guy, quite possibly when we had dinner before we left on our trip, the waitress swiped our card on a personal swiper and was able to use our account. Thief! And to think that we tipped her over 20%! He suggests that we always watch when they swipe our card. SO we now must get up and follow our server when they swipe our card. Then we must explain that it is not personal but we really can't trust anyone anymore. Sad. Really, really sad.

Another Year Older

I woke up today and realized that I am 41!

Ugh! I'm buying this for myself!


Anyhoo, I was going to catch up on the blogs but I would be lying if I said that I would. So, I will just start from today on. It would be an mission impossible to try to play catch up. I've already seen a few contests up, and I will share those later. I was so happy to learn that Rachel also won a pair of Ryka sneakers from their giveaway! I love giveaways!

Ta-Ta for now!

Dead Tired!

That just doesn't fully describe how my body feels just about now. My internal clock is totally discombobulated. We got in on the Red Eye yesterday@ 6:30 AM. Since we are too poor & cheap to fly 1st class we were stuck on a 3 across row. I ALWAYS have to sit by the window, that leaves poor D in the middle. If we are lucky, no one will sit in the aisle seat and I can lay down and sleep the entire way. We weren't lucky. I barely slept. I got a crick on my neck and my body hurts. But we are home. Safe. I'm with my girls. And I'm sleeping in my own bed.

I actually woke up at 1:30 PM today. It's a beautiful day out, but I am indoors. In my pj's. Trying to catch up on the gazillion shows that are on my DVR.

We totally enjoyed our entire vacation.

For the record, we were away for 20 days.

We visited Los Angeles, Maui, the Big Island, Oahu & Los Angeles again.

I got on 6 planes, 1 tiny propeller plane, and a freakin' helicopter!

We travelled from LA to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines

. That is officially my all time favorite airline!

Customer service, on time, planes... everything!

We went through a total of 6 different rental cars.

Stayed in 6 different accomodations.

And took 3122 pictures.

I won't bore your with all the details. Just share some of our pictures. Most are scenery.

The ones with both of us are usually the double chin, taken at arms length type.

Maui

Big Island







Oahu

And finally, because Danny truly believes that this street was named after me:

Aloha!

Quick Check In

We are still in Hawaii but finally have a bit of down time. We are on the Big Island right now. We spent 7 days on Maui and have been here for 3 days so far. Right now we are in Volcano in the middle of a tropical rainforest. Tomorrow morning, God help me, I will be getting on a helicopter and vomiting my brains out flying over Kilauea Volcano.

I will post more when I get back. But in the meantime, I will leave you with these pictures of the sunrise at Haleakala. Truly amazing!

Almost Time

Check out my countdown on my sidebar! Tomorrow we leave. I am already anxious. I've been up since 4:30 AM. Didn't sleep at all. I have a doctor appointment today, hopefully I won't forget to ask for a script for Ativan. My nerves are already on high alert!

We leave tomorrow for LA. Then 2 days later, I get on another plane to Hawaii. For a person who HATES to fly, who just only got on a plane for the first time EVER 2 years ago, this trip is going to take the cake! I will get on 6 planes (one of which might be a prop. plane) and then quite possibly unless I chicken out a freakin' helicopter! I'm definitely going to need an entire bottle of Ativan!

Have I mentioned that Danny is worse than a girl??? He has just emptied his entire closet into his suitcase! He won't even wear 1/4 of the stuff he's taking. Freak! Me on the other hand, I have one small section of my suitcase with my clothes and the rest is full of crap! Lotions, sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner, etc. I need to learn to simplify that part of my packing.

Better get ready to go to the doctor. I hate going there! Just a bunch of blah, blah, blah!

What a Nice Surprise!

Remember this??





Well, I got home today and found a package on my front steps. This is what it contained.......

Thank You Ryka!!!!!

Just thought I'd share. I think there is still time to enter the giveaway, so head on over to Ryka if you haven't already done so!

Now back to my packing.

Indian Giver?

As you all know, Kat started college this year. She got the Fl. Medallion scholarship through Bright Futures, which covers 75% of her tuition. This is funded through the FL. Lottery & is available to all Fl. Students as long as their GPA & Test scores meet the requirements. Kat met the requirements. She graduated cum laude with a Superintendent's Certificate of Distinction. She received her award letter for Bright Futures in April & she accepted it.

She has now received a letter from the University stating that her award had been cancelled because she is not on the Master Eligibility List. So she calls the Director of Bright Futures and they basically tell her "Too Bad, So Sad". They say that she applied too early!! A month too early. That there is nothing that can be done & she will not be receiving her scholarship. They insist that letters were sent out. Do they actually believe that if we received something stating that her scholarship, her lifeline to her education, was in jeapardy, we would not have done something about it? I am absolutely livid! If she did apply too early then why would she receive the award in the 1st place?

Kat is in tears. Her stress level is going through the roof. She doesn't want to speak to that lady because she was basically rude to her and would not let her speak. So now she will be writing letters. To the Governor of the State of FL, to the State Reps, and to whoever else she can think of. She has worked her entire High School years for this and it is just not fair.

Sad Day

Yes, that's my brand new car. I was at Home Depot, I never go to Home Depot, because I HATE Home Depot. Anyhoo, I decided to stop in since I was in the area and Danny had been looking for something, so I figured that I would go check at HD. So I go in and grab what I was looking for, but then I got distracted by the kitchen displays and then the orchids outside caught my attention. So, I was in there for about 1/2 hour or so. I go out to the parking lot and walk to my car. Oh, that's not my car. Sure looks like it. But mine is brand new. I click my keychain, and THAT car honks & lights blink. OMG! It's my freakin' car! Someone hit my car in the parking lot. Quite hard. It looks worse in person. I remember, when I was a kid, that my mom once hit a car in a parking lot just a slight dent, yet she waited there for about an hour till the owner came out. She also once drove over 30 miles to return a purse that she found in a public restroom. She was offered some $$, but she did not accept. God knows that she really needed it, as my dad had just passed away recently and she was alone with the 3 of us. But that's just the type of person that she is. And I am happy to have learned from her example. Problem is, I expect others t be the same. Wrong!

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but like I've mentioned before, I just type what I'm thinking! Back to what I was saying, I had to call the police to get a police report in case I had to go through my insurance.

While sitting there waiting, I hear units racing by with lights & sirens. I mean lots of units. I even hear alot more in the distance. I call Danny and they had just received a call for officers down. A man had just shot at 4 police officers with an AK47. One of the officers unfortunately lost his life.

My trivial whining about my damage suddenly became more stupid to me. Yes, I am still mad that people destroy my property and just walk away. But this criminal just took another man's life and walked away. HUGE difference. My car will get fixed. The officer's family's hearts will never be fixed. My thoughts & prayers go out to his family.

9/11

I can't believe that it has been 6 years. Seems like only yesterday. Strange how I sometimes do not remember what happened two days ago but I clearly remember what I was doing on 9/11/2001.

I had just gotten home from dropping the girls off at school. I turned on one of the morning news shows while I got ready to go on a daily Target run. There was breaking news reporting that it appeared that a plane had hit the WTC. At first, I figured that it was a small cessna type plane but then they said that it was a commercial aircraft. I called Danny at work and I was already freaking out. First of all, my brother is a flight attendant for American. Second, in my mind, there was no way that this was accident. How could a huge passenger plane be flying low enough to hit a building, head on, so far away from an airport? Not falling from the sky. Then, as I was on the phone with my eyes glued to the TV, I see the second plane it. The first words out of my mouth were "Oh. my God!!!" I actually yelled and Danny was on the road so he was not watching TV. So he was trying to figure out my hysterics.

I decided to go pick up the girls from school. Every other parent must have had the same thought. We all wanted our kids with us at that moment.

It was two days later when we finally heard from my brother. He was safe. Unfortunately, we also heard that a friend of ours who worked at the WTC was missing. Unfortunately, he lost his life that day. May God bless Pete & all those who perished.

Always Remember.

Security Camera

I have been wanting to install security cameras for a while now. Especially after waking up to this one morning about 2 years ago. We think that Danny was followed that day for the stupid rims. Anyhoo, today I watched from upstairs as the UPS guy came up my driveway, stopped short of my front porch and tossed my package! I was livid! This is the same guy who decided to walk all over our freshly poured concrete driveway that had yellow "caution do not cross" tape all around! Idiot! I want it on tape so that I can send it to their corporate office to show how brown delivers! Not that they'd care anyway.

I figured that I am not the only one who has this problem and I was right! Here's another:

Bank Account of Life

This is AWESOME....something we should all remember.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he manoeuvred his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window. "I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait." I said.
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it."

"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. "

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing .

" Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Do you know how hard it is to juice a Key Lime???? HARD! They are sooo tiny! I wanted to may these yummy sounding cupcakes. The recipe was posted at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I love to bake and they sounded easy enough. NOT! At least not for me. First, the juicing part then the filling part. So I just decided to frost without filling then serve with a dallop of the filling stuff.

So what has been going on in my oh so exiting life? Well, yesterday, Danny & I went to SUPER Target, Lowes, Costco & Sweet Tomatoes (Yum!). Exciting right?? Then Danny put up shelves in my craft room. Can I get an ooooohhhhh, aaahhhh!

I haven't had much to write about. Been getting last minute stuff for our trip. ELEVEN more days. Seems surreal! This is going to be the longest vacation that we have ever taken. Plus it's the longest time away from the girls. We will be gone for 20 days. I am regretting our decision to go away for so long. I know that they are not babies but I still worry.

Anyhoo, better get back to my list making. Although, inevitably, I will forget something!

One Tequila... Floor!

I know, it's supposed to be one tequila, two tequila, three tequila... Floor! But in my case, it's only one!! Sad but true. Danny & I went to Chevy's for dinner tonight. Excellent food by the way and I don't even like mexican food. The steak in the steak fajita was to die for! Anyhoo, back to the floor. I had one, yes one, Mango Margarita. Just so you know, I don't like tequila either. But the bartender assured me that I would like it and if not, she would make something else for me. I LOVED it. It was delicious. It was also frozen. I have a history with frozen drinks. I guess it numbs up my taste buds so I don't feel the alcohol while I'm drinking it. BUT, ten minutes after I finished it my ears and face felt hot and my eyes felt like they were about to burn right out of the sockets. Not at all impaired though. I can no longer hold my liquor!

This is from the queen of college quarters games! I'll still love my froo froo girly frozen drinks and will deal with the burning eyeballs later.

My Present!

Let me just say that I'm not a big car fanatic. I'm actually indifferent about the whole car thing actually. My motto is: As long as it gets me from oint A to Point B, I'm happy. But this was one car that I actually liked and mentioned it to Danny in passing. He took me to the dealer for a look see. And I fell in love. Next thing you know he decided to buy it. The kicker is that instead of getting rid of my MDX, he decided to get rid of his beloved truck! He had longed for a truck for a very long time. He finally bought it in 2005, but rarely uses it. Except to haul stuff every once in a while. Or move people's stuff. Because he was "the friend with a truck". But not only did he want me to have this car, I think he secretly likes it too. Maybe not so secretly. :) So now his big ol' Ram 1500 Hemi truck is for sale. Only 11K miles on it. Hopefully it sells soon.

Anyway, back to my present. So without further ado... here it is...

I love it! It's a VW Eos. I have never owned anything other than a Honda or an Acura. So this is a big change for me! I can't wait till the weather cools down a bit and I can leave the top down more often. It's just not gonna happen in this 100 degree weather! Kari calls it my midlife crisis car. Call it whatever you want. I'm a happy camper. I'm so over car seats and being taxi mom. I've spent 20 years w/ a four door sedan or suv. It was time for a change. It's still a 4 seater so we can all fit and go out together. Who knows, maybe the circle of life will have me back in a sedan when the grandkids come. But in the meantime, I will enjoy!