Potty Time!

We decided to tear apart the half-bath a bit. I've been wanting to put beadboard in there since we moved in, but the walls needed to be sanded since they were a bit rough and I didn't want to spend the time on that when there was so much more to do. It's why I put a faux finish in there to disguise all the bumps. Well, almost five years later we're getting around to it.

So Saturday and Sunday I stripped the border, patched the holes and sanded the walls. Tomorrow Brian is off since I have a wee surgery in the a.m., and when we get home he's going to put a granite counter top in there, and change out the fixture.

Not sure how long the beadboarding and painting the walls and vanity will take, but will show as it progresses.

Right now it looks like this...




Ooooooooo nice!

M

Got Spring?

We can always tell it's Spring when we get these two mallards in the yard. I dont know where their babies are but for the past three years they show up in our bushes for about a week. One likes to sun on the neighbors roof. :-)

Here they are this year!


Brian's birthday is tomorrow, he will be 46! We keep seeing the commercial for "Just for Men - Touch of Grey" and it's looking a little tempting, to me at least since Brian now has a shitload of grey!



We did survive the earthquake! It was 140 miles to the west of us. Brian showered through it, Collin and I slept through it, but it did wake Ian up. Brian did feel one of the 4.5 aftershocks at work, and we had another 4.5 one last night that we all slept through. It's amazing how far away people could feel this, but unlike California with it's faults all over the place, since they are few and far between the effects of this one were felt hundreds of miles away.

You can imagine it's all people were talking about for awhile.

Still doing Weight Watchers, I hit my one month mark today and have lost a total of 10 pounds. This is very doable!

Brian and I are starting a wee project in the downstairs half-bath. Soon as we get some mulch down we will start in there.

I sincerely hope Spring has Sprung in your neck of the woods!

M

It's spring break this week!

As I type Brian and the boys along with Norm s/b at a Sox game in Chicago, freezing their baseballs off! I'm home labrador wrangling and catching up on some stuff.

Made a website on all my window treatments I did for the house. I made a little website for painting kitchen cabinets and it gets about 200 hits a month, so I made one for curtains...cheap curtains. I first typed "cheap christians" and I know a lot of them too! :-)

My favorite



Here's the sites...

Painting Kitchen Cabinets

Cheap Curtains

Still on Weight Watchers, I'm down 7 pounds but dinna put your hand anywhere near my mouth....I might bite it! I'm hungry!

M

The difference between boys and girls...

...it's not below the belt which you might think, it all in the hands! Last weekend it was just beautiful here, sunny skies and almost 70 degrees, the first nice weekend since last year. On Saturday Brian and I cleaned windows, not just glass.......the sills, which we should of done in the fall.
Because of these guys!

(some other poor souls garage that has box elders too!)

These are bizarro world lightening bugs, the red and black is opposite, and they don't light up. What they like to do is every September on warm sunny days attach themselves to your house preferably the south side of your house, and crawl between the screens and the windows. Since we have cheap @ss windows in this house, we literally get hundreds of them in some of the sills, we don't keep the windows open in the fall here.

"Why don't you have an exterminator come?" We did, two years ago, they can't guarantee it for the next year and it was $350! So we decided the following summer to bug bomb the attic and maybe get them while they were hibernating. Which cut them down a bit but we still got them. I read somewhere to spray the house with diluting dishwashing soap, this for some reason kills them. So we do that a couple of times while we have them, we still have them...just less of them.

Oh so what does box elder bugs have to do with the difference between girls and boys? Because when it comes time to clean the windows in the spring and you literally have hundred of dead box elder bugs that have been sitting there all winter long and are a black icky mushy mess of bug parts sticking to parts of the window and are stuck under other parts of the window sill...

Girls use gloves!
Boys don't!

Girls also gag, get the willies, and let out li'l screams for the first few windows too!

We learned our lesson, do it at first frost when you are suppose too and don't leave over winter!

YUCK!

M

...and were off!

I don't even know when I finished it, but I made a website for a horse clinic in Texas. The incredibly lovely office manager Angela got me the job. Angela is the Tartan candle girl, and horse hair bracelet gal I made websites for

Here's the great candles she makes-
www.tartancandles.com

Here's her incredibly cool bracelets
http://tartancandles.com/spirithorsedesigns/

Here's the vet's site website up and running
http://lspeh.com/

Just starting to make a site for another friend...she's a doula! You're gonna have to google if you don't know what it is. :-) And one for Gretchen's alterations business.

Now, I'm trying to get the jewelers going with my jewelry projects but it's been slow going. I was hoping to have it up and running by now, but talked to her today and she said she will light some matches under some people....only she said it nicer! :-)

I stuck to Weight Watchers for the whole week and lost five pounds. I didn't think I would lose that much in a week on their program, so I was pleasantly surprised. It's nice to be able to eat what you want, and you know me...one night it was ice cream with a brownie for dinner! Oh that was Tuesday, when Betsy an online friend stopped by on their way through Indy with her cute daughter. Oh and Friday I met up with another online friend Kris for dinner at Maggiano's for dinner. I saved all my extra points and had a half order of mushroom ravioli with alfredo sauce. :-) I've met some of the neatest people through online book clubs, and these are two of them!

The kids are off next week for spring break. Brian is going to take them on a quick trip to Chicago for a Sox game, we're hoping it warms up a bit.

That's about it... oh wait......a picture...
I finished a casting you tube I made for a Katherine Swynford Yahoo Group I started, and handed off to another person there. It's for the book "Katherine" by Anya Seton, the group offered suggestions, then voted on them and here's the winners. It's pretty, the border graphics I made from some Book of Kells images (which is what I want to see most in Ireland). It's the first time I got a copyright notice on the music from you tube when I uploaded it, but it's okay Sting doesn't care! :-)
There's about 400 in the group from all over, so some actors you might not know.




Katherine was John of Gaunt's mistress and had four children by him. He was the son of the King Edward II, and Katherine was a commoner. He married Blanch, then Constanza the Queen of Castile, many years later when she died, he went back to Katherine and married her, and the Pope legitimized their children, Henry the VIII is related to them. Katherine's sister Philippa was married to Chaucer, who you prolly heard of...a writer...Cantebury Tales.

I've made a website for this book too, it gets about 200 hits a month, and about four times a year I will get a letter from someone going into lengthy detail on how they are related to Katherine. What they don't know is about, oh I think it was 80% of England can trace their roots back to Katherine.

There's your little history lesson for the day! Have a good week!

M

Michelle has had her chocolate all is right with the world...

Happy Easter!
Let me go get a peep before I start writing, I haven't had one yet today....

I just had one blue bunny!

As of last week it was just us for Easter. Then on Wednesday, Lisa took me to lunch for my birthday and I invited her family over for dessert. I count my blessings every week we have them for neighbors. Then Thursday Gretchen calls and they wanted to come down, and they haven't been all down here together in about two and a half years......woo-hoo full house for Easter!

Also on Thursday I decided I have got to lose some weight and thought I would try Weight Watchers with a start date of Monday. Very much encouraged by Marilyn, a friend that lost five pounds in less than a week her first week starting it. So I thought I needed to bake to get it out of my system and with lots for dessert on Sunday......this was my chance.

I started with sugar cookies....
ended with chocolate mousse...
with a white chocolate cheesecake, apple pie, another cheesecake Ian likes all made in between.

I pretty much dont want to see any of these things again for a very long time!

Right before Gretchen and family left she wanted to get a picture of the kids. So they layed out on the floor like they did around 12 years ago.



Also took a picture of us grown-ups and I will not be posting that anywhere, maybe I will just cut my head out of it and put that big fat head on the fridge just in case I get the urge to eat any more crapola!

Happy Easter Everyone!

M

Don't Tread on Me!

I've had a couple emails lately about buying a treadmill. Since I've been having trouble of thiking of what to put on here, I will just put my treadmill advice. :-)

We have an .......Image , it also goes by the name of Proform. The old one was a Weslo very low end and I had it fourteen years. Image, Proform, Nordic Track,Weslo and some others are all made by the same company. Its sort of like VCR's only two companies make them. I found the site w/all of the brands I would look for here
http://www.iconfitness.com/about/brands

We've had the Image for four years and our motor is starting to go, it doesnt go below incline level 2 w/o making a grinding noise. So it can only stay at one incline above 2 because something is off and they said the only way to fix it is to replace the motor which is 165 I think. I think we paid 300 for it, we got it at Walmart. To be honest I think Brian walking with the programed walks where the incline is constantly moving up and down is harder on the motor. I dont use those. Although Cheryl has a Proform (higher price point) and she uses the incline and she hasnt had any trouble with hers. I wouldnt hesitate to buy the brand again, I would just look for one with at least a five year warranty on the motor.

The things you want to look for are...
-power incline, so you dont have to do it yourself
-wider belt ours is 17 and its fine, if you look at the really cheap ones the belts are narrower.
-Calories burned digital counter
The heart monitor things on these things have to be wrong, I would be dead if they were right.

Ive heard very bad things about Vitamaster.

I think its better if you go a lower end treadmill 300-600 and then buy a tv and dvd for it, and join Netflix. :-) I tell you Ive been watching series on there I havent seen on TV and the time goes so fast, and I actually want to get on there every day. Ive been going 5-6 times a week! I just started the third season of Greys Anatomy. Denny has left the building. I've watched Rome, The Starter Wife, The Tudors, Extras, the British Office, and one other I forgot. Next is Deadwood.

Go to walmart.com and look at their site to compare them, its set up nice. I just found this Golds gym one on there, thats pretty cheap and great reviews. If we went out tomorrow, Id get this one. *grin*
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7789784

Oh, the other thing I just picked up over the winter at Kohls on clearance for 20 bucks are wireless headphones that I hook up to the tv.......so it doesnt have to be really loud in the house and I hear everything. They are just wonderful!

'nuf info for you? :-)

So my suggestions.........treadmill, tv, dvd player, wireless headphones and rent HBO's Rome first! Nudie good lookin' romans, great costumes, one dude with a very large ....you'll see.....and some history.....you can't beat that!

I look just like this on the treadmill!



I know, I'm a bitch!
M

A Head's Up!

Saw "The Other Boleyn Girl" today, I read the book only last year so was thrilled they were making a movie of it, and have been anxiously awaiting to view these characters in person. But like most novels made into film there's a good chance one will be disappointed. I did enjoy the movie, but I thought it dragged a bit.



Scarlett Johansson makes a wonderful Mary, I've seen better portrayals of every other character. Natalie Portman's Anne was okay. I even think Jonathon Rhys Myers of "The Tudors" is a better Henry than Eric Bana. I wasn't afraid of Henry VIII in this movie and if there is one thing we know when the time comes for an ax to be swinging and heads to be rolling, one should be a bit afraid of Henry!

If you are into period pieces for the costums....see it.
If you are into this period in English history....see it.

If you want the real lowdown on Mary before you see it, do a quikapedia! :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Boleyn

I've noticed with movies that if I'm really looking forward to something, I'm usually disappointed. If I hear something is really bad, I usually think it's pretty okay. This movie, I hadn't heard anything since it just came out today, and really wanted to see it before I heard any negatives or positives about it so my perspective of it wasn't tainted....and I came away thinking...

Good movie...but a little disappointed.

Hyundo!

We just love this new car! Okay, this is the last time I will say it! :-)

I saw a little blurb in Newsweek beginning of '07 about the Hyundai Santa Fe and how it was very comparable to the Lexus(insert whatever number it was here), and it was like ten thousand less.

So we looked at Ford, Toyota, Mazda, it came down between the Ford Edge and Hyundai Sante Fe. Brian thought the grill on the Edge looked like a shaver and couldn't shake that off.

Still had a little trouble with the Hyundai name, must of been all those jokes by Leno and Letterman, but it had six airbags, and with Brian on the expressway everyday this seemed the way to go. So in November we bought our Sante Fe.

Today while catching up on msbc I saw an article that the Hyundai Sante Fe was voted one of the top ten cars for reliability and safety by readers of Consumer Reports.......

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23390986/


I just love it when Im right! :-)

Drive safe!
M

Spoooooooooooky!

Someone posted on one of my reading group boards that they were going to a Psyhic and if anyone had any stories. I have one! :-) My sister Cheryl went to a reading last year, and I wrote what she told me down so I wouldn't forget it. It was the first week in March last year....

--------------------
Tonight my sister was at work and someone asked if she wanted to go to a seance type deal last minute, someone cancelled or something. That these people had this old house in McKinney Texas, and they wanted to remodel but knew they had some ghost in the house and wanted to see if it was okay to remodel. *G* They had an extra space at the table at the house.

So my sisters goes with, she doesnt know the lady that is doing the reading, or the people that live in the house. She lost her boxer over the winter and she wanted to make sure the dog didnt suffer, it died in her arms. So shes just wants this seer to tell her her dog is okay, so shes concentrating on Zena the whole time. She said she's literally thinking Zena, Zena, Zena.......when this all starts *G*

So theres about seven of them sitting at the table. The seer...for lack of a better name....says theres a man with a birthday cake who is saying he is sorry. And she is looking at my sister. She asks my sister if its her birthday.........and my sister says....no. She asks if her father was alive......and my sister says......no. And she asks when her father died.......and my sister says........oh, he died on my birthday. So the seer is saying that he was telling her that he is okay and not to fret that he died on her birthday. Thats my dad and his ego, thinking that she is still upset about him dying on her birthday. *G* Cheryl is not one for dates. :-)

The seer says theres a woman next to her clutching her heart and then holding it out to you. She keeps going to heart and saying its okay and then she holds her heart out to you. She asks if our mom is still alive, Cheryl says......no. Cheryl and my mom had a falling out and havent spoken in about 20 years. Cheryl always says, even though she wasnt talking with mom, that falling out taught her her most important lesson in life......keep your mouth shut with your sons girlfriends. *g* When my dad died, he left us a very little bit of money. Cheryl gave her money to me and I put it in bonds it was to pay for my moms buriel when my mom died. Which will be two years ago next week. When I was in Texas weekend before last Cheryl was saying how, she just knew if mom was still alive and they met up that everything would be okay between them once they saw each other.

So now the seer says she sees a dog on a dinner table and its licking peoples faces and my sister is thinking oh this is Zena! Turns out it was someone elses dog. *G*

So the seer....it going back to different people and she keeps coming back to Cheryl saying this couple is standing behind her and want to speak to her again. Cheryl doesnt give the lady any information about her because she doesnt want to fill the lady with ideas of her before she says stuff. The seer says.......they want to tell you that we are okay now and are together. Not together in a romantic way my sister said. *G* My parents were divorced and they didnt like each other very much.

So the seer is looking around the table and says.....who has a sibling with the name George......something with a "G"......(my sister isnt saying anything).....maybe a state like Georgia. So my sister says thats me.....she told me that she was feeling guilty that she was the main focus of this reading and wanted to make real sure it was her. My sisters name is Georgia. So the seer says.......that to tell Georgia that your mom and dad want her to know its okay, and they are okay, they know she is having a rough time but its all okay.My sister Georgia has been having a really hard time with my moms passing. The seer keeps telling Cheryl that they are telling her to make sure she calls Georgia and tells her that they are okay to make sure she calls her sister soon.

Then the seer says......Im getting a Missy......she said its a funny name Misty ....its Missy ....not Miss .....and my sister says .....thats my other sisters name. Which is me......its my crappy nickname I hate and only my family calls me that. *G*

This is when my sister craps her pants because nobody would know that besides family. And they tell my sister that they know Im doing okay with it all.

Then the seer says.....okay a French name, I cant make it out.....Paris, or something....and my sister says nothing because she still doesnt want to lead the woman on.....and the seer says something about maybe its with an "R", which then my sister says.....its me again.....its my other sister Renee. To which the seer says......Renee is okay too. Renee is the one that went through all the cancer stuff right after my mom died. So we dont know if this means Renee is okay, or Renee is okay with my parents gone.

Then she gets some readings for other people and she comes back to Cheryl and says theres another man a father here for you. Charles or Chuck. My sister says she doesnt have a father named Charles and the seer says...no....its your husbands father Charles or Chuck. Youre to tell your husband that everything is okay, and not to worry. My sisters husband, had a falling out with his father and they werent talking for about 30 years. *G* Yeah, his fathers name was Chuck.

Then there was a women in a high neck blouse that wanted to talk to Cheryl but she doesnt know who that was.

So then the seer says to my sister.......there are so many people here wanting to talk to you, that you might not want to open your eyes when you go to sleep tonight. And thats why my sister called to make sure I couldnt sleep tonight either I guess. *G*

So this old house was in the little cute old town of McKinney and my sister lives about 30 minutes away, so she has to drive home in the dark all by herself on these country roads.

What jumps infront of the car on the way home......a boxer. *G*

--------------

Pretty cool huh!

I feel like I always need a picture on here!


One of my favorite pictures of my mom.

I'm off to go shovel a couple inches of snow of the driveway....here's hoping you don't have any!

M