Unique's Photo Challenge - Silhouette

Another photo I took when we went to see the Blue Man Group....



Unique's Photo Challenge

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Track :: Star
   
2. Snake :: Skin
   
3. Assignment :: School
   
4. Blockbuster :: Movies
   
5. Bombastic :: Reggae
   
6. Adventure :: Trip
   
7. First time :: Riding a bike
   
8. Aged :: Elderly
   
9. Grip :: Handlebars
   
10. Shortcut:: Lost

Go check out more Mutterings....

I'm Back!!

Did you miss me??

Good news, after some extremely tense moments, grandpa has rallyed again and pulled through. They won't let him come home yet but he is awake and alert, just very very weak.

We didn't want to leave him and grandma, but my husband's leave time was up and I had a job to start when we got back here.

So we're home now, I am swamped with school work because I wasn't able to use a computer/internet while we were gone to research for these papers I need to get done, and the term ends next week.

I also started a new job this past Monday. Yay!! I am the new Juvenile Intake Worker for our county. Basically what I will be doing is whenever a child under 18 gets in trouble with the law I will have to go and do an intake, ask a lot of questions, deal with the parents, decide where the child is to be placed (at home, foster care, or detention) until they go to court. Then if they are placed at a foster home or group home, I will take them there.

Also, any child that is a victim of abuse, neglect, or is a runaway or truant from school, I do an intake on them and place them also.

I am excited about the job, now I just have to wait for something to happen, as it is an on call position.

But anyway, I am here, just buried under stuff, trying to dig out :)

Tackle It Tuesday

I'm kind of embarrassed to show you the mountain of clean clothes that I have on my bed. They need to be folded and put away or hung up. I don't usually mind doing laundry, but this part of it I hate!



Edit: I'm finally finished!! Yay! I'm not going to show you a picture of that because it would just be my empty bed (that's not made) lol :)

To see what other people are tackling, head on over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Today I turned 35. Kind of a milestone I guess but I don't feel any different.

So the reason I haven't been around all weekend is because my family kind of turned it into a birthday weekend for me. We spent a lot of time together as a family, something you do less and less of as the kid gets older and everyone has different interests.

Friday we ate at Cracker Barrel, who's Chicken and Dumplings are to die for. Saturday morning we went to IHOP and I ordered stuffed french toast with bananas and caramel on top. It was awesome, just like eating dessert :) Then my husband cooked me dinner using recipes he found. He is so sweet sometimes :)

Yesterday we drove to Wichita (2 hours away) to go see The Blue Man Group perform. It was so awesome!! I've seen videos of them before but it is so much better live. We had floor seats 27 rows back. They were pretty decent seats. Leanna had a perfect view in between people but I had 2 big heads in front of me. Oh well, that is to be expected, lol. I took some pictures and I'll see about getting them up a little later today after I have a look at them.

One thing I have to remember to never do again: Never go to an event with only one camera battery that isn't even fully charged. The camera died on me. So for my birthday I'm buying an extra camera battery (or two).

Question: Has anyone used Ebay or Amazon for camera supplies? I've noticed their prices are cheaper than places like B&H but.... sometime cheap means cheap, know what I mean? I'm scared to shop online sometimes because I don't know what kind of quality I'm going to get. I wish there was a camera store near us....

My Ten Favorite Actors/Actresses

In no particular order except #1 :)


1. Angelina Jolie - my all time favorite!

2. Nicholas Cage

3. Denzel Washington

4. Johnny Depp - he finds the weirdest roles and makes them real

5. Christina Ricci

6. Samuel L. Jackson

7. Julia Roberts

8. Charlize Theron

9. Evangeline Lilly

10. Will Smith - Pursuit of Happyness and I am Legend are two of my most favorite movies :)

For more, go visit Ten on Tuesday.

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Nutritious :: healthy
   
2. Graduate :: college
   
3. Tonight! :: TV
   
4. Located :: home
   
5. Weapon :: gun
   
6. Jumper :: the movie
   
7. Collectibles :: glass
   
8. Dennis :: the menace
   
9. Hostile :: angry
   
10. Vivid :: lighting

I think this is my favorite meme :)

Visit Unconscious Mutterings.

13 Ways To Avoid Doing Homework

1. sleep
2. clean
3. eat
4. spend a lot of time in the bathroom
5. check your email
6. talk on the phone
7. say things like, "I will after this show is over"
8. go shopping
9. play with the dog
10. organize your desk
11. update your to-do list
12. do bills

and the last one?
13. run screaming the other way!!


Can you tell I'm getting a little burnt out?

For more participants, visit Thursday Thirteen.

Time Tells All

1. It's 1:00pm on Sunday and I'm usually on the computer at this time.

2. It's 6:00pm on Monday and I'm usually eating dinner at this time.

3. It's 9:00pm Wednesday and I'm usually on the computer at this time.

4. It's 4:30pm on Friday and I'm usually on the computer at this time.

Wow, I need to get a life LOL :)

Play along at The Saturday Special.

Ten Things To Do Before You Get Married

Note: Some of these are tongue in cheek :)

1. Watch him sleep to see if he snores.

2. Experience a stressful event with him to see how he copes.

3. Check his credit.

4. Spend some time with his mother, remember she will be your future mother-in-law :)

5. If you want children, or already have some of your own, see how he acts around kids.

6. Find out what you want out of life.

7. Find out what he wants out of life.

8. Decide which one of you will handle the finances, then teach the other one how to do it just in case.

9. Everyone has baggage, find out if you can handle his, and vice versa.

10. And finally, make sure you have that feeling inside of you, "this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with," other wise just don't do it.

For more things to do before you get married, check out Ten on Tuesday.

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Money :: rich
   
2. Unhappy :: frown
   
3. Joking :: laugh
   
4. Chipmunk :: hamster
   
5. Date :: dress up
   
6. Slideshow :: pictures
   
7. Chicago :: cold
   
8. Lifetime :: movies
   
9. Skid row :: bums
   
10. Edward :: scissorhands

For more mutterings, please visit Unconscious Mutterings.

Ten Places I'd Take a Tourist To See in My Hometown

Well my hometown is Rockford Illinois, so let's see....

1. Magic Waters - a giant outdoor waterpark on the outskirts of town

2. Cherryvale Mall - a two floor mall with tons of awesome stores.

3. Beefaroo - a fast food restaraunt that serves the greatest Beef and Cheddar sandwiches and Cheddar Fries, yum :)

4. Nickel World - an arcade where each game is only a nickel.

5. Discovery Center Museum - a hands on children's museum where all the exhibits can be touched and played with. We have been there many times :)

6. Midway Village - a real 19th century village and museum, they do civil war reenactments and a really fun Halloween program.

7. Ski Broncs Water Show - a spectacular water ski show done every week in the summer.

8. Rockford Speedway - a quarter mile Nascar racing track that runs from spring to fall and has lots of special events. When we are home, you can expect to see us there every week :)

9. Sinnissippi Park - on the river, in the summer they have the most beautiful rose garden, in the winter there is the Festival of Trees and the Ice Sculpture Competition.

10. Rock Cut State Park - camping and fishing and hiking, you name something outdoorlike, and it can be done here :)

For other peoples favorite hometown places, head on over to Ten on Tuesday.

Blog Carnivals #2

This week a couple of my posts are featured in five new blog carnivals! They are the Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation.... The Mommy Blog Carnival.... Mom's Blogging Carnival.... The Carnival of Positive Thinking.... and The Dog Blog Carnival. I want to thank the hosts of these carnivals for letting me be a part of them :)

Check them out, there are some excellent posts listed in there :)

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Paranormal :: Ghosts
   
2. Alarm :: Fire
   
3. Operative :: Undercover
   
4. Changing :: Seasons
   
5. Framed :: Busted
   
6. Beer :: Yuck
   
7. Referral :: Help
   
8. Unmasked :: Batman
   
9. Movie star :: Rich
   
10. Handbook :: Procedures

For more of today's mutterings, head on over to Unconscious Mutterings.

Blog of Excellence Award

This week I received my very first blog award, the Blog of Excellence Award, from Laura at Laura Williams Musings. Thank you Laura! This is a huge milestone for me, as it shows that people are reading my blog and they like it :)


So with that said, I'd like to give this award to a few of my favorite bloggers:

1. Skeet over at Skeet's Stuff.

2. Karla at Looking Toward Heaven.

3. Kailani over at An Island Life.

4. Melissa at Melissa's Idea Garden.

5. Lara over at The Lazy Organizer.

I love each of these ladies' blogs and read them all the time :)

Thursday Photo Challenge

The theme for this challenge is Green, and the only thing we have around here right now that is green are the pine trees. This tree is right outside my back door. It used to be a very large, very full tree.

When we got the big ice storm that closed everything down and killed power to most of this area, this tree was so weighted down with ice that it caught the power lines. A lot of the branches broke because of the weight of the ice, but it was the city that did most of the damage when they chopped it to get it off of the lines.

They took way more off of it than was necessary and now this is what I see whenever I open the back door. Poor tree!

I Can't Find My To-Do List!!

I usually keep a very detailed to-do list sitting on my desk by the computer. It isn't there. This weekend my husband and I did some spring cleaning/decluttering in the house. Which is all good and everything except when he does not know what something is, or where it goes, he puts it on my desk. I put most of the things away that he stashed there, and my list is not in the pile that is left.

So now I have to remember and remake the whole thing again.

AARGH!!!

Ten Things I'm Looking Forward To In The Spring

1. To take Mischief for a walk when it's not so bitterly cold.

2. To open the windows and let the fresh air in.

3. To pick out the flowers we will plant this year.

4. To watch the grass turn green instead of brown.

5. To sit outside.

6. The fact that it gets dark later.

7. To have new subjects to take pictures of.

8. Easter - even though she is a teenager, I still love putting together and giving my daughter an Easter basket.

9. Mother's Day - ummm, because I'm a mother :)

10. My birthday in April!!

For more spring lists, head over to Ten on Tuesday.

So Tired....

I've been sleeping so well since I went to the doctor and got some new medicine, no more insomnia.... until last night.

I'm wondering if it is because I took the meds and didn't go right to bed. The doctor told me to take them within 10 minutes of getting in bed so that is what I've been doing.... until last night.

I ended up staying up to do a few things after I took the pills, and then my daughter was coughing really bad so I took some cough medicine in to her and then sat and rubbed her forehead for a little while (she's always liked that since she was a baby). She has allergies and at night all that crud goes down her throat and irritates her chest so much that she just coughs and coughs. It hurts my heart to see her in pain and discomfort and I can't do anything to help her. I just had her allergy medicine changed so we'll have to wait and see if that helps any.

So today I am so groggy and blah, its noon and I want to go back to bed. But I can't, I have so many things on my to do list and tonight Leanna and I have our very first digital photography class. I'm really looking forward to it and I think she is too :)

Ok, it has taken me 30 minutes to write this post, I need to get moving and try to wake up, see you later....

Blog Carnivals

I have recently discovered the world of blog carnivals. The purpose behind them is for bloggers to write on certain topics, post them on their blog and then submit the links to be included in one big blog post on that topic.

So I picked a couple of my posts and submitted to a few of them. Well....

This week I am featured in The Carnival of Family Life.... The Mothers and Daughters Blog Carnival.... The Friday Ark.... and The Canine Carnival!!

Pretty cool huh? I'm just tickled pink :)