My Own Personal Elves

Once again my day didn't go as planned. I think I do better when I don't plan anything. We went to Mass at 7:00 & did our grocery shopping. I needed to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a tablecloth. Dean decided to go with me. He wanted to get a pair of shoes so we went to Shoe Station. I'm still so surprised that he initiated the trip there! Of course while he's looking I found a pair of fabulous boots!

They were on sale for $29.99 plus we had a 20% off coupon. I also found these.


Actually, Dean found them. I was looking at the yellow ones & they didn't have my size but I have the best husband in the world & after he said "I can't believe I'm about to do this" he pointed out the pink ones in my size!! I LOVE the pink ones & would much rather have them than the yellow ones. Wooo Hooo!! They were marked down to $16.50 so with the coupon I got them for $13.20! The regular price was $28.00. Sounds like a deal to me.

They also had a really cute pair of Skechers. I've been wanting to get a pair for awhile to have for the winter. Again, they didn't have my size. I can't figure out if they're sizing shoes differently or if my foot has started growing again because I'm having to get a half size bigger now. When I got home I ordered them online. I'm really going to try & refrain from buying shoes for awhile.

Before we came home we stopped & ate at Chili's. It was really good but I ate too much & didn't feel like doing anything when I got home. I finally started decorating & then my elves showed up. Meet Amelia-Ann & Claire.


It was great! They were a big help.




It was so nice not to have get under the tree to put the skirt down! The elves were a lot of laughs too!






The only thing it cost me was Dr. Pepper & a few games of hide & go seek. Luckily, one of the elves had to go to Mass & that ended the games. Otherwise, we may have ended up in the ER & that would've been embarrassing! I'm really out of shape. I'm pretty sure it's going to be rough in the morning when I have to get out bed.

My elves were serving a dual purpose, they helped decorate & they also harrassed Dean about buying me a puppy. Amelia-Ann has an ulterior motive for this, she wants a puppy & her dad hasn't given in yet. I'm not sure who's going to win that one. It doesn't look like either is going to give in anytime soon.

Later

Have Terrorist Taken Over Hobby Lobby??

We had a great Thanksgiving. There was soooo much food & everything was delicious! Although, I'm a bit tired of leftovers. Our parents were here, both of our brothers & sisters in law, niece & nephews. This little guy was the only one that smiled for pictures!!


I love him so much!!! He loves playing with his toys.


Our Thanksgiving Day was cold & really windy. How cute is Logan in his hat??


I didn't get to do any Black Friday shopping. I had to work. When I got home we went to Dean's cousins. They were having a party because some of Dean's other cousins were in town from Pennsylvania & Texas. Again, we ate! Gumbo & fried fish along with one of my favorite desserts, ooey gooey bars!

All the kids had a ball playing with each other. They didn't stay still long enough to get many pictures. Here is Dean's cousin Cory with his baby Sam.


Emma taking a break with Dean.


Today I started decorating for Christmas. I'm finished with the my tree but there's still a lot left to do. I took a break & went to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things. There were about a million people there but I seemed to be the only person paying any attention to the habeeb guys walking around speaking whatever language it is that they speak. They were making me nervous. They had on Hobby Lobby uniforms but they looked like terrorists. Then when I went to checkout there was another one running a register. I didn't get in his line. I've never seen a guy cashier in this store either. The woman in front of me had all sorts of problems & it's obvious the cashiers are paid by the hour because I don't think you could move any slower. So I switch lines. I was hoping to be home before kickoff. I forgot about Mr. Habeeb & I ended up in his line. Well, I just thought the other cashier was moving slowly! I didn't think I was ever getting out of there & that made me more nervous. I could just see this guy pulling something out from under his register. The only thing he said to me when it was my turn was to tell me what my total was. Not one word. I didn't make eye contact, paid cash & got outta there! It seems really weird to me that a good Christian, closed on Sunday store like Hobby Lobby would employ such people.

After some issues, LSU won in OT. It cetainly wasn't pretty but it was a win. Now it's time for bed.

Nite Nite

Giblets, Gizzards & Naps

I see I haven't posted anything in awhile. Life's been busy. Saturday was that fiasco of a football game. I still can't believe how unbelievably stupid the whole thing was. I'm pretty sure LSU will lose Saturday & when they do look out Les. It's not going to be pretty.

Sunday, I spent the day with friends at the outlet mall in Gulport, MS. We had lunch at Chili's, shopped & got some great bargains & then had dinner at D'Angelo's once we made it back to Baton Rouge. I was able to get several gifts & I only have a few people left on my list. While I was gone Dean put the tree up. I was so excited. I love decorating but I hate the actual putting the tree together part. I plan on decorating this weekend.

Monday night after work I was going to dinner & to Corks 'n Canvas with Dean's Godchild Laura & her friends. Of course things never go smoothly for me when I'm short on time. I hate to be late. We were meeting at Monjuni's at 4:30. I get off work at 4:30 but it's only about 5 mins. away so no biggie. Well, I got there & only a couple of cars were in the parking lot so I sat in my truck & waited a few minutes before going in. Or should I say attempting to go in. They were closed! At that point I remembered there's another Monjuni's on Jefferson & that Corks 'n Canvas is also on Jefferson so I realized they must be close to each other & that's where everyone is. I hauled it over there & still managed to have a wedding cake martini & the veggie lasagna. It was soooo good. The only thing I missed out on was the salad. I ordered a side sensation salad only to have the waitress tell me that they don't do a side sensation, only house & caesar so I skipped the salad. Later I realized that I don't ever order a sensation salad, I order the house. Oh well. After dinner we walked next door to do our painting. We had such a good time. This was different than the painting I did with The Arts Council of Baton Rouge. The fleur de lis was already drawn on the paper. We just had to do our background & paint the border & color in the fleur de lis. This is me & Laura with our paintings.


I went to Target today at lunch. I was tired & feeling like I needed a nap so I thought getting out of the office would wake me up. Not to mention I wasn't having the best day & I was feeling like killing someone. From the second I walked in Target I determined that I wasn't the only person that needed a nap. Every kid in that store was throwing a fit. I got my stuff & got out of there as fast as I could.

Thanksgiving will be celebrated at our house this year. Tonight we spent the evening getting ready. This meant Dean had to shoot up the turkeys. They've been thawing in the freezer all week. I wasn't aware that gizzards, giblets & who knows what else is stuffed inside the frozen turkey. There's been some debate as to why this is done. Nobody can give me an explanation other than "It's always like that" & "It's in chickens too". I think this is the most ridiculous thing ever. Since the stuff is in a little bag why can't they just stick the little bag in the package with the turkey? Why does it have to be inside the turkey? Yet, the same people (who will remain nameless) that can't give me a better explanation insist that I'm "being ridiculous" & "being a blonde" (blondes out there, this isn't a compliment). This is what happens with them being inside the turkey.

See, if the stuff wasn't inside the turkey Dean wouldn't have had such a hard time getting it out. This brings up the question of how did Joey get that turkey on his head in that episode of Friends (my all time favorite show ever).

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!

I Will NOT Play Farkle

I mentioned before that I was invited to join a "real" book club. I was leery of the first book after I received an email from the lady that started the club. She sent it to everyone apologizing for the book choice & how she hopes it didn't offend anyone. She said it was recommended which is why she chose it. I looked up the book online & decided I definitely didn't want to buy it so I put it on hold at the library. There was a picture of the cover online but I guess since it was small I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. This is what I saw when I picked it up at the library.

If this wasn't for the book club I would've never even attempted to read it once I saw the cover. I do judge a book by its cover. What kind of freak puts a skeleton/alien/grim reaper thingy in a stroller with a bow?? There's just something wrong with that. I don't like to read anything that I don't believe could happen which is why I have no desire to see any of the Twilight movies. I went completely out of my comfort zone & read all the Twilight books & really enjoyed them but I just don't want to watch them. I'm Team Jacob by the way. The whole black hair, pasty white skin thing is not the least bit attractive to me. Anyway, I started this book at least 2 weeks ago & I've only read 100 pages. I normally read fast so this is really unusual for me. I haven't been reading as much as I usually do because thanks to my mama I'm obsessed with playing Bejeweled. Yes it only takes a minute to play a game but when you play like 100 games in a row it takes up some time. As if that wasn't good enough now she wants me to play Farkle. It's NOT HAPPENING mama!!!! I will not cave to the pressure like I did with Bejeweled.

So I've taken a break from the book. My friend Jackie has already read it & she said that it's good & I'll want to see how it ends. To be perfectly honest at this point I couldn't care less how it ends. It's pretty depressing too & I really don't want to read about depressing stuff. There's enough of that in real life.

Suffice it to say I think I'll enjoy the "worst book club ever" a lot more than the "real book club".

Toodles

Divine Intervention?

Thursday night I went to the Junior League Informational meeting. It was just down the street from my office so rather than go home after work & come back I went to the mall. I took care of a couple Christmas gifts & picked up a few things for myself. Of course everything was on sale & I had coupons! I bought myself 2 sweaters, a pair of shoes & the 2 Christmas gifts & I only spent $45! The shoes were my best deal, they were marked down to $9.97 & after the coupons they ended up being $8.50. Here they are.


Now, I think these are really cute summer shoes & I actually don't have any that color BUT there was another pair of chocolate brown ones that I LOVED! They were also on clearance for $9.97. Imagine my disappointment when the shoe lady came out from the back to tell me that she couldn't find the other shoe. REALLY? How do you lose a shoe when it's kept in the box in the back? Maybe it was God's way of telling me I really didn't need another pair of shoes. I know I didn't need another pair but really who buys shoes because they actually need them? Not me! It's all about want. Dean wasn't really excited about another pair but they were $8.50!!! He says my shoes are taking over the closet. Speaking of the closet, apparently, there was an incident the other day & Dean almost broke bones as a result of my shoes.

Because it took so long for the lady to try & find the other shoe I ran out of time before I could look around more so I went back Friday at lunch. The coupon I had was good thru Saturday. I was able to knock out several more Christmas gifts. It looks like the only things I have left to get are toys for some of the kids & the dads stuff. All of that is easy. I just have to psych myself up to go to the toy store. It's not my favorite place. I think I'll probably try Target first & leave Toys R Us as a last resort!

Dean went to his parents house after we had dinner Friday night because he was going fishing with his dad early yesterday morning. After he left I spent the evening catching up on all the stuff on the DVR while I glued lambs together. I got more than half of them done. This is what the finished product looks like.



I don't think they're very cute but I didn't design them. I just put together what was given to me.

I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday cleaning out closets. I can't believe I'm going to put this picture up but this is what our closet looked like before. I had already started taking clothes out that I was going to donate before I remembered to take the picture.



Yeh I know it's really really bad. Mrs. Joyce, please remember that this is not a reflection of me as a person. This is part of Dean's side.



He's really really neat! One day I'll have to show how neatly he folds t-shirts!

I have 3 huge black garbage bags filled with clothes, shoes & purses to donate. I'm donating 9 pair of shoes & that leaves me with 46 pair. I think I need to buy 4 more pair so I can have an even 50 don't you? I'll need another shoe rack though.

This is what it looks like now!






It's really nice to be able to see everything & not have to worry about stepping on anything!! I'm going to keep it this way because I DO NOT want to spend another Saturday cleaning it.

I also cleaned out one of the extra closets. It's very neat now but the space I freed up is now full of Christmas gifts. Which is why there are no pictures. You just never know who's reading!

I also finished the lambs while we watched that sorry excuse for a football game. I think LSU must be the worse 8-2 team in the country.

Since I did so much yesterday I'm rewarding myself with a lazy day today! I watched the Saints & was totally aggravated because Colston did nothing again. It looks as though No Thugs is going to lose to the other girl. Losing to Allison & Jill is one thing but this girl thinks we're stupid & don't know anything. You should've seen the way she looked at us during the draft. We were there to socialize first, draft second & this girl wasn't amused by that. Oh well.

I guess I need to start mentally preparing myself for another Monday.

Monkey Jemima?

Friday night was my last birthday dinner of the year. The girls & I went to Monjuni's. It was soooo good. Thanks Vicki! We had such a good time. Here we are.

Wendy, Me, Vicki, Allison & Jill. The waiter didn't know how to use Vicki's camera which is why we were laughing. I'm guessing he wasn't born when you actually had to look through a viewfinder.

Saturday the game was closer than I thought but the outcome was the same. I did get to see Lil Nicky throw a couple of fits but that's about all there is to say about that.

Sunday was Cody's birthday party. All the kids seemed to have a good time. It was good to see everyone although the kids were completely oblivious that we were there. Note to self - next time we're invited to a party at a jumpy place don't get there until time to open presents & eat. We stopped by the St. Aloysius Fair on the way home to check out the raffle. We were hoping to leave with $10,000 but it didn't happen. Oh well, there's always next year.

Then came Monday, WOW! I left my house about 6:45 in the morning to meet Allison at Cracker Barrel. We were spending the day at Market in New Orleans. We learned a lot of lessons the last time we were there. The first being to either eat well before you go or bring sandwiches. The food they sell at the convention center isn't that great & it's ridiculously expensive. Since I only eat sandwiches immediately after they've been made that meant we had to eat before we got there. We had a lovely breakfast & then off we went. The second lesson we learned was to take a picture of the level we were on in the parking garage so that we don't have to ride up & down the elevator looking for Allison's truck. That brings me to lesson #3 - go in my truck not Allison's. She has a nice size SUV or so we thought until we tried to get the "big ass picture" (which will now be known as the bap) in it. So, we've had a good breakfast, know we're on lower level 5 & have my Expedition. We're ready to shop! We got some great deals & some Christmas gifts but as in the past there were people and/or things we forgot to buy. The thing about Market is a lot of the booths have the same stuff but some at better prices than others. We're always leary to buy at the first place we see for fear we'll find it cheaper. We were beginning to get a little discouraged. We'd been shopping for like an hour & we hadn't bought ANYTHING! We did however make up for it in hour #2. That would be when we came across the pewter booth. I LOVE pewter serving pieces! I don't know why but I do. I was able to find a platter that matched the bowl I bought last year. Thank goodness you can bring all of your stuff out to the lobby & check it with the little mexican ladies for $3/bag. I don't know what we would do without that. Then we came across the bap booth!!! I love it. They have such pretty pictures & frames. I found one for our bedroom. We actually found a few that we liked but we eliminated one because the birds' eyes were evil & being that it was going in my bedroom I was afraid they'd oog me out & make me think they were following me. iPhones are wonderful inventions. I was able to take pictures of the other 2 pictures & email them to Dean so he could make the final decision. He picked the one I knew he would which just so happened to be my favorite of the two. While looking through the pictures we came across this one.

Doesn't it look like a monkey dressed like Aunt Jemima?? People probably thought we were crazy but me & Allison thought it was hilarious!

This is the one I got.


Aside from shopping, Allison was able to see first hand how weird things happen to me that I have nothing to do with & most of the time it has something to do with people of a Nese descent. It ranged from dirty looks to people thinking I worked there. People asked me questions & when I answered them they gave me dirty looks. It was crazytown as Allison would say.

Speaking of crazytown. We're shopping & we keep hearing this zapping sound. We couldn't figure out if one of the booths that we hadn't made it to were selling bug zappers or if there were actual bugs being zapped in the flourescent lights. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that it was neither. What was it you ask??? A STUN GUN! Seriously, they were selling them. It's a shame I didn't see that right when we came in. I would've loved to use it on that Nese lady.

So then it was time to pick up the bap, much to Allison's chagrin. We had a plan this time though. We were already starting off better than last time because the booth was close to the front of the convention center rather than all the way in the back. While I was waiting for the guy to get the bap another lady was picking hers up. I couldn't believe my eyes - she was buying a smaller version of Jemima Monkey!!! She looked like a perfectly normal lady. Weird. I left Allison outside with all of the goods & I went to get the truck. We could've bought a lot more stuff with all the room we had left. Oh well, maybe next time.

Bear Is DEAD

I haven't blogged this week because a great big bunch of nothing's been going on. I started on my cutting out lambs project. I've got 45 of the 75 cut out but no feet or faces or gluing them together but hey, it's progress.

Last night I went to Louisiana Nursery for their Christmas Open House. It was very nice. They had food, drinks & everything inside the store was 20% off. I picked up some ornaments. Everyone who knows me knows that I boycott stores on a regular basis for a multitude of offenses. I will never ever ever shop at Harb's Oasis because when I worked in the Classified Dept. he yelled at me for something that was his fault & then proceeded to call his employees stupid. I haven't set foot in a Super Walmart in at least 2 yrs. No one thing set me off it was just something every single time I was there. I decided life's too short to waste it in Walmart. I'm very good about adhering to the boycott usually. LA Nursery was on my list for a short time. The people that work there are the biggest snobs. I'm talking about the one on Perkins, I've never been to any of the other ones. I've had endless issues with this store. I know some of you are thinking maybe I'm the issue but Dean will attest that this isn't the case. The boycott was short lived due to my always wanting to do some sort of landscaping & the armadillo population of our yard. LA Nursery is the most convenient nursery to my house. Don't get me wrong. It's not convenient but it's the most convenient. Not to mention that during the boycott we bought plants at Lowe's & they died & the ones from the Nursery are still going strong. So, last night I'm paying for my ornaments & me being me I've already calculated in my head how much it should be with the discount & with tax. Well, it's more & when I question her she says "it took off the 20%" When I respond with "I don't think it's right" she says "ornaments add up quickly" so I say that I'd calculated it before I came up there. She says "well, let me check - OH, I charged you twice for one". Then she gives me my new total which was what I thought it should be. I know people make mistakes but she never apologized. So let this be a lesson that you must pay attention or at least check your receipts.

Tonight is the last day of the Traci Birthday Celebration. Not that much has been going on since last Friday anyway. I have a group of girlfriends that all get together for each others birthdays & go to dinner. The birthday girl chooses the place. I was trying to think of somewhere different to go but ended up with the same place as the last 2 years, Monjunis. The lure of the wedding cake martini was just too much. Not that Dean & I don't go there throughout the year, but what's more fun than drinking martini's with your girlfriends??? Not a lot! Besides, I LOVE LOVE LOVE their sweet sauce!

I'm only working until 12:30 today. I'm going to go home, plant myself on the sofa, watch the season premiere of the Real Housewives of Orange County on DVR (have I mentioned that I think the DVR is the greatest invention of all time??) & cut out some lamb. That will be followed by a nap!

Tomorrow is the much heralded LSU/Bama game. I am not one of the delusional people thinking that LSU will win this game. I've been wrong many times before & hopefully this is one of those times but I'm not counting on it. What I really hope is Bama makes a lot of stupid mistakes. I'm not a Saban fan but it's great to watch him completely freak out on the sidelines when one of his guys does something stupid. I need to clarify something, I'm not a Saban fan & it has nothing to do with him leaving LSU or going to Bama. I just think he's a jerk. Now, if lots of things happen & we have an opening for a head coach I would love to see him come back to LSU strictly because of how completely po'd the Alabama people will be. I don't like those people. I've had lots of experience with them. I just want to yell at them that hounds tooth is not stylish anywhere but in Alabama & that Bear is DEAD!!!

Later!

Artsy Much??

Yesterday, I went to a class to learn how to paint a Fleur de Lis. One of my friends that lives down the street set it all up. It was at the Arts Council of Baton Rouge. A big group of us went. It's set up like Corks 'n Canvas in that you bring food & wine. Let me just say, I'm not an artist. Scott got all of the artistic ability in the family. Then add wine to it, it's not going to be pretty. I just went along because I thought it would be fun. I haven't been to Corks 'n Canvas but another of the girls had & she said that the fleur de lis will be drawn on the canvas in pencil & we just fill it in. That I can do. I like to color. Imagine our surprise when we get there & we all have a totally blank, white canvas in front of us. Hmmm. Then the teacher starts class & she starts talking about depth & shadowing & highlighting. Yeh, you lost me at depth. I knew some of the ladies could draw & they just weren't fessing up. I also knew that one of the girls is an Architect so I made sure I sat at the opposite end of the table from her. Supposedly, I was amongst all the people that had no artistic ability. Imagine my surprise when this was my finished product



Not perfect, but I thought it was pretty good considering I was the one that painted it. Here's a pic of the whole group



My friend that lives next door invited me to join a book club. This one apparently is a real book club unlike "the worst book club ever" that I'm a member of. I'm pretty sure the real one isn't going to be as much fun as the worst one but I'm going to try it. The first book is "A Dirty Job". Has anyone ever heard of this book? I haven't.

I volunteered for the Giving Tree Ministry at our Church. This is something we do at Christmas to help with a bunch of different non-profit organizations around town. The Coordinator asked me to help make the ornaments that represent each organization. She told me she had 2 ornaments that need to be done & I could choose the one I want. I said it didn't matter. Maybe I should've gotten more information. This is what I have



I am supposed to turn all of that into 75 lambs. I'm a little nervous. I may have to enlist the help of Amelia-Ann. How pathetic is it that I may have to get an 11 yr. old to help??

It's almost time for the Saints game. No Thugs is currently losing with very little hope of beating Commissioner Ian. Colston MUST have the game of his life & it wouldn't hurt if Carney played well or at least didn't miss any FG's or extra points like last week. I'm afraid that I'm seeing the turning point of our season & that's not a good thing.

Toodles

Cole Slaw

This is so not a recipe blog for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being that I can't cook. Several people have asked about my cole slaw recipe. Obviously, if I can do it, it's simple. Also, I can't call it my recipe. We had it at a party & really liked it so I got the recipe. Here it is.

2 bags of cole slaw
1 bag of chicken ramen noodles - crushed (watch out when you're doing & don't poke a hole in the bag or you'll have noodles all over the place).
6-8 chopped green onions
1/2 head of broccoli - cut up in little pieces
Sunflower seeds (just use your judgement on how much you use)
Slivered almonds (use your judgement on these too)

Mix all of this together.

Dressing:
1 cup of vegetable oil
6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons of sugar
Seasoning packet from the Ramen noodles
Salt & Pepper to taste
Tony's

Mix all of this together & add it to the cole slaw.

Let me know how you like it!