Spicy!

In between trying to get my dog knocked up and making the invites to my boys' shared b-day party, I found the time to run to Sally's blog and see this fun gem. I immediately took that survey, because I had just read Arianne's rant about onions and I thought that was a great coincidence.

You Are Cayenne Pepper

You are very over the top and a bit overwhelming. You have a fiery personality, and you can give anyone a good jolt. You can easily take things up a couple notches, no matter what crowd you're running with.

What Spice Are You?

What's yer verdict on this one? True or False? And what spice are you??? (click link above)

Here I am...Rock you like a hurricane

Okay, so I've been super busy. We had Spring Break and compound that with Brandon rearranging and upgrading my daily computer. I mean, I now know what it feels like to be a regular mom, not some slave to blogs. Yay? So I am using a laptop for now, (which I hate). I have this one post below because the pictures were saved here earlier. As for future posts, I'm trying to get my "real live daily driver" of a computer ready so I can be back in full force. Or I could sit in front of the TV, where Brandon has taken our normal computer and made it into an HD Tivo for us. And while I'm not complaining about that, I just need some normalcy. So until that day, bear with me. I'm sorry. And some day soon, I'll be back to the snarky comments.

This is Purse-onal. ha...Get it?

So a couple of my froggers, or BBFs have posted pics of the inside of their purses. I thought, "What fun". And then I opened mine up. Let me preface this fiasco with the purse I transferred to is much bigger, and has fabulous pouches and slots and stuff to hold and organize the stuff I have in it now. It's not so horrendous. There, with that out of the way, here we go.

I love this bag. Slouchy and cute. But it only has one tiny zippered pocket to hold things. So it ends up as a conglomeration of Mess at the bottom.

First off, from top left, going clockwise: iPod Touch, YAY, giant wallet, checkbook, (also found an empty check register at the bottom) some adorable tissues from Old Navy, MANY batteries for my sucky camera, dental floss (I don't know why that's in there, I don't floss), a way too small extra memory card, various lipsticks and glosses and some gum. (oh, and the toothpaste, seriously, no idea) My cell, my sister's coupon book for the outlets, a couple of dollars, coupon holder, a bunch of trash (including an empanada wrapper from Taco Bell and sucker wrappers), and a bunch of credit cards, gift cards, store cards.
A newspaper from the area I used to live (got it at the Dr's office) and various papers (coupons, loan documents, craft coupons, receipts up the yin-yang)
I didn't even show you the extra napkins I keep in there. Blah. How depressing was that? But the good thing is, I did finally transfer purses and the new one has 4 pockets on the outside. One holds all my craft coupons and such, one for lipsticks, camera, receipts....it's heavenly. And I bought a small container of wipes to keep in there instead of wadded up napkins. Okay, now just picture my house like that: Paperwork everywhere, and a bunch of crap that I have put off putting away. Bleh.

Thanks for the Mammories

UPDATE: She had a sweet little girl.

Let's not say how many weeks ago this was, but it was about 3...

All my girls from the townhouses [except Christine (we couldn't get a hold of her) and Brenda (who lives in Cali.)] got together for a Girl's Night dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We've been trying for awhile, but since Melissa was due with her 3rd baby the next week, we made it happen. We ate great food, walked around the mall and chatted till the cows came home (us...ha ha ha ha).

Here's my favorite of Liz and Melissa.


A "normal" one:

Here's the other side of the table: Adalie (who is not a blogger *gasp*), me and Amy.

Finally, we got a whole group shot, after the table was a huge mess, but alas...


(On a side note ladies, most of the pictures STILL came back with red eye in them, even with the extra obnoxious flash...blah)

And not interesting to anyone but me, here are pics of the food. Amy chose a Santa Fe salad
I had avacado eggrolls

Melissa chose the chicken mediera (sp?)

And Liz and Adalie both had the something Farfalle? ha ha
And then as I went to the bathroom, they (Liz and Melissa) hijacked my camera for some beautiful candid shots of

A lady's colorful tattoo
Our waitress, who did not have any helpful start-your-labor tips
And an artsy photo of the inside of a glass of coke?
Oh ladies, how I love you and miss you. And still to this day, I think of all the talk about boob jobs.

And after being a week overdue, Melissa's doctor was finally back in town and is supposed to be inducing her today. So maybe in the next couple hours, there will be a new Shippen baby!! They chose not to find out the sex of the baby, so I'm excited to find out what it is!

It's a Major Award!

Not this:
But This:

My deary McMommy has awarded me/Bree with one half of her bloggy best friends jewelry.

Here is my acceptance speech taken from her comments section:

Though I do not drink mojitos, nor do I drink wine, I shall celebrate in my own very special way, by eating Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds right in front of this very screen, as I enjoy the limelight that has been so lovingly placed right on me (and Bree) in my grey pj's. Thank you McMommy, for all your support and love, and most of all.... (gotta go, my cereal's getting soggy. It is HBOO after all)

How Do You Even Pronounce Meme????

Is it just meem? Who named it? Why don't I know the history??

5 Things Meme

First, the rules

1. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
2. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment letting them know they've been tagged and to ask them to play along and to read your blog.


What I was doing ten years ago...

1 Being rebellious
2 Ditching school
3 Rolling my Step-Dad's Rodeo (sorry about that)
4 Working at Sizzler making lousy tips
5 Having boy troubles


Five things on my to-do list today...

1 Did I mention I don't do lists? Which is why my house is in shambles.
2 Take a shower and defuglify
3 Make dessert for a dinner party of 10
4 Finish cleaning up the last of the pans from Ebelskivers last night (which took an hour to cook)
5 Make a couple birthday cards


Five snacks I enjoy...

1 chips & salsa & guacamole from Los Hermanos
2 Oreos (I just had 8) (or 10) (shut up)
3 Girl Scout Cookies
4 Have you seen my love handles?
5 Pineapple till my tongue hurts


Five things I would do if I was a billionaire...

1 Have servants... but still make my kids do chores (bwu ha ha ha ha ha ha)
2 Buy a fabo house. Not too big, cause that's just sad. Just a couple steps over our needs should
do it. But with a guest house. And have a few of them sprinkled all over the country---strike that---- world.
3 I don't know. It seems lame to have 5 options. The sky's the limit basically, right?
4
5


Five of my bad habits....

1 I pick my nails into utter oblivion. Seriously, it's crossed the line into mental defect.
2 I put stuff off forever....I should have had this done last week
3 I'm too into the internet
4 I never finish things
5


Five places I have lived....

1 Born in North Carolina (which is why Bree is my soul sista)
2 San Diego, CA
3 Nashua, NH
4 Palm Desert, CA
5 Many cities throughout Utah (I love to move)


Five jobs I've had....

1 My main employer through high school was a jewelry store where I did several different things
(glued "fake diamonds" into gold award pins, did office work, worked on the sales floor)
2 Server at Sizzler
3 Sales at The Gap, where I met Brandon in the dressing room
4 Bookkeeper for a law firm that collected on bad checks (loved that job, then had a baby)
5 Kiosk sales at the mall for 3 Christmases in a row. Sold cake, cookie, pancake mixes. All so
yummy. Fun job. How hard is it for me to pitch baked goods? I was a rock star.


Tag, you're it!! (I've never tagged anyone, as I hate it, so here goes)

1 Sally - Mustang Sally (Or Snarky Sal is her other nickname- check out her new kitchen redo)
2 Arianne - Little Pink Houses - My greatest competition on the Wii....ha
3 Ange - Ang Stuff Didja notice I spell her nickname different than her? ha ha!! We've been friends for 10 years, so she should mention something about meeting moi.
4 Adriene - The Wrights: 3 Girls and a ....Daddy My sis-in-law who's just starting her blog.
5 Sara - The Egberts Another sis-in-law, who started the original Elementary woe for me with
her PHD rating on her blog.

and a #6 because my bday is the 6th..and I want to give her something to do

6. Melissa - The Shippen Family She's my oldest and bestest neighbor girl who's at her due
date with a GIGANTIC baby, twiddling her thumbs. So get on it babe and tag the other
girls we know too. Maybe it'll get your labor started. ha

Oooo, all of these fine ladies are people I actually know and love. Yay for them!

Don't Be Jealous

I was minding my own business this morning, opening my email as usual, when I happened upon one in my junk mail folder. Boy, am I glad I opened it! I can only imagine what opportunities would have passed me by if I had not checked in time and it had been deleted forever!

Here is the message:

I AM MR. CHING WONG A CITIZEN OF HONG KONG WORKING WITH Hang Seng Bank . I HAVE A BUSINESS PROPOSITION FOR YOU. PLEASE AND PLEASE DO NOT BE EMBARASED,I AM SEEKING YOUR ATTENTION TO HELP ME TRANSFER THE SUM OF (Twenty MILLION DOLLARS). If you will be so kind enough to grant me the permission, I will be glad to give the details.MOREOVER, I AM WILLING TO OFFER YOU 40% OF THE TOTAL SUM AS COMPENSATION FOR YOUR EFFORT/INPUT AFTER THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSFER OF THIS FUND INTO YOUR NOMINATED ACCOUNT OVERSEAS. PLEASE REPLY AT chingwonn@hotmail.com

I am so excited! I will be so rich, I will never blog again! I will have my new servants take turns doing it for me. It will probably be better anyway. Now maybe I shouldn't have posted this, because some of my "friends" will want to take this opportunity for themselves...Don't do it!!! This is MINE. I will contact Ching Wong at my earliest convenience!! I am SOOO lucky!!!

See ya suckers!!

We're Back In Business

Oh Dearest of the Dear Husbands:
You are quite a mechanical man. I sing your praises every time the warm air blows.



Thursday night, our furnace-knowledgeable neighbor agreed with Brandon's diagnosis and promptly got us the replacement gas valve that we needed on Friday. Brandon promptly and in such a manly manner, installed it. And we went out to Fuddruckers to eat heavenly hamburgers while the house warmed up. Everyone Cheer. Cue the weekend of warmth. Yay.

Electorated

While the furnace was out, I was stupidly trying to heat the main floor with a space heater. Eamon walked by it, tripped on the cord and it came unplugged. He was walking off, and I said, "Well, plug it back in..."

**Not an actual picture of our outlet**

He took the plug, went over to the outlet, and then backed away.

"No! I can't! I'll get electorated!!!"


I'm just glad he remembered something Brandon taught him.

When Hell Freezes Over

Our heater went out 2 mornings ago. Something to do with the gas valve. Anyway, it's finally been diagnosed, and the part will hopefully be put in later today. Yesterday and the day before were tolerable and by using 2 space heaters, our main floor averaged about 66 degrees the first day, 62 degrees yesterday, and a balmy and FREEZING 59 degrees today. I'm dyin' ova heeya.

So these pictures represent the newest remodel effort... From this:

To hopefully this:

What's More Exciting Than Lint?

I had washed a bunch of blankets; throw blankets, quilts, crap blankets....and after pulling the load out of the dryer that had this red throw in it, I found this in the lint trap.


And remember, this is only from one load. Here I demonstrate just how thick it is.

This is joyous to my soul. I LOVE thick dryer lint! It only comes about once in a great while, but I do treasure those moments. And now I'm required to fold all these blankets instead of put them around my freezing body.

The Housicle Update........Something to report

As Cara stated before, it was supposed to be on the news the other night, but due to some breaking news, it was bumped, trashed, abandoned......or was it? I was at work yesterday morning and my co-worker said that someone he knew just called him to tell him that they saw yet another teaser for the story, only this time it was to be on that morning. Chris quickly called his dad so that through the miracle of modern technology, he could record it. while it may not be the prime time 10 o'clock news, it was still on the news and I am dang proud. See honey, I am worth something!

Breaking News---Nothing to Report

Update:

Sorry to all those I called after 9pm last night to tell them to watch. The list is long, and now that means there were a ton of people sitting there through "Breaking News". Basically the whole newscast (except weather) was bumped for this story. A little girl went missing 2 days ago, and all signs in the breaking news story pointed to them finding her body. Of course it is a tragedy, of course a lot of people were worried about her, searching for her. But they didn't have any information to give about it till about 10:30 when there was finally a press conference. So they just filled time for half an hour, which is why I don't watch the news. So sure, the Housicle isn't as important as all that, but still...We were mucho disappointed. And I wish I could play it off as a prank of our own, like "Ha ha, we FOOLED you all!!" but that would add to the embarrassment. Blah..

This Just In---Housicle Great--News at 10

Brandon called me today to say there was going to be some story done about the Housicle. (link included if you're just joining us) Blahbity blah, there weren't able to get interviews and such done for it, so we were like, guess not.

Flash forward to dinner time, and the infamous Stew from the video calls and says he saw some promo on Channel 5 about some office prank. So I've called a bunch of people to tell them to watch, and we'll hope no one's disappointed. Maybe they'll just show the video, I have no idea. But anyway, we thought it was pretty cool. It's up to 286,929 hits on YouTube. yee haw.

We Didn't Start the Fire (Eamon did)

So I was on the phone talking to some lady about getting an insurance quote, and I could see Eamon in the kitchen. He's up on the counter and I tell him to get off. Next thing I know, he has a napkin, still standing on the counter (in his underwear, so you can picture the mischievous guy). I tell him to get off the counter. I look down for a second at my desk, look over, and there are small flames on top of the stove. I had my beautiful candle burning there, and Eamon took the napkin and started it on fire. I swore (with the nice lady on the phone) and ran over. Wasn't a huge deal, cause it was just a napkin, but it's ablaze. I threw a dish towel on it to smother it, everything's fine. The lady's like, "Is everything okay?" "Yeah, my 3 year old just started a fire. Could you please insure my home...?" Laughter ensues. Hopefully I haven't been flagged by this company as a DO NOT ACCEPT candidate.

Now, even though it's late, and no one will read this till tomorrow, this is NOT a prank. It's fo realz. Here's the proof, a scorched napkin in the trash. Boy do those sooty embers get all over. They're like feathers.

And this is only half an hour after he peed his pants in the bathroom and pours out all my cheapy bubble bath in the empty tub. (He thought he would luxuriate in the bath)

But I did save a bunch of money on my car insurance....

April Fools Rules (but not for me)

My sis-in-law Sara just sent me this email..


bike accident‏
From: Sara
Sent: Tue 4/01/08 3:05 PM
To: Cara

Hey family, Just wanted to let you all know that Rob got in a bike accident this morning on his way to school. The ex ray showed that his left tibia (shinbone) and patella (kneecap) are both broken. He's in the hospital right now and doing okay. Feel free to give him a call on his cell phone.
-Sara

So I wrote back that that sucks for them being Spring and all...(they are very active)

Her response???

Re: bike accident‏
From: Sara
Sent: Tue 4/01/08 3:27 PM
To: Cara

April Fools!

Nice, real nice. OH, new development, my Mom just emailed me. "Did you hear about Rob's accident??" Geeeez. They are too too good. I was thinking of blogging that I would be closing down my blog, but you would all be like, 'Been there, done that last week.' And everything that I think of sounds too morbid. "Brandon lost his job", "I'm pregnant" (not morbid, but would be like the delight of the world, so that would be rude), "The plumbing is flooding the laundry room" (too lame). So Sara, ya got me. And I can't even promise that I'll get even, cause I won't be able to. I'm still trying to think of something for Brandon, but we shall see. I'll let you know.

Tetanus Anyone?

Thursday I walked around my van, stepped on something, and when it went into my foot, I finally took notice. Here is the offender.

Here is the hole in my shoe.
Here is the mostly healed hole in my foot.

I know, nothing great, but I did have to go get a Tetanus shot the next day. Yippee!
It was a roofing nail, and I blame Brandon. Though that Saturday he stepped on one that went into his big toe. So there's his payback! HA!

Something's Not Quite Right

This morning I was looking at Eamon's pajamas. They were a little funny looking. He put them on with one of the legs as the waistband. Check out his right leg. You can see the elastic.

Not the best post in the world, but it's a post.