I'm Back!

I've been back for a couple days now, this is just the first chance I've gotten to blog about it. Florida was great! HOT! But great. It was in the low 90s every day we were there. That didn't matter, we weren't outside much. We pretty much spent Saturday at the mall, Sunday was my grandma's bday (#81!)and we went to the beach and the lighthouse, Monday we went to a different part of the beach to our fav restaurant, then we left Monday afternoon. Busy busy! My grandma was feeling fine while we were there - just a little tired. No big headaches. She went to have an MRI and an MRA (anyone know what that is?) on tuesday and they found out that she had been having some mini-strokes. AAAHHH!!! I suppose a few mini ones are better than one big one. She's going to a neurologist later this week to find the next course of action. Scary stuff. She asked the doctor why she felt so okay while we were there, he told her it was because she was lonely. :( Anyway, here are some pics from our big weekend.... the little lady in the pink hat is my grandma. And yes, the hat says 'Yooper Girl' - she grew up in Manistique. The taller lady with the sour look on her face is my grandma's friend. Sour sums up her.

In unrelated-to-weekend news, my schwann's man is irritating me. He didn't come the last time he said he would. Then, I got home tonight and there was a note that he had been there sometime during the day and said he would be back this evening. It's now 9:36pm. grrr.... I was really looking forward to having a yummy lowfat treat tonight since I'm out of the cheapie ones I buy at walmart. No treats for my tonight. :(

In my next entry, I'll tell you all about the issue I had and am having with a little boy STEALING MONEY OUT OF MY WALLET at school. I'll give you all the juicy details next time. T is gone duck hunting this weekend so I'll have lots of time to blog blog blog away. :)

Another Sunday

I am noticing a trend. I seem to only update on Sunday nights. This week instead of boring you all with a recap of my weekend and all the details (although quick thing- we went to Cabela's - land of all things used to hunt all moving things - today and was fun), I thought instead I would ask for a little assistance.

On Friday, my mom and I are flying to Florida to be with my grandma for her 81st bday. This birthday will be very hard since this will be her first since my grandpa died in March. So, to make it extra-special, we're going to Disney for the weekend! We're going to Animal Kingdom on Saturday and Epcot on Sunday. We're staying at the Port Orleans resort. My question- anyone been there lately? Have any tips?!? The last time I was at Disney was when I was a junior in high school and we went for a science club trip. Why in the world was I in the science club you may ask, since science is something that I despise? So I could go to Florida!! Duh!! (Mimi: "FOLLOW THE HAT!!!!") When I was little, we went every year for spring break, but it has changed leaps and bounds since then. Help please!! I want this weekend to go so well. My grandma has had a really rough time these last few months - she and my grandpa were married for over 61 years - and she's kinda lost without him. We all miss him terribly. Anyway, any help would be appreciated! :)

In other news... I am pleased to say that I have lost NINE pounds since school has started! This all began when my doctor yelled at me "YOU WILL GET DIABETES" over and over until I cried. That was fun. She probably didn't really "yell", but it sounded that way to me in my exaggerated perception. Anyway, I've been on this yo-yo up and down weight cycle most of my life. I was at one steady and somewhat-healthy weight range for about 5 years. Then I got married. Instantly I gained like 20 pounds and could NOT get it to budge. I went to my doctor about it last christmas and she said that my metabolism basically revolted against me after having an incredibly stressful year of planning and building a house for 6 months, and then planning and having a wedding in the following 6 months. She said I was in such a hyper mode that once it was all over my body just wanted to rest. Thanks body. grr.... Anyway, the whole yelling episode really kicked my butt into gear and I've been doing something I bought off an infomerical - Turbo Jam. It's fun cardio and the girl who leads it and invented it is from MSU - yet another reason to love her! :) It's fun and it's working. Hallelu! Finally!

Have a good week everyone! I'll try to update again before I leave for the weekend. :)

weekend, etc

First of all, to all in the blogging world, Kim has a blog! I love when my friends have blogs- that seems to be the only way to keep in contact anymore. So if you're reading this, and you think, "wow, I wanna be cool too" get a blog! I will comment. Maybe sometimes. :)

This weekend was muffed at the beginning by an icky stomache bug which left me on the couch Thursday night and Friday night. Yuck. Still not much of an appetite, but I'm feeling lots better. Saturday T and I drove over to jenison to pick up the new truck from his parents. My mom calls it Clifford. As in the Big Red Dog. T's dad did a complete overhaul and then his mom got him some new tires. Whoohoo! It's a whole new old truck!

My Uncle Billy (actually great uncle) and his girlfriend came to visit my parents for a couple days from florida. They hadn't been here since we built the house, so they came over. The guys all watched football and my mom and judy and I went over to grandville to shop (yes, trip #2 to GR for me that day). Then we all met for dinner at Flat River Grill in Lowell. Absolutely De-LISH. We have never had anything that wasn't just fabulous there. Sorry for the use of the double negative there. Ugh. It was great to see them. Because they were coming, we didn't have to go to the boring Pheasants Forever banquet in Ionia. I don't mind it that much, but it was nice to have a year off.

Sunday we've spent at home. Actually, I did make one big trip to Walmart for groceries. That's all I've been outside all day. It's been great- having not much going on.

Right now I'm watching PBS. Most of you, I'm sure, don't care. But Brian Stoakes Mitchell is on. Oh. My. Gawwwwwwwd. It's a Great Performance from Carnegie Hall (I sang there!!) of South Pacific. Fabulous. Love It. I think I'll tivo it and watch it again tomorrow.

Back to school tomorrow. I actually have to teach five days. In a row. I haven't had to do that since May. I hope I can handle it. :) Have a good Monday everyone! :)

Attention Laides Part Deux

Some not-very-recent photos of Mr. Matt seemed to have surfaced in my email box. Props to EG and DF for bringing these lovely nuggets to my attention. Now come on people, let's band together and find this strapping Asian a girl!!

Relax people!!

Good gord. I don't post for a week and suddenly there's a coup on the blogger horizon. Sorry all!! I've been BUSY!!! The first week of school is the worst. Ummm... no real good stories yet. Nut update: the kid who wore the nut shirt on the first day wore another shirt about nuts the second day. Our principal had a little chat with him and now no nut shirts.

In other news... Tim is buying a new truck! And I mean "new" in the "used but new to us" sense. It's red. I'm not exactly thrilled. Everyone in T's family has a red vehicle. The joys of having the color in our last name. But it looks like the truck is in great shape and T is happy. We are trying to move off the lease track. My explorer is up next july (hooray!! happy dance!!) and we'll not be leasing something after that. So this weekend we will be trekking to Jackson to pick up the new ride. :)

So does everyone have big plans for the long weekend? It looks like Kelly will finally be able to move into her new house so I'll be helping her. Tim is putting in a new wood laminate floor at my parents' house so I'm sure I'll be there too. I accidentally forgot to water a bunch of my mom's flowers while they were in FLA and so now I need to help her with them. Dirt. Yuck. We're also going to T's parents' cottage for the annual "summer is over, out comes the dock" party. Other than that, ummm... nothing else going on. So how about YOU, random blog reader!?!?

school schmool

School started today. Yes, there is a law in Michigan now that says school must start after labor day. Did I miss Labor Day?!? NOPE! My school district is one of five in the entire state that already had a contract calendar negotiated for this school year. Oh joy, hooray for me. I had a great first day. I think I'm going to have a good year! :) I did have a couple interesting t-shirts that were worn by some students. One boy wore a shirt with a squirrel and 3 acorns that said 'Protect Your Nuts'. Appropriate for 3rd grade? I think not. I'm such a square. Then a hispanic girl wore a shirt that said 'Blondes Do It Better'. And she's not even blonde!!! She's not so good with english yet, so I don't think that she even knew what blonde was. Expect more funny stories courtesy of my precious little angels. :) Thank GOD tomorrow is Friday!!!!

Attention Ladies

This is my good buddy, Matt. He's a fun-loving guy. Here we are at Melinda's halloween party a few years ago. Matt is in need of a girlfriend. Seeing as how I am totally out of single friends, I am petitioning to the blogging world to see if any of you know anyone we could set this nice Asian up with. A little info on Matt: I met Matt in the dorm at WMU, he is a very smart guy, tells REALLY good jokes, he's good with computers, he lives in Grand Blanc and has his own house. He will probably come over and kick my butt for posting this, but he deserves a nice girl. So, any ideas- email me!

school

Sorry for the long delay in posts, but it's been busy busy around here. Last week I took the whole week to be at home - well, kind of. I was done with summer school and I just didn't want to go to that building for a week. So, I stayed home and recuperated from the wedding weekend and paid some attention to things that had been neglected around the house - including the dogs! :) Tuesday, K and I went to the new IKEA. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IKEA!! We spent about 3 hours there and got a truck-full. Then we went to Somerset in troy for some rich-people shopping. I always feel so poor there. But they have the Brighton store and Crate and Barrel. Fun place! :) We managed to make an entire shopping day and didn't get home until past dark. Good times. This weekend we had T's nephew with us to stay overnight and go play golf. He's just beginning, so I took him to the driving range in the afternoon. After he left the "hit it as hard as you can" mentality and actually started listening, he was doing pretty well. We played more golf Sunday with K & T up in Fremont. Their son is a little over a year old and now going through major separation from mom. She's a teacher too so she's home in the summer. I can't even imagine how heart-wrenching that must be to leave your child, screaming for you. I have a hard enough time when I leave and the dogs give me that sad face. But he did fine at the sitter's and we went back to their house for a great dinner. Now it's the week and it's back to school. I made it into my room yesterday and got everything all arranged the way I want it this year. I always my appreciate my 2 advanced degrees when I'm in my room shoving desks, tables and bookcases around to get them the way they were when I left in June. After 5 hours of sweating there, I came home and relaxed for a while before I had to go pick up my parents at the airport. It was a full day. Mom brought me a nice new wardrobe to go back to school! Who loves fun, loud, printed skirts?!? I DO! I DO!! Tomorrow mom and I take off for Chicago for more WICKED! This will be our 3rd time seeing it. It's soooooooooooooooo amazing. I can't wait!

Wedding!

This weekend M and V got married! :) It was a deliciously fun time. Friday night was rehearsal and everything went very smoothly. Then off to Beggar's Banquet we went! Yum yum yum! It was a perfect weekend for walking around East Lansing. T was so happy we were there that after we stuffed ourselves at beggar's, we had to take him to Melting Moments for ice cream. Saturday was a whirlwind of a day. M and I got our hair done in the morning, then it was back to the hotel to get ready to go to the church! M and V had rented a cargo van to schlep all of us attendants around. It was a great time in the van! Pictures went well - my mom had a fab time being the photographer (with all of her "equipment"!). The pics turned out very well. I'm hoping to post a bunch to my shutterfly site, but I have to do it at school - my dialup connection at home would take a year and half. The ceremony went very well. I had no idea that I would bawl like a baby when M made her grand entrance. She looked just beautiful and I guess the finality of it all hit me when she came in with her dad and gene. All the months of planning and all the work they did were so worth it. The ceremony seemed to fly by then suddenly we were all back in the van on the way to the reception. More good fun!! I stupidly immediately went to the bar when I got there, and then realized I still needed to be coherent for my toast. Luckily, M and V gave us notepads and sharpies so I could jot a few things down so I wouldn't forget anything important. Anyway, it was so wonderful to see all those people there for M and V and to celebrate the night away. It was a great party!! Sunday I was beat!! I just couldn't seem to get going. Therefore, today my plan is to get unpacked and start our mountain of laundry. Why did I pack 8 pairs of shoes?!? Right now M and V are on a plane headed for Vegas- I hope they have the best time and are able to relax after all the hard work of planning an event of this magnitude. Fun Fun Weekend!! :)

busy busy fun fun fun

Wow! It's been a whirlwind weekend. Friday was the "me, my mom and 1,000 of our closest scrappin friends" convention. I learned I need to invest in a bunch of equipment to be cool. I tried getting a new printer on ebay today, but I was bid out at the last second by some other bitch going in at the last second. Grrrr!! Anyway, it was awesome and I learned a lot. Then we had M's bachelorette party! Very small crowd, just what she wanted- we went to dinner, target for candy, beaner's for coffee, and back to my house for cheesy movies. I hadn't been up that late in well, ugh... I can't remember. Was lovely! :) Saturday was only the hottest day ever and I went to help K with some of her moving. Big job. Glad I'm in the house I will be in until doomsday. Saturday evening T and I had some of his work friends from St. Johns over. Too hot to do anything outside, so we had a ping pong tourney. I love the pingage. So fun. I lost, but I didn't care. That much. These were practically strangers I didn't want them to think we invited them over just to watch them be humiliated by our pp prowess. HA! We were much better this winter- we're kinda out of practice. Ahhh.... which leads us to Sunday. The only day in like the past year where we had NO plans. And it even happened on a weekend. A-maze-ing. I read the WHOLE paper, slept in, didn't take a shower until after 3pm, it was just a super day. Although with the storm, our power was out for about 8 hours. That's become a very normal occurance around here. The wind gently rustles the leaves, and POOF! out goes the power. So we ran the generator (aka the best investment we ever made), so we could still do important things- like watch the satellite and go on the internet. After dinner, we went to portland to the chocolate moose (who make the most awesome homemade ice cream ever) and when we came back - there was power!! :) Hooray!! Let the week begin...

Good idea Jess!

You are a Rocker Girl!

If you don't have musical talent, you've got a talent for picking out great CD's. Music rules your life - and you've got the best MP3 collection of anyone you know. Many guys find you intimidating, but a select few think you're the catch of a lifetime. Start hanging out in more used record stores, and you'll find love with a fellow rocker!

What Kind of Girl Are You?

chocdogmama

So why am I the Chocolate Dog Mama? My husband and I have 2 chocolate labs - they're our entertainment. The "old man" is Smokey (left) - he's 8 but with hip issues, allergies, and seperation anxiety, he seems a lot older than that. He also has the loudest bark you ever would hear. He's our guard dog - that is if someone comes up the driveway while he's not sleeping. He sheds and sheds and sheds and sheds. He makes these funny noises - half groan, half sigh. Smokey's past times are stealing your spot on the couch when you get up, and farting. They're not just the normal silent-dog-fart. Some of them are so loud that you would have thought all he subsided on were refried beans and broccoli. No such luck- only Pro Plan. Our youngin' is Remy- short for Remington. He has the shiniest, softest coat of any dog I've ever known. He also has what I refer to as "wild eyes". He can be hyper, crazy, skiddish, and altogether goofy. Remy will not step on slippery floors. Our hardwood floors are covered with rugs which is called "remy's runway". He also has a sweet baby side of him. I call him my "cuddle bug" - he is known to steal your couch spot too, but he will always slide over so he can climb onto your lap. I took this picture last winter after I had bought some soft underwear that had little stickers that said "feel me". I thought they looked really funny on the dogs' heads. T did not agree. I was able to snap this momento quickly before the stickers came off. They're my babies! :)

scrappin!

I have been all about scrapbooking lately. I finally have my "area" all settled in the basement. Now I just need a satellite receiver down there so I can really spend some quality time with my paper and stickers. I realized that I have 4 albums that I want to work on. Ummm... timeline for completion... I don't even want to think about that. Friday I'm going to the Scrapbook Convention in GR- I'm hoping that it's not just me and a bunch of bored housewives oogling over the newest lines of eyelets and adhesives.

over

Another weekend has ended. But it's been a great one! Two words: Paddle Boat. :) The used paddle boat that I bought last fall was finally launched on Saturday. It's been out on our "big lake" 3 times now. I even was able to go all by myself once. I'm hoping to be able to go again during the day this week. My legs will be quite sore tomorrow, I have a feeling.

home!

T came home yesterday! Hooray! The dogs are elated to have their dad back. All day he's been mowing - maybe I'll get to see him again tonight.

In my time off from school, I have rediscovered tv programming geared toward women. How much do I love discovery health, WE!, Food network, and Lifetime. The Birdcage is on WE! right now. Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, AND Ally McBeal Flockhart - what a wonderful day!! :) Whatever will I do when school starts again!?!? Praise God for TiVo.... :)

uno

Well, what do you know?!? I've jumped on this blogger bandwagon. It's summer, so I have the time to spare. What will I talk about?!? What do I want the world to know about me, my life, etc? Well, here's a go...

Golfing. I've been doing a lot of that lately. T has been in ohio for the week for a dumb work thing, so I've been golfing. I had a lesson this afternoon and I improved 6 strokes from when I played 2 days ago. The golf pro is a genius!! Anyway, today it was much more fun and much less frustrating. Tomorrow we have league so I hope to do well again.

The dogs are missing T very much. Smokey has been unusually more flatulent lately. Lucky me. He comes home tomorrow. Thank goodness!

I'm trying very hard not to have sugar. Ugh. I've been so good about the no pop thing - none since April! :) It's soooooo difficult. I keep looking at my dress for M's wedding and hoping that I can be good a while longer and maybe won't have to wear the industrial-strength sucky-innie girdle. Just the medium-strength one! What a horrible word - giiirrrrrrrrrdddddddddllllleeee. There's no other nice way to say it. My mom and I started calling them "band-aids" a while back. That's a little better than the g word. Although it has caused some strange and confusing conversations when discussing an outfit. Is this appropriate to talk about on a blog?!? I guess if you don't want to know, stop reading!! :) Nevermind, I'm done talking about it.

Well, I suppose that's all for my first post. See ya round next time.