Birthday Wishes

It's my bestest friend's birthday today so it's the most special day of the year! This gomer (as I say this with love) has been there for me since way back in 1993. We have said that we don't really remember not being best friends. We met and that was that. Sorta like love at first sight, but not.
This woman is probably the strongest person I know. The things that she has gone through in her life with her head held high is amazing. Sure, she had her days/weeks/months that she needed someone to shove their foot up her ass to get her moving, but all in all she's done everything on her own... for herself and her munchkins.
So today I say Happy Birthday to my bestest friend. Yep, she's better than best - she's bestest. And I love her just as much as I would love my own flesh & blood.

If you would... I'd love for her to be slammed with birthday wishes over at the forums that I co-own/admin with her. The thread is here.

You realize there are 26 letters in the alphabet?

Sunday Stealing: The A to Z Meme

A
• Are you available?
For what? To babysit? To design a t-shirt for you? Specifics. Doesn't anyone realize things can be taken in so many ways?
• What is your age?
36
• What annoys you?
Slivers in my fingers

B
• Do you know anyone named Billy?
I've known people named Billy. Past people.
• When is your birthday?
in December. I like daisies.
• Who is your best friend?
Kimberella is my best friend, but Melissa is my bestest friend. Yes, they are different. It gives Melissa that small upper hand. Nothing against Kimber it's just that Melissa was there first.

C
• What's your favorite candy?
Seriously?
• Crush?
Wasn't this asked a few weeks ago? I still have some of that Grape Crush in the fridge...
• When was the last time you cried?
oh crap, I don't know.

D
• Do you daydream?:
Too often. Then the dog barks or something and snaps me back into my real life.
• What's your favorite kind of dog?
Golden Retriever, especially mine
• What day of the week is it?
It's Saturday. And I'm home again tonight... like I have been the last 150 some Saturdays. Sometimes it sucks being a wife & mom.

E
• How do you like your eggs?
sunny-side up
• Have you ever been in the emergency room?
a couple times. Different reasons.
• Ever pet an elephant?
Yeah, from the top of it.

F
• Do you use fly swatters?
No. The dog catches them.
• Have you ever used a foghorn?
I had to ask someone what that was and no I haven't. Haven't used the rooster either.
• Is there a fan in your room?
on the ceiling

G
• Do you chew gun?
what else do you do with gum?
• Do you like gummy candies?
are we fighting wars against them? Worms vs Bears? Go worms!!!
• Do you like gory movies?
Of course! Love them! Although Hostel was a little too real - that one freaked me out.

H
• How are you?
just fine, how are you? Do you even care because nobody really wants to know the answer to this question when they ask you it.
• What's your height?.
5'5".
• What color is your hair?
today it's light brown - next week, blonde.

I
• What's your favorite ice cream?
chocolate peanut butter
• Have you ever ice skated?
yeah, but mostly on my ass
• Ever been in an igloo?
can't say that I have

Christ on a crutch... we're only on "J"????

J
• What's your favorite Jelly Bean?
the one I'm eating at the time
• Have you ever heard a really hilarious joke?
WTF??? kind of question is this??
• Do you wear jewelry?
rings, belly button ring and earrings. Anything else you wanna know?

K
• Who do you want to kill?
whoever came up with the idea to have 3 questions for every letter of the alphabet.
• Have you ever flown a kite?
Yes. My answers are going to be simple from here on out.
• Do you think kangaroos are cute?
when they are first born they are ugly as hell - they look like a blood clot.

L
• Are you laidback?
Not anymore
• Lions or Tigers?
Leopards.
• Do you like black licorice?
Do you like a hot poker in your eye?

M
• Favorite movie as a kid?
Bambi
• Ever shopped at Moosejaw?
at where?
• Favorite store at the mall?
the ones that aren't in the mall. I hate malls.


N
• Do you have a nickname?
a few
• Whats your favorite number?
oh shut up
• Do you prefer night or day?
day

O
• What's your one wish?
for someone to shorten the alphabet
• Are you an only child?
no
• Do you like the color orange?
sure.

P
• What are you most paranoid about?
doing next week's meme
• Piercings?
I went through this already
• Do you know anyone named Penelope?
no

Q
• Are you quick to judge people?
usually
• Do you like Quaker Oats?
no
• Know anyone that makes quilts?
yes
• Do you think you're always right?
no because I'm usually wrong
• Do you watch reality TV?
not if I can help it
• Reason to cry?
I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.

S
• Do you prefer sun or rain?
sun
• Do you like snow?
only on Christmas morning
• What's your favorite season?
spring

T
• time is it?
time to type faster
• What time did you wake up?
today or March 13th 1997?

U
• Can you ride a unicycle?
I don't know, never tried
• Do you know anyone with a unibrow?
I think so
• Uncles do you have?
Love the grammer.

V
• What’s the worst vegetable?
asparagus
• Did you ever watch Veggie Tales?
no
• Ever considered being vegan?
are you kidding me? There's a reason we learned to hunt.

W
• What's your worst habit?
doing Sunday Stealing. Ok maybe not, but if feels like it right now.
• Do you like water rides?
No. I hate it when my swimsuit goes up my butt
• Ever been inside a windmill?
you can go in them?

X
• Have you ever had an x-ray?
yes
• Ever used a Xerox machine?
oh shut up. Please. Or shoot me.

Y
• Do you like the color yellow?
Yes.
• What year were you born in?:
2 years into the 70s
• Do you yell when you're angry?
yes... can't you hear me?

Z
• Do you believe in the zodiac?
the killer?
• What's your zodiac sign?
that half man half horse freak.
• When was the last time you went to the zoo?
last summer. I'm due for another trip there.

Thank God I'm done with THAT! Less questions next week, guys. Holy crap.

Blogging the day away

I'm bored. I should be working, but I'm not. Can't think of anything good today, plus it's almost noon and thats when my brain shuts down so I might as well not start anymore today. I should go work on my husbands site some more, but I don't wanna. He wanted a facelift and, of course, sucked me into doing it. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've done anything to a website? Grrr. I had to sit there looking at the code for awhile to figure out what I was doing.
Not to mention the site was originally done in frames.... yuck. My first order of business was to get rid of those! So I did a half-ass job on it and hubby is content with it, so I'm happy. I'm not happy with the job I did because I think it looks tacky, but oh well. Maybe I'll dive into it again later.

I don't miss building websites, thats for sure. I'll stick to making this blog pretty and doing the CSS coding on my shops.

So it's raining and taking all our snow away with it. The roads are full of mini-lakes because, of course, most of the drains are covered in snow. That reminds me... I have to go fix our gutter so the water doesn't leak into our garage.

The Chico dog has this wierd stomach thing going on. He's laying about 4 feet from me and I can hear his stomach gurgling! Not kidding! He was doing it yesterday, too. I felt so bad for him that I gave him a couple saltine crackers. My bestest friend laughed at me, but what would you do? Saltines was the only thing I could think of! I wasn't going to give him a Tums.

Painted my fingernails red today.

Kids are expensive. Demon #1 had an eye doctor appointment today and $250 later she has new frames & lenses. Why can't she just squint to see the board at school? Cripes.

I'm making pork chops for dinner tonight. The husband hates it when I make pork chops. See, I have this addiction to pork chops, I could eat them every night, but he doesn't like them as much. So I get to hear him protesting every time I make them. Too bad. I cook, we eat what I want.

I watched Walk The Line last night for the 23rd time. Another one of my addictions is Johnny Cash and anything that has to do with him. How can you not love the man? Every time that movie is on I'm sucked into watching it... the love story of him & June is the ultimate love story - right down to the very end. Everyone knew Johnny couldn't live without June, so his death was so expected.

Demon #1 has a whole bunch of Johnny Cash songs on her iPod... how cool is that? I got my addiction from my mom, seems right that I passed it on :)

I don't think I have anything else to say right now......

Blogs Hunting Volcanos While Dealing With Angry Celebs Eating Pickles And Much More!

Wow I suck. I haven't blogged for a week. A whole fricken week. Nevermind the fact that there really wasn't anything to blog about, but is there ever really?

Although, I just read that they found a fossil of a snake that was big enough to eat a cow and probably ate crocs for snacks. Thats a big damn snake! Could you imagine that mofo coming after you in a field? I'd crap my pants.

So it's Thursday... ok, I lied. It's Wednesday. Night. But I'm posting this for tomorrow, but I'm publishing it today. None of that made any sense, did it? Well it'd be awful silly for me not to do the meme I do with Kimber. I got out of doing it this week, because it was Kimber's turn. So if you play and you think the questions suck, don't blame me - I didn't do it.

Onto the good stuf.

This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Kimber, the color Red and the number 82.

1. What is one of your favorite blogs to read? Why is it your favorite?

• Kimber & Melissa's. Because they are my best friends and sometimes thats the only way I know how things are going on thier lives. And as I was getting the link to Melissa's blog I just realized she had a baby a month ago! Holy shit! What a way to find out about my best friend's baby!!!! How rude!
  

2. Have you ever been hunting?

• Yeah, you got a problem with that? I hunted squirrels and deer. Never shot a thing though.
  

3. Do you live near any active volcanos?

• Not that I'm aware of.
  

4. If VH1 came out with a new reality show called Celebrity Anger Management, who would you most like to see on the show?

• Depends. Who's on it?
  

5. Would you drink horse's milk if offered?

• My initial thought is FRICKEN GROSS ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? But then again, if I never had cows milk I'd probably feel the same way.
  

6. Do you buy pickles? If so, what do you do with the juice after all the pickles are gone?

• Drink it. Doesn't everyone?
  

7. Do you have a myspace or Facebook account?

• Both, but I only use Facebook. Religiously. Addiction-type behavior.
  

8. Facial hair on men, yea or nay?

• Have you met my husband? What do you think?
  

9. Do you know anyone personally who is stockpiling stuff for WWIII or a date they think will be the end of the world (i.e. 12/2012)?

• No. Are there people out there who are?
  

10. Have you downloaded Skype and use it?

• Yes and yes. Would you like to add me?? Today I found out my webcam can make me look like I'm an alien.
  

11. Have you ever been stuck by cacti?

• Yes.
  

12. Do you still have packed boxes from your last move you have yet to unpack? If so, how long have they been there?

• Nope... that was 10 years ago. If there is some, they should be thrown out without looking at the contents because obviously I haven't needed any of it.
  

13. Ever have a toxic friend you had to break ties with to save your sanity?

• Two of them, different times in my life. I breathe much easier without the toxins in my body.
  

FYI: Yes... I knew Missy had her baby! I was there the day after!!!!!!!

Thawing out

We are finally thawing out. Yesterday morning we broke a record in our area with -33 degrees. Thats a big fat F behind that, not a C. It's been a cold week, let me tell you! When it's 1- or 20 degrees you can easily run outside for something without a coat on, but not when it's -30. You have to bundle up just to open the front door.
Not to mention my poor furnace couldn't keep up. Thats what I get with having a boiler and hot water heat. There is no instant heat, and no circulating of the air when we are all sleeping. Hopefully now the poor thing can catch a break... woke up to 15 degrees this morning and after this last week - that's a heat wave!
I am so sick of our roads being covered with ice & snow, too. We haven't been over freezing in weeks, so the roads just stay as they are. When it's this cold the salt & chemicals that they put down doesn't do any good. Once it hits 20-30 degrees they will and then... well then I'll be bitching about the slushy sloppy mess that's out there.

Yesterday Kimber & I were both having a blast on the forums. Most of the time it seemed like we were just talking to ourselves, but man it was fun! But I think I realized that Kimber has a crush on me during the process. Hmmm I'll have to start watching what I say to her from now on, I don't want her to get the wrong idea or anything.
Call this another shameless plug or just a bit of whining, but I'm really frustrated with the forums right now. No matter how much Kimber & I post it seems that nobody replies. We have a good, small group of people who log in multiple times a day, you would think we would have something to read whenever we log in... but it seems like it's only if her & I post. We need new blood. I absolutely love that CruelPaul joined up a few weeks ago... he's a snowmobiling buddy of the husband's... he's a hoot. He's so fun. But that reminds me that he didn't receive a very warm welcome from our members at all... in fact I've noticed that quite a few of them have not even acknowledged the fact that he's even there. A simple "hi" or "welcome" in his introduction thread would have been nice. But at least Nicho is liking having him there... I haven't seen Nicho post this much for years.
Like I said, we need new blood. New blood to go in and shake things up a bit. Different opinions, different views, different personalities.

Another whine of mine is I still can't shake this damn cold I've had for over a week. Thats really why my blogging has gone to almost nothing. I'm sick of this stuffed head and plugged up ears. Plugged ears have to be the worst. Drives me insane. Maybe thats why I can't understand how someone can walk around with a Q-Tip in their ear and forget its there. How can anyone stand something in their ears? I don't get it.

(sorry, if you would read the forums, you would get that! )

It's amazing to me that in a house of 4 people, only one person can get knocked out by this bug. I mean seriously, why do I get stuck with this sickness for days and days and everyone else is fine? It's not fair. It's just not fair!!! I didn't hurt nobody, what did I do to deserve this?
I even tried putting Vicks on the bottom of my feet one night and it didn't do a damn thing. My bestest friend swears by it, but I don't know why.

So I'm going to go back to drinking my coffee and reading blogs/news/whatever else and see what today will bring for me.

I'm out of laundry soap, so I know I have to go buy some of that. And milk. Damn these people drink a lot of milk. I need to buy my own cow.

Bestest Friend & Bestest Sister

Remember my Insurance sucks donkey parts post the other day? Well.. my bestest friend is home from the hospital as of yesterday. I can't even describe how that makes me feel... sick, sad, pissed off... I could go on and on about how I feel, but I pretty much said it all the other day, so I'll just shut up and keep you updated.

Yesterday I went out in the bitter cold and snow to take pictures of my favorite sister's family. (I only have 1 sister though, so it's pretty easy to call her my favorite) I wish we would have had more time - and warmer temps. Everyone was freezing and in a hurry and I just think the pics could have been a little better. They turned out ok, I mean - they turned out good, but ... I don't know, maybe I just am my worst critic.

This one is raw... I have about a dozen of them that my sister has to pick from (I weeded out the closed eyes, looking away, stupid looks already).
But that is my sister's family. Her 4 kids, plus my nephews girlfriend, Mandy, who should be his wife by now. He is the oldest and they've been together since they were in high school. I tried to get a pic of just them together, but by then I was freezing and I took the camera off the tripod and Neil wouldn't cooperate anyway..... if there was a good pic, my shivering hands screwed it up.
But ... I did get the most awesome picture of my absolutley gorgeous nieces! I played around with this one a bit so I could frame it for myself.Aren't they just the most adorable people in the world? The one on the very left is my Goddaughter, so she's more special than the other two (just kidding! Well.... maybe not).

Insurance sucks donkey parts

My best friend is sitting in the hospital right now with full blown placenta previa . She's been there a week. The doctor came in yesterday and told her that because "nothing" has happened, she could go home. Problem is, "home" is 1/2 hour away. If she starts bleeding again, she can bleed out in 5 minutes - and die. The reasons the doctor told her she could go home? Insurance. It's out of his hands, so to speak. Stupid.

Luckily, as that's what I'm calling it, she passed a blood clot this morning so thats enough to keep her there another day or two. Bad news, she's in labor & delivery while they monitor her contractions.

She's only 32 weeks along.

They don't think Brady is going to be born today, but there is always a chance. They are just taking precautions.

Why does the insurance have more power than a doctor? If she goes home, she could DIE. What part of DIE doesn't the insurance understand? Just because nothing is happening doesn't mean it's not going to. We are talking about the life of a mother and child here - why is there a dollar amount on that? A doctor should always be able to override an insurance's decision and the inusrance should just bend over and take it.

This is bullshit.

If anything happens to her or that baby I'm going to be someone's worst nightmare.

I told her that I hope she bleeds a little bit every time they tell her to go home. It's sad that I have to wish that, but it's the only way that I can know she's in a safe place.

Flat on your back

So my bestest friend, Melissa, is in the hospital. She has 8 weeks to go until her baby (Brady) is due, 6weeks to be safe. She has placenta something - basically she can bleed out, which she already started bleeding.
She will possibly be in the hospital for the next 6 weeks, which really sucks for her & her kids (she's got 2 boys & a girl at home) because that means she'll be in that joint over Christmas. But you know what? She's better off where she's at. This is too serious for her to try to be at home.
Needless to say, I'll spend the next however many weeks worried out of my mind about this chic and her little bambino. I ain't ready to go through life without my bestest friend.

Just rambling

So I sit here on this beautiful Tuesday morning and I can't seem to wake the hell up. I look in the mirror and I look like hell... holy crap are my eyes puffy! I slept, I don't know whats up. I felt like this yesterday morning, too. I don't like sleeping. I hate it. Just let me sleep and wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed like I'm used to.

Not this run over by a truck feeling. Yuck.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been slacking on the whole blogging thing. Writing and reading. I suck, I know. I have an excuse, although it's probably lame and you won't accept it anyway, but here goes -

I'm working. I know it's only the beginning of August, but do you realize how close Christmas is? Do you know how close Christmas shopping is? With me opening TheFishingBowl.com, I have been busting my ass getting SEO (search engine optimization - what you type in when you Google things) picture perfect and adding more designs. I really gotta get some new stuff into SledderWear, but who wants to do snowmobile designs when it's 80some degrees outside?

But then again, the husband went snowmobiling this last weekend... yep, he did. On grass... he went to a grass drags event up north. Yeah, they do that. They snowmobile on grass and actually race.

I swear it's a disease. It's gotta be.

(I stole the picture from the guys over at VintageSleds.com. There's more pics over there....)

Not to mention that dreaded (but welcomed!) back to school is sneaking up on us fast. I have to sit down and figure out what the demons need for school. Was looking at backpacks last night online... I wish they would make them like they used to. I'm sick of buying them every year.

Or maybe my demons are just that hard on them.

Both my babies demons are going to be in Jr High this year. No more elementary school for me. They grew up so fast... way too fast. Just 6 more years and they'll be out of the house....

Damn, thats not that long.

And to think, my bestest friend is starting over again with the kid thing.....

... and I giggle inside.