Happy Hump Day Everyone!

I.Need.Sleep. Or for my dogs to wear diapers.

Why, oh, why, do I have to get up every night (at various times)? Well, Odie is the exception. He would rather stay under a blanket and hold it. I do everything I can to avoid this problem. They only eat once a day now at 5:00 pm. I keep Leinie up and active as long as I can. Their water is limited before bedtime. They LOVE to sleep. So, why can't they do it for more than three hours at a time? Hmm? Not to mention my having to watch them "snack" on what they produce! Those are NOT Tootsie Rolls!

I took Leinie to Petsmart last night for a little field trip. Turns out he's a wuss. All the other dogs scared him. Now, if it were the other two? Lets just say we'd better hope the vet was on duty for emergency surgery once they came in contact with other animals.

This weekend should be good. Maybe, hopefully, there will be a new baby making his appearance, Ladies' Night at Resurrection on Friday, and bowling on Saturday night in Des Plaines. The league secretary put in our league newsletter that I'm not allowed to play in their contests for money anymore. Seeing as how I have won the pot 3 out of the 5 times we've done it this year, I can understand his frustration! Actually, he thinks it's funny that I keep winning, and boy, oh, boy, has the money come in handy. If I win again, my guilt will overwhelm me, and I'm just going to have to buy a pitcher of beer for all the teams. Yeah, right. It's going into the I-Owe-Dave-Craploads-of-Money Fund. John did get a $200 bonus from the liquor store yesterday, so we're well on our way to paying him back.

So, hope everyone's week is going well, and let us all look forward to the possibility of 50º this weekend!

Lazy Sunday...

Well, not really. Well, kinda. Idiot dogs got up at 9am to go out, which doesn't sound bad, until you realize I was up until 3:45 watching a movie. So, I went back to bed, alone, since John was watching the Olympics on the couch downstairs. That didn't last long. Leinie was actually already up there under a blanket and I didn't know it until he groaned. Yes, groaned. He really is weird. When he's sleepy, he makes these deep groaning sounds that almost sound like a growl, but it's more like a cat purring, just really, really loud. Startled me a little bit. Next came Wolfie tripping up the stairs with his little handicapped gait that he has now. He banged on the door, I let him in. I closed the door, just so it was touching the frame, because I knew darn well the inevitable would happen. Took only three minutes, and there was Odie popping his head through the door. So, needless to say, I didn't exactly have a whole lot of room on the bed. One would think that a king sized bed would hold myself and three smallish dogs comfortably. There one would be wrong. Not when they decide that the perfect place to sleep is under your butt and armpit. I have never figured out why they are so hard to move when they're sleeping. I guess the just look so darned cute you don't want to disturb them. In my case, I think I might wake them up and they'd be ready to play. Not in the mood for that this morning.

Anywho, I finally dragged myself out of bed at noon, and John and I split a box of Girl Scout Cookies for lunch (Nutrition? Who needs nutrition?). I went upstairs and decided that, instead of cleaning the bathroom, it would be a really good idea to clean out my closet. Got it done, though. Now I have room for more crap! Yay! It'll be behind closed doors and not out in the open! :)

At least I feel slightly accomplished today. Tonight I get to make a Boy Scout Brag Vest for my godson, Christopher. I hope I don't screw it up, considering I created a pattern for it on a puppy pad!

Have a great Monday!

Pondering the Weekend...

As I sit at my desk, I have come to the realization that I itch. Everywhere. Unnamed places. Winter has certainly taken a toll on my skin, as well as my psyche. I look outside, and can't wait for that first warm day. You know what I mean- you sit outside on a lawn chair, and feel the warm breeze on your skin, and it feels like velvet (or velour if you're poor!). Not a hint of chill in the air. That's what I am waiting for.

I vow to cherish every second of this spring and summer. Hopefully, it won't be spent napping and wasting my days of sunshine and happiness. Oooh! Now I want a nap. I keep telling my co-workers that we need to get rid of the treadmill in our "gym" and just put a damn bed in there. Personally, I might actually step in that room.

I digress. Wait- gotta scratch. Better now.

Seriously, why the heck do I take shots every two weeks to help my skin, and it starts to work, and now seems to have stopped? Hmm? I haven't missed a dose. I stab myself regularly. What else should I do? Oh, yeah. Get me some sunshine!!!

March starts the "vacation season" at my office. I swear, every single person but me has at least a couple of days scheduled off. Three of them are going to tropical places! I just have to hold out until November, and pray we can come up with enough money to go to Cancun for our 10th anniversary. That was our plan all along, but money is extremely tight, and my bonehead accountant just told me last night that we owe the feds a couple hundred bucks. Now that made my evening.

Shoot, I am pretty snarky today, aren't I? I do believe it's time for me to spend a little time scrapbooking this weekend to de-stress myself. I'm gonna lock myself up in my craft room, the filthy bathroom be damned!

For Aunt Judy...

Thank You for welcoming me into your family. Thank You for watching Wolfie when no one else gave him a chance. Thank You for loving John when he was sometimes difficult to deal with. Thank You for inviting my mother to your home. Thank You for making me laugh! Thank You for not judging me. Thank You for always making me feel at home. Thank You for making delicious kolacky cookies (even though you won't eat them!).

Thank You for for being you!

The Lost Weekend...

I have now completely let myself down! I didn't clean a damn thing last week. But, I managed to get the part for the snowblower that cracked off, and I spent 2-1/2 hours sewing buttons and making up replacement "catches" for the hooks on John's pants.

So, here's how the conversation went:

"Can you sew a couple of buttons on my pants for me?"
"Sure, where are they?"
"I don't know. Somewhere."
"So, I have to sew buttons on and you don't know where they went?"
"Yes."
"OK, where are the pants?"
"Here's the pair I'm taking off."

Hands me the pants. Then proceeds to pull out three more pair from his dirty laundry, and three more hanging in the closet. I looked at him and asked if all of them were missing buttons. He said, yes, they were. Turns out he's been holding them up for weeks with just the zipper and his belt. Not only were the buttons missing, but the majority of the pants have the little silver hook inside the front in addition to the button. All but one pair was missing that stupid catch for the hook. I created new ones with upholstery thread, and I'm crossing my fingers that they hold. I had to find a shirt with larger buttons on it (mine) and remove them to sew on his pants. Next job- sew the split up the back of one pair. When asked what keeps happening, I was told that they just keep shrinking. My personal theory is that Leinenkugel should start making dress pants.

I made the mistake last Monday of talking about how nice Mondays were, blah, blah, blah. Big, huge, stupid mistake. I spent the rest of the day turning into a psychopath due to work issues. Not one person wanted to come past my office. Apparently, though, I'm quite amusing when pissed. None of it was directed at my co-workers, just vendors who need to get their heads out of the sand (or their asses). Enough said.

This actually turned out to be a good week, and a terrific weekend. I went to a grade school friend's birthday party on Friday night with my mom, and Saturday I spent the afternoon sampling Tastefully Simple stuff, getting the snowblower part, getting an amazing deal on a couple of shirts at Catherine's, eating Long John Silver in the car (to keep up my snazzy figure so I can continue shopping at Catherine's), and then on to Dave's for a Win, Lose, or Draw game night. It was great. Sunday night I finally hooked up my mom's new used computer from Katie. She can finally do games, look at videos, and play Bejeweled! I'm very happy for her!

So, once again, I will attempt to get to the bathroom this week. One can only hope.

Have a great day, and terrific week, if I don't get to check back in!

Yay! It's Monday!

Am I the only person in the world who likes Mondays? Don't get me wrong, I love Saturday and Sunday, too, but Monday is a chance to start fresh. Forget about all of the things that made you wish Saturday would come quickly, and think about all of the things you can do right this week in comparison. My heavens- I sound like some demented motivational speaker!

Seriously, I get so mad at myself for slacking off during the week, knowing I have tons of crap to do. This is not only at work, but at home, too. My house could be beautiful if I'd just get off my ass and do something about it. All the plans in the world will not get anything done unless I motivate myself. So, that being said, I'm going to attempt to use this blog to assist me in this endeavor (or endeavour, if you're British).

Each week, I'm going to set some sort of house cleaning goal. Not, "Oh, today I'm doing the dishes". No, something along the lines of: "This week I will clean my bathroom from top to bottom so as not to acquire the plague or whatever flesh-eating disease might be living in there".

Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea. This week I will detail my upstairs bathroom- from the top of the wall cabinet, to the soap scum covering my tub.

So, who's with me? Everyone has something they can accomplish, even if it's only one project a week. My ultimate goal is to have my whole house de-junked and tidy before late spring, so when swimming season comes around, there's no guilt that I should be doing something else, and I won't have to worry about people just "dropping by".

So, here's to a cleaner, happier Monday for all of us!

The "New" Post

Pfft. This new post is for Jennifer, who is apparently unable to update her OWN blog for two months, and I wait a week and get snotty comments! :)

I've been trying to rest my twisted ankle, but I don't seem to be making as much progress as I would have hoped. It still hurts every day, and I really don't want to take Motrin on a daily basis so I don't eat a hole in my stomach lining. Once you've seen someone with bleeding ulcers, you never want to get them, too. Maybe I'll go get an x-ray, but probably not. Avoiding doctor visits is becoming my specialty. Although, I do have an appointment next week with my rheumatologist that I will not skip. I don't self-inject Humira every two weeks for nothing! By the way, that is the greatest stuff in the world. My psoriasis is getting better, and my psoriatic arthritis isn't bothering me at all! Yahoo!

So, we got some snow. OK, we got tons of snow! My friend, David, lives just about a mile from my office, and kindly let me stay at his place for a couple of days to avoid my commute. John worked his ass off clearing the snow at home (until the auger fell out of the snowblower), and still drove back and forth to work. It was such a relief for me not have to do the ride back and forth.

Not only did we get snow- we got an earthquake, too! Woke me up out of a sound sleep!

When I finally got home last night, I think I was scaring Leinie. He avoided me like the plague until bedtime. Then he finally realized I wasn't going away again. Now, this morning, while leaving for work, I looked back, and all three of them were sitting smooshed against each other staring at me. I just wanted to turn around and hug them all!

My Valentine's Day will probably be just a little lame this year, since John is working at the stupid liquor store all weekend. I think I'll scrapbook. Or clean. Somehow I think sleep will actually win out over all other ideas. Love you all!

The Baby Shower Was A Success!

Well, the baby shower is finally over! Months of shopping, crafting, laughing, and hard work have paid off.

Jennifer, Deata, Anita- we couldn't have done it without you! From the awesome food made by Deata and Jennifer, to the set up, the clean up, just absolutely everything.

The day started off quite well. Everything was ready to go, with the exception of my baking the meatballs and boiling the pasta. We started loading the cars up (Jennifer and Deata spent the night at my house), and while walking down from my kitchen to the laundry room, my shoe got caught in my pants, and I took a swan dive off the stairs. I only missed one step, and fell flat on my face, sprained my ankle, cut my left knee open, and broke the dog ramp. Nothing like picking the most inopportune moment to hurt myself.

Since it was my right ankle I sprained, I couldn't even drive. John had to drive me to the shower and I had to limp my way in. Unfortunately, I couldn't put any pressure on it at the beginning, and was unable to help with any of the set up. My friends are the BEST people in the world. They made me calm down, sit down, and quit freaking out. I sat with my Maria (Anita's 4 year old daughter) and filled the treat bags with Hershey's Kisses. She was SUCH a big help! All she kept saying was "Auntie Beth, I love helping you!". The feeling was mutual!


Katie and Rick were only 30 minutes late, beating our first estimates by 15 minutes! They seemed to love everything that we did. Rick's mom, sister, sister-in-law, niece, and his "aunt" all came, and we were thrilled to have them. We will be attending another shower for them at his mom's house on Saturday. It's going to be fun- just like they are! Rick cracked us up while opening their gifts. I honestly don't think Katie opened more than a couple. He giggled when opening everything, and it was terrific to see his enthusiasm.
All of the centerpieces and most of the decor were all homemade using the Cricut machine John got me for Christmas. That thing is awesome! The centerpieces were simply made from a 4x4x8' piece of pine, cut down with a chop saw loaned to me by a co-worker. I bought 59¢ craft paint bottles and put a couple of coats on the blocks. The cutouts were all done with the Cricut, scrapbooking adhesive, and a few rhinestones for eyes. They were so cute!

It was Jennifer's idea to make a "clothesline" of cutouts, and we made the above onesies with different animals on each, with the baby hanging in the diaper in the middle. It turned out great!

Now that Wednesday has arrived, I can walk again. I kept the foot up as much as I could, and I seem to have healed quite well. Not bad, considering it hurt so badly on Sunday that I thought I fractured it. My friends said it was a way for God to tell me to chill out, and quit worrying. Couldn't there have been some other sign? I get thrown down the stairs to prove a point? :)

Here's to Sammy- my future new nephew!

Waiting for lunch...

My co-worker just left to get lunch for us. I love broasted chicken!

We're almost ready for the baby shower Sunday! Many thanks to everyone who has helped me soooo much! Jennifer, Anita, Deata, Michelle- can't do this without you and your assistance.

I've been too busy running around to post on here the last couple of days- sorry! Not that I have anything all that interesting to say, anyway.

Anywho- gotta get back to work!

Have a Romy & Michelle Day!

Monday Morning and the Coffee Hasn't Kicked In Yet

Good Morning! It's another lovely day in Addison at my office. This place really is terrific. I made myself some toast in the kitchen with Raspberry-Limon Spread and Strawberry-Rhubarb Spread, and polished it off with a cup of coffee with Sweet Buttercream creamer. I guess our little cost saving measure of not getting fast food breakfast or lunch might just work out. I'm going to miss the staff at the McDonald's on North & 53. If I kept going there, I think they were going to start inviting me to their family parties.

The picture above is Odie, Leinie, and Wolfie all trying to rest. They look a little guilty, don't they?

Happy Tuesday!

I just got home from work- and we were busy today! I hope this is the turnaround everyone is waiting for. I really don't know how to keep up because I got used to it being a little slow!

The baby shower is just around the corner on Sunday, and I keep realizing how much more needs to still be done. A few more trips to stores and it should be complete. I'd better get to it tonight before the temperature really plummets into the teens tomorrow. It really stinks to have your nostrils freeze together just trying to buy spaghetti sauce.

Thursday should be interesting, too. My car is finally going to be fixed! New linkage in the front end and power steering hose assembly. They found those to be bad when I took it in for something completely different. The only good thing is that these are warranty issues and are covered 100%. I only had to go buy a new set of tires before they will take it back and complete the testing I needed for, what I believe to be, bad bearings. It was a big investment, but I finally feel safe driving it. Kinda scary spinning on dry pavement.

I really don't need any more large expenses, but it is what it is. There's much more to life than worrying about tires. My co-worker's mom was recently diagnosed with mouth cancer. She had part of her tongue removed, and was believed to be in remission. It has now returned, and they have to remove more of her tongue and put in a temporary feeding tube. Then, six weeks of radiation. Events like this put everything back in perspective. No matter how bad things may seem, they truly could be worse.

No point really complaining about the little stuff, but sometimes, it just feels so good.

Happy Saturday!

Just got back from an all day scrap booking session- and I only did 10 pages in a total of 14 hours! Good gracious, I'm slow. Not so much slow as picky. I'm trying to get over my anal tendencies and just get on with it already.



I will say this- I LOVE MY PAGES! When I figure out how to post pictures to this, I'll get them uploaded.



One more week until my sister's baby shower, and I can't wait! Centerpieces are done, favors are done, food is completely planned, and the place we are having it is wonderful! Now, let's hope little Sammy likes all of his gifts when he arrives in early March.



I'm glad today was fun, because, I'll tell you what, this morning wasn't very fun. Not only do my stupid dogs decide most nights between 1:30 and 2:30am that it's time to go out, but last night they kindly waited until 4:30am. That's when my darling Wolfie got a just a little bit sick. He tried to get out of the bedroom, but it took me a minute to become conscious enough to get up and let him out of there. I do believe he must have had crap all the way up to his throat for that much to come out on my bedroom floor. Think John bothered to get up through by gagging and screeching? Yeah, right. Even if he's awake, he's going to play unconscious for something as exciting as this! Needless to say, the 5 hours of sleep I received last night wasn't all that conducive to being creative while scrap booking!

I hope everyone's weekend is going well- the Mitchell boys have just arrived to play with John in the "Man Cave". Cigars and wood burning stove = leave me the hell alone. A perfect way to end my night!

Another Slow Day

I'm a little worried about work right now. I have no fear I will lose my job, but if I don't get something to do soon, I'm going to lose my mind making myself look busy!

Being in any type of trade right now can be frightening. Few houses, if any, are being built. My specialty is commercial work, but even that is extremely slow right now. We see an upswing in orders for material being placed, but new jobs are scarce. It used to be I'd quote a job to a couple of different wholesalers. Now, I'm quoting the jobs to eight different wholesalers! Everyone is trying to cut everyone else's throat with their pricing, and it's killing our market. So, you sell at job at 10% profit. Ick. Then, someone comes along and does the same thing for 5%! Why? All just to get the job. Now, when the market turns around, you're stuck only making 5%. No one is going to go back and accept 10% in the future. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I do have a great weekend to look forward to, however. Scrapbooking tonight and ALL day tomorrow with my favorite girlfriends! Sunday will be moving the rest of the big stuff out of my sister's 2nd bedroom to make room for my new nephew who will be making his debut shortly!

I just need to get through today. Guess I'd better get started. Damn it.

My First Blog!

Well, shoot. What the heck took me so long? Everyone knows I talk too much, so why not blog, too?

A little about myself- I am a 36 year old woman from Midlothian, Illinois. I grew up 5 blocks from my current home, and my mother still lives in that same house after almost 56 years. So, lifetime south suburban resident. I have been married for 9 years to my husband, John. We live with our 3 furry babies- Wolfie, Odie, and Leinie. They are all dachshunds, and are very similar in color, but not in temperament.

Wolfie is almost 10. He is a standard (25lb) long-haired dachshund. We have had him since he was 7 months old. I got him for John's birthday from a guy my mom worked with. He was taking him to a shelter on the day of my hubby's birthday. They said he scared their children and they had to get rid of him. Stupid people. Yes, he's obnoxious. Yes, he barks constantly. Yes, he is territorial. Yes, he used to bite people. Now, he's slightly more mellow. He went through ruptured disc surgery in June '09. He couldn't move either hind leg when he went in. They didn't have much hope for him regaining his ability to walk, but he has to be the most stubborn dog on the planet. Nothing was going to stop him.

Odie is, we believe, 5. A friend of a friend of a friend found him in their neighbor's back yard. They didn't have a dog. He was scared and emaciated, but sweet as pie. Wolfie didn't even try and eat him. We figured that this might be a good match. We were correct. He is a miniature (15lb- OK a little fat now) short-hair. ALL children love this dog. He just wants to be touched and held.

Now we have acquired Leinie (short for Leinenkugel- blame my husband). He is also a mini short-hair, and just over a year old, but somewhere in the gene pool there must have been a REALLY tall ancestor. He can jump around 3-1/2 feet straight up in the air. This is not good if a pot holder is left too close to the edge of the kitchen counter. Said pot holder has now become the newest dog toy in our house at that point, along with every single sock he can get his teeth on. He doesn't destroy too much (other than paper), but he likes to decorate every room with the booty he collects. He's our hyper little puppy.

I do believe that it is with his help that Wolfie has recovered so well from surgery. Boy, oh, boy does he get his exercise with this one! Odie just perches on the back of the couch and stares down at the wrestling action on the floor. We do believe he feels it's way too much work to bother going down there and getting stuck in the ruckus.

I call myself the Plumbing Queen simply because of the fact that I have worked in the Chicagoland plumbing industry for the past 15 years, and it is in my blood now. What a wonderful bunch of people. There are, of course, exceptions to that rule.

Honestly, I have no idea why I started this blog. It could be that I was sick and tired of always checking my friend's blog and seeing that she hasn't bothered to post anything since November, and it's been bugging me. What I post remains to be seen, but you can be guaranteed it will mostly be done with proper spelling!

Have a great day!