Post It Note Tuesday - Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

It's Post It Note Tuesday and you know you want to play along. Click on the button above and jump on in.

Weekend Update: On the mend and things I am thankful for

I'm not at work today. Don't worry it's alright, after all it's hamburger helper day. (insert gag) Middle G is on the mend. She has been fever free for 24 hours but she is still coughing like a seasoned smoker. It keeps her (and I) up at night so I thought she could use another day of rest.

Her response "I'm sooooooo bored."

Can you imagine if our children ever really were bored. They're brains would melt.

Anyway, I thought I would share this pathetic photo with you. At the pediatrician's there are giant signs that if your child has a cough and/or a fever they must wear a mask, a.k.a. swine flu. There are no books, not toys and easy to wipe down chairs in the waiting room.

Middle G had to wear the mask.

Of course, it was pneumonia and not swine flu, but she was excited that she got to bring the little germ carrier home with her.

Saturday she started to complain of chest pains so I had the doctor paged. I'm like that. He wanted to listen to her again so we were back over at the office Saturday afternoon. He sent us to the hospital for a chest x-ray but the x-ray didn't look too bad. He felt confident that we would be feeling better by Monday and he's supposed to call me today to check on her.

I'm thinking she most likely won't need anymore meds as her fever has finally subsided and she is active again.

That being said and with Thanksgiving around the corner I thought I would list some things I am thankful for.

• family: Both immediate and extended. There really is no one quite like you (and I mean that in the most friendliest of ways). Family sees you at your happiest, they see you at your saddest. They offer a hand, they tell you when you've crossed a line. It doesn't get much better than that.
• Friends: I still think that a gaggle of close women is better than any therapist. People you look forward to seeing. People you can't wait to talk to, whether the news is good or bad. People who know when you need to get drunk, or shop, or just hang.
• bathtubs filled with bubbles: This one is self-explanatory. For me, a long hot steamy bubble bath is just about as good a sex.
• My craft room: It's just four walls, covered in polka-dots with just about every craft gadget you can think of. It's a little piece of heaven on earth.
• Peanut butter cups: If I don't stop eating the ones the kids got from trick-or-treating, my ass will soon be showing up on the local radar. There's a disturbance in the northern part of the county....it appears to be Wendy's ass. Onlookers are advised to seek cover. Film at 11 p.m.
• health: Last but, certainly not least, is our health. This time of year I think it is important to remind ourselves that we are one phone call away from falling to our knees. When the kids get on your nerves, or your mother calls at bedtime, or your husband forgets to pick up the milk, try to put things into perspective. Someone is celebrating Thanksgiving without their kid/mother/husband. Someone is grieving a loss, some are big, some are small.

Let's all be thankful more than one day in 2010.

Things I learned this week in the cafeteria

It's time once again to tell you what I learned this week in the cafeteria. This week has been quite stressful for multiple reasons.

• Serving Thanksgiving dinner to elementary age children encourages waste. I think only two kids out of 200 ate the stuffing.
• Half days are twice the headache.
• When the head cook takes a personally day prepare for hell.
• Computers seldom do what you expect them to do.
• People will try to get away with anything if they think they can. For example, when the head cook was off the substitute making breakfast tried to take 100 chocolate milk with her to her building leaving me with about 50. We use more than that at breakfast. WTF?

Needless to say, I am happy this week is over. My middle daughter has been fighting a fever on and off all week. Traveling for my gram's funeral didn't help the situation and now she has pneumonia.

I think our weekend plans will include a lot of rest.

Writer's Workshop - my dog is part goat

I would first like to say thank you to everyone who expressed their condolences at the loss of my grandmother earlier this week. I returned to my home town for her viewing and funeral. She was a wonderful woman who is, without a doubt, walking hand in hand with my grandfather down streets of gold.




It's time once again for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. Are you participating?

Today I decided to write about the most destructive thing my pet has ever done.

Meet Copper. He's cute, he's cuddly and he has everyone fooled.

Leave him alone for a minute and he is bound to eat it.

Eat what?

Anything and everything that isn't food.

Last March we had a terrible hail storm. It severely damaged our roof and our siding. This summer we had the roof and siding replaced. Since there were random men throwing random items from my roof I thought it was best not to let the dog out back.

I called my dear neighbor and asked if I could put Copper in her fenced in backyard for about an hour while I ran to the store.

He hadn't been out all day and it was beautiful. He loves to sun bath and I thought he would spend most of his time smelling his way around the fence and marking his spot over top of her dog's spot.

She was on vacation. She said 'no problem.'

I went to the store. I came back and in the 47 minutes we were gone he ate her 3 year olds swimming pool.

A pool. Filled with water. He. ate. the. freaking. pool.

Seriously? Who does that?

Granted it was one of those blow up little kiddo pools but still a pool?

Ever since then when anyone asks me what kind of dog he is I say "part beagle and part goat".

Weekend Update - a tribute to my gram

This weekend, like all weekends, flew by. We lost our soccer game and my craft show wasn't very fruitful.

I learned late Saturday night that my grandma wasn't doing well and sadly she died this morning.

I am very lucky to have known her for 37 years and I have many fond memories of times we shared together.

My grandma was a pint-sized powerhouse. She barely stood five foot. She had six kids, one of them my father. She lived as a widow for 8 years, until recently at her home caring for herself.

Last year we had a surprise birthday party for my dad. This is me, my gram and my sister. She was so tickled to be there (as you can tell).

Throughout my childhood we spent many a camping trip with both my grandma and my pappy. She was a fierce card player and didn't like to lose. We played dominoes and uno.

She loved having the family around for holidays and was able to visit me in Ohio numerous times.

I saw her grieve for my grandfather, mourn the loss of a grandchild, as well as a great-grandchild.

The last time I saw her I held her hand at the nursing home across the street from my in-laws house.

My 10 year old daughter was with me and she let grandma repeat her story about lunch over and over again without correction.

We shared cookies together.

I hope my daughter remembers this because I know I will never forget it.

Rest in peace, Gram. Give Pappy a hug from me.

Friday High Five - five reasons I'm addicted to Glee

Are you watching Glee? Are you as obsessed with this show as I am? I know it is cheesy and the actors hardly look like high school students, but I can't get enough of Glee.

Here's why:

~ Finn is so cute.

~Glee club director, Will, is even cuter.

~The music is awesome.

~Jane Lynch is the funniest, most under-rated actress currently working in Hollywood. I loved her on 2 1/2 men and in the movie 40 year old virgin. She is hilarious as the cheer leading coach on Glee.

~Very seldom does someone die. I'm so tired of dramas/comedies that feel the need to randomly kill off people. What ever happened to happy endings????

I LOVE GLEE!

Writer's Workshop: something I made

Time for Mama's Kat writer's workshop. Are you playing along?

Today I decided to show you something I did myself. Still getting ready for this weekend's craft show!

Why does blogger turn my pictures? Goodness that is annoying.

Try to get past these twisted pictures and look at the cards. This Santa and reindeer are $1.00 stamps from Michael's. The inside says Merry Christmas (original I know) and Happy Holidays.

I really like how this wreath turned out. I painted it red and wrapped it in green ribbon. Then I cut the Santa/sleigh and reindeer from the cricut cartridge Christmas Cheer. The letters are from the cartridge alphalicious (I think).

I had quite a few comments about the paper wreath and many of you wanted to know how to make them. You need quite a bit of coordinating paper so I would suggest a large Christmas pack from your local craft store. Cut the 12x12 paper in half and then cut the 12x6 paper into one inch strips. Staple each strip so that it forms a loop. Then you need to get hot gluing. The key to making it look nice is to make sure you stagger the loops. Don't line them up or it looks really weird. Trust me on this.

If you make one let me know, I'd love to see it.

Here is my Let it snow wreath. I thought about putting some snowmen on this one, but they seemed to clutter it up a bit. I went with glittery snowflakes instead.

This is another $1.00 stamp from Michael's and I have to tell you that I love this little elf. I wanted to think of something clever for the inside and this is what I came up with. Maybe I should work for Hallmark...LOL

Have your elf a merry little Christmas

and a Happy New Ear!

What have you made lately?