There’s change in the wind

I took the leap.  Last night I purchased my own domain name and paid for a web host for a new blog.  

I wonder how long it will take for me to get everything set up?  I’m guessing quite a while.

 

 

 

Rice

Today when I stopped at the grocery store the shelves were completely void of rice - none, nada, empty.  I’ve heard there is a rice shortage, but I didn’t know the shortage had made it’s way to Normalsville.  If rice ever returns to the grocery store shelves here in my little part of the world I’m going to start hoarding stocking up on it ~ just wanted to let you all know.  

An exceptionally good weekend

This past weekend was fantastic ~ you don’t hear me say that very often. I have been trying to put my finger on why it was so wonderful, but I can’t name just one reason. I think it is time for a bullet list.

I was following Twitter and AFF mentioned that she had received her stimulus check from Uncle Sam. I have mixed feelings about the whole stimulus money from the government, but that didn’t stop me from checking our online banking to see if our money had arrived in our account. It showed up in the bank account last Friday - let the stimulation begin! New shoes for everyone ~ I was the lucky recipient of two new pair.

Then off to Talbots for some more stimulation ~ after all, it was Mother’s Day weekend! I picked up some new shorts, tops and sweaters that were on sale and even a new casual skirt.

Saturday we worked on the ongoing backyard project. We removed a ton of shrubs and now we are trying to clean up the mess so we can terrace the area. Here are some pictures….

This is what it looked like before the removal:

This is what it looked like after we started removing the shrubs:

The shrubs were full of spiders and dust. The plan is to put in lavender, roses and herbs - the ‘after’ or ‘completed’ pictures won’t be available for quite some time.

Back to my list of fabulousness….

Lily had an impromptu play date on Saturday evening. Her Rat Terrier dog friend and owners stopped by to see if Lily could go for a romp in our backyard. It was great because it totally tuckered both dogs out and besides they are very cute to watch.

Sunday was great fun! I woke up to learn that I had won the grand prize (a generous $100 gift certificate from Amazon) from Joy at A Spot of Tea. She had a grand opening to celebrate the redesign of her blog. The new design is beautiful and if you haven’t seen it you really need to pop over and check it out. Thank you, Joy!

Mother’s Day breakfast was delish. Hubs made blintzes and Belgium waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

Sunday afternoon we went to Home Depot and FINALLY ordered the laminate to finish two of our bathroom countertops. Our bathrooms have been in some state of disrepair since we moved into this house four years ago. The purchase of the laminate is one step closer to finishing the job and I am thrilled about that.

After Home Depot we took our camera for a ride so it could buy us some groceries. About a week after we purchased our Nikon camera at Costco a $125 manufacture’s rebate was offered on the camera. I was so mad that we had purchased the camera before the rebate was offered, but I didn’t get around to talking to Costco customer service until Sunday. We took the camera in and they refunded our money and then we went through the checkout and they charged us $125 less than we were refunded. We bought groceries with the money!

The weekend ended on a high note when we continued our eating festivities on Sunday evening with the best damn hamburgers and homemade oven fries that I have had in years. Oh yeah, and cake too! We also watched Water Horse - Legend of the Deep, which was a pretty good movie except when the water horse kept taking the kid under water - that kind of freaked me out.

Every once in a while the stars align and I have an exceptionally good weekend - this one was definitely worth the mention.

Fun Monday - ya big jerk

Holy Cow, it is already time for Fun Monday! Sauntering Soul is our hostess for the mostess this week and this is her challenge:

know we all try to be sweet and kind to people the majority of the time. But let’s face it….we also know that sometimes we can be a big jerk. It could be that you experience road rage from time to time. Perhaps you empty the coffee pot at work some mornings and don’t feel like taking the time to start a new pot for the next person. Or maybe you don’t return phone calls on a timely basis when you know someone needs a response from you. Have you ever “accidentally” ruined a favorite shirt of your spouse just because you didn’t care for it? Come on - it’s confession time! List the small things you do that make you a jerk and elaborate just a bit on each one. Please tell me I’m not the only jerk around here!

I know I always say this, but this is hard (~whine~). In college I was a big jerk to a couple of people. Of course, I think they were bigger jerks to me (it’s all perspective). There was one girl in the dorm that had taken a dislike to me and she would put ‘things’ (garbage) in the washing machine when I was doing my laundry. I reciprocated. I think back on that and am quite embarrassed to think that I sunk to the same level that she was operating on. Looking back on past offenses I think most of my jerkiness stemmed from a lack of maturity and self confidence - without the proper tools it is difficult to properly handle a situation.

In recent years and with the invention of caller ID, I think that the jerkiest thing that I do is not answer the phone when someone that I don’t want to talk to calls. Don’t get me wrong, I can be a jerk to my kids - telling them that I am going to sell them to the gypsies and all. I figured out many years ago that it really doesn’t do me any good to be a jerk to Hubs - it usually backfires on me.

Anyhoo, that is my weak confession of jerkdome. Check out Sauntering Soul for a list of the rest of the jerks.

I really like that word…..jerk.

It’s Baby Shower Time

Swampy is hosting a blogtastic baby shower for the wonderful Karmyn from Dreaming What Ifs - how fun is that?! I think I could shop around for a month of Sundays and not come up with gifts as creative as the ones WT came up with, but I do have some items that I think the Dreaming Family will enjoy.

I wanted to get Karmyn some things that were useful. My youngest will be six years old in October and I can’t believe how things have changed in just that amount of time. Holy Cow, baby paraphernalia is big business. However, I was able to narrow my ’shopping’ down to just a couple of items.

First Item:

A Maclaren Umbrella Stroller. (I’m sorry for that tiny picture. The one in the link is a better stroller, but I knew not everyone would want to follow a link. The big bad Internet is being very uncooperative with the photos it is providing for me this evening and I am working under a deadline ~ I don’t want to be late for the shower!). Anyway, I had one of these strollers and I triple-quadruple LOVED it. You can steer this puppy with one hand - can you beat that? It is not one of the deluxe luxury strollers - this is a going to the zoo, park or fair type of stroller. Easy in, easy out, just easy peasy all around.

Next Item:

I always wanted one of these. I’m not sure why…probably just to say that I had one. It is a Kate Spade diaper bag. I’m not sure how handy it will be for you, Karmyn, but it will look damn fine when you are sitting in the stands at Jammin’s baseball games.

Last Item(s): I absolutely love all things Hanna Andersson! I’ve picked out a couple of items from the catalog.

A wee little organic cotton sleeper and some little Swedish moccasins.

Well, there you go! If you want to see what else Karmyn is getting get back over to Swampy’s for the list of attendees.