The Big Run-off

The big run-off starts tomorrow! There are a few rules...they are listed below:

Ryan and I are going to do the "Couch to 5k" running program starting tomorrow. We have a treadmill that sits in the spare bedroom and dries my clothes ;) So it's going to get used finally!! However, we needed an incentive!! I'm horrible with starting something like this and after week one I'm done, or I miss a day and with no visual way of tracking it, I just let it go..... The program is very structured. 3 times a week for 9 weeks, however with us going to Ireland & some other trips we've added a few more weeks on. And....here is how it works!

1. The stack of $5's you see will be called "The Stack". When I run for the day I take a $5 bill from the stack and put it in my jar. Ryan runs for the day and he puts a $5 bill from the stack and puts it in his jar.

2. If Ryan runs and I do not (or vice versa) then I must take a $5 bill out of my jar and put it into his!!

3. If we both do not run for the day, then we both take a $5 bill from each of our jars and put them back into the stack.

4. If by August 1st, the stack is not gone.......then all money......in both jars..........gets donated to the John McCain campaign for president!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

So...as you can see there is positive and negative incentive here......wish us luck! 

Spring Has Sprung

"...because I'm a southern woman and we're supposed to wear funny hats and ugly clothes and plant vegetables in the dirt..."

Today we decided that the weed garden needed a makeover....so, we were off to Lowe's! I was looking for a BIG flower pot but I found this....and I love it! It's my fav. I didn't want to do a flower bed, I wanted to do planters, so I found these basket planters! Wonderful! So after a long day of weeding, digging, and planting...and taking breaks with Gracie! (She got a new stake and leash so she could spend the day in the front yard with us)....so after that long day....we now have a beautiful lil flowerbed!!

Say NO to Friday's celebrations

In Honor of Earth Day

.........I'm not going to do any paperwork! ;)

It's April 22nd.....

First off....these pics are inaccurate. These kids are freaking heroes and abnormally brave (or maybe I should say their parents are) compared to what I am about to tell you.

Everyday I come to work, sometimes late, sometimes on time.........but this has occured both times! I come to work, expecting a parking spot because there are more spots than there are teachers. But.....I'm circling that lot like it's Sunday afternoon at your local Walmart Supercenter!! Why?? Because the cars that are taking our spots belong to parents of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, EVEN 4th graders who must walk their kids from the parking lot to the school and possibly to the room!

So these kids in the pics above, that were just googled, are in the jungles of the actual sidewalks and streets of their communities!!!

Last week I was stuck behind a car on my way to an empty spot. The car was dropping off a student, which is great....drive em up and drop em off.....so the kid jumps out and goes into the school........great, yes here I come parking spot!!! Now where do you think the car went after dropping off a kid?? IN THE EMPTY PARKING SPOT!!! Why?? To park, get another kid out....not PK or K....and walk them up to the school.

Some of these people are repeat offenders.....the same mom walking the same 4th grader, carrying their backpacks up to the front door. Now, granted we have been out for holidays, ice storms, and conferences, we have been in school for oh say......150 days??? It is almost May!!! And your child still cannot walk to the door without parental guidance?? Or is the other way around,......the parent cannot go to the school without taking their child to the front door.

Now, for those out there who need an argument, I understand there are kids that need the assistance, etc. But I'm telling you 90% of these kids are straight a's, grade level, motorically able kids!

Anyway....after all my ranting......let your kids walk up there by themselves, or if you're just that protective, park in the street down the block! ;)

Sit back, do some therapy, and have a beer.....

So, this is my morning coffee! Every morning it gets me through the day and gives me the energy I need to .........well work! So I always have it sitting right by me at my therapy table.

Today one of the kindergarteners I see said........."Is that a beer?"

hmmm....how should I answer this....of course being me, I want to say yeah, work is rough kiddo....

I tell him, No it is not a beer! He says well my mom drinks beer........I'm thinking at work? ;) lol.. I said "Well there are places to drink beer and places that you don't drink beer and here isn't one of them. It is a Red Bull........"

His only reply "Red Bull gives you wings!"

So yeah, our lesson today was the appropriate and inappropriate places to drink beer ;) Hey it's pragmatics!!!

April 18th

My mom surprised me with this cake this weekend! She brought a whole lil party! I just love this cake! I had a great birthday.....26 isn't so bad after all ;)

Oh to drink a cup or two from the fountain of youth...pun intended.

So.....today I was shopping and I bought a cute lil shirt, the high school girl 18ish mind you, at the counter said "You going out in that shirt?" I said I don't know......just bought it cause it was cute and its my birthday tomorrow, just feel like shopping. She said " Your bday!? How old are you going to be?" ........I froze....I almost lied!!

Can you believe that ...why? Anyway i said 26...then followed that by "not a very fun number". She said you don't even LOOK 26, which Im sure when I was 18 I had learned to say to someone that old.

I mean when i was 18 I had friends that were 21 or 22, and that was cool....but I didn't even know anyone 26 and probably wouldn't have thought they were so cool....is that me? Ahhh! Anywho.....I was trying to look up something clever with 26, what happened 26 years ago.....facts about 26, celebrities that are 26, etc. But I came across something better!!!

I found another blogger! Communistdanceparty.blogspot.com and I must say it is almost accurate even for the female sex. Without further ado.......

Today is my twenty-sixth birthday. In all of my life, I've never celebrated such a mundane, uneventful, apathetic and craptastic occasion. Nobody cares about 26; not even I care about 26.So, instead of singing the praises of not stepping in front of a cement mixer or drinking ammonia for another year, I decided to be honest with myself and determine exactly why the age of 26 is the worst yet for everyone that experiences it. You can take this as either words of wisdom, or the bitter ranting of someone who's at least 33% dead. Tally-ho!

1. There's nothing left to look forward to concerning laws that pertain to age. When you turn 25, you can legally rent a car, but that's pretty much the end of it. All I have left now is the option to run for President of the United States when I turn 35, and my odds are looking a bit sketchy at the moment, to be honest.

Its true....I rented a car in August....so even the celebration of that is done with ;)

2. Teenagers and mothers of teenagers no longer want to have sex with you. You've gone outside the box of acceptable age for rebellious teenagers and lonely housewives alike. The ship has sailed, grandpa, and if you weren't already on it, the best you can hope for is a postcard from someone that was.

Well....this doesn't apply. So number 2 is out ;)

3. When you were 22, you were only four years removed from High School. Your opinions concerning fashion trends, pop culture, music and film were still relevant in the eyes of the young. Now, you're eight years removed, and you instantly know nothing. You might as well be jitterbugging with Ginger Rogers and listening to Herb Alpert on the Victrola*, because you are old and obsolete.(*I do listen to Herb Alpert records on my turntable from time to time.)

And even if you are still up on the pop culture scene, like myself.....you're still 26.....and it still doesn't count.

4. It's difficult to enjoy professional sports when the athletes become younger than you are. When you're a child or teenager, you look up to these superheroes; you tape posters to the wall and pretend that you're them on the playground. Now, I find it increasingly harder and harder to care if some 8-foot tall, 17 year old will enter the NBA Draft a year early. How can you honestly say "You're the man!" to someone that's almost a decade younger than you? You know, assuming you're not a complete douche noozle*?(*Go ahead and start using 'douche noozle.' It's okay.)
Well....I LOVE THAT ONE.....however it doesn't apply to me ;) My posters were NKOTB....much much older than I now so......;) I'm clear.

5. Nobody knows how old you really are. Every day, I hear people estimating me at somewhere between 19 and 30. At some point after college, you just become another faceless, MTV Generation turd that looks like he was born at some point in the early 80's. This may be true and well-deserved, but does our mediocrity need to be rubbed in our faces so much?

I'm a twenty something ;)

6. Everything sucks all over again. When you were a youthful, rebellious teen, you would reject all things mainstream, because you wanted to embrace the scene of the underground and appear cultured (if you were cool, that is). When you're 26, you once again attempt to buck the status quo, merely because nothing entertains you like it used to or should. It's a bleak, mediocre world out there. The underground sucks, the mainstream sucks, the tastemakers suck there's no scene left for you to crawl back to. Good luck with all of that.

mmmm......not so much....

7. You no longer get a free pass. You're an adult now. No borrowing money from mom. No paying bills late (not that I ever have, but still). No getting drunk on a Thursday; regardless of if Lost is on or not. No excuses, no safety net and no bitching. For the next 20 years, don't expect anyone to do absolutely anything for you, for any reason. If you're lucky by the time you're 45, you'll have kids that are in High School, and you'll get to start the vicious Circle of Poop all over again.
This is still a work in progress,........however I do keep finding away around doing my own laundry ;)


8. Your job has to be more than just a job. In school, anything that netted you a paycheck was considered welcome, acceptable and free of ridicule from your peers. When you're 26, grilling 'Sammies' at Quiznos just makes you look like you're missing a chromosome. Your employment is now your new social status scale; it's the first thing that anyone will ask you when you meet them. Fortunately for me, I can tell people that I'm an author and actually mean it, never mind the mere pennies of income it has netted me over the last four years.
Oh the days at Cinnamonster........luckily I now have a grown up job with the same hours....this is all i could ever ask for ;) The work gods have smiled upon me.


9. If she's under 18 and you're talking to her, you're branded a pervert of the highest order, end of story. Case in point: Cargirl. I like Cargirl. She's sweet, intelligent, funny, well-written, has a good direction and point of view, and I think she'll be doing great things by the time she's out of college. However, every time I speak to her, I can feel Chris Hansen's frigid index finger tapping me on the shoulder and holding the transcripts. If I were pantsless and waving a teddy bear out the tinted window of my Chevy Van, it would be one thing, but I'm not and I still feel like I need a shower sometimes. Not cool; I blame my Catholic upbringing.

Ahhh.....Chris is one of my heroes on myspace, lol! but it is true.....although I never dated anyone younger than me. When we were 22 my best friend did, still legal, but young, and it was cool...but now??? hmmmm

10. You start to buy albums that your parents listened to. U2. Stevie Wonder. Michael Jackson. Led Zeppelin. Pink Floyd. Even the Bee Gees. These are all timeless and brilliant musical artists that everyone should probably own, but when you were younger, there was no chance in hell that they were ever going to show up in your CD collection. How do those words taste?
My parents listened to music even older than these, so I've had this down before 26, so number 10 is out as well.

11. Things continue to hurt after you hurt them. Pull a muscle playing Wii Sports? Tweak your knee doing the Soulja Boy dance? Dehydrated after a marathon lovemaking session*? You're still going to feel it in the morning, Icy Hot or Vitamin Water be damned. 26 certainly isn't 46 in terms of aches and pains, but if you don't take care of yourself on a base level, the ibuprofen and Valium won't know the difference.(*Your lovemaking sessions may vary.)
OMG....I played one game of boxing during Christmas on a Wii and I was on the couch with a cold ice water!!! And yes I have learned the Soulja Boy and now muscles pulled, however, Vitamin Water has been my friend after a few drinks.......my 26 year old body is not like its once 20 year old body ;)

12. You've done nothing with your life. The dude that started Facebook is 23 years old, and he's a freaking billionaire. LeBron James is 23 years old, and he's being compared to Michael Jordan in terms of popularity and prowess. You know what I did when I was 23 years old? THIS! I sat on my ass, wrote funny stories, put on 30 pounds, drank whiskey, watched wrestling, read Entertainment Weekly and played Guitar Hero four hours a day. The 10 year old Me expected far greater things from the 26 year old Me. I'm letting him down on an hourly basis, and he really deserves better.

This is actually what scratched the celebrities who are 26 out......too depressing ;)

13. Everyone has heard all of your stories. Unless you're single or an astronaut, chances are that you've exhausted every interesting thing that has ever happened to you by this point in your life.* Your friends don't want to hear it, your spouse is tired of hearing it and strangers couldn't care less about it. You're out of memories; make more.
Not me, though. I still have hundreds more for you. Good ones

14. Vices are no longer cool. Hitting the casino for 16 straight hours? Chain-smoking a carton of Marlboro Mediums in your parents' basement? Riding that second ecstasy wave while lapping a Red Bull Bomb off of a Coyote Ugly dancer's taut tummy? Guess what? It's uncool and unoriginal. That kind of behavior was expected of you years ago, and now it's akin to the lonely guy at the club, leaning against the wall and tapping his foot out of sync with everything. Sure, it's still a lot of fun, but nobody else thinks it is, which is exactly why it isn't.
Thats exactly why I did it all and did it good then........and when people had something to say to us then, i said HEY in 5 or 6 years this won't be acceptable, but now is the window of opportunity!

15. Nobody cares about your achievements. Learned to play an instrument? Well, there's an infant down the block that makes your guitar playing look like Stephen Hawking hitting himself in the head with a tambourine. Just got the new high score on XBox Live? Enjoy it for the three seconds before it gets trounced by some 10 year old Asian that did it blindfolded. Face it; you're too old to be proud of stuff. Just do it the best you can, exhale, and do something better next time. Put on a happy face for your mom, though; she's proud of everything you do.
Ah....my dad still displays my valedictorian trophy......lol.

16. Your parties are boring. When you were a kid, your parties were all about video games, music and candy. When you were a teen, your parties consisted of booze, nudity and louder music.When you're 26? Yup, more video games and candy. It all comes full circle, but at least you have a nicer TV now.
true true.....

17. You will do anything to remain youthful in the eyes of the young. If that 16 year old girl at the Buckle thinks that you look cute with the $250 Fossil watch around your waist, you'd better buy two of them and keep that gut sucked in. When your world revolves around High School, 26 is considered 'old.' Honest to God, old. Never mind that this is the same 26 year old that became the youngest person ever promoted to his current employment position. The truth is that each phase of life has its own sacred code, and you'll fight tooth and nail to cling to each passing one.
Poor guys.....fashion just follows us girls, and now I have money versus 18.....so all those fake designer bags.... just became real! ;) cha ching....

18. Your life is at least 33% over. If you're lucky, you'll make it to your 80's, but when's the last time you've been lucky about anything? Nope, your pie graph is engulfing upon itself, and no amount of hair gel or The Hills is going to change that. Start exercising for your body, doing sudoku for your mind, and taking Lexapro to stop the voices that remind you of your impending doom. You're dicked.
Thats why I'm starting my diet.......Monday

19. You flat-out stop remembering stuff. The Missus told me that when I was in the second grade, I did a magic act for the school talent show that she was in attendance for. Not only was this the first time that I was made aware of this story, but it was also the first time someone told me something about myself that was 100% unverifiable by me. I don't remember a second of that day. It's not foggy, it's not hazy and it's not vague; it's non-existent and it never happened in my brain. This is frightening to me, because if I don't remember that, what else don't I remember? Who should I try to avoid at the next reunion? How am I going to keep all of my lies in order if my head gets soft?
I guess this happens when your 29, becaues I remind Ryan of stuff....my memory is still very detailed ;)

20. You're constantly hassled about starting a family. Me and the Missus don't want children right now. We'd much rather have a nice house, accompanied with nice things to put inside of said house. Our superficial tastes far outweigh our parental instincts right now, and I feel that at the very least, we're being honest. Better to get the hedonism out of the way early, as opposed to being a selfish parent later on. Children are always an option; I can adopt a kid on my death bed if I so choose. In fact, that'll probably be around the time I'm ready to accept that sort of responsibility. Stop asking; I don't care about children.
I have to agree now.......we tried it.....horrible sad moment......so we're being selfish and trips trips trips and toys toys toys ;)

21. It's impossible to make new friends. How many friends have you made after the age of 25? I don't mean 'surface, outer-circle' friends, either. I'm talking about good, solid, 'hang-out-every-weekend with pillow fights and secret-sharing' friends. Probably not too many. That's because it's freaking hard. I'd have better luck going to a bar and finding random women that want to sleep with me, as opposed to a regular dude that just wants to talk about football and music, and that's just sad.
Have to disagree.....but i've had a job where I can meet more friends.

22. You measure your life differently. When you were younger, you'd save your money for the weekend. For a new video game. For a party. Now (if you're responsible), you save your money for retirement. For investing. For a new home. The Big Picture has taken over and swallowed the little goals and accomplishments that used to be so damn fun. You used to plan ahead to be happy a few days from now. Now, you plan ahead to be happy 40 years from now. What happened to the space in between? Where's the fun? It's still there, right? Right?
I'm counting down to retirement already ;)

23. You're too responsible. Every purchase requires a moment of reflection, projection and quick subtraction. For example, I'll be buying an HDTV and 5.1 Home Theater as a birthday present to myself today. You'd think it would be impossible to keep my excitement discreetly tucked away in my pants, but nope. I'm miserable, because I'd rather the money go towards my credit cards. I owe this to myself, but I can't bring myself to be happy about it. How in the hell can you be depressed when you have a Home Theater? Unbelievable.
HA HA HA HA HA HA.............If i am ever "too responsible"........well--we won't have to worry about it ;)

24. You can't enjoy remakes of movies, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released over 20 years ago, and your Woodstock festival was an embarrassment. Your nostalgia is starting to become a distant reality. The 80's have been thoroughly mined for pop culture gems, and they're coming for the 90's next. You'll realize this soon enough, but believe me when I say that it was far easier for our parents to explain the 80's away than it will be for us to explain the 90's to our kids. It's a ludicrous decade, Clinton or not.
I have a guitar hero, nintendo ds, and gameboy advance (still 5 years behind) but I still choose to play Mario All Stars on the Super NES betches!!! And i dont think there is anything ludicrous about clinton ;)

25. When you were a kid, it was as good as Christmas. Now, you're lucky if your office's 'Sunshine Club' remembers to tie a mylar balloon on the wall of your cubicle. And you'll like it, too. You'll thank them profusely and carry that stupid balloon home for your wife to see. That's who you are now, and it's absolutely hilarious, even if you do contemplate suicide hourly.
Tomorrow I will go to work and there will be a party................for my boss. Enough said. I can't even have my own birthday day.

26. If you think 26 sucks, 27, 28 and 29 are even worse.
But i'm optimistic, its still twenty something ;)

So....tomorrow i will wake up and be 26, am I really that sad.....of course not.......if you even slightly know me you know that i could never pass up a day all about ME!!!

I'm a Mac Girl now......

So, I love it.....really I do. It took me a few minutes to figure how to get this pic from the web to here but hey there it is! Everyone has said you just have to get used to it. So....I feel being a lil late this morning so that I can play on it... is allowed ;) Last night I was frustrated because the screen wasn't big enough.....then I read some message boards and most of the Apple users that responded were assholes! Not to me but to someone who had the same question! The question "How do I make my windows bigger on my mac screen?" The answers "Why would you want your screen to be bigger?" "That is a "windows" thing and you're just going to have to get over it and get used to the green + button" WELL.....for now I have just increased the font and screen and look like I might have some visual impairment ;) But I'll get there.... where is there??

GETTING OVER MY "WINDOWS" THING

i'll keep you posted, so far so good. It's easy and things "make sense", just used to Windows where things are overly complicated. Ahhhh......see now I'm the Apple Asshole ;) 

Yaaay!

My fun weekend thus far........still two days to go ;)

Driving to Dallas....singin in car....its what we do!




My favorite fast food in the world!! Pit stop in Gainesville ;)

On our way to see..................

or you may better know him as.......

Special Ed on Crank Yankers (comedy central)

Me and Jim after the show ;)

It was great! Joe Howard opened up for him. A drunk guy came up and gave him a CaboWabo hat. Some stupid lil blonde cosmetologist was trying to heckle? blah..... and we had seats right next to the stage!! Great weekend ;)....thus far

My Prayers Have Been Answered!!!

1 day, 7 hours, and 51 minutes!!! I think everyday in 1988 my diary entry went something like this "I love Jordan!" "Kelli Knight" "Please let their tour bus break down in front of my house..." like they would be on main street in Porter, Ok. Geez....kids are so stupid huh? ;) Anyway, its the reunion of my lifetime!

More to Come........

More to come later........I'm tired and sleepy!!!

The Easter Beagle...Pt.2

Isaac's basket with the FJ Cruiser like uncle's!!

Those darn twisty ties!

He loves it!!! Matchin itup on the website right away and then outside!!

Easter Egg Hunt Time!!! Gracie thought she would hunt too, she kept running off with the eggs! It was the Easter Beagle!!!

It's the Easter Beagle!

We got home from Dallas and then spent most of the day at Walmart getting Marty's flat tired changed! They housesat for us and someone shattered something down the street from us... they ran over it and kaput! So here is me and lil I.Z. Pie-z ;)

Marty got Gracie a basket......here she is waiting patiently for the go sign ;)

Checking it out.................

And..........she loves it! ;)

Finally....another blog!

Over Spring Break Ryan and I took a lil Road Trip to Dallas......here are some pics ;)

Getting groomed at Two Hotties Haircut....this place is great! Free PB&J bar, three big screens one with Xbox, theatre seating, three nice massage chairs the ones with the calf massagers and if you run the pool table there free haircut!! ; ) I got my eyebrows waxed.

Have to be a Booher to get these Tiger pics ;) lol....

No Dallas trip is complete without a visit from Steve!

Please Vote for.....

See Above Post..........

So this is a member of the Howard Stern Show and you all know what a fan I am! Howard has millions and millions of listeners and last year he called on of them to vote for Sanjaya and we learned from the inside how fixed American Idol was at that point, well now.........we want to see if Paris will really pick the most voted for wannabe best friend. Benji from the show has made a profile and is like in 3rdPLACE!!! So vote for him, pass it along, if he was her best friend on the show this would be the only way it would be worth watching!! PLEASE VOTE!!!

Home Sweet Home

We painted the bedroom this weekend.........whatdya' think???

My favorite time of year......

This is my favorite time of year..... I love when our tree blooms like this!!! I wanted to have my wedding in a field of these, but I'd only have like a week timeframe to guess when that would happen........but.....SPRING IS IN THE AIR.....;)

Says it all.....

Just Because....

Today Ryan sent me flowers! I got called to the office, and they said "its not an emergency" which makes me think it is, or that it is an unhappy parent or some other dreadful situation but I got there an hour later and it was FLOWERS ;) Made my day..........you'll see why, read the card:

Dog Days of March

Gracie went to the dog park Sunday and it was so great! Nice day, lots of dogs! It was the first time she initiated play with other dogs!!! I have a video of it, but I wanted to post it on youtube and then put it on here, but it won't upload so be looking forward to that.


Here she is chattin with some of the other doggies. The one she plays with is another beagle! Funny how they stick together huh?



This is actually her favorite thing to do at the dog park.....visit the people and not so much the dogs!!












The 3 Beagles of the park!! Gracie, Gracie & Daisy!!!

My Morning Thoughts.....

This is exactly one of the things I cannot stand. I overheard someone at a restaurant a few weeks ago say they were scared that Barack is an undercover muslim and has all these horrible plans if elected. WHY? Because he's dark? Because of his name?? Because of that stupid non-factual email that everyone takes to heart??

The picture of him in cultural attire that has come out is such a prime example of how fear is put into Americans. We see someone in a turban and get all freaked out!? How SAD!! This is just like racial profiling!!! It is so sad the intent of releasing this photo. I am happy to see that a lot of people are recognizing this as a desperate tactic to a campaign. I'm just worried about some of the voters that don't really read into things, research, or well......care to culture themselves.

The Obama campaign publicized his August 2006 trip to Africa and even permitted a documentary film crew to come along for 2007's "Senator Obama Goes to Africa."

So, if it were a "ploy" ......then I'm not sure why they brought along a film crew or publicized it themselves.
Respecting another's culture in their homeland is honorable!! Here are some examples of that honor ;)