Done!

I did it. Another successful NaBloPoMo! Thanks for reading and tagging along. I'm not leaving ...just not gonna post daily probably. I need topics...it's hard to figure out what to write about.

Well I'm going to leave now....

Star struck....

There are only 2 actors that I HAVE to see anything they do...Mel Gibson and Johnny Depp. Now I've found out that Johnny Depp will be a very busy man. He will be playing in a fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Lone Ranger" and "Alice in Wonderland". Man I will be in movie star heaven.

I just love some Captain Jack Sparrow!!!!


Next comes the greatest director and the greatest actor together again....Tim Burton and Johnny Depp..."Alice in Wonderland"....Johnny will be the Mad Hatter...oh my goodness....March 2010 I can't wait!

[SIDE NOTE]....any other Tim Burton fans out there....he is just amazing...



And can you see Johnny as Tonto in "The Lone Ranger"? Well I'm going to!!!

And according to articles Johnny will be part of an animated project called "Rango"

There is also two more projects "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and "Public Enemies" that I will be checking out.








So who are you star struck with????

Coolest tree

Growing up I was not very prissy....I'm still not. I was a tomboy with the best of them. Loved to be outdoors. My favorite toy was my Big Wheel. I wore the wheels off of them (I got a new one each Christmas because I wore it out).


I grew up in a neighborhood full of boys so I guess I had no choice. Now my favorite thing to do was climb trees. I never met a tree I didn't want to climb! Now the best tree on the planet for climbing was at my cousin Crystal's house. It is a Mimosa tree. It was low enough to the ground that we could just jump up and reach the limb. It had the greatest nooks and crannies to sit on. That tree ROCKED! I looked forward to going to Crystal's because I knew we would play in that tree for hours. Well yesterday driving home I told Brian I wanted a picture of that tree. Now my cousin hasn't lived in that house for over 15 years. It would be kinda strange to drive up in someone's yard and take a picture of their tree so I told Brian to slow down as we passed by....I was excited about this picture....





I miss that tree....

Thankful

Today is the day we eat too much and think about all we are thankful for in our lives. We should be thankful daily. I am more blessed than I can put on paper or on the internet. Family, home, dogs, job, clothes, food, heat, A/C, car, good health....that is just the top of the list.

The day started great with a call from Iraq. Scott sounded good. We talked Carolina basketball and such. I'm very thankful that God has protected him while in Iraq!!!

Then we went to my aunt's house to eat. Good food, great family. And yes Angie we had deep fried turkey!!! Okay how about some pictures.


I told my uncle (who was cooking the turkey) that my sister-in-law couldn't believe we eat deep fried turkey. He said "well it says 0 grams of trans fat"....cracked me up so I took a picture.

Here is the bird soaking up the trans-fat oil!


YUMMY!
Best chicken salad EVER and the turnips ain't bad either.

Now this is why I come....my Aunt Linda's potato salad. I took the rest of it home with me...guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow?


Here's my plate....

Here's my pregnant cousin Crystal....pregnant woman with fork...get OUT of her way!!!
Okay this is for Scott....we had my aunt's neighbor take the picture....as you can see she didn't quite get all of the sign...it says" WE MISS AND LOVE YOU SCOTT".
Take two...we added more family that had just walked in....
This is for my friend Jen. Her son is currently in Germany. This is his first Thanksgiving away from home. The sign almost got cut off in this picture too....Thank You Blake for what you are doing for our country! Praying you stay safe!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Getting closer

Well today I transfer the food from the old fridge to the "new" fridge. We will move the old one out tomorrow and have our living room back! Still painting the cabinet doors (they take forever!)Afterwards we can put the hardware on and put them bad boys up. I have to finish painting the two new floor cabinets and then we can put all the food away. Slowly but surely this will come together. I just might have room in the living room for a Christmas tree....not really sure if we are going to even bother with it this year though.

Pictures will be forthcoming soon.

The next stop the remodeling train is the sunroom. We have moved the bench back into it's rightful place. We have put the "new" cabinet in...I'm not sure what that thing is...I think it is a sink cabinet. We got it free when we bought the fridge. I'm not putting a sink in it so we had the extra countertop (you have to buy the entire length even if you don't need it!) cut to fit the top. I need to clean it and get the rust off of it. I'm going to like it out there...somewhere to put my laundry stuff and my extras (you know when you get a good deal on paper towels or toilet paper and have no where to put it....now I do). We have to paint the room still but the entire room (trim and walls) will be white so that isn't such a big deal. We've been looking for window treatments. We bought shades and have decided against it so now we are on the hunt again. I really dislike looking for stuff like that so I'm just kinda not caring at all.

After that I will clean out the bedrooms and the attic. I plan to have a HUGE yard sale in the spring. I'm getting rid of as much as I can! When that is finished I can get the house ready to paint the rest of it. I'm NOT painting the other rooms. I am going to start saving my money and someone else is going to come in and paint my house. You see all of the rooms need to be repainted. That is just not something I plan to deal with again.

My scrapbook room might be the only room I tackle just because I really want it finished NOW! We are getting the bunk bed out of there tomorrow and giving it to my brother. We have found a day bed for $50 that we are getting on Friday. I haven't decided if I want to paint the walls blue or white again and just dress up the walls. I can't wait to get that room like I want it. I bought a computer desk also to go in there. I NEED a place to put my laptop and our bills and such. Right now they are in a cardboard box beside my bed. It is driving me crazy! I hate sitting on the bed doing the bills and typing on the laptop (like right now). It is a major pain right now to print anything off the computer so I need a real place!

So much to do.......God give me patience!!!

Thanks for reading. Have a great day and if you are traveling to visit family....be careful!

Mashed potatoes?

So what part of Thanksgiving are you?

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

&$%*#&%

yep that's how I feel today.....

Tagged

I've been tagged by Jen so here I go....

1. What is your funniest childhood story? Well it really wasn't funny to me but my parents tell it to everyone. I was 8 years old when my brother was born. So I spent 8 years being the only child...I liked it...I liked the attention. Well the new baby comes along and no one knows that Wendy is alive (or so I thought) and no one paid attention to me. Well, we had company over one evening and I was tired of being left out so I climbed up onto the big console tv (anyone remember having one of those?) and I stood up on the tv and said "pay attention to me!!". Well, my dad did...to my hind end. He spanked me right in front of everyone and made me go to my room. Yeah...not so funny for Wendy but my parents seem to love that story (and so does my brother!)

2. What would your dream dress look like if you could design it? Something to fit perfect! Long and flashy but not hoochie-mama looking. I like black so some bling on the dress would flash it up some. Oh and you KNOW the shoes have to be sassy to match!

3. What weird habit does your hubby have? Not so sure this is a habit but it sure is irritating...he is the LOUDEST freakin' person in the morning when he is getting ready for work. I work shift work so our schedules do not always match so he often gets ready before me....I still have time to sleep but he is so stinkin' loud. He has to turn every light in the bedroom on just to get dressed ....now mind you....he is a Highway Patrolman. He has been wearing the same thing to work for 20 years...why does he need all that light? He wakes all the dogs (I have 4) and they are loud too...so it just makes my morning "lovely".

4. How many cookbooks are in your kitchen? About 5...they are decorations because I don't cook!

5. Granny panties or loyal Victoria's Secret girl? um...neither....hipsters from Target

6. My favorite memory from 2008 so far is... my 4-fer weekend seeing Third Day. I got to see ALOT of my friends from all over the country...I got to spend time with Jamie and Lori...I got to see Third Day 4 times in 4 days....it was a blast!!!

7. I secretly .... wish I had a job where I could stay home

8. I could really go for... a trip to Greece!

9. We are going to have a big snow storm and you will find me... totally dreading it...I have to go to work even when the weather is awful. I can get a ride from the Police but it is a pain.

10. I knew he was the one...when we went to Chick-fil-a and we both put mayo on our fries. I don't like ketchup and thought I was the only one that put mayo on the fries. My husband's father is from Holland so that is something they do in Europe so Brian grew up doing it. Yep...we still do it.

Now for my tags.... I Tag:

Happiness Is....

Kodiacbear's Journey to Ironman

Voice on the Wind

Favorite Thanksgiving food

So what about Thanksgiving dinner makes your mouth water? I don't particularly like turkey so that's not it at all. Now of course us Southerners have found a way to make turkey (which is fairly good for you and not too fattening) full of fat and down right delicious....DEEP FRY THAT BIRD!!! If you haven't had deep-fried turkey you are missing out. Yummy....

Now my favorite dishes at Thanksgiving are:
1-Ham...I love ham...anyway you make it. My aunt has this great recipe (which I need to get from her) for baking the ham with Coke....it is very juicy and yummy.
2-Potato salad made by my Aunt Linda....you will NEVER taste any better potato salad period
3-Veggies....I'm a veggie person (not a vegetarian but I think I eat more veggies than meat). I just love some good ole butter bean, field peas, corn, string beans, collards, etc
4-Sweet potato cassorole....I actually make this (which is unusual because I hate to cook). The recipe is just too simple and the dish ends up tasting almost like dessert.
5- Pecan pie....just had over the whole pie and no one will get hurt!

So....what do you look forward to eating on Thursday? What's your favorite recipe....will you share?

Here is the sweet potato cassorole recipe:
*3 cups sweet potato (you can cook the sweet potatoes but I have found that the canned version works just as well)
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 cup of butter melted

Mix all together and put in baking dish

*2-3 cups of choppe pecans
* 1 cup of brown sugar
* 1/2 cup of butter (not melted)
*1/4 cup of flour

Mix all together and spread over top of sweet potato mixture
Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees

ENJOY

Winter

Is my very least favorite season. I HATE being cold. When it gets below 65 degrees I am cold. There's just nothing I like to do outside when it is cold. I have yet to figure out why anyone wants to put sticks on their feet and slide down ice/snow. And yes I've been snow skiing before....got hurt and now I have arthritis in my knee because of the nasty fall I took on that trip.
And yes snow is very pretty but the problem is two-fold....ONE: our area doesn't usually get snow. We live in the part of the country that gets cold enough to snow but then it warms up enough in the daytime to melt it all...then it freezes at night again. Never fun. And TWO: I have to be at work no matter what the weather. We don't get to claim inclement weather. Now I do have the option of getting the Highway Patrol (being married to a Trooper helps!) or the Sheriff's department to take me to work. I do that alot when the weather is nasty. I'm not about to try to drive in that mess and risk wrecking my car.
I can't work out in the yard which I enjoy because it is just too cold. Even taking the dogs out is awful.
So...I just thought I would let you know that my mood during the winter isn't usually the best. Come on summer!!!

Third Day Johnson City TN

Go HERE to see my pictures from the show.

24 IS BACK!!!!

I watched very very little tv. If Brian is home it is usually on the cartoon channel. We deal with so much junk at work that we like to veg to animated shows that require no brain power. I don't sit down much to watch tv and if I do it usually enjoys a ball of some kind (football, basketball, etc). But there is one show that I have watched since the first episode and I can't miss it! That would be 24....and boy have I missed it. Well this Sunday (November 23) I get 2 whole hours of Jack Bauer!!! Dude I can hardly wait! Season 7 starts Jan 11th and 12th....4 hours of Jack! WHOO HOO!!! I love their website...they have a countdown to Sunday!

http://www.fox.com/24/redemption/

Any Jack Bauer nuts out there???

Tracking...

Just wondering who reads my "very" interesting blog. Does anyone use a tracking device to see who reads their blog? I would like to know but don't know which tracking device is the best.

I'm going to add those who comment to my blogroll (eventually...I can't seem to find the time to sit at my computer!) but I would like to know who else is out there.

Change of plans

I had planned to paint and run a few errands today. Well about 9am I get a phone call from work. I was given the day off because they owed me my Veteran's day holiday. Well, I had to go to work because my interview was today.

Let me explain. Every 4 years I have to be reappointed to my job as a Magistrate. The Clerk of Court interviews us and decides if she will nominate us. Then the Resident Superior Court Judge decides who to appoint. I've been a Magistrate for almost 8 years so pray I continue being one!

But...all that messed up my day. Now I'm going to start painting. We still need to finish the door trim and the door. Then I have to start painitng the Sunroom. (No it NEVER ends!)

Oh...and it's snowing....interesting day.

Have a great one!

Kitchen update

We are getting there people. We are almost finished painting. I just have to paint the trim around the doors and the back door. Then I have to paint the cabinet doors. I'm moving stuff back into the kitchen and getting back to some sense of order in the rest of my house. Today I will be a cleaning hound!!! So here are some pictures ....

Brian priming the wall


Yes I'm standing in the "sink"

Before...the cabinets will go on the wall and the fridge will be in the middle

Hey whatever works!
So much paint....

I think we are going to paint the wall behind red so this might change

Finished wall
We decided not to put the cabinet doors back on the top cabinets. We painted the back the same as the wall and added these very pretty vases Brian found on Craig's List for $30 (for ALL of them)
The lighting stinks in this picture. The wall is red, the cabinets are white. There will be white doors eventually. We put stainless steel behind the stove.
Here is my very cool sink I found at Habitat for Humanity for $25

Here is the sink FINALLY put in

How cute is this....I'm going to put another on the other side of the stove.
Someday when we are no longer here and someone removes the stainless steel this is what they will find.... :)

Tired and now ill

Well I'm tired. I've been running around all. I almost forgot to blog so I sit down here. I write a blog about the progress in my kitchen with pictures and captions. I post it to the WRONG blog....I try to transfer it here and nope it won't work. So...I guess tomorrow's blog will be about the kitchen. I'm done for the evening.

Thing to do #46

This is my "recycle more than I do" thing to do. Brian and I have recycled for years. I've been wanting to do more. We have to take the recycling to the dump because it is not picked up by the county. We finally bought some big trash cans and are now recycling most of what we use. I haven't jumped on the whole GREEN thing but I do believe we can recycle quite easily and we should do it.

Here is an interesting article about recycling.


In the USA, people throw away at least 162 tons of garbage a year. It would fill 1000 football fields piled thirty stories high. Each American throws away 4-6 pounds of trash each day. Landfill trash is covered with dirt. Ten percent of America's trash is being recycled. If families recycled things like paper, glass, and aluminum cans, and other things that are in their garbage, trash would be reduced by 25%.

Thing to Do #62

This seems fitting to talk about today since I saw Third Day last night. I wanted to do a Third Day 4-fer show weekend. That trip was planned in the Spring and I looked SOOOO forward to it. My husband had a mission trip planned to Morocco on the same week that the Texas/Oklahoma show run was happening. What timing! I could leave and Brian not miss me! I was all about it. So....I flew to Texas and became part of history .....I believe there are only 5 Gomers that have done 4 shows in 4 days. Me, Jamie, Traci, Kendell and Lori. Jamie has done it twice!!! I've posted my show pictures HERE.

Here are some pictures from the RED RIVER ROAD TRIP as we named it... (blogger is being a pain so the pictures are posting in no certain order)



Corrine, me and Dan (nice to see Corrine after MANY years and to finally meet Dan!)
Love Miss Jamie!
Sunnie is beautiful inside and out!
Good dinner...better friends!
Bari rocks!

Need some caffeine!!!
YXMA....Tai didn't want to play nice (Dallas show)
A whole gaggle of Gomers! (Dallas show)
Me and Mike (the Wired Rep...nice guy!)

Road buddies!!! Stephanie Lee (Mark's wife) ....we should read her BLOG

Lori, Jamie, Nigel and Me (Nigel is Third Day's touring Pastor....AWESOME man! Read his blog HERE)

Me and Cebrina Me and Sylvia and Jason's GOAS

Flashing the bling
Me and Corrine in San Antonio
(Out of order...blogger is ate up today) At Cracker Barrel with Lori, Jamie, Ricky (Lori's brother) and Lori's s-i-l...I'm horrible with names...can't remember her name right now). Ricky kept throwing things at us)
On the way to Cracker Barrel...2 thumbs up! Road trip to Cracker Barrel
"Lori, you suck at pancakes. Let's go to Cracker Barrel"....Ricky Caldwell
Show 3 San Antonio

Ghetto style
Working at the car wash....
Yo yo....3rd show dude

Me and Chance....I think when I first met Chance he was actually shorther than me!
Will the Cowboy be in OKC?
Yes we did...
Down with my home girl Lori (Lori rocks if you didn't know that!)
Rolling down the highway.....
Love me some Switchfoot!


WE FOUND THE TAMBOURINES!!!
SCARY!
Jackalope
hmmmm....
conehead!!!

David Carr is our HERO!!!!
Play that tambourine Wendy!
Lori on the tambourine
Shelly kicks in...
Driving and tambourining (is that a word?)....Jamie rocks
Mike and the girls

Yes the Cowboy did show up in OKC!!!!

SHOW ONE....DALLAS TEXAS


SHOW TWO- HOUSTON TEXAS (love this picture!)

TAKE TWO...SHOW TWO...HOUSTON TEXAS

SHOW THREE ....SAN ANTONIO TEXAS (David is having issues)


SHOW FOUR....OKLAHOMA CITY OKLAHOMA

What a wonderful trip I had!!! Memories that will never fade!!! Love to all the people in the pictures!!!