I didn't and still don't look this good

I was reading blogs in my google reader and I saw this fun time waster at the blog  Good Mom Bad Mom.  She Morphed her daughter using a web ap called Puma Past Masher. The blog title is 'You don't want to know what your kid will look like in 10 years.'  If you like her writing she also has a blog called The Bloggess and sometimes I laugh so hard I pee my pants cry.

April - Ugly shirt.  Exactly something I might  have worn too.   The flute just reminded me of American Pie "One Time at Band Camp...".

Judith as a 14 year old.  Ugly shirt.  Didn't notice until just now that I chose the same shirt for both of us.

You can stay but you can't drive my car

So...  Christmas eve at the in laws.  Stay a couple of days or have a whirlwind go and come back?

I have this meme in my head.  This idea of a 'perfect' Christmas get together.  It actually involves a lot of imperfect scenarios meshing together to become an event that you look upon later as 'perfect'.   It means sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, trying to cook in a kitchen with 5 or more other women who are related either by blood or marriage.  It means watching slides or looking through pictures from 'way back' and reminiscing about 1982.  It means exposing your homeschooled children to elderly teacher aunts who feel it is their  god given duty to quiz said children on everything from reading to social activities.   It means listening  from around the corner while said child says something you totally would never want said elderly aunts to hear.  Gah but it all comes together because everyone is family, you can't be lonely with so many people around and the food is great.

Now that above 'perfect' actually comes close with a get together on my dad's side.  It happens every year after Christmas and for a weekend there are a lot of people in one place doing a lot of things and hopefully everyone leaves feeling like they are blessed to have such a  big nauseating family.

For Thanksgiving we were on our own.  David's parents didn't want us to come, they wanted a quiet normal pretend it  isn't a holiday, day.  My parents had to work.  

So now for Christmas.   We are going to drive the 5 hours to Abilene tomorrow (Xmas eve) and spend the night, then David will drive home Xmas day so that he  can go to work Friday and Saturday, then he will drive  back to Abilene saturday evening and spend the night and then we will all go home together Sunday.  Fun.  The Original Plan was that we would just spend the night on Xmas eve and then all go home Xmas day.   David's mom was like, " That is such a short stay  why can't you stay longer." 

heh OK.  

So I told David, " Tell your mom that the kids and I can stay and you will come home and then drive back to pick us up."  Dutifully (or nagged so much he did it to get me off his back) he calls her up and tells her that.  

So she says, "I have to ask you dad." 

heh. gah.choke.  

OK 

So I call back the next day to find out how  many days I need to pack for, and She says, "You can  stay but you can't drive my car.  I need  my car."

I have to  say, the only time I drive her car is when her and I go shopping or running errands.  She ASKS me to drive.  I never 'borrow' her car to do my own thing.

The only time I have driven a car of theirs it wasn't hers it was HIS and it was when I was there for two days after my Great Grandmother died in October of 2006.

Time to figure out how to write rants with out saying "SO" so so much.

Life goes on

My life has lately been revolving around how much help I am not getting around the house. Yes I am Mrs. Negativity. Mrs. Positive is on vacation, actually she went on vacation when I turned three and she hasn't come back.

My friend Gorgeous follows Flylady , I have seen pictures of her kids and in the background her house is just lovely. I want my house to be just like that.

I don't know if some people are 'born' with the ability to clean, but I really feel like I wasn't. I think I might somehow be shortchanging the kids by not being a good example and showing them how to pick up after themselves.

What do you do to keep the house clean?

Reduced Computer Time

So you all know from a previous post that I toasted my laptop. Or I
help hasten its demise as we think it was already going out...
Anyway, we can't send it in until we find away of saving my data.
Wish us luck!

Pizza biscuit muffins

I found a recipe for Pizza Muffins.  I am making them for dinner tonight.  Hopefully they will taste ok.  :-)  

I am still bummed about my laptop.  I have to get all my  info off the hard drive somehow.  We have a laptop hard drive enclosure but it might not fit this one.  Things are so complicated.      --big sigh--.  

David took the thing apart and he thinks that it was just a coincidence that the Laptop went out when it did.  He can't find where the soup would have made a problem.   My speakers went out last week, so I guess he could be right.  

I am still bummed though.  I really liked having a laptop and now, David has a computer and the kids have a computer, but I have to   --gasp--  share.  

If there are any vendors out there that need someone to 'test' a laptop for them   --waves hand madly in the air--   Pick me! Pick me!

Kill your Laptop in one easy step

So, David is always telling me not to eat next to the laptop.  

David "You are going to spill something in it."

Me  "I am careful.  Besides you are always  saying that this laptop is made  to take a little spills"

So what did I do today?  I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, reading email, and eating/slurping soup.  When all of a sudden aliens took hold of my hands and used them to push my soup over so that it spilled into the keyboard of my laptop.... 

I  turned the laptop over right away.  Wiped up all the noticeable liquid.  Noticed that the light was still on around the power button.  PUSHED the button (now hmm I don't know why I did that) I heard the cdrom spin up, then spin down.  Then everything when Dark.  Totally dark.  Dark like in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game when at each level  you reset to "Black, completely Black.  You can Hear nothing, See Nothing, taste nothing"

I am crossing my fingers that the laptop has a  moisture  sensor that causes it to shut down when it detects moisture, and that after it dries out it will work.  I can hope.  I don't think I am that lucky, but I can hope.

People I am thankful for

David - great provider and doesn't complain about the housekeeping (well not often).

Alicia, Claire, Stacy, Tiffany.  I had to put you all on one line because I appreciate you all and love you and would hate for you to think I loved one of you more than the other... Thanks for all the support.  It keeps me sane to have you all to talk to and it is really nice that you all understand me.

Christmas Tree and Advent

My kids are ages 9 and 7.  This will be the first year of their lives that I have done a countdown to Christmas with them.  I bought several advent calendars and last night they got to start the official countdown.  We also put up our Christmas tree last night.  If anyone has any ideas for me to keep the darn cat out of the tree please let me know!

From Miskey

David put all the lights on,

From David

We sang Christmas carols and ate Christmas food and the whole world was a better 

place. HA. Not.

WOOT!!!!

I found my Crockpot!!  If you scroll down to the pics from the garage cleaning post you will notice that there are 9 boxes that i said were toys.  oops.  the middle bottom one had a million lunch boxes and a dehydrator and . . . . the crockpot.

Now. where. is. the . leather. jacket.

Sensa

I found out about a new weight loss product last week on a blog called Domestic Chicky. Anyway, I was browsing blogs and I somehow stumbled on that blog and she was talking about a new weight loss product called SENSA.  It is an 'all natural' product (meaning that it is derived from natural products heh).  

The blog goes on to say that she recieved a 6 month supply for free to try.  I was like WHAT.  I want a free trial too.  I googled SENSA.  Found out who their word of Mouth Marketing was (Rocketxl) and sent an email off asking if I could join the trial and try out the product for them.

I got back an out of office email (I sent the email Friday) and today a girl from the company emailed me and offered me a spot.  Wooo!

I have been despairing over my weight lately, but I honestly don't know what to do about it.   I really feel I found out about this product at the right time.  I am willing to do something about my weight and they are willing to let me try their product.  How felicitous is that?

Let me tell you a little about the product I will be trying out.  It is called SENSA.   Here is the ingredients as taken from the FAQ at their retail website.

What exactly is in Sensa?

Sensa contains Maltodextrin (Derived from Corn from the USA), Tricalcium Phosphate, Silica, Natural and Artificial Flavors, FD&C Yellow 5, and Carmine. Sensa also contains Soy and Milk ingredients. Sensa is sodium-free, sugar-free, calorie free, gluten-free, and there are no stimulants, drugs or MSG.

The only thing I don't like is the yellow#5, and them saying 'artificial flavors'.  I think that in a product like this, that either there should be no artificial flavors or that they should disclose them.  I mean they say it is all natural, but it has artificial flavors.

That won't stop me from trying it.  I really need to lose weight and I think that the way this product is supposed to work by eventually teaching your body to limit portion control is a good thing.  Watch my blog to see how it goes :-)

Now for a link to a give away at SENSA.  Here is the text: You can also access the rules here.

As part of our campaign, the Sensa team would love it if along with your honest review, you shared this coupon code so that interested readers & friends of your site could try Sensa at a discount.  You and your readers can use this link: http://www.trysensa.com/link/A0B089 with the promotion code ROCKETXL for 15% of your order (no minimum) and free ground shipping, or just use the ROCKETXL code upon checkout at www.trysensa.com   

As an added incentive, we will be giving away an additional 6-month supply of Sensa and other Intelligent Beauty products to 3 winners who have shown the most dramatic weight loss.  This contest is open to you, but you can invite your readers to participate too.  To be considered you will need to post a before and after photograph during the week of February 2-6 and email me the link to your post.  Be sure to take a picture now before you start the program.   It is completely fine to black out your face to keep your identity relatively anonymous.