What was I thinking...

I guess I should have known better than to think that I would keep up with my blog this year ;)
Not that I have been really busy...just don't want to.

Anyway, here I am...almost February and what a year it's been. I won't bore you with all of the details but so far this counts down some of the people in my life...
3 broken legs
2 serious falls
2 deaths
1 cancer development
AND IT'S STILL JANUARY...really people, I love you all so be careful!!!!

On a happier note...I have just booked my first ever trip to Vegas...I am going in April!! Can't wait. I will warn you that I am going with my friend so watch for postings in April!!! I am sure they won't disappoint!!!

I just got news that my cousin is having her first baby this fall...VERY happy for her...wish her very well. My only thing is I hate hearing about this so early because any number of things can happen in the first few months...but we are thinking POSITIVE thoughts for her :)

Got a raise at work.

Have been moderately successful at keeping up with my friends. I need to work a little harder at it though, branch out a little more if you will :) I think about you all on a regular basis but at the end of the day wonder where all the time went and think I'll do it tomorrow...and here we are...tomorrow.

The trying to lose weight thing is still not working for me. I have started a core fitness class that is kicking my butt and I am getting on the elliptical at home at least twice a week. My goal is to get back to the gym at least twice a week by the 10th of February. I think I'll get there.

Keep in touch if you can --- hope to talk to you all soon :)

Day Two...I'm on a roll!!!!

Since I am not inclined to leave the warmth of my ever so cozy cube to venture out into the cold to grab lunch I am using this time to continue my goal to post more frequently -- Yeah me :)

So am I alone in that I am excited that the new seasons of Deadliest Catch and Ghost Hunters are starting soon. They had a marathon on Discovery last weekend and I was so excited because that means that the new season will be starting soon!!! And next week there are several new episodes of Ghost Hunters INTERNATIONAL!!! They did one last season in Ireland...way cool!! My drunken cousin, as I have now dubbed her :), comes over on Wednesdays and we cook dinner and watch Ghost Hunters. Way to much excitement!!

On another note I have decided that the road commissioner in Jackson County is a cheap, lazy, son of a motherless goat!! Now let me say that I know I live in the middle of the middle of nowhere but COME ON!!!! Last night I got home and had to floor the gas all the way down to my street through town and then gun it to make the corner!! We got about 9 inches of snow on New Years Day...all of it still sitting on my street!!! Compounded by the fact the the snow we had gotten the week prior was still on the street because they hadn't plowed that EITHER!!! They haven't even salted...yes I know it only does you any good if the temperature is above 17 degrees and average temp here the last week has been 7 but come on...then one has to think that it wouldn't help anyway because they would salt making a sloppy melted mess ... then they wouldn't plow!!! I will move on now... :) Thank you :)

For happier news...I finished the scarf I was knitting last night!! It is a cream color...very soft and fluffy, very warm!!! Loving it!!! Then promptly started one for my niece who's birthday is in a few weeks :) glutton for punishment I guess :)

Hope you are all having a good new year so far!!!

So here's to another New Year

I have been such a slacker about writing on this that I felt I should today to start the new year off on a good foot...so to speak.

I had a very low key Thanksgiving...baked cookies for three days straight with the aid of my EXTREMELY hungover cousin (Carrie...can I do something besides the marshmallows...I can't watch them swirl in the pan...it's making me sick) had a fun night out with the girls for our Christmas party...played a fun new game but decided it would be much more interesting if one were smashed while playing...hosted Christmas breakfast for my family...got a lovely Kitchen Aid mixer from my husband...spent New Years Eve at home watching Ben sleep on the couch and knitting a scarf that I am ready to be done with.

I have been thinking about what I can resolve for this year...nothing is coming to mind. I could do the usual...lose weight...make more time for me...actually use my gym membership...keep up with my friends better...blah, blah, blah...I have thrown it all out the window. I do OK for like a week then I have a million things come up I can't keep up with any of it and all of my good intentions go up like smoke.

So to this I resolve...
To wake up each morning and hope for good things
To take the stairs at work
To get Internet access at home :)

That's the best I can do. I wish you all a very happy new year and I hope to talk to you all more this year and keep in touch on a weekly basis...but I'm not making any promises :)

HI MY NAME IS CARRIE AND I AM A CARB ADDICT!!!

I have recently been bombarded with emails...which is ok...that my class is planning to hold a 15 year reunion...in June... Now I have been trying to get back to my high school weight for some time now and have decided that it just isn't going to happen but going down a few pounds wouldn't break my heart...but why is it that when you know that you have a somewhat stressful event approaching any plans of dieting go out the window?? I joke with my mom about how I have gained weight for her chemo...but she's done with that now...but I have been... seriously ...binge eating for weeks now. I go a few days and I am fine then all of the sudden we get another update about who is coming and who we still need to find...and I clean out my house!!! Either I need to not worry about it and just not go or I need someone to teach me to eat through a straw for the next 6 months!! If I can't suck it through a straw I can't eat it! Yeah...that really won't work...I'd find a way to shove in a bagel!! This is so not going to be a fun couple of months!!!

In the Spirit of Halloween

My favorite Halloween "carol"

There is a haunted house in town (in the town)
Where all the ghosties gather round (gather round)
Where the bats and cats and witches
keep the skeletons in stitches
as they sip their spider cider
in the haunted house
Beware, beware, beware, beware OH BEWARE
Watch out, be careful and take care, oh beware
'Cause the skeletons will get ya
and the witches they will keep you
if you dare to stay to long inside their haunted house!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!! Splendid haunting to you all!!! :)

It's Monday again already

I could swear that I was just here yesterday...and that isn't fair...

I have had so much to do in the last few months and none of it is getting done. I need a little magic elf to help me get things done when I am not home. I keep trying to tell my cats that they need to start earning their keep but they just don't listen.

I had started out my weekend on a grand note and got half of my carpet in the basement area cleaned...then decided that I couldn't move anymore furniture on my own and stopped.

I did a few loads of laundry and decided that I didn't like doing that either...

Started two books...not really into either of them

Worked on the Afghan for a little while decided it was to stinking hot to be sitting under a blanket...

And now it's Monday...I had a very good weekend and I really enjoyed the weather but here we are and I want my weekend back. I want to go back to sitting on the deck cooking my chicken dinner on the grill and trying to decide if I really like this book or if it should just go to the Garage Sale pile...

When are you to old to lie on the floor and kick and scream to get your way???

I just have to share...

No I don't have children of my own to share little stories about but I have niece and a nephew who never fail me when it comes to silly.

Last weekend my niece asked me to cut her hair for her...she doesn't like it to long...so we are standing in the bathroom at mom and dad's and she is squirming in front of the mirror. I have to keep holding her still...don't know where she gets it from we were never that way when we were 5!! Finally I say to her...Anna, you have to hold still or else I will not be able to get this cut straight...you have to many cowlicks and every time you move they do too! And I get whats a cowlick? I explain that it's a way that your hair grows...then jokingly I say that they call it that because it looks like a cow came up to you and licked you on the head!!

So last night I get a call from my sister who is hysterical in tears...I just had to call you...Anna is in the bathroom combing her hair talking about her moo licks...I asked her what...and she replied you know...those things that aunt Carrie said I have in my hair...moo licks!!

To stinking cute for words...but my poor sister was on the floor laughing!!

Hope you are all having a good day!!

And people actually ask me why I don't have kids...

Call me crazy -- wasn't it just January and didn't I JUST put away the Christmas tree??? I was out shopping this weekend and realized that there were Christmas decorations everywhere...and I am pretty sure that they have been there for a few weeks...I have just been in denial about it.

There is no denying as the smell of twigs and leaves makes it way through my house that the holidays are upon us AGAIN...For those of us in Michigan you know I mean Deer Season!!!!

Bow season has begun and I am officially single until Jan 1. I may see my dear husband in passing but for the next few months...he will be useless. I hate deer season...I don't eat venison, I have no tolerance for muddy boots tracking crap through my house and I truly do not like having to make sure that his "dirt scented dryer sheets" stay stocked for the laundry and that the baking soda is always full so that he doesn't have to buy special soap...1 like he would go get it for himself and 2... don't ask.

Now we get along fine and all but I have this problem with half finished crap...biggest piece of crap I am referring to currently would be my house. We have lived here for a year and I STILL have yet to get floors finished trim put up and walls finished being painted. Mostly because someone has decided that we need to change colors on the walls in several rooms but doesn't want to go get the paint and crap to do it. So I have decided that I am going to start doing stuff and if someone doesn't like it...tough cookies!

Sorry for the rant but most of you who know me know that my entire childhood and part of my adult like was spent in a house where my dad was always working on a room...drywall was half put up, still is, floors were unfinished and there is still MUCH to be done there. I made my darling promise me that if he started a project that it would be finished in a timely manor...has yet to happen...because I had spent a good share of my life under construction and refused to do it now. I am now getting truly frustrated because now we have a HUGE undertaking in the form of a sewer project that is coming through the town in January. I am not looking forward to this in the least and can only imagine what this will do to my yard and house.

So again I apologize for the whine but as hunting starts again and I look around my house at all of the unfinished projects I can't help but feel a little upset at the fact that he is to tired to help me paint all summer but he'll go from work to the woods and sit there all night waiting for the "big one".

Things that have happened this month

I have been so busy this month I didn't even think of posting so I thought I would give you all a quick update on what has been going on. So far this month...

...Anna started Kindergarten and she is so excited, they get recess AND a snack, so far as she can tell she has it WAY better than brother David :)

...mom finished her chemo treatments and will start her radiation on Monday (10/1)

...I went to the Michigan--Penn State Game, so much fun...way to many people. You only get 12 inches of seat to sit a 14 inch hiney!!!

...I turned 32 without much fan fair

...My nephew has started his pee wee football season and I have attended each game

...I am restarting my home improvements, hopefully I will continue this weekend

...I have been working much overtime, Saturdays included

...My battery died in my car stranding me at Meijer, thankfully my dad was home and mom had a spare battery!

...We had dinner with the in-laws, would rather have given blood. Decided I am going to write a book on ALL of the things you can't do unless you have kids, for those of you without kids let me tell you that the more time I spend with the "fam" the more I learn what I am doing that I shouldn't

...I have been on a fluff reading kick lately. I have read books 2 thru 8 in the Stephanie Plum Series (any fluff readers will know what I am talking about) I have 1-9 in the series and there are 13 total...I told my husband that I can't buy anymore until I get something else done because all I do is sit and read!!

...I have lost 9 pounds on my new diet this month. It's slow but at least I am a loser :)

...I am almost finished with ONE of the blankets I have been crocheting for the last year...I have two more rounds left on the skein I am using then I just have to do the edge!!

Well...that nearly sums up my month. I am sure that I am forgetting something but I wanted to say hey to you all and that I hope you had a good September...here's to a great Fall!!

My 12 Jobs

My dear friend Matt has tagged me to relive the horror that was has been my employment history...so here goes...buckle up boys...it's a bumpy ride....

1. Cowden Chevrolet...Leslie, MI...file B*%&!
I worked summers with for my mom filing, writing car PO's and typing up titles so we could get plates for cars

2. Gibbs Berry Farm...Onondaga, MI...Berry Picker!
You got it...I spent one very fun summer, actually, working outdoors following all of the old ladies up and down giant rows of strawberries picking the berries that they did not deem worthy of their jams!

3. H&R Block...Jackson, MI...evening receptionist
I spent 5 years working as the evening receptionist for the H&R Block office at the Sears in Jackson...as a result I don't care if you filed for a "rapid refund", as they were called back in the day, and you want your money now...the IRS 'aint gonna let cha have it if you owe them money dumb butt!!!

4. Tru-green Chemlawn Lawn Care...Jackson, MI...Phone Solicitor
HATED THIS JOB...nuff said

5. Meijer...the shifty takers...Men's Department...CHRISTMAS 1993!!!
All I can say is that I don't miss REfolding sweaters and it is my firm belief that you should not be allowed in a store during the holidays unless you have done time behind the counter...because people are rude and ungrateful!!!

6. Polly's Market...VCL...cashier
I tried working here while in college...couldn't do it for long...I worked until midnight and the area wasn't great...my manager used to stand at the door and watch me walk to my car...not escort...watch...very generous of them I thought...

7. Elder-Beerman Stores Inc...Jackson, MI...Home Dept
I worked here while in college and a year post grad...I can tell you that if you say that your towels don't absorb that you are using to much fabric softener and that Egyptian cotton smells like a wet camel!!! And that the heavier the pan the better it's gonna cook.

8. Gallant Transport...Jackson, MI...Dispatcher
I was supposed to go in and get the office set up for the girls who came on at 8am so that they could just start making calls on loads and get our drivers out...they didn't like me doing that because it meant they had to work...I was already working two other jobs...I was doing it as a favor to the owner...I told him it wasn't going to work out and left.

9. United Magazine....Book Division...Jackson, MI... Data Processor
I was working the good life...for all of 6 months then they moved the book opps to OHIO!!! I did data entry for the buyers to set up stores.

10. U of M...Law School....Ann Arbor, MI
8 years of beating my head against a wall trying to get ahead and because my boss had a chip on her shoulder, because a student!!! told her that I hated working for her...which was true...but I would have NEVER said such a thing to one of our students, they kindly asked me to look for a new job...

11. Fortin & Chunko, PC...Lansing, MI...
I couldn't tell you what my job was at this place because it changed once a week. I was here for 10 months and found a new job so that I could stand going to work in the morning. I really should know better than to work for small companies.

12. Jackson National Life....Lansing, MI...Data Processor
I don't have my own office anymore...can't send emails as much...can't post on the old blog as much as I would like...but it's a steady job....work is constant...and I like the people here...just a whole stinking lot to try to remember!!

So thank you Matt for making me relive all of that, you're lucky I love you!!!...and now we'll see how many of you read this by saying that Becky....Tag...you're it!!