A whole lot about nothing

This is for you Heidi :)

I'm a terrible blogger, but sometimes I feel like I don't really have anything to say so I don't blog as much as I should.

This week has been kinda busy, I am working on the implementation team for a project at work and we are "going live" this weekend which has been several years in the making. It's going live tomorrow just for our department to use and then after next week will turn it on to everyone including our outside agents that use the site we support. This will give us time to test and make sure the last few kinks are worked out.

I can't believe it's September already ... seems like this whole summer has flown past and I like that I have been able to do some of the things I wanted to do and on Labor Day I finally went to a Detroit Tigers baseball game ... I've been meaning to go for 5 years and finally did :) They were playing my boys, the Seattle Mariners so it was even more fun to watch both of the teams play, and the Tigers did win. I got some great pictures and we had great seats, down the first base line more towards the outfield 25 rows up, I can't wait to see how my pictures turn out.

With September comes my worst time of the year for allergies, goldenrod, ragweed and the combination of the weather getting a bit cooler touch mine off to where no matter what I do I can't get relief, today is no exception ... I've taken a bunch of meds and have gone through almost a whole box of kleenex. Right now I just want to stop sneezing!

Nothing else really going on in my world. Tonight I'm going with a few friends downtown to watch the fireworks, we went last night but got rained out so we decided to try again for tonight.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Color

I have to say one of my favorite colors is pink. I've always liked it and it's a color that I feel (and have been told) I look good in. For as long as I can remember I have liked pink, I think it may stem from my Barbie collection and how I always played with Barbies as a girl. I can remember telling Mom that I wanted a hot pink room with silver polka dots on the wall :)

I still don't have a hot pink room with silver polka dots but I do still collect Barbie's and I have a pink and lime green bathroom. Some people think that my whole house must be pink since I like the color so much and it really isn't. I have a pink and lime green bathroom, but my bedroom is purple and my living room is neutral although I do have a pink poodle from Build a Bear in my living room.

My favorite flower is Stargazer Lillies, and one of my favorite dresses as a girl was my Rosebud dress, with ... pink roses. Mom saved the dress for me and in alot of pictures you see me in that dress with my black shiny Mary Janes. I guess you could say I'm a girly girl ... I'm wearing a pink shirt right now even *wink* One of my favorite movies is Legally Blonde and Grease ... when I was younger I tried to start a club called the Pink Ladies just like in Grease ... Think Pink!


CM Pink Passion Paper! (I just opened up a package for the first time a few weeks ago!)

Countdown to Kenny!

Well it's Wednesday ... 2 more sleeps and it will be the Kenny Chesney concert! I am so looking forward to the evening out with my friend Dawnn and spending it with Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley and of course Kenny :)

I have my outfit picked out and I found adorable sandals last week that match my blouse perfectly so I will match nicely!

My 100th post!

Well it's my 100th post ... not much to say so I found some more stuff on blogthings and thought I'd post it here.

Happy 100!

You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist. People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you. You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words. Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

What Flower Are You?

Music Quiz

Music Quiz
CASEd from Heidi who got it from some random blog.

List 10 musical artists you like (do this before reading the questions below):

1. George Strait
2. Kenny Chesney
3. Keith Urban
4. Faith Hill
5. Elvis Presley (he's just timeless)
6. Tim McGraw
7. Bon Jovi
8. Reba McEntire
9. Garth Brooks
10.Martina McBride

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?:
Indian Outlaw. I remember there was a big stink about it by some members of the Native American community.

What is your favorite album of 2?:
Everywhere We Go as this was the album that really seemed to launch his career but The Road and The Radio is incredibly awesome too!

What is your favorite lyric of 3?:
Oh there are so many ... I guess if I have to choose "now she's strummin on my six-string Across her pretty knees She's stompin' out a rhythm and singin' to me the sweetest song."


How many times have you seen 4 live?:
Just once but excellent show!

What is your favorite song by 7?:
Ohhhh too many! I think It's My Life

What is your favorite lyric of 1?
Amarillo by Morning, Marina Del Ray or Blue Clear Sky :)

Is there a song of 4 that makes you sad?:
On her Faith CD, Wild Frontier.

What is your favorite song by 9?:
"Ain't going down till the Sun Comes Up" (too bad he doesn't perform anymore, a great concert!)

How did you get into 3?:
When he was in the band, The Ranch, they had a few songs that got heavy airplay at a station that is no longer around back in Seattle and I thought he was good, then he came out on his own as a solo artist and I was sold! Great concert by the way... :)

What is your favorite song by 4?:
Dearly Beloved or The Secret of Life

What is a good memory concerning 2?:
Way too many! Driving around with Heid in Seattle ... being at his concerts ... doing the crazy hip swinging dance from the How Forever Feels video ... and then finding out I'm not the only one that does that crazy little dance ... Heidi does too!

Is there a song by 8 that makes you sad?:
Ummm some of them are tearjerkers, hello it's Reba. She is good at getting emotion out of you.

How did you become a fan of 10?:
I heard 'Safe in the Arms of Love' and was hooked. She has one heck of a voice!!! Great concert too btw :)

Random thoughts of a non-morning person

This morning my alarm went off and it was playing a song and I was in that state of half asleep, half awake where the song became part of a crazy dream I was having so I couldn't tell if it was my alarm or something else. I was laying there trying to decide and realizing I don't really like the song and thought I'll roll over to look at my alarm and smack down the snooze button ... then determined I couldn't roll over for some reason. I just laid there on my stomach thinking about it for what felt like a long time but was probably a few seconds then all of a sudden I remembered where I put my Zyrtec that I take for allergies!
Last night I was chatting with some friends and was like "If you were my Zyrtec where would you be?" because I couldn't find it, I didn't get much help but did get Jean to realize that she is supposed to refrigerate one of the vitamin type things she gave me for stomach issues :)

So I got up and sure enough it was in one of my spring purses in the bottom of my closet in the tote that I store some of my purses in. I think this was the first morning I was actually up and moving around without having hit my snooze button too..yet I still made it into work with 1 minute to spare :)

I guess the moral of this story is to go to bed earlier ... but we all know that won't happen =)

mmmmmm... Margarita's

You Are a Strawberry Margarita

You're so sweet it's a little overwhelming, and people are a little afraid of corrupting you... It's a little difficult to imagine you with a margarita. And you're truly a different person after you've kicked back a couple!

What Flavor Margarita Are You?

Sonic

This past Saturday Dawnn and I went on a road trip to Fort Wayne Indiana to go to Sonic. I have been craving Sonic since I moved back from Alabama and for my birthday I told her this was what I wanted to do. We made the plans and I got directions from a great lady on Scrapshare as to where one was in Fort Wayne and we set off Saturday with Dawnn's daughter Skye who is almost 2 in tow for a girls road trip.

I had a great idea to write down stuff as we were on the road about the adventure to use later in our albums and grabbed a pack of Creative Memories storybox paper out of my trunk and snapped a few photos of the odometer and ourselves and away we went. The storybox papers turned out to be a great idea!

Here are some excerpts:

12:17pm "We are on our way" As we stop 3ft from Dawnn's mom's house after dropping Jacob off to get the storybox and cameras out. "I have to have it out and ready" Diane says.

12:22pm "We're really going now" Drinks from Burger King (without straws) and a happy meal for Skye... we should be good for at least an hour.

1:14pm I-94 west of Battle Creek. Still on the road, no stops yet. Di and I were chatting and out of nowhere "Sonic" comes in a singsong voice from the backseat. Sky was just chattering away and all of a sudden "Sonic" came out .. awww.

1:48pm Back on the road after a rest area stop. Ice cream $2 so we decided on cookies instead for a snack. Met a nice southern truck driver, took a group photo and we are outta here.

3:00pm 20 miles from Fort Wayne...there was dead stuff all over the road, and then we saw this huge dead thing. Di thought it was a coyote, Dawnn though it was too fuzzy so Di called Paul and asked if coyote's are fuzzy. (come to find out it was a coyote... craziness.)

3:15pm We find Sonic!

3:25pm After much deliberation we order the 1st round of cherry limeade's with our food and plan to order more drinks before we go as Di brought a cooler to hold it all. Oh, our food just came! More later!

3:30pm Our food is getting cold while we take photos of us and our food. Di says oh I think my southern accent is coming back! She's startin to say 'ya'll' again :)

3:50pm How can it all be gone Dawnn says staring into her empty cherry limeade cup. Meanwhile Di is changing the roll of film in her camera to get more photos.

4:10pm $18 in drinks later we are getting ready to pack up and head out to find Chick-Fil-A to take care of my chicken fix at the same time :)

4:23pm Goodbye Sonic! In search of I-69 and Chick-Fil-A we have our 10 drinks piled into the coolers. Di has the map and we are on a mission to find Chick-Fil-A. Our parting words from Skye "Bye Bye Sonic Miss You."

4:45pm Hello Chick-Fil-A! We find the mall with the Chick-Fil-A and Di is in heaven ordering several packs of nuggets and asking for tons of buttermilk ranch dressing. We also get a couple packs for our friend Rachel who couldn't go with us.

5:03pm Tragedy strikes! Di went to get Dawnn's diet coke with coconut and cherry out of the arsenal of beverages and noticed her cherry coke with lime had a hole in the bottom of the cup and has leaked into the cooler, thne whole thing! Dawnn says just stick a straw in the cooler and start sipping!

6:56pm What about Bob? I-94 in Battle Creek. Holy cow we swear we just saw Bob from the Bachelor! Di wasn't driving fast enough to take a 2nd look, I should have pressed down on the gas ... I could have hooked her up!

6:58pm Why can't we find anything good on the radio?!?!

8:17pm and 356.5 miles later we are back! Had a great time and can't wait to get our pictures back, we think we have between us over 100 photos!

I will post photos when I get them back!

The 5 Love Languages

On a great recommendation from Heidi I got the book The Five Love Languages for Singles by Gary Chapman. It is a great book and there is one for married couples and children also. If you have not read the book I highly recommend it. I stumbled across this quiz tonight and thought I would post it so you can take it too. These are my results.

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Physical Touch
with a secondary love language being
Quality Time.

Complete set of results

Physical Touch:		12
Quality Time:		6
Receiving Gifts:		5
Words of Affirmation:		5
Acts of Service:		1

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

More butterflies!

I haven't been online much the last couple of days but here are some more butterfly photos.

If you ever come to Michigan in March-April this is a must see! Even when the butterflies are not at the gardens it is still worth going to, it is so beautiful to walk around and photograph.

The butterfly house: where they are "born" and where they stay for a few hours until they are ready to enter the big world of the garden:






These are actually 2 butterflies ... I thought it was one large one at first but it is two ... there was some speculation over what they were doing....


This is my favorite photo, I couldn't believe how well it turned out.

Butterflies are Blooming!

Tuesday I had a "play day" from work and a good friend of mine, Jamie, and I decided to spend the day together. We met for breakfast at Panera bread in the morning, ran a few errands and then went to the Frederick Meijer Gardens for the butterfly exhibit. The company I work for sponsors the butterflies and it is an annual event. She and I go every year.

These are some of the images from that, I shot over 4 rolls of film but this is just a sampling of what you might see!

One of the best things is during the day and on a sunny warm day like the day we went is they are all over, there is a huge indoor tropical garden you can wander through and they are flying everywhere and if you get lucky will land on you!
You have to look close on my shoulder but it's there! (also this is my new hairdo, although a bit windblown.)


The other thing I love is all the tropical plants and the temp in the garden is always about 78-80 degrees so it is a great reminder that spring is usually approaching fast in Michigan!

Some of the beautiful plants and flowers:



The picture doesn't show it as much but the wings on these two are clear, very pretty butterflies!

Brass Plum

As previously mentioned, I picked up The best of Poison 20 years of Rock last night at Target. Apparently half of my department here at work also got the CD and we have all been rocking out all day. This CD just came out Tuesday (it's on sale at Target if you want to get it too!) I left my cubemate Julie borrow it today and it brought up so many old 80s memories like Esprit bags and Keds shoes. One of my other co workers Elaina mentioned this store called the Bon Marche. She and I grew up in WA together and actually lived a few miles apart but never knew each other until we moved to MI and started working in the same department! She was like do you remember that juniors department at the Bon? What was the name. I couldn't remember but knew it was Plum something. She and I have been thinking all day about it and remember how that was the "in" place to shop and THE place to go to get Esprit bags, and trendy 80s clothes. I used to love shopping there and they were in the basement and it was this whole area with just juniors clothes. I can totally remember it. Well I emailed my Mom and asked if she remembered the name of that department .... she comes back about 20 minutes later with it, Brass Plum. It is just funny how something like a few songs can bring back so many memories! We've been laughing all day about stuff like that, Debbie Gibson perfume - Electric Youth (I had some!) and how when you got your Keds they had the big rubber blue Keds logo that you could put on your keychain to be fashionable.

Gotta love random memories and thoughts :)

Random thoughts about Rascal Flatts

I think I have mentioned Rascal Flatts before, I am not a big fan but I like some songs.

Well today I am listening to their new CD, Me and My Gang. One of the girls at work brought it in and I traded her my new Poison The Hits CD for listening to RF. (More about the Poison CD in another post)

I've never been a big fan, and I really get tired of their slow power ballad type songs, maybe I'm in a happy place in my life but I need upbeat fast songs. Traditionally I like their more upbeat, fast songs ... kinda like why I can't really explain to Heidi why I like the song 'Fast Cars and Freedom' so much =)

Well on this CD there are 2 "fast" songs that I like ... Backwards and Me and My Gang (the title track) they are both awesome as RF songs go which I think is high praise coming from a not so big fan.

I won't buy this CD but I will listen to those 2 songs if they come on the radio, until they do overkill then I will not want to listen to them again for years.

A bit of trivia

Here's a bit of trivia for you: On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. This will never happen again in recorded history.

Gotta love the old times....

Gotta love the old times of the 80s and 90s!
Some of these I am too old for and don't know but others I remember! I thought this was cute ane had to share :)

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You can sing the rap to "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air"

You remember when Kurt Cobain, Tu Pac, River Phoenix, and Selena died.

You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey from "Blossom" and that "How Rude!" comes from Stephanie
from "Full House"

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, wax off"

You have pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You danced to "wannabe" by the Spice Girls, Females: had a new motto, Males: got a whole lot
gay-er. (so tell me what you want, what you really really want.)

You remember the craze then the banning of slap bracelets and slam books.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence...Not...

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green/white Ranger were meant to be
together.

When playing power rangers with friends you fought over who got to be who............and still
all ended up being tommy.

You remember when super nintendo's became popular.

You remember watching home alone 1, 2 , and 3........and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

"I've fallen and I can't get up"

You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates

Two words... Trapper Keeper.

You ever got injured on a Slip 'n' Slide

You wore socks over leggings scrunched down

"Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black, black, black, with silver buttons, buttons,
buttons, all down her back, back, back" SHE ASKED HER MOTHER MOTHER MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS CENTS
CENTS TO SEE THE ELEPHANTS PHANTS PHANTS JUMP OVER THE FENCE THE FENCE THE FENCE
he jumped so high high high he touched the sky sky sky and he didnt come back back back til the
forth of july ly ly he jumped so low ow ow he stubbed his toe toe toe and thats the end end end
of the elephants show show show

You remember boom boxes vs. cd players

You remember New Kids on The Block when they were cool

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell"

You played and or collected "Pogs"

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere

You watched the original Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Ninja Turtles

NANCY DREW AND THE HARDY BOYS WERE THE BEST MYSTERY BOOKS

Yikes pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.(pencils.notebooks.binders.etc.)

You remember when the new Beanie Babies were always sold out.

You used to wear those stick on earings, not only on your ears, but at the corners of your eyes.

You remember a time before the WB.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" ... enough said

You thought Brain woud finally take over the world

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You remember when everyone went slinky crazy.

You remember when razor scooters were cool.

when we were younger:

Before the MySpace frenzy.

Before the Internet & text messaging.

Before Sidekicks & iPods.

Before MIKE JONES

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX.

Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.

WHEN LIGHT UP SNEAKERS WERE KOOL

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs & paid $3.50 for a movie.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off our walkmans.

When 2Pac and Biggie where alive.

When the Chicago Bulls were the best team ever.

Way back.

Tag.

Get Over Here!!!! means something to you.

Hide-n-Go Seek at dusk.

Red Light, Green Light.

Heads Up 7 Up.

Playing Kickball & Dodgeball until your porch light came on.

Hopskotch.

Slip-n-Slides.... now there are just ghetto ones

Tree Houses.

Hula Hoops.

HELLO....HOT WHEELS!!!!!

"POWER OF LOVE" BY CELINE DION..ONLY COUPLES COULD SKATE TO THIS.

The annoying Nano Pets & Furbies.

Running through the sprinklers.

That "Little Mermaid"

Crying when Mufasa died in the Lion King.

Happy Meals where you chose a Barbie or a Hot Wheels car.

Getting the privelage to sit in the front seat of the car.

Drinking Sqeeze It "Squeeze The Fun Out Of It"

CAPRI SUN

Watching Saturday Morning Cartoons in your PJ's still wrapped up in your TMNT, Power Rangers,
Barbie, Fairy Princess comforter.

Hey Arnold, Doug, Rugrats.

The original Power Rangers

Or what about:

The Secret Life of Alex Mac.

Ren & Stimpy.

Double Dare.

Family Double Dare.

Rocco's Modern Life.

AAAHH!! REAL MONSTERS.

Wild & Crazy Kids.

Clarissa Explains it All.

CAMP NOWHERE

salute your shorts(CAMP ANAWANA)

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

The original cast members of All That.

Kenan & Kel.

"CITY GUYS"...ROLLW/ THE CITY GUYS

DOUG!

magic school bus.

Nick Arcade.

flash forward.

the adventures of pete and pete.

legends of the hidden temple.

hey dude.

dinosaurs.

Mummies Alive

pinky and the brain.

Sailor Moon.

blossom.

hangin with mr. copper.

wishbone.

bill-nye the science guy!

MR RODGERS!!!!

Who could forget Snick? & Nick @ Nite with Bewitched, I Dream of Jenie, The Facts of Life & I
Love Lucy.

Where everyone wanted to be in love after watching The Wonder Years.

or nick jr. with face

gulah gulah island

little bear

Busy Town

under the unbrella tree

PEE-WEE'S MOTHER F***ING PLAYHOUSE!!!

The Big Comfy Couch

Kool-Aid was the drink of choice.

Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school.

Class field trips.

When Christmas was the most exciting time of year.

When $5 seemed like a million, & another dollar a miracle.

When you begged to go to McDonalds for dinner everyday.

When Toys R Us overuled the mall.

Go back to the time when:

Decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'.

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming 'do over!'

'Race issue' ment arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was banker in 'Monopoly'.

It wasn't odd to have two or three 'best' friends.

Being old referred to anyone over 20.

A chance to skate as a couple at the local roller rink was like winning the lottery.

Scrapes & bruises were kissed & made better.

Where the best form of protection was "circle circle dot dot now I've got my cootie shot, circle
circle square square now I've got it everywhere"

It was a big deal to finally be tall enought to ride the 'big people' rides at the fair.

When playing Nintendo was the hardest thing ever.

When Ninja Turtles ruled the world.

when "what would you do" was crazy. d-

when winning a mountain bike on a tv show was a jaw dropper.