One Wild Night

As mentioned in prior blog entries several of us went out Friday night to celebrate Paul's birthday. It's become tradition to go and do something for our birthdays of whatever the birthday person chooses. Friday night started out with going bowling. Jean, Paul, Jim, and I left from work Friday and went to Jim's place so he could change into jeans and then to my apartment so I could put my jeans on and then ended up at Mr. Burger for dinner. Jeff was going to join us also when he got out of work at 8. We were still at Mr. Burger when he called us so we said we'd wait there for him to meet us there that way he could have dinner before we headed out to bowl.

We never bowled. We went to 2 alley's and at the first one they weren't going to do open bowl until midnight so we went to another that had open bowl at 10 but there was a line out of the door of teenagers. We felt old so we left and started aimlessly driving around until finally it was decided we'd go to Village Inn for karaoke ... which was 3 minutes from where we started the night at! We drove around aimlessly for a couple hours but had a blast all piled into Jim's van. He keeps threatening that his next vehicle will be a 2 seater which means we'll have to find a new party van :)

Anyhow, here are some pictures from the night. Jean ordered a round of shots of something with Crown Royal and then she and I were drinking $2.50 Tequila Sunrises while the others had beer.

The shots:


Yeah ... I dunno. :)


The birthday boy:



More Tequila!



A Mad German (story behind this, his screen name is amadgerman and for the longest time I tried to figure out what a "A madge man" was. Now we just tease him.


and a few more...

Down for the count

Day 3 and I'm home sick. Talk about hitting fast! I was fine Friday, several of us went out to celebrate Paul's birthday (I'll try and blog and post pictures after my nap) and I had a little tickle in my throat, attributed it to the cigarette smoke around me at the karaoke bar and didn't give it a second thought. By Sunday I was coughing and by Monday morning I felt like I was run over by a bus.

Today is Wednesday and I finally mustered enough energy to get into the doctor. Turns out I have a viral infection. Since it's not bacterial there isn't an antibiotic that can clear it up but she did give me a prescription for cough syrup with some codeine to give me a break and wants me to stay home for the rest of the week.

I'm home camping out on the couch and realizing there is nothing good on TV during the day.

Kinder Chocolate

I ate it. Finally. I thought Melissa may have gotten on a plane to fly here to force feed me if I didn't eat it :)

As mentioned in a prior blog entry it's been insanely busy this week so I haven't had a chance to post about it. I borrowed Jim's camera so I could document it and tonight had a chance to upload the pictures.

Rewind to last Saturday night. After doing some housework I decided to put Melissa out of her misery and reward myself by eating the Kinder Chocolate.

For those that don't know, Kinder Chcolate is available in Canada in bars or in eggs called Kinder Surprises. The eggs are banned in the U.S. because of the small toy surprise inside. At the Scrapshare Michigan retreat a Kinder Surprise egg magically found it's way across the border and into my goody bag!



The egg unwrapped:


And the opened up egg ... still have not eaten any yet, just cracking the egg.




NOTE: No cats were harmed in the taking of these photos and the uploading to this blog. Merely a curious bystander, not a chocoholic cat.


I thought that the toy would have just fallen out when I opened the egg, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in its own egg. Took me a few minutes to get that toy open though, the egg it's in is a soft plastic and it was strange and hard to open.




I ate the chocolate before I put the toy together. It is very good. It was soft and sweet, almost like a mix between white and milk chocolate. I thought it was very smooth, didn't scream chocolate-y which was good. While I enjoy chocolate as much as the next guy or gal sometimes it's too much for me, it's too sweet. I thought this was the right balance of sweet without being too sweet. Definitely a 2 thumbs up.

The next challenge was putting the toy together. I got a chuckle out of the fact that it comes with instructions!







The finished product:



Now if they'd just make Cherry Cordial Kinder Chocolate my life would be complete! :)

I've not forgotten

I've been insanely busy with work this week that I just haven't had the time or effort or energy to blog.

I've not forgotten, just trying to get caught up. I can sum up the week pretty quick:

Very cold out.Busy at work.Tired.Addicted to Hershey Cherry Cordial Kisses.

Oh ... and I ate my Kinder Chocolate ... I have pictures, just need to upload them and blog and post about it.

More later ...

Crocs

I did it. I have resisted for over a year now. I finally was enabled.

I now own a pair of Crocs.

One of my Scrapshare Sisters enabled me. I blame her :P She posted about a deal on Shoebuy.com on Crocs, I looked and after putting a pair into my cart and free shipping, the total was $17.35. For that price and curiosity I went for it.

I got a pair of black Cayman Crocs. Like this: Croc Clicky

They came last night and they are comfortable! I can't imagine wearing them without socks, that felt strange to me, so I put them on last night with a pair of socks and it was very comfortable. I wore them today in and out of the building at work and am looking forward to better weather when I can wear them more and really get a feel for them.

Michigan Scrapshare Retreat

This weekend I got the pleasure of spending the weekend in East Lansing with 11 other wonderful Scrapshare Sisters!

My Friday started out at work, I was planning to work until noon then go home, finish packing, load up and head out. Except for Jody (Inkyfingers) I had one of the shortest drives of the group, just under an hour.

Jim took me to lunch at Wendy's and hten I came home to pack up, get the furry kids and their pet fishy settled for the weekend (Jim was going to come by to check on them Saturday for me) and loaded up and headed out!

I should have taken it as a sign when I got to Meijer and they didn't have any cherry coke. After cherry coke Dr. Pepper or Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper is my next favorite so I grabbed a 6 pack of them, some Oreo's for Momto, some sour patch bears, gummy cherry heart things, Salt and Vinegar chips, film and I was off.

My directions I printed from Google gave me wrong directions :( Instead of turning left on the main road to the Kellogg Center it said turn right. 20 minutes and a stop at the Michigan State University welcome drive thru direction place I was at the parking garage! Success! Almost.

Apparently I have issues with parking garages, I never knew it, but I apparently do *lol* I could not find my way into the hotel to save my life! I didn't realize there were 2 skywalks, and I was at the wrong one. After wandering around with my CM cart for about 10 minutes hoping someone would recognize me or my cart and claim me as a Scrapshare Sister, I got back in the car and drove around some more and voila! I found the right skywalk and walked into ReneinOH!

Friday night we all were getting there and getting settled and checked in. Jody and I went out to get dinner, McDonalds for her and I, Jimmy Johns for the others. We all crowded into the room I shared with Rene and had dinner and watched a few funnies on You Tube.

My goal for the weekend was to get my 3 swaps done and Friday night I got the Pet Swap done I was in, and it's like 5 weeks early! Unheard of for me.
I can't even tell you what time I went to bed Friday, all I know is Rene and I were talking (we were roomies) and it was late ... at least after 3am, possibly later.

Saturday I slept in till about 9:30 then felt bad that I had slept in so late, after all these ladies don't know about me and my weekend sleeping. I got up and showered in the bathroom that WAS the shower. Seriously. The bathroom is tiny and it's just a shower practically:





I did some work Saturday and then finished another border set for a swap and just enjoyed socializing with the ladies. We took a field trip Sat. afternoon to JoAnn's and Michaels and with the 50% off JoAnn's coupon I got a silent eyelet setter. Jody had one and I was coveting it and got mine 50% off! I also got a few packages of eyelets to go with it.

Saturday night we took the group photos and did some more cropping, and I finished my 3rd border for the swaps. I am now swap free. No more swapping for me. Or as Tiff says, no more swapping for another week, eh Emmy? :) I went up to bed pretty early Sat night (just after midnight) as I was tired, tipsy and had to get up at 6:30 to start testing for the release that was going in at work.

Sunday we all packed up and started leaving. Because we were due for a storm I left pretty early and was able to make it home no problem. I had such a great time and I miss all my Scrapshare sisters!

I'll post more pictures as I get them but I'll leave you with a group picture:



Front - SharonJordan5, tsbegley
Middle - momtomaxandaaron, Mary (a friend of Sharon), buckIscrapper, InkyFingers, ReneInOH
Back - bdren, bonnenuit, aimless, GoldieP, CMCEmmyLou, Betty Cropper

Deal O' the Day

On the way home from the MI Scrapshare retreat (I will blog and post some pics later today or tomorrow) I had to stop and get gas in the car. No big deal. Got to the Speedway and was hoping that gas would be about the $2.08 it was on Friday. I looked a the pump and it was even better! I got gas for $1.98/gallon. Cost me a whopping $19.55 to fill my car. I haven't paid that little in ages!

I'm here

I made it to East Lansing. The directions I had had me turning right instead of turning left so I was twisted around for awhile, finally found the nice Welcome to MSU drive thru directions thing and got a nice girl to give me a map and directions. Then I found out that there are 2 skyways from the parking garage to the hotel/conference center. I went to the other one first. I felt like I was in that Seinfeld episode where they can't find the car in the parking garage and are wandering around aimlessly. I was wandering around with my CM cart hoping someone would recognize me or the cart and steer me. I finally decided to get back in the car and drive around the garage some more and then got to the other skyway. Success!

I'm having a great time meeting everyone and getting to know them. Funny thing is that most of us have laptops and are checking in on the board!

I got one of my swaps done tonight, amazing how much faster and less stressful it is with a Sizzix! and am starting to get sleepy and think it's time for me to call it a night.

Scrapshare Michigan Winter Retreat

One more sleep!

It seems like it's been in the plans forever and now that it's here and I'm not ready! I have been incredibly busy at work this week and will be doing some work from the retreat this weekend also, as we have a release going in Sunday morning that I am taking the lead on. Yikes!

I'm like 1/4 packed, my scrapbook stuff is pretty organized, I printed my directions, I just need to throw some clothes in the dryer and see how much I can consolidate.

I have some borders to make for swaps to do this weekend so with those plus work stuff and socializing I don't see getting alot of scrappin' done so I think I can take some of the stuff out of my cart! It's a pain to carry down the stairs and try and launch it up into the trunk of the car.

I work a half day at work tomorrow and then I'm racing home to get the kitties and Sushi set up for the weekend, Jim said he'd come check up on em for me, and pack up and load the car. Quick stop at Meijer for film, cherry coke, oreo's, Salt and Vinegar chips, and Sour Patch Kids and any other candy that can be sorted by color and I will be hitting the road! I'm one of the lucky ones that only has about a 50 minute drive to the retreat but we've got ladies coming from all over Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Canada! Rumor has it I'll be getting some Kinderchocolate and Dressy Chips =)

Hope everyone has a great Friday! I'll try and update ya'll about the retreat this weekend!

ET

I got the rest of my zoo pictures back from Snapfish, including from when I went home and drug Mom and Dad to Pt. Defiance Zoo. One of my favorite pictures that I took was of this cute guy, ET.



It was funny that the day we were there ET had his fan club there, some little kids had ET shirts and signs they made for ET. I had thought he was a new addition to the zoo and when I did some research I realized I have grown up with this cute dude!

This is what I found:

One of the star attractions in this exhibit is "ET." In 1982, oil workers in Alaska found a starving orphan walrus pup and gave him his "movie star" name (he certainly bears a resemblance). He was raised right here at the zoo and now weighs over 3,400 pounds.

So I've seen this guy many times growing up! The picture just cracks me up, he's cute in a different way and looks like he has so much personality! And to think this guy is about 24 years old.

You eat those with a fork?!?

This is what I heard at lunch with Dawnn on Saturday and Red Robin. I sometimes eat my french fries with a fork, this was no exception.

I never gave it much thought, but when I am out at a restaurant and have something that requires eating with a fork, this time it was Clucks -n- Fries, and I have french fries with it, I eat them with a fork. I guess I just figured most people did this.

So she got a kick out of this and immediately grabbed her camera



So ... do you eat your fries with a fork?

The adventures of Flat Lauren

I think I have touched on it in the past but I am proudly hosting Flat Lauren here in Michigan.

For those that don't know about this, this is a spin off of the Flat Stanley project. Click here: Flat Stanley it's based on a children's book about this boy that flattened himself to mail himself around the world on different adventures. One of the ladies on Scrapshare has a daughter that was doing this project and she was looking for host families. I volunteered and it turned into a Flat Lauren project also, Lauren is her daughter. Thought it would be neat to take a picture of her daughter and then send her around to host families on Scrapshare in hopes of going to all 50 states and countless countries in the world.

Flat Lauren and I went out this weekend with Dawnn. We started at lunch at Red Robin:







After lunch we were heading to Grand Haven State Park to take Flat Lauren to Lake Michigan and to the lighthouse at Grand Haven. Well all 3 of us were chatting so much we got on the intersection going the wrong direction! *sheepish grin*

We got halfway to Chicago when we realized we were going the wrong direction and took the next exit, stopped to get gas and continued on.
I think Flat Lauren missed her Mom and had wanted to stop at home and check in.



Got back on the interstate and headed back the right direction. On our way we went to Holland! (Michigan that is) and made a stop at the Dutch Village to get Flat Lauren a pair of flat shoes and stopped to document our trip to Holland.



We finally get to Grand Haven and get out to walk on the beach a bit and walk along the pier to get some pictures.

Setting up the timer... since I'm a blonde and couldn't get my tripod to work right.
FYI, the Creative Memories camera bag also works great as a tripod *wink*



Success! A group shot



We then headed back for home, tired and cold from a fun day exploring.

To everyone that reads this (or just the 2 that read it lol) I'm sending you some love. Hope ya'll had a good weekend too!

Red High Heels

You know, that new song by Kellie Pickler, the girl that was on American Idol.

I have it stuck in my head, it's been stuck in my head for about a week now and I can't get rid of it. I even thought that if I got it off iTunes and put it on my iPod that would help, nope.

It's stuck stuck stuck! And the worst part, it's just the chorus!

It's a cute, girly song but after almost 2 weeks I'm done with it :)


Baby I’ve got plans tonight
You don’t know nothin’ about
I’ve been sitting around way too long
Trying to figure you out
But you say that you’ll call and you don’t
And I’m spinning my wheels
So I’m going out tonight
In my red high heels

I’m gonna call up that old boyfriend
Who says he has it bad for me
I’m gonna take him into town
Flaunt him around for everyone to see
Well you said so yourself
You know the deal
Nobody holds a candle to me
In my red high heels

Well you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels
In my red high heels

All those games you tried to play
Well they aint gonna work on me now
I put up a barbed wire fence
around my heart
Baby just to keep you out
Well you thought I’d wait around forever
But baby get real
I just kicked you to the curb
In my red high heels

Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels
In my red high heels

Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels

Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels
In my red high heels

In my red high heels
In my red high heels

Top 10 in 2006

I can't believe 2006 is over, there were highs and lows, tears of joy and tears of sadness.

Stacy had the challenge for this week be your Top 10 in 2006. Here are mine in no particular order:

10. New Glasses. Sounds a bit anti-climatic huh? It had been at least 5 years, possibly longer since I had new glasses. I always wear contacts and would wear an old, old pair of glasses at home, one day they finally broke so I was without. I got Vision insurance from work and with it was able to get new contacts and glasses, and my glasses were paid for!
Not a great picture, but only one I found where I was wearing glasses


9. Road Trip to Sonic


For my birthday Dawnn, Skye and I went down to Ft Wayne, Indiana to Sonic. I was lucky that a month or so later I got to go down there and met a fellow Scrapshare Sister, ReneinOH


8. Eric Clapton
I've been a big Clapton fan for a long time and have always wanted to see him in concert and when I found out he was going to in Grand Rapids In September I jumped on it, I got lucky and went with Jim and 2 close friends and we had 11th row seats! Talk about concert of a lifetime!




7. Zoo Mania
I love animals and zoo's and was so lucky to get to visit 4 zoo's this past summer in Michigan, Ohio, and Washington.


6. Scrapbooking retreats
I was very lucky to go to several scrapbooking retreats this year, the first one was in April on Lake Michigan. I only stayed for 1 night since I had a previous engagement, but while I was there we had tons of fun and I even got some work done in my album!


5. Going Home
In August I was lucky enough to go home for my Dad's birthday and to spend time with my family and go to my first Scrapshare retreat!


4. Scrapshare Washington 2.5 Retreat
My first Scrapshare retreat! When I told Heidi I was coming home in August she helped organize the WA 2.5 retreat so I could attend! I had so much fun getting to know these ladies.



3. Willow
2006 saw Abbie getting a little brother! I am not home alot so I felt badly leaving Abbie alone alot and decided she needed a companion, and I thought I could use another one too :)


2. Cleveland Rocks
In July Jim and I went to Cleveland for a long weekend, and to celebrate his birthday. While we were there we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Hard Rock Cafe, Cleveland Zoo to see the koala's, and I surprised him with tickets to a Cleveland Indians baseball game for his birthday!


1. Jim
I just got really lucky with him ... I wasn't looking for anything and I found it :)


Wishing everyone a great 2007!

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and Library

Tonight before the hockey game Jim and I went to the Gerald R. Ford museum to sign the condolence book. The museum is closed right now but they have opened the lobby for the public to come in and sign the book. I thought it would be a good thing to bring Flat Lauren to also.

These are just a few of the pictures from tonight. The rest are on my film camera and it will be a few weeks until they are back.

The sign at the museum:



Out in front of the museum people have been gathering to pay their respects and have left alot of items and candles. Another thing I noticed was all of the news crews, the local ones plus CNN, NBC in NY (we think it may be The Today Show) and Fox. Then it kind of hit me that this is going to be huge and Grand Rapids will be seen from around the world!

The sign out in front of the museum:




Flat Lauren and I in front of the sign and museum. (Please ignore the extra chins)



I have at least a dozen more pictures on my film camera, I will post them when I get them also.