Halloween Fun!

Tennesse law regarding Halloween and Sex Offenders..

I ran across this on CNN.Com I thought it was a great idea that all states should adopt....



Law enforcement officials are taking steps to keep sex offenders away from children on Halloween. For example, in accordance with Tennessee state law, sex offenders are limited to the following: Neither they, nor anyone in their home, may answer the door to trick-or-treaters They may not pass out candy or give Halloween treats to children Their homes may not be decorated for the holiday, either inside or outside They may not visit haunted houses, corn mazes, hay rides or any other seasonal activities They may not attend any function where children are gathered, including private residences They may not wear costumes They may not accompany a trick-or-treating child
Source: State of Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole

I hung up on Jenny!

After I was pregnant for a gazillion months with both babies I started dieting and exercising to lose the baby weight. I think I have done pretty good, but lately I have been slacking but I have not gone up either so that’s a good thing.

I know I need to start eating better though and I need to get back to the gym but I try to reason I am staying active with two young kids and I was playing softball some, but now softball is done until Spring, and I am eating bad. Like really bad. My low point was yesterday at work. Before even coming to work I had a huge honking bowl of Cinnamon toast crunch. Yes very tasty but all that sugar just can’t be what I need. I then get to work and head to the Krispy Cream stash a patient brought in for us, then I hit up a candy basket as I have an addiction to Reesey Cups. That’s my form of crack. Then I had lunch which was reasonable, but then for dessert as I just didn’t have enough sugar in me already was some cake from a coworkers party. Go ME! I probably set a record for sugar quantity or something.

So during some down time after realizing what I ate I got online and was looking at the Jenny Craig website. A friend of mine has lost some weight with it and she’s encouraging me to try it. So online they have a thing where you plug in your info and number and they call you right away…. Seriously as soon as I clicked the button the work phone rang. It wasn’t Jenny though, it was a man with a heavy Indian accent. I could hardly understand him, and he was soooo reading from a cue card. He asked me how much I wanted to lose and what my goals were and blah blah blah and then I got frustrated it wasn’t a freaking woman- and that I couldn’t understand him. I mean seriously, why do I want to tell some man about my weight goals, and why would he even care? So I just friggin hung up on him lol. All I freaking wanted was some info on how much, where to go etc. So take that Kristy Alley and Valleri Bertenelli! I called Jenny and hung up on them! How many people can say that lol.

It’s not over though, I think I am going to call my local office and get the scoop. From what I have been told you buy the food from them and eat it and you lose weight if you eat what they tell you too. I like that idea especially with work, so I can just grab the frozen meal and go. Eventually you can eat non microwave food, once you learn portion and blah blah blah. I did weight watchers a few years ago and did good with it, but hated counting the points, and those damn group meetings and weigh ins just sucked. With this its one on one so no silly group mess. It can be pricey but the cost is all about the food. So it may be $175 but that’s all your food for the week, so its not that bad I guess.

So do I take the plunge? I don’t know if I can stay away from Plaza’s long enough, but we shall see. At least I have today to raid Halloween candy from kids!

Pictures I will show my daughters boyfriends....

Sigh.... I was cooking dinner tonight and Dave was keeping the kids away from the kitchen, and next thing I heard was- "OH MY GOD, ROBYN COME LOOK AT OUR DAUGHTER" I run over expecting to see her doing something cute, and to my horror she has poop on her pretty face- yes my innocent little girl got curious and smeared her nose.

I took a picture to capture the moment before we gave her a bath as its just something we have to have to show her what she did when she was a baby, and of course to keep those boyfriends away, or at least to embarrass her.

Mondayness

Monday was better then the weekend thats for sure- not much going on at work which is nice, Dave fixed the plumbing problem we encoutered last night, and I had my last softball games of fall season and I played pretty good. I really liked this team, it was a good group of nice guys and girls, and they were all pretty fun. I hope they have something going on this spring.

So nothing too excited going on other then that which is just fine with me!

Oh yeah for any die hard Christmas shoppers- there is a coupon in Sundays paper in the Kmart add for 50% off a toy from selected brands, and its a good amount of items- its for this coming Saturday only, and I am pysched to use my coupon! I have not been to a Kmart in years, but hey anything for a good deal!

The joys and not so joys of the Giles weekend...

This weekend was anything but relaxing. It was nice to spend time with family and have the husband home, but still it was crazyness!

My animals have a personal mission in my life to make it as difficult as possible, by destroying items that belong to me, to their latest quest which was to infest our house with fleas. Yes lovely I know, so we bombed our house Sunday to rid those and thankfully we are flea free. Yesterday my husband and brother in law put up the trim stuff in the dining room. Looked really good, and Dave is supposed to paint the trim sometime this week in what little free time he has- WELL this evening after we had been out of our house all day during the flea bombing I needed to do laundry and upon doing the laundry we discovered that we had a leak somehow and somewhere in the house- which was caused by the nails used to put the trim up as the laundry room backs up to the laundry room and you guessed it one of the nails went through the drain line. SO we now have a big hole in our drywall in the laundry room cause Dave has to replace the pipe. Go figure... we try to work on one room and make it nice, and then this happens. Oh well, its fixable and thankfully was caught immediately to prevent any further damage.

So the highs of the weekend were I found a nice dress for me to wear at Rachel's baptism next Sunday. My parents also decided to get a new TV for their den, and they sent us out to pick it out and had us set it up for them, so in return we got their old TV, which is just a year old and a nice flat screen , so that's in our bedroom now.

I got to see my sister and nephews today as well, and her tail is going scrap booking in Williams burg for some big crop next weekend and I am jealous as can be. I can't go though as we will be getting ready for Rachel's big day, which is also stressing me to no end as Dave as usual just invites everyone he knows, and our families are big enough, which just means our house is going to be crowded as anything and our families aren't going to have room to breathe, and I have to figure out a way to feed everyone. It's a baptism, not a community event, we don't have to invite everyone we know. And to make matters worse, I sent out invites and no one freaking RSVPS anymore you just never know who is coming or not coming. I did invite my alleged best friend, and of course have not heard from her. Will be interesting if she comes. She and her husband are trying to patch things up after he lost his mind this summer. Yeah, this is the guy that cheated on her with a 17 year old. Not just a one time drunken mistake, but he left his wife and child for this other child, and when the 17 year decided she was done with him, he goes back to his wife and she freaking takes him back. To top it off, when he blabbed his mouth to me all bad about her, and I called her and told her what he said- he ends up calling me a liar saying I said those things because I am still mad about him rejecting me when we dated 10+ years ago. For the record I was never rejected, I ran like hell when I realized how nutty he was, and I also remember some inappropriate remarks/gestures from him summers I worked there towards to me, and so I think he's completely mistaken. I also did not put his name on the invite, and believe me I may just be inappropriate if he shows his face at that church.

So can you tell I am a tad bit bitchy. Yeah I am, but Sunday will come if I am ready or not. Speaking of which- my poor mom is still working day and night on the dress for it.

So here's to a more relaxing week...

So here it is

The hair cut, mind you, this is after the lady syled it and made it all nice and when I still liked it, of course the day after when its flatter and not as spiffy is when I had my melt down. The back is pretty much cropped to my scalp.

To give you a better idea with how I am not handling this new doo I have found my left over prenatal vitamins, and I am taking them again in hopes of my hair magically growing soon- preferably before work on monday when my coworkers tease me to no end.

It's official

I hate my hair cut. Yeah it sucks, love the color but hate the hair cut. I should have know better then to do two drastic things.... but oh well whats done is done and at least hair grows!!!

Will write more later about my weekend happenings!

And out came the scissors...

I cut the hoohoo out of my hair today. Yes indeed. It's purrty short. I went to a new place, like the girl, like the place, like the color I got today, unsure still if I like the new doo. It's one of those hair cuts I loved while in the shop, but it was a little shorter then I expected, and I don't know if I like it anymore. I brought a picture of what I wanted and knew my layers would mean a shorter version of it but I didn't quite understand just how short.

BUT I will go back to the place and the same girl as I love the color, and if I end up hating this cut which I think I will, I can always do something else when it grows out of course.

I had some low lights put into it so its got some brown in it and its not so harsh.

So at this moment I am looking at myself from every angle in any reflective surface and wondering what my final verdict will be.

Pictures!

Just wanted to post some recent pics of the kids....

The thing on Laura's head is part of her Halloween costume as shes going to be a pumpkin this year and I am working very hard on getting her to like the cute accessories so she just doesn't look like a orange blob... Wish me luck on that one!

As you can see Rachel is working hard on not only just pulling up, but as well shes working on operating vehicles. Next week she's looking to get the hang out of piloting airplanes.

Christmas is coming- hohoho

It's just a few more days until Halloween, and here I am- completely stressed about Christmas. How crazy is that? I always try to start my shopping early, so I do have some stuff purchased. I store it all in an extra bedroom of ours, and last night I was up there checking it all out and seeing what else I need to get. I don't have as much as I thought I did, and it got me paniced. Really paniced- and yes its just October.

There's just so much going on starting in November. I have my youngest Baptism the first weekend, then later that week I am throwing a baby shower for one of my co-workers, then there's some doctor appointments for the kids, and of course Thanksgiving. In between there I have set up for a photographer to come out our house and do Christmas pics of the kids. That it self will be an adventure as my oldest does not like to pose, smile and stay put long enough for a picture....

December itself is even crazier with company parties, property taxes due, a wedding we are traveling out of town for, and the usual holiday mayhem......

So this weekend I am hitting the stores and trying to make a dent in this shopping...

Boring Wednesday but hey its my life....

I was at my other unit today. I usually try to get there once a week, and I got to witness the looks on the nurses faces when they got their "appreciation gift" all over again. Simply priceless I tell you. I declined an extra copy. Another interesting thing that happened is we lost another patient today to our local competition. I had to inform someone about it at corporate as it was someone that had charity assistance for insurance purposes and they always need to know right away, and I have started something I am afraid. I was asked a gazillion questions about why they left, and I was brutally honest, and I can't be more specific then that, but it may mean someone gets in trouble, and I was hesitant being as honest as I was as I knew it could mean that, and didn't want it coming back on me, but I glanced over at that god for saken book they gave us and just told it like it was. We shall see now I guess.

One good thing about being at that clinic today was being right near my favorite kids consignment shop-Sugar and Spice in Williamsburg. Love it! I got Laura a Gymboree rain coat, some Christmasy top, and some PJ's. Rachel scored a Hana Anderon dress, and a cute outfit. I got to stay out of there, but it just calls my name when I am driving by on my way home.

Rachel is desperately trying to pull up. She almost has it. I can't believe shes already 8 months old, the time just goes by so fast.... Laura is learning new words all the time. She is saying Nana and Papa which of course is thrilling for my parents. There such cuties, and I can't believe how fast time just flies by with them.

My loving husband still has not finished the dining room, but he did paint the lower half on the wall, so now he has to do the trim detail he spent forever working on this August/September. He has to paint that and attach it to the wall, can't explain it but when its done I will post pictures.... Time is running out for him... I need my house back in order before we have Rachel's baptism party. On his days off if he goes and goofs off and plays golf he will have to answer to me, and I can be pretty scary!

Thanks for your hard work!

So the company I work for wanted to celebrate their appreciation for their employees. They sent out everyone one gift which was a legal pad in a faux leather folder with the company name on it. Most employees were not excited, I happend to like mine, and I actually got to have two as I work between both units. They sent a letter saying we would get a second gift that was late coming in.

Well today we get our 2nd gift. Total let down. It's a freaking book called 10 minute guide to Teams and Teamwork. Seriously what brillant person though their many employees would want this? We are a for profitt company and this is what we get? I would have happily accepted another legal pad thingy or a freaking company pen, or even better a bonus or a certifcate somewhere.

We got a gift card last year for Christmas which I though was ok, but now I am simply afraid of what we will get this year.

This company kills me. They sent out letter a few weeks ago as they knew another company was recruiting us heavily. The company I went to for about a month this summer lol. They pretty much said we know your getting phone calls from our competition but we would like to remind you how great we are blah blah blah.... First of all the other company is pretty awesome, I just didn't like my unit for other reasons. I so want to write a letter to my CEO but I am afraid if I make to much noise I will get fired.

So in the mean time I think all of my coworkers are going to mail our book back. Theres more power in numbers!

I think I will go home early.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping!

I have to admit something, as much as I like shopping I hate grocery shopping. I always blank out on what we need. I also get frustrated when my husband deciedes he wants to be healthy and asks me to get brocoli or something and then it sits in my fridge until it goes bad. I hate spending all that money on food.

I head about this thing called the grocery shopping game - its a coupon program in which you sign up, start saving your sunday coupons and then they tell you when to use the coupons as they figure out who is having the sales, and where the best prices care. They actually give you a list and you just buy from the list and use the coupons they tell you to use. I have not signed up so I can't tell if it is that great I am thinking about it as they do free trials for a month I think. I have been told to save up 4 weeks of coupons before you start though. If you shop at Walmart or Costco it doesn't apply though as they go with usually chain grocery stores. I think they include CVS though and that type of thing for medication products and such though.

I kinda shop all over the board. I have a Harris Teeters near me, and I really like it though it can be expensive. However they double coupons every day up to .99 on whatever. This is usually when I go. Just this week I scored toothpaste for .50 because I had a nice coupon that doubled on it.

I also have a foodlion down the street to. I am not much of a foodlion lover as mine was all gross and unclean or at least I thought so after I bought bagels with ants in them, and I actually at a bagel before noticing. But mine has remodeled so from time to time I still with pop in if I need something last minute. They do not double coupons but their prices are pretty good. Walmart of course is always bottom dollar prices, I just hate going there unless its 5am or something as its always crowded. So I might get by there once a month if I am lucky.

I am also lucky enough to have a Trader Joes nerby as well. Their milk prices are always low- so I try to get my milk there or Costco as they seem to have the cheapest prices, and believe me we go through some Milk with my oldest. If we owned a cow the cow just wouldn't be able to supply us with enough.

Costco does not take coupons but their prices are always nice if you want mass quantites. We get household items there like papertowels, toilet paper, etc. My location does not carry Pampers or the formula we use which erks me to no end, but we get the kirkland wipes which I think are the best. Dave has a membership to Sams so he will grab formula and pampers. Much cheaper then buying them elsewhere. If you have a BJ's you can get diapers and what not AND they accept coupons.

I guess I try to make grocery shopping fun by making a game out of trying to get the best deals around to make it a little more interesting.

I might try that grocey shopping game thingy for the free trial to see if its any good. I think after your trial its $1.00 a week or something, so thats not bad.

Projects and such

So Dave is still working on the dining room. You can see the new color we went with that he finished last week, and now hes going to paint the bottom white (its cream now) and then put this trim detail along the bottom. Quite the process as you can imagine... Also maybe its just us, but when we work on one room it seems the stuff we take out to make room while working messes up every other room in the house. Right now presently I have all of our wedding china and crystal on the kitchen counters, and the dining room table and chairs in the living room. It's crazyness! I secretly pray noone will come to our house anytime soon as its just chaos.

SO after this room no more projects until after Christmas. Heck I just hope this one will be done before my daughters baptism, or there will be no party at our house after lol.

Death

Death has to be one of my biggest fears. Not necessarily my own, but I guess the actual grieving of loved ones. I have had I guess just a few life losses. My grandfather when I was 2, I actually remember his funeral believe it or not, and my cousin was killed in a car accident almost a year ago. I have just always had the same people in my life forever, and I can't believe that one day they wont be here anymore. My grandparents are in there late 80's now, in fact my dads mom will be 90 this year. How unreal is that? My own parents I can see are growing older, and I just don't know how I would function without the both of them.
'I just don't even go there with thinking about Dave's line of work or it would drive me batty, but its there in the back of my mind. Like if we get into a fight about something, I feel like I have to make nice before he leaves for work just in case!

The weirdest thing about death is the world just keeps moving on. Seriously its crazy. Everyone pauses in time for the funeral, but then its just back to business. Most people's jobs will give them 3 days of berevenment leave and then I guess thats all they think you need to be back and productive again.

So the reason for this depressing topic is a friend of ours lost her brother to suicide after losing her father to it a few years before. I am not one to throw stones though as I firmly believe when you are that depressed you just sometimes lose control and just get that desperate, and sadly enough I have had some serious depression back in highschool and early college in which I would be a liar if I said it hadn't crossed my mind, and even a bigger liar if I said I hadn't even tried to act on it. It sucks so bad for that family to have to go through all of this again though regardless. I can't imagine what they are going through, but I know it must be horrific.

We all die though. There's no hiding from it. I guess all I can hope for is that all my loved one die in their sleep peacefully in old age and that noone has any regrets.

craft shows and heros

I went with my parents and my two girls to the local Poquson Seafood Festival. I go for the crafts, and in years past its either a good show or disappointing. Or maybe it seems disappointing because I go to every freaking craft show between here and Richmond. It seems the same people are vendors year after year and some are awesome about changing things up, and some just don't get it. This was a good show I thought. I saw lots of cute halloween decorations and I had to remind mysefl over and over I have enough freaking Halloween decorations. SO what were my purchases? I got both of my kids two trick or treat bags to tote around when they are older as the bags are right now bigger then them. So, I am going to put away these bags until they are older, and god willing, I will be able to find them when that occurs!

I also got a cute Christmas Journal thingy. I made one myself a few years ago at a scrapbooking thing. It's just a cute decorated notebook, and since the dog ate the one I made this will save me from having to make another one. I use these books to keet track of what gifts I have bought for Xmas and how much money I have put out. I like to staple receipts in there as well in case a gift I get someone needs to be returned.

And thats all I got- I know pretty light for me but like I said I made myself stay away from Halloween decorations before some visitor comes to my house and thinks I worship Satan or something.

Later on that day Dave and I took the kids to a church/preschool near our house to let our oldest play on the playground. We had fun and I even got to swing on a swing. Back home later that evening near bedtime I notice I have lost an earring. Not just any earring but a new earring that I got in Richmond when I went shopping with some friends earlier this month. It wasn't expensive but still I was crushed, and even down right pissed. It sent me off on a rant on how the world is just out to get me. I know so dramatic! But I was going for a Oscar worthy performance. I went to my room pouting and ready to break into sobs after a fruitless search of the house. I decieded to just try to go to bed, and Dave let me be. I figured he was in the den preparing to go to work himself, and silently cussing me for being so dramtic.

However the door swung open and Dave came in saying he had found my earring. At first I didn't believe him, I thought it was some cruel joke, but as he came closer I noticed he had both of my earrings. Turns out my wonderful husband had rode his bike in the dark with a flash light the whole way to the playground searching for it, and had found it over at the swings we were at. You would have though I had won the lottery. Yes this is one reason why my husband is the bestest, because who else out there would have gone to all that damn trouble for me?

You've been Ghousted!

So yesterday at work some of my coworkers were talking about "ghousting" in their neighborhoods. I didn't know what the heck they were talking about. Apparently, these people live in neighborhoods with lots of kids and young families. Heres what you do:



Here's what to do next:
**Hang the "We've Been Ghosted!" sign by your front door right away, so the ghost know not to return
**Make two copies of this sheet and the "We've Been Ghosted!" sign
**Make two treat bags. Put one poem and one sign in each treat bag
Poem=Halloween Time is here again,
Here's a treat, some fun from a friend.
Ghosts are scampering through (insert street names, devlopment name),
Delivering goodies under cover of dark.

**Secretly deliver the treat bags to (insert street names, devlopment name) neighbors within 48 hours (ring a doorbell and run)
Have a wonderful Halloween!
The "We've Been Ghosted!" Sign is just a simple MS Word Doc with a large ghost clip art and the words We've Been Ghosted! in a large font.


So its a cute idea. Not going to work in my neighborhood as everyone is over 70 for the most part. But if I lived in a wonderful gated community full of soccer moms you know I would be the first one doing this.

Hello Blog Land

So this is blogging.... Real blogging... I have been blogging on MySpace but I wanted to make the jump since I have loved reading blogs out on the web. SO a little about me. I am in my later 20's. Married for 4 years to my college sweet heart. We have two little girls under the age of two. They were born 12 months apart, and they are my reason for everything! I work part time, and wish outloud that I could be a stay at home mom, but its not in the cards for us, but thats ok, or at least its going to have to be ok.

So why blog? I think people are brutally honest when they don't have to talk to face to face. It's a good way to just be open and blunt. There's no walls, theres just the freedom to say what you want and share.