Yesterday I was officially made a Geocities Heartland Community Leader. Marshall thinks I'm nuts for doing something that I'm not gonna get paid for. I tried to explain to him about wanting to help people just for the satisfaction of helping but he still thinks I'm nuts. He is probably right but if nothing else I will at least get some email. hehe

Danielle's bday is coming up. I am so looking forward to twelve 7-year-olds running around a swimming pool.... haha. I am really getting tired of swimming parties but there isn't much else to do around here. They are all a little too young for the only fun amusement place with go-cars, laser tag, etc. Besides, that place is pretty expensive and they won't let you bring in your own cake you are stuck with their crappy cupcakes. I know that might not sound like a big deal, but every year I like to order the girls a really nice birthday cake with their favorite characters on it, and I would hate to have to serve stupid cupcakes instead. Aaahhh.....if only all of my problems were this trivial. hehe

The yellow page ad is done. I am so excited about it, I think it came out really good....if I do say so myself that is. hehe I probably should have done a lousy job cause now I'm sure I'll be doing it every year.

Reminder to self: When you don't like something keep your mouth shut! When you think something is ugly keep your mouth shut!! When you think you can do a better job KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!!!

Why? Because after years of complaining about the limousine yellow page ad I have now been given less than a week to design it. After all the bitching I did I couldn't say no but I really, really wanted to. Of course there is no pressure....... ha!

Have you ever been waken up in the middle of the night by someone banging on your door? Poor Marshall jumped out of bed and was dressed in two seconds flat. There was a man wondering around our little town last night and it is our house he decideds to visit. It was about midnight and this man has his face looking in the window and scared the crap out of us. Marshall, being a guy, had to open the door to see what he wanted. I would have just hid and hoped that he went away. The man said that his car broke down several miles up the interstate and wanted to know if we could help him. Then he said he had a flat tire. He wanted to use our phone to call long distance but ever since my stepdad changed phone servers and business plans (another long story) our long distance doesn't work so we couldn't help him. After we locked the doors we called the sherrifs department and explained the situation. We sat in the dark entry way watching as the sherriffs car drove around looking for this man. We finally received a call back that they had found him and had taken him where he had to go. I couldn't go back to sleep so I laid in bed thinking about how sad it is that in todays world, even in our small town in North Dakota, you are afraid to help someone because you fear people you don't know. I wish we could have offered him more than a ride in a sherrifs car to his destination.......I wish we could have invited him in, offered him something hot to drink to warm him up and fixed his tire......I hope he understood why we couldn't.

Time to sell girl scout cookies and I lost my best customers!! Their daughter is now in girl scouts and there goes about 30 boxes! And this year I have two girl scouts selling cookies. Time to pull out my hair. Wanna buy some cookies.........pleeeeeeaaaase!!!

I thought of you today,
I wish I could give you a call
How did we end up here?
Do you even miss me at all?
So much anger between us....
How did we grow apart?
Tears come to my eyes,
A deep pain inside my heart.
I know that you are well,
Or at least that's what I'm told
New house, new car,
New life, new wedding ring of gold
You shut me out, I've slammed the door
No more left to say
Except for I'm sorry, I love you.....
....Maybe another day.
Maybe this will all make sense,
Maybe someday I'll see,
But today I sit with tears pouring down
For two sisters, you and me.

I never knew how strage our limousine drivers......errr excuse me "professional chauffeurs" were! Try to picture this if you can. I am setting up our booth at last weekends wedding show and I had taken out some suction cups hoping to be able to hang our sign with them. The suction cups didn't work so I set them aside as I decorated the table. One of the drivers picks up the suction cup and sticks it to his forehead with a long string of lights hanging from it. I think he says something about his brains falling out. Did I mention that he is bald? It was definitely a strange sight especially when he pulled off the suction cup and he was left with a purple "hicky" like mark in the middle of his forehead that didn't go away. If you are a person who is always "politically correct" you would never fit in with this group. The insults were flying faster than I could keep track of them. Let me see, we had the fat one, the bald one, the short one and of course the one who's only date in quite some time has been his hand. Notice I didn't mention any names? I did take some funny pictures and as threatened they will be posted here as soon as I develop them. Can you tell I had fun? hehe

Another busy weekend. I've been meaning to post here and tell Chad congratulations on his recent engagement!! He is such a wonderful guy and had this incredible proposal all planned out on New Years Eve. Of course she said yes. I'm sure she was overwhelmed by all of the wonderful things he took the time to plan and arrange just to make sure the night was special for her. Marshall is planning to strangle Chad now that I've asked him why he didn't go to the effort to propose that Chad did. That guilt alone should get me at least a night out with no kids. hehe Chad is a sweetheart and we of course wish him and his fiance the best.

I can't believe the holidays went by so fast!! My poor computer is feeling so neglected!! Well, Happy New Year! My brother made it home for Christmas and we just took him to the airport this morning. He is off to Mississippi for his first school after boot camp. The week he was here went by so fast, I just wasn't ready to see him go. At least now he will be able to call and have access to email. The girls are back home after spending the week with their dad, they had a really nice visit and are not ready to go back to school tomorrow. I was spoiled by my sweetie this Christmas and can't wait to get started using my new CD burner. It will be nice to get all of my photos off my hardrive and onto discs. While I'm at it I guess I should get my zip drive installed that has been sitting in a box for too long. I just haven't been to motivated to move my computer away from the wall and disconnect everything. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy an even better New Year!

Is it almost Christmas vacation yet??? I have too many activities and not enough time and to make things even better two sick kids. Where is that Calgon when you need it?

My sweetie suprised me with a movie I've been wanting to watch so as soon as he get's off the phone we are going to snuggle on the couch and eat popcorn with lots of butter. yummm! :-) G'night, sleep tight.......and don't let those bed bugs bite!!

Receiving wonderful gifts from my secret santa. Thank you whoever you are! :-) I am feeling completely spoiled! *S*

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Things here have been busy to say the least. This time of year is always crazy. Spent a wonderful girls only weekend with my mom, stepsister and our daughters. Now it's back to reality with too many things to do and not enough time to do it and here I sit at my computer trying to talk myself into moving.

It is sooooo cold outside! I am praying that my car starts. I have to go into town and I am really dreading it. Wish me luck on the car starting because I am in big trouble if it doesn't.

Seconds after my last post I received a phone call that set off World War III in my family. The dust has settled and we are all licking our wounds so to speak. My mom and I are so much alike it's scary! We both react with the same anger and fire when we feel someone in our family (especially each other) have been hurt. The men in our lives both know that we react from our heart and not always logically, they both know that when our tempers are set off there is hell to pay, and they both know that in the end our love for them and our family as a whole keeps us bound together even stronger than before. But does that keep them from being stupid? Of course not!! My stepdad is a wonderful man and an incredible grandfather to my children but sometimes he opens his mouth and the most incredibly stupid things come out. Thank goodness we have resolved things and hopefully we will enjoy a stetch of peace and calm before we drive each other to madness again! Isn't it funny how genetics sometimes over rule our common sense? For the most part I am calm and level headed and then when I least expect it my latin blood takes over and I go ballistic! Oh well, at least it's never boring around here! hehe

I'm mad at Marshall today. I am continuing my anger from last night. At this point I don't even really want to be mad but I feel like if I don't stay mad he will think that everything is fine which it is not! Do you ever feel like you are having the same fight again and again and no matter how many times you try to get your point across it just isn't getting through? I am tired of fighting over the same damn thing and after every fight I hear the same crap that doesn't mean anything because I know the next fight will be exactly the same. When I started dating Marshall I knew he was a workaholic. We met at work so of course I knew that, this was the guy would work 24 hours a day and cover every shift even when he hadn't slept in over 48 hours.......and no I am not exagerating. I knew this, did I think I could change it? No......well maybe.....but not really. The point is all I ask for is a flippin phone call to tell me he is working, that he won't be back when he says he will, and even though he has a cell phone in his pocket he still can't take a few seconds to tell me not to wait for him. That is the worst part.....the waiting. I hate waiting. It brings back really bad memories from my childhood. Marshall knows why I feel this way, he knows why the one damn phone call means so much to me and yet he still doesn't call. Why do I waste my breath?

I just had a visit from Wah Lee. She left a cute message about how my page reminded her of "hot cocoa". I then visited her page which I really liked. Although the picture she has on her main index made me look twice because they guy looked almost exactly like an old boyfriend from high school named Jason. I haven't thought of Jason in a long time. We never let anyone know we were dating because he was a year younger than me and I didn't want anyone to know but damn he was sexy. :-) Isn't it funny when past memories come back so vivid they take you away to a place that was for so long forgotten?

I then realized that being compared to hot cocoa was kind of sad. Sure it's warm and comforting and so sweet but it doesn't seem like that long ago when I would have been compared more to a shot of tequila. Warm with fire and sexy and wild. I know that those parts of me are still there but for the most part I am just a mom........hot cocoa. How depressing.

Yesterday was World Aids Day. I participated in a Day Without Weblogs. I had an email with someone who also participated who was wondering if the whole thing actually did anything positive. I'm not sure, I would like to think that it added to the awareness of the crisis, I would like to think that maybe someone out there found my page and actually followed the links I set up, I would like to think that the time I spent finding personal stories hoping to reach someone actually found their way into someone's heart, I would like to think............but maybe not. ....

Another winter storm here in North Dakota. It is days like this that I am happy to snuggle on the couch next to my sweetie with a bowl of popcorn and a warm blanket. We bought our christmas tree on Sunday from a nearby tree farm. The girls went on a sleigh ride and played with the kittens. We have been thinking of buying the kids a kitten and were happily surprised that the kittens on the farm were up for adoption. Our newest family member is named Mittens and she is black with a white face and paws. She is so cute and cuddly. I will post pictures of her soon. Anthony and Mittens played together all day, with the girls in school Anthony was very thankful for a new playmate.

Well, in case you were wondering......Yes I survived the madness of shopping the after Thanksgiving sales. I actually had a lot of fun. Jenny had the whole day planned out and I just kind of went along for the ride. For the first time in my whole life my Christmas shopping is just about complete and it's not even December yet! Most that I have talked to think I am insane for standing in line at ToysRUs at the crack of dawn and I must say that I agree! hehe But I never said I was normal and I am pretty sure that when next year comes around I will be standing in line once again. Thanks to Jenny for the wonderful day.....and when our parents see their credit card bill we will just have to be sure and remind them how much we bonded on our shopping excursion! :-)