Holly’s Happenings

Ty Pennington and the team from Extreme Makeover Home Edition are in my neck of the woods this week. The family that was chosen is most definitely deserving of a new home! The father is an ambulance driver that was hurt and saved the life of his partner during the 2005 Toledo Riots. His wife is an ordained minister who has recently experienced some serious health problems and was also diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. They have a total of 11 children, three biological children, three children they’ve adopted from the local area and five children that they have adopted from Haiti.

I think it is wonderful that Ty and the EMHE team are building a new home for this family, and feel that they not only deserve it but that they will truly appreciate their new home! The excitement in the area over the new home build is so neat, I LOVE reading the updates about what is going on! Today was the day that the demolition was actually started and the big reveal is on Sunday.

It’s definitely a LARGE family, and their former home of four bedrooms was way too small for them! I can’t wait to find out the specifics about the home that is being built! Obviously with 11 children it’s not going to be possible for each of them to have their own bedroom. And with a total of 13 people living in the home I can’t help but wonder if they’ll put something like home theater seating in the family room or living room so that they can all sit down and enjoy a movie or TV as a family comfortably?

I’m hoping to make it up to the build site at least once this week and will definitely get some pictures if I can! I already have one request from a friend to get a picture of Ty and she plans on printing it out and sleeping with it…LOL! Lets just hope her hubby doesn’t mind

I’ll keep you updated about the house if I can!

My daughter was extremely upset because sometime between Thursday morning and last night her friends had decided to change the date of their end of summer slumber party from next weekend to last night. Since they had no way of getting in touch with her she didn’t know about the change until around 8 last night, which was too late to go. I felt so bad for her, she couldn’t stop crying, and no matter what I said or did, nothing helped.

After crying for about an hour, she was completely drained and I knew that if she could just get some rest, she’d feel better in the morning. Being the little con artist that she is, she batted her puppy dog eyes at me and said something like “I’d feel better if you’d stay with me until I fall asleep”. That was the first sign that she was going to be OK. I gave in and grabbed my pillow and she and I flipped the channels on her TV until we found something we both liked.

The next thing I knew she was tripping out over a mosquito hawk that was on her TV. I told her if it was bothering her that bad to take a flip flop or something and kill it. The next time it landed, she swung the flip flop and made contact, but we couldn’t see where it landed so we weren’t completely sure if she had killed it or not. She then starts in saying stuff like “If I didn’t kill it, it’s going to come back and get me, maybe it will suck my blood out while I’m sleeping”, and stuff like that. We were laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, but the next thing I knew she was flailing her arms and screaming. When she finally calmed down she told me that a mosquito hawk was flying in her face. WRONG thing to tell me…LOL!

I looked around on the stand next to her bed and found a colored pencil. I’d wait for her to drop her guard for a moment then I’d take the pencil and ever so lightly touch her hair or her arm, making her think it was the mosquito hawk….LOL! I can’t believe we didn’t wake the dogs or my husband up because of how hard we were laughing! Then, out of the middle of nowhere, she wrapped her arms around herself and said “I hug myself at night so that I know there is someone close by that cares”…….ROFL! We were having a riot, and after a couple of stressed out days, it was what we both needed!

Not having internet can stink, but it’s also brought the four of us closer too! I did manage to find a dial up connection that will work until we can get the money together, and we all take turns sitting at my hubby’s laptop to check our email and stuff. So I’m kind of back, but not completely…LOL

So I got an email yesterday from my gal pal Janet that I thought was pretty darn cool! The title of the email is “How many of me???” and in it was a link to a website called How Many of Me. What you do is you go to the website and you enter your first and last names. You then get a page that tells you how many people in the US have your same first name, your same last name and then your complete name.

For my first name, Holly, there are 178,260 other people in the US with that name, 99.9% of which are female. For my last name, which I’m not going to disclose, there are less than 335 people in the US with that name. And for my complete name, well, I’m an original and the ONLY person in the US with this first and last name. YAY!!!!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Why don’t you give it a try and let me know what your results are!

On another note, it’s not been the best of days! Yes, I’ve had worse, so I’m honestly NOT complaining, but it feels like it’s going to be one of those “If anything CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong kind of days!

I slept way later than I actually wanted to! My hubby decided to be nice and let me sleep in this morning rather than waking me up before he left for work at 5:30. While I totally appreciate him doing this, I didn’t want to sleep until almost 9…LOL! But that’s OK, apparently I needed it! What I didn’t need, however, was the oh so lovely pimple that decided to pop out beside my nose over night. Am I the only person in their 40’s that is spending more time looking for a good acne cure than they did in their teens? Something is TOTALLY wrong with this! LOL

Shortly after 10 he called me to let me know that the guy he works with that was going to come and sit with the dogs this weekend while we drove out to Baltimore to pick up the kids told him this morning that he wasn’t going to be able to come here and stay with them. While I’m glad he at least gave us 5 days notice, we’re now in one heck of a pickle trying to figure out someone who can come and stay with the dogs Saturday and Sunday.

On top of that I realized that I totally forgot that the tags on my van and car expired last week. This means that my hubby is going to have to find someone to ride to work with this week because I’m not going to be able to get new tags until after he and/or I get paid. And before we can make the trip out to Baltimore I’m also going to have to have my serpentine belt replaced on the van as well as still having to get the transmission filter and fluid changed.

It’s definitely going to be an interesting week, to say the least! I’ve got to try and find someone that will sit with the dogs, I have to get my sons room finished up, I have to get the tags on both vehicles and the work done on the van, and at some point I also have to fit in the day to day housework that has to be done. Something tells me there aren’t going to be enough hours in the day this week!

I’m TOTALLY loving how the house is smelling right now! Tomorrow is “THE” day, besides being “my” day, it’s also the day that I’m taking a short road trip with a few family members. It used to be that we’d make this trip once a year, pretty much about the same time, but for some reason we haven’t done this in a couple of years. Where are we going, you ask? We’re going to Shipshewana, Indiana where the most AWESOME Flea Market in the world is at! (If you don’t believe me, just click on that link!)

Anyway, originally it was going to be me, my mom, my sister and one of my niece’s going, but that’s changed just a little bit. Now it’s going to be me, mom, my sister, both of my niece’s and my FAVORITE Aunt! We’re heading out from mom’s house at 6:30 tomorrow morning and have a couple hour drive before we get there. I decided that we needed some yummy snackage for the trip and decided to bake some AWESOME sugar cookies and I also made a really creamy and fluffy frosting to frost them with. We’ll also stop for breakfast on the way, we stop at the same restaurant every time we go! And there will be TONS and TONS of good stuff to buy to snack on as well! By the time the day is over I’ll end up needing some really good weight loss pills to help take off the weight I gain from eating all the goodies…LOL!

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow though! I normally don’t do anything on my birthday, it’s kind of a “tradition” for me…LOL! So it will be nice to get out of the house, and I’ll get to spend some time with some very special family members as well, which makes it that much better!

It’s been a really nice day here today, I FINALLY got a good nights sleep last night without one of the dogs waking me up at one point or another, so I’m sure that’s helped! The hubby and I spent the morning just kind of chilling out enjoying our coffee and watching TV, you know, the same old, same old…LOL!

He had to take off and go pick up some car parts for a guy he works with, but before he did that we were able to get the shelves in our room rehung. Our room has those white wire type shelves in it, but I did not like the way they were hung and have wanted to move them almost from the day we moved in here. We finally were able to take them down last night and get our bed and dressers moved before going to bed. So before he headed out I had him hang the shelves and while he was gone I got all of our clothes rehung and I have to say that I LOVE how the room looks now, it feels so much larger and open!

This afternoon I had a little fun with the dogs and gave them some peanut butter, which is always a source of laughter! And since my hubby found my daughters missing camera I decided to make use of the fact that I can edit video’s that are made with it and grab some video of the dogs enjoying their peanut butter. So for your viewing pleasure….

Tonight we’re sitting here watching one of my favorite TV shows, Deadliest Catch, while waiting for the kids to call. Right now the crews are fishing for Ophelia crabs in January and the weather is getting bad. Of course we have our usual array of commercials during the show ranging from ads for other shows coming on later tonight, previews of the next episode and ads for things like mesothelioma lawyers, insurance and a really neat commercial for a type of gum that I’ve never heard of.

Thankfully the kids just called, so we can wrap things up for the night soon and hopefully get another decent nights sleep. We’ve got a few things to take care of tomorrow before the work week starts, but for the most part it will probably be another lazy and uneventful day!

I’ve seen a few posts on some of the blogs I visit about the funny key words that bring people to their site, some of which are REALLY funny! So I decided to do a little checking on my own blogs to see what people are searching for that have brought them to my blog, and thought that I’d share some of my favorites with you!

• extreme holly covered puke video (OK, that’s just GROSS!!)
• gross happenings (More grossness?!?)
• holly person young sports car driving not a care in the world (OK, is it just me or does this one just sound very strange? LOL)
• hollys hot happenings (I think people are VERY disappointed if this is what they’re looking for LOL)
• how do i fix my ruined life aging depression (Oh boy, can I relate to this one some days!)
• i wish my family got along (I don’t know anyone that doesn’t wish this…LOL)
• letting ex-spouse inside current spouse (Makes me REALLY glad I don’t have an ex-spouse!)
• things to make your wife disgusted with you (Ummm…looking for things like this WILL do the trick!!)
• best diet pills (Yup, looking for these myself!!)
• flowers ibuprophen (I’m not sure I want to know why those two words would be together!)

Our evenings this week, other than Tuesday and Wednesday, have been spent competing at the different Wii games we have…LOL! For instance, tonight we’re competing in the power throwing part of the bowling game! In this game you throw a series of 10 throws. The first throw you have 10 pins to aim at, the second throw you have a row of pins added to the back, making 15 pins. For each ball after that another row of pins is added with the 10th ball having a total of 91 pins, with the pins you knocked down in each frame being added up for your total score. You only get one throw at each set of pins, but for each throw that you get a strike with they double the amount of pins. So far, I am the reigning champ with a total of 583…LOL!

The one thing that we’ve learned about playing the Wii in the family room is that no part of our home furniture, computers or even the ceiling fan are safe from the game remote…LOL! Not that the remote has slipped out of our hands, just that while swinging to try and get those strikes, you never know what your hand is going to hit…LOL! So far the ceiling fan light has been hit 3 times, my computer monitor has been hit twice and during a back swing my husband slammed his hand into the wooden arm of the recliner. So far we’ve been lucky and there has been no breakage of the items that have been hit or the body parts that they have been hit with…LOL! I tell you though, you can get one heck of a workout from some of the sports games!

So, you’ve come here for some information, huh? Let’s see, did you know that 2+2=4? What? That’s not the information you’re looking for? Oh, oops, sorry, my bad! You wanted information about where to send my birthday presents this year since I moved, didn’t you? OK, well my mailing address is 9…… What? That’s not why you’re here either? HMMMMMMM……OK, I’m getting a bit worried here because that’s the information I was thinking you were looking for.

HAHAHAHAHA….GOTCHA didn’t I? Yes, I know why you’re here! You’re here because you are playing in the treasure hunt in hopes of winning a GORGEOUS 14 karat gold anklet from jewelelegance.com aren’t you? Well, I have some good news and some “not so good” news for you. The good news is your next stop on the road to victory is Musings è¿é, the “not so good” news is that you have to watch the video to get the code that you’ll need for her blog post. But don’t worry,it’s not super long and I promise it’s fun!

Thanks for stopping by! Have fun and good luck with the treasure hunt!!!! On to the video!!! Remember, the code you need is in the video and it’s VERY obvious when it comes up!! LOL

If you’re shopping for beautiful Diamond Jewelry, 14 karat gold anklets or any other type of jewelry, remember to check out jewelelegance.com, they have a HUGE selection, excellent prices and FREE shipping on all orders over $75!

OK guys, listen up! And yes honey, I’m talking to you too! We ladies love the lives that we have with you, but you kind of seem to be lacking in some things. Namely, gift giving. They holiday season is behind us and I’ve heard from many of my friends that their men gave them Christmas gifts consisting of things like vacuum cleaners, dish washers, DVD’s, washers, dryers and many other gifts that although are nice, simply aren’t what we’d like to recieve as a gift for a holiday or other special occasion.

So guys, here’s what I’m going to do for you. I’m going to give you a list of items that ladies would LOVE to recieve from you. In other words, these are sure fired ways to make us ladies happy. And if you know us you know that if we’re happy, YOU are happy too….LOL!

1. Jewelry - The old saying is true, diamonds are a girls best friend!
2. Lingerie - Thinks like teddys, corsets, and other romantic gifts.
3. Date nights - Yes, we still love to go out on a date with you (even after 17 years sometimes…LOL)
4. Day spas - These are quickly becoming the new girls best friend!
5. Flowers and chocolate - Yes guys, these are not just meant for Valentines Day. We love chocolate, you should know that by now! And flowers, do I really have to say anything else?

There’s a few to get you started, you should be able to get more ideas from those! But PLEASE no more of the household appliance type gifts unless we SPECIFICALLY ask for them! Use some creativity and I’m sure you’ll come up with something WONDERFUL!

I have to tell you, growing up on a farm and surrounded by 1980’s rednecks, I’ve seen some of the most interesting types of vehicles you could imagine! When I was in high school, the “in” thing was taking a 4 wheel drive pick up and putting a lift kit on it that would raise it an additional 6 to 12 inches higher than it already was. I also grew up during the time that Ted Nugent was HUGE, so many of the guys took the trucks with their lift kits and gave them custom camouflage paint jobs…LOL!

After the pain jobs were complete, they would then customize their trucks with roll bars complete with lights, CB radios with antennas that would easily reach 6 foot tall, 44 inch super swampers (a.k.a. tires) and bull bars. There always seemed to be some sort of fight going on between the guys over who had the cooler truck, or whose truck could go through the muckiest mud, and it was a never ending form of entertainment for everyone around them!

Sometimes I miss things like being able to hang out under the train tressle with my friends and mudding through freshly harvested fields. I definitely don’t miss the nights that someone would bring their attitude with them to the tressle, because it seemed like there would always end up being a fight when they did. I hope that my kids are able to form some good memories like this that they can look back on when they get older. I know things are MUCH different for them now than they were for me when I was their age(s).

OK, I’m sure my regular readers know that I do not normally blog about the types of things that I’m about to write about, but this time I simply can’t help myself. Partially because when I told my kids I was going to blog about this they said “NO YOU WON’T”, and partially because, well, I’m sorry, it’s just TOOOOOOO funny! (and somewhat gross)

The kids are off school on a snow day today and the morning was a nightmare! The kids were fighting all morning long about anything and everything you can imagine and were completely driving me up a wall! Fortunately, they seem to have calmed down some this afternoon! Sometime after 12, I decided that I REALLY needed to get a shower! We have 2 full bathrooms here in the house, the one up front has a tub/shower combo and the one back here just has a shower stall. For some reason the shower back here just does not get good water pressure. We’ve checked everything to make sure there are no water leaks or anything like that that could cause the lack of water pressure, but found nothing. When we first moved in, the kids actually preferred the shower back here because the one up front has a window in it that has that bumpy opaque glass in it and it freaked them out to think about showering in front of a window even though we proved to them that NOTHING is seen outside! In time, however, their fears of using the shower with the window passed and eventually it ended up that no one was using this shower back here, so we actually turned it into our indoor storage area for wood for the wood burner…LOL! But the commode in both bathrooms are regularly used, which is VERY handy in a house with four people!

So, back to my decision that I REALLY needed to take a shower…LOL! (See, us old people tend to get off track now and then…LOL) As I went to take my shower I went to use the commode and upon lifting the seat was greeted by the smiling face of a near 6 foot long Mr. Hanky! Yes, I am drastically over exaggerating when I say 6 foot, but I’m not over exaggerating when I say that the size of said Mr. Hanky is something that should NOT come out of a human! The worst part is that I have what could probably qualify for the weakest stomache on the face of the earth! I can see something or smell something and sometimes even hear something and will IMMEDIATELY start gagging! So when I seen the version of Mr. Hanky that was greeting me, yup, you guessed it, it made me gag!

Since I knew it did not come from myself or my husband I went out to where the kids were and informed them that one of them needed to take care of the situation ASAP! This led to an argument consisting of the two “perpetrators” insisting that said Mr. Hanky did NOT come from them. OK, let’s be amateur detectives here for a moment. The inhabitants of this house consist of myself, my husband, my two children and three dogs. Neither my husband or myself use said bathroom except just before showering and none of the three dogs are trained to use the toilet, and even if they were, well, I won’t go into that here…LOL! That being said, the ONLY other people that have been in this house today are my darling children, both of which almost exclusively use the front bathroom.

Eventually my darling daughter volunteered to make sure that Mr. Hanky was properly disposed of, all the while giving us plunge by plunge details about what was going on…LOL! It was one of those priceless moments in life, if you have the state of mind to find things like this funny! And it totally turned our day around, at least for now. So, yes, it is a bit gross, and yes, it’s definitely not someting that I write about here regularly, and for anyone that was offended, I’m sorry! But I just couldn’t help myself!

The one really cool thing about the family get together for my mom and step dad this past weekend was the fact that everyone brought in a bunch of old photos from when we were younger to go through. There were photos of me from one a summer trip to the lake when I was about 8 or 9, my sister found one of her standing in the trash can “talking” on a phone that didn’t work from when she was 4 or 5 and my brother found a picture that was taken the year that he first started dating his wife. She was in 4H and had just gotten done showing her horse and was still dressed in her horse riding apparel when the picture of the two of them was taken. I also got to see some neat pictures of my step siblings from when they were growing up. Since we were all 18 or over when our parents married, except my little sister, I never knew what they looked like when they were little. The funny thing is, none of us have really changed that much, except for wrinkles, weight gain and gray hair…LOL!

I was tagged by Jill from Chimommy.

Here are the rules for this tag:
1. Mention the person who tagged you and create a link back to them.
2. Copy-paste the traits for all the twelve months (see below).
3. Pick your month of birth (see below).
4. Highlight the traits that apply to you.
5. Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them.
6. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve done it!

My birthday is in July and I have bolded the traits that fit me.

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people’s feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover. (WOW!! I can’t believe how many of these actually describe me…LOL!!!)

I am tagging the following people:

SneakyPeek at Hiding in Oblivion
Jennifer at The Life of a School Bus Driver
Maggie at Musings è¿é
Kat at My Single Mom Life
Christine at The Passionate Ailurophile
Dyane at Words of a Witchy Woman
Joana at Nanashi-Inc.net

THE MONTHLY FLAVORS, WHICH ARE YOU? (Months are below the fold)
Read the rest of this entry »

As you know, there are a multitude of websites on the WWW that are geared towards women. Some offer health tips and information while others talk about parenting and other types of family situations. I, personally, would prefer a website that has as much of the information I need in one spot. But when you find a website that offers the information you want/need, and more, then you definitely have a website that is sure to be a hit among all women!

That’s why I enjoy visiting websites like Grapevine.com! This website is based on The Grapevine web series, which is a story about 4 friends, Gabby, Raqui, Liv and Shannon, who are viewed as role models for the women of my generation and a little younger. The four women spend much of their free time together and often hang out at their favorite spot, a Cafe/Boutique named The Grapevine.

The website is geared around the series, and the things that the women do together, as well as the clothes they wear, the recipes they share and the trips they take will all be made available through the website. Grapevine.com also allows it’s visitors to interact with each other and share their own thoughts about the latest webisode, as well as allowing them to contribute their own stories, recipes and tips with each other. There is a section of the site called Dear Gabby, where readers write to Gabby, asking for advice about things that are going on in their lives. The most recent Dear Gabby section talks about dealing with the family members that we only see once a year.

I’m glad that I found Grapevine.com, it’s a fun site filled with all of the things that today’s sophisticated women need to help them survive every day life. When you have the chance, go check it out for yourself, and be sure you check out the most recent webisode to see how Raqui deals with finding out that her son headed to Mexico to find his real father!

This is king of long, but looked like fun!

What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Dove body wash for the girls and Irish Spring for the guys

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? Nope!  I refuse to pay the price they want for it this time of year!

What would you change about your living room? I’d change the spot that they drilled the hole for the DirecTV, other than that, I like it the way it is!

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? I’m the dishwasher, and I have no dishes in me…LOL

What is in your fridge? Milk, cheese, leftovers from last nights dinner, potatoes, onions, grapes, tomatoes and TONS of condiments!

White or wheat bread? Wheat, specifically Hillbilly bread.

What is on top of your refrigerator? A shelf that I need to hang in the living room, my daughters Pyramid that she got an A on and a lid to a small tote.

What color or design is on your shower curtain? Green and pink circles in the back bathroom and a violet floral print in the front bathroom

How many plants are in your home? NONE, I have a brown thumb!

Is your bed made right now? Are you kidding me?  Why would I make something I’m going to turn around and mess up again?  LOL

Comet or Soft Scrub? I’m a Comet girl!

Is your closet organized? NOPE!

Can you describe your flashlight? Which one?  I have one that will light up an airport runway if their power goes out and I have a small black one.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? Glass, I HATE drinking from a plastic glass!

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? SURE DO!

If you have a garage, is it cluttered? No Garage, but we have 3 sheds that are VERY cluttered!

Curtains or blinds? BOTH!

How many pillows do you sleep with? Just two, I switch them up so I use a different one every other night.

Do you sleep with any lights on at night? TOTAL darkness!  Lights keep me awake.

How often do you vacuum? Although we have wood and linoleum floors, I use the vacuum on them about once a week since a broom and/or dustmop doesn’t get all of the dog hair.

Standard toothbrush or electric? Battery operated Oral B’s!

What color is your toothbrush? Pink!

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Nope

What is in your oven right now? The pan I use when I make taco shells.

Is there anything under your bed? A folding table, TONS of dust bunnies and even more dog hair!

Chore you hate doing the most? Folding Socks!

What retro items are in your home? The shower curtain in the back bathroom.  I’m not a retro type person, so that’s all.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? NOPE!  not any more!

How many mirrors are in your home? Three, one in each bathroom and one in my daughters room.

What color are your walls? Varies from room to room.

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? Three dogs and several BB guns that look like small hand guns.

What does your home smell like right now? Don’t know, my nose is totally stuffed up!

Favorite candle scent? Apple Cinnamon

What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now? Dill, sweet and bread and butter.

What color is your favorite Bible? Black?

Ever been on your roof? Not this one yet, but was on the other one at the old house for almost a week straight when replacing the roof.

Do you own a stereo? Yup!

How many TVs do you have? We have a total of 7, but only 5 are hooked up right now.  The other 2 are stored in case one goes out.

How many house phones? Four, 2 corded and 2 cordless

Do you have a housekeeper? Yup, his name is hubby…LOL!

What style do you decorate in? Style???  Decorate??? I don’t know what you are talking about?  LOL

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? Doesn’t really matter

Is there a smoke detector in your home? Yes, but we didn’t unpack them until yesterday morning after hearing about an overnight first on the news that killed a mother and 3 children.  There were no smoke detectors in their home.

In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip? The dogs and lock box first, after that what ever I could safely grab.

Since I am not sure who reads here right now I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you want to do this or not.  If you do, please let me know so I can come and read your answers!

I guess I’m more mature than some people think I am

You Are 86% Grown Up, 14% Kid

Your emotional maturity is fully developed, and you have an excellent grasp on your emotions. In fact, you are so emotionally mature - you should consider being a therapist!

Or how would you like to win a brand new laptop to replace the one you’ve been using since the 1980’s?  I had heard a few people talk about bid4prizes.com, so I thought I’d head over and check it out. It’s Christmas time and if I have a chance at winning something that would make an awesome gift for the hubby or kids, or even myself, rather than having to pay for it, that would be a definite bonus! To me, the whole perception of a reverse auction seemed confusing at first. But after checking out their website and reading their FAQ page, I understood the idea behind how it happens much better!

The first, and most important, step is to sign up for an account! Once you have your account you can start playing for a chance to win some amazing prizes! There are several different ways of playing for prizes. The method that seems to be the most common are their text-based reverse auctions. What happens in these auctions is that the person with the lowest unique bid wins the prize that they are bidding on. For instance, my family is planning a trip to Florida sometime in March. One thing that would REALLY help would be if I were to win this $1,000 American Airlines Gift Card. Currently, the lowest unique bid on this is between 43753 and 43773, so if I wanted to bid on it I would simply bid a number that I thought would be lower than the current bid. If I am the lowest I’ll then need to keep an eye on the auction to make sure that I am the lowest unique bid and when/if it changes that I’m not, I’ll have to make sure I enter a new bid.  But the key isn’t just to be the lowest bid, because everyone could enter a bid of “1″, the key is to be the lowest unique bidder!  The best thing about bidding in the games is that if I do win the prize, it’s mine free! On top of that, they’ll ship the item that I have won, to my home, also for free!

Their website is very user friendly, which definitely helps in the playability of the games!  And they have some AWESOME prizes that you can play for.  For instance they have HDTV’s, Cash prizes that include cash and gift cards from some of your favorite retailers, laptop computers, iPods, Apple i-phones, and even tickets to a Broadway show in New York City!

So what are you waiting for?  Get over there and start bidding!

THIS is the she I am referring to

Today is the big Michigan - Ohio battle at her school and even though she asked a few weeks ago if it would be OK if she decided she liked Ohio from now on, which made me want to PUKE, she decided that she was going to dress in Michigan colors today.

I think it’s awesome that schools do stuff like this with the students!! I think more schools should take the time to do things that are “out of the norm” with the kids, it gives them something fun to look forward to and allows them a break from the normal day to day routine that can get boring and tedious!

As for me, well, this is what I say. You can take the girl out of Michigan, but you CANNOT take Michigan out of the girl. So even though I now live in Buckeye country, I’ll always be a Wolverine at heart!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jennifer over at The Life of a School Bus Driver is having a contest and the prize is 2 pounds of dark chocolate M&M’s!!! Now, for anyone that doesn’t already know so, Jennifer is a school bus driver, and from the sounds of it a VERY good one! So for her contest she is simply asking anyone who enters to write a story about “getting to school”. The story I am about to tell you is 100% true, but names have been changed to prevent further embarrassment….LOL!

I grew up in the country and lived several miles from school, so from the first day of kindergarten I always rode a big yellow bus. Just the mere anticipation of my very first bus ride was enough to make me throw up, but thankfully, with some reassurance from my mother, I calmed down enough to get on the bus. I was very fortunate in the fact that from my very first day of kindergarten up through my last day of 10th grade, I had the same bus driver. Had I have not have changed schools starting with the 11th grade, I would have had the same bus driver through out my entire stretch of school.
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When I get my degree done and finally get to enter the workforce doing what I love, my hope is to actually run my own business. I dream of having a corner office in a high rise with beautiful views of the area around it. I’d love to have one of those over sized desks made of my favorite wood, which is cherry. I’d also love to have beautiful matching conference tables also made from cherry. Yes, I know, I have many dreams, but this is one I know will come true!