Yea for teachers and parents!

Ugh for parent/teacher conferences...

As a parent... it's so unnerving to sit across from these people who are going to tell you exactly what they think of your kid and (in your mind) exactly what they think of your parenting.

As a teacher...it's so unnerving to sit across from these people and tell them exactly what you think of their kid and convey that they are doing a fine job and you know it's hard and their kid is great. Whatever areas we may be supporting her in are completely normal and part of normal development and please, please don't worry.

Halfway through!!

Crazy Is As Crazy Does

Sometimes I find it hard to put this little nugget of wisdom into practice:

"No one notices that your socks don't match because they are too busy worrying whether their socks match!"

-Pam O'Dell

More Beach Pictures

Yes, blurry but doesn't Juju look cute? Little hiker. I love hiking at the coast. It's so rain forest-y and such a contrast to hiking in the mountains around here. This was a short trail (1/2 mile) to a super cool small beach. There were tide pools, surfers, a girl that let the kids warm up by her fire and play with her dog. A gorgeous sunset and some hiking in the dark. Juju totally did not dig that!
The beautiful sunset. *sigh*

Two cute teenagers watching the sunset at a road side viewpoint. They were so cute that I couldn't resist taking a picture of them. *sigh again*

A little bit scary but cool! Olivia wouldn't stop bouncing (She's the bouncing blurry blob) and it was making me a bit nervous. It looks like it has posts but it's actually suspended.

Why is someone blurry in all of these pictures?

Jamie fell into the water and then commandeered my beach blanket when she realized she was standing naked on the beach and it was 55 degrees. Then she acted like she was a baby seal. Nothing brings her down!

Swinging long jump competition. I kicked ass. Check out my terrible form. Imagine how far I could have jumped if I could have reigned in those flailing limbs!

Yeah it was cold but it didn't stop the kids from fully enjoying the beach. And who am I to be the reasonable adult and tell them no?? Heck no!

Olivia is a little obsessed about getting her hands clean. She will touch yucky stuff but can't stand it to stay on her hands very long. Drives me crazy!

Nice hat! I look like a total dufus but it was cold! I also wanted to point out that I look like this is every single picture taken of me at the beach. All mean and scowl-y Do I look like that all the time?

Check out the sassistude!

JuJu-my weird kid. She is so much like Warren, it's eerie

We spent a long time looking at ships move up and down the Columbia River.

The Perils of Motherhood

This almost killed me today. I stepped on it with my bare foot and almost died.
(And said the f-bomb A LOT!)

Then I thought to myself, "Hmm? Where in the hell did my kids get a Barbie shoe that looks like Hooker Barbie should be wearing it??"

Then I called my mom to tell her that she was going to ruin my kids' lives if she continued to willfully disregard my wishes. And if she didn't quit buying them Barbies I was going to plant these tiny little killer hooker Barbie shoes all over the floor of her house.

Cry Baby

Go see The Secret Life of Bees. GO SEE IT!!!

I was really tired from not sleeping Thursday night and I have been a bit emotional but dang it was good.

I started crying at one of the previews before the movie ever started and I didn't stop until about 5 minutes before the movie ended. At some really good parts I had to stifle the sobs so Jimmy wouldn't notice what a cry baby I was.

PROZAC!! Somebody get me some!

Ok, that isn't why you should go see it. "I sobbed" is probably not a good reason to see a movie. It was just really, really good. If you've read the book you won't be disappointed by the movie.

And take my recommendation with a grain of salt. Jen and I saw Evening at the theatre and she threatened to drag me out if I didn't stop crying. So yeah, I cry at movies.

I lost my mind today

and I have no buyers remorse.

I bought the cutest juju purse EVAH! It's gorgeous chocolately brown and HUGE! I can fit a kid in there, for sure.

I usually have a ton of crap crammed into a ratty old messenger or other similar sized bag and then I just snag my phone, keys and cute little card holder thing (that my sister-in-law gave me) when I go into a store or restaurant. It gets annoying because I then have my stuff just loose sitting on a table or the bar or in the cart at the store.

No more! I am hauling this mama in with me! Oh, she's so lovely. I want to pet her.

This could possibly be the girliest thing I have ever written.

Headed home tomorrow

A Day At The Beach

Our first glimpe of the ocean since we arrived.
A cool exhibit about the Coast Guard. The area at the mouth of the Columbia receives A LOT of Coast Guard action.
Kids checking out the shipwreck. Gabe and I hunched up against the wind.
Gross!!!
I always wonder how Melissa manages to look so fantastic. There are 4 pictures of me throughout the day and I am scowling in every single one!!

We left at 8 pm on Wednesday night (sheesh, that was last night!) and headed to "the beach". The Oregon Coast.

72 pounds of pistachios, lots of tunes on the new iPod and only two stops.

We were in Seaside at 4 am.

We stopped at the management company to get the key and had a brief panic over not being able to get the key out of the lock box. We finally got it open and crashed hard at the house.

The kids woke up at 7:30 because they had slept the entire way there.

I dragged out of bed around 8 and walked the kids the couple blocks to the beach. They just had to see it before we did anything else. It was cold and misty but still so beautiful. I love it when the waves are huge and the sky is grey.

A little trip to Safeway for provisions and then back to the beach to take advantage of the few moments of sun.

A quick trip to the aquarium to feed the seals and touch all the weird things in the touch tables. I touched a sea cucumber!

Back to the house for lunch and a little laziness.

Melissa and Gabe arrived and we headed to Astoria to the Columbia River Maritime Musuem.

Interesting but maybe too long for the kids

Watched ships move around at the mouth of the Columbia

Melissa and I decided it was tea time. Not for tea but for a between lunch and dinner snack.

Fish and chips from a street vendor.

Headed to Fort Stevens State Park to scope out hiking for tomorrow.

Stopped by the Peter Iredale (shipwreck) and watched people dig for clams

Kids were wet and dirty so we headed back to the beach house.

Stuck the girls in the bath tub and started dinner while Melissa and Gabe made a trip to Safeway for Diet Coke.

Yummy dinner-Kels' Tortellini, cheese bread and BLT salad.

Slabs of lemon cake for dessert

Watched Shrek together

Loaded all the pics of the day onto the computer and watched a slideshow of our day. The girls loved it.

Kids in bed!

It's the Saturday Night Special

• Woke up way too early (8:30) for a Saturday. Olivia and Jimmy were already up. Shuffled around the house, drinking coffee.
  
• Sat at the kitchen counter and read some magazines while Olivia bugged Jimmy. Neener, neener.
  
• Jamie finally woke up around 9:30. Lazy baby.
  
• Jimmy took the kids to grab lunch at about 11. I continued to do nothing.
  
• Jimmy brought Olivia back home. She didn't want to go to Costco and the Stereo Shoppe, she wanted to watch a movie, in bed. Oh twist my arm.
  
• Read magazines while lying in bed next to Olivia. Laptop shut off because it was getting hot. Perfect opportunity for a nap.
  
• Snuggled down in bed with Olivia and took an hour long nap.
  
• Got up, showered, and got ready to go to The Children's School carnival.
  
• Carnival fun but freezing. Drank beer to get warm. Took note of how much I love this school. Do you get to drink beer at your kid's school carnival? I don't think so!
  
• Headed home for more of a whole lot of doing nothing.
  
• Grammy and Grampy came over to play cards. Hung out for an hour, put the kids to bed. Got down to the card playing.
  
• I won everyone's money!! Ok, not really.
  
• Went to bed around 11:30.
  
• Lazy day.

It's Friday I'm in love

It's just the first song that popped into my head containing the word "Friday". Sorry. No energy to think of a better one.

So today...

• Took Jamie to school and headed over to my class to help them get ready for their outing to the shop.

• Loaded up 972 kids (seemed like it) and headed to Rogers' Northside Garage to learn about fixing cars!

• Spent almost an hour touring the shop. I scored major cool teacher points with one of the dads when it came to talking about my Cadillac.

• Headed back to school so I could switch classes and work the 3-4-5's lunch bunch.

• Ate lunch with 5 little monkeys. I ate hummus and crackers that I scrounged from the kitchen at school.

• Walked to the Co-Op with Betsy and got a cup of clam chowder and hunk-o-bread.
  

• Walked back to school so we could eat our soup and bitch about one of the other teachers.
  

• 4-5's class started outside. Borrowed a coat from Nicole because it is FREEZING!
  

• Worked in the 4-5's until 4:00. Made yummy nachos for snack.
  

• Had a great time working with Betsy.
  

• Headed to the shop to pick up Jimmy so we can get the kids from my mom and dad's house.
  

• Got really annoyed at having to wait at the shop for over an hour.
  

• Started snowing.
  

• Picked up kids let them play in the slushy snow in grammy's front yard.
  

• Drove down Hill Road toward home and noticed that some cars were covered in snow.
  

• Drove down Cartwright road to look for that snow. Lots of snow!!
  

• Headed home. Picked up a Little Ceasars Hot N Ready pepperoni pizza. $5 and it feeds everyone.
  

• Girls played in the snow in the backyard.
  

• Came in, took a bath to warm up and ate their pizza.
  

• Spent 2 hours cleaning the house.
  

• Went to Fred Meyer for light bulbs and bought some small clear containers.
  

• Brought them home with the announcement, "Ok girls! It's sorting time!"
  

• Sorted a mountain of stuff into 4 containers. Littlest Pet Shop. Polly Pocket. Barbies. Barbie Clothes and Accessories.
  

• Sorted and pared down dress up clothes, stuffed animals, baby dolls and random small toys. Made room for the pretend kitchen to come down out of big grammas storage. And two other things that can fit into some small-ish baskets. I'm voting for unit blocks and cars.
  

• The girls are really good at saying, "Yeah, we play with that." or "No, we don't really use that."
  

• Made a "donate" bag and a "rotate into storage" bag.
  

• Had a little nacho feast in the girls' bedroom while Jimmy read another Curious George story.
  

• Now, they are in bed and Jimmy is asleep too! I am going to read magazines and drink an entire bottle of wine...in the bathtub, probably.
  

• Tomorrow is the school carnival and carpet shampooing at home. Gosh my life is exciting!

I should be doing homework but a C is a passing grade, right?

Did you read Dooce.com today? It's right here.

Let me clarify... I'm really not a sappy person but I love this story about a girl and her brother and a time (he may not even remember) that something he did changed her life.
I have a similar story about my little brother, Joe. He must have been only 15 because he didn't have a driver's license yet but the story is basically the same.

I Love you Joe! (I love you too Warren but I get to tell you that, in person, all the time.)

Gah! I AM sappy and emotional today!!

And Thursday was your favorite day

I realize that it is only 2:30 and that my day is hardly over but...In an hour I will be doing my homework (that I should have done days ago) and then I will head off to school. I have no play by play for today because I'm saving up my "hunched over the computer" energy for homework. I just have a few pictures from work today and the freezin' ass cold morning. Check out that thermometer! I thought I'd take a few work pictures since I never write about it and we use them for documentation purposes for accreditation. Two birds, one stone.

Some thoughts and funnnies:

-I hurt myself 3 times today. Hurting my self is a big part of my day. And I don't mean that I hurt myself intentionally so save your quarter from that phone call.
Fell off my shoes twice and tripped over the power cord to the laptop and during the falling down, I whacked that adapter (what is that?) against the back of my leg.

-According to Olivia, a maniac is someone who shoots cars. A meaniac is someone who fixes them then shoots them. WTF? Apparently there is a sceneiac too but she doesn't know what that means.

-I must be PMS-y. Well, I don't actually have a period but what better way to explain being crazy and emotional? That's what happens right? You cry so you must be PMS-ing?!?! Whatever.

-JuJu is one weird little kid.

-Thanks to my scuzzy little kids, my nephew has pinkeye now. Jamie has taken to calling it "stinkeye".

Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart

I didn't write any notes on my day today so this post will be a little less...um...tedious.

• Up at 6:30 with Olivia
• Coffee
• Shower
• Pumpkin bread
• Olivia's eyedrops. She requests a movie so I set her up with the laptop on the couch.
• Finish getting ready. Spend a little more time than usual on my hair. Wonder why. It looks the same. Maybe worse.
• Another car ride all alone. Ahhh.
• Coffee and blurry day at work. It's a blur because it's so busy.
• Pick up Jamie from her class. Oh yeah...first I went rushing in to pick up Olivia, went all the way into her class room before I remembered she wasn't there. She's at big grammas because she has pinkeye.
• Take Jamie to the shop with me while she waits for gramma to pick her up. She "works" on Jimmy's side of the desk.
• Do a little bit of the bookkeeping work at the shop.
• Quit after two hours and go shopping with my mom. Ignore the fact that Jimmy is annoyed that he's working and I'm not.
• Hit the jackpot! I bought 7 stinkin' cute sweaters!
• Mom takes me back to the shop.
• I catch a glimpse of the side of my hair and jump online to find a picture of the hair style that I want. I've had it before (many times) but I can't seem to get anyone to do it right. I think I found it. Make a mental note to get a hair appointment.
• Check out the box full of gauges for my Cadillac!
• Meet the in-laws to pick up kids and eat dinner
• Home for bath and bedtime
• Plead with Jimmy to go to the shop and get the laptop because I need to do homework. Know that I won't do homework.
• Put kids to bed and read my favorite Curious George story to them. The one where he gets high on ether. hehehe Still can't find that one where he holds up a liquor store with the man's pistol. (wink, wink)
• My mom comes over to do minor surgery on me.
• Ahhh. Sitting in bed blogging.

[I know the bullets are annoying but it was the only way I could get the damn thing to double space]

Ruby Tuesday

-Up at 6:30. Go outside to check out the morning sky in the east.

-Ahhh. No one is awake. I get to shower without Olivia tapping her foot waiting for the moment that I say, "Ok, I'm done rinsing my hair, you can get in."

-Uh-oh. There's the foot tapper.

-"Mom, this is a weird night"
"It's morning honey."

"Oh, it's still dark outside, I thought it was night."

-Coffee. The pic is my favorite coffee mug. It says, "You've been trying to make a tramp out of me since the day we met." (From The Postman Always Rings Twice). Also, love my Bunn coffee maker. Makes an entire pot of coffee in 3 minutes.

-Pumpkin Bread. Breakfast of champions.

-Blow dry hair. Contemplate straightening hair to tame crazy sticky-outy parts. Decide not to.

Contemplate make-up to disguise dark circles under eyes. Decide not to.

-Yell at Jimmy to "GET UP!!!" 963 times. Finally send Olivia in to wake him up. He's in her bed.

-Olivia requests an egg for breakfast but since I have to work, she gets corn flakes instead.

-Say good bye to Jamie (who has just woke up) and yell at Jimmy that I am leaving and he better get up. Hope that the kids get to school on time.

-Marvel at the difference in the pace of Monday vs. the pace of Tuesday.

-Get a little annoyed at traffic. Realize that I have plenty of time to get to work. Enjoy the silence. Watch a huge crane (a bird, not machine) fly over Chinden.

-Marvel at the silence a little more.

-Text message my brother with a dinner invite (while stuck in traffic).

-Arrive at school. Grab coffee. Chat with Andrea for a bit. Realize I still have a few minutes.

-Talk to Olivia's teacher for too long. Olivia is a perfectionist and she is resisting doing some writing things and I think it's because she wants to do it right or not at all. UGH!!

-Work is a blur.

-Pick up kids from their classes.

-Try to eat healthy from Wendys. Chicken, mandarin oranges and milk for them. Junior bacon cheeseburger for me. GAH! Too much fast food in our lives! Feel annoyed with myself for not packing lunch.

-Head to Buffy's to eat lunch with her and her class.

-Eat. Chat while kids play.

-Head home for nap.

-Flip through some magazines while the kids "sleep".

-Tell Jamie she can get up on one condition:
"You have to snuggle me on the couch for 2 minutes."

"I knew you were going to say that, mama."

-Jamie gets up to play with her oil pastels and I fall asleep on the couch until Olivia wakes up. Mmmm, mini nap.

-Olivia wants a sink bath. She loves taking a quick dip in the kitchen sink to warm up. We will all be sad when she is too big.

-Have a snack and pack up to go to little grammas.

-Talk my mom into sewing a buttonhole for me on a sweater that I mutilated in a fit of rage.

It had these stupid granny tie thingys and I cut them off one day without thinking. OOPS. Then realized that I wanted it to stay closed somehow. Decided on a button. I bought several yesterday and today I brought them over to ask my mom's ever-stylish opinion. Seriously, the woman has style. We decided on the bean shaped wood one. Very cute.

-Watch my mom demo how cool her new sewing machine is. It threads the needle for you! It even cuts the ends when it's done! Crazy shit. So a few taps with a stylus on the screen and voila! a buttonhole!

-Grammy finishes up dinner. Grampy measure kids on inside of closet door. Chance has grown almost an inch in 4 months! I blog about my list. It's been 6 months since I made it. Olivia request The Wizard of Oz. I think this is inspired by our happy meal toys from yesterday.

-Kelsey's mom stops by for dinner and a visit.

- Dinner! (Crapo) baked potatoes and all the junk to go on them. I put chili, cheese sauce and onions on mine. I think I may have sprinkled a little bacon too. Hehe.

-Two people from my mom's church stop by. Of course she invites them to eat. Of course she has enough. Style and hospitality. Marvel at how effortless looking she makes it. Maybe it is effortless for her?

-Kids finish watching Wizard Of Oz.

-"Sarah, does Olivia have pink eye?"

"No, she's just tired."

"Sarah!! Olivia has pink eye"

-Everyone who poked at her eye to confirm the pink eye diagnosis washes their hands and talks about how strange that it's taken this long to develop. Jamie's has been cleared up for days.

-Make a mental note to call the school and Buffy in the morning.

-Pack up to head home for bed time.

-PB pretzels for snack. A Curious George story and sleepy time.

-And here we are!

Going to sleep now!

Revisiting. Halfway through my year.

1. Make a collage
Check-a-rooney! I'm a collage-ing fool! I made one on Thursday night that I just love, love. I am in the process of another more complicated one.

2. Write letters
I suck

3. Park my car once a week. Take public transportation or ride my bike to work.
I suck

4. Surprise someone with exactly what they want.
I didn't have anything in mind when I put this on the list but I do now and I don't know whether it will happen before my next bithday but, oh man, I hope so.

5. Make out at the drive in movie.
This will have to go on next year's list because the drive-in is closed for the season and won't reopen until after my birthday. Unless I can sneak in and make out anyway...movie or not.

6. Watch 5 classic movies.
I have watched WAY more than 5. I'm addicted. It's almost all I watch now.

7. Switch to re-usable bags for grocery buying.
Check-most of the time

8. Take Olivia skiing.
Olivia is signed up for "private" lessons with 3 girls from her class at TCS for 4 Saturdays in February.

9. Go on a weekend trip with my best friend...like we used to.
Hmmm. I think I still want to.

10. Go on a weekend trip with just my kids and I.
Check!

11. Go on a weekend trip alone.
So need to do this. I'm such a sissy.

12. Remember to floss every day.
Check-ish. Way better than I used to be.

13. Call my oldest brother.
Hmmm. Not yet.

14. Keep in better touch with my sister.
I suck.

15. Unsubscribe to all that crap that floods my inbox.
Check. Also an ongoing process.

16. Take my kids rollerskating with my dad.
Not yet.

17. Go paperless as much as possible at home and work.
I suck

18. Go without eating at a restaurant or fast food for a month.
Check-ish. I want to do it again.

19. Get a front porch. However it has to happen.
Sigh.

20. Spend at least 4 nights of this summer with my backpack only.
UGH! I was going to be so good at this one! Move it to next year's list.

21. Get out of the city limits once a month all year.
Doing pretty well. It will be hard to keep this up in the winter but I definitely need to.

22. Eat more green stuff. Encourage my family to.
Getting better at having more variety in our meals.

23. Write in a journal 2 times a week.
Pretty good. What qualifies as "writing" is pretty broad but I am putting pen to paper and getting thoughts and ideas out there.

24. Don't flinch.
Not yet.

25. Say what I want.
Working hard on figuring out what it is that I want. I am saying it as I figure it out. That's good.

26. Read more non-fiction.
Doing pretty well. I've been reading for work. I just checked out "Children's Healthy Sexuality Development" (something like that) from the teacher library.

27. Figure out that whole map and compass crap.
Not yet.

Monday, Monday

My day certainly isn't finished but my kids are in the bathtub and I have a few minutes before they start yelling, "Mama! I want to get out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yeah, it actually has that many exclamation marks. Even though I am literally 6 feet away from them.



So today...

-Up at 730

-Laundry

-Chilly in the kitchen but I couldn't bear the thought of turning the heat on so I turned the oven on and contemplated baking something. Decided not to bake, turned off the oven and opened door to let the heat out into the kitchen.

-Unloaded and reloaded dishwasher

-Talked to Jen while getting Olivia dressed for school.

-Rice Crispies for breakfast for Olivia, Corn flakes for Jamie. Coffee for Jimmy and I

-Said goodbye to Jimmy and Olivia. Off to school and work.

-More laundry (stripped beds and washed sheets).

-Skimmed some real estate magazines.

-Surfed and blogged while Jamie stood next to me chatttering about her baby named "Alaksa".

-Put on clean, presentable pajamas disguised as clothes.

-Ate a slice of the pumpkin bread that I baked last night.

-Packed up Jamie to go pick up Olivia from school. Pick up Olivia and chat with a couple moms about ski lessons for our kids.

-Post office and a peek into Thomas Hammer to see if Uncle Warney was there.

-Stop by the shop to see which envelopes I need.

-Drive through the car wash (wash off the mud form the drag races. I didn't race but it was muddy all over out there)

-Office Max for paper, envelopes, a mouse and a memory card

-McDonalds. Fries for me, nuggets for kids. Feel disgusted with myself by the time I start in on the kids' fries.

-Bank

-Dry cleaners. Find out they are going out of business! ACK! It's the only dry cleaner I've ever gone to! She informs me that they also own Norge on 15th and State. Phew.

-Fabric store for buttons. Girls talk me into buying fabric to make blankets for their babies. I pick up a pair of wicked sharp scissors to keep by my sewing machine.

-Home for nap time! Olivia sleeps. After about 30 minutes in bed Jamie belly crawls across my bedroom floor and scares the crap out of me when she pokes her head around the end of my bed. She can't stop laughing and neither can I. I give up and tell her she can get up.

-More laundry.

-Internet surfin'

-Kids up playing outside. Cheese bread for a snack.

-Start prepping dinner.

-Sew baby blankets for girls with the fabric they picked out today.

-Olivia says her head hurts and she needs a tylenol and a rest. SHIT!

-Dinner in bed for Olivia, at the table for Jimmy, Jamie and I.

-Mix cookie dough for Halloween cookies. Do it wrong. Cookies have to be balls, not shapes. Kids ok with it. Decorate the heck out of the cookies. Olivia seems fine by now.

-Play outside a bit.

-Olivia and Jamie watch part of a Scooby Doo movie. (While Jimmy and I argue in the kitchen. Too much info, I know. But hey it's my life. Don't worry mom, we weren't arguing in front of the kids)

-Bath time.

And here we are! Except that bath time actually ended a while ago and I have put them to bed and am now finishing up this! I'm going to put the clean sheets on my bed and probably read a book for an hour or so. Ahh. Quiet. I'm alone too...maybe I'll take a bath or talk on the phone. Oh, the possibilities.

I know this is pretty detailed today but I anticipate that it will get less detailed as things get redundant. We'll see.

A week in the life

I'm starting it today. I had been meaning to last week but I had a cootie at home all week with pinkeye and just a little too much craziness. This week has the promise of sanity.

I'm not making an album like some people are. Just photos and words on my blog.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to look back on the week and see the same photos and words over and over again. Oh well. Such is life, I suppose.

I might just move to Weiser

Apparently the mud drag races were part of a larger "Weekend in Weiser" event and I am so bummed that I missed all the other festivities!
Rodeo! Craft Fair! STREET DANCE!!!!
Actually the street dance was right after the drag races but I could not convince anyone to stick around for it! My mom wanted to but had to get back to Boise to babysit. I was really bummed.

We got a little lost on our way home and ended up driving around the town a bit and that was when I decided to move there.

There are a ton of gorgeous old houses downtown then I jumped online today and holy schmoly...inexpensive!
Check out this one. 165,000! That's less expensive than the tiny house I live in right now!

In Weiser $600,000 gets you the biggest, coolest house in town!

Ok, so I'm not moving there but I want one of those giant old houses!
(And then I want to walk to the street dance at the Train Depot)

Add Weiser to the list of small towns that I love but could never live in.

Some Friday random stuff

*A friend told me about this video and then it turned up on my favorite blog!
It's down at the bottom of the post. I suppose I could link to it through youtube but I want everyone to read Dooce.com whenever possible because it's so incredibly funny.

* My sister-in-law and nephew are going to be here (from St. Anthony) for a long visit. Very excited!

*Some funny words to get me through some long days and give me hope for the future:
"I've got the murder and you've got the crows. We're a perfect couple!"

* My plans for Saturday could quite possibly the white trashiest thing I've ever done. Mud drag racing in Weiser. I'm not actually racing, just watching. Wait a minute?! I think I just had an idea. Why the hell aren't I?

* Long story here...my car is dead. I had been driving whatever I could get my hands on for a month (we have a lot of cars just lying around) and then Jimmy bought me an old-ish Rodeo to drive until I decided what to do in the car department. I really wanted to look for the exact same car that I had before. Same year, color and everything. Apparently they are a little hard to come by so there was much debate around my house as to what we should do.

A brilliant idea then came to me!! I just happened to have a bitchin' 1963 Cadillac parked in my side driveway. It needs a little work. But, I could sell the Lexus for about $9,000 and use the money to fix the Cadillac! It's going to take quite a bit of work because I'm a big, fat whiner and I want it to be black. (The interior is blue right now.) I think Jimmy is a little annoyed by it because it's going to need a custom fabricated dashboard since there aren't a bunch of black '63 Cadillacs at Barger-Mattson to salvage from. But I really NEED it to be black!!

Anyway...it is rollin'! The interior is totally gutted and Jimmy's mechanics are working during slow times on the little things that need done. I picked out gauges last week and the seats have gone to the upholsterer! I'm so excited!!

I couldn't find a picture of how it will look exactly but this is about it...I picked this pic as the closest even though it's a convertible (mine isn't) because mine will have air suspension like this one so it will look lowered. This one is quite a hooptie but mine won't look quite so...ummm...well, ya know.

It will be shiny black on the bottom and matte black on the top (there is a distinct line made by the chrome trim) No flames (bummer...I wanted pink flames). The interior will keep it's original bench seats but they will be black vinyl (oh yeah) with pink piping and pink embroidered Cadillac emblems on the center console. It's getting a donor engine from a totaled '98 Z48 Camaro. The original engine is fine and runs right now but Jimmy wanted to put a fuel injected engine in for reliability.

I'm so excited!

Yes, I will take you for a ride when it's done.

Ok, well...happy weekend!