The Mother of All Posts

WARNING! This is going to be the mother of all posts here. Probably so long you may fall asleep. Lots of pictures too....

It has been days since my last post(well before my blizzard update), but you will soon see why...

Friday evening, we emptied Kobi's room. YES EVERYTHING came out.... now this is a before picture of her room....

Well this is what it looks like now. It took a little longer than we thought it would.  You see, once we got all the stuff out of the room, we were totally grossed out by the carpet. SO out to the curb went the carpet... We also took out the baseboards and thought oh we will repaint them and put them back.  NOPE not that easy, they cracked on the way out and so all new baseboards had to come in.  My poor hubby stayed up way late on night and did the chair rails and baseboards.  We painted the floor with a porch/concrete paint...glossy black. So what normally takes me 2 days at the most, took 4 days.

During those 4 days, we took a trip up to my Mother's place for Christmas.  That was 4 hours driving.  I feel for those that have to drive a long way during the holidays.

He loves to sleep on my lap, on his scooby doo blanket when we go on long trips....

She pretends to hate to have her picture taken...

My niece Tara :) My oldest niece and her family couldn't make it.  She is to close to having Great - Nephew #2 .

I also had to take a break and go get my book signed.  YEAH!  The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond came to Oklahoma City for her last stop of her book signing tour.  I was so glad she made another stop on OKC, I missed the first one.  I got there at 11:30.  Stood in line til 12:30(start time) and was out by 1:30.  Not bad, I so thought it would take longer.  I now need to ship books out to those that shipped them to me to have them signed.  Yes, I am a good blogger/facebook friend and let them send me their cookbooks to get them signed. :)


This is the traffic around the area of the book signing... HORRIBLE! - This was th eline I was in to get to a stop sign.... took a while.

I also made Kobi go shopping with me, to pic out things for her room.  She hates shopping. BUT she is too picky and I would have not picked out the "right things" for her room.  With it being so close to Christmas, what would have been a 2 hour trip, turned into about 6 hours. YEAH :( LOL Really not so much fun. 

OK, so this is not a nice picture.  But I laughed.  Yes, it was bad.  So wrong in so many ways.(Going to offend some here) ANYHOW, Kobi and I were looking to purchase BUZZ and WOODY blankets.  OKAY FOLKS, could you please package these differently.  When you hold these dolls up, the blanket FLOPS out.  YES I went there.... it FLOPS out!  Seriously, I laughed I snorted, right there in the middle of the store.  When Kobi held the doll up, yup, there's WOODY alright!

I totally finished Kobi's room at about 10 pm on Tuesday night.  Great time for bed!  OH WAIT!  Nope, I decided to go ahead and re-do the bathroom too.  Yes at 10pm I started in on the bathroom.  I already had th epaint and glaze, so I thought, what the heck....
2 hours later, the bathroom was done.  Yes, 2 hours.  That is all it took.  Midnight.. YEAH BED!

This is a before.  The blue just isn't the right color, but Kobi liked it, so I left it for a while....

And now.... it looks like this.

SO, Wednesday morning it is rise and shine!  We were hosting a Christmas dinner at our place at 7pm.  It was only with Kyle's Mom and Brother and my Sister - in -Law(My favorite Sis-In_Law - She totally gets me!)

So, combine that with all the normal Christmas stuff, and a few appointments and NOW we are caught up to present time... Well kind of...

Blizzard Warning? In Oklahoma?

OK, I am working on a post with pictures of the new room and all the other fun stuff that has been going on the last few days.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas!

There must of been alot of people asking for a white Christmas here in central Oklahoma.  Here it is, Christmas Eve and WHOAH,  we have a blizzard warning today. Blizzard? In Oklahoma?  Seriously?

Buried Alive

I am buried alive right now... not really, but kind of...

Work was slow... it's "off season" and kind of boring...

I prayed to the "in-box Gods" above that I would get some work... just a little to do, just to keep me from getting bored.

Now, this is what I feel like... I am buried alive at my desk.  I have stacks and stacks of work.  I really do want to go on vacation next week. 

This may be what I look like by the end of the day tomorrow.....

IT IS MONDAY!

It is Monday...

Things are starting to get piled up...
There are so many things on my TO DO list that must get done for Christmas.
The whole paint the room thing is WHOAH...
I will get it done. I know I will and things will go back to normal.
Then I will find something else to do and things will get crazy again.
HEY - it's a never ending cycle around here!
Always a project to be done.

Tomorrow! YEAH! I am excited about tomorrow. I have cookbooks all ready to go, and a magazine.... Ready for signatures at a book signing tomorrow night. YEAH, I missed her the first time, but the Pioneer Woman is coming back to OKC.

OK, now back to work ( a tax return), lunch is over. I am so totally off balance today... unfortunately, in more ways than one.


UPDATE! Thanks to my niece... I have now figured out PW changed her schedule. BUMMER! So now it will be Tuesday of next week. I would have been mad if I would have drove up there. I checked the B & N website and it says the 22nd. I hope they are right!

Getting to Close

I look at the calendar and I just do not believe that it is only 16 days until Christmas…. I look at my shopping list and think – OH! MY! I have so much done… but yet so little. Is that possible? I am down to crunch time so it seems. I have what I can get so far… I am down to waiting for my Dec. 15th payday to get the rest of the presents I need. No panic attack yet... but I feel one approaching.

I am lucky enough this year, to get to take off the whole week of Christmas. 9 days off of work – that is a huge present itself. During those 9 days, I am going to be re-painting and re-decorating my daughter’s room. AGAIN! I told her this year it had to be something that would last until she finished high school. She/we chose a black and white theme. Yes I am painting her bedroom walls black. This may freak me out a bit…. Black walls… I don’t know if I can handle it…. I think I have a ton of ideas… we are really going to try and get everything out of there that is not needed and re-organize the room. I am hoping to complete the project in 2-3 days. I am a stay up all night until it gets done type of person, so it may be possible. I hope the weather cooperates… I am already thinking about painting things. I will take before and after pictures.

Back in Time

I have decide, that I would like to travel back in time, rewind the age clock or what ever you want to call it... I would love to be a teenager again, so I would know it all! I would also not have to worry about house payments, car payments, utilities, grocery bills and work. Another perk of being a teenager, it that I was not raising a teenager. Parents of teenagers.... I think you understand.

Sometimes I truely wonder if we are going to make it through the teenage years. I really do wonder! I have been researching some "fresh ideas" - something new to try to help us through this phase....

I found some helpful hints HERE that I thought I might would share for the whole "smart mouth / disrespecting" situations....

First, calm yourself. The natural response to back talk is anger. You might notice that your pulse has picked up and the muscles in your face, hands, and chest have tightened. ( I thought I was going to have a heart attack the other night) Your body is preparing to fight, but fighting with a mouthy teenager usually just makes matter worse; both of you are likely to end up resentful and exhausted. Instead of lashing out, take a moment or two to calm yourself down. Take three deep, relaxing breaths and notice how your shoulders soften as you exhale. Now you are ready to respond effectively.


Give clear feedback. Let your teen know what he has done and how it makes you feel. Try to be specific, and keep your comments simple. For example, you might say, "When you use that tone of voice with me, it makes me angry." For maximum effect, speak quietly but clearly and look your child squarely in the eye. This sort of response does several good things: It lets your child know precisely what he did that was unacceptable; it lets him know that he does not have the power to shake your self-control; and it teaches him to use words to communicate emotions like anger, rather than acting out the emotions.


Refocus on your goal. One of the reasons teens talk back is that it diverts their parents' attention from whatever it was the parents wanted in the first place. Let's say, for example, that you've just told your child that he needs to remove the dirty dishes from his bedroom. If he succeeds in engaging you in a shouting match, chances are he won't have to deal with the mess in his room, at least for a while. Part of your response to back talk, then, should be to repeat whatever it was you said in the first place. "I know it makes you mad, but you still need to clean up your room."


Resist the temptation to retaliate. When a child talks back, it's natural to want to put him in his place. Often this involves words like "spoiled brat," "ungrateful," "smart mouth," and so on. None of these is helpful. All name-calling does is deepen your child's resentment and allow him to feel justified in calling you names.


Try to hear your child. Even though your teen chooses to respond in an obnoxious fashion, what he has to say might actually have some merit. In any case, it's helpful for you as a parent to know how your child feels about things, even if that's not always positive. For example, imagine that your teenager has just called you something completely unacceptable (and unprintable!). Once you've calmed down and given him feedback, you might reflect his statement back, using more civilized terms: "So, you feel that I am mean and unreasonable? Why, exactly, is that?" You have taken a confrontation and made it into a conversation. You've also shown your child that you are willing to consider his point of view, as long as he expresses it appropriately.


When it's over, it's over. Back talk can be upsetting, and it's easy to let the upset linger. You may think that reminding your child that he has been disrespectful will help him to act more appropriately in the future. It won't. A more helpful response is to just get on with life and focus on positive things you and your teenager can enjoy together (not always an easy task!). Punishments for back talk are usually not necessary, and it may be wise to save punishments like grounding or removal of privileges for more serious offenses. Once teens see that back talk is unnecessary and not helpful, they tend to use it less and less.


Hopes this helps someone else... I knew this...it's not new information. Sometimes I just get so frustrated, all rules go out the window and it is all out war with the child....

Morning Drive

I have made a decission.

I need to go get some valium from my doctor.

The script should read: Take one pill 30 minutes before making morning commute.

People are rude and crazy and usually have their head up their...
Well let's just say they aren't paying attention.

Wasted Hour

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one…

I work in a professional office. We deal with a lot of clients on a daily basis. You never really know when a client is going to call with an issue and you have to meet them.

I am always so indecisive on what to wear to work every day. It does not help that recently in the office, a magazine article was passed around (their way of hinting) that was called “Dress to Network – Every Encounter Counts”. I usually wear slacks and a sweater, a dress, or a pants suit. The article suggests skirts for women, for basically every occasion and they are skirts that hit above the knee.
Well, to avoid issues in the morning, I always pick out what I am going to wear the night before. I actually pick out two “outfits”, because I don’t know what mood I will be in that day. Last night I spent an hour. YES AN HOUR, trying to figure out something to wear. With the tummy shrinkage, I was able to fit back into some of my cuter skirts (yes, that hit above the knee). I had to try them all on because I was so excited that I could get them to zip! YEAH! So I picked out just the right outfit.

As usual, I was dragging my tired rear into the bathroom this morning; I casually glance at the TV and see 40 degrees. I think cool it’s already 40 degrees this morning… then I noticed that was the forecasted high for the day. SO, I spent an hour last night for nothing. I was not going to wear my short skirt with panty hose. Nope, not gonna do it. I pulled out the sweater turtleneck and long heavy skirt with boots.

A whole hour wasted…. *sigh*

Do you ever put on twenty different things before deciding what to wear?

Or is it just me and I am totally crazy?

Or both...