Black Friday is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. When are you planning on beginning your holiday shopping?
Sponsored by Best Buy. Find holiday gifts for everyone on your list.

I start my holiday shopping the day after Christmas.  If I see something throughout the year that I know a loved one would want I pick it up and store it in the 'gift closet' until it's time to pull out the Christmas paper and wrap it all up.

That being said.  This year I bought stuff that will just stay in the closet until next year.  I found some puzzles on clearance and picked them up as little 'hey Mom, saw this and was thinking about you' gifts.  But, Mom has decided that we are not buying for anyone other than the great-grandkids this year.  So, Mom doesn't get her puzzles and Jordan gets left out, too.

We may just stay in Tuscaloosa for Christmas this year.  bah humbug!!

Send to a friend

Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:

• Starting to send out resume's looking for my next career opportunity.
• Jordan's grades--again.
• If I could find a way to make $75 a month cover: groceries, prescriptions and gas then I wouldn't 'need' a job.
• Fleas.  Found out the dogs have fleas when one jumped on Chris.  Chris is now crabby until I can prove the fleas are gone.
• Stressing about how Chris is going to handle meeting his newest nephew who was named after his grandpa and his cousin--Samuel.
• My parents deciding that Jordan is to old for Christmas presents.  They are only buying for the 'little ones'.  Read---Great Grandkids.
• Weird rash on my right collar bone and in the crook of my left elbow.

Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday:

• Thanksgiving is next week.  Mmmm...turkey and pumpkin pie!
• Seeing Annie, John and the girls.
• My Christmas list, for my side of the family, just went from 20 to five.  Six if we decide to get something for the newest baby in the family.
• Great compensation package.  If I have to lose my job there is no better way to lose it than by getting 12 weeks notice followed by a month of salary plus a week for each year with the firm then there is unemployment that I can collect.  So, right now we will be getting my salary through the first week of February. 
• Already putting up Christmas decorations.  Yay!!  I love Christmas and Christmas decorations.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:

• Trying to be nice and getting yelled at instead of a 'thank you'.
• Wet dog
• Two full work weeks and two partial work weeks---then I'm unemployed
• Filling out on-line resume's and job applications sucks!

Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday

• I'm currently in first place on our Fantasy Football League.
• Soon...I can pull out my Christmas decorations and decorate my house all up really nice for the Holidays.
• LIfe is halfway decent....you know, if you don't count the impending unemployment.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Are you prepared in case of a natural disaster? What do your plan and preparations include?

I have a battery operated radio with batteries.  I can lay my hands on both in less than a minute.

I have a weather radio that I can't program the new county in.  However, should the old county have any bad weather I know about it.

We decided last night that the safest place to go if there were a tornado is the short hallway in our bedroom.  That was decided upon after I shared that I have taken refuge in our 'commode closet' with Darcy and Baron at least three times in the past 11 months.

I have had experience with earthquakes, floods, fires and blizzards.  None of them actually harmed me, my family, or any of our 'stuff' but they have all happened within walking distance of the home I was living in or visiting.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Halloween---a week later.  Sorry about not sharing sooner.  I spent most of last week exhausted and unable to concentrate on anything.  I ended up taking half a sick day on Thursday and then proceeded to sleep the afternoon away.

Friday night before Halloween we carved our jack-o-lanterns.  This proved to be very difficult as two of the pumpkins we had picked out were rock hard.  After pounding one of the pumpkins with a hammer and knife Chris ended up using his jigsaw to cut the rest of the design out.  The pumpkin Chris picked was a regular pumpkin and he did an amazing job with his design.

October 09 002

October 09 004

October 09 009

October 09 021

October 09 022

Chris spent Saturday helping our friend, Bentley, move.  Jordan and I spent the day getting the garage ready for all of the trick-or-treaters we were told would descend upon our subdivision.  We picked up some decorated plastic that turned our garage into a stone dungeon so Jordan and I spent the afternoon getting that hung.  This was not an easy task as the wind was blowing which made it very difficult to tape the 'walls' to the garage door.  I used a heavy duty project stapler to hang the plastic from the ceiling of the garage.  Since we had recently had a garage/yard sale and what didn't go was given to charity...the garage was basically empty.  Chris put a TV out there, we hooked up our DVD player and played an eerie Halloween dvd that was on a loop, so it just kept playing.

October 09 014

October 09 017

As I was gathering my costume together I realized something terrible.  I sold or gave away the black shirt that I use with my costume.  So, I was not dressed in all black as most witches are, I was dressed in a combination of purple and black.  Chris made it home in time to get his costume on and then he helped Jordan get into his.

October 09 030

October 09 024

We/I bought about $75 worth of candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters.  I had picked out several bags of candy that was not our 'favorites' so I opened them to hand out the Pixie Stix, the gum, and the nerds out first.  Towards the end of the evening I opened one of the five/six bags of chocolate.  We were left with four/five unopened bags of chocolate.  We don't know if it is the H1N1 that kept people at home or if it was all of the churches having their Fall Festivals on the same night as the trick-or-treaters....we just know that we were left with almost as much candy as we had given out.  Chris took most of it to the office on Thursday.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

One of my VOX neighbors is in the hospital and she wants to keep a diary of sorts with her thoughts and feelings.  She has an iPhone and wants to know how she can go about posting to VOX from her iPhone.  I don't have a clue as I don't have a cell phone of any kind.

If anyone knows how or can offer up a suggestion it would be very much appreciated.

THANK YOU!!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Will you be giving out candy to trick or treaters this year? If so, what goodies can the ghosts and goblins expect to bring home?

Ohhh....I have all kinds of candy and goodies to give out.  Gum, Snickers, Tootsie Rolls, MIlky Ways, Reese's and all kinds of things.  This is our first year in a real neighborhood since leaving Missouri eight years ago.  Jordan missed out on all of the Halloween fun that kids have.  We really hated not being in a neighborhood.  This year we are getting our yard all spookied up and setting up some party food in the garage.  We will be showing scary movies/music on the TV and playing darts while we wait on the ghouls, goblins and witches to come trick-or-treat us.

oh...and uhm....This morning I listened to _I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas_.  :D  I can hardly wait to decorate for Christmas.  This whole house is going to be so awesome and pretty decorated for the Holiday season.

Send to a friend

Have you ever returned an item to a store for a refund after having used it?

Probably.  I honestly can not remember.  But, having worked at the service desk at Wal~Mart for many years I can tell you that there are many people out there that don't hesitate to try and return things even after being used many times.  I have horror stories from people trying to return old over-used roach infested items.  There was a time that Wal~Mart took back anything and everything that was ever carried in a Wal~Mart store.  Times have changed and now they are much pickier about what they will take back and what they won't.  One of my most memorable customers was a lady that walked into the store, put her 'return' on the desk and went to find a replacement.  When she returned I told her very nicely that I was sorry but I couldn't give her a refund or exchange on her coffee pot.  She immediately got on her high horse; started ranting and raving about how wrong I was, I would take the coffee pot back and other wise verbally abusing me.  I just let her rant.  I knew I was right so I wasn't going to let her get to me.  When she finally paused to take a breath after demanding to know why I refused to take her coffee pot back I simply explained: "Ma'am, the coffee pot did not come from Wal~Mart, it says on the box and on the reciept that you got this at Sears.  She snatched up her coffee pot and walked haughtely from the store.  I waited until after she was out of the store before laughing but several other customers that were in line behind her did not wait.

I really liked working at Wal~Mart...I loved the customers and helping people.  I did not like the bosses/managers so much.

Send to a friend

Who would you most like to be stuck in an elevator with? Least like?

 

Most like:  My son.  But only if I could get him to talk to me about his hopes and dreams.  He is growing and changing so fast that I am starting to feel like I don't know him anymore.

Least like:  There are so many that come to mind.  Bad guys (or girls), an alcoholic jonesing for his next drink, a druggie needing his/her next fix, any of the ex's family (with one or two exceptions), a smoker, someone that needed a shower, anyone with too much perfume/scent on, anyone sick---the list coulc go on and on.

But, if it is only one or two floors I take the stairs: I need the exercise and sometimes elevators make me feel light-headed, dizzy, and nauseous.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:

• Gaining more weight
• The Bears lost.
• I have no clue what to fix for supper tonight
• My office is a disaster area.  I need to clean and declutter before someone gets hurt.
• Feeling a little down this evening.  Don't like it.  Need to find my 'happy' again.

Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday:

• The Patriot's kicked butt and took names
• Chris really seemed to have a good time--even if the Bears lost
• The kid pulling his grades back up.
• The kid has also been spending time in the afternoons talking with a couple of girls down at the bus stop.  He's been as late as 30 minutes getting home.  Oh, and they stopped and knocked on the dorr yesterday asking him why he wasn't at school. 
• Decorating for Halloween.
• A possible party on Halloween.

Send to a friend