And Life goes On

No pictures for you today. Sorry. Just a couple updates.

Matt has been so excited lately. He has been working full time at a Ranch out on Roblar Road. He loves it. He asked me he other day "Is it wrong to wake up looking forward to going to your job?" the big dork. He is working with the horses, animals, barns, tractors, setting fences all kinds of stuff he grew up doing. He said he feels like he is home. Oh, and he will be starting his 2nd job at Fresh Choice next week. All the issues that kept him from working in the past are taken care of. he is super excited about that too.

Jen started working at her previous job a week after she got home. This is the same job she was working at when she left for boot camp. They were happy to bring her back and will be promoting her in January. She has been working there full time on top of babysitting for her best friend.

Married life for the two of them is so cute to watch. You can see the love in their eyes still. Sometimes I stand upstairs or in the other room and just listen (or try to) to the way the communicate. I love that they are so happy together even during the rough times. They encourage each other in ways none of us ever thought they would. And yes, just like any other marriage, they have some moments but they get over it pretty quickly.

Me, I am just me doing what I have always done all my life. Making it work so I have a reason to complain if it isn't working. Living by my moto "You Never Fail Until You stop Trying."

Weird post I know. I just wanted to post SOMETHING instead of NOTHING.

More album and Black Friday

Thought I would post more of the Baby Album I was asked to complete. But I would rather tell you about Black Friday. I got to work at 6am. The line to get into the store was clear down by Burlington Coat Factory. The parking lot was full. Holy smokes that is a lot of people. We had coffee outside for the guests that were in line. Inside the store I go.
They put me on an express register because I am so new there. They did not want me to get over whelmed. Ok, that was a good thing. So all of the cashiers are standing there, 15 of us, when they open the doors. It was so cool. Some of the guests started running. But still it was pretty calm. It took 15 minettes to get them all inside the store.
The first person to come to the registers was about 5 minettes later. The madness began. But really, there was not madness. Everyone was in a great mood. No guest had to wait in line longer than 5 minettes to get out of the store. I can not tell you how many guests told me we were the best store and so freindly. It was a great day. So much fun.
I did hear horrer stories of other stores. Lets see. Wallmart guests were fighting in line before the store opened. One guest tried to break through the line with thier car and almost ran over a little kid. Seriously, that is what I heard. At Toys R Us the line to the register was around the perimitor of the store and then did the "S" line thing.
The line for the registers at Kohls was around the store. The guest that told me that walked into Kohls, saw the line, and walked back out. I heard Mervyns was pretty great. Oh and the Santa Rosa Target was not so good from what they said. So, I think I am pretty happy our store was so great. Each Cashier had maybe two people in line to get rung up at a time durring the rush of the morning. After that rush they came straight to the registers again. Pretty cool day.

Commisioned Baby Album

One of my co workers asked me to make a baby album for a shower she was throwing. We talked about the likes and dislikes of the mom to be. She is more earthy, hates pink and her favorite color is purple. We don't know if she is having a girl or a boy.
We talked about how the album would be "SIMPLE" and the price. The price we agreed on would be $75.00 for the finished product. Being that it was "SiMPLE" it did not take me long to finish.
We talked about what the theme would be for each page. At the end of the album are extra protectors for the mom to make more or for the giver to add to later. Or maybe leave the album as is.
Most of the papers I used in the album were Basic Grey. I wanted the album to have more of a shabby chic look since mom was more earthy. I really like the look. Notice it is not really babyish in look. But more classic/vintage.
On this page the piece that has the title on it comes out of the pocket so mom can add more photos OR can write on that piece. There are more pages I will share later. For some reason Blogger only allows me to add 5 photos at a time. Not sure why. But whatever.

Why I am single

Ok, so I am a little late posting me on Halloween. With all the time it took to make the cake for the bakeoff I did not have time to make up a costume too. So, the morning of halloween I just added a touch of mascara and lipstick then I smeared it. Off to work I went.
When asked what I was, I just told them this is how I wake up and it's the reason why I am still single. Everyone got a good laugh. Oh, and the hair.......yea, it's very ratted up. It took me forever to get it out. Kind of hurt. So, don't try this at home.

Prince and the Pea

About a week ago I washed the doggie beds as they were all dirty and gross. When they were dry I took them out of the dryer and dropped them onto the floor. The next morning as I sat here blogging I looked over and noticed Joey laying on all four of the beds. I was reminded of the story "The Princess and the Pea." It was just too cute so i snapped the picture for all of you to see.

That morning I went to work and told a couple of my co-workers what he had done. A couple of them had never heard the story of the Princess and the Pea. WHAT????? The rest of us (the older ladies) could not remember the whole story. So, I thought I would share it with you. It was written by Han Christian Anderson. I thought it was a classic story until the young girls at work told my they never heard it. What kind of fairy tales do moms tell their kids now a days?????? Hmmmm, kind of makes you wonder.

Here's the real story....................

The Real Princess (The Princess and the Pea)
by Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrated by Edmund Dulac


There was once a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a real Princess. He travelled right around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.

One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and lightninged and the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night.

In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the old King himself sent to open it.

It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from the rain and the storm. The water streamed out of her hair and her clothes; it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real princess.

'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bed clothes off and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the morning they asked her how she slept.

'Oh terribly bad!' said the princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It is terrible!'

They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin.

So the prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it may still be seen if no one has stolen it.

Now this is a true story

Burning Buns

Last night we had family night. We watched a movie and ate popcorn as we cuddled on the couch with one blanket. Jennifer has been craving Cinnamon Buns ever since she got home from Boot Camp. So Matt, being the good guy he is gets up and puts them in the toaster oven to bake. All is good. Right? Yep, until his next smart move.

He is at the computer and all of a sudden needs to go to the store. It was late but I got up and loaded the dogs in the car. The entire family takes off to the store. As we are driving down the road I all of a sudden ask Matt. "Did you turn off the oven?" "Ummmmm NO." AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I am in the far left lane. We have already driven all the way out of our complex. (We live in the back with about a million speed bumps). Matt tells me I gotta turn around. Jen tells me to drop her off she will take care of it. Matt tells me to "pull over and Jen can run across the Golf Course to the house." I start to get into the right lane when Jen tells me "No." She does not want to run across the golf course. So I get back in the left lane.

Now I gotta drive a ways to get to the stop light to do a U Turn. Joey the Chihuahua is on my shoulders as usual. I start complaining that it is 10:13 at night and now I gotta take longer. We finally get to the stop light. I am panicking that the house could burn down. As we are sitting there I look in the side mirror. I did not like what I saw and I was not real sure I was seeing correctly. So I tell Matt "get the dog" no reaction "take the dog!" as I push Joey off my shoulders Matt takes him. The light turns green and I turn. BLINK BLINK BLINK. Red and Blue lights start flashing. Dam! I am getting pulled over. Now I am really not a happy camper.

The cop said "I pulled you over because you did an erratic move back there." I agreed and told him the whole story about why I did that. Mind you I am sitting there in my oh so HOT (not) jammies. He looks as though he believed my story and was going to let me go. But then he asked me if I had been drinking and I told him "No Mam" oh my god I just called him Mam. "Sir" crap! What the heck is wrong with me? I just called him MAM! Dumb ass!

So he makes me put my head out the window and follow his finger without moving my head. Great.......now he thinks I am drunk. I pass the test of course. Then he asked for my license. Yep........left it at home as all I did was grab the keys. BAD MOVE! He takes my name and license number and tells me to hold on. Wait....wait.....wait........At which point Jen says......"NICE move mom!" Matt says "I have been there many times." "OK I AM NOT YOU" They both shut up. Kind of!

My "MAM" comes back and says "Debbi?" "yes?" "What are you going to do about your warrant?" "WHAT! WHAT WARRANT?" I am about ready to just die at this point. "you have a warrant out for your arrest for your animals." "WHAT?" Then it hit me. I forgot to pay that stupid fine for the dogs barking. "Oh my god. Are you kidding me?" "I can pay it in the morning. What time do they open?" he tells me they open at 8am and I tell him perfect I don't have to be at work until 9am. "ok. you be sure and do that." He let me go.

All the way home Matt and Jen are like rubbing it in and laughing at me. As you can see the buns burned and we had to go to the store again to get more. I took my purse this time and did not make an irrational move. I am going to the courts on my way to work this morning. I can not believe I forgot to pay that stupid little $100.00 fine. UHG!

Totally Embarrasing hehehehehe

Everybody knows I LOVE to embarasse and play practical jokes on people. I got the Son in Law good. REALLY good! Just know that posting this picture of him will embarrase him too. So this is going to be a double whammy.

First.....we were making dinner a couple weeks ago and I look over at Matt. He is leaning over the counter with the A1 bottle up to his eye. I am like "WHAT are you doing?" He tells me he is looking for the sauce and he laughs. Oh my gosh! Hold that pose....I get the camera so I can send Jen a picture of her funny husband. I could not believe he actually let me take the picture. If he would have known I was going to post it here he probably would not have let me take it. So that alone is one embarassment. He will flip out. Gotta love it!

Now the funny one. So we are at the airport going to pick up Jen. We are both so excited to see her. You know those moving walkway thingys? The ones you stand on and they move. Matt gets on the one moving from the parking lot to the terminal. I get this wild hair. No one is on the one moving from the terminal to the parking lot. So.....I run and jump on that one and start running all animated like. Matt looks at me with this "What the heck are you doing?" look. So, I stretch my arms open wide and start yelling, "MATT.....DONT LEAVE ME.....DONT GO TO YAMIN.....PLEASE MATT DONT LEAVE ME" Well his eyes got about as big as saucers. He started turning left and right like he was gonna run. There were people in front and behind him. HAHAHAHA no where for him to go. He had to stand there as I am still yelling. "YAMIN IS NOT THE PLACE FOR YOU.....PLEASE DONT LEAVE ME MATT.....PLEASE" (those of you that watch Friends will know what I was talking about)

I thought he was going to just die. Seriously. I was about ready to pee my pants laughing. Just the look of panic on his face alone was hysterical. And no where to run. That is the moment when you just want to hurt your mother in law really bad.

Time for the Count Down

I made this Advent Calendar for a class to teach at The Scrappery. So far it has taken 9 hours to design, and really, it's still not done. Little tags still have to be made and ribbons connected to put into each envelope.

The entire thing is mounted onto Canvas which I painted and then stamped on with bubble wrap. Loving the bubble wrap lately. I used last years Basic Grey Christmas papers. The letters and the numbers were cut out with my Sizzex. The word Christmas, the light bulbs, Snow Man, Holly berry, lights on the tree, the snowflake and the number 25 are covered with Glossy Accents to help them pop.

Each of the envelopes, template made by me, are distressed with dashes around the edges to make them look stitched on to the canvas.

I like the outcome of the project. But, heck, that is a lot of time for a two hour class. We wont be able to finish it in class so I have started to create instructions for the project. That is not a small feat. And then I still need to recut and package up the bits and bobs for each envelope. Yep, thinking this is gonna take another 9 hours. What was I thinking?

The Witch Cake

Totally fun goodness cake style. We had a bake off at work for Halloween. I had this image in my head of a 3 tiered witch. My first attempt at a themed tier cake. This goodie is about 12 inches tall with three cakes. The bottom layer is a white cake with lemon filling. Orange frosting with a web design. The spiders around the bottom were a last minette addition. I am so excited how they turned out as I did not practice it first (I know Helen......practice practice practice)they just turned out right. The middle layer is also white cake with lemon filling. The frosting under the fondant is purple. And the top layer is just white cake carved into a circle (that was not so easy) with the green frosting.
The middle layer has fondant I dyed black. It was not black enough for me so I sprayed it with black food coloring spray. Matt helped me lay the fondont on the cake so the front of the cape was smooth and covered the middle layer in the front. The back came all the way down to the bottom of the first layer. I made the fondant ruffle so it looked as though the cape was flowing. Then I took an edible powder sheen and painted it onto the cape to give it depth and highlights. That was fun but it was a first time for me to use this product.
Love the head. I made the frosting all bumpy by patting the spatula all over the head. Then I added the eyeballs with red bloodshot veins. I adore the red blisters all over her face. Just made her a little more scary. The hat, well, I knew I had to do something to reinforce it for the drive. So I took some thick wire and made a cone. Layed it on her head and applyed the frosting around it. It is the only part of the cake besides the arms that is not edible. Then the hair. I know I should have done the hair first but I was not thinking. I did it after the hat. It was a new frosting tip I was dying to use. I just love the hair.

I had to transport the entire cake about 15 miles, so I re-inforced the heck out of it with wooden dowls. Normally I would put the dowls in each layer of cake and set the next layer on top. But this time I put the dowels Through two layers including the cardboard each layer sat on. It turned out VERY sturdy and made the trip with no problem.
I won two of the three trophies given out that day. One for "Best Execution" and one for "Tastiest Treet". Our marketig girl made these trophies. I simply ADORE them. Aren't they the cutest. She thinks she is not creative but I beg to differ. I think my favorite comment from a co-worker that day was, "Debbi, could you have not brought a normal cake. That's the cake of the year."

And a added tid bit......Matt helped with the decorating the cake. And he LIKED it. He took the leftover fondant and made the feet. His idea by the way. Then he made the arms out of wire for me. He did a great job and he admitted to having fun. It was also his idea to give the spiders red fangs. Yep, he is creative himself.

Guess Who's Home

My Girl is home from Boot Camp. We are all very excited she is back. And NO she has no desire to go back and try again.

The only regret she has is that she never got to actually train. She wanted to train. She craved the training. But they never even let her try. When she got to Parris Island her asthma started to act up from the humidity and the air quality there. When her body started to react she admitted to them she had asthma. They put her right into FRP (female rehabilitation platoon) until they could do testing. There are 5 levels of testing. They give you pills to take that makes any normal persons chest feel tight but you can still breath. In an asthmatic person it will cause you to have an asthma attack and you will not be able to breath. Jen did not make it past the 3rd level before they told her they would not go further and her levels were off the charts.

She also hurt her knee while she was there but she did not tell them as it would have taken longer for her to get home. Her experience was horrible. She said they take away all your emotions and every bit of personality you have. You can not smile, laugh, cry or even say "bless you" to the person who just sneezed. She only got yelled at by the Drill Instructors 3 times. Once for saying "what"? She should have said "this recruit did not hear you, Sir". Opps.

Jen is having a little bit of a hard time re-adjusting to a normal life. Not too bad though. She is having nightmares every night about boot camp. I am sure that will pass in the days to come. I caught her in a daze eating the other night. Eating like she was back in boot camp. She did not even realize she was doing it. I pointed it out to her and she just breathed out and said "oh my god."

The one thing she was most excited about when she got home was to take "A real Shower and wash her hair" They give you 15 seconds in boot camp to shower. Yes, 15 seconds. Which means your hair does not get washed. The girls have a tone of gel in their hair and it is pulled so tight the folicles are kind of popping out of your head. She said some of the girls had huge bumpes all along thier neck from it. To stop the itching they would put hand sanitizer on thier head. Gross huh?

The hardest part for Matt and I was not knowing what was going on with her at all. We got little tidbits of information but really nothing. We did not know when she was coming home until the day before. Then we did not know what time, or where, until the day of her homecoming. We did not know what medical tests they gave her until she got home. We did not know anything. It was rough for us all. Rougher for her. We are just glad she is home and things can be normal again.