Blessings

I am so blessed.

I have a wonderful husband who loves me and whom I love so much.  I can't believe how lucky I was to find such a great man who takes such good care of me.

I have two sons who I am so proud of and love.  For 10 years while I was single, I devoted everything to them and we were our own little team.  We formed a bond, just the three of us, and I am so grateful for all those years that it was just "us".  I wouldn't trade all those "difficult" years for anything in the world.

We have our own business.  Yes, it's a lot of headaches, struggles and stress.  But we are our own bosses and we are working hard to make a better life for ourselves.  Not only that.....how awesome is it to have the "love of your life" be your partner?

I have a mother and a father who worked hard to raise me right.  I didn't always agree with their rules and regulations......but look at where I am today.  They raised me to be a confident, hardworking, and responsible person that is able to raise my own family and take care of my own life.

I have a sister......who is crazy as can be.  We won't see each other for a year....but when we connect it's warm, it's comfortable and it's hilarious.  She's my main confidant and the one person that I can bitch, gripe, and laugh with (and sometimes fight with) but still can set me emotionally on the right track.

I have wonderful neighbors and friends.  It's nice to have people to go to when you need something and in return be there for them when they need me.

Yes life is difficult.  Yes life is stressful.  But when I look at all the blessings in my life......I am humbled.

So to those of you reading this......just know that the words aren't spoken much, but they are in my heart.

I love all of you!

I really miss this

If you've been wondering where I've been......I've been wondering that too.

Actually, when life is so busy and every day is consumed with things that need to get done......the "extra" things that you enjoy doing sometimes get tossed aside.  Blogging is one of them.

I know....I know.....every one has busy lives.  So I shall not bore you with the details of all the things I need to do.  Just know....that once I find a moment to catch my breath -- I have LOTS of pictures to post of some of the things that have been going on since we last met.

However, today is not the day for that.  I've got to go make 4 batches of fudge!

I shall return............................

I am able!

According to My Daily Word booklet for Tuesday, December 4th, 2012......"I am able!"

"It is up to me to remind myself of this daily.  To use my abilities as best as I know.  As I learn and grow, I discover new strengths, new abilities, and new avenues of expression." 

"In every new challenge, I confidently affirm:  I am able."

You know what......I AM ABLE!

Able to tackle everything that needs to get done today.  Able to run a business, my house, my husband, and my family successfully.

Think about those words......because.....YOU are able too!

A Week in Review

Been a busy week with the holiday, payroll, and just life in general!

This is a catch up of what's been happening with us this week.

Sunday:  We finally got our exercise bike.  We spent the evening with a fire, a beer, crappy TV and started putting it together.  We didn't get it finished though.  Cris showed up on Monday night and with the bribe of making him dinner -- he finished it for us and got it all put together.  We don't have room in the "exercise room" right now (because we got it all filled up with crap again).....so it's in the living room TEMPORARILY.

MONDAY:  My husband surprised me with a wonderful birthday present.  For 10 years I have ask the same thing every year "can we go to the Nutcracker this year?"  His response is always "no, but maybe sometime".  I have tried to pawn myself off to other mother and daughter's who have gone and seen it -- but so far no one has asked me to go along yet.  So after seeing a commercial, I once again asked and after a little thought he said "yes".  In fact, he even bought the tickets.  Yay!!! I am so excited to finally get the opportunity to see this magical ballet!  Thank you Paul!

TUESDAY:  Needed to drop something off at one of the elementary schools the other day and happened to have the top down on the car.  Passed by these 3 vultures sitting on the fence staring at me and saw at least 3 other's down in the ditch below feasting on something.  It was an eerie feeling seeing these big birds perched on the fence, and I wanted to get a closer pic -- but was afraid they would leave. 

THURSDAY:  The BIG day.  Spent the day cooking, cleaning, eating, and doing payroll (of course)!

FRIDAY:  Starting to make plans for our big Christmas adventure.  Went online last night to see if room rates had changed and found a fantastic deal.  So went ahead and booked our rooms.  Need to start making all the final plans for how I am going to boss my family around while we're in Lake Charles.  Ha Ha....no I'm not.  I want to go and have a relaxing time without having to follow any schedules or agendas.  The only appointment I want to keep is the one when they interview me for winning the $100 million jackpot!

SATURDAY:  Tonight it's the Fab 5.  We are meeting up with some friends and plan on having a fun night of dancing and just having a good time.

Whew......so that was our week.  How was yours?

Preparing for the BIG day

Why is it to celebrate a holiday and a day off you have to work so hard to get ready?

Why am I complaining when I really am going to have it "made in the shade" this holiday season?

Well actually, I wasn't complaining -- just asking an honest question.

Came home from work last night and shampooed the living room carpet.  That was a great idea!  It might have been late -- but the reward was getting up this morning and after a quick vacuum -- I'm ready to move the furniture back in.  Usually, I get up first thing in the morning and do it, then you have to wait most of the day for the carpet to dry, and then it's night time and you've been walking around your cluttered house all day because there is furniture everywhere!  Now it's time to get floors mopped, bathrooms cleaned, and all the other assorted fun stuff that goes along with cleaning the house.

I'm not going to the stores this weekend -- you know how crazy they'll be with all the Thanksgiving shoppers buying their birds.  Nope -- in fact, I don't even have to make the turkey this year.  Aaron is having one deep fried for us in Surfside and he's bringing it up on Wednesday night already cooked!  I just have to put it in the oven on Thursday and warm it up. 

I don't even have to make a dessert this year.  I was going to make something pumpkin (not pie -- I wanted something different), but Paul said "hey -- let's just get one of those Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake".  Great idea!  Now I don't have to cook that either.

Well, I don't want you to think that I've gotten off scot-free from having to do anything.  I still am going to make the remainder of the meal which will be stuffing (homemade of course), mashed potatoes and gravy, crescent rolls, and broccoli with hollandaise sauce.  The broccoli was just decided yesterday.  We needed a vegetable and now that Cris and Aaron have astounded me with their love of broccoli......it makes perfect sense.  And we LOVE broccoli too!

Dinner time was also changed this year because Aaron and I wanted to attend a candlelight memorial for Leslie at the site of her accident.  The 22nd will be 2 years since she passed.  We are attending that at 6pm, so I moved dinner up a couple of hours so that I can be sure to be there on time.  Not a happy way to end Thanksgiving, but certainly something we don't want to miss.

So there you have it -- my holiday planning guide for Thanksgiving.  Wait until you see my stressful and heavy agenda for planning our Christmas holiday!

A great way to start the day

This is my new addiction to get my day started.

After working out.....I need something refreshing.  This hits the spot:

A glass of HEB Veggie Twist (cheap.....and tastes good!), Worcestershire Sauce, and some good old Louisianna Hot Sauce.  Love it!

Sometimes you get what you ask for

A month or so ago I bought three of these fancy little air freshners that automatically spray out their fabulous scents.

 

They take the little can refills that look like this.

Well recently they had run out and I had to buy some refills.  Well being the thrifty shopper that I am -- I found some at the Family Dollar store that were half the price (they were Family Dollar brand, but stated they fit in both the units).  For some reason, Air Wick has put a super top secret recognition device in their units and two of my devices would not spray with the alien brand in there.  One worked fine.

So.....I was in the grocery store the other day and went looking specifically for the Air Wick brand.  No luck.....they only sold Glade brand.  However, the Glade can advertised that it fit both Air Wick and Glade brand units.  So I bought 2 refills.  Take them home.  Turn them on.  No spray. Well that was a bummer.

So, I sat down at my computer and composed an e-mail to Glade.  Here is what I wrote:

*************

I purchased two Airwick auto spray holders recently and just needed refills. I am having a very difficult time finding the Airwick brand cans to use in it and was in the grocery store today and saw that your Glade cans state on them that they fit in the Airwick system. No, that wasn't true.....my Airwick one will spray once and then red light flashes and won't work until I open it up again. Now I have two alternatives here -- I can take back my Glade refills and continue my search for the Airwick ones OR maybe you could send me two Glade holders and I will gladly throw away my Airwick ones and continue purchasing the Glade refills. It seems like I made a bad decision when I purchased the Airwick brand, because it seems that Glade refills are more widely available. So what do you say.....do we have a deal?

************

And here is what the folks at Glade replied:

***********

I'm glad you reached out to us, Debbie.

I've happily mailed two full value coupons for Glade® Automatic Spray starter kits to your home address. This way you can use the refill you purchased, and since the Glade® refills are more readily available in your area stores, this will eliminate any future frustration. The coupons will be in your mailbox within the next two weeks.

Additionally, since we expect Glade® Automatic Spray refills to work properly in Air Wick® Fresh Matic®, I-Motion™ Automatic Spray dispensers, I know the Glade® Quality team will certainly appreciate your feedback.

Thanks again for writing. If we can assist you in the future, please feel free to contact us again.

Kind regards,

Kcrista
Consumer Relationship Center
SC Johnson, A Family Company

**************
This my friends is awesome customer service!  I wrote back to Glade and told them they were awesome and that I would be singing the praises of Glade to everyone......so thus the reason for this e-mail.

Thank you Glade!

Is 24 hours considered a vacation?

Okay.....I know you've all been waiting with baited breath to see our exciting Austin pictures. 

Well don't get too excited.....the whole trip was only 24 hours.  6 of those hours was driving and 6 of those hours were sleeping......so that doesn't leave much time for anything else!

We took off on Saturday afternoon around 2:30.  The first stop was to get some lunch.  But we wanted to feel like we were already gone.....so we headed about 1/2 hour out of town and found a place to grab some lunch.

After getting to Austin, we checked into our hotel and began to make plans for our evening.  Austin is known for being the live music capital.....so we were excited to find someplace to go and listen to some great live music.  We found a place that had an 80's band playing and were excited that they were actually playing early (7:30pm - 10:30pm), instead of the traditional times, 9:30pm-2am.

So we plugged the address into the GPS and we were on our way. 

The place was called The Oasis and it was on Lake Travis.  We had no idea what to expect.  When we got there (way out in the middle of nowhere it seemed).....we found a three story place that was jamming with music and lights and Mexican food.  It was beautiful. 

Here's what it looks like in the day time (not my picture)......it was a gorgeous place!

The band was on the top floor and all of one side had large garage doors that were wide open and overlooked the lake.

The music was great and we spent a couple of hours drinking some Cerveza and dancing up a storm!

On the way out, we decided to take a couple of pictures to document our fun evening.

We wanted to get back to the hotel early enough to try and get a fair amount of sleep....since we had to get up really early the next morning to get downtown for Staci's Edge performance at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  On our way back to the hotel we tried so hard to find a pizza place......but no luck.

So.......we stopped at a convenience store and picked up all the essentials for a romantic dinner back in the hotel room:  bologna, cheese, bread, chips, and beer!  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

The next day started with a 6:30 wake up call (which actually came at 5:30).  We were smart enough to purchase the breakfast buffet when we booked our room so we headed to a nice little breakfast and then we were off to downtown Austin.

As we were walking to find the tent where the band was playing, it was incredible to see the amount of people that turned out for the race.  THOUSANDS!  There was an incredible spirit there and we've made the decision that we would like to participate in the race next year.  It was incredibly moving to be around these women who had survived their breast cancer......some as long as 35 years and to hear the sadness from those who had recently been diagnosed.

Staci from Staci's Edge greeted us warmly and got us wristbands into the tent area so that we could have easy access to hear her band.  WE LOVED IT!  It was so awesome to see her play in person after hearing all these songs on the CD.  The weather was perfect and we had such an awesome time.

Here's Staci's Edge #1 Fan!

After the performance we had made plans to meet up with an old PZ manager, but those plans fell through.  Just as well.....because we knew that we had to hit the road back to Houston.  We made the decision that we wanted pizza.  So after a couple of hours on the road......we did a search for a pizzeria in one of the small towns on our way home.

Here's what we found.......doesn't look like your typical pizzeria....but you gotta love those small towns.

Simple Simon's Pizza in Bellville, TX.  Pizza was not the best we've ever had.....but it certainly wasn't the worst! 

Well that pretty much sums up all the fun that we had in a 24 hour period.  Can't wait until the next vacation.....maybe we'll go all out and have a 48 hour vacation!

P.S.  Seriously, I am such a nerd.....but you know what -- I have a fun life!

A potpourri of trivial things

Today's post is going to be just a couple of small things that don't really go together....but I can throw it all in a random post so you can see what's happening in our "exciting" life.

I do have pictures to post from our adventure in Austin --- but today I have payroll to work on, so it's gonna have to wait.

This picture is from our drive home on Sunday.  We wanted pizza -- and we found this pizza shop in a little town in the middle of nowhere.  It wasn't the worst pizza we've ever had -- but it wasn't the best either.  Mediocore would be a good description.  I love market research!

We've been getting up every morning and either walking the neighborhood or doing the treadmill.  We are ready to add more equipment to our home gym.  Tuesday we went out to Sears and tried out multiple exercise bikes trying to find the one we liked best.  Our biggest decision was to whether we wanted the sit up and down kind or the recumbent kind......this is the one we picked....and ordered it online last night.  We should have it in about a week!

Yesterday Paul wanted me to make him a big batch of the famous "cabbage soup".  I personally just can't eat that stuff, cause it still reminds me of those days when I did that diet and had to eat it for 7 days in a row.  Now.....I can't even think about having to eat that stuff.  My dinner: omellette with spinach, bacon, onions, and cheddar topped with Fire Roasted Pepper Salsa.  Heavenly!  Sometimes it's good to just have breakfast for dinner!

And now.....my paperwork awaits me!

It's a sad day :-(

Wow.....I sure feel down in the dumps today.

The results of the election last night did it.

I am worried about what the future of our country holds at the hand of our re-elected President.

I'm tired of working my butt off only to be forced to hand it over to people who come here illegally or to those who would rather lay around and take the handouts given to them instead of working for themselves.

I'm worried about how to keep our stores staffed with good employees.  Instead we are left to deal with people only applying for a job so that they can keep their unemployment benefits.  Those same benefits that I am paying for.

I'm tired of watching an arrogant leader of this country who cares nothing for the people -- only his socialist beliefs.

I'm tired of lining the pockets of the undeserving with my hard earned money and having to be taxed even more because they don't have enough.

But it's over....it's done with......and there's nothing that can change the outcome.  Maybe this election should be a wake up call to us all.  It's pretty sad when the elections anymore are voting for the "least worst" candidate.  What happened to all the great leaders?

I did my part and voted for whom I thought would turn the country around.  It didn't work out this time.  We are outnumbered by the people waiting for their handouts.

Hopefully, the next 4 years can go by quickly without destroying this great country any more than it already has.  Hopefully, the next 4 years we can all learn something from this and stop letting our elected officials tell us what to do -- they work for us -- we should be telling them what to do.

Everyone in this country is entitled to their own opinion.....this one just happens to be mine.

Fail. Sucess. Fail.

Last week I spent LOTS of time in my kitchen.  Some of my projects turned out good......and some not quite so good.

But in order to get the cooking done....you need the supplies.  Here's my partial stockpile:

Unfortunately, my first batch of Pumpkin Pie fudge was a FAIL.  Luckily, it was my test batch.....since I have never made fudge before in my life.  Not until I found Pumpkin Pie Fudge (this stuff is dangerous and could seriously become addicting).  This batch never did get firm....it was a big sticky mess and yes I do know where I made my mistake.  Oh well....there was still more fudge to make!

The next day.....I spent 4 hours in the kitchen and it was a SUCCESS (well at least part of it).  I managed to make 3 batches of fudge and 3 batches of brownies for the staff.  This fudge turned out amazing and I think that my brownies were just way too cute to eat!

  

But, all my hard work in the kitchen that day yielded another FAIL.  I had been craving Mazita Pie lately (can't tell you why.....it's probably been at least 20 years since I've eaten it).  So I made up a big batch of my special spaghetti sauce.

Layered all the ingredients.  I did add some green onions to it.....cause we like onions.

 

And threw a little lettuce and cilantro on the top of it.

It tasted like one big soggy mess.  We even invited Cris over to give it a try and he wasn't impressed either.  So.......I guess I won't be serving this again!

I've had my Martha Stewart/Betty Crocker moment now.......I think I'll move on to some other things!

The moment just began

The minute his car pulled into the driveway and he crossed the threshold of our door.

Our vacation began.

It's not much.....but to us, it's heaven.

We are finally getting away for a brief time -- but it will be fun for whatever time it is.

Wow.....I finally have a little flicker of excitement.

Gotta go........we've got 3 glorious hours of driving ahead of us!

What no blogging?

Sorry.....been a small delay in the blogging lately.

I have lots of subject matter.  Lots of pictures to download.  Just haven't found the time to do it.

Life is busy.....I'm sure it's that way for all of us. 

I've been doing a great job of walking every morning -- yay me!

Stay tuned.....keep checking in.  I've gots lots of things I want to share with you!

Today's forecast:

According to the Weather Channel it's:  Abundant Sunshine.  High 70.

Wow....sounds like a gorgeous day to me.  Glad we're not in the path of the hurricane.  Which reminds us of another story.

In February in the year of Hurricane Katrina....we went to New Orleans.  In September of that year....they got destroyed by a hurricane.

In March of this year we went to New York City....in October they are about to get hit with a huge hurricane.

Don't want to alarm anyone....I wanted to take Paul to Miami for his birthday in December....maybe Miami better be on alert about June of next year.

My forecast for today:  Pay bills.  New customer packets.  First of the month stuff.  Miscellaneous catch up stuff. 

A proud achievement

It's great when you actually get something accomplished that you've been planning for a long time.  The boys have only been gone for 2 years now and we've finally finished their makeovers!
Aaron's room was turned into Paul's new office.  He loves it.

Cris' room was just magically transformed into our new guest room (and Paul or Debbie's room when one person wants to watch TV in bed and when one person doesn't OR when one person snores and the other person just really is trying to get some sleep).

The walls have been painted, the furniture painted, a new bed, carpets shampooed, new ceiling fan, new window treatments.....and it's finally done!  (Well, not exactly......it's walls are still a little naked and we still need to put a chair or something in there.....but hey.....it's done enough that we can start using it).

Here is the final product.....

The entertainment center looks beautiful since I painted it.  It looks a little empty with that tiny TV, but we are planning on buying a new HUGE screen TV for the living room and moving that one upstairs and it will fit perfectly into it's new home. 

Well now we have a beautiful new guestroom ready for guests.  But don't get too excited yet -- no invitations to visit are being sent out yet.  The rest of the house IS NOT guest ready.  But we're working on it.....one small step at a time!

A bed in a box?

We needed a new bed for our brand new guest room.  We looked a couple of places, but one of our biggest problems is we don't have a vehicle to move things in.  I can only get so much in the convertible with the top down -- and I don't think a bed would fit.

So our next option was to start looking at what could be shipped to us and we found a "bed in a box" at Sam's Club.  All the reviewer's were raving at what a great bed it was and how comfortable it was and yada...yada.....yada.  So what the heck.....we ordered it.

It came in two boxes.  One for the frame and one for the mattress.  Believe it or not....here's the mattress in the box.

So we carried it upstairs and began working on it.  It literally took less than 15 minutes to get it all set up.  The frame was like two cot frames that we just unfolded and hooked together.

We then took the mattress out of it's box.

Laid it on the frames -- it was only about 2 inches think.  We cut the plastic wrapper off of it and it started to expand. 

And voila`.......we magically had a brand new double bed.

We have to be totally honest......it was fast, it was easy, it was very reasonably priced, and it's COMFORTABLE!

Setting goals

I've been very jealous for the last couple of months watching my husband get up every single morning (except for maybe 2 of them) and going out walking the neighborhood for an hour.  Well.....I'm not jealous actually -- I am very proud of him for making the decision and sticking to it and he's really starting to drop some extra weight and looking good (you've always looked good to me honey).

So for the past 4 days, I've religiously gotten up and started my morning workouts.  I am finally determined to get rid of all this fat I have (and been embarrassed about) and I'm setting my goals.  I've been on the treadmill 3 mornings and went out walking with Paul this morning.

Remember that blog post awhile back about the exercise room?  Well the room got all trashed again, but we do have a treadmill in there.  I seriously am going to go out and get a bike for that room sometime this next week.  We need to get our excercise room finished and decorated just like we envisioned.  It's nice to have the equipment in there to use -- especially since the mornings are getting a little nippy.

So I figured I would publish my goals here for all the world to see....and to also hold myself accountable IN WRITING.

Goal:  By December 24th:  130 lbs. -- size 10 clothes
(I'm not going to say how many pounds that is to lose because I don't want to embarrass myself any further).

To achieve this goal:

1. I will be exercising every day for at least 1 hour. 
2. I will not drink alcoholic beverages until my birthday (I might actually give myself 2 free days in here -- just to be able to reward myself on this long and difficult journey).
3. I will be a better eater (not doing too bad here already.  Just need a minor tweak or two)

I can't wait to see what I'm going to look like all skinny in all those new clothes I get to buy!

Yay....a reason to get excited!

A vacation is coming!

Well......it's not really a vacation.  It's just kinda like a night off.

But we are getting away for a teeny tiny little bit (that's if all the stars in the universe all form a conga line and sparkle in red, white, and blue!).

The plan:  Austin, Saturday, November 3 through Sunday, November 4th

Well actually, it will probably be very dark when we get to Austin on the 3rd......but that is the day we are arriving.

We'll be driving up after Paul gets off work and heading to Austin....Woo Hoo!  Love going to Austin.  We have a room reserved at the Omni and most of our plans are for Sunday.

Sunday 9am: Staci's Edge is performing at the Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure race in Austin.  We've been listening to her for about a year now in other bands and this will be the first time we see her band peform. 

Of course, ya'll remember Paul's favorite picture from when she autographed her CD for him!

After the concert, we have plans to meet up with one of our favorite ex PZ managers for lunch.  He's been in Austin for about 4 years now and we've tried on several occasions to meet up.....and it never seems to work out.  So, we'll try again.

After lunch, we plan on spending time at a restaurant equipment store (of course), but I am also making plans to visit the Austin Antique Mall.  We went there once a couple of years ago and it is a gigantic warehouse FILLED with tons of old stuff.  After striking out in Brenham on that mission, I'm hoping to make some purchases for home decor items.

After that fun filled short weekend.....it will probably be time to head on back home.  Can't leave the natives running the village for very long or we might have problems.

Looking forward to our mini-vacation and some fun time with the husband!

Taking a day off

We were able to take a day off this week.  So the plan was to get out of town.  The safest distance we felt we could go and still be able to keep a check on things was to drive about an hour out of town.

Our destination:  Brenham, Texas

Our plan was to find items to decorate our new guest room with.  We also have a few empty walls here and there that need stuff.  Brenham is known for it's historic downtown and great antique shops. 

I love antique shops!  Not the kind filled with stuffy furniture.  The yard sale kind that's filled with 100's of treasures.  No two stores are alike and you never know what you'll find.

So first stop was a yummy lunch at a little eclectic cafe in downtown Brenham, the Funky Art Cafe.  Paul had a Pumpkin Burger.  It was a veggie burger made out of Pumpkin, Cilantro, Wild Rice, Jalapenos, and Corn.  It was quite delicious.

My choice:  Chicken and Spinach Enchilada Pie.  It was a little casserole with Tortilla Chips, Chicken, Spinach, Sour Cream Sauce, and Monterrey Jack cheese.  My oh my......that was some yummy stuff! 

We both walked out of there full and eager to begin our shopping adventure!

We spent a couple of hours hunting through old books, old dishes, old furniture, and seeing "old" things that sparked memories of childhood.  We didn't really end up with what we originally came for......but we did come with a couple of other unique items.

Paul wanted this stack of old Reader's Digest from the 70's.

He found some really hot and spicy salsa.

And of course, no trip anywhere in the world is ever complete without stopping in a bookstore and picking out a few books (why do we keep buying books??????).

Some of the best paintings are not found on canvas......but on the side of a building.

We met up with our friend who owns the Domino's in Brenham and a quick stop to our most favorite dollar store in the world (that just happens to be in Brenham) and we were ready to head back home. 

The evening was spent with a steak dinner and a movie.  The movie location changed from going to the theater to stopping at Blockbuster and laying in bed watching (much better idea).

Oh how great it was to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of our life.  We had a great day and look so forward to the next!