Thank you

My friend Amy sent this to me in an email and I thought it was hilarious, so I am sharing it with you. Thanks Amy. :)

As another year will shortly be a memory, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me "forwards" over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.

Extra thanks for the ones that I have to open 15 times to get to the message.

Special thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on envelopes 'cause I now have to go get a wet towel every time I need to seal an envelope.

Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. Because of your concern, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer drink Pepsi, or Dr Pepper, since the people who make these products are atheists who won't put "Under God" on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone might drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from, nor send packages by UPS, or FedEx, since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer answer the phone, because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda,Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer eat KFC, because their "chickens" are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer have any sneakers -- but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.

I no longer have to buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus, since I now have their recipe.

I no longer worry about my soul, because at last count I have 363,214 angels looking out for me.

Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer have any savings, because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time)

I no longer have any money at all - but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special email program.

Yes, I want to thank you so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favor!

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 7 minutes, a large pigeon with a wicked case of diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM (EDT) this afternoon. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of mine's next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician.

Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR

Lost

Well, it's over...Christmas has come and gone. Santa was good to me this year. :) Got lots of goodies. Took an extended vacation, which was very nice after having gone away for a week, it was nice to just spend one at home doing absolutely nothing...well, almost nothing.

My co-workers have been constantly talking about what a GREAT show "Lost" is, but I have never picked up an interest in starting to watch the show. Now, here it is in the second season and it's all people are talking about. So Mike and I decided to add the first season to our Blockbuster list and just watch them as they came in the mail. Well, Mike decided to get me the first season set of DVDs for Christmas. We watched the first episode together and that's all it took to suck us in to the addiciton that everyone else around me has been experiencing. Best. Show. Ever. We watched the entire 24 episode season in 4 days. FOUR DAYS PEOPLE! We were like zombies on the couch, eyes bloodshot, bodies aching from sitting in one place for too long, but still as the credits rolled after each episode, we found ourselves saying, "just one more." So since they are 9 episodes into the second season already, Mike has been downloading them so we can play catch up. We are now on the "Lost bandwagon."

On another note, I hope you had a great Christmas too! By the way, the eggs turned out great (thanks to my sister's help)...they were all eaten. Woo hoo.

Special Wishes

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! Hope your holiday is enjoyable!

Best Wishes!!

I have the cooking talents of an eight year old.

Let's face it--I've never been known for my wonderful cooking ability, and I have yet to master making anything remotely fancy like cobbler or casserole. I was always more intersted in playing outside than watching my mother cook in the kitchen...I'm still that way. Hello, why do you think they have stuff available in a box?! For people like me!

I've been known to make my cookie cakes overflow, confuse baking power with baking soda, or leave out important ingredients because I didn't have them and was too lazy to go to the store to get them at the last minute (Note to self: Always check if you have ingredients BEFORE you start cooking).

So this year my mother-in-law is having dinner before we open gifts at her house and when I asked her what I should bring (she knows I can't cook), she asked if I could bring a green bean casserole. Ummm, I don't eat green beans, much less know how to make a casserole out of them. I told her I didn't know how and we decided that I would think about something to bring. I found an easy enough recipe for a green bean casserole online, so I called her to tell her I could make it. She had already asked my sister-in-law to bring it since I said I couldn't. Doh!

The result? I'm bringing deviled eggs (which my sister is going to help me make) and Butterfinger pie. Ahh well, those things are more "Amy style" anyway I guess.

Maybe I should look into taking some cooking classes before next Christmas.

Pictures from the trip

We're back! :)

Well, 32 hours of driving/riding, 25 hamburgers, and 496 laughs later, we're back from the Grand Canyon. My only advice to anyone thinking of making this trip from Tulsa, America to Grand Canyon, AZ: FLY!!

To say the drive was boring is an overstatement, although we did get plenty of laughs in along the way. For the first 9 hours of driving the highlight of the drive were the bajillion small bushies that you can always see as far as the eye could view. Flat. Flat. Flat. Land.

We stayed at a pretty nice place in Albuquerque. Tammy and I got a massage, which was the best hour and 50 bucks I've spent in my life! So relaxing after 9 hours of sitting in the car.

We drove on to Williams, AZ the next day. (Yes, Doug, I got your message about the Deer Farm...sadly it was closed BOTH times we drove through Flagstaff.) :( Williams was...umm...well, let's just say the highlight of that little town was the family dollar and the Safeway. We tried to find a game to play at both places to keep us entertained, but alas, there was nothing.

The next morning we took the Grand Canyon Railway and rode the train 2 hours to the Grand Canyon...kind of neat. I was a little nervous when we woke up and everything was cloudy. But God is good...by the time we got to the Grand Canyon, the sun was shining brightly and the Grand Canyon was breathtaking!

We spent the night at the Grand Canyon in one of their lodges...more laughs were exchanged between the 3 of us, and after visiting every gift shop available on the Grand Canyon grounds, we broke down and bought a deck of cards to keep us busy. Keep in mind, we rode the train, so we didn't have our own car to drive us around. We were forced to take the free shuttle that circled the park. The only problem--the shuttle only went one way, so if you wanted to go back to the place you had just come from one stop before, you had to ride the entire shuttle route which took an hour...trust me, we know how long it takes! :)

The next day we rode the train back to Williams and we decided the day before that there was absolutely nothing to do in Williams, so we cancelled our reservation at the Railway Hotel and decided to drive back to Flagstaff the following night. We were spoiled by the Flagstaff Hotel: indoor HEATED pool, free internet, a full complimentary breakfast...everything was wonderful. We did a little shopping at the Flagstaff Mall, then drove back to Albuquerque.

We spent the rest of our money in Albuquerque and spent the night at the hotel we had stayed in the first night we were there. We decided that to make it home before dark the following day, we would need to leave the hotel at the crack of dawn (aka 7:00 CST). So come 6:30 (5:30 NM time) we crawled out of bed, brushed our teeth, and hit the road.

We made it home just before dark, but only after a VERY long, boring 10 hour drive back through the bushies and flat ground.

Ahh, aren't vacations fun?! :)

Vacation

Hi guys!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are taking a vacation for a week...we are taking my sister-in-law and driving to the Grand Canyon. Leaving tomorrow morning at 7 am! YAY! I can't wait.

I'll post again when we get back and show some (hopefully) good pictures!! :)

I frickin' hate snow...

it always ruins my plans. But I'm not going to talk about that...I'm just going to show the good time that we had with Simon playing in the snow last night. :) He absolutely loved it...until this morning when he remembered how cold it was. :)

Speaking of bathrooms...the writing's on the stall.

Food For Less
Carson, California USA 90243
Women's restroom, 1^st floor

On a sign that said "Please wash your hands completely clean" someone wrote:

*how? there's no soap!

Cheap bathrooms.

Need to go?

I know you can't see through it from the outside, but I still don't think I could bring myself to use it...people staring at me while using the rest room...I already told you talking to me creeps me out enough. :)

Happy Birthday!

My blog is one year old today! :) Glad to see that it wasn't just a New Year's Resolution that never got fulfilled.

So in honor of my blog's first birthday, I would like to highlight my favorite posts over the past year (one for each month). Feel free to comment on your favorite if you have one (listed or not).

December 2004-Sitting In Traffic
January 2005-The Reason Explained
February 2005-A Pageant Experience Relived
March 2005-Basketball What?
April 2005-They're All Out to Get Me!
May 2005-Spandex Dog
June 2005-A Friday Fiasco
July 2005-Today I...
August 2005-Voicemail/Answering Machine
September 2005-Simon=Onery
October 2005-This Is the Saddest Picture I've Ever Seen
November 2005-Silence Is Golden

And just because

I can't get enough of my dog:

Ahh, Christmas lights!

Since Mike and I are going on vacation next week, I thought that this past weekend would be a good time to go to Rhema and look at all the Christmas lights. We invited my niece and my sister (and her boyfriend, who couldn't come b/c he was sick) to go with us. We drove out to Broken Arrow and bundled up before we got out of the car. I'll admit, there were jokes about my niece looking like a pink marshmallow, but it was hilarious...what can I say?

I'd say we stayed no longer than 20 minutes before we were all so cold we didn't think we could walk back to the car. We took lots of pictures and made plenty of jokes, so the 20 minutes was well worth the drive out there. When we were driving back home, we passed a couple of bank clocks that said the temperature was between 35 and 37 degrees...no wonder we were so cold! BRRR!!

Here's a couple of pics of the loads of fun we had:

Akward

Just so you know, when I'm trying to use the restroom in the stall next to you, please don't talk to me. It is akward enough that we are tinkling at the same time in a 1'x2' cubicle, let alone the need to make conversation to "ease the tension." Now every time I see you I'm going to think about the chit-chat conversation that we had while taking care of business.

That just creeps me out.

TSA: Scissors in, saws still out on planes

Ahh, if only life were back to more simple times...you know, when packing my "crowbars, drills, hammers, and saws" was actually acceptable on a flight to anywhere. It really bums me out that I can't pack a SAW in my suitcase.

I mean, who does that?!

Follow more closely

On my drive into work this morning, I followed a maroon PT Cruiser most of the way in. After a few minutes of following it, I noticed a little boy with a red hat on peeking out the back window at me. The entire trip as I followed him, I kept thinking to myself how cute this little boy was--and shy too...he never showed more than his hat and eyes. It was so cute how he was peeking out at me trying to hide, like little kids do.

It wasn't until I exited the highway and pulled up behind the PT Cruiser at a signal light that I realized my cute little boy peeking out the back window was nothing more than some white Wal-Mart bags with a red jacket thrown over them.

No wonder he never showed me more than his eyes.

*Happy Birthday to my wonderful sissy today!*