RIP James (The Rev) Sullivan

The drummer of Avenged Sevenfold, Jimmy (The Rev) Sullivan died today. He was only 28 and I think one of the best drummers. Normally when I listen to music I might beat the steering wheel with my thumb along with the bass guitar. Sometimes my fingers might dance along with the guitar melodies. Reliving my teen (and not so teen) dream of playing guitar and/or bass guitar. I can't recall ever wanting to play drums, unless I was listening to A7X. The Rev demanded my attention. There's just something about this band. They compliment each other so well, but I must admit, I'm usually drawn to the drums when I'm listening the them. I had the pleasure of seeing them at BuzzFest at The Woodlands, TX back in Oct 2006 (see photo). They were beyond amazing and by far my favorite band of the entire day/night. Rest In Peace, Jimmy. I know it's not your time, but bye bye baby, bye bye. For those of you who may not know Avenged Sevenfold, I'll add a couple of their songs in my playlist. I hope you enjoy it.

Simply Inspired

What an amazing weekend I had. I attended the Simply Inspired event in Lafayette. I had the amazing opportunity to meet some wonderfully talented ladies in the scrapbooking industry and take some awesome classes. In this photo: Jenni Bowlin of Jenni Bowlin Studios, Rebecca Cross of Pink Paislee, Margie Romney-Aslett, Debby Schuh, Layle Koncar, and Simply Scrappin store owner Elizabeth Avchin. Not shown in this photo was Teri Davis, who teaches classes at Simply Scrappin and also taught a class at the event. The weekend was amazing, exhausting, but as promised... I was completely Inspired.

The word "tender" will never be the same...

If you've watched Kung Fu Panda you probably remember the part when Po hurts his "tenders". Well, a couple weekends ago when out shopping for back to school shoes we went eat at Pete's on Johnston. Looking over the kids menu I asked Benjamin if he wanted Chicken Tenders. He started cracking up and said "You said tenders". That got the whole table laughing. Now fast forward to this morning. The kids are watching Shrek and they have always loved the part when Donkey is telling Shrek he has to wait for the part to interrupt the wedding and starts singing "You've Gotta Gotta Try a Little Tenderness". Well, that gets Benjamin going again... "He said Tenderness". Somehow I think the word "tender" will never be used again without bringing back memories of Kung Fu Panda and Po hurting his tenders. Ahhh, the joys of a 5 year old boy.

Everyone's Doing It

Got this idea from Cathy Zielske, who got it from Ali Edwards.

TODAY

Outside my window... The grass is long and really needs to be cut.

I am thinking... of going in my scrapbook room and creating something. But that would mean I'd have to clean it first and I'm not really digging that idea.

I am thankful for... Friends and Family who care about me. That my family is healthy.

From the kitchen... Left over Salmon salad and crackers.

I am wearing... Comfy grey pull on cropped pants and a pink Pebbles, Inc t-shirt.

I am creating... Not much of anything lately. Taking another on-line scrapbooking class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, so hopefully...

I am going... to do a lot of nothing this weekend. Guess that won't help my previous answer, huh? (heavy sigh)

I am reading... Just finished Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin' Fifteen. Thinking of starting the Charlaine Harris Dead series or possibly, dare I say it, the Twilight series.

I am hoping... to find my creative mojo again someday. Also that my kids will actually get along one day.

I am hearing... my kids arguing, screaming, and fighting.

Around the house... lots of work (fixing up) that needs to be done. Kids toys everywhere.

One of my favorite things... Eating out. Listening to music. Movies. Scrapbooking. Spending time with family and friends.

A few plans for the rest of the week... It's the weekend, so I plan on relaxing and taking it easy. Then it's back to work on Monday.

Father's Day 2009

For Father's Day the kids decided to let their Dad have the wii control so he could play the wii for a change. We were looking at these celebrity mii's on the "Check mii out channel" that people had designed. One of them was a girl with the initials E.F. and her skill was singing. We looked at each other trying to figure out who E.F could be and he said "Isn't there an Emily Falconbridge?" I started giggling and told him she's a scrapbooker. I keep telling him he needs to start scrapping with me. It's good to know he actually listens to me, even when I talk scrapbooking. For those non scrappers who don't know who Emily Falconbridge is she's listed in my blogroll. Check her out, she's amazing. I took one of her classes from www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com and it was by far the best on-line class I've taken, and I've taken several.

Life is Busy

It's been a very busy couple of months. Between personal time off, holidays, vacation days, and furlough days, I don't think I've had a 40 hour work week in the last 12 weeks. I think it's gonna be very hard getting back to my regular work routine. We've ran tests, tests, and more tests on Samantha to find out what is causing her to have blood and protein in her urine. During a renal ultrasound of her kidneys they found stones in her gallbladder. The stones are totally unrelated to her kidney problem. After meeting with a Nephrologist (kidney specialist) we're still unsure what is causing the blood and protein, so they're running more tests. She had her gallbladder removed a couple days ago. She's doing fantastic. She's my little Rock Star. What a way to spend her summer vacation. I guess it's better to have all this going on now instead of during school.

Culinary Genius

My husband is a culinary genius. Why you might ask? Because who else would think to put Cheesy Popcorn Seasoning on shrimp? Yep, you read right. I know it may sound disgusting, but believe me, it was actually very good. I told him supper was excellent (as usual) and he told me I would never guess what he put on the shrimp. He was right. A little bit of olive oil, some Zatarains, and the surprise ingredient... Reese Cheesy Popcorn Seasoning. The man is amazing. He did it on a whim, and a tasty whim it was.

Jeremy Camp

This morning I thought I would put the radio on 99.9 to listen to the Polyester Power Hour (Disco) since I'm off work today on furlough. I couldn't find the station on John's radio, so I went into Samantha's room and cranked it up so I could hear it in my room. I thought I had found the right station, but after going back into my room to finish getting ready I realized it was on KAJN. This amazing song came on, so I went in her room to listen for the artist name. They said it was Jeremy Camp. They even repeated the name a couple times. (This rarely ever happens to me, when I want them to announce the artist, they never do). Anyway, when I came downstairs I decided to look him up. I clicked on the 1st video I found. It's not the song I heard this morning, but man it's just as good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBAhvI0TRDs - Jeremy Camp - This Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUzDOGzABSM - The song I heard this morning. Jeremy Camp - There will be a day.

Looks like I found the right station after all. Both songs made me cry like a baby. Powerful stuff.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.

Love,
Therese

Back from Disney

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've been spending the majority of my free time on Facebook. I'm not even spending much time reading my favorite blogs either. Damn you Facebook for being so addicting. It's been awesome catching up with classmates I haven't seen in years, but I'm finally catching up with it and need to get back to my blogging and blog surfing, so here goes...

We went to Disney for Easter holiday. I'm not sure what it is about that place, because we got sick again this year. We went last year for Mardi Gras and were sick then, too. You'd think we were a sickly family, but we're not. Must be the time of year. Oh well. We took 2 days going up, then 5 days at Disney, one day at the pool, then 2 days driving back. We were going to drive all the way back in 1 day, but when we got to Hammond, we hit that horrible weather and had to stop. Here's a quick recap of our week...

Magic Kingdom - hmmm, can't think of anything that exciting there. Go figure, it's usually my favorite park.

Animal Kingdom - Finally got to ride Expedition Everest. It was amazing. That goodness for Fast Passes. John and I each got to ride it twice because the kids couldn't/wouldn't. It's my new favorite ride at any of the parks. Rock n Roll Coaster is my 2nd.

Disney/Hollywood Studios - Got to ride Toy Story Mania. It's pretty fun, but waiting in line an hour was not. Although the wait line is pretty interesting. Actually scored Fast Passes for R&R Roller Coaster, but it expired while we were waiting in line for Toy Story Mania. Other than Toy Story Mania nothing too exciting. Probably my least favorite park of all Disney parks. Oh yeah, and we got to sit through the new American Idol Experience. It was really cool.

Epcot - Okay, this is my 2nd least favorite park, but not this time. This time we actually spent 2 days at Epcot. We had a blast doing the Kim Possible missions. It was so much fun. Also, they were having a flower and garden festival (which is not really my thing, at all) but I enjoyed it so much. They had these amazing topiaries throughout the park. So pretty. Also, United Kingdom had the cutest tea cups with plants. Samantha and I took a tea tour. It was very interesting.

Missing Mom

Today is the worst day of the year for me. It's the day I lost my mom. It happened 5 years ago today. Sometimes it still doesn't seem real. It still hasn't quite sunk in that I'll never have another conversation with her on this earth. This picture is of us on my wedding day (obviously). I thought my mom was positively breath taking, and so beautiful. We both had our hair and makeup done professionally and she was not at all happy with her look. I still think she looked amazing, but she hated it and thought she looked like a wild woman. There's not a person on this planet that could be further from the truth. She was an amazing person, and I miss her so much. I'd give anything for her advice, her fettuccini, or to hear her say her little "Praise the Lord".

My Littlest Stinker

Here's a conversation between me and Benjamin when I picked him up from school today.

Me: "How was your day?"

Benjamin: "Good. I got a sticker and a candy".

Me: Surprised I said "You did"?

Benjamin: "Yes, (pause) but it's invisible".

You little stinker. You're only 4 years old. I'm afraid I'm gonna be in big trouble when you're older.

Conversation: Today, 2/2/09.

Photo: Thanksgiving 2008 - Playing Rock Band at Nanny Susan's house.

Ughhh, it's pouring...

I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "When it rains, it pours", well, right now it's fricking pouring. In the last month our computer crashed and we had to replace it, my vacuum cleaner broke, John's car died, and now our dryer won't work. Another saying is bad things come in 3s. Well, I've got 4 things damn it. STOP -- I can't handle another 2. We got another PC (John and Is Christmas to each other - sucks), John just bought another vehicle so now we have 2 car notes, UGH - sucks again. My dryer is 16.5 years old, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much about that. Waiting for a repair guy now to see what that damage is gonna be. The only one we somewhat lucked out on was that I hung onto my old Rainbow vacuum from 16.5 years ago. Yeah, can you tell I've been married for 16.5 years, the dryer, the vacuum. Oh, let me throw one more little thing in the mix. The bar on the refrigerator door keeps falling off every time we open the door and everything on that shelf falls out. Just a little minor annoyance, but hey, I'll take that if it counts as my #5. So, anyway, here I am hoping it stops pouring soon so the sun really will come out tomorrow. Thanks Annie. I needed that.

First 2 layouts of 2009

I made 2 layouts pretty much exactly the same. One for each of the kids books. I need to maybe rethink how I am doing that. Instead of duplicating layouts I could just make 1 layout and put it in a family album. They can fight over the books when I'm gone. LOL. Nah, I'm pretty sure I'll continue to do what I'm doing. The 2nd layout usually goes pretty fast anyway.

I figured out I did 36 layouts last year. Not too bad for the girl who never scrapbooks, huh. I started out 2008 with a bang (12 layouts in January) then had a few 0 and 1 page months.

My goal is to complete more layouts in 2009 then I did in 2008. That should be totally doable right.

i am second

A must check out website...

http://www.iamsecond.com/

A big thank you to Monique McLean for posting this on her website. I greatly enjoyed the site.

Happy 2009

I'm sitting here thinking about what I'm going to eat for supper. I know, it's sad. It's Friday afternoon and John usually picks up sushi on his way home from work on Friday's. I'm thinking with the holidays and the broken work week, he'll probably forget it's Friday and come home empty handed. That would be okay with me, because I'm actually thinking about Amore's Pizzarama. There's usually not many people there, so if/when the kids act up, it's usually not that big a deal. Oh yeah, Amore's also offers frozen drinks. Mmmm, I think I could use one of those right now. I'm off work today because Benjamin's day care was closed for New Years. He and Samantha are quietly watching "Get Smart" (one of John's Christmas gifts) right now. At least for the time being. I'm sure it won't be long. Ahhh, here they go now. Samantha's yelling at Benjamin to take off her boots. Yes, he's wearing girls boots, but they're black and have buckles on them. In his little mind they are cool pirate boots.

So, what's everyones plans for the New Year? I typically don't make any New Year resolutions, but I think I need to change several things in my life. I turn 40 this year, in just a few days, in fact. I'm really looking forward to my 40s. I didn't particularly enjoy my 30s, or the person I was in my 30s. I figure it's time for me to grow up and be the Best Me I can be.

P.S. Sorry no photo. My home computer is still down. We got a new PC for Christmas, but it's still in the box. Maybe this weekend John will be able to get it up and going. Wish me luck.