His & Hers.

These are our favorite coffee mugs.
His & Hers.

His is on the left. It came as a gift to him from his mother in law. (No, she doesn't want to murder him! Ha. Quite the contrary. Darnin is thankful for Damon. It's from the Shining hotel, or something along those lines. It has to do with the movie and wherever the movie was made.)

Hers came as a gift to him from Her. She then kind of took it back.... Now it's HER favorite mug.

OUCH!

Things that suck: breezing by the kitchen table, reaching for a package of needles to put away since you're passing right by the place they go----only to have one of the needles shoot up under your finger nail.

Oh.My.Freeeeaking.Gooooodness, that hurt.

NINE Years.

Hubby and I have been married for nine years.
NINE years.

How did we celebrate our 9 year anniversary?
Apart.

He was on a business trip to Asia and I was here....
But he sent me these....

With this....

Did you read the card?
Did you really read it? Hello, forgotten word. "I love sooooo much"???? Who took that message down? Ugh. 

And while he was gone, he bought me all new bedding and bedroom lamps...he just doesn't know it yet!
{Honey, they're perfect! I need more throw pillows, but I didn't see any that I liked at the stores yet...}

I also still haven't decided on curtains....

I got him:

Now what's the traditional gift for 9 years of marriage? Pottery. Hence the new mug.

My pottery? I'll take it in the form of my new "I Dream of Jeannie" lamps. {that's what they look like to me...}
(Anyone else have that theme song playing in their head???)

The business trip timing was clearly not great, but it was necessary. Hubby used to travel a lot more than he does now...It's just that he's had a Vegas trip and now this big trip close together. He should be staying put for a while now!

Happy Anniversary, Hubby!

Velvet Rope.

Gotta say---I've really been enjoying Revlon's Colorstay nail polish. I've had such great success with it staying on my nails! And, my current Fall favorite red: Revlon's Velvet Rope. In the above picture it looks pretty bright on the nails, but in reality, it's a bit darker than that. Spicy for Fall.
:)

So, today...I took my bottle with me to the salon for my mani/pedi.
Oh, it's been a good day.

Goodbye, SharkBait.

Our beloved fish, SharkBait passed away. Gage and I held a fish funeral at the toilet for him today.

The reception was held at Pet Smart, where Gage selected a replacement. So far, his name is just "Red," and I am sure it is subject to change.

Dear Red,
Please don't die, okay?
Thanks,
Gage's Mom

{One thing I noticed, yet again, about my son: when he got the news, he wanted to be alone. He wanted to cry, and be alone. He didn't want Mommy's kisses, and he didn't want Mommy to hold him. He just wanted to be alone. This is something I've noticed about him in the past, but I've hoped it would change. It hasn't. This is going to be difficult for the touchy-clingy-let's-talk-about-our-feelings type of person that I am.}

Hello, Domino!!!!

Domino Magazine used to be my absolute favorite magazine.
LOVED it!

Conde Nast shut it down.

I just read the following about it coming back:

Conde Nast is bringing its much-missed shelter magazine, Domino, back to print. It won't be a full-fledged relaunch in the style of Conde siblings Vanity Fair, which quit print in 1936 and came back in 1983, or House & Garden, which shut down in 1993, returned in 1996 and closed again in 2007. Rather, Domino is coming back as a newsstand-only special called "Domino Quick Fixes," a thick $10.99 standalone that Conde plans to sell on newsstands from mid-April through mid-July, the company said today. A second special edition of Domino is slated for next fall.

Augh! I can't wait!!!!

Today I am excited because...

I just ordered these shoes!
I actually tried to get them at the store, but they weren't in stock. I should have just bought them that day and had them shipped to me, but I didn't.
I have been thinking about them ever since, so I went ahead & bought them online.
:)

I's sooooo excited!

Redneck Roots

Well, here recently, Hubby & I decided to get in touch with our redneck side, and we took our son to our first Monster Truck Rally! {Yes, this was a first for each of us!} And actually, it was a monster truck rally and tractor pull. I learned some things about myself: (1) the monster truck rally was sooooo much fun! I loved it! Maybe I am a little redneck! (2) the tractor pull was BOR-ING.

Before the show began, you could go down on the arena floor to see all of the tractors and a couple of the trucks....


The indoor arena got VERY loud when the show started. So, we wore earplugs and these ear muffler things. Hubby just wore earplugs. Gage & I went all out.



Pics from the show....
(Gage took several of these!)






Who's getting into that SARGEANT SMASH???
Why, it's Gage & Daddy!!!!






We had a little down time before the tractor pull started. Gage filled his down time with cotton candy, popcorn, and soda. Ahhhh, a kid's junk-food dream!





The tractor pull....




We had a BLAST! Thanks Daddy, for taking us to the Monster Truck Rally!
And next time, because we know there WILL be a next time, Mommy says we will get trucker hats from a gas station before we go in! She can't wait!


Of course, the fun didn't end there!
Back at home, Gage got ready for bed...but then he had to play with his monster trucks at the foot of my bed. It was so cute! He was so excited to replay the events he'd just seen!






The whole night was just a lot of fun.
A whole lotta redneck fun!

SAHM

What?
That's not what SAHM means???

FYI: I quit my job today.
I'm going to stay home.

Morning Pictures of Mommy. ...and Ranger.

Gage snapped away the other morning, and here I am----with the dog---before work one morning.
:)

Sniff*Sniff.....I'm Sick.

UGH!

I'm sick.
I missed work on Friday.
I missed the opening of the Omni Hotel, where I was supposed to get to see family and look at some beautiful photography.
I missed the whole weekend!

I thought I had a cold.
Maybe I did.
Last week...
...but today, when I couldn't take it any longer, I went to an Urgent Care Clinic "in town."

I have bronchitis...

...and sinusitis.


I've been an icky yucky snot bucket.

But----today, I got a steroid shot, and had a breathing treatment at the urgent care center, and I feel so.much.better. I could run a marathon right now! {Okay, maybe I'm not feeling quite THAT well...but I am feeling much better.} The down side: I will probably wake up tomorrow feeling crummy again. {Boohoo!} We'll have to wait & see. For now, I'm sick, but energetic.

Know what else I am?
Sick of tv.
Sick of movies.
I've watched: Juno, The Change Up, Couples Retreat, Horrible Bosses, Judy Moody & The Not Bummer Summer (with Gage), Arthur...and I think that's it. TV shows? Too many to list. And, I've napped a ton, but seem to be wide awake *& coughing* in the middle of the night. Good times. At the urgent care clinic, they offered to give me something for cough that would help me sleep....Damn that codeine allergy!


And now comes the time where I have to 'kick my shouts out' to my hubby: Thank you for making me grilled cheese sandwiches, and thanks for making the loaded baked potato soup, and thanks for going to pick up my medicine "in town" when I didn't have the patience to wait for it. Thanks for getting me vegetables, and pears, and bananas, and the good OJ. Most of all, thanks for my cherub tomatoes. {You know, it's the little things...}

Homecoming Mums....Only in Texas?

Well, it’s that time again, when dweebs and geeks join the skaters and Heathers to watch a football game – it’s Homecoming. The Homecoming Mum is an integral part of Texas Homecoming traditions. And so you non-Texans may be asking, "What's a Homecoming Mum?"

My own explanation was lacking, so I found this article:

Homecoming Mums: The Tradition

Chrysanthemums have long been the quintessential Fall flower, so it's not surprising that they quickly became associated with the quintessential Fall sport - football. In the earliest pictures of college football games, you can pick out the mum corsages worn by the young women in the stands.

Since everything grows big in Texas, it's also not surprising that the Lone Star State is credited with developing the more elaborate corsages known as homecoming mums. In the 1960's, these wonderful concoctions could be had there for $10. Ahh, the good 'ol days.

Over the years, mums were cultivated to grow bigger and bigger and the corsages grew and grew.

Today, the silk flower has replaced the live chrysanthemum as the centerpiece for homecoming mums. With silk flowers, the only size limit to homecoming mum corsages is the size of the wearer!

Now a homecoming mum can be saved as a keepsake or recycled into next year's new unique corsage."

By: Eileen Bergen, editor of The Artful Crafter, a website devoted to crafts and the craft business. For more on mums, how to make them and where to find supplies, either wholesale or retail, please visit the Homecoming Mum Guide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eileen_Bergen
___________________________________________________

Oh, if only I could find pictures of my high school Homecoming Mums...
I'm sure that I said "Thank you" at the time, but now, of course, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about my reeeeeallly awesome mums... So, here it is: Debbie Englebretson, Thank you soooooo much for my super-cute, creative & unique mums!
Okay, I probably could go upstairs & find the pics, but then I'd have to clean up my mess, and get the scanner out, and plug it in....and you see where I'm going with this.
Let's just say that I had very crafty & cute mums in high school, and I love the memories that I now have from my Homecoming experiences.
:)

So, for those of you requiring a visual....I've googled some pics for you:
Some random girls with their mums:


{Why yes, Mums can be expensive. Why yes, they are completely non-functional, and perhaps a colossal waste of money. But yes, we all felt that we simply had to have them at the time, and we had to have the biggest, best, and most ornate. Don't hate.}

Aaahhhhhhh......

How I spent the past few days:


I wish.
No, I was AT the lake.
My getting into the water this time was an EPIC FAIL.
It was a bit more like:


I've been voted:
(*) Most likely to drown 30 people who try to save me if I fall into the water,
(*) Most likely to be the type of person that you have to knock out before you try to rescue them from water.

And I told them---I'd actually prefer to be just KNOCKED OUT rather than unexpectedly find myself in the water. I really do believe that's the key: I can mentally prepare myself if I know that I'm about to be IN the water. The random-suddenly-falling-in that happened over the weekend---freak out of EPIC proportion. Clearly, I've got to continue working on my water issues.

GROSS!

...today's pet peeve: people with braces who somehow think that they have a free pass to just NOT close their mouths when they eat, or they open their mouths even wider & do excessive sucking to help keep bits of food from getting stuck in their braces.

News flash: been there, had braces, didn't smack. If you can't eat XYZ in public because you can't keep from smacking or close your lips around it---then don't frickin' eat it in public.

I went years without a hamburger for that very reason. I also missed out on ribs & corn on the cob, to spare the general public from seeing that or hearing that.

Eating noises are disgusting.

That's my $0.02.