Santa Arrived

(Notice milk and cookies all gone on your left)
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Christmas #1

The kids pre-present opening!

sweet

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Merry (*&^*%@! Christmas

So plans for tonight changed, Ryan is in town with the flu and we are not going out, I am so bummed I am divorcing you as my ex-work husband...blah (j/k-make sure you put up pictures of annoying guy for me to see). So since we have all xmas presents wrapped and stuff, I think tonight will be a FF night for me (PLUS) making dale bring in my new bookshelf.

Today is fancy pants day at work. Everyone is all spiffed up for the party this afternoon, I am wearing my kick ass/uncomfortable as hell shoes and my new red xmas shirt with my velvet blazer..Its a nice day at work because i am only working till 11am, but its sort of sad as well since I just found out a coworker has breast cancer. The good news is its very small and they caught it early, bad news is, its right before xmas and about a year ago her dad died of cancer...so good thoughts out to her..

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!)

And if Shannon or Kristie checks in, we have xmas presents for Gage and Keira (i didnt know what you needed for the new baby....so havent gotten anything yet!) so maybe call me and see if we can gettogether.

In case I'm too busy to blog, HAVE A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
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Chrismakuah

Tonight finished the dollhouse which is now hiding in the Daleroom with large easter bunny and abundant presents..still have some to wrap (hiding in Owens closet)...Today Owen was with Grandma (he was good) the girls at school (it didnt burn down), me at work (i didnt do anything interesting, but we did have a food day!), Dale (home on vacation, did laundry, dishes, and played about 6 hours of FF)..

Tomorrow is Xmas Party at Westmoor, something? at night with Ryan (I'm leaning for dinner out and drinks...somewhere?-look at me I have no effing clue what is going on...

ALSO HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY LAURA (a day early)..she is somewhere in Africa.
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Wed...(sure it isnt thursday yet?)

Hey good news is that I have some antibiotics for me...looks like I have a sinus infection, bronchitis, and possibly a strep infection...which is to say, that since some of the kids have had strep, and everyone at daycare has strep the likelyhood of me having strep as well is good so might as well try to knock that out as well.. Last night I took my 1st dose and also managed to scrounge up some cough syrup...this morning I felt about 6 million times better and as an added bonus, I could breathe through my nose...This right there is an improvement.

I also had a PT checked while I was there...I'm good at 2.0, the antibiotics tend to interact with the cumadin (causing me to have to monkey with my dosages...) so a baseline is always good...

Today (wed) Dale has an interview with one of the other companies within his parent company...I guess the word on the street is that they wanted to hire him but the company he is currently with pulled and got him to come there...The new place would be in Germantown (vs Sussex) so a bit father to drive but still the same company and benefits etc...

This week he is only working today and then off the rest of the week so I am creating a nice big honeydo list for him! He has to play Santa and put a huge dollhouse together for the girls..that should be fun for him (watching any engineer use instructions to put things together that he didnt design is a hoot...usually degenerates into him complaining how poorly written they are, bang bang bang...slam, throw hammer)

I have some stuff to do this week myself..tomorrow is a preChristmas food day, I have to pick up Owen's Pictures after 5pm...Friday is our company Xmas party in the afternoon, hanging with Ryan in the PM...Saturday back to the dentist with Owen for his 1st cleaning and its very possible that SANTA may be coming after the kids nap!

Sunday is my parents, Monday is Toni's, Tuesday is back to my parents for family Christmas (and pick up my comic book) and at some point I will sleep this weekend.

Ipod heavy rotation for this week: They Might Be Giants "Hey Mr. DJ..," "Holding on to the Earth" Sam Phillips, and pretty much Travis the whole of "The Man Who."

Books for the week "The City of Falling Angels" John Berendt which is about the buring of the Fenice Opera House in Venice...the same guy wrote "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." I also have like 3 other new books at home waiting for me to get done with this one, but Non Fiction for me reads slower than Fiction...

Today ran into Target for a big bow for the dollhouse, wasnt as crazy as i expected...could have been worse, old ladies fighting over the wrapping paper...
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Owen Turns 2

In t-minus 14 days....what a big boy you are!
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priceless

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news

Congrats to Jen and to Mark M who graduated from college this past weekend...yea for you...also congrats to Ben Miles (my brothers college roomie and currently the guy whooping dale in our ff playoffs) for making the front page of the local paper...Ben is a kindergarden teacher in waukesha and got his mug on page 1 for being a rare breed of low grade level male teachers...whoopie ben!

I am expected to get 2 crowns on my 2 back teeth and or a root canal, I have to see a specialist..bah...and my cold is getting no better...Happy Christmas I guess...

Speaking of that my dentist tried to spin my teeth hurting as "Christmas Stress" I tend to clench my teeth when i sleep and she said "well could it be the stress of the holidays?" I am sure i havent worn down the enamel of my teeth in the last, lets say month to cause this much pain....which I have had for months...crap, at least she didnt try the "could you be pregnant?" track...another doctor fallback, you are either stressed or hormonal.
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This afternoon

as you can see from below, Owen and I went to brunch with Auntie Vanessa at our favorite vegitarian restaruant, Beans and Barley (yum)...Had the Black Bean Quesadillas, Owen had organic Animal Crackers, and a soy yogurt smoothie....Auntie V had a bloody mary and eggs benedict...did some shopping at the groc store, had some alterra and came back home...I still feel randomly crappy, but hoping tomorrow will be better, made chili tonite for dinner tomorrow.
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Does she look sick to you?

Nope, malinda didnt look sick to me either...until we got home, took naps and Malinda proceeded to puke up applesauce, canned fruit, and milk all over herself, Dale, and my couch..thus necessitating a complete laundry load of puke things, me tearing apart the couch to clean it all up and giving the kid with puke in her hair, a bath...

Then 3 hours later right before bed, Malinda puked all in her bed, on her arms, which then meant another load of laundry, clean up, and de-puking of the bedroom...She seems OK today...Depending on what happens here in the next 2 hours or so, either Owen and I will be going somewhere with his Auntie Vanessa or she may be coming over here to play with everyone...

I think I have an ear infection and strep, but since I need to fix my ouchie tooth tomorrow, Dr appt may have to wait till Tuesday!
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Snow Leopard (he is also never out!)

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The elusive Red Panda (he is always sleeping)

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Wow, my kids turned into giraffes

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Wolf was out

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Kids at Zoo

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Bird at the zoo...(cant believe I got this close!)

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Guess where we went yesterday?

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Xmas Tree

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Xmas

This is really for kristie....finished the santa...he's handing for xmas!
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More remodeling

Changed this wall a bit...now much less cluttered.
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Unexpected Windfall

So I may have mentioned that my favorite scrapbook store closed (officially) about an hour ago...They were selling EVERYTHING in their store (fixtures, shelving etc...) I scored 2 oak bookshelves, 6 feet high, 48 inches long and 12 inches deep.. for $45.00 each...and they are on wheels... With a coat of paint (left over from painting the room it now occupies...) it looks stellar!

I am also posting a few pics from my reorganization of the living room as the shelf took up well..the demensions are there...space. I had to get my dad to agree to store 2 dining room chairs and a shelf in their basement (not really a hard sell), but now at least i have storage for the scrapbooks, and they all fit in the shelves! whoopie!..

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Cow

Malinda

I am not loving the new blogger beta..due to a wierd fluke the 1st blogger account i made is now linked with my email account, so i have to do this backdoor thing to get in here and its a pain! I can't use hello or picasa to blog things, which is weak, so i am going the LONG route to do my pictures...

Below is Malinda and this face she drea on her doodle pad! For a 3 year old I find it highly impressive...she is well on her way to drawing crap on napkins and paying for dinner with them!
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woohoo!

Today was "erin" saturday (just say it to yourself, it makes sense then..) we did shopping and eating snack in Oconomowoc at Pick n Save, saw Santa, ate food, shopped, ate food, went to Brueggers for lunch...drove back to town, went to Sentry for their instore bonanza (ate again ugg) signed up for endless drawings, bought vodka (have had craving for vodka cranberry for weeks), came home...kids watching Noggin and we are now about to draw xmas trees for xmas...

Many thanks to Shannon, Tommy, Mr. Reuss and angie and bill for the holiday cards....shannon, the girls went BONKERS over Gage... "Thats Gage, I love him!" funny...we have xmas presents for him, should we try to have a weekend playdate/movie date over here?
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Your Thought for the Day

You can't escape fro anything until there's somewhere good to go.
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Middle Ground---

Anyways today it was like 16 degrees out or 11 degrees, one of the two, regardless effing cold. Yesterday we got some kewl news, but I have been advised to keep it on the DL for now...so anyway, at some point that will be revealed....

First week in the new job, very odd...I am about as busy as I want to be (as I explained to my boss, I'm Steady), I feel like Mikey, I show up when I want, leave when I'm done and that's about that...Its refreshing yet odd...as was explained to be by Niakia, once you get off the floor you find that the stresses and whatnot just...slip away...v.v. nice.

This week the kids have a total of 3-5 ear infections, 2 sinus infections, 1 strep infection (on our bum) and 3 runny noses...Its been pleasant...we also got to observe the stellar doctoring of Doctor Biebel as he used the elephant ear irragator to flush Mya's ear of a humungus chunk of wax (ewwww.) which after he extracted this made complete sense that Mya woke up the night previous telling me "my ear is not loud enough." (kids)

Have to give shouts out to Laura who is almost done in Kenya with her program (send many postcards!), Robin who I somehow keep trading Voice Mails with (girl we gotta figure out christmas one of these days hey?), Vanessa who I love (call me, lets set a night to have you visit us, we miss you auntie V!) more than anything because she is amazing, Carrie who I will CRUSH-MF-ING-CRUSH next week when I CRUSH her in fantasy playoffs (CRUSHHHH), and of course my man Ryan down there in chilly (58 degrees-you ass) Atlanta...for you my man the inside joke song(s) of the day (which incientially have been in rotation on my ipod:) Where Eagles Dare-The Misfits, I've got a minature secret camera & strange kind of love both by Peter Murphy....all the more to help you in your Peter Murphy kinda day......hope tomorrow brings you a day with no family pets being put to sleep...just lots of puppys and kittens and happy crap like that...see you in 2 weeks eh? (BTW our xmas party is the afternoon of the 22nd, Sally wants you to fly in and come out drinking with the work krew.)
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new job

the new job is OK...kinda feel like I'm putting upon my coworker to give me work....note to self buy tom coffee.....also shout out to Ryan...hope all is well...sending down a CD your way...new music=happy. **Good Luck to laura as she gets over Malaria and ends her year in Kenya....she now is a lady who travels the globe as she begins her backback across Africa...In my next life I would like to come back as her, or a platapus...one of the two... Song of the day "Eyes" Rogue Wave
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Mya and Daddy

Pouty Owen 

Goofy Owen 

Either Peyton or Madison (i cant tell which) 

Daddy and Mya 

Mya at the Party 

700 lbs of snot

All 3 kids have a cold, which means the amount of snot going out of various childsize holes is unreal...owen has snot out of his eyes and ears..lovely!
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more snow....brrr its cold! 

snow outside my garage 

arg

You know its bad when your neighbor snow blows your sidewalk and 2 hours later, it doesnt look like he did anything, i spun out getting over to my parents this morning and at last count there are about 50 cars in ditches on the freeway, yikes!
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***s*n*o*W D*A*Y

Yeah, I didnt even try to go into work...the pink part is ice (?) and snow, and they are having thunder and lightining snow here (lovely)....For the 1st time in I dont know how long, they actually closed Waukesha Public Schools...if they are closing the schools (and basically everything in my area) and I know I am a nervous and lousy driver to begin with, I decided its worth it to NOT work today....I'm sure others feel the same way....If I had my bossess phone number I woulda askd him to drive me in since I think he has a big 4 wheel drive car-a-palooza mobile...
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

Happy 32nd Dale!
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im a blonde yeah yeah yeah!

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Trekkie?

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What card are you?

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

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stupid

most days, very little happens in the world outside my home which makes me feel positive about humanity, today was no exception and hearing about Ryan's car accident adds fuel to that fire. I just need to keep repeating 24 more hours....24 more hours of this and I dont have to take it anymore....I may need to rent network to remind myself of this...or call carrie and bitch, one of the two.
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Condolences go out to Ryan & Scott on the passing of their grandma...hope you're doing alright buddy...

Today kids and dale and I went to Westwood, Kids to Kids Klub, Dale to shoot hoops and steam room, and mom to lift for an hour....shopping at Sentry, naptime, Lord Football, dinner, and bed...now I am off to FF XII which rocks, except I am not loving the players guide which seems like a inebriated monkey did the layout, seriously Brady Games, did you fling the pages at a wall and decide this would be a user friendly acceptable order??
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Monsoon

Dale and I went to Monsoon and I guess I was expecting more from a "Mo's" Restaurant...I guess I should have been tipped off since it was in a Strip Mall...the food was clearly an attempt to compete with crap, that asian fusion place at Mayfair...crap......arg...We had lettuce wraps (you cant screw those up) and I had a spicy szchwan chicken with green beans (yummy) and Dale had something with scallops (I dont do the shellfish thing) but the veggies looked good...all in all wasnt bad and it certainly wasnt overpriced...I just had a laugh with Dale that I have eaten there when it was the Forum (greek family), some thai place and now asian fusion...also made me sad that Manichan's closed in Oconomowoc (the best Thai ever).

We got a call today from our Senators office that we have a tour of the capital on the 16th when we are in DC, thats cool.

Came home after dinner (really early) played my birthday present (FF XII) and opened Dale's birthday present a week early (4 cans of German imported Drinking chocolate and man did that kick ass!) and now its about 10:30 and I admit to not wanting to go to bed..

Listening to Jack Johnson on my i-pod (Sing-a-longs- & Lullabyes for the film Curious George) because he is beyond mellow....

Also shoutouts to Toni who got me a $50.00 Itunes card (bought movies) Robin who sent a card and a Starbucks card (can drink coffee while watching the movies) and to Ryan who reminded me that I am only a few short years away from Free Coffee at McDonalds due to my old age (you bastard!)...sorry I missed your call, we were at dinner and then, well you know, video games occupied me and the phone was on vibrate...

Tomorrow I have to run to Memory Junction (pick up my kit and they are having a rummage sale of all their class room supplies...), run to the Gym (no idea if its lifting day or cardio day...), thinking of taking the kids to Grandmas in the afternoon (maybe leave them there and catch a movie?) and then thats pretty much it....maybe also Dale can install (or whatever) the external HD he bought today...
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Black Friday

Also known as today, November 24..which is my 30th Birthday! WHOOOO HOO! Plans for today included seeing Santa and buying cookies at the Worlds Greatest Cookie Sale, tonight no kids, but dinner at either Asiana or Monsoon.
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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couldnt come at a better time

I believe that I would have walked out on my job today if it were not for my promotion into Client Services next month. Does anyone out there understand why you would go through all the trouble to write 4 PAGES of rules for how you get credit for accounts and then tell your 28 employees those are LAW but then let the rules get bent/broken for ONE PERSON because that someone runs into your office crying about how its so unfair and they have been doing this and the rules shouldnt apply to them. Nice. huh? Really nice. Why bother having rules at all? If you make an exception for ONE person than those rules become invalidated and you have no authority at all and you have anarchy (not even in the UK) Bah.
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CONGRATS TO JEFF AND KRISTIE!

Welcome to the world: Alanna Marie Reynolds, 7 lbs 1 oz born on Friday, November 10. Grandma Carol sure looks proud! We're looking forward to meeting her when she comes up for Christmas!
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Girls on the Fireplace 

Malinda on the fireplace 

amazon

my wish list is now a link above...from amazon.com... :) (hint Hint dad)
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FINAL FANTASY XII!

FINAL FANTASY XII IS HERE AT MY HOUSE! BEWARE, THIS SHALL BE MY LIFE TILL I BEAT IT! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Also its 5 days till my 30th....
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job news

As of December 1st I am no longer a collector! I am moving into Client Services under my (old) boss Kurt. It will be a welcome change as I dont have to work nights or Saturdays anymore.

Tonight we saw a basketball game and a band concert where my dad had a solo (nice job on the licorice stick dad)...

No news yet on the Reynolds baby...we only could wave to bob tonight as he was walking beamer...so if anyone knows the details, pls email my way.
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Spider-Man 3 Trailer - EXCLUSIVE VENOM FOOTAGE

BRILLIANT.

Saturday--hooray!

Today we ate scrambled taco eggs (yum) had fun playing with play-dough...went to grandma Toni's house (mom and dad snuck away to hit the St. Agnes Holly Fair, Lunch at Sbarro, Free Cookie from Mrs. Fields, 2 new bras for me (whoopie doo doo) and then the 5 lb FF XII guide (monsterous!). Now dale and the kids are watching Wubsy Woo Woo (Dale is sleeping) and I am contemplating dinner (ring balonga and mashed chive potatoes) .

Movies today: nacho libre, Cars, American Dreamz, and The Notorious Bettie Page.
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winter

it is snowing, slushing, sleeting, hailing, and thunderstorming all at the same time...welcome to winter wisconsin!
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Moxie and Zolten on The View

I love Penn and Teller

hellllllloooo!

Today at work was pretty funny, two people who generally get along had a little bitch fight and it was funny to watch....Tonight I have about 87 magazines and catalogue which came in the mail so i get to read all that....I will crush you like a bug this week in fantasy Football....! CRUSH YOU!
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happy day for some, not so for all

So Dale is minorly depressed that "his team" lost the elections Tuesday...me? I couldnt be happier (although we both voted "NO!" to that stupid ammendment for the anti gay marriage ban and were sad when the yes'es won-and we split on the dealth penalty...(him no, me YES)) which ended up passing.

This morning Owen is watching Little Bear and I am finishing my emails here.

Yesterday shopped for food with the girls and raked leaves....We are awaiting CARS and FXII in the mail...(oh goodie)
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weekend update

I am creaming Andrea (sorry!) in FF today...Thank you LD..

Today I raked leaves like a madwoman, did yard work (chopping down bushes), and mowed the lawn. The kids were reasonably well behaved (except for Malinda pooping her pants and Prison Breaking from down here to hide upstairs & Mya peeing her pants today and last night and Owen rediscovering the word "MINE!), I baked a from scratch Pumpkin Pie (my first ever) and it was good. Shopped for Groceries, did some Xstitch and cleaned a bit. This week Busy. Market Day tomorrow, Voting (democrat-sorry Dale) Tuesday, and god knows what else the rest of this week!
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ole!

When we got home from picture taking hell today and got the mail we had package from the NFL in our mailbox...turns out Dale (who has been playing NFL Latino fantasy football) won a $100.00 gift certificate to the NFL shop for being the highest scorer for week 2, great job Dale!
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Thanks to Terri for having me over for cider and apple spice cake and stamping! Terri rocks. This weekend family pictures tomorrow, craft fairs, leaf raking and fooootball.
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I am in heaven (hell)

Final Fantasy XII
I now officially have no life as I ordered it today...Plan on seeing many posts about me playing FF XII in the next weeks.
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