Tonight........

Tonight I will be celebrating the New Year alone. Jay is out of town for work, and Breanna has strep. So I will be kicking up my feet drinking some "wedding" champagne (yes my parents still have some) and watching Ryan Seacrest. Hope you have a wonderful New Year and a fabulous 2009!!  

Update....my husband is in Paris.......fun right......well not Paris France, Paris Arkansas!!!!

The Automaker bailout from a different perspective..

Now I need to start this with a little background. I am from a GM family (MIC, and GMAC  now retired). We have had an exciting life because of this. We moved several times, and got to meet a bunch of really great people. GMAC helped put my sister and I though school. We have ALWAYS owned GM vehicles. 

Many people out there are against the bailout, they believe that big companies should not be helped out no matter what. They should fix their problems themselves or pay the consequences.

That is all fine and good, and someone should have to be held accountable for major decisions that have caused a downfall, but not millions of people.

There are millions of GM employees, or people employed because of GM in the US. There are the car dealers (salesmen, parts, and auto body workers), factory workers that build the cars, numerous suppliers that build parts that go into cars, finance men and women, designers, and engineers. Some of these people live paycheck to paycheck, and cannot afford to lose their jobs. 

If GM filed bankruptcy many of these people would potentially loose their jobs.  There are also about 479,000 retirees. These people are potentially going to lose a portion of their retirement, and their health care. Now it has been put out there that around 75% of the retiree's are not of Medicare qualifying age (my family is in this bucket) . So where does that leave those people?Not only them, but people who are currently receiving treatment for serious illnesses. These people would be stuck without health insurance, and probably not able to get new insurance due to pre-existing conditions. What if that was your loved one, receiving treatment for cancer, and then was just cut off, no insurance, no way to pay for the expensive live saving treatments. (thankfully I have a very healthy family). People who worked (worked very hard) their whole lives, and invested their money into their retirement funds these are the people who are going to suffer. CEO's, COO's, and CFO's who have an abundant amount of money are not the people that that will be hurt by these companies failing. 

I do agree that in order for these companies to keep on functioning there need to be changes, that is obvious. I do agree that there are things that maybe they could have done to lessen the damage that the current situation of the economy has put them in. 

I do not agree that millions of people should be put into a tough, potentially really tough spot because of it. 

Christmas 2008

Christmas was great. Filled with family, fun, food, drinks, laughter, tons of chatting, even a trip to the ER (don't worry everyone is ok).

I will post pictures later. The kids have loved Christmas, Breanna has even made up some Christmas songs of her own. 

Only one more day off and then it is back to work!  

 

  

O Christmas Tree........

We got our Christmas 2 weeks ago. I told Breanna we were going to go and get  her a Christmas tree, she got sooo excited! Here is the tree when it first came into the house. We did turn it around so that the hole at the bottom is in the back!

Here are the kids decorating it. They had a lot of fun. After Jay and I got the lights on they went to town putting on decorations. We had turned on Sirus Radio on the TV and listened to Christmas music while we decorated. 

Just a pretty picture of our tree up close.

YEAH, Sam Bradford brought the Heisman back to OU!!

I was not sure that Sam was going to win, I think most people thought that the vote was up in the air, and from the results it really was. Congrats Sam!! I think Billy Sims was a tad but excited. You will surely hear his excitement as he YELLS Boomer about 15 times!

(photos from ESPN)

Bloggie Worlds Collide.........

After work tonight I went to see Chez Det in all it 99.9% finished glory. Let me tell you the pictures don't do it justice. The cabinets, the storage (ohh they have some serious storage), the appliances, the lighting system (which just got installed), the beverage center (can't leave out the beverage center), the wood-burning fireplace (good call on that one Det) it ALL looked Fabulous!!!  Even the closets are worthy of being a bit jealous of. I could go on and all about all of the cool things they have built into the kitchen!! Seriously JEALOUS!!  We had some wine, gossiped a bit (well maybe a little more than a bit), Jess attempted the "Christmas shot" for the pre-party she is having on Sat. I know while we were talking I kept looking around, I just couldn't believe how great it all looked! 

Then, just before I had to leave to go and get the kiddos, the Potato Queen showed up!!  Let me tell you she is exactly what I had thought she was. We jumped right into the conversation, although a short one. She was funny, happy, outgoing, and just adorable. Seriously I really don't know how this girl is single! 

I think at one point during the conversation between Potato and Jess about how tall Potato was, I may have said out loud, (but was definatly saying in my head) "yep this is just how I had pictured the two of them"!! They are just like sisters!!

Potato and Jess (borrowed from the Det Jess blog) 

Thanks you both for letting me come over and hang out for a bit. I promise to come back and stay a bit longer (if you girls will let me)!!! 

This actually came out of a MOTHERS mouth....

I stopped at a store tonight on my way home from work (and no it was not Walmart). I had an assortment of things. Some diapers, a Sneaky Santa gift, toilet paper, milk, and toothpaste. 

The 2 women behind the counter were talking as I walked up. I don't know what they were talking about originally, but this is what ensued. 

Lady #1 (the one at the register I am at): You must have kids, how old are they?"

Me: I have 2, one is 2 years old and the other is almost 3 1/2 years old"

Lady #2 "Ohh that is nice my 21 year old daughter is coming in town for Christmas, she is going to get to meet her 4 month old sister for the first time"

Lady #1 "Ohh my mom had me for 9 years before I had a sister, and she taught me that my toys were mine and I didn't have to share them with my sister."

Me: ohhh

Lady #1 "people keep telling me that I need to teach my daughter to share. I tell them I am not telling her she has to share I bought those toys for her, I didn't buy them for anyone else. I am not supporting the kid down the street, if I wanted them to play with a toy I would have bought them one"

Me: at this point I am silent....don't know why Lady #1 is saying this.....her child is going to be one of "those kids" where ever it goes!

Lady #1 continues....."I am not trying to buy toys for anyone but my child. Those are her toys she doesn't have to share them with anyone. I don't buy my girl toys so the kid down the street can play with them. I am not spending my money on toys so they can play with them. That is just stupid. People who tell their kids they have to share are just stupid."

At this point I grabbed my bag and began to walk out. As I walked out she was talking about the checkers at a local grocery store....."those people are rude, I only go grocery shopping once a month so that I don't have to deal with them. They are just rude"

I respond with "and not nearly as conversational" a partly sarcastic comment, partly just trying to leave the conversation comment. 

I heard Lady #1 saying very loudly as I hurried to exit the store "...that's right, they never have anything nice to say, I look at them like hurry up or I might hit you in the head with this...." 

That is when I escaped.  I didn't need to hear anymore of Lady #1's rants.

CLEARLY Lady #1 is CRAZY. 

Lady #1's child is in for a sad wake up call when she goes to school, or anywhere that is not her house. 

Can you believe that there are parents out there like this???????

Can you believe that these people live anywhere near me.  CRAZY lady #1, and Lady #2 who has a 21 year old daughter coming in town to meet her 4 month old sister.

Wordful Wed.---Great-Grandparents

I have said it before,but I am sooo glad that my kids get the opportunity to not only meet, but get to know their Great-Grandparents (with the exception of my Papa). I have had them in my life for (almost 31) 30 years. I never met any of my great-grandparents.   

One thing that I love getting to see is my Grandparents faces light up when they get to see them. We are very lucky to have one great-grandparent live in town, and the other great-grandparents make it a priority to come and visit as often as they can. Here are the 3 of them at Thanksgiving chatting away. 

More Wordful Wed there ---------->

The classic "If I were you"

Here is a picture that I took over Thanksgiving. We have a LONG running joke in our family. It started with my Grandad. He would try to kindly suggest that my Dad do something the way he thought it should be done. It always started with "if I were you".  As you can see from the picture the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Dad and Frank after taking the bikes around the block. Can you hear my Dad saying it........

"Now Frank, if I were you".......

  

So Sweet......

BOOMER SOONER

Now we have to wait for the Heisman trophy award next Sat.  I remember the last time a Sooner won the Heisman, we were at a wedding of my second little sister =)  at Texas Tech. My dad snuck into the bathroom during the reception to call my Grandparents, they held the phone up to the TV so that he could hear the announcement live! ****just a note of interest, that was also the night that Saddam Hussein was caught****  

JJ's 2nd birthday party....

We had a small celebration for JJ's second birthday while all of my family was here. He had a great time.

Opening his presents. He loved opening the boxes!


One outfit that he got from my parents was a Harley Davidson outfit. It came complete with a baby dew rag. JJ loved it, he would wear it all the time if we would let him!

JJ's cake. He loves football. Anytime he sees a commercial, or anyhitng having to do with football he starts yelling "football game, football game" Now I hadn't thought about the fact that the icing was blue and could possibly stain his face, luckly my mom got it all off.

Happy Birthday boy

Thanksgiving...

We had Thanksgiving a little early this year at my parents house. My sister, Frank, and my Grandparents all came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had a great time getting to visit with everyone. There will be more pictures, but here are some from the actual day we celebrated Thanksgiving!!

Aunt "awissa" and Breanna. I am not sure if this is when Melissa was trying to convince Breanna that she needed to come to the beach, but it could have been. There wasn't an hour that went by for the rest of the weekend that Breanna wasn't asking someone to take her to the beach.

I am SURE that there is beach talk going on in this one. Breanna was pretty happy with Melis, she seemed to hang out with her A LOT during her time here. Even when we went over to tell Melissa, Frank and my Grandparents good-bye Breanna kept saying Aunt "awissa" isn't going anywhere. She really did not want her to leave. **I wanted to add, Melissa was saying on Monday (the day after this picture) that her arms were sore. THAT is how much time the two of them spent like this...

The kids played with the infamous train table. My Dad and Jay spent a lot of time re-laying the track, and decided (after the kids had torn it up in 30 min) that it probably needed to be glued together in large sections. Trust me there were TONS of pieces of track!
Outside waiting for all of the Grandparents to arrive! Breanna rode her bike around and JJ walked around with me.

Nana arrives

Grandma and Grandad arrive. Grandad looks pretty happy to see those Great-grandkids!!
Everyone talking in the kitchen.

The grandma's talking.

Breanna being a ham, and playing with the bead table!!
18+ pounds of turkey.......yummm

Thanksgiving ended as all holidays at my parents house do. With everyone congregating on the living room floor. Even Dexter is in the mix, trying to get someone to throw him a ball. Which JJ does happily!!

Just wanted to say........

WE LOVE YOU UNCLE MIKE!!

Merry SITSmas!

Have to say this isn't the final Christmas picture, this is the one I took before they had their pictures taken, just got the proofs back today!!

Hope you all have a happy, family filled, Holiday Season, full of laughs and good times!

Go here  to see more cards...

Menu from game day......

Didn't post this the first time I posted about the game, but we cooked some good food.......

Ribs.....there are ALWAYS ribs..

The is almost always some chicken for me!!

New potato salad, the vinagrette below was GREAT!!

Grilled veggies.....gotta have the veggies!! The seasoning and spices we used!

Yes, Jess there was Feta involved, forgot it in the first picture, but had to take one!

There are no pictures of the finished food, only the boys cutting it all up in the previous post. (bad blogger, bad blogger).

Blogger Food Fun

Go and visit Laural or Elaine for some fun!!

"Look at my pretty eyes Mommy"

That is exactly what Breanna told me when I found her huddled in the corner of our bathroom last Sat night.......we THOUGHT she was watching Scooby Doo, while we watched the OU game.

Yes, she has a swimming suit on.......what do you expect, at least she has SOME kind of clothing on!! She got into my eye shadow, and made herself have "beautiful" eyes.

Breanna is sitting with me right now...her comment is "look Mommy I am so funny!"