Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one

Recent searches on my blog - this one was really looking for me:

"Drivin My Life to a Red Grand AM!" search (My website covered the first 5 searches and a bunch of other friendly blogs that link me are there too)

"Breckingridge, Colorado Jobs" search

"Girls Being tickled in the military" search

Oh yes - I really do have some last minute gift ideas - email me if your are intrested.

Alas, little ones, I do not rule.

Nothing to do with todays events.. just restless quote searching and maybe because it's J's favorite show and I miss the kids.

I talked with Julie early this morning and we have decided to do our Holiday Open House next weekend at my house. So I need to quickly wrap up this post and work on the flyer so it can get in the mail tomorrow. If I can get past the yawns. I went over to Hobby Lobby after work and bought a few baskets, frames, christmas wrap and other goodies, everything 1/2 off and spent $13.00 I was really proud of myself. Then I went over to Party City and got some raffle tickets, each customer who attends, brings a guest and spends a certain amount gets to put a ticket into a drawing for a goodie basket that I have yet to figure out will be. A lot of my customers earned "Holiday Dollars" through out the year and will redeem them at the Open House. SHould be fun. While checking on email at work, 4 of my favorite customers wrote me and asked when it would be and wanted to go - so I know I have a 4 signed up!

I talked to the kids this morning. J was acting up and said she wanted to come home until she realized that grandma would really send her home if she cried wolf like that. They are having fun, but mornings are hard on J and so she acts up. Mom asked me why I put up with it.. maybe it's such a routine I just deal with it and get going. I dunno. Tomorrow is house cleaning and website design... again. Story of my life. Need to knock out 2 of the sites so that they can become maintenance and not rebuilds every 3 days.

I see you don't chase dreams, you live them.

B just called me. He applied 2 weeks ago to the county corrections to go back into corrections. When we were out at Chili's on Monday, we discussed his options of where to go to get back into corrections. To stay in the Denver area, this was one of the "musts". He takes the test for pre-requirements on Tues. and then we go from there. I have no doubt in my mind that he would be a shoe-in for the job, his weight might throw him out, but I saw his references, two of them from prior corrections facilities that say they will take him back now if he would say yes to them. This is it.. I'm going to get my husband back soon.... I might be pre-judging, but I think Christmas came early for the two of us this year...

I can't find a movie quote on this... you would think "Shake, Rattle and Roll" I would find something -

Shake- Is there anything that makes you shake in your shoes? Any phobias you'd like to share? Heights and spiders. It's not easy working on the 24th floor of a high rise. The building rumbles all the time. Spiders.. <<>> Enough said.

Rattle- What's rattling around in your mental trunk that you need to take care of? That I won't do great in my Christmas sales. That I'm not ever going to make it great in my life and that I'll end up like my in-laws working just to pay the bills and not enjoying life. Need to get over my self-esteem and feel better about myself. Dang.. my mental trunk is huge!

and Roll- When you run up against an unexpected challenge, do you adapt and roll with it or scrap your original plan and go with Plan B? Depends on the challenge. Most time, in the graphics world, I'll tackle it. If it's life, I consider the option of Plan B but I try to go with the flow and handle what comes in.

Now play along in your own space and leave a comment so we know where to find you!

After all ... tomorrow is another day.

Oh a classic and a favorite. It is raining outside and if I'm lucky, I'll wake to snow on the ground tomorrow and call in and not go to work. Tonight was a pink night. It's been, what, 2 weeks since I last went? Felt really out of the loop, so many new people and I didn't have anything to take for my shoulder so I was in a lot of pain. We talked about our goals for Christmas and being that it is now Nov. 14th, I'm a month behind in sales and I'm getting cold feet by the second. But with some pep talk, and a little encouragement, I'm going to put a flyer together for my customers husbands and send them out hopefully tomorrow or Friday and see if I can get some Christmas orders by Thanksgiving from the guys. I had to lower my goal amount, but I think I can still pull it off and work it hard. I'm also going to call some corporate businesses and see what is in store for the holidays. I'm not on track, but I'm back on the thought process, so we shall see.

...and it was everything that I hoped it could be

Small little details that I will work here permenatly (but I haven't brought in my "cube" stuff yet)....

1) get e-mail account
2) name on plate outside of cube
3) they clean out the ex-employee's stuff out of your cube
4) two monitors in your cube means your a full time employee, not contract
5) get a window view cube
6) get medical, vacation and 401k benefits

Movie Quote - I found out what the secret to life is: friends. Best friends.

I'm going to give my reasons for love on Julie. My best friend.

She is the best friend I have ever had.

She knows when to make me laugh, when to make me think on issues that need serious thought... and in that same sentance - she knows when to step back and let me think it through, she knows my ups and downs, my strengths and weakness.

She leaves me funny messages on my phone and we play a great game of phone tag weekly.

When I need support - she rallies on my side 110% and more

When I had an awesome day, a shoulder to cry on, someone to vent to - she is the first person I think of

She is my best friend - Julie

On a side note - we were talking this morning before work. Usually we do catch up on the phone in our cars. This morning I was late getting ready for work, so she was in the car, I was doing my hair.

She had called the other night and I missed her call (we were at Chilis). B made a fuss about it. He said something along the line, you talked to her earlier today, do you have to talk 5 times a day on the phone?

No. Not really. More like 10 to 20 times a day.

If we don't get our "Julie" / "Susan" fix for the day we are in a rut. I don't know what we would do without each other. We have been through so much together.. dead beat husbands, money woes, great days and lack of "pink" business (yep, she's a pink lady too), lay-offs. We have been through so much, and we are always just days or months from doing the same thing. We both learned to play golf together, we have a lot of the same passions and goals in life (GRAND AM!) that I know when I say something, she won't think I'm nerdy (ok, she does but in a fun way). She's my biggest support on my website designs. Talking this morning, she mentioned she liked the new feature I added to one of the sites. Not even the client said anything about the little bullet change I made. She said it best - it took us awhile to find out we were meant to be friends, and our friendship has slowly built over the past 2 years. I could go on and on about the things we do for each other - and I'm sure to a few people.. this all sounds nerdy, but up till then, I have never had a "BEST FRIEND". Never. Friends that come and go like a NASCAR race... racing the track at 180 miles an hour. Friends long enough in the pit stop then off and gone in seconds. Julie has been my friend for so long and a great support to my low self esteem. Thank you Julie. I'm so glad you stayed in Denver. Now to keep me in town. :) Our long distance bills would be a killer!

My job sucks. It's got no benefits and no future.

When I first started doing movie title quotes for my subject titles, I thought that in 2 days I'll be banging my head against a wall trying to find movies to match my thought. What did I get myself into? I found a "random quote" page on the IMDB site and type in the word that's going with my thought process then I search a list of movies and pick one from there. I'm going to try and stay with movies I've seen.. but hey, at least you know that when you come to visit.. you got some movie quotes to look at.

So on to the topic at hand. SUCKS. Heck, that's a cuss word on this blog. I better be careful. But it's true. I feel guilty as crap when there is nothing to do at work and I sit there doing nothing but surf, read a little on what you can do to a pdf file (which is pretty cool) and then check to see who has visited the site (this one) lately and then who has updated their blog in the past 30 minutes, then I look to some co-workers for work to do, they have nothing for me, then it's back to surf, read, check stats, check blogs,... catch my drift? It sucks! I should be grateful, and I am, that I am working. But i don't want to wear out my welcome and one day they realize that there isn't enough work for me and let me go.

So what do I do? After at least 5 hours of this silly routine, I go home for the day to work on my own personal stuff, and because my shoulder is getting worse and I'm just about out of meds... I don't get much done. THIS SUCKS!

Oh well.. I've vented. I'm going to go and relax in the clean living room I did yesterday and I cleaned my bathroom today. Threw out a ton of pink samples that I use for myself that were no good.(anyone want some NEW - lips, cheek or eye samples? - Let me know). A clean bathroom with no toothpaste on the counter for 2 weeks.. how lucky can I get?

Love, gratitude and the warm feeling that comes with making a new friend

New "aortal" this week - The 3 R's.

In case some of you are wondering who the best is they are up here on this plaque.

We were emailed the link for the Macromedia November Newsletter. The site I worked on that landed me the job where I am now.. "Lower Manhattan.info", is a site that is featured as "Sites That Inspire" at the bottom right corner of the site! This so rocks! Check it out - Macromedia Newsletter or Lower Manhattan.info

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Is this just not gross!? - yes, in my comment section!

Never touch my tuxedo.

Laughing at Anna (and a huge wave ~~~~~ at her). I don't think on "Meme's" will I do movie quotes.

But take a wild guess with this title where I went tonight? B and I went to Chili's for supper and then a movie, The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan. At Chili's I had a "Presidente Margarita"

and I can say.. never touch my margarita! Then with a good buzz going, we went to the movie and I giggled like a high school girl. It was a blast. This was the first time in years that we did dinner and a movie and we didn't race to the theater, we didn't gobble our food down and we had fun snuggling next to each other. Don't get me wrong.. the kids are great and we miss them, but they both want to have someone hold their hands, they want to sit next to us in the movies... little things and it's moments like this that B and I get back to being husband and wife, lovers, friends and not man and woman, bill payers and naggers. :)

<< Kids at Grandma's for 2 weeks!
<< Julie getting a great job!
<< Working on SuzAnne's site and pleased with the new look.
<< Time with B!
<< Having a job to go to in the mornings. :)
<< Holiday's coming up - bring em on..I'm ready.

A lovely cheese pizza, just for me.

I have started naming my titles from movie quotes. Can you name the last one and this one? Heck.. I almost forgot where I got the last one. Look for it in the comment section. :)

Back from Albuquerque and I'm home alone for the next 15 days. I don't think I'll make it till Wednesday without wanting the kids back. We flew out yesterday morning, and arrived an hour later in NM. I haven't been to Albuquerque since 1999, and even then, the last time was when we were moving with the U-Haul on our way to Denver. I grew up in the Albuquerque airport. Beautiful place that changes each time, but stills some things is the same.. know what I mean? It was very strange for the first time not having my family meet me at the gate as we walk of the plane. I can still remember before Albuquerque even had "gate ramps" and how we watched our families walk off the plane, down the ladder and into the building. How excited we would be, when we saw a person that resembled grandma and grandpa at the top of the steps and slowly walk into the building. For those who know Albuquerque - do you remember walking under the tarmac then coming back up and being half way out on the runway in a round building? I miss that. :)

Mom then took us back to her hotel and we dropped our bags, then it was off to run some errands and pick up some stuff she can't get at home. We stopped in Wal-Mart and for once I let the kids roam off to the toy section while mom and I hit the craft section. About 20 minutes later, D shows up and asks where J is. We go looking for her and she's no where to be found. I try to be cool about it. She's 8, she knows not to wander off; she's probably looking for us. We split up and keep looking for another 10 minutes. Then I hear my name called over the intercom. Almost 2 years later of nagging - "ask someone to help you find me", it paid off. She held her cool until she saw me, then she dropped into tears with relief. I told her I would never leave the store without her till I had her in my arms and that she should never leave the store till I found her.. and all was better. Such a brave girl.

We then drove around Albuquerque. I saw the "BIG I" where I-40 and I-25 meet up and the changes they did to it, seems a little more navigational. We drove down Central, up by the Tram , but it was too windy to take a ride in it and costly! Then I remembered when we were near Old Town that Aquarium and Botanic Garden was close by - we thought it would be great to get out and walk around at. Mom and the kids have never been there before but my sister and I have when a few years ago, before she moved to Italy and I to Denver - I think she had to get her passport stuff taken care of and we had some time to kill and we went to the Gardens. It was a blast. The kids, mom and I spent like 30 minutes watching the shark tank, the over the head tank with the green eels were down right spooky. Couldn't help but think of the Disney movie The Little Mermaid and wonder if it was this spot they come up with those scary helpers of the wicked sea witch!

Then we went out for dinner (why do I always feel that when I'm with mom I'm always eating??) and headed back to the hotel to unwind.

This morning we were up and gone to see me off to the plane and now I'm a childless mom. They both seemed more excited to visit their friends they have at Grandma's then missing me, and I see that as a good thing. So I wrote my list on the plane that things have to be done. I think Thanksgiving is going to be at my house for the first time in my married life (11 years thank you) and I have 2 more pink Open Houses for the Holidays so I have some house cleaning, website to work on and work in general to do. I'm going to work on the sites for about an hour and then get some house cleaning done. It's needed!