Stacy surprised me with a romantic week-end in Charleston! We stayed right off the Market at the Doubletree Inn and Suites on the corner of Church and Market Streets. That was nicer than the Bed & Breakfast we stayed in last February.
We ate at A. W. Shucks before we left on Sunday. I had bacon wrapped shrimp stuffed with crab. Mmm it was so good!

We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Saturday night. The garlic boiled shrimp was awesome and they make their hushpuppies mixed with shrimp & corn.

Here is clothing from the actual movie, when Forrest and Jenny were children "like peas & carrots".

When you need the waitress you flip this sign over so it reads "Stop Forrest Stop". Stacy had much fun with this of course!

We stayed in Suite 170.

This is the view as you walk off the street into the Lobby. Isn't it pretty?

Here is the corner, you can't really see the moon and one star over the Market but it was so pretty.
We did have a nice time. Did a little shopping, relaxing and re-connecting. When we first got there we ate dinner at Tommy Condon's, I had the best Ruben Sandwich. OMG. Has anybody else visited the Holy City? Where did you go and what did you eat? Can you tell i'm hungry this morning?

Now you see them..........

Now you don't!

Man am I glad to have those things off my teeth. No more brace face. Getting them off was, um, hell for me. He filed my front teeth down to make sure they were even. The sound alone made me cringe. Then there was the scrape~scrape~scrape to remove the cement. I had chills running up and down my spine ... but I am glad it's over.

Here is my darling Reilly. He was neutered yesterday because of a condition he has that makes it very likely he would contract testicular cancer if I did not have the procedure done. So, even though I hated to see my poor little guy like this I bit the bullet and did it. He came through surgery just fine and they let me pick him up after 4:30 pm. Here he is relaxing in his new leopard doggie bed that Santa brought him. I covered him with a towel because he was shivering so (despite his bed being lined with sherpa) and I was afraid to use something big like a blanket because he is so small I was afraid he'd get tangled up and hurt himself. He seemed much more relaxed and was able to doze a little when I put him to bed and covered him. I feel so much better. Maybe now he'll actually use his bed since it's been such a comfort to him tonight. Why is it so hard and stressful when your child or pet is ailing?

OMG I am already ready to get the heck out of here. Yesterday was one of "those" days. Everybody had a gripe, everybody "needed something". Ugh. Hopefully I will have some good news to share with you all by Monday (or maybe later on today I will do an update). Anybody want to venture a guess as to what it might be? (I am SO wrong... I know *grin*)

(my kid at Chuck E Cheese on Sunday but i'm sure if she knew what a blog was she'd be celebrating!)

Wow I can't believe it's been a year since I began blogging. I can't even remember whose blog I visited first or what got me started. Weird. I've met SO many wonderful people in this past year (see my sidebar of links to meet a few). I hope to meet a few IRL as well. I know i'll get to meet Cheeky on one of her Charleston trips. It's just too close for me not too. There is also a chance being that I have family in Pennsylvania maybe i'll get to meet Gerbera Daisy or Maidink. I wish I could do a cross-country Blog tour and meet you all! I REALLY do.
Anyway I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my blog friends and the people who lurk on my blog. You are all loved and valued more than I can say!

I couldn't HELP but notice this guy in his brown shoes/black socks combo. Every time I turned around he was pacing around with a CELL PHONE GLUED TO HIS EAR, BLABBING ON IT. I tried shooting him my "asshole deathray look". Alas, it didn't work. What a tool.

The zoo wasn't the only place we saw monkeys. This chick was all but showing her monkey for the world to see. Seriously she did have on white panties (cos' you can SEE them) but WTF? Who sits in a restaurant like this? Especially when i'm lurking nearby with FUG CAM. Stacy swears someone is going to beat my ass one day over this. I say "Nada". heh heh....

FOR SOME REASON I AM GETTING A BLOCK WHEN I TRY TO POST COMMENTS ON BLOGS SO I'LL HAVE TO TRY AT HOME. SEEMS I CAN READ, JUST NOT POST


We forgot her umbrella stroller but she loved the rental stroller at the zoo. I think because she had more room to stretch out and she liked to "drive". She probably rode in it more than she would have hers.She was ready to start.
Come on Mommy!

Rrrrawwrrrr.... tigers are kinda scary. She wasn't going to get on him unless I got on with her.

Madison will be in business if we ever buy a farm. She liked "milking the cow".

She rode the pony twice. She liked it a LOT. Maybe riding lessons in the future?...

Her and Daddy on the Carousel. She rode a brown bear. The first time it was an ostrich. She now has to pick her own animals :)

the Tiger was gorgeous....

We heart the monkies!

The bear was busy eating but he stopped to strike a pose

The end of a VERY long day...........

I let the girls flat iron my hair yesterday. I'm not quite sure what I think about it. Never mind the funky lighting, washed-out looking quality of the photo. The right side actually looks like my hair. My hair is very dark brown. Comments? Criticism. I can take it!

OMG today has already been a not-so-good one. On the way to work I remembered we were supposed to bring in food today (we do that every so often to boost morale). I have to drive 30 mins out of my way to go to the 24hr grocery store. They don't have any sandwich or pinwheel trays nor even any chicken drumettes so I end up with a variety of snack chips & dips. Lame. Then I am rushing back, already running late and I drive past the entrance to crying cow bank. WTF In all my years of working here I have never done that. THEN I can't find my ID badge. I look everywhere in the car, in the side of seats - nada. So I "piggy-back" with someone else who HAS their badge and enter the building. Now i've got to probably have another ID made and that involves much sighing and eye-rolling from security. Which makes me majorly annoyed unless I am doing the sighing and eye-rolling :) Then I get here to find out I "might" have to go back, once again to the Land of Snow and Cheese. It better not be around Valentines Day or heads will roll. Somebody PUH-LEASE tell me my day will get better.

It's National De-Lurking Week so go ahead and leave a comment!



I don't know whether to call Madison a ham or a cheese ball LOL This was at my MIL's sister's house in December. The big family celebration that I had to miss because I was in the Land of Snow and Cheese. My MIL said Madison was the star of the show. I can believe it.

Boy I have had a busy week-end thus far. Yesterday morning I got up and rode with my parents to Charleston. Got Maddie a Strawberry Shortcake toddler bed set and luggage set which she is going to have a FIT over when she sees it. My kid spoiled? Nah...

I bought these cool Chuck Taylor Converse for Christmas next year (shut it) my sister bought a pair too.


I got this little guy - does anyone see a peppermint fetish forming here????



Then last night I got a wild hair and decided I just had to go to Kohl's in Columbia (cos' the one here in Florence will not be finished until Spring 2007) so I rode to Columbia by myself around 6pm and did not get home until after 11pm. It was a fruitful trip and I bought some stuff for ME (Yippee!) The prior shopping trip was all about Madison & Stacy (Boo hehe..) And how come nobody told me Target had their Christmas Crap 90% off? Holy heck I got a holiday CD for $.99 a box of that expensive Choxie 16 pc artisan truffle squares for $1.50 a mega-deluxe super duper tree stand that holds up to a 10 ft tree and does everything but water itself for $2.50. Whew. Such savings.

I"ll buy a piece of belly button lint if it's a good enough sale! I swear.

Carrie was experimenting with hair-do's today

Daddy calls this "double devil horns"

To the peeps in Milwaukee who "trained" us. Here's a clue. You don't show somebody something once, have an incomplete OI and then call me 45 minutes before I am to leave for the day and say "something has to get done now". At least not without possible bloodshed.

To Stacy's !@#$%^!@# co-worker who sent home a candy cane full of M&M's AND a box of Russel Stover Candy. Damn you. Damn you. Damn you.

To all the ladies who are bringing in the leftover holiday sweets,pastries,goodies etc. Don't.Do.It. Don't you know it is the New Year and dammit, people are dieting and are desperate for carbs and sugar. You could start something VERY ugly up in here

OMG Ass Chips. My dear old Ass Chips. If you come near me again with that piece of dried up mistletoe in a lame attempt to "jokingly" kiss me I will punch you so hard in the mouth you will shit your own teeth for a week.

Can you tell i'm on a diet yet? I think my flatscreen is fairly humming.......

Today is the second day of January 2007. I am drinking my Slim-Fast Optima that is supposed to control my hunger sufficiently until 11 a.m. I have another one for lunch. I have made myself a little ticker at the top of my blog (in case you didn't notice it) and my goal is to lose 39 lbs by mid-April. Stacy says I don't need to lose that much. My plan is to drink a slim fast for breakfast & lunch, allow myself one diet soda mid-morning and drink water for the rest of the day until I leave work. Once home I can have diet soda (my weakness) and eat a small portion of whatever we're having for supper and I have some 98% fat free popcorn to snack on if I get the urge in the evening (and I WILL).
The week-ends are "free" but i'm not going to totally pig out hopefully. Wish me luck and any encouraging words or tips are MORE than welcome.
I already want to eat the can the Slim-Fast Optima came in LOL NOT a good sign right? but I am telling myself "You only have to do this for one week" and we'll see how it goes.
One week at a time.
Also in my previous post I LOVED Seven's suggestion that Brett retire and be my own personal Monday morning QB. I could definitely think of some "plays" for us to go over. Hehehe... nothing like naughty thoughts first thing in the morning!

To all of my Blogger Friends and those you love, I wish you Health, Happiness and Prosperity. Now please~please~please let the Packers beat the Chicago Bears and somehow Brett Favre not retire. Thanks.

UPDATE Forgot This One!

Yep my baby girl had a very good Christmas. She pulled her hair out of pigtails so her hair was WILD on Christmas morning and made us laugh.

She was so good about opening her presents and looked at every one. No glance-throw aside for my girl (that drives me bonkers)

She even took a moment to admire her Strawberry Shortcake outfit. Of course she likes clothes - she's my kid isn't she? ;)

The end of a VERY tiring Christmas Day

We had a VERY Merry Christmas here. I think my favorite gift from Santa was this string of pearls.

What touched me the most was a visit from the Postman on Saturday from my friend Jen in Indiana, she sent me these goodies and this cute magnet (LOVE that saying) and I also LOVE the Linus talking card. I love the message and I always love to hear Linus say it in "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It's so funny how you find little pieces of me Jen! Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness. It made my day.

Stacy, Myself and Madison wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous Happy New Year!

Chickie from ~Skittering~Thoughts~ (see link on my sidebar i'm having problems putting up links lately I think Blogger has broken up with me) anyhoo Chickie surprised me with a funny Christmas Card and Madison with the cutest, softest, cuddliest pink and white B*eanie Hamster!

Madison loved it and it has joined her cadre of animals or "babies" she HAS to sleep with. One night I will sneak in there and snap a pic of her IF I can find her that is. She has a bunch LOL I think it gives her some security or something.

You can hardly see the Hamster above cos' she is giving him a smooshy hug!

Now for the close-up (the best I could do it really doesn't do him justice!)
Thanks Chickie that was a sweet surprise

Hi All! I'm back from my trip to the Land of Snow and Cheese! I wanted to clarify about wanting to kill my suitemate. That would be Tammy, a girl I work with who is scared of everything and complains about, oh just about everything too. We had adjoining rooms (mine a King hers a Double) because she was, well, scared of staying in the hotel but she about drove me F-ing nuts. I am not a hand-holder per se
She didnt' want to do anything and didn't want me to do anything either except be her shadow. It was majorly annoying let me tell you. Anyway enough of the "down" side. I did get to do a few fun things including a fun trip to a quaint little village that I will post pics of later.
We were SO excited to arrive to a nice snowfall (although Tammy was deathly afraid of me driving in the snow and the damn streets were salted and clear as a bell!) Someone must have been walking outside my window wearing snowshoes.

This is me and my awesome boss at the Bay Shore Mall. The decorations were gorgeous!

This is me outside the gift shop when we toured the Miller Brewery. The tour was AWESOME and you got not one, but THREE full pilsner glasses of beer at the end along with pretzels and they mailed a free postcard for you. The tour was free too. I'm all about the free hehehe.....

We were eating some majorly delish pizza in the little village of Cedarburg. Note whose jersey I was sitting under! I was getting all excited cos' the Packers were winning too (they beat the Detroit Lions that afternoon)

Morning All,
I see why businessmen get depressed (although it doesn't excuse why some cheat) being out of town for a prolonged period wears on you. Yesterday kicked.my.ass. Seriously. Then we went to the Casino which I found out I am NO gambler. I don't care if I ever go back to one again. We were stalked by what I am sure was a pair of grifters/criminals. Then when we left the Casino we got turned around and lost in downtown Milwaukee. The lights were really pretty and there were some beautiful Christmas decorations though so I made the best of it. Stacy is mad at me this morning because I didn't call him when I got in last night (I felt it was too late) and this morning when he called, I heard my phone ringing but I was at the breakfast bar and couldn't answer it quick enough. So, when I called him back he had major attitude *sigh* What a day it's going to be............

I have to leave for work soon so I can't visit anybody else's blogs. "Maybe" tonight. *sigh* I did go shopping last night, went to PF Changs and it was very good then shopped for a short time (the girl with me needed some TUMS and had a headache.... but I did get some cute things at the Disney Store as gifts and got a small box of SEE'S candy for me. Yum. I told said girl when we go shopping Saturday she'd better wear comfortable shoes, dress accordingly and pack TUMS, aspirin, sinus meds anything else she thinks she may need.
Tonight we are supposed to go to the Potowatamie Casino. Y'all send me big BIG money vibes cos' I could use a big win right now.

It feels really weird not posting a picture....well this combination of training/meetings is killing me. I am not one who likes to dress up and sit still/pay attention for long periods of time. It is KILLING me. It is kinda rainy tonight so i'm not going anywhere, just hanging around the Hotel and have a few drinks in a while. I'm hoping to go to the Powatawatamie (or something close to that spelling) Casino tomorrow night. We'll see. I'm looking forward to the week-end when I can r-e-l-a-x. Did I mention the meetings are killing me? LOL I know, shut it you whiner. You are making good money so just SHUT IT. I'm off to visit a few blogs now. Hasta La Vista my blog buds.

UPDATE**** I am just really really depressed tonight. The group i'm with are a bunch of wet blankets and complainers. Ugh. I can't like that at all. Now they don't want to take our planned trip to Chicago Saturday. I'm contemplating going alone but that's not really the smartest course of action. I know i'm not here to have "fun", per se but I did want to get out and about and try to have fun in my downtime. Not really happening and i'm just feeling really frustrated and bitchy tonight. I don't like myself :(

I don'thave a USB cord to download any pics, maybe in a few days if I take enough i'll take them to Wal Greens and get a disc but there is SNOW here guys. Imagine that (in the land of Snow and Cheese)! I am so excited. I threated to go to Target and get a plastic sled/disc thingie to slide down the hill in back of our Hotel but if it rains tomorrow ruin it. It is so pretty though and the driving is not treacherous at all. Some of the people with me are working my last nerve though (complainers) so you might get a PSA from me by the end of the week and I have to go to a meeting at 11:00 tomorrow with some suits *ugh* but .... I sure do miss reading blogs all day and I sure miss my Stacy and my Madison but that will just make this Christmas all the more sweeter. Y'all let me know when you receive your Christmas cards from me because I got kind of addle-brained and am questioning whether I sent some out and I brought along extras so I can get them right on out if you don't get them. Well we're off to the Bay Shore Mall and to eat at some swanky Italian place. I don't even know what i've got a taste for. Maybe some linquine with clam sauce. Maybe i'll get to read some blogs tomorrow evening I don't know. The Internet access is limited with lots of people wanting to use it at night and I have NO opportunity during the day at work. The best I can do is check my Yahoo email from work. TTYL :) I sure miss y'all......

To the fat azz in the other Dept. Um, I don't mind if you come over and break bread with us but please try to wait until everyone in my group fixes a plate. And yeah, it's kinda bad form to make a big-ass-food-falling-off-the-plate take home.

To the tech guy who keeps asking me about my computer and "the move". I am not in charge of the move. I will be in Milwaukee when said move takes place. Take your monkey ass somewhere else because if you come by my desk one more time and ask the same damn question you will walk away with a paper clip in your eye. Seriously.

To the dweeb who thinks it's amusing to run around with the mail cart and ask people "Do you want a ride? Do ya?". Not funny. In fact, quite pathetic.

To whomever is walking around here with JINGLE BELLS tied to their freaking tennis shoes. Hey, I am as festive as the next person (witness my snowman tapestry jacket I am wearing today) but those things are working my last nerve and making my eye twitch. You would do well to remove them. Quickly.

To the sad person who gave "J" a half used bottle of lotion for the Secret Santa Swap. Dude. You have made me laugh my ass off today. I must thank you.

I have a Dr. appt and some errands to run so i'm blowing off work today.... I'm dressed in my holiday best as you can see. My sweet husband took one look at me and said "Why are you proclaiming to the world that you are a Ho?". He's such a cornball sometimes... *rolls eyes*

Madison is captivated by my toe socks.Yeah I am wearing red holiday Crocs. Shut it :P

Here is the tree in all of it's glory. Not the fanciest but it warms my heart!

Here is an ornament I made Madison her first Christmas. Kinda amateurish I know but it means alot to me.

Her Princess ornament given to her by my good friend Stacy last year. Stacy gives her a personalized one every year.

This is another one Stacy gave us. It's all three of us as snow people. Awww.. I just heart snowman. Snowmen, reindeer and Christmas lights are my favorite "symbols" of Christmas. What is your Christmas faves?