Arborlawn's Got Talent?

We participated in a little program at our church called Arborlawn's Got Talent....and I guess mostly it does......but sometimes things just don't really go the way you plan - the FIL and I are singing Unforgettable - a duet - a couple of lines or words in the song - his mic goes out and it becomes mostly a solo of ME......kinda messes up the purpose of harmony. We survived.

Craig did a "singing skit" to Anything you can do I can do better. It was actually cute and very funny and got good reviews. Craig was incredibly nervous :)

come on Microsoft, really???

Where to start......College boy got a Zune for Christmas......by June the screen went out on it and then it refused to ever charge again. After QUITE the run around and some rather ridiculous conversations with support people who DO NOT speak english, I sent it back for "service" - I made sure to enclose a typed, signed letter stating DO NOT send this to back to my home address because it comes via UPS and they will try 3 times to deliver it and if no one is there to sign for it they will kindly send it back to Microsoft. I just got email notification from Zune Support that (a refurbished) unit was sent to - - - wait for it, are you ready.....can you stand it??? MY HOUSE! And whats more, what is up with the whole refurbish thing? I sent them a pretty new one.......it better be better than what I sent them (and believe me, I took pictures).

Next - we love to play Halo - to the point that we have all the maps for Halo 2 pretty much memorized....we play against my brother in law, sometimes my sister in law joins in sometimes it my beautiful little 7 year old neice......so we decided HEY lets all upgrade to Xbox 360 and play Halo 3 - before we used to hook up through a software program and play remotely from our own houses.......however, apparently Microsoft didn't like that so they made all the new programs where you can ONLY play through Xbox LIVE AND you have to PAY to do it......now, mind you, its not enough that the Xbox costs a fortune and only comes with 1 controller and 1 headset (who plays video games ALONE anymore?????) but now we can't even do what we want to do which is play together online remotely without paying MORE MONEY!

I am really NOT loving Microsoft...I think I will buy a Dell laptop!

I knew it!

So.....after much drama with the bank I now hate (the cancelling of the debit card), more drama with UNT (getting the college boy a new ID so he could EAT) and further drama by making the college boy take care of business on HIS end, instead of MOM TO THE RESCUE....College boy calls - the conversation goes like this "Hey mom, wanna hear something reeeeaaaalllllly funny?" "Am i going to think this is funny ha ha ha or funny as in Im going to kill you later?" He says "oh no, your gonna think think this is hilarious" - I said "ok, lets have it" - "Dr. W just sent me a text message, he has my wallet"....................................now I ask you - would find this funny ha ha or funny as in DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO LOOK THERE ?????????????

For Crying OUT LOUD!

Im just having "A DAY" - the hubby is out of town on business AGAIN - same as last week.
Last night we had big thunderstorms which was really enough all by itself, but then - there was a very LARGE scorpion crawling through the living room that Buster (the YOUNGEST of our boxers) decided to "protect" me from - so while Im trying to "catch it" so I can take it outside (yes we have a cup we use for CRITTER removal) he is steadily barking at it, growling at it and jumping at it trying to GET IT FOR ME! I couldn't take time to put Buster up for fear that the scorpion would hide and then I would have a large, loose, scorpion in MY HOUSE!

I never sleep very well when Im alone in the house - its like the house suddenly becomes UNSAFE - so I had chairs under the front and back door knobs and I lock my bedroom door when I go to bed.....and then every noise, every squeak has me sitting upright....well the thunder and lightining from the storm did not subside until around 2-ish this morning (and now you know how I know this).

I get up, its raining again - so it was a fight with Pete (the OLDEST of our boxers) to go out in the rain and do his business, but finally he did after some physical pushing to get him OFF the porch. I get to work, which is going to be a busy day anyway only to discover that I left my cell phone at home.....ok not a big deal - so I text the hubby and the college boy (using my computer) to let them know if they need me to call me. EXCEPT THAT I get a return text message (to my computer) from college boy, telling me he has lost his wallet.....since he is in class, I had to deal with cancelling his debit card....I then remember - his drivers license AND his student ID was in that wallet. He can't EAT on campus without the ID - which I think he has to pay $10 for which he no longer has a debit card to pay with and without his drivers license I don't think he can write a check AND how do you get a replacement ID with out your drivers license to prove that you are the student requesting it and how do you pay for it with no identification ??? Losing your wallet is a very very very bad thing.

I am being OVERLOADED by negative Energy!!!!!!!!!! Where is the Chocolate?

Sometimes It is just the LUCK of the DRAW

College Boy sent me a message last night - "I have AWESOME news" - I can't imagine what it is......so he tells me he is playing at the Cowboy's Game on Sunday - in the new stadium and everything - "once in a lifetime chance" he tells me. They are unveiling Tom Landry's statue and the Cowboy's star.......I said "how did YOU get a spot? Your a freshman, thats not normal"...apparently ALL the upperclassmen get to go for sure then they held a lottery for the remaining spots (apparently only 200 of the UNT band get to go) - Well Travis "won" a spot and will be playing at the game this Sunday......now, how cool is that?

As the world turns

So the diet continues - its going well - i was pretty proud of myself - last night in 30 minutes, I walked 1.61 miles and 3550 steps - now this is based on a pedometer that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.....one night I got back from my normal walk and it showed I had gone 21 steps......so - take it for whats it worth :) I AM going to buy a NEW pedometer. I don't go back to my weight doc until the 28th so giving a report until then won't be "official" so you have to wait until then for my official total lost - so far :) In the meantime, if you haven't ready the Flat Belly Diet, I highly recommend it (no, unfortunately, they are not paying me to say that). Although they have made a believer out of me with this MUFA business.

The college boy is ok - he was sick yesterday. I got a text message that said (and I quote) "could you have someone bring pepto at some point because i had a really bad stomach problems that caused me to get up several times in the middle of the night" - I felt really bad for him but I wonder who he thought I was going to get to bring him some Pepto at 11:30 am? I will definitely send him back with some after this weekend. Then we got to talking about an English paper that he has to do this week - he gave me a very long list of reasons why he couldn't do the paper, we discussed and argued back and forth - so I finally said to him "it sounds to me like you don't WANT to do the paper - that being the case, why don't I just come get you, withdraw you from school - try to get some of my money back and you can go to school again when YOU can pay for it" he didn't like that idea, and soon began working on the paper. At last check last night, he was almost done and its not due until Thursday.....It is particularly frustrating because he is such a good writer - if he would just use his skills to write what the teacher wants, he would probably make an A. So we shall see.

The navy boy is good too - he has a BIG test today (he is testing for Petty Officer) - he said he is prepared so good wishes for him to do well on the test!

The Hubby is off in Birmingham Alabama - this consulting work is GREAT FUN for me (said dripping with sarcasm).....but he seems to love it and admittedly he is very good at what he does. But he will be home soon and all will be well again.

So back to the daily grind - and OH Happy Birthday to my baby sister (tomorrow). Thats her on the far left...isn't she adorable?

As promised

I started a new diet - oh about........31 years ago (no Im just kidding, this one is wayyy more recent). Anyway I am seeing a diet doctor who is giving me a GREAT appetite suppressant and monitoring me once a month - the first thing he said was "fix your plate as you normally would and then.....cut everything in 1/2 - take it off your plate and put in a seperate container and put it in the fridge or throw it out" - so I did. Well it worked and I knew this was going to be all about calorie restriction without counting the calories - except that Im a tad bit OCD about some things so - I count them anyway......so, while doing this I ran accross a little thing called "The Flat Belly Diet" and it gave me lots of ideas for low calorie meals that are filling and have enough protein that it really stays with you and consequently I have cut my calories probably by about 1000 calories a day (I was a pretty BIG eater and I am also a stress eater which Im learning to deal with) and I walk for 30 minutes a day - at first it was barely a mile but now Im up to 1.5 in 30 minutes so Im walking faster and working harder. The benefit of my hard work to date is around 15 pounds.......BUT I have about 50 more to lose soooooo we will see how it goes....stay tuned :)

Update on the College Boy

I guess its all going well - of course, now that he is "on his own" (right Im still paying all of the bills but HE is on his own) anyway, apparently I have no right to know what is going on.....he is still trying to see how many activities he can get involved in and meanwhile all i want to know is ARE YOU GOING TO CLASS AND DOING YOUR SCHOOL WORK.......of course he gives me that "attitude" that I so can't stand so I usually end the conversation before an arguement ensues....

This weekend will be the first HOME football game so the band will be busy (I wish we were going but we have other obligations this weekend) and its supposed to rain but thankfully, I don't think they are supposed to be in full uniform...I think this weekend is Khaki's and UNT t-shirt. UNT won the first game (away game) so lets all cheer for the Eagles (ca-caw)!

Anway - I guess time will be the only thing that will tell the tale - he will make good grades and stay at UNT or he will make bad grades and come home to work and go to TCC. Its his choice.
Anyway, Happy WEEKEND EVERYONE! Next week I will tell you all about my new diet and how its working ;)

Mom's Birthday

My Mom turned 60 on Saturday - I took charge, gathered "The Gang", made a reservation at Abuelos (if you have never been there and you like Mexican food, it is a MUST) and had a great birthday lunch with Mom. Now let me say that my Dad just turned 68 in July. Look at this picture and tell me, do these people look in their 60's to you? (I had a picture on here but was told by my mother to remove pictures of her from MY BLOG on the Internet)

I must have some pretty good genetics to draw from here :) (we can only hope). Anyway, after the lunch and really fabulous birthday cake

(It was a Tres Leches with strawberry filling and fresh strawberries on top) all the girls went shopping. As is standard -Mom and I found NOTHING - a few of the others found a few things - but it was a fun time :) - Happy Birthday Mom!

College......Really?

So Travis moves in.....LOVES his new roomate - new roomate (who requested a private room last year gets the call that a room is available so he moves out) In comes the new roommate who kindly brings Travis some Perrier (Travis has never had Perrier so that will be interesting) .....they are still seeing how they click - this one is not a music major like the other one, he is not in marching band with Travis like the other one but hey, maybe thats a good thing, who knows. (I will post dorm room photos later).

First week of "real" class time - The call: "so here is what is really cool, taking notes, in history, on my laptop - its wayyy easier. English sucks - I need an english class where I can use my laptop. We had to hand write a 2 page paper and I didn't even get finished with it (wow, how did all us "old" folk manage?) ".....but Russian, is my favorite class and Im going to do really good in there" (Russian, seriously? Who speaks russian these days?) Of course then there is Music and Marching Band and I suppose it is, what it is because I don't hear as much about those.

He plans to join some music fraternity - he plans to play LaCrosse - he has been playing Ultimate Frisbee "in his spare time" when he is not in some other dorm visiting with some "new friends" - somehow all this "getting involved" is MY fault cuz I told him to "get involved" - so where are you going to fit in school work there Trav???? He SURE better make time.

I can already tell, this is going to be quite an adventure - not just for Travis but apparently for me, as well :)