My Vote For The Most

ridiculous hair EVER, goes to:





Rod Blagojevich. This guy is such a joke! A joke with a really bad hair-do.


Anyway, I take back my post from yesterday, it did in fact, get pretty bad outside. It got pretty icy throughout the day and travel wasn't the greatest. But it looked pretty!




It dawned on me yesterday as I was browsing amazon.com for a new, exciting vegetarian cookbook that I have been a vegetarian for upwards of 25 years! I know when I was a kid, I would 'eat everything except the meat' on my plate, I remember a few select times that I ate meat, and of course I ate somethings that I didn't realise had meat in them, like bean with bacon soup (go figure!). But I really give credit to my parents for not forcing me to eat meat. I couldn't imagine how much of a pain in the butt I was when I had to have 'special' meals! I'm glad that I was not made to eat it and I hope that Mason will make the same choice someday as I did so many years ago. I am trying to cut out as much soy protein as I can (although, I will NEVER cut out light vanilla soymilk, it is SO good!). I do really enjoy soy 'meat', however, I know it really effects my thyroid, so I was trying to find recipes that have a lot of protein without the use of soy. I found a really good crock pot recipe for Lentil Chili, I changed the recipe a little to add some more veggies and it was fantastic! The crock pot made so much of it, (Jason didn't like it, but I give him credit for trying), so it will be around for awhile (I plan on freezing some). It was well worth the effort and will be included in my 'recipes to have again' list (perhaps that list is only in my head and not an actual list, but...!). Next up, I am going to try to find a low-fat recipe for corn and potato chowder, yummy!

It's Been A Few Days...

Since I have blogged! I have been in Superbowl mode, we are SO thrilled that the Steelers are in it and going to WIN it! I keep teasing Jason by telling him that I'm going to go to Circuit City and buy a big screen for Sunday! Yeah, right! I heard about an article in the Pittsburgh paper that Circuit City has raised the prices of their TV's and then they knock off the 30%, but in reality you are paying regular price (or more) for the TV, go figure, and do you know how many people fall for that!!

I had my second class last night, it was online. I'm don't know if I really liked that format. It was nice because I didn't have to travel last night (the roads we not great, more on the snow storm later in the post), but for 2 hours I had to be online (this is after it took me 1/2 hour to figure out where to go online!). The teacher just chatted with us and asked us questions, but it was kind of weird. I'm hoping it gets better. I don't know if this is the direction I want to go, I just wish that I would get a sign of some sort to figure out where it is in life that I am supposed to be headed. I 'feel' that I am supposed to be headed in a life of crafting, but what do I do? The many scrapbooking magazines that I read always have contests to be a designer for a year and a lot of people in the business have started in that way. I have always felt overwhelmed and unsure of myself when I thought about submitting layouts. I guess the only thing I can do is try, but I am up against SO much talent. Perhaps the next contest that comes along I will focus on, I really feel comfortable in that arena, the Crafty Arena, that is!

Now on to the big snow storm. I was glad that Wednesday is my day off, so I was not in too much of a panic to find somewhere for Mason to go today in case he didn't have school. Since Monday the news has been telling us about this huge winter storm )4-8 inches across our area)that is coming our way. So, of course, I just roll my eyes and remind myself that we will probably have snow until my 30th birthday in May!! But anyway, this morning school was cancelled and Jason let me sleep in (wow, until 8 am!!) and when I got up I got all bundled up to take the dogs outside. Then I looked down the steps and there was practically NOTHING. I mean, if we got 3 inches I would be stretching the truth. Don't get me wrong, I was happy about that, but my point is, why do the weather men get us all worked up over nothing? So, yes I am going to make a trip to the grocery store and not worry too much (we are out of dog and cat food and I am out numbered, so I HAVE to go get them food for tonight or else!!).

That's all for now, this post makes up for the few days that I didn't blog! I have been working on some Valentine crafts, I will post them soon.

*Flashback To 1997*

It was my senior year and the American Red Cross had come to our high school for the annual blood drive. I was anxious to give blood for the first time. However, my anxiousness soon turned to embarrassment. As the needle was being inserted and the blood started to drain into the bag, I passed out! Yes, I got carted away in the fluorescent orange chair to the recovery area. How humiliating!

Now that you have some history, I will tell you about last night. I have to get blood drawn on a regular basis due to my thyroid, so it doesn't bother me very much anymore when a few vials of blood are taken from me at the lab (not that I love needles!). One of the churches here in town was having a blood drive, Jason had planned to go and give blood, so I thought, "hey, why not try again??". I am blood type O+ and there is always an urgent need for this type of blood, so I gave it a shot. So, after the many, many questions that I had to go through before even getting to the point of the blood drawing, my nerves started to take over. I got on the table and had Mason talk to me so that I would be distracted by the needle. It took 8 minutes to get the pint of blood that they needed, as the end came nearer, I could feel my entire body going numb and my stomach feeling really sick. The woman taking the blood kept talking to me to get me through it, but I knew that the flashback from high school was coming true again! As I sat up on the table, Jason was looking at me and he said that he could see the color drain from my face. I felt horrible. They carted me off in the now updated maroon chair straight to the recovery area! As I laid there all I thought about was wanting to be home and WHY DID I DO THIS!! Jason and Mason seemed to get a kick out of it, I suppose if it happened to Jason I would have laughed, too! My entire night was spent in the bathroom, and to put it nicely, by morning, there was nothing left in my stomach to come up. So, it is safe to say that I will not be giving blood anytime soon.

On another note, tonight is my first class! I am kind of excited. I bought my book today and in the bookstore, in line behind me, were two teenage boys talking about the class project that they are going to be working on. The first boys report was going to be 'the positive effects of marijuana' and the other person's report was about the 'positives of lowering the drinking age to 17'! Yep, it made me feel old because I remember in high school how funny it was when kids did reports on stupid stuff like that, but what do I really expect going back to college at 29??!

Yep, More Of The Same...

I took this picture the other night (probably around Wednesday night) while taking my dogs outside. The ruler (that has my name on it, it seems like everything I own has my name written on it somewhere!) said that the snow was about 8 inches deep. Now, this picture was taken just minutes ago:


I guess we won't be having dinner out there anytime soon!

More 'Winter Is Beautiful' pics:



I don't remember having this much snow last year! It is getting old, I am starting to feel like we will never get to Spring. Combine all of this snow with the temperatures in the single digits (wind chills at -25) and it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Oh, well what can we do? We live in PA, we get the best of all 4 seasons.

On another note, I start my first class on Tuesday night. I am kind of nervous. I always have a fear that I will not know where I am supposed to be, so in all aspects of my life, if I am in a situation where I need to find a store, address, classroom, etc. I will leave really early 'just in case' I can't find it. It gives me extra time to make sure that I am not late, however, I usually find what I am looking for with little to no effort and end up having all this extra time on my hands to just sit and wonder why I am always so paranoid! I guess it's not a bad thing, most of the time.

So, on this cold, snowy January Sunday:

GO STEELERS!! We are one step away from the Superbowl!!

(Bummed)

Frank Warren from PostSecret is speaking tonight at Penn State Altoona, and I had tickets to go see him. I couldn't wait for him to come to a local college to speak ever since he started this project in 2005. I had my friend Amber, who teaches at the campus, get me a ticket and sure enough guess what is holding me back from going this evening?

This:


(Ok, I didn't really take this picture, it's a googled image, however, Rt.22 looked just like this when I attempted to head down to the campus about a half an hour ago!)

So, hopefully I will someday get to hear him speak about his project that has touched so many lives, but it was definitely not worth risking getting into an accident for!

Drum Roll, Please.....

I have enrolled in school as of this morning! I would like to have a back-up plan for my future. I feel I am ready to take on classes again, so I made this decision. I am enrolling in the Pharmacy Tech program. Although the program is only two semesters, I don't think that I will be able to take on a full semesters (15 credits) worth of classes and work at the same time. I am trying to get as many night classes as possible, it might take me a little longer to get through the classes, but I also have a lot more on my plate and I am a little more mature than I was last time around. I couldn't believe (although, I should have remembered) how expensive books are! It's crazy to pay that much for books!! I think I saw an ad for a website that has reduced prices for the books that I would need, I will have to do some searching before I pay the astronomical regular price. I am the queen of cheap!! So, right now I was only able to fit in one of the classes that I need to take, so I am taking it slow, and really just 'testing the waters' to see if I really like it. Wish me luck! We'll see how it goes!

I'm still not really sure 'what I want to be when I grow up'!

Isn't This Adorable??

I may look at stamps in a whole new way! I wouldn't call myself an expert seamstress, however, I think I could do this! I think I'm going to keep this idea for next Christmas, but it would work for any style stamp. Very cute!

Meet The New Members Of The Family...

Meet Bugsy:

And Big Ben:





So, I am about to start singing a song something along the lines of...

*Eight Sneaky Cats
Three Rescued Dogs*
*Two Spoiled Hamsters

And I'm just waiting for the partridge in a pear tree, let's hope not, I'm not much of a bird person, even though my name is Robyn!! I haven't had a hamster since I was about 10 years old, so this is kind of new to me too. Mason is a little afraid to hold them! Bugsy is a bit wild, I hope he calms down. Big Ben is really easy to hold. I hope they enjoy their 3 story condo!! I love the cage, we had the 10 gallon aquarium from Mason's hermit crab and I saw this add-on cage at Petco and thought it was perfect. The TV is hilarious! When they lay in it, it looks like they are on TV! Petco had a complete living room set with a couch, TV, lamp and loveseat, it was SO funny! I think they will be happy!!

Let's Go STEELERS!!!

I cannot wait for the Steeler game tomorrow! We have to work tomorrow because of the snow storm today, but we will be home in time to watch the game at 4:45! It is tradition here to make snacks for the game, Mason seems to only like to watch football on TV if there will be a table full of snacks (coincidence? I think not!). Of course, they will be healthy snacks. I am so proud of Jason, he has lost a total of 24 pounds since he started WW!! He feels better and I can tell that he is happier. So, LET'S GO STEELERS!! We really want the six-pack this year!!

Right Now, I Could Go For....

~ A hot, fresh cup of Sheetz (or Dunkin Donuts) coffee.

~ A good movie to watch (and I mean GOOD, we have had the worst luck with movie
rentals lately, or perhaps there just really aren't any good movies
anymore. I highly recommend NOT renting the Pineapple Express!)

~ Comfy socks

~ Peace and Quiet

~ No work tomorrow (my dad actually cancelled routes, I hope he's feeling ok!!)

~ The snow and ice to melt

~ Getting some scrapping done

I don't ask for much, I just want to relax tonight because we don't have to get up early or work tomorrow and it's a cold and blustery night. Good night, all!

Ugggg....Another Round Of Winter Is Upon Us

Yep, we got hit with the ice storm. I'll take snow over ice any day (well, if given the choice, I'd take a cool, crisp fall day, but I digress). We got hit with a pretty good amount of ice. Jason's van wouldn't start this morning, we have not been strangers with the jumper cables this season! Of, course, with the mean boss that we have (wink, wink) work was still to be done. Perhaps that's why the company is so successful, we never take days off like this. I didn't have to venture out in it today, but Jason did. I was getting ready to take Mason out to the bus due to a 2 hour delay, when something told me to check the delay/closing website (maybe 'what told me' was that I couldn't even get the dogs out because the deck was treacherous) and sure enough, the entire district decided to close. So, Mason had a wii-filled day (I even played a level or two and it started to drive me crazy!). So, I just ran to Walmart about an hour ago to pick up dog food, and here it comes again, snowy, slippery roads all the way up there. I have never been so happy to have 4 brand new tires and 4 wheel drive in my life! I hope it clears up over night, but I feel a school delay coming on tomorrow morning. I'll leave you with a good LOL I saw on the website today (pro animal-rights, of course!):


more animals

Don't Let This Angelic Face Fool You...

Oh, my. Today was the first day back to school and call it a mother's intuition but I just *felt* a bad day coming on.....
I was right, now this is purely boy stuff, but at this point in 2nd grade Mason should know when to zip his lip. Apparently, a boy named Christian* seems to find every possible opportunity to tattle-tale on Mason. Well, today was no different. Mason made the statement, while the teacher was talking to another teacher, that, and I quote, "My dad is a butcher and he will cut you in half"---

{pulling my hair out, screaming} WHY??? Why would he say something like that?!! I can't even imagine what he was thinking to even come up with something like that. So, my sweet little child is now in his room thinking about what is appropriate to say in class. While I think this is going to be funny in a few years, right now, with note after note coming home from school, it's not. So.....let's see what Tuesday holds.

*name may have been changed to protect the tattle-tales identity!

*The Highlights Of My Day*

While I was working last week in Huntingdon, I saw a person feeding the seagulls in the Peebles parking lot (why there are seagulls in a parking lot hundreds of miles away from a beach is beyond me), but I thought it was funny. So, since Mason was going to work with me today, I thought that we could buy a loaf of bread and head over to see the seagulls! I guess I am not alone, this must be a favorite past time for the Huntingdon county folk! As we were tearing up the bread and had only thrown two pieces someone about 50 feet away threw an entire bag of McDonald's french fries out of their window! Well, we were no match for the fries. All of the seagulls flocked right on over there. So, I moved the car over in an attempt to lure them back over with the loaf of Walmart brand bread. It worked, the fries were gone in approximentaly 4.5 seconds. Then we were surronded, on all sides of my car were hungry seagulls. It was so funny, Mason had a blast (so did I). This reminds me of a well known story in my family about a certain Aunt of mine having a bad day that included a seagull, but that is a story for another time! After our bread was gone another car pulled up and a little girl got out with 2 full bags of popcorn and started to feed them. It was hilarious, I can't wait to do it again!



Next up, my box of Bath and Body Works goodies arrived! I was so excited to have that waiting for me after a long day at work. Some of the stuff includes 'sweet cinnamon pumpkin body scrub', 'warm vanilla sugar shampoo', 'cool citrus basil shower gel', and 'fresh evergreen hand soap', and a few others, I can't wait to relax and enjoy them tonight!


We are supposed to get another round of sleet, freezing rain and snow (when will it end??) late tonight, so I am glad that we are in for the weekend and don't have to go anywhere.

Waiting...

Jason got me a gift card to Bath & Body Works for Christmas so I decided to order online instead of dragging myself to the dreaded mall. They had some awesome deals and I can't wait until they arrive! There is this really cool website, retailmenot.com, that you can search whatever online store you are shopping at and find promo codes for shipping, free stuff, etc. I have used this a lot with great success. For the Bath & Body Works, I got $10 dollars off my order! I love to get stuff in the mail, I can't wait to smell all the lotions.

It's been pretty quiet/boring around here. We got caught up on some R & R with the holidays, now that they are gone for another year, I guess it is back to normal (whatever normal is). I am putting in some extra days at work, 5 days a week through January, I can get through it, I just have to keep telling myself that!!

Other than that I have nothing! I just can't believe it is 2009! I keep saying that, but it just boggles my mind at how fast time goes.

What A Waste Of Time (and money)

We went to see the movie 'Bedtime Stories' last night and once again, I was right on about Adam Sandler. I honestly don't know how he has gotten this far in his career, he is not funny AT ALL. If it weren't for the guinea pig with huge eyes (Mason now wants a guinea pig of which Jason didn't seem to object to) and the 'little people' in the movie it would have been a complete wash. About half way through I got so tired of sitting there, I could have fallen asleep. I think the previews were the highlight of the night (go figure!). I wish that we would have seen Marley & Me, but I guess we'll see that when it comes out on DVD because the price of the theater was ridiculous. I love the movie theater in J-town, it is super cheap and they have awesome food, so we will stick to seeing movies there.

One of the many previews was for a movie called 'Hotel For Dogs', I cannot wait to see this! The kids in the movie are all about rescuing dogs and having a luxury hotel for them, it is going to be good, not to mention how awesome the storyline is! Also, there was one for a movie called 'Earth', it is a documentary done by Disney about the land and sea animals that share the earth with us, that is going to be sooooo good, I really want to see that in the theater because of the huge screen, I think that would make the movie that much better.

So on this bitter cold New Year's Day I will be getting some cleaning done, going to Walmart (refer to last post) and hopefully getting some crafting done. Happy New Year!