Happy Halloween

Even though I am fighting the stomach flu and have missed 2 days of work, I took the boys trick or treating. I didn't want them to miss out on the fun because I felt like shit. So I sucked it up and hit 3 houses, my mom's, FIL's and a family friend who passes out kick ass candy.

So here are a few pictures. BTW--Monk Man picked out the costumes. He wanted Bobblehead to match him. They are SOOOO CUTE!

Here is Monk Man-He wouldn't let me put make up on him.


And 2 of Bobblehead-He had no choice in whether or not he was getting make up.



And a few of them together




And there is Ollie in the top corner.



Wow, the date is STILL wrong on my stupid camera. I am so technologically challenged it is silly.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

Help?

I have started writing then deleting this post at least a dozen times in the past few days.

We got some bad news this weekend. FIL is dieing from Muscular Dystrophy.

OMG. Typing that makes me want to throw up.

What a scary phrase.

Its worse than cancer to me.

Cancer, I can deal with.
Cancer, we have been through that.
Cancer, I know something about that.

But Muscular Dystrophy? I know squat about it. Zip. Nada. Nothing.

I am sad and pissed off. But that is totally not a new combination of feelings for me. I am already used to wanting to cry one moment and then wanting to punch something in the next moment. Welcome to the story of my life.

I guess it was more than coincidence that Hubbs decided to come home from Iowa with us. I can't imagine how much harder it would be on all of us if he was still that far away.

So I looked it up on webmd. Bad idea. I know better than to even THINK about that website. I skimmed the pages and pages of information on Monday, spooked myself, closed the window and haven't gotten the nerve to look up anything else about it.

The details that I have managed to drag out of Hubbs are hazy. All I know is that it is bad. FIL isn't doing well at all.

And I have to be tested to see if I am a carrier. It is pretty much a given (from what stepMIL says) that Hubbs is a carrier but since I know nothing about my birth parents, I have to be tested. I guess I determine whether or not we need to worry about Monk Man and Bobblehead developing it.

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

The possibility of my little dudes getting this makes me want to throw up too. But I can't bring myself to blog about that yet. I am lucky to have been able to get THIS far tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now for help. If any of you have experience with Muscular Dystrophy, tell me about it. Please? I want to read YOUR stories. I want to go to the websites YOU recommend. Either leave the information in the comments or email me. I am sure my email address is somewhere in my header. Maybe. Thanks in advance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So if I don't post much for a while, or you don't see me lurking on Babycenter.....I didn't drop off the face of the earth or get smothered in my sleep by my children. I'm just dealing with family issues.

Either that or you might be getting a million posts per day. You never can tell with me.

Hand-made gift boxes

I was blog stalking this afternoon and ran across this nifty idea.

Homemade Gift Boxes from The Toby Show.

I am sooo not crafty but this looks like something I can handle.

Check it out!

Grocery Shopping

We went grocery shopping this morning. Hubbs went early in the morning to buy stuff for his yummy green chili.

Poor guy. I think he is intimidated by the pantry because he bought things we already had. Oh well. At least he is trying to save us money and I don't have to cook.

He went to Safeway. Total spent: 71.58 Total saved by club card: 11.97

The bill was so high because he bought meat--Roasts and deli pastrami.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to Walmart for Halloween costumes. I hate that place. Monk Man decided that he wanted to be an "Army Guy" again and that Bobblehead HAD to match him.

Total spent: 66.99 Total saved: 0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to Bashas. I usually do pretty well there. I actually didn't buy a single thing that wasn't on "the list".

Total spent: 64.14 Total saved with coupons and club card: 52.69
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The last stop for the day was Safeway. Again. I HAD to hit the buy one get one free cleaners and get soups.

Total spent: 133.47 Total saved with coupons and club card: 57.76
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not too bad right?

I HAVE to tell you about my score at the OshKosh outlet in Gretna, Nebraska. I spent 179.13 but saved 196.61!!!! That was the first time ever that I saved more than I spent.

I guess I should post something

huh? We have been home since Saturday and the poor blog has been neglected.

So sorry. (I am noticing that I apologize a lot lately)

Ugh. Where do I begin.

Well the trip started off okay. We made it to the car around 6:30 in the morning. Stopped at McDonalds on the way to the highway to get the kids breakfast and coffee for me. We made good time to Gallup. I stopped at the Burger King for a pee break (damn that coffee and those Red Bulls) and filled up my gas tank.

We just cruised along until we hit Shiprock. I pulled into town and got stuck in traffic. I didn't move an inch for 2 HOURS! Why? Some stupid political parade. By the time we got out of Shiprock it was pouring rain and the boys were awake and fighting like normal. It rained from there all the way through the mountains to MIL's. It kept raining until we stopped for the night in Aurora (Colorado). Luckily when we got up the next morning the rain had cleared up.

We made it through Denver ok. Dude, those twisty roads are SCARY! The minute we hit Nebraska it started raining again. Nice.

Oh, and it gets better.

We ended up getting a flat tire somewhere in the middle of a corn field. Luckily I found a gas station. Unluckily, the gas station attendant didn't speak much English. When I asked her where the nearest dealership was, she gave me the deer in headlights look and told me, "I don't know what you are telling me".

Huh? Give me a break. Ummm, do you have fix-a-flat? "Don't know". So I finally found the fix-a-flat, put it in the tire and went to find an air machine. Well, I guess I didn't read the directions as well as I though I did.

PSA: If you have to put fix-a-flat in a tire, don't add any air. Your tire will explode. Yes, your tire will look flat still. Just drive around slowly for 10 or so minutes. Fix-a-flat expands when it warms up.

No, my tire didn't explode. Don't worry. Luckily some toothless dude was watching me (shudder...creepy) and ran over to stop me before I added any air. I DO know how to change a tire but I convinced myself that driving on a fix-a-flat'ed tire was better than driving on my doughnut tire. Plus changing the tire would have required more time and attracted much more attention. Seriously, how often do you see a chick changing her own tire? I didn't want to give the creepy guys more reason to gawk.

So now we are back driving. And driving. And driving. The plan was to meet Hubbs in Lincoln but with all the potty breaks, and then the tire incident, we were still hours away from Lincoln. Hubbs was so excited to get to see us, he drove all the way to Aurora (Nebraska) to meet us. We caravan'd (spelling??) the rest of the way to Sioux City.

So that's the story about getting there. Later I will tell about what we did while we were there and then the drive home.

We are Home

We made it home on Saturday. Never doing THAT again!

I don't have much time for the computer today so I will blog some more either tonight or tomorrow.

We made it

Well, we made it to Iowa.

Soooo not having a good time. Seriously.

I am ready to come back home.

Interesting Article

about how bloggers make money.

Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its 2008 State of the Blogosphere report with the slightly menacing promise to "deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind."

Bloggers create 900,000 blog posts a day worldwide, and some of them are actually making money. Blogs with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year.

The estimates from a 2007 Business Week article are older but juicier: The LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month; Overheard in New York gets $8,100 per month; and Perez Hilton, gossip king, scoops up $111,000 per month.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ummm, wow. Per month???? Nice.

If you have been living under a rock (like I am) and have never checked out Overheard in New York, you should. It made me giggle.

I am convinced that I was the last person to hear about the LOLcats. It is a pretty safe bet that YOU have seen them.

Perez Hilton.......eh. I can live without celebrity gossip. Really. I have only been to his blog a handful of times. I WAS impressed though. It just isn't my thing.

I wonder what kind of $$ Mama Drama Uncensored brings in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So task of the week: Whenever you visit someones blog, clickity click on the advertisements that show up. Your clicks might buy mama a new Coach bag.

For the Record, I don't have any advertisements on my blog (I don't think I do at least) so I don't make any $$ off of it.

Yet.

Maybe some day I will get around to it.

Ugh

I am almost all packed and ready to go. It took me 4 straight hours last night and another half hour this morning.

At 4:00 a.m.

Yes, I think I am out of my mind too.

Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed I don't crash the HHR. Oh, and if you could will the boys into sleeping the whole way, that would be awesome.

We are leaving for Colorado as soon as the sun starts to come up. Maybe 6, 6:30ish.

Sorry, no new posts for a week. Waaaa. Ok, I have 1 scheduled for tomorrow. And I will try to hijack Hubb's laptop while he isn't looking if I get a chance.

Red Bull Friday

Uuumm, it is after 4:00 and I am just now getting to my Red Bull.

Today was NUTS!

We are leaving in the morning (butt crack of dawn) for Iowa. I am going to be out of the shop for a week and everybody is freaking out a little.

The one week I decide to take a semi-vacation the shop is booked. Solid. Figures.

AND, I still have an assload of shit to do when I get home.

1)I have 2 loads of laundry to wash and dry.
2)I still have to pack up the clothes.
3)I have to go to Walmart. Monk man's underware keeps disappearing and he only has 5 pairs left. Plus he needs a couple more pairs of socks. And Bobblehead has been wearing Monk Man's hand me downs. Well Monk Man was a spring baby and Bobblehead is a fall baby. That means shorts, no long pants. Anywhere.
4)I still have to pack everything else that has been sitting on my kitchen table for 2 days.
5)Lastly, I have to pack ALL of the shit in the HHR tonight after the boys go to bed.

Oh crap. I just realized that I don't have anyone lined up to check on the dogs & cats. Or get my mail. I could totally scream. Aaaahhhhhhhh!

Well, they are shutting the shop down on me. I will post more tonight if I get a chance.

GM Employee Pricing

is a joke. Seriously.

Years ago I worked at a dealership and learned something interesting about the so called employee pricing.

Wanna know how it really works?

The dealership figures out how much the employee discount would be and adds it to the MSRP. It only looks like you are saving a bunch of money. But you really aren't.

Such a scam.

Anybody want to know any other trade secrets?