getting caught up ....again

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've decided to add on yet another venture. This time I really put thought and planning into it before jumping in. And, I made a pledge to myself to cut back on some of the other things in order to really get focused on the important work. (this is all about my web-work stuff...not the family stuff....not cutting out any of that!)
I'll tell you about my new project in a later post...no time now, just getting caught up on some pics before Lily gets up.

We made Brandi babysit so we could go out and celebrate a friend's birthday. I had realized that in going through all of our pictures the other day in order to get photos for the lawyer (green card renewal) that Ross and I hardly ever get our picture taken together. My drunk ass must have told everyone that because all of our friends kept taking our pictures. Two of them actually printed them up for us and one gave us one in a frame even! We've got great friends.

I am highly allergic to poison ivy. Lily came home from Tennessee back at Christmas with a small spot of it on her arm. Just a couple of applications of poison ivy cream and it was gone. Then, somehow, three weeks later I'm covered in it! all over my arms too.

On the way to Aunt Brandi's to go to the beach ... so cool.

While we were at the beach that day there were some girl scouts walking down the broadwalk with a wagon full of GS cookies. I've never seen Brandi run so fast. It was kinda funny to see a girl running up the beach in a thong yelling for cookies! I thought she might tackle them. We gave Lily ONE and she loved them. Thankfully Ross showed up just in time to distract her.

He actually took her in the Water! I never swim in January, must be that African blood.

No WAY

Lily's new word is "no"

Our day goes like this...

"Lily, are you ready for breakfast?"

"no"

"would you like a banana?"

"no"

"wanna take a bath?"

"no"

"Lily, come here"

"no"

"Lily, please let go of Zelda's tail"

"no"



It is somewhat annoying sometimes, but now it is funny because Ross taught her to say "no Way!"

I got a video

Silver Lining

Monday morning I woke up and it was NOT a good day. I had stayed up late the night before paying bills and balancing the checkbook so I was tired and feeling depressed about how broke we are right now.

So, to make matters even more depressing I needed to go get tampons and not only do I not have any money, but my stupid car is broken down again. I dumped a couple handfulls of quarters in my pocket and strapped Lily into the bike trailer.

About halfway to Walgreens I realized something. I wouldn't trade this for the world! All morning I had been dragging around depressed for all the wrong reasons. We could totally have more money in the bank and a good car to drive but I'd have to give up this life to do it.

It is January and Lily and I are riding along the deserted sidewalks of our safe neighborhood wearing shorts and tanktops while all everyone else is stuck at a job. On the way back from the store we stopped off at the park.

I'm glad I'm broke.

Day after Christmas

See what no naps does! Look at those bags!




David's birthday. We went to Bass Pro Shop to get bullets and an airsoft automatic rifle for David's birthday present. It is kinda a tradition to go out and let David pick out his own birthday gift. When he was little it served two purposes. 1. he got the opportunity to get whatever it was that he really wanted and didn't get from Santa. 2. Everything goes on sale the day after Christmas.



We had greasy chili cheese dogs and sodas for lunch ....mmmmm



We tried to get Lily to take a nap but it didn't work so we left her and Ross at the house and went to the home-place to go shooting.



Daddy had brought all of his guns and Richard had given him a new one for Christmas. Richard and David both brought their guns so we had a huge arsenal to choose from. However, we forgot to bring targets. So, we found some plastic plates and pinned them all over the trees to use as targets. Sherah is the best shooter in the bunch, David is probably the worst. The video here is Sherah and I having a shoot off. We both have the same kind of gun except that the one I am shooting is a magnum and the one she is shooting is not. Check out the flame that comes out of mine, and also notice how long it takes Sherah to decide to actually pull the trigger!






After shooting up over a hundred dollars worth of ammo we headed back.



We loaded up the car for the drive back to Marietta then went for dinner. We went to a noodle place that was really yummy and sort of a cross between fast food and restaurant. It was empty wich was good because Lily is at a stage where getting her to sit down is damn near impossible. The video here shows how Lily behaves while in public.



After dinner we got on the road to Marietta. We arrived at around 2 in the morning or so. I felt so bad because we woke Kathy up in the middle of the night and then she got up again two hours later to see us off. She is great though, had cookies for us and presents for Lily. Two hours wasn't much sleep...but felt good to get it.



Then the dreaded flight. This time with hardly any sleep and a cranky kid.



They overbooked the plane and moved a bunch of people off the flight, thankfully not us! We got off without much of a hitch other than sitting on the runway forever. This seems to be the norm these days. It is sad.



Once back it was hectic because I had to go in, drop my luggage and head right back out to get to work. By the time I got Lily to the babysitter and then to work I was two hours late! Yikes.



Then ....vacation over.

Christmas Day

This is where David lives. Notice the ghetto fabulous refridgerator and various other trash on the front porch! He rents the 2nd floor of this house but it is his buddy who lives downstairs and since Dave's apartment is small, he set up the Christmas tree in his friend's house downstairs.


These are the scariest steps! They are very steep and warped. And when you get to the top it feels like the stoop is going to fall off the house! But that is the only way into David's apartment so Lily and Joe had to be carried.


Lily dumped out her stocking on the floor. She got a bunch of candy that I took away from her (bad mommy!) a bunch ball, silly putty, silly string and the Pokey Little Puppie book.


She didn't like the silly string. It scared her.


We saved all of Lily's poopy diapers from Christmas eve and David gave them to Richard as gifts. He wrapped them in such a way that when the box was opened, so was the diaper. GROSS! The funny thing was that he didn't seem to notice that David was putting on a gas mask as he was unwrapping the box.
Then we got ready and went to have Christmas dinner at Aunt Marie's house. That was so much fun and so nice to see everyone that we hadn't seen in years. Ross was meeting all of these folks for the first time. Aunt Marie has a bonus room over her garage where she has some toys and things for her grandkids and Lily was in heaven there but when we had to have her with us in the main part of the house she was a terror. Her behavior on Christmas day was the worst that it has been in months. She was completely out of control. It was tiring.
David, Richard and Ross went for one more round of frisbee golf while Daddy, Lily and I stayed and had ice cream cones.
Then on the way home we drove by some guys house in Hendersonville who puts up so many lights that he actually charges people to drive through his property! It was fun, but I've seen almost as many lights in my neighborhood for free (but they don't have a santa there giving out candy canes either). Lily slept through it.

Monday of Vacation

We did a whole lotta nothing on Christmas eve. We ate way too much junk food and laid around on the couch. We played Frisbee golf. That was fun. The weather wasn't too cold like we had expected to it was good weather to run around outside. We really had to trick Daddy into watching Lily because he swears up and down that he doesn't know how to babysit! We put her down for a nap, quickly told him that he was in charge and ran out the door.
I must admit...I am TERRIBLE at Frisbee golf. See, we even have it on video...

All the holes are par 3 and just like regular golf, getting a higher score than 3 is bad. Well, we shot 11 holes. I got a 6, 8, 2 9s, an 11 and the rest were 10s! As you saw in the video, I only could get the stupid thing to go about 5 to 10 yards at a time.

That night we went to the Opryland hotel to wander around and see their Christmas decorations. I don't have any pictures from that either so I'll have to wait until Daddy downloads his camera. At the end we let Lily loose in a hallway of the hotel and she ran and ran until she fell over.

Forgot to post these from the Parade

I just realized when working on my laptop that I had downloaded the pictures from the Candy Cane parade to this slow computer rather than the desktop wher I usually put my pics. So, these are from the Candy Cane Parade that Lily and I went to before Christmas. It is on the beach and was very fun. I don't have any friends with babies so Lily got to hang out with the adults. Tony held her the whole time and we took a bunch of pictures of them together to try and convince his wife (she wasn't there...she had to work) that they should have a baby too. I hope it works.

More Vacation

Once we got to David's house we had a hard time getting Lily to sleep so she slept in between Ross and I. Ugh. I hear about people who sleep with their babies all the time and cannot fathom how they do it. Neither Ross nor I got any quality sleep.


So, the next morning, Sunday, we went to church at Denton's Chapel. My family has been going here for generations and generations. The sister of my great great grandmother Lillian whom Lily is named after, was the first child ever baptised in this church and everyone in my family since has been baptised there too. So, it was really special that we got Lily baptised there as well. Both of my dad's sister came too. We were called up to the front at the beginning of the service and Lily did the funniest thing. She saw the baby Jesus that was set up in the front of the church and kept saying "Bay Bee, Bay Bee" over and over and then started to fuss because I wouldn't let her get down to play with him. Once the minister put the water on her head she froze. She looked right at him in such a serious face and looked as though she was understanding what he was saying. The whole experience was really nice except that Lily was so squirmy and loud during the service that I had to take her out. The church is teeny tiny (42 members!) so there weren't many places to go. We wandered around the big room that they use for banquets and such and it was really neat to see that they still had pictures of my Grandparents on the wall there. They were really active with the church and I know they loved it so it made me smile to see their pictures on the wall even though they both passed away over 10 years ago.
(that picture of the church here is an old one but it looks exactly the same at that)





After Church we drove down the road to see my Grandparent's house. My dad and Aunts sold it after they died and now it is up for sale again. The realtor happens to know my dad and Aunts (everyone knows one another!) and she goes to Dentons, so she offered to let us in to look around. It is the house that my Dad & Aunts grew up in and I have quite a few memories there too. The people who are selling it did a bit of work to the place. they added two bathrooms (there was only 1 before!) and cut out a bedroom. Added a porch and re-did the floors. We went into the basement and saw a beam that had markings of mine and David's height when I was 11 and he was 6. And Brandi, Richard and my height when we were 18, 16 and 6. So, we got a marker and marked Lily's height too.

Then we went across the street to take a look at what my dad calls "the home place" which is the family property that really is still in the family. We lived there when I was 4 but I only really have memories of the place from the outside. All the years growing up when we would go up to visit Ganny & Grandad there were people living there that were renters so we never went in. It is pretty run down now. It needs quite a bit of work if someone were to want to live in it. The funny thing is that I always thought the house was brick but it turns out it is faux. What a let-down!


We got a picture of Lily standing next to her Great Great Great Grandma Lillian's grave


Then on the way home we picked up food from a yummy fattening place called Fat Moes. Mmmmm

Back from Vacation

I am going to have to write about our trip in several posts because I just don't have the time to do it all in one.
I am so behind on work and it just makes me tired to think about how long it will be before I get caught up. I think I'm going to hire a babysitter to come over one day just so I can work.
Anyway. We went up to Tennessee for Christmas making stops in Huntsville and Atlanta.
We left early Saturday morning and flew to Atlanta. Lily was confused about the early wake up but did great on the plane. We got to the airport way early and it was surprisingly empty so Lily had a blast running up and down the long rows of chairs and pointing at the planes outside.
She was squirmy on the flight but it was only and hour and a half so we got through it pretty easily.
Daddy met us at the airport and we loaded in and drove to Huntsville. Lily started saying "Joe" (my dad's dog that used to be mine) within the first half hour of the trip. It was so cute.
Once in Huntsville my whole family came over to Grandma's house to have a little Christmas celebration. It was so fun. It is so nice to be able to be somewhere that I can just put Lily down and know that she'll be ok no matter if I'm in the same room or not. We don't really have that here at this age. Lily ran around and tried to get into as many things as possible. My cousins and Aunts tried their best to kiss her and hug her but she is too much on the move.
Lily must have been very good this year because she got so many great things. She got two new baby dolls, a cool blinky noisy key, a dress and three hats!
We stuffed ourselves and Lily refused to eat anything. Aunt Gertie dipped ice cream cones for all the kids and Lily had her first one ever. She wouldn't eat it at first but then once Ross taught her to put her finger in it then lick her finger she discovered that she liked it.
After the party we got back in the bronco and headed to Nashville.

Lily's new boyfriend

I absolutely love the way Lily says 'baby'. It sounds like "bay bee" with the emphasis on the 'bay'. Any doll or stuffed animal, as well as real children are identified as 'Baby' along with a finger point. So, the other day when I was dragging my suitcase out from the top of the closet and had to move the Gigantic Raggety Ann & Andy dolls (all four of them... for some reason I have Brandi's too) I figured it would be time to let Lily play with them.
Well, Zelda ate the legs off one of them when she was a puppy, so that was the real reason they were in the top of the closet. And, because they are so old and are really really cherished toys from my childhood, I only gave her one Andy doll (Brandi's of course) to play with. She LOVES it!
Every night part of our routine is to pick out a baby from the basket and put it in the bed with her. I have been struggling for three days now trying to reason with a 17 month old about the size of the doll and how a smaller doll would be better to sleep with.
So worth it...
One of my Aunts made these dolls for us. I need to find out which one and see if she still has the pattern. I would LOVE to make these precious dolls.

Man am I irritated! I've either got some sort of bug on BOTH of my computers or all the crazed Christmas shoppers have taken to the internet and slowed my connection to a crawl. I've been trying to upload these damn pictures for two hours now (well not 2 hours straight, but while I work in a seperate window) and they are still not up. Hopefully I can get it to work in the morning.

Getting involved in Politics

I've been trying to decide which political candidate to vote for. I'm still undecided but I am really trying to narrow down my options. Because of the stupid way our system is set up, I had to pick a party in order to be able to participate in the primary elections. Although I still disagree with some of their party values, I've changed my affiliation to Republican. So, also because of the stupid way our elections are handled, I've only been paying attention to the republican candidates for now because I have no say in how the democrats narrow down their choices. I spent my birthday watching the YouTube debate and taking notes. I still need to look up a few more things online but I've pretty much narrowed my decision down to three.

One of those three is Senator McCain. Yesterday I met up with my Aunt and cousins down in Miami to go hear him speak at a town hall meeting. It was pretty cool because the amount of political things I've actually participated in prior to this has been very limited. I had a question prepared and was ready to ask it but someone else got my question before I could get the courage up to ask it.

The only un-cool thing was that most of the questions proposed to him were asked in Spanish. He had a translator in his ear to translate it for him but we just had to figure it out by the answer he gave. Maybe next time I should go to the English speaking one.

Senator McCain was a POW with my uncle and my aunt volunteers for his campaign so he came over and talked to us after the meeting.

We got our pictures made with him. There was some other weirdo in the pic too, but I cropped him out. In the pic: my cousin Sandy, Me, my cousin Pamela, Senator McCain, my cousin Christian, and my aunt Charlotte.

Getting so mature!

Lily's vocabulary is getting so big and she is learning things so quickly. She will say or do things that just amaze me every day. She has turned into quite a copy cat too. Yesterday she came in the bathroom while I was peeing and pulled off some toilet paper, wadded it up and walked over to the toilet and tried to reach in to wipe for me! I quickly stopped her from being so "helpfull" and then she decided to sit on her little toilet and picked up a magazine. I guess she thinks that is where you are supposed to sit to read!
She tells me when she is hungry by saying 'eat, eat, eat' and that she wants juice or a banana. And she tells me when she has pooped too.
They say that putting words together is the next step in learning language so I can now say that she is at step two because she says 'all gone' when she has emptied her cup or finished her plate. Ok, so it sounds more like "gon, go" but I understand it.

Finally downloaded my camera!

Thanksgiving week a few of my old friends from Tally came over for a day and we had so much fun! We all used to work in a bar together and the last time we were all together we were hanging out in a stinky dingy bar with no windows. It was so funny how now we were sitting around talking without beer, without cigarettes, and it was DAYLIGHT and there were babies everywhere! It was great!
Lily and Ana are almost one month apart in age and Dean is only 4 months old.

The video is of Lily during the FSU-Florida game and her best attempt at the Seminole Chop. I've been trying all season to get her to do the chop and she is finally getting it. She's even doing the war chant!

Squirt gun

I have a bucket full of squirt guns and back when David was here he showed her how to use them. Her little hands are too small to pull the trigger without help but there is this little one that is shaped like a grenade that she can manipulate on her own. This is a video of her trying to wake up David.

Charity Auction!!!!

I've got another charity auction up! If you know anyone who may be interested please let them know.

First Lolipop

This was about the week after Halloween but I just haven't gotten around to posting it yet. David and I were standing in the kitchen talking and then all of the sudden I look down to see Lily standing there looking up at us eating a lolipop. I know that doesn't sound strange right off, but she has never had candy before, especially not a lolipop and she is just standing there with the entire thing in her mouth holding the stick just as casual as can be, like she ate them every day.

And the thing is, this was a tootsie roll pop too! Those things are HUGE.

David and I immediately just burst out laughing and I had to get the camera.

I was feeling very generous that day so I didn't take it away from her but I did make her sit down to eat it. I was not about to have to take a trip to the ER over it. So, David dug out the only other tootsie roll pop in the house and joined her ( I was hiding them because they are my favorite and I wanted to save them, unfortunately Lily can un-zip my backback )

Crazy Time

Lily has crazy time most evenings. Before daylight savings kicked in, we used to go out in the yard and play around for a little bit before bathtime, now, it is dark so we play inside. I think that Lily just gets it in her to laugh at this time. It doesn't take much to get her squealing and giggling during this playtime. If no one is playing with her she will just chase after Zelda squealing. I caught this video the other night of a game she and Ross had come up with. If you watch all the way to the end you can get a glimpse of the game she invented that I HATE. The 'let me pull out mommy's hairclip' game. I am growing my bangs out again so if I am not wearing a clip or something than my bangs get in my face and give me a headache. Lily thinks all clips are her playthings and will rip them out of my head.....eeerrrrrrr. Damn me for thinking it was cute to put a clip in her hair!

The cutest thing and then the grossest thing

This morning I've got my laptop sitting on the dining room table so I can get a little work done as Lily plays and she came over to the table and pushed her high chair back away from the table (the tray broke and we've just been sliding it up to the table instead of getting another one....we are so ghetto!) and started saying "eat, eat, eat" then pointed to her mouth. She is so smart! So as I put her in the chair she was saying "ban, ban, ban" and pointing to the bananas. So, clearly she is a girl who knows what she wants!
So, as I was opening a banana she says "poop, poop, poop". So, I stand her back up to see if she really has pooped. Yep, she's pooped all right and although it hasn't happened in a long long time, it was one of those that went all the way up her back. So, in the process of picking her up I ended up with it on my hands! YUCK!
It is such a gross way to start the day but so cute at the same times because Lily is getting so good at talking. When I grabbed a diaper and she said "dipe, dipe, dipe"

This funny little girl!

Lily will be 16 months old this week and she is so fun right now. I totally love this whole parenting thing so far. I am amazed at how quickly children learn and getting to see it everyday is wonderful. There are so many times when I sit down to pay the bills or when I see my friends getting to do things that we can't afford to do, that I wish that I worked a full time job. But then again, there significantly more times that I thank god that I am able to be here every day with Lily.
Lily does so many of the cutest things right now. When I pick her up and hold her in front of me she puts her arms around my neck and then fluffs out my hair saying "hair, hair, hair" which actually sounds more like "ha, ha, ha"
and her word for nose sounds like "nnna"
She is watching us intently. She got my make-up brush the other day and kept repeating 'eye' over and over while she tried to stick it in her eye.
I couldn't find my hair brush yesterday and I asked Lily if she knew where it was and she ran right into the bathroom and opened the drawer where it belonged!
She hugs Zelda and laughs and laughs as Zelda tries to wiggle loose. She picks up people's shirts to find their belly buttons. She moves her little chairs over to sit next to the big people chairs. She hugs her blanket and her babies and says "awwww" when she does it.
Now, there are a couple of not so cute things. She is obsessed with Bananas and will cry and squeal on the floor under where the bananas are kept pointing and saying 'ban, ban, ban'. She has actually pushed a chair over and tried to climb up there for them twice (smart, but too smart for her own good). She also has started to throw tantrums if you have to take something away from her (like that make-up brush she wanted to stick in her eye)
She keeps us all in a good mood right now. :)

I bought myself and early Birthday Gift

I couldn't resist. I had been hinting that I wanted this forever and the other day at Wal-mart I saw it and this model was $50 cheaper than the others I'd seen and it just so happened that I had just finished the most profitable week in my website's history, so....I splurged.

Of course I was immediately punished for my lack of self control.

We got it home and put it together and realized that we were missing the most important piece.... the one that holds it to the bike!

So, we took it all back apart and the next day went out early to take it back.

They didn't have another one so we had to go to another Wal-mart to get it there. Back in the hot no-AC car and back onto the highway and risk our lives yet again because my car shakes like it is going to fall apart the minute I go the slightest bit over 60.

Next Wal-mart. Very friendly guy in the toy department tells me that they are out, but checks the computer and it turns out the Wal-mart that we just left has 11 of them in stock!

Back in the car.

I was not about to go back to the first Wal-mart and deal with that again, so we went to wal-mart #3. So far we had been to Miami, then the Ghetto, and now we are in the Burbs. Well, horray for the Burbs because they have it!

I RE-purchase it and risk our lives just once more in order to get home. By this time it was WAY past Lily's lunch and nap time but she was great. We bought her a giant ball (I have no self controll....I really shouldn't go out in public!) and because of the windows being open it was flying all around the back seat and kept her entertained.

So, get home. Hot, sweaty, hungry and tired. Get Lily fed and down for a nap and start putting this thing together.

Guess what.... NO COUPLER!!! Yes, the EXACT SAME PART that was missing off the first one!

So, I got on the phone with the company and they sent me the part free of charge. I had to wait a week to get it, but it was free none the less.

Not irritant-free... just didn't cost me any money.

So, after all that. Monday we finally go the coupler and we've been riding all over the place for the past couple of days. The weather finally cooled off and it is so perfect right now to be riding bikes.

Lily hates the helmet and it is a little big. Kinda odd that they don't make them any smaller than for a 3 year old. And to think, Lily has got a huge head, can you imagine how big it would be for a normal size kid her age?

There is a space behind the seat that I can fit packages in, so today we rode to the post office and stopped by the park on the way home.

Oh, and Zelda fits in it too! I put both the babies in and off we go.

Halloween

I always used to think that going to the mall to trick or treat was dumb, but that is exactly what we did yesterday. South Florida is lame when it comes to Halloween. This is one of those holidays where a small town would be better. We didn't have any trick or treaters last year, so I figured that we wouldn't again this year either and didn't even bother. Lily wore her costume the whole day and then we took her to the mall after dinner. She was so adorable. There was a little girl there that she made friends with. This little angel walked up to Lily and they just stared and smiled at each other for about 5 minutes. It was so funny. The girl is 18 months old but slightly smaller than Lily. She had an FSU stroller too...how cool!

Lily ran around and looked at all the kids. I enjoyed seeing all the other kids in costumes. I love seeing kids dressed up for Halloween but am disapointed that no one makes their own costumes any more. It has just become so comerial. I know, I'm to blame considering that I sell ready-to-wear costumes, but it just takes all the creativity out of the holiday. We remenisced about some of the great costumes that we had created in the past. David reminded me of a good one he had when Daddy made him a proton pack for his ghostbusters costume.

I was a police officer, Lily was a ladybug, Ross was an old man and David was an inmate. My costume was from my store (I know....no creativity). Ross just pulled together some things from his closet and a shirt from my costume collection. David just threw on a re-run of Ross's inmate costume with a joe dirt wig. I made Lily's out of felt.

Do people REALLY make this kind of money?

I got an email today that just makes me wonder. Really? Is she serious? and ...you have got to be kidding me!

It came in through my website's user form so it had to have been a real person and not a computer generated spam. I copied it here: (and blocked out her email address but not her name because it is posted all over her site anyway)



name = Kelly Neumane

mail = XXXXXXX

comments = I run a blog site fashion and celebrity that is ranked high www.jakeldaily.com. Every week I will talk about one of your items linking it to your site and the advertisement to draw more traffic and more purchases, but not on text link ads.

300 x 75 (minimum flash) $150

300 x 250 (minimum flash) $250

Top Border $350

150 x 7 Link AdPods (left side bar) $125 150 x 200

Blog Ads (left side bar) $120

Text links $50.00

All prices are per month if you wish to advertise I could give you a discount price. Also 12 month text link at $360.00 If you are interested pleasse reply to this email.

Contact within 24hours and recieve a 25% discount.



Sure, I have ads on my blog, and I make a teeny tiny bit off them. (Well, honestly...it is WAY more than I expected, but still not enough to pay for my internet connection) This chick has got to be insane! Well, no, I take that back, She has got to be brilliant if people are really paying these prices! Did you look at her blog? It is garbage. Just posting a photo or two of the latest "super star" idiots that we see too much of in the press anyway. Then maybe a comment or two on their clothes or hair. PUKE.

If she is really making this kind of money from every add she has on her blog...I am doing something WAY wrong!

I'm not the only one in a magazine!

The other day David, Lily and I are grocery shopping and of course in full Carney style, we are playing around and wasting time while we are at it. So, we are in the magazine aisle checking to see if they carry the magazine that I'm in yet (and YES, It is STILL current. It only comes out a couple of times a year so I'm current through the end of the year) and of course, they don't. Oh well, no one cares about ebay stuff except other ebay junkies anyway.

so, I glance over and see a fishing magazine with a chick on the front



Last year Christy told me that she was doing this fishing tournament thing and that she was 'going to be famous'. If you know Christy, I'm sure you never doubted that she would be known, but who would have ever imaged it would be for FISHING? I know absolutely nothing about fishing, but apparently she and a girl friend of hers really dedicated themselves and joined some sort of tournament circuit. Christy told me that they were getting alot of publicity because they were an all girl team. So, being that I saw a chick on a fishing magazine and the cover reads "The girls of GAFF" (I have no clue what GAFF is, but the big fish clued me in that it was a magazine about fishing) I thought of Christy and picked it up.

I flipped in a couple of pages and sure-as-shit....there is Christy! The one my dad used to call "rocket scientist", right there in full color. Of course, after jumping around in the aisle a little and attempting to call her, I bought the magazine.

Oh, and Christy, if you are reading this....I don't have your current number...call me.

Once I got home and read the article I realized that this was the 5th time she and her partner have been in this magazine! Wow.

I was so proud of myself for getting published, but now I am REALLY proud of Christy. I know she feels the same as I do where even though it doesn't pay well, and it is alot of work, it sure is wonderful to do what you love.

Getting Ready For Halloween

As you all might know, Halloween is my favorite time of year. Well, that is until I opened a costume shop. Right now I am so frazzeled over the idiots on ebay! I wish I had kept track of how many STUPID questions that I've received in the last two weeks! I am so behind too because two shipments of costumes just arrived in the last week! Not enough time for me to sell them all, so there goes my idea of burning out the inventory and closing up shop. Now, I'm going to have to spend my entire Christmas season moving the costume inventory that I didn't sell into Addicted to Rockabilly. no fun.
What HAS been fun, is playing with the costumes!



And we carved some jack-o-lanterns. Ross had never done this before so made a big deal of it. Lily didn't really care about what was happening, she just wanted to go to sleep.

Notice that David is using a DREMEL? Can't do anything the old fashion way huh?

And, believe it or not, Brandi was actually here for this event and didn't end up in any of my pictures! This is a miracle because she is usually insistent that she be front and center in all photo ops.

Carpet ride

Lily is into rugs and carpets. She goes around the house dragging them around. She will have the bathmats and the kitchen rug all with her wherever she is playing. I think David's game he invented has something to do with it.