Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Merry & Bright

here's our card preview....
finished product....
guess i don't have to mail them out now~??
Walmart .09 cent prints (they are not technically
Christmas CARDS, just photo's that i "embellished.")
cost: $3.50
it will cost me more to mail them than have them done.
kyle especially wants me to mail a letter out telling everyone
how perfect our family is (you know "those" kind of christmas
letters?? the one's that make you wonder what the h*ll is wrong with
YOUR family??)
guess we'll be skipping the letter this year~ :O)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

ode to snow



i stole my images from the world wide web....
so what?
here's the thing, i live in a "snow state"...
MOST people love that fluffy white stuff that falls out
of the sky from Oct. to long into May some years,
but GUESS what?
NOT ME!
i am officially a "snow odiator*" (a word i completely
made up by the way)
*diriative from the word "odious" meaning:
1.deserving or causing hatred; hateful; detestable.
2.offensive; repugnant; disgusting.
see, for me, there is nothing good about snow.
it is...
cold
wet
makes the roads slippery to drive upon
you have to shovel it
if you ask Josh what is "bad" about snow, he
will say EVERYTHING.
(i take full responsibility for influening him for the worst in this matter)
did i mention COLD?
AND WET?
i know, i know, i am now at the mercy of being on the
receiving end of some flying white stuff in the form of snowballs,
cast at me by those who love to ski, snowboard, and otherwise
frolic in the white frozen water....
go ahead, cast your first snowball.
see if i care.
i stand by my ODIATING of snow.
give me warm lazy spring days, full of sunshine and flowers.
OR give me a hazy autumn day, filled with gently falling leaves.
i will take EITHER over snow.
i think i need to move somewhere warm-ER.
san diego?
oh sure, it (meaning SNOW) is great on Christmas Day, it really sets the mood
for St. Nick and all that jazz, but anytime before OR after, ODIATOR I AM!
so you can stand with me or against me, it matters not...
i just had to share my ODE TO SNOW.

Monday, December 8, 2008

SILVER BELLS...


















"Silver bells silver bells It's Christmas time in the city Ring a ling hear them sing Soon it will be Christmas day ..."

ahhh! the sweet music of bells ringing, Bing Crosby singing...Christmas tunes playing softly on the IPOD (oh how far we've come from the old scratchy record players)
but WAIT!
there is no sweet music playing, no Bing Crosby singing, but I *AM* hearing bells....



ringing, and children ...well, A CHILD, running whenever the bell

is being RUNG. Eliza seems to have confiscated a SILVER BELL

that was used at Aunt Wendy's wedding (actually it was given to her

as a gift with no thought of its future use) today she has decided

to be the QUEEN of our house (is this not how it is EVERY DAY?) and

i am the KING (obviously our dad is NOT around a lot) and poor poor Olivia

is the SERVANT....everytime the silver bells ring, Olivia goes darting

through the house to fetch something for the QUEEN. I am sitting on my

couch reading and giggling as Olivia dashes through the house

for something, YET AGAIN, for the QUEEN.


that, is OUR version of silver bells this holiday season.

i am off to turn on Bing for a while now....
"silver bells, silver bells..."

Friday, December 5, 2008

MY RANT: WTH ever happened to customer service?


if you have to ask what does "WTH" mean, well, nevermind...

and if you know what it means, read on!


i am 41 yrs old (gasp!) and i think that after living on earth for that

long i deserve the smallest amount of respect, right?


today i was running one QUICK (well it was supposed to be QUICK)

errand while the kids were at school. it is SHORT DAY and so i only have

until 10:30 and then bompie returns from K. (as in kindergarten, initials

on blogs confuse me--)

anyway, i ran up to Smiths Marketplace for my "big purchase".

as i was waiting in line with my item, some kind holiday soul turned

and said "you KNOW that there is a coupon in today's paper for "X" amount off

of your purchase. there are some more coupons up front!"


i told her THANK YOU, and i was thrilled to know it, because if you know

ANYTHING about me, it is #1: i LOVE to shop. BUT #2. ONLY if it's a really

good deal! all deals make everything better. this is my philosophy on shopping. (pretty much i REFUSE to pay full price)


anyway i dashed up front to try and find the coupon. i looked and looked but to

no avail! There were PILES of papers, but none of them from today.

so i turned to the CUSTOMER SERVICE line and waited. there were THREE (yup THREE) ladies working the lines...however INSTEAD OF serving CUSTOMERS,

they were balancing the tills or some darn thing.

so i continued to wait.

after 10 MINUTES of waiting (i was 2nd in line) i was pretty ticked. NOT ONE TIME in that 10 minutes did ONE of the ladies say "i will be right with you" OR
"just give us a minute to finish up please"

i was starting to feel like one of the THREE PIGS and was ready to break out

into a song and dance routine with LOTS of "HUFFING AND PUFFING!"

the lady in front of me had a small baby who was getting crankier by the minute

and she and i were taking turns rolling our eyes at each other.

FINALLY, they looked at us (AHA! we were still there, someone COULD see us!)

and proceeded to help the lady in front of me....she left.


it was MY TURN! oh glory day! oh happy times! someone would FINALLY help me! to my UTTER surprise, they turned BACK TO EACH OTHER and started chatting amongst themselves....FOR REAL?? for real!


by now, i was pretty ticked! "EXCUSE ME" i said and i explained what i needed.

and much to my (NOT) surprise NOT ONE OF THEM had a clue WHAT ad i was talking about or where it was.


now it was THEIR turn to "huff and puff" and stomp around, they could NOT find the ad anywhere. finally after consulting a help line, a manager and google they located the AD!

the customer service rep THRUST it at me and rolled her eyes.

OH THE HORROR!

i politely (well SORT OF POLITELY) said "you know, i hate to point this out, but

I AM the customer, and you DO work in customer service--you may try being a little more pleasant about it!"


there is my RANT, SMITHS almost lost my sale today....i worked in "customer service from my first job at age 16 til NOW (running my own ebay store still i deal w/serving customors...some crabby, some nice...and MY PHILOSOPHY is that THEY are the customer, and i should SERVE THEM!)


so my rant is ...WTH ever happened to GOOD customer service. it seems to be harder and harder to find! i actually find myself complimenting people at stores when they do a great job at helping me.


and if you think SMITHS is bad....let me tell you about WALMART....

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bompie says "HI DADDY", grace is a winner and I am a COPYCAT!

Kyle is in Phoenix all week on business.
bompie says HI DADDY! i love you!
she drew you this picture of you flying on the airplane.
you are in the BACK WINDOW in case you're wondering...
all the other employees are in the other windows!
DADDY! ^^^


Grace Catherine took "honorable mention" in her REFLECTIONS
drawing this year. it was the 4th of July over the Manhatten
skyline...my picture is really bad! HER picture was really good!
way to go gracie!

GEEZ mom! do i have to pose?

getting her "award"...


yeah grace!
i am a WINNER!


bored and copying an idea i saw on TV yesterday...
santa nutter butter cookies...
ingredients...

stage one...

stage TWO...


close up

stage THREE...


and DONE!

MY verdict: a LOT of work, pretty cute, not sure how they taste!


























nerds...we are all nerds!



so we put up the tree and all the trimmings...
what do my girls do?
sit on the couch for an hour and read all the
Christmas books that have been packed
away in the basement for a year.
we are nerds, plain and simple! :O)
(and, by the way, those are ONE YEAR OLD
candy cane suckers they are eating too...found 'em
at the bottom of someone's stocking...in case
you're wondering (and we know you are!)
they still tasted FINE actually....
regift?)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

the lights...

we went to see the "LIGHTS"...
as in "AT TEMPLE SQUARE" kinda lights!
It is quite spectacular.
we have not been since Josh was a baby...
he is now 15, you do the math!

who says i can't take pictures and walk at the same time?

HUH?







We were not sure what time the lights turned
"ON" at...and we were sitting there at EXACTLY
5:30 when someone flipped the switch!
i can only say "WOW!"
it was beautiful and amazing!





All of a sudden we were SURROUNDED by
LIGHTS....

EVERYWHERE!

i would have to say that the Temple is QUITE photogenic! (LOL)
i wish I ALWAYS looked as good in all my pictures.






AND of course, we had to finish off a trip downtown
with a visit to HIRES ....$1 cones for all the kids!
YUM-O!