Playing with the layout...

Ya know, I'm really not a terribly good computer person. I play around with it just enought to generally mess something up to the point where it has to go in and get fixed. But now and then, I actually get something to work the way it is supposed to!

So how do ya'll like the new layout? I lost my virtual model and while I found her again, for some reason I couldn't get her to show up like she had been so I'll mess with that later on.

Anyway..I like the way it looks so I hope ya'll do also!

Have a great weekend and I'm wishing lots of good food on ya tomorrow!

In the kitchen

Oh yeah baby...this wireless laptop thing totally has it going on! I'm currently browsing recipes (and totally drooling over Noble Pigs recipe's she's posted for Superbowl) while I'm sitting in my kitchen! Gawd..I love technology!

Woohoo! Let's meet the fam!

A huge thank you to my dear hubby for getting the wireless up and going! This is so cool now that I can load up all my pictures and post away! So say Hello to Da Man!




Here is my oldest son..affectionately known as Magnet. It's a long story that I'll tell sometime!




This is the youngest son who has various names depending on the mood he's in for the day! He goes by Alien or Twerp or COTU (center of the universe). Can you tell what kind of stage he's going through just now?! I love him dearly but there are days I'm not sure he's going to make it until his next birthday! Just kidding...I think! ;o)




This is Little Boss with her daddy....she's totally a daddy's girl, or more truthfully, she's her daddy's boss! hehehe..you guys just THINK I'm kidding here don't ya? (wink)




And here is the newest member of the live-in family aka The Dude. He just turned 16! Sounds (and often acts) just like his dad! He moved in with us at the beginning of January and is going to school here now.


Okay, I'll get some more up later, I haven't posted any pics of Hippie Chick and Sketch, the two oldest girls that don't live with us.

Thanks for meeting my family!

Braces saga begins

And it started off very anticlimatically! Da Man took off early for the appt due to the weather with 2 boys in tow...drove for 1 1/2 hours to get there and said it took all of 2 minutes for them to pop a couple of rubber bands between some teeth to start making the 'space' for the appliance to go in!

Why am I suddenly getting a vision of what my life is going to be like for the next 20-24 months?

By the way...I'm NOT at work tonight, I actually slept all day and most of the night and have woken up with a nasty headache starting. I think I need my diet Dr. Pepper but I know I'll be up for the day for sure if I drink that. I don't mind working night shifts..they generally go by just fine. It's the readjustment time that kills me. I must be getting old.

One of these days...I promise

I hope. I really do. I will. Get my camera and load up my pictures and start posting some on my blog! I'm even going to send Da Man out with it tomorrow when he takes the boys to their dentist appointment. Now, if he actually uses it or not will be a totally different question. I'm also going to have to catch the boys reactions when they realized they are blog fodder for me now! Muauhahaha! You've never seen such eye-rolling and shoulder-slumping!

I'm at work again tonight so I apologize for the late night post but it's when I had time! Catch ya'll later!

Monday Check-in (a little early)

Okay..it was the big moment. My weigh-in for myself and for you all...and it was just a bit early since I ended up having to go to work Sunday night shift but that's okay because I lost 5 pounds! Woohoo! I'm still haven't added in the exercising which is coming...this week for sure but I have stuck to eating well mostly, I'll admit to having a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and I had two apple dumplings (no ice cream) for The Dude's birthday earlier.

So I'm off and running/waddling! Ya'll keep rooting for me and it is nice to know that I'm going to have to post on this each week...it's kind of like my own 'Biggest Loser' contest with myself. I just need a Bob or a Jillian to really get me going!

Some people are so talented!

My blogging sister is one, she just has this great way with words.
My daughter is another, she also has this ability to write and make you laugh at the same time and if it is possible, actually has better comedic timing than my bloggy sister.
My mom is an awesome painter.
My stepdaughter is a true artist, she draws comic-book style, creates characters and creatures as well as creating plays and stories.
Now, I've stumbled across another talent..his name is Rick Green and he is a doodle extraordinaire! Here is a sample of his work and I completely recommend checking out his site.





That is certainly what I'm going to be doing tonight..since I just got a call from work and my night nurse is sick so guess who gets to fill in? Yep...yours truly. Ya know, I love my job, but this is the part that makes me crazy. Thankfully, it doesn't happen terribly often when either someone isn't able to make it to work AND there isn't someone that is able to fill in for them also, but when it does...it's me that has to work.

Oh..watch out for some actual good posting coming up. The boys go in for their first appliance on Tuesday. Braces season is officially starting! Yikes...2 in braces at the same time. Perhaps I shouldn't be complaining about putting in work hours regardless of what time they are. ;)

Aww...my little girl

This is Little Boss...isn't she cute! Unfortunately, work and kids here didn't allow me to see her in this Homecoming ceremony but I was told by her mom that she did just wonderfully. I'm betting that 11 or 12 years from now, she's going to be in a photo just like this again but then she'll be wearing the queen crown.

http://www.pratttribune.com/archive/x1992962229/g258258c0adcd13bafe16db51babc0b5f63b8dd966a1e4a.jpg

Obviously, I'm having trouble posting a picture of it, but there is the link to the Tribune photo.

Wow, what a day!

First off, to catch up from yesterday...I didn't end up weighing myself although I have been quite good with my diet. It just seemed so close from where I started that I figured I'd just wait until next Monday and hopefully have some results. Besides, it was sooo busy yesterday! I don't think I stopped moving until 9pm.

The pictures on TV are just incredible! This truly is a historic day. It is certainly the first inauguration of any president that I've taken the day off so that I can putter about the house while watching all of the day's events unfold. I wasn't very sure about this guy and he didn't have my vote ( I have to admit that I'm a republican ) but I'm very supportive of my president and have high hopes for what he can do. I am thrilled with the way our country and the world has responded to his election. We have had such a terrible political image around the globe for so long now that it is exciting to have the world on our side for a change.

I went to Australia just a month after 9/11 and even then was shown that America and Americans were not necessarily viewed in the rosiest of lights (of course I was assured that present company was excepted! hehe ). It was an eye-opener at the time and things have greatly spiraled downward since then. I mean that was a month after 9/11 for crying out loud! A time when everyone was very sympathetic to the tragedy that had taken place.

So let's all send up a prayer of support for our new president and I hope...I really hope, that perhaps this will be a time of change. Let's just pray as well that our terrorist enemies remain unable to follow-through with any more attacks within the boundaries of this wonderful country that we live in.

I've been thinking about names

yeah, yeah, I'm still at work and while I HAVE been primarily working, my little gray cells have also been churning away at my name problem and I think I'm coming up with it.
Kid #1: Hippie Chick
Kid #2: (still undecided)
Kid #3: Dude
Kid #4: Punk 1
Kid #5: Punk 2
Kid #6: Little Boss

So I just need something for #2...she's creative, living with her mom, very artistic, writes plays, acts and directs...there just isn't much creative that she can't do! She draws in the anime' style so perhaps something with a Japanese flavor. I know that Lady in Japanese is Fujin...that just might work.

Working...

well, actually I'm on my lunch break right this very minute and I thought I'd pop online and see how everyone is doing? What's that? You are curled up on the couch reading a book and a few of you are watching sports and there is Tammy playing in her paint. Sheesh...you guys have fun for me since here I am slaving away in my office trying to get caught up on a ton of paperwork! My patients are being mellow and I have an LPN and a CNA watching over them while I catch up in here. At least I am able to get in here and get some uninterrupted work done, it's amazing how many phone calls, visitors and 'can-you-check-this-out's there are during the week! I actually see a little bit of the top of my desk now, a portion that hasn't been seen in over a month!
Oh...say a quick 'get well soon' prayer for the nurse that was scheduled today...she was puking with that flu bug that is going around which is why I got the call at 5:30 this morning to be here. I'll know tomorrow if the prayers worked or if I'm putting in some more time! See ya!

I've been debating.....

and I think I'm just going to take the plunge and do it. I have to do it. I. Have. To. Do. It. The oh-so-terrible IT I'm talking about is....losing weight. I'm not exactly sure what has happened but my weight has just snuck on and snuck on and then dog-piled on and I'm by far the heaviest I have ever been in my life!
So what I'm going to do is this...I think. I figure that the only people that see this blog is family and friends that love me or at the very least, I hope they do! (laugh) I'm going to start a weekly check-in about getting fit and you guys will have to hold me accountable to it. I've always done better if I know I have to report to someone sooo you guys have just been deputized! Woohoo! I should run (did I just say run!? ack!) right out and get you some tin stars to pin on your chests this very minute!
I'm thinking it will be a Monday check-in but since I've made this decision and I DON'T want to back out...I'll tell you what I weighed today. This is the number that has made me decide that I have had enough and it's time to do something about it. (gulp) 209. OMG!! 2 - 0 - freaking - 9! How in the hell did that happen?!
But I'm done, I'm turning this pizza train around right now and you guys have to watch me do it! Muahahaha! Okay, I'll weigh in on Mondays and keep you updated periodically. I'll even post pictures once Dan gets that darn wireless router up and going.
I'm going off to scream now...catch ya'll later!

Whoa...now the names?!

Ahahahaha! Ya know...coming up with names for some of my family is easy peasy....my hubby is just Da Man and my oldest is just as easily Hippie Chick or perhaps Hippie Child, that's how I often refer to her anyway...my hippie child! But now all the others, that is going to take some thought! Well, another that is fairly easy is my youngest daughter, stepdaughter actually but I've known her since she was a baby and she doesn't remember life without me in it so .. she's my daughter. Besides, her mom and I get along great and it cracks me up when she calls here and asks for me instead of Da Man! Oh...and her name will be Little Boss. There is a story with that and most of my family knows it. I'll go into it later if I'm searching for material but I have a funny feeling with all of these kids, I'll be weeding things out instead of searching!



Okay, that leaves...my oldest stepdaughter who is 17 and extremely creative, my stepson who has just moved in with us and is definitely a chip off of Da Man!, and my two boys...aged 11 and 9 (soon to be 12 and 10)! Yikes!



I'll be thinking about this so...do you guys have any suggestions for me? I've been teasing my youngest that he's the "Chopped Broccoli Alien from Planet Twerp" for a long time now but that's rather long to type every time I decide to talk about him! Ha!



Okay, off to bed for me since I'm trying my best to restore my sleeping pattern again.



Catch ya'll later!

Insomnia....

So what is the deal with this? Why is it that I can sleep just fine some nights and then suddenly and without any warning, I get to lie in bed and am simply unable to turn off my mind. I lie on my left side, turn to my right, try out my stomach for awhile, think about grabbing a book, decide I need a snack and grab a bowl of cereal, climb back into bed yawning....and lie there wide awake. Now..it's about 6 am..and guess what? Yep, I'm sleepy. Ugh.

Starting off!

So here I go ...venturing into the murky land of Blog. I hope that I'll find friendly folk in this new world and have a funny feeling that I just might be related to a few of the weirder ones. A quick word of warning though, I have broken down and gotten a beautiful laptop but while the wireless router has been hooked up, it's not really running quite right. My hubby (aka Da Man) promises me that he's going to get it working quickly but I don't think I'll be holding my breath. So until it has gotten the bugs worked out, I won't be posting regularly but I do plan on getting this going so I can keep in touch with those weird family members of mine. ;)

Wish me luck!