We did it again!

They did it again!!

Last night we went to the Danville Invitational. There was 11 different schools there and man everyone was nervous. Especially because 2 of the groups had dropped out last Friday so we didn't know how there show was going to be and then rumors flew that Mt. Zion who hosted last week changed their entire show.

I guess it didn't matter!!

We won Outstanding Visual Presentation, Outstanding Music Sound, Outstanding Female Soloist, one of the kids received and All Star Performer award and.........Grand Champion again!! There was only 2 other awards so it was almost a clean sweep.

Now I fear that the other close area's are going to be holding a major grudge at the next competition.

On a different note it was a bit of a sad night for out Ashley. Because she was so excited last week and yelled A-LOT she lost her voice. The girl who did her solo last night is who won best female vocalist. It was a hard lesson and she wanted to leave immediately so I didn't get any group pictures afterwards. After a bit of prodding she admitted that she was mad at herself and no one else so that's good. We have two weeks before the next competition so she should be rearing to go by then.

They put me to work so I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures of the show this time.









all the representatives of each school

our kids getting Outstanding Sound trophy

Love Cake!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Mark.

This is the Beautiful Love Cake Hannah made for daddy.

A few days before the Big Day, I was asking Mark what he wanted for his birthday dinner and did he want cake , cheese cake, cookies, or some other dessert (He isn't a big dessert fan) so as usual he said nothing so Nan piped up and said

" Daddy, I know what you want, you want a Love Cake!!"

Well who can turn down a sweet little girl offering a Love Cake?

So apparently this is what one looks like!

Grand Champions!!!

Hello Blogger Friends. I have been so MIA and I am sorry. It's been a little busy since Christmas and honestly I have stayed away from the computer.

Last night was Ashley's first competition with Xperience! (the Show Choir from school) Many hours of practice paid off.

As I understand it, where you ranked the year before is how they list the order you perform in. Since JH placed 2nd last year, they were supposed to be 2nd from last. How ever, as we all know, things are not always fair so they slotted us as 2nd from the beginning. And then ....... the first group dropped out the morning of because their costumes didn't get finished (was the rumor going round) So nervous as all get out they went first.

And they blew the audience away. Everyone I talked to got chills. Then all the other groups performed and it was a fun evening but none (to me) had the tap your feet get into it performance I thought we had. There was even a group from Missouri who donned feather chicken masks and hatched an egg on stage with a big ending of the chick leading the audience in the Chicken dance? Since this was my first show to watch not sure if that's a good thing or not LOL I think I would more expect it at a comedy show but what do I know?

Ashley ended up last Wed getting a Solo for the show. So being the first time to perform it was quite nerve racking. She did great and I am sure next time she won't have the nervous deer in the head lights look.

We are so proud of the kids and this can only be the start of a great season to come!! Good Job X!

Ashley and Mrs. Bell her director with the Grand Champion Cup and Best Female Vocalist trophy (actually went to the other soloist Ashley Cook )

Ashley and her friend Susanna

Blockbuster Sucks

OK I am on a rampage. We have done the online movie rental thing for awhile. We started with Netflix. Then we heard about the Blockbuster total access so we switched. It was a no brainer.

Then things got tricky. Blockbuster fazed out my plan so I had to upgrade my plan at the cost of $7 to get what other members were only paying $3 more. I was up in arms of what to do. Do I stay, do I switch? It took quite awhile to decide. I ultimately stayed where I was. I sucked it up and payed the $7 more dollars.

Now that all has changed. I got an email last night. My plan is now going up to ............ $34.99 a month!!! They are increasing it $10 MORE DOLLARS. OH NO they are so wrong.

To put salt in the wound more I found out from a friend who was able to stay at same plan when I had to change, that not only does she still get the free coupon that originally so enticing, but that due to the price change, she is only paying $2 more a month.

To break it down she is paying $19.99 for 3 movies at a time unlimited in store exchanges and a free coupon once a month.
Where I would be paying $34.99!! for 3 at a time unlimited exchanges.

Can anyone see my frustration?

Customer service?? what's that. I called on the phone to see what was going on this is a mistake right?? The guy informs me he can not discuss other plans that other customers might be using. It's not like I gave him a name or anything I just said a member. I didn't want to know how they were paying just the fact of this must be a mistake. He said nope no mistake we are increasing the price and it's reflective of how many movies you rent. What does that mean I wonder?? If you use your service you pay more?? That can't be it, I have had the same 3 movies sitting on the desk for almost 2 weeks now.

Needless to say they lost this customer. Please, if you read this, share it, lets take revenge on the greedy money hungry pigs.

First Perfomance

Ash had her first performance last night. Along with Eisenhower Elite Energy, and the Thomas Jefferson Music Machine, the John's Hill Xperience had their Holiday Preview Show. It was AMAZING!

I have to warn TJ that if their performance last night was any indication of how they will do at competitions, they are going to lose to us every time. I am not saying this because we are in JHX but because we truly were so much better haha.

Anyway the EEE had many solo's then TJMM did their act in khaki's and polo's. It was not so great. Especially after such great performance's by the High School kids. I was very very worried of how bad the X kidss were going to be. But alas they were awesome. Their opener was "We got it Going On" by Bon Jovi. It really got the audience to sit up and take notice. And it only got better from there. Where TJ left you in pain, JH got you tapping your feet and clapping. Thank goodness our outfits came in in time to wear. It definitely made a great impression right from the get go.

Then EEE closed out the show with an excellent performance with their entire group. Hannah was in awe of the costumes. Mark who is NOT INTO this stuff actually enjoyed it for a change. It will be an interesting and fun season to be sure.

When the show was over, we were greeted by Tons of Snow!! Mark went to get the car and while us girls were walking out, we didn't see him because our silver van was totally white lmao. We walked right past him and him us because it was snowing so hard. Luckily I saw the license plate as we passed and back tracked.

On a side note, we cracked up at Ashley's hair all night. Now that I know what they want the hair to look like, I will take over the roll of her hair stylist. She looked like a French Poodle with her do. If your wondering how much product a 12 year old needs to achieve this look here you go!

I am alive

I haven't posted lately. Been so busy and yet so much is going on.

Ashley has her first performance on Saturday at the Lincoln Theater. Wish her luck. Their dresses came in yesterday so they won't be altered in time to wear so they will be wearing their 2nd costume. I still am not sure how I will deal with my little girl wearing a padded bra, makeup, hair done to the 9's and high heels. It's a bit surreal. She also has her "Christmas Ball" dance Friday. I just can't believe I have a 7th grader.

Hannah is doing good. She came home from school last Thursday beaming from ear to ear. She has her first loose tooth. This was hard. This means she will no longer be a baby. She is a little girl. A big girl if you ask her. sniff... sniff... I actually cried. Don't want to imagine her with a missing tooth. She is hoping for Christmas visit from tooth fairy so she will not wiggle it nor let anyone touch it. This could get gross.

Our house was busy with Alexis visiting and playing wii , drinking, shopping , and doing all our favorite activities. We loved having her here and now miss her terribly.

Yesterday my mom came to town and stayed the night before heading of to Chicago for a meeting then she has to rush home to Missouri to pack up to head to VA. I told her to call you Brigitte and help you move into your big beautiful new house!!

That's about all that's going on in the F house. Work and run. And no I do not have my Christmas Shopping done, so don't ask haha.

Getting Ready

In less than 2 hours I am going to pick up Alexis from the Airport. I am so excited. I haven't seen her in forever!........ Ok not true, it's only been less than 4 months but that's forever. We are going to spend the day shopping, eating, drinking , and being merry. I took the day off to be free all day. When we get back to town, we are collecting Mark and all going to dinner to eat, drink and be merry some more.

I think I am going to look for some new Christmas Decorations while out so it will put me in a Merry Christmas Mode! haha.

BINGO

Wow so last night was quite the Xperience (haha). I had to work from 5-9:30 at the Majestic Bingo Hall towards fundraising for Show Choir.

I must be honest I was extremely nervous. Have you ever seen the old people with their bingo? It's some serious stuff. Most of the people there were nice (the fellow workers) some were not. It was easy but I felt abit of a hooker. Walking up and down up and down the isles yelling "Pull tabs" "ButtCrack" "RedNeck" "IttyBittyBankers" "Anyone Need Beans?, ButtCrack, RedNeck?"

You get moments of pleading "puppies?? anyone want puppies?" I thought that if my voice was really pathetic they would buy but no if there is a good bingo going they ignore you. And it didn't help that there was 7 of us out on the floor for a room of maybe 100 people at the very very most.

But the things you see. You get your ladies who know they aren't moving so they buy 3 drinks and line them up along the table. You have your people who bring in their own computer type games to play while using a bingo computer to play all at the same time. And the good luck charms!!
You of course have your trolls. There was a giant wooden frog, special dollars with colored daub spots all over them. An American Flag, pictures of their grand kids. Soo much to see!

And the amount of money they spend Holy Cow!!!! I sold about $3,500 in pull tabs. And I sold the fewest because they realized pretty quick I was no luck lady haha. I couldn't even go in the "dungeon" (no smoking room) because Ashley's teacher from last year was in there and she played Bingo with me once and then didn't win again for 7 months!! haha. She knows all about my bad luck curse haha.

The highlight of the evening was when I had two ladies yell for pull tabs at the same time and I went to the one I was closest to first they were a table apart. I sold the lady $20 of bean cards, turned around and sold the other lady $15 of bean cards. Well the first lady ended up winning $100 so the other lady kept making comments ALL NIGHT that she was going to kick my white racist ass for selling the other lady her winning ticket. I was a bit shaking in my keds!!

But all ended well and I will probably do it again but after January when it goes all NO SMOKING!!! I am so excited haha. The smoke was so thick in there I had a headache in the first 5 minutes.

The Truth

So I previously posted about my search for the perfect Christmas tree.

I am not having much luck. I found one I liked but it's a gazillion dollars.
(OK not a gazillion but $399 so that's pretty close when talking about a tree)

I have gone to every store in town and it's down to the $$$ one or one that's not much less that I loved but it's in Springfield which isn't too far away but I hate to go when I don't really have the time right now.

There for all of this has me in a very BAH HUM BUG mood. I actually change the channel when Christmas music come on the radio. I have purchased only two Christmas presents so far. I have done absolutely NO DECORATING. And the worst part is to be honest I have no desire.

Not sure what exactly my hang up this year but I need to get over it. My kids are getting very angry with me.

Has anyone else had this feeling before? Or now? How did you get over it??

Some times wii get lucky

Yes you see correctly. I now have in my possession 2, count them 1 and 1 makes 2, wii systems. After hearing of how lucky I was yesterday and knowing of a store in town that was going to be having more, my good pal Alexis said her son Chris wanted on and it was top on his list.




So being in the KNOW, and knowing they were expecting the spill over from the unlucky ones who were going to be standing in line at Wal-Mart to fight over the 4 (yes only 4) units they were getting in, I headed to (place I shall not name to not get anyone in trouble) where I heard they were going to have 22. So at 4 30 again I headed over and thought there was a huge line but alas only 4 other people there. 2 of them were right behind me the day before. It was a nice chat and after only 10 minutes, the manager came in for the day and handed up vouchers for the 12 units they actually had. I got number 5 of 12!! Woo Hoo!! The even had in stock 2 of the Guitar Hero 3 that hubby wanted for Xmas. Jack Pot Baby





So for my good buddy Chris......... here you go merry Christmas!!

This little piggy

One little piggy went to the market
Many little piggies stayed home
Some started their roasted turkeys
Other piggies were just plain dumb
But this little piggy went wii, wii, wii all the way home


Yes yes yes. At 4 30 I drove up to k-mart. The add said they had some wii's in stock. Mark checked out the parking lot on his way to work. The count was around 8 cars. Ok I can do this. So I walked up to the scary crowd who informed me there was only 7 wii's and I was number 8. My response was "I will take my chances" so I stayed. I watched ,as the mean people who stayed in their chairs since 9pm last night in the 30 degree weather, in horror as they informed each person who came after me that they were shit out of luck there already weren't enough wii's for the people currently in line. That they were going to mace people who tried to cut line.

It was all so interesting. While I Waited. In the Cold. Doors not opening till 7 am. For a Wii that already there wasn't enough for me...........

and guess what............... I got ticket number............................


7


of 7!

Yes!!!!!

I have the golden ticket. Now the scary part is I left to come back later. Will I get mugged when I go get my wii??

Wish me luck as I go Wii.......... Wii.................Wii all the way home.

Christmas Tree Decisions

Fake or no Fake. That is the question.

Last year I made Mark throw away our 10 + year old artificial tree so I would be FORCED to replace it. (We had talked about tossing it for about the past 3 years and never did.)

So that being said I now have to decide what tree to get. Do I go with a real tree? Our past history with real trees isn't a good one. We have done the go to the parking lot stop and picked out trees that were "perfect" only to get them home and have to tie to curtain rods, nail to floor to attempt to get straight. We had a cat decide to explore the tree while doing last minute shopping the night before Christmas to come home to every ornament and 1/2 the lights busted from the impact of the tree crashing to the floor (that was a sad sad night) (( also said cat left our home the next month))

So I have been considering a real again but as I said am a bit nervous and the cats we have now are very curious. I know that artificial trees have come a long way in the past 10 years. Now you can get pre-lit. You can get rotating stands, you can get music, and the branches are already on you just swing them up and down. So that's all exciting.

I have been surfing the net and look at what I have found..........

The ever wonderful UPSIDE DOWN TREE! Who knew!!

What about the purple or blue tree

What do you think??

Blog Brag

ok my good good pal Brigitte just started a blog FINALY so I have to promote everyone to check it out and cheer her on in the blogging world!!

Its called Good Things Come In Sevens ( you know because she has 5 yes 5 beautiful children)

Deep Thoughts

by Jack Handy...............lmao does anyone remember those from Saturday Night Live? Man this will make me sound ancient but is snl still on?? There is no way I could ever stay up anymore to watch it. Who's brilliant idea was it anyway to have it air at 10 30 at night anyway?? That show should be Prime time baby!!

Ok anyway now that I have veered off subject haha

I have noticed lately of being plagued by Deep Thoughts. I don't know if it means I am hitting a mid life stride and becoming more aware of things around me or what. Some examples

Fall is so beautiful. I love looking at the trees early in the morning while the sun is shining thru the leaves and the night sky is behind the tree. It is breath taking.

The sun coming up in the morning. I love it when I leave for work the sun is starting to come up but still not visible. Then while I am driving I know exactly where I should be by the location of where the sun is in the sky. And then I think that I am a tiny dot standing on a giant orb that is turning and while that is going on a huge fire ball that's gazillions of years old and soooooooooo far away is heating me up.

The Moon. I love looking at quarter moons and still being able to see the rest of it and how it has light on it. I stand there and think WOW people have actually walked on that and that is AMAZING. To think that we come from a time when wheels were made of rocks haha.

Dinosaurs. HOLY COW. Could you imagine them walking around. And they were real! I guess its something that they are gone I can't see them dodging our cars very well.

Life is good. I have recently realized how truly blessed and lucky I am. I have two beautiful healthy daughters. I have a husband who comes home every night and who loves me. I am healthy. I have a home. I have a car and it works. I don't have to worry every time I get in it, will it start? I have Job security. I don't go to work every day wondering if dh or I will be unemployed and how would we pay or bills? I have friends and family. They love me and we help each other out. I know that if something terrible did ever happen I would have someone to lean on. I would not be alone.

OK I am rambling but WOW I AM SO LUCKY. And the world is amazing. And no I am not drunk nor have I been drinking haha

Have a great ponderous day!

Bits and Pieces

I say this every time I blog but I can't get over how hectic life is. The scary part is I don't do half of what most other mom's do. Kudos to them. I can barely keep up with the day to day.

Here is the briefing of the Frederick house of late:

• Hannah refuses to wear socks , pants, tights, or sweaters or coats. The "touch" her skin. big old fat Mark sigh ..........................

• I had to go shopping to purchase her long skirts and dresses not such an easy task as one might think especially in winter. What has happened to children's fashion? there are some pretty ugly things out there.

• I realized that I have almost entirely payed Ashley's show choir tuition. Now to take out a lone for the price of tickets to attend her shows......

• I have to work Bingo on Black Friday to go towards a Show Choir trip that my daughter is not going to.... no no logic on my part there.

• I made a big decision that Ashley WASN'T going on trip and I am sticking to my guns despite the booster club trying to beat me into changing my mind.

• I picked up a permanent work study at work so I now work 36 hours a week ARG what was I thinking...... does that mean I am full time now or still part time??

• We had a scare with the Washing Machine and I thought she was a goner. Luckily she has been revived and going strong. The thought of getting a new one sent me in panic.

• I think the biggest deal I will be getting on Black Friday is new tires. What does that say about me? haha sounds kind of red necked.

• We are having Thanksgiving Dinner at the Cracker Barrel again this year ........... (another of Mark's sighs here)

That about sums up what's been on my mind lately. Not much of anything as you can tell.

It's all about ME!!

OK so we all know how well about how I always purchase things for everyone but me.

Well today all that changed. I bought thing for me , me!, ME!!!

And I am so excited I wanted to share.

I have been wanting a portable DVD player for my longer trips to catch up on all the Blockbuster movies I pay for and don't have time anymore to watch.

So a little bird told me about the Early Bird sale Kohl's was having this morning and about the $99 dvd player they were going to have. (ok it was $129 with a $30 mail in rebate.)

So I was up at 5 and at 6 on the dot I rolled into Kohl's grabbed my dvd player and started nosing around at what else they may have. I loaded up my cart with clothing I needed and remember that my sheet on my bed just ripped the night before (blaming the cats for this one) so off to the home department I went. As I cruised the aisles, I heard the sound of Angels singing because before me was a.................. $459 500 thread count 650 fill power (or what ever they call it haha) Hungarian Down Comforter. Ahhhhhh........... I had to have it I decided it must be MINE. SO after some thinking and planning I put back all the clothing and made my purchase. It was like a dream come true. Oh what is that you saying what was I thinking?? I guess I forgot to mention it was............. 80% off !!!!!!!!!!!! That means it was $90!!!! I was so all over that thing.

Then after that I decided I needed a carry case for my dvd player so I went to Wal-Mart where I found another 9 inch dvd player for....... $89.

So I took back the one from Kohl's and had instant gratification of not having to use a $30 m-i-r and also saving $10.

Some days its good to get up early!!!

Here is to me :P

Better Late Than Never

So I am really bad. Last week was Hannah's 6th Birthday. I didn't get on to post about what a bitter sweet week it was. But since I have been up since 3 am and have all my house work caught up, I will now!!

So on Wed. the 24th, Hannah turned 6. All day on the 23rd, I kept walking around saying, OH Wow this was hour 8 of my labor with Nan, or this was hour 12, 15, 18 , 21, (you get the picture). Yes , 23 hours of labor with my fabulous wonderful beautiful Hannah. I went in at 5 am on the 23rd for them to break my water and she was born exactly 5 o2 am the next day. It sucked , It was horrible, all the things you would expect for a full fun filled joy packed entire day of labor. But at the end came Nan and we all who know this curly toe headed Cinderella of a girl know just how worth it it was. The child who at age 4, 5, and now even 6 says at just the most opportune times, "Mommy, I still wish I lived in your tummy." We have visions of her the day of her birth, in my womb with her arms and legs outstretched in the X position clinging on to what ever she can to NOT COME OUT. She tells us all her favorite shows were on in there. And was it ever warm and toasty. Apparently she finds the world a cold place (see her point on that) And it was Happy , Oh so Happy.

So to my Clingy Princess Baby, Happy Birthday!

Halloween

Since the kids are 12 and 6, and Mark and I were dead on our feet we did the parenting move I have always bad mouthed over the years. I still can't believe we did it. And yet it was the best Halloween EVER!!

What did we do you ask?? We did drive by trick or treating. Yes, Yes, yes. We sat our happy asses in the van with the heat on and drove along with the kids while they went door to door. Every so often with the glee and excitement of the feeling of freedom they were

having, they yelled "Why do you keep following us??" haha like we would just go park a few blocks over and wait...... I think not.

In the end it worked well because I stayed warm, Mark and I had a quiet moment to talk and listen to "oldies" on the radio (circa 80's haha) and the kids walked themselves to exhaustion. As far as I see it a win win for all!! Now I am officially TRASH MOM!! WOO HOO

MIA

It seems that I am continually not updating the blog. I am a hamster going round and round on my wheel and not getting anywhere...... Well ok I am getting somewhere, as in another day gone, another day older.

So if you have any interest at all in whats going on lately, here we go

I did this over last weekend. And no I am not showing what it looks like now haha I am waiting to the room all done to do before and after pictures.

I went here twice. Once for Hannah's class trip and then the very next day for work trip.

And then I also had lots and lots of boring stuff like meetings, meetings and more meetings. I have been spending lots of quality time in my van.

I even got to go an entire week where I seriously saw my husband (as in both of us away and try to converse face to face less than 3 hours in a 7 day period. Who knew that this is how life would get once the kids were both in school. It's funny how you think gee when the kids are both in school we will have all this time to sit around in the peace and quiet and enjoy it.......... WRONG. I am still looking though............

But don't get me wrong I still find time each day to pause and enjoy things like this:

Wordless Wednesday

I feel like a prisoner sometimes