Dog Tired!!

WHEW! I am DOG TIRED this afternoon!! I have been running and going at work and at home for days now!

AT WORK
As paralegals we have to meet a certain number of hours each year. I have taken work home at night and on the weekends to make sure I do that. On top of doing that I have been trying to get alot of things more "organized" and more easily accessible. I enjoy doing it but it wears you out! I have gotten alot done but still much more to do! I am just glad that I have such a good job and work with such great people!

AT SCHOOL
I am taking a night class and it seems like every time I turn around we have some kind of project to do! I have to meet my group tonight to go over our project for tomorrow night. THANK GOODNESS - we only have two or three more classes this semester!!

AT HOME
I have gotten all of my Christmas decorations up and 95% of my presents bought, wrapped and under the tree! I am trying to clean out closets and do "holiday" cleaning but it seems like when you finish one thing there is another to do! My cousin and I are working on a little "web project" and we have made ourselves a deadline of Friday so I have that to do!!

THOUGHTS IN GENERAL

~I have picked up SO much trash that people have left around the office today. I don't know why but that drives me NUTS! People - pick up your trash.

~I really wish this weather will make up its mind. I wear a jacket in the morning, it is hot at lunch and cool again at night. It was like 50 something today but then I think this weekend it is supposed to be in teh 70's.

~I need a nap.

Thanksgiving Pictures!!

I had gotten tired of seeing that "aggravated" post so I decided to move along to something more "cheerful"! My trip to Arkansas was great! We had an awesome time. The kids played dress-up and were our entertainment the whole time!


Traci and I mainly just "hung out" and caught up on things!

Our hubbies probably had the most relaxing time of all - as you can see!

Hope each of your holidays were just as great!

Random Thoughts!

Well I have been sick for over a week now coughing my fool head off!! I actually have not felt bad but once I started coughing I could not stop!! That made me miserable and made my head hurt! I went through two bottles of robitussun (sp?) cough and about a bag of cough drops and things did not change any! I stayed home Monday due to my daughter and myself both being sick. I went in Tuesday to work but coughed all day and made myself (and probably everyone else!) miserable! Finally, Wednesday I went to the doctor only to find out that I had bronchitis! Yuck! So they gave me a shot in the "rear end" - in which my 7 year old was there to witness and got way too much pleasure out of! Ha! Then they gave me three prescriptions. I began taking them and the coughing subsided a good bit but I have been nauseous and tired ever since I started taking them! I found out nausea is one of the side of effects along with drowsiness! I haven't had real good rest in a while so I was hoping I could sleep those side effects off. No such luck so far.

Well we left Wednesday night to drive to Arkansas to visit my cousin/one of my best friends and her family. We left alot later than I hoped because due to our hectic schedule lately and the fact that I have been sick and dealing with family issues (that is a whole other post!) I have not been a very good house keeper. When we left I left a HUGE pile of dirty clothes in my bathroom, a huge pile of blankets I need to wash and some dishes that were rinsed and set in the sink that I needed to load in my dishwasher. I am telling you it is hard to pack and leave your home in such a wreck but I did! I have really got to get on it when I get back. I have so much organizing I need to do. I am getting several new furniture pieces during the holidays and I am repainting much of my house so I need to get some things cleaned up and out of the way first!! I would like to get my Christmas decorations up as soon as we get back from Arkansas on Sunday afternoon but that depends on how tired I am. Getting back to my "travel" story...I will have to drive most of the way home my husband informed me due to the fact that he drove all but 30 minutes of our 8 hour trip up! We left Wednesday night and drove about five hours to Little Rock, spent the night and then drove in to my Aunts house Thursday morning. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and I was so glad to see my family. We usually see each other a couple times a year but we have not seen each other since last Christmas due to both theirs and our hectic schedules. I love my cousin so much - as I mentioned above - even though most of our lives (that I can actually remember!) we have lived in two different states she is my closet cousin and one of my best friends. We laugh because we are so much alike. We call ourselves "clones"! Ha! Her mom is so cool and it is funny she doesn't treat me like most Aunts treat their nieces she is really more like "another" mother figure when we are around. She was always the cool Aunt growing up. I was thinking when I was looking at her today how she does not look like she has aged at all.

Traci's little boy Brayden is SO cute. He is now 4 years old which is SO hard for me to believe! He just cracks me up because from the time we walked in the door at my Aunts house until the time they went to bed at 9 something p.m at my cousins he talked NON STOP!!! I just laughed and laughed. I have never seen a little boy talk so much! It is way too cute!

As tired as I have been all day and as early as we went to bed (9 something also) I woke up about 12:30 a.m. and have been up ever since. It is about 2:o6 a.m. now. I got up folded a load of clothes and due to the fact that I was burning up (I don't know why either because I checked the thermostat and it is not hot in here!) and couldn't go back to sleep I decided to catch up on some email, blog reading and blog posting - hence, the really long drawn out post!

Traci, her mom and I are going to do some shopping in the morning so I should really get back to bed soon! I don't know if I will be buying anything though. Probably just browsing. I have about 95 percent of my Christmas shopping already done and wrapped and waiting to go under the tree once I get it up!

I guess I will go for now! I hope everyone had as great of a Thanksgiving as I did.

Thanksgiving Plans??

Well does anyone have any Thanksgiving plans? My family (daughter & hubby) and I are going to Arkansas to see my cousin Traci. Actually we will be seeing my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin David, his wife Tanda, Traci, her husband Bobby and their son Brayden. I say Traci because she is one of my best friends and I am so, so, so, so, so...did I mention so...excited to see her! We usually see each other several times a year and I try to go up on Thanksgiving but was not able to go last year and it has just worked out that we haven't seen each other since last Christmas and won't see each other this Christmas! I am sad about that!! However, I am so excited (did I mentioned that already?) to go see her now!! I don't know if anyone has been in Bentonville or Bella Vista Arkansas. I tell you what - it is beautiful up there! I absolutely love it. I need a break and so does my family so we are looking forward to it!! If anyone is traveling over the holidays I hope you have a safe trip!!

Happy Anniversary to Me!!

Me and my hubby Brian had been married 5 years today! Yeah!! I am a plain jane kinda girl and I got to pick out my engagment ring. I picked out a small diamond with channel set diamonds on the side. For our wedding band I just picked out a plain gold wedding band. WELL for our anniversary the hubby gave me a channel set diamond band to match my wedding ring! It looks exactly like my wedding ring except for my wedding ring has the big diamond sitting up on the middle of my ring. Anyway - I am very very proud of him! He knows what I want! So now I am "bling bling" in a small kind of way with my 18 small diamonds and one larger one. One of my friends told him that after 5 more years he better add some more diamonds! Ha! I will say he is good about getting this sort of thing. I am always trying to get him to get me costume jewelry but OH NO. He doesn't want to do that! Last year I got a cross necklace with a diamond in the middle and the year before that I got diamond earrings and a diamond solitare necklace. The boy can shop!

Women Conserve Energy! Use Eco-Bra!

In Japan this winter the new rage will be the "Eco-Bra". This bra has eco-safe padding that you heat up in the microwave and then you wear this contraption to keep your "boobies" warm. Yup - you got it - keeping your girlie goods warm. Not only does it keep your girlie goods warm but it has a long "tail" that you can use to wrap around your neck as a scarf. I believe I read that it will also come with a pair of shorts. Strange stuff. This is suppose to help conserve energy by making woman warming up their girlie goods and therefore they won't need to use the heat? Well what about the rest of your body. I tell you what my girlie goods are the last thing that gets cold! I think they should spend more time on - you know - anything other than keeping select "body parts" warm. Sheesh!

Here We Go Again!!!

I am back!! How has everyone been? Life has become a little less crazy and I have become a little more organized so I decided to venture back into the "blog world"! I have stopped in occasionally to everyones sites but never long enough to leave a message. So some things have changed since I have last talked to everyone:

1. Life (like I said above!) has become a little less crazy so I have more free time to blog now!

2. Traci (another author - my cousin - from the "old" Mind Diversion) and I created a website for our family to use since most of us live so far apart and don't have time to talk as often as we like. That address - Ivey Family - is on my sidebar. We don't have it up and going yet but we will introduce our family to it over the holidays and hopefully have it up and going soon!!

3. I like this site to be about my "vents", news and little funny things so we (Brooke, Jessica and I - both of them other authors from the old "Mind Diversion") also created a "mommy site" where I talk about strictly "mommy type things". If you are a mother (or even a father!) and want to stop by that link is also on my sidebar. There is not much on the blog yet but it will be soon - us mommies have alot to say!

4. Brooke of course has her own site which many of you already know about. You can check it out over on my sidebar!

5. Traci will be starting another site and I will have it up on my side bar soon!!

6. Jessica - who knows - she may or may not start another site but for now she is just on the Mommy Site with Brooke and I. She has a new arrival at home and I think he keeps her pretty busy!!

SO that is kind of what is going on! I kept a short list of my main site reads from the old Mind Diversion and I will be stopping in on everyone occasionally! I just have to put my family and job first - the of course blogging comes in third!! Hope to talk to you all soon!