Happy New Year!

From our house to yours....

Poor Kezmee!

(Kezmee is what he used to call himself when he was little. He couldn't say Kevyn. and now the poor little guy is stuck with this nickname forever. haha!)

Aneeeeeway.... Poor little guy broke a molar. Had to go to the dentist and have it pulled. That sucker was broken into bits. Had a filling in it at one point. I don't know what happened, but we were at dinner and he handed me a piece of his tooth. UGH. He said he had no pain (it's a baby tooth), so we were very thankful. Money is tight, so we were freaking a little bit on the cost. In Virginia, when he got a tooth just filled a teensy bit, after insurance, it was over $100! Well, here, apparently all it cost us was $14. Thank goodness! Little man has to go back in a couple weeks to get a spacer put in. Not sure how much that one will cost. Not sure I wanna know right now. LOL. Just glad he's okay, and there wasn't any pain. Well, I'm sure he'll have a little bit now, though. sigh.

One more edit.

What can I say, I'm an action whore. I love this acid action!

Rock on!

She is in LOVE with her Santa gift this year!!

How to title this one?

I'm not good at summing up sad news to a title.... so I won't try.
I've been following this blog for a while now. Hoping and praying for a miracle for them. Sad and joyful at the same time. One of her last prayers was what she called "a selfish prayer" (but I don't see it that way at all!!), and all she wanted was for her baby boy to be born alive. So she and her fiance could look him in the eyes and show him how much he was loved. I am glad to say, they got a few precious hours with their sweet miracle. But he has now since passed.
What breaks my heart even more is that one of her friends went through a similar journey not too long ago. It breaks my heart to hear of such things. Makes me feel guilty to being upset over my childrens loud voices today. Oh how they wish they had that to deal with.

Please pray for strength for them. I can only begin to imagine the pain.

This year.....

I stole this fun little factoid thingy from Sassy Pants Mommy :)

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Moved to North Carolina.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't usually make those.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
no

5. What countries did you visit?
HAHA, that requires lots of $$$$ which I don't have.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
hmm. money? LOL

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Our month long disasterous, stressful move!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
my marraige.

9. What was your biggest failure?
again, my marraige. Long year. LOL

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
yeah, I had to quit sewing because of my heart. Feeling better now, though!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
my Dooney & Bourke phone purse. LOL

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Hubbs. no more Mr Yelly man.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
again with dh. much change this year.

14. Where did most of your money go?
what money? the little we had went to groceries. lol and gas when it was over $4 a gallon!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting a job! FINALLY!!

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Kristy are you Doing Okay? -- The Offspring

17. Compared to this time last year, you are:
Calmer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Cultivating my friendships.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
yelling

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
at home with hubbs and the kids. The way I like it.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
married. LOL

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Gray's Anatomy baby!!

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don't hate. But I severely dislike one of my exes now!

24. What was the best book you read?
Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Three Days Grace

26. What did you want and get?
A job at a bank!

27. What did you want and not get?
a chance to go to College.

28. What was your favorite film that you saw this year?
Yes Man!

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
29 for the 7th time. Spent it waiting for the sattelite guy and unpacking my "house"

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
peace.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
HAHA. that's a good one.

32. What kept you sane?
Sara. Hands down.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Britney and her ability to come back after her fiasco of a life.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
the election. campaigning. Disgusting.

35. Who did you miss?
Sara
36. Who was the best new person you met?
J & L

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Everything happens for a reason. I know it sounds very cliche', but it is very true. (wasn't my answer, but I like it. Therefore I'm keeping it.)

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Numb by Linkin Park.

S'More Brownies!!

We are making these for one of our Christmas desserts! YUM!




You can get the recipe here.

picture says it all!

Texture.

I am just staying home today enjoying the last day of quiet. Just me and Abbs. Was hoping to take her out and have some fun with her today since it's literally the last day of just her and I. 2 weeks of everyone at home, then I start work. But the poor little critter has the sniffles today. She's upstairs tucked into bed watching a movie. So I'm just playing around in photoshop with a couple of my favorite pictures of her. Texture. I love it.

New Job and an UGH!

So I went on my interview this morning, and it went great! The branch manager and the lead teller both interviewed me (at the same time), and we all got along great. We sat and gabbed for almost 1 1/2 hours, and by the end of it, she said the job was mine! YAY! I even got the call from the HR director to "officially" offer me the position. Woohoo!
Okay, so it's part time. Hours will vary. Could be up to 39 hours at times, which is great. But could be less than that sometimes.

The ugh is that we have to now somehow come up with the $400+ dollars to pay in advance for Abby's daycare for the month of January since I won't get paid til later in the month. And there's that little fact that I've been out of work for about 8 years and I own no work clothes except for the 2 shirts and 1 pair of pants we got for me to wear on interviews. Oh, and the one pair of shoes I have that are work suitable. So dh is freaking out. He has me all stressed and pretty much sucked the joy out of the good news. This is just him. He's a worrier. But I'm not. I'm more "go with the flow." So when he gets stressed, I get bummed. And I hate that. I wanted today to be fun and stress free. And bless him for trying to be cheery... but he sure as hell wasn't. I'll be browsing the clearance racks for anything suitable to wear. I sure as heck don't want to be the girl who wears the same thing every week.

This was supposed to be my day to be ecstatic. Now all I can think about is how hard the next month or two is going to be til the paychecks are coming. And the fact that I really need clothes for this.

sigh.

Holding my breath!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, deep breath now!
So the HR director called me this afternoon needing to know a little more information from me. (when my flight leaves on the 16th of January) She said that she'd love to offer me a position as long as the teacher of the class I need to take for the job agrees to let me take the final tests on another day, since the class is Jan 5th-16th. Holding my breath for 2 hours.
She called me back and it's a YES! All I have to do is meet with the branch manager tomorrow of the branch just off base (bummer it's not a 6 block commute, but it's still only a 4 mile one!), and if she likes me the job is mine!!

Insert happy dance here: :-) (-:

YAY! Everyone cross their fingers!!

Interview today.

I interviewed for a teller position at Marine Federal Credit Union today. It being wishful thinking, a couple of months ago, I faxed in my resume to the Human Resources director at the bank even though they had no openings. She called me and let me know that they had nothing available, but she said she was going to hold on to my resume. Well, Friday, she called me and said she had a part time position available at the branch here on base. Woohoo! How awesome would it be to have a 6 block commute??!! The funny thing about it all is that the second we got on base, I saw the building and said "I'm going to work there!"
Well, today was the big day. 10:30am, I arrived at the big corporate office building with the bright blue roof. Waited about 15 minutes and off we went to her office. It went well I think. I'm the type that doesn't BS when asked a question. I'm not going to say "because I think your bank is wonderful and stupendous and I think it's fabulous that you cater special to the military, whom I love so deeply" when she asks me why I want to work there. I said something to the effect of "for one, I loved working at a bank for 3 years. I was good at it. And honestly, I want to work somewhere I know I'd do well. And I need this job." she stopped, put down her pen, and said that she really appreciated the actual HONEST answer, and none of the "fluff" she had heard from most of the people she's interviewed for jobs in the last few months. I hope she wasn't the one being "fluffy" and was sincere. I see no point in bullsh!++ing people. I answered this way to a lot of her questions. At the end of it, I felt pretty good about being myself, making her laugh a lot, and being called to interview in the first place.
Wish me luck. It sounds like a perfect opportunity for me. Decent pay. Hours that will work around our childcare, and a dream commute!!

Yes Man!

Sometimes being in the Military has some perks. We have a theater on base that shows movies 5 times a week usually. They are $2 a ticket, and popcorn is the same. You can have a movie date for about $10, and it's wonderful.
Well today, there was a free screening of Yes Man. OMG it was hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard for that long in a really long time (too long if you ask me!). I don't want to give any of the movie away. So I'll just say this. When it comes to your theater, WATCH IT! You won't be disappointed!

Another try at Bokeh....

Man, I wish I could back up farther to get the Bokeh even bigger, but this is as far as I can go without being on the other side of the wall. Bummer! I really do like this one, though. I think it turned out pretty nice.

Joy

Okay, I'm trying to get a little bit more into the Christmas thing. Have felt a little Bah-Humbug lately. Having to pull Abbs out of preschool, having no job, etc is making things a little hard right now. But everyone is healthy, the kids are none the wiser as to how things are. So I'm putting on my happy face. Yesterday, I decorated the windows with markers (meant for the windows, I swear! LOL!) with a huge Christmas tree and a great big "HO HO HO!". Lat night I broke out the tripod and took some pics of a non-wiggly subject. Nothing big, but it put a little Joy back into my slump!



This one was taken with the only light in the room being the Christmas tree lights. Other than that, it was pitch black. :) I think I was at ISO 800, F22, 6 seconds. Something like that. Had to edit this one in layers so my tree was dark, but my reindeer (poor old dirty little guy) was bright. Wish my bokeh was bigger. But I'll try again tomorrow.

Blah day!

Yuck. It's been pouring on and off today. The sky is a gloomy color of grey, not much light. Abby has been stuck to me all day driving me nuts. Kevyn came home cranky. Had to get the poor cat shaved, since she was all matted. Shame on us for not brushing her more. :( Oh, and being in lovely miltary housing has given us our fair share of icky bugs. Today, dh found a cockroach in the cereal cabinet. So of course, now, I won't touch anything in that cabinet. And I want to run screaming out of the kitchen now. YUCK!
Well, here are a couple more pics from yesterday's shoot. At least she's cute ;)

Very cool!

Thanks Gail :)

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

The fun side of Camp Lejeune

We went for a bit of a walk and got some good shots of her today. It was pretty cloudy out, which is good for me since I am pretty challenged in the light department. LOL There were things moving around in the trees which creeped me out a bit, but Abby thought it was cool. LOL I'm bummed I cut off her foot in the first one, though :(

Oh Shoot!

So Abby and I headed out in 28 degree weather (BRR!!) to a place where hubbs said was a nice place to take pics. He found it on a jogging path. So we headed back into the woods and found a couple of cool spots to take pics. The sun was unfortunately bright for 8:30am which was a bummer. These shots aren't great, but I do still like them. Just won't print them. lol
I was parked probably where I shouldn't have been. (We are on a huge military base) And this I found to be true right after we tried to pull out of the dirt lot. Here comes about 80 military troops with their attack dogs. Two tactical vehicles and a couple of pickup trucks. Ooops! I'm soooo in the way! So I just sat there in the truck as to not get MORE in the way. As they all pass me by waving at me and Abby and giving me those cutie-boy smiles those Marines like to give. LOL Whoops! took about 5 minutes for everyone to get by me, and then we were on our way. I'm always in the way no matter where I go. HAHA!

Chocolate covered yumminess!

I make these every year for hubby's co-workers. New crowd this year since we are in a new state. So the first year for these great guys (and girl LOL). I made about 300 of these yummy chocolate covered pretzels just today. I'll go through a couple hundred more this year I'm sure!

Pics darn it!

I'm dying to get out my camera and take some pictures of something other than my daughter against the brick wall from the empty house next door. So dh and I are going to pack the kiddos in the car and go find something around here to take pictures of. I NEED to find something fun and/or interesting to photograph! Topsail Island was fun. I got some great pics there when we first moved here. A little far to drive, but I want to find something just as interesting to look at. Here's a few pics from this summer:

Go Win!

Ginger's giving away some goodies!! HURRRRRYYY!!!

http://mommamcblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/stocking-stuffers-giveaway.html

Panic at the Disco!

Okay, so I've been looking for a job for months now. Two interviews. One job was a joke. Not what I applied for at ALL! The job was for a bank teller. Well, I go to the interview and am told that 90% of my job would be walking around Walmart (where the bank was located inside) and basically stalk customers who are trying to shop, and get them to open a new account. Every day. Wow, um, I think I'm going to pass, but thanks for the interesting offer!
Second job interview was at the community college here. Wonderful job, wonderful benefits. I was picked out of a huge stck of 85 apps to be interviewed. Was nerve-racking to say the least, as I was chatted to by 5 people at the same time, then interviewd 2 more times and tested. All that and no job. But nice thing was that they are keeping my resume on file and I get a "special letter" put in my file for preference for new openings. There have been 2 openings this week, and I applied for both. Crossing everything I have two of (and that's painful!).

Now I have thought about going back to the ebay boutique custom clothing world. Honestly the thought of it sends me into a bit of a panic. It goes something like this...
I think about all of the cute things I can make.




Nice, if I don't say so myself. LOL. But here's what happens when I go into my closet, where the goodies (aka Fabric and such ) are located. I think about the HUGE mess it makes. Fabric flying, thread everywhere. Dropped pins. Scissors strewn about. Patterns. Heat n bond pieces stuck to my pants. It's a gigantic mess to make one pretty/handsome little outfit. Hours of love and pain go into it. Too excited to clean up the mess, I start another project. Soon the mess looks like a tornado hit my sewing room. (not that I have one of those in this house. sigh) The chaotic room makes my thoughts chaotic. This makes me stressed. Stress makes my heart beat faster and harder and I can hear it in my ears. (for those of you that don't know, I have heart issues) This makes me out of breath and tired. Too tired to sew. Then the guilt sets in. The guilt that I'm not chained to my machine. And honestly, that guilt and stress just isn't worth this:


sigh.
I miss it. Sort of.