Freezer Woes

We have a full size freezer that lives in our garage. We have had it through 6 moves, more than 10 years and I love it. It is very convenient when there are great sales and I can just throw the excess in the freezer. The only problem is...the door. If you don't make sure you push it all the way closed, it will stay open just enough to defrost everything. Ours was just left open...again...overnight at least probably longer.
Through my tears of frustration, I threw away 4 containers of ice cream, one of which was a very expensive 6 quart container of Schwan's ice cream, two packages of popsicles, a pack of ice cream sandwiches, and various other minor items that didn't seem like they would refreeze very well. I have actually started buying less ice cream products because I hate throwing it away when this happens, which is every few months.
My next task is finding the key we have so that it has to be locked every time and might cut down on the whole leaving it open thing.

Happy Birthday Teresa!!

Today is Teresa's 15th birthday.
I drove up to Dan's parents house on Sunday so she could be brought home on Monday because she didn't want to have to be traveling on her birthday. We made it back about 35 minutes before midnight so she was happy.
She got to have sugar cereal for breakfast...Reeses Puffs...which are never allowed in our house because I cannot condone chocolate for breakfast. White rice was lunch...her favorite. Breakfast for dinner is on the schedule tonight...eggs, bacon and her very favorite, pancakes. She is not much of a cake person so she picked cupcakes instead and got to make them and frost them herself which made her very happy since all my girls love to bake. Taylor made her some Reese's balls....a sinfully delicious treat we don't have too often since they are terribly unhealthy. We watched some Gilmore Girls, her favorite show and that was pretty much it. We haven't done presents yet but I hope she will like them. We didn't get her too much. The movie Taken, some new skirts that she wears over her jeans, a few odds & ends that she likes. She already opened up the ones from my parents and really liked those. A cute shirt & flip flops from my mom and a digital camera from my dad.
We are planning on heading over the bridge on Thursday to have a birthday party for her at....you are not going to believe this one....Chuck E. Cheese's. That is where she picked to have her birthday party.





























































This was from the movie "Jingle All The Way". Teresa adored Turbo Man.


























This is my favorite school picture of her. I loved her haircut this year.

Back Again

I know I have been awful lately about blogging but life just seems to be getting in the way. Saturday was spent driving across the bridge to pick up Taylor from her friends house since they were back from the beach. I left Sunday afternoon to pick up Teresa from Massachusetts and just got back a little bit ago. Talk about a LOT of driving. I am so glad to be home now. Just in time to take a drive this weekend to Wisconsin for 2 weeks. La Crosse Here We Come! Yippee! I could definitely do without all the carsickness though. I think I am the only person who gets carsick when they are the driver instead of the passenger.
I will try to get some posts in this week before we head off for vacay and I totally drop the ball.

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me! Monday Once Again

It is that wonderful time of the week again. Time to unburden ourselves with all the things we haven't done...yk since we are all perfect parents. You can head over to MckMama's blog and see what others haven't done too! It's lots of fun.

I have not gotten too lazy given up on making dinner. It's summer and who wants to worry about boring stuff like planning out dinners for the week. Let's just have sandwiches all the time so Mom doesn't have to cook.

I have not gotten rid of...sent away...loaned out my oldest two children for the week. One is not at the beach with friends. The other is not spending the week in New Hampshire with her aunt & family. I did not think this was an awesome idea. I did not then realize that I would have to do all of their chores for the whole time they are gone. I did not also realize that I will have to bring the younger two with me everywhere I go instead of being able to leave them at home with their older sisters while I run errands.

I am not almost 1/2 way through Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. It is not totally kicking my tush. I do not still feel like dying every time I am finished. I am not desperately hoping it will make me look better (even though I won't make it through the whole 30 days) before leaving for vacation in less than two weeks.

I did not finally order the cross bars for our roof rack last night. We do not absolutely have to have these to be able to leave for Wisconsin next Saturday. I did not procrastinate for ages because I wanted to find them cheaper on eBay and couldn't.

I am not turning one year older in less than a week. I am sooooo not revealing the date here anywhere. I do not wish I could just skip birthdays from now on. Who really needs them anyhow....

I have not been seriously neglecting my blog for the past week because we've been so busy and I have not been having computer keyboard issues. This is not the first Not Me! Monday I've managed to put together in ages.

I am not sitting here writing this still in my sweaty workout clothes. I have not put off my shower for the last hour or so...Not Me! I got up early,worked out, showered, dressed and didn't procrastinate at all.

We did not finally go to the pool yesterday for the first time. We have not had our season pass for two weeks already and hadn't even been there yet.













What haven't you done??

Jaquelyn's Birthday Party

This week has been a very hectic week around these parts. Twice I tried to put a post together but my obnoxious laptop has been having issues. I finally got a spare keyboard and now that doesn't want to work either. I try to type the word 'the' and get something like this 'k.k.k.k.k.k.k.k.'. Not so much what I was looking for so now I am back to battling with the 'n' key on this one. It works occasionally, it's just annoying when I have to go back and add the n's that were missed.
Anyhoo....Tuesday was Jaquelyn's birthday party. We invited her whole class, not as big as it sounds since there are only 14 in her class, plus a few of her friends from the neighborhood. It was a pool party with the girls invited back to our house for a sleepover. The pool didn't open until 3:30pm so we were meeting at the park next door to have snacks & cake before hand.
Tuesday started out horribly. I was working at the coffee shop and the sky was black with torrential rain and thunder & lightning galore. We were both hoping and praying that it would clear up before the party but I didn't think there was much chance of that. At 9:45am, I got a call on my cell. It was someone from the pool. They had decided to close the pool for the day. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!? The pool doesn't even open for almost 6 hours and they have already decided it will still be raining then. I wish I was psychic and knew what the weather would be like for the rest of the day...FOR SURE.
Needless to say, Jaquelyn was devastated. I discussed it with Dan and we decided to let her have the sleepover part anyhow and reschedule the pool party for next week. Of course I didn't really have an option about the rescheduling part since they informed me that I would lose my deposit if I chose to cancel the party.
Can anyone take a wild guess and tell me what the weather was like at 3:30? Sunny, 80's, perfect pool weather. Can you also guess who called the park & rec department and complained to the director about their ridiculous policy of making closing decisions hours before they need to?!?!? ME!

Well, we called everyone who's phone number we had, a.k.a. the girls, and filled them in on the switch. This of course meant we had to go to the park at 2:30pm to wait for anyone who we were unable to contact by phone, a.k.a. the boys. Interestingly enough, none showed. Oh well...no biggie.
We had the girls (7 of them) come over anytime after 5pm and pick up was whenever it was convenient for the parents, because some of them work. It was lots of fun for everyone. We had pizza...omgosh that was expensive and they voted on a movie from Blockbuster...Hotel 4 Dogs (which was pretty good). They put on another movie after that and settled down for the night. And by that I mean continued to talk, laugh, giggle, play and other such nonsense into the wee hours of the morning. I finally put my foot about 12:30 and they eventually quieted down a little after 1am. Boy was I sleepy the next day....they were not. They were up by 7am and raring to go. Breakfast was cinnamon rolls and cereal. Then they were out the door to play. Luckily they played well together with minimal drama. Kids were picked up throughout the day, the last one around 3pm and they took Jaquelyn with them for a sleep over at their house. Rebecca and I immediately decided (much more me than her) to take a little nap....ah heaven.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that Tuesday this week will be sunshiny and warm so we won't have to try to reschedule again.

Jaquelyn's Birthday In Review

Jaquelyn's birthday was an awesome day. She started the day getting to have sugar cereal...a rarity in our house and never allowed on a school day. Then we headed to her school for the last day festivities. They had honors chapel and handed out awards & certificates. My sweetie got straight A's again. Too cool! This is her last day wearing her jumper. Boohoo. :`(


















After that we headed home and she changed out of her uniform. She got to pick one meal out for her birthday and she chose lunch at our favorite restaurant, El Salto. They have the yummiest Mexican food and even though it's an hour away it's still worth the drive. We stopped in at our favorite thrift shop, Value Village, which is conveniently located across the street. She hit the jackpot in the toy department and is the proud owner of several new Webkinz. They did not come with the online code but she rarely plays with them on the computer anyhow. The best part was several of them were specific ones that she had on her birthday list. Brand new those silly stuffed animals cost $15....at the thrift shop? .60-.80 cents. WOOHOO. She was very excited. She and Rebecca conked out on the way home.













We went to a BBQ with some friends that night and Jaquelyn and all the girls got soooo wet & muddy playing outside with all the other kids there. We got home late but still did some presents that night. She was very excited about all the American Girl doll things she received (you can read about what a great deal I got on eBay here and the doll was an ebay steal too at under $40.00) . But the Samantha doll was the best present of the night no doubt.


























She opened the rest of her presents the next day and was excited to get some Pippi Longstocking things and a digital camera. She has been taking pictures everywhere and using it like crazy. She has already used up the batteries it came with and is now waiting for the rechargable ones I picked up to be fully charged. Definitely a TERRIFIC birthday. Jaquelyn and I send a big thank you to all my bloggy friends who have wished her a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Jaquelyn!

Today my sweet little girl turns a whopping 10 years old. Sniff, sniff...she is into the double digits. She is growing up much too fast. I definitely need to invest more time in learning how to slow the whole aging process. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of her as the years have flown by. I hope you all enjoy them. We certainly have enjoyed taking them and watching her grow.

It's Time To Announce The Winner

OK...I plum forgot about the contest I mentioned ages ago for commenters on Heidi's blog. I did the whole random generator thingy can came up with.... drum roll please....ok, just pretend you can hear it....Mimi over at He & Me + 3. Congratulations! Shoot me an email or comment with your address and I will get it out to you soon...(read I will take forever).

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me! Monday

Here Ye, Here Ye, Gather all around for the latest and greatest things we all haven't done this week. You can join in the fun by heading over to MckMama's blog and checking out what everyone else hasn't done.

I have not skipped Not Me! Monday because I keep forgetting to write anything down and my memory is like a sieve. That would NOT be me.

I did not fall asleep at the computer Friday afternoon and wake up totally freaked out when my daughter knocked over the blocks she was stacking.

I have not been neglecting my blog because we've just been too busy with life in general. I am not wondering if this will be the norm during the summer.

I did not spend over $100 at the Thrift Shop last week. Good grief, that is supposed to be an inexpensive place so I couldn't possibly spend that much there. And if I had, part of that money was not giving into my daughter and letting her buy a prom dress. Said dress is not for next year's prom. The way teenage girls change their minds I would never even consider letting her buy a dress a year ahead of time. Not Me!

I did not take my camera with me to Teresa's band/color guard award banquet tonight and completely forget to take any pictures. Who does that?

What haven't you done lately?