We got a new doggy tonight.  His name is Waylon.  He’s a 5 year old Chocolate Lab/German Wirehaired mix.  I already love him so much!!  He’s so sweet, he’s trained, and he totally tolerates Frankie, which is huge!!  He’s greeted all of us with a wagging tail, including the kids (HUGE!!) and when someone knocked on the door, he had a nice deep bark that makes me feel very safe   Waylon’s owner just died, so he was in need of a good home…we’re all super happy to have him here!!

Sorry about the crappy camera phone pics I have of him…I’ll take better ones this weekend, and maybe even a video of him and Frankie playing
In other news, I’m going back to MN for work the first week of Jan.  Should be fun again, although we’re going strictly for grunt work this time with the new software we’re switching to.  Either way.  Business trips are fun
Everything else is going ok.  We’re all set for Christmas, just have to wrap everything the night before.  Can’t wait to see the kids’ faces when they open their stuff!  I think they’re going to be really happy
Oh, and if you haven’t read my bulletin on Myspace, I’m in need of addresses please

I know I don’t post on here often, but look, it does happen sometimes!

I’ve been in MN this week, doing some work and training in our corporate office.  I love it here a lot!  I love the cold, the snow, etc.  I’d stay here in a heartbeat!!  I was hoping to get to visit with Cheeky, but that just isn’t happening.  It’s impressive how busy one remains on a business trip!  Well, maybe next time!

On Friday and Saturday before we left for our business trip, my boss and I took her son and my daughter to both nights of Jingle Ball.  We saw Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne, Sean Kingston, Natasha Bedingfield, One Republic, Gym Class Heroes, Plain White T’s, and CuteIs What We Aim For (not in that order).  We all had so much fun, and it was the first concert (and 2nd) for both kids!  Yeah, I know, we’re cool moms   If you’re my friend on Flickr you can see the pics there, along with some snowy MN pics

I’ve been dreaming about my Uncle the past couple of nights.  The dreams are always scary…someone trying to hurt me, but then I see my Uncle and I feel calm, but then something happens, I don’t know what, and I’m terrified and yelling for my Aunt.  It’s been the exact same dream both times, and last night I woke myself up yelling for my Aunt   I have no idea what these dreams mean or why I’m having them.  I mean, my first thought would be that I just miss him because this is my first set of holidays without him, but the scary parts make me wonder…who knows.  I just hope I don’t have them tonight!  Or ever again for that matter!

I’m second guessing surgery, which actually happens a lot lately.  I’m worried that it’s going to make it worse, or just not help at all.  I don’t know.  Part of me thinks it’s the best thing I can do for myself, and part of me thinks that it may just be something I have to learn to live with, and going under the knife won’t do anything for it…I’m open to opinions.

Alright, I think that’s it.  I need to get some work done now!

I’ve been getting a lot of these the past couple of days from the girl.  Her eyes fill with tears when I turn her expander, then they start falling.  There is no drama involved, just her silent tears.  It breaks my heart that I’m causing her physical pain, even though I know it’s for her own good.  So I hug her, I comfort her, I let her eat ANYTHING that she can because everything hurts, and I call her at school to remind her to take her Motrin to stay ahead of the pain she’s currently feeling in her mouth, head and face…We’re scheduled for 28 turns.  We’ve got 6 under our belt.  Yes, we are counting down!

In other random news, my mom has been calling me all night.  I’m not answering.  I don’t remember if I blogged about this, but before I left for MN, she started using again.  At my house.  While babysitting my daughter after her oral surgery.  I have nothing to say to her.  How DARE she put my child in harms way when I’ve entrusted her to care for her AFTER HER ORAL SURGERY!!!!!!!!  She’s my baby dammit, and this is my home, and how DARE she disrespect it!  But it makes my heart beat a little bit faster every time her number pops up on my phone.  And it makes my mind start racing every time she hangs up without leaving a voice mail.  Damn her!

Work is going really well.  I’ll be making my trip to our corporate office in MN somewhere around the first week of November.  I’m excited and scared, and so happy that my boss is trusting me being her second on this project!  I really do love my job, and have learned recently that there’s nothing outside of my job that could make me leave it!

Speaking of love, I haven’t said recently how much I love my friends.  I have a great group of friends, both on here and in real life, and I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you guys!

I have other stuff on my mind tonight, but my mind is a bit jumbled…I’ve been keeping a running outline in draft form for my passworded post, so watch for it.  Again, I’ll email everyone the password.

Have a great weekend ya’ll!

Sounds like a great day huh It’s really a book I’m reading…

I can’t believe I forgot to post my lessons learned in MN! My cute little Dash…yeah, it’s durable! It flew off the top of Katie’s car at 50mph! It’s fine. In one piece. Scratched. No big deal. I almost cried though! I mean, seriously, this thing isn’t even paid for yet! So yeah, great phone, and VERY durable!

My Aunt Betty and Cheril have been down here all week. I love it. I’ve gotten to spend so much time with them! We had a BBQ tonight for my cousin Nathan…he’s 31. Damn that’s old

I took Frankie to the vet…he was coughing. $270 later, he had an antibiotic, antihistamine, and was updated on his vaccines. My wallet hurts though. Damn expensive ass dog! Andrew brought up a good point though: It’d be hard to explain to the kids why he was dead

I watched Georgia Rule tonight. Great movie!!!!! It even made me cry, which, let’s be honest here, isn’t hard to do lately. Speaking of, I have a brain dump coming…I’m going to password it though. I’ll email ya’ll the password when the time comes, and if I don’t email you, feel free to email me thebrunette1980@yahoo.com.

Oh yeah…I’m stealing the send me your address idea. I realized tonight when I was picking up my bedroom that I have a ton of postcards lying around from the trips this summer. So send me your address (if you trust me) and I’ll send you a random card or post card. It’ll be a fun way for us all to wrap up summer and get through winter, which I know can be very long for some of you! And if you don’t want to email me your addy, that’s fine too. I’m easy peasy tonight. Could be the vicodin I took for my ankle. Whatev.

Oh, my ankle. Yeah, it’s fucked. And by fucked I mean I may have to have a pin put in it. I’ve been doing physical therapy twice a week for a month, still going. I have a brace that they special ordered me that I have to wear 24/7. It’s fun. Only not. Oh, and did I mention it hurts like HELL! Yeah. It does. So there is no running in my future…I can ride a bike though, which I’ve been doing almost every night. I LOVE it

Ok, that’s all for now. I’m going to go read blogs like a good little girl. Oh, check out the pics in my flickr. Got a cute froggie today

About time for a post, ya?

I was in MN this past weekend, hangin’ with Katie and TMP. Couldn’t have had more fun if I tried, seriously! They were both kick ass hostesses, and Grasshopper, AKA C-Dawg is the coolest kid ever! Seriously!

So lets start with funny things said, shall we:
“We missed you!”
“That monkey is goin’ bananas!!”
“Wow, she could suck a golf ball through that straw!!”
“It’s a good thing you’re not epileptic!”
“Oops, I spilled gizz!”
“Hey CA, how’s your dick? PS, I have tits!”
“Grasshopper not home right now. Please leave a message after tone: TOOOOOONE!”

I’m sure for some of those ya had to be there, but trust me/us, it was funny, and not just because I was drinking!

Let us now move on to things I learned in MN:
There’s a minimum speed of 40 and a maximum speed of 60 on their freeways. And people abide by it!
You don’t have to pay before you pump your gas.
80’s is alive and living in MN people! Seriously!
The Mall of America (MOA) is HUGE! Like, large and IN CHARGE! People will fly from places like Montana to shop for school clothes there!
MN accents rock, and only get funnier when you add alcohol!
Texting each other while still in bed in separate rooms in a 1 bedroom apartment is not only acceptable, but encouraged.
Texting each other while across the table from each other, again, encouraged
There is some SERIOUS no joke road rage in MN. Seriously. Those are some PISSED OFF drivers!

It really was a kick ass trip, and TMP and Katie are 2 kick ass girls! I can’t wait to hang out with them some more! We had a ton of fun together, and giggled like crazy…not to mention, those girls can talk shit with the best of ‘em! Not that we would ever sit and talk shit about things like our shitty ass waitress. We’d also never just pick up all of our stuff and move to another table in a restaurant. Oh, and taking random pictures with strangers, nope, not us You should check out my flickr though, you know, just in case I’m full of shit

I’m going to really put out an effort to be a better blog friend…so bear with me…I know, I’ve been saying that shit for a couple months now…just keep lovin’ me k

So yeah, I’ve been pulled over twice in a week for my windows…I think I’m going to finally pull the tint off. It was fun while it lasted, but I don’t have the time or money for all these fix it tickets!

I hated my Blast phone, so I traded it in for the Tmobile Dash. So far, I love it! And today is my second day with it, so I think we’ll be ok this time! It’s a “smart phone” and I can synch it with my Outlook, listen to music on it, text easily with the FULL Qwerty board, etc. It’s a great phone so far!!

I took Ariel to her consultation to have 4 teeth pulled with the oral surgeon yesterday. You see, her teeth are so close together that they’re not falling out, so the adult teeth are below the surface and starting to turn because there’s no where for them to go. Not good. So on the 23rd they’re puttin’ her out and yankin’ the teeth! She’s not worried at all. I, on the other hand, am freaking the fuck out that they’re putting my baby to sleep! I know I have no reason to, but she’s my baby dammit!! Oh, and did I mention, AFTER insurance, it’s going to cost $565!!!! Yeah, my dental insurance doesn’t want to pay to put a 9 YEAR OLD to sleep to pull 4 TEETH! Assholes. The oral surgeons biller is going to try to get it covered, which means her dad and I will get reimbursed, but in the mean time, we have to pay the full $565. I thank Bob that he and his wife are so willing to cover half (like they’re supposed to) and that we don’t have to fight about stuff like this!

I went to my doc yesterday for my ankle, because I rolled it again, and got some wonderful news:

• I can’t run anymore, for at least 6 months, but maybe not ever.
• The only cardio I can do is ride a bike or swim…we all know I don’t know how to swim so I guess I need to buy a bike, because….
• I also have to lose weight…20-30lbs to be exact. He said having extra weight on my ankle is not helping it, and right now, it needs all the help it can get!
• I’m also back in physical therapy, and he wants me on crutches (um, no thank you!)

So physical therapy starts back up next week. Weight loss starts tomorrow, and I guess I need to count some pennies to fund a bike after paying for her freaking teeth to get yanked!

Carlos is THIS Friday! I can’t wait!

Official trip to MN countdown: 16 days baby, 16 days! Oh, did I mention I’m a jackass? Yeah, I didn’t realize the first Monday in Sept is a holiday. I totally could have stayed another day! Oh well. I can’t change my tickets now, it’ll cost around $100. It just means I’ll have a day of rest before coming back to work, which I’m sure I’ll need

Oh, and today’s the kids’ first day back to school. 1st and 4th grades! Holy shit when did they grow up????? Ariel has blue hair again too. It’s not nearly as cute as it was last time, but if you’re so inclined, you know where to find the pictures! I’ll be uploading more tonight when I get home

Alright, I think that’s it. Gotta work now!

I know, I’ve been a horrible blogger! But I have a really good reason:
…….ummmm……..ok, maybe I have a crappy reason:
…….ummmm……..fine, I just suck, ok! But here’s a little update ’cause I really do still love ya’ll!

Running is going great! I’ve finally found my runners high and look forward to running at night (except when I’m really tired or have something more fun to do!!) Ok, so my high could use a little work, but at least I don’t dread it now Oh, and I love my shoes like no other! Whooda thunk that shoes could make such a big damn difference!!

Sarah and I took last Friday off and went and played. We went to the Winchester Mystery House (so incredible!!!!), indulged in ‘ritas at Chevy’s then went to a Leann Rimes concert. OH.MY.GOD ya’ll, that girl can sing! She put on a great show, and the place we saw her at fucking rocked! Never have I seen such a purty place before!! So pretty, so romantic! Can’t wait to go there again, maybe even with a guy this time Oh, and we had the yummiest drink there!! An orange creamsicle. Fucking awesome, and ALMOST worth the $9 damn dollars we had to pay for EACH OF THEM!
After the concert we went to a little hole in the wall bar here in town and Sarah convinced me to sing Bobby McGee with her. It was kinda fun, and although we walked off stage by mistake before the song was over, I don’t think we did too bad…although I think I sound better in my car Now she wants me to sing Desperado with her! Oh Lord, bring on the Bacardi, or Arlene just isn’t going to have the balls for this
As always, pictures are in my flickr (not of the concert though, they were literally searching bags to keep cameras out!!)

The rest of the weekend went pretty well. Visited with my Aunt and cousin Garry…they came down for a few days…always a good time! I love them so much, AND, I get to see them this coming weekend because I’m taking the boy up there Good times!

My trip to see Katie is only 30 days away! Can you guys believe it!!!! I’m so excited!!!!! We MAY be getting tattoos while I’m there Don’t be surprised if I end up with a tramp stamp Hahahaha!!! Honestly, I know the other 2 things I want, but I don’t know where I want them, so I’m curious to see how it all turns out!

Hmmm, what else….
Well, there is that other thing…but I’m not ready to share it yet Right now it’s my own private happiness and reason to glow

K, I’m going to read blogs now, ’cause I love you guys and I don’t want you to think I died!!

Miss Katie has fixed my day! My trip is officially booked to go spend the weekend in her neck of the woods at the end of Aug!! I’m am one travelin’ mo-fo this summer!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!! There will be much drinking and shopping, because seriously, Mall of America folks!! And yes, I’ve added another ticker