Tackle it Tuesday

I'm still in the basement for this week's tackle.
Remember this photo?
This was the before picture from last week.

This was the after. Still couldn't stand all the clutter surrounding the TV so I made a trip to IKEA to find something to solve that problem.

Here's the after picture. I Love my IKEA purchase but I wish that piece were sold in an oak color. Oh well.

I also bought one for the kitchen areal.

Another part of my tackle was listing all the miscellaneous pieces of furniture in my basement on Craigslist. I listed all 5 pieces on Sunday afternoon and the last of them are leaving my home today.

I can't believe how fast they go on Craigslist. The stove was gone within 2 hours of listing it. The ugly cheap computer desk was picked up a few hours later by a man who I think could quite possibly be the world's happiest man. He was entirely too happy to have purchased this ugly computer desk of mine....

I half expected him to start jumping up and down and clapping his hands. And when he called to inquire about the desk he asked if it was still available....I said "yep"....and he then says..."OMG I'm so in love with you".....those were his EXACT WORDS! Followed by a few awkward moments as I'm sure he realized what just came out of his mouth. I'm sorry have we met? What a freak! He picked the computer desk up driving an old Impala. My husband was trying to help this man force this computer desk into his car....the drawer falls out and slams on the concrete. "No problem, no problem man....I got it".... Cling cling pling,.....more metal of unknown purpose clangs to the concrete. "No problem at all I'll fix that right up...Gosh I just LOVE Craigslist you find the coolest treasures on there?" OMG are you high? This man just called this ugly computer desk a treasure? Hey, who am I to argue. A treasure it is. Where's my $10.00.

The book cases and TV stand will be making their way out this morning. It took less than 48 hours to get my junk sold. I'm done with garage sales and ebay! Craigslist is much easier.

Moments for Me Monday - week 5

It's Monday again already!? Time sure is flying by. It must be all the fun..... All my Moments for Me!

Moment #1

I'm slowly trying to ease my way back into the running routine. I had hoped to get four runs in this week but only ended up doing two. Partly because I ended up back at the doc's office Friday with ANOTHER sinus infection. So I'm BACK on antibiotics....this would be the fifth round of antibiotics for me since December. UGH! So...I only got in two runs....it's better than nothing. I'll tell you, the hardest thing about running is getting out my door. Once I get out the door I'm fine. I'm always grateful that I didn't talk myself out of it. I love to sweat! I love to be outdoors! I love to push myself! But getting out the door is a challenge. I ran 3 miles both days which took me about 40 minutes. Which translates into 40 minutes of time by myself. Time to enjoy my music. Time to organize my thoughts. Time to enjoy the sunshine. And time to enjoy this....

Moment #2

Friday evening I went to a friends house to do some scrapbooking and got hooked on Creative Memories Digital Scrapbooking program. I spent a lovely evening (6 blissful hours) with lovely ladies doing one of my favorite hobbies.....scrapbooking. It's kinda funny, me and my friends enjoy our scrapbooking evenings out because it gives us a chance to get out of the house and away from the parental duties for a few hours but then we usually end up spending the entire evening talking about our kids and getting very little done.

Moment #3

I drove to IKEA on Saturday (a 50 minute drive) ALL. BY. MYSELF! I jammed Eminem and Eagles Greatest hits all the way there and jammed AC/DC all the way home....ALL BY MYSELF! And spent ninety glorious minutes in between wandering aimlessly around the 8th Wonder of the World ....IKEA. "O" how I love that place. I then spent the rest of the day putting together my purchase(s). I'll share my purchase(s) with you on "Tackle it Tuesday". I still have to take pictures and I'm still working on getting some stuff out of the basement to prepare for the pictures. On a side note....I gotta say....I LOVE Craigslist. I just listed a stove and 4 pieces of furniture yesterday afternoon (it was my first time listing on Craigslist) and already have the stove and one piece of furniture outta here. YEAY!

"When from our better selves we have too long

been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,

sick of its business, of its pleasures tired

How gracious, how benign, is Solitude."

- William Wordsworth

So how did you spend your Moments for YOU?! Link up and share!

Make Me Laugh Monday

My eleven year old came home from school Friday and says....

J - "Mom, I got a funny story for you"

Me - "K, lets hear it"

J - "Ya know that fart machine you brought me from Florida when you were on your girls trip?"

Me - "yeah"

J - "I brought it to school and was in the bathroom and when I heard someone walk in I grunted real loud and pressed the 'juicy fart' button. They started laughing and said 'Man....Dude.....are you alright in there"...." I grunted again like I was in pain and said...."Yeah....I'll be all right."

I know that shouldn't make me laugh. It's disgusting. It's childish. But it still makes me laugh. Not the story itself....but my son's extraordinary ability to laugh at himself and his complete lack of self consciousness. I love that he doesn't give a hoot what people think of him and NEVER gets embarrassed.

13 things about me....

I was tagged like 3 times for a 13 things about me meme. I'm ALMOST dork enough to come up with 39 things about me......but......not quite.....So I'll just keep typing until I run out of things to say....

1) My husband and I lived in sin for 2 years before we got married. We were already engaged and we both had 2 years left of college. Dan's father was selling his house and moving south and told my hubby he'd pay for an apartment for him until he was done with college. So one night at the dinner table I asked my parents "what would you say if I were to ask to move in with (Papa Smurf)"....their response...."we were wondering what was taking you so long to ask". There was one condition....my Grandparents were NOT to know. So we were secretly living in sin lest we hear the "why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free" speech yet again. Though, I suspect Grandma knew all along as she's no dummy. But my Grandma thought my future husband was "the next thing to God himself" so I don't think it mattered.

2) I canNOT be sitting anywhere near anyone eating an apple. It makes me want to vomit.

3) I'm a closet smoker.....as is my husband. Please don't give me a lecture. Remember, I'm a nurse. You can't tell me anything I don't already know or haven't already said to myself. And I'm already well aware of the hypocrisy involved in being a nurse, a runner, a hypochondriac, AND a smoker. We don't smoke in the house and we don't smoke anywhere around our children. I've successfully quit approximately 5, 397 times. I've been on wellbutrin. I've been on Chantix. I've done the patch. And, I've done the lozenges. They all worked for me until I quit taking whatever the therapy of choice was. I quit with my pregnancies.....hence, the 75 pound weight gain. Next step is acupuncture and hypnosis. I desperately want to quit....again. I fear the only way I can quit again is to get pregnant again and that's just not happening. And now I'm trying to train for another marathon...... and in case you didn't know....smoking and running don't mix. Pray for me.

4) I was caught stealing a bag full of candy with a childhood friend from a local KMart when I was like 8 or 9. As part of my punishment my mom brought me and my friend to the police station to talk to a sheriff. We (my friend and I) sat in his office while he scared the living sh-t out of our arses and told us that it would be on our record for the rest of our lives. It wasn't until about a year ago that I found out that it really wasn't on my record.

5) I smoked more than my fair share of the "funny stuff" back in high school and college. You know all those kids that you look at and say "OMG, kids these days".....yeah....I was one of them.

I'm painting a really pretty picture of myself, huh?! Lets just say I had issues and leave it at that. I'm just try'n to keep it real.

6) I did NOT have model behavior as a teenager but the one thing I had going for me was my grades. I did well in school. Almost straight A's....not quite....damn that 11th grade English teacher....

7) The other thing I had going for me was my dancing. I grew up dancing. I was at the studio almost every single day. My mom worked full time so after school I'd walk a half mile to pick up a bus and ride it for 10 miles and then walk another mile to the studio (could you imagine allowing that these days!?) There was an old man that used to take the same bus route. I kinda befriended him and we'd both get off at the same stop and walk in the same direction. We had a lot of nice chats. He thought I was a runaway at first. I often wonder whatever happened to him. I had major potential to be a major hoodlum in life but keeping busy with dance kept my butt out of trouble. It was also the main contributor to my self esteem and confidence as I was quite good....if I don't say so myself....Dancing was the only "sport" I've ever participated in....aside from the (about) 6 months of recreational gymnastics.

8) My daughter has never been baptised. I grew up Catholic. I am no longer Catholic. Two days before my daughter was scheduled to be baptised the priest of our church.....let me clarify....the priest that was suppose to baptise MY DAUGHTER.....was all over the national news and being prosecuted and booted from the church for child pornography charges. It devastated me. And, although I feel no guilt for leaving the Catholic religion, I still carry around a tremendous amount of Catholic guilt for my daughter having never been baptised.

9) I now, as of last night, have a new addiction....digital scrapbooking.

10) I went to Ikea Saturday. I love Ikea. It's a darn good thing that I live 50 minutes away from Ikea....or I'd be there daily.

11) I hate liver. Just the smell of liver makes me gag. My mother loves liver. My mother made liver for dinner frequently when I was a child. It has scarred me for life.

12) I received a small scholarship from the college I attended. As part of the scholarship requirement I had to work as a telemarketer to try to solicit donations for our library. I never once got a donation. Everyone hung up on me. It has scarred me for life. I now hang up on telemarketers.

13) I have "fuzzy 20/20 vision".

14) I've never broken a bone. Although, I suspect I may have broken my tailbone back when I was a teenager. I fell down a set of stairs and my tailbone landed right on the edge of a several steps. It took years for the pain in my ass to go away. My ass could predict rain better than the weather man.

K. That's it. I added number 14 for good measure. The only person I'm going to specifically tag for this is Kelly at Mom of the Year as she's never done one. But, to anyone else that's interested in participating, consider yourself tagged!

Who am I kidding.....

I know I'm grounded but I had to get this quick post in.

One of my bestest "real life" friends just started her very own blog. I knew she wouldn't be able to hold out forever! Papa Smurf and I have been friends with this couple for almost 20 years and they are the funniest people we know....(we don't know very many people...lol....just kid'n Kel). I've blogged about them many times before like when I asked her to stop laughing at me here (she's always laughing at me and my self help books),....we always have a blast when we all get together as described here....I have disturbing dreams about them quite often as described here.....We've been on many scrapbooking retreats together as talked about here....AND my husband and I have reason to believe that their son is (since the age of 3) morally corrupt and has devious plans and intentions in regards to our daughter ....as talked about here.....I even have pictures of her in my other marathon training blog from the marathon we ran together.....I feel like a circus announcer.....Please go visit her at Mom of the Year and leave her some bloggy love.

And I'm very excited to announce that Papa Smurf and I are now officially registered in the national bone marrow donor program! A friend and former employee of my husband was diagnosed with Leukemia several months ago. She's currently undergoing treatments and is doing remarkably well. If you're not aware yet this is a disease that has directly impacted my life. My Dad passed away at the age of 28 with Leukemia, his sister (my Aunt) passed away at the age of 34 with Lymphoma, and my Great Aunt (my Grandma's sister) just recently passed away from Leukemia. The marathon that I ran last year was to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. So, Hubby and I went yesterday afternoon to a private donor drive for his friend. It was so easy....a simple mouth swab. That's it. No needles. And, if we are ever found to be a match it's as easy as giving blood. GO REGISTER! YOU COULD SAVE A LIFE SOMEDAY!

Another dear friend of mine warns me that grounding doesn't work as an effective means of punishment....and who am I to argue.....so I'm ungrounding myself. But I am still taking this weekend off because I have 3 yards of dirt sitting in my driveway in front of my house and need to get some yard work done. I'll be back for M4M Monday. Have a fantastic weekend!

I'm Grounded!!!!!!

I'm a schmuck!

I'm a HUGE schmuck!

I just received a call from my dear friend and neighbor.

She called me from a restaurant. She was sitting in booth..... in a restaurant...... alone.....

Why was she alone?

BECAUSE I WAS SUPPOSE TO MEET HER THIS MORNING FOR BREAKFAST AND I FORGOT!!!!!!!!!

I wrote it on my calendar so I wouldn't forget.

I forgot anyway.

Wanna know what I was doing when she called from the restaurant.... alone.... sitting in a booth.... all by herself.....?????

I'll give you ONE guess!!!

Yep! I was reading blogs!

That's IT!!!

I'm grounded!! I'm grounding myself from blogging! I'm grounded for......... a week!

There's an art to eating pasta!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm 75% Italian.


Which means that my children are....I don't know....a little less than 50% Italian.


Which also means that we eat ALOT of pasta.


Linguine, rigatoni, fettuccine, spaghetti, angel hair.....ALOT.


And, yet, I can't seem to teach my children the proper way to eat it.


I've tried. Many times.


Yesterday for dinner I made whole wheat Angel hair pasta with a yummy creamy tomato sauce with shrimp and mushrooms. After watching my children try to eat it for several minutes I said...


"Here.....please allow me to.....once again.....show you children how to eat pasta...."


I proceed to demonstrate and Dreamy Smurf says....


"I like my way better!"