It's Friday!!

I went and ordered my IPhone today and I am so excited!!! Nobody has them in stock and it will take 10 - 21 days to come in, which should work out with my August birthday!! I watched a 30 minute video on all of the features of the phone and it is incredible! I can't wait to get it! Happy birthday to me!!!

Walter & our neighbor, Allen, are working hard this morning on our screened porch! It is really going to make a difference, not to mention, make it possible to actually sit on the porch when we want to. Between birds slamming into the window (yes, that still happens daily), mosquitos, bugs, and the weather, it is really unpleasant to try to sit out there. Also, my cats will be able to go out on the porch and soak up some sun. We are going to get some white rocking chairs to put out there and that is really going to look nice. I'll take some pictures of what they get done today.
I called the court in Harris County, TX this morning and JP's co-defendant's attorney is apparently dying and has to be reappointed, so that trial is reset, but I don't know the date yet. If it's after JP's trial, I could care less what happens, but if he is tried first, I will have someone there to know what is going on. It would have been nice if both trials really happened in the summer while i'm off of work, but as usual, I just deal with it as it comes. Something really weird that the court man told me is that they don't even know which trial will start on the day one is scheduled. He said there will be 4 or 5 scheduled and when the attorneys show up, they all go in a back room with the judge and he decides which one is most ready to start. Yikes. JP's attorney is top notch and has a great relationship with the court, so maybe that will help us somehow.

I am very proud of myself for saving some money today!!! I was looking at new planners yesterday because mine is expiring and thought about trying to find an online planner that would work good for me. Walter suggested I try google's calendar, so I did, and I LOVE it!! I can access it online and print it if I need to! And it will automatically update birthdays & things for me. Yeah!

Questions & Comments:

Hilltop closes a couple of times a year so that they can take a vacation! It is a family run restaurant and I guess they don't think their employees can manage without them or maybe want to give everyone a vacation?? They also randomly close when they have family events (like graduations, wedding receptions) at the restaurant. Must be nice!!

Thanks to everyone for the comments on my bookcases. They aren't actually white, but a cream color that matches the trim in our house as well as our kitchen appliances. Here is a picture of the kitchen.
I hope you all have a nice Friday!!

Temptation!!!

I am into the 2nd week on my diet, still stalled at the same weight for 6 days, but not gaining anything back. I haven't been tempted by anything that would make me stray from my diet, even when other people around me are having chips or sweets. We were even at Cathy & Brent's house last week and everyone had some Bluebell ice cream, but I turned it down, no problem!!! Then, Cathy & Brent came over on Saturday to eat at our house and they brought some Bluebell ice cream, and again, no problem! I went and got my sugar free jello and was as happy as I could be. But then they left it here. That is when the trouble started. Sunday morning, i'm thinking about that ice cream in my freezer. I never looked at it, but Brent said it was a new Bluebell flavor, Candy Jar. That sounds interesting, but it probably has some jelly beans or something in it, but I can resist that. But then I remembered he said something about peanut butter cups, so I decided to go look at the carton. This was a big mistake! Not to ruin your diet, but just so you can share in my pain, here is what it says: Candy Jar - Caramel Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate and Caramel Chunks, Peanut Brittle, and Chocolate Crisp Pieces. Woah. And it's IN MY FREEZER!!!!!!! I told myself that "if" I somehow mess up my diet, then i'd eat some ice cream, then start the diet back tomorrow. Then I started of thinking of ways to mess up my diet!!! I made it through the evening and didn't touch the stuff, and last night, Walter came in the kitchen looking for a snack and opened the refrigerator. I asked "what are you getting??" because I knew if it was the ice cream, it was all over and I was having some too. He said "watermelon, why?" I said, "I was hoping you weren't getting that ice cream because I can't resist it." He said, "me either!!" He suggested we drive it down to Cathy's house and give it back, but it was kind of late, so I'm sending it home with her today!!!! Whew!!!!!! It has more carbs in 1/2 cup than I am supposed to eat in 2 days! Maybe I will treat myself to a bowl of it SOME day, but it would just wreck all my hard work if I get into it now! But as for my diet, today I had 3 pieces of bacon for breakfast, leftover grilled steak with sauteed mushrooms for lunch, and will have left over roast for dinner. My friend, Lesley, and her husband, Mike, are starting the Atkins diet today and I'm so excited to see how well they do on it!! Good luck Lesley & Mike!!!

So, Cameron's dad picked him up early this morning and it's all quiet in the house. I really don't like it when he is gone, but I've gotten used to it over the years (we've been doing this for 12 years now), and I have learned to enjoy the time to myself, but I do miss him being here. It is so nice now that everything is ok when he's at his dad's house. It didn't use to be that way with his wicked step-mother, but after 3 years of counseling and his dad being pretty certain of losing his 50/50 custody, his dad stepped up and told the wicked witch to mind her own business (he had been letting her do all the parenting), and things are great now. I asked Cameron once if things are better between him & her and he said "no, I just ignore her now." Wow. I would feel bad for her, but the way she treated my son was unacceptable and I refuse to associate with her at all. I don't know how someone could be mean to a child, especially one like Cameron who really is a sweet kid and doesn't cause any trouble. Anyway, he loves to go there now and I think he has his dad to himself when he's there now (I can imagine how happy that marriage is).

I am getting ready for my FIVE little friends tomorrow afternoon for a big ole slumber party. I am trying to think like my new friend, Mere. You know, the whole, "what would Mere do?" I have a 13 year old girl, 8 year old boy, 7 year old girl, 6 year old boy, and 5 year old girl to entertain, so i'm trying to think about all of them. So far, I have the DVR recording enough movies that we will be able to come to some agreement on one or two of them. I am recording:

• Looney Tunes: Back in Action
• Free Willy
• Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
• Muppets From Space
• Happy Feet

All of them love to draw and make things, so i've got my art supplies and huge sticker collection out. Working as a school counselor, I have plenty of that type of stuff. I also have Landen's toy box that is full of fun things. My only rule about that is the LOUD toys can only be used OUTSIDE!!! Yikes!!! I bought Landen a set of musical instruments for his birthday last year assuming he would want to keep them at HIS house, but luckily for me, he wants to keep them HERE!! We also have the pool and the boat, so between all of that, I think we will have a fun time. I am also making a HUGE pitcher of kool-aid so the kids don't drink all of the soft drinks in the fridge and end up staying up all night!! I think it is so awesome that my grandson and my best friend, Dana's grandkids play together and I'm glad that all the kids love to come here!!

I went over our new budget this weekend and was very pleased! We are 1/2 way through the month and I did not have to transfer any money from our savings to our checking, which is great! We have only eaten out ONCE each week, which is amazing. I am really working to keep up with our spending and the budget and hopefully we can start building our savings back up.

Questions & Comments:
Tam asked if Elizabeth's adoption was an open one and if I knew the people who adopted her. The answer is no. My obstetrician had a patient who was unable to have children and made the arrangements privately. I had gone to some adoption agencies where I could pick the parents, but I was scared that I would pick the best looking people or the ones with the most money, and I really just wanted my baby to have parents who loved her, so when my doctor told me she knew someone, I felt good trusting her decision. I did ask to receive pictures throughout my daughter's life (because I knew the adoption agencies did that) and the adoptive parents said no!! I almost changed my mind, but I couldn't make myself hurt these people who had already been told they would be able to adopt the baby. Not to mention, I guess they knew we'd all be living within 30 miles of each other and if I'd known what she looked like, I would have likely recognized her in public. I know that if i'd known where she was, I would have surely been driving past her house trying to see her!! After we met (which her mother was very opposed to) and got to know each other a little bit, her mother gave me a video of the first few years of Elizabeth's life, which was incredible for me to see. She also allowed me to scan all of Elizabeth's baby and childhood pictures.

Yes, it's STEAK NIGHT!!!!!

I'm so excited that it's steak night tonight!! We missed it last week due to the cruise and I am craving me some steak!!! Cathy & Brent are going with us, as usual, and I am READY!!!!

Here are some pictures from my fine painting job in our bathroom yesterday! Keep in mind that we still haven't put crown molding upstairs at all, so this is still not nearly a finished product! Our bathroom is my favorite room in the house and I am so in love with my bathtub! I am a serious bath taker/soaker and have never had a big bathtub before.

The big doors open into our bedroom, the door to the left is our closet, and there is a door to the right where the toilet is.

If this isn't a sure sign that i've gone crazy, I don't know what is. My best friend, Dana has 6 kids. Her oldest daughter, Amy, is 26 and we are very close too. I used to babysit Amy and her brothers when they were little, then Amy babysat Cameron when he was little, then Amy had 3 babies within 4 years and I babysat and helped her out a lot when they were little. So anyway, Dana's youngest daughter, Emily (13), is in town from Kentucky and she wants to come spend the night, along with Amy's oldest, Payton (8), before she leaves to go back home. But here's the catch! Once Payton comes to spend the night, then I owe his sisters, Camille (7) and Ava (5) a night and I get a bit overwhelmed, and then Landen gets extremely jealous when Payton comes here, so what to do? After consulting with Walter, who thinks I'm crazy but said ok, I am inviting them all FIVE to spend the night Tuesday night! I am VERY patient and fun for about 24 hours and then I tend to change into another personality, but they will come Tuesday afternoon & leave Wednesday morning, so i'm thinking it will be fun!!

No news in the dieting world! I lost about 1/2 lb. since Tuesday, but that is not typical for Atkins. I went to Walmart today and bought the Ketone strips that tell you if your body is producing Ketones (burning it's own body fat) incase I am eating things I shouldn't, but everything is good there. I'm thinking I need to exercise, which I keep putting off because i'm lazy. Today I had bacon for breakfast (wasn't really hungry), a Bubba burger with cheese & mayo for lunch, and i'll have my delicious ribeye w/sauteed mushrooms for dinner!

I haven't seen most of my friends from high school in 25 years and we are still working on planning a girl's night out soon. I have always been an avid picture taker and plan to go through my elementary - high school pictures and get out all the ones they are in and bring them with me! Our girls night out group has grown to 10 of us now, so I don't know if we'll go to a restaurant or what. I offered my house if they want to come here, so we'll see what happens. I am really excited to see everyone!

As i've mentioned before, my sister, Donna, is queen of the dingy people. She told me yesterday that she has been sick for SIX days with food poisoning!! She ate at Carrabas in Pearland (TX) and has been sick ever since. We've exchanged a few emails and after asking several questions, i'm pretty sure she has that salmonella poisoning that has affected 1,000's of people, including many Texans! Hello??? Mexican restaurant? Tomatoes?? Peppers?? Anyway, it hit me last night and I asked her if she'd thought of it and she said no. I am encouraging her to let Carrabas know that she got so sick and talk to her doctor. That girl! I once watched her spoon piles and piles of rice into her fajita and asked her why she was putting rice in it? She said, "OH, is that rice? I thought it was cheese!!"

Walter ordered the lumber today to build the pier. That is going to be an interesting project because someone is going to have to get all up in the river water to accomplish this job. There are snakes and alligators in this water and it is just plain spooky to me. I'll be sure to take pictures.

I had a few comments about my new budgeting plan. I use Microsoft Money 2004, but actually took the figures from there and made an Excel spreadsheet so that I can see everything in one place and make changes easily. When I balance my checking account in Microsoft Money, I also go to the Excel sheet and type every expense in the appropriate section and can see instantly what's working and what isn't. I'm not sure that we've ever been on a budget in the 10 years we've been together, so it will be an adjustment. We are dipping into our savings each month and I couldn't figure out why until I looked at my spreadsheet. We are paying extra on our mortgage to pay the house off in 15 years and even with that, we can easily afford our bills, but yet, we are out of money every month. So anyway, we'll see how we do with that.

And finally, a funny picture of my giant cat, J.J. sleeping on my ottamon. He is such a cute, goofy thing and I love him so much!!! Most people can't believe he is a cat because he is so big.

Wednesday

Once again, I had absolutely nothing planned today and I am very happy about that!! There is nothing better to me than sleeping late and doing whatever I want!! My cats actually let me sleep until 9, which is late for them! I got a little housework done, but nothing major. I wanted to try and get some painting done (remember my goal of painting one day each week all summer??), and I painted 2 door frames and 1 door in our bathroom! That may not sound like much, but everything needs THREE coats of paint, so it takes a while to paint anything. I have only painted one other time this summer and got 1 door and 1 frame painted, then Walter came home with all that sand for the pool, so I stopped to help with that. Maybe one day our house will really be finished, but i'm not sure when that will be!

My mission this month is to create a budget and then figure out a way for us to stick to it. I have been analyzing our spending and have come to realize that we just spend money randomly with no idea of how much "extra" money we really have to spend. I have my budget all figured out to the penny by using my Microsoft Money data from the last year to get an accurate idea of what we really spend. I have cut a couple of things WAY back, like eating out and random shopping trips to Walmart, Lowes, Old Navy, etc. We have already cut back from eating out 4 or 5 times a week to 2, but i'm setting a goal to aim for just once, and yes, of course that would be steak night!!! It's ridiculous to spend as much as we do on groceries and then still spend a small fortune eating out at night. Our friends, Cathy & Brent eat out nearly every night, so it is hard to turn down all their offers! This week worked out well though because they invited us to dinner at their house Monday night instead of going out to eat, so we need to make a point to invite them over too.

I finally finished reading "The Appeal" by John Grisham last night. It was a good book and I enjoyed reading it, but the ending was not great and kind of disappointing to me. I am reading "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber now and so far it is pretty good. It is paperback, so I can read it while i'm floating in the pool without too much trouble.

Here is a picture of Cameron with his braces off. He finally let me get a shot of his pearly whites, but it wasn't easy!! He & Bryce went to spend the night at Bradley's last night, so I caught him with the camera on his way out! Maybe i'm prejudiced, but I think he's such a cute kid. Girls have been after him since he was in 2nd grade. Some girls once hid his shoes at a birthday party so he couldn't leave! He wasn't real amused by that! A lot of people say he looks like Ringo Starr. Anyway, here's my boy giving me my 1 promised picture post-braces:

Once again, i'm loving Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal! As a social worker, mental health care is really important to me and the lack of available care is disturbing in our area. Our great governor not only noticed the problem, but here is what he is doing about it:

Our package of bills in the recently completed regular session consisted of five pieces of legislation, and more than $89 million in funds committed to support mental health care services. One example of legislation that was passed was Nicola's law, named after slain New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Cotton, which gives judges the ability to order mandatory outpatient treatment for mentally ill patients who may be a danger to society when not provided with supervision. We have also signed into law legislation that will create mental health crisis centers, which will swiftly and accurately detail a patient's specific mental health needs. We also passed a law that will allow us to use technology to provide better services for mental health patients. Our new legislation will allow doctors to carry out exams on patients who may be deemed dangerous to themselves or society via telemedicine, drastically decreasing wait times and getting health services to those in need much quicker. We will continue working to improve our entire mental health system and infrastructure in order to best provide for the needs of all Louisianians. Our mental health system has been ignored and allowed to decay for too long, and it is past time that we ensure that mental health patients have access to the help they need.

No weight loss today. I guess losing something every day is asking too much. I had scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, sauteed squash & zucchini (leftover from yesterday) for lunch along with some string cheese, and 2 delicious BUBBA burgers with mayo & cheese for dinner. My newest addiction is Coke Zero and i'm trying to cut back on drinking them and drink more water. Yay to Kim & Kelley for their hard work on their diets!!! Keep up the good work girls!!!

My sister found out this week that her oldest son is having a baby girl in November. He is currently serving a 45 day sentence in jail for a drug charge and has a 1 year old son (with a different girl) who my sister keeps EVERY weekend while my nephew does nothing (and pays nothing). I want to be excited about the new baby, and it's certainly not the baby's fault, but I'm so worried that my sister will have to take on this baby too. She works full-time and is trying to get accepted into graduate school and as much as she loves keeping Elijah, it is taking a toll on her. I hope that my nephew and his girlfriend will be responsible for this baby and allow my sister to enjoy her rather than be responsible. And really...should the baby be raised in a home where the parents use and sell drugs? I only cause fights when I open my mouth, so I don't anymore, but it's disgusting to me and it's scary how these children can and probably will be taken from their parents when something happens. I've made my concerns clear, but as i've said before, my sister turns a blind eye to the drugs and makes excuses for everyone because she doesn't know what to do about it.

I heard tonight that JonBenet Ramsey's family has been cleared in her murder, but I still have a question. They are saying that the tiny DNA molecules found on JonBenet's pajamas that science now has the capability to test does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey household. Whoever touched the pajamas left DNA on them. JonBenet's father picked her up after finding her, so why isn't his DNA on the pajamas too? Sorry, but i'm still skeptical.

I am hoping to get my grandson, Landen, to spend the night this weekend. His social life is quite busy, so I haven't been able to see him. Elizabeth told me the other day that she accidentally ran over Hunter (the kitten I gave him). Landen was very attached to his kitty and I plan to offer to get him another one IF Elizabeth will keep the kitty inside. Here is a picture of Elizabeth, Landen, & Mack.