Another Meme

Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following... They MUST be real places, names, things...
NOTHING made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it.
You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
Your Name: Rachel
Famous Music artist/group: Ratt
3 letter word: rag
Gift/present: roses?
Vehicle: Rav4
TV Show: Roseanne!
Country: Russia-that's a country, right?
Boy's Name: Russ!
Girl's Name: Rene'
Alcoholic drink: Rum
Occupation: Retail salesman
Flower: Roses
Celebrity: Rosco P. Coletrain? (nobody will get this, except Kevin, Jim and Dad)
Food: Ravioli
Reason for Being Late: rammed by a Rav4 driven by Russ
Something You Shout: RAT FINK!

A Meme, from Mom and others:

Here are 7 songs I've listened to tonight. I suggest you give a listen to numbers 1, 3, and 6. At LEAST, listen to 3 and 6. If you have to choose one, I guess you should go for 3. Good stuff.

1. “These are my people” Rodney Atkins
2. “Last Dollar” Tim McGraw
3. “I Get to” Blue County
4. “Wayward Son" Kansas
5. “Your Song” Elton John
6. “Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me” Elton John
7. “What I Learned Out on the Road” Kid Rock

A meme from Mom
Thanks to Mom, who tagged me for this meme, I should be packing for my trip:

Three Things That Scare Me:
The death of a family member (let's not go deeper, it makes me cry.)
Loss of a job (mine or Kevin's)
Growing complacent.

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
My Dad.
My husband.
My kids. (only three? I need more.)
My best friend, Tammy.
Russ.
Ree.
Amy.
Sheesh, there are too many. I laugh a LOT!

Three Things I Love: (I didn't include people here because it says "things")
My job.
The "take off" portion of a flight.
A real good picture (or "image" as you should call it, until it's printed).

Three Things I Hate:
Negativity.
HTML.
Two-faced people. Seriously. (You don't know that we SEE how you are?)

Three Things I Don't Understand:
Why my best friends son is fighting in Iraq.
Why I don't make more time for my best friend.
HTML

Three Things On My Desk:
The Ipod that needs a battery.
My camera.
An ashtray.

Three Things I'm Doing Right Now:
Avoiding laundry.
Avoiding dishes.
Enjoying the HECK out of my family.

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
Get through a year without struggling to pay bills.
See my children succeed in life.
Go on a cruise with Kevin.

Three Things I Can Do:
"Ride out" a bucking horse....for a while...OK, 4 seconds.
Take care of a customer like nobody else...ever
Back a hay trailer into a barn (with fewer than 3 tries) seriously, ask dad!

Three Things I Can't Do:
Speak a foreign language
Write as well as my mother
"Get over it" in a timely manner

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
Travis Tritt's "It's a Great Day to Be Alive"
Blue County's "I get to"
My parents- seriously, they know more than anyone knows.

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
Bucky Covington's latest
Local news
A disgruntled individual

Three Things I'd Like To Learn:
HTML Programming
How to get an 18 year old to listen to reason
How to trim bangs evenly. (sorry, o-daughters-of-mine)

Three Favorite Foods:
Pringles
Diet Coke (does that count as "food"?)
Pizza

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
Little House on the Prairie
Sesame Street
Tom and Jerry

Wordless Wednesday-my cat did WHAT?

Fetch

Just so you know, anyone can comment here, now. No need to log in. Just hit "other" where it asks for a login ID. I found a buried setting!

The new game

Bipolar? Multiple Personalities? Human?

I feel so happy that I have the next 4 days off. I need to recharge REAL bad.

I feel so pissed at "the guy" at work.

I feel so sad that the last two months of Brett's high-school career are going to be so rough, by his own hand.

I feel so proud of the job I do, and how good I am at it. I get daily compliments, and voicemails left by customers, to the boss.

I feel so frustrated by kids who won't lift a hand to help, unless I threaten them.

I feel so melancholy when I realize I graduated 20 years ago.

I feel so energized when I watch my children play.

I feel so loved when my husband brings home new fish for my aqarium (he did tonight!), when I get a comment on a journal, when my Dad looks at me, when a friend says they'll miss me while I'm on vacation, when my Mom makes my birthday dinner, when a great buddy draws a cartoon for me, when the dogs lay their heads on me while napping, when my customers tell my boss how great I am, and when any other random affection happens.

OK, I'm probably suffering from some psychological affliction, or maybe I'm a human. Who knows? Let's say I'm human. OK?

A Dream?

Well, here goes: This is the plunge. I've given over a year to this thought, and I'm very timid about posting it here. I'm hoping my friends will be supportive, or keep their thoughts to themselves. I honestly can NOT take any negativity right now. I will mirror this entry on my AOL journal...just to be up front and honest.

I visualize a book. A coffee-table book or something. I see the pictures, but don't yet see the text. I may ask for help on that later. I see some of Mom's poems, some of my memories, and some interview results.

I honestly won't say, yet, what I plan to do, but I'm starting on Friday. I know the pictures that need to be taken. I know how to organize them. I know what I'm looking for. I hope Mom will join me on my journey. If I become a famous, published author, you all get a free copy of my book. If I'm a proven failure, I'll deal with it, and appreciate your support. If I'm a proven failure and a laughing stock, I'll point fingers and implicate each of you by name.

Here's hoping. I'm 38. I can't keep waiting for something to happen. It's time to MAKE it happen. Cross your fingers.

Oh yeah!

Life is SOOO awesome!

OK, here's the deal. I posted earlier that I had ONE Trace Adkins ticket, and didn't want to go alone. Mom didn't want to go, my friends were all busy, and whoever bought a ticket and went with me would NOT sit with me. I just had ONE ticket.

I had to go on a business trip today, and I couldn't find my black socks, so I stopped at Wal-Mart. Hang with me, this will come together shortly. While driving, I heard a contest to win tickets to Trace.

You have to listen to a song snippet, then call in and sing the next line. I know every Trace song by heart, so I started dialing. busy. busy. busy. busy. I finally got through, and I said "what caller am I?" (14 is the magic number) and she said, "Well, if you know the next line, you're caller 14!" I almost fainted. I *did* know the next line (I know EVERY line to EVERY Trace song), and I'm walking through Wal-Mart. She said I'd have to hold a while, and I got my socks and went to the checkouts. When I handed over my money, while holding my cell phone with my shoulder, my hand was shaking. My heart was beating, and I seriously thought I might pass out.

I've won things before, but NEVER have I won something that I felt I REALLY wanted with ALL my heart. I got to the car and just sat there in the parking lot. When they took me off hold, I was greeted, then they played this line, from a Trace song: "Love ain't supposed to make sense...." and I had to sing, "This ain't no thinkin' thing, right brain, left brain, it goes a little deeper than that..." and I WON!!!!! I got two tickets to the concert tomorrow night, so Kevin can go with me! I am so excited. Now, I'm just looking for a sitter. The drama continues.

***added over an hour later***

Monica has been invited to stay at a friend's house tomorrow night. I have an extra ticket. If I can call the arena that the concert is in, tomorrow, Natalie will go with us. Not only will she LOVE it, Mom will be off the hook (since I cannot yet find a sitter.) I have a third ticket, but it's nowhere near the other two seats. She can sit on our laps, but I'll have to make sure it's kosher. I don't know how this will play out, but I'd love to NOT pay a sitter, and NOT ask Mom to keep Natalie on the weekend. The lady needs a day off, for goodness sake!

Just a post

I'm wired, from thoughts of my unexpected trip tomorrow. Plus, I'm posting here as often as possible. Here is a picture for you:

This is a still-shot of Hawkeye catching a piece of popcorn. Do you have *any* idea how hard it is to catch this? It happens so fast. Can't see the popcorn? Look inside his mouth! It's there, and he's getting ready to grab it.

Wanna see a shot of BOTH dogs trying for a bite?

Lucy is getting almost as good at grabbing food mid-air as Hawkeye. Not quite, but almost.

Have a great night.

A problem...sort of

So, we have a Secret Santa thingie at work. We draw names, set a price limit, then surprise each other for a couple of weeks, ending with a cool gift on Christmas week. The price limit protects us. Some of the folks I work with can afford a $200 gift at the drop of a hat. I'm doing good to do a $20 gift. That's life. I love the Secret Santa game, and get a kick out of the playing.

My Secret Santa, this past December, happens to be a good friend of mine. She knows me SO well. She hid a beer under my desk on two occasions, and I found some awesome smelling lotion on my desk one morning. She's great.

My "big" gift was a ticket to a Trace Adkins concert. He is the ultimate. He is my favorite. I'd drop my husband like a hot rock for that man (not really, but you get the idea.) He is built like a tall, muscle bound wedge, and he's hot hot HOT! I got a ticket. The show is this Saturday. I got *1* ticket. Price limitations and practicality.

If I don't go, I insult the giver. If I go, I go alone, and it's more than an hour from home. If it wasn't mortgage week, I'd buy a ticket for Kevin and drag him along...or buy a ticket for Mom, and beg her to go. She's aways up for a concert. I just don't have the $$$. I will try for the next two mornings to win tickets from my favorite radio station, but Birthday Bash tickets are the big giveaway right now. I *have* birthday bash tickets...for both nights.

I'll figure this out. There are bigger problems in the world than owning a ticket to a concert by your favorite artist. I just wish I had some solutions to this...Help?

Wordless Wednesday-can I go home now?

Goodnight, all

A beautiful ending to a long day:

A video

We find entertainment where we find it, now don't we? Hawkeye has a few tricks up his sleeve, but there is one he can't master. Lucy has mastered that one alone. Go figure. They make up for each others' weaknesses, I guess. They'll both do most anything for popcorn.

The sound seems to be "off" from the video. I don't know if it will stay that way, and I don't know if it's just this computer that sees it that way. Kevin seems to reward the dogs before they do the trick! LOL That's positive thinking, huh? If it appears that way to you, just know that there is a youtube issue.

Beautiful Saturday Bliss!

I love Saturday. I slept about 10 hours, if you count the time spent on the couch last night before Kevin kicked me in the head and told me to go to bed. (ok, maybe he said, "honey? let's go to bed." but it's the same thing, right?)

I awoke, made two pots of coffee (gotta love a carafe that you can take right to the computer desk, huh?) and sat at the computer, catching up on blogs, journals and email. Total relaxation. The house is a mess, and so much needs to be done, so I emailed Mom to make sure they'd be home today. I need somewhere to go so I don't feel guilty about the mess.

If you ever spend some time at my house, here is a piece of advice for free: Don't take a shower while the washer is going and dishes are being done, right after the 18 year old boy has showered. I knew this rule, but did it anyway. By the end, I had the cold turned off and it was barely warm enough to tolerate, but the shower made me feel better, anyway.

Wanna know what makes it hard for Kevin to navigate the World Wide Web? This does:

He asked that I not post this, since he hasn't showered and his hair is messed up, but let's be fair...Lucy hasn't showered either!

I hope your weekend is as awesome as mine has begun!