It's raining!!!

rain (rān) n. Water condensed from atmospheric vapor and falling in drops.

It's actually raining out. Can you believe it? Ugh... I still haven't lived here long enough to like it when it rains. I have to look for the umbrella so I don't get soaked while I go meet the boys at the bus stop. And yes, we do own umbrellas -- more than one, even.

I ate some yummy bread, with cream cheese and jalapenos in it --- what is wrong with people? Why do they eat jalapenos????? This was me eating it.... AAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Hot, hot, hot! Pant, pant, pant. Drink, drink, drink. Take another bite... AAAaaahhhhhhh!! Hot, hot, hot! Pant, pant, pant. Drink, drink, drink. Eat some more.....AAAaaaahhhhhh! Tongue burning -- ouch!!! Pant, pant, pant!! Drink, drink, drink!! And I kept eating it until it was all gone!!!!!! They tell you to drink milk --- yuck! who would do that? Oh well, I'm fine now.

Tonight is girls' night out. We are going to P.F. Chang's for Lisa's birthday dinner! I'm going to stay away from anything spicy! I've never eaten there... it should be fun!

Doesn't it just figure? I have plans to go out with my friends and Jeff gets tickets for the Suns game tonight!!!!! He's going with one of his friends. We both get to go out tonight!! In the rain too!!! Mama is coming over (in the rain) to watch the boys and put them to bed. Fun, fun, fun!

It's the day before Friday

Our tree is now decorated and even lights up when it gets dark - but I haven't taken a picture of that yet. It's very sparsely decorated and the cats seem to enjoy knocking ornaments off, so who knows how many will be left by Christmas. I finally took pictures of the boys with their new Christmas headgear on... Funny.

I put up the Christmas lights outside yesterday. I thought they would look nice, but I couldn't really tell because only half of them lit up when I was done. I did such a great job, that I blew out some of the fuses on the strands. Oh well- I need some extension cords and some new fuses. Until then, we'll just have to enjoy half the lights.

Tomorrow is the last day of November - where does the time go? The older I get, the faster it goes. Twenty six days until Christmas. Is your shopping done? I'm almost there. At least I think I am. But wait until three days before Christmas and I'll think of all kinds of other things and people to get gifts for!!!

Things to ponder....

Why do banks charge you a " non sufficient funds" fee on money they already know you don't have?

What is the purpose of that little ball on top of the flagpole?

Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Why isn't 11 pronounced onety one?

The boys and I are going to Mosaic Pizza for dinner. The cutest little pizza shop in Litchfield Park! Jeff is coming home late - so he'll get to eat left-overs. Don't worry, he doesn't mind eating left-overs.

Fitness tip of the day:

Breathe deeply and fully. Not only does this help you look and feel better, it also improves your mental functions.

Who knew that not breathing right could make me stupider? I better work my breathing!!!!

Sunday

The TV is on. The announcers are yapping about the game... Arizona is losing - what else is new? No one is watching the game!!! All three boys are in the other room, on their computers. Why must I be subjected to football? I guess I could change the channel, but you know as soon as I do that, Homer will notice and he'll tell me to put it back on!!! Yesterday Mama & Papa took the boys to Firebird Raceway - Santa's theme park is there. They got to go on rides, play some games, see some animals, eat cotton candy & most importantly, they got to talk to Santa! They had a great time and spent plenty of money. Randy came home with a picture of tigers and a camouflage santa hat. Keith got some antlers (he's a reindeer!! LOL) and a picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.


We went to the Goodyear Swap Meet today. I needed to get a present for my friend. I knew exactly what I wanted to get, but I can't tell you what it is... because it will ruin her surprise. They had some fuzzy rugs there - we thought about getting a couple for the boys' bathroom, but we left without them --- left without the rugs, not the boys.

We all had some yummy Starbucks today - and yes that is important enough to put on the blog. We don't have Starbucks everyday - who could afford that? Not us! And we are still eating yummy Cracker Barrel turkey leftovers!! I'm off to the couch - maybe I'll attempt changing the channel!

Thanksgiving

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We had a very nice day. It was just the four of us. We picked up our Cracker Barrel just before 12 noon. We ate, watched TV, played on the computers and relaxed all day. Ghost Hunters was on all day long! I even put a few scrapbook pages together and went through all of our loose photos. I need to have more pictures printed so I can finish the boys' scrapbooks. We neglected to take any pictures yesterday. That's probably a good thing since we were all wearing sweats and comfy clothes.

So far today, we have put up our Christmas tree. It is not decorated as of yet. That will come later. Tonight we're all going to watch the Suns play the Clippers. This will be the boys first time going to a game. It's going to be great! We're all decked out in our Suns gear!

Yay Suns!

Man that was a close one!

If you didn't watch the game, you missed one heck of a nail biter!!!!

UGH!!! It was difficult to watch, but the Suns won.

They won by two points, when at one point in the game they were up by 19!!!!!

But they WON!!! That's what counts!!!

I'll be able to sleep good tonight. LOL!

Star Wars Legos I

The boys couldn't wait to get home from school - finish homework and get to play Star Wars Legos I. They've had the game for months, but didn't get to install it on their laptops until last night. Keith couldn't wait to do his homework! Randy didn't have any, but he had to read the book for Keith, so Keith could do his book report. They didn't even have a snack - they must be starving - that should mean they'll eat their dinner without complaints!

I think they both know more things about the computer than I do. And that may or may not be a good thing. They need to practice teamwork a bit and I'd love it if they would stop whining at each other, but for the most part, it's really nice to see them interact with each other. Sometimes, they can be so nice to each other!

I helped out in Randy's class today. It looks like they'll be doing some fun stuff after the Thanksgiving break. They'll be learning about the holidays in all different parts of the world and they are even going to have a Christmas tree in their room. It's not a real tree, it's just paper, but I'm glad that they'll be doing it, instead of just ignoring the holiday because of political correctness. I put together almost 60 booklets for them. They'll be learning about what people do for the holidays in the U.S., Holland, England, Sweden, China, Africa, Mexico,Germany, Italy, France and Israel. They'll make a craft/decoration related to each place and they'll be put up on the tree. They are going to end with an international cookie exchange - I'll need to get more info about that because normally we are not allowed to take home baked goods to school, but we'll see.

Yesterday the boys wanted to go out and kick the ball around in the park. It was nice to be outside - the weather is gorgeous and they enjoyed playing in the grass (they ask for grass on a regular basis - poor children - we only have stone front and back). When we went outside, our neighbor (from two houses down) was blowing all the crust and leaves and gunk out of his yard and the yard between ours. I told him that he should do ours next and would you believe it? He did it!! He blew out the whole side by our front door! That's what I call neighborly!!

I should go check the mail and start thinking about dinner and the Suns are playing tonight!!

Go Suns!!

Monday morning in kindergarten

I helped out in Keith's class this morning - the usual Monday morning drill. The kids had to think of something that they were thankful for, draw a picture of it and then write a sentence about it. Keith was pretty grumpy this morning -- he said he didn't know what he was thankful for and couldn't think of anything to be thankful for.... what does that mean to me? I think we need to help that boy realize how darn lucky he is and help him figure out how to appreciate what he has. Any suggestions? Let me know, please.

Randy has tutoring after school today and I'm hoping that he doesn't come home with the usual amount of homework, since this is a short week. They'll be off Thursday and Friday. Randy pulled out a tooth this morning before breakfast - I believe that would be tooth number 5. I'll have to check the time capsule to be sure. I guess this means that the tooth fairy will be visiting our house tonight. That's always exciting!

I worked this past weekend, (I barely got to see my boys- I don't even really know what they did this weekend - I'll have to ask them later) since I'll be off on Thursday and Friday. I thought that we would have been extremely busy, but we weren't. I think they'll be slammed on Wednesday with all those people who want their hair done for Thanksgiving. Last night after we closed up the shop, we had a rep from Clinique come in and we did some skin care techniques and make-up makeovers. It was a little scary, but since the make-up washes right off, it wasn't so bad. Unfortunately they were taking pictures - I'm not sure what they plan on doing with those pictures - probably black mail - LOL!

Our Thanksgiving meal has been ordered! The only thing I will be making is the pumpkin roll and possibly some nut cups. Two more days til turkey day. Friday we'll be putting up our Christmas tree and possibly decorating outside. I can't imagine going shopping on black Friday, but good luck to all who are brave enough to venture out!

35 days until Christmas!!

Thanks for the comments! At least I know a couple of people actually look at the blog! :-)

Windy Thursday

Today was a pretty blah day. Work wasn't busy, but I did get my hair colored! Dark chocolate mocha, with red red hightlights up front and some peek-a-boo blonde on the sides and back. (Seems quite a bit like Michele's hair... hmm...) I got to drive home with all the goop and foils in my head and had the pleasure of rinsing it all out in the kitchen sink. I couldn't help but wonder what the people in the cars around me were thinking. Keith's first comment about my hair was this - "Is that a wig?" - LOL!!! Randy didn't care for it too much, but it'll grow on him. Jeff's only concern was whether or not I'd look skunky. Apparently it was a little dark when he first saw me, so he didn't notice the blonde, but when he saw that, it was definite skunkiness. He did say it looked nice though.

I got a call from Jeff this morning, telling me that we lost the Suns tickets for tonight's game. The guy that we were getting them from forgot to pull them off the ticket exchange on line - and he sold them. Oh well - at least we still get to go next Friday (and we saved a bunch of dinero). I like going to the games, but I will definitely be more comfortable watching the game from the soft, kitty filled couch and having my blankets to keep me warm.

It was so windy today!!! And we even had about five drops of rain. I had to bring the boys' tent and whole set up inside. Now the loft has been taken over by the tent. I think it will stay there for a while. It's kind of a pain the butt to move around without disassembling.

I've been wondering... how old should my child be to be allowed to go the park on his own? Well, we tried it yesterday. Randy will be 8 in December. There are kids younger than him outside on their own, with no parents in sight, but I worry. Yesterday I let Randy ride his bike to the park. He had to come right back and tell me whether or not there were any kids there. He did - he came right back and told me that there were kids there and that he wanted to go back and play. I let him go!! Aaaaahhhhhh!!! Don't worry, nothing happened. Keith and I walked to the park a little later and everything was fine. We didn't get to try it today because of tutoring and homework and wind. I'm sure he'll want to go tomorrow!

I checked our lottery numbers today. Three quick picks - Powerball, Pick and Pick 5 -- surprisingly, we got two matching numbers on two of them and three matching numbers on the Pick -- now why couldn't all those numbers be on one ticket?? At any rate, I won 3 whole dollars -- don't be jealous, I'll only be wasting those three dollars on three more lottery tickets. You never know, some darn people are lucky enough to win twice!!! Maybe it will be me once!

I will be ordering our wonderful, delicious Thanksgiving dinner from Cracker Barrel tomorrow. Can you believe Thanksgiving is only a week away? Where does the time go? It keeps slipping through my fingers! 39 days until Christmas!!!

The Clubhouse Tent

The boys have a new place to play... on our balcony. They have a tent set up with pillows and blankets inside. They have a rug at the front door. A cooler off to the side and a table with two chairs. They even have their own garbage can. What more could you need? Oh yeah, I forgot, they have their weapons too. They'll need those when they go "wild" cat hunting. You can see one of those so-called wild cats in the picture. Those furry critters try to sneak into the tent and they disrupt the blanket situation - very sneaky! The boys did their homework out there on the balcony today. And they're enjoying their snack out there too. This weather is the real reason most people live out here. It is beautiful out today - especially in the shade. It is still pretty hot in the sun.

Anyu and Apu came over earlier. Apu helped me chop down a big shrub in our front yard. Much better!! Thanks Apu! It was hot out there doing that! I think I will butcher up our tree tomorrow. Darn birds and all their pooping! My car is all pooped on! If I cut off some branches, maybe those birds will have to go find somewhere else to poop!

Since it is Wednesday, I, of course, met my friends at the Wildflower Bread Company. Today I went with the short stack of banana walnut pancakes - it was yummy, but I couldn't even eat half of it. And it was the short stack - I can only imagine how big the tall stack must be!! I wonder if we should buy stock in that place. I am spending money there every week and so are a lot of other people. Hmmm...

In case you didn't know, the Suns beat the Knicks last night!!! Yay!!! Tomorrow they'll be playing the Bulls and we'll be right there getting sore throats cheering them on!!! More yay!!!! My hands even hurt after a game from clapping so much!! How will I cut hair on Friday?

Randy's class had a pizza party today - I'm not sure why - all I know is that it was because they got their jar full of beans -- ??? Keith had show and tell today- he had to take something that started with the letter "Y" or "Z". Guess what he took.... two yo-yos, not one, but two. You try arguing with that little booger.

Yesterday I wrapped some Christmas presents. Today I'm thinking about writing out the Christmas cards - not sure if I feel like doing it though. We shall see...

Taekwondo anyone?

The cheeseburger brothers have rediscovered Karate.

They dug out their uniforms and weapons and have been going to town for the past few hours fighting each other. Don't worry, the weapons are plastic and/or foamy -

so they won't hurt each other too much.

We even popped in the dvd of Choon Jung One (the brown belt form) --

I have forgotten how to do all that! But I realize that I miss doing it.

Too bad it was so darn expensive!

WooooHoooo!

Just got some tickets for Thursday's SUNS game!!!!

The Suns are playing right now... second quarter, winning so far ---

I'll try not to jinx them!

Today was Papa John's Pizza night. It's a fund raiser for school.

Every second Tuesday of the month I don't have to make dinner.

We order pizza and the school gets some money.

Works for me - couldn't possibly be any easier.

Although I did accidently keep the wrong receipt -

but I don't think it really matters.

They'll run my card without the signature.

I just hope they don't add an extra tip on there.

Must go watch the Suns beat the Knicks!

Exercise and Hamburgers

What a combination! Since our lazy butts quit going to the gym, we haven't been exercising! Michele gave us her treadmill today -- Thank you Michele!!! So far the boys have gotten plenty of exercise on it. I think I'll take a turn in a little while.

Grandma and Grandpa came over today. They brought us lots of good stuff- oranges, watermelon, peppers and an apple pie!!! Yummy!

The apple pie was a great chaser for our hamburgers. We ate our dinner outside on the back patio.

The weather is really nice - finally. I was able to leave all the windows open for the whole day without worrying about how hot it would get upstairs. Keith jumped around on the trampoline, while Randy was outside reading his book, "Lions at Lunchtime".

I cut my hair a little bit today - I needed to make my layers shorter. Sometime this week, we'll be changing the color somehow. I'll be leaving that in BK's hands. I'll post a picture when we're all done.

The Mythbusters are blowing up water heaters - I should go watch it. There were more things that I thought I was going to write about, but now I've forgotten everything.

Let me leave you with the beauty tip of the day: Try not to base your self-esteem on your looks, but rather on your personality. If you're the best person you can be, others will see that.

And 42 days until Christmas!!!!

Off From School

It's 8am and we're sitting home watching Nickelodeon.

And Randy is already having some popcorn - that was his breakfast!! He also had a Churro. Keith had dry Fruit Loops and then had Rice Krispies with cinnamon and milk.

It's Veteran's Day and the boys are off from school today. The post office is closed and so are the banks, but what about the veterans?

Jeff still had to go to work today.

I told him he should call work and tell them, it's veterans' day, I'm a veteran, so I'll be staying home today. But he didn't listen to me - he went to work anyway.

You're probably wondering what has gone on in the house of Hawke in the past two days.

Well, there hasn't been too much. I went to work on Saturday, as usual.

Jeff and the boys stayed home and you know what they did.

We had some (terrible) Wendy's for dinner.

And the Suns beat the Magic!! It was a good day.

Sunday we went to Wal-bogs (WalMart, if we must get technical) and managed to spend a ton of money. Hopefully we won't need to go back any time soon!!

Joe Beta (he would be our fish) got a new house - doubling the size of his previous accommodations. He seems to like his new abode.

The kitties got some new catnip toys.

It's always funny to see those furry critters go nuts on the nip!

What are we going to do today, you ask? I'm not sure yet, perhaps go to Mosaic Pizza.

That would be Randy's request. It's a very cute little pizza shop in Litchfield Park.

Then we could go to the library and possibly Target, maybe Starbucks too.

Or we may end up sitting home all day, but it is nice out so far. We'll consider going for a bike ride or just go outside and clean out our pond, so we can fill it with water again.

I have to tell you about my friend Michele - or should I say show you....

She came into the salon last Thursday and we did a color makeover on her!!!

Very exciting to do such a complete change!

This is Michele before:

and this is Michele after... with Nascar's FedEx #11 driver -
Denny Hamlin:

We made her a medium chocolate mocha brown with red red highlights. We may have to take another photo to better see the highlights, but she looks like a different person!

Anybody else up for a makeover? I think it's in the air!

Old me, new me

Here is the old me.... as if you didn't know what I looked like.I cut my hair!!! Nine inches is being donated to Locks of Love.

I was going to wait until makeover day - that would have been on the 18th,

but work was pretty slow yesterday so I just did it.

Actually BK (BrendaKay) did it. I love it, but we aren't done yet.

It's a work in progress... so here is a preview. Just in case you all haven't been keeping up, the Suns won yesterday -

beating the Miami Heat - (lousy Shaq!)

We'll be going to the Suns vs Clippers game November 23rd.

The day after Thanksgiving!! Wooohooo!

Can you guess what the boys are doing?

I can give you a hint, but I'm sure you won't need it.

Yes, all three are on their computers.

(But I'm a culprit too, as I am sitting here in front of my computer.)

But it is Saturday and that means the Saturday Night Solution is waiting for me on Court TV.

So I will be heading to the couch!

I'm too tired to think of anything clever to write!!

Hope everyone had a happy Saturday!!

It was spaghetti

So we had spaghetti for dinner with garlic bread. I can't help but wonder if we would have had the chicken, would the Suns have won? We'll have the chicken on Friday night and we'll see if that helps. The Suns lost to the Atlanta Hawks (at least the team has a pretty decent name) by 9 points. I guess you can't win them all, but you can try.

Wildflower Bread Company

Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. I get to meet my friends at the Wildflower Bread Company in the mornings for breakfast, coffee and talking (which I probably do way more than my share of, but no one has told me to shut up yet, so I'll just keep talking). I had the Feta & Roasted Vegetable Frittata -- eggs, roasted eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, roma tomato and feta, served with Wildflower Home Fries and buttered toast. You wonder how I ate all that with all the talking that I did? Well, I was the very last one done eating and I couldn't eat my toast!! Way too much food, but it was all really good. I had the pumpkin caramel latte too -- that was delicious - better than the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte --- must have been the caramel.

The boys got home early today. Keith did his homework after Randy read the story to him. Randy finished his homework for the week yesterday, but he still needs to study his spelling words! It was show and tell in Keith's class today - they had to take something that started with the letter "I" or "V" --- what the heck?? We had a hard time figuring out what to take. Ice cream? No. We don't have any vultures on hand. Verne the turtle from "Over the Hedge"? I thought that was cool, but Keith didn't. So he ended up taking his (Gummy) Vitamins!!

Randy's class had popcorn and two movies today! They got enough points through their AR reading and earned it.

After homework, we visited Mama and Auntie for 5 minutes because they had to leave. Then we came home and played some crazy chicken video game that Jeff installed on my computer. After that we went to the post office -- I was in shock!! We walked in there and the place was empty! E M P T Y!!! The Goodyear post office!!!!!! Can you believe it? I wanted to run out and gather all sorts of stuff to mail just because I was the only one there - aside from those people who wanted passports, but were there 45 minutes too late. Anyway, we mailed the super cool Suns outfit to our little cousin and the teddy bear and necklace to Jeff's new Godson. When we got home, I found a card on the counter that should have gone in one of the packages -- oops! Guess I'll be going back to the post office tomorrow. We also hit up Sportmans' Warehouse to get some new duds for the father unit. Hopefully he'll like them.

Well, now I'm wondering what's for dinner. Should it be breaded chicken or spaghetti? I can't decide, but I better get on it!!! 47 days left until Christmas!!!

Who broke the thermostat?

What is going on with the weather?? 90+ degrees? Ugh!! I want to wear jeans!! And not sweat my butt off. But look, it's going to cool down tomorrow. Maybe I should pull a sweater out, I might get chilly. Wed 89° / 54° - Thu 87° / 55°- Fri 87° / 53° I guess I shouldn't complain too much, it could be worse. I could be living in Canada - we won't go there.

On a much brighter note - the Suns beat the pants off the Bobcats! That's always nice!! 115 - 83!!!!! Go Suns!!! Next stop, Atlanta, to beat the Hawks tomorrow night. Be sure to watch and cheer them on - you know they can hear you through the TV! (And I know this because I talk to the TV all the time!)

I helped out in Second grade today. They are collecting coins for California. I got to count all the change - yes, it was loads of fun. Then we came home and counted and rolled more change because I'm such a good mom and forgot about doing it for the past two days. The whole school is collecting coins and the class that collects the most cash gets to have a pizza party. All I know is that I don't feel like counting and rolling anymore change. They had $69 in Randy's class - most of it was in pennies! I do have to say that I'd rather help out in Second grade any day over Kindergarten. But I have to admit that those little ones are actually learning - I've really seen a big improvement in all the kids since the beginning of the year. I help out in Kindergarten every Monday with their journal writing. At first it was sheer agony, now it's not so bad. They're actually getting it and they're thinking up and writing (with help) some pretty good sentences.

At some point I may have to give you all a new address for the Hawke Narrative. Jeff wants to try running the blog on his domain. I'm not so sure about that. It seems complicated and I like things simple. So if one day there is no more blog, blame it on Jeff (a.k.a. Homer) for moving my cheese!

Starbucks, anyone? I like that place, but I hate spending $5 on a cup of coffee - except for when I get the $5 for free. I got a gift card at our meeting at work last Saturday - I got $5 just for opening my mouth and I'm so good at verbalizing. I can't stop talking. Anyway, the boys and I went to Target yesterday to pick up some very important items... what are these items? you're wondering. Well I will tell you - Goldfish, in the snack sized bags, mini Oreos, Cheetos, and Chex Mix. We did end up getting our brand new little cousin a super cool outfit! And I'm sure he'll love it once my lazy butt gets to the post office to send it to him.

Of course after picking up those significant items, we hit up Starbucks. The boys got their usual, Strawberry and Creme Frappucinos and I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Even with my $5 gift card, I still had to pay $6 & change!!!! But they sure were tasty!