Katrina's Exposure

Ok this is a huge rant that has been festering and today's radio discussion is just driving me over the edge. There are thousands of evacuees that are still living in hotel rooms, but FEMA is getting to the end of that programs so they're letting these people know that they need to start clearing out. Well, that's started this whole huge uproar about where am I going to go and what am I going to do? Ummmm GET A JOB.

Now, I know some people may be thinking that's easier said than done. Seriously, they are so desperate for workers around here, that you don't have to have any skills. You don't even need transportation. That's being provided.

They've been having interviews with people living in the hotels. It's enough to make you tear your hair out. These are young, healthy, able people who are complaining that they have nothing to do all day but either SLEEP or tell stories all day (or play with all their electronics and listen to the CDs that they bought with their FEMA and Red Cross money). It's been 3 months and that's all they've been able to find to do??? Can you imagine living in a hotel for 3 months for free? Beds made, linens washed, every day? Access to pools and work out rooms and room service??

There was this guy that called in this morning about the shuttle that's running FREE from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. They'll pick you up in the morning, take you to New Orleans to work and bring you back. This man said there are only 25 people on that bus every morning and they're ALL WOMEN. What is wrong with these men?? And what's wrong with these women for letting them get away with it. If my husband told me that he was going to sit around drinking all day and chumming around with his friends while I go to work, I'd have to kick his ass.

In my opinion they need to just cut all these people loose. Nothing else in going to spur them into action to actually take care of themselves.

Holiday Weekend

There's Eva after her Thanksgiving Play. Tomorrow I'll try to get the Santa pictures up.

We had a fairly good weekend. Pretty uneventful. Thursday we did Thanksgiving. All I ended up bringing was the cheesecake brownies that no one ate. The pumpkin fudge didn't set and this other thing I tried just didn't work either. So as a last resort I made the cheesecake brownies because our family cheesecake maker insisted he wasn't going to bring anything. Well, he did, so everyone ate that. My mom ended up taking the brownies home...and then they ate them all. All I got was one little tiny corner. Oh well.

Friday, my mom and I woke up early and took the girls shopping. We hit Michaels for 6 am and got a bunch of ornaments. Then we went to the mall. It wasn't too bad. We went to the "old mall", so there weren't as many people there. I wanted to go there because they have a Children's Place there and we did really good at that store. Lauren and Maria got a fancy sweater and skirt set each, a Fair Isle sweater each, a sweatsuit each, a shirt each, and a body suit each and then a free teddy bear and all that came to just over $100. Eva got a pair of shoes at Stride Rite. That was it. We went to go take pictures with Santa and they got all high tech. You had to sign up and get a buzzer. So we went eat while we were waiting for the buzzer. We ate at Chik-fil-a and then got a cookie at the Great American Cookie Company. We got coupons for both of those places with the pictures so we should have waited LOL The pictures didn't go over so well. Eva got all shy, Lauren was crying hysterically, Maria was totally oblivious because Santa gave her a sucker. So, it didn't make for the best picture.

We went home, napped, then took out the Christmas tree. There must have been some great ornament migration or something because it didn't seem like we had very many. So I got my mom again and we went to Hobby Lobby and got more ornaments. By then we were pretty tired.

Saturday and Sunday we didn't do much of anything. We just bummed around the house and watched movies. We've all had this cold that's just been lingering.

Last night I fell asleep at 8:00 so I didn't watch any of my shows and I didn't do any stitching. I'm nearly done with my Christmas Elf Fairy. I just have some beading to do. I got a 25% off coupon for my framer so I'm bringing some stuff there today to see what I can afford to get framed. I just don't get why framing is soooo expensive. Anyway, that's about it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We're not doing anything exciting. We're just going to my grandparent's house. I'm making Pumpkin Fudge. I'm considering making Cheesecake Brownies and Cinnamon Toast Blinis.

Eva has a Thanksgiving pageant this afternoon. The younger 4 class are dressing up as Indians and the older 4 class are going to be the pilgrims. So that should be fun.

Yesterday we got our new fiber optic cable put in. Somehow or another they managed to cut the electrical lines for the dishwasher. Don't even ask, I don't know. Anyway, I had to wash two sinkfuls of dishes by hand. I know I know, life is so hard. LOL

Tuesday Eva told her teacher that her parents died. That made for an interesting afternoon since the manager remembered me dropping her off. She does that a lot when she's playing, she'll tell me her baby is sad because her parents died,etc. I think she must get it from Disney movies. Parents are always dead in those. I know at some point it made a big impact with her, because she stopped believing me that Simba's dad was just sleeping. Anyway, the teacher was saying how serious she was when she said it. If that child doesn't grow up to be an actress I'll be really surprised. When she's playing she gets totally into whatever character she's making up.

Lauren and Maria are sick. I feel so terribly for them. They would never get sick, now they've been sick with several different things in the last couple of months. I actually got a pharmacist to give me a dosage for them for an over the counter medicine. Normally they won't do that until they're at least two, but once I posed a dosage to him, he said that would be a good dosage for them. So, hopefully I won't have to call the doctor, since it's just a cold, but they have a nasty cough.

Oh well, we have a good long weekend!

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A Successful Birthday Party

Saturday was Eva's 4th birthday. She had a really good party. Some of the pictures are located here. The spacewalk was a big hit. Definately worth the money. If you decide to get one and wonder how easy they are to set up, extremely easy, save yourself the delivery expense and do it yourself. She had a good turnout and got lots of presents. Her favorite is Good Morning Sunshine My Little Pony. She says it's the greatest present she's ever gotten. All the parents that came kept telling me how nice and sweet Eva was. Obviously, she's a completely different kid when we aren't around. Dorian, there's a picture of Eva and Dorian in the photo album, loves Eva, he thinks she's just the sweetest girl. I find that really funny because Eva hated Dorian so much when she first met him. So anyway, a good time was had by all. I didn't have a complete meltdown having all those people at my house. So that was good.

I pretty much slept the rest of the weekend. I'm getting a cold or something, and all the girls are under the weather. We're all looking forward to a nice quiet LONG weekend.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

******possible spoilers**********







I went to see it this morning! 12:01 AM. A 2 1/2 hour movie with 16 minutes of previews. I didn't get to sleep until 3:30 am and I'm kind of dragging this morning. The movie was excellent. The best by far. I'd say it deserved it's PG-13 rating. There were parts that were pretty scary and gory. I found the Hungarian Horntail part to be really tense and I think it might upset little kids. However, the special effects in that part were just amazing. That dragon looked very real. In the first couple movies I didn't like the Quidditch scenes because the computer animation was really obvious, but in this movie they really stepped it up a lot and it looked fantastic. Some parts of the story line were changed, some parts left out (like SPEW and the Sphinx), and some parts just not explained at all. I guess they just assume that the people who are watching to movie have read the book and understand how certain events came about, like how Barty Crouch Jr. got out of jail. I found that this director had a sense of Rowlings excellent foreshadowing techniques. The Voldemort coming to life thing was pretty well done. Very much like the book. I thought that Ralph Fiennes did a good job as Voldemort. I didn't like the way he looked though. It's exactly as described in the book, but I just didn't like it. It creeped me out. Although, I guess you aren't supposed to like it. Mad Eye Moody grossed me out. That eye was nasty.

Bottom Line: Two enthusiastic thumbs up!!

So much to do

I'm still working on the menu for the party. I think it's finally coming together though, so I just need to make a shopping list and figure out how I'm going to cook all this stuff and only cause minimal mess in the kitchen. I am so tired of cleaning the kitchen.

I have a ton of stitching stuff to do, so I can't wait for this 4 day weekend coming up next week.

I had my stitching night last night and the Bama lover was there. However, Rudy Niswanger's mom was also there. Plus two LSU Football season ticket holders, and a former Tiger Band member. So, she was pretty subdued. I sat way far away from her so she wasn't much of an issue.

I took a picture of Eva's new bed. As a point of reference as to how huge this bed is, the dresser next to it is about chest high.





And if anyone is curious...here's my progress on my Christmas Elf.

Weekend Round Up

This will probably be long because I have a lot to get down

Friday....I went to my stitching group Friday night. (Sandra, my LNS is Cross Stitch Corner) There are these two women that started showing up recently. Well, let's back up. There was this lady that I used to hate with a passion, we'll call her B. However, I've gotten over that and she doesn't bother me so much now. I actually think she's pretty ok, unless she starts talking politics and then I just want to beat some sense into her, but then I feel bad for her for not knowing that you don't talk politics in mixed company especially when you have radical views. Anyway, this one woman started showing up and I didn't think I would dislike anyone more than B, but this one really takes the cake. She's loud, she talks over everyone, talks about stupid stuff, and repeats it continuously. She's always blabbing on about what a good Christian she is...not only a Christian, but a Baptist Christian....that drinks LOL (baptists aren't supposed to partake in alcohol). She also constantly babbles on about her political appointment. I really didn't know much about the position so I asked around and understood that it's no big deal and most people who are in that position don't brag about it. She's also a huge Bama fan that hates LSU fans (yes, she announces this to a room full of people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana), she went on and on about how much she hates LSU and how awful LSU fans are and how mean they are blah blah blah. Then her and this other woman (who I swear is her spiritual twin or something) started going on and on about how much they both hate LSU and they hope Bama tears them a new one and on and on it went forever. I was so ready to tell the both of them off. However, I'm a lady LOL and I don't do that. I will however, be sure as hell to make sure that I keep bringing up that LSU beat Alabama this weekend. Now, if all that wasn't bad enough, they're both huge racists. I've never heard two people go on and on about the evils of black people, not just Friday night, but on several occasions. I decided I was going to fashion a KKK hood and next time they started up I was going to put it on and say I didn't realize the meeting had started already. Not really, but I thought that would effectively get the point across. I just don't get how two supposedly educated women can get on the rants that they do. Anyway, next time I'm going to sit with B, even though she's not really my favorite person, I know that no one else likes her so I won't have to deal with those other two and their stupid crap.

My parents were buying a full sized bed for her birthday because her crib converted from a crib to a toddler bed to a full sized bed. So they were buying her a mattress and box spring for her birthday. So I bought her a sheet set and comforter etc. So the sheets came Friday and Eva got the box. I told her to just put it away that it wasn't for her. At some point while I was gone, she opened the box. James swears that she opened up the sheets and put them all on her bed by herself. Somehow, I don't really believe that. So anyway, the whole birthday surprise was ruined.

Saturday....I took Eva to a schoolmates birthday party. She had a good time. They had a race car theme. They made race cars out of diaper boxes. Then they raced them around the yard. It was pretty cute, but then Eva fell and scraped up her elbows. It was high drama. I called my mom and told her about the sheet incident so they could go ahead and get the bed whenever. They purchased it that morning and James picked it up later that afternoon. We watched the LSU game late that afternoon. It was a really nice day so we had all the windows open. When LSU won, it was like surround sound. There was all the cheering from the TV, but then you could also hear all the neighbors cheering from their houses. It was really funny. Oh and I confirmed a spacewalk rental, so that's one thing to scratch off the list.

Sunday....The day started really early. I took the girls to Wal-Mart to order Eva's cake (another off the list) and I finally bought a huge bucket for all the toys in the living room. Then we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. When we got home, we started a huge cleaning project. We cleaned and rearranged Eva's room. Put together her new bed. Moved her bed where the fouton was, moved the fouton to the living room for her party next weekend, but I don't know what we're going to do with it after that. I also folded and put away about 10 loads of laundry.

The carpet cleaners are coming today, so yay, when I get home I get to finish picking up everything off the floor. I'm sore from yesterday, the thought of going home and working more is not pleasant. Then later tonight after the carpet people are done, I have to go shopping to get the girls Christmas outfits. Eva's school is doing Christmas portraits Tuesday morning and I called the photographer and asked if Lauren and Maria could be in the picture too. She said that was fine with her if it was ok with the school. They said it was ok, so I have to do that tonight. Also on Tuesday the phone people are coming to switch out all our cable and internet from the cable company's coaxial cable to the phone comany's fiber optic lines. It's supposed to be superior and we'll be getting a ton more services for about $10 less per month. The cable has gone down 3 times in the last 2 weeks so when it went out Friday that was the last straw.

Ok, I'll stop rambling! I just have so much going on and I'm kinda freaking out, if you couldn't tell :)

Evil Forwards

I can't stand forwarded emails. I don't care if my leg falls off if I don't forward an email to 10 people. I'm not going to muck up their inboxes with crap. (HINT HINT to people that forward me stuff LOL) This was something I ran across today that I actually liked.

A TRUE FRIEND
Are you sick of all those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound like Hallmark cards, and never come close to reality?Well, here is a series of promises that really speak to true friendship:

1. When you are sad - I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
2. When you are blue - I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
3. When you smile - I will know you've finally had sex again.
4. When you are scared - I will rag on you about it every chance I get.
5. When you are worried-I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and tell you to quit whining.
6. When you are confused - I will use little words.
7. When you are sick - stay the hell away from me until you are well again,I don't want whatever you have.
8. When you fall - I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass, but I will help you up.

This is my oath...I pledge it till the end. Why, you ask? Because you are my friend.

Ha ha ha ha

Geaux Tigers!!

I'm so excited for this weekend's game! It should be a really great game. Whenever LSU plays Alabama it's a big deal because it's a huge rivalry, but both teams are ranked in the Top Ten so that makes it even better. My grandmother used to hate Alabama so much. She swore they cheated and she called them Goddamn Alabama like it was all one word. My mom said that she didn't realize until she was 8 or 9 that it wasn't one word.

I saw my doctor this morning and he increased my medicine without me having to kick his ass. I just told him I didn't think I was at the right dosage and he was just like Ok, we'll increase it, no problem. And Lord bless the man he let me start taking birth control again. Last time my blood pressure went through the roof and I had to stop taking it. This morning it was 100/70 so he said that because it was so low that even if my BP does go up, I have a lot more leeway than I did last time. He also prescribed a different kind. AND, if wasn't wonderful enough already LOL He told me to just keep taking it continuously rather than taking the iron pills so I don't have to have my period. (sigh) I'm so happy today.

And to make my day just as good as can be, James took off work today. I talked to him earlier and he was at the grocery store. So that means I'm not going to have to do that this weekend. Plus, I know when I get home he'll have cooked supper and if I'm really lucky, he may have even cleaned the house.

And on top of ALL that, there's a stitch night at my LNS tonight. I may or may not be able to go, we'll have to see about that one.

It's a good day all around!

I've got fear in my heart

NOT!! LOL Since Katrina there have been obvious gang issues, Baton Rouge gangs, New Orleans gangs trying to protect their turf etc. etc. I find it just so ridiculous. The incidents that I find most laughable are those that are occuring at Baker Middle School. Baker is where they've set up a huge FEMA trailer park so there are a large number of New Orleans kids going there. Well I guess the Baker kids are a little resentful that they're there. So the school has apparently broken up into two "gangs". The 504 boys and the 225 boys. 504 is the NO area code and 225 is the BR area code. So all the gang graffitti has 504 and 225 in it. I'm sorry, but if I were part of a gang or some other entity whose intent was to inspire fear in my enemies, I'd have a way scarier name than the 504 boys or something like that. I'd be like The Hilary Clintons or the Ebola Virus. Anyway, all this came out because someone found a loaded gun clip at the school. No gun, just a gun clip. So everyone is freakin' out all worried about an impending gang war amongst MIDDLE SCHOOL kids. I can so see how this happened. This was probably an extra clip that some kid got his hands on and brought it to school to show off, yes, I know that means he could probably get his hands on a gun, but he didn't.

On a related note, there's a big controversy brewing about a trailer park that they're considering setting up on a place called The Island on False River in New Roads. This is causing a big uproar over in New Roads because it's just the stupidest idea ever. New Roads itself is a very small town. They have a little tiny hospital, a Wal-Mart, and a Piggly Wiggly and a Dairy Queen and that's pretty much it. They've got no public transportation and no large employers anywhere near by. Most of the people who live in that area (most of my inlaws) are either farmers or they work in Baton Rouge which is like 45 minutes away. So they're planning on dumping all these people who have no transportation in a place where there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, and pretty much zero job opportunity (not that that's a huge issue apparently). The owner of the land is offering the land to FEMA because he and his wife feel like it's the Christian thing to do. My thought was that he was going to get a pretty hefty chunk of money for doing that, probably some huge tax deduction, and his previously undeveloped piece of property was going to get developed for him for free. So pardon me if I feel like he's probably got other reasons for doing it.

All that said, a friend of mine and I have found the ideal business. A lot of the evacuees have been complaining that there aren't any convenience stores within walking distance of many of the parks. So we're going to start a beer truck. Like an ice cream truck. We figured we could stock it with beer, cigarettes, maybe some marijuana, and nudie magazines. If that was legal we'd be rolling in some serious dough LOL

Ok, anyway, Maria apparently had roseola. She broke out in a rash yesterday. She's doing fine. She's back to her normal mischievous self. My Christmas Elf is coming along nicely. I was having serious doubts about some of the colors, but now that I'm almost done with the dress, the colors have come together very nicely. I called around to endocrinologists and found out that the earliest appointment I'm going to get is like February. So I have an appointment with my primary care tomorrow morning and I'm going to have to be a little more forceful with my opinions.

Cranky

Blogger sucks! Gosh! (In my best Napoleon Dynamite voice) It took me all morning to finally get to the Create Post section. No, I haven't watched it lately but something got that movie in my mind and now it's stuck there.

Maria's doing fine. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her other than the fever. He said if it doesn't get better to call him back, but it has. However, now she's just really cranky. So is Lauren. They've both been really demanding, but they don't have the skills to communicated exactly what they want. It's very frustrating.

Eva has developed this really annoying habit and I'm determined to quash it. Whenever I tell her no she argues with me and then when I say "I told you no" she always answers back with "I told you yes". Oh my god, it sends me through the roof.

I'm not sleeping again which is also really annoying. If there was a hotel room to rent I'd probably take one to sleep for an afternoon. I might need to find one of those hooker hotels and just pay by the hour or something.

Ooops, it's Wednesday, time for Captain D's! Gotta run!

Deep Thoughts

Was it Deep Thoughts that Jack Handy wrote on SNL? I haven't watched that show in forever. Although, I did watch The Longest Yard yesterday (Adam Sandler/SNL). I thought it was pretty good. Predictable, but entertaining. I haven't seen the original yet so I can't make any comparison. I also watched Dog Town and the Z-Boys. This is a documentary about the rise of the skateboarding culture in the 70s. I watched the Lords of Dogtown last week, so now I'm thoroughly educated on the subject.

Today I'm in search of an endocrinologist. Pregnancy was rough on my body and my thyroid pretty much crapped out after Lauren and Maria. I don't feel like my Primary Care doctor is aggressive enough in treating the situation. So begins my search. I've called two of the approved doctors by my insurance and one has his phone line temporarily disconnected, what the heck does that mean? The other is some really complicated phone tree for the entire hospital. I think I'm going to call the Indian doctor that's in a stand alone office. They always talk about how doctors that are educated in India are more creative than American doctors so maybe he'll be better anyway.

Maria is going to the doctor today. She was still running a fever this morning. It's weird, other than looking tired and burning up, she doesn't seem to be having any other symptoms. She's not even acting like she's sick.

I did make good headway on the Christmas Fairy. The use of hand dyed threads on such a project does add a different dimension to the piece. It's sort of weird because you have to pick what part of the thread you want to work with. And one color is a blended thread. So it looks even more different (is that a phrase?) depending how you line them up. Speaking of the blend, I'm not too keen on it. However, that's often the case, and in the end the designer is nearly always right so I should just trust it.

I guess that's all that's on my mind today

So so weak

I've been waiting for the new Mirabilia Fairy kit to hit my LNS ever since I saw the first picture. I had to have her, she was just so cute. They finally got it in late last week and Saturday they were having a sale so I was able to get it for 20% off which help considerably with the $50 price tag. Which I will say is definately within reason considering the contents of the kit. There's 11 or so Crescent Colors which retail for like $2/ea., a card of Whisper, 2 packs of Mill Hills, a pretty generous cut of fabric and then the chart obviously. It doesn't have a full spool of Kreinik, but it's only used in a little tiny spot and they have just a cut of it, but still that's ok with me.

Anyway, so with all this stitching that I have to do, what do I do? I come home and start it immediately. It'll be a quick stitch. Not a whole lot of color changes. I'm being spurred on by the hope that I can resell what's left over while she's still popular. I think in most colors there will still be a ton of thread (there might be about 3-4 that will be mostly used I think). I'm sure I have the beads in my stash, I know I have the Kreinik, and I have a card of Whisper too. I also swapped out the fabric for Silkweaver's Winter Sky. So, nearly everything would still be included so I just need to decide on a fair asking price.

On the family front, James and I actually went out last night. Just a company dinner, but it was fairly fun anyway. I got the giggles really bad at one point and he couldn't stop laughing either. I thought that was even funnier, because he never laughs out loud.

Maria's sick though, she's running a fever. It was 102 this morning, but she has no other symptoms than looking a little run down and she's a little fussy. So I called the doctor's office and they just said to treat the fever and if it doesn't break before tomorrow morning to bring her in. So that's what we're doing and she's sleeping right now.

Well, I need to stop wasting time and go stitch something. Oooh I do have a happy dance to share, but not until next week (it's a secret until then)!

More to add to the list

Yesterday I had another panic attack, not really, but I realized that my dad, grandfather, and cousin Kate all have birthdays in December. How frustrating is that?? My dad and my grandfather are the two hardest people in the world to come up with gift ideas and I have to get each 2 in a month. My dad buys himself whatever he wants and my grandfather I don't think likes anything. Kate should be easy as she's only 3 weeks older than Eva, but she's a lot different than Eva. She doesn't play with dolls or anything, she's sort of a tomboy I guess, I don't know. Despite my aunt's initial desire to have Kate and Eva be best friends, I try to keep Eva's contact with her somewhat limited. She's really bossy and manipulative (and she's only 3!). I can see her talking Eva (or Lauren or Maria for that matter) in to doing something horrible and Kate getting herself out of it.

Let's see...I finished Shepherd's Bush Happy Birthday kit, only one day! I'm working on making it into a needle roll. I finished the top and bottom edges and I pulled the threads for the ribbon. So tonight I just need to do the seam in the back, threading the ribbons and stuffing. This will be my first actual finished needle roll. Today I'm working on my Mira Border. I got Sandi's Stitcher's Lane RR today so I may do that this weekend. I'm thinking about doing the house from Victoria Sampler's Heirloom Homecoming Sampler. I've been wanting to do that one, but it didn't work on any of the ones I've been working on recently. On a related note, Sherrin emailed me to say that it looks like mine is lost. I guess it was mailed several weeks ago and never showed up at Susan's house. I'm disappointed, but I'm not crushed like I felt when Lynn's RR never showed up at my house. I feel bad that other people did all this work on it and it's maybe gone. I'm undecided about starting it over. I guess if the other participants are willing to do it over, I will. I'll hold out a little hope though, there was a RR in another group that showed up something like 2 months later because it got rerouted to Tortuga or something.

Angi sent me a nice package too! She sent some Gloriana Threads. She sent Fall Foliage, Lavender Ice, Pacific Blue and Deep Blue Sea. Gloriana is my absolute favorite thread. It's like silky butter or something. It's wonderful and the colors are just so beautiful. I might use the Fall Foliage for the VS Heirloom Homecoming House!

I'm freakin out!!

First, let me say Thank You Stasha!! She sent me a lovely package :)

Now, Christmas is going to be here way too soon. I don't have time to do everything I want/need to do. Plus, Eva's birthday is going to be here soon. So, I'm working on a To Do list. And I have started planning, and even started some Christmas shopping. I think I'm going to put my To Do list on my side bar but so far I have...

-Confirm Spacewalk rental with Lindsey's (I can't do that until at least the 4th because someone has reserved it for the day I want it, but as of Tuesday she hadn't paid) It's a really cool one, Disney Princess Castle. I'd link it, but they have a really annoying website.

-Get party supplies for the birthday party, think of some games for the kids to play, find and order a cake (E wants chocolate), and get her birthday present (a new sheet set for her bed, as my parents are buying her a new mattress and box spring)

-Stitch Kate's Christmas Present. I'm going to do another Hinzeit Princess for her. I had ordered an extra one by accident. That should only take a couple of days.

-Finish my Mirabilia Round Robin Layout and my section on it.

-Do more work on my Mother's Tree

-Find and work on something for my grandmother for Christmas. I noticed Patternsonline.com had some new Rooster patterns, so that might work.

-Figure out what I'm going to get for my parents, my sister, my grandfather, aunts, James (although we'll probably do a family gift rather than individual gifts) and anyone else I think of between now and then.

-Dig out the Christmas Cards and get them ready for mailing (I stocked up last year at the after Christmas Sales)

I think that's all I can think of so far....It'll be a constantly changing list I think.

I have started my Christmas shopping for the girls. I ordered several things from Amazon which should be in next week. I got Lauren and Maria the Baby Bratz Twinz, I think those are so perfect for them. And I felt lazy doing this last year, but now I feel pretty good about it. We had to get a fake Christmas tree so the kids wouldn't eat the pine needles. So, last year, I took the more fragile ornaments off and put the entire tree in the garage when Christmas was over. So now this year, I just have to dust it off and put it back in the living room. LOL I'll probably let the girls rearrange it, but otherwise it won't be a huge hassle. Ok...everything will be under control...I just need to calm down.

Actually, the thing that got me riled up in the first place, was Tom Benson (NO Saints owner)...again. He sent an email to the NFL stating that he would not attend any Saints games that take place in Baton Rouge. He would not set foot in Tiger Stadium. He felt like he and his family were threatened. Ummmm hello? He's the one that attacked a camera man and got in a shouting match with a fan. Go! Go now! Good riddance to bad garbage.