Since I'm such a Lemming

I saw this one over on Whiz's blog and thought it might be interesting

My Johari Window

A Frozen Weekend

It got freezing cold this weekend! It was in the 80's on Thursday, then Saturday it was freezing cold and rainy. Yuck!

Friday night, I went to my LNS's Market night. I didn't get much. I didn't see much calling me.

Saturday morning I got up early and went to a web design special interest group at a local computer club. It was informational. Maybe a little bit boring, but I came away with a lot of good information.

Saturday afternoon we dragged the kids out to the Krewe of Diversion boat parade. It was interesting. It was a charity parade so you had to pay them before they'd throw stuff to you. Being on a smallish dock trying to give money to people on boats and then trying to catch stuff and keep track of three kids was a challenge. Nobody fell in, everyone kept their life jackets on, and we got a bunch of stuff. Thankfully it was really short because of the weather. We had perfect timing. When we got there, the first boat was passing, as soon as the last boat passed it started raining again. We did have some casualties though, I got a huge splinter embedded underneath my fingernail. That hurts! Everyone kept telling me I'd have to go to the doctor and get my fingernail cut away. I didn't want to do that though. So I just put neosporin on it and bandaids and it pushed itself out far enough the next morning so I could grab it with tweezers. Also, on the way home both Lauren and Maria got carsick. It was pretty gross. I knew Lauren had a tendacy to get carsick, but that was the first time Maria did it. I don't blame them. I was carsick on the way home too, but I manage to keep it all down.

Sunday not much was going on. It was still so cold and wet. James and Eva went to church and came back with Jambalaya lunches, so I was really happy. I love church lunches. The church sent out a bulletin saying that the nursery had been shut down because they had no more volunteers. So, I signed up to be a nursery volunteer, when they reopen it. This is a massive church, it surprised me out of all those peopole they didn't have enough people to run the nursery. So anyway, who knows what I've gotten myself into.

I watched a few movies over the weekend. Two for the Money, it was ok not especially fantastic. Foxfire, again, ok. If you're an Angelina Jolie fan, she was pretty young in that movie. And I watched Hustle and Flow. I have to say it was a pretty good movie. Better than I was expecting and the ending was a little different than I was expected too.

Not much stitching over the weekend. I was working on Laura's Stitcher's Lane RR, which is almost done. It's looking fantastic. Speaking of which, my original SLRR, which had gone missing in the mail for like 6 months has resurfaced! Yay!!

I'm so average

I snagged this one from Susan's blog

You Are 70% "Average American"

You are average because you wouldn't pay to go in space. You are not average since you rate your appearance 4 or lower.

How "Average American" Are You?

4 Things

I got tagged by Susan


Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Laundrymat Worker
2. Pharmacy Technician
3. Courier for Law Office
4. General Office Worker

Four movies I can watch over and over
1. The Princess Bride
2. Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael
3. Pirates of the Caribbean
4. Star Wars

Four Places I’ve lived
1. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
2. Prairieville, Louisiana
3. Maynard, Massachusetts
4. Hope, Arkansas

Four TV Shows I love
1. Survivor
2. American Idol
3. Lost
4. CSI

Four Places I’ve vacationed
1. St. Lucia
2. Cozumel
3. Ft. Walton Beach, FL
4. Nashville, TN

Four of my favorite dishes
1. Pizza
2. That Super Easy Supper I posted
3. Crawfish Etoufee
4. Seafood Gumbo

Four sites I visit daily
1. G-Mail
2. Blogger
3. Hotmail
4. JPC

Four places I would rather be right now
1. Asleep
2. Somewhere warm and sunny and near the water
3. At home stitching
4. France

Four bloggers I am tagging
Ummm, anyone who hasn't done this one yet

A Good Weekend

It was a good weekend! Saturday James asked if we'd go shopping. Not him, but me and the girls. Now this sounds nice and all, but the real point was to get us out of the house so he could be home alone. After much complaining LOL I got my mom and we went shopping.

First stop, we picked up Mardi Gras beads. My parents entered their boat in a boat parade next weekend. Then we went to Hobby Lobby. I hit the jackpot there. Mill Hill beads and treasures were on clearance. I got 39 packets of beads and treasures for $20. Excellent deal. There was one treasure, that I got about 10 or 11 packets of (the one that you need so many for Mirabilia's Enchanted Mermaid) and they all had different prices and the cashier gave them all to me at the lowest price $.49!! Yay!

Then we had lunch. Lauren and Maria have a ketchup addiction. It was a challenge to keep them from sticking their hands in the ketchup and licking it off. Weirdos LOL Then Eva kept getting in the aisle and dancing to the music they were playing. It wouldn't be so bad, but she kept saying really loud "Look at my butt!"

Next stop, my LNS. I went to pick up some Anchor thread for a project my mom wants me to stitch. They had some of the new arrivals there. I got Blackbird Designs Strawberry Garden and JBW Spring Bouquet. My Alphabet Round Robin was there. I was so happy! This was a round robin that was supposed to end in like November, so it's only a little late he he he. I'm going to add some more motifs and a border.

When I got home there was a wonderful package from my Secret Stitcher. An Almond Roca valentine heart, a bunch of GAST and WDW threads, some needles, a Valentine card, some more valentine candy, a 6" Q-snap, a scissor fob, and a Lizzie Kate boxer kit. I was so touched! I was standing there getting all teary eyed. James was getting really suspicious about who actually sent it. I also got an email about my recent 123 Stitch order and apparently she's not charging me the full amount of shipping and is sending more thread off my list. Yay! Good customer service!

James also felt like I needed something to do in my "spare time" that could earn money. He encouraged me to sign up for doing online surveys that you get paid for. Anyway, I registered with a few companies. So far I've only gotten a $25 gift certificate. We'll see if it actually pays anything.

The girls are doing great. Eva's still such a goofball. Lauren and Maria are doing so well. They know a lot of their colors already and they're trying so hard to count. They can count to three, but that's about it. That's great though. Especially since all the doctors kept warning us that it wouldn't be unusual if they were developmentally delayed. Hopefully, I'll be able to get them in preschool soon. I think they'll do great!

I didn't do much stitching this weekend, but here's my progress pic of Americana Sampling. I'm almost done!

Super Easy Supper

I'm posting this in hopes that other blog readers will be inspired to post their recipes for Super Easy Suppers.

This is something I sort of made up, so it doesn't have a name

1 Package Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage
1 Can Ro-Tel Tomatoes (I usually do the mild or original) or Petite Diced tomatoes (any of those new kinds with the seasonings)
1 Teaspoon crushed garlic
3-4 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese
Pasta of your choice

First I squeeze the sausage out of the casing. It's gross, but I don't really like it in the casing. I crumble it and brown it in a pan with the garlic. Pour off grease. I usually brown it a little more because I'm psycho about making sure meat is cooked thoroughly then pour the tomatoes over it. You don't have to use the entire can. I'm not a super big fan of tomatoes, so I only use 1/2 to 3/4 of the can. After about 5-10 minutes or so of letting the mixture cook down over medium heat, I add the parmesan cheese. It kind of soaks up some of the juice and adds a bit to the whole italian thing (even though Ro-tel tomatoes aren't italian). Then serve it over pasta. If you really like Parm cheese you could do a couple shakes on top of that :)

This is one of my favorites and I make it whenever I can find the turkey sausage, I suppose you could make it with pork sausage too, but I like the turkey.

Too Many Starts

I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm not weighed down with any obligation stitching right now and I'm just drifting around with no discipline. Over the weekend I started Drawn Threads An Open Heart. Last night I started another kit. And even though I started both of those, I still want to start another one. I hate when I get like this. Then I end up with all these WIPS and no finishes. I need a slave driver or something like that to keep me in line.

I got a gift certificate from 123stitch from my Secret Stitcher yesterday. I was so excited. I sent Joanne my list of GAST threads and told her to send me whichever ones were in stock that my GC covered. Most of those were needed for all those freebies that I have that I'm vowing to stitch.

The Weekend

It wasn't the greatest. Friday night I started feeling kind of sick. Then I discovered the DVD player wasn't working so I couldn't watch any of my Netflix movies. So I watched Citizen Kane on TCM. It was ok. It was sort of like Casablanca to me, I just didn't get all the hype.

Saturday, I was definately sick. I didn't do much, we just sort of hung out. I watched Mutiny on the Bounty off and on (TCM is doing 30 days of Oscar, btw) Then that night I had a complete emotional breakdown. I was so sick and so tired and the kids were making me crazy and I kept cleaning and cleaning and the house was getting messier and messier. So, I retreated to a hot bath and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, in a freezing cold bath, the house was clean and the kids were all in bed. So it was worth it. I switched out the DVD players and I watched The Cave and Lord of War. I thought both were ok.

Sunday, I woke up and couldn't talk, but I did feel a little better. James took the kids to his parents house for the day. So I went grocery shoppping and then slept for the rest of the afternoon. We watched the Superbowl and then Grey's Anatomy. I thought Grey's Anatomy was really good. I can't wait for next week!

As far as stitching goes, I started and finished this Elizabeth Design Freebie. It only took about 2 hours.


And my latest progress on Americana Sampling

Laura

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of one of my online friends. I always enjoyed reading her blog and was totally jealous of the gorgeous house she was building. My thoughts and prayers go out to her husband and family

Reading

I had this whole post about FEMA trailer parks in mind, but I don't really feel like talking about that anymore.

So, I'll talk about reading instead. I need to update my side bar. I was going to read Son of a Witch, but once I started I realized I was going to need to catch up with Wicked. I have a little irritation about that book. I swear I was one of the first people to ever read that book and I kept telling everyone about it and people thought I was weird and the book was weird. They make one little Broadway show about it and now everyone is all on the Wicked bandwagon. Ok, rant off. So I tried to read Wicked again and I just couldn't get into it.

So, I went back to Sue Grafton. Kari suggested it and I kept looking for the beginning of the series at the used book store, but they never had it. I have a little admission to make here. I'm extrememly picky about starting a book series at the beginning. I have to start reading at the first book. Anyway, I couldn't never find "A", then I found the A,B,C collaboration along with the D,E,F collaboration and the G,H,I collaboration. So, I got the first 9 books in 3 hardcovers.

I'll make another admission. I have a paperback book problem. I used to have boxes and boxes and boxes of them. I can read 3 or 4 a week if I'm in the mood. Because of finances I started going to the used bookstore rather than buying them new. Well, the storage issue got to be a real problem. So, I've been dumping my books at the used bookstore. Why didn't I do this sooner? How great is it to walk in with a sack of books and walk out with a whole new sack of books and it only cost a few cents? Yes, I'm aware that's pretty similar to a library, but I hate having to return it on their time and not mine.

So, I recently, got more of the Grafton series. I also started the JD Robb series. Another recommendation from Kari. They're pretty good. It's kind of amusing because it's set in the future and some of the stuff we have now is already on par with what we'll supposedly have in the future, but I can suspend disbelief. Anyway, I started that series too.

The only thing that will make my reading better is to find the perfect book light. I haven't been able to find one that I like. The kind that hook on to the book are always too heavy for paperbacks.

Quiz

I soooo had one of these



You're a Speak & Spell!! You nerd, you. Just
because you were disguised as a toy doesn't
mean you weren't educational, you sneaky
bastard.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by

Stitchy Pictures Galore

Well, not really LOL

Here's my completed TWRR beginning. My theme is bands and borders. The border is from Camelot Sampler and the band is from Renaissance Bookmark.

My Just Nan Round Robin made it's way back home. I need to fill in the last two squares and figure out a border or something.




And since last night was the State of the Union Address I thought I'd start something patriotic. Here's my start of Little House Needlework's Americana Sampling.




February Goals are:
Finish Americana Sampling
Finish my package for my Secret Stitcher
Get and finish any RRs coming this way
FIND and finish that dumb Dimensions kit