Barbie and Elmo

What happened to Barbie, baby dolls, and Elmo?

There was a time in our house when a new Barbie would brighten the eyes of a little girl. I understand that time passes and little girls grow into young ladies and other things become more important and interesting.

Victoria doesn’t care too much for telephones, make up, and hair…yet. She has entered into a time of clothes and more expensive toys.

She will be 12 on November 26^th. Her wants are few; a digital camera and a Wii game. Of course, she has some needs as well. But she doesn’t list those. I suppose those are unspoken things that I should just know to get for her.

This weekend she dressed up ‘80’s. Seeing her with her hair all fixed up and make up on was a bit shocking for me. She suddenly didn’t look like that little girl any more. She is a young lady.

Another thing I am finding a bit difficult with all this growing up business is Elmo. I bought her an Elmo around the time she was 18 months old. He wasn’t the “Tickle Me Elmo”, he was a simple little Elmo. He had a voice box that when you pressed his tummy he said “Elmo Loves You”. Buying him was a fluke. We were in Toys R Us in Little Rock killing time until Jeff got a lunch break. She was pushing one of those plastic carts around and I threw in this $10 Elmo. She just loved him! So I bought him for her. Little did I know that she really, really LOVED him. He went EVERYWHERE with her. As a matter of fact we still have him and until recently she still slept with him. He has the appearance of a much loved stuffed friend. Well over the last week or so she has moved him out of her bed and he sleeps in a doll crib in her room. I asked her if she was ready to store him and she said not yet. It is still of some comfort to have him in the same room with her. It is sad for me because it is just another sign of her growing up.

I hope she knows how much I love her!

Time Warp

The 80's were a time of great music and bad fashion.
Well it seems the worst fashion trends always return.
Leg warmers for instance.
This is my daughter decked out for the 80's. She will be wearing this Saturday at our churches annual Fall Fest.

Wrecked Mustang

Well here it is. Jeff had to go to Benton for a couple of days this week and took some photos. I sent them to a friend. I hope he has good news for us.

More Indiana

On campus at Rose-Hulman there is a really nice pond with a fountain. They have also built a chapel.
It is just a really pretty, quite, relaxing area.

Dem Bones

Well since I no longer make my own hormones thanks to surgical intervention, I am now among the post menopausal women that get bone density tests.
Very simple procedure! You lay on this nice table and a x-ray thingy scans over the top of you. Then the computer calculates your bone density and compares it to that of a healthy 25 year old female.
Normal is a number of 0. My density number was - 0.3, which the doctor said was 3%. That is 3% less dense than that of a 25 year old. He said that is normal. I need to take 1200mg of Calcium daily.

Anyway, it is nice to know I am "normal"

For the love of Mustangs

Hopefully we are going to get Jeff's 1966 Mustang fixed. He bought it before we met. It was the first thing of him I ever saw. I LOVE classic cars and always have. I loved his car before I ever laid eyes on him.
In 1996 just before we moved from Fayetteville to Benton it was wrecked. We have yet to be able to fix it. I really want to fix this car for him. It is really an awesome ride.

Burning fields..

On our way up North we saw multiple fields being burned off. These were in Arkansas between Carlisle and Blyithville. It is a LONG and BORING drive up there. There is NOTHING!!!!
Rice and cotton and that is about it.
the burning at sunset.

Cool place

Just a quick little blurb about Terre Haute. This is a record store Jeff used to shop at. It looks the same to me as when I visited on occasion. Can you imagine Jeff shopping there.

We are here

Well it is nearly midnight here in Indiana. Jeff is down in the hotel lobby talking with his old college roomate. I think it has done Jeff some good coming back up here after all of these years.
I am glad he has had the opportunity to come and see the area and campus again.

Naturally after 17 years things have changed quite a bit. I think Jeff has enjoyed telling the kids about what was here and what was not when he was living up here.

We do hope to come back in 2011 for his 20 year college reunion. He hopes to reconnect with his other buddies from the college days.

When we get back home and settle back down I have some photos to post. I won't bore you with too many, but you know I have to post some.

We return home on Sunday and I work Mon, Tue, and Wed. Then I have 5 days off. I will get something done for my loyal fans, lol, during that 5 day rest.

More hair..lol

At the request of my loving husband I chose a red for a hair color this time. I had intended on just staying in the brunette family. Jeff said "red", so....that is what I did. I nearly washed it out about 10-15 minutes into the process because it was what I would call orange! I was freaking out, but not Jeff. Mister calm and cool. Then I calmed down and realized if I go ahead and let it finish out the 30 minutes I would be happier and it would have the chance to fully process.
I am not disappointed.

The second photo was nice. You cannot really see the hair color. It just happened to be a picture of me that I liked. Those are RARE!
Today I take the kids for haircuts. Gotta be looking sharp for our trip.

I am very excited about going to Indiana. Why, I am not sure.

More from the house of hair

Today I straightened my hair.

It is really hard to take photos of yourself and them turn out okay. I have some that I took, I am not crazy about them, but I will post the best of them anyway.
This front view is a bit blurry. I will fix it later and repost it. You will just have to deal with it for now.
I have some that are better, but the lighting was awful for they were just messed up.

House of Hair

Well I did it. I didn't chicken out. I am proud of myself. Jeff even liked it and it is SHORT!

So without further ado...
ta da
this is the curly version. My hair is naturally wavy, curly. I have a Chi straightener. I wear it straight sometimes too.

Obviously this is the side view.

Now for the back...


I am just really pleased at how it turned out.

Great Food Debate

Coke or Pepsi? COKE zero

Thick crust or thin for your Pizza? Thin by default. I really LOVE the thickness of the "pan" type pizze. But counting calories you know

Rare or Well Done for you steak? Medium

Hot Dogs or Hamburgers? Hamburger with cheese!

Ketchup or Mustard on your hot dog? Both.

Cake or Pie? I guess it depends on the occasion and what kind of pie or cake is offered.

Brownies with a fine, glossy crust, or soft cake brownies? If I want cake I will bake a cake. If I want brownies I want BROWNIES!!!

Nuts in the brownies? NO, NO, and NO.

Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream? chocolate.

Blue cheese or ranch dressing with your Buffalo wings? Ranch

Soup or Salad? Salads. I love salad in any form.

Butter on your Popcorn? duh

Pork or Beef barbecue? pork,

Coffee or tea? Coffee. I prefer tea in winter, for some reason.

Beer from a can or a bottle? bottle. hello OR from the tap...yummmoooo

Oreos or Hydrox? Oreos.

Little Debbie or Hostess? Little Debbie, Nutty Bars...mmmmmm

Bacon or Sausage? link sausage
Eggs Scrambled or Fried? Scrambled, no fried, no scrambled....oh I am confused

This week

I just finished 3 12-hour shifts in a row. I am sure glad to be off for a couple of days. I have a ton to do and get done between now and Thursday afternoon. We are leaving Texarkana around noon Thursday to head to Indiana for the weekend.
Today I have a doctors appointment and then I think I may run over to Gander Mt. They are having a wonderful sale right now.
Tomorrow I will be 37 years old. I am going to get my hair cut. I hope my girl has time to do it. I will call her later today. Oh yeah, and there is a make up soccer game on Tuesday evening. so much for a nice birthday rest, eh.
I have to get all the laundry done, pack, get the oil changed, and go buy some snacks for the road. All this will be done over the next couple of days. I am supposed to work Wednesday night from 11pm-7am. I am hoping to get to stay home. Won't know about that until around 9pm on Wednesday evening.

I am through blabbing for now.

UPDATE: Doctors appointment went well. I go in on Oct 14th for a baseline bone density. OMG...am I really that old! Mammograms and bone densitys..oh my
Haircut will be this afternoon instead of tomorrow. I will try and post some new pictures tonight.

Rooms at Sam's Town

One bad habit that I have is reading room reviews. The sites I had found about Sam's Town had pretty poor reviews. I kept thinking "great"! But I kept in mind the nit-picky things that people complained about.
We were on the 18th floor with a river view. It was wonderful. The room was HUGE, the bathroom was HUGE, the tub was HUGE. It was quiet and relaxing. We could look out our window and see the Boardwalk, the river, people fishing, boating, and fish flopping.
I have no complaints about the room. We ate at the International Buffet and it was pretty darn good. Smokey Joes Cafe' was good too. I think one of the best meals of them all was Wednesday. Jeff had a class from 8am-1030 and we went to IHop. I was very pleased:). I finished off my eggs, bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns with a straberry crepe. It was heavenly. Jeff had a blueberry (i think).
We spent the day shopping and just being together. We went over to Youree Dr. to do some shopping. There are a lot of shopping areas and restaurants over there. So for dinner we went back to the Boardwalk and went to Fuddruckers. OMG....delish! We need one here in Texarkana.


out room window toward Boardwalk
escalators in lobby..cool

Bossier City, Shreveport, and Sam's Town

Boy am i glad to be home. I am thankful for the time Jeff and I had to get away. It has been very, very rare for just us to go somewhere alone. Especially for 3 nights.
We got into town fairly early Monday morning. We had to kill time until 1pm for Jeff's first meeting. Also, we couldn't check into the hotel until 4pm.
While Jeff was in his first meeting I went over to the Boardwalk and hung out. It was a nice day.

I walked and walked and walked. There was hardly anyone there at all. I guess it helped that it was a school day and work day for people. I nearly had the place to myself.





This was the view of our hotel from across the river. I was standing at the Boardwalk waiting for Jeff to call me to come and get him.
On Jeff's top 10 of favorite stores.

Next post will be about the room and the gorgeous view.

We are home

It was a great trip, but we are glad to be home.
Now it is laundry, and getting ready to repack for next Thursday:).

A trip

Jeff and I will be away for the next few days. Jeff has some Forensic Chemistry meeting in Shreveport and I am tagging along for the trip.
We will be staying at Sam's Town. We will not have internet! I am taking the camera, of course, so I can get some shots of the city, the river, and Boardwalk.
Next week is a trip to Indiana. We will have internet there. There will be pictures as well:)

Happy Birthday Kristi!!!!

Fall soccer

Today was the first soccer game of the Fall season. They are playing on a much bigger field and longer time.
We lost today. Hopefully, they have learned what it is going to be like on the bigger field etc.

100 Days..

On Monday September 22, 2008 there will be exactly 100 Days until December 31, 2008.
I am trying to come up with a personal challenge. Something to achieve during this time.
I know I need to step it up a bit, or a lot!
The competition is tough!
I had planned on the ChaLEAN Extreme. I found out recently that the release date has been pushed back to early November. It doesn't leave time to finish a rotation.
So goes my great plan:)
I want to be on that stage in Hollywood, California in March 2009. I want to be chosen for this honor.

My eating is still a great downfall for me. I have got to clean it up. I can do it for 100 days, can't I?

I will think up a good challenge for myself and let you know.