Get to know me

Ok, I usually don't do these.

But, since my blog is fairly new, I decided to so my readers can get to know me better.

So, here it goes:

I got this from Dana, over at Just Talk .

Go to her blog-not now, silly, after you read mine.

On the outside:
Name: Tess

Birthday: March 6th
Current Status: married, with children

Eye Color: blue
Hair Color: reddish brown

On the inside:
My Fears: the economy, spiders, heights, not being famous

My Weaknesses: seafood, licorice, jelly bellys (they now have ice cream flavors- OMG!)

My Perfect Pizza: BBQ chicken on a thick crust and if they have stuffed crust, yummy!

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow:

My thoughts first waking up: What should I write today?

My bedtime: after I've done every freakin thing possible known to moms

My most missed memory: when my two oldest were little.

My pick:
Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi all the way

Single or group dates: Single
Adidas or Nike: NIke

Tea or Nestea: Probably Nestea

Chocolate or Vanilla: CHOCOLATE- there is only chocolate

Cappuccino or Coffee: Cappuccino
Do you:

Smoke: no
Curse: hee hee

Take a shower: well, yes

Have a crush: McDreamy, of course

Think you’ve been in love: I am in love
Go to school: I'm always learning
Want to get married: am
Believe in yourself: most of the time but, sometimes certain relatives make it hard
Think you’re a health freak: Dude, I want to be one, but I fall off the wagon alot

In the past:
Gone to the mall: Yes
Been on stage: Yes
Eaten sushi: Argh..
Dyed your hair: Do I have to tell?

Have you ever:
Played a stripping game: Yes, sorry Honey
Changed who you were to fit in: Nope. Love me or hate me- It's your problem
Done something your kids will never know about (at least till they are adults): Yes

Age you’re hoping to:
Get married: am
Take your dream vacation: Disney World-again. In the next couple of years

In a guy:
Best eye color: Um, what color are my husband's eyes again?
Best hair color: black

Short hair or long hair: short
Clean cut or scruffy: clean cut

Best attribute: getting me

What were you doing:
A minute ago: typing and making pancakes
An hour ago: getting ready

A month ago: getting a baby shower together-sorry guys!

A year ago: enjoying being a year younger

Finish the sentences:
I love: my family
I feel: tired
I hate: hearing about the economy
I hide: from my kids
I miss: hanging out with friends more
I need: to be known for this blog

Feel free to play along.....please?

A very odd combination.

I'm going to the store today and have the strangest combination of items- dog biscuits and maxi pads.

I'm sure I will get a puzzled look from the cashier as to why I would come up with these choice items to purchase at the same time. I'm thinking of what response I will give and follow with a nervous giggle:

Perhaps, I was grabbing for a pad and mistakenly grabbed the dog biscuit box (because we like to snack on them while in the bathroom) and realized both were empty.

Or, maybe I found the dog tearing up the last of my Maxis and figured she must be getting me back for giving her dog biscuits to the cats because they were out of cat food and were secretly planning to bast me with butter and cook me over the fire pit.

Or, I could just tell her that I ran out of pads and while on the toilet, I just had a dumb thought that I need dog biscuits.

A human computer

I always am amazed at the things that my children can do. The latest being my youngest, Emily. This child can tell you about the time Grandma bought her a Dora doll from the grocery store two years ago. She can tell you what the weather was like outside, what was in our cart and if she could tell time, she'd tell you to the very second.

These trips down memory lane come out of the blue-maybe something trips the memory, like a commercial or something. I don't know, but it freaks me out, none the less.

I guess my step daughter used to do that too. Did I tell you that I have a stepdaughter? Probably not, but I do. She's twelve and she lives with her mom. She's a whole other story that I will save for a rainy day.

Anyway, this elephant memory works well for her to remind me when I've told her we will go to Toys R Us next week or you can have a cookie later. Heck, she remembers that last year, I told her that a toy she didn't get for Christmas she could get for her birthday this year. (I forgot what it was-I'll have to ask her again)

I was trying to think how I could use this to my advantage and I came up with a brilliant plan.

I'm going to tell her all my passwords to my accounts and the user names too because I forget them also. She could save me a ton of paper too, because I could just tell her what I need at the store instead of writing it down and then loosing the paper like I always do.

Who says you don't get your money's worth out of your kids?

I have to go to the store now- I better ask Emily what I was going to get.

Three's a crowd

I couldn't resist taking this photo.

Once again, Mamas (middle cat) has no clue the two babies are sleeping on her. She looks as though she's having the most marvelous dream, probably about her dropping the kittens off on a deserted country road.

Wild flowers

My neighbor's wild flowers are in full bloom and I can hear the bees a buzzing!

How I spent my evening

After doing my daily business tasks all day, I threw together tacos from part of our left overs from the shower(mainly ground beef) to keep the enemy at bay while I hit the Internet to find wonderful potential sponsors- I send lots of love to all of you that were lucky to get stalked hear from me! See, if you heard from me then you know you have wonderful products. Those of you that replied, God Bless You! Sorry to throw religion in there. How about, thank you very, very, very much???

I came across so many cool items that when I get my stimulus check (yes, I'm one of the unlucky to have to wait due to a stupid error) I will have to go online shopping!

Hunting on the Internet was some what relaxing to me surprisingly and I really needed something to relax me. You see, I'm really not sure why, but I have been feeling very anxious lately. I thought maybe it was because I had the two parties to do and I figured that it would go away after they were done. No such luck. I've never gone through any kind of anxiety before. I've heard of them and a person will tell you that you can't explain it to someone, they just have to go through it themselves to understand. So, not knowing what they really are, I'm thinking this might be it. For me to explain would be to say that you feel like you need to do something but you don't know what. Which, makes you very short tempered. The kids and hubby don't know about my anxiety right now- they just keep asking if it's my time of the month.

So, I'm hoping to over come this and I'm really looking forward to this contest.

I know what you're thinking, "Does this broad know what she's in for?"

Don't worry, I can handle this.

BTW, have I ever told you that I believe in Santa Claus?

This damn blog

I really hate advertising.

I promised myself when I started this blog that I would totally advertise the heck out of it. After all, my dream is to be the next Dooce. Yes, I know all you faithful Dooce readers. She is great- the Queen of Blogging. But, hey, I can dream big!

Anyway, I had alot of great ideas and plans for this blog- and still do. It's just getting my ass to get motivated to spend every waking moment getting it done.

So, I decided to run a contest. Contests are great publicity and fun to do and I plan on having a great one.

I'm going to be contacting businesses that relate to my review section, so I plan on having some totally cool items to give away and it will start in July. Keep checking my Reviewing Mama site for details and if you want to donate something, contact me.

I also am designing some blogging tshirts and anyone entering the first contest will be put in a drawing for a free blogging tshirt too.

Wish me a happy begging -people-to-give-me-their-stuff-hunt!

Crushing the dream

I have been taking an online digital painting course to improve my graphic skills but really let it go down the toilet. I mean, I read the lessons, practised them and submitted a couple of paintings. I just felt that it wasn't what I expected and I told the lady so in the forum. Apparently, this totally crushed her and she sent a mass email to all of us saying someone complained about her course instead of just emailing me- at first.

Well, I didn't mean to cause such a stir and I really only stated that I thought she would have had a lesson on changing the color of the fur on animals to another color. I know this does not make any sense to anyone but bare with me.

Then, I got a long, long and very long email from her basically saying that all I needed to do was contact her if I had a problem. Now I was starting to regret making the single little comment. Obviously, this person takes great offense to anyone making an observation of her work. I suppose if someone sent me an email saying that my blog stunk and I am a bad mom and I shouldn't tell people that I think about selling my kids to the gypsies, I would take offense to it.

Wait. Would I really be that sensitive?

Hmmm...No, I probably would just ask them if, on the way to the child services they see any gypsies, tell them that I'll give them a free gallon of gas per child too.

Two of my three angels

Aren't they just so adorable? I took these right before leaving for the shower. When I look at their smiling faces, I wonder how I could ever yell at them and tell them I'm selling them to the gypsies. (sigh)

Then, Emily comes running out of her brother's room screaming, holding on to one of his computer games. He follows her out, yelling, "You stupid!"

Then, Jess tells me her boyfriend quit yet another job and can she buy this new $100 phone?

Yep, they are so adorable I could just throw up.

It's finally over!

It finally came and went- I'm talking about the shower, of course.

For those of you who have been patiently reading about me rant over my daughter's shower for the past week, you can finally say, "Praise the Lord. She can FINALLY shut-up about that shower!"

You know you want the dirty little details, though. OK, here they go:

We didn't get the turn out we expected. About 50 people didn't show up and Jess was pretty upset at her friends that had promised, swore and even begged to come and then didn't. We don't know if they couldn't find the place but hey, we do have cell phones. We waited about a half an hour and then said, screw them. Jess did decide that if her pregnant friends that didn't come even think about inviting her to their showers, she will personally light their invite with a match, right in front of them, step on it, do a "na-na-na" dance around it and spit on it. Ok, that was my suggestion, but I think they would get the hint.

We played guess the belly size, a timed guessing game and held a 50/50 raffle. She was excited to get some cash (I felt that the person should just let her keep their share and I know if my mom or sis would've won, they would've let her. But, hey , that's me and all.)

I have to mention that we had this awesome cake that my stepmom made. (she makes all of our cakes cause she's so talented)

Look at the detail on the cupcakes-so cute!

I got this hat for Jess that said, Mama Jessie- she's having a boy! I only could get her to wear it for about one minute because she said it was too hot in there to wear it-whatever.

We had fun over all and she got alot of stuff and some duplicates that she will be exchanging today.

And I just know everyone is wondering how the duck soaps went over.

Well, I have a funny story about those duck soaps.

Nobody mentioned how cute they were to me or how I must of put in alot of hard labor making them. No, the only reaction I got from them was when my ex's mom bit the head off of one and then spit it out and said, "I guess these aren't mints."

Saturday Mayhem

Well, we are down to the last day until the shower. Believe it or not, I still have another couple of stores to go to. I haven't picked up the raffle tickets yet and we forgot about the chips.

My Saturday has not started out well and actually carried on from Friday. My son and husband both have some kind of flu or something. I've been noticing in blogs that the authors have been coming down with what they are calling food poisoning. I myself, came down with a near death sickness recently too. It makes me wonder, what the heck is going on? Is it salmonella or flu or is someone trying off everyone in the United States?

Today, they both feel better and my husband actually went to work which I was very surprised because he usually is a big baby when it comes to being sick-what man isn't?

He was mad at me because I didn't drop everything and baby him like I usually do but, I had some deadlines to take care of and well, he is a big boy.

I'm sure his coworkers will get an earful today. I told him this morning that I need to go in there and tell them some "Jesse" stories or better yet, tell them about my blog. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Ticket? Oh yeah, got to get the damn raffle tickets............

The sky is falling!

If you live in Davenport, Iowa, you've been hearing the sky rumble for the last couple of days. Yep, its the wonderful Quad Cities Air Show time of the year.

I totally forgot about it so, when we were outside, I heard a very, very loud rumbling in the sky. I was sure it was the coming of the end of the world. I wondered if I should run to the computer to look up how to seek forgiveness for all I've done bad, or grab the kids and start digging a fallout shelter. As I decided praying was my best bet, I looked up to see two of the Blue Angels (planes) in the sky. Whew, I really wasn't ready to go to hell yet. I did take it as a sign them being named the Blue Angels that maybe I should start going to church again.

Duck nightmare

Finally, the ducks are done.

Little Black Shirt

The big day is almost here-my daughter's huge and much needed baby shower. She's having a boy and Emily being a girl isn't going to help her with hand- me- downs unless he wants to sleep in a Dora toddler bed and have a pink wardrobe to wear.

We still have the last of the items to buy and the damn cute little ducky soaps to make that I didn't do the last two days. I really thought it (shower) would be easy since I'm actually throwing it with Jessica's step mom but, I've pretty much had to do everything from design the invites to um, you guessed it, making duck soaps. She had asked Jess if it was OK if we did everything since she works late (and has a life I guess unlike me) and then she could just pay half of the costs.

Is labor included in the costs too?

Cause, I would have to say the amount for her half would be $4539.97.

On to my next dilemma:

My wardrobe (with the exception of blue jeans) consists of basically of blacks and browns and the occasional red. I hate to wear any other colors because I feel fat in them. People tell me, how can you feel fat when you only weigh 110 lbs? Well, when you are used to weighing 100, it feels fat. I mainly would like to lose my tummy fat that I kept since my youngest was born. Thank- you so much, Emily.

So, Jessica had a great idea that we (me, her and her step mom) all get these personalized tshirts to wear to the shower. Ours would say HAG (hot ass grandmas) and hers HAM (hot ass mom). This would be fine except she wanted light blue. Arghhhhhhhhhh.

So, on top of having to broadcast that I will be a grandma already, I get to feel fat all day.

All I have to say is, they better like the God Damn Ducks!

OUR RETIREMENT PLAN

I had the most hilarious photo session with Emily yesterday.

I decided that she shall become a high paying model and Mommy and Daddy shall retire early and live off of her looks.

The reason I decided to take some photos of her because she received a package in the mail from grandpa and grandma and it had a Hannah Montana necklace in it and she was so excited that she would not take it off for two days.

Today, she told me she wanted to take some "model photos" with it on.

So, off we went to take pictures outside and I was like, go sit over there, and she was like, I want to sit here. I said, look this way, and she says, I'm going to look like this.

I about fell over laughing and was surprised I even kept the camera steady.

The new additions to the family

These three were the last additions to our family. The bigger kitten, Ma-Mas, was first and the two others were found outside. We keep changing their names, so I will post them when we finally decide. Not sure if they (kittens) will definitely stay since one keeps not wanting to use the litter box.

I thought this photo was funny because they are sworn enemies.

Surviving

Last night I was ever so happy to see my pillow. After going the whole day with only two hours of sleep, I would've probably of slept on a hard wooden floor if I had to. I am one of those people who need sleep and if I don't get at least 8 hours, I get sick right away and a bad headache. I used to not be that way when I was in my 20s (party years) and would go out with my girlfriends after a long day at work and dance at the clubs til 3am and get up at 8am the next day. Ahhh, the good 'ole days.

Today I feel more rested but I could handled another hour or two of sleeping, but I have a big day ahead and wanted an early start. We are throwing my daughter a baby shower this Sunday and I still have alot to put together. I'm a procrastinator to the fullest. I had meant to do good with this party and since I had a couple of months to get things done, I figured that it would be easy to get stuff for it a week at a time. This way, I wouldn't feel rushed or the pain of the cost so much if it were hidden with my usual demands. Sounds like a perfect plan, right? Well, if I went with that plan, it just wouldn't be me now, would it?

So, here I am now, the week before the shower and running to the store for stuff and wondering how I'm going to get a 100 duck soaps made with little blue and yellow ribbons tied around their cute neck. Why do I do this to myself????

To add to my self-induced mental breakdown, I'm freaking out at the cost adding up at the 50 stores we've been to. Maybe we can make our own raffle tickets for the 50/50 game, I say out loud. Jess gives me a glare as an answer to my thought. I could read her mind as if she were shouting at me over the store's intercom: "WHY DID YOU PROCRASTINATE AGAIN, MOM?"

Is there hope yet??

Our sleep was interrupted last night with a phone call from my daughter at midnight. She had been staying at a friend's house (which I had advised against since she is in her last month and a half or so to make it easier to get her to hospital if needed) OK, so it turns out I was right about that scenario. She said that she was getting pains in her back and she thought she was dripping water when she went to the bathroom. She actually called the doctor herself before calling me which knowing her you would think that was a big grown up thing for her to do. Acting like a grown up is something I constantly worry about for her since she is in fact, going to be a mom.

Anyway, her worse choice she could've picked to be the dad nice boyfriend got a ride to the friend's house- yes, he doesn't have a car and lives with friends cause he didn't pay the bills at his last place, he works odd jobs.... wait, I'm getting off course. Something I tend to do when I bring up that good for nothing nice kid. So, they took her car to the hospital and I said to call me when the doctor looked to see if it's anything to be concerned about and if I needed to go up there. An hour later, no phone call. I tried her cell phone even though I figured she'd have it off since she was in the hospital. No answer, of course.

After pacing the floor for another ten minutes, I woke up my husband and said I was running up to the hospital. Surely, she was in some serious trouble and couldn't call because she was sedated and her boyfriend was unconscious from hitting his head on the corner of the hospital bed as a result from the orderly trying to wrestle him to the ground to take his cell phone away from him because he insisted on calling me to let me know what was going on.

I grabbed my keys and stormed out the door and yelled to my husband (who probably was already back to sleep) to not worry about me walking in the dark deserted hospital parking lot by myself at 1:30 in the morning. I don't think I got a reply on that one.

I finally got to the hospital and safely into the building though there was a very suspicious- looking guy walking by and I just know he was eyeing me. I asked the front desk person where I might find my daughter. "Oh yes, Jessica. I remember her," she said so proudly. Probably because Jessica had been calling her and keeping her updated on whether she was in labor or not so she could witness the birth and tell all her friends about how she saw a perfect stranger's birth of her baby.

I thanked her for her help and told her never to keep her mother in suspense. I went up to the 5th floor and looked for a nurse's station and on the way, two young girls around Jessica's age (one very pregnant) were walking towards me. To my surprise, the pregnant one looks at me and says, "Is Jessie OK?" I stopped dead in my tracks. How does this girl know that I'm Jessica's mom when I had no idea who she was? Duh, she probably was just one of her friends I must of met. Sometimes they just all look a like.

"I don't know," was my reply.

I figured she was already in pain and didn't need to hear my bitching about how her guess was as good as mine and she would probably call her before me.

I did almost give her a lecture on how could she make her mom a grandma before her time to be one and her mom probably had a head full of gray hair by now worrying how she was going to be a mom at a young age, but I'm sure she already got that speech.

After finally finding her room, not being to get the darn door open and looking like an ass, I got to make my dramatic entrance.

I stepped in the room to find the boyfriend in a chair and my daughter in the bed hooked up to a monitoring machine. Both had confused expressions on their faces at the site of me being there.

"Why didn't you call meeeeeee??????" I tried to ask calmly.

I then pretended that my feet were cemented to the floor, therefore, I couldn't shove them up the boyfriend's ass.

"I thought you meant to call you if I was in labor," my daughter replied with a nervous giggle.

Still trying to control myself, I said, "No, that's not what I meant."

I seriously am considering changing my daughter's name to I Thought You Meant. Its pretty much is the first four words out of her mouth all the time.

"So, what did they say?"

I asked and shot a sweet smile to the boyfriend.

"Braxton Hicks."

"Well, next time call."

"He wanted to call you."

"What?"

"Yeah," said boyfriend.

"Really."

Suddenly, I felt a little dizzy and sat down.

The boyfriend did something smart and thoughtful-maybe there's hope yet.

A horse girl

I like to throw in some of my photography and I wanted to include a senior shoot I did a couple of weeks ago. A pretty girl that wanted to do her session at the horse farm her horses are kept at.

Her horse didn't want anything to do with the camera and boy did he yell at me when they put him back in his stall!

Who let one?

Arghhh!! Anyone who knows me knows that I go out of my way to keep a fantastic smelling house. So, when we got water in our finished basement from all the rain, I knew it was coming. The musty, yucky, icky smell that comes with the water. I can get depressed over strange things and this is one of them. Jesse was so kind to take the day off and shampoo the carpet downstairs. It helped somewhat but I can still smell it, so I've been burning candles all day.
At least it's a beautiful day out so I can open all the windows and hopefully the river banks will start to go down.

As for my children's day........
With the summer just barely starting, my older children seem bored already. Most parents are stressed to have their kids home but I love it. Especially now with my daughter out of high school. No more worrying about her actually being there and not getting anymore calls from the principal. I think my blood pressure dropped dramatically and I feel 10 years younger already! Yes, I know, the baby is coming. Don't rain on my temporary happy parade...

Emily has found a new passion for writing letters, 'E' being her favorite of course. I'll make a writer out of her yet!

Jordon has been good about helping me out except for he's reminded me 10 times that he needs a hair cut and I promised to take him tomorrow on $2 off day. Maybe, I'll be mean and forget. I'll just tell him he should've reminded me 11 times.

The Great Flood

Living in the Midwest brings lots of floods.

This is River Drive.

This is a view from our city's Sky Bridge.

The kids standing at the end the street where the flooding begins.

Train tracks under water.

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