Our Trip To San Antonio

Chill'n on the Riverwalk



Smoochy Smoochy





The Alamo



Sessy Peoples

Steers at the Golf Course

I make this look good!

Sessy Poser

Rook'n Good Hub-a-nerro

Hubby at the Alamo

We had the best time in San Antonio!   Golfed at Canyon Springs and we both had really good golf games.  Will birdied 17 and 18 on the course.  What an awesome way to finish!  We are looking forward to going back in 2012. 

Halloween 2010

Select Pics from the 40 and Fabulous Party

My Great Toofer Adventure

It all started with my six month dental exam.   Like normal, I dreaded that I had to visit my least favorite person, the dental hygienist.  She has many names; Jack-ette the Ripper, Fredi Kruger, Ginsu, Shredder, etc.  I realize being thorough during a dental exam could be considered a good thing.  But for some strange reason, I think she got some sick twisted satisfaction out of making gums bleed.  Not just my gums, but any one's gums.  Doesn't matter if I brush 3 times a day and floss 3 times a day.  My mouth was going to be like Old Faithful if she had anything to do with it.   On this particular day, Slicer/Dicer was going over my rack of teeth, when she noticed a cracked tooth on the x-ray.  Not a large crack, but I was told a potential root canal hazard if I didn't take care of it soon.  So we agreed to monitor.   Six months later, Houston, we have a problem.  Now Ms. Slice-o-Matic has decided I need a crown, pronto.  What!  You've got to be kidding!   Lady Schick said we really need to do the crown soon.  So I scrounged up enough cash to cover the crown.  Oh joy.  I can see the glint in her Razor sharp eyes when I come in for the procedure.  Little did I know they file the existing tooth down to a nub.  Yes, I've been nubbed.  Call me Nubbie-Kins.  Then they glue the crown to the nub.  Ok from day one this crown was hell.  It took almost a year for that sucker to feel somewhat normal. Which means another 6 months had past and I had re-visited Butcher-ella.  This time, Axe-woman found decay under said crown.  What!  You've got to be kidding!   So now I'm told I have to have the tooth pulled.  Shut the Front Door!  I dragged my feet as long as I could before I set up the appointment to have the dang nub extracted.  Save me!   Extraction day arrives.  I choose to be put under, so that I don't have to feel all the icky stuff they are going to be doing to my poor toofer.  Not sure how long the extraction took but I sure did get good drugs.  I think at one point my hottie hubby had to carry me into the house.  Wow, wish I was awake to listen to his groans from the weight of my limp bod.  I miss all the good stuff.  Being the trooper that I am and the avid golfer, I was out on the course 2 days after the procedure.  It took about a week for the darn stitches to finally fall out.  Every time one would fall out I have to examine it.  Kind of looked like a little squid.  Ick.  Every so often my lover man would ask me, how is your tooth.  I had to remind him, I don't have a tooth I have a hole.  So he would ask, how is your hole?  Hmmm, I could really run with this one, but I will keep my mind away from the gutter. It took another week for the pain to go away and for me to adjust to the cow bone that was placed in my jaw.  I'm still trying to get over the Husband's cow-esk jokes, like Moooover over or we better steer clear of you.   I think he was hopping I would have trouble uttering.....   Right now, I am sporting a gi-normous gaping hole in the back of my mouth.  Soon I will have to go through the implant process.  Geez, dental work is so FUN.  not...... 
Stay cool!

Our Cabin Adventures Pic

Man's Place is in the Kitchen

Horse-shoe Target

No. 2s are bringing up the Rear

Yo Mountain Man

Da Boys

What Ev!

Bush Whacker

Twister Anyone?

Ode to my not so little, little brother

This blog is dedicated to my not so little, little brother, Tim.  When I say little, I don't mean in size, I mean younger brother.  Even though it pains me to admit that I am the elder, facts are facts.  Once Upon A Time: Sir Timothy Ray came into the world 1.8 months after the Princess regaled the world with her birth.  I guess this would make Tim the Prince.  Well the Princess must have been a little upset that she was no longer main attraction to the king and queen.  From what I hear, the Prince took a royal beating from the Princess on a regular basis.  What's the old saying: what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger?  It was never the Princess' intention to kill the prince, just torment him.   And the Princess did a great job at Prince torment.  In fact, she earned an A-plus in tormenting - 101.  Eventually, the prince started to grow up.  As the prince grew up, he got stronger and stronger.  So the Prince started his own tormenting tactics.  One day the Princess came home to find the royal Barbies hanging naked in the royal gardens by golden nooses.   The Princess shouted "off with his head" but to no avail.  The Princess was reminded that she was not the red queen and there would be no lopping off of heads in this kingdom.  Alas, I was denied my vengeance, again.   Throughout the growing up years, the Prince and Princess exchanged many a tormenting moment and also vowed revenge.  But in the end, both the Prince and Princess grew up, married into Royalty and started their own kingdoms.  I have to admit, this Princess very proud at how the Prince has had to slay many dragons throughout his kingdom and has remained a stronger ruler and fair king.  Sometimes when the royal families reunite, we discuss the old feuds of yester-year and have to laugh.  Especially the part where I chucked my sword a.k.a. fork at the Prince's feet.  I really didn't try to impale him, just scare him.   If I didn't say it back then, let me say it now.  I kind of like that Prince, now King.  Actually, I love that guy.    I might have to invite him over for a cup of nectar of the Gods in a jeweled encrusted challis.  Ok, it's really lemonade in a Dixie Cup.   Peace out Homie!

Hippie Hippie Shake

Hair-heads....

Here are some great photos from our 60s Birthday party / Easter party celebration over the weekend. This was our own little Woodstock. Thanks to Bevy Jo (Cher) for assisting in party organizing, peep decorating and Easter cake making. A shout out to the parents to letting us 60s wanna bees use their house for party central. It was fun! As for the tie-dye t-shirt contest, we all know who won. Yep, yep, Sara, Susan and Will had the best shirts in the house. If all ya'll need tie-dye shirt dying lessons, you know where to find us.

The Fantastic-est Fab Foursome Ever

Announcing.... The two hottest couples in Arizona. Better yet, the two greatest couples in the nation. No! The two most wonderful, most fun, most crazy, most beautiful-est couples in the WORLD. Too much?

Lucky for us, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And I be-holding my new husband by the left butt cheek in this picture. I can't vouch for Bevy Jo. I'm not sure where her hands are, but they aren't on my backside. darn. I'm kidding.

Here are a few places where you won't see us:

At the post office on a wanted poster
At The Rainbow, an Alternative Lifestyle Bar
At a Polka Dance off
At a South Phoenix Truck Stop washing big rigs
Bungee Jumping from I-10 Stack
Skate Boarding down South Mountain
Hitch hiking near Tent City or Perryville Prison
Handcuffing ourselves to a cractus (cactus), (Stick around)
At a Chinese Buffet for 4 hours
Watching a Julie Andrews Movie marathon

To be continued.

There be a hitch'n and not a lynch'n

Hard to believe that we have been married for over a week. Wow, my dad did a great job at hiding the shot gun and from what I hear, the pay-off was also substantial. I'm kidding!

We had a wonderful time at the wedding. The weather was perfect, the food was awesome (catered by HoneyBears BBQ) and the gathering was even better. I want to thank all of our friends and family for making this day so special. I especially want to thank my Mom, Aunt Kitty and Beverly Jo for all their hard work. They went above and beyond awesome. "We've only just begun, to live. White lace and promises. A kiss for luck and we're on our way....." Ok. I just pushed the mush factor off the scale by writing down Carpenter's lyrics. Though it seemed fitting at the time. More wedding / humpy-moon pics to follow.

Dad's Gone Wild With Hair Extensions

There is a new sick and twisted trend happening folks, right in your own backyards. It could be your neighbor, co-worker, friend, or even grandpa. It's almost too horrific to even mention, but of course for the sake of this blog, we will mention it. It's, it's, Dad's gone wild with hair extensions! Can you not see the horror and chaos this is going to cause? Does the dad in the picture (Ervin) not see that his eye-brows are too dark for the blond extension? Thank goodness he is not going for the comb-over. I would have to have to report him to the cousin IT or chubaca police. Sir, you are under arrest for impersonating a wookie. Sir, the blond biker look is not appealing, I'm going to have to issue you a party foul citation. Is there no shame? Well at least he put the hair extension on his face and didn't clip it to the back of his jeans. Because that would have been very uncomfortable. Especially if he was making weird horse noises, like naaaaa naaaaa. Or started counting by stomping his feet. His common sense was still intact and he wasn't drinking. It could have gotten ugly! Whew. Though with that asian style shirt and his new fu-man chu, I keep waiting for him to say: You been here 4 hour, you go home now....

Dedicated to Ma and Pa

It's been 4-ever since I've blogged! Guess I got a little carried away with the holidays and all the wedding plans. That happens with me sometimes, I get side-tracked. But guess what, I'm baaaack. This blog is dedicated to Ma and Pa. This is a picture of my very patient, very tolerate and very loving parents. Now looking at them, they don't look too overly abused or shell-shocked from raising 3.5 kids. Though I heard through the family grape-vine that they have some great coping drugs. I'm kidding. With every family get together, I normally get to re-live the first year of my driving antics. I sort of had this nick name, Crash. Though I never hurt anyone or damaged any property other then my parents property. The story is like one of those fish stories, but instead of the fish getting bigger and bigger, it's a small brick mailbox stand that keeps getting wider, taller and is now like the size of a small building that I supposedly took out one day. At this rate, the small brick stand is going to end up the size of a house. Yep, I took out a house in one fail swoop and a sharp turn of the blazing blue Chevy 4-door Malibu with super-car abilities. It almost sounds like I was driving Malibu-a-saurus. Anyway, after I violated the small brick pillar, my younger brother decided it would be a great time for me to take a fall and tell on me. It was pretty obvious that I hit the darn thing. First clue, bricks scattered and shattered and second clue, the huge dent in the side of the Malibu-a-nater. I'm sure I was crying and terrified that my dad would ground me for life. But instead he made sure I was ok, kind of shook his head as he inspected the damage, shrugged his shoulders in defeat and went back to his TV show. Guess all along, he really wanted that brick pillar gone. He just didn't want it done with the Malibu. Hey, my nick name wasn't Susan, one woman wrecking crew for nothing. Now, I think my mom responded by laughing hysterically and handing me a broom to clean up the mess, while my brother practiced his bonding skills on the car. The blazing blue car, turned into a gray and blue patch-work jalopy. I'd like to think the gray bondo gave it character. To this day, my dad on occasion shakes his head and shrugs at my antics and my mom laughs. Knock on wood, but they moved and have new concrete pillars in their front yard and I am driving a blue car again. Except, I have a feeling I will be sweeping up car parts and not bricks this time.

Thanks for read!

Toe Adventure and Weekend Fun

Friday night, Mr. Hottie Von Schnauzer (Will) took me to my first live performance of Phantom of the Opera. I've never been to a play / musical before and I definitely enjoyed it. Though there was a moment, when I couldn't take my eyes off the signers for the deaf. They were really getting into it. Their faces, hands and body were just going to town. We couldn't say these signers were monotone or part statue. On Saturday, we took our friends Bev & Dave to get pedicures. Ok, so how come there is a definite difference between men getting pedicures and women? How come the women in the nail place totally cater to the dudes. Geez, I was slapped in a non-working massage chair, quickly clipped, scrubbed and painted, then my butt ejected out of the chair before the men were even close to being done. And they don't even get polish on their toes! You know, I tip just as good as the men, please my toes are in way better shape. Anyway, our friend Dave had his first pedicure. I looked over at him at one point and his eyes were rolling back in his head from the massage chair action and the little Asian massaging his tootsies. After all said and done, he proclaimed the salt scrub was his favorite and he would definitely go again. Oh gosh, we created a pampered monster. After that was over, Bev and I dropped the boys off at a restaurant, so we could get a massage. Have to love that. Spoil me some more! Though the masseuse probably thought I was strange, because I asked her not to trash my hair, since we were all going out after the massage. She did a great job and the only signs of my massage were the red marks on my face from having it pressed into the pillow donut thing and the drool marks on my chin. After the massage, we all met for dinner and then decided to go to a local casino. Where they bent all of us over and took all our money. Ok, that shouldn't be a surprise, but more times then naught, we come out with a little extra cash. I left there feeling like they turned me up-side-down trying to shake change out of my shorts. Regardless, or lack of winning, it was an awesome weekend. I vote a repeat of the weekend, except change the part were I lose my shirt and coin to the casino. Have great work week all!

Thanksgiving and Turkey Lips

Oh my gosh, it's November! Yes, I said November! It's one of my favorite eating times of the year. Nothing more exciting then getting together with family and friends that bring all your favorite annual holiday dishes. I always consider myself a bringer and not the baker. Which in so many words, I don't have Thanksgiving dinner at our house. I would rather tote my goods and my hungry self over to my mom's place for the feast. It's always a fun place to be during the holidays. Along with the great smells and the wonderful people, there is my awesome mom. You can hear her call her kids and my dad by her designated pet names. example: Hey, Hair-Head! Hey, Turkey Lips! My dad's nick name is not for repeating out loud. Even the cat, Pedro has several nick names. Which nick name he gets all depends on how much he is annoying my mom. I'm not sure when the turkey lips nick name came along, but it seems to be a staple in my mom's nick name selections. I think we all find it strangely endearing. Because every one knows that turkeys don't have lips. Guess it's cuter then calling someone a turkey butt, or turkey neck. Which could get you karate chopped in my family. Hair head, needs no explanation. You got hair, you are a hair head. Hmmm, I wonder what she would call someone in the family if they went bald? Let's not find out. :) Happy Tuesday.

p.s. I didn't eat my chinese food at work that day. I saved it for lunch the next day. So there is hope for me yet.

3 for Chinese

Today I had lunch with two of my best-ees / BFFs. Sarah and Benita picked me up for lunch and we went to one of our local Chinese haunts, China Chile. Awesome chow and those wok'ers and servers are quick! They definitely don't want you there for 4 hour!


So why is it that after you eat Chinese food, you are hungry an hour later? I'm sitting here thinking about the left-over box of shrimp with veggies setting in work fridge right now. Anyone touches it and they will lose digits! Actually, I'm obsessing about the magic veggie box. I watching the clock, counting the minutes when I will be hungry enough to grab up the box of prawns and veggie joy. But I'm still not hungry. Dang it! I could do what I've been to known to do in the past and eat it anyway. Then complain to every co-worker within ear-shot that "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." Isn't funny that after leaving an Asian restaurant, the patrons start trying imitate the Asian server? Awe! Chop Chop, etc. I can't remember a time when I walked out of a Mexican restaurant trying to talk like a Mexican server? "It's cold out here, I need my Yacket" Just not the same funny zing. But then I leave a Mexican restaurant so darn full, I normally can't speak for fear I might reflux my beans & rice. Gosh, what would you say if you left a German restaurant? Talk about the waiter's wiernerschnitzel?
Ok, so my food is still in the fridge and I'm mentally fighting with all my might to keep it there until breakfast time tomorrow morning. Hey, breakfast is what you eat, right? And right now I want breakfast to be shrimp, rice & veggies. In my next blog, I will let you know if I held out or if I tore up the cute little box of Asian sunshine before the day is out. I think I can, I think I can.....
To be continued......

This is My Mental Bucket

This is my Mental bucket. As you can see, my mental bucket a.k.a. "MB" has a yellow shovel. I use my shovel to put many things into my MB. Sometimes I shovel crap-o-la, which you can ask Will, I'm really good at. Sometimes I shovel a pile of mental notes into my MB, which I will end up forgetting and have to eventually write them down on paper or send myself an email reminder. Though mental notes made about a spousal unit are put into the long term mental bucket, because we women won't let them forget any slight or mishap. That's our job. Let me pull a little example out of my MB that would be a long term note. Um, hey honey remember the time you made a bathroom reference stating I was taking a bus load of kids to the pool? Which my mental bucket spit out the translation of, "What? you think my butt is as big as a bus?" Ok, so I twisted his words around a wee bit just for the sick satisfaction of watching him squirm, back-track and try to rephrase the sentence. Oh the shear joy of tormenting! My MB can also struggle with the fact that my teen-age daughter, is growing up so darn fast and I really miss just chill'n with her. But I've also learned to cherish the moments when she acts like she still likes me. Which last for about 10 seconds, and then I'm back to being an annoying pain in the teenage butt. I have to be honest, at times I do enjoy razzing her. Sometimes my MB goes haywire. My shovel starts acting like a back-hoe and my MB over-flows with chocolate. MMmmmm Chocolate. That's when my MB is filled with Pre-mental Sand. There is one thing my bucket is never lacking. That is love! Even when my bucket it teetering and threatening to spill, there is always an abundance of wonderful people in my life. So shout out to the wonderful people and don't forget to add more chocolate. Monday Rocks!

http://health.yahoo.com/featured/46/8-mind-boggling-optical-illusions/

Grumpy Butt, the Diet and Orange Cream Sherbet

Yesterday I officially started my pre-wedding / honeymoon in Hawaii diet. Big sigh. I'm not sure why this happens, but the first week of my diet usually means I am going to be one grumpy crabby "B." Now I'm not the type of person to starve myself, in fact, I enjoy eating healthy. I think it's more like mental deprivation, then actual food deprivation. Heck, it takes me a week to gear up just to make the announcement at home, that the junk food festival is OVER. The other night, I was having my allotment of Orange Cream sherbet. When I decided it was time to ditch the carton. So I sat the carton in the sink, thinking I would wait for it to melt, then dump it down the sink. Well, the saboteur, I won't name any names, Will, put the carton back in the freezer. Not to be detoured, the next night he served me up my small allotment of sherbet. When he wasn't looking, I quietly put the closed container in the garbage. Well, Mr. Ruin my diet figured out what I did with the container and retrieved it from the garbage. Darn dumpster dive'n, trash pick'n saboteur. They say, third time is a charm. So this morning while "Save the Sherbet" man was snoozing, I hid the half empty container in the bottom of the garbage. By the time he finds it, it will be liquid orange cream sauce! I'm safe. Well, until I'm hit with a mountain of PMS hormones and I decide that I will die if I don't have a piece of Dove chocolate. Which I can't mentioned in front of the Benedict Arnold of diets, because then there will be fridge full of chocolate stored to sooth the savage PMS beast. Now that is love. So one minute I love him dearly for taking care of my savage PMS chocolate craving and the next minute I' m ready to thrash him for making me break my diet. Gosh, poor guy! Good thing he isn't afraid to stare down into the face of danger, me. Without sound overly mushy, I love that man! TGIF

My Dad's Train Hobby

It's here! The Adobe Mtn. fall meet (Oct. 16-18). Ever since I can remember my awesomely cool dad has been into trains. Back in the day, in our basement in Indiana, my dad had set up a really cool H.O. train "play room." My brother and I got to hang out there while my dad played. Yes, the train play room was more for my dad, but he didn't mind sharing with us too. There were tiny mountains, bridges, over-passes, under-passes, towns and little mini-everything. It was such a cool place and a great hobby to keep my dad out of my mom's hair, for the most part. Well now, ump-teen years later, my dad is still into trains. Except now the mountains are real and there is no basement. Because trains of this size wouldn't fit into a basement anyway. My dad, mom and family are members of the Maricopa Live Steamers. This is mostly made up of a group of mature adults, a sprinkling not as mature adults and a few kids too. These train enthusiast spend most of their weekends tinkering with their trains, which can cost a small fortune I might add. They also spend most of their weekends expanding the track, fixing the track and adding fun little touches along the routes. There is a great sense of family and fun when attending their events. Maricopa Live Steamers is a not-for-profit organization. They offer train rides to the public on weekends between Labor Day and Memorial Day, for an optional donation. You get a cool button if you toss a couple of bucks into their donation can. All proceeds are put right back into the train park. Plus they have a really cool train traffic coordinating system for their miles of track. Red light, green light.... Oh the boys and their toys. If you get the chance, please check out their website. Happy Riding. Choooo Choooo

http://www.maricopalivesteamers.com/

We are back from Vegas! The girls had a great time and so did the parents. The girls got to experience a bunch of firsts. First time in Vegas, first time in a limo, first time in a taxi and a bunch more stuff. It was Sara's goal for the weekend to see a transvestite or as she likes to call 'em a trannie. Her goal was accomplished on the last day when we stopped at a Boulder City McDonald's. The girls enjoyed having their own room, connected to our room of course. They also took advantage of room service. I should have taken the picture of McKenzie with a giant piece of chocolate cake in her hand, tearing it up like a wild beast. Both girls made me proud when they had two plates on their table while at the buffet. Talk about a buffet load of food. On the last day we went to the wax museum. The girls loved that. Had to keep McKenzie from dry humping the Johnny Depp statute. Guess she has a slight crush? I was worried they had a policy if you break it, you buy it. I don't think I could afford to fix a headless Johnny Depp wax figure. Luckily we were able to pry her off. We also went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Which was totally cool. What was even more interesting was they were having a tattoo convention in the same location. I've never seen so many mo-hawks in my life and that was just on women. For some reason, my daughter has this fixation with tattoos. She doesn't want to get one, but loves to look at them. So we took them to an air-brush tattoo artist and let them get a fake one. By day two it was smeared from the alcohol in the perfume they sprayed on their wrists. On the last night we went to the Circus de Soliel, Mystere. The girls loved it! That was the quietest they were the entire trip. It was definitely a fun time for all. Though the next Vegas trip is going to be adults only! Cuz we are going club'n. :)