and here I thought it was too SMALL!!

I have this coat. beautiful black wool trench coat. I bought it before R was born. in fact, I must have just been newly pregnant with R because I remember the lady I took it to for alterations saying that it would hang a bit different after I had the baby. well..... since I wasn't THAT pg yet and was still wearing my normal clothes, I wasn't worried about it. she hemmed the sleeves and the bottom and that was it.

I wore it that winter and then not much again. off and on. but around here you really don't NEED a thick winter coat and when you do it isn't like you need one that dressy. but with my current position, I need a coat that works with my business attire so it is getting quite a bit of use. well I noticed that the sleeves are too short. it was actually rather confusing. when my arms are down at my side they are the correct length, but when I bring them up to do something or hold something all of a sudden they are way too short. shirts and sweaters stick out the end and it looks really weird. I couldn't figure out that my arms had grown so I thought I must be wider around the chest and back and am pulling the arms up.

yesterday, I figured it out. the coat is actually too BIG and when I bring my arms up, I am cinching the sleeves back to put the arm holes where they belong which makes the sleeves too short. so instead of needing someone to lengthen the sleeves I actually need someone to take in the body of the coat.

I think I might just buy a new one. that can't be cheap.

is it a bad sign.....

when you wake up on your birthday with "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" streaming through your head?!?!?

if you can get past that L-O-V-E-L-Y family portrait to the right.....

please scroll down a bit and check out the Pound for Pound Challenge!! they will donate a pound of groceries for every pound I lose between January 1st and May 15th! how much more awesome can you get than that? so for every donut, cookie, or horribly unhealthy food choice I pass on, someone else will get some well needed food! AND the donations will be made to local food banks!

so.....check it out! if you have a resolution to lose weight, why not gain good karma at the same time?

obligations........

I don't want to get too specific........ ah, heck I do!

in the past 2 weeks, 2 different chaperones have had to drop out of R's school field trip. I don't know why the second person dropped out. and as much as I don't want to wish something bad to happen to someone, I sure hope something bad happened for them to flake on 115 kids!

the first person, however, is the one I would truly like to smack upside the head. everyone was told back in August that they would need to get fingerprinted. State law, District law, whatever! it used to be you only needed to get fingerprinted for overnight trips but a couple years ago it changed to do ANYTHING with the students you had to get fingerprinted. the process takes about 20 minutes at one of about a dozen police stations in the greater Sacto area. then they do the background check stuff. they tell you it takes about 90 days. don't have a clue WHY..... but it does!

anyway, back to the first flake. guess what they never "found time" to do?!??! oh you got it! so with less than a month until the trip they are short a chaperone...... one who had an econo van that they were going to transport 9 kids.......and a trailer for lots of gear. so, yeah, what a pickle!

so what I want to know is: how do you look your kid in the face and explain to them that you can't do something you committed to because you couldn't get your act together and get fingerprinted? and if kids can't go because there aren't enough chaperones how can you show your face at any school function ever? and really, what kind of parent or role model can you be if you, as a grown-up, can't meet your commitments? how can you hold your own child accountable if you can't do something as simple as find the time sometime in 6 months to go get fingerprinted?

(aaaah....... now who did I borrow this soap box from?)

remember the days?

remember the days when I used to scrapbook? they seem like they are very far in the past...... but at the beginning of the year a friend of mine decided we needed some motivation to get scrapping. with that our weekly sketch challenge was born. since then I have completed FOUR FOUR FOUR FOUR layouts!! (that is just FOUR Sharon......I wrote it out FOUR times FOR emphasis!) the best part is that I am only responsible for tracking down a sketch to use once a month. I am also loving that since they aren't for the design team over at LM, I can use whatever I want without worrying that it is new, in stock, still being made, etc! lol!! on one of my layouts I have paper that is 3 years old! I didn't even know I HAD paper that old!! and don't get me wrong.... I LOVE being on the DT and using new stuff! but I am glad to get the chance to use these papers. I obviously liked them enough to buy them, right?

anyway, if you are interested......

Farm Camp

Fall Fest

Just Ducky

Tis the Season for Penguins

no habla espanol!

(yeah.... not even sure I spelled that right)

but on with the story....... several months ago we started getting 2 phone calls every time the boys' school district sent out a broadcast message. I figured they just had a real basic phone calling system and couldn't figure out that we had 2 kids in the same district even if they were at two different grade groupings (elementary and middle) and at two different schools. so we get the same phone calls twice.

then a few months ago we started getting only one phone call from the school district....... in english......... and our second phone call........... in spanish!

and starting just a few weeks ago we have started getting solicitation calls from one of our credit card companies...... in spanish! WTH?!?!?!?

so, now, why is this happening?!?!? we have joked that since R has started taking spanish in school that the district wants him to practice! lol! and when D moved in with us, we had him tested as possibly bilingual because his prior foster care family spoke primarily spanish (welcome to California! lol!). anyway, he failed and they determined he had no problems with english and didn't know much spanish. but that really can't be it because D has been with us for 5 years and these spanish calls have only started in the past few months.

the question remains........... is there something about our family that makes people think we speak spanish or have they decided that everyone in our lovely state speaks spanish?

no se! (lol!!)

This is a test....

of the emergency blogger system. In the event of actual blogging you will be notified............if this works correctly!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Wii bii fit

seriously! is there an actual Wii diet plan out there? can I actually lose weight if I use this regularly?

I ask because I did 16 minutes this morning (beginner step for a warm up, some yoga, then advanced step, and then a yoga breathing). then tonight after grocery shopping I didn't feel like hitting the treadmill (shouldn't the walking around in circles at the grocery store count for anything?!?!?) I decided to do my morning routine again.

there is no way that I am saying I got as much of a workout from my 32 minutes of Wii fun as I would have from my treadmill routine, but it wasn't like I was a complete bum, right??

anyway, for those keeping track at home, my Mii says I have lost 1.34 lbs since Sunday. fat chance! lol!

Momma needs a new pair of shoes!

(Not that I would ever let the boys call me "Momma") but the shoes I am wearing today have obviously decided they want a divorce:

Late November I realize that the heels are all scraped up.......probably due to the fact that my legs are a tad on the short side and I frequently bump them into my rolling chair legs. So I took them into a cobbler near work. No problem, they will be done in a week!! I pay and go away. A week later I go back to find out they replaced the pads on the bottom of my heels but didn't actually FIX the heels!! After dealing with employees who don't speak english and an absent owner who won't return my calls, I take back my shoes and vow to never do business with them again.

Next, this morning after I am at work (of course) I notice that the leather has a slight tear along the seam on the top of my right shoe. Can't be fixed! Why couldn't this have happened BEFORE my ordeal with the cobbler?!?!

Needless to say, I am not dumb! Before these blasted things decide to break an ankle to get their point across, I am getting a new pair!

Too bad because these are comfy! And my other pair of black shoes are pumps and too low to wear my black pants with.

Guess I need to go shopping this weekend! Sure hope those end of year sales are still going!

perhaps a new resolution?

maybe in 2009 I will do a better job at posting? I would like to think so! I would like to think I am going to get my entire life back on track..... meaning more scrapbooking, more exercising, and more posting on my blog!

so far, as of the 3rd day of the new year I can report that I have done more of the first two items! I have completed a layout, Farm Camp 2006, and exercised all 3 days! we are trying to do Weight Watchers to get serious about some weight loss in this house and I considered using this blog, or starting another to keep track of points and stuff but have found that I can do the same thing on my Blackberry. I might have an issue with not being able to go back and see how I calculated points on a tuna fish sandwich or something, but other than that, why waste my time duplicating my work? I could be exercising, scrapbooking, or blogging with that time, right?

do you have an unusual resolution this year? I would love to hear them! my most out of the box one this year is to complete two 5Ks by the end of the year. not too exciting I know...... maybe the cutting back to 1 Coke or 1 Starbucks a week is more unusual?