Things That Skeeve Me Out

TWO THINGS THAT COMPLETELY SKEEVE ME OUT:

#1: Johnny Depp in pretty much everything he has ever done. Except 21 Jump Street. What a cutie he was!

Guess who isn't going to see Alice in Wonderland?

#2: My sister's stuffed cat that she had when she was a baby that is real rabbit fur and doesn't have any arms or legs (just a body) and it should have gone away forever many many years ago but she kept it and she found it the other day and now it is in her bedroom.
It is named Snowy. Snowy is EVIL



Guess who isn't going in her sister's bedroom any more?

Snack Time

Mmmmmm Good!!



Mmmmmm GOOD!


That's What Campells Soup Is

MMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMM
MEOW...... (Ahem)

I Mean GOOD!!!


This post is dedicated to JC's Purrrfect Furgang!

Portrait: Girl in Train

My youngest taking the train to Los Angeles where she is seeing Dreamgirls at the Pantages theater tonight with her dad tonight.
Lucky Duck.
Can you tell she didn't want her picture taken?

Birthday Cake

I just had to show you all this super cool cake that some of Lauren's friends made for her birthday.
Well, her brother made one too-- that is the one with the candles.
The other one, in case you are not a Newsies Fan..... is Spot Conlon. Her favorite Newsie.
They did a terrific job!!
She has some awesome friends!!

Road Trip Thoughts

I have many deep thoughts.
I have many shallow and kinda weird thoughts.
Usually the two don't intertwine.
But occasionally......... they do a little dance together. Not a waltz. Hmmm A Samba. Yes, a Samba.
The other day I made a trip to Santa Clarita. For those of you who don't know what that means... It entails leaving my desert home, traveling over the mountain passes and into another valley which is about halfway between my house and Los Angeles. The In & Out Burger place there is the official visitation drop off point for my ex hub and I.
I am driving along, having deep thoughts and I realize that I really need some visual interest so I am driving along, watching for the CHP and shooting pictures with my digital camera out the windows-- without having any true idea if I was capturing what I wanted to show you. Here are some of my more successful shots. I took about 50 pictures to get these. Clearly a very low success ratio. You have to wonder what the people in passing cars thought.
This is a partial shot of Vasquez Rocks. The fascinating thing about this area is that many TV shows and Movies are shot here. Whenever you see something that looks otherworldly in a hostile living environment, it is probably this area. Another interesting thing is that lots of Industry People live here (celebrities and people who work in movies and TV).

Here is where it gets deep.
Prepare yourselves....

What struck me is how incredibly green the desert has gotten just from a few weeks of rainfall. A few weeks ago I went by and it was sienna, taupe, and just plain ugly brown.
Then the rains came and the grasses and what not just come to life. Soon there will be beautiful wild flowers.

And this, my dears, is a metaphor for life, is it not?
Are we not occasionally shades of sienna, taupe and just plain old ugly brown? Dry and windblown and fragile. Bent to the breaking point. Dehydrated to the point that the smallest thing can pulverize you?
But have you ever experienced how a truly deep laugh, or some kindness from a really true friend can make all the difference? How hearing your child laugh or just show affection or appreciation can go such a long way toward bringing life back into the dryness of your soul? Seeing something really beautiful? Having someone pray with you or drop you a quick 'I love you' text. These things pay a dividend much higher than you might expect. An employer telling you that you did a good job on something can make up for a lot of missed opportunity.
I want to find more opportunities to bring little bits of life into someone's day. Maybe it is a silly blog. Maybe it is a little compliment. There are lots of opportunities if we look for them.
See how green it is getting out there?

My Spanish Tests

Phew!
That was a tough weekend, Geeezers!
I know you have been on pins and needles wondering HOW DID LEANN DO ON HER SPANISH MID TERM?
Well.... let me tell you... I don't know HOW I did but I know that I am DONE!
Yea!!!!!

As you know this is an online class which presents it's very own set of challenges and rewards.
On the pro side: I took my tests in my pajamas tonight. That is very comfy.
On the con side: The tests (there were three separate ones) were supposed to post at noon today and did not post until 6:00pm tonight. I was all prepared to take my tests at about 3:00pm and my spanish knowledge began to slowly seep out of my brain shortly there after.
I was frustrated ya'll.
So Monica and I went to dinner together to have one of our bi-monthly financial meetings where we figure out how much money to move around to pay our bills. It is a lot like being married except both people care, lol. (IE: I was married to someone who never wanted to talk about money.) After a lovely soup and salad dinner I came home and got ready for bed. It was dark outside (mostly) so I got my jammies on.
Then.... I hear it..... on my brand new Blackberry (a story for another day).... the tone that tells me that my espanol professor has finally gotten off his backside and posted the tests.
What to do?
Do I have enough brain left to take the tests tonight thereby leaving me brain free for Monday Project Runway night?
I can only take the tests once you know.
So, I make a leap of faith and take the tests.
It is too soon to know how I did, but I will be sure to let you know.... as long as I did well. If I did not do well you may never know.

So now it is 9:29pm. I am going to go celebrate with a bowl of Moose Track ice cream and sleep the deep and satisfied sleep of a college student with no homework for the week.
PARTY!!!!!

I Haven't Forgotten About You

I am sorry.
Once again I have dropped the ball and neglected you.
What is happening in my life to make me put my blog on the back burner?
Let's see....
Work has gotten really crazy.
One minute we were a smallish construction company trying to survive the recession. The next minute we are a Corporate Entity hiring tons of people and managing huge jobs all over the place. The Concrete Masonry Units have really hit the fan, ya'll and I am running to keep up with it all.
Also, I am still matriculating. Sadly, I had to drop my accounting class because it was just too much. So I am uni-matriculating this semester. I am still taking my online Spanish class. Which has not really turned out to be the easy no-brainer I had hoped for. This after buying the book and purchasing a parking pass.
I don't mind the pass too much though, it makes me look cool to have those stickers on my car.
Oh yeah.... she's a COLLEGE STUDENT!!!!!!
I know you are jealous!!
Hasta luego, amigos!!!

Happy Birthday Lauren

As of today, my children are now adults.


HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!!


Lauren is all about celebrating her birthday. She spends MONTHS revving up for it!
Last weekend's trip to Disneyland was to celebrate on my side of the family. Her dad is taking her to New York City for his side. She is lucky he likes to travel! She is going to have such a great time!

Having Lauren in my life is like a never ending parade. When she takes a shower, she puts on a broadway show for the rest of us in the house. That kid can sing. (I should invite you all over-- we can make popcorn-- it is a long show, at least half an hour long).

When she was a baby and learning to crawl she would lay on her tummy and put her arms and legs in the air put her head down and pump her arms and legs for a while, then look up. You could tell she thought she was crawling-- she always looked surprised she hadn't gotten anywhere. It was too cute! Even as a baby you could see the strength in that little girl. She was going places. You better just stay out of her way!

Tonight there will be a lot of laughing and silliness and food and friends. I hope she has a great time. I will sit back and watch the parade!

Happy Birthday Lauren!
I love you!!
Mom

Motel 6????

I am sure you have all been on pins and needles waiting to hear about my weekend at the Motel 6 in Anaheim..... merely down the street from Casa de Mouse.

It was a nice place--- but does this look like a Motel 6 to you?
The colors are different.
It felt Japanese... like futons.. and acrylic.

And the floors were laminated wood type floors. No carpet. That was odd too.

The TV is set into the wall. There is nothing else on that entire wall but this. That was weird. Nice TV though.







This is the long view of the room. The doors are french type black acrylic doors. The towels are set into this yellow acrylic box thing on the wall that also has a light. See it? Weird.
But nice.


Here are the girls eating a very nutritious breakfast of carmel kettle corn. Did you even know this existed? It was yummy.

Saturday night the girls went down to check out the pool area and imagine my dismay at discovering that they went in the spa fully clothed. I am quite sure that if they had asked me I would have been horrified because isn't that how Good Mothers Act? You will have to tell me cuz I doubt I are one. They went swimming. I didn't tell them not to. They loved it. Of course that meant no dry clothes for the next day and the way you see them here is pretty much the way they traveled home in the car.
Now about the day before. We hit Anaheim just in time for the rain to stop which was amazing because it rained at home all day long. For you who are not from The Greater Antelope Valley--- home is about 90ish miles from Casa de Mickey. And it was pouring. Not my favorite thing you know. I dropped them off and headed for my cousins' house. She gave me two sets of directions because I told her I don't care for the freeway. One was on the freeway and one was on surface streets. I opted for the freeway. Apparently I turned back very close to being at the actual correct freeway but it didn't feeeeel right... So I back tracked and went via the surface streets. A few miles down the road I came across some police action which resulted in a closed street... it took me about half an hour to find a parallel street to go around. Then I got back on track and kept on going, albeit insecurely, until I found the place. Okay, yes I texted my son to mapquest and tell me if I were anywhere near the right place.... and I was..... Yes, I am a dork. I need to get this cool Gardin thingie that my cousins have to help me navigate. Course, I would probably lose it or have to text Brandon to ask how to use it.
I am like that you know.
When I got home my cats and dog met me at the door and told me that my sister had forgotten to feed then OR give them treats.....
She says that she did feed them AND give them treats.
Someone is not telling the truth..... And I am not sure who.....

Wordless Wednesday (nearly)

Contentment: We Haz It

I Survived The Weekend

Okay, this is going to be a really quick post because I need to do my Spanish homework. But I am going to type slowly because I know you don't read all that fast....
Think about it.....
Okay. I know some (nee: ALL OF YOU) were worried about my survival over the weekend and the short story is: Yes, I did.
Which only makes sense really because YOU CAN'T BLOG FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE......
Or Can You?????
Here are some answers to your questions:
1) Yes, it was loud Friday night but I did get some sleep. My bedroom is strangly soundproof.
2) Yes it was raining horribly on the drive to Disneyland but it cleared up once we got there and didn't rain again. BUT they closed the park early because it was suppposed to rain. Stupid wimpy Mouse.
3) The girls are great and yes, I really did allow them to swim in their clothes.
4) I did take pictures of my motel room and will post soon. It will facinate you I promise. Really-- Motel 6 has gone in a very new and exciting way of decorating.
5) Hamsters
6) No, I actually forgot about the Super Bowl party because I wasn't very awake. Sorry. I hope you all still had fun without me.
7) Yes

Many thanks to my sister without whom I could not have taken the girls for Laurens bday trip since she gave me the tickets for free (#8 even though 2 day tickets say they are not transferable you really can let someone else use them for the second day).
Also thanks to my cousins Susie, Steve and Bonnie who let me hang out with them during the day because (really Sheila, I am sorry to tell you this) I didn't even WANT to go into Disneyland. How many times can you see the Jungle Cruise and still pretend it is real????? (Sorry if I just burst someone's bubble there)
And most of all, thanks be to God who gave me a lovely weekend with no monster (whom I have started to call Chuck just to downgrade the fear factor) and helped me drive the freeways even in the rain.
More later Geeezers......

SShhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhhhhhhh
Be very, very quiet
I think they may have forgotten I am here
I fed them and then I snuck upstairs and I am writing this from under my desk
There must be hundreds of them out there
THOUSANDS even
It sounds like it anyhow........
Girl Party Night at Casa De Fenner y Williamson
Sleepovers for both girls..........
I am scared
If I don't make it out alive........ I just want you to know that it has been a pleasure putting a little smile on your face....
Or an expression of confusion.... either one will do.....

Tomorrow: Celebration of Lauren's birthday which involves freeway driving and a stay at the Motel 6 in Anaheim.... guess where we are going......
Not me... I am dropping them off and spending the day with my cousins. Yea!

That is if I make it through tonight......
Pray...............

Newsies Or How To Get Lauren To Post a Comment

In the car the other day Lauren and I had a conversation about how cool it is when people name you in their fan fictions or on their blogs and about how WOUNDED I am that she reads my blogs but never comments.
She said if I blogged about one of her all time favorite movies she would comment me. I can't wait.

So, this is the Newsies Blog

Have any of you seen this movie? It was released back in 2002 and it is the true story of an 1899 strike by newspaper boys against publishing magnate Joseph Pulitzer. A musical, Newsies starred a young and gorgeous Christian Bale as Jack Kelly, the leader of the strike. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPuGMgT6yw

It really is a cool movie with lots of cute boys dancing and singing and all in east coast accents.
I would tell you more about Lauren and this movie but it is her birthday soon so I am saving it.

Christian Bale was such a cutie. I LOVED him in Little Women.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3566600473/
How adorable was he??? And then he grew up and got obnoxious. And I don't like him in Batman because he is TOO DANG DARK and Batman should not be all that serious! I liked the Michael Keaton Batman... now THERE was a Batman.... More of a GRAY color..... not so DARK....
I digress.....
Ahem... Lauren... your comments????

Happy 25th Birthday Brandon!!

Here is it again. February 4th!
Today is a very special day because my firstborn has now achieved a quarter of a century of wonderfulness. Can you even believe I have a 25 year old? And I wasn't a high school kid when I had him either!

He may not look like me but he definitely shares a lot of my personality. Or my personality before years of therapy and psychotropic medications anyhow. I give you:
Exhibit A:
He pretty much believes he knows everything that is worth knowing. This is a multi-generational issue that has been passed down at least so far as my father. Course, I find that the older I get the less I know but that is just me. We also tend to secretly think we really can do anything better than just about anyone. Secretly. So don't tell anyone, okay?

Exhibit B: He has a wicked sense of humor that we share-- with apologies to his wife. She has endured a lot of weirdness that we find hysterical.

Exhibit C: He likes cats but only has one so he is a little behind with the feline hoarding but I guess he will catch up. He also likes dogs..... me? I am ambivalent on the canine question. Apologies to Sam-- but if you would stop peeing on things the paradigm would probably shift on the dog question.
Exhibit D: He is a master at fixing things and figuring out how stuff works. Now, some of your eyebrows just lifted at that statement. "LeAnn" you say to yourself "you cannot do these things." And I would say to that: "Pish!!" If I WANTED to do those things I know that I would be FABULOUSLY successful at them. I just don't WANT to.
See? We are exactly alike!!

Apart from all that tooting of my own horn in a backhanded kinda way, I have to tell you that he is my favorite son. And he is a wonderful friend to me too!

Happy Happy Birthday Little Guy!
Loves & Hugs from Mommy

La clase de Espanol

Como estas, Geeezers?

I am well into my third week of my online Spanish class now. It is harder than I thought it would be. Apparently they babied us waaaay back in High School where you spent half the semester learning how to count to 10. And then the mid-term was to name the primary colors.
Dudes, they had me conjugating right out off the block. HOW WRONG IS THAT????
Meanwhile, back at la oficina de Nibbelink there are any number of opportunities to practice. I can eavesdrop on the guys while they gossip at the work counter and fill out time cards. I can eavesdrop on the conversations between Claudia and guys coming in to fill out job applications. And best of all I can text Claudia with stupid questions and obscure translations. Unfortunately I cannot use words I hear the guys chattering about because most of them are too brash for my delicate ears. I only wish I could tell you some of the names they have for each other. Plus I don't trust that they won't set me up by telling me something that means something else entirely.
Today I had a very nice conversation with un hombre quien trabaja de Nibbelink where I kinda sorta understood what he was saying and answered back to him in English.
Lucky for me, I am not only accustomed to people laughing at me but I actually encourage that sort of activity.
In fact I feel as though I have failed in life if I haven't made someone laugh at me at least once a day. It is important to have goals, you know!
PS: I probably shouldn't tell you this because you may expire with anticipation but..... my Managerial Accounting class starts next week. Now that is one sexy class.

Sunday Excitment

Goodness gracious!
I haven't kept up my end of the bargain very well now, have I? You know... the pact we signed where I promised to endlessly blog about all the excitement in my life and you promised to faithfully read and post adoring comments about whatever I wrote.
It isn't as if life hasn't been exciting around here....
I mean, yesterday for dinner we had...........
Wait for it............
Lauren was very excited for it......
Monica was excited for it.........
Wait for it...........
Corned Beef Hash
From a can!
(insert scary music here)
I have never had this before. It looks like dog food. When I showed it to the dog he was all like HECK NO!!!!!!!! I am not eating that stuff!
But they said that if we fried it up and made some oily eggs (Becca's term for over easy eggs) and some toast we would have a marvelous dinner.
So we fried and toasted.
Sorry to break it to them, but it tasted like what I imagine dog food must taste like.
Becca wasn't impressed either.
Guess it is going to be a special bond between Lauren and her aunt.

And that is it. A taste of my very exciting day yesterday.
Don't be jealous.

You could be doing my Spanish Homework!!!