This has been a great extended weekend. Drove down Thursday and on the way visited with my brother. Went to my Mom's Retirement Ceremony. She is very appreciated and will be missed. She has coworkers who are very talented, crafty, and funny. Among some official awards she was given an American flag that had been flown at the Nation's Capital on her birthday in honor of her retirement and her 60th birthday. Very cool.

On Friday my hubby and Oldest were expected around 9pm. I called to check in with Oldest and could not figure out why my anti-MIL was acting weird when I asked to talk to her. When Oldest called at 5pm and said they were almost to Grandma's, it all made sense. They got here in time to go to dinner.

Another thing that may seem small to most - I was there when my Mom came home from her last day of work. It is nice to be there for important moments for her, like she has been for mine.

Today an Easter Party for the Kids at my Dad's work. (Not my Mom's since she retired.) Oldest came in 2nd in the sack race. Both got some candy. Horse rides and and animal petting zoo made the day complete.

How long do you actually think about what would happen if you pulled the fire alarm?

Would you actually admit it?

Did I just admit it? Doh!

Tonight was Oldest's turn to pick a restaurant to dine at. She loves CiCi's Pizza. Hubby and I? Not so much. I will admit that for the price it is a good deal.

I will also admit that I love their newest pizza. MACARONI and CHEESE pizza!! Yes, pizza with pasta and pasteurized process cheese spread! Doesn't sound good, but it tastes good. Yummy!

I love looking at handwriting. In High School I read books about handwriting analysis. I may post on that in the future, but this post is on a meme created by Logtar. I found his idea on Big Orange Michael's blog.

He uses a panagram and asks us to write it and post it. Here is mine....

Let me know if you post one....

You know how you get a brain cramp and just can't think of something or think straight? The last few weeks I have been having blog cramps! Can't think of much to blog!

Bah!!!!!

Oldest was scratched in the eye yesterday with a pencil.

I got the call from the school. Called the eye doctor then my husband. Told him she could not see out of the eye. "DEFINE SEE!" Uh... I don't know. Let me call back and see if it is real bad. "If she can't see at all we are not going to wait until 4pm to see the doctor." I called the school back. She could see out of the eye just blurry. Just to be safe, the eye doctor fitted us in at 4pm.

She had a scratch and a good one at that. The doc said she had seen adults come in with lesser cuts with their eye squinting and complaining.

All you could see on Oldest was a red eye that was droppy. And she only complained when you asked her. Other than that she was running around like normal.

The doc gave us some eye drops to prevent infection, but said if we left it alone it would be fine. It had already started healing.

Whew!!!!

....when he took out the trash?

(sung to the Lone Ranger theme song) To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump dump!

5 years ago I had to take some old furniture to the dump. It was not very fun since you backed up your truck to the edge of the dump. The ground was rutted from the huge dump trucks coming in. Luckily I had my Father-in-laws truck or I would have been in trouble.

Fast forward to now. Old waterbed and misc stuff to get rid of. NOT looking forward to it. Get the address, drive with my husband, do the REQUIRED get lost/turned around. Find it right off of the highway. Hmmmm, I remember going down a rural road. Drive up and they have it "SET UP"!!!! You back your truck up to the edge and below that is a dumpster. No dirt! All concrete! They have several slots available with dumpsters at it and you just put your stuff in it!!!!

What was even better? I got to throw stuff!!!!!! Yep!!! The dumpster was full at the front. So we had to get the stuff to the back. THROW IT, BABY!!!!! There is therapy for you! Take your trash to the Drop Off Station!!!!

On weekdays I average 2 hours on the road. Granted some of it is napping since I am car pooling with my husband. But when I am awake....

I am scornfull of cell phone users! OK, they suck!!!!!

They drive to slow, swerve, don't pay attention, don't look when they get into other lanes. BAH!!!!

Used to be when you saw someone driving like this, you thought they were drunk. Not anymore.

Don't blow this off to female emotion. My frustration is based on first hand observations.

But there is some one backing me up on this. Mythbusters! This show on Discovery Channel has two guys who try to bust myths and urban legends. And they don't just talk about it, they test it out. They try to replicate the situation to see if it is true. One episode they tested if steel-toed boots can be more dangerous than the regular variety. They smashed steel toe and non-steel toe boots with materials to represent real feet. They tried many different ways. They go out of there way to make sure they are replicating the myth as close as they can.

Another episode of note is #33. I am scamming the complete summary from the Unofficial Mythbuster's Episode Guide. Read their results......

I was not surprised by the results.

_{Note to guys: You will really like this show since they blow up, shoot and destory things on a regular basis!!!}

Even the grandparents are getting tired of the girls "discussing" who should go first, who went first last time, who ALWAYS gets to go first, and who asked first to go first.

So I made a new rule. The conversation went something like this......

Youngest: "Can I have milk first?"

Me: "I have a new rule. I will give you milk first this time since I am just telling you about this rule but from now on whoever asks to go first, goes last. Understand?"

Both girls: "Yes."

A few minutes pass. They finish their cereal. Youngest asks for more and states:

"Momma, I have a new rule. Whoever asks to go last gets to go first."

I chuckled. "The rule is updated. Whoever asks to go first or lasts goes last."

Youngest: "Awwwww, Mooooom!"

Here is a good joke.....made me laugh out loud.

Hat tip to Dash at "The Boiling Point"

Ahhh!!!! Sin in a stick!!!!

Have you tried Go-Tarts? They are even better than Pop-Tarts because the filling is thicker. That is my favorite part.....

The picture above is from our trip Easter Weekend to Lake Mineral Wells State Park. The girls went with the anti-InLaws on Friday, we enjoyed a nice night out that night, then made our way out on Saturday.

Oldest is sitting on a dock enjoying the water on her feet. Notice her shadow? You can tell she is smiling.

By no means am I a car buying expert. I have only purchased 5 in my lifetime. Most purchased when I really needed them, so I lost some bargaining power. Plus, I did not know what I was doing. I have a friend who buys cars over the phone. He looks at the cars on Sundays when the dealers are gone, researches the price online (here and here) and then calls all the dealers in the area until one is willing to beat his price. Good thing about this is you don't have to deal with them face to face and can say "No" very easy. Even better if you can go test driving and say no when you are at the dealers.

My husband is very good at buying cars also. He knew exactly what he wanted to pay for our blue car. We had it special ordered so he knew the dealership had not lost any money on it sitting on the lot. Plus it was a Focus Wagon with a stick shift. Who would want that? (We may be the only ones, but we needed the "umph" for highway driving.) When we went to pick it up my husband prepared me. Since he knows me very well.

"No matter what happens, even if we have to walk out, DO NOT CRY!!!"

Luckily we did not get to that point and they took my husband's price. Whew!

This is how I feel on my birthday.

I was reminded of my chance to meet a famous person a few years ago by CalTechGirl's post on Alton Brown. She found a link that is funny and great for Alton fans.

Alton Brown has a show on FoodTV that is very entertaining. He explains how things cook, not just straight forward directions. He give you base recipes and the knowledge to make changes to your liking.

He has given my family many recipes that are now part of our lives. (Sappy, huh?)

40 Cloves and a Chicken This is one of my All-Time Top Ten Dishes. The recipe does not talk about taking french bread, dipping it in the olive oil left from cooking the chicken. It has the the chicken juices and garlic all mixed in. Then you broil the bread and it is wonderful. All the 40 cloves are soft and cooked so you can use them like butter on the bread.

Free Range Fruitcake I don't like fruitcake, but every holiday my Mom makes two of these. One for her and one for my husband. The love it!!!

The Puffy THE. BEST. CHOCOLATE. CHIP. COOKIES. EVAH!!!!!!!

No Pan Pear Pie Yummy, just look at the ingredients.

He has many others, but these are the first to come to mind. And just reading the recipes does not do Alton justice. The show is great and he adds so much more to them. And it is even entertaining!!!!

When Alton came out with his first book (I'm Just Here For The Food) we went to his book signing in Dallas. He spoke for while about the book and his show, answered some questions, then sign some book. We even got a picture with him. The picture makes me laugh for several reasons. Alton has a stupid grin, my girls don't even care what is going on, don't know who the guy to the left is and why he did not get out of the picture, and WOW! we look so young!

About a week after I posted this, a study came out on the dangers of multi-tasking and driving. You can read more about it in RofaSix's post and Part-n-Pieces.

Becky also commented on this same thing in her post - that other things are just as dangerous as cell phones. I agree but I see cell phone usage more. I have seen people reading books, hitting passengers, trying to get something off the floor, and putting on makeup. But for every one time I see something like this, I see cellin' 20 times. Based on the WSJ in Rofa's post, the study also agrees: