I Apologize...

I was supposed to announce the winner of the My Memory Suite two days ago but with all the clean up from the hurricane and my having a flare up I totally spaced on announcing it here my blog. I did send the winner an email though.

The winner was....Teri.

I hope she has as much fun creating pages with the software as I am!

Friday Confessions

I confess...Xanax had become my best friend a necessary part of my life the last couple of days.

I confess...the dismal swap isn't very far from where we live (see map) and has been on fire for the last couple of weeks (maybe longer). So it's been smoky skies here lately.

{distance from the town I live in to the Dismal Swamp) 

I confess...I'm still freaked out of my very first earthquake!

I confess...now I've got to worry about this bitch!

{the red arrow's mark where we live}

I confess...I'm scared to death! I want to run as far away as we possibly can. Hubby doesn't.

I confess...we may/may not have argued over leaving.

I confess...Xanax.

I confess...After staying in Louisiana through Hurricane's Katrina and Rita, I want to RUN at the mention of a hurricane.

I confess....Xanax.

I confess...I may be offline for a few days/weeks if the storm hits us bad. I have a giveaway (if you haven't entered it yet, what are ya waiting for???) ending Monday. I may not be able to announce the winner until I get electricity and cable back.

I confess...days/weeks without internet? 

I confess...Xanax.

I confess...I'm currently obsessed with my little hummingbird visitors. This little guy (girl??) keeps "guarding" our feeder and wont let any other birds near it half the time lol.

I confess...A couple of days ago my friend Jess and I decided to try one of those "water marble" manicures.

{not these bright colors though}

I confess...it didn't work out at all like the above pic and was a crazy ass mess. 

I confess...never again!

I confess...this dog cracks me up! This is Bonsai laying outside of our bedroom door waiting for her "Daddy" to wake up. She laid there (most of the time with her nose planted at the bottom of the door so she could "smell" him!) for over two hours waiting!

{spoiled to "Daddy" much?}

I confess...I'm reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight series) and it's really good. I didn't think I was going to like it as much as I am!

I confess...I hope to be back in blog land soon!

Take care and y'all...say a prayer for us! I'm going to bed, it's 1am and I'm exhausted!!

Much love! 

Are y'all ready for some questions & answers? If you want to play along head on over to Mamarazzi and/or Queso's  blog to grab the questions.

1. What is the best advice someone has ever given you?
To love myself. You can't expect anyone to love you if you don't love you!

2. What is your greatest accomplishment?
My Son, he's turned into quite the young man. He makes me proud every single day!

3. Who do you admire?
My oldest sister. Her strength and determination amaze me.

4. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
Lord this a list that could be a mile long. I'd probably have to say that I let what other people think of me affect me more than I should.

5. How do you want to be remembered? 
As a loving, giving person. For my good heart.

So go grab the questions, I'm dying to know your answers!

Yeah We Were Shakin'

Today is hubby's birthday but we hadn't planned anything special since we're trying to save up money for Rusty's visit next month.



We were sitting in the living room, he was playing Black Ops on his PS3 and I was messing around on my laptop. All of a sudden I started feeling this rumbling, then our walls starting moving back and forth from the front of the house to the back.



I froze y'all. I couldn't say anything, I couldn't move. I was just sitting there like a dumb ass lol. Finally I managed to say "why is our house moving??" Hubby replied "you feel that too?" He thought he was getting dizzy from playing his game (lmao!!).



Good Lord y'all. I was in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina and then two weeks later Hurricane Rita. I thought that was the scariest thing I'd ever been through. Let me tell you, give me a hurricane any day.



This earthquake crap is for the birds. This little Cajun girl NO LIKEY. NO LIKEY AT ALL!



I was dizzy for at least two hours after the earthquake stopped. I was an emotional wreck. I couldn't stop shaking. For all you crazies people who live in earthquake prone areas, I think you're nuts for staying there lol you're much braver than I am!



And to make matters even lovelier, we've got Hurricane Irene headed in our direction. Is Hubby worried?? Nope, not at all. Am I? You betcha!



Can't I just go home to Louisiana already?

Today's Your Lucky Day

Y'all (my loyal readers) know how much I love to design blog layouts. Want to know what I did before computers (and HTML) entered my life?? I was totally addicted to making scrapbooks.

Imagine my delight when I was offered the opportunity by the nice people at My Memories to review their software. And the best part? I also get to give one of you your very own copy of My Memories Suite.

It didn't take me long to get wrapped up in making new projects with it, it's so easy to use and there are so many options that you can add to your digital scrapbooks. You can add narration,  music, videos and multimedia. You can even print your pages and share them as a traditional scrapbook-or use the one-click share option to turn your album into professionally-printed and hardbound book. How cool is that?

Let me tell you all the different things you can create with My Memories Suite. You can make albums, scrapbooks, calendars,  cards, posters, and baseball cards. You can even turn your scrapbook into a DVD that you can watch on your Ipod (or Ipad for those of you lucky enough to have one. So jealous!) There's so much more you can do with My Memories Suite.

I've used several different scrapbook software programs and I have to say this has been by far the easiest.  I love all of the free downloads and design ideas that you can find on their site.

This is the first page that I made, I figured since today is Hubby's birthday I'd make a page for him.

 {we make a cute couple}

The lyrics on the page are from "More than love" by Los Lonely Boys. One of our songs. While making this one I added the song to the digital copy of the page. I love having the option of adding music along with the pages you create.

My next project was a page for my Son's (his birthday was yesterday) girlfriend. I've been begging them for pictures of the two of them since they started dating. Last night after his birthday dinner she posted these pics of the two of them on FB so I did what any good Mom would do. I "snatched" them off of her FB so I could surprise her with this page.

{how cute are they?}

I had so much fun making these pages. I can't wait until I can make Rusty and Amanda a whole scrapbook, once I have enough pictures of the two of them lol.

On a side note, I just have to show y'all this pic of Rusty and Amanda. Since I've never met her I didn't know how tall she is. (Sorry for the bad pic) She doesn't even reach his shoulders!!

{Holy shortness, how funny do they look?} 

Ok, back to business. What do you have to do in order to win your very own copy of My Memories Suite? 

MANDATORY ENTRY

Go to My Memories and tell me what your favorite digital scrapbooking kit is.

For additional entries you can also follow My Memories on Facebook, and their blog. You can also follow my blog for an extra entry.

Please leave separate comments for each entry. And that's it, easy as pie huh??

And don't worry y'all, if you're not the lucky winner I still have a deal for you! Y'all can use this code My Memories was nice enough to give to me to share with y'all.  Just copy and paste this code while purchasing My Memories, you will get $10 off! That's a great deal considering it's already a reasonable price. You'll also get  a $10 coupon for the My Memories store where you can purchase scrapbook kits and templates! That's a $20 dollar value!!

Here's your code:  MSV210D 

I can't wait to see who wins and what you'll create with My Memories Suite.  I'll pick a random winner on Monday, August 29th. Good luck y'all.

Friday Confessional

I confess...My Son bought the tickets for him and his gf to come up here next month. I'm super excited. We've planned a trip to the beach so they can go para sailing and a trip to Bush Gardens for a day of roller coasters. It's going to be a fun (but short) visit.

I confess...I think some people need to grow up and think of other peoples feelings instead of (just) their own sometimes.

I confess...It's 1:30 in the morning and I'm still awake. It's pissing me off.



I confess...This past week I read the most horrendous story that I've ever read. Sadly, it's true. A man in Louisiana decapitated his 7 year old son (who had Cerebral Palsy and was wheelchair bound) and left his head on the sidewalk outside of his house "so his girlfriend (and the little boys Mom) would feel stupid when she got home and saw it." What is this world coming to??

I confess...I hope he gets everything he deserves and more every single day that he spends in prison.

I confess...this picture melts my heart!

I confess...I'm going to lay down and try to get some sleep! Lol

You want to know right?

It's our favorite day of the week again y'all. You know, the day when all us nosy people get to read everyone's answers to this weeks questions. If you'd like to play along you can click on the cute little button above or you can go by Mamarazzi's and Queso's blogs to grab the questions.

1. Did you live in the same town or move around a lot as a child? 
No, my Dad and Step Dad were both in the Army so we moved around. A lot.

2. What were your parents like? 
This is such a loaded question lol. Mom was very strict. Dad was absent. The Army really doesn't allow you to be home a lot. Well, back then (Viet Nam) the didn't.

3. Do you have any siblings? What were they like growing up? 
I have two older sisters, one was (still is) very protective of me (the oldest) the other was mean to me and beat me up all the time lol (the middle child). I also had a baby sister who passed away at the age of 13. That was 22 years ago. 

4. Share a short story from your childhood. 
My Mom was dating this guy when my Sisters and I were really young (7, 6 and 4). (This was after she divorced my Dad) We played in his car a lot and we accidentally knocked it into gear and the car went rolling for the cliff behind our house. Thank God there were lots of trees to stop the car. We did this TWICE. Lol... Needless to say he didn't date our Mom long.

5. What did you look like? (share a picture for your chance to win a prize) 
All of my pics are in the attic but I grabbed these from an entry about my little Sister who passed away.

 {I'm on the left}

 {My little Sister and I, again I'm on the left}

I don't know what's worse in that last pic, my hair or that sweater lol! Have a great Wednesday y'all! 

Cover it up...

Hey guys! Not a whole lot to report on my end. Not anything that I feel like writing about today anyway lol. So I thought I'd share some of my favorite covers of some of my favorite songs.




Linkin Park - Rolling in the deep. Love this version!




 Chris Daughtry - Poker Face. I think I like his version better.

Paramore - Use Somebody. Not as good as Kings of Leon but I do like the way she sings it!



Gretchen Wilson _ Baracuda. Holy hell this woman can sing!



So this one isn't a cover. Storm Large was a contestant on Rockstar Supernova and I love her voice. This song makes me want to just get in my car and drive. Fast lol. Her live (explicit) version is better but she performed it so well on the show!



Fergie, Slash and Cypress Hill - Paradise City. Girlfriend rocked it!



Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw - Gin and Juice. Freakin' hilarious!



Sugarland - Sex on Fire. I love her voice. They did a good job on this one!


John Legend - Rolling in the Deep. Yup! Two different covers of the same song. I love his voice and I could listen to his version all day long.

So what are some of your favorite covers? Favorite songs right now? I need some new stuff for my Ipod so help me out!

Friday Confessions

Whew...what a week!

I confess...I've been up all night. AGAIN.

I confess...I'm angry and bitter about that!

I confess...my blog entry from yesterday still makes me tear up when I think about it!

I confess...my Son and I got into a huge argument a couple of nights ago. Over his girlfriend that I didn't know he was (still) going out with. I thought they'd broken up months ago (they did) and he'd stopped talking to her. (He didn't.)

I confess...when I saw her "I love you Rusty" comment on his FB profile I may or may not have left a nasty smart ass comment about it.

I confess...he was NOT a happy camper about my comment.

I confess...I cried like a baby when he called me on it. That may have something to do with the fact that he was PISSED and didn't hold anything back when letting me know how pissed he was.

I confess...it made me realize that I need to let go of the apron strings. He's going to do what he wants to do no matter how I feel and if I want to have a good relationship with him...I've got to play nice. I mean, he is almost 22.

I confess...I'm playing nice. Honestly, as long as she makes him happy and takes care of him...I'm all good.

I confess...she's actually talking him into coming up here for my birthday next month which is awesome. Except their plane tickets are going to cost anywhere between $700 & $900 and I hate to think of him spending that much money for them to come up here.

I confess...yeah I'm still working on the whole "letting go of the apron strings" thing.

I confess...I don't understand people letting their under 13 young kids open FB accounts. And can we talk about the pictures that their young daughters are posting?? Haven't these people ever heard of pedophiles?? They're everywhere ya know, including FACEBOOK.

I confess...THANK GOD I HAVE A BOY.

I confess...bring on the weekend. Have a great one y'all!

The Things You See....

It's amazing the things you'll see sometimes when people don't realize you're looking. It's little gestures like this one that make me proud to be an American, proud to be the wife of a veteran and the daughter of a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient.

(the wind wasn't blowing very much when I took this pic)

Our flags have been flying at half mast since the helicopter crash that killed 31 people (including Seal team 6) in Iraq. It was just our little way of paying our respects. 

On Tuesday hubby was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the UPS man, his cigars we'd ordered him for his birthday were supposed to be in that day. When the UPS truck pulled up in front of our house hubby walked outside to get the package. The driver handed him the package and then saluted the flags before getting back into his truck and driving away. 

It brought tears to my eyes. It gave me goosebumps. It was one of the most touching things I'd seen in a long time. It's amazing the little things we as American's do to show our respect to our fallen soldiers.

I sent UPS an email yesterday telling them about what happened. The person who responded was just as touched as I was by their drivers actions.

Just had to share this one with y'all! 

WWTKW

1. If you could be on any game show what would it be?
Wheel of Fortune. I'm pretty good at that one.


2. If you could stay any certain age forever, what would it be?
30...it was my "favorite" age. If there is such a thing.


3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Ahhh....sleeping. Considering I'd been up for three days straight it was HEAVEN!!


4. What would I find in your fridge right now?
Coke, Tea, Chinese Food, Eggs, bacon


5. If you were a piece of furniture what would you be? Why?
 A bed. Cause at least maybe then I'd get more rest lol.

Be sure to stop by Mamarazi's and Queso's blogs to play along!

Let Me Tell You Something....

Besides WWTKW's, Friday Confessional is the other bloggy day that I missed like crazy while I was on my month long vacation. So glad to be participating again. Confession really is good for the soul ya know. So, let's get this party started!

I confess...I haven't slept (at night) one night this week. And with the exception of yesterday (I ended up sleeping all damn day yesterday. Thank you Xanax!), I've only gotten an average of three hours of sleep each day.

I confess...the lack of sleep has me slightly delirious right about now. Not fun.

I confess...the lack of sleep is also causing my Fibromyalgia to flare up. Not a full blown flare up just achy all over. Not a happy camper.

I confess...I'm going this Sunday to have some pictures taken by an amazing photographer friend of mine (part of hubby's birthday present) and the bags/horrendous dark circles under my eyes due to the lack of sleep should make the pictures turn out just beautiful. Not.

I confess...Even though I have three (or four) VS secret bras I never wear them. My favorite bra is a Hanes Her Way bra that I always get at Wal Mart. Well...they've stopped selling them. Hell, they may have stopped making them, I dunno. But I'm heartbroken. So now I have to find a new favorite bra.

I confess...I hate bra shopping.

I confess...I'm already sick of this blog layout and I'm getting ready to start designing a new one. This green is KILLING my eyes.

I confess...I'm also thinking about doing a giveaway for one of my lucky readers. It's going to be a blog layout/design. Keep your eyes out for it, if you're interested.

I confess...I'm so freakin' glad that Rachel's bf got kicked off of Big Brother. I wish it would have been her though. The sound of her voice/laugh is like someone dragging their nails down a chalkboard.

I confess...I'm so sick of seeing people create FB profiles for their 7 and 8 year old children. What in the hell is wrong with some people? Haven't they heard of pedophiles?? And don't get me started on the pics that some people allow their young daughters to post on FB. Thank God I don't have a daughter. She'd hate me.

I confess... The store where I used to work as a book keeper?CSR asked me (the day before I left to go on vacation) to come back. I told my old boss that I would go back after vacation. I've decided not to go back. Getting my GED is more important to me (and to Hubby). As soon as I get my damn sleep schedule back on track I'm going back to the GED classes.

I confess...Hubby and I have started walking every afternoon (except when I haven't gotten any sleep). We're up to two miles a day already. It feels great and it's nice to actually get out and just walk and chat with hubby with no distractions.

I confess...I hate it when you try to do something nice for someone and they act like they can't even be bothered!

I confess...I'M TIRED lol!

That's all I've got this week, hope you all have a great weekend!

Cause We're Nosey Like That!

Yay! I've missed WWTKW's!! This is my first time participating in over a month! I was going through withdrawls lol. Y'all stop by Mamarazzi's and Queso's blogs and check them out, they're loads of fun! If you want to play along click on the pretty little pic below and join in the fun!







{1} If you could spend a day with a blogger, who you haven't met in real life, who would you choose?
There are a few but I'd have to say my first choice would probably be Mimi cause I know she'd make me laugh till I had beer coming out of my nose lol.

{2} What website do you check first when you go online?
Either FB or MSN...I like to read the news.

{3} What is something you are saving money for right now?
Hubby and I are saving up so we can both make a trip home (to Louisiana). Usually I go by myself but I want hubby to come with me on a trip sometime in the near future!

{4} What is your go to silly face when a silly face is needed? (post a pic of it and be entered to win a prize from Mamarazzi)
 I have a few lol...you can decided which is the silliest!

  




{5} How do you relieve stress?
 I drink lots of alcohol or I kill people. Lol ok I'm kidding. Usually reading, or listening to music  help me.