Betsy

At the end of January my mom called and asked if I could order a GPS for my stepdad's birthday. So I searched and found a good deal on a Tom Tom supposedly they are the easiest to work etc. I got it for her to give him for his birthday, and he was very excited to get it! They used it leaving the grocery store to head home just to see if it worked (Its maybe a 2 mile drive)

So when I got invited to go with Connie and April to St. Louis for The Pioneer Woman's book signing I decided we would take the GPS along. Well it was a pretty neat gadget! We thought and finally named her Betsy... She lead us thru some side streets in a very nice neighborhood where there were multi million dollar houses in which we wondered what kind of families lived there and wondered what they looked like on the inside. She would kindly tell us to turn around if we went past our turn off and would remain quiet until we needed assistance.

I am pretty sure I will be purchasing one of these for myself and husband to use. He was especially interested when I told him it could find gas stations, restaurants and shopping around the location you were at. We are pretty good at finding our way to places such as Bass Pro in Springfield but clueless on where there are good places to eat or how to get to the mall from there. So I think it will be a great fun investment!

Anyway below is a picture of our other car companion on Saturday Betsy!!!

Not a great picture and if April and I would have thought I could have had her take a picture of it plugged in the truck on Saturday.

Weekend

I will post pictures and a more detailed recap of Saturday in a later post. But had time and wanted to post something this morning.

Friday evening was the norm pick kids up head to grocery store. The abnormal thing was the kids and Kenny stayed in the car while I ran in to Walmart to grab the few things we needed. Kids ate and went to bed pretty early. I on the other hand had a hard time falling asleep and kept waking up thinking I would over sleep as I was super excited for Saturday.

Of course sleeping past 7 on a Saturday doesn't happen when the kids are home, and for some reason they wake up on their own earlier than when we have to wake them up on week days. Not to mention dragging them out of bed and getting them dressed and ready for school and daycare. I got up dressed and kept double checking to be sure I hadn't forgot anything and that I had my book and GPS. The day was great we did lots of driving but it was neat seeing things we had never seen before driving thru neighborhoods with fancy huge houses. Then of course there was the much anticipated book signing which was totally the coolest thing I have ever done. Could have went without standing out in the cold for over an hour! But well worth it in the end.

The kids wanted to stay with my in laws Saturday night so I slept in til 9 on Sunday and got up and headed to church. Then went to lunch with friends then home to watch the race and clean the boy's room. I set the DVR to record the race so I could clean while the boys were gone. I packed up two large trash bags of toys the boys never play with and doubt they will ever notice them being gone! After several hours of deep cleaning I went to pick the boys up Nathan was happy to see me Blake wanted to stay and play. But after getting home Blake sat with me the entire race and watched it and loved it. However he said there weren't enough wrecks!

Then this morning as Blake was picking out a shirt he found a race car shirt and demanded to wear it because he knew it was Mike's favorite driver. Not only did he know more about racing than I thought he likes the green car because its his favorite color! And informed me that Toyota's can't be race cars they don't go fast but that his daddy's little blue car could go fast (its a 1980 Toyota Corolla that has about seen its last day!) of course he said daddy's car wasn't a Toyota.

It was a great weekend and Saturday was by far the best day I had in a long time and hope that we get a chance to go shopping again sometime! Well as long as we can take Betsy our GPS :)

5 Question Friday

1. Can you drive a stick shift? Yep sure can and I have even owned one when I was 18.



2. What are two foods you just can't eat? Rocky mountain oysters and chicken livers


3. Do you buy Girl Scout Cookies? What is your favorite kind? Yep I have bought them in the past and my favorite is thin mint. I also like the lemon ones.



4. How do you pamper yourself? Take a bath when no one is home and relax, which don't happen very often.


5. What is your nickname and how did you get it? Hmm well I got the nickname of Minnie Mouse in highschool because I was claustrophobic and when we had our face masks on for our SCBA they said my voice sounded like minnie mouse.

Last night....

Ok I really need to be working but I need to write about my meeting last night! To start off with I wasn't nervous at all which shocked me. I got there 15 minutes early set my laptop up and started handing out the minutes from the last meeting. That part made me a bit nervous like when you turn in a paper and the teacher stands there and reads it. You are anxious and neverous about the reaction and hoping that you did an ok job. Well I busied myself while some of the members were reading it and mind you they are mainly older men and very opinionated and would tell me straight out if something wasn't right or they didn't like it. Anyway I got some great compliments on the format and the wording and those were from guys that probably don't give compliemnts or say hey you did a good job very often. It also came from people who had no clue how nervous I was about taking the position. It felt good to know that whew I made it thru the first meeting and then the first time they read what I had typed.
The meeting seemed extra long or maybe that was becuase I was wore out. But they kept talking about things that I didn't need to document, things that made no sense and just guys who like to argue and think they are right. And when it was all done nothing was decided on two subjects but we were all tried of listening to them getting no where. Reminded me of when I was a kid and attending the same meetings and sounded the same as it did 15 years ago old guys bickering.
Found out last night that I will soon be getting a list of all the members who have given us their email addresses so that I can send a mass email out informing them of our upcoming Pie Supper and Pie Auction in a couple weeks. Now that will make me nervous as I am not sure I have ever sent an email out to more than 10 or 12 people at once and I will be sending it to a whole community.

Oh and yesterday morning I got a very nice message from the Treasurer saying she was looking forward to seeing me and very glad that I am a part of the Fire Department again. Told me I was doing a great job and knew I was the right person for the position. So that started my day off great yesterday.

Thursday afternoon thoughts

I started reading my new book by Ree Drummond Black Heels to Tractor Wheels last night and ended up reading 200 pages in one sitting! Its a great book that makes you keep wanting to see what's on the next page. Can't wait to actually meet her this weekend and get my book autographed. It will be the first time I have ever been to a book signing and I am kind of excited to stand in line and wait to meet someone.


Last week I participated in an on line adoption auction and it had so many cute items and I figured I would bid on quite a bit. Pretty well thought that I would be out bid and not end up with much if anything to my surprise I ended up with 8 items and I can't wait to get them in the mail. Now I probably won't post pictures of most of them because they were picked as gifts for friends and family and don't want to spoil it for them. But I did win a super cute diaper bag that is a medium size and will be just right for the age Nathan is at and for summer. We don't need to carry as much so I don't need a huge bag but we aren't far enough away from snacks and sippy cups to go to a small one. I was very glad to win the items in the auction and all the money went towards bringing their child home.

While off work on Monday I was packing away clothes that were too small for the boys and packing away some of my clothes that either don't fit or that I never wear. Well when I took it all up to where we store our stuff I realized I have way to many clothes! Just of my own clothes there are probably 6 big totes and several boxes then there are about that many of clothes that we have saved for Nathan. I looked thru some of my old stuff and realized I still have a majority of the clothes I had in highschool which was almost 10 years ago! I think its time for me to part with it because in reality if I ever did fit in to them again I doubt I would ever wear them. So now the chore is to find someplace to go with most of the stuff I have collected.

Past week and week ahead......

Well I realized I haven't blogged much this week which is strange because I have had plenty of time.


This has been a long week not stressful just plain ole long and I am exhausted. I have a hard time staying awake to put the kids in bed at 8! Must be lacking vitamins or not getting a sound sleep.

Tomorrow I am supposed to meet a friend at the park with her two girls. They have gifts for my boys for Valentines Day and my boys have gifts to give them. Let me tell you shopping for girls is a whole new ball game and something I am not used to! I am used to trucks, cars, blocks and boy stuff. I know that they will have a fun time playing and if I am brave I will allow pictures to be taken of me playing with the kids at the park. Normally I don't like pictures of me taken when I am not posed and ready but maybe this time I will push that aside and just have fun and see what pictures I end up with.

Next Thursday is my next meeting and I am all set and ready with my pink folders, pink notebook. Heck I even thought about getting a pink mouse (not really but it would be super cool) So far I am not nervous about it as the minutes have already been read and approved by the treasurer.

Then the most exciting part of next week is Saturday I get to go with two good friends April and Connie to a book signing. I have never been to a book signing before so it will be awesome and I think it will be neat to meet the author Ree Drummond. I bought her new book Black Heels to Tractor Wheels this week and can't wait to start reading it.

It's Friday

1. Have you worn the same outfit more than one day in a row?  I have worn the same jeans two days in a row but only if I hadn't worn them much the day before.



2. If you had to choose any LARGE city to live in, which would it be?  Well I like country life to much to want to live in a city but if I was rich and could have the ability to travel and visit a big city for a week or so it would proably be LA. But I definatly wouldn't want to live there. If I had to pick a large city out of the US I would want to go to Sydney.


3. Fly or drive with the kids on vacation?
Since I have never flown I'd say drive. However I'd love to go to Hawaii someday so I would have to give flying an attemp.



4. What is your idea of "spring cleaning"?
Opening windows and just cleaning all the grime and dust that has built up in the winter. Going thru the kids clothes packing away the small ones and deciding what I need and don't need in my closet for the upcoming months.


5. What is the best book you have ever read? I don't get a chance to read as much as I would like. I just got a new book I can't wait to read Black Heels to Tractor Wheels... I liked the book Friendship for Grownups found it very helpful. Also really enjoyed reading Fat Chance.