So-niele

It’s Friday, right? I think so?!?!?

December 28, 2007 – 8:16 pm

I’m all out of sorts today b/c I didn’t get much sleep last night, had to wake early this morning, and now the BM is home. It’s more that he’s home that’s throwing me off b/c normally on weeknights he’s at work at this time, and most especially on Fridays we don’t see him til the next morning.

Yeah I don’t know what happened to me, but I had a helluva time falling alseep last night, I think it was 3:30AM and by the time I was all into my sleep, my sister called from LA for my wake up call @ 7:30AM. I took my time getting up though and by the time I was all ready to go she called me from SFO. I picked up my good old box of Aloha from Mama !!! The majority of the contents were Christmas ornaments, , and of course the keiki made out like bandits. BM and lilman got UH Warrior gear to sport for the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday. Heh. Colt Brennan is such a cutie!

Then by the time I emptied the contents of the box and put them away, it was time to go to the movies. As planned for a few weeks now, we met up with lilman’s friend and his family to catch the matinee showing of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Very cute movie! Lilmiss was good for the first 30 minutes of the movie and then she got restless. Thankfully the movie was only 1.5 hours long. I’ll have to admit I did snooze out a little bit, not b/c the movie was boring or anything but b/c of lack of sleep.

Originally we were going to join them for lunch, but bailed out and ended up heading to Costco. Got hot dogs, a rotisserie chicken, and stocked up on some chicken for the freezer. I’ve been having an itch to make some fried chicken wings *slurp*. On the way home, stopped at dim sum, b/c we missed out the other day. Heh. And finally made it home. Filled our bellies and sooner than I know it, I’m on the couch… snoozing away. I wake up to find BM home and the keiki watching a DVD.

Lots of things to do this weekend too. Gotta meet up with my sister to pick out tiles and bathroom things for the revamped bathroom that is occurring @ our parents’ house and then Sunday is Blue Christmas with friends down the peninsula. I still haven’t figured out what to bring for that either. Normally I would pick a dessert but it seems that’s what everyone else has signed up for, and how NOT fun would that be?

Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight, despite taking a nap again today b/c it’s an early morning again tomorrow. Hope you have a lovely weekend!

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Happy Birthday Dad

December 26, 2007 – 6:20 pm

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Here’s wishing you and yours…

December 23, 2007 – 12:08 pm

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Bookends

December 21, 2007 – 10:50 pm

Tonight, we drove the peninsula to pick up some gifts from my aunt’s house. Then the keiki made a byline for the mall for some last minute things. I promised them they could spend their Barnes and Noble gift cards they were gifted in the mail the other day! How excited were they? I came up empty handed in what I had been looking for so sitting and waiting for them to pick books was a nice change.

Lilmiss originally had this Fairy book set in her hands but we came across… this lovely boxset of Princess goodness. 12 little books that have been keeping her busy for the past 20 minutes! It’s so cute. It’s got a little handle on it and everything, so she can tote it around all she wants. I told her when we head to bed I’ll read her a few . Nice b/c they’re not all wordy. It was a bargain book find and well worth the little money that it was, $9.98. If I didn’t have gifts for some friends’ kids, I would definitely consider getting it for them too.

Lilman chose a Magic Tree House book Blizzard of the Blue Moon and a Pokemon book. He’s really excited about his books too, at the moment he’s making himself some bookmarks. I hate dogearred books/ pages. BLAH!

I was going to attempt to wrap gifts tonight, but I guess I’ll save it for tomorrow. Or Sunday. Or even Monday. LoL. We’ve got a few things planned for the weekend. Tomorrow the keiki and I are supposed to head to the ghetto to decorate some cookies with the Cookie Gals in the evening. And Sunday evening, we’re headed down the peninsula to hopefully delight in some Christmas lights. Christmas Eve will just be us hanging about. So yeah we should be a teensy bit busy.

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The Recipe for ME!

December 20, 2007 – 11:58 pm

msdina - a gallon of friendliness - a pound of charm - a pound of fun Boil together and serve.

‘What is your personality recipe?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

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5 day countdown

December 20, 2007 – 4:34 pm

Only 5 more days until Christmas. Are we ready? Eh, I don’t think so.

Today we made a run to Costco in hopes of finding the kitchen still there. Shit. Out. Of. Luck. I needed to pick up a few things but decided not to, and we headed to ANOTHER Costco. Down the peninsula we drove in hopes of finding our kitchen. Shit. Out. Of. Luck. Went looking for those other things that I needed as well and…. Shit. Out. Of. Luck. *sigh*

So we headed to TRU in hopes of finding our 2nd alternative. Guess what? Shit. Out. Of. Luck. So instead we settled. I hate settling but really what can we do, 5 days before Christmas. I told BM to just nix the whole kitchen idea and leave a note saying that we’ll get back to her. Not that she would care, but I’m sure the lilman would put things together. As if he hasn’t already figured us out . But we warned him that he didn’t believe, Santa would more than likely NOT leave him gifts. So yeah we got a kitchen and that shall go out Christmas eve while they slumber. We also picked up some play “food” and a crown for her. For the lilman we got the Justice League set he wanted and some Transformer things. He’s actually rather difficult to shop for this year. I’m tired of all the usual junk that he accumulates. Then it was off to Tarjey in the hopes of finding some other things. He asked for footie pajammies and so we got him those, 2 pairs! Heh. He loves those things, lilmiss not so much. We also got him the Avatar Air Bender Book 1 DVD set. Almost picked up another Princess for lilmissy but put it back. I really wanted to get her the Hannah Montana guitar and headset, DUDE! If you’ve seen her “perform” you’d get it for her too. Unfortunately the one at Tarjey had been played with enough times that it wasn’t even turning on anymore. BM says it might have just been the batteries, but I didn’t want to risk getting it and it not working at all.

That was that, and so we had lunch at Red Robin. YUM! Fries. And then we came home, but before that I indulged again. Lol. This time I went for the Venti Chai Soy Latte. I think next time it will just be the grande. B/c the tall wasn’t enough and the Venti was more than enough. We came home and hid the gifts for wrapping for later.

BM is going to get the remainder of the boy’s gifts, DS games. I feel like he has so little in comparison to what N is getting. She is so much easier to shop for though and things for her don’t cost quite as much. Tomorrow I’m heading to Tarjey again to get a few stocking stuffers like candy and such. Lilman gets out of school early, so BM said he would pick him up. Then we’ve gotta head down the peninsula again to pick up gifts from my Aunt. Maybe I can get lilman to give me some input on what to get BM.

I still need to run back to Costco too to pick up those foodie things for Christmas appetizers. Or maybe I won’t. And I’ll just suck it up and pay grocery store prices. We’ll see.

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Hump Day

December 19, 2007 – 4:47 pm

So although we have nothing going on this afternoon, and despite my having to get a few things done before next week, I’m not going to bother. I’m just going to sit here, feed my kids leftovers, and put it off for another day. Yep! I am! I had all these things to do this morning and be in places, and my plans got jumbled up, I hate that by the way. Had my panties in a bunch, ended up having to double back, back track, and then some. But I got what absolutely needed to be done out of the way.

Allowed the lilmiss the deciding power for lunch, Dim Sum today. And treated myself to a Tall Chai Soy Latte. First time for me, and boy was it yummy. I would have gone bigger but I didn’t know what to expect, and now I know! But man those things are costly @ $3.35 for the tall, sheesh I’ll have to limit the intake of those huh? I’m so used to ordering my Venti Passion Iced Tea at only $2.25, but alas… I must lay off the caffeine.

Lilman has a diorama that needs to be put together by tomorrow. So I’ve got that on my plate for the evening. And I also wanted to make a lil hand wreath of the lilmissy’s this year. So another thing for me to do. While @ my mom’s today I went snooping around for her fakie Christmas tree and amid all the junk, I came up empty handed. I suppose I could have called her as to its whereabouts, but I saved us all a headache. Sadly though, the keiki have no tree this year . They’ll have to settle for the minimal decor we have on the one wall in the house. KUWAWA fo’ sho!!!

Maybe I’ll wrap gifts, or maybe I won’t. And shitkabobs I need to go to the post office and get my aunt’s cookies to her in San Diego. So much to do, so little time…. but so much time to procrastinate and find other non-important things to do eh?

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Cooking slump

December 18, 2007 – 12:22 pm

So I’m back at it again, NOT cooking for the kids. The last I cooked a real meal was meatloaf, which was Friday right? Eeek. We ate these on Saturday night, minus the cheese. No one wanted to go out and that was about the only thing we had in the fridge readily available. Sunday we had burritos from the Big Mister’s favorite Taqueria. It drives me nuts that he won’t stray away from that place, it’s my fault though as I was the one who introduced him to it. And then yesterday (Monday), we had Panda Express and my big eyes ordered the 3 item combo to share with N. But I only finished what would be the equivalent to 1 combo, if that, and the lilmiss eats like a bird. Sooooo plenty of leftovers for J and N’s dinner. *tsk, tsk* Me all you want! I saved myself from having to cook again . What did I eat? Well there’s still some leftover meatloaf and fixins, but I just made myself a meatload sammich. And that was that.

Today BigMister went to get 99 cent 2 pieces of chicken from Popeye’s. So that should be good for our lunch, and lilman’s dinner. I’ve still got some short ribs that I didn’t cook and I’m thinking I might have to make some beef nilaga. Mmmm comfort food for this cold and rainy day! Yeah I think I’ll definitely start that once I hit publish.

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Cookie baking

December 16, 2007 – 11:21 am

They’re in the plans today and I’m determined to get them done. I know it’s a little early for cookies for Santa, but that’s okay we’ve got nothing else to do today. So it should keep the keiki busy but unfortunately I’ll probably go all OCD on them and “advise” them on how it should look . As you can see we’re not doing it completely from scratch, these are just as good man. I’ve got all the stuff to make ‘em from scratch, I’m just too lazy. It’s the thought that counts right?

The other day I thought about doing one of those gingerbread kits with the kids, up until I saw this thing on Food Network. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about crafting and decorating and cooking and fun stuff like that. But I thought about the gingerbread house and if we’d actually eat it, and NO we wouldn’t. I would spend money on food that wouldn’t even be eaten, and just thrown in the garbage after the holidays were over. That thing I saw on Food Network was about the gingerbread houses that are made every year at Disney World. Just how much ingredients are used for the sole purpose of looking at the food got me annoyed. Hundreds to thousands of POUNDS of ingredients go into those things and then where do they go after the holidays? In the garbage. B/c who wants to eat month old cookies that have been exposed to the elements and people. ICK! Horrible. We’re horrible. So yeah no offense to those of you who have the tradition of making gingerbread houses and such. Maybe I’m wrong and your family eats it. We wouldn’t.

I intend to have all those cookies devoured, and if not in this house then we can give some away at karate and hula .

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A little more festive in these neck of the woods

December 14, 2007 – 2:34 pm

I’m nesting a bit. Cleaning bits and pieces here and there. Cooking. Baking . And today I decided to put a bit of decor up. Just the 2 indoor wreaths and the Christmas cards we’ve received so far. There’s still no tree though and I’m thinking I might have to steal borrow my mom’s fakie b/c I don’t care too much to string any lights. My poor children and their kuwawa Christmas . Lilmiss is getting so excited though which is too much cuteness, we’ve been watching the special block of holiday goodness on Nick Jr. and she runs around the house saying “Merry Christmas”!!! With lots of enthusiam even! I’ve even got her dressed a little festive as well. Not like yesterday with her candy cane legs (red and white striped tights), but she’s got her red Mele Kalikimaka tee on.

Once I clean this little corner that’s been bugging me, pick up J from school, and prepare the meatloaf… maybe I’ll go downstairs and dig up some more things to put up around the house, or the living room at the least. What else do I need to do? Fold the 2 baskets of laundry. Gather up the now dirty laundry in the soon to be 2 empty baskets. Get the little man to clean up his room and go through some stuff that he might want to donate to toys 4 tots. Bake some brownies. Get some rest. *Sigh* Despite geting the flu shot last month, somehow I’ve acquired some bug of some sort. PHooey! My nose is all stuffed and I’m feeling a bit of congestion. The only time I feel any relief is when I’m taking a hot shower, and well I can’t stay in there all day!

Anyhow.. have a wonderful weekend. We’ve got a birthday party to attend and some cookie baking and decorating in the plans.

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Not getting any younger

December 13, 2007 – 3:00 pm

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I used to apply moisturizer to my face on a daily basis. While in Hawaii that stopped though, as I felt so greasy and oily. Yeah I know the worst place to stop applying moisturizer b/c of the sun and all that. The other day I was cleaning up the closet and came across my bottle of Oil of Olay. Yeah I’m old school like that . And today I put some on my face and boy what a difference! It’s been so cold and nippy out there. I’ve been noticing dryness around my mouth and nose area. Yeah my T-zone is just fine.

Like I said I’m not getting any younger and neither is my skin, or face for that matter . *Note to self: apply moisturizer EVERYDAY*

On a different note, we’re having beef stew of sorts. Not the usual kind made on the stove but in the oven. My mom’s adaptation for the stuff. Picked up some short ribs (The chunky kind with the bones in ‘em not the kind for bbq) at the market yesterday, $2.99 a lb. Salt and peppered those babies up and threw in some root veggies (potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion). Bake @ 350 for 1 hour covered and 30 minutes uncovered. Should be yummy in the tumminess if I did it right .

Tomorrow’s menu will be meatloaf, yeah again. I forgot how much me and the lilman like it. And maybe some homemade mashed ‘taters on the side!

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An attempt to get a little festive around here!

December 12, 2007 – 9:34 pm

I changed the dining table’s cover and placemats. Ahahaha. It was actually more b/c I was getting irritated by all the junk on top of it. It’s all nice and clean except for my little corner that has all my bill paying accessories. It should stay as it is, b/c lilman only has another week and a half of school. Nevermind that he has a desk in his room, he can’t really use it b/c there’s junk on there too. Someone come and do a packrat/ junk intervention for us. PLEASE?!?!

So my plans for Sunday have been postponed til next year. Too many busy schedules and such, so hopefully we can meet at the next designated date. Just gives me more time to get my Kris Kringle gift . I can lag and wait til the after Christmas sales . I did buy some sugar cookie mixins and fixins today when we went grocery shopping, so maybe if we’ve got nothing else to do on Sunday we’ll make and bake some cookies. While I was looking for my table linens, I found my cookie kit. I told the bigmister the other day that I don’t have any cookie cutters *gasp* Yeah. Really!

I almost went through the stuff in the garage too to put even just a little decor up, but dinner and putting away groceries got in the way. Maybe tomorrow. Eh.

I need to find a recipe of sorts. Crock pot? Maybe. I’m thinking something hearty. I’ve got some beef, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

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soooooo cold

December 12, 2007 – 1:35 pm

Oh so very, very cold out there today. Just the way I like it .

So hungry. Bigmister went out to get some pizza for us. Yum!

Still no Christmas tree and I’m thinking of bailing out on getting one. Or maybe we’ll just get a teensy tiny one. Yeah Bah Humbug!

Need to go grocery shopping. Seriously. We need food. Period. I haven’t been really “cooking” for the keiki and yeah I feel bad. Today is a ‘lax kinda day so hopefully I can get some groceries and make them a nourishing homecooked meal that doesn’t come from a box or the freezer.

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A mini WHAT?!?!?!

December 7, 2007 – 10:47 pm

I talked to my mom this morning, discussing bills and such. Things that I’m responsible for getting out and paid *rolling eyes*

Anyhow she’s telling me how bad the weather has been out in the islands. Like my brother is claiming the mango tree is going to fall into the roof and kill him, as it’s just outside his window. And damn I remember how much noise that thing makes too. Off and on, off an on… the rain and the wind. My aunt who lives towards the middle of the island says the other night was probably a mini HURRICANE! Say what? My mom and brother are soooooooo not prepared for that. Despite my warning and urgings to get ready for one just in case. Remember while we were there over the summer, there was a threat of a Category 4. We were all lucky then that it dissipated out at sea, but still. SO she only has a few canned goods ready with the extra can opener. I told her to get some candles and matches, maybe some propane, blankets, all the important papers, extra clothes. Geez.

You would think my brother would get on the ball, being an EMERGENCY nurse, as well as a former EMT. Sheesh!

Mini Hurricane!?!?!?! Can you just imagine. My aunt was telling her to get the masking tape ready for the 2 huge windows. My mom has been CLOSING windows when she should have been opening them.

Let’s just all hope for everyone’s sake that it’s nothing more than some wind and rain @ the small levels.

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Night time

December 6, 2007 – 11:57 pm

At least 2 nights out of the week, we drive at night. To go to karate and hula. And on those nights we get to enjoy some of the homes with Christmas lights . It’s fun to hear the delight and excitement in the kids’ voices as we drive past homes. This will be lilmissy’s 3rd Christmas and she’s really getting into it all. I thought for sure she would fear a visit to Santa but she even gave Santa a kiss…. on the lips *shakes head*. Yeah I know. I scrubbed her lips right after. I couldn’t stop the “process” as I was being photo mom trying to capture moments, thankfully NOT that one *tsk, tsk*. She is in love with her Christmas outfit and whenever she sets her eyes on it, she wants to wear it. We don’t have a tree yet, but I can’t wait!!! I’m just afraid the touching and touching and touching of it all Of course with lilman we never had that problem. I wrapped some gifts tonight as we’re exchanging tomorrow evening with the Toots and she sat in awe. Of course the chants of “Where’s mine?” were blurted every 2 minutes, but she really delighted in all that was paper, ribbons, and bows!!! A crafter in the making??? Maybe!

I need to find some local neighborhoods with lots of lights! So we can do a driveby drive thru! There used to be one in a neighboring city, but I’ve heard that the families have become lax in the decorating over the years!

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Happy Birthday to my FAVORITE Sister!!!

December 6, 2007 – 12:02 am

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Christmas Meme

December 5, 2007 – 7:34 pm

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Normally I don’t mind wrapping paper. But this year, I’m feeling lazy. If it’s already in a box or box like shape or can be easily wrapped, then wrapping paper it is. Clothes on the other hand might just be put in gift bags with tissue.
2. Real tree or artificial? It’s always been real, you can’t smell a fake tree. But trees are getting so expensive and I’m thinking of investing in a fakie at the end of the season.
3. When do you put up the tree? Whenever we manage to pick one up. I was hoping to be up and decorated already but that has yet to happen.
4. When do you take the tree down? My mom normally waits for the 3 kings. I don’t know when that is though, so normally a few days after New Year’s.
5. Do you like eggnog? Uhm, no.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Maybe my Cabbage Patch Doll. My mom managed to find one when they first came out and I thought it was the best thing EVAR. Oh and always always anything Hello Kitty.
7. Hardest person to buy for? The big mister without a doubt. He has everything under the sun and moon and if he doesn’t have it, he’ll buy it himself and can’t wait until Christmas.
8. Easiest person to buy for? The lilmiss, she’s too young to really care and loves ANYTHING and everything you give her.
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I was regifted a bunch of perfume samples. Nothing I would ever wear.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Snail Mail without a doubt.
11. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-RA!
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year it started @ midnight madness after Thanksgiving and knocked out 90% of my list.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yeah! Dude the kids get so much stuff and some of it they don’t even care about. So is it’s not opened and age appropriate then it’ll might just get regifted.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? mmmm food. But I dunno, b/c everything could be eaten at any other time of the year. Maybe my mom’s cookie madness.
15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I favor clear lights
16. Favorite Christmas song? Winter Wonderland
17. Travel for Christmas or stay home? I wish we were travelling this year
18. Can you name all of Santa’s’ reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Vixen, Rudolph… I totally had to sing that and I know there’s some still missing.
19. Angel on the treetop or a star? It has been a star, but I don’t think she lights anymore, so she’ll have to be replaced with a star this year.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We let the kids open a gift on eve but most are opened Christmas Day.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Rude shoppers.
22. What I love most about Christmas? Spending time with family and friends. The wonder and awe that kids get in them about the Season. Of course it’s not the same anymore and everything has become so commercialized and materialistic.

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67

December 5, 2007 – 7:07 pm

67 Envelopes addressed and stamped. Just need to either write out our return address or have some labels printed out. I’m thinking the latter but S mentioned something about the printer being on the fritz. And I don’t know if my printer even has ink in it. So that leaves 8 cards without homes to go to, and I’ve significantly cut back on sending cards out too. I nixed sending out to my mom’s siblings, just b/c I can.

They only had the holiday knits stamps available @ Costco and they wouldn’t have been my first choice, but there was no other choice so oh well.

The keiki are fed, they wanted hot dogs a la Costco and who am I to say no. I grabbed a salad but have yet to eat. I like Wednesdays. Don’t have much to do today .

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Me likey

December 4, 2007 – 1:17 am

Okay S i know you read this. And if you get me this we might all benefit from it.

Thanks justjenn for the idea!

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Another reason to miss my mom….

December 3, 2007 – 9:21 pm

B/c she makes the best homemade cookies evaaaaaaar! Especially this time of year, she is the baking Queen! That’s where my love of baking comes from. The love of cooking comes from my dad. He used to love when I would experiment and cook meals, b/c he would get a break! And he would critique for me, and more often than not he would have good things to say . His cooking got a little funky though as he got older, he got weird cravings and would concoct things that even I wouldn’t bother to try.

But yeah Mama’s cookies *sigh*. I need some yummy in the tummy homemade baked goodness. Just too lazy to do it myself. That’s why we’ve got a tub of the Toll House stuff in the fridge. But it’s not the same. She would bake and bake and give them away for the holidays. And we would go over and sample and sample and sneak some home too. I’m thinking that if the kids don’t drive me insane and we don’t have anything to do on Saturday, which so far we don’t… I might make some sugar cookies from scratch and have the keiki help to cut them out and decorate them.

The only consolation is that I know she’s NOT making any out in Hawaii . Her hands and back have been hurting her and I can’t really see her firing up the oven to heat up the house out there. It’s already too hot. Here though… totally welcomed smells and warmth. She better not be baking any cookies, or I’ll be mad! She can bake her breads and all that but no cookies! Or I’ll have to put my foot down.

Which reminds me, I’ll have to put in an order for apple napples for my sister to bring back with her on the plane! Did you get that Ms H???? A dozen apple napples before you get on that plane!!!!!

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Dunzo

December 3, 2007 – 8:12 pm

The Christmas cards have been picked and ordered. Despite not wanting to use Costco, I did anyhow. It’s just easier that way. Less headache. Cheaper. Last year I made my own and they came out $10 more, and this time I’m getting 25 more, and still saving $10. They’ll be ready in the morning. I used a photo that someone else took and a photo that no one else has seen. Now I need to some stamps and some pretty pens for the envelopes. It’s the least I can do in terms of putting my personal touch.

Had to venture to the mall earlier to do some returning and exchanging. Almost had dinner there, but the lilman got me all upset and my panties were in a bunch, that I nixed the idea and gave myself more work by heading to the grocery store to pick up dinner fixins. So tonight it was pork chops, asparagus, and rice. Tomorrow it will be turkey spaghetti penne. I let the lilman choose the noodles and he said he liked the tubes. Tubes it shall be.

While at the mall managed to get the keiki their holiday shoes to go with their outfits. BOGO @ Payless. Gotta love it.

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Holiday cards

December 2, 2007 – 2:42 am

So I’ve been “working” on our cards to send out this year. I like sending out photo cards, b/c I personally like receiving them. 90% of the cards we receive are photo cards anyhow, b/c most of our cards come from homes with other children. I like seeing how these kids have grown over the years. It’s rare that we just get a photo of a couple, but I would welcome that more than just a boxed card with writing.

Over the years I’ve noticed that many of the cards are Costco photo cards, and I’m really trying not to use one of their templates this year, but their prices are sooooooooooooo do-able. Come on 50 cards and envelopes for $15.99. And had we been going to spend the Holidays in the islands, like originally planned, I probably would have chosen one of their island themed cards, but we’re not so I’m not. And I’m not feeling the inspiration to “design” my own this year, doing it that way starts to add up. UGH! So I’ve been shopping online for other places to upload and have them printed. Walgreen’s. Target Photo. Kodakgallery.com, Shutterfly. Tinyprints.com. Vistaprints.com. So many to choose from and the less known ones tend to be prettier but pricier, and although I do like pretty, who knows what other people are going to do with my keikis’ photo when the season is over. I collect mine in an old school photo album.

I played around with vistaprints.com and they seem like the other more reasonably priced option as well as lots of editing options when it comes to text. I’ve just never ordered from them. Have any of you??? Or know anyone who has?

After much mulling over. The photo has been chosen. Now it’s just a matter of getting them printed.

Anyone want to trade?

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Oh the wonderful smells

December 1, 2007 – 8:03 pm

…. coming from the kitchen. I’ve been wanting meatloaf and so today guess what’s for dinner? We had some @ our friends’ Thanksgiving but it wasn’t that great b/c it was 1. cold and 2. not as tasty unless I put some ketchup on it. I haven’t made meatloaf in ages but I thought it would be something easy peasy. What do I put in mine? Ground beef, garlic salt, garlic powder, onions (but not this time b/c I was too lazy), oatmeal, an egg (my dad used to put hard boiled eggs in the middle of his), some brown sugar, and some bbq sauce. YUM! It’s smelling delicious. The rice cooker just clicked off and the meatloaf still has about 20 minutes in the oven. I would caramelize some onion and saute some mushrooms but I’m feeling ever so lazy. Veggie accompaniment, may not exist tonight, oh well.

[eta: 45 minutes later. The bellies are nicely full. I ended up sauteing some mushrooms which the keiki fought over. I also cooked up some frozen corn. Everything save for the rest of the rice in the cooker is GONE. Done. Finito. I only used 1 lb of ground beef, I’m wondering how much my dad used to use b/c there would be leftovers…. for days. I remember toting a meatloaf sammich the next day. YUM. Oh well at least I know that meatloaf is well received ’round these parts. When J asked for seconds, he said “Can I have more meat of loaf?”

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Stuck @ home

December 1, 2007 – 1:47 pm

*sigh* Spending a leisure Saturday morning all by my lonesome. The bigmister took the keiki out to the zoo to meet up with some friends for Reindeer Romp. This has been in the plans for a long time but I couldn’t go b/c I have to monitor my BP. I suck. It’s nice to be here by myself but it sounded like fun and I hope that they are having fun! I’ll only get to enjoy pictures.

I’m hungry and I could seriously sink my teeth in a nice juicy tasty STEAK! Yeah I’m still on that kick, who doesn’t love some meat? Heh! I could never go vegetarian.

So the Christmas list is nearly done, I’ve just got my nephews and my mom and brother. I want to feel like I should wrap gifts but there’s still no tree in the house yet. I’m seriously debating getting a fakie. As much as I love the smell of the real trees, they’re getting so pricey and then the whole clean up sucks @ the end. Not to mention the whole stringing of lights. I like lots of lights but it takes so stinking long.

I’m supposed to take a small break from the house tomorrow to enjoy the Ladies Literary meet-up. We’re slated to meet at a place that I’ve been REALLY wanting to try out for a long time. Now it’s just a matter of what am I going to order. Mmm brunch. So many options. And then the boys are going to a birthday party in the evening.

Okay time to enjoy a little more of the silence. They should be rolling in soon.

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