April Fun

A couple weeks ago, I drove to Fort Worth to meet April and a couple of her friends for dinner and then a movie. Simple enough, right? Well, nothing is EVER what April SAYS it's going to be......

We met at Flips Patio Grill for dinner and that was great, but there were 2 HUGE, MASSIVE stuffed (taxidermy stuffed) bears in the entryway.....so we HAD to get our pictures taken by them!

Here's me and the white one! Finally - something paler than myself!

And here's the brown one with April and Lauren.....the first shot was of April grabbing something besides his belly........... lol

April recently got a new car - a Toyota FJ Cruiser, and it came with a sub-woofer in the back! So we made her put a foil gum wrapper over her front teeth to make a 'grill' since she's a gansta now. haha

And for some reason, we ended up at Walmart afterward, and so Lauren got a scooter (this was actually legitimate because she just had surgery on her foot). Oh man - she almost hit a bunch of people! She was a rather reckless driver of the scooter - dangerous!

And April happened to find a sweet backpack for a little kid and it came with a hat and velcro wings.....WTF???

And on another occasion, April convinced me to go to a Greek restaurant with her and her friends. I was not very excited about that because I have tried Greek food a couple times before and didn't like it.....but I went and was a trooper this time. I got a "lamb cheeseburger" - the most American-sounding item on the menu - and it was actually fantastic!

I love April because she stretches me and gets me out of my comfort zone sometimes.

Banana Clip Spa Day

Recently, my boss gave my team a great gift for going the extra mile on some transition projects that have been kind of a pain. What a surprise! On a random day, he came to each of us and gave us a free half-day off of work and a gift card for spa services at a really nice spa up in Flower Mound! Hurray!

Erin, Judy, Cindy and I decided to use our gift cards all on the same day and make it a 'team outing'. I even saw some obnoxious neon-colored banana clips recently and had to buy them because they were so ridiculous (who still wears banana clips, making them required in a store?!). So we decided that we would each wear our ridiculous banana clips at our spa day - coining the day "Banana Clip Spa Day."

We stopped at Chili's on the way to the salon and had a great lunch (and some yummy drinky treats!). Here is my fabulous pineapple drink:

Here's our little 'spread' of yummyness......

Here's Erin & Judy:

And Cindy and I:

OK, here we go - Erin and Cindy in their banana clips!

The spa was super nice - this shower was beautiful!

And they had a sauna in the womens dressing rooms....

Here are Cindy and Judy putting Erin's hair in a banana clip after her massage.

And all of us at the end of spa day - waiting for Erin's nails to dry.

And the side-shot to show the banana clip awesomeness!

Our little signs say it all - WE LOVE OUR BOSS!

Party Boycott!

I am instituting a new rule in my life - NO MORE DIRECT SALES PARTIES! I will not go to one more party! I do not want any more overpriced make-up, jewelry, candles, bath products, home furnishings, cooking utensils or packaged food! NO MORE!

I have been to a million of these parties, and while I might like the socializing part (if I know enough people at the party.....otherwise they are torture), that whole line of "Just come, it will be fun, and you TOTALLY don't have to buy anything." Yeah right, SO not true.

I know, I know - I'm probably offending a bunch of my readers, but I'm just being honest right now and venting a little. I have been to parties for all of the above mentioned products and while a lot of it may be perfectly good quality stuff, 99% of the time, it is wildly overpriced. Admit it, ladies - it's overpriced and you could find almost all of it somewhere else for cheaper.

And let's be honest, it's a pyramid scheme.....and I don't care for that. I can almost handle the actual demonstration of the product part of the party, but I cannot stand the part where the presenter spends a bunch of time trying to recruit you to sell the product. UGH!

I'm done with the guilt trip, the pressure, the BS, the sales pitch, all of it. I'm boycotting home parties until further notice!

Outdated Wisdom - Part Deaux

OK, here are more of those old advertisements that are completely obnoxious! I just couldn't NOT post them for some Friday laughs!

Holy crap - tape worms to lose weight??? Are you serious?!

The good old fashioned slut........

No comment.

My Dad used to say this about smokers: "They're on the fag" or "They're smokin' the fags" - I was horrified that he said that. Apparently it really is a word people used for cigarettes!

Notice that this is a Schlitz can...heehee

Rosie the Riveter would be horrified....

AAAAHHHHHH - Disgusting!!!!!!

Errrrrrrrr - not.

Funny....

How about NONE???

Thankful Thursday

1. Sunday afternoon naps


Not much to say about this one - it's just such a great feeling to have all of your errands done for the weekend and be able to doze off on the couch with the dog without a care in the world!

2. Thoughtful friends


There's just something to be said about a friend who is thoughtful and has kind words for you when you could really use them. Father's Day is always a bittersweet day for me since my Dad is in Heaven and I can't celebrate or talk to him anymore. I had several friends send me sweet texts this year, telling me that they were thinking of me on Father's Day. WOW.

3. Getting the house ready for a visitor


I just love having visitors here in Texas! A great majority of my good friends live in Ohio, Minnesota or somewhere else far away, so when I have a visit approaching, I get excited and it's so much fun to make sure the guest room is all ready. Maggie can even tell that something's up because I'm never in the guest room unless I'm preparing for a visitor.

This time it's my sister, Kristi. She is driving here from Phoenix on Friday (1,000 miles!) for a visit. She is going to teach me how to sew!

4. Roadtrips


I just LOVE roadtrips and my next one is this Saturday - just a daytrip to Waco with April, Laura and my sister who will have just arrived from Phoenix. We're going to shop, explore and also visit Crawford, TX and see George W. Bush's ranch. I'm pretty excited!

5. Hope


This is a pretty broad subject, but I just love that God always has a plan and that there is always hope, even if things seem bleak in a particular area of your life. There is always the chance that something SPECTACULAR is right around the corner and I just love that!

Put Your Feet Up!

Back in May, I posted about the annual conference that our company puts on each year and I was on the conference committee this year. For "thank you" gifts, Tiffany (the main lead person on the conference) decided to split up the girls and guys from the committee. The girls got a spa day and the guys got a golf day.

She made appointments for all of us girls to get premium pedicures at 4:30 one day last week and then she also bought a bunch of wine and food to bring as well!

Here's Erin and I partaking of the wine.......

Every girl's gotta have 2 bottles, right?!

Here's Tiffany (the conference lead) - digging into the wine! This is right after she had bubbly wine 'go down the wrong tube' - she was choking on the wine. Drink much?!

Here's our little 'spread'....it was fantastic!

And here's Miss Mayce getting pampered.....

Maggie (left) and Millicent (right) were rockin' out in their massage chairs....

Tiffany recovered from the choking incident and was drinking normally now.... :)

Finished product - it was SO MUCH FUN and there was a LOT of LAUGHING!

Postal Adventures

Some would call it weird, I call it creative. The problem: how to entertain your dog in the Texas summer without going out in 500 degree heat!

One option: driving to Dallas to go to the big indoor dog park (it's called "Unleashed" and I do intend to do this!)........OR.........Option 2: taking Maggie to the 24-hour section of our post office at night and letting her run around! It's air conditioned, there's nothing bad for her to get into, and if someone else walks in, they are usually wanting to pet or meet her!

Here she is in all her postal glory:

I'm sure there are security cameras, so hopefully I'm giving the security people a good laugh! And I'm probably WANTED by the Feds for my deviant doggy behavior. Oh well - I don't care.....I just run up and down the aisles of PO Boxes and chase her - she loves it!

There are all kinds of smells to check out and she has the whole place to herself!

Oh, and here's Miss Maggie being a rebel - playing on the table that explicitly says NOT to sit or play on it.

Desperate times require desperate measures in this crazy heat!

Regrets

Regret is the worst thing! I was thinking about regrets yesterday on Father's Day. There are so many things that I wished that I would've asked my Dad when he was alive and now I will never be able to - DANG!!! I even made a list.........


Things I wish I had asked Dad:

1. More about his childhood
2. Asked him to teach me how to do home improvement projects
3. Watched him fix things
4. Advice on "life"
5. What HIS Dad was like - Grandpa Larsen died before I was born, so I never knew him
6. What Grandma was like when she was younger
7. What Dad was like when he was my age
8. His memories about when I was born

9. Dating my Mom
10. What I should look for in a guy

Wow - I just got more and more sad thinking about how long this list is.....so many things I wish I could ask, but won't get the chance. Lately I have been dreaming about Dad a lot and I don't know why. Why would I be thinking about him so much just in the last few months??

He has been in Heaven for 7.5 years, but in the last few months, I have been almost preoccupied with thinking about him. Not in a bad way, but just thinking about memories, dreaming that he fixed my lawn mower blade, etc. What's up with that?? Maybe he's trying to send me a message about something.......


At any rate, the moral of the story (and my list) is that if you are reading this and your Dad is still walking this earth, ASK HIM these things! Ask him anything and everything because you don't know how long you have with him (or anyone in your life, really)! Do it for those of us that cannot do it and wish we had.