I'm dreaming of...

not a white Christmas that's for sure! We have PLENTY of that. There is approximately 2 ft of snow in my front yard. EEK! We actually had a blizzard warning today and they pulled the plows off the road due to whiteouts. They say its the most snow we've had at Christmas in 50 years but I'm not buying it. Other than the blowing snow and whiteouts it doesn't seem any different than every other year. (insert eye rolling smiley here)

But what am I dreaming of? Well to be honest I want to go home. I want to spend the week I had planned with my family. I want to see my grandma for what could very well be her last Christmas. I want to visit with my cousins. I want my aunt to be way too joyful. I want to see the kids that are growing up too fast. I want our whole family together for the first time in AGES.

I think its not too much to ask. I sure have worked hard for it. I've spent the past week and a half literally going non stop. On the days I slept I slept 2 hours. The rest of the time I just didn't sleep. I have worked myself to death. And yet here I sit 4 days before we are supposed to go and I don't know if we can.

I've cried as much as I can cry. All I can do now is pray. But I've been praying and it hasn't gotten me very far. I need the sales to come in tonight/tomorrow so I can go. I am so tired of never being with family on the holidays.

Sometimes life just sucks.

Aren't I positive tonight?? LOL

Spreading the Christmas Joy....

Well I tell ya...its been a rough couple days for me. I've worked myself to absolute DEATH this past week. But today was our planned "friend Christmas day" so I had to fake the Christmas spirit for a while. It turned out I had a good time.

Madison had her BFF Tori over. First they exchanged gifts. Which was a first for Madison but she REALLY REALLY wanted to buy Tori something. So that was neat.

Then I had bought a Gingerbread House Kit from Walmart. Do not let the box fool you!! It is NOT as easy as it looks! Our walls kept collapsing. It was NOT pretty. But I think the finished product is slightly cute although NOTHING like the lovely picture on the box.

After that we decided to make some cookies. Martha Stewart I am not. I always wanted to be the mom that bakes cookies after school. Ummm everyone else prefers I don't. I am NOT a baker. So I buy the mix and just add eggs and butter. I still managed to screw it up at first. Who knew you should put flour on the wax paper to keep the dough from sticking??? Well amazingly enough the cookies are edible. They do however look like they took steroids. Which happens when I make homemade cookies. How did I manage to screw up a mix??

It was a fun day! And it was nice to think about something besides toys for a while. Here are some pics from the day. Ignore the mess in the background. Blame it on toy sales. LOL.

Cheetahlicious!

Well as you may (or may not) know....Madison got tickets to see The Cheetah Girls for her birthday. Well the concert FINALLY got here. I must say we had a GREAT time. It was a mom/daughter date....oops I mean night, madison has told me not to call it a date LOL.

Before I go on to tell you about it....I have to say something. I was in a bind. This concert was the ONLY thing Madison wanted for her birthday. But I couldn't swing the tickets AND the trip to Chicago to see it. A wonderful angel who prefers to remain anonymous stepped in and insisted she help me out. I can't express my thanks enough to her. Without her this would not have been possible. She says it's just what she does. But she made one little girl VERY VERY happy!!

Now back to the concert. We had awesome seats. We could see the stage really well. Now of course just being in The United Center was awesome to me. I tried to take a pic of the flag hanging with Jordan's name/number on it, but it was hidden. But I saw it and thats what matters. LOL.

Ok Ok...Back to the concert. The opening act was The Clique Girls. I thought they were really good. Madison could have cared less. Of course later when we got back to the hotel and she looked them up online and found out one of them was 12....THAT made them cool. LOL.

After them, they had a 20 minute intermission. During which Madison insisted on a photo shoot. My little superstar in training. Well then the Cheetah Girls came on and they put on a GREAT show. It was even better than the Party's Just Begun tour. But the coolest part came about halfway through. The song came to the end and they disappeared down into the stage. We assumed they went to change. Well the Cheetah Boys (the male dancers) did an act and then they came dancing down the aisles. That in itself was exciting. Then all of the sudden we are surrounded by bodyguards. The Cheetah Girls popped up out of a second stage RIGHT BEHIND US. Oh.My.Word. Madison was sooooo excited. Well the guards started making sure people were behind the invisible lines so I knew what was coming. I pulled Madison over to me (I was on the aisle seat) and sure enough the Cheetah Girls came singing down the aisle. RIGHT BESIDE US. It was truly exciting. I think I was as excited as she was. LOL I know. I am weird. Well Madison actually touched one of them.

Anyways the concert was awesome. We had a lot of fun. The bad part was having to walk 4 blocks in the freezing Chicago weather to get to the car. And we had a few brief moments with my brother before we took him home. All in all I rate the trip an A+

Now....as weird as I am....I took over 150 pictures. I was so excited to get good shots I couldn't stop. So indulge me as I share a ton of pictures. Not nearly the 150+ that I took...but a lot none the less.

My unofficial official movie review....

Of Twilight of course ....what else would I pay that much money to go see?? LOL

The movie was good. It wasn't the book. It wasn't near as good as the book (but did I really expect it to be??). But it was good. I will definately see it again. And I will probably buy the DVD. But I would be lying if I didn't say I was slightly disappointed. I felt they rushed through too much of the storyline. Everything went much too fast for me. Plus I don't think they really built up the Bella/Edward storyline the way the book does. It was hard for me to wrap my head around them being so desperately in love in the movie. The book did a much better job of building it up.

And I have said from the get go that I was disappointed with their choice for Edward. He just doesn't fit my mental picture.

And then there were things that just totally didn't make sense compared to the book.

But don't get me wrong. The movie was good. And I probably would have loved it had I not read the book first (a mere 3 times lol). I just don't think there is a way to possibly capture the feeling of the book. So with that in mind, they did a good job. And I expect New Moon will have a much bigger budget and will probably be a much better movie.

So there ya have it. My unofficial official review. Take it for what its worth.

Imagine MY Surprise!

Every year the Britches do a Secret Sister exchange at Christmas time. I wasn't able to participate last year but was sooooo excited to take part this year.

So the other day I check my mail and my gift is there. Terri had my name. And she is soooo awesome. She even included some special treats for Madison.

Madison got some Camp Rock lip gloss/nail polish etc. She also got a High School Musical 3 Calendar.

And me? Well mine was the BEST gift I could have asked for. I got a Twilight Calendar and a Twilight Edward T-shirt. Which I wore to the movie last night! :)

Terri is such a sweetheart. She really sent the BEST gifts. I just had to share. Here is a picture of all of our loot.

And here is Madison with her stuff:

THANK YOU TERRI!!! I hope the person I had is as happy with her surprises as I was!!

I've been redecorating!

My blog that is. How do you like it? Visit The Cutest Blog On the Block to find more great blog designs. But I must thank Junie aka Brandi. She is the one who pointed this particular one out to me. And she helped me to install it. She's just awesome!

So as you can see I am *all about the Edward* LOL.

I know I need to continue my ABC's. I've just been going through a lot. First I was down with my back for a week. Then I got the cold from hell. So now I am backed up in 'To Do' stuff for Ebay. So hopefully I will get around to it sometime this week. But no promises.

I will share a bit of my life lately. Aside from being sick and injured. My friend Kris and I took Madison and her BFF to see High School Musical 3. It was really really good. I think it was their best yet. But thats just me. Madison just said "That Rocked". So I guess she liked it LOL.

Ebay is going well. I have a pile of toys to list, as well as two boxes from clients. Hope to be all caught up in a couple days here.

And Madison had decided to quit cheerleading. Which wasn't a shock even after I spent all that money. But then her coach sent a really kind email and she decided to go back.

Other than that, its been pretty uneventful around here. Can you believe its 35 days until Christmas?? Oh. My. Word. I am soooo not ready.

Well I must head to bed. Thanks for keeping up with me, even when I can't keep up with you.

Counting down the days....

As you SHOULD know....Twilight the movie is released on Friday. Oh how I wish I could go. But since I am dragging my mom with me...I have to wait until I have someone to watch Madison. Sooooo I am going on Monday. I am soooo excited. FINALLY Edward!! Maybe not "MY" Edward....but Edward nonetheless.

So I am now counting down the days until Monday.

Only 6 more days.

Oh and April....Hands off...hes MINE :)