Costco

I have a love/hate relationship with Costco.  I love it because there are so many wonderful things to look at and buy!  I hate it for the same reason.
 I have a small house, so finding room for those jumbo boxes of practically everything is not always easy.  But who can resist those great deals?  We all  know if it's something you really like  they may not have it next time you go.  So stock up!
Another reason to hate Costco.  They make me fall in love with a delicious food item in their deli area and then suddenly they no longer carry it.  Like those delicious shrimp wraps they had the summer before last.  I couldn't wait for last summer, sure that they would return because they must've been seasonal, but alas they did not come back.
 I buy my dogs jerky treats there and stock up whenever they're on sale.  Next time I go they're not there! My dogs and I are in a panic! Luckily they restock those fairly often.

I love looking at their book section.  A great place to find gifts for everyone, especially me!
Their refridgerated area, where all the fruits and veggies are kept is a great place to hang out on a hot day.  When you come out of there you're glad it's hot out!  Brrrrr

Oh and when I get the coupon book and they've got a sale on post it notes in the mega 24 pack I can't resist stocking up on the limit.  After all they might have a color I don't already have.

I've got stacks of their Christmas tissue paper because it's so pretty and of course, such a good deal!  Same with the hand made Christmas gift tags.  Although, they are so cute I have a hard time giving them away.

What better place to buy batteries? Jeans for the hubby?  Giant stuffed giraffes for my daughter that collects giraffes?  Freshly baked jumbo muffins?  Alka Seltzer?  My favorite garlic and jalapeno stuffed olives?
So many things to look at and such good deals.  So little space and money!

Perhaps the best deal of all is one they've had for a very long time.  Their giant hot dog or polish dog and a soda for $1.50.  The cheapest and tastiest meal around.   It's also a good way to end my shopping trip.  Load up my car with all of my "good deals" and then sit down and enjoy a yummy polish dog and tall soda.
Sounds good to me!

Procrastination is my middle name.

I've not always been a procrastinator.  I used to get things done in a timely manner and then I didn't have to worry about them.  I would make one of my "to do" lists and then happily check off each item as I completed it.  Such a feeling of accomplishment!

I'm not quite sure when things changed.  I still make my lists and then I ignore them until I absolutely can't ignore them any more or I just hide the list and pretend like it never existed in the first place.

I do this with paying bills.  I always pay them before the due date, but I never pay them on the day I plan on paying them.  I hate writing out those checks and mailing off my hard earned money.  I know, I could always pay them online.  I have "set up online bill paying" on one of my lists. The one  that I keep pretending doesn't exist.

I used to start packing for my vacations at least a week in advance.  My last trip I hastily packed the night before we left.  I did have my packing list all set up ready to go but I just couldn't quite get motivated.  I blame the nasty cold I had.

Redecorating our living room has been put off over and over again. I'm talking about years of talking about but never doing. I blame laziness and fat for that, although we have officially started the project in the last couple weeks.  I'll post how that's coming along in the future.  Hopefully not too far in the future!

Making Dr. and dental appointments, vet appointments, doing laundry, housecleaning and grocery shopping have all been things I put off until the last minute.  They always get done, but not always as planned and maybe not the housecleaning.

Perhaps my biggest procrastination, is losing weight!  I choose a date,  plan carefully and then postpone it or I follow a diet for a few days or even months and then decide to go off it for a holiday or special occasion and never seem to get back on it again.  *sigh*

I guess when I look over this list of things I procrastinate on, I notice one thing in common.  They're all things I don't really like to do.  If I like to do them I don't dilly dally.  I get them done!  Like Christmas shopping.  I love Christmas shopping.  The thrill of finding the perfect gift for my loved ones is always a joy.  I'm usually all done shopping and wrapping before a lot of people even start.

Maybe I just need to start focusing on the feeling of accomplishment I will have once I finish something I don't really want to do.  I'll think about how nice it will be not to have those "to do's" hanging over my head like a black cloud.  In all actuality each one doesn't take all that much time, except the living room makeover and the losing weight.  So I will start focusing on not procrastinating!  I'm going to write that on my planner right now!  Let's see how about I start on Monday?...no that's my birthday...how about Tuesday?  That's the start of a new month!  Yeah, I think I'll do that...I hope. ;o)

I Love Mysteries!

I've always loved mysteries.  It started when I was young and read mystery books like the Nancy Drew series or the Trixie Belden mystery books.  Those stories would really pull me in until I would finish the book.  Sometimes a book a day.  Come to think of it, I think that's when I started putting on weight.  All that sitting around reading!

In my teen years I started watching the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery TV shows.  Rockford Files and Magnum P.I. were other favorites along with many others that I've long forgotten.

I still love a good mystery show, movie or book.  I have favorite authors that I have to grab their books the moment they are available.
Authors like:
J.A. Jance.  I started with the J.P. Beaumont series, since it was set in Seattle, but also love her Joanna Brady and Ali Reynolds series that are based in Arizona.
Jonathon Kellerman and his Alex Delaware series.
Rita Kellerman and her Peter Decker series.
Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum series.
And what mystery author list is complete without James Patterson?  That guy cranks out books by the dozen!  Love his Alex Cross books.  I also read a lot of his other mystery series books.

I used to read Patricia Cornwell, but her books got thicker and thicker and the personal relationships between the main characters got kind of weird, so I stopped reading her books.  They need to hold my attention.  Make me want to read just one more page, chapter and so on, until I'm done.  Her books became a chore, in my opinion.  Life is too short to read a tedious book.  There are so many more out there just waiting to be read!

If you read my post about my favorite TV shows you'll notice that most of those are mysteries as well.  Whether it's true crime mysteries or fiction, I love them all.

The problem is, with the fiction mystery shows and sometimes the true crime ones, I've seen so many of them that I can figure out "who done it", before the ending.  Sometimes this spoils it for anyone who might be watching the show with me, because I like to share my observations with anyone that's in the room.  My dogs don't really mind, but the humans usually do.  Of course, I'm wrong on occasion and then we are all pleasantly surprised. :o)

The Good Old Days!

I remember, when I was a child, how we loved to play outdoors.  We'd play tag and red light, green light, badminton,  lawn darts.  We would ride our bikes all over.  The nearby woods were a great place to explore paths and make forts.  Or how about a game of H.O.R.S.E, with our backyard basketball hoop.  Night time hide and seek was always fun.

Every summer my sister and I and sometimes my brother and other friends would make our annual bike trip.  We would ride a few miles from our house to a waterfront park and eat a picnic lunch, or the candy we bought at the penny candy store on the way.  Then after playing there for a while we'd head home, usually pushing our bikes most of the way because it was almost all uphill.

Our parents thought nothing of letting us go play in the nearby woods or school yards, as long as we let them know where we were going and were home in time for dinner.

It's sad that when my daughters were young and now, parents can't really feel as confident letting their kids roam around on their own.  I would've never let my kids run around in the woods for hours, without one of us present.  I always felt nervous letting them walk home from school on their own and arrive at an empty house, even though they were definitely old enough and very trustworthy.

When they road their bikes it was only on our little dead end street, where I could keep an eye on them.

I can't help wondering if it's because there really are that many more predators out there now than when I was a child, or is it because we are more aware of them because of the media?  Sadly I tend to think that there are just more of them out there.  Not only predators, but homeless people living in the woods, that might not appreciate kids tramping along into their territory or bullies ready to cause some trouble.

I find this heartbreaking as I think back onto the good times I had and the freedom.  Maybe I was just lucky because even then, times were changing.  My younger brother, as a kid, had a couple run ins with some unsavory types while he was out playing and luckily he had the sense to head home right away and not get lured into something that could've turned out bad.

Still, I think that if parents are vigilant and join in on those outdoor activities, there is still a lot of fun to be had and good memories to be made!

Hello Autumn, Fall or whatever you call it.

Autumn officially starts tomorrow, September 22nd.  I can't say that it's my favorite season because that title goes to Summer but there are many things I like about the fall season.

When I think of Fall, I think of cool days and rain, since I live in the Northwest where we get a lot of rain.

 I think of colorful trees and  falling leaves, which my husband hates since we have a ginormous maple tree in our backyard and it dumps probably about a foot deep of leaves every year.  Come to think of it, our neighbors probably hate that tree too, since a lot of those leaves get blown into their yards by those fall winds we tend to have.

I also think of pumpkin spice breads and muffins. Favorite casseroles that I've been holding off baking until the weather cools down.  Homemade soups accompanied by homemade bread.  I love my bread machine, which I've had since bread machines were popular many years ago.

The smells of freshly baked apple crisp or fall scented candles.

Flu shots and property taxes due. Okay those are not the most pleasant of thoughts, but they did come to mind.

The stores stocked high with Halloween candies and then Christmas items.

Football games, (Go Seahawks!) although I'm just a fair weather fan.  The world series.  (Go Mariners!) Ditto on the fair weather fan.

Time spent with family, since we have a lot of birthdays and Thanksgiving in the fall.

The first frost.  Turning on the furnace for the first time.  Using our woodstove for the first time since spring.
Flannel sheets. Sweaters. Putting away the short sleeves and bringing out the long sleeved tops.

The colors of fall.  Rich reds, oranges, yellows and browns.

Another short vacation from work, since I take quarterly vacations.

These are just some of the things that popped into my mind as I was thinking about the Fall season.  I was also thinking that I wish this cold that summer left me with would hurry up and leave!

***Just a small addendum to one of my other posts.  I remembered with the help of my ever faithful assistant, my daughter Kristen, that I forgot the TV show "Castle" on my favorite TV show post.  That is definitely a favorite and the new season starts in just a few days.  Yay!

The Delights of the Deli.

As I've mentioned before, I like deli food.  Unfortunately, as far as I know, we do not have any of those wonderful delis like you see in the movies or on TV or read about in books.  The delis I frequent are in my local grocery stores.  Each one of the three, that I go to, has at least one item that I crave.  I'm not sure if it would be a good or bad thing if one of those stores had all of the items.  Of course each of these items is incredibly healthy and nutritious.  Okay, I'm lying.  I have a feeling if they were healthy and nutritious I probably wouldn't crave them.
So I'm sure by now, you're just dying to know where I go and what I get there. Well, I can pretend you're interested anyways.

The Safeway deli has pretty good Chinese food.  Not quite the quality of my fave restaurants but good if I need a quick fix of General Tso's chicken or potstickers.  This deli also has my favorite olive mix.  It's Greek olives and green olives mixed with chunks of feta cheese.  Yum!

The next deli on my craving list is at Albertson's.  Albertson's fried chicken is the best!  I'd take it over KFC any day!  I like to stop by there, on my way home from work, and pick up their 8 piece mixed meal that comes with the chicken and a pound of your choice of salads or jojo's and a 4 pack of rolls.  It's a good, inexpensive meal.  Definitely, finger lickin', artery clogging, good!

The last items, I get a hankering for, are from the Fred Meyer deli.  I love their seafood/shrimp salad.  They also have great sandwiches and an olive bar as well.  Their spicy olives are delicious!  My daughter can not get enough of their macaroni and cheese salad.  You should see her face when we go there and they don't have it.  Talk about a frown, like the one she'll have when she reads this. hehe

So, there you have it!  One of the reasons I'm overweight and several of the things I crave when I try to lose weight.  Just what you always wanted to know. ;o)

I Love My TV Shows!

I feel excitement in the air, as our favorite TV shows get ready to start up anew.  All of those cliffhangers will soon be resolved!  Of course, after I've waited for several months, I tend to forget what those cliffhangers even are.  

It used to be that our shows would end in June and then restart in early September.  There were no interesting summer series to watch.  You would take a nice break over the summer and watch one of those shows like America's Got Talent or something else boring like that when you had nothing else to do. 

Now they've introduced all of those series that are only on in the summer, like Perception and Longmire.  Unfortunately Longmire had an end of summer cliffhanger and I have to wait until next June for that to come back!!! 

 Another show I would watch in the summer, that I loved was The Closer.  But The Closer, closed and spawned a spin off called Major Crimes.  Now I love the characters in Major Crimes that were from the original show, but I really can not stand Captain Raydor's character.  She is about as interesting as a limp noodle...well actually I find a limp noodle more interesting.  Now, I've never seen any other shows that Mary McDonnell is in but I have a feeling that she's probably just as interesting in those too.  Another story line in the show I don't like is that boy Rusty!  I'm just tired of it.  I'm almost hoping that serial killer, or whomever is stalking him, will come and take him away, far, far away!  Now with those two characters gone I would really, really love the show.  Unfortunately, I don't write for them, so I'm sure they will remain on the show and I will have to decide whether I want to keep watching or not but I have until next summer to determine that.

As you may have guessed, from the shows I've listed, I like crime solving shows and have since I was a kid. My favorites now are Bones, which restarted last Monday!  Yay!  The Mentalist, (yum Simon Baker!)

NCIS (Mark Harmon is my older guy crush  *sigh*)  Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles and Hawaii 5-0.  You can add to that all of the real life investigative, crime solving shows I like to watch like Dateline, 48 hours, 20/20 and pretty much anything on the Investigation Discovery channel.  Don't you just love those titles on the I.D. channel like "Evil Twins", "I Killed My Best Friend", "Evil Kin",  "Wicked Attraction" and so on.  No, I don't watch all of those  shows on I.D. Just a select few.

Now after you see the list of blood and gore I watch, you probably think I like the Walking Dead show, but no thanks!  I've seen that once or twice, with my daughter, who absolutely loves it and it gave me nightmares!  I do not enjoy seeing people lop off the heads of zombies.  *shudder*

Now I do like to laugh, so one of my favorite shows is Modern Family.  That show does make me laugh! Too funny! Great characters, although Clare is a pain.   I'll be looking forward to the start of that show next week.

A few shows I like that are just on whenever are: 

Ghosthunters!  Love this show and have watched it since it started several years back.  Ghosts fascinate me but I don't know if I ever really want to see one, in person.  I would probably pee myself.  Not a good thing!

 Amazing Race!  I have only missed one season of that show, since it started.  I truly love to watch it.  They travel to such fantastic places.

Dr. Pol a great veterinarian show.

Cake Boss, although that family is a little loud but I so want to find out what happens with Mama who was diagnosed with ALS.  It breaks your heart.  Poor Mama!  

The other show is on MTV and it's called Catfish.  It's about people that meet online and have an online relationship, even sometimes becoming engaged but have never met and for some reason or another one of the two doesn't want to meet.  Usually it's because they are not whom they claim to be.  I always find it amazing  that the one person doesn't think it's odd that the other person never wants to get together in real life if they're really in love.  Some of these poor souls even send money to the other person!  I guess they're just so desperately looking for love that they will believe anything.  It's really kind of heartbreaking.

Now for the guilty pleasure shows, that I watch.  I'm not proud of it, but they are entertaining as only a scripted, reality show can be.  The first one is Kendra on Top.  After watching the first episode of this season, I'm not sure if I'll continue much longer, because it's always the same old story.  She parties too hard, swears too much and doesn't want another baby yet because it might ruin her career.  Actually it's her adorable son and handsome husband that make the show interesting.

My 2nd guilty pleasure show is Sister Wives.  I like this show because it's interesting to see how this polygamist family works.  Sadly, it is also seems to be in a rut.  Money problems: well I would have money problems too if I was paying for four big, beautiful, brand new houses and starting multiple businesses and feeding 17 children.  Everyone picks on us:  Well it was their choice to come out as a polygamist family on TV.  They say it was to show the world that not all polygamists are like the Warren Jeffs family.  I really think their decision was based on "Let's make a TV show, so we can get more money to take care of our large family and so the husband/father Cody, doesn't have to work, except on his hair."  

Well I think that rounds up all of my favorite shows, although I'm sure I've missed a few and will think of them later on.  Thank God for DVR's because I would be sunk without ours, since so many shows are on at once.  I just record them all and watch them at my leisure, which is frequently because I'm all about leisure.

Happy Television Watching!  Feel free to comment.  We can have some TV discussions. :o)

Good-bye Summer!

As I sit here, in my chilly house, I think about the past few wonderful summer months we've had.  This summer was one of the warmest, sunniest summers I can remember in...well that I can remember period!  Yes, we've had summers, in the past, that have had a solid week of very sweltering  temperatures.  I live in the Pacific Northwest and sweltering to us is usually the 90's and very humid.  Most of us are not used to temperatures like that and do not have air conditioning in our homes.  But, besides that week of hot temperatures those summers were relatively short lived and the good weather never started before July 4th.

This year we were all amazed at how early the warm weather started, especially since the cool weather lasted much later than usual.  We were breaking records as to how many days in a row we had temperatures above 80 and how many days all summer long had temperatures that high.  I loved it!

It's amazing how a beautiful, sunny day can brighten your disposition or energize you.  Okay, I admit I was never very energetic because I'm fat, but I thought energized thoughts!

I could walk out of work, after a particularly grueling day and the minute I stepped outside and felt the warmth envelop me all was bright in the world and I could go home with a smile on my face.  I didn't dare go outside to have lunch, like some of my coworkers, because I knew the minute  I stepped out into that sunshine I would continue on out to my car and drive away, never to come back.  So, I stayed inside in the overly frigid air and looked forward to quitting time.

Now, as the days darken and the familiar northwest rains have returned, I feel summer has slipped away a little bit early.  I miss it already.  But summer has left me with a parting gift!  An end of summer head cold...please pass the kleenex.

I'm Not a Morning Person!

As I sit here all blurry eyed, killing time before I leave for work, all I can think about is how much I'd rather be sleeping.  Getting up this early, should be against the law, especially for someone like me that doesn't drink coffee!  It's even harder, now that fall is approaching and it's dark out.

I never have been and never will be a morning person, at least not willingly.  The last time I can remember getting up happily, at zero dark thirty, was as a child when I'd get up at seven a.m. to watch cartoons on Saturday morning.  My younger sister and I would get up before seven, wake up my baby brother and change his diaper and then the three of us would happily watch cartoons.  That was a very long time ago.

Now I get irritated if I have to get up early on my days off.  Early to me is any time that an alarm clock is used to wake me up.  I like to stay up late, so a good time to get up is not before 10 a.m.  Now that I've gotten older, aches and pains have set in.  If I can sleep till 9 a.m. that is a good day.  Around that time my back or hip or neck or some other body part starts to protest.  So, if I can get to sleep before 1 a.m. and don't need to get up to use the bathroom during the night, I can get just about 8 hours of sleep.

I don't know where this late to bed, late to get up came from.  My parents were/are early birds.  My younger sister and brother are both early birds, although my brother does like to stay up late too, when not working.  Now my older sister is like me.  She is more of a night owl than I am.  In fact she works nights.  I'm not sure when she ever even sleeps.  I think it's kind of in spurts during the day.  I don't know how she does it!  I think those night shifters are another breed altogether.

I try to smile at those people that wake up all bright and cheery and greet you happily, first thing in the morning.  Little do they know how hard that is for me because I'm still sleeping, with my eyes open, hoping it's all just a bad dream and I'll wake up in a little while still nice and warm in my bed.

My computer.

This morning I had an idea of what I wanted to blog about today.  I had it planned in my mind as I went to take a shower after my usual facebook check in.  After showering I came back to my desktop computer and moved the mouse to wake it up, after it went into sleep mode.  Nothing...black screen.  I moved the mouse some more.  Still nothing!  The computer was on.  The monitor was on.  I felt a little panic setting in as I turned the monitor off and then back on.  NO SIGNAL it said.  Uh oh!  I checked all of the plugs etc. and then turned off and then back on my computer.  It started up as usual but still nothing on the monitor.  My computer is only a year old.  It can't be dead, where as my monitor is several years old.  That has to be it!  My monitor is dead!
About that time my hubby appears on the scene. " HELP!!!  My computer or monitor is dead but I don't know how to tell which one."  I see the look of dread on his face because my family knows if my computer dies it's not a good day.  My daughter shows up about then and upon hearing what the problem is she quickly leaves the area.  My hubby, who is good at diagnosing most computer problems, tells me to disconnect the monitor and pass it over to him.  He hooks it up to his computer and it's fine.  That can only mean one thing!  It's my computer!  I'm already mentally planning where I am going to rush out to, to buy my next computer, when he tells me to hand my computer over and he'll look at it.  He hooks my computer up on his desk and it starts up just fine.  Hmmm, so my monitor is fine and my computer is fine??? What is going on?  He thinks that maybe one of the connections was loose or maybe the power supply messed up for a little bit.
After handing my monitor and computer back to me, I hook it all back up and it works just fine.  *big sigh of relief* from all of us.  Keep in mind that I do have a laptop as well, but it just isn't the same to me as my desktop computer.
At that time I decided to change my blog subject to computers and how some of our lives seem to revolve around them.
My love of computers started many years ago, and when I say many I mean more than 30 years ago.  My husband, who at that time was only my boyfriend, had a little Texas Instrument computer.  He had one of those little mystery games on it that had no pictures or anything like that on it.  It was just words.  No sound, just words.  It would tell you about a scene and then you would type in instructions, like go left, open the cupboard, run like hell, or something like that.  I loved that game!
Later on, after we were married and had kids, we had another computer.  The games on this computer were similar but they actually had pictures.  I loved those games too.  Over time more interesting and involved games appeared like Sim Coaster and assorted Brain Games.  My daughters and I loved those games.  Soon the actual Sim game came out (a lot more on that in a future blog) and that was a huge turning point in our household.  Suddenly, one computer didn't work for our family of four.  One computer turned into two and then three and then soon everyone had their own desktop computers.
 We had another phone line added to our home so we could be on the computer and still make calls at the same time.   Remember dial up?  That awful connecting noise it made.  It is something best forgotten.  Thank God for cable!
Over the years the computer became our link to the world.  The girls did their homework research on it, because who goes to the library anymore, as well as their reports.  We played online games.  Joined online forums.  Made online friends.  Sent emails.  Played games on our computers, some of those were online and others weren't.  Searching the web became a daily event.
When those computers acted up, it was a tragedy.  What about the music we listened to on them?  Or the papers that we stored in them?  Or those games we had installed that literally took hours to reinstall?  What events on Facebook were we missing?  Hubby, would painstakingly work on them or we'd have to buy a new one and then all was good again in our home.
My Mom thinks that our computers are the root of all evil.  She has never understood our love of them.  She can't understand the friends we've made through our computer use, or the games we play.  But we all know that they've become a part of our lives for better or worse.

My Love of Collecting.

I have had many, many collections over the years.  Few have lasted but the remnants still litter my small home. 

 I blame my Mom for passing on the need to collect, gene.  Ever since I can remember my Mom had some type of collection.  Green glass, bells, thimbles, dolls, recipe books and the list goes on. 

 At a young age, I too decided I need to collect/hoard things that caught my eye.  I had scrapbooks filled with pretty or cute candy wrappers from Easter candies or every birthday card I received.   I collected stamps for many years.  Also, those little souvenir spoons that you can buy at almost any destination.  Now instead of the little spoons I collect refridgerator magnets from my travels and Christmas ornaments. 

 Speaking of Christmas ornaments, I have enough to cover at least four 10 foot trees.  Hallmark ornaments are my downfall.  I start various series and can't skip a year.  Those little Frosty Friend ornaments have been going on for well over 30 years and I have them all!  Don't forget the Mickey Mouse head ornaments in every size and color I could find at Disneyland.

I also collect recipe books, but finally gave away a few boxes of them, after realizing I never made anything out of them. 

 I mustn't forget my Beanie Baby collection.   Oh the hours I spent standing in lines to perhaps get a special beanie.  The adrenaline rush when we found out that one of the stores around us just got a new shipment.  They are now all stored away waiting until I give them away.   Flushed that money right down the drain!

A few years later Webkinz entered the pictures. They cost about $10 more than Beanie Babies, but you could play a fun online game with them as well...

Perhaps the collection that held my attention the longest is my Barbie collection.  When I finally got too old to play with my Barbies, I decided that I would start collecting them.  What better reason to continue playing with them that to say "I was collecting them."?  Finally, Mattel started cranking those Barbies out at speeds my bank account and little house could not keep up with and I tired of the collection.  But not before I had accumulated over 350 of them.  

Over the years my daughters figured out how to make the most of my need to collect.  "Mom, the kids at school are playing with pogs."  After I figured out what the heck pogs were, I took them to the local 6 Star store where they had big bins of pogs.  We spent hours combing through those things, looking for 2 each of all 50 states, or 2 each of the cute Disney pictures and so on.  I was so obsessed with the pogs that I would go there on my own, while the girls were in school, and dig through the bins.

Being the daughters of an obsessive Barbie collector, paid off for them too.  They had more Barbies than any kid should have.  The wouldn't even play with them.  Barbie playing for them was organizing all of the hoards of Barbies and clothes they had into groups.

My older daughter hasn't inherited the collecting gene or if she has she's suppressed it pretty well.  She is trying to lead an uncluttered lifestyle and collecting doesn't exactly fit into that.

My youngest has not escaped it.  Giraffe items are her big obsession.  Someday, when she has her own home, she will have a beautiful theme going on.  Now it's not too beautiful because she also lives in this cluttered house. 

She still can take advantage of my obsessive collecting ways, by living with me.  She decided to start crafting and needed some material.  Let's just say that she has plenty of material now and patterns, buttons, well you get the picture.

I don't see my need to collect ending anytime soon, in fact, as one ends another begins.  Such as, my need for more notepads and that wonderful Temp-tations bakeware.  I can hear my husband groaning now.

 Here's a picture of a few of my cookbooks and this years ornament additions, so far.

A couple of my Barbies and you might notice a few items from another collection, I forgot to mention, Precious Moments figurines.

Life on Facebook

A few years back my daughters started Facebook (FB) accounts.  I thought it looked interesting and started an account of my own.  At first I really didn't have many FB friends and nothing really to say, so I would just comment on their posts.  Slowly a few of my online friends, that I've met over the years through the Sims, started accounts.   My Facebook world grew a little larger.

I started playing a game called Farmville and I needed more neighbors.  I started friending friends and family members of those online friends and coworkers that played Farmville as well.  After all they needed neighbors too.  My FB world grew larger.  Soon I was playing other games and needed more friends and neighbors for those games and so my FB world grew even larger!

Over the years I felt like I was becoming real friends with these game friends because I would read posts about their real life.  They were from all over the world.  I would get to know their families through pictures and sometimes because they would friend me also.  We all needed more friends and neighbors.

As time went on, I stopped playing a lot of the games that I shared with these people, but I didn't delete these online game friends because I truly came to think of them as real friends.  I would worry about them, if they didn't post for a while.  I would pray for them if they or their families were sick or in need.  I would have online chats with them.  Sometimes, I admit, I would delete them if they were offensive or irritating to me, but that didn't happen too often.

I am thankful that Facebook brought so many new friends into my world.  I'm also thankful that it keeps me in touch with real friends and family on a daily basis.  I feel like I'm getting to know each person a little more and in doing so making lasting friendships with people that I would've never met in my little world.

My shopping addiction!

Over the last year, I have acquired a new addiction.  QVC!  I used to watch it about 20 years or so ago and found out that those hosts could talk you into most anything.  I ended up with a few pieces of very nice, but not expensive jewelry.  The trouble is, I don't really wear much jewelry.  I decided my hard earned dollars needed to go elsewhere and so I gave up watching QVC.  Fast forward to last fall.  I just happened to be flipping through the channels and low and behold there on QVC was the portable heater I had been admiring that my Mom had.  Better yet, it was Today's Special Value (TSV)!   Since that fateful day I have bought many more items.  I'm not interested in the jewelry, so I can easily pass up those shows.  I like watching the clothing, but because of my super sized body I don't really think most of the items would fit.  I did happen to buy a couple pairs of Quacker Factory dream jeans and they do fit, but they'd fit much better if I lost about 20 pounds.  When I first tried them on and showed them to my daughter, she assured me that they looked good and made my butt look smaller.  A couple days later, when I showed her again before we went out shopping, she looked at me and shook her head.  I looked at her and said "what???"  She said she was sorry but she hadn't been wearing her glasses when she looked before.  *rolls eyes*
My downfall, when it comes to QVC, is kitchen gadgets and bakeware.  My cupboards are now overflowing with beautiful Temp-tations bakeware.  I have the Kitchen Aid stand mixer I've always dreamed of.  The George Foreman grill, with removable grill plates adorns my counter, because my small kitchen has no place to store it and the Ninja 3-in-1 cooker is on the way, as I speak.  Speaking of Ninja, their little Ninja storm mixer works great at whipping up those smoothies. Also a TSV.
I've also, thanks to my sister-in-law, become a fan of Philosophy body washes and just recently purchased my first WEN hair care products.
Oh and bought my first pair of shoes online, Clarks and they weren't even TSV, but they are very comfortable!
My husband, gem that he is, has not complained about all of the empty QVC boxes piling up around the house, after all they were TSV!  He has also enjoyed the Kansas City steaks and burgers and Cheryl's cookies.
I know that sometime, in the not too distant future, I will be retiring (I hope) and then the days of QVC shopping will come to an end because my income will be limited.  So I had better stock up on all of those wonderful TSVs now while I can!

The start of school.

I was never one of those Moms that looked forward to the start of school.  It meant getting everyone up and out of the house early.  We tend to like to sleep in and take our time getting out and about.  It also meant time for Hyper Nag Mom to make an appearance.  Did you do your homework?  Is there everything in your backpack?  Did you set out your clothes?  Don't get me wrong, I like to nag.  I just don't like it to be a daily thing for 9 months straight.
Going back to school also meant dealing with the daycare and making sure they were getting my kids to school on time.  Having a back up plan in case one of my daughters got sick at school and so on.   I was lucky enough to be able to only work four days a week during most of my kids childhood and three days a week during most of the high school years.
I was also fortunate enough to have highly intelligent children that excelled in all of their subjects, except maybe P.E.  I could never fault them for that because my P.E. skills were always lacking, as well.
There were two things I always looked forward to before school started.  Clothes shopping and school supply shopping.  I still miss those things, so I make it a point to every year buy myself some new fall clothes and check out the school supplies.  I won't go into clothes shopping  for myself too much in this post because that's a whole other can of worms in my life, but we can talk about school supply shopping!
 I love school supplies!  There is nothing like adding some new colored markers, colorful spiral notebooks or folders with fun designs on them to my inventory.  Don't even get me started on talking about post it notes!  Yes, I am a post it note hoarder.  I have them in all sizes, shapes, colors and designs.   I also have many, many notepads also in all sorts of colors, designs, etc. etc.  This might lead you to believe that I'm a list and note maker and you would be right in that assumption!  Right now I'm surrounded by assorted notes.  I keep an appointment book on my desk with assorted appointments and tasks listed on it.  It is covered with sticky notes with some of the exact same memos to myself but I think I might pay more attention to them if they are also on a brightly colored note.  I have a grocery list, a Walmart/Target list and a to do list always within reach.  If I find a notepad or sticky notepad with a Hello Kitty design on it, I have to buy it!  It's a given.  I can't possibly understand why someone else wouldn't want a wonderful notepad or sticky pad collection, but that's just me.  Here's a very small sampling of what I'm talking about.

This is the second year I haven't had a child going to school/college.  My youngest graduated from college in 2012.  I don't miss that one bit.  Eventually, maybe, I certainly hope one day I will be a Grandmother.  Then I will be able to shower my grandchild with school clothes and supplies.  I will leave the school nagging to their parents, but I will probably nag their parents a little bit to make sure they've done everything a good parent should do as far as nagging goes. :o)

A little bit about me.

   Hello and welcome to my life!  I'm Laura and as you can tell by my title, I'm fat.  Morbidly Obese might be a better term for my current weight.  I'm not proud of it but I have no problem with saying it like it is.  It's kind of funny how uncomfortable people get when a fat person makes fat jokes about themselves.  I have no problem laughing about my love of food and size, but I see the looks on others faces and they don't know whether to laugh or not.  It's rather awkward.  I just want them to laugh along with me.

If you found this blog and are hoping for some interesting weight loss info, you might be sorely disappointed. I created this as kind of an online diary.  I plan on sharing my loves, hopes, goals, dreams and life on these pages, like a diary.  Writing in diaries was a longtime obsession of mine from childhood until my later twenties when raising children took a priority.  I still took the time to jot down cute or humorous stories about my kids or vacations we went on but daily entries in a journal became tedious and just another chore that needed to be done.  So, it was time to quit.  Now that my daughters are adults and I have a lot more time, I thought I'd give blogging a try.  Why blog over writing things down in a journal?  My handwriting is atrocious!  Over the years it has gradually declined.  I blame working in a hospital.  I have to translate the scribbles of doctors and eventually I began to scribble too.  I spend a lot of time on my computer so typing comes much more naturally to me, so here I am!

Today I'll share with you some of my loves.  I have many.  You can probably guess one of them.  Yes, I love food!  I'm not a choosy eater.  I love all kinds, although I'm a little picky when it comes to veggies.  Fast food, deli food, restaurant foods, different ethnic foods and homemade.  I love them all!  In large quantities, because we all know if I don't get enough of my favorite foods now, they might not be available tomorrow...

Another thing I love, of course, is family.  I have two wonderful daughters and a very understanding, patient and long suffering husband.  I also have my Mom and 3 siblings all living in the area too.  So, I'm surrounded by loving family.  I'm very blessed.

Animals!  I love animals!  I currently have 3 cats and 2 dogs.  You'll be hearing about them in detail throughout my posts, because they are a big part of my crazy life.

Traveling is another love of mine that also falls under my hopes and dreams category.  I hope to share my trips I've been on and trips I hope to go on some day.

Cooking is one of my loves!  I'm not a gourmet cook but I like to try new recipes, which I find on shows I watch, blogs, facebook posts and so on. 

I love TV, which I watch way too much of and my DVR, which allows me to watch way too much TV.  We'll have to discuss some of our favorite shows, or you can read about me discussing mine. ;o)  

I also love reading.  So many books, so little time.  My favorites are mysteries.  I have many mystery authors I follow. I also like romances.  It's always nice to read a light, carefree, totally predictable romance.

One of my loves is computer games.  My favorite of all times is The Sims.  I've played it since it came out several years ago and have enjoyed The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3 and will probably like the soon to be released Sims 4.  I will discuss this passion in more detail than you could ever want to read in the future, which makes me think of their next expansion for TS3, Into the Future!  Love those Sim games!

I also like some of the facebook games too, even though they are addicting and frustrating, at times!

Well, as you can see, I do like to rattle on sometimes.  So, I'll close now with the wish that you come back to see me again and share your thoughts with me.