Wherever we may roam....

So, we had another fun day with Ben and Jenn and their boy's. Jenn made us a yummy fancy breakfast before we headed out to do some running around town. One of our stops was Barnes and Noble. B and I both had gift certificates for there, plus I had a coupon. So, I suggested to him that this might be a great opportunity for him to get something he's wanted for a while now, the Calvin and Hobb's collector's set. It's 3 hard bound books with all the C & H's cartoons. He's a big fan, but it was just too expensive to get in the past. So, after combining our gift certificates, using my coupon, and (much to our surprise) receiving an additional discount because we have a membership card, we hardly paid anything for it. And he was a happy fellow!
We hated to leave Ben and Jenn, but it came time to continue on our journey as "Roaming Gnomes". This evening Ben & Jenn dropped us off at our next stop, B's grandparents house.

As you can see, I'm not able to upload my own pictures yet, so I'm improvising, hehehe.

The journey begins....

Wednesday:
We arrived at Ben and Jen's house and discovered this strange cold white stuff that they call "snow". Apparently you can form it into balls and place them on top of each other. This they call a "snowman". It fascinating stuff!
We are verry excited to be visiting with them, especially since they skipped out on us this fall, hehehe.

Thursday:
So, this morning B, after being up for a while, came into the room to wake me up and I growled at him (not a morning person). Then he informed me that there were Krispy Kremes on the table. I shot out of that bed pretty quickly after that. You see, last night I casually mentioned that I wanted to get some Krispy Kremes on this trip, since I can't get them at home. Then this morning, my good friend, Ben, granted my wish. Yeah Ben!
The 6 of us spent the day at The City Museum, which probably sounds boring, but it was soooo much fun! I'd have to say the most fun I've had at a museum. I took a bunch of pictures, that I will post later.

Christmas #1

So this year we are having Christmas 4 times. Sunday was Christmas at my house with my mom and Johnny.

Mom came with a wagon loaded up with gifts.

Busted! - sneakin' some ham

Christmas pup

Harley and his grandpa Family...

My gifts:

From B:

Zune (we each got one, we got them a few weeks ago, but we rewrapped them since they were supposed to be Christmas presents), Zune case and car charger

Pride and Predjudice DVD (collectors set that I've been wanting for a reaaaally long time!)

Shrek the Third DVD

See Sally Kick Ass (book -a woman's guide to personal safety)

Diamond earrings

From the folks:

A black pea coat (that I picked out)

2 cuff watches

Jammie pants (a Christmas tradition, we always get jammies from mom)

a silver necklace

pilates video

a pretty oriental box

And even though grandma had already given us our Christmas gifts, they brought 2 more from her - a Christmas pillow and a pewter ladle

And My spoiled rotten pup got 5 new toys - 1 from me (reindeer w/rope legs) and 4 from his grandma.

Another Christmas Party

NTB/Global Force TV had their annual party last night. We spent the afternoon helping set up - I did the decorating, B help with the sound.

How to amuse yourself when speakers get long winded:

I've spotted a rare species of North American human and I'm going in. With camera place inconspicuously on back of chair I take my shot. Oh no! I've been spotted! With camera casually perched on knee, Shannon shoots back! (Note B in background with hands on hips, giving me the "pay attention" look.....busted again!)

....The human surveys her shot.

And later that evening, after the party.....

You give me "the look"! - I sick the dogs on you! Muuuaahhhaha!

O.k., that's enough playing around for now, gotta go get ready for the next Christmas celebration. Later!

O.k., so this may not be as funny to you as it was to me.......

I'm sitting here just now at my desk playing around on my computer and B is reclining in the recliner with his lap top, working, meanwhile we are catching up on some Tivo. So, I'm sitting here and I hear him going, "Bean down! Bean down!" I look over at him wondering what the heck is going on, and he's looking around, and then he looks at me and says in a sad little voice, "I dropped my jelly bean." I don't know if it was the way he said it, or the fact that it's late at night, or both, but it cracked me up!

And then I thought....."Dude! Quit holding out on me and pass me some beans!"

Mmmmm......Jelly Bellies!

Zip line pics came in the mail today!

Puerto Vallarta - First we rode mules up the mountain

The view from above
Then the zip lines - 200 ft high, 1000 ft long

Repelled down a waterfall, this is when it started getting dark

At the top Almost at the bottom

Then zip lines in the dark. The only light was from the camera flash.

When we were done we hiked back to base in the dark with lights on our heads.

More funny NOLA stuff

ONLY IF YOU FROM LOUISIANA:
* THE FOUR SEASONS OF YOUR YEAR ARE: CRAWFISH, CRAB, SHRIMP AND KING CAKE
* WHEN SOMEONE ASKS DIRECTIONS: YOU USE UPTOWN, DOWNTOWN, WESTBANK & LAKESIDE
* YOU CALL IT A NEUTRAL GROUND INSTEAD OF A MEDIAN
* YOU CAN PRONOUNCE TCHOUPITOULAS
* YOU TAKE A "RIGHT HAND TURN" INSTEAD OF A RIGHT TURN
* YOU CALL ALL INTERSECTIONS "RED LIGHTS"
* YOU KNOW THE DEFINITION OF "DRESSED"
* YOU KNOW A PO-BOY IS NOT A GUY WITH NO MONEY
* YOU JUDGE A PO-BOY BY THE NUMBER OF NAPKINS USED
* YOU "MAKE" GROCERIES
* YOU KNOW WHAT K&B, SCHWEGMANN'S, AND MCKENZIE'S IS
* YOU LIKE YOUR RICE AND POLITICS DIRTY
* YOU KNOW THAT THOSE BIG ROACHES CAN FLY
* YOU CONSIDER A BLOODY MARY A LIGHT BREAKFAST
* NO MATTER WHERE ELSE YOU GO IN THE WORLD, YOU ARE ALWAYS DISAPPOINTED IN THE FOOD
* WIN OR LOSE....YOU HAVE AND WILL ALWAYS BE A SAINTS FAN
* YOU DON'T LEARN UNTIL HIGH SCHOOL THAT MARDI GRAS IS NOT A NATIONAL HOLIDAY (I actually didn't realize this until college!)
* YOU BRING EMPTY GROCERY BAGS TO PARADES
* YOU REFER TO DIFFERENT HIGH SCHOOLS AS "PRIVATE" OR "PUBLIC"
* YOU PUT TONY'S ON EVERYTHING!! (yeah you right!)
* RAIN, SLEET OR HAIL WILL NEVER KEEP YOU FROM JAZZ FEST
* YOUR ATTIC OR GARAGE IS FILLED WITH MARDI GRAS BEADS
* YOU WASTE MORE TIME NAVIGATING BACKSTREETS THEN SITTING IN TRAFFIC
* YOU SAVE NEWSPAPER. NOT TO RECYCLE BUT FOR A TABLECLOTH AT YOUR NEXT CRAWFISH BOIL
* YOUR FIRST QUESTION IN ANY TELEPHONE CALL IS "WHERE Y'AT?"
* YOU'RE NOT SCARED IF SOMEONE WANTS TO "AX YOU SOMETHING"
* YOU'VE GREETED SOMEONE WITH "HOW'S YA MAMA AN 'EM?" (many times!)
* YOU READ THIS AND LAUGHED THROUGH THE WHOLE THING SAYING "YEAH U RIGHT!!" (haha, I did!)

Saturday - We went to C's b-day party. She turned two.
The b-day girl

As you can see here, the theme was puppies. Aren't they cute with their dog ears?

Meanwhile, these 3 were very interested in something over here

Afterwards, B and Micah went off and did guy stuff (burping and scratching and such) and I went shopping with Becky and Lisa. After shopping we met up with our husbands (and L) for dinner.

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And now for the latest news from the "Wild Kingdom".......

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On Sunday my mother called to let me know that today Sugar (their donkey) may have become impregnated by Jethro (their other donkey). We're all very proud...... hopefully it worked and we'll have a baby donkey a year from now. See previous post (Dec 4th) for photo of their prior flirtations. Oh, and mom said that afterwards, Jethro didn't want to have anything to do with Sugar. When she walked up to him he just backed away from her. What an ass! (hehehe, get it, ass, donkey, haha, funny....but seriously, what an ass!, poor Sugar)

My neighborhood - You can't tell in this pic, but the leaves were falling, and it was really pretty.
A little "Sepia" action
Today - Helped mom decorate for the Ladies Tea at her church, ran some errands, found a car charger for my Zune, picked up b-day present for C, went to the mall, avoided pet store in mall, picked up several items in Victoria's Secret, put back picked up items at Victoria's Secret and left empty handed, had dinner in mall, gazed longingly while walking past Pottery Barn, went to Michael's, saw lots of stuff I wanted at Michael's, left Michael's with minimal damage to pocket book, went to Starbuck's for yummy treat, went home, attended to husband and dog, wrapped present, got on computer.... FYI....Starbucks.....Peppermint Mocha......yum!

This is for Kelsey, cause she had a dress similar to this and she has a pic of C wearing it on her blog. Me and Raggedy Ann (I still have the doll)

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

-Tormented the dog some more, by taking pictures of him in his new Christmas outfit. Then told him to forget he saw it cause it's his Christmas present.

-Had fun hanging out with Kelsey and helping her get ready for C's b-day party.

-Did a little more Christmas shopping. And picked up a gift for my mom to give to me. It's just easier that way. : )

-Had dinner with B, Megan, Eddie, and C.B. at a yummy Sushi restaurant. Made C.B. cry, cause I'm not mommy, hehehe.

-Picked up some more Peppermint Hershey Kisses, cause we're addicted. And apparently since I gave every one at B's work goodie bags with them in them, they are all addicted too.

Is that cute, or what?
Pretty ladies
All smiles!

You know U are from New Orleans if:

-Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside, even in December.
-You reinforce your attic to store Mardi Gras beads
-You don't look twice when you see pink flamingos in yards of nice subdivisions during Mardi Gras.
-You save newspapers, not for recycling but for tablecloths at crawfishboils.
-Your ancestors are buried above the ground .
-You drink Community Coffee, have tried Starbucks, but don't see what all the fuss is about.
-You take a bite of five-alarm chili and reach for the Tabasco.
-Every once in a while, you have water front property .
-You sit down to eat boiled crawfish and your host says, 'Don't eat the dead ones,' and you know what he means.
-You don't learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a national holiday.
-You push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads.
-Little old ladies push YOU out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads .
-You believe that purple, green, and gold look good together.
-Your last name isn't pronounced the way it's spelled.
-You know what a nutria is but you still pick it to represent your baseball team.
-Your town is low on the education chart, high on the obesity chart and you don't care because you're No. 1 on the party chart.
-You know that Tchoupitoulas is a street and not a disease.
-Your grandparents are called 'Mam-Maw' and 'Paw-Paw.'
-Your Santa Claus rides an alligator and your favorite Saint is a football player.
-You cringe every time you hear an actor with a Southern or Cajun accent in a 'New Orleans-based' movie or TV show.
-You have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm.
-You're walking in the French Quarter with a plastic cup of beer.
-When it starts to rain, you cover your beer instead of your head.
-You've eaten at one or more of these restaurants, AND know how to pronounce them: Prejeans, Tu Jac's, Gallatoire's, Ralph & Kacoo's, Brunet's, or Mulatte's.
-You eat dinner out and spend the entire meal talking about all the other good places you've eaten.
-You call home just to find out what your momma'nem are having for supper tonight.
-You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Louisiana

How to annoy your dog in 3 easy steps:

1.)

2.)

3.)

No Chihuahua was harmed in the making of these photos. Well, not physically, anyway......pride is another story.....but many treats were given to make up for it.......plus, it's the only way to get him to look at the camera.....

Happy Birthday!

Sunday - Christmas shopping at the mall

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Monday - Johnny's birthday

Monday was my step-dad's b-day, so I went to their house and hung out with them and all the animals and we went on a hike in their woods. I still can't get over the fact that my city slicker mother lives in the woods. hehehe B joined us for dinner and since it was chilly, we got to chat around the fire.

Maggie checkin' out the balloons

Jethro gettin' fresh with Sugar

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

Started out by going to a festival at the Alden Bridge shopping center because I wanted to visit the Recycle Boutique booth. All the items they sell are made from recycled products. I picked up 2 Christmas gifts there. At another booth I signed up for the raffle and ended up winning one of the prizes which was 50 free digital prints from the Walgreens. That will come in handy because that's where I always get my pictures printed from.

B's company Christmas party was tonight. When I got home from the festival, I put together 25 goodie bags, nothing big, just fun to have a little something to pass out to everyone (and B helped). Then put together the gifts for the White Elephant game, and wrapped the gifts we got for B's 2 partners. One of our White Elephant gifts we brought was the gift we brought home last year. We were very happy to pass it on to some other sucker, hehehe! (I actually liked what we brought home this year.) Also, B and his partners received gifts from the company - a Barnes and Noble gift certificate (which I begrudgingly let him keep, boo) and a silver ornament and gift certificate from Pottery Barn (which he ain't gettin' his hands on, hehehe!).

The group gets biger every year! Yeah!

Me and my sweetieThe JuddsB's partners