Happy Valentine's Day to you, too

Whatever happened to the days of a chocolate heart and a single red rose? I've never had expensive wants when it came to Valentine's Day, but just a rose...just ONE FRIGGIN' ROSE might be nice to look at for a few days. When's the last time I got roses or flowers or even a nice little plant anyway? Oh, wait, sorry...::AHEM::...let's start again.

So while I could have my reasons to HATE this holiday 'o luv when it comes around each and every year, some things you just have to let go of after 10 years.

With that being said, it's a darn good thing I won our Valentine's dinner, because every last penny of our money is spoken for. We got each other a card and nothing more. Well, I got HIM a card...I don't know if HE has gotten ME one yet.

So while we're still on the subject, I have a couple of funny/weird/stupid Valentine memories I'd like to share:

In 6th grade, I was probably the biggest dork in my class. Glasses, braces, bad haircut, a little chubby, made straight A's, you name it. So for Valentine's Day, everyone always exchanged little Valentine's with everyone. Well there were several kids that made a point of telling me that they gave EVERYONE else one but ME. So I sat at my desk, but my head down, and cried. Depressing.

In 7th grade, there was this guy named Ben who said he was "in love" with me. This guy would never leave me alone. He'd call me. He'd follow me around the school campus. He whittled small objects out of wood and gave them to me as presents. (Interestingly enough, he also said he was "in love" with my best friend, her sister, and God knows who else.) So anyway, on Valentine's Day that year, I was feeling kinda bummed out because I didn't have a boyfriend. Seems like everyone got a rose or some candy or something from somebody! Well I got this little note from one of the office workers, telling me to go to room such and such in the highschool to pick up something. Strange. I had never stepped foot into the highschool before, and the place was HUGE and I thought for sure I would get trampled. I was so skinny and scrawny, and those kids were like GIANTS. As luck would have it, this classroom I was looking for was upstairs, at the OTHER end of the building. I found this classroom, finally, and I told the people in there my name, and they handed me a heart shaped helium balloon with the words "I love you" on it. I was thrilled!! I GOT A VALENTINE!! There was a small piece of paper attached to the ribbon that was tied to the balloon, and it said something like "Happy Valentine's Day, Love Ben" and at first, I was like "UGH!" but then it was more like "I don't CARE who it's from! I got a Valentine!" So I carried the dumb balloon around school all day with a smile on my face.

And then there was 8th grade. (Trust me, I'm not going to sit here and reminisce about EVERY Valentine's since then.) Me and this guy had been talking and knew we liked each other, blah, blah, blah, and I was wondering for days, "Okay, is he like going to ask me out now?" So on Valentine's night, he came over, brought me some V-day goodies, to which I was completely giddy over, we hung out for awhile, and STILL...he left without asking me!! So was I supposed to just ASSUME that we were together or what? So as soon as he got home, he called me on the phone and asked me. And I was thrilled. Heck, I still remember what time it was...it was 9:47 p.m.!!!

And then of course throughout highschool there was Marc. He was always good at remembering Valentine's Day, even when we WEREN'T dating. And he always spent money on me. Of course, those were the days when kids were actually old enough to have jobs. We were together for several years, so he took me to places like Red Lobster or Olive Garden for the grand event, always sent me roses, usually gave me a teddy bear, blah blah blah.

Then I got to thinking that today is mine and Michael's 6th Valentine's Day together. For our first, we had only been dating for 2 weeks, but he took me downtown, bought me dinner, and took me on a carriage ride. It was very sweet. And on that carriage ride (after only being together 2 weeks) we talked about marriage and kids and everything else. It was freezing cold, too, but who knew?

Now once I joined the work force, Valentine's Day became a competition. Not between me and Michael, but between the women I worked with. I would sit at my desk, slumped over in disbelief, as I saw the huge bouquets some of my co-workers received. They would always have this surprised look on their faces, AS IF they didn't know they were getting roses for V-day. I would walk around the office, in total awe at the red and pink and white. The whole office wreaked of roses. The day was more than half over and I had none. NONE. Even my closest friend at work had gotten roses from her boyfriend, and my husband hadn't sent me any yet. So I, being the mean, devious person that I can be sometimes, called up Michael at work and said, "Oh, Michael, thank you for the roses!! Or wait, are these from you? There's no card with it." Well, this really backfired in my face and made me feel really dumb. I really had not received any roses yet, but Michael had ordered them already...and they hadn't gotten to me yet. Because after I said "There's no card with it", he covered the phone and I heard him saying to his mom "Candy just said she got her roses and there was no card with it." And then Michael came back to the phone and said, "Are you sure there was no card?" or something to that effect, giving it away that he HAD sent me roses and I just hadn't received them yet. I started cracking up laughing at that point, but I felt really bad afterwards. Actually, I'm not sure who felt dumber...me or him. But either way, that was really mean of me, and I admit it, but when the day was more than half over, and every desk, office and cubicle on my floor had roses except for mine, I was seriously about to cry!

Now I'm starting the think the longer you are married and the more kids you have, the less you get for Valentine's Day. Last year we didn't go anywhere at all. We just sat at home. Sad. So yeah, thank goodness we won dinner this year.

ANYWAY, we watched Freddy v. Jason last night, and it was STUPID!! Just plain STUPID!!! Well, the first half of it was kinda freaky, but the end was retarded. I haven't had a good quote for a long time, so here it is:

"Aw, it's just ketchup." --Michael, referring to the blood in the lake when Freddy gets his head chopped off. I was sitting there like "GROSSSS" and that is when Michael said the aforementioned quote.

Valentine's Day Serial Killer

Tonight after we ate at Chili's, which was good, by the way, considering it was my only REAL meal of the day, I had Michael drop me at Target so I could buy a couple Valentine cards. So Michael drove around the parking lot while I went in, I quickly got my cards, and went to the nearest checkout. Well right behind me in line was the scariest looking man I do believe I've ever seen live and in person. Remember the deformed guy in the Goonies? Yep, this had to be his twin. I was very, very afraid. He was buying 2 big boxes of baseball cards. So after I paid for my cards and grabbed the sack, I ran towards the door, and Michael was nowhere to be seen in the parking lot. There was NO WAY I was going to wait by the door, for this creep to find me outside, by myself, to throw me in the trunk of his car...NO WAY, JOSE! So I started walking amongst the cars, looking for Michael. I finally spotted him near the back of the parking lot, and I didn't even give him a chance to drive to me. He saw the look on my face and he was like "What is wrong?!?!" And so I told him about the horror movie character I just came face to face with.

And speaking of horror movies, Michael went into Cinemagic afterwards to rent a lovey dovey movie for Valentine's Eve, and didn't find anything good (in his opinion) that we haven't already seen, so guess what he rented? Freddy vs. Jason!!! How romantic!!!!

Oh, and tonight was like miniature high school reunion or something. First at Chili's, I ran into a girl I had typing class with in the 10th grade. She is a waitress there, and I was surprised she recognized me, because for some reason, most people from highschool that I haven't seen SINCE then don't recognize me. Maybe because I'm fatter? And while in Target, I saw ANOTHER girl I graduated with and we were in the band together. Of course, we weren't exactly the best of friends, okay, so we were arch enemines, so I wasn't sure if I should speak to her first or let her notice me. She never recognized me (gee, I wonder why?) and she and the person she was with walked in another direction anyway, so I didn't bother.

Travis is spending the night at Mamaw's and Papaw's (Michael's parents) tonight, so I don't even know what to do with myself. Heck, I might even get to sleep in a little tomorrow. That's a rare treat!

Well I'm off to watch this "romantic" movie now. Michael better not try to scare me!!!

Have a happy Valentine's Day. Oh yeah, and if you're a guy reading this, and you haven't got your girl any roses/candy/jewelry yet, YOU STILL HAVE TIME!!!!

Bummer

It's finally starting to hit me that Friends is almost over. Last night's episode when Phoebe got married to Mike was really sweet, but I was still hoping something would happen where Phoebe and Joey would get married. Somehow I always thought they would end up together. But I guess that wouldn't make sense because Joey is getting a spinoff show, and Phoebe is not one of the characters, so HRMPH. After seeing the previews for next week, they have given me hope that there is STILL time for Ross and Rachel to get together FINALLY. If they don't, I will be highly disappointed. Only 5 episodes left. After 10 years, there's no way I could possibly pick my #1 favorite episode, although Ross' and Emily's wedding is near the top...well, or what was supposed to be their wedding, lol.

Now on a happier note, Travis used his potty 4 times yesterday!!!! What was so funny though, was after the first time, I rewarded him with a cookie. So later on when he sat back down on the potty again, he asked me, "Where's my cookie?" I about fell out laughing!! At least he's got the idea. Now if he would just learn to tell me WHEN he has to go instead of just waiting for me to sit him on his potty chair. But hey, progress is progress, right? I've always had this fear of having a 4-year-old kid, still wearing diapers 24/7, and me having to explain to him why his 2-year-old friends aren't in diapers anymore. So maybe that nightmare WON'T come true. We still have about 5 months until his 3rd birthday, thank goodness.

I went to bed with a sore throat last night, and when I woke up this morning I was almost afraid to swallow because I figured it would hurt worse. It feels about the same I guess, but I don't to get sick AGAIN, plus I want to enjoy my free, expensive Valentine's dinner tomorrow night. Yep, the diet is definitely going on hold tomorrow night.

Today is a new day

Check out my Weightloss Blog I just started, and you will see what I mean. Maybe in about 3 months I will put on here my "Before" and "After" pics. HeHe.

Also, the Tigers pulled off a win against ECU last night, but I was holding my breath the entire time. We play Marquette AT Marquette on Saturday. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid! We also still have to play Cincinatti AND Louisville AT their place coming up soon. The other games left are Southern Miss, TCU and what's the other one? Or is there another one? I'd be biting my nails right now, but I chewed them all off last night.

More later!

Happy 10 Year Anniversary

No, I haven't been married that long. I'm not that old. It'll be 4 years in June, actually. But what I was referring to was the fact that it was 10 years ago today that we had the big "Ice Storm '94". Anyone living in the Memphis or DeSoto County area remember where they were/what they were doing when that happened? I remember waking up in the middle of the night, thinking I was dreaming because I saw white and blue lights flashing through my window. These lights were actually power lines popping under the weight of the ice, and then hitting the ground. The next morning when I woke up, my alarm clock was not working, nor was the heater, for that matter and it was darn cold in the house. My mom scared me when she came in my room because she was almost in a panic and she was all "Get up and get dressed FAST! We're going to Grandma Nelson's!" The fact of the matter was, Grandma had a fireplace and we didn't. So me and all of my family piled into the car to go to my Grandma's house. Thankfully, it wasn't a long drive at all...maybe 10 minutes tops. The scenery was a site to behold! EVERYTHING was covered in ice and it was beautiful. It almost looked like everything had been turned to crystal. So while we stayed at my Grandma's, we set the Cokes outside to get cold since the refrigerator wasn't working, and we cooked everything from fried shrimp to pork & beans in the fireplace/ To take a bath, we had to take the Coleman lantern with us. The hot water seemed so much hotter since the back of the house was cold. That night I slept in a ball, right underneath the fireplace, under a bazillion blankets. All of this was actually more fun and adventerous and different to me than it was an inconvenience. Meanwhile, my Dad, being the inventive, Mr. Fix-It person that he is, was working at our house, rigging a gas pipe to run from the gas line that went to the grill in the backyard, into the living room window to connect to a small space heater so that we could all go back home. Well by the time he got everything he needed to accomplish this the next day, our electricity came back on...go figure! There were a few lucky folks who never even lost their electricity at all, but there were others in the area that were without for weeks. Missing several days of school sure was nice, though.

Where to begin...

Well, I had another freakish dream last night, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday Michael called into WMC 790 (a sports talk station, in case you didn't know) and they were playing a game called "Name that Mascot". Basically for each contestant that called in, he would name a college and you had to name off the mascot. Well, the first one was really easy, and then the 2nd was a little harder, and the 3rd one was usually a real stumper. So anyway, Michael called in, and I can't even remember what the first one was they asked him, but he got it right. The second one was Samford. Well, the Tigers played them earlier in the season, and even still, Michael went completely blank, lol. So then he had ME call in. I got through, and first he asked me Louisville, which is a no-brainer...the Cardinals. Then he asked me Gonzaga. I had to think about that one for a few seconds, but they are the Bulldogs. And the 3rd one was Yale. I had no friggin' clue who Yale was, but MICHAEL knew, and THEY are the Bulldogs, too! There had been like a bazillion callers before me that didn't get all 3 correct, and Forrest (the broadcaster guy) was like "I knew it would take a woman to finally get 'em all right!" lol. Now THIS is what I won, which is freaking cool, IMO:

1.) A dinner for 2 to Prime Ministers, which is Shane Battier's (one of the Memphis Grizzlies) restaurant downtown on Main. VERY PRICEY.

2.) A $25 gift certificate to the Pamper Parlor. WHOO HOO, baby, I'm getting a pedicure! YES!

3.) A $25 gift certificate to Sound Wave, which is some car stereo place.

Now that 3rd one I might just give away to someone who's in the market for some car stereo junk, but those first 2 things I'm highly excited about. That's only the 2nd time I've won anything on the radio.

In other news, the Tigers play ECU tonight AT ECU. Now ECU doesn't have a record to write home about, but I hear their fans are pretty passionate, so I'm still crossing my fingers. It would suck to end our winning streak to THEM. We are #27 in the nation right now, ALMOST about to break the Top 25, and what a bummer it would be to fall backwards instead of breaking into at least #25 when the rankings come out again next week.

Okay, now this dream I had last night. If I don't get up immediately and tell about it, some of the details start to leave me. But basically, I was at this wedding. It was an outdoor wedding, kind of under this big porch/patio type thing. The groom was holding a microphone, singing a mushy love song to his bride. Well, this guy was REALLY HOT, not to mention he could REALLY sing, but his bride was....old enough to be his grandmother!!! After the groom finished his song, 3 or 4 couples started slow dancing to music playing in the background, and I went up to Michael where he was talking to a friend of his, and asked him if he wanted to dance. Michael's friend was sitting down and he looked up at me and said "Dancing is wrong," to which I replied, "Even between two people that are married?" and he said "Yes." So I just walked off and I propped myself up against a brick wall, and on the other side of the brick wall were some stairs, and there were these two women trying to get down the stairs, carrying a casket!?!?! I was thinking to myself, "Oh great, they put a wedding hall right next door to a funeral home. Geez." Then I walked over to the other side of the porch and one of my nieces on Michael's side of the family that I've only met a handful of times asked me if I was going to UCLA with them after the wedding. UCLA? LOL. She informed me that like the whole family was going, and then I realized at that point in the dream that we were at a wedding in Arizona just then. And then I told her, "I guess I'm heading back home because I wasn't invited to go to UCLA." So then all of the sudden, I'm getting out of my Xterra in my parents' house driveway. I'm by myself, no one else is home, and I unlock the door and go into the house. I just sat there, all depressed, because I wanted to go to UCLA and everyone else was gone. Then I realized it was time to get ready for school. So then all of the sudden I'm sitting in my 6th grade classroom, in the back of the room, in one of those little wooden desks, and the teacher has all of this work written on the chalkboard. I'm just sitting there in class, goofing off, chewing gum and writing notes to my friends, and the teacher looks up from her desk and says to me "Get busy! There's lots of work to do!" Seems like it was a history class. Then the bell rang, except it was not when the bell was supposed to ring, and out in the hallway was a flock of students, running out the door. I stood up and shouted "Let's storm the hallway!" So we all ran out, too, and then the teacher ran out and shouted "Everyone is getting arrested and going to jail for this!" and then I woke up.

I told Michael when I got up this morning I'm going to become an insomniac because these dreams are driving me nuts!

Better run...Jacob is waking up!

The new year is wasting away....

...but not my fat cells, unfortunately. One of my New Year's resolutions, if you recall, was to lose 30 lbs. Well guess what? Today is February 10, in case you haven't glanced at your calendar today, and I have yet to lose ANYTHING. Not that I have been actively TRYING, but I have been doing a lot better by overcoming my urge to eat a handful of chips or cookies between meals, eating only ONE helping of whatever during meals, and by limiting myself to one serving of Coke for lunch and one for supper. Trust me, this is a major improvement. So anyway, I thought cutting calories here and there would help SOME, but I think all it's done is keep me from gaining any MORE weight. I guess next I need to start buying lower calorie or lower fat stuff at the grocery store. Instead of whole milk, buy 2%. Heck, if I didn't have to share milk with the rest of the house, skim milk would suit me just fine. What? Do I hear griping in the background? I could buy extra lean ground beef instead of ground chuck. I can buy plenty of other low fat/no fat products. One of the BEST things I've found, since I just HAVE to have my daily supply of chocolate, is the fat free chocolate pudding made by Jello. But then I still need to exercise daily. Yes, DAILY. That's the hard part. Finding the time and/or energy and/or motivation can be a real challenge, with two kids, and a husband that's either at work, or at school, or doing homework. A couple years ago, I tried kickboxing for about 3 weeks, and I REALLY saw results. The only reason I quit THEN was because I was working full-time, and got tired of shutting myself in my bedroom every night after work to go through my hour-long tape, while ignoring Michael and Travis. SO today I went online and ordered a kickboxing DVD. So that means I will have plenty of room to do my thing, right here in the living room, during the kids' naptime. I guess now if I need motivation, I can just go stand sideways in front of the mirror and see that I still look pregnant 8 months after the fact, and then go right back to burning blubber. BURN, BABY, BURN!!!!!!