Aussie Adventures

Yesterday Sandy and I went to my Aunt Maureen's for dinner. Her half-sister Carol was visiting from Australia. My Aunt and Uncle, and 2 of her daughters just got back from like a 3 week visit there themselves. They invited my parents, but neither can get THAT kind of time off, and they just can't afford that kind of thing right now. They are lucky they could afford the 6 days in Florida. I am so sad they didn't go though. My father has never gotten to see his mother's homeland, or meet all the relatives we have over there. Naturally, I would love to go myself, but besides not being invited, part of me does think, my Dad should experience it first. He is, after all, half Australian.

Anyway, we brought Auntie flowers and some chocolates. Sandy's idea, she can be a big softie. Dinner was served almost immediately. Lasagna, salad, rolls....mmm. We went and sat at the dining room table. My Uncle John, cousin Rebecca, her boyfriend Dean and his 5 year old Justin went and watched football in the den. I know, a family get together, and they hole away watching sports!! So for most of the evening it was the two of us, Auntie, cousin Sherri and Carol. My Cousin Mark showed up a bit late and joined us. Later, when the game was over, Uncle John joined us too. A lot of spouses and 2nd cousins were no-shows. Anyway, we had a really great time talking. We talked about Uncle Gerald (the uncle who hates us all) stuff, Uncle Garry (my Uncle who died of Cancer) stuff, etc. Some stuff about who is my Aunt going to leave Grandma's china to when she passes on, since her children all have everything they need. And it was like, ummm, you have nieces Auntie. That is MY Grandma too. I want her china. My sisters want her china. I won't go deep into that at this point, let's just say, we don't have much of our grandparents stuff, the really important memorable stuff, and we'd like to see that somewhat rectified. They were OUR grandparents too, and we spent the most time, especially before they passed, with them.

We got to see pictures of Sherri and my cousin Dawn holding KOALAS!! They are so lucky!! My Uncle ate crocodile tale and kangaroo. I could care less that he ate crocodile, it is the kangaroo that grosses me out! It's a kangaroo! Adorable, gorgeous Australian creatures!! BAD Uncle John!! My Uncle was giving Auntie much grief because she got an $85 ticket while speeding there. It has to be hard, you are driving on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong side of the car, going kilometers per hour, instead of miles per hour. So he has been making fun of her. Well last week he got a letter from Australia. He was sent a $5o ticket. They have security cameras at like all stoplights apparently, and Uncle John went through the line for people with Sun passes or fast passes, whatever they are called in Australia. Then, a few days ago, he received ANOTHER one in the mail, this one for $350!! And Carol (BTW, no relation to me. She is the daughter of my grandmother's first husband, who I have no respect for. He was bad to her, but it is not a kids fault who their parent is) says they are 3 weeks behind in Australia with parking tickets, so there could be MORE on the way!! I found that hilarious!! Auntie says he has to pay them off. My Uncle is like 76, so she says he can go be a greeter at Walmart! LOL! I would drive the hour just to SEE that!!

We had oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, some long name cake that has raisins and orange pulp, etc in it, and pumpkin spice bread for dessert. I loved hearing my Aunt and Carol talking. I LOVE the Australian accent. My Grandma had the thickest one, and I adored it. So hearing Auntie and her half-sibling talk, it was just lovely. I haven't heard that much accent since I was a little girl, and we had the family reunions in Lake George, NY. That was when my Grandma and Uncle Garry were still alive. So it would be Grandma, Uncle Garry and Aunt Maureen, all talking with their beautiful accents. You got used to having those voices around. So when Grandma died, and the reunions ended and we rarely saw Uncle Garry, it was only my Aunt's that we heard. So it was music to my ears. I made sure I told them so. Auntie then told me about Liam...wait...Ian? Anyway, he is a close family friend in Australia and his accent is half Aussie, half English, and he also uses Aussie slang, so it can be extremely hard to understand a word he says! I would love to meet him!!

I then remembered something. I am always telling my Aunt Maureen, that I want to try Vegemite. Ans she keeps telling me, when you come over, remind me!! I mean, this is an Australian staple, everyone loves it!! So she went and got fresh Vegemite for me. The jar in her fridge is quite old, apparently it never like expires...ever. But she wanted me to experience it fresh. And she brought a small jar of Vegemite AND Marmite out. Plus a bag a Australian Nestle candy. But the "mites" were first. Sandy took pictures as I tried them. I asked her to, I wanted to see my own reaction after. Now I know one of them is called VEG-emite. But for some reason I still expected them to be somewhat sweet. I mean they eat it on toast, crackers, alone, on everything!! So, listening to my Aunt's advice, I took just a tiny bit of the Marmite first.

Yeah, I did NOT enjoy the Marmite as you can see. It was so gross. The smell was almost as bad. Ugghhh. Then it was time to try the Famous Aussie staple, the Vegemite.

Here is a pic of what is inside. It has such a unique coloring to it doesn't it? The Marmite looks the same. Almost looks like chocolate doesn't it?

It is SO NOT chocolate!!

Hard to believe, but it was WORSE than the Marmite!! It was like 10 times more powerful/toxic than the Marmite! It was so salty and yeasty! Auntie was like, it is like eating a bouillon cube...uhm NO! I would glady have eaten a chicken bouillon compared to this stuff. Oh my, it was so disgusting!! How can my fellow Aussies LOVE this stuff? I just can't think of happily smearing this thickly on my toast and eating it, like Carol says her children do. *shudders* BUT, I am so proud of myself!! I ate Marmite and Vegemite! I have now experienced these two Australian "delicacies" and lived to tell about it!! I feel the Aussie blood in me pounding! I know it may seem silly to you, but I felt this was a huge embrace of my heritage. Which I love to do. Embracing my heritage. So it was quite an experience I will cherish forever.

To get the taste out we tried the Nestle Violet Crumbles.

I found them cool!! Sandy hated it, she gave me what was left of her piece. It is chocolate covered special candy. The candy has this crazy crunch. Sandy describes the candy as Astronaut ice cream-ish, and it is similar to that, but much crunchier! I found it fascinating!! I ate like 7. You can have 38, yeah 38, and it is only 8 grams of sugar! You can only get them there though! Aunt Barbara, Uncle Garry's widow, sent them to Auntie the last time SHE was in Australia. I need to find an Australian food catalog now, I want to try other candies you can only find in Australia. It could be in England too, because apparently Vegemite is popular in England too, but I want to find a catalog badly!! It was so fun, experiencing a candy that is unlike anything I have EVER experienced! It was such an Australian night!!

We had to leave soon after. I procrastinated for a half hour, because I was so not ready to leave, but Sam wasn't feeling so good anymore. So we drove home to poor, lonely Katie. I had no idea how lonely she had gotten until I talked on the phone with my Mom and SHE told me! LOL! So Sandy and I sat down on the floor, to be participants in a trial run for Katie's project that is due tomorrow. It is on time management for her Occupational Therapy Assistant school. So she had us do different activities, like pull a piece of twine apart, paint our nails, draw a picture of our biggest nightmare, write the same sentences as many times as we could, jog in place, and she was using a stopwatch and would tell us when to stop. After each activity, and there was like 10, we had to write how long we thought we had spent on each of the activities. It was fun, actually, I think she will do great, I think this really shows what she is trying to teach. Then we each had to read how long we thought we had spent on each of the activities at the end. My numbers ranged from 45 seconds to 57 seconds to 2 and 1/2 minutes. Sandy's ranged from 2 minutes to 4 to 7 minutes. Then we found out the twist. Every single activity had been the same exact time. Two minutes! It was like NO WAY!! Because jogging in place had felt like it took forever, and drawing our worst nightmare had felt like we had been given 45 seconds! But every single one was exactly 2 minutes!! It was so weird! She asked us a bunch of questions...Sandy did better than me, because when Kat would ask, what will you do to manage your time better, I was like, uhhh nothing, I am fine with having a skewed sense of time. What? I was seriously being honest. She appreciated that. Sandy told her I could represent the worst case scenario. Thanks Sam! LOL! Look I took a pic of my drawing of my worst nightmare! I thought it was totally clever! A spider...with a clown's face!!! *screams* Oh and I wasn't trying to be my artistical self, we were using crayons and markers! And I had no idea, at the TIME (LOL, I know...lame!), how much time we'd have! Good job Katie!!

Katie's Picture Book Birthday

Okay, I am going to finally post about Katie's birthday! Which was about a week ago, the 12th. It will be mostly a lot of pictures, I had a lot of fun that day taking photos! (*side note - I do now own Transformers 2, I told you I would own it the day it was available! LOL!)

So, on Kat's birthday, she decided she wanted to go down to the beach. She knew it was now too cold to swim, but she really wanted to go. Just to be there. So we packed up extra jackets and towels in case we sat on the beach, etc. And then we made the hour drive to the one beach still open to the public, Hammonasset beach. We had so much fun. Okay, the girls and I did. My parents either walked around or, if you were my Dad, sat on a bench and just stared out into the ocean. The girls and I all rolled our pants up to our knees and walked along the coast. We picked up pretty seashells, and it was just perfection. It was so serene and we were almost the only ones there, so it was like we had this paradise to ourselves. Katie was so happy, she would come running up to me with a new seashell she found for me or Sam, etc. She was just like a kid. After awhile the water didn't even feel cool, it felt soothing. It was like all our cares and troubles went out with the tide as we walked along the water. I don't think I have felt such a moment of quiet peacefulness like this in a really long time. It was so special. I didn't want to leave at all. But my parents were getting really cold so Katie MADE me go to the bathrooms to get my feet washed off.

We convinced Katie to go to her favorite restaurant, well one of them, Olive Garden. We are still getting advertisements for the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, so that excited Kate but they weren't offering it AND we are still seeing the commercials. So she ordered her favorite normal one and got gypped. It was like they ran out of ziti, so they gave her half a portion, but charged full price. My Dad let the waitress know it was Katie's birthday and that we expected a song and dessert, and she gave us our bill and left. That made me SO mad, I made sure I went up to someone and said something, that was so wrong! I hoped they would offer something and I could give it to Katie because she figured out what we did and then...nothing!! How sad is that! Luckily we had 2 apple pies at home for her birthday "cake", but still, she helped MAKE them the day before, so the singing was to be special! Grrr to Olive Garden in West Hartford!!

We went back to the house and Katie opened her birthday presents! I KNEW she would love mine! I got her My Life in Ruins, she loved it so much, and she loves all Nia Vardalos movies! Look this was her face when she opened it!

Sam got her this gorgeous jeweled sparrow necklace and a gift card. My parents got her many gift cards, as Kate likes to pick things out herself, stuff for her bellydance bag, a Skelanimals hat, a harcover book, Golden Girls Season 2, some other little things and her first Ipod, a purple Ipod Nano, which has a video camera and FM, sweet! Plus they got her a full Ipod kit, with excercise band and car chargers and speakers, etc. She was so happy, she is constantly borrowing my Ipod or Sandy's (sadly mine needs a new battery, sucky Apple battery!!...sorry needed to vent! LOL). So I also hooked her up and let he pick out any music from my Itunes and transferred it to her Ipod. So now she can have all her bellydance music and songs she just enjoys for fun!

She chose her birthday movie to watch that night, and of course I told her, she would NOT end up wanting to see Betsy's Wedding (thank goodness, I have overseen that) and I was right. We watched Nia's movie! It is SO funny, those who haven't seen it still, rent it!! Poupi Kakas!! ROFL! Ahhhh, so good. And then we sang to her with her pie and she had much pie. And that was Katie's birthday. And here are some of the best pictures!!

This is the purple sand!! It was just there, on one section of the sand! Click on it, seriously it was purple!

And my Halloween-y trailer!!

Birthday Girl - Katie Lynn

This is written at 5 am, just 5 hours into her birthday. I will probably have a post and pictures when her birthday is over, but here is a special post for her now.

*Me holding Baby Katie!

Katie Lynn M. was born on October 12, 1980 at 4:30 am on the dot. My father almost had to deliver her, because he could see her head already, when they got to the hospital!! Kat was ready to be BORN!

She was NOT a "good" baby apparently. She was a "screaming memie" as my parents call her. She was constantly yelling her lungs out, nothing made her happy, then suddenly around hitting 2 I believe, she turned into a good girl. LOL. My parents never let her forget she was the worst of the babies. Who was the best you might ask? Well I was! Seriously though, I was. Apparently all my parents had to do to get me to sleep was pat me on my back and I was out. I KNOW that is something every parent dreams of. Let me bow. LOL.

Anyway, Katie even as a little girl, loved to dance. When she was old enough she joined me in ballet class. Then together we took 4 years of Acrobatics, which we loved. Katie is vertically-challenged compared to me (she is 5' 3", I ignore it when she adds and 3/4") so she was able to lots more flips and stuff than me. I was up to my 5'10" by our last year, plus having scholiosis, I just couldn't do some of the back bend then kick into a standing position things. Katie excelled at it though. After 4 years they stopped offering it, so we each tried Jazz, but were spilt up. I hated Jazz so that was my final year of dance. Katie continued on for several more years. She stopped at one point, but when she started college, she also became very interested in Belly Dance.

As you know, she took many years of belly dance before starting to teach it herself. Then she began to professionally dance and continues to both teach and perform to this day. (She teaches 5 days a week and does school for OTA) She is absolutely AMAZING. And I have seen many belly dancer's now, thanks to me helping Katie out on gigs, and my sister has a special talent. She just FEELS the dance and dances from her heart. She has joy in dancing and you feel that and it makes YOU smile. The audience ends up feeling that joy. She is gifted and she is just amazing to watch in her element. Here are a few bellydance pictures of my gorgeous sister. And is it hard to have such a gorgeous sister? You bet your sweet fanny it is! Look at her!

I KNOW!! LOL. That pic of her in green is a new fave, I just found it on FB...thabks a lot Kat! Anyway, Katie excels at anything she puts her mind to. She is an A+ student in anything she studies, okay maybe NOT art, thank goodness though, that is MY thing, she has enough she is good at!! While we clash heads a lot, which I think is due to the fact that we ARE such tight sisters, Katie is also one of my best friends. She knows when I am feeling down and does her best to cheer me up. Whether it is going to a horror movie, which she is terrifed of, or just hanging out. She can make me laugh so much, and HER laugh is absolutely contagious! The laugh you may hear ringing out through the movie auditorium? So gonna be Katie, and I love that about her.

She wants to please everyone, which means her friends take advantage of her a lot. I mean it, a lot. And that pisses me off. And she is too kind to stand up for herself. She is very good at letting things roll off her back, but she hides those feelings sometimes which is not good for her, because she can be like me, and NEED to have an outburst to get all those yucky feelings out. Her friends NEED to appreciate her more, and see what a GEM they have in her. She sticks by them through all their mistakes and keeps her mouth shut if they don't want to hear her true opinion. She is generous with her time, her money, her everything, for people she cares about. So people need to SEE that and appreciate it. She gives with all of her heart, and deserves that in return.

My little sister Katie is a sweetheart, and here is to hoping you have a great day today Katie!!

Happy Birthday Katie Lynn!!

Glazes and Gifts

Okay so nothing exciting went on today. It was a tired day. I checked out this non-SLR one more time. The Nikon Coolpix P80 with 18X zoom and 10.1 megapixels. See I have a definite budget because this was supposed to have been a Christmas present, Yes I am serious. My Dad bought me another DVR but it didn't have a tuner so he was going to get me one with a tuner. And then months went by. I'd remind him, and he'd be oh RIGHT, okay this weekend I will look online...this happened for months. So finally 2 months ago he asked me if I still waned the DVR, because I could pick another electronic if I wanted. And told me the price range and I thought that maybe something else would be more fun. And though I have a nice compact Sony digital camera I can bring anywhere, the thought of an SLR so I could be creative appealed. Of course then I found out the prices. Whoa. So I found this refurbished Nikon and it says it is as good as a SLR but you don't have to purchase other lenses which sounds sweet! So my father is ordering it...okay supposedly....tommorrow. So I shall be waiting to learn how to use this:

It's still like a professional camera, because I can choose manual and change apertures, etc. So I am kind of excited to see what I can learn to do with this camera! It will be nice to get my Christmas present...just over 6 months late...yeah Dad joked that maybe I can't use it until NEXT Christmas...funny....yeah not so much. LOL!

I went and picked up the food from the Polish place. When I ordered on the phone she knew it was me again and this time I have no idea HOW. Because she goes, "you want 4 pierogie for Mom"?, which we usually do, so that is how I figured she knew who I was last time. This time SHE brought it up first and I was like "oh...no not this time" so I have no idea how she knew it was me!!? Freaky but neat, that they know us now. So we ate around the table for once, I know holy crap! But it was nice. Afterwards we watched NCIS's and I was kicking my own butt again doing the Walk and Kick, man I felt like it was the first time, I am in pain!!

Anyway, I have the photos of our fun at The Auracle painting pottery! I can't wait for Saturday, they are supposed to be ready for pick up!! The guy had a full kiln because of the holiday weekend being off, so we didn't have to wait a week! I am excited to see how they all turn out! Sandy pretty quickly picked the things she wanted to paint. An adorable penguin and one candle stick to hold a single flower, hey it was her birthday, she can be as odd as she wants! LOL! Katie saw the platter that she had liked a year ago, even though we were at a different store. She knew it was pricey but said she'd pay for it on her own. And she bought special glaze for it too! I was going back and forth over and over. All the things I really wanted to do were so expensive. I mean a big round plate should NOT cost $34!!

I know about pottery and clay. I have had classes, not just in high school, but I took a Pottery class with Sandy in college a few years ago. Clay is not very expensive. And people who are good at throwing pots and bowls, etc (it is the term, not actually throwing pottery at the floor people) can make some of this stuff in minutes! And even if it takes them longer, like to create Sandy's penguin, that is A MOLD! You can't have that many of the penguins and they look ALL the same and it not be a mold. So the prices are ridiculous. It's sad because I would so be there more often if the pieces weren't so bloodt costly. And you also have to pay the studio fee, which is for using their place and glazes and any help you get. Grrr. If you are going to shell out $34 to paint a big tukey platter they should include the glazes and such in that cost. It just makes me mad. If the piece was hand made, pain-staking effort put into it, and many hours just to create that one piece, I would get the price, but this is mass produced stuff. See this little lady, I forget what she is called, I looked it up and researched it and I created her. She can have anwhere from one child to dozens. This took me hours and hours of class time and then to get the glaze which we had to purchase to cover her ina way that made her look authentic, was so hard! Well, I think she is pretty cool anyway and very authentic looking! LOL!

Anyway, I ended up choosing the bowl Sandy liked. She said it could be good for popcorn and chips, etc. So we chose our glaze colors and the guy working brought them to us. He asked me, if I wanted to make it solid or if I wanted to use a sponge and give it a texture, he showed me an example and I fell in love with it, I so hope it turns out right! So I started sponging. If you click on the picture, you can see the texture, just for all of you who don't know glazes, they can look the total opposite of what they look like once they go through the kiln process. You can paint something this obnoxios brown-orange but once it goes through it's chemical process, it may be a deep magenta. And no, it is not a guessing game, which is why you are shown what the colors look like after they go through the kiln. So my speckled color is a depper blue or it better be!LOL! Sandy made wuick work of her "flower pot" but chose to work very carefully on the penguin, she already adored!

Katie first chose to paint the back of her platter a dark dark purple (yes it isn't dark yet I know). And one coat of the purple on the top in case her special glaze could be seen through in spots.

I knew I wanted to do a large fluer-de-lis in the center of my bowl, and four small ones around the thick lip of the bowl which I painted a solid color. My hands, used to be so steady, it came in real handy in my art classes. But being on all these meds and for so long, I shake a lot, so it was really frustrating and was not turning out perfect and I AM a perfectionist.

Sandy was meticulous with her dear penguin too.

Katie began slathering on her specialty glaze. Yes it looks really ugly right now. Gray with big pieces of grit. But it is suppsoed to melt into these gold designs, swirls and circles and such. I saw a picture of the glaze so I am really excited to see how this turns out.

This is Sandy's Penguin pre-kiln. It better make her happy when we pick it up! She loves him!

This is my bowl before we left. You can sort of see one of the little fluer's in the bottom of the picture. I am really hopeful that it turns out beautifully!!

And this grey monstrosity of Kat's is GOING to turn out beautiful, I just have a feeling. The plate is so cool and this glaze is special so I think Katie really will love it!

Belly Relief

So as I mentioned, on Friday night Katie taught a bellydance class at church for the Relief Society. She was nervous, so Mom, Sam and I all went. I appointed myself photographer, as no, I will NOT bellydance! Sam tried it basically the whole time, and my Mom even participated some of the time, AND she laughed. They ALL laughed and seemed to have a great time.

Katie brought in as many of her hip scarves (the ones that don't cost hundreds of dollars) as she could and there were enough for everyone there, only about 10-12 showed up. The Bishop's wife was a No-Show, which was SO disappointing! I was REALLY looking forward to getting pics of Jahoodie (my way of saying her name...with LOVE!!) sashaying across the floor, shaking what God gave her!! Alas, NO Jahoodie!

Anyway, they really enjoyed it. And Katie was NICE. Not that she isn't nice, but according to Gina, Katie is a real task master as a teacher. And Kate was trying to fit SO much into an hour class. A few of the women were like "Man, I am sweating from shaking my belly", and stuff like that, which made me laugh. I see Kate of Gina after they perform for 10 minutes and they are one huge layer of sweat, and Kate has been doing this almost 10 years, so it never gets easier per say, it really works you out. Katie drinks down 2 bottles of water in like 10 minutes, and that is after shorter gigs. I have seen these two women dance for an HOUR, and man...do not hug them or get too close, thay are hot, sweaty and smelly. Naturally, but still, sopping wet. So seeing these women realize how much work it actually is, was really cool. I know because of the amount of time I have helped Kate and Gina. Bellydancers are really underappreciated, they don't get the thanks, etc they so deserve. It is really difficult, the costumes are $800 a piece at least, and people will bash them as they dance. I say out of jealousy, why else would you say, "no she is fat" when you see one dancing, and know she can hear. Jealousy. Gina has stopped, when she dances at the dreaded hookah bar and gets in their face, she will only take so much, which is cool to see, I have to tell you.

Anyway, Sam and Mom were all achy Saturday, and I saw on Facebook, a few of the sisters are considering taking one of Katie's real classes that she offers!! Yeah go Kate!

And here is Kate's PRO website, nolast names so it is fine, and there are a lot of shots I took of her at gigs on one of the pages, she is just amazing, teaching wise and performing! Click HERE.

PS on Last Post

I can hardly believe this but Sam read my ENTIRE blog. She said she may not be able to finish it for days, but she came downstairs like 20 minutes ago and said it was a really easy read so she got through it quicker than she thought. I was like how much of it did you read? And when she said ALL OF IT, my jaw dropped! She was like I DO read fast which is why I have such a book problem. She does, she will buy 4 and be done the next day, poor kid. So she runs out constantly.

She couldn't believe the secrets I revealed about MYSELF, like how I make sure I do NOT get any white underwear because of the system, so I do some switcheroo-ing. She said I was quite chatty on here, that I went from one subject to another like WHOOSH (I did tell you all I am a segue Queen), and that she was glad I was able to talk so much and be so open on here. Yeah I got teary.

She said to ignore the people who made me feel bad, actually she said to delete them, but I told her you can't delete people. She got kinda ticked on my behalf, said I don't need people in my life that will make me feel bad and doubt myself. She said "you even explained when you said bimbo and Katie in the same sentence that bimbo is a nickname (endearment) in our family".

I laid my head on her shoulder and she hugged me. She said again there was nothing on my blog I had to feel bad about, that she read it ALL, and she should know. My sister is amazing. She did this for me in a matter of hours and has given me the comfort of knowing I have never written anything hurtful about her, Katie or my parents. And to be given permission to vent about her when we do have a big fight is just a bonus. Knowing it is fine with her, this was all her, I did not ask the question, is just even sweeter. I love my Sammie.

Snow, Mario and Jensen

Okay I DON'T feel like this today, even with the bit of trouble I had sleeping last night, I only got a solid 7 hours and I need SO much more to feel normalish and am still trying to catch up, but the fact that I slept after all that time, makes me feel like I am NOT squished roadkill today!!

There is a big Nor'Easter over CT today, started around 3, and is supposed to keep through the night and not stop until around noon. 8 inches some guys say, a foot others say. So far, not near a foot, but it has 8 hours to go. Gina, Katies' BFF from Bellydance, and who I adore, was over until midnight. They spent a lot of time looking at bellydance costumes online, etc. But then Gina got to talking about something I have joked to Katie about too, although I too, was kinda serious. Katie belongs on What Not to Wear. She insists on wearing coats that were mine or Sam's when we were BIGGER, so on her size 10/12 body she looks ridiculous. So Gina did it...at our house...and I let her put my name on it too. Now I feel awful and guilty, but Katie has been entered into the What Not to Wear shuffle. IF she actually got picked, I would SOOOO go to her closet and steal the nice clothes out so they didn't get rid of the good stuff. Stacey hates stuff that has spandex or stretchy fabric, I LOVE it and it looks good on Kate so I will so hide stuff. And lie if asked, I shall feel no guilt. They may give you 5k, but they make you shop at PRICEY stores and some of the stuff she has was pricey or not hers to begin with. SO THERE TLC! It would be so weird if she got picked though. Oy. Katie read Gina's entry email she wrote and it was funny (the what she tends to wear parts) but so sweet too, she just showcased all of Katie's great friend qualities, it was so sweet!

And guess what? I swear she will just bring it back and then I will go all withdrawl-ey again. Sam bought another Nintendo DS. This time she bought just the Mario game (if you take the 37 she spent the first time she bought it, subtract the 12 that she got back for it 4 hours later, and add the 35 she spent on it today, she bought that sucker for 60 bucks!) and let me play it, it is WAY harder than when Mike DID have a Gameboy, I mean the FIRST gameboy people, grey and the screen is black and grey. Mario was way easier then. It took me hours to get to World 2 Level 5. And you can't just SAVE your game, it only lets you do that is some places, so I had to replay levels so many times and died at least 75 times along the way. I want her to try that whole for $15.95 a month you can have any game for as long as you want and send it back and get another game,etc, but she says too pricey. My brain is going, that's be like 4 Mario priced games, if she did it for a year. I NEED to find a place that rents DS games in person. Then I can RENT them myself and try out games and then....urrghh I am addicted after a few hours. She is just gonna return it again I swear and I will be all sad again. I NEED a place that I can GO to that rents!! Ayayay!

I think my body is getting used to the Lamictal better. I am up to 4 pills a day and only had 2 days of bad or no sleep, so hopefully as I progress up to 8 a day it will continue to (my body) get used to the Lamictal and stop keeping me awake. Otherwise I know I will not be able to stay on it. Up for 30+ hours at a time cannot be good for the depression and mood swings the drug is supposed to BE helping. That is why I really hope I get used to this one, I really want to see if it helps.

Ohh I just saw another commercial for My Bloody Valentine 3-D and I want to see it so bad! First, a 3-D horror movie, sounds fascinating. But the BIG draw? Jensen Ackles!! I LOVE him! We are even the same age and he is SINGLE! Wendy Ackles sounds nice dontcha think?! Ahhhh Jensen my LOVE! You are SO hot! And that smile! I have loved Jensen forever. I watched him as Eric Brady on Days of our Lives (forever ago), I watched him as Alec on Dark Angel, and now Supernatural!! LOVE that show, and yes a HUGE part of it is HIM, why I love this show. Yes I love the concept, story lines, people, etc. but Jensen, well LOOK AT HIM. If you have nothing nice to say though, be careful, I will Defend The Jensen!:)