Is it the end of April already?

My last post was on February 20, 2012. I've been absent from blog world for far too long! I don't know why I am finding it so difficult to be more active. Well, more active in updating my blog. I check on my favorite blogs daily at work. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Every morning before starting my work day, I check the blogs and then work life can commence. :)

Once again, here I am giving a quick update of everything I didn't blog about:

• Lent
• Lenten sacrifices
• My Sweetheart's birthday!
• My Sweetheart's birthday parties
• Easter house decor
• Easter celebration with Family (my favorite of holidays)
• Season ticket renewal -- Arizona Cardinals
• Planning our trip to Boston
  
  

It's been a busy last couple of months. I keep saying I don't know where all the time has gone but I know. It's the television. The television keeps me from doing a lot of things lately. I am HOOKED on a few shows:

• Smash on NBC
• Dance Moms on Lifetime
• Dance Moms Miami on Lifetime
• Army Wives on Lifetime
• Project Runway Allstars on Lifetime (now over but boy was I into it)
• Alcatraz -- Sweetheart and I watch this one together.
  
  

For a while I had Jersey Shore on auto record along with the King of Queens. I know, strange but I LOVE the King of Queens. I would watch at least 3 shows per night to keep up with all of the shows that were auto recording. I really need to just stop all of the shows I record because there's so much more that I should be doing. Well all except for Smash. And Army Wives. And Dance Moms. And Alcatraz. See where I'm going with this? It's an addiction.

And because I hate posting sans pictures, I posted the only pictures that I took during my the three months that I didn't post anything.....

Randomness

I was under the weather this weekend. What I thought was allergies turned into a very nasty cold. My Sweetheart spent all weekend catering to me and trying to make me comfortable.

We spent Sunday watching football all day. Grievous and my Sweetheart always sit together:


This happens to be Grievie's favorite TV watching position:

Naboo loves to lay her body in her bed and her head on the cool floor:

Just a typical Sunday at our house!

Manager's Choice Award

We had our annual awards ceremony this week at work. And for the second time, I was the recipient of the Manager's Choice Excellence Award! I was so excited and feel so honored to have been chosen. I am one of those people that are really motivated by such recognition. So I'm pretty much on cloud nine....

A New Tea Pot

What a great weekend we had! We had dinner with my Sweetheart's mom at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant on Friday evening. Then we came home and spent a nice evening relaxing in the patio and enjoying the nice weather. On Saturday, we ran some errands which pretty much had us out most of the day. We came home and enjoyed another relaxing evening in the patio.

On Sunday, we went to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix. We were on the hunt for a Chinese tea pot. When we went to San Francisco we visited a Tea Bar in China Town where we sampled a variety of hot teas and my Sweetheart was hooked! He loves his hot tea. I am not so crazy about any thing with hot liquid (I don't like coffee, tea or soup) but every now and then I will have some hot tea with him.

We went into several stores and finally decided on the one we found at the Chinese Ranch Market. I love the blue and white and the detail on the pot. I also love the bamboo handle.





My Sweetheart likes the set because of the dragons. He's totally into dragons:



It has the mesh strainer in it, which is exactly what we were looking for because we buy the loose tea leafs:
It was a pretty good buy and we had so much fun shopping!

My New Purse!

I am so excited about my new purse! I had to run to the mall on Saturday to visit the Estee Lauder counter. They were having their gift with purchase promotion. Well, as I was perusing the mall, I ran into a "pre-sale" sale on Coach purses. I didn't get a new Coach purse last fall because I didn't see anything that I really loved so I decided to wait for their spring line. (My Sweetheart agrees that a fall and spring purse is within the budget...I'm worth it!). The pre-sale involved purchasing on Saturday for 25% off with an additional 25% sale on Thursday, when the item could be picked up. Total 50% off! I just had to buy it!

Needless to say, I ran straight to the mall after work today to pick it up!

Here's what I got:




It's big enough to hold my organizer but not too big. I just love it!!

A much needed bath

I had a bad day. It was long. I had a 2 hour training that went the full two hours. It was boring and the subject matter was ridiculous. My phone would not stop ringing. I was late for two appointments because of it. I didn't get home until nearly 8pm.

A long hot bath, some candles and a glass of wine did the trick. I feel so much better!! Off to bed with my Sweetheart.

xxxoooo

Happy Valentine's Day

Running off to enjoy dinner and a movie with my Sweetheart!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Spring Cleaning...already?

Oh my stars! I just received my BHG magazine and there are a lot of mentions about Spring Cleaning! We still haven't put all of our Christmas bins away -- they are scattered all over the garage. Sure, we are planning on cleaning out the garage tomorrow but the thought of spring cleaning is just way too much to handle! HA!




I am still trying to recover from the holidays!

7 days to go!

Just 7 more days until Halloween! Wow, I'm so excited! We absolutely love having all the little trick or treat-ers come to the house on Halloween!!

Have you ever tried the PF Chang's home menu from the grocery store? Tonight was my first time trying it. I was a little skeptical; I didn't think it would taste like the real stuff that you get at the restaurant. But I was on a time crunch and needed a quick dinner. So I bought the Orange Chicken:

The entire dinner took about 15 minutes from start to finish. First I put some rice in my rice cooker then threw this stuff in the skillet. It looked like this right out of the package:

But ended up like this:

It was delicious!!

Have a great week!

My New (old) Scanner

My Sweetheart bought me a scanner for my birthday 2 years ago. I am just now learning how to use it. Although I scanned a couple of things with it in the past, it was a quick scan and I really didn't know what I was doing. Tonight, I scanned this photo and changed it to black & white. I like the black and white. I added the color version on my facebook album. I can't decide which I like best, the color or black & white. ??

It was a chicken

So as I drive into my parent's driveway today, I see a chicken walking down the street. They live in the city, not in the country. I took a double look -- yes, it was a chicken. So I get inside the house and I say to my dad, "there's a chicken out there". He said, "yeah, it's the neighbor's".

So after I fixed my dad's breakfast, I went out looking for it. I wanted to take a picture of it so I could send it to my Sweetheart. You know, to show him, that there was a chicken walking down the street. I looked down the street, in the front yard, the back yard and in the side neighbor's hard. Nothing. Then I realized as I went out the front door, it locked behind me. So I went around to the back and I found that the back door was locked too. So not only did I not find the chicken, I had to ring the bell to be let back in and explain that I was looking for the chicken. Embarrassing, right?

Then, as we head out to my dad's HBO treatment, I saw it. It was hanging around the back yard! I went over, took a picture of it and I sent the picture to my Sweetheart. He sends me a text that reads: "Too funny. Do not bring it home". Just because I try to bring stray dogs home all the time, he thinks I want to bring a chicken home!

So he knows, I only thought about it for a second then abandoned the idea. After all, I don't know how to take care of a chicken!!

HA!!

Things you find while snooping.....

I stopped by my sister's house on Wednesday while my Dad was in his therapy and I found this picture on my sister's computer. Yes, I was snooping.

My dad has his Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy every day for 2 hours. So we (me and AJ) drop him off and once he has been given the okay to start treatment, we head out. We normally go back to my mom and dad's house and wait until he's ready. This time, my little sister told me her two older boys would be home so we stopped by there instead. At my mom and dad's there is no cable, no Internet, no anything. Very simple, very basic, very old fashioned! So when we had a chance to head over there, we did! AJ played video games with the boys and I jumped online. Oh, it felt good. I feel so out of touch on Tuesday's when I can't go online. I have online access through my phone but sometimes it just isn't the same!

So I looked at my email, called Sprint to fix a tech problem I was having then decided to snoop through her computer. I found her photo albums and found this cutie. I just love how excited I am. No clue as to why. It looks like I'm just entering her house. That's my mom and nephew in the picture. They look pretty excited too. It's dated March so it wasn't my birthday. Hmmmm???

Anyway, I love it. It makes me SMILE!

A-Mountain

I was in Tucson today, as I am every Tuesday, helping my dad. He has therapy every day and I, along with my sister and my niece and my mom, take turns helping take him to therapy and helping him throughout the day. I love spending time with my dad, I just wish it were under different circumstances. My nephew helps us a great deal. He actually helps Monday through Friday. He's such a good kid. Thanks AJ!

Today, while my dad was in therapy, AJ and I went up to A-Mountain. I had not been up there in like 20 years. It was so much fun. I took a picture with my phone when we got up there. It's hard to make out (unless you know what you are looking at) but the "A" is painted red, white and blue. Awesome.

By the way, GO SUNS!!