3.31.2009

Plans for this weekend...

Well, the plans for this weekend kind of just laid themselves out...

Tom and I went outside to enjoy the nice weather and I stepped in just the wrong spot on our back porch and stepped right through the rotted wood. It scared the bee-jeebies out of me...

Anyway, so we'll be pulling up the old porch this weekend, and planning out how we're going to rebuild it. We stored away some of our tax money money specifically for working on our master bathroom, but now, we're going to use some of that money to rebuild our porch. We weren't really planning on rebuilding it this early, but I guess that's what happens...

I'm going to do some research on some porches.

Talk to you all later!!

<3 Jessica

3.30.2009

Change of Plans Weekend

So, Hubby and I had a pretty good weekend, other than the allergies getting to us.

Friday, my boss let us go like 30 minutes early - which is cool... Tom and I made dinner then, we headed off to Mom and dad's house to work on Dad's computer. Somehow it's been deciding which websites it wants to go to and which ones it doesn't.

Anyway, Saturday, Tom and I went to his mom's house to hang out with her. First time we've been able to really catch up with her in like a month. Anyway, so then we went to lunch with her and had El Aculpulco - which is one of our FAVORITE restaurants. Had a good time just talking and catching up. Tom's mom also picked us up some gifts on her last trip to an SCA event. She got me a really cute pair of maroon and gold striped socks. Gryffindor colors!! Tom got a really nice hand made coffee cup.

We were supposed to go to Kandi and Joey's but they were doing dinner at some friends' house, and I didn't want to interrupt them. So Tom and I went to subway, and grabbed a couple salads, then we headed home. We spent the evening watching Mythbusters, Tom playing a game on his computer and me doing scrapbook pages.

Sunday, we were supposed to go to lunch with Ashley - but we didn't want her do drive all the way to Benton, just to do lunch with us, so we decided to do it another week. Well, Tom and I went ahead and went to Mazzios... our favorite sunday lunch spot. Then, we came home and started on the lawn.

We're getting ready for spring planting. We trimmed our crepe mertle, and our whysteria vine (sp??). We're planning on planting bushes in two places on the front of the house. We're also talking about putting in an irrigation hose in under the front flower bed to liven up our "monkey grass" that is dieing. THEN, after we plant the bushes, I'm wanting to put daffodils in a line in front of the bushes (or tulips?). and then in the front corner of our flower bed, we have at least three sets of roses growing.

So we mowed the front yard, Tom used the weed-eater to edge, and then we decided that the pollen was too much for us. So we gave up on the yard. We came in and I took a 3 hour nap. haha. Then, worked on more scrapbook pages. If you want to see them, check out my ArkieScrapper page.

This week is going to be great, Tom and I are both off on Friday. We are talking about doing something fun on Friday - but we aren't sure what exactly. Tom is really feeling like poo here lately. So hopefully he'll feel better!!

Ok, I'll quit yacking! No pictures on this blog! Maybe next time?

<3 Jess

3.21.2009

Grill Out with Tom and Jessica!!

Holy cow, we just had a really fun, really exhausting day!! Let's start with earlier this week...

Monday, we had a bit of drama at work. That all got worked out and things are finally back to normal. My boss was out Monday and Tuesday, then my direct supervisor was out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Our numbers at work were fantastic all week. So as a little reward, we all treated ourselves to leaving 15 minutes early. We even had a chance to do some of our filing! It was great!

Oh! Thursday, March 19, 2009 was my and Tom's 4 year wedding anniversary. The longest relationship I had before Tom and I started dating was only 2 months. On April 6th of this year, we will have been together for 7 years. It's crazy. I love Ashley and Kandi and Monica and they are my best friends, but Tom, man, he's my soul mate. I truly believe that.

Anyway, so that was this week...

Friday night, Kandi and Joey and their three kids came into town. Kandi and I took all three kids to my sister's house, and we were able to leave ALL THREE KIDS there! It was fantastic! So Kandi and I headed back to my house, where the boys had already busted out the Xbox - well, we had them turn on the Wii instead. We did two games of bowling on the Wii (we didn't do too bad!!). Then, we decided we wanted to go to Sonic - well, we got to THREE Sonics and they were all closed... come to find out, Sonic closes at midnight... it was like 12:30. So we wound up at the nasty Waffle House in Bryant at 1:30 in the morning haha! Then, we came back to the house, and the boys started playing Boom Blox - and Kandi and I crashed on my couches. Tom woke me up to take me to bed... I never looked at the clock. I found out later, it was about 4:30 when the boys decided to crash. haha!!

Me, Joey, and Kandi

Joey, Me, Kandi, and Tom (with our Wii remotes!)

Saturday, we all got up, and I started coffee and dishes. Then, we started on cheese dip and cutting up veggies for hamburgers. Lunch was at 1:00. So Tom started the grill at 12:30, so he'd be able to just throw everything on the grill and get to cooking as soon as everyone got there.
(Everyone being: Mom, Dad, Cathy, Tim, Brett, Nikki, TJ, Kayla, Maddy, Jason - and of course, Me, Kandi, Tom, and Joey.)

From left, going around the circle: My brother in law-Tim, My sister-Cathy, My mom (holding TJ), My dad, Jason, Joey, Kandi, Kayla, Maddy, Brett, and Nikki-laying on the floor.

Anyway, so everyone got here, Tom got to grilling... it was GREAT! We had a LOT of fun. We did Hamburgers, Hot dogs with cheese and bacon, polish sausages, and bratwursts... it was HEAVEN. Well, Tom did the hot dogs first, so that we could get the kids situated with food, then the adults made their food.

Well, After the first round of hamburgers, and all of the dogs and sausages were cooked. Tom started a second batch of hamburgers. I was worried, because I hadn't seen him eat anything... So I told him to eat. That the hamburgers could sit for a few minutes... Well, we kind of lost track of time, and wound up with Charcoal bricks.

After we ate, Kandi and Joey had to head home, so it was just me, Tom, my sister, her husband and three kids, and my mom and dad. We played Boom Blox on the Wii, and played Mario Kart. We had a lot of fun!

Left to right: My mom (hiding from the flash), Tom, Cathy, Tim, TJ, and Brett (standing up)

Me and TJ, playing with my Pilate's ball. He giggled his BUTT off on this thing! It was hilarious. What you can't see is, his feet are not on the ground, he is laying on his stomach-on the ball!

Well, after about 2 hours of video games my parents headed home. Then, another half hour after that Cathy and Tim left to do their grocery shopping.

Tom has now turned the Xbox back on, and is playing Peggle... SERIOUSLY addictive - do not download if you have children - they will starve due to your lack of attention while you get sucked into this game. It has the same feel as Zuma, with more of a Plinko-esque agenda.

Anyway, so now we're just trying to relax, we're planning on going to Sam's Club tomorrow and I've got to print out a couple photos for Kandi. Hopefully we will go to Conway next weekend. We need to get together with Tom's mother, we haven't seen her in over a month - not that we feel we have to see her EVERY WEEK. but we do like to keep in touch and check in with her.

Oh! And, last night (Friday) I got a call from Monica! They put their house up on the market two weeks ago, and it has already been shown THREE times, PLUS, their real estate lady has a whole list of people who want to be shown the house. It's great! Monica has two applications in at Bryant High School, one in Sheridan school district, and is working on one for the Lonoke school district. Robert (her husband, and Tom's big brother in their fraternity) has an application in at Benton Middle School as a music teacher. They are going to be moving from Blytheville (FAR northeastern Arkansas) back to central Arkansas this summer. We're super excited!! Keep your fingers crossed for them that they find jobs soon, their home sells quickly, and they find a great place in Central Arkansas that they love!!

Time to put some photos in here from today, and then, I'm off to check out all my websites that I've neglected for the past couple days.

Love you all!!
Jessica

3.14.2009

Stumble Upon...

Ok, so I found this awesome add on to my internet browser (I use Mozilla Firefox), and it's called Stumble Upon! It's great, basically if you like a site, you click on the stumble upon button (like I've added to our blog) and then it's added to a list - I think you might have to add tags? I am not sure.

Anyway, so I've found some great craft sites, some WEIRD of the wall sites, and some fantastic photography sites. It's been a really cool experience this past week. (PS. Stumble Upon is where I found the Velociraptor information haha!!)

This past week just FLEW by, I'm glad it did. Our boss, Mr. Jacobs (yes, that's what we call him - that or "Jacobs") anyway, he was in Las Vegas for the American Taekwondo Association's 2009 Spring Nationals. Hopefully, they had a good time. Anyway, so he was gone along with EVERY supervisor in the building, so of course it was a real laid back time. Well, when it's laid back, things don't get done quite as efficiently as I would like haha. so I get frustrated. Well, yeah, so it's done...

Friday was no meat day, since I'm Catholic. We had some FANTASTIC omlets last night. I'm thinking about cooking some more for breakfast. Oh they were great. Anyway, so Hubby and I just hung out, watched SeaQuest, and played on our computers. haha. We're such nerds.

Oh, I think it was Thursday?? I took some super cute pictures of some "flowers" in our yard. I really think they are weeds... haha but they turned out nice:

Let's see, oh well I said that Friday we just kind of hung out at the house. That was a lot of fun. We Geeked-Out for the night haha!
Today, Saturday, we are planning on having a "Lazy Day". Tom has his mind set on getting his 1000 gamer score for Assassin's Creed. I'm enjoying updating my harddrive, and backing up all my files (which means that I have to organize my files first - eek!) Then, I am going to *probably* work on my new scrapbook. It's really just a photo album, but I plan on doing little mini scrapbook pages through it too. I think it'll be cool. Tom bought me some new clear stamps too. They have the months, days, and dates in it. I think they are AWESOME. I also have a binder that I keep pictures of scrapbook pages that I've yanked from my scrapbooking magazines, I'm hoping to get more of those organized and "labeled". Not really labeled, but I describe what I like - or what caught my eye - about a page.
Also, I have one more "challenge" for my 2009 Scrapbook - I think it's the "Greatest Loss" page. Not really looking forward to that page - but I know it will help me grow.

Anyway. Oh Hey! I meant to let everyone know - if you ever need help with a scrapbook or project, I have lots of cool tools and I tend to be pretty creative... I'm thinking about starting on a "Labor Day" party idea - Tom and I "inherited" Labor Day after last year's Labor Day. We had a lot of fun, we grilled brats, polish sausages, and hot dogs. We also did veggies and dip and sausage balls! We played Volley Ball and horse shoes. Cathy and I took LOTS of photos. haha! I'm thinking about expanding it... inviting more people over - I love having lots of people over, its a lot of fun! When we were eating lunch, we all came in and watched one of the "kid movies". It was a lot of fun...

Anyway, oh Sunday, tomorrow, we're going Sam's Club - I really enjoy going to Sam's they have pretty decent deals... We are going to see if Dad wants to come with, since he wanted to go last weekend, but he got preoccupied by wanting to ride his motorcycle...

Hey, this upcoming week is my and Tom's 4 year anniversary!! And my kid brother's 22nd birthday - they are the same day!! March 19! We got married on his 18th birthday - we asked him first!! I promise... and we made it up to him, he got a really nice watch and our "groom's cake" was his birthday cake. I'll post pictures later...

Both cats have literally pushed my laptop off of my lap... I don't know how I get all the love when I'm wanting to do something haha! oh well... I'm also playing with my photoshop, i love it!!

I'm out!!

3.12.2009

Velociraptor season is here...

Are you prepared?


Velociraptor attack is the 3rd leading cause of death for men age 27-29. However, everyone must think about the implications of velociraptors: young and old, men, women and transgendered persons.

The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention is a bi-partisan group of professionals, dedicated to the diffusion of knowledge concerning velociraptor attack prevention.

Velociraptor compared in size to a human.
Velociraptor compared in size to a human. Courtesy: Wikipedia

Know the Enemy

The velociraptor is a bipedal carnivore with a long, stiffened tail and can be distinguished from other dromaeosaurids by its long and low skull, with an upturned snout. It bores a relatively large, sickle-shaped claw, typical of dromaeosaurid and troodontid dinosaurs. This enlarged claw, up to 67 millimeters (2.6 in) long around its outer edge, is a predatory device, used to tear into the prey, delivering a fatal blow.

Velociraptors are commonly found on tropical islands, converted to millionarie amusement parks, but are commonly being sighted in the Pacific Northwest. Of the essential facts you should know about velociraptors:

  • Velociraptors hunt in packs, and are known to form an equilateral triangle around its prey.
  • Velociraptors can accelerate 4 m/s2, with a top speed of 25 m/s on open terrain, 10 m/s while wounded, and 10 m/s in indoor labratories.
  • Velociraptors can open doors, but are slowed by them. They can open an initial door in approximately 5 minutes, and will take half that time for each subsequent door.
  • Velociraptors do not know fear.

New Home Buyer Tips

When buying a new home, there are a few things to look out for when assessing potential velociraptor attacks:

  1. Check all doors and windows. Doors should be made of solid oak or steel. Windows should have steel bars with spacing smaller than the average raptor.
  2. Make sure all entryways have adequate deadbolts. Quality deadbolts may be purchased at your local Home Depot.
  3. Always keep a loaded big-game rifle under your bed, and tire irons near every door. Remember, you should never be farther than 20 feet away from a tire iron.

3.10.2009

Some more pics from the weekend!

Here are a couple more photos from the weekend!!

Ashley came to the house and we played the Wii!!

It took us forever for us to get the timer thingy going on my camera... fun stuff... I don't know why my belly looks so damn big... cuz it's not anymore...
Tom and Ashley - we were bowling.
Tom looking SUPER cute!!

3.08.2009

Great weekend!!

Friday night, after Tom and I had dinner, we went to my parents' house to hang out with them and my sister and her family. We had a lot of fun. My nephew TJ has another ear infection. He's supposed to go to the doctor on Monday to have tubes put in. Which is great, because then maybe he won't get any more ear infections. Nikki had her nose stuck in the computer the whole time. and Brett just kind of kicked back and watched TV. It was fun.

After we got back from my parents' house, Tom put on MythBusters, and I totally crashed on the couch. It was great.

Sometime during the night, Tom woke me up and we went to bed. I don't remember much about that.

Saturday morning, we got up. Tom fixed the power steering on my car! yay!! It was a dirty job, but he did it quite quickly. I was really amazed. He had to jack the car up. That was kind of cool. I got to help by basically holding up the engine block with a breaker bar... yeah I am not sure what EITHER of those things are, but I did it!



















Tom was a little angry at my car.














The stuff he was trying to get to were REALLY far down in there!!














I think he wanted me to quit taking pictures while he was so frustrated!!

Then, we went to Sam's, picked up some groceries. Came home, cleaned up a little bit... and sat down. We loafed for most of the day on Saturday. It was great!! We watched some more MythBusters, and then it was off to bed! (another early night! Yay!!)

Today (Sunday), we got up kind of early - well it felt like it was early because of the whole Daylight Savings Time ending - or beginning?? i dunno. Well, so I got up took my shower, then Tom got up took his shower, and we started "Corpse Bride" which neither of us has seen. Then, I had to get up to work on my hair - All I did was straighten it and throw it into a pony tail... seems almost like a waste of time!! Oh well!
Then, we met Ashley at Mazzio's in Benton for lunch, then headed to Mills Park for a photo shoot. I liked a lot of the pictures, she didn't. She is really self-conscious about her weight - I am too, so I know how she feels, but I LOVED a couple of the pics!! I even snagged a couple of cut ones of Tom!















































































We came back to the house to load them up on my computer, and we started to play the Wii! It was great!! I even got a pic of all three of us! it's cute!!

Now, we're about to start the movie back up, so we can finish it! yay!!

3.07.2009

Another Quickie!!

Quick Tidbit...

This is freakin' hilarious.


Yay!

3.05.2009

Fun times ahead!

So, it's been a crazy F-ed up week.

I'm so ready for the weekend...

Let's start with tonight... I got home, and was going to start dinner - I was going to make fajitas and cheese dip - well, come to find out; we never took out the fajita meat... For that matter, we didn't have ANYTHING thawed for dinner. So, Tom decided we would just go out to eat. We debated where to go all the way from the house until we got to Bryant. Then, we decided on Casa Mexicana. Yummy! And what did we have? Fajitas and Cheese dip! Well, I had a fajita taco salad - without the shell. And Tom had the ground beef taco salad without the shell... Tonight was the first time I'd ever eaten cheese dip with a spoon! haha! It was fantastic!!
Then, we came home, cleaned for a little bit, worked on some laundry, watched CSI and are now watching SeaQuest. We still have a couple more loads of laundry to fold and put away.

Tomorrow is Friday! Fridays are cool, because I get to wear jeans to work! Yay! And, the jeans that I have are a size smaller than what I have been wearing. Really excited! I had to pin up the legs though... I'm just too short for my width haha!
Anyway, We're also trying to get out a little early tomorrow. We are not supposed to be getting any more overtime, but I just can't get away from it. I really can't stand to take an hour lunch. It's just too long. Tomorrow night, we're having Tilapia fillets and veggies. yay!
I'm Catholic, so on Fridays during Lent (the 40 days and nights that start the day after Mardi Gras) we're not supposed to eat meat. This is in remembrance of the 40 days and nights that Jesus fasted in the desert.

Saturday, we are going to work on replacing my power steering belt in my little dodge neon. It's been a crazy week trying to drive with the power steering out. It's turned my little car into a freakin' bus! We also have to go to Sam's to pick up some groceries. I have really gotten to enjoy going to Sam's. They have a good selection for most things. You just have to remember what you will and what you won't eat in a certain amount of time. Tom and I can't buy a lot of fresh produce at a good enough price, because it's just the two of us. But, we buy our meats, string cheeses, toilet paper, paper towels, conditioner, and Atkins shakes there.
Then, We're going to have Ashley come over and we're going to play some Wii!! I also need to take some new pictures of Ashley with my kick ass camera! I can't wait!! Its photo shoot time!!

Sunday, I am going to try and steal Brett - my oldest nephew - to see if I can photograph him. He's not big on having his photos taken, but he really liked the fact that I took a picture of him in mid jump side kick. So, I want to try and get some good shots of him, so that he likes having his photos taken. But all in all, trying to have a lazy day.

What are you guys up to?

Tom helped me with my piggie tails!! Do you like?

3.01.2009

Our weekend

Ok, first off, I am trying to add photos and they are just NOT going... GRRR!! Technology frustrates me at times...

Anyway,

So our weekend was pretty kick ass.

Friday night we went to my parents' house. I was able to work on a project that I have been working on for two months with my dad. Anyway, so we made some progress on that. Then, TJ said "Sau-Sau"!! (that's what my sister's kids call me). Well, he said "Ta-Ta!" That was FANTASTIC!!! He's so damn cute!!

Saturday, we had to rescue my dad. He wound up two hours away with a stomach bug. Mom, Tom and I met up with dad about 25 minutes outside of Conway. Tom and I went to Kandi's house, and took some pics of the kids, hung out with Kandi's, had dinner. Then, we dropped dad's truck off and we went to the store and picked dad and mom up some chicken soup from the store. Then we came home, and hung out.

Sunday, we went to lunch, then we went whopping. I was able to pick up a new pair of jeans... a size smaller than what I have been wearing! YAY!!! They are a little snug right now, but if I give it a couple of weeks, it'll be fine.

Anyway, I'm going to try and post some of the pics I tried to do earlier...
Yeah, ok, no never mind...

not gunna go...

Will do it tomorrow night!!

Love you all!!

Jess