Short Holiday Week

I am looking forward to this week even though Todd is traveling.
Since I am working a flex schedule over the summer, working 9 hours a day and getting off 4 hours early on Friday unless another day is needed to be taken off early. Anyway with Independence day being on Friday this year, I get off early on Thursday. I am so looking forward to a nice long weekend.

Card 26 of 52

Layout 26 of 52

This one is not quite done, still need to journal

What a day!

Every have a day you just want to scream?
Well today was that day for me. I had a dentist appt. to work on my root canal, he really worked on filing those roots today because man my mouth feels like someone punched me in the jaw. The root canal is officially done, he placed the posts so my next visit will be the crowns on 2 teeth.
Anyway, I set up an appt for Jordan because he was complaining about his tooth hurting when he drank milk. Well they took 6 x-rays of Jordan's mouth and we found out that he needs to have all four of his Wisdom Teeth removed. They are coming in crocked and one out of the 4 is infected; the one that he is having pain with. So now we have to contact an oral surgeon to find out when we can do this and how much out of pocket we are going to have to pay. My baby, (16 years old) has to go under anesthesia and get 4 wisdom teeth pulled. I am going to be so stressed out when this happens.
After supper I had my orientation at the health club I joined, I was taught how to use all the weigh machines. They have 15 different weight machines and each works on a different area. The instructor said that we all should be sore tomorrow. Wonderful, I will have a sore mouth and sore everything else.
While I was at the gym, Todd took Dillinger in for his yearly shots and check up. They said at age 11 he is a very healthy dog, that dogs in his weight class are equal to a 65 year old person. We did find out that he has cataracts, we aren't going to do anything right now about the cataract because in our opinion he can still see the squirrels from quite a distance away so he can still see well enough.
Poor Dillinger with Cataracts!

Todd's a traveling

Todd left yesterday for Salt Lake City to do some networking installs.
This is installment #1 of 8 trips he will have to take between now and October.

Hey, Job security!!!

25th Layout of 52

This is a 2 page layout.

25th Card of 52

This is the card I made for Beate weekend challenge #53

Correction about the concert

After I got home from picking up the tickets for the Pirate & Poets concert, the bag and other goodies, I got a phone call saying they forgot to give me the t-shirts that will allow me to go backstage.
So I went back and picked up the t-shirts. What an awesome prize. I hope Jessica has a great time in our place!!!

I Joined, I Won

Yesterday I was invited by a co-worker to attend an open house at Womens Workout World. I attended just to see what it was like and ended up joining. They had a one day awesome deal that I had to sign up. Anyway, part of signing up was that I got a raffle ticket to win tickets to the Pirates & Poets concert along with a "Pink" gym bag, water bottle, visor and $50.00 gift card. The featured artists for the concert are Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allen, and Luke Bryan.

I got a phone call around 8:15pm saying I won the tickets.


I couldn't believe it, I just joined, I never win stuff like this, I feel guilty because I am new to the club and someone who has been a member longer should have won.

Well unfortunately, the concert is this weekend and we can't attend. Todd is traveling and I have a prior commitment. Anyway, we called Todd's brother Greg to see if they would like to go, unfortunately Shelly took a fall and from what I gather broke 2 ribs, dislocated her tail bone and broke her wrist. So she wouldn't be able to attend but possibly Greg and Jessica would. Well later in the evening last night Jessica called and said she will be in the area visiting a friend and would love to go.

I am glad we are able to give the tickets to someone who can use them. I am not much of a country music fan but would have gone if Todd wasn't traveling. I hope Jessica and her friend have a good time!!!

Strep????

I had to take a 1/2 vacation day today to take Jordan to the doctor to see if he had strep. He hasn't been feeling well since we got back from vacation.
NOPE he doesn't but he does have an ear infection that could be causing the puss pocket in the throat.

Fathers Day 2008

Well I hope that Todd had a good Fathers Day.
Ethan had to work the better part of the day so we didn't go out to dinner.
We has the Cedar Plank Pork Loin on the Grill for dinner and the boys and I got him a couple of gifts. Jordan got him a Harley t-shirt, Ethan got him a Home Depot gift card (No surprise there LOL) and I got him a gift card to the Humidor. It's a new cigar shop in down town Downers.
I was surprised he didn't go riding today.

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Every year we try something new on the grill one year it was grilled pineapple, another year it was pork lion on a cedar plank.
I have a recipe for grilled portobello mushrooms that we tried tonight; the recipe follows. They were actually rather good we will make them again I am sure

Recipe:
4-6 Portobello Mushrooms
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and ground black pepper
Dinner Rolls
Sliced tomatoes
Lettuce

Clean mushrooms with a damp towel lay them plate. Brush caps with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat grill to medium and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place mushroom on the grill gill side down and cook for 4 minutes. Turn and continue to grill until mushrooms are almost cooked through, about 4 minutes.
Remove and drain mushrooms on paper towel, gill side down. Serve on roll & top with onion and tomato.

24th Card of 52

These are few stamps from the new stamp set that will be in the Winter Stampin' Up catalog called Fresh Cuts. 3 of the 5 stamps in the set.

24th Layout of 52

This is a 3 page layout, I don't think I need to explain it....lol

Starting over with a new Dentist

Well in about 10 mins I leave to start the whole crown process with a new Dentist. I will also be going through a root canal on the tooth in front of the crown replacement. (See blog approx done end of April for whole nightmare story).
Anyway I am happy I am finally getting this taken care of but still am hating the out of pocket cost. (Never got a refund from the 1st Dentist again see Aprils Blog)
Luckily this new dentist is understanding and is going to take payments instead of asking for the full amount upfront.

23rd layout of 52

I realized I didn't post a layout last week so I will post 2 this week, the other one will be later in the week.

This is actually a 2 page layout

23rd card of 52

I realized I didn't post a card last week so I will post 2 this week one today and one later in the week

Our Vacation 2008

We left for Tenn on Sunday June 1st driving over 500 miles to get to a cabin we rented for 4 nights in the Smokey Mountains. We started to plan for this vacation probably around the 1st of the year before gas prices hit $4.00 a gallon. We had to rebudget the vacation toward the beginning of May when we realized there was not going to be any decline in the price of gas and instead it would continue to go up.

Anyway, we left early morning Sunday and arrived at around 4:00pm Here is what our cabin looked like from the outside along with our view of the mountains from the side porch.



We brought some food with us so we grilled hamburgers that night and rested in the jacuzzi and in the cabin the rest of the evening.

Monday we headed off to Dollywood. It wasn't quite the tourist season yet so the line for the rides were no more then a 15 min wait. The 2nd picture is one of my favorite pictures from the day. It was taken after the boys rode this ride.





One of the shows at Dollywood features a celebrity guest each week. This time it was Jimmy Fortune the tenor from the Statler Brothers. Todd got to meet and get his autograph after the show.


The next day we went white water rafting. I don't have the pictures from the CD we purchased downloaded yet, but let me tell you, the whole trip was worth just doing this. I have always wanted to do this and I am glad I took the opportunity to try it. We are now looking for places near by to try it again.

Our last day in Tenn we went to the Smokey Mountain National Park. It is one of the few National Parks that are still FREE to the public. We took two hikes; one to a water fall called Catarats Falls and the other UP the mountain to Laurel falls. We hiked 1.3 miles UP the mountain. Todd and I had to take a slow pace walking, I almost gave up a few times. Everytime I thought about quitting, a group of people who were older then I would come past us going down the mountain. I would look at Todd and say "If they can do it, so can I". Well we made it up the mountain and it was worth it.

The rest of the day we went to a few local stores (a scrapbooking store, Ben & Jerry's and The Christmas Place) and spent our last evening BBQing steaks, packing and finishing an UNO game we started the night before.

The next morning Jordan woke us up at 4:00am telling us he was about to take a shower but a Scorpion was in the tub with him.

Well since we were already up from the scorpion incident, we decided to pack up and get on the road. We hit the road at 5:30am and got home at about 4:00pm we probably would have gotten home sooner but due to traffic in IN we were at a stand still for a while.

Anyway I did take alot of pictures but decided to share only some of my favorites. Make sure in the near furture you check Todd's blog, I am sure when he writes about our vacation he will include different photos.
We had a good time and I would probably return just to Raft the Pigeon River again.

Graduation Party

Well the weather held up for the most part for the graduation party.
As always we bought too much food but what we had was really good!
We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and Ethan really appreciated all the well wishes, company and gifts that he received.

Now to spend the rest of the summer relaxing.

We Made it, There and Back!!!

Well we made it to Tenn and back!
We left for a 1/2 week vacation on Sunday June 1st and returned today on June 5th.
Todd tells our vacations details so well, that I will have to have him tell the details of the vacation and I will write them down and then blog it with some pictures.lol

I will blog and post pictures of our adventure probably on Sunday!
We had a good time and squeezed in as much as we could in 5 days.