You touch every place in my heart

Every time our eyes meet

This feeling inside me

Is almost more than I can take

Baby when you touch me

I can feel how much you love me

And it just blows me away

I've never been this close to anyone or anything

I can hear your thoughts

I can see your dreams

I don't know how you do what you do

I'm so in love with you

It just keeps getting better

I wanna spend the rest of my life

With you by my side

Forever and ever

Every little thing that you do

Baby I'm amazed by you

The smell of your skin

The taste of your kiss

The way you whisper in the dark

Your hair all around me

Baby you surround me

You touch every place in my heart

Lonestar, Amazed

Self Love Day

Today is Self Love Day! I should tell you something about myself that I just LOVE!


This is a hard one for me........but one thing I can say is that I think I am one of the most easy going people I know. I am typically the one who can keep the cool in a uncomfortable situation. If you screw up, I tend to downplay the whole thing to help you save face. When most everyone around me is freaking out, I play it cool. I do not panic.....

Something that goes along with my level head is that I am a very anticipatory (is that a word?) type of person. I notice what's going on around me and I react to what I can see is about to happen. I don't live my life with blinders on, and never feel that I should be the center of attention. I do everything in my power to notice how I can help those around me. For instance, Hunk and I were once about to get on an airplane and I noticed a couple that had been waiting - just like us - for our delayed aircraft. The difference was that they had their two small kids with them and both kids had fallen asleep. The couple had carry on bags and a car seat - and each of them were holding a sleeping child. Being a mom I know that the worst case scenario is to wake up a kid when they have FINALLY fallen asleep. The dad was attempting to hold a sleeping child and a car seat. I could see the thoughts and ideas racing through their heads of how to accomplish this, so before she began to try and wake up those kids I offered for Hunk and myself to carry all their stuff on the plane. She practically melted into happiness. Not that tons of people wouldn't help like this, but I anticipated that this couple would need help long before boarding when I first saw them both with sleeping kids.

I've got a cool head (mostly) and I am noticing those around me.

I've given you something about me that I like, do any of you like me? If so, why??

Love me and then go and Love Yourself!

Love Me!

Friday will be Self Love Day 2009 - I'll be thinking of something to love about ME between now and then. I'll be cramming for this test for the next 2 days........

Please go and visit Hilly to find out the official rules and to join in on the fun. And then, don't forget to come back here on FRIDAY and show me some love......

In other news....

I'm no longer sick - yay! I seriously had some bad germs because I felt horrible for a number of days. HOPEFULLY, no one else in this house gets to share that love!

MONDAY - Feb. 16 - there will be no mail, no banking, many businesses will be closed, school is out and there are a number of fantastic sales going on at your local retailers. You can all thank me that my birthday is such an all important day.

I am thrilled beyond belief that there is NO SCHOOL on Monday. One of the things that annoys me to no end is the constant slavery of the early school day. Monday, I will get to sleep late!! I spent 20 years of my life attending various educational institutions which required my early morning attendance. The holy grail of graduation was the very idea of not being chained to the school schedule ever again. Then I had to go and have kids. Apparently, I am not a morning person. I don't know when this happened because I spent most of my younger years being the first one up, wasting daylight was criminal. I guess this means I am actually getting old. I'm looking down the barrel of 38.

My current goal is to have every stitch of clothing in the house clean and on a hanger before midnight on Sunday. My only wish - to not have a pile of laundry ANY WHERE for one entire day. Fleeting dreams, but one can hope......

NO Snow

No, people. The snow tease was a BIG FAT LIE! LIES, I tell you. It did rain, but nothing came of it. Poo!

I just knew everyone was on pins and needles wondering if we were covered in a blizzard, so that's my update. I'm going back to bed - I feel "flu-ish".

Talk amongst yourselves...

SNOW Day!?

In Atlanta we don't get snow very often. If we are lucky, we will get ice once or twice a year. So when Stone Mountain Park decided to become SNOW Mountain Park we were definately in.

They took the gigantic sloping lawn (typically used for Laser Show viewings) and have turned it into a snow tubing slope with 8 lanes, snow blowers and the works. THey added a snow playing area and provide everything you need to build snowmen, igloos, sled, etc. We just purchased a lift ticket and show up - no equipment or toys needed.

We got to the park at 3pm today and I brought all of our snow clothing - bibs, boots, heavy coats, gloves, hats, scarves - you name it, I had it. We got out of the car and proceeded to put the stuff on before walking over to the entrance. I started to feel really silly because it was actually really warm out today - 62 degrees at the time we were doing this. People in the parking lot were in short sleeves, no coats, and thought perhaps we were over-dressing for this. I got the kids all suited up, but I carried my own snowpants. I needed to see if they were actually necessary before I was going to put them on. Turns out, lots of people were wearing snow gear, so we didn't look ridiculous once we got to the tube hill.

See what's wrong with this picture? This is the line for the tubing hill, all these people you see are going SNOW TUBING. Do you see the guy in khaki shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt??? SNOW tubing, people.

The first area we went was the snow playing area where the snowmen/igloo building was. It was very soft "snow", but it was super slippery. It was the consistency of an ICEE drink. The snow blower then came on and the "snow" was coming out in giant chunks. It was funny to watch this pipe toss out hunks of ice/snow mix. It was not at all like snow blowing at ski resorts - likely due to the temperature. My kids still thought it was awesome. You can't tell from the picture, but they are standing in the falling snow chunks here. They put on their coats so they would not get it in their hair, but they both spent most of the day with their coats off. It was warm!!

The tubing line was long, on the first run we waited for 30 minutes. The sessions are only 2 hours, so I thought that a 30 minute wait was a bit obnoxious. It turned out in the end that we were able to go down the hill 4 times in 2 hours. We may have been able to get in one more run, but the kids slowed us down a bit. The tube ride was fun - the "snow" had melted quite a bit with the bright, warm day we were having. Everything was pretty drippy, but there was a nice thick base so the slopes were fine. By sundown, the melty was beginning to get packed and hard so the slopes got a lot FASTER. They kept blowing the icee mix the whole time, and I am still amazed that they are able to keep SNOW in this weather. It is crazy!!

I am VERY glad we wore all the snow gear because if you can imagine playing, rolling and tubing in an ICEE you can imagine that we got very wet. The snow clothing came in handy for keeping us dry, though we were all a bit hot in the thickness.

I don't have a lot of good pics, we had the camera, but Hunk ended up leaving it at the school function we stopped at along the way. We needed to go help the Drama dept. get ready for a play my oldest is in. They were playing with the makeup and we took a few pictures, the camera was put down and then forgotten. I did end up purchasing a toss away camera, but I won't see those pics for a few days. It is hard to use film after being so accustomed to digital. I ran out of shots quickly because I'm so used to taking a bazillion pics and just deleting the bad ones. Hopefully I don't have a film roll full of bad pics!! I guess in this respect that film will never die. There will always be the disposable camera, I don't think they will be able to create a disposable digital camera - or maybe there is such a thing and I live under a rock.? What I have today is from my iPhone....so yeah, they suck.

We had a lot of fun - I hope I got some good pictures on the disposable camera, because this was just something to see - in Atlanta - a snow slope. Who would've thought?? We are actually expecting some REAL SNOW according to the weather man - possibly on Monday evening. Can everyone please just put all your karma, postive thoughts, prayers or whatever you choose that we will get a frickin' BLIZZARD? I could use a day off this week - my calendar is packed!!

Butts

I don't smoke, I never have - well, I did try it once, but I hated it. I've always hated it and it became a total dealbreaker for me with guys. I dated one guy who smoked, however I rarely saw him smoke and he rarely smelled like smoke - the thing is that I knew it was never going to go anywhere because of that one habit. There were PLENTY of other indicators that this guy was a loser, but it was that ONE that made me keep my heart guarded. It was a blessing in disguise because had I been "in" this relationship completely my heart would have been destroyed. He was one of many men who made me *hate* men.

Smoking is something that I do not understand and something that I knew that I could never live with. I've known so many people in my life that have quit, failed, quit, failed, etc. I figured that I did not want to take a chance if a guy said he would quit. I had no faith that he would not start smoking again, and it was something I could never put up with.

I have friends & family members who smoke cigarettes and while I still don't understand it, I don't place it as a dealbreaker on those relationships. It is just something that I knew I could never live with day to day. I don't like the smell, the look and I just don't get it.

To get to my point though, is the BUTTS. I was driving behind a car and during the course of our 20 minute ride I watched this person toss 3 butts out the window. It seems to be an un-written excuse that tossing cigarette butts out the window is not littering. This is something that I just don't get. Of the people that I know that smoke, I'd say roughly 99% of them would never toss their McDonald's trash or their gum wrapper out the car window, but almost all of them feel free and clear to drop a cigarette butt wherever they happen to be. ???

I did have one friend that would never throw her butts out - she said her daughter caught her and was devastated that she was littering. So, she stopped. However, her car was disgusting with an ashtray jammed to overflowing with butts. Ohhhhh, the smell!! So, I see the issue of not wanting the butts in the car - it can be down right nasty. (I wish her daughter's devastation with her actual smoking would've made her stop!)

Am I missing something, or is it socially acceptable to litter with cigarette butts?

Dongle-de-doo

I have a dongle for the software that I use to operate my business. A dongle, or keylock, which means that if said dongle is not attached to my computer my software will not function. It is a security item, so that the software can not be shared. I get it. The software was expensive in my book - $5,000. There are definately folks out there that would try to copy, share or sell software with such a price tag. The keylock is justifiable.


The keylock is also an annoyance. The problem is that I purchased a new laptop to replace the relic (5 years old) that I've been using. My hard drive died and it made more sense to just upgrade. I've got a new, sleek machine that does not have a parallel port - a parallel port is needed to attach my dongle. This renders my software useless.









My first run of business was to contact the software manufacturer to see if I could get a new dongle that is USB compatible. YES, they say.....however, the cost is $500. WTF? If I am willing to surrender my parallel dongle, in replacement for a USB key I should not be ripped a new asshole with a $500 fee. Maybe I'm expecting too much?? I realize that the new dongle has materials and labor expenses, but I really don't feel that it should come with a $500 price tag! Seriously. I'm happy to pay for all shipping and a modest upgrade fee, but I just really feel like this company is being a total rip off.

I tried a work-around option by purchasing a USB to Parallel converter cable. Unfortunately, this option did not work. I even got my little Hunky nerd to work on it, but it just didn't work. So, my best "legal" option is to purchase a new dongle. Whooop de doo.

My second option is to do a full-on upgrade of the software. The thing is, the "upgrade" is not an upgrade, it is a switch to a completely new software (which uses USB keylock). Granted what they suggest I switch to is a really awesome software, but I'm doing fine with what I have and I really don't have the luxury of time to learn a completely new process. Nor, do I have another $6,000 budgeted for a complete software overhaul. I'm really kind of stuck.

So, I pour money into a new PC, more money into a new dongle and next year I'll pour my last remaining dollars into new software. At least maybe I'll be able to sell the $500 dongle to someone who needs it - like I need it now.

***why didn't I purchase a new PC with a parallel if I knew I needed one? well, to be honest, I got a helluva deal on this machine and to get a parallel port I would have to have a special ordered PC. Parallel is so dated that new machines don't have them any longer. Of course, I never thought it would be this big of a deal, either. So, YES, I brought this on myself so I should just SHUT UP***