An Open Letter To Beth

My Dear Sweet Friend Beth,

I am such a SCHMUCK that I totally forgot to wish you a Happy Birthday today when I saw you at school. I am soooooo sorry for not even acknowledging your birthday and totally deserve you sticking your tounge out at me while leaving the parking lot. Not to mention that your subtle hint TOTALLY went over my head. Yeah....the part where you said you better be nice to me...esp today....flew right over my empty head.

Ok...I can not tell a lie. I almost completely forgot that it was your birthday today {I did remember to remind myself on Monday} and then as I sat here second guessing myself I called Mary to yell at her for not reminding me.....like she is my secretary and it's her responsibility. {Beth you are my secretary and shouldn't have to remind me of your own birthday!} Anyway, Mary's response....take your cell phone off vibrate and check your voice mail. {Thanks Mar}.

And so my dear friend it is with my most sincere apology that I offer you a belated Birthday lunch of your choice. **Read the Fine Print** Lunch must be between the hours of 12:00 and 1:00, in the city of Highland Park and preferably across the street from my office at Once Upon a Bagel. LOL...just kidding...you pick!

Happy Birthday Beth!

Love,

Denise

P.S. This is a pic from your birthday lunch last year! You have pretty eyes to go with that awesome smile.

Life

First of all, I need to start this post by thanking the many many people that have sent me emails this week and were checking on me. I sincerely apologize for leaving everyone hanging out there and wondering what has happened to me. Life is what happened....plain and simple.

1. 1. Love my job! I finally feel like I fit in and I know what is expected of me. I have been receiving nice comments about my work and my boss (the VP of the bank) said that everyone likes me and my initiative to get things right in the Marketing Dept...which by the way is solely me. The position has been empty since March and outsourced throughout the bank and everyone is happy to give it back to me.


2. 2. Volleyball is almost over. Thank God! I always feel like this at the end...burned out. It's hard to make 24 girls follow directions and teach them the skills necessary to win. Although winning isn't what it's all about but it was a goal and shows that your hard work is paying off. Right now we are hit or miss on the winning spectrum of the game but overall improvement makes me happy too.


3. Once again, Casino Night and Silent Auction are Novbember 10th and consumes my waking life. Dealing with the State of Illinois' Dept of Revenue is nerve racking....such red tape. But finally got the green light to proceed with my publicity plan. The best thing about the Silent Auction.....two Oprah tickets on the auction block!!!! Oh yeah.....I am going to get those tickets and probably spend lots of my hard earned pay checks. Fee free to donate to my Oprah ticket campaign through PayPal. LOL


4. Homecoming came and went last weekend. My big boy went to his first dance with his girlfriend Taylor. They make a cute couple. I have attached the one of many pics. Oh and he has been selected as the new Mascot...he's the Blue Devil. Gotta get pics of that one.


5. My edlery Serbian neighbors house caught fire last week. I raced home because we have basically adopted them as family and I was so worried about them. When I arrived I was greeted by the neighborhood Crazy Family that I can't stand. Anyway, the firmen basically came to me and name me the family advocate. Then on the front page of the newspaper they printed that the head line Hot Cash and elluded to the fact that the house was full of vast riches.Basically, the article was a lie and we have been pursuing them for the principal of the matter. My thoughts are he opened the door to every theif and scam artist. Make me so mad. Oh and the info for the article camed from the Crazy daughter. She doesn't evne know their names and thought they spoke polish.

I sooooo wish I had a moment to clean my office and actually stamp something...that won't be happening until after November 10th...when I go into hiding.

There ya have it. I am well and happy with my job. I am just in the process of juggling all my exttra currircular activities. I'll try to check in more often.

See ya on the blog and GO BEARS!

Work and Tag...so lame...I know!

I have not even had a chance to blog this week. Between the new job (which is totally awesome) and volleyball (which is totally awesome some days) I barely have time to think! I am sooooo tired at night and my feet are killing me from wearing real shoes...no flip flops at the bank...go figure.

I promise that I will post some stampin stuff this weekend and a full report about my first week at work. I really really really like my new job.

Anyway, Laura and Gena both tagged me this week so here is some silly randomness for you to read. I tag Jacki, Trish, Nicole and Beth to share in this sill game of tag. Copy the stuff below and change the answers to suit your silly names.

1. YOUR ROCKSTAR NAME (first pet, current car): King Venture
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (favorite ice cream, favorite cookie): Pralines and Cream Oreo
3. YOUR FLY "GUY/GIRL" NAME (first initial first name, first 3 letters last name): Dbry
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Kitten
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Ann Evanston
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first 3 letters last name, first 2 letters first name): Bryda
7. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, & add "the"): The Purple Water
8. YOUR NASCAR NAME (first names of your Grandfathers): Maurice Herbert
9. YOUR STRIPPER NAME (favorite perfume, favorite candy): Tommy Girl Twix
10. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (Mother's & Father's middle names): Sue Kevin

Michael Buble Sighting

I have the BEST blog buddies EVER! Sandie took the time to send me an email today to let me know that Michael Buble is on Jay Leno tonight. Thanks for thinking of me Sandie.....I have the DVR set!!! So in honor of this wonderful event....click on the clip above and enjoy! {BIG SIGHS}

For those of you new to my blog....I am on the verge of obssession with Michael Buble...ok who am I kidding....I could have been on the stalker list this summer. Scroll down to the bottom of this page and there is much more to see and listen too.

Sweet Treats For You

Here is another sample I made for Anna's store. This was actually the first thing I made after my stampin hiatus and I wasn't too happy with it but it's growing on me. It is a 2-5-7 box that is pretty simple and can be adapted into an open format at the top rather than a fold over flap.

You get to fill it with treats....I did not fill it because I didn't want anything to melt when I mail it to Anna.

** Random Blogging** I am getting ready for my job on Monday. Just tying up loose ends in my personal life and school life. Today I get to go out and purchase some work clothes. Whoooo! That's a good thing because all my shirts are sleeveless and all my pants are capris...neither are allowed at work. Oh darn.

My doctor appt went well yesterday...I think. He wants me to come back and have a little nip and tuck done and some light liposuction on a few areas to get things as they should be now that the swelling is going down and everything is settling into place. Yeah well....I doubt my insurance will consider liposuction a necessity so I doubt I will be going back for that procedure. But ya never know....they might approve it as necessary to complete my surgical procedure correctly. At least that is what I hope will happen....we'll see.

**Oprah** Last night I had a chance to sit and catch up on this week's Oprah shows....it's the start of a new season. Here are my thoughts so far....not that it matters to anyone.

1. David Letterman was LAME!!! I wanted a real interview exposing him as a real person and he was trying to be too funny. Ok...I liked hearing about his son in the naughty chair but that was about it.
2. I LOVE Lisa Marie Presley and watchig her sing with Elvis made me cry. I LOVE Elvis too. And OMG can you believe she is old enough to have an 18 year old daughter? Lisa Mare still looks 18.
3. The children of 9-11 made me cry....as they should. One thing that they said was... people forget about what happened and only think about it once a year. They think about it every day. Just wanted them to know that I think about it every day when I say the Prayer of St. Francis during morning prayer. Each day our Principal says....now we will say the prayer of St. Francis as we have for the last 6 years in honor of those killed on Sept 11th. Although my children might not understand why they are saying the prayer....it is brought to their attention every day and some day....they will know and they will pray harder for peace in the world.
4. The Preacher's wife that killed her husband.....how many times did she say during that interview "I failed Matthew". Um....you were an abused wife mentally, physically and sexually for years....I think Matthew failed you!!!! Not that I am advocating her killing him but I just felt like she was still trying to cover up their troubles and blame herself....still.

Enough random ramblings for today. I am off to switch the laundry and run to the mall. See ya on the blog!

Victory!

Just wanted to share that today was our first volleyball game and my girls won all three games!! Yeah for the Falcons. I am so happy for them because they haven't had many wins in the past and I have always said they needed win at the start of the season to get the ball rolling. I was so happy and so proud of them. It was a blessing to see their faces glow and the pride their parents had while watching in the stands. Keep our team in your thoughts because they deserve to win more. They practice smart and they practice hard.

This is an awesome card send to my by my wonderful best friend Jen. She sends me cards all the time and even more when I was recovering from surgery. I think I got a card a day for one whole week. And she sent me a congrats on my new job card with the sweetest message to me. Want to know why I love my best friend of 28 years? Cause she is the kindest sweetest and most fun person I know with a heart of gold. Thanks for being my best friend Jen...they do say opposites attract and it's my job to stand up in this relationship and tell it like it is. This is how it is.....I love Jen like she is my true sister. We have grown up together and because we became mothers at the same time and just continued to be best friends through everything in our life. I just plain old love her and only wish I was as kind and thoughful as she is. Thanks Jen...love ya!

My friend Nicole asked me to be a guest blogger for her because her camera died. So I did a write up for her regarding the Big Shot and the Big Kick. And I included lots of samples and tips. So click over to Nicole at the Inkblog and check out her Digi site called Sugarplumb Paperie. She has started a digi scrapbooking blog and it has nothig but FFRRREEEEE downloads. So cool. Go take a look and read my article....if you are interested.

**Random Blogging** Off to my follow up appt with the plastic surgeon. I think he is going to fix my little hip pucker...I hope. Other than that I am feeling really well and I have been working out during volleyball this week and I am not hurting. But since I am working a job starting on Monday my workout scheudle will be in the evenings....after dinner is about the only time I have available. But then I am soooooooooo tired and have no energy to walk. It's tough.

Hello Pumpkin

Here is another quick card for Anna's store. This is totally inspired by Julie Ebersole the Queen of Amuse. I love this little Pumpkin girl that I picked up from Sarah Vrolyk's sale. Let's see how many more names I can drop in this paragraph. Oh...the sentiment was a $1 and given to me by my sweet friend Mary.

This is a 4x4 pumpkin spice card base that was stamped using pumpkin spice ink and a dot background stamp. The pattern paper is from...I don't know? The pumpkin girl was stamped on a copper tag {PERFECT for all these Halloween colors} and colored with a marker. The senitment was stamped with Versafine Black Ink.

Speaking of black ink....I purchased the Pallete Noir ink from Paper Trey and I don't like it at all. The lid always falls off and it does not stamp anywhere as crisp as the Versafine. But I will keep trying...it's probably issues with the user...um that would be me! Ya know...the one that can't get the cap off the big fat glue stick!

Be back later after a birthday party! See ya on the blog!