WOW!!

Look who's on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine this week. It came out yesterday.

Hope it's not a jinx......it happened to Kansas last week and some other team a few weeks ago. Maybe it won't be a jinx for us - even though we are the underdog going into Saturday's game with Okalahoma.......in SAN ANTONIO!!!!!!!!!! (we played them once - hopefully we can whip 'em this time!!!)

Missouri wins!!!!!

Well, more than likely I don't have to tell you how electrifying most Missouri households and "establishments" were last night!!!! Final score was 36-28 Mizzou wins!!!!!!!!!!
Today, the BCS ratings came out, and as expected - Missouri moved to the NUMBER 1 spot!!!!! WOO HOOOOO We play Oklahoma on Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio!! Again, it's being broadcasted on ABC at 7:00 p.m. - and again we'll be venturing to town. This time to Danny & Diane's because Ed & Kym will be out of town. They were going to give us a key and we could all still "party" with out them but D&D have town cable and ABC isn't a problem for them. *just for the dishnetwork customers* SO we'll be back at it in 6 days!!! We'll be playing for a National title then!! How awesome!!!
Here are a few pics of the party last night. Needless to say, it was rather loud and crazy! (and yes...I stayed sober, thank you very much!)

~*~GO TIGERS~*~

WOO HOOO

Tonight is the big (HUGE) game between the Missouri Tigers and the Kansas Jayhawks. It will be at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and kickoff is 7:00 tonight on ABC. Of course, we don't even have ABC since the very nice individuals at DishNetwork yanked it last year....... The rivalry goes back for hundreds of years to be exact. We have had ESPN on since before 7, watching "College Game Day" as they have been broadcasting from KC!!! What a scream!
Am and I are soooo geared up! Mine shows more - as his emotions don't come out much about anything. But he's elated!! It'll show tonight! We're going to town to our friends Kym & Ed's house to watch the game! We're having an "MU KU party"!!! hehe
We've been wearing our Mizzou gear all week and we even have our Mizzou flag flying proudly!! (as noted in the picture)
I walked every day so far since Thursday....and Brrrr!! (therefore the headband to cover up my ears!!)
ANother great thing is......Arkansas beat the #1 ranked LSU team last night in triple overtime!!! THAT WAS GREAT!! Know what that means for our team (ranked #4) {KU is ranked 2nd}???
It means that whoever wins tonight's game between MU and KU will be NUMBER ONE!!! WOO HOOOOOOO GOOOO TIGERS!!


Well...that is all......... I'll update tomorrow as I'm sure I'll have typical party pictures of the group!!! This is already more exciting than the Superbowl parties!!!!

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!!!! It's still hard to believe that we are at this time of year already. Where on earth does time go? Seems like every year gets faster and faster. People told me as I grew up that time gets faster every year. They weren't a-kiddin'!!!! Well, this is what we woke up to this morning. Not much but still yuk!

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Ambrose and I made the (short) trip to Kahoka to my mom's and then we headed up to Ft. Madison to a nice place called "Alpha's on the Riverfront". It is a nice place. We have gone there for several years. They have everything you would want on your Thanksgiving plate...welll....almost everything --> there were no noodles :( but I don't really need them anyhow. There was some kind of pasta stuff on the smorgasborg but believe it or not, I didn't care for it.

It snowed on us on the way up - but just flurries. No worry for a white out blizzard or anything. If you look closely, you can see the snow falling in the picture!!! This is us outside Alpha's (and 10 pounds heavier). I should have had the stranger walking by take a picture of the three of us...oh well. Wouldn't want a stranger to think we (I) was a weird or something hehe

After our return to mom's we all changed into our comfortable clothes. Around 3:30 I decided it was time to move and put on the ol' tennis shoes and went for a walk. Am went with me. Brr it was rather brisk but it was ok. We walked down the lane, went left (East) and up the hill to the saw mill and then back. We walked into the wind on the way back and I think my face is still frozen! LOL Not really but it is still red. I would say I got a little wind burn. We probably went over a mile total. Not as much as I'm used to walking but much colder than what I'm used to. Can't say we didn't walk off some of our meal!!

The story gets better now...and I apologize for such crappy pics. But I have a terrible time getting ANY pictures in darkened atmosphere (inside or out) to turn out. I use the flash, don't use the flash, turn it to night setting & still the end result is thumbs down. Anyhow, these are blurry!! {if you click on the photo, it will enlarge it for you - then to go back to this posting, just hit the back button at the top of the screen} Mom and I were in the kitchen getting ready to cut a little dessert when I looked out the kitchen window and low & behold, there was the possum that we had been discussing earlier. That sucker is HUGE lemme tell you!!! MY WORD I don't think I have ever seen such a big possum in my life!! He was dining on cat food.

Isn't he huge??? Lord!! Anyhow as I was trying to get these pictures, he started to waddle on into the flower garden. I went back inside and Am and Mom were at the other door. Am was going to shoot the thing. But, it left when I was out there. We knew it would be back though. Apparently he's been there many times and this wasn't his week. He'd been "stoned" twice already this week by big geodes that sit along side the woodstove!!! That is what mom uses as her "artillery" LOL [If she still had my old yellow Louisville Slugger bat....she'd wreak havoc on that thing!!! that is a story from the early 80's.....ask her about it sometime!!!!!!! It puts a whole new meaning to BATGIRL] Anyhow, within a few minutes the possum came back. Am went out the other door. He's not used to shooting a 22...as his gun here is a 20 guage shotgun. Plus....that gun hasn't been used like forever & of course, the 3 of us had no clue where to load it and what-not. Didn't even know if it was loaded but he soon found out that it was!!!!!!!!!!! And let me just say the one shot was all that was fired!!!! He hit it right on target. HOWEVER.......it didn't kill it (not right off the bat anyhow) He was definately hit......as it fell down and then staggered along. Am was going to finish it off but that was when he had loading trouble. The possum was growling at him as it walked away this time and it went into the little woodshed behind the house. Here he is walking off into the flower garden. As I said earlier, it's too dark but if you click on it and look thru the blurr, you can see it. You can kinda see it's tail w/out clicking on it. Lordy those things are just nasty looking!! I couldn't get a picture of the shooter - as I would have had to gone outside and I just didn't want to! We didn't know what happened for sure - the varmint went out to the woodshed and we know that Ambrose went after it and it sure did take a long time for him to come back. We decided that the opossum took over and got Am! LOL He came back and he never did see where (in the woodshed) the thing went. I'm sure she'll find it sometime by smelling it!!!!

Anyhow...that was the excitement to end the day! Never a dull moment, ey? We got back to our house about 7:15 or something like that. Not late but plenty dark. Right now I could just shut my eyes and fall asleep typing this. Not sure why........I didn't eat THAT much turkey to make me tired!! haha

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your loved ones!!!!!!

Now..........tomorrow is "Black Friday"....and unlike last year, we are NOT getting up before the butt-crack of dawn and going out amongst the zoo animals!!!! We might go out later on but maybe not either!!!! :)

Good night

Stupid lady bugs....

....japanese beetles - whatever YOU wish to call them.
I just know they are a pain in the you know where and I am sooo sick of them.

GAWWWWDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coralville 2007

Well......this past weekend was our annual Coralville shopping trip. We established our group of girls in 1998 and we have all gone since that time. Have tried to get others to go but they never go so I guess our group is as it is. We have a blast is all I can say!!!!! We met at Younkers around 10 - the standard meeting place and time. First things first - potty break and then hounding strangers to take our picture!!!! Here we are!!!!!!!! No kids are allowed except for infants. Since Emmy Jo is not even one yet she's the exception to the rule. The only one missing from the group is Golda and she hadn't met us yet. She lives right there so of course Landon is another exception to the no kids rule!!! Once we got our picture taken.....we pretty much went our seperate ways. Next destination as a group was none other than the good ol FOOD COURT!!! lol Here you see Mr. Landon enjoying the food court. Emily seemed to be having a pretty good time also. I mean of course they were....they're part of this family and FOOD is like our bloodstream!!! Can't live without it!! :) I mean - we plan trips around where we're gonna eat! LOL


After eating lunch we broke up for some more shopping! I was in 7th Heaven when I found my most favorite store has FINALLY been added to the mall. They had some sale racks that were already 50% off and then on top of that, the entire store was 40% off! Needless to say I had a bag full of clothes!!!! The store had just opened up the day before! WOO HOO After tromping the mall and being in my store for probably a good hour and a half (at least) it was time for our next group gathering. By this time it was 4:30 and the plan was to meet and head over to the hotel. We tried a different hotel this time. Sally got the shaft from the Holiday Inn Express so we yanked our reservations and made them elsewhere. It was actually nice to be somewhere else that was equally as nice and CHEAPER!!!!!! Once we got checked in - Sally and I snuck down to the lobby area and put together our surprise for the girls!! This was our TENTH ANNUAL TRIP....and we certainly couldn't let it go by the way side without some sort of commemorative fun!!! It was kind of funny - she had the bracelets and the sacks and yet I had the personalized candle holders, candles, sachets, chocolates and post it pads!! Therefore we had to sneak away to put them together!!! We got that accomplished and then "called a meeting" in my room! We handed out the baggies to everyone. What they DIDN'T know was that there was ONE special bag.....that special bag had a $10 bill in it - - to mark the 10th trip!! Pretty clever, ey?? Anyhow....they didn't know what was the special indicator - so they were alllllll digging thru their sacks-and SUSIE Q was our lucky winner. She's a "special bag" alright!!! lol [just teasing Susie...you know I love ya] Here she is doting her prize!!! :) Sis also provided us with a little sack of goods. She gave us each a cute little Christmas sack with Hershey's Treasures truffles in them and a miniature Santa. They were red and white. Here is mine.....
After all the hoopla - it was actually past time to head over to the Olive Garden. We always have to wait and it was after 5 and going on 6.....and on a Saturday night that's not a very good indication we're going to get right in! LOL We got over there - Sis ran in and put us on the list...we only had an HOUR wait. Jeeeesh

Oh well. We saw a very pretty sunset as we were parking. I have a heck of a time with the lighting on my camera - inside pics are not too good and neither are my night time pics....so here are both views....with and without flash!!! lol





During our hour wait.....we did nothing other than chit-chat and patiently wait. I already knew what I was going to eat.....so I was ready to chow!!!! Sally and I were splitting a plate of Shrimp Caprese. It's to die for I say!!!!

Here is some of the group waiting for their grub!

Sally killed some time by checking in w/ her kiddo's!!

We FINALLY got to go in - and boy was it good!!!!!!! We pigged out and went back to the hotel for a short stay and then 6 of us ventured back out for more to eat!!! We went to the other place that has become tradition. The one and only COLD STONE CREAMERY! O M G.....that's all I got to say about that!! I got the "pumpkin" flavor and added graham cracker crumbs. I can't emphasize enough how much it tasted like a REAL LIFE pumpkin pie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One we gorged ourselves there we decided it was time to go back to the hotel and finish up the night. Sally and I had told the girls to be sure to bring their pajama's for the "jammie fashion show". Lets just say that it was a HOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had official score sheets. However, I didn't think that out very well as I just had people score them 1-5 with 5 being best. The plan was to add everyone's scores up to see who had the highest total. Unbeknownst to us - the chance of a tie was not thought about either!!! Sis and my mom tied - but Sis marked herself one less.....making my mom the winner by 1 point. And once we realized it.......her socks did NOT match her jammies so we decided that the one point was a deduction!!!! LOL
The winner received an official certificate of winning and a gift bag which included 2 pairs of silky fuzzy socks and a sleep mask!!! Next year, we decided that we will create scores of categories........not sure what those will be but we have a year to decide!!! My mom, however, absolutely DID have the best "presentation" of her entrance and show!!! hehe She'll probably KILL me for putting these on here...but whatever! :) I'm not posting the best picture - which as Susie said on her blog - is the most horrid picture. But it's simply one of those "you had to be there" moments that only we would understand!!!




AND THE WINNER IS............................

After the jammie show and LOTS AND LOTS of tears of laughter - it was time for bed. Our room didn't see dark until after 12:30...which with the time change it was KINDA only 11:30 haha I didn't sleep as usual and dealt with the same headache allll night long. Got up early and got ready for the day. We all met down in the breakfast room for nothing other than FOOD! lol Even Miss Emily was excited about that . See what I mean we simply live to eat!! LOL Had to get one picture of my mom, me and Emmy so here ya go.






After breakfast it was off to Kohl's since they're the only thing open early. Did quite a bit of shopping there and then we headed back to the mall. Yes - we met up at the food court! LOL LOL LOL then we split up for the last official time. We ran into each other a few times but no more group meetings. Mom and I were actually the last ones to depart this year. We're usually the second ones. Susie always leaves first then us then the rest of them. But we hung in there this time!!! We got to my mom's unloaded and then I took off for my house. I was sooo tired. Between lack of sleep the night before, tromping miles at the mall and taking 2 Benadryl allergy/sinus headache pills - I felt like I was whipped! I didn't think I was ever going to get home!!!! But I did and I was in bed by 9:08 that night!!!!

Another successful Coralville trip for the "Coralville Girls"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks girls for making it enjoyable as it has been the past 10 years!!!!!!! Love ya!!!