The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 18

[PNO4TE]

Was that DisneyShopping.com? I didn't see them the other day? They must be really new.

Deb

They are on the Crocs website as well as a couple others I have found. Not a lot of availability and I have not found them yet in Mediums.

 

[tmfranlk]

Hi Elin & Tammi!

My dad was Santa for his work party, so here are some pics. Stephanie freaked when she saw him. She said to me, "Santa looks like Poppa!" She wouldn't go up to him. I finally had to let her in on the secret that Poppa is one of Santa's secret elf helpers and Santa was so busy making toys that he called Poppa and had Poppa come and help. So the pics at the beginning are actually the last pics taken when she was more comfortable. I can't get Flickr to upload them in the correct order. Oh, there's a pic of me in my Disney sweatshirt too. Got it a year ago. http://www.flickr.com/photos/36345943@N00/tags/santa/show/

Looks like fun!!! We went to Breakfast with Santa at Rachel's school today. Kassie and Terra hit the secret shopping so that should make for an interesting Christmas morning. The first thing Terra said to me when she came out is "My Daddy loves football!". Well, her daddy could do just fine without any sports so that could be fun. We also visited with Santa and had all you can eat pancakes and sausage. As we were sitting around talking the girls got the highlight of their morning. Santa took a break to enjoy some pancakes himself and he came to sit at our table with us. Kassie was starstruck the whole time. We also hit the book fair before heading home.

 

[PNO4TE]

My computer is not happy with all my graphics viewing today. I am going to go clean it up a bit and reboot. Be back in a few minutes.

 

[tinknme]

Sounds like you all had a wonderful time!

Sorry you missed the call from Elizabeth, glad to hear they made it. Can't wait to hear about her sons reaction to the surprise.

Thanks everyone for letting me vent. Y'all are the best!

I feel better much better now though. We left here about 4 and headed downtown for our city's Christmas parade. (For Elin - we parked at the eye center and walked across the bridge). We found a great spot and planted our chair, then went up the street to the Baptist Church that does a full course pancake breakfast all day. Actually I think it is sponsored by the Rotary Club maybe? Anyway, we ate there (compliments of a friend that gave me free tickets) - pancakes, sausage and spiced apples, and the kids got their faces painted. When we exited my phone let me know that I had a message. Evidently there was no reception in the basement of the church. Anyway, I missed a call from Elizabeth!!! She said they were at Epcot and that it was really warm, and she wishes she would have taken shorts!

We plopped in our chair and waited about 20 minutes for the parade to start. Leading it off were the Clydesdale Horses. They really are something to see. You should have heard everyone cheering for them. It was a nice parade, almost 2 hours long. The kids and I had a great time!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Fly by post, but I just wanted to say thanks for the pixie dust for my dad. He finally made it back to St. Louis around 11:00 last night (Fri) after having left at 2pm on Thursday. We're all just hoping that now he'll think twice before agreeing to do a run like that in bad weather again. Thanks everyone!

More great news!!!!

 

[my3princes]

I love the speed of high speed cable and the wireless network is amazing. I am so happy with it. The kids have been pretty please with it too as we can all log on at the same time and do totally different things. Can't do that with dialup.

It wasn't too busy at work tonight and the other bartender tonight was in a pitssy mood. All she did all night was criticize. I finally told her that when she owns the place she can correct me otherwise I'll do what I've been trained to do. My boss was right there all night and he never corrected once. I hope whatever crawled up her butt climbs out fast. I ended up leaving work at 8 PM since it was slow. I told my boss that she was in a pissy mood and if he didn't want me to say something no so nice to her that I should probably leave. He just laughed said to have a nice night. She had been sucking up to him all night so he didn't even realize that she was being a snag. The waitstaff all notice though We usually get along so well so I'm sure it was just a bad day or something.

Deb

 

[lovesdumbo]

Elizabeth, this may sound really weird...I had a dream about you leaving last night. I don't even know you, and I didn't think that I was thinking much about it, but I definitely dreamed that I was there helping you get ready to go. Everything went fine in the dream, so I hope it went smooth for you in real life!

Beth

Hey can you have one of those dreams for me too? I dreamt I forgot to pack anything for Joe.

 

[my3princes]

I wonder how the wedding went. It sounds like they all had a great time meeting. I'm sure that the cruise will be so much fun for them all. I can't wait for a report and photos.

Deb

 

[tinknme]

Great pictures Kelli, looks like it was a fun time. You look wonderful & so do your girls!

Hi Elin & Tammi!

My dad was Santa for his work party, so here are some pics. Stephanie freaked when she saw him. She said to me, "Santa looks like Poppa!" She wouldn't go up to him. I finally had to let her in on the secret that Poppa is one of Santa's secret elf helpers and Santa was so busy making toys that he called Poppa and had Poppa come and help. So the pics at the beginning are actually the last pics taken when she was more comfortable. I can't get Flickr to upload them in the correct order. Oh, there's a pic of me in my Disney sweatshirt too. Got it a year ago. http://www.flickr.com/photos/36345943@N00/tags/santa/show/

 

[lovesdumbo]

It was fabulous!!! I had a really nice time. Thanks for asking.

We just got back from skating and Nicholas' bday party. The kids all had a great time. I made them go lay down and try to nap for a little while before we head out to the parade tonight. I know, I'm a bad mommy for making Nicholas take a nap in the middle of his bday. But he stayed up later than usual last night, was up earlier than usual this morning, and roller skated for 3 hours. I'd say he's tired!

I told his dad he was welcome to come to the party. Do you think he showed? Of course not! I just called to ask him why he couldn't take a few hours out of his day to come to his son's party and his explanation was "I'm going to have something next weekend". Excuse me, but that doesn't tell me why you can't be here for this party! Now - mind you - today is Nicholas' actual bday, not next weekend, and this is the party that he is sharing with all his friends from school. Luckily Nicholas never asked why daddy wasn't there, but it just makes me want to

for him.

He is such a POS! Sorry for the tirade, but I needed to vent.

Glad to hear Nick had a great party.

I've got to say it makes me so sad to read about his father and I've only ever seen photos of your darling little man. I just can't imagine how angry you must be.

 

[triplefigs]

Happy Birthday to Nicholas!!! I'm so sorry his dad was a no-show. He's very lucky to have you, Tammi.

 

[tmfranlk]

Ack! 6 days to go and so much left to do!!! Thank goodness Chase is hear so all I have to worry about this week is Terra. Luckily tomorrow is Sunday (I keep thinking that it's Monday) so I have one more day with additional adults around to help with the room/box stuff, plus helping play with Terra. I am determined to get my shirts done this year so that is a priority too. I'm trying to finish getting the autograph pages to print tonight so that I can do that as soon as I figure out where the paper got put.

I'm tired enough now for it to be midnight though so don't know how long I'll last. Kristi and everyone came over for dinner tonight and for my dad to finally meet Chase. They are still hanging out, but luckily dinner is pretty much cleaned up so there's not that left to do. Tomorrow we're all going to church with Kristi at least for a while as they are having her church's first baby dedication and she wants to have Chase dedicated then. (Their church just started up this summer led by our former youth minister.)

Alright, I'm off to make my list of pages left to create and things to do!! Catch you all tomorrow if not before. Good night.

 

[tinknme]

Hope you are feeling better soon!

I'm still trying to catch up. I've been feeling a bit queazy and I don't know if I'm coming down with something or if I'm just feeling lousy because I'm feeling so stressed. SOOOOOO much I want to do before my trip.

 

[tinknme]

They look cute! I have never worn these, I have no idea what size I would need.

They are on the Crocs website as well as a couple others I have found. Not a lot of availability and I have not found them yet in Mediums.

 

[Tammi67]

Thanks, Bernadette and Denise. Everyone here is so supportive. I'm lucky to have the DDA in my life!

 

[tinknme]

Sounds like you had a fun day too!

Looks like fun!!! We went to Breakfast with Santa at Rachel's school today. Kassie and Terra hit the secret shopping so that should make for an interesting Christmas morning. The first thing Terra said to me when she came out is "My Daddy loves football!". Well, her daddy could do just fine without any sports so that could be fun. We also visited with Santa and had all you can eat pancakes and sausage. As we were sitting around talking the girls got the highlight of their morning. Santa took a break to enjoy some pancakes himself and he came to sit at our table with us. Kassie was starstruck the whole time. We also hit the book fair before heading home.

 

[tmfranlk]

Great tickers, Denise!!! You're girls weekend is getting closer. What are your plans for next year. Are you going for NYE and then staying through the first week of Jan or are you doing the week between Christmas and NYE? Either way sounds great!!!

 

[PNO4TE]

They look cute! I have never worn these, I have no idea what size I would need.

I wear a 9 women's shoe and find that the Medium (8-9) fits me well

 

[lovesdumbo]

Kelli-great pictures!!!!

I'm off to bed. Hope to get the tree up and Christmas card photo done tomorrow.

 

[lovespoohbear]

Jasper and The Uncooked Yeast Rolls

We have a fox terrier by the name of Jasper. He came to us in the
summer of 2001 from the fox terrier rescue program. For those of you,
who are unfamiliar with this type of adoption, imagine taking in a 10
year old child whom you know nothing about and committing to doing your
best to be a good parent.

Like a child, the dog came with his own idiosyncrasies. He will only
sleep on the bed, on top of the covers, nuzzled as close to my face as
he can get without actually performing a French kiss on me. Lest you
think this is a bad case of 'no discipline', I should tell you that
Charlie and I tried every means to break him of this habit including
locking him in a separate bedroom for several nights. The new door
cost
over $200. But I digress.

Five weeks ago we began remodeling our house. Although the cost of the
project is downright obnoxious, it was 20 years overdue AND it got me
out of cooking Thanksgiving for family, extended family and a lot of
friends that I like more than family most of the time. I was however
assigned the task of preparing 124 of my famous yeast dinner rolls for
the two Thanks giving feasts we did attend. I am still cursing the
electrician for getting the new oven hooked up so quickly. It was the
only appliance in the whole darn house that worked, thus the
assignment.

I made the decision to cook the rolls on Wednesday evening to reheat on
Thursday morning. Since the kitchen was freshly painted you can imagine
the odor. Not wanting the rolls to smell like Sherwin Williams latex
paint #586, I put the rolls on baking sheets and set them in the living
room to rise for 5 hours. After 3 hours, Perry and I decided to go out!
to eat, returning in about an hour.

An hour later the rolls were ready to go in the oven. It was 8:30pm.
When I went to the living room to retrieve the pans, much to my shock
one whole pan of 12 rolls was empty. I called out to Jasper and my
worst
nightmare became a reality. He literally wobbled over to me. He looked
like a combination of the Pillsbury dough boy and the Michelin Tire man
wrapped up in fur. He groaned when he walked. I swear even his cheeks
were bloated.

I ran to the phone and called our vet After a few seconds of uproarious
laughter, he told me the dog would probably be OK, however, I needed to
give him Pepto Bismol every 2 hours for the rest of the night. God only
knows why I thought a dog would like Pepto Bismol any more than my kids
did when they were sick. Suffice to say that by the time we went to bed
the dog was black, white and pink. He was so bloated we had to lift him
onto the bed for the night.

Naively thinking the dog would be all better by morning was very stupid
on my part. We arose at 7:30 and as we always do first thing; put the
dogs out to relieve themselves. Well, the dog was as drunk as a
sailor
on his first leave. He was running into walls, falling flat on his
behind and most of the time when he was walking his front half was
going
one direction and the other half was either dragging the floor or
headed
90 degrees in another direction. He couldn't lift his leg to pee, so he
would just walk and pee at the same time. When he ran down the small
incline in our back yard he couldn't stop himself and nearly ended up
running into the fence. His pupils were dilated and he was as dizzy
as
a loon. I endured another few seconds of laughter from the vet (second
call within 12 hours) before he explained that the yeast had fermented
in his belly and that he was indeed drunk. He assured me that, not
unlike most binges we humans go through, it would wear off after about
4
or 5 hours and to keep giving him Pepto Bismol.

Afraid to leave him by himself in the house, Charlie and I loaded him
up
and took him with us to my sister's house for the first Thanksgiving
meal of the day. My sister lives outside of Muskogee on a ranch, (10 to
15 minute drive). Rolls firmly secured in the trunk (124 less 12) and
drunk dog leaning from the back seat onto the console of the car
between
Charlie and I, we took off.

Now I know you probably don't believe that dogs burp, but believe me
when I say that after eating a tray of risen unbaked yeast rolls, DOGS
WILL BURP.
These burps were pure Old Charter. They would have matched or beat any
smell in a drunk tank at the police station. But that's not the worst
of
it. Now he was beginning to pass gas and it smelled like baked rolls.
God strike me dead if I am not telling the truth! We endured this for
the entire trip to Karee's, thankful she didn't live any further away
than she did.

Once Jasper was firmly placed in my sister's garage with the door
locked, we finally sat down to enjoy our first Thanksgiving meal of the
day. The dog was the topic of conversation all morning long and
everyone
made trips to the garage to witness my drunk dog, each returning with a
tale of Jasper's latest endeavor to walk without running into
something.

Of course, as the old adage goes, "what goes in must come out" and
Jasper was no exception. Granted if it had been me that had eaten 12
risen, unbaked yeast rolls, you might as well have put a concrete block
up my behind, but alas a dog's digestive system is quite different from
yours or mine. I discovered this was a mixed blessing when we prepared
to leave Karee's house. Having discovered his "packages" on the garage
floor, we loaded him up in the car so we could hose down the floor.
This
was another naive decision on our part.

The blast of water from the hose hit the poop on the floor and the poop
on the floor withstood the blast from the hose. It was like Portland
cement beginning to set up and cure. We finally tried to remove it with
a shovel. I (obviously no one else was going to offer their services)
had to get on my hands and knees with a coarse brush to get the
remnants
off of the floor. And as if this wasn't degrading enough, the dumb dog
in his drunken state had walked through the poop and left paw prints
all
over the garage floor that had to be brushed too.

Well, by this time the dog was sobering up nicely so we took him home
and dropped him off before we left for our second Thanksgiving dinner
at
Perry's sister's house. I am happy to report that as of today (Monday)
the dog is back to normal both in size and temperament. He has had a
bath and is no longer tricolor. None the worse for wear I presume I am
also happy to report that just this evening I found 2 risen unbaked
yeast rolls hidden inside my closet door. It appears he must have come
to his senses after eating 10 of them but decided hiding 2 of them for
later would not be a bad idea

Now, I'm doing research on the computer as to *How to clean unbaked
dough from the Carpet*. ...



And how was your Day