Tah Dah

It was requested that I post a blog... apparently I've been lagging lately. My apoligies.. I've been sick and feel like dog shit SOO I havent exactly felt too spunky to actually focus and type  :)

Lesse.... what to talk about... what to talk about...

Ok, my birthday was last week. I turned the big twenty seven. Aye aye aye. I feel old. My dad got even by telling me, "See? You're thirty minus three". THAT made me feel like hell, lmao. When I say "he was getting even", it's because I told him on his birthday "You're sixty minus five". We couldnt really celebrate my birthday all that well since I happened to be blessed with a Wednesday birthday, John has school the next day and Eric's been having to work really late due to stuff at work. We couldnt do anything on Friday since I had a Pampered Chef Show to do, then on Saturday, I finally got to be a Host for another home business; Close To My Heart. The CTMH party was stamping / scrapping, but also a bday party that my friends threw together. LOTS of fun and I totally appreciated all their hard work. After everything was said and done, I ended up with $120 in free stuff and some 50% off items. Woot Woot! I'm considering doing a Scentsy party pretty soon even though I'd have to plug the burners into a transformer. The gal who sells it here loves it (hense why she sells it) but I got to check out some of the stuff she has.. REALLY nice quality and the burners are pretty large!

I'm a few days away from going on my trip to Poland! I'm REALLY excited to go! Thing is, I'm sick. I've been battling a cold on and off for a week.. it finally went away. Then BAM! This morning I feel like roadkill... super achey, sore throat, very worn out and I just wanna sleep. I can normally tough it out, but this one has me struggling just to walk around. I ATTEMPTED work today for about two hours, but that was barely manageable, so I got to go home early. HOPEFULLY this will be gone before Friday! I dont wanna be sick in Poland! Of all places!  Geesh!

....I'm tired... I'm giving up on this blog. Sorry, lol.

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Customization at your service

I made some custom Thanksgiving cards to send back to friends and family earlier last month. Well, one of the ladies here REALLY fell inlove with 'em and placed an order with me to get some of her own.
Here's how they came out:

I had to get the cardstock off the economy since I seem to have lost my stack somewhere in my office (opps). All the stuff I used was from CTMH...I used 3D tape, liquid glass and brads, Exclusive Inks Pads for the texture around the card, Exclusive Inks Markers for the images and finger daubers for blending. Then I ended up getting rustic orange colored envelopes for all the cards (she ordered 5 of each style) and put a monogrammed "K" on the back of the envelope (where you seal it) since their last name starts with a "K".
Only thing is.. I have NO freaking idea what to charge her for the cards!
 
I managed to find some pretty cool looking "travel" style paper so I can start scrapping some of the places I've been able to visit. In addition to that, I got some super cute stamps for Christmas so now I can start making those cards for friends and family..
 
Atleast I'm keeping myself busy between work and the gym :)

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Work it!

Aye aye aye... after a 1 month "vacation" from the gym.. I finally got my fat ass back in there. I know I'm a curvy gal and all that jazz, but I really noticed that I've packed on some weight since we've been here. I'M NOT A FAN OF IT!! I got a little disheartened the other day when I found my size 14 jeans and ..sadly, I won't be fitting into them anytime soon. I even found one of my cute office tops and that sucker doesnt fit either. GEESH!

There's this thing on base that I just noticed...even though it apparently started back in August, lol.. anyway, it's called "Cardio Club". You essentially track how many miles you do on the bike machine, elliptical and treadmill. I went ahead and signed up for it considering it's a good motivation to actually have to "report" to someone about your exercise routine.

Since I started work last Thursday, I figured I should just hit the gym up first thing in the morning rather than waiting till after work. Seeing how I don't start work till 11 and I'm off at 6:30.. I figured I'll get up with Eric then hit the gym once he leaves for work..which is 6am. I'm totally enjoying the gym earlier in the morning since I literally have it all to myself, I can pop in a cd of mine and rock out while workin' the machines.

If I keep this up, hopefully I'll see some progress in another month-ish or so!

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Delivery from England :)

A few weeks ago, I was visiting a friend of mine and noticed she had a really cute little plaque in her kitchen. When I took a closer look at it, it was actually a list of all the bases they've been stationed at. Pretty cool, hunh? I ended up getting the company info from her and talked to Eric about it to see if it'd be something he might be interested in. To my surprise, he actually LIKED it and said I could go ahead and order one for our house.

The company is called "Woodland Studio" and they're based in the UK. Their prices seem a little high, but everything is hand painted to what you'd like as well as custom "signs" for where you were stationed at.

Here's the one I ordered for our place :)

Eric wanted it to say "Hall Manor" rather than "Hall's House". Wanna know why it wanted it to say "Manor"? Think in the terms of Batman... yeah... Wayne Manor. Yeah, lol.

The little heart was panted on the Vandenberg sign since that's where Eric and I met and got married :)

I'm VERY pleased with how it turned out! The staff was awesome when it came to placing the order.. I think in total, this took about 3 weeks to get? Not bad! I should be expecting an additional package from them either this week or next week since I ordered another one for my Grandma. Although, hers is gonna say "Grandma's House" on it and it'll have pegs to hold keys on it. Hopefully she'll like it since I ordered that for her Christmas present.

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Festively Floral

Today was pretty mellow. Honestly, it was :)

Our landlord, Stanie, stopped in this morning since he needed to get the measurements of our standing shower. Ya see.. this house is..hmmm.. I'll say about 30 years old. I'm assuming the shower is the same shower that was installed the day the house was built. Well, Eric managed to step on the drain of the shower juuuuuuust right to where it actually smashed the entire drain through the metal portion of the shower bottom.. rendering the entire shower useless. Luckily, we also have a bathtub with a shower attachment, despite it being a pain in the ass.. we've been surviving with that for the last week. It was just funny when we were actually able to SHOW Stanie the shower on Saturday .. his response was priceless. Now, keep in mind.. Stanie BARELY speaks English, but I give him an "A" for effort cause he really does try his best to talk to us before breaking down and calling his daughter and we play "pass the phone to translate" to one another, lol. Anyway, when Eric opened the shower door to show him the damage.. I was in the kitchen, which is a good 12 feet away.. all I heard was "OOOOHHHHH.." but it sounded painful, lol. He had to stoop down closer to get a better look...pretty much, he looked either stunned or impressed that Eric managed to do that, hahahahaa... oh well. Hopefully it'll get fixed sometime this week! He ran out to get the replacement "tub" but never came back.. maybe he had to order it? I dunno....

A few weeks back, I signed up for a flower "class" so I could make some sort of fall type decoration. Today was finally the day where we got to bust out our artistic skills when it came to following directions from an instructor!

Startin' in on demolishing the quirky Belgian pumpkins!

All of us scooping out our pumpkins. We had to REALLY shell them out so there was plenty of room for the styrofoam block to stick the flowers in.

See? Waterlogged styrofoam..

When I got up to stretch my legs, I saw the instuctors display to show how ours are supposed to look. Uh.. I was only HOPING mine would come out that cool, lol. Given, she IS a professional and apparently has won some awards for her floral pieces. Cool, hunh? By the way.. see the little red things that look like cherries? Well, they're NOT cherries.. they're APPLES!

This is what we're gonna be sticking in our pumpkins!

All of us putting the first layer of foliage in our scooped out pumpkins

The instructor (I think her name was Petra) was going around the room and flattening the bottom of peoples pumpkins so they'd sit normally. Honestly, she was freaking me out cause the way she was cutting the pumpkins, I could SWEAR she was gonna slice her thumb off! It was freakin' me out!

Myself & Josie

Here's the finished product:

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Cock Goblin!!

Sorry about the lack of blogging ... I've been slammed with stuff!

Last year, Eric really REALLY wanted to be a "Goblin Cock" since it's an idea he got from watching a TV show on G4 called Code Monkeys. Well, since we didn't do anything for Halloween last year, he wanted to dress up as that this year. Luckily, I managed to find a chicken costume that'd fit him from a costume rental place in Lommel. I also got a costume from there since I honestly had no idea what I wanted to be. I finally figured out that I'd be something from the Renaissance period since they had TONS of old fashioned / tapestry style dresses. I was a dead Queen:) Only thing was .. I needed a crown and I was not willing to shell out 30 euros for a plastic crown that I was only going to wear for MAYBE 4 hours. Thank you Burger King for supplying me a crown!


Eric and I went to a Halloween costume party last night that was being thrown by the lovely Mrs. Josie and her hubba, Rudy. Here's some various pictures from the event ... and to be honest, I had to snag some of the pics from my friends considering I got off of some bad schnockered that Dana gave me.


Eric being himself

Meeeee

Dana & Bobby ... they were dressed as a light socket and a plug: D

Rudy and Josie

.... all I gotta say is ... Reno 911, lol. John is something like 6 '7! Melissa is the same height as me:)

Melissa and Crissy (the bar wench)

Crissy & Josie

The girls! (Me, Dana, Ghetra, Josie, Melissa & Crissy)

Tina Mummy wrap after the contest:)

Our Mummy wrap victim, Andy

The tissue was put to good use after the contest was over

Kelvin, the Pimp, with all the ladies

Ron Jeremy. 'Nuff said.

Kirby, the Priest enjoying the ladies as well

Andy got a lil lonely so he wanted some attention from the Priest

That Jello Shot was EVIL!!!

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Penne & Kaas!

Aye Aye Aye... it's 8:40am and I'm exausted. I was up till...hmmm..1:30 this morning cause I had a hard time getting to sleep,  then ended up getting myself out of bed around 6ish. I just couldnt sleep very well, tossing and turning.. and guess what? I woke up sick. A huge round of applause goes out to Eric and John for that.. thanks guys :-\ Plus, I was up late making cake balls for Jody's Pampered Chef party and I finished them up this morning since they needed to be dunked in chocolate after spending the night in the fridge.

Yesterday, I went to this awesome little restraunt called "The Banana Split" in a nearby town called Overpelt. I'm really sorry for my lack of pictures, but, I didn't have my handy dandy camera with me and my cell phone was MIA. I swear! Anyway...Josie, Tina and I had lunch at this place. The espresso's were awesome, the food was fabulous...but... the service. Uh...it was less than stellar. Now keep in mind, alot of places here speak English, but atleast we're considerate enough to ASK "Spreekt u het Engels?". Tina even tried to speak to the waitress in Dutch but the lady kept responding in English, good enough, right? Ok, well.. Tina fired off her order first which was "Penne & Kaas" which is pasta and cheese, Josie asked for Tomato soup and I also got Penne & Kaas. The gal double checked with us what our orders were, plugged it into her lil machine and took off. When the food was ready, Tina's order was Penne & Kaas with Bacon...she's vegetarian. Josies soup wasn't Tomato..it was...uhh...something..lol. It looked like baby pukey. My pasta was the same as Tina's, but then again, I didn't have a problem with the meat in it (it was delicious). SO, Tina calls the waitress over to tell her (nicely) that her order is wrong...this waitress got REALLY uppity, was raising her voice and scolding Tina! Kept repeating "NO, That is what you ordered!". I gotta say, Tina stayed VERY calm despite this lady not only getting vocal with her in a restraunt, but she was belittling her and telling her that she needs to learn to speak Dutch. Tina TRIED ordering in Dutch to begin with!! Anyway, after ..hmm..3 minutes of this lady argueing with her and being just an absolute shit, she finally took her plate to get her the correct food. Before she left, she asked Josie, "Is YOUR order wrong too?".. Josie told her "Yeah, actually it is. I ordered Tomato Soup. I dunno what this is"...then the lady went off AGAIN! "You ordered TODAY'S soup, NOT Tomato Soup!!". Holy geebus, lady! When Josie told her "No, I didn't. I said Tomato! This is fine though, I'll take whatever this is. Just replace her food since she's Vegetarian", the gal huffed off. She must've plopped the plate off, turned right on her heels and came back for another round cause she came right back with a menu, slapped it down infront of Tina and told her, yet again, "You ordered THIS!"...  Once again, Tina said "No, I didn't! I ordered 'Penne & Kaas'" in which she pointed to it on the menu that CLEARLY states that it's Vegetarian. The waitress stopped, stared at it for a second and said "Oh, my mistake." and quickly retreated. All three of us were stunned with how she was damned and determined she was to be "right" even though she was clearly in the wrong with her behavior. I've NEVER seen someone talk to a customer as if they were idiots.. then experiencing it first hand was even more, uh, shocking.  For the rest of the meal, that waitress avoided us as if we were carrying the black plague! When we finally got the bill, she barely mumbled "I'm sorry" despite her shouting at Tina, stomping around, practically shoving a menu in her face..did I mention that she tried to grab Tina's wrist to get her to listen to her and everything she had to say? Yeaaaahhhhh.... that shit wouldn't fly with me if someone tried grabbing me aside from them being extremely rude.  So, aside from the pre-meal drama, the food was delicious and I'd be interested in going there again with Eric and John. I'll just have to make sure I point out what I want from the menu JUST IN CASE I happen to get the psycho waitress.

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