I am suppose to be at work right now, but my car has a flat tire. It loses its air every few days and when I was leaving work yesterday, the tire was flat. I just filled it up with my little mini compressor that plugs into my cigarette lighter and drove home. But when I went out to get in my car this morning, the tire was flat again. So, it looks like I am buying a new tire this morning. Thats all well and good, because we got bonus checks yesterday. Tom and I went out last night with the intention of buying a dishwasher to replace our old one, but we ended up buying hardwood flooring for the kitchen instead. Its not real hardwood, but the laminate stuff. It looks like real wood, but its easy to put down and you can use it in places like the kitchen without having to worry too much about ruining the floors. I guess I will spend the day removing the tile from the kitchen floor (fun, fun). My son can help me put the new floor down tomorrow. I'm hoping it will  be a fairly easy project. We are planning on going back to buy more for the dining room too. Tom will stop at Lowes today and pick up the dishwasher too. I love having unexpected money.

   On another note, my brother is going back to the oncologist for more testing. Back in the summer when he was going thru is cancer incident, they had found a spot on his liver. They pretty much decided that it was nothing more than a spot. After he has his surgery, tests showed he had no more cancer cells in his body. I'm not sure what his recent tests shows that has them worried again, but he will be going back for another round of testing. He and his wife have plans to go on a cruise, which they are leaving on today. He was going to cancel his trip, but the doctor told him to go and have a good time, they will worry about it when he gets back. Hopefully, he will pull off another miracle and nothing will come of it.

   I think I will go and relax for a bit. Its 5:45 am and no one will be awake for another hour or so. My oldest just left for work and Tom and the rest of the kids will be up to start their days. When they all leave, I can start ripping out tiles. I could be mean and get the hammer so i can start now, but I think I will just go watch some early moring TV.

Posted by ann-is-clever at 5:38 AM EST

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Orderliness results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.

Extraversion results were high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:
clean, self revealing, open, organized, outgoing, social, enjoys leadership and managing others, dominant, makes friends easily, does not like to be alone, assertive, hard working, finisher, optimistic, positive, likes to stand out, likes large parties, respects authority, practical, high self esteem, perfectionist, dislikes chaos, busy, not familiar with the dark side of life, controlling, high self control, traditional, tough, likes to fit in, conforming, brutally honest, takes precautions

Posted by ann-is-clever at 8:01 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 7 January 2007 8:05 AM EST

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Yah!! Christmas is over and I can put all the decorations away. I can take the leafs out of the table and have room to move around the dining room. My X-mas dinner went fine, although we did discover that we don't have nearly enough serving utensils to have more than a few dishes. I have a fine turkey soup going with the left overs and I am going to make a 15 bean soup with the leftover ham bone. Usually, my older dog would have gotten the bone, but with the addition of the puppy and only one bone, I will make soup with it instead...just to be fair. Tom bought me a cell phone for christmas "in case I have problems with the car". Wouldn't you know it, the car broke down at 5:30 am the morning after christmas. The cell phone came in handy! I am going crazy without the car, but it is supposed to be fixed this weekend.

   New Years Eve will be spent much the same way every other night is spent. Doing nothing but farting around on the computer and maybe watching TV. Unless Tom happens to be playing, NYE is no big deal. Interesting fact though, my uncle played for Guy Lombardo, he was a trumpet player in the band. So whenever I hear "Auld Lang Syne" or whatever its called, I always silently say hi to Uncle Bill.

  Happy New Year!! 

Posted by ann-is-clever at 3:44 PM EST

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If you are reading this, you are probably either a very dear friend or the friend of a friend. In either case, I have one wish for you...that you have the merriest and happiest Christmas and new year.

   We are getting close to the big day. The stress is almost over. I have to clean the house today and get the china washed. My parents are here from Florida and they are doing the big X-mas eve party for my Moms side of the family this year. Some of Moms side have not seen there their new house in Sandown, so it will be a nice way for everyone to be able to see it at once. Mom didn't want to cook Christmas dinner, so I inivted them here. I have to steam clean the entire place because not only am I gone about 65 hours hours a week and don't have a lot of time for such things recently, but Mom is one of those clean freaks. She always has been. Even while we were growing up, you could have never been able to tell there were 3 adults, 6 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats in her house. It wwas always spotless. Not if you listen to her tell it, but it was by everyone else's standards. "this place is a mess" to my mom means that little lone piece of dryer lint that stuck to the clothes and then fell off onto the floorwhile she is carrying them on their way to their proper place of rest.  Oh jeez, if she see's that, out comes the vacuum and the entire room gets a once over. LOL

  Dinner will be a ham and a turkey with all the trimmings. It will be served on my Grandmothers china, which I ended up with last year when my parents moved. I have 7 different kinds of veggies. They are bringing pies, because my dad, the prize winning pie artist, insists on making them instead of me taking the easy route and just buying them. Dinner at their house was always 22 people or so sitting at this huge table my dad would set up in the big living room. They had one room which was 30x18 so they had that luxury of having huge dinner parties. We will be having it right at my little dining room table with no white linen table cloth, fancy table runner, or real silverware. I might light a candle or two for a festive touch. Paper napkins are ok right? This might be a good time to pull out the Pachabel Christmas Cannon in D and other serious songs for the season and leave the Larry the Cable guy x-mas medly cd in hiding. 

   Merry Christmas!!
 

Posted by ann-is-clever at 7:58 AM EST

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I'm sitting here, in the quiet of morning, by myself. The day will soon start with all the noise, voices and laughter of the day. It snowed the day before yesterday and the ground still has a fair amount of snow on it. Today is magic time. All the christmas decorations go up today. We will make some hot cocoa, put on some christmas music ( our favorite is Trans Siberian Orchestra) and we will all work to turn our house into a wonderland fit for Santa Claus himself. We have a lot of antique bulbs and ornaments that came from my grandmothers house. I have the wooden ornaments that my siblngs and I painted many years ago when I was just a child. The story goes that after we were done painting them and went to bed, my mom and dad stayed up and re-painted them with  slightly more attention to detail. We never noticed, we all just thought we did a really fantastic job and my parents wouls show them to all their friends and tell them "the kids painted these all by themselves!". Every year we hang the plastic evergreen and holly letters that spell out Noel, only we hang it backwards so it says Leon. My bother Russell did that one year after a few too many rum and eggnogs and the tradition was born. It actually has the letters and 3 elves that, too me, look more like the rice krispie dudes than elves. Anyway, thay have always been known as the Fags. So the entire decoration is known as "Leon and the 3 Fags". The special bulb that goes on the tree is one Tom ans I found the year we got married, It is a precious moments bulb that depicts a scene of the Mom serving cookies to her husband, who is setted in a chair, while 4 children run around playing. There are 3 boys and a little girl. It is so perfect, because its just like our family. We have the Santas head that was made out of a bleach bottle and yarn that is really quite cute. My mom and I took a ceramics class together the year Kelsey was born and my Mom made me a "shelf sitter" in the shape of a mouse. I didn't know she was making it for me, even though she was sitting right beside me. I have ornaments and figurines that friends and family have gotten us, and everytime they come out of the box, its like pulling out a memory of that person.

   We had a fire in our apartment about 11 years ago, just after Thangsgiving. I lost just about everything I owned. Some of the kids ornaments survived the fire, while others did not. Over the years since, we have gathered many decorations. We either bought these on various outings, or they were given to us. Now every piece that I have is special to me because it represents each and every person who loves and cares about us. Toms mom bought us a keyboard and drum ornament when Shawn first got into music. My freind Leslie gave me some brandy snifters which had red bows on the. Last year, Tom and I went up to the Kangamangus Highway to find our tree. We hiked through the woods and gathered pinecones, berries,ect. and put them in the snifters. Kimmie gave me a large bowl hand painted with hollys and such. That looks really pretty filled with not so perfect glass bulbs from my moms youth. A table runner from Wendi, a pine scented candle from my sister. The 2 snowmen having a snowball fight from Tammy. All wonderful memories.

  This year, we started a new one. I am sick of trying to fight with the stockings to get more gifts into them. So I bought canvas tote bags and had each kid decorate them which ever way they saw fit. Yes I realize it means more space to fill in the stocking, but was a lot of fun to see how each person would make it their own. Besides, they came out really nice and who says you have to use what others consider the norm? Hey, if we can have Leon and the 3 fags, we can have christmas totes!!  

              Merry Christmas!!!!

Posted by ann-is-clever at 7:02 AM EST

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I am feeling so much better. Most of the soreness has gone away although I do get twinges of pain in my shoulder if I move it too much. But what can you expect... I did just dislocate it two weeks ago. I suppose I should write about my friend Jen, who was in the car with me at the time of the accicent. We both ended up with concussions, but she also has MS so her aches and pains made that feel worse. She went into work the day after the accident, and that was the last time we have seen her. Her daughter, who was 7 and a half months pregnant, lost her baby last weekend. Jen has been on bereavement the past week. They had a funeral for the infant yesterday. Me and her boss felt so bad about everything that we tookup a collection for her at work and raised a couple of hundred dollars for her. Her partner, who use to work with us, has MS also,  is really bad off and had to quit work a year or so ago. We all know they are struggling. I just can't believe the one day Jen asked for help and we get T-boned.

  On a lighter note, I am putting in for an office job at work. One of my friends transfered to a plant closer to her home so her position is open. She was a service coordinator. I thought if she could do the job, I could do it too. She is a nice girl, but not real bright.  I think I have enough savvy to be able to pick up where she left off. Of course, it means I have to go out and buy new clothes, but the pay is $15000 more a  year than I make now. That should be enough incentive to make me go to the mall God, I hate shopping. I'm tired of babysitting everyone in the department I am in now.I do way too much for way to little pay. For once, I want to be paid what I am worth.

  I decided not to buy that car. The thought of having a car payment that big made me too nervous. I will wait out buying a new one until I have to. Hopefully by then, my paychecks will cover the added expense.My parents left for Florida yesterday so I could use one of their vehicles if I need to. Its not like I don't have options here. Speakin gof money... You know that Monopoly game at Mcdonalds in which you save the game pieces to win prizes?? I don't know of a single person who has won so much as a small fry from that thing. My son and his friend have been playing it and they won $5,000 friday night. No joke..I made them show me the game pieces. We have to mail in the board with the little stickers, but they did win. Hows that for something?? 

Posted by ann-is-clever at 7:45 AM EDT

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I think I have found a car that I can somewhat afford. My brother bought his wife a VW Passat and she hates it. She is so use to driving a big gas sucking boat that she just can't get use to the little car. He offered to sell it to me for what they owe on it. Sure, my payments would be about $240 a month, but the car is in excellent shape and it's a good and dependable car. I am driving the smashed car, but it makes me a nervous wreck driving it. I can literally stick my thumb into the gaps in the door, where before it closed up tight to the body of the car. My mechanic came to look at it yetserday and he said its still a sound car, but just the notion that its crushed is enough to bother me. Plus, it will never pass inspection now.

  My body is coming around back to a state of normal. My muscles still ache and my shoulder is still sore, but I can get up and move around a bit more than I could a few days ago. I could probably manage doing dishes now and maybe some laundry ( if I have help moving the basket and folding the big stuff), but I think I'll pawn vacuuming off to one of the able bodied people who call this place home. I have a bunch of fabric that I need to dye black for halloween. I think I might need help doing that too. The kids have been really helpful all week. My daughter came home from school on tuesday and vacuumed to the whole house without being asked. But having two dogs and two cats, it needs to be done again. 

Posted by ann-is-clever at 8:02 AM EDT

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The car buying process is about to go into high gear. I was going back up to a main road monday after dropping my friend Jeff off at his house. Some guy ran a stop sign and T-boned my car. His car was unregisitered and uninsured. He lived on the street that he shot out of, but claims he didn't know the stop sign was there. I got banged up, but nothing is broken. My friend Jen was in the passenger seat(the side that got hit) and she is banged up too, but we are both alright. It could have been a lot worse. My poor car is wrecked though. Tom had to close my door with a sledge hammer. We tied them closed at the scene with a dog leash. I was so scared to drive it home, thinking that the leash would break and Jen would tumble to the ground. But, like I said, it could have been worse.

Posted by ann-is-clever at 5:16 AM EDT

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WOW.... quitting sucks!! We haven't actually quit yet but we are both smoking ultra lights and have cut it down to about 10 cigarettes a day each. Tom was a two and a half pack habit and I was a pack and a half, so 10 is really good for us. We are both that type of person who, if on a diet, denies themselves 2 hersey kisses, we end up eating the whole 16 oz bag. Cold turkey is not an option for us.

   We have spent about $150 this week on halloween decor. I think we are well up over $500 so far this year. Our display is going to be awesome. We are contructing a 8x8 "room" in which the kids will have to enter to get candy. Shawn and 3 of his friends will be waiting on the other side of the door for them. I bought pro quality vampire teeth and a prostetic piece which attaches to your neck to make it look like your throat has been ripped out. We are fighting over who will wear the teeth and who will wear the neck thing. I have about a gallon and a half of fake blood...I hope its enough!!

   I bought Tom a truck yesterday. We have been looking for a car for me, but we just haven't found one we can afford yet. So friday, Tom was driving by this truck and noticed the for sale sign. We looked at it yesterday and bought it on the spot. Its a 91 Ford Ranger with the cap. Tom only drives about 6 miles to work each day and the truck will come in handy for all of our home improvement projects. Not to mention, bringing wood home and such. I will still be looking for a car, but at least now we have 2 vehicles again. It would have been cold for him riding his bike to work everyday. Plus, the speed limit on the road he works on is 55 and thats being conservative. Its not the best road to ride on.

  So the plan for today is cleaning. I have had a 3 day weekend and have done nothing so far so I better get my rear in gear . 

Posted by ann-is-clever at 9:47 AM EDT

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Wow, I'm a slacker!! I haven't posted a thing in almost a month. Where to start.

   Tom and I are quitting smoking today. From everything I have read, you are suppose to pick a day and go from there. I did smoke one earlier, but I'm not going to get upset if one of us slides. It happens and you move past it. Besides, I'm the type of smoker who gets up in the middle of the night to smoke and I went for 12 hours straight without one. I just keep thinking of the car I need to buy and this is the best way to save money. Toms car died, so we registered my sons truck so Tom could use it to get back and forth from work. Well, apparently, when my son got in a minor accident last year in the snow, he totaled the truck. So we can't get the truck inspected. We were going to try and buy a brand new nissan, but that turned out to be not a good idea. So I had another car dealer run the credit yetserday and we got pre-approved. We are going today to look at used cars. I really wanted a Nissan, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers. 

Posted by ann-is-clever at 10:06 AM EDT

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