Oh yah... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween is my favorite holiday, although this year you would never guess it. I have not had a spare second this year to do anything fun. I made my costume yesterday at 3:30 as Punk was getting back from trick-or-treating with Real Mom.

You see, here in Utah we don't like to celebrate holidays on Sunday (especially that all-too-evil Halloween) so trick-or-treating took place last night rather than tonight.

Last weekend, we took this:



and turned it into these:




Wanna see the cutest baterina (it's a bat ballerina; get it?) EVER?




I don't have any pictures of me, but I will try to find one - there were some taken somewhere. I was a victim of domestic abuse, that beat back. With a sledge hammer. It took me about a second to put the costume together, but I freaked people out a bit apparently. One of our neighbors hesitated to answer the door. That's the mark of a well done homemade Halloween costume. It could've had something to do with the bloddy hammer though... I dunno.

Happy Halloween to all! And to those who actually get to go trick-or-treating tonight, I'm super jealous. Have fun and get LOTS of candy! (Goodness knows we brought in quite the haul.)

Tillamook Cheese. Awwww YEEEEEAAAAHHH!

Hi. You there? Are you sitting down? Well, you probably should, because this is serious business. I want to talk about cheese.

Cheese, you say? Why yes! Cheese! Possibly one of the best things to ever be introduced to this lovely planet. Okay, maybe that's taking it to far but seriously, I love cheese. I am sorry for any out there that are lactose intolerant (like my cat). I just love me some cheese. And let me tell you, there is one brand that far outdoes any other in the cheese world. And that brand? Tillamook.

I'm not kidding. That other company with the five-letter name, they do pretty good, but Tillamook is the reigning champion in my book. Husband had only ever had that one brand's cheese slices on his hamburgers, and then tried Tillamook cheese slices, and it changed his world. Dead serious. It's all we buy now.

Tillamook sent me an adorable cheese package, filled with coupons for free cheese, a heart-shaped sandwich cutter, a ridiculously nice cheese slicer, and a bookmark filled with fun facts about Tillamook. Did you know they just earned the "World's Best Medium Cheddar" title at the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest? Well, they did. And they deserve it. And I'm not just saying that because they sent me free cheese. I really do think their cheese is the bomb dot com.

Do you want a chance to win the same package I was lucky enough to get? To bad. Mwa hahaha. Okay, just kidding. You can enter to win, and conveniently enough, you don't even have to leave this blog to do it! Sweet, yah?

Leave me a comment. Let me know if you've had Tillamook before, or if you love cheese as much as this fat kid stuffed in a skinny kid's body, or just tell me you love me :). Want an extra entry or two? Like them on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter, and then leave me an extra comment for each. US residents only please. I'll draw a winner using random.org, and any entries up until midnight on November 13th will be in the running to win. Please make sure you give me a way to contact you, because it would be sad if I pulled you as a winner and then couldn't contact you so had to pull a new winner.

Good luck to all!

On Somewhat of a Lighter Note...

ADHD.

It'll get the best of you, no matter how hard you try.

This is from my notebook at work. And I wonder why people think I'm crazy.

You ever feel like one person ruins it for the rest of us?

Why is it that the bad things always stick in peoples' minds, but it takes something extraordinarily good to stick as well? In a group of people, whether it's a group of step-parents, or account managers, or grocery shoppers, or whatever, there are always one or two people that ruin it for everyone else. Why is it so hard to just step back and realize that everyone else deserves respect, just as much as you do? Everyone is so quick to place judgment or blame on whomever else is there, just because they don't want to face the fact that maybe, it's just them.

Where I work, there are a few individuals on the team of account managers that rush to blame the production team, or rush to criticize them over something, when in actuality it is their own fault. Or when someone makes a mistake (which is awfully HUMAN of them, I guess) and they get so mad. Who doesn't make mistakes? I know I do. All of that makes our fantastic production team HATE all of the account managers. Which is sad for me, because I realize they are the ones that get my crap done. I feel like it would be the same working in a restaurant - one waiter or waitress that treats the cooks like crap, and the rest of them get to pay the price; slow food or mess-ups because the cooks hate the waiters, all because one person refused to believe that in their job, keeping the cooks happy is just as important as keeping the customers happy.

And it's totally the same in the step-parent world. I know there are bad step-parents out there. I have met a few in my life, and I know of many others. But I also know there are so many good ones that don't get a fair shake at the step-parent gig, because of the stigma the bad ones have put out there. I recently joined a forum specifically for step-moms. I was so excited to have a place to share what I go through, and hear other stories, to make my life feel a little more normal. What I really saw, was a bunch of women rushing to point the finger at the bio-moms. And as much as the road I've had with Real Mom has been a rough one, we are finally to a point where I think we are working together fairly well. The last thing I want to do is sit and read stories where EVERYTHING is the bio-mom's fault. Really? Everything? I have never met a perfect person before; WOW! It's so nice to meet you! [insert eye roll here] I get that some bio-moms are not great moms, but in all reality, all of us screw up sometimes, and all of us get short-tempered sometimes, and all of us are bad parents sometimes. It happens.

Why is it in human nature to turn and point the finger elsewhere?

Do I sound annoyed? I am. And I'm sorry. But if I don't let it out here, I will let it out to my colleagues who may or may not be part of the source of my frustration, and that might not be good.

Thanks for listening. :P

MARGE! It's the Mormons again!

Possibly one of my favorite television quotes ever. EVER.

I would like to take a moment to thank my old computer for it's years of half-assed functionality and helping me on my way to the fame of the blog world (yah, right). Seriously though, we finally bought a new computer. The old one decided at the end of last week that it was done with this life and moved on to a better place. It died a good, long death. At least, I thought so until it miraculously turned on this morning. It must have been in a coma. "Aw man, talk radio? ... So boring, man! The car just committed suicide!"

Sorry.

Back to the point of my story, which was... well... there was no point. At least not that I can remember. So anyway. New computer. That I'm keeping all to myself, bwa ha ha ha. It's going in my craft room/office and we are going to get the other computer back to it's half-functioning self for homework purposes. Sweet, eh? We're also taking the plunge to wireless so I can connect everything in the house, including the cat, to the internet without having to run three-hundred and eighty-two feet of wire (approximately, of course). Now the world shall watch its back, because I will have internet connectivity on my Wii. Again I say, bwa ha ha ha. (That's my evil laugh. You couldn't tell?)

So I've been living the last week without computer access and can I tell you a secret? I think I'm addicted to technology. I don't even use the computer that much; just the fact that it wasn't working was really getting to me. I still don't have a new computer; I'm blogging this from work a place with a computer. Duh. But I'm pretty blasted excited for the new, really fast, super ultra supreme computer. I'll be able to pull pictures off my fancy camera, and then edit them, OMG.

I owe you two reviews and a giveaway. For cheese, and coconut peanut butter. Watch out, because it's coming. Or something.

But in all seriousness (yah right, like I have that capability) work has been freaking busy and when I don't have a computer at home, that equals no blogging, boo hoo. Not that I blog from work. But I hope to be back to regularly scheduled programming shortly. Whatever that means.

On a completely unrelated note, I have not done ANYTHING to get ready for Halloween? WTH? Halloween is my favorite Holiday.

Also, I just noticed that I am the Queen Bee of fragments in this post, and for that, I am sorry.

Have a great weekend! :D

Random Thought... Wait, What's Today?

It's Thursday. And yes, I had to ask someone.

Thank goodness it's Thursday and not Tuesday. I am so ready for this week to be over.

It's amazing how when I don't blog my stats go down. You don't want to come to my blog and read all of the nothing I've been posting? Weird!

My loverly sister and my cute company pomegranate&pink is going to be at a huge boutique Thanksgiving weekend, in Spanish Fork. I'm so excited that we got accepted! But you should all mark it on your calendars right now so you can make it. Okay? Thanks for your support. :) And I've been attempting to craft my eyes out so I can have all sorts of cute things for it, like the most amazing magnet sets you'll ever see. Seriously.

I feel like someone stabbed me in between my pelvis and my hip. It's pretty painful and really uncomfortable and I would like to know who in their right mind sneaks into people's houses at night and stabs them in their sleep with some sort of special magic knife that leaves no detectable stab wounds on the surface, just incredible pain.

Hobby Lobby just opened, 15 minutes from my house. That's closer than the next closest one by 45 minutes. WOOT! It's ridiculously large and I spent 45 minutes there just wandering the aisles. I could spend thousands of dollars there. The other craft stores in the area are in trouble.

I should have bought magnets while I was there but totally forgot. But I did come home with some felt sheets, a white boa, scrapbook paper, mini cupcake liners and some amazingly cute hot pink and black zebra flowers. It was a good trip.

I am not lying when I tell you this, and I'm going back today to see if it's still there so that I can take a picture for all you non-believers (Husband!), but yesterday I saw a car on the back of a tow truck, and that tow truck was on the back of another tow truck, and that tow truck was on the back of another tow truck. It was INCREDIBLE! So much redneck glory all in one car-dog pile.

Beauty and the Beast

Just like the title says. Beauty and the Beast, y'all. Did you know it was re-released today? TODAY! Go get it! Want a good reason? Because it's soooo cute! Want another good reason? Because Christmas is coming faster than you know it. Want another good reason? You can get a coupon for $10 off the Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack by clicking here!

Being an older sibling, I babysat a ton when I was younger. And I remember each of my two younger siblings by what movies they would not stop watching. With Shelby, it was Beauty and the Beast. I've seen this movie more times than I can count on both hands and feet, and I still love it. It's classic, and cute, and romantic, and teaches kids a good lesson. What's not to love? Plus, Chip is possibly the cutest cup on the planet. Just that makes the movie worth it.

I was lucky enough to work with Click Communications for a review copy of the Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack of Beauty and the Beast, and I couldn't have been more excited when it showed up. I've already watched it, and remember why I love it so much.

If your kids are little, they may have never seen Beauty and the Beast before, so go here to download some fun coloring and activity pages to introduce them to the characters. They will totally love you for it. Then sit down together for some family time and watch the movie. It's too cute to miss!

C'mon, what are you waiting for? You just want the DVD? The standard DVD edition will come out on November 23rd, so keep an eye out for it!

Oh. My. GAWSH!

I am so in love with these pictures.







But can someone tell me who this girl is? Her pictures are on my picture disk. It can't possibly be my daughter. She's not that old. (*sniff* I cannot believe how old she looks in these pictures. Can I stop the aging process now?)