Friend Makin Monday

Happy FMM everyone! Wow, seems like I've been gone for forever! It's just been shy of a week since I've been on here, yet seems like it's been a month...I was feeling the withdrawals! Craziness I tell you! Guess I have me an addiction now...blogging and reading up on what is going on in your lives!

Ok, on to the topic of the day. Today Amber has posted up a survey and is requesting everyone try to get around to commenting on as many people as possible. Can do!

1. Favorite website?

Hmm, this one may be a little hard. Seriously though, since these two are the ones that I go to over and over again...they would be blogger.com (or more specifically my blog!) and facebook.com. Since I really like fairies...laceylady.com has a huge variety by different artists. And I'm a book worm....so barnesandnoble.com is visited frequently.

2 Favorite color?

Purple.

3. Facebook?

Yep! Still kinda new on there so still in the honeymoon phase with it. Sure I'll invite ya...just keep one thing in mind...I don't talk about my blog on there..so let's just keep it separate! You can find me by searching for my name....Rosalie Koch Pendergast.

4. Favorite Christmas song?

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

5. Christmas Tree: Real or Fake?

Fake. No mess, less maintenance!

6. Hottest celebrity?

Ok, here's the part where I say...celebrities are over-rated!

7. Favorite restaurant?

The Melting Pot.......mmm, salivating here!

8. Favorite magazine?

SHAPE

9. Favorite thing to drink around the holidays?

Hot chocolate that is made with milk and cooked on the stove, with lots of extra Hershey's Chocolate Syrup added. Topped with a ton of marshmallows.

10. Favorite Christmas movie?

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I have kids...what can I say?!

Hope everyone's Monday is a good one...and if you would like to participate in FMM, visit Amber and play along!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Welcome to the land of random! And these are my random thoughts of the day..well, of so far this morning at least...

~ We have changed plans last minute on what we are doing for this Thanksgiving. We are going from hosting it at our place..to meeting up with family at The Cracker Barrel. No cooking, no cleaning, just visiting. And really, I love The Cracker Barrel....I could go there just for their sweet tea, or just for their biscuits, or just for..well, for the damn good food! Did I mention no messes to clean up?

~ In January I will be heading off to Laughlin! Ok, it's not that exciting really. I.Don't.Like.Laughlin. I'm going to attend the Arizona Fire District Association Conference, which I've done for the past few years. The conferences are fine to attend...I like to learn things..no promises on how good I retain these things though. But it's just Laughlin itself. Not much to do there when you're not in conferences, besides gamble. And quite frankly, gambling pisses me off. Enough said on that one. Although one year my husband and I stopped in Bullhead City on the way home and took a sand rail tour to Oatman, AZ. That was really fun driving those things...minus we were freezing our asses OFF. My husband was even freezing, so you could imagine how I was. By the time we got to Oatman, I felt like the jackasses that roam the dirt roads there (literally, donkeys have free roam there)...what was the first thing we did after we ate?..we hit up the shops to buy them out of winter wear. I'd suggest the tour..but not in January. Wow...that was a long random thought!

~ I.Hate.Painting. It's so pretty by the time your done...I just hate the doing it part.-Get your minds outta the gutter, I'm talking about painting here.

~ I have an iPod Shuffle that I have had for at least a year now..and it's still sitting pretty in it's package. I still really want to use it, but haven't taken the time to actually download songs. If you get right down to it, I don't even know where to go to find songs I want to download. Computer illiterate here. Any suggestion on where to go? (And this doesn't mean telling me where to go and how to get there!)

If you would like to join in on Random Tuesday Thoughts...go visit The Un Mom!

Friend Makin Monday

This week is all about Thanksgiving...and Amber has thrown 10 questions our way...


1. Turkey or Ham?
Turkey, Turkey and more Turkey! I love it!

2. Favorite side dish?
That would have to be grandma's green beans...Mmm sooo good!

3. Favorite dessert?
Pumpkin pie and tons of "whooped" cream.

4. Black Friday..are you going or not?
I might have thought about it this year, I've only been one year before. But, I have the
majority of the presents bought already and it falls in a bad part of the pay period...house
payment and truck payment all due with this check = not much shopping.

5. If so, what's on the top of your list?
If I were going..I think the item that would be on the top of the list would be an Xbox or
a Wii.

6. Going out of town or staying close to home?
Staying.

7. Hosting or helping?
Hosting.

8. Name one family tradition at Thanksgiving.
Well I guess I can't say we have a tradition, other than getting together with family and
enjoying each others company and the delicious food.

9. What do you do after dinner?
Continue visiting..and then when everyone has gone..rest!

10. What are you most thankful for this year?
Well let's see here, I guess that would have to be that even though my husband's
company will be laying my husband off in approximately one week due to not enough
business, I am thankful that #1 he has survived the majority of the cuts that started over
a year ago, and #2 that he is prepared and already has another job lined up.

For anyone who is interested in joining in on FMM...go and visit Amber.

5th Wedding Anniversary

To this hard-headed man, this hard-headed woman thee wed...

Well it has come down to the final days, and since I won't be posting tomorrow, November 21st, then I will have to post about my Anniversary today! Jason and I have been together for 7 years, and we are celebrating our 5 year Anniversary.

We got married on November 21, 2004, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yep..we ran off to Vegas! And it was so fun! Can I just give you a little snippet of some funny stuff here real quick? Ok. To start off with, let's give you an idea of what the weather was like. We were there for a total of 3 days and 2 nights. The first day we got there, it was completely sunny and nice out. The next day, which was the day of our wedding...it was rainy. And then...the day we came home, it was snowing. Talk about a full range of weather.

Now, for the actual drive to the wedding chapel. We got picked up by a limo. That was cool, never been in one of those before until then. I found the chapel on the internet by the way...looked very pretty inside. So, we drive for quite a ways to get to this place. The driver is pulling into what looks like old run down steel buildings..you know like something you would see in the mafia..a good place to torture people pull a hit on someone. You could just imagine the looks we were giving each other at this point in time. So off into the chapel we go. When we got inside it lived up to being as pretty as what I saw on the net, just to get past the looks of the outside at this time. And then..we saw the person who was going to marry us. He.Looked.Like.A.Mafia.Hitman. Seriously. Looked like someone who had changed his life around from capping people on the streets..complete with the tattoo of the 3 tear drops under his eye. Now you can really imagine the looks between Jason and I. WTF?!..should we run..hide...help us! But..he turned out to be A-ok.

Now for the wedding dress catastrophe...oh yes, there had to be one of those. You see, the dress I had on was borrowed from my friend Charlene..who I'm sure is reading this (Hey Charlene!) Well I had her permission to get the dress fitted, it needed to be taken in from the waist up. So I took the dress in, measurements were taken. When I picked up the dress I made the terrible mistake of not trying it on before I left to make sure it was done correctly. Fast forward to getting dressed in it....it was STILL too big from the waist up. I had to keep pulling the thing up. It.Was.Wonderful. And to top it off...my husbands parents were there along with his dad's mom (grandma). Well...grandma tells it like it is..and it's pretty funny. After about the billionth time of me trying to pull this dress up..grandma says "she needs some boobs to hold that dress up". Really, seriously..how am I not supposed to laugh at this in the middle of the vows?! Oh ya, and the wedding was also on web cam..which means everyone that knew us and was watching, could see me trying to keep this dress in proper position.

After all was said and done though..it was a great time! That was my first time in Vegas too, so it was cool. And of course with it being our wedding..we may have done a few things that will have to live up to the title of "what happens in Vegas..stays in Vegas".

So here are some pics of our wedding day..and a recap of a pic for our 5th Anniversary.

Our deer in the headlights look..priceless

And after 5 years..here we are now..as hard-headed and loving as ever!

So tomorrow we will spend the day together..alone..yay! We have dinner reservations at The Melting Pot. This is where we go every year for our anniversary. It's so dang good! And then after that...are you ready for this..it's gonna be sooo romantic...we're heading out to Dave & Buster's to play games, shoot pool and watch UFC on their screens for the match between Ortiz and Griffin! Ok, so maybe not so romantic..but hella fun!

Dear Someone

It's that time of the week. That almost makes it sound like it's that time of the month, which makes it sound really bad. But oh no, that time of the week is a good thing! Time to get down with some Dear Someone letters...

Dear Alyssa,

STOP trying to sneak stuff to school in your backpack. It's.Driving.Me.Crazy.Already. And quit trying to tell me that you were going to ask me. Right. The scrapbooks don't belong at school, neither does our soda. And don't even get me started on the notes I found. Seriously..enough already.

The woman who will go back to checking your backpack daily,
Mom


Dear Little Girl In Alyssa's Class,

Don't make me go off on you. I better never find another notebook of yours in my daughter's backpack where you have given her nicknames and are calling her ugly. This coming from the Tomboy in the class who rarely bathes.

Woman whose feathers you have ruffled,
That mom you better watch out for


Dear Thanksgiving,

I cannot wait for you! I have jumped ahead of the festivities and already had some pumpkin pie with whipped cream..aka, whooped cream. Can't wait for the turkey and mashed potatoes and grandma's green beans and everything else. Oh it's soooo wonderful!

Woman who is ready to dig in,
Rose

For some more Dear Someone letters.. go visit Shortmama.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Here is my random jibberish thoughts for the day...


~ Yesterday I had a 3 HOUR nap...I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it was. And since I've nowhere to go today...I just might try for it again.

~ I have realized that I am getting close to my 100th post...and I just might have to do a giveaway for it. I also have to find that random number thingy that will choose the winner.

~ Christmas is just around the corner, which means that a small portion of our family will gather at my grandma's house like we do every year. And every year it's just about the same, no changes, nothing extravagant, we're all just kind of there. I would so love to shake it up a bit. Do something a little crazy, a little out of the ordinary. You know, like maybe do some gag gifts. Like for my brother for starters. I follow him on FB so I see the funny exchanges between him and his friends. I have seen lots of joking about him not having his own full bag of chips and his friends wouldn't share..and then telling him to get over it. And then there was the pic of him with a black eye that he got in a mosh pit at some concert. So...I'm thinking along with his normal gift, I will get him a first aid kit and one of those boxes of a variety of snack size chips. And let's see..for my grandma I might get her a sexy looking nightie. And my grandpa dresses very, well, I guess I don't know the term I may be searching for...just jeans and button up western style shirts and semi-dress shoes. I'm thinking I could get him a comical shirt...kinda like a shirt I bought for my husband...it's got a pickup truck with a donkey in the back of it and it's got dust kicking up behind the truck and the shirt says "Haulin..."...you know, haulin a$$. That should shake up our blase routine.

~ You know where I would like to be spending this Thanksgiving? That would be in Greer, AZ. Beautiful. If you don't know what it's like there...search it on the internet...it's worth it. More specifically Greer Lodge Cabins. We've stayed in one of the cabins one time and it was wonderful. We've been to Greer just to go ice fishing too, and that was really fun also....at least once I got past the fear of falling through the ice. I think I spent more time playing with the worms than catching any fish.



~ We (my husband really) did some painting the other day. We painted one wall in our room and painted our sons room. The girls' rooms will be painted this coming weekend. It's actually part of their Christmas...but they are getting it early..really early!

Our room before...

And after, Grounded by BEHR...kind of funny..Grounded in my room!

Jayce's room before, a blue color

Jayce's room during...

Jayce's room after, Gray Timber Wolf by BEHR

If you are interested in participating in Random Tuesday Thoughts..visit The Un Mom.

Friend Makin Mondays

I so was NOT going to post on today's topic...Favorite Winter Recipes. I.Don't.Like.To.Cook. I really don't. I don't do recipes but maybe a handful of times per year...kinda sad I know! But...I will tell you what recipes I do love!

I LOVE whatever this guy (my husband) whips up. He, on the other hand, likes to cook. Yay me!


And....I LOVE whatever this woman (known to you all as Shortmama @Family of Shorts) whips up. She, on the other hand, loves to cook. Double Yay for me!


So I am going to use this post to promote Shortmama's recipes at her food blog...

Short Cook, Tall Flavor

She really is short people ; ) ...but that woman definitely doesn't come up short in the cooking department...Yum! So for some yummy recipes..I'd go and check her out! If only you all could live as close to her as I do!

How Time Passes So Swiftly...and sometimes not swiftly enough!

So Mr. Man Jayce turned 6 back in September and we just took him the other day to get his yearly pics done. Here's a look back at Jayce through the years..starting with the pics we just got done...










I absolutely love this little boy...

Dear Someone

Dear Santa,

I would love to have an early Christmas present, receivable on mine and Jason's 5th Anniversary. There is a UFC scheduled on that day in Las Vegas between Tito and Forest. We (me mainly) would loooove to go.

Woman who would love to see it all in person,
Feisty Rose


Dear Me,

What the heck? You drove approximately 45 minutes yesterday down to a mall to get Jayce's 6 year pics, and while you were there you were supposed to pick up the anniversary pics. You completely FORGOT the anniversary pics. Lets just hope you don't forget the actual anniversary. Maybe it was the shock of seeing millions of people packed into the mall, no time to think making sure all the little chickens are still with me and haven't wandered off. Sooo..have a great time driving alllll the way back down today to go and get them. Good thing you enlisted Shortmama to ride along with you!

Woman doing too much recently,
Forgetful Rose


Dear Jayce,

It's a darn good thing that you did great during your picture session and waited to have your mini melt down afterwords from being too tired...because if it was during or before the pictures, I'm pretty sure I would've found a store with a "slightly damaged items" display and plopped your little booty right on up there on my way out the door.

Woman who brought you into this world and can surely sell you out,
Mommy


Dear Bank Account,

I think you have a case of the bipolar...first your full and then your left on empty. Please get help for this so you can avoid the emptiness.

Woman who cares about your status,
Owner


For some more Dear Someone letters....visit magnificent Shortmama and link up!

Veteran's Day.....and Awards.

I would like to wish all of the Veteran's a Happy Veteran's Day, and hope they know that today isn't the only day that they are thought of. My husband is an Army Veteran, and I have to say that I am so very thankful that he served before we met. I'm not so sure of all the agony our family would have to have gone through, as I feel greatly for those who are currently serving and their families. Also in my thoughts are those that have greatly suffered surrounding the current event that has taken place at Fort Hood. Seriously, there is a lot of anger that we even have to worry about our safety.

Oh ya, and a little confusion here...Veteran's don't get Veteran's Day off, but the school children do. And stores hold Veteran's Day sales hoping for more profits. Kinda crazy to me, but I don't think that's what Veteran's Day is all about. I'm just sayin'.



Now I have a huge THANK YOU to Mag from Sitting on the Mood Swing at the Playground. Seriously, do you not just love her title! It's so dang good and witty.

So anywho..Mag has passed on 3 awards:




As far as I can tell only one of the awards comes with rules. The Honest Scrap award says I have to share ten honest things about myself. Here goes:

1. I love watching Ultimate Fighting Championship. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to take training to be a kick boxer. I go to hockey games just to watch them fight. It's kind of strange I guess, since #1 I'm not an angry person and #2 I've NEVER been in a fight!

2. I used to refuse to make coffee at the fire department I used to work at, stating it smelled bad and was yucky. I now drink a cup of coffee a day. I think the fire chief jinxed me...he said "you just wait, you will drink it one day". I definitely can go days without drinking any, but I do enjoy a cup with some yummy french vanilla creamer. Though some of my friends say I'm drinking milk instead of coffee because of how much creamer I add!

3. I have high cholesterol and low blood sugar...go figure. I'm not overweight, don't eat too much and eat mainly chicken for dinner. The cholesterol is hereditary...and the sugar might be my fault. I was a sugaraholic. I still might be, but not as bad as I used to be. So now my body likes to crash to low sugar levels, leaving me feeling shaky and not quite there. It's a great feeling! Not.

4. I was going to stop having kids after my first. There are now 5 kids between my husband and I. I don't know what happened along the way...I don't think anyone told us what causes that! Once we learned though, I got "fixed". Buuuuut..it didn't work, and I ended up with a tubal pregnancy. It sucked. And I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW!! I went in for a yearly woman well check and they took a just in case test. It was a dead give away when the assistant came back in to the room to check the results, and she picked up the stick, looked at it for a few seconds, and said "I'll be right back with the doctor". I can't be part of the small percentage to win the lotto, but I am part of the small percentage to get preggo after being "fixed"!

5. My favorite color is purple.

6. I hate to cook. I grew up with my grandparents who owned a motel. The office was in the living quarters and my grandpa never wanted anyone to cook much since he didn't want it to smell up the place, so we were always going out to eat. And hence, I don't like to cook. I married a man who does! I'm enjoying his yummy french toast while I'm blogging right now!

7. I think I was born to live in a nudist colony. I don't like clothes. I used to streak quite a bit and was never happier. Now...I wouldn't dare...the things that having kids can do to a body..good gawd!

8. I am a really shy person..until I get to know someone. I am more introverted than extroverted. And yet I still have a wild streak to my personality.

9. I have found that being an emergency dispatcher was much easier than raising kids. Enough said.

10. I am so happy that my friend Shortmama introduced me to blogging...I love this shat!


So Mag passed the awards to six people..and I'm going to do the same...

~ The Crazy Baby Mama
~Tattoos and Teething Rings
~One Foot in Front of the Other
~ Living in France
~ Carrin's Comments
~ Overflowing Bookshelf

Thanks again to Mag!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Okie dokie, let's get down to bidness with some randomness why don't we?!

~ This past week I've been running around like a crazy person. I think I've tried to fit a years worth of busyness into a friggin' week or two! I'm.Not.Built.For.This!!! My grandma has more energy than me..seriously.

~ It's time to re-dye my hair again...but I got a new color and I'm afraid it will turn orange. Sadly I have had one episode of orange hair many years ago. I'm not into rockin' the orange hair thank you.


~ I bought a new camera today...spur of the moment...I may have to sell my husband on the street corner for a few days to pay it off..hehe.

~ Wanted: that thing that will make me feel reeeaally good and may possibly make me moan...it's a massage people, get yer minds outta the gutter!



For more randomness...head on over to The Un Mom and join in!

Oh Deer!

Whew..what a long week it has been! I feel like I've been running 'round for days! Hmm, maybe because I have been!

It is hunting season round these parts. My husband Jason and his PAL (hehe) only spent two days hunting though. Levi got his deer on opening day, practically first thing in the morning, just before 9 a.m. They didn't get the deer back to our friend Shortmama and Levi's house until around 1 p.m., and we didn't get out of their place from getting everything bagged up until 9 p.m. So that made for a long day.

The very next day, Saturday, they were off again to try and get Jason's deer. When he left in the morning I told him "have a great day sitting on your ass doing nothing, please don't shoot anything today so we can rest". He.Didn't.Listen. Not only did he Not listen, he didn't shoot the deer until almost sundown, somewhere in the 5 p.m. hour. Sooooo...we had to wait for Grumpy Old Men to get home (that's how I think of these two, they are comical like that).

So they had to drag the deer over all of creation again to get it back to the Ranger. They got back to shortmama's place at 9 p.m. where we were happily waiting, cause ya know we like to spend two days back to back doing the same thing! Amanda and I were going to have ourselves some drinks to help get us through the night, but..we were too tired for that. After all was said and done...we were home and in bed just after 1 a.m.

Here are some pics that show our night on the 2nd night:

When the boys got back, Jason and I

Jason and I celebrating

Jason celebrating some more

Jason tired..and tired of me taking pics!! He's tellin' me I'm #1!

Levi was dead tired!