A laptop in the sink is kinda strange ...

I'll give you that one. Mark finally decided he can part with 1 of his broken computers. (He has 3 at least .. broken ones I mean)
So since Kayla's not here (she usually handles the disassembly of electronic items), and I really don't feel like tearing it apart ... I figured the next best thing would be to just fry the insides.
So I turned it on, got a bottle of pop and just started pouring it inside the computer ... kinda sizzled, little bit of smoke .. and I believe it is useless now. That was quick .. perfect.

Finished reorganizing the scrapbooking closet.

Now maybe I can find the things I'm looking for.

Got the dryer fixed. OMG ... k it used to take ... seriously, 3 hours to dry a load of clothes. I assumed it was the washer I bought was a cheap one, and it just didn't spin out really good so the clothes were alot wetter going into the dryer .. therefore, it would take alot longer to dry them. Made perfect sense to me.
But after we had the fire smell which triggered the repairman call, which then made me call the vent guy ... it's all fixed. And now, I can dry a load of clothes in a half hour. So doing the math here ...
Before spending 12 hours doing laundry ... I would only get 4 loads done, now .. I could get 24 loads done. (not that I have 24 loads sitting around .. but on the rare occassions when all the kids bring their laundry down at one time .. it will help)

On to more news ... yesterday I took Lily to the vet. The poor kitty has been sick for 2 months. Had here there a number of times, and they could never quite fix her. Well, we finally got the right combo of meds .... and she is doing fine. Give her another couple of days, and she will be good as new.

And Brad called yesterday about his news.
He got a puppy. He's a black (were guessing border collie). He's 7 weeks old, and he named him Bo. Brad is very excited about it, and I'll put up pictures as soon as I get one. Not sure where Brad's going to keep the dog when he comes home on break ... as this is a dog-free zone. Guess there's always Beth's. Hope she likes dogs.

What kind of a house ...

Doesn't have candy??

Omg I can't imagine. So I go into the kitchen to get some candy .. and there is none. Hmmmm, try the other spot I keep candy ... empty. Hmmmm, try spot number 3 ... nothing. Go to my super secret stash spot ... gone.
Are you serious ... sure the kids could of found the normal 2 places, maybe even the 3rd. But my super secret stash spot ... (guess it wasn't too super secret after all)
So now, the only chocolate in the entire house ... are mini-chocolate chips. Not that I'm picky ... and those aren't good enough, but there a little messy.
Great, I just dropped one into the keyboard and it's not coming out. (wonder what that's going to do to it) Luckily, if the chocolate does fry the keyboard, Mark has like 5 of them on the floor of his den ... I'll just go steal one of his. How many keyboard's does one person need anyway.

I always start with a plan ...

Tonight, I went to dinner with Carolyn. We went to Uno's, little pricey .. but Carolyn always has a coupon ... so $10 bucks .. not bad for dinner. After dinner I came home, and as soon as I walked in the door ....
hmmmmm smells like smoke.
That's pretty strange since no one was home, so burnt food .. not an option. So I walk around the whole house .. looking for something -on fire-, can't find anything ... anywhere.
So I figure ... well, I know I smelled smoke when I came in, but since nothing is obviously on fire ... guess it's fine. Start the dryer (since the clothes take like .. omg forever to dry) and figure I would reorganize my scrapbooking stuff.

So as you can see .. things have gotten a little out of place since the last time I cleaned it out.
The first step is, empty everything onto the kitchen counters, and start going through it all. I get all that done, and before I really start going through it .. I'll just go outside really quick for a smoke.

As I come back in ... the smoke smell just hits you at the door. I'm like .. omg .. nothing is on fire .. so why do I smell smoke? Start walking around ... again ... and figure out it's the dryer. Now the dryer isn't on-fire, it just smells like it is. Open the door to see if the inside's are on fire, nope .. still a little wet, but no flames. So that's the extent of my dryer knowledge, and I figure well ... no fire, and the clothes are still wet. So what I'm going to do is .. still use it, but I'll "watch" it. That way, if it does start a fire ... I'll be fine.

I go back to organizing, and take a minute to figure out where all the cats are (just in case). I assume, I can grab all the cats, throw them into my car if the house just spontaneously .. burst into flames.
By now I'm getting used to the smoke smell, and then Mark calls. I'm telling him about my little issue and the first thing he says is .. wow I bet the dryer hose is plugged with lint and stuff. Hmmmm, that's not good, and I run in and shut off the dryer, expecting the entire laundry room to be in flames, just like when my dear brother set one of our old houses on fire doing laundry. (washed his jeans in gasoline ... I hear gas takes paint out of clothes .. hmmm who would of thought it could blow your washer up and set the house on fire) huh ... that's a shocker.
Now everything is falling into place. The hose is plugged, which is why the clothes take 3 hours to dry, and the burning is probably all the lint in the hose catching fire.
But ... everything is fine, well I can't use the dryer ... but other than that .. everything's fine. The house is still intact (a tad messy, since I've gotten a little bored with going through all this stuff)

So for now .. the kitchen will look like this...

Tomarrow ...

Is the first day of winter break ...

I know what your thinking ... winter break ??
Wasn't that what all the kid's just had when they were home from college ??
Yes .. that would be correct.
But, tomarrow ....
I start my "winter break" That's when all the kid's are back at college and it's just me and Mark again. lol

I've been tearing the house up since I dropped Katie back at college this afternoon. I did take a little break to watch my -favorite- Peyton Manning win, and my -least favorite- Brett Favre lose. So it's been a good day all around.

Not quite wedding pics ...

But this is all I have. Took this picture of Ashley and Doug yesterday before they left to go back to Springfield. I checked my camera this morning .. knowing I didn't take any pictures at the wedding, but hoping someone else grabbed my camera and took a few shots ... no such luck.
So, wedding pictures will follow when she gets them back from the photographer, or if Kayla has some.
It's been busy, busy, busy around here for the last few weeks. With Christmas and the wedding, and everyone in from up north, all the kids in from college, with guests ... .
But, it's all starting to wind down now. Ashley and Doug left yesterday, Brad's back at school, Kayla's back in school, but still at the house because Paulo and Pipe are still here for another week. Danny's back on the week on/off program and he'll be back on Monday.

So calm, quiet and normal ... are not too far away.

Well that was fun ...

Last night we -finally- got some snow. We really haven't had much for the year so far, so the potential of 6 inches was pretty nice.
Turns out ... we ended up with maybe 2 .. but, it's better than nothing.
So last night, around midnight I went and drug our little house guests ( I affectionately refer to them as "the Colombian boys", Paulo and Pipe to look at the snow. (they weren't sleeping .. as everyone around here knows ... the days now run from about 2 pm till 4 or 5 am. (little different .. lol) Anyway ...
They have never seen snow. Maybe pictures on TV or online .. but never in person. So what's the next logical thing to do with snow ...

Take the car out and have some fun with it.

I figured since they had never really dealt with snow before .. they certainly had never spent the evening doing "donuts" in a parking lot.
So I drove up to the closest big parking lot (Target) and they spent the next half hour, sliding and spinning out in the lot. (Don't worry, we were careful not to hit anything, and everyone had their seatbelts on .. just in case we did. lol

I have never seen anyone as excited about anything as they were about the snow. They were just in awe of everything that a snowfall brings.
The cold,the white, the beauty that you really can't describe
and
The absolute silence and calm of snow

In 4 days ...

Ashley will be getting married. I took this forever ago when I got rid of my wedding dress. She looks as adorable in her dress as she does mine ... just a little more grown-up.