I Get "It" Now

Surprise, surprise, while watching Oprah I heard something that made perfect sense to me. The episode had Sinead O'Connor on discussing her bipolar disorder. She was discussing the thoughts of suicide that she had for years.

Now, suicide has never been something that made any kind of sense to me before. I've never been that depressed, I've never been that far down, so that's understandable. What Sinead said that really resonated with me is that she deep down did not want to die, but that she truly wanted that depressed part of her life to die and be reborn as a happier human being.

I get that. Now if only we could point that out to people who are in the midst of depression, "No, you don't want to die, you are probably just wanting that sadness, the darkness, the hopelessness to die. You want to be happy, to feel peace once again."

I love light bulb moments.

Seriously Funny

I found this at my friend Mary's blog.... enjoy!

Using the "alphabet" below, spell your name.

A: You like to drink

B : You like people.

C : You are really silly.

D: You like to drink

E: Awesome in bed

F : You are dead sexy.

G : You never let people tell you what to do.

H : You have a very good personality and good looks

I : You Are Great in bed.

J : People Adore you

K : You're wild and crazy.

L: Everyone loves you.

M : Best kisser ever

.N : You like to drink

.O: Awesome kisser.

P : You are popular with all types of people.

Q : You are a hypocrite.

R: You are easy to fall in love with.

S : F***in crazy.

T : You're loyal to those you love.

U : You really like to chill.

V : You are not judgemental.

W : You are very broad minded.

X : You never let people tell you what to do.

Y: Best bf/gf anyone could ask for

Z : Always ready

So my name is:
J : People Adore you
E : Awesome in bed
N : You like to drink
N : You like to drink
I : You Are Great in bed
E : Awesome in bed

How funny is that??????

0 and 5

Chris G., Karl, Ben and I went to the St. Louis Rams game today. Unfortunately, they lost... AGAIN. I'm losing faith y'all.

One highlight for the day at the game was the halftime "show." Today was Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend in the NFL. The NFL had over 100 breast cancer survivors bring out a giant pink ribbon.

Hell Must be Getting Cold...

1) I got a new, yes I said NEW, computer at work. I figure that I will be getting at least an additional 10 minutes worth of work done instead of spending time waiting on my slow computer.

2) I have now blogged more than my sister in the past two weeks. And she has no excuse. Ha ha!

Kids Who Don't Know Adult Stuff Are Hilarious!

Ben and I were at my nephew's 10th birthday party tonight along with many of my sister-in-law's sisters and their kids, who are all about Brad's age. Later in the evening, my sister-in-law turns on "Desperate Housewives." No big deal, right? WRONG. And of course, wrongness led to hilarity.

I turn around in time to see Nathan Fillion walk into an exam room with Terri Hatcher. Turns out, he's her new neighbor who is also now her new "princess doctor" (as Morgan calls them). He tells her to put her feet up into the stirrups.

Oh yeah, here's the important part. My nephew's 8 or 9 year-old cousin, Emily, is in the living room while this scene is playing on the television.

"What's wrong with her feet?" asks the innocent little one.

Yup, sweet little 8/9 year-old thinks that there is something wrong with the woman's feet. This girl knows not the loveliness that is the "princess doctor."

I swear, all of us women in the room laughed a good five minutes on that line. We couldn't stop laughing long enough to explain why there was nothing wrong with her feet. God, I hope her mother explains it to her later.

William Sledd

My new co-worker, who is from Paducah, KY, knows William Sledd. I just think that's really cool. She says that he has picked out about half of her wardrobe.

That's all. No, really, that's all I wanted to say tonight.

Reba and Justin

OK, for those of you who know me really well, you know that I am not a huge Justin Timberlake fan. I'm not opposed to him, just not a major fan. Well, now I will be purchasing an album for a song written by Justin for my ALL TIME favorite singer ever, Reba McEntire.

The YouTube Video from their Oprah appearance.

The song is beautiful. As I was listening to it, I thought, "This sounds like a good mother to child song." Which then got me thinking about my mother-in-law and Ben, and I cried. It is a GREAT mother to child song. And I know that Millie is up there watching over us and she would so love this song. She may not have been a Reba fan, but she would love the lyrics.

So, I will probably be making a stop at Best Buy or Target for Reba's 31 st album, "Duets."

All About Me (and my Hubby)

I snagged this from Jessi who snagged this from Pink Lucy.

1. Who is your man? Benjamin Michael

2. How long have you been together? July 2001

3. How long did you date? 9 months until we got engaged, 18 month engagement

4. How old is your man? 33 y/o

5. Who eats more? He does

6. Who said “I love you” first? He did, I was afraid to say it because I thought it might scare him away.

7. Who is taller? He is, by about 6 inches

8. Who sings better? We're both pretty good, but I like to sing more than he does.

9. Who is smarter? Hmmm... I don't really know. I'd like to say that we're pretty well matched IQ-wise, but in different intelligence areas.

10. Whose temper is worse? His is pretty bad when he's hungry or if he's playing a game.... I have a VERY long fuse, but when its gone, you better watch out. My brother really knows how to cut that fuse way short. He's probably the person who has seen my worst the most.

11. Who does the laundry? We both do. One of us usually starts it, then we help fold and transfer.

12. Who takes out the garbage? He does.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? While laying on the bed, Ben sleeps to the right.

14. Who pays the bills? He pays his bills and our bills. I pay my bills.

15. Who is better with the computer? Duh, he's the computer networking guy. You figure it out.

16. Who mows the lawn? He does. But I do the weeding/gardening.

17. Who cooks dinner? I do, when we're not eating out or at Chez Jessi.

18. Who drives when you are together? He does, but that's mostly because he hates riding in my Honda Civic.

19. Who pays when you go out? Ben usually takes care of the bill, but sometimes I do.

20. Who is most stubborn? We can both be kinda stubborn, although I can be more so sometimes.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? See previous answer.... because I'm slightly more stubborn, it's hard for me to do it, but I'm often the one admitting that I'm wrong. I'm trying to get better at not being wrong in the first place, though.

22. Whose parents do you see the most? Well, that would have to be mine since they live 1 mile down the road and both work with him. My father-in-law is only 25-30 miles away, and we just went and had breakfast with him this morning.

23. Who kissed who first? Hmmmmm..... I think we kissed each other on the first date.

24. Who asked who out? I asked him out. Then he asked Justin for "permission" to date me. If you don't already know the story, post a comment....

25. Who proposed? I did... then he did. I wanted my late grandparents to be a part of our love story, so I proposed while we were back East for them to meet him. Then 6 months later, he proposed to me on Christmas Eve.

26. Who is more sensitive? I definitely cry more than Ben. But I think Ben's more in tune with relationship stuff than most men, so he can be sensitive, but in a good way.

27. Who has more friends? I think I do, but it's kind of a moot point, we both get along with each other's friends really well.

28. Who has more siblings? Ben does. Four brothers and three sisters. I only have two sisters and one brother.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Most of the time, he does. We are pretty well in agreement on most things anyway, though.

30. Come up with a question for us to answer............

Imagine This

The other day, I was driving home down the East-bound express lane. I checked my rear view mirror (huh-huh, rear view, which will be much funnier to you at the end of this post...) and I saw more motorcycles barreling down on me and my little Honda than I have ever seen before in my entire life. As they fly past my little car, Morganarama (my passenger) goes "Ooh, their jackets are sparkly!"

Then, we notice a bike with a passenger leaning forward, holding tight to her honey... and her a$$ crack is hanging out the top of her low ride jeans. That isn't even the funniest part of this story! About 20 or 30 bikes later (that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but you catch my drift), we see two or three more chicas with a$$ crack hanging out, but their crack is punctuated with thongs. One of them was a red sparkly thong.

Huh-huh Rear view. Told you it would be funnier now.

In Memoriam

Painfully, I'm having to announce that my mother-in-law, Millie, passed away on Friday, September 7. Her death was not particularly expected, so was doubly difficult. She was 71 years old. She will be terribly missed by her husband, 8 children, 6 children-in-law, and 20+ grandchildren.

Millie was a phenomenal mother-in-law, I couldn't have asked for anyone better. She never was judgmental of me or my marriage to her baby. She was fun, funny and very smart. It's really hard to believe that she's really gone. Whenever we walk into my father-in-law's house now, we go into the kitchen and she's not sitting in "her chair."

It just makes me very sad that my children will never know her. She was so looking forward to meeting her baby's babies. She'll just be looking down from above and watch over them for us when we can't be around.

Millie, I know that you know that you were (and still are) loved very much. We miss you already.

View From my Room

This is what I can see from my 30th floor hotel room in downtown Seattle:

The wide view

Zoomed in on the Space Needle

Off to the west, the "ocean" and mountains behind it at sunset.

It's a beautiful sight. I'm so lucky to have this room.

The Home of Starbuck's

I am safe and sound in my hotel room in Seattle, Washington. I am now officially farther west than I have ever been before in my life. And tomorrow, I will be going farther west, out to the Pacific. I super excited. I really hope that I'll see some killer whales in their natural environment. That would kick butt. Even better would be if I get a picture of said whales. If I am lucky enough to get a photo, I'll post it when I get a chance. I know I always say that, but with my new laptop, all I have to do is insert the camera memory stick in, grab the picture and post.

I've ordered a gourmet pizza with cookie dough Ben & Jerry's for dessert. Awesome.

UPDATE: Apparently, Seattle is NOT the home of Ben & Jerry's. But I did end up going to The Original Starbuck's. I've got pictures to prove it.

Two Things...

First, I fly to Seattle on Saturday for a conference for work. The conference doesn't technically start until Tuesday, though. Sunday, I'm going on a whale watch with the gal who did my job before me and a couple other people. Monday is a Boeing Factory tour, which I am pysched about. I've been to the Boeing Prologue Room here in St. Louis like a million times, so getting to actually see some planes get made will be awesome.

Second, I was turned onto a REALLY funny blog: mom2my6pack.blogspot.com

Now, If you're not a mom (which I'm not, yet), someone who grew up with a few siblings or a teacher, you may not appreciate this blog the way I do. But this mom is So funny... she put up an eBay item for bidding because her kids got her to buy it without her knowing. It's a pack of 40-something Pokemon cards that one of her 6 kids threw into the grocery cart while she wasn't looking, and then she missed picking them out of the cart when purchasing all her other items. So she's selling the cards because her kids were little buttheads. I LOVE it! I would SOOOO do that if my kid pulled that on me. AND, the money would go to charity. Ha, little buttface, your little trick just got some kid a Christmas toy.

Karma Hates Us

Especially my hubby, apparently. Lightning hit our house (possibly the HD antenna or satellite dish) Monday morning at 3:26 a.m. I know this because it was the loudest sound I've ever heard in my life, and it woke me up forcing me to check my clock.

For those of you who don't know me well: You should know that I can sleep through a college marching band parading through my bedroom. So to say that I woke up for a thunderstorm is impressive. That lightning strike was seriously one of the loudest sounds ever.

The lightning seems to have fried the following items in our house:
*two DirecTv DVRs (luckily the Tivo in our bedroom appears to be fine, but the satellite dish isn't getting/sending signal)
*satellite dish
*HD antenna
*VCR (I know you're wondering why the heck we even have one anymore, but we do use it from time to time)
*wireless router
*computer switches (I don't know what they are, but Ben says we need them to use the internet)
*garage door opener (at least I'm getting a little workout every time I leave and return home)
*all of Ben's gaming system consoles ( ALL of them )

And the last one listed up there... that's why Ben and I have determined that karma has it in for him right now.

We keep telling ourselves that at least the house didn't burn down, that we're safe and sound, that Kitty is OK (well, I'm happy for that at least).

Ben has been working with our homeowner's insurance company to get everything fixed and/or replaced. He's awesome. I know it cannot be easy to deal with insurance claim adjustors, especially after many of them got ripped off after Katrina, so I just want everyone to know how much I truly appreciate Ben for taking that task on.

I've got the best husband in the world (even if karma doesn't like him right now).

P.S. I joked with him that this was karma's way of saying "Get busy making babies!" He didn't laugh. Post a comment if you think that was a funny joke... back a girl up here!

Baby Aiden

Baby boy Aiden
Aug. 9, 2007
6 lbs, 2 oz, 17 inches

New Baby in Our Midst

My friends Scott and Robin have been going through an adoption process for the past few months, but were trying to keep most of it under wraps so as not to jinx it. But now, Baby Aiden was born today. He was 6 lbs, 2 oz and 17 inches long. Congrats to the new Mom and Dad!

I'll post pictures as soon as she sends me some.

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home early this afternoon. The flights home weren't bad at all. They certainly were not the fiasco that Friday night turned out to be.

The memorial service for Grampa was nice. Those of us there have collectively agreed that there is nothing sadder than bagpipes at a funeral. They are guaranteed to cause crying as soon as they start up (that is if you were at all close to the deceased). Case-in-point: Got to the church, saw the bagpiper standing in the shade of a large tree at the front of the church. Knew he would be playing. Got out of the car, got halfway across the street and he starts playing. Teared up immediately. Got into the church, couldn't hear him very well in there, then he moves to the door closest to where most people are coming in, and starts playing "Scotland the Brave," my grandfather's favorite song. Both my mom and I start crying. Finally, the end of the service, bagpiper starts playing and the ENTIRE front pew either teared up, began weeping or just outright sobbed. I know that I will not be able to hear bagpipes live and not tear up. It doesn't matter if it's at a wedding or funeral for a complete stranger, because I've now heard bagpipes at both my grandparents' memorials, they will forever be associated with deep sadness.

Anyway, it's nice to be home. Kitty cat has missed us a lot. Which kind of surprises me, but she has been in the same room with us since we walked in the door. Every once in a while, she walks past us just to rub up against us. It's cute. But she'll get sick of us again soon. :)

Back East

Ben and I arrived in Connecticut late Friday night. The flight was a pain in the rear (and a workout to boot), but we got here safely.

We went out for breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts this morning... a highlight for a tough weekend. After that, we returned to the hotel to clean up before going to Grandpa's apartment to go through his things.

While getting showered, I consciously made an effort to steel myself for what I knew was going to be a difficult trip to the apartment. Then, I realized that he had moved to a new apartment, it might not be that bad. Yeah.

When we arrived at the apartment, it wasn't bad until I saw his chair. Empty. I crumbled like a cookie and started bawling. Luckily Ben was right there and could easily comfort me. Of course, that got Katie going as well. After that, though, I did OK. I teared up a couple of times while there, but overall did pretty well.

Also, your thoughts and comments are appreciated. Mary, I'll pass on your hug tomorrow.

Update: NASA launched the Mars Phoenix Lander tonight. Yay! Another successful Mars launch.

In Memoriam

Today, my grandfather passed away. He was 86, almost 87 years old. Bill Carew was a stickler for the rules, but boy did he have a sense of humor. He's now joined his wife, Helen, in the after life.

Have a Manhattan for Bill and Helen. God knows they are! :)

Sorry it's been so long...

Hello all (you know, all 5 of you the read this...)!!

Happy Anniversary (1 day late) to Morgan and Mike!!! 3 years you guys... that's awesome.

I was going to write this big long post... then my computer lost it all. So Happy Anniversary! I love you guys!!