I swear, I think our weekends are getting to be busier than our weekdays! ;P Friday was pretty hectic, and add the bad weather on top of that, it made for an interesting start to the weekend. Jessie’s karate test was Saturday — she’s now moved up from orange belt to a purple belt! Jim and I took pictures and filmed, so hopefully those will be up soon. We had a chance to talk to Jessie’s senseis for a bit, and both had nothing but good things to say about our little ray of sunshine. I noted that ever since beginning taking karate, she’s shown so much improvement … both in the dojo and outside of it!

Jessie left after the test with her mother. Jim and I went over to see my folks and saw my brother Jeremy and his wife Christy. They had Ryland with them, so I got to spend a little time with my favorite niece.

Isn’t she precious?

Stupidity knows no bounds

Today Jim and Jessie took me to brunch for Mother’s Day. I got a little aggravated earlier because I specifically told her mother that I was picking her up early and that we were going out to eat. Originally it was supposed to be breakfast … I pick Jessie up and find out that her mother had her EAT BREAKFAST right before I was to pick her up!

*beats head into wall repeatedly*

I swear, one of these days I’m bound to say something to this woman that I know I will regret, but that she also fully DESERVES.

So we waited a bit and went for ‘brunch’ … Jessie was hungry enough and Jim and I were starving! There was a slight ‘incident’ with a group that cut in line infront of us and another family. When I said something to one of the party members, she muttered something about us being ‘racists’ — the party members were black.

They moved on before I could say anything else, but I was fully ready to retort with, “It has nothing to do with race. The color of one’s skin does NOT exempt one from using common courtesy and manners!”

So I fumed a bit, but got over it. We were at Ryan’s and the food and service were great, which fully made up for the inconvenience before being seated. In their defense, it WAS packed, which made it a bit hard for the staff at the front to keep track of who should be where. However, that being said, I find it hard NOT to notice the general lack of manners by people I run across in public nowadays.

To most of these people, I am dying to say, “I *KNOW* your mother taught you better!”

A heart-felt and belated “Thanks!”

If all goes well, it looks like I’ll win this round in the Lunarpages’ WordPress theme design contest. I am completely overwhelmed by the response and surge in votes from family, friends, and extended community. I emailed a few close to me, and just about every one of them emailed their friends and family, and so on and so forth; and I posted on here and you each voted and responded in kind. (thank you!!) My Cotillion sisters rose to the occasion offering support and votes (thank you, girls! I love y’all!). Jim reached out to his guild and the guys have been very supportive with votes and feedback. (thank you!!) And last but certainly not least, the gargantuan legion of members over at the Soldiers’ Angels forums were a tremendous help in attaining and keeping the lead. (thank you very very much, Angels!!!)

I really should be ashamed of myself. I submitted my “Translucent Dream” theme 2 weeks ago, and figured it wasn’t going to be picked and totally forgot about it.

I didn’t read my feeds yesterday because I was out most of the day with Jess … she had an orthodontist appointment, then karate class, then she and I spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening working on my mother’s Mother’s Day gift that Jessie was planning to give her.

I was too tired to read the feeds or my email for that matter, last night and put it off until this morning. Now I wish I had checked them sooner! My “Translucent Dream” theme was chosen for this week’s round in Lunarpages’ WordPress theme design contest. So now I’m a total spazz, hehe.

Please please PLEASE go vote for me! (Please?)

I ran across a post in the Alabama Soldiers’ Angels forums from Lisa regarding the upcoming Armed Forces Day (May 17th). Gathering of Eagles is planning to set aside that day to “visit as many recruiter offices as we can and to pay some type of tribute to them,” calling it Operation Recruiter Appreciation.

An excellent idea! Recruiting is a tough and sometimes thankless job and we want to make sure that these hardworking men and women know that they are appreciated!

If you are interested in helping, contact Lisa at hottie0427 @ hotmail.com (remove the spaces before emailing).

To find your local recruiting offices, go to: www.todaysmilitary.com/contact-a-recruiter

I plan on hitting a couple recruiters’ offices around the Birmingham metro area Friday, May 16th. Will you join me in thanking our recruiters for their service to our country?

(x-posted to Bama Angels)

Summer is almost in full swing. Jessie’s heading into her last month — well, really 3 weeks — left of school and she’s SO ready for summer to get here! She and Jim have this deal, if she brings home straight A’s on her report card, he will get her the Nintendo DS and Dogs game she’s been wanting.

She’s worked REALLY hard this nine weeks, and if she’s not spot on, it will be close! She had a shaky start at the beginning of the year and this is the first year that she did not spend the whole time on an Honor Roll at all. (until this year, she’d always had straight A’s) I’m really proud of her, she found her motivation (a game system/video game … what a wonderful little geekling!) and has not let up, going full tilt boogie studying and making sure her homework was always checked for mistakes.

This geeky momma is so proud!

Her class is going to the Zoo next week, and guess who is chaperoning. Yup, yours truly. (Don’t worry, I’ll pack body armor and mace! ;)) She’s excited to have me coming along, and I’m just as equally excited to be going. She’s still in that cute stage where it’s OK for me to be around while she’s sitting and talking to her friends … I’d better enjoy it while it lasts! LOL!!

Shopping!

Jim and I will hopefully be resuming furniture shopping soon. The new bed is almost paid off and we now need a new mattress. We’ve been to several places and found that we both liked one of the Serta models. We tried out the Tempur-pedic from one place, but you know? I was surprised to find that I really don’t care for the memory foam mattresses.

After that, we’ll probably get a new couch, but that may have to wait until we get a new house — the den is pretty cramped as it is! We got a new dining room table from my grandmother, and we both have odds and ends still in storage.

Part of me thinks it’ll be kind of fun re-arranging and replacing everything. The ‘paying for it’ part still sucks though. ;P

I smurfed this from Conservative Belle, and I remember thinking to myself, “I hope I get something cool … like, with FIRE!”

Oh yeah, I’d be all over this one!

Be afraid … be very afraid!