Two favorite Author's

This picture is of me and Jim Butcher with all the books he signed for me. He is the Author of the Dresden Files (about a detective wizard). The only one who has an ad in the yellow pages under wizard. These books have also been recently turned in to a television series on SCI FI called the Dresden Files. I absolutely love his books and the t.v. series.
This is Jim Butcher signing one of my books. He was at the B & N at Mid Rivers for a signing in April. This man is hilarious. I had a great time.
This is me with Charlaine Harris. She writes books about Sookie Stackhouse who is a telepath. Sookie lives in a world where everyone knows about vampires and is OK with it. They drink synthetic blood out of a bottle. LOL! Her books are pretty funny but can also be quite serious. There is always some kind of murder or mayhem that Sookie has to solve.

Charlaine was here on May 2ND at the B & N at Mid Rivers. She was also kind enough to sign all of my books. Even the cover of the Audio book I brought. She is the funniest women I think I have ever met. I had an awesome time at this signing too.

As you can see from the pictures I got my hair cut short. I'm not sure I like it a whole lot. I think it's a little shorter than I imagined. Next time I think I'll keep it a little longer. I might just do what I had a few summers ago and flip it out instead of under. We'll see.

My 9 Names

I saw this on Chris's blog, thought it was pretty cute, so now I am stealing it from her and she stole it from Jen.
My 9 Names

1. YOUR REAL Name:Karen

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.) Karizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal) Purple Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and street u live on) Marie Sue

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first
name.) Freka

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (Your 2nd favorite color, and favorite drink) Blue Sprite

7. YOUR FOREIGN NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of you dads middle name, 1st letter of a siblings first name, and last letter of your moms middle name)
Aemeade (Diana is the closest person to a sibling I have so I used her name :)

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents middle names) Lee Wayne or Wayne Lee

9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets) Black Caesar

That was fun!!

wow the 90's

 

If you are under the age of 13...you should not read this

and if you do, you should not repost this.

Just because you were born in '97 doesn't mean you're a 90's kid.

It's not like you could remember the original Simpsons. I am sorry but three conscious years of the 90's just wont cut it.

You're a 90's kid if:

You can finish this [ice ice _ _ _ _ ]

You remember watching:
-Doug
-Ren & Stimpy
-Pinky and the Brain
-AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!
-Rockos modern Life.

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You just cant resist finishing this . . . "Iiiiiiin west philidelphia born and raised . . ."

You remember:
-TGIF
-Step by Step
-Family Matters
-Dinosaurs
-Boy Meets World.

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not

when everything was settled by:
-rock paper scissors or
-bubble gum bubble gum in a dish or
-daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky.

when cops and robbers was a daily activity.

when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.

when we used to obey our parents

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time.

"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet. He's a Hero.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the GREEN ranger, were meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos . . . but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

You remember watching:
-The Magic School Bus
-Wishbone
-Reading Rainbow on PBS.
-Kablam!

You remember when Yo-Yos were cool.

You remember those Where's Waldo books.

You remember eating Warheads.

You remember watching:
-the 1st Batman
-Aladdin
-Ninja Turtles
-3 Ninjas movies.

You remember Ring Pops.

You remember drinking Surge, and Tang.

If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"

When they made the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.

You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.

Making those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicting your life with them.

You played and/or collected "Pogs" :)

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.

. . . Furbies.

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

And Windows 95 was the best.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja Turtles.

Michael Jordan was a king.

YIKES pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.

You remember when the new Beanie Babies and Talking Elmo were always sold out

You collected those Beanie Babies.

Carebears

Gak was the coolest stuff invented.

Lambchop's song never ended.

The old dollar bills.

Silver dollars, which were cool to have.

You remember a time before the WB.

You collected all the Troll dolls

If you even know what an original walkman is.

You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.

You remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground.

You remember Yak Backs, those little voice recorders

You always wanted the giant ear of corn from the original "All that"

You remember the boy band explosion (N*sync, Backstreet Boys, 98 degrees, LFO, etc)

You always wanted to go on Guts!, Legend of the Hidden Temple, What Would You Do?, Double Dare, or Figure it out!

One word: Pokemon


Before the MySpace frenzy . . .

Before the Internet & text messaging . . .

Before Sidekicks & iPods . . .

Before MIKE JONES . . .

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .

Before Spongebob . . .

Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.

When light up sneakers were cool.

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded
stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our walkman.

When checking out drawing books and that one book about the rainbow fish from the library was THE cool thing to do.

You had slap braclets!

Way back.

Before we realized all this would eventually disappear.

Who would have thought you'd miss the 90's so much!!!!!

---

FW: Do You Know Jack ???

I got this in my e-mail today and thought it was funny so I decided to share.

 

Here it is: 

WHO IS JACK SCHITT?

For some time many of us have wondered, "Just who is Jack Schitt?"

We find ourselves at a loss when someone says, 'You don't know Jack 
Schitt!' Well, thanks to my genealogy efforts, you can now respond in an 
intelligent way.

Jack Schitt is the only son of Awe Schitt. Awe Schitt, the
fertilizer magnate, married O. Schitt, the owner of Needeep N.
Schitt, Inc. They had one son, Jack.

In turn, Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt. The deeply religious couple 
produced six children: Holie Schitt, Giva Schitt, Fulla Schitt, Bull 
Schitt, and the twins Deep Schitt and Dip Schitt.

Against her parents' objections, Deep Schitt married Dumb Schitt, a high 
school dropout. After being married 15 years, Jack and Noe Schitt divorced. 
Noe Schitt later married Ted Sherlock, and because her kids were living 
with them, she wanted to keep her previous name. She was then known as Noe 
Schitt Sherlock.

Meanwhile, Dip Schitt married Loda Schitt, and they produced a son with a 
rather nervous disposition named Chicken Schitt. Two of the other six 
children, Fulla Schitt and Giva Schitt, were inseparable throughout 
childhood and subsequently married the Happens brothers in a dual ceremony. 
The wedding announcement in the newspaper announced the Schitt-Happens 
nuptials. The Schitt-Happens children were Dawg, Byrd, and Horse.

Bull Schitt, the prodigal son, left home to tour the world. He recently 
returned from Italy with his new Italian bride, Pisa Schitt.

Now when someone says, 'You don't know Jack Schitt,' you can correct them.


Sincerely,
Crock O. Schitt

.

 

 

Update on my cousin Erin

Sorry for not updating sooner.

Erin is finally at home. It was touch and go for awhile and we didn't know if she would make it or not.

They were finally able to take her off the ventilator and a few days later she was sent home. So far things have been good. The medication she was on made her an addict so they had to give her other medication to help her with the withdrawals. It's so sad to see her hold a glass of juice and just shake because her body misses the meds she was on. But it is getting better.

She is supposed to have surgery on her other leg in 6 months. After everything that has happened I'm not sure if my Aunt will go through with it though.

I don't blame her. I don't think I would chance it. I guess we'll see what happens in 6 months.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. My family and I really appreciate it. More than you know.

I Bought a New Car!

I bought a 2007 Pontiac Torrent. I LOVE it! It is sooo much bigger than my jeep. I have tons of trunk space and even if that isn't enough my back seats fold down to make the trunk even bigger. It seats 5 (including the driver comfortably( Whereas my jeep sat 4 and the 2 in the back had smashed legs. LOL! The back seat also moves back and forth to have even more or less leg room. TOO COOL! I also finally have power windows, key less remote and a 6 disc CD changer!! I have a sunroof too!

To me that is so cool considering in my jeep I had manual windows and a cassette player.

Michelle now has the jeep to drive. So she is pretty happy. It also makes me happy because I don't have to work my schedule around her. So now maybe I can see my friends a little more. Although I will now be broke for the next six years. :(

Tke the test to see if you're a Yankee or a Dixie

 I'm 55%  (Dixie).

 

Click on link below To see if you're a Yankee or a Dixie. This is a fun quiz.  The Yankee or Dixie quiz

 

 

 

 

---

.

Happy Easter

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter. I hope all of you have a good one.

Karen

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

I have been tagged by Chris and Violet So here is my list of 7 songs that I have been listening to:

1. All the Small Things by Blink 182

2. Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood

3. Pretty Vegas by INXS

4. Abracadabra by Steve Miller Band

5. Who Are You by The Who (that is the song I have for a ringtone)

6. Cum on Feel the Noize by Quiet Riot

7. Bad Day by Daniel Powter

WOW! Most of these songs give away my age. Anyway, this is what I have been listening to the most.

I don't think I have anyone left to tag darnit! Violet and Chris got to everybody first. So I'll have to start on the people at work. LOL!

Please Pray for my Cousin

My cousin Erin is 16 years old and she is mentally challenged. She doesn't speak except to say ma ma and she is really more like a 2 year old. Give or take depending on the circumstance. She is able to use some sign language to communicate . She can do eat, drink, movie, lights, thank you. Give or take depending on the circumstance. Here is a picture. She is the one at the bottom of the picture. The other two are her sister Jenny and brother Timmy. Barney is her favorite t.v. show ever!

On Tuesday March 13Th Erin went in to the hospital to have surgery on one of her legs. You see her feet point outwards in stead of straight forward. The surgery is a rough one so they were going to do just one leg and then in 6 months the other leg, because she will have to learn how to walk all over again.

So anyway, they did the surgery and everything seemed okay. They said her oxygen level was low and they put a face mask on her. Then later another doctor comes in and says her heart rate is way up. They order a chest X-ray and EKG. They then take her to ICU. Since then things have gotten progressively worse. Her lungs collapsed and wouldn't inflate again. They had to give her a breathing tube. She can not breathe on her own at all now. Once the tube was in, the machine inflated her lungs and is breathing for her.

Last night in the middle of the night her blood pressure dropped and the lines in her arms aren't working well enough to give her medicine. They had to put a central line in her shoulder so they could give her the medicine she needs. If that doesn't work they will have to put a chest tube in.

Her red cell count is down now too. (I think that is what it is) And she may have to have a blood transfusion.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude. It is really hard though when the doctors can't figure out what is wrong and why this is happening.

Please pray for her in her time of need.

Thank You so much

Now no set up for the treadmill

UUUGGGHHHH!!!! Can you believe it. They finally delivered the right treadmill today and didn't set the darn thing up! I had to call again and talk to tons of people. It seems the lady put in her notes to set up but didn't change the darn code. Of course they couldn't come back today so they are coming tomorrow.

Remind me NEVER to buy stuff from Sears again that needs delivered.


UPDATE!

We finally got our treadmill! It works and everything. What a miracle.

Getting stuff delivered or NOT!

Well, I went and bought a treadmill. I couldn't wait to get it here and start working out. Of course a car isn't big enough to bring it home and we needed someone to put it together so we paid the $60.00 for them to do that. Yea right! I should've known things were going to be bad. Just like last year with our drier.

First they were supposed to be here Saturday. They called because of the weather. Okay totally understandable. Then they were supposed to be here Sunday. Yes they came but the guy says they are just dropping it off and not putting it together. I was not a happy person. Someone screwed up and said we didn't need it put together. So then I have to call and set up another appointment for them to put it together. So , they were supposed to come today. But guess what? I looked at the darn thing and it's not even ours! They gave us some other guys treadmill. It has his customer name and his home phone number on it. And it isn't even the same treadmill we bought. Needless to say I was totally pissed at this point.

So I call this morning and now they can't pick up the one that's not ours and deliver the right one until March 4th! I was so not happy. We are getting our delivery fee back but still. What a pain in the a**

This is the second time in a year this has happened to us. I don't think we will be buying from this store again.

Ice Storm

As you all know we had an ice storm here Friday January 12th. Our power went out at 9:02 P.M and came back on at 10:30 P.M. YEA! or so we thought. I went to bed but my Mother and Daughter were still awake at midnight when the power went back out. I think everyone I know that lives in St. Charles had a power outage. Well Saturday comes and goes with still no power. On Saturday it was really pretty scary out. I will never forget the sound a tree makes when it cracks and falls to the ground with ice on it.

We went to my Uncle Ricky's house to drop off a battery operated lantern for my little cousin and I could see this big tree branch leaning in the road. I told my mom to make sure she pulled the car up in case the tree limb falls. While I was in the house I said "That tree looks like it could fall any minute." Well, that was the wrong thing to say because BAM! There goes the tree. It scared me to death. I am so glad my mom pulled the car up a ways.

Anyways, Saturday night in the middle of the night 2 tree branches on our tree fell. It is not near as bad as it could've been considering how huge the tree is. And other people had it way worse with there trees too. But here is a few pic's anyway of our tree mess.

As you can see a branch fell and was leaning on our power lines that lead from the house to the pole. We were really afraid that the power line wouldn't be able to hold the weight of the tree branch. As the days went by the power line kept drooping more. Luckily U.E finally came and took care of it on Wednesday.

Anyways, back to my story.

The house was getting kind of cold by now. Sunday morning no power again. It is 53 degrees in the house. Pretty cold to me. My Aunt Carol's power is back on so my daughter Michelle goes to her house to stay. I went with my mom out to he fiance's house to take a shower. Everything is electric in our house so no hot showers :(

My mom and I decided to stay home Sunday night since we had to work on Monday. It was just much easier to do so. Plus I would have had to come home anyway in the morning to take the dog out. It was pretty cold, but we had lots of blankets so it wasn't horrible.

So Monday still no power. Michelle again stays at my Aunts and mom and I decided to stay home again. It was a little colder in the house but my other Aunt and Uncle and there 3 kids decided stay at my Aunt Carols too. My mom and I decided that 9 people would just be too many to stay together.

So Tuesday morning comes and HOLY CRAP it was cold. Now 44 degrees in the house. I almost went to work in my P.J 's because I didn't want to have to put cold clothes on. And yes they were cold. It felt like I stuck them in the fridge. BRRRR.......

We decided we had enough and that 44 degrees was just too cold to stay at the house another night. But guess what? The power came on while I was at work on Tuesday at 2:00 P.M. I was soooo happy. Not only had I been cold for 4 days or so, but talk about bored! I couldn't even read very well by lantern light. Gave me a head ache.

So that is My story. Hopefully this doesn't happen again.

Here are some pic's of my Aunt Carol's tree that split.

Sad News

Michelle's friend Katie's (some of you know her) house caught on fire yesterday. Everyone got out of the house and all of the animals survived as well. Only part of the house is damaged because they were able to catch it pretty fast, but Katie lost everything because her room was totally destroyed. What do you do for somebody that that has happened too? She is staying at our house for the next 2-3 weeks while they get the house livable and Michelle gave her some of her old clothes that are to small on her now. But it's so sad I don't really know what to say. So could everyone just pray for her and her family that they get through this troubling time okay?

Thanks

Blonde jokes (so no offence to any blondes out there)

I thought these were cute so I figured I would share.

 

Did you hear about the two blondes who froze to death in a drive-in movie?

They went to see "Closed for the Winter."

***************

Why did the blonde resolve to have only 3 children?

She heard that one out of every four children born in the world was Chinese.

***************

Did you hear about the near-tragedy at the mall?

There was a power outage, and twelve blondes were stuck on the escalators for over four hours.

*****************

A blonde was driving home after a game and got caught in a really bad hailstorm. Her car was covered with dents, so the next day she took it to a repair shop. The shop owner saw that she was a blonde, so he decided to have some fun.

He told her just to go home and blow into the tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.

So, the blonde went home, got down on her hands and knees and started blowing into her tailpipe. Nothing happened. So she blew a little harder, and still nothing happened.

Her roommate, another blonde, came home and said, "What are you doing?"

The first blonde told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out.

The roommate rolled her eyes and said, "Duh, like hello! You need to roll up the windows first.

****************

A blonde went to an eye doctor to have her eyes checked for glasses.

The doctor directed her to read various letters with the left eye while covering the right eye.

The blonde was so mixed up on which eye was which that the eye doctor, in disgust, took a paper lunch bag with a hole to see through, covered up the appropriate eye and asked her to read the letters.

As he did so, he noticed the blonde had tears streaming down her face.

"Look," said the doctor, "there's no need to get emotional about getting glasses."

"I know," agreed the blonde, "But I kind of had my heart set on wire frames."

****************

A blonde was shopping at a Target Store and came across a silver thermos. She was quite fascinated by it, so she picked it up and brought it over to the clerk to ask what it was.

The clerk said, "That's a thermos . . . it keeps some things hot and some things cold."

"Wow, said the blonde, "that's amazing. I'm going to buy it!" So she bought the thermos and took it to work the next day.

Her boss saw it on her desk. "What do you have there?" he asked.

"Why, that's a thermos . . . it keeps hot things hot and cold things cold," she replied.

Her boss inquired, "What do you have in it?"

The blond replied, "Two Popsicles, and some coffee."

***************

A man entered the bus with both of his front pockets full of golf balls and sat down next to a beautiful (you guessed it) blonde.

The puzzled blonde kept looking at him and his bulging pockets.

Finally, after many such glances from her, he said, "It's golf balls."

Nevertheless, the blonde continued to look at him thoughtfully and finally, not being able to contain her curiosity any longer, asked, "Does it hurt as much as tennis elbow?"

******************

Saved the Best for Last!

This has to be one of the best blonde jokes around. This should make all you technologically challenged people feel GOOD:

A young man wanted to get his beautiful blonde wife, Susie, something nice for their first wedding anniversary. So he decided to buy her a cell phone. He showed her the phone and explained to her all of its features. Susie was excited to receive the gift and simply adored her new phone.

The next day Susie went shopping. Her phone rang and, to her astonishment, it was her husband on the other end. "Hi Susie," he said, "how do you like your new phone?"

Susie replied, "I just love it! It's so small and your voice is clear as a bell, but there's one thing I don't understand though..."

"What's that, sweetie?" asked her husband.

"How did you know I was at Wal-Mart?"

Michelle is driving

Today I took a vacation day so I could take Michelle to get her drivers license. So we get there around 8:30 A.M. and off she goes with an instructor. I was so nervous. It is really hard to watch your child walk off to do something like this. I kept thinking Oh my gosh! What if she doesn't pass. It was making me sick. I know she drives well, but you get nervous with stuff like this. I was just going to be so upset for her if she didn't pass.

Well, I shouldn't have worried at all. She did pass with an 87% . I think that's pretty good.

So everybody stay off the roads now because Michelle is driving. :) Just kidding. She really is a good driver.

So a little while ago she asks if she can take the car to Katie's. Of course I had to say yes, but inside I was screaming NOOOOO........... I know she can drive but it's still scary. You guys know all the crazy drivers out there. I guess it will be awhile before I'm calm about her taking the car.

Now I am going to have to find her a car to drive. I know this sharing thing is going to get old really fast. She is gone right now and I don't need to go anywhere but fell like dang! I'm stuck here :)

Well, I guess that is all for now. I'm just rambling on and have probably said the same thing just in four different ways. Catch you later.

Happy New Years everyone!

I would like to wish a Happy New Years to all of my friends out there. I'm sorry I couldn't be with all of you tonight.

Thanks much for inviting me to the party. But since I'm sick I didn't want to get anybody else sick. So I'll just have to settle on calling you guys at midnight so I can be on the phone with all of you. :)

My daughter is even going to her friends house so I guess I'll just watch the One Tree Hill DVD's I got for Christmas. No big deal, but I am cursing this darn cold that I have had since Christmas. I do not wish it on anybody. Okay, enough about that. You all have a good time.

I LOVE YOU ALL! Kisses and have a great time.

Karen

Lights and Chistmas Trees

Well, so far our tree has survived the cats. Every morning we have to pick ornaments up off the floor and every evening we have to shoo a cat out of the tree. No big deal . Then I come home last night and I turn on the tree. I start to walk past and I went darn it! The top half of the tree isn't lit. So I figure it got unplugged by the cats. Nope! The darn lights just don't work anymore. So our tree survived the cats but not the lights LOL!!
It looks pretty dumb with only the bottom half lit up and blinking but what are we to do? I know I'm not taking all the ornaments and garlan off just to put new lights on the top half of the tree. So now we just have a hoosier tree :) OH WELL! Maybe next year all will be good again.

Make yourself or a friend an Elf

Here is what I did to my daughter Michelle. Follow the link below to take a look.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=a386ebe8993fcc50168b4c9G06121610



Now GO here http://www.elfyourself.com/ to make an elf for yourself. It's pretty funny.

I have links

I switched to the new Beta and what do you know? They made it for dumb people like me. :)

Anyway, I was able to add links to my blog and now I'm happy. LOL!! I couldn't figure it out the other way.