My Collection...

This is my collection of quotes. I started to build it in 2003. I absolutely love quotes. I guess that there is probably about 500 quotes altogether. One day I think that I will count them, but not anytime real soon.

A Food Lesson....

Since I am in the food business you would think I should know these sorts of food facts. I didnt. But now since I do, I feel I must pass the word on. So heres a few interesting facts for you to read, Do it now before you go out for dinner tonight. Before its too late...

20 Worst Fast-Foods

20: Chicken Meal - Chicken Selects Premium BreastStrips from McDonald's (5 pieces) with cream ranch sauce. 830Calories, 55 grams fat (4.5 trans fat), 48 carbs. Add a large friesand regular soda and this seemingly innocuous chicken meal tops outat 1,710 calories.

19: Worst drink - Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo'd Power Smoothie (30 floz). 900 calories, 10 g fat, 183 carbs, 166 g sugar. Jamba Juicecalls it a smoothie, MSNBC calls it a milk shake. The beveragecontains as much sugar as 8 pints of Ben & Jerry's butter pecan icecream.

18: Worst supermarket meal - Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie(whole pie). 1,020 calories, 64 g fat, 86 g carbs. Label may say this pie serves two, but, who ever divided a small pot pie in half? Once you crack the crust, there will be no stopping.

17: Worst 'healthy' burger - Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. 1,145calories, 71 g fat, 56 g carbs.

16: Worst Mexican entree - Chipotle Mexican Grill Chicken Burrito.1,179 calories, 47 g fat, 125 g carbs, 2,656 mg sodium.

15: Worst kids' meal - Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni 'n' Cheese.1,210 calories, 62 g fat, 3,450 mg sodium. It's like feeding your kid1 1/2 boxes of Kraft mac 'n' cheese.

14: Worst sandwich - Quiznos Classic Italian (large). 1,528 calories,92 g fat, 4,604 mg sodium, 110 g carbs. A large homemade sandwichwould more likely provided about 500 calories.

13: Worst salad - On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef.1,450 calories, 102 g fat, 78 g carbs, 2,410 mg sodium. This isn't ananomaly: Five different On the Border salads on the menu contain morethan 1, 100 calories each.

12: Worst burger - Carl's Jr. (Hardee's on East Coast) Double Six Dollar Burger. 1,520 calories! , 111g fat. Carl's Jr. brags it's home to this enormous sandwich, but the restaurant chain also provides convenient nutrition info on its Web site -- so ignorance is no excuse for eating it.

11: Worst steak - Lonestar 20 oz T-bone. 1,540 calories, 124g fat.Add a baked potato and Lonestar's Signature Lettuce Wedge, and thisis a 2,700 calorie blowout.

10: Worst breakfast - Bob Evans Caramel Banana Pecan Cream Stackedand Stuffed hotcakes. 1,540 calories, 77 g fat (9 g trans fat), 198 gcarbs, 109 g sugar. Five Egg McMuffins yield the same caloric cost asthis stack of sugar-stuffed flapjacks, which is truly a heavybreakfast, weighing in at a hefty pound and a half.

9: Worst dessert - Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with VanillaIce Cream. 1,600 calories, 78 g fat, 215 g carbs. Would you eat a BigMac for dessert? How about three? That's the calorie equivalent ofthis decadent dish. Clearly, Chili's customers get their money's worth.

8: Worst chinese entree - P.F. Chang's Pork Lo Mein. 1,820 calories,127 g fat,! 95 g carbs. The fat content in this dish alone providesmore than 1,100 calories. And you'd have to eat almost five servingsof pasta to match the number of carbs it contains. Now, do you reallyneed five servings of pasta?

7: Worst chicken entree - Chili's Honey Chipotle Crispers withChipotle Sauce. 2,040 calories, 99 g fat, 240 g carbs. "Crispers"refers to an extra thick layer of break crumbs that soak up oil andadds unnecessary calories and carbs to these glorified chicken strips.

6: Worst fish entree - On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with Rice andBeans. 2,100 calories, 130 g fat, 169 g carbs, 4,700 mg sodium.Perhaps the most misleadingly named dish in America : A dozen crunchytacos from Taco Bell will saddle you with fewer calories.

5: Worst pizza - Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza.2,310 calories, 162 g fat, 123 g carbs, 4,470 mg sodium. Downingthis "personal" pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino'sCrunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.

4: Worst pasta - Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with MeatSauce. 2,430 calories, 128 g fat, 207 g carbs, 5,290 mg sodium. Thismeal satisfied your calorie requirements for an entire day.

3: Worst nachos - On the Border Stacked Border Nachos. 2,740calories, 166 g fat, 191 g carbs, 5,280 sodium.

2: Worst starter - Chili's Awesome Blossom. 2,710 calories, 203 gfat, 194 g carbs, 6,360 mg sodium.

1: The worst food in America - Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing. 2,900 calories, 182 g fat, 240 g carbs. Even ifyou split these "starters" with three friends, you'll have downed adinner's worth of calories before you entree arrives.

I didnt know it was even legal to consume 200 grams of fat in one day much less one sitting!
Now, I must go to work...

Happy Leap Day!!!

MySpace Graphics at GlitterBell.com
St. Patricks Day Comments

Well here it is Leap Day. Mark and I are celebrating our "first" anniversary. So, I thought I would kick off the celebration with a few words of wisdom, about love and marriage. When I think of marriage, the wisdom of Rita Rudner always comes to mind:
"Its's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life."
And it is true... I love to annoy Mark, my spouse...
"Spouse: someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you wouldn't have had if you'd stayed single" ~unknown.
One thing I have learned well over the past 4 years is this:
"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight." ~Phyliss Diller.
Ok ok joking aside. Im not sure how we have survived this long but Mignon McLaughlin explains it best...
"In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing."
And last but not least...
"A true friend reaches for your hand, and touches your heart." ~Marlene Dietrich

Happy Anniversary honey, I love you lots! This ones for you...
"Yesterday brought the begining,
tomarrow brings the end,
and somewhere in the middle,
we became the best of friends."
~unknown

Time for a change...

Today, I will drop off 3 applications for new jobs. I am extremely nervous about this. I have sort of fallen into a schedule I really like. I dont really want to change things up at this point. My job has been so flexible I am afraid I have become dependent upon the flexibility. Yesterday Danika was not feeling good and needed me to pick her up from school I was very easily able to do this without getting fired. I like that. I cant even count how many times this has happened over the last 4 years. I am not sure my family or myself are ready for a grown up job schedule. But if I want to apply for nursing school, I need to take a cpr and cna class before I am able to do that. Those courses cost alot of money. Alot. So, if I work for a nursing home, the nursing home will pay for those classes. Therefore, it really is time to change things up. I will be working heavily at the job I currently hold this next month, so it is going to be extremely difficult to fit in a new job. But I really dont want to quit my job. I would like to keep it until I finish school. (If I really go) But, in the end...this will have been a piece of cake. (wink wink) But, maybe the nursing homes will see that I am completly stuck in my ways and unteachable that they wont hire me. Off I go... wish me luck!

The Toilenator...

One day Tylen asked me to buy him a plunger. A toilet plunger. Why?? my first thought was "this kid is strange." So of course I refused. What kind of mother would I be if I allowed my son to play with a toilet plunger. gross! Well, he asked again. I caved. I always do. So Tylen ran around for a couple weeks with his plunger. Every time we went anywhere, he wanted that damn plunger to come with us. I always refused unless we were going to grandma Evies. Then a few weeks after he got the plunger he asked for a toilet seat. A TOILET SEAT! Can you imagine?! I enlisted tylens older sister for guidance. I could not figure out what was wrong with my kid. A toilet seat and a plunger. I thought my life was in the crapper (snicker snicker) Well it all boiled down to a video game. For Christmas one year I bought my kids a video game for the xbox called "The Kids Next Door" in the game, one of the villians is called the toilenator. He wears a toilet seat necklace, swings a plunger around like a sword, and throws toilet paper rolls at his victims. I am to this day, thankful that the game I chose for the kids, was this one. I never really put much thought into what kind of games the kids had, or what television they watched for that matter. I will always think twice now, and I will always remember the Toilenator. And I will never never never buy tylen a toilet seat cover. NEVER.

Hello!

I actually started out the afternoon taking a video of the kids telling you all how much they miss you. But sadly I am computer dumb and unable to figure out how to put the video up. i will work on that but for now youll just have to take my word that they miss you. I also took another video of danika eating a piece of pizza while I told her all about aunty allys plans to buy a trailer house and move to the sticks. it is quite hillarious.

More visitors

Look who came for dinner last night. Marks friends. Mark thinks the male deer have started to lose thier antlers, look at the way the one deer is following the other behind the tree branches. I wonder if maybe Mark is right. The most we have counted so far is 9, but there are so many new tracks each day that there has to be more of them that we cant see. Spring is coming... that means bow practice. I wonder if that will scare these deer away, to see me out there learning to shoot. Do you think they will know I am planningto shoot them or their brothers? I dont want to scare them away yet. We just taught them it was safe to come back. This year I am so going to be the great white hunter. And Mark will bow to my and raise my skills.
Ok enough dreaming...Im off to work. I wonder if Oscar will be there?

Oscars Wild Ride

Its kind of hard to see what actually happened just by looking at this photo, so I will tell you the tale of my what happened to my new friend Oscar. before we begin I must tell you that this is a true story. I met Oscar this morning. He was at work when I arrived. He was different from the others, he was friendly. I said "goodmorning" he just looked at me. There was something in his eyes that made me think about him all day long. When I was getting ready to leave work, I bought a treat to give to Oscar if I should see him again. There he was, just waiting for me. I said "Come here oscar" and he did, rubbed my leg a little and made me think he loved me. I picked him up, and put him into my car. But sadly Oscar did not like my car. He tried to get jump out the window. But Oscar is a little dumb...He tried to jump out the windshield. He hit his head. I got into the car and told him it would be ok. I just wanted to take him to my house to live. He could run anywhere he wanted, he could eat as many mice as he could find. And soon maybe he could even eat a chicken when he wanted too. But Oscar still cried. LOUDLY! So I had to let him out. What could I do? He did not want to ride in the car. And I was a little afraid to force him. So maybe tomarrow he will be waiting for me and maybe tomarrow I will bring a cat carrier with me. I may also think of a girls name, just in case oscar is not an oscar.


PS people just drop off these cats at my work. I am not trying to steal someones pet.

A night out...

I dont have a photo to use today so Im just gonna wing it... We took the kids out for dinner and a movie last night. I let tylen chose the movie and he did choose The Spiderweb chrominal...AKA The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was a little scary in some places but I survived. (I was just relieved we didnt go to Alvin and the chipmunks.)It was a good movie, I dont think I can say that we loved it. but we did like it, we (Tylen and I) saw some simularities to Harry Potter movies. Like... both of the boys in both of the movies have brown hair. And they both flew on one of those big scary birds (griffins, I think) and there was a giant snake in both movies. So almost exactly the same...LOL. Afterwards we went to pizza hut because thats where the kids wanted to go. I love pizza hut myself and cant wait to dig into the cold left overs...Yum yum. we all had a good time. Even marky poo who had to shell out more than 50$ just for the movie... But all in all a good night.

Visiting Day...

This is one of our visitors out here "in the sticks" We all count them every morning and night. We check a total of 6 windows, running back and forth, sometimes running into each other. Our highest count is nine so far. This is what we do...we are boring I know and I am not afraid to admit it. I hear some people need more excitement than a few deer can bring, but not us. We love our boring life. We wake up, we work, we eat and then we sleep. We are just thrilled to pieces when we get the excersise running from window to window brings...if we didnt have that daily physical exertion, we would probably be out of shape and over wieght...What more in life could we ask for? We are content counting deer...

"A smile will brighten your face and fill your heart with love and grace."~unknown.
"Especially a smile like this one." ~Auntie Sarah.
I plan to conquer this baby and make her mine. Ok. Ok.I wont make her mine, but I do plan to become her favorite Auntie..Ok. Ok. Maybe not her favorite, but I plan to at least become likeable to her. LOL! Have a great day all, Im off to the casino this morning.

Missin my girls...

Arent these girls so cute! I sure miss them today... but look they are waving hello to me! Hi Lissie! Hi Livie! I sure hope they are having a good day. Lissie might be in school today and if she is I bet her hair is all brushed nice. Maybe she even has a barrett in her hair. Lissie will be having a birthday in a couple of months, I wish I could remember the name of that swimming doll I told her I would get her if she held up her end of our deal. It looks like she is too...what was that dolls name again anyway?!? Livie is probably at Kathys house today. Having fun. Without me. Livie and I are princesses...I bet most of you knew livie was a princess. But did you know I was too? Well I am. Hey Livie...when are you coming to visit me and marky poo? we miss you. Lissie cant come till she gets a little more time, but maybe you both could come stay at the same time? wouldnt that be fun? Be good girls...I miss you.

Show me yer legs!!

This is what I saw yesterday when I looked out the window of the store. I, being the dork that I sometimes can be, had to go out and check it out. I wondered why someone would drive around with dead things in their pickup truck. It turns out the dead things were coyotes and the guy trapped them. He was taking them to a fur buyer. He also had some foxes and beavers in there. I was a little embarassed to ask him if I could take a picture of his dead animals, so I snuck a photo. I thought I saw a live coyote once, but after seeing the dead ones yesterday I am positive that I have never seen one before. The guy came back to the store after he went to the fur buyers store(?) and said he brought all the coyotes back home with him because the guy was only giving 15$ per coyote. That seems small to me since the guy who trapped the animals could have been killed. They had really sharp teeth. Anyway, the things you see out here in the sticks...dead things.

Free Glitter Graphics

Good morning. Its thursday! I have tomarrow off from work. (possibly) its only -17 today. Yesterday was -33 when I got up. My car would not start and I had 2 jobs to go to yesterday, So I had to take the cruiser! I could hardly believe that started. I didnt plug it in or anything. But it saved the day. I was scared I would get pulled over in it because we decided just to park it and then sell it when the title comes in, so we didnt put any insurance on it. I called my insurance guy in Winsted. (I know I should probably find a more local insurance person) The purple people cruiser is now insured and I am going to take it to work again today! yeah!! Did you all watch the "mooner eclipse" last night? It took a long time to get over. Tylen saw it at 7 (he says) good thing because his teacher told him to look at 7 and again at 10. There was no way I was going to let the boy stay up til 10, so he could see the mooner eclipse. Have a great day all!

Glitter Graphics & Comments

Ok, we did have a little excitement. We had Evie over for a gormet dinner... I fixed her some of my famous pancakes and sausage...mmm yummy. I had made some venison breakfast sausage over the weekend that we all really wanted to try. So whala... breakfast for dinner. It was pretty good. way better than the last stuff I think.
And of course after dinner...American Idol was on. I am so hooked on that show. We all are. right down to the smallest guy. He tells me if each singer will be sent home or will stay. Hes pretty good at guessing. Which is surprising since he believes with all his heart that I can make it as a singer on American Idol. As could Mark. Since he is right with all the others, to Danis dismay, Mark and I spend alot of time running around the house singing. We could be famous you know. LOL! Have a great day All...

An amputation...

So last night, we were rushing around to get ready to go to wrestling practice when tylen had an accident. He hit his chin on the stair railing causing hime to bite his tongue. It hurt alot, so he cried and cried. His tongue was bleeding. Poor guy. He said he didnt want to go to wrestling, and cried and bled some more. Finally I got him calmed and it was too late to go to practice. So he and I went upstairs to my room. He was going to watch TV while I cleaned up my fabric mess, about 45 minutes into it, he came running over to me with his finger sticking out. "Look!" holding his finger out so I could see that there was something on the tip of his finger..."Look" I did, all I could see was a little speck of something. I was about to ask him to show me his teeth so I could tell if his tooth had chipped... when he said...all breathlessly like he was in awe..."its a taste butt!"
Poor guy! I never knew anyone who bit off one of thier own taste butts... I just hope it doesnt cause any future complications.
LOL!!

Back to the grindstone...

Good morning. After a great weekend home with the kids its back to work for me. Yesterday the kids were able go play outside again. Nice! I did not work on the kitchen. But I do believe I decided on the wall color. So I can go ahead and finish the cabinets now. LOL! I ground up some more venison yesterday and made some breakfast sausage. I think it may have turned out better than the last batch. Next weekend, I plan to make some spicy pepperoni. I really liked the last stuff that I made. I think I figured out how to make it a little prettier.
I dont really have anything to report, we just had a lazy relaxing sunday for a change. We all stayed home and hung out. I really enjoyed it. Wish we could do that a little more often...

have a good day!

Free Glitter Graphics
Mark and I went to the casino last night...we had a good time, first I won a little, and Mark lost a little. Then we planned to leave, but we decided to have dinner there, during dinner we thought one more try...So, mark won his money back and I lost mine. So all in all... we pretty much had a great night and a good dinner for just a little money. kinda cool. The eel pout festival is going on this weekend so the place was busy. Have a great day you all...I hope to figure out the picture problem tomarrow so I can show picture of my new kitchen cupboards...I might just have to ask danika if she can help me figure it out.

Myspace Graphics

It seems that mark did get the computer fixed after all. I can not figure out how to use my pictures but I think I can find a way around that. So I had to use this picture that tj thinks is too "frustrating" to look at. Other than the picture thing it looks real good. Fast again. That real slow stuff was driving me insane. It also was a whole lot cheaper than buying a new computer. Any way... its working again.
Last night we were visited by 8 deer! That is the most at one time. It was real neat watching them the first group came <3> and then 3 more and they all stared each other down to decide which group could eat first...then this big one came running towards them and they scattered to let it eat. Mark thought it was a buck that had already shed his antlers... I dont know about that. Dani saw a couple of them get up on the back legs to fight. Very cool! Out of 3 windows we counted 8 deer...some were playing in the front near our tire swing...some were on the pond in back... and some were by that kennel on the side. I can hardly wait for spring now. I want to take out my bow...gonna get some help sighting it in...I am so gonna win the most deer category this year! Yeah!!!

Myspace Graphics


I totally understood ya grand pa...I love hearing from you too. I have always known that you are special...And you are not the only one with that bad spell checker gene, but you are the math whiz in this family...I dont know how the others arrived at any number larger than 26 for my age, but your the lowest bidder so I choose you! I also agree with you that words should be spelled the way they sound. CloK is so much easier to spell and read! So please please please dont let any of the others scare you away with their teasing (between you and me, some of the others dont seem to spell very well either...) I think they are just jealous because you are such a great blogger and always first in line! Keep up the good work!

Myspace Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Off to work again...

Im finally gonna drive my new car to work today! Before I left I must have heard 10 times a day... "Wheres your new car?" So here it is!! I just wish today was friday, our delivery truck driver is a huge packer fan...that would have been so fun! Tylen will be thrilled when I wake him up and tell him were taking the truck. He absolutely loves this car, thinks its the best thing ever to happen to him. My niece, is 5, and she told me she would never ride in it because... "I vote for the packas memba?" Maybe I can sway her to vote for the vikings....

My kitchen

Someone asked me for some photos of my kitchen, so here they are... These are grape vines painted on the cupboards. I thought they were very unique and loved them at first...the top portion that is. I wanted to keep them just they way they were until, someone told me they were "butt ugly". I really question the butt ugly thing, but they did become kind of...Im not sure of the right word. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and the longer I was in there, the more claustrophobic I became...It was like the vines were coming down from the ceiling and trying desperately to strangle me... I did not like that.

But the lower I sank to the kitchen floor out of fear I was able to see this on the bottom...which made me laugh and ultimately saved me from the overbearing vines. I can not for the life of me figure why anyone would match greenery with pink plaid. Its very strange to me. So I spent the last 8 months trying to come up with some kind of compromise where I could keep the man eating vines but lose the plaid...Nothing. I can not think of one solution other than change the whole thing. So I finally decided to paint the whole works a color I was sure no one else has in the kitchen. I didnt know until I was nearly finished that it wasnt so original after all... But I am gonna try hard to fix that...

I hope to finish the first part of my kitchen remodel later today, Ill post some pictures if I get the chance.






This corner cabinet is built right into the wall. I love it just the way it is, so I hope to be able to make it match with the rest of the room when I am done. Wish me luck!!

Riley Ann Staver

I just wanted you all to know that at approximately 6 45 this evening Allison delivered Riley.
She weighed 1 pound 4 ounces. Allison is doing as well as can be expected and was a complete trooper. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers and flowers. That was very kind. We are expecting Allison to be released from the hospital tomarrow morning.
Bless you angel baby...

Angels Are Hard to Find

Author Unkown

When God calls little childrenTo dwell with him above,

We mortals sometime questionThe wisdom of His love.

Perhaps God tires of callingThe aged to His fold,

So He picks a rosebud Before it can grow old.

God knows how much we need them, And so He takes but few To make the land of Heaven'More beautiful to view.

Believing this is difficult,Still somehow we must try,

The saddest word mankind knowsWill always be 'Good-bye'.

So when a little child departs, We who are left behind

Must realize God loves children,

ANGELS ARE HARD TO FIND.

Rylie Ann Staver is the newest family angel, we must all be certain to take good care of her mommy and daddy now. There is no one to blame for this tragedy, it will do absolutely no good. I know that it is hard to understand why things like this happen but blaming God will only make you hurt more. So, Adam... be strong, you are needed to help Allison...your her favorite brother you know... And mom may need you too... I hear your her favorite son too... Please remember... God may have taken Rylie Anne, but first he gave her to us. My thoughts are with you all, I love you. Call anytime, day or night. I sleep with my phone.

Superbowl Score!!!

Here it is! The car that is making me famous!! Everywhere I go, people smile and wave. Some just want to take my picture...others let me onto the highway...Its kinda great! I just have to remember not to go anywhere with out make up, or in my jammies! So far we have recieved two offers to buy it... (serious offers) 2500.00 and 3000.00 But I feel that before I could sell it, I have to drive it to Wisconisin...Its an actual voice saying...Take me to packer territory...

So, is anyone else drooling over this absolutely wonderfully colorful free car???