Hey guys!

Wow, I am seriously the worst blog drop out ever!
Life has been nutty, I have been horribly busy with life, the kids, work, and having herniated disks in my back! Anyway, thought I would let anyone who does myspace know that I am on there now. I don't get much time to blog and most of the time it's nothing interesting anyway. But if anyone reads this and cares to look me up there, I am at  http//www.myspaceDOTcom/TheLandofConfusion

Right now I am set up as private for obvious reasons, but if you request my friendship (LOL) I would be happy to add you!

Hope everyone is well!

Colleen

I don't have a lot of time for a post...
BUT, I just wanna know... who here DOESN'T think that Joaquin Phoenix is THE hottest actor?
Well, of course we just watched Walk the Line yesterday, but hasn't he always been the hottest? And HELLO? Can he sing or what? Ah to be multi-talented and come from a multi-talented family. Although, I must say, I was never a River Phoenix fan. I say Joaquin is way hotter.Good Lord. My daughter summed it up pretty well...her reaction to Joaquin was simple...."HUBBA, HUBBA." It doesn't get much better than that. My hat's off to Dee, who chose the perfect words to use for Joaquin. Well, Yum would be a close second.Alright, time to at least ACT my age.
 Ok, gotta get going, kids need to go to bed and Thanks to the Olympics I am on ER withdrawl, and it IS on in 20 minutes.

Sweet dream of Joaquin, kids.

Colleen

PS: I think it should definitely be illegal to be anywhere near that hot. Sheesh.

Sorry, everyone, that I have not posted in a LONG while.
I have just been TERRIBLY busy!

In real llife, I was building a memorial web site for my nephew, and I have been trying to get that all together and ready before the benefit that his father had to pay for my nephew's funeral expenses. I have spent a lot of time on the phone with my sister (my nephew's mother) trying to get everything together for the site, including pictures and trying to set it up the way he would have wanted it.

After all that, I had the kids home on mid winter break, and I had reformat my hard drive.
I am still working on the site, but I am trying to wind down from all the nuttiness.

I hope to be back to normal soon.
Thanks to everyone who sent emails, left posts and tags of concern.
I really appreciate that! Hope everyone is well, and I will be around to visit you all as soon as time allows.

Anyone who is interested in checking out the site, here is the url:

The Lawrence M. Neilon Memorial Web Site
http://www.lawrencemneilon.com

Please be kind enough to sign the guest book, if you decide to visit! Thanks!

Toodles!

Colleen

I know I have been a bad blogger, but I am on mental holiday right now, trying to recouperate from the holiday and all that goes with it!

I was SO HAPPY to take down the tree yesterday and get everything packed up. I was even happier taking it down than I was putting it up. If you know me at all well, you would just chalk that up as a normality. Bob promised me that he would bring the stuff up to the attic when he got home, but since he wasn't feeling well after a hard day of work, it's all still sitting in my livingroom. All 7 boxes of it. I won't feel better until it's out of sight. Hopefully, he will get it up there on Saturday. I got three new books with my Barnes and Nobles gift card that I got for Christmas, and I am mostly done with one book and excited to move on to the other two. I haven't felt much like doing a whole lot, and every time I seem to relax and try to read my book, I doze off. I had two days off in a row and I should have had at least one of them finished by now.

I am really getting psyched about the sequel to the da Vinci Code, called the Solomon Key. I can't wait until that comes out. When I finish my three books I just got, I plan to read the da Vinci Code again, just for a refresher. Normally, I am not much of a fiction fan, I prefer Non-fiction books or true crime, but Dan Brown really sucked me in. I tried a couple times to read Angels & Demons, but I can't get into it. Maybe once I finish all these other books and have nothing else to read, I will give it another whirl.

Anyway, I had a major meltdown to deal with this afternoon, with Joe, believe it or not. Usually he is the reserved one. That is, until someone goes and ruins his life. Well, how dare the school principal notify all the kids today, that they are no longer allowed to bring ANY toys to school! After all, that's what they are there for, isn't it? To play with toys all day? Sheesh. What was he thinking. Joe has always brought toys to school, and on a very rare occasion did he have to be talked to about playing with them at the wrong time. Mostly, he brought one of he action figures to play with at play time, or just to decorate his desk while he worked. I never had a problem with that, since Joe has always held his toys in very high regard and has taken good care of them. Well, evidentally, something must have happened to make the principal take away that priveledge. To top it all off, Joe came home expecting me, the Gestapo, to call up the guy and tell him where it was at, and make him rescind the whole thing. YEAH, right. He is so used to his mother standing up for everyone, and confronting people when there is an injustice, he just thought I was going to ring the old man up and tell him off. WRONG! According to Joe, his whole life is ruined, and despite the fact that there are only a few months left to the school year, it still is buggin' him out. SO, rather than brush it off like it's no big deal, I am going to play Devil's Advocate, just not by calling and cussing out the principal.
We decided tonight at dinner, with Joe's best friend, that we are going to make a proposal, and make up a petition. Joe's proposal, will suggest to the principal, they they be allowed to bring their toys one day a week, to play with during recreation time. I suggested Friday, since most kids don't have any kind of concentration at the end of the week ANYWAY. Joe will suggest some guidelines, and state that any toys brought, will be at the risk of their owners. Then he will get signatures from fellow peers, who are willing to accept the terms, but would like to support Joe in his effort to reverse the ruling, for one day a week. At the very least, I suspect that his efforts will be appreciated, especially since he is doing it in a proper manner. I plan to help him do this over the weekend. If nothing else, the principal will have to at least CONSIDER it. What do you think of the idea? Any suggestions on how we might make this better? I am open to suggestions.

Well, I have to jet. Deena needs me to help her put on her press on nails.
As a final note though, I am very happy to announce that my friend "KK" who has been serving in the Army and stationed in Iraq, for his second tour, will be leaving to come home, tomorrow, I believe. I am so happy that he has managed to keep himself safe over there, despite the danger he faced, for a second year. He was injured the last time he was there, but thankfully nothing too serious. I pray he has a safe and speedy return back to the States.

Ta-ta for now,

Colleen

I know I have been a horrible blogger lately, but between life's normal occurrences, the holidays, school functions, work and trying to keep my house looking like a cyclone went through it, I haven't been left with much time for other things.
I doubt that I am going to have much time to post for the rest of the week, maybe a couple here or there, but just in case I don't, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas or a happy what ever holiday you celebrate. Happy Christmahanakwanzika, everyone.
Also, as a side note, I want to wish myself a happy anniversary. December 14th, was the 1 year anniversary of Colleen's Chatterings. Boy does the time fly! Thank you to all my faithful readers for paying me a visit whenever I get the time to post. Speaking of posts, I have to get my rear in gear, and head over to the post office, so I can mail out my Christmas Cards. Here's what I am sending, to all of you who aren't getting one, lol.

Stay warm everyone! Until I post, again.

Hugs,
Colleen

I thought I would share this crazy pic I took of my cat a few years back. It still cracks me up to look at it. Tell me that it doesn't look like he is pointing and laughing! Anyway, any of you slugs out there that are thinking of stealing this pic of my cat, beware that it's copyrighted and there is an embedded watermark on it. Link to my journal if you must, but DO NOT steal this photo.





Anyway, hope everyone is well and not going too crazy with all the Christmas hulabaloo.
Have fun kids and I will be back again soon.

Ta ta for now.

Colleen

...patiently for something good to post about.

Mostly crappy days have plagued the last couple weeks, and I trust there will be more to come.
I am not at liberty to post about the good things at the current time, so thus why there haven't been any posts.

Stay tuned, I am sure there will be some things I CAN post about soon!

Ta ta for now.

Colleen

It's November 29th, and it's almost 70 degrees out around noon.
Then a cold front comes in around 3ish that brings rain with it, it will soon drop down into the fourties, and with it will either come hail or possibly snow, if it gets colder.

Now if winter could stay as it was this morning, with temperatures being about 60-63, I would love winter, and wouldn't mind it taking up 3/4 of the year. Seasons here are Summer, almost winter, winter, winter almost over. I remember the year I was preggers with Joe. 11 years ago, I remember working at the gas station across the street from my then, apartment complex. I used to wear a sweater to work most days, and of course I didn't mind walking over there, when the temperatures didn't go low enough to bring much snow. We didn't even have a white Christmas that year. We got rain. And so naturally, you didn't hear me complain one bit. I could care less if I ever saw a real snowflake again in my life. I say that's what postcards are for. It was the best damn winter I remember. When I was preggers with Deena, I didn't work, but I don't remember there being that much snow that year either. However, for Deena's first Christmas, there was definitely snow and I remember us getting a horrible snow storm for New Year's. My brother from Virgina came up to visit that year and my parent's told me that we shouldn't drive out there to see him because the weather was so bad. Bull crap. No snow was gonna stop me. There ended up being a state of emergency, but since when do I obey authority?

The first year we owned our home in 2001/02, we had another great winter. Little snow. We shoveled like twice. I think that year was a record winter for the least amount of snow. If my memory serves me right, it was less than 60 inches, and we normally get about 120 inches or more. The following year seemed about average. But 2003/04 was nothing other than what seemed like the North Pole. That was when we ended up having half our house rebuilt from the ice damage. January 2004 brought us a $545 energy bill. That was nice. I liked that alot.

I am really praying for a mild winter this year. When it gets really bad, my bones and joints and muscles feel like they are under constant attack. Right now it's 76 degrees in my house and my legs feel very cold. My knees were really aching this morning despite the fact that I was pretty warm in bed last night. Most people who have lived around here all or most of their lives, don't seem to mind the winter as much. I would prefer to live in Jamaica.

Well, that's all I have to say about that <in my very best impression of Forrest Gump>.
I'm feeling kinda tired and lazy at the moment. I think I am going to lay down and watch some TV with Deena, before I have to start dinner. Which more or less means fall asleep as soon as I lay down my head, for a half hour or so. Maybe I will find something interesting to post about later. If not, I'll see ya'll soon enough.

Toodles,

Colleen

Well, ok, not JUST, but I did take one of those today. And boy did I need it.

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was fine. It wasn't GREAT, but it was fine. Holidays cause me too much stress to ever be great. I think I already said that though. I stayed home from work Wednesday to do my baking and then we took the kids on a surprise trip to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The movie was good, but I'll tell you, I wish I hadn't read the book before I saw the movie. The books are so great that no shortened version of them will ever be fulfilling. J.K. Rowling is amazing and as much of an effort as they put into the movies, they will never live up to the greatness of the books. Since I was the only one who read the book in it's entirety, the others enjoyed it very much.
Thanksgiving was low key. It wouldn't be a holiday though, if me and Bob didn't get into some sort of spat, though. It always happens right around dinner, too. Same deal every year. He gets on the phone and doesn't know when enough is enough. So here we all are waiting patiently while he talks to his Dad about nonsense for 45 FREAKIN' minutes. Needless to say, because of it, the bird was dry. I wasn't in charge of the bird this year, Bob was, so I was kind of glad it happened to him and not me. So he had to eat a dry bird, even though I told him 41 times to hang up and call him back later so we could eat, before the bird got dry. It was a pleasant haha. When will men ever learn that they need to listen to their women, because dammit, they know what they are talking about!

I worked Black Friday and well, it wasn't that bad. Usually, I work the later shift, when everyone is tired and gone home from shopping, so I don't see much of anything. It was a bit busy at times, but nothing like some of the crazy things I had seen on the internet about the crazy shoppers and people getting trampled. In a sense, sometimes I wish I did see that, and maybe even to some of those nasty customers that come in thinking that the world owes them a living. I think I would enjoy that a tad, as twisted as it may sound. Hey not everyone is a sweet and innocent individual. We all have our hang ups. I did a small bit of shopping this week, and I have my dad, Boob's dad and my brother out of the way. I also managed to go get myself a pair of shoes to wear to work now that the snow is here. I refuse to wear boots, I will not ruin my shoes or sneakers, so I had to go get something that was half boot/half shoe. Got it, so now I am all set. I could use a new pair of gloves, since I lost one of them, but all I usually end up wearing is the right one, so for now, I'm good, lol.

I was pretty tired and not feeling so hot this weekend, so I laid back and took it easy. All the work I need to do will still be waiting for me tomorrow, though, so I wasn't that much of a relief. I wish I could borrow Harry's wand once in a while and wave it around the house.
Anywho, sorry to anyone I haven't been around to visit, in a while, I will get to you as soon as I can!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and has a great week!

Ta ta for now,

Colleen