Well it's official...

Yesterday afternoon, Scotto put in his 2-weeks notice at a job he's had for 29 years. It was such a hard day for him. Mixed feelings on SO many levels left him confused and irritable. I wanted to be there for him. To tell him he made the right decision. To tell him it was ok. To tell him that I understand how hard it had to have been for him. But as any good wife knows, a man doesn't talk 'til a man is good and ready to talk. So last night, about 10:30pm, he was good and ready lol.

The company that he's been working for for the past 29 years is a company that I'm POSITIVE he was thinking he'd retire at. Unfortunately, this is one of those companies that believes that the grass is greener on the other side of the border. The intent is to move all the plants down to Mexico within the next two years. Right now, it's just a rumor. But I have worked at the company he has been working at, that's how I met him. The rumor mill at this company is more reliable than any line of crap that flies out of the mouths of managers there.

He had no choice. It was jump or be pushed. This job has already taken us 250 miles away from all of our family when the plant he originally worked for closed and he was transferred up here. Not that we don't love it up in the Northwoods area of our beautiful state, but all of our family is southeast. Not here. Here, we have no one. Nothing but this job.

My loving husband has always said that there were only two jobs he'd ever leave his current job for. Well, he got one of those jobs. He knows our future with this new company looks very bright. It's not his head that's screaming at him now though. It's his heart. Twenty-nine years of loyalty and lay-offs and hard times, and overtimes...it is all suddenly running through his head like a lifetime of memories flashing before one at the end of their life.

I feel for him, I really do. I wish there were more that I could do. What I DID do was sit down with him, next to him. I held his hand. I told him that no matter what he chose to do, I'd be by his side 100%. I told him that as hard as it was giving notice for his job, deep down we knew it was the right thing to do. This new job has so much promise for the future of the whole family, and I know he realizes as much. It's hard to explain to the man that you love that he's not leaving because HE is disloyal, but because he works for a company that was disloyal to him. It's hard for a man to leave a job he loved even if it was with a company he didn't.

I hate to see him hurting. He's so strong, you'd never know there was a problem if you didn't know him for as long as I have. We ended our conversation last night with a very long hug. He looked me in my eyes and said "I may need this pep talk again next week". Next week, and every day in between, I'll be right here, heart open...mind open to give him whatever he needs.

So I was thinking...

Does anyone remember ever having telephones in their classrooms as children? (No fair Guy, we all know telephones didn't exist back then *giggles*) I don't ever remember having a telephone in my homeroom or any other room for that matter. My son just called me from his homeroom. I mean really from his homeroom! Practically right from his desk! I can hear his teacher in the background, talking. And he calls...

Was it important you ask?

Was a limb falling off?

Was he near bleeding to death?


NO SIREE BOB!

He was calling home to ask if his friend Dustin could come over after school so they could practice their band instruments together!

It is so hard for me to fathom HOW he managed to get the teacher to OK that phone call!

Here's how the scenario plays out in my head...

My son: Pardon me, Mrs. E...may I use the phone to call my mom?
Mrs. E: What for?
My son: I need to find out if Dustin can come over to my house after school.
Mrs. E: Why sure!!! Wanna call Kansas too?? Please, help yourself to the phone! NO, I mean it...REALLY!! Take it with you!

What is WRONG with these schools now-a-days??? They have NO money for school nurses anymore, so if your child gets sick, he/she runs down to the office where the secretary hands the kid a phone to call mom or dad and have them picked up. Yet...they have enough money to install telephones in EVERY classroom for the children to use freely??

Ya know, they have computers and a place to eat too. All they need to do is install Play Station 2 and I'll never see my son again!

Yaaaaaaaaay!!!

I gots me a purty new windshield!!! It's so beautiful!! It's clear, it's glass, it's NOT broken!!!

I'm in heaven!!

(course my hood still dented, but I don't care lol)

well....I CARE, but I can drive it. THAT'S what I care about. Ya know, it's kinda funny. When you look at the car just right you can actually see the outline of the deer we hit. I think it would be cool to leave it there as a momentum for us and a threat to any other sumbitch deer wantin' to hit my car!!!

Slinky People

SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKYS
THEY AREN'T GOOD FOR MUCH
BUT THEY STILL MAKE YOU SMILE
WHEN YOU PUSH THEM DOWN THE STAIRS


And with that, I will say AAAAAAAAMEN!

Disaster on the Highway

Ok, I'm going to start this story out with a little background.

Every weekend, we drive 3.5 hours one way to pick up my stepson and drop off my son at his dad's house. Then we turn around, drive home and two days later, we make the trip all over again, only in reverse. We do this EVERY WEEKEND.

Ok so here's how it went...

Friday we went down and came back up completely uneventful. Then yesterday, we went down there without any problems and on the way home, about 2 hours from here, we had a blowout on the highway. Other than it being dark outside, there was really no big deal about it. We put the donut on and away we went. We got to about 20 miles from the house. It was dark and kinda foggy. A deer was trotting along from the left side of the highway to the right. We had no time to stop. No way to swerve and we hit it pretty hard. It was a HUGE buck. It hit my hood, then hit the windshield, then rolled up on top of my car and scratched the shit outta my roof, then came down, scratched the back window and the trunk before it finally hit the ground.

Sexual Hell

I saw this Here and couldn't help but take the test myself. Here's my score. Thanks Livey!!

HELL LEVEL 2 Raw score: 80%

You're just about as deep in sexual hellfire as a person can get. Virtually no urge, however demented, will go ungratified; practically no boundary will go uncrossed. You're probably proud of your adventurousness, and, honestly, you should be. Few people are confident enough to pursue pleasure on their own terms. Your morals could sink a bit further, sure, but it's likely that you've got a pretty good idea of what you're into and what you would do...above all you're honest with yourself with what you want. If more people were honest with themselves, you'd have a lot more company down in the flames. AVOID: the lost souls in sexual heaven and (above all) the denizens of sexual purgatory. You don't need any prudes or wishy-washers in your life.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 57% on hellishness

Link: The Sexual HELL Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Other little doodads I came across

Too Much Coffee Man

Came across this. It sure does sum up how alot of us are feeling lately.

Frozen Tundra

Good Lord, I woke up this morning and boy, was I shivering!!! It was 38 degrees this morning when I woke up. As of now it is still only 40 degrees outside. As I sit here, I can't help but think that I'd be a little happier snuggled up in my nice warm bed. Ahhhhhhhhh bed...lovely bed....comfy bed...warm be...huh? what? Sorry!! Got distracted. Where was I? Oh yeah, it's cold. It's like the state of Wisconsin somehow heard that autumn just started. Autumn started and Mother Nature said "WAIT!! Oh yeah, it's suppose to be COLD in Wisconsin now!" and then WHAM!! we're all freezing. Anyone got room for one more person somewhere in the south?? I promise I won't get in the way.

We need help please

A long-time friend of mine has a daughter named Lindsey. She is now 19-years old. A year ago, she was diagnosed with malignant schwannoma, a cancer that forms in the lower half of the body usually. She went through a round of chemo, radiation and surgery and they managed to remove the cancer from her leg. Now, they have found that her cancer has spread through her bloodstream and into her lungs. She's so very young. She has a VERY long uphill battle with this, as 5-year survival rate is considered unlikely. The fact that she is so young will work to her advantage here, but she needs to know that there are MANY people on her side now as she fights for her life.

This is a card drive. I have the name and address of this beautiful young lady and I would LOVE if you all could please send her a card to let her know she's not alone in all of this. I think it will really lift her spirits and give her the strength she needs to fight this terrible disease!

If you'd like to send a card to Lindsey, please e-mail me at andis@tds.net and I'll be more than happy to give you the address to send an encouraging card to.

Please please...help if you can, she really needs it!

Thanks so much all,
Andi

Blog Spammers?

Now I'm even getting spammers on my blog?? What the hell is that?? Internet folks aren't safe anywhere anymore. I find it completely ridiculous that when I open my comments to my blog, I find spammers trying to get me to come to their sites by telling me how great my site is. Well thanks alot, they're right...it IS great, but don't expect me to be a visitor of theirs anytime real soon!

One Funny Guy!

I just happened across THIS article. It was originally printed Feb. 27, 2000 but it absolutely applies today. He is so funny, I LOVE reading his articles. Go check it out and see for yourself what I mean.

Just a Reminder...

The website to go to...to order my frames (customized to your liking) is...


http://uniqueandi.tripod.com


They make AWESOME gifts!!

New Pain Reliever...Money???

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline finally had their baby. I'm thrilled for them and I'm sure they're excited about what lies ahead.

Here's what chaps my ass...


A couple of weeks ago, Britney said something to the affect of how she was pretty certain she was going to have surgery. That she hoped she could have this baby via c-section. And miraculously, IT HAPPENED! So now if one has enough money, they can completely bipass the pain involved in child birth and have the baby CUT out? What is that???

I guess one can only come away with one of two lessons here...If you wish for something hard enough (like a c-section), amazingly it'll come to you! Or...Money can buy EVERYTHING!!!

The Reason I'm So Tired

For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep, not enough sunshine, too much pressure from my job, earwax build-up, poor blood or anything else I could think of.

But now I found out the real reason: I'm tired because I'm overworked.

Here's why:

The population of this country is 273 million.

140 million are retired.

That leaves 133 million to do the work.

There are 85 million in school.

Which leaves 48 million to do the work.

Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government.

Leaving 19 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Saddam Hussein.

Which leaves 16.2 million to do the work.

Take from the total the 14.8 million people who work for state government.

And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.

Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just two people to do the work.

You and me.

And there you are sitting on your butt, at your computer, reading jokes.

Nice, real nice.

Ughhhhhhh!!

Stupid people PISS ME OFF!

I went to the doctor on 5/10/04...yes 04!! The dr office sent a claim to my insurance company. They got no response. They sent two more claims, with the same result. FINALLY, nine months after they sent the last claim, they sent me a letter telling me they haven't received payment for that date of service. So I call my insurance company and they say "We never got a claim for that date of service". So I call the dr. back and tell them to fax over a new claim. My insurance company reprocesses the claim and denies it because the time between the date of service 5/10/04 and the time the claim was filed 8/17/04 was more than 15 months. So I call the insurance company back. They say to call the doctor's office and have them fax proof that they sent claims to them PRIOR to the 15 month period ended. So I call the doctor back, they have NO idea what I'm talking about. They don't have a date of service with that date, they have no idea what I am saying. They have no recollection about any of it. So I call the doctor himself. They gave me a new number to call. So I call them, FINALLY she says, "yeah, it's right here. I'll send it out right away". I was beginning to think I was losing my mind!

I swear, I wanna just collect the addresses of every idiot slacker that has NO clue how to do their job and just take some vacation time, driving around beating the ever-loving SHIT outta each and everyone of them! But I won't. I'll sit in my little hole of the world taking stupid people's crap everytime something like this happens, just like the rest of the free-world.

My new website

Hey all! I got my business site finished.

http://uniqueandi.tripod.com


I know it's a free site, but until I start makin money in this business of mine, I can only afford free things. LOL

Please, let me know what you think of it.

One busy lil' beaver

Take that title however you see fit.

I'm gonna be one busy girl for awhile now. I have 4 orders for custom picture frames and 1 order for a nameplate mosaic. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE having all these orders and seeing things take-off for me finally. I'm so happy!

Busy isn't such a bad thing. Just means I can't get into any trouble for awhile. I know, it's sad. Badasses are just gonna have to do without me for awhile. I'm a WORKIN girl! lol


Woooohooooo!

Forceful Evacuation

Ya know, this is a tough one for me. I STRONGLY believe that property-owners should be allowed to do what they please on their property. That includes staying on said property should a disaster occur. However, I also believe that America as a whole should be able to protect its people against imminent danger. It's so hard for me to wrap my brain around either concept at this point. I want to see those people be evacuated and taken care of. I don't want to see anymore people die in this disaster. However, I can't help but think that if someone wants to stay in their home on their property during a disaster, even if it means they will most certainly die doing so, it's their right to do so. Isn't it? Like I said...tough one for me.

OMG

I was just peeking into my site meter details and found out that someone managed to get to MY blog by typing into MSN's search engine the words "Big boobs live cam". LOL Them search engines can be pretty quirky things. I'm thinking maybe this person got misdirected here by my August 1, 2005 posting called "Lumpy Boobs and Doctor Tales".

Things that make you go "WHAT?!?"

I came acrossthis article through Snopes. Honestly, I'm darn-near speechless. I'm sure she meant no harm in saying what she said, but one would think that after being the First Lady, she would have a little more finesse in saying the things that are on her mind.

Memorials

I was reading this article on Yahoo News this morning. When they described the memorial they are going to build for the Pennsylvania 9/11 crash victims, I was building this mental picture in my mind. I could actually hear the sounds that memorial will make in the light breezes of spring.

It's been almost 4 years since the attacks, and I'm really happy to finally be seeing how they intend on memorializing the people who lost their lives in that terrible tragedy. Now I just can't wait until I can make the trip out east to see these memorial pieces.

Shameless

Yep, I'm gonna do it. I'm going to post where my frames are up for sale. I would love for you all to take a look. I can also do custom frames. Please take a look, even if you don't think you can buy. If you like them, tell your friends, tell your family. Tell EVERYONE! LOL

The frames are up for sale here at this link. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZandibratQQssPageNameZSTRKQ3aMEFSQ3aMESOI

Thanks so much!

An unhappy number?

I was browsing through the web pages of CNN and I came across yet another story of a government official making a statement about the disaster in the south. Take a look at this:

Speaking in Baton Rouge on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned the body recovery process would be "very difficult" and said it would take some time before officials would have a reliable death toll.

"It's going to be an unhappy number," he added.


"An unhappy number", he says. IS there a number of deceased in a situation like this that is HAPPY?
I know everyone has their opinion about whose fault this is, how it could have been avoided, what to do now and so on. I accept that people feel the need to have their opinions heard. What I don't accept is reading a statement made by a seemingly intelligent human being suddenly stuck in the "stupid zone". Comments made that are so off-the-charts stupid, that one has to ask themselves how this person got as far as they have in life.

Glass cutting

Here I sit cutting glass. Half-inch squares, three-quarter-inch squares, and irregulars (you know, the ones I mess up on lol). I got my glass cutter, a ruler (which I abandoned about an hour ago) and a small hammer. Oh I cannot forget the goggles I must wear. Safety first they say!
(See Picture)

I have the perfect tools, all the glass I can cut and a mindset to get it all done.


A minute ago, I was holding my hammer and cutters in one hand and a piece of glass in the other and suddenly I got an image of a glass-cutting warrior princess!

Fun fun fun!!

I can see the tumbleweed!

This place is a ghost town! I'm beginning to wonder if anyone stops by here anymore lol.

Where'd everyone go?? You turned the lights off when you left and now I'm alone and scared! Come back for me already!


*Sits in the corner with her blankie, pretending like she's not scared*