random stuff

Well this is my new tea kettle. I love it.

Rusty was home all last week. He said he was on vacation, I however did not get a vacation. I still had to cook and clean, chase a daughter down in Italy and whatever else a stay at home mom does.

I found this set at a thrift store. I just love it. Nikki comes home tomorrow. I can't wait to see her! Rusty will get to hug her first, because he is going to pick her up from the train station.

I think I have everything ready for her trip to Nicaragua. I even made a quilt for the missionary that they will be working with. Deb asked me to make him a quilt because he will be getting married the day before the team arrives.

I have the anti vomit drugs. I am so hoping that Nikki will not get sick this year.

I scored this awesome piece of Pyrex at a yard sale. I could tell you all the details behind this pot, but that would only prove how dull my life has been. The big coffee cup was part of my mothers day gift.

George pointed out to me that I spend more time talking to my cats then I spend talking to people. So I started paying attention and it is true. HMM.... could Rusty be right? Have a I become the crazy cat rancher?

 

One of the marines sent me this bear. I was not missing the marines until I got this bear in the mail.

I miss my marines and I want them to come back. I want to cook for them, clean for them, and hug them.

Dustin will be the last marine to leave and he will be leaving in a few weeks.

Last week was very dull for me. I must say that the sex was good. If sex gets better once the children leave then I want them all to move out now!

 

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can I sleep now?

I found this graphic this morning and I just had to laugh! This is so my house. I have 3 black cats.

Last night my friend Deb told me to go to the Italian restaurant across town. She said the owner speaks Italian.

So, I go over there. I ask a lady if I could speak to the owner. The lady asked if she could help me with something and I started crying. I explained everything that has been going on. Turns out that one of the waitresses is from Rome!

Her name is Anna and I know that she is an angle here on earth. I explained everything to Anna. Anna started calling all of the hotels that were on Amber route.

Amber was no where to be found. The number for the hotel in Rome was wrong.  Anna kept saying this is the wrong number. This number is for Florence. I know this code.

The gentlemen that owns the restaurant finally come out and see's Anna on the phone speaking Italian. So he asks what is going on.

Once he is filled in the gentlemen just looks at me and asks why she did not take travelers checks. Oh that is an easy one. I suggest to Amber that she go get some, but my mother told her that she would not need them. So Amber listened to my mom.

Side note: I have chewed my mother out for this. I think my exact words were " Thanks for contradicting me in front of Amber and telling her that she would not need travelers checks. Now look at the mess she is in." My mom just said well live and learn.

After about 3 hours of trying to get a hold of someone in Italy that MIGHT know where my daughter is.... well we gave up.

Anna said that she is from Rome. So she was going to go home and get on the Internet and try to figure something out.

I was just happy to have someone speaking Italian for me.

I get home and I jump om the computer. Where in the hell is my daughter?

I got the number for the U.S. Embassy in Rome and I was getting ready to call it, but I thought let me try the tour groups hot line again.

I finally got a hold of someone and they were able to give me the correct number to her hotel.

So now I am back to calling Rome. I should know Italian by now! Anyway I ask for someone who speaks English and they track down Amber for me.

Finally after how many hours of trying? I am finally speaking to Amber. I am trying to tell everything she will need to know about getting her money. That was when she says to me  "mom can you please hurry, I am missing breakfast and we are going to see the pope today"

So let me get this straight. You don't listen to me about taking travelers checks. You call me crying because your money got stolen. I do EVERYTHING in my power to help you and this is all you have to say to me.

I hope the Pope smacked her with his wand thing.

Well guess what? I am going to take my sweet time on getting her atm card activated. Maybe I will get around to it on Monday?

Rusty is on vacation next week. So I am looking forward to that!

I think it is time for her to stand on her own two feet or fall on her face. Maybe she will remember something that Rusty told her "If you need anything or if something happens you go to the U.S. embassy and you tell the marine at the gate that your dad is a retired Gunny and they will help you."

Today I am going to go to some yard sales and just chill. I will need to go and talk to Anna, but other then that I have nothing much planned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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stressed out

I am just a little stressed out right now and I am stress eating on top of that.

O.K. so Ambers money was stolen. Now I have to figure out how to get this child some money. This should be easy, but nothing in my life is that easy.

Give Amber money. No problem I will just go pick it off the money tree. Oh that's right we don't have a money tree.

Wait. I was listed on Ambers account when she opened her account. So I go down to the bank with her pass book and her pin number.

The lady pulled up Ambers account. yep there is money in it. Good I would like to transfer everything from savings into checking.

The bank told me that I could not do that because I was no longer on her account since she is now and adult. I explained to them that my daughter is in Italy with no money! I am not trying to take money out of her account, I just want to transfer money!

One of the tellers finally transferred the money since she knew both Amber and I.

O.K. money gram or western union. Both of them charge an arm and a leg and they would pay the money out in Euro. Which by the way really sucks for us because we are losing .40 out of every dollar!

I called UKgal and left her a message. Then she called me back. Thank you! My question was is England using the pound or Euro? Because I did not want to wire Amber money and then her lose more money because she has to transfer it again.

England is on the pound. UKgal did give me some good tips which I will pass onto Amber if I can ever get a hold of her!

O.K. I got a few text from Amber this morning, but I have not heard back from her.

I called my mom to get one of my Uncles phone numbers. He is from Italy.  Hell child answered my moms cell phone. I just said "Who the hell is this?!" Hell child handed my mom the phone.

Now I am trying like crazy to get a hold of my uncle.

Wait. Dimitri speaks all of these languages. I finally get a hold of him but he does not speak Italian! You have this big brain and you don't speak Italian?

I finally get a hold of my uncle. He is just laughing at me. I am not finding any of this funny! So I was able to get a copy of all the hotels that Amber would be staying at. So my uncle suggested that I go down to AT&T and get an international sims card and then call Italy. I said well before I call Italy does anyone there speak English because you never taught me Italian! Yes, someone there will speak english.

Fine. Off to AT&T. I walk in and this skinny pimple faced kid says can I help you? "I need an international sims card and I need it now" This kid says well... I said " Listen my child is in Italy with no money and I need to reach her. Either set my phone up so I call internationally or I will take my business else where."

The kid pulls up our account only to find out that we are at the end of our contract and that I can indeed take my business else where.

Now I am ready to call Italy. I finally get a hold of the hotel only to find out that their computers are down! So they can't tell me what room my daughter is in or get her on the phone. I was asked to call back in a few hours.

I called my uncle back and asked him if I was asking the right questions. He laughed at me. Now I am really getting sick of him laughing at me. He reminded me that there is a 10 hour difference.

Now I am at the point of just waiting. I have text Amber and I even called her phone and left her a voice mail..... just in case.

So, if anyone wants to call internationally please feel free to come over and use my phone. It only coast 9 cent per minute to call Italy!

Did I mention that I am a little bit stressed out?

 

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Rusty thinks I am crazy

goodpeople

• KELLI NELSON  :  United States of America  :  1688.03 lbs promised   details

  Promised on 2008-06-20 09:49:24 to keep the following:
  Will recycle all aluminum and steel cans this year. 166 lbs SAVED.
  Will use reusable coffee cups 1 day(s) this week. 0.25 lbs SAVED.
  Will take the train, instead of a plane for 1 short (500 miles or less) trip(s) this year. 205 lbs SAVED.
  Will replace 1 frequently used incandescent light bulb(s) with more efficient compact fluorescent bulb(s). 100 lbs SAVED.
  Will run my dishwasher only when it's full this week. 2 lbs SAVED.
  Will turn off and unplug home computer when not in use this year. 250 lbs SAVED.
  Will take two minutes off their regular showering time 7 day(s) this week. 6.58 lbs SAVED.
  Will either set thermostat one degrees lower (winter) or one degrees higher (summer) for one whole month. 42 lbs SAVED.
  Will wash clothes this week in cold water. 10 lbs SAVED.
  Will air-dry all laundry this week instead of using the dryer. 14 lbs SAVED.
  Will turn down hot water heater to 120 degrees. 550 lbs SAVED.
  Will reduced the amount of unnecessary mail receive by choosing electronic bill payment all my accounts. 37 SAVED.
  Will reduce junk mail by canceling 1 catalog(s) I received regularly, in the mail, but never read. 15.2 SAVED.
  Will recycle all white and mixed paper this year. 273 lbs SAVED.
  Will use reusable or recycled shopping bags at the grocery store this year. 17 lbs SAVED.

This is my promise to the earth. I so want to change my carbon footprint. Now I know that Rusty and many of you think I am to far out there and that I should stop hugging trees and come back to the real world, but I like hugging trees.

Have you guys seen green tv? It is put out by the people at discovery channel. They have a show called life with Ed, and it is about living with Ed beagly. I love this show and this whole channel.

This morning I was surfing their web page and I found the carbon footprint promise. My promise is posted above.

This week I have been a quist to see exactly how much trash our family produces. So far this week we have not even filled up one trash bag. Now this is also because I have to go through the trash and pull out all the recyclables because Rusty does not believe in that. We are doing good.

Last week George and I went to the beach on the base. Now every time I go to the beach I walk the beach and pick up all the trash. George thought I was crazy but she went with me on my walk.

I so wish I had my camera. All this week I have been trying to get my hands on a video camera. No luck there.

I wanted to take a video of what I saw there on the beach. I wanted to vomit! Even George was discussed.

What we saw were dead birds. The sad thing is they were right outside the bird sanctuary. Dead birds just laying there rotting and stinking!

We picked up so much trash that we had to carry it in our arms because our trash bag was stuffed. We found balloons and the string that held the balloons together, bleach bottles, shoes, glass, metal, rubber stuff, and worst of all we found Gatorade bottles.

The gatoraid bottles made me mad because they were right out side the tracks where the marines go rolling by. What gives them the right to just throw their trash on the beach?

So George and I walked back up the beach. We finally made it to a trash can only to discover that the trash can was stuffed. It was stuffed with recyclable stuff! So I start to look around and there was no recycling center set up. So then why does the base promote recycling?

I wanted to go walk the beach and take a video of all of this. Marines are just gross.

So last night I was talking to Rusty about this, and he said "The base Sergeant Major will be at the cigar social on Monday, why don't you go with me and you can ask him these question?"

I am going to go watch a bunch of old guys smoke cigars and talk about the good old days just so I can ask some tough questions. Even if I do not get answers for them.

I want people to be aware of the condition of the beach. Most of the best beach's are on Military bases and we should be ashamed of the condition of the beach's.

Onto another subject. I heard from both of the girls yesterday.

Nikki is having a blast and is pushing her limits. The group that Nikki is with was told that they could not walk around and sell t shirts and that they had to stay in their booth. So then Nikki and this other girl started writing "live offensively on peoples arms.  They were that they could not do that. So nikki made a big sign that said "We will pray for you". Then people started swarming them!

Amber called me in tears. Someone stole most of her money! So she will not have enough money to make it 2 weeks.

Great. this is just what I did not need. I check western unions web page and they can wire money to Italy, but I have to go into a western union to do it. I do not know what the conversion rate is but I was told that the money would be paid in the Euro. Does that mean that I am getting screwed?

I am going to call and try to activate Ambers atm card. I use to be on Ambers account, and I hope that I still am.

I am trying to get a hold of my uncle who is from Italy, but so far I am not having much luck. I do not even know where in Italy this girl is!

Oh my brain hurts.

O.K. my day is waiting and I have a lot to do.

I love summer

Summer is in full swing for me and I am loving it!

I get up and do my normal house stuff..... I am still wearing that little thing that I wore to bed the night before.

Then it is time to head down to the lake. So I put on my swim suit and head down to the lake. I feel so much better about my self because I see bigger women then me wear a bikini.

I come home and take a shower and put on another little thing.

Just think a few weeks ago I was worried because I did not have any Capri's. Next week when Ryan goes to school..... I am going to be nude!

I talked to Nikki today and she is doing much better today. The group is doing so good and they are having a blast. Nikki has also be invited back next summer! So what we are talking about is Nikki touring longer and then going to Fiji for her missions trip since Fiji is later in the summer.

For what ever reason I was not able to log onto the computer today. So by the time Rusty got home I was going through withdrawals! I am not sure what he did, but I am just so glad that I have my computer back!

I will try to get all of my alerts. Just be patient with me.

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missing my girls

O.K. lets hope this works!

Here is a picture of us with Amber on the night she graduated and the rest of the pictures were taken down at the cliffs. In one of the pictures you can see my head as I am climbing up the side of the rock. Then in the next picture I am at the top.

Lets see. Nikki is in Ohio and Amber is on her way to Europe. Ambers first stop will be Rome.

Today I am going to just stay at home and clean up the house. I don't think I am even going to get dressed.

Well I found my scissors! I finally got that damn curtain made. I really like the way it turned out. I chose a Japanese pattern. I want to go get more material and make the rest of my curtains out of the same material. But it will have to wait. I can't believe how expensive material is getting.

Yesterday Amber and I spent a lot of time talking about her trip. I am so happy that she is going on this trip. Yes, I am still upset that I paid for most of it, but on the other hand I am glad that she is going and doing these things.

For my birthday I got a rose from Ryan, a starbucks gift card from Rusty, a cat tee kettle, and some green bags for my produce. I think the bags were actually my mom ways of laughing at me! LOL

I just got an e mail from another j lander. She had offered to take Amber out when she got to the UK. Thanks in advance for showing my daughter a good time!

Can I admit that I miss my daughter already. Can I admit that I wish I was with them, watching them explore this big new world. Do I sound like a big baby?

My day is calling me. Maybe if I keep busy I won't miss my daughters so much.

 

 

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yes it is Monday

Yes it is Monday.

I can't find my sewing scissors and I want to sew.

I had to take Amber out to finish getting all of her crap done for Europe.

It is hotter then heck.

Did I mention that I can't find my sewing scissors?

Today is my 38th Birthday. So far today I have cleaned out the litter boxes, done laundry, ran the children around, lost my sewing scissors, and most of all I am missing my dad.

My dad was born on June 19th. For as long as I can remember I would always celebrate my birthday with my dad.

My father was in jail the night I was born. This is a true white trash story.

While my mom was in labor with me, my dad went to have a drink. He got arrested for drunk and disorderly. My mom bailed him out of jail on his birthday. It also happened to be fathers day.

I need to go get busy. I am just going to have to break out the quilting stuff so that I can cut some material. I bought this really cool material and I so want to get a curtain made today. Is that to much to ask?

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