Saturday, May 31, 2008

School's out for summer!





Look at what some mischievous kids did to the fountains in our neighborhood to commemorate the last day of school. I know I'm getting old because after my initial thought which was how funny it was, I thought of how, if the kids keep doing this, our homeowner's association fees are going to go up...it's sad to get old.

This
r
eminded me of the time my girlfriend, Dae Foti and I dumped a whole bottle of shampoo in her neighborhood jacuzzi late at night, turned on the jets and then had a blast jumping into the huge mass of bubbles. Does anybody else remember Dae? She was so crazy and fun. I really missed her when she moved across town and went to a different school.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Table Rock Lake...heaven on earth















Our last family vacation was almost two years ago (July 2006) when we went to Table Rock Lake (pictured above).

I don't know why we didn't go anywhere last summer, but we have never had a vacation dry spell that lasted this long. That is all going to change on Friday evening when we hit the road for Branson/Table Rock Lake. This time we're going to Silver Dollar City and we're staying at a cool place called Still Waters Resort so we are sure to have a blast and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Eating crow


I owe Archuleta an apology. He did an amazing job tonight and I'm sorry to say, I think our Kansas City boy, David Cook, is going down tomorrow.

On a completely
unrelated note, after May 30, I will no longer be an employee of the school district. My summer of unemployment is just days away...YAH BABY!!!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Random thoughts and pictures

My baby graduated from preschool! It's hard to tell, but that's a graduation cap on his head. Isn't he the cutest thing? He got to hold the flag while they marched down the aisle to the stage and it was such a great moment. I don't have a picture because I was filming him on our outdated video camera which is not digital.

This is my 14 year old dog, Peanut with my two year old dog, Max. I don't talk about Peanut a lot because he's old, he stinks and he goes potty in the house. He also has lupus which means that the skin around his eyes looks pretty gross most of the time. For those of you who have known me a long time, you know how lucky Peanut (The Destroyer) is to still live with us. These days, he's a pretty pathetic creature who just follows me around, occasionally falls down on the kitchen tile and can't get back up by himself and half walks/half falls down the stairs in the mornings. I don't think he'll be with us much longer. Max will probably miss him the most.


It's hard to tell in this picture because it's so dark, but this is a scene from our Saturday night camp-out on the trampoline. Adam (the strange little man in tie-dye) likes to wear my shirts to bed, thus the fashion statement. One more editor's note...that's a pretzel in Jacob's mouth, not a cigar! The first time we camped on the trampoline, we woke up and came inside because it was sprinkling on us. This time, I couldn't get comfortable and Max kept moving around so I woke the boys up and we came in around midnight. Willie had the right idea...he cleared out around 10:00.


BEFORE



AFTER (That's the ceiling fan sticking out from behind my head)


Jessica Simpson I am not, but I think the haircut turned out pretty cute. The bangs aren't very obvious so I might need to have her cut them more the next time around. In case you're wondering what those red bumps on my neck are, well, so am I. I'm wondering if it could be poison ivy.

I have gained back several pounds...I don't know how many because I refuse to get on the scale until I know the results will be better. I don't need a scale. I can just look in the mirror at my chubby face to see that things are going downhill real fast. So, I am getting serious again starting RIGHT NOW!! Tonight while I watch Intervention and tomorrow night while I watch American Idol I will be working my little heart out on the elliptical machine. Feel free to call and check up on me to be sure I'm not lounging on the couch instead. Although I may just answer the phone and breathe heavy to psyche you out...

I don't regularly watch American Idol, but David Cook is from the Kansas City area and I'm really digging his rocker style. I hope that little punk David Archuleta falls hard (no offense if you're an Archuleta fan but he really gets on my nerves). If you haven't seen Intervention, it's a reality show where they follow addicts (drug, alcohol, food, shopping, video games, etc.) and pretty much document what losers they are. Then all their family members gang up on them in a hotel room for an intervention where the addict is confronted with the choice of going to rehab right that moment or having their friends and family members turn their backs on them. My favorite Intervention episode is one where this lady has an eating problem. Her whole day is scheduled around fast food runs. I feel a kinship with her, especially after cleaning all the fast food wrappers and cups out of my van today. I think I need an intervention.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Me and my Dad

I haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately, but I know it's boring to keep coming back and not find anything new so here's a quick post.

This is a picture of me and my Dad. It is, in fact, the last picture that was taken with my old camera before it was dropped, I mean broke, may it rest in peace.

My parents were divorced when I was two or three years old and I grew up living with my Mom. I look nothing like my Mom...she is a petite woman of about 5'1" with small features and I am a 5'6" Amazon in comparison. My feet probably outgrew her shoes before I even graduated from elementary school. I bet people used to wonder if I was adopted. Well, here's a mighty convincing picture of whose DNA dominated the gene pool when I was created!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

And the winner is...

Grand Prize Winner:

Cheri with "A Splash of Brandi"


Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

"Brandi On The Rocks" by Soliloquy

"Brandi's Whine" by Don

and of a similar title,

"Brandi Whine" by Jennifer G.


Cheri, Jennifer G., Soliloquy and yes, even Don, let me know what color(s) you want in your bracelet. I've decided that the grand prize will be a toggle bracelet and I'll make cute stretchy bracelets for the honorable mentions. Fair enough? Soliloquy, this should be interesting since you're an anonymous blogging entity...hmm, let me know if you keep a post office box with a pseudonym for just such purposes.

Last but not least, I am excited to announce that Brandi is the winner of a FABULOUS blog makeover to go with her FABULOUS new name. This makeover was awarded by the very talented and generous, Fabulous K!! Hey Miss Fabulous, let me know which colors you'd like because you are also going to receive a bracelet...

If you like any of the beads pictured, let me know. Otherwise, just give me a color or color scheme and I'll come up with something. Email me here: kcaimee at gmail dot com

Back in business


Look what I got today for my birthday...my boys and my man rock!!! I also had an incredible birthday dinner last night. Willie made ribs & chicken on the smoker and they were to die for...seriously, they were restaurant quality or better. We had my Mom and some friends over and the night was complete when I whipped up strawberry margaritas and my Mom brought over a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake. I love birthdays! Mine is actually not until Tuesday, but Willie has to go out of town for work this week so we celebrated early. Not that I'm done celebrating. The boys and I will be eating out at least once and possibly several times while Willie is gone.

Brandi
is Missing In Action at the moment. As soon as she turns up, I'll announce a winner of the "Name Brandi's Blog" contest. And, now that I have a camera, I can take pix of some of the beads our winner can choose to have in their custom bracelet. That will make you party poopers who didn't enter the contest jealous...

Saturday, May 3, 2008

The entries are...

I promise I haven't been dragging this contest out just to be dramatic, but now that you mention it, the suspense is making it more fun and the entries keep rolling in! Seriously, the last two days of my life have been a total whirlwind (and I mean that literally...I'll get to that in a later post). So, here are all the entries so far. If you don't see yours here, let me know.

  • Life Through My Lens - Jennifer R.
  • Imagine That - Jennifer R.
  • Brandiland - Jennifer R.
  • Brandi Straight Up - Jennifer R.
  • Brandiliscious - Shellie
  • Brandi's Whine - Don (Cheri's DH)
  • Brandi's Word Smith/ - Soliloquy
  • Brandi: WordSmith - Soliloquy
  • BrandiBlooms - Soliloquy
  • BloomSmith - Soliloquy
  • Bloom n' Rooms - Soliloquy
  • Brandi On the Rocks - Soliloquy
  • PhotoBouquet - Soliloquy
  • BrandiNames (get it? Brand Names) - Soliloquy
  • Brandi-On-The-Rocks - Soliloquy
  • Spittin' Image of Who I Used to Be - Soliloquy
  • I Know I Left Me Here Somewhere - Soliloquy
  • Brandi Schmandi - Shauna
  • Brandi Schmandi Smith Schmith - Shauna
  • Bloggin' with Brandi - Wende
  • A day in the life of Brandi - Wende
  • NAME BRANDi Blog (or leave blog off too- get it- name brand jeans, name brand blog) - Wende
  • The best of Brandi & the boys - Melanie
  • Smith Stories - Melanie
  • Have a Drink with Brandi - Casey
  • A Splash of Brandi - Cheri
  • Brandi And The Babes - Jennifer G.
  • Brandi Whine (no offense i thought it was funny) - Jennifer G.
  • Brandi And The Fam (or Family) - Jennifer G.
  • That Brandi - Jennifer G.
  • Yours Brandi - Jennifer G.
  • My Heart Is My Family - Jennifer G.
  • Handy Brandi - Aimee (hey, it's my contest, I can enter if I want to)
  • Stone Cold Fox - Aimee
  • Red Hot Smokin' Brandi - Aimee

I'm overwhelmed with all of this creativity and I want to steal some of these for myself. Maybe we should all go into business selling blog names...hmmm...now my wheels are spinning. Ok, back to the contest. The new deadline is tonight, Saturday, 5/3, 8pm Central time. I will announce a winner shortly after that, and possibly a runner-up or two.