Random Updates

We had a nice Christmas, but I was home sick on Christmas Day, while Chris & the boys went to my families gathering for a few hours.  We had already done most of our celebrating on the 23rd & 24th so I didn't feel too bad about it. One thing I missed is having a Christmas dinner with my immediate family here at the house.  We don't have a dining room table though. Since I'm getting read to do a review for them I can tell you that CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need whether it be modern dining furniture, fitness equipment, or even cute cookware. I've dealt with CSN Stores many times and have always been satisfied with their products and service.

Chris (DH) has been home sick so I haven't been around the blogging world much, so I thought I'd share some random updates.

I got my Kindle for Christmas.  I'll have my review, not a paid or endorsed review, but there are some things I would have liked to know before I got my Kindle & I'll share those with you in a day or so.

I got to open my Christmas present from Jeannie in Italy, and I'll share that with you soon too.

I got a new (inexpensive) camera to do Project 365, but the quality isn't that much better than my old one & even though it has 2 more megapixels I'm going to return it to Best Buy.

I miss knowing what my blog friends are up to, so I'm going to stop now so I can come around and check you all out!

Meet Me On Monday

Today I'm going to play along with Java from Never Growing Old for Meet Me On Monday.  A few questions, a few answers and hopefully some new friends at the end of the day!

1. What are your New Year's Eve plans?  None so far, but I'd love to get together with friends!

2. How tall are you? 5'4"

3. What is your favorite pudding flavor?  Boring old chocolate.  But I love to make homemade chocolate pudding, it's so much better than in the box!

Photo Credit

4. What room of the house do you blog the most in?  Since I don't have a laptop, I always blog on what we call our sunporch.  It's where Chris & I spend most of our time.

5. What is your best physical feature?  In my opinion it would be my eyes.  They're a nice green. 

Have A Good One Friends!

Bipolar

My friend Melissa from Day 2 Day Living suffers from bipolar like I do & she posted this graphic.  I love it & I had to steal it.  It's so simple, yet so accurate.

Bipolar makes life much more difficult, but it's never really boring.

Yummy Dinner

I got some puff pastry a week ago to make an appetizer for a holiday party.  I had an extra pack, so I used up some homemade meatballs from the fridge and made a calzone type thing.

Meatballs, spaghetti sauce, a couple different kinds of cheese & into the oven for 20 minutes.

It was a hit!

Thanks for all of the well wishes, the flu symptoms are still coming and going, but not as badly.  My husband Chris started vacation today just in time to get sick!  Hopefully it will be gone after a good night's sleep.

It Got Me!

This is where I have been stuck for the past couple of days, sick!

Luckily I have most of my shopping done (online, thank you).  Chris has all of next week off on vacation, so this is the time for me to get it out of the way.  I hope you're suviving the season!

It's Here!

And I am not thrilled.

Stay warm, friends!

We Have A Winner!

I'm happy to announce that Sara from ...Make Music From Your Heart To The Lord is the winner of my Oneida Culinaria pitcher giveaway.

Sara is also the host of Project 365, in which you take a picture each day of the year, post them on Sundays and link up with the other players.  She has just announced that whe will be doing the project again next year.  I'm going to play along this upcoming year & I hope you'll think about participating with me!

Congratulations, Sara!

Oneida Giveaway Reminder!

Remember there's still time to enter my Oneida giveaway, so check it out here!

Evidence For Jeannie!

But super-duper friend Jeannie from Jeannie's Happy World, moved to Italy and is currently living a dream filled with shopping, gelato & her family. 

Because she loves me she sent me a package for Christmas, but the trick is I can't open it until Christmas!  I may or may not be terrible at trying to get my presents early, so when I let her know that I got my package, she said she didn't have any proof that I hadn't opened it yet.  Here you go.

If you look at the date on the newspaper behind the still wrapped package, you will see that I have not opened it...yet!

Oh, 500!

I popped on my blog to post a quick Christmas tree picture and on my dashboard I saw the number of posts, "499"!

This is my 500th post.  Crap!

I feel like for the big 5-0-0 I should have had something planned, something major to say.  I got nothin'.

I guess I'll just say thanks.  Thanks for reading, thanks for listening, thanks for caring.  The friends that I have made in the blog world have blown me away, and your kindness and support means so much.

A Week Of Giveaways At Pet Blogs United!

I am having a week of giveaways over at my blog, Pet Blogs United.  There will be some great things for your pets as well as a couple of goodies for your home, so check it out & you could win a holiday present for your furry companion!

Oskar say, "Come on over to win!"

Have a great Sunday, friends!

Cutting Back This Year

How is all of your holiday planning going friends?  I'm just where I want to be.  This year I'm taking the pressure off of myself to try and let the holiday spirit speak to me again.

My tree is up.  It's not all decorated, but who says you have to have a million ornaments on your tree?  Maybe I'll put some on if it seems like a fun thing to do.  If it doesn't it's O.K.  See where I'm going with this?

It alright to opt out of your yearly cookie exchange this year, or leave some of those cute holiday knick-knacks in the box, if it means you can enjoy yourself and your loved ones more.

I decided that cards were important to me this year and that was my first priority.  My cards have been sent out and I'm hanging the ones that we recieve on some twine that we strung up around our sunporch.  I bought some tiny clothes pins to hang them with & it only cost me $12.00 total for the twine and clothes pins.  Do you like it?

Oskar participated in a card exchange with his blogging buddies so we have lots of adorable pet cards on our wall.  They just make me smile!

You can see that Oskar is in the holiday spirit with his candy cane collar. 

I guess in my rambling way what I'm trying to say is don't put too much pressure on yourself to make the holidays "perfect".  Identify what's most important, make that a priority, and then do the rest if it sounds like fun. 

What are you doing to make your holildays less stressful?  I'll take all of the ideas I can get, lol!

Oneida Culinaria Review & Giveaway!

I've been lucky enough to review Oneida Culinaria dinnerwear & my family adores it!

Culinaria in Pound Cake

I have to say that this color is stunning and Culinaria is perfect for everyday and really stylish enough to use for parties and holidays.

It can even withstand the teenage appetite!

What I especially love is the size and shape of the mugs and bowls.  The mugs fit perfectly in your hand and hold a perfect amount of morning coffee!

The bowls are a little bigger than my old ones and hold a whole can of soup.

Can you see the pretty ridge detail around the edges?  I love it!

Oneida has generously offered 1 Screaming Mimi reader a stunning Culinaria pitcher (I want this for Christmas myself!)
 

Here's how to enter:

Mandatory Entry:  Visit Oneida and then leave me a comment telling me what color pitcher you would pick if you win. (1 entry = 1 comment)

Extra Entries: Be or become a follower of Screaming Mimi. (1 entry = 1 comment)

Tweet about the giveaway, and leave a comment with the link to your tweet. (2 entries = 2 comments)

Put my new Screaming Mimi button on your blog (3 entries = 3 comments)

*Make sure that you put your e-mail address in your comments, so that I can contact you if you win!

Contest ends Saturday, December 11th at midnight EST.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will be chosen.
 

Whew!

It's been a long couple of days here in Mimi-ville!  My mom had some surgery yesterday.  She's doing well, but the operation was a little more complicated than it should have been. 

8 hours in a hospital waiting room is a L-O-N-G time!  Then seeing my mom in pain was really hard.  I'm used to being the one in the bed, but not seeing my loved ones in hurting.

I've got a great Oneida giveaway coming up that I hope to have posted tomorrow, & I'm going to try and visit all of my bloggy friends tonight!

Tis The Season...

For kitties under the tree.

Moe & Chloe

They get quite annoyed when we dare to put presents under their tree!

Christmas Wrapped In My Mom's Love!

Since my mom retired several years ago she has taken up quilting.  I have many amazing quilts that she has made me, but one of my favorites is the huge Christams quilt.

It's extra special because my mom, some of my aunts, some cousins & my grandmother all hand tied this quilt in my mom's living room on a quilting rack that belonged to my mom's ancestors.  Everyone who helped tie my quilt signed it.

Oskar loves the quilt too.

To go along with that she made me a matching tree skirt.  There is one special square in the skirt for each of us, myself, my husband & John & Jack.

You can see that Moe the cat loves the tree skirt also!

Decorating the tree is a garland made of cloth circles called yo-yos.  My mom cut out & hand sewed each of the yo-yos and my other grandmother, who has since passed away, sewed them all together into garlands.

This Christmas is especially important to me since it will be my mom's one year anniversary of having survived breast cancer.

The holidays can be a trying time for me, but being surrounded by my mom's love makes me so happy to have these things in my house every day of the holiday season!