KIDS

KIDS....my daughter wanted to use the phone. I told her to use the phone in the other room. She said that something was wrong with the phone, so she told me to try and dial her girlfriend. I picked up the phone and there was a dial tone so I told her it works. She took it from me and dialed her girlfriends number. Then hands it back to me and says "see!" I listen.....silly girl....that is a busy signal. Funny how things have changed so much that our kids don't even know what a busy signal is on the phone. As I told her, "dear, everyone doesn't have call waiting." It is hard to find anyone that doesn't have it nowadays.

This also reminds me of my old neighbor in Monroe. She was about 15 years old and couldn't tell time on a normal clock. Kids nowadays are so spoiled with electronic clocks that they can't even figure out what time it is without one.

I thought hula-hoops were suppose to be fun

Back to my hula-hoop.....I found a website that sells this product. I wouldn't say that I am making any recommendations for it, but just in case you are curious take a peak. This is NO ORDINARY hula-hoop. If you buy it, expect it to hurt.

Exercise Hula-hoop??

A lot of my friends have been purchasing these hula-hoops for exercising. The cost is $40, but one of my girlfriends had purchased one and decided she was never going to use it, so I got it for $20 still with the wrapper on. Anyways I tried it out today. What a sight to see! I did it in the yard so that I could embarrass my daughter, and to keep from destroying everything in the house in the process. Luckily for my daughter I could only manage to do about 5 minutes of it before I quit. I didn't quit because it was too difficult physically for me or that I was too lazy to do it. I quit because it hurt the hell out of me. The way it is designed makes for a very unpleasant experience.

Maybe I'll give it a try again, maybe I won't. I heard that hula-hooping was good for you, but I can't see how it could really benefit me if it hurts to even twirl it around me once, let alone many times.

Glad I didn't pay the full $40.

For Our Troops!!

September 21, 2005 a 2006 Jeep Commander dove 1,200 feet from the sky. This event marked the arrival of the vehicle to dealerships across the nation. Along with this it kicked off a holiday donation drive for Operation Gratitude.

Jeep dealerships across the country are accepting donations and letters of appreciation to American soldiers around the world. They are hoping to reach their goal of sending 30,000 care packages to troops this holiday season. For a list of donations please take a look at www.OperationGratitude.com

Being a combat veteran myself I understand the need for soldiers to receive support not only from friends and family, but just about ANYONE. There are troops over there that do not have a support chain in their lives. It can be very lonely over there, especially during the holidays. Please show your support and appreciation for a soldier.

Those damn power outages

Several days I was writing a post when a storm (which lasted about 5 minutes) managed to knock out my electricity. I can only imagine how the lives of those terrorized by Katrina and Rita feel, because I hated my little 26 hours without electricity (my problem doesn't even compare).

It is amazing how our lives nowadays depend on electricity, our computer, our hot showers, etc. I missed a day of work, kids didn't go to school. That evening when the power went out (at about 6:30 or so) I was in bed by 7:30. I was like what the heck, nothing to do, I'm bored, why not go to bed? So I did. Thank goodness I cooked dinner right when I came home from work. It was done right when the power went out. The next day though I didn't want to open the fridge so I took the kids about thirty minutes away to eat, watch a movie and do some shopping. We managed to make a day of it anyways.

That next evening my sister had us stay at her boyfriends house. We took the food over there, and cooked dinner for all of us. Watched some movies, read a little bit then went to bed. I had a horrible night trying to sleep though. I think it was just because I was over someone elses house, and I was worried that I wouldn't wake up for work Saturday morning. Plus the fact that I had a dream that someone broke into my car and stripped the inside out. Funny thing though, they just took the stuff out and left it in the street, they didn't even bother to take it. They just made things more difficult for me, I couldn't drive it without seats in it. So I laid there wondering if my boys locked the doors when they went to get some stuff out of it. I was so tired though that I didn't get up to check, I just laid there worrying about it instead. I always manage to have weird dreams like that.

Anyways, things are kind of getting back to normal around here. I have breakfast on for the kids and I am hoping that today is a relaxing day (as this is my only day off this week).

My baby girl is growing up

This was my daughter, Rona, on her way to the movies last night with her girlfriend. Her first trip to the movies without a parent. They were dropped off by another parent.

She is a very responsible girl, I'm very proud of her. I felt weird, I know she was just going to the movies, but I felt like she was growing up. Like this was a major event in her life. I even let her have her birthday present early (a digital camera) so that she could take pictures of her and her friend. You would have thought she was going to prom or something, but in a pair of jeans and t-shirt.

Little Rhonda

This was my kindergarten picture. I can actually still remember this day. Funny to think back and remember a day thirty years ago.

What I remember about this day was coming home after school in this dress. Don't ask me why, probably something I talked my mother into letting me do, but I was wearing a pair or adult pantyhose. This stands out so much because I remember that as we were walking I had to keep stopping to pull them back up. Gosh, I'm laughing right now at the thought of it.

I also remember that my sister got tired of me and continued home without me. Of course when she got home she got into trouble because we were suppose to walk home together.

Well there I am "Little Rhonda."

Some days life is harder than others. Some days doing something as simple as grocery shopping or eating alone at a restaurant can really make me sad. I am single more often than not, and at times I feel extremely lonely. Other times I can feel completely satisfied with being alone. Today is a lonely day.

I am my father's daughter

This is a picture of me and my dad from about 3 years ago when he came up to visit me. My parents live in Florida so I don't get to see them very often.

It's obvious to see that I am my father's daughter. My sister takes after my mother and I take after my father.

I have very few pictures with my father. I have absolutely no pictures of my children with my father. Hopefully next time I take a trip down there I will get the chance to take some.

Just a little story about us....my father's name is Robert. When I was born my grandmother wanted my parents to name me Roberta after my father. THANK GOD my mother had a mind of her own and named me Rhonda instead.

Why My Tequila Sunrise?

Someone brought up Tequila to me the other day, so that reminded me that maybe I should explain why I titled my blog "My Tequila Sunrise." Also why I made my address http://myingredients.blogspot.com.

Well even though I rarely drink now I have did quite a bit of it while growing up. Especially while I was in the Army, being stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana didn't leave much a person much else to do except drink. That of course was many years ago, but besides beer (which I can't drink anymore with bloating right up) my favorite drink was a Tequila Sunrise; actually it still is.

As I listed in the title, the ingredients of a Tequila Sunrise, I compare it to the contents of this blog, which are the "ingredients" that make up ME! The things in my life that make me happy, sad or just somewhere inbetween.

Half of my Renaissance page

Please, Please, Please, will somebody please tell me how to merge two pictures together. My scrapbook pages are 12x12 so they are too big to fit it all on my scanner. So I can do half of the page at a time, but can't figure out how to do the entire piece. My nephew did all of my older pieces last summer, but he cannot remember how he did it.

The dreaded scale

Guess what? We have our little weigh-ins every Monday, today I weighed a whole pound less than I did on Friday. I guess that isn't too bad considering I didn't do any exercising and cheated a bit. Well I didn't even start my diet until Saturday morning. Anyways, I better get my lazy butt out of bed in the morning to go to the gym. I'll try to do better tomorrow morning, but 5:15 am already comes early, I would have to get up at like 4 am to make it to the gym and get in any kind of workout before heading off to work.

HELP!

This picture was taken on Mother's Day of 2004. This is my son Joey. This is part of a scrapbook page that I made, unfortunately I cannot figure out how to add the two parts together, if anyone can help me PLEASE DO!
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Me sitting in the woods in 1989

Just another one of those pics that my ex-husband took of me when I was twenty. Yes this is before I learned about plucking eyebrows, and I know it was eighties hairstyle; but lets not forget it was still the eighties.

Brothers

Not sure how well this picture will turn out once it is posted. It is looking kind of fuzzy on my screen right now, but it was such a cute pic that I couldn't resist posting it. I always thought this was an adorable picture of my boys. It was taken one Christmas, I believe in 2000 which would have made them about five years old.

And no, one is not shorter than the other one, one is just kind of sitting on the couch while the other one is standing.

Back then it was more difficult for others to figure out which one was which. My mom, my sister and myself we the only ones that could tell them apart for the longest time. Eventually my daughter stopped calling them "the fat baby" or "the skinny baby" and started using their real names. For years though they just referred to themselves just as "brother." I always thought that was soooooo cute. They would say things like, "hey brother come here and look." They grew out of that though about two years ago.

God give me strength!

Okay, so I already cheated today. The kids had to bring out the Oreo cookies. I tried to say I would just have one, but NO I had to have four of them. Other than that little mishap I have been doing great today.

One of the "LOST" photos

This is one of those "lost" photos that I recently found and had developed. I can remember when this picture was taken. This was when I was dating my ex-husband, he was the one that actually took this picture. This was taken at Fort Polk, Louisiana while we were stationed there. Not sure exactly what this structure was that I am sitting on though. If I were to take a guess on how old I was in this picture I would say that I am about twenty years old here. Actually I was twenty because I was married at the early age of twenty one and this was definately taken before then.

Oh, and you can't tell from the photo because I made it black & white, but I was wearing a bright yellow sweat suit. What was I thinking? I looked like a big banana.

OH yes!!! It is diet time.

Yesterday my friends and I decided to see who could lose the most weight in 8 weeks. Everyone put in $50, I believe the pot is currently up to about $500 for the winner (hoping that it is me of course).

With my kids being gone for 6 weeks during the summer, and me being laid off from work for about 6 or 7 weeks this summer did nothing to help me maintain my weight. I think I am opposite from most people, I tend to gain in the summer and lose in the winter.

Anyways, I went to the store already to prepare myself for my task at hand. I have loaded up with reading material. See for me to stay motivated I need to be reminded daily, for me this is usually done by reading something about nutrition or fitness. Also the boys and I hit this awesome fruit/vegetable stand about 25 minutes from my house. It was a ways away from me, but the drive was certainly worth it (I have to admit I hit the scrapbook store also, nothing wrong with killing two birds with one stone now is there?).

Lets see....what did I get?

apples
oranges
bananas
red onions (for my salads)
lettuce
potatoes
sweet potatoes
corn
hungarian hot peppers
scallions
grapes (red and green)
strawberries
cucumbers
cabbage
broccoli
tomatoes

I think that is about it, I already had lots of carrots at the house. Oh and don't think I plan on eating it all by myself. My three kids will have no problem helping especially with the fruits. I know that all of the items listed above can be bought at any grocery store, but going to the market like that just makes it so much more fun. The boys love to go with me, they push the buggy around (trust me it is crowded). Oh and sorting through all of the corn on the cob is big time fun for them!

I think one of my biggest problems with my eating habits is that I usually feel rushed to prepare meals, or else order out. I enjoy lots of healty foods if I would just take the time to prepare the meals.

Another one of my problems is my lack of exercise. I stay somewhat busy at work, but that isn't enough. I need to take advantage of that gym membership that I have. I have plenty of ways to stay active I just need to stop being such a lazy butt and do them.

If anyone out there reads this and has any suggestions they will be appreciated. I need some new ideas to make my little weight loss journey a bit more exciting. I'm looking forward to winner that 500 bucks. Wish me luck!!!

So cute in her hip jeans!

This must have been the year that my girlfriends son got ahold of my tree. I take pride in my Christmas trees, and this one looks like it went through hell. On particular year though my girlfriend's son (he is severely handicapped) use to come over often. The first thing he would go for is the tree. Eventually I gave up fixing it knowing that he didn't know better and would be back the next day to find delight in it again.

This though is my beautiful Rona with her cute little hip jeans. I use to love those jeans when she had them. The pants were always too long on her though so we either cut them off or rolled them up. This was taken years ago, probably in 2000 because Rona will now be 13 years old.

This picture was one of those in my "lost" section. I found this in the negatives that were in the junk box that I went through the other day. I also broke down and gave up on that other scanner that I was trying to salvage, and I bought me a new one. Nice to have it back, I use my scanner a lot for my projects so I was heartbroken without it.

Back to School

Well the kids are back at school, and already life is getting interesting. My daughter (soon to be 13) has a new growth on her ear, it is my telephone. She has now reached that age when she has to talk to her friends from the time she gets out of school to the time I force her to go to bed. Lucky for me though she sits in the livingroom talking away to her friends thinking that I am in my own little world and not paying attention to her. HAHAHA, little does she know that I have a built in filter system in my brain. I flush out the mumble jumble talk and focus in on certain key words that peak my curosity. By use of my eavesdropping skills I have come to the conclusion that she is a pretty good kid, but she thinks that lots of guys are "hott."

My boys on the other hand, Jason & Joey, are identical twin boys (age 10). Getting them to do their homework is like pulling teeth, so I have to stay on them all the time. It will be better when the cold weather comes and they will stay in more. Right now with the weather being so nice all they want to do is play outside with their friends. It seems every day I am seeing them with some new friend. Oh and girls are now coming over to see them. My sister told the girls that the boys were not here, then she turned to me and asked about the girls coming over to see the boys. Of course I had to peak my head out the door and see what was up. Three cute girls walking down the sidewalk. Boy do I have trouble coming my way.

One of my sons just asked me who my daughter was talking to on the phone. I said, "her girlfriend," he said, "how do you know it isn't her boyfriend?" I replied, "because you would tell me" he said, "I know." None of my children can have a crush on someone without one of the others spilling the beans.

Lets see.....what else? Rona joined Junior High Pep Band, so they will be playing during the games. She plays the flute, this is her second year in band. She informed me that I have to attend all of the games with her. This is cool, it gives me lots of photo opportunities. Although I did break my camera today so I will need to purchase a new one soon. One thing that really impresses me about my daughter is that when she gets involved in something she sticks with it. She doesn't give up easily. I'm pretty proud of her.

I hit the LOTTERY!! (or so it seems to me)

I hit the lottery the other day. Well at least it felt like it to me. I was digging through an old box of junk when I came across something very precious to me....a bunch of old negatives (when I say old I mean like fifteen years old). To me these are priceless. I am so into collecting pictures of my entire family over the years (I even have some dated back two hundred years). In my mind finding lost photos is the equivalent of pirate finding a buried treasure. These are my treasures that I intend to preserve and pass to my children and hopefully them to theirs.

I picked them up this afternoon. There were more than I had expected, which of course made me happy. Unfortunately because I was so excited when I handed them over to the photo technician I forgot to ask for them to be placed on a disc. I asked today, but their machine is temporarily broken, so she told me to try in a couple of days. Of course that is my plan, and once I have them onto a disc I will sort through them and possibly even place some here on my blog.

I also made a trip to the scrapbook store near my house. The owners took it over about a year ago. They have brought in lots of new items over the past year. They offer lots of classes, something that I might consider doing; even though I have never attended a scrapbook class in my life. I'll probably learn something new though, so it might be worth it. It might also be a chance for me to just get out and do something that I enjoy for myself with some individuals that share the same interests.

Anyways, it is about time for me to head to bed. Work comes early in the morning. Sweetdreams everyone....I'm outta here. Nite!

My daughter's new favorite quote, "I think you're trying to sell a cat to someone who fancies dogs." She took it from the commercial of the new television series "My Name Is Earl"

Double Trouble

Uh oh! Here's Double Trouble!!

Handsome Devils!!