Merry Christmas!!!!

I hope that everyone has a VERY Merry Christmas!



The above picture is of the card that I made, and sent out this year. I first saw a version of this card posted on Lynda's blog and fell in LOVE with it. Mine did not turn out exactly like hers, but it's very similar! It has lots of glitter (Stickles) and shine. I really like the way it turned out.



I am also including the card that I made last year. (I was a knucklehead and didn't keep a copy for myself, so I had to have one of the girls at work bring hers back in so that I could copy it! I am supposed to be adding one to a Christmas card album each year! I have been experiencing major brain dumps and totally forgot to make an extra one!)

The first week of December (2006) we had an ice storm, and it really saved my patootie, because the original Christmas card I had planned on making was NOT turning out. The day after the ice storm hit, I took my camera out and starting taking tons of pictures. EVERYTHING was covered in ice! It was breathtaking! Once I saw this picture I knew it would be perfect as my card. I had my son go into Adobe Photoshop, and add the words Seasons Greetings in the lower corner, then I uploaded it to Sam's for printing. It was a simple card, but I LOVE it!

Identity Theft!

Last week Mr. Mister was talking to a friend. He had just found out that his wife's identity had been stolen! They have spent hours trying to get it corrected, but it will take a lot more before everything is fixed again.

Today, I was watching Montel, and they were talking about identity theft being one of the fastest growing crimes in America. This is not only happening to adults. It is happening to children as well. One of the guests on the show had his identity stolen when he was seven years old, and didn't find out about it until he had graduated from high school and was trying to go to college. They wouldn't give him a student loan because they said he had $40,000.00 in debt on his credit. Someone had apparently bought a house boat using his name and social security number. He is still fighting to clear his credit today, and the collection agencies are trying to make him pay the money back even though it wasn't him.

Todd Davis was on the show talking about his company called LifeLock. I went to their website and this is what they say about their program:

Our job is to protect your good name. As a consumer, you have rights that allow you to take more control over who uses your identity and how they use it. We do the mechanics, the details if you will, to enforce those rights. And we stand behind our service with our $1,000,000 Service Guarantee. We charge $10 per month to do it.

Some of what we do, you can do yourself for free. The difference is that the only thing we think about is how to protect your Identity. Think of it this way: all of us can change our own oil, but most of us have it done by specialists. We'd like to think that what we do is more complicated than changing oil, but you get the idea.

Here's what we do:

First, we ask the credit bureaus to set fraud alerts on your behalf. Usually, this is done through our automated systems and the alerts are set within an hour. From time to time there may be a hitch and we have to do the first one manually, usually because they have a different address on file for you. If this happens, we'll tell you right away and do what needs to be done to get the alerts set. (In case you're wondering, we don't charge anything more for this and our Total Service Guarantee is still in effect from day one.)

Second, unless your circumstances change and you tell us not to, every 90 days or so we ask the credit bureaus to do it again. You can do this for free if you'd prefer, but we make sure it gets done and that it gets done right. That's where the oil change analogy we were talking about kicks in.

Third, we request that your name be removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists and we keep making the requests as they expire. Statistics show that this is one of the most common ways that thieves hijack identities. Plus, all that mail is just so irritating. Many of our clients tell us that this alone is worth the price. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you can do this for free, but why not let us do it for you?

Fourth, we order your free credit reports on your behalf from the major credit bureaus and they are sent directly to you. We do this every year. You can also do this yourself for free (Pennzoil anyone?).

Fifth, hassling with lost or stolen wallets is no longer a problem with WalletLock™. If ever your wallet goes missing, just give us a call – anytime, anywhere – and a WalletLock specialist will contact each credit card, bank or document issuing company, cancel your affected accounts and complete the paperwork and steps necessary to replace your lost documents*, including your credit/debit cards, driver’s license, social security card, insurance cards, checkbook – even travelers checks - at no additional cost.

Last, but certainly not least: If your Identity is stolen while you are our client, we're going to do whatever it takes to recover your good name. If you need lawyers, we're going to hire the best we can find. If you need investigators, accountants, case managers, whatever, they're yours. If you lose money as a result of the theft, we're going to give it back to you.

We will do whatever it takes to help you recover your good name and we will spend up to $1,000,000 to do it.

We don't think you will see a guarantee like this anywhere else from any other company. If you do, let us know because we'd like to do business with them. There isn't much fine print in our Guarantee. To see the details, click here.

If you have a reason to think that you will become a victim of Identity Theft, we can help you stop looking over your shoulder, because we've got your back.


In todays world, this is definitely something to consider!

If you decide that LifeLock is something that you are interested in, you can get a discount by typing in Montel as the promotion code. You will then get it for $9.00 per month (per adult) instead of $10.00.

Snow!

Well, the weather man was actually right this time! We got SNOW! And quite a bit of it!

Mr. Mister spent the morning shoveling it!



Of course, I had to try and take pictures! This is an icicle hanging off one of the wreaths we have outside.



I LOVE the drop of water forming on the berry!

I Can't Come Out To Play Right Now!

Sorry, but I am not allowed to play right now!

The doctor says I have something called "Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo."

In other words, I have a few rocks loose in my head!

I think most of us already knew that though! LOL

I'll be back when I am not sleeping most of the day away!

Roses!

In the last cake decorating class, of course #1, we finally learned how to make (and I am using that term very lightly) roses. The one thing I had been waiting for since the first day of class!

Let me just say this! Roses are NOT EASY! Especially, when they keep sliding right off the little tool thingy!

But, here are my attempts! Two of the roses were made by ME, (I am sure you can tell which two those are! LOL) and one was made by our teacher.





I have to say that this was the best tasting cake I have made! It was an orange flavored cake mix and it was DELICIOUS! My son went CRAZY over it.

We won't be starting course #2 until January, so there won't be anymore boring cake pictures for a while! LOL

Although, I did ask for this book for Christmas!



I want to be able to practice different techniques. So you may see some of that popping up on here!

AWWWWWWWWWW! Who am I kidding! I won't practice!

Boys DO have COOTIES!

I was warned! But I never listened! Boys have COOTIES!

Well, now I have gone and found out the hard way! Mr. Mister has passed his cootie bug on to me! And it was with perfect timing too! I really had "fun" at his work Christmas party this past Saturday. First, I thought that maybe if I drank enough Bailey's (on ice) that it would numb my sore throat! Ummmmm NO! Doesn't work too well. But the Bailey's sure was yummy!

OK! So then I thought that maybe, if I got up and danced a little, I would forget all about not feeling well! One dance (the Electric Slide.......GO Kathy! GO Kathy!) later and my throat was ON FIRE! It took three glasses of "ice" to calm it back down!

Finally, After several hours, I decided I was done and headed up to the room we had reserved and passed out! NO! Not from drinking! I don't think anyone could really ever get drunk drinking Bailey's can they? It's like drinking chocolate milk!

Sunday morning, I got up, checked out of the hotel, came home, crawled right back into bed, and stayed there the rest of the day! There were a few bits of excitement when I thought that my life was going to end, and I would be haunting Mr. Mister sooner than expected, because whenever I coughed or sneezed it totally cut off all of my breathing! I would jump out of bed, gasping for air, while thumping on my chest like an ape. My mind kept telling me not to panic, but what does someone do when they can't BREATHE? They PANIC! After a few near death experiences, I called Mr. Cootie Bug Giver, and begged him to run to the store for a vaporizer and some Vick's vapor rub that I seriously contemplated eating by the spoonful at the time!

Two days later, our bedroom smells like a medical ward, and I am still fighting cooties! I can barely talk (which my family LOVES) and I have tons of things that need to be done! I feel a nap coming on though! And who can resist a nap in the middle of the day, after a night of trying not to break a rib, while coughing up a lung?