Wait for it, Wait for it. . .

Yup, waiting for the Rutgers response. Wonder how long it will take. Anyone want to start throwing in some guesses when it might arrive? I'm thinking sometime before the Spring semester starts would be a beginning, right? Ok, so let's start hearing your guesses and hopefully we'll find out sooner than later who it right.

My Head is Spinning

As usual it's been quite hectic. We picked up our Christmas Tree this weekend, went to Harry's Company picnic, Banquet for Banana's cheerleading, tree decorating, blah, blah, blah. And this week we need to finish making the ornaments for the craft show on Thursday, music concert on Wednesday, gymnastics, Christmas shopping hasn't even begun yet, Christmas cards (finally ordered them) and so on. I guess the "Spirit of Christmas" is upon us. I always have such big plans for what I want to accomplish for the Holidays, like all kinds of baking, decorating and such, and I probably get about a quarter of it done. I guess it's aim high and be happy with what becomes of it in the end. So let me know all the things you plan on doing, how you plan on organizing it and then let me know what you actually accomplish. It would be nice to know you're not alone in the Christmas frenzy and that we're probably just aiming too high.

This is Your Brain on Children:

Need I say more?!

That's actually what it would look like in my head on a good day. Let's see how many days go by before I have to start tossing things for them to clean up. (This was the brain child of the Little Man and Toodles) Forget shoveling s___ against the tide, try shoveling toys against these two.

By the way, I'm just not getting enough kicks in the ass here. this blog is supposed to keep me in check but with only one faithful follower to be held accountable to, it just doesn't seem to be enough. So if you're logging on, please leave comments to keep me in line. Otherewise I'm just about talking to myself.

OHHH! Here's the progress I've made on that cross stitch pictured below. Not bad for having only worked on it twice.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL YOU TURKEYS!!!!

Na Na, na na NA NA, hey hey hey, Good Bye!!!!!

KISS IT GOOD BYE!

Well, it's in God's hands now, as they say. I can now knock that one off my list! One Million, five hundred and forty three thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine more to go. Baby steps, Pam, just take baby steps. Someone remind me to breathe occasionally, because as things are going, I may just forget.

Case in point: Monday is gymnastics day. I do the usual ranting and raving to get the kids out the door and we arrive at the gym to find it rather desolate. I walk up to the door and it's dark. Hmmm, I copied all the closed days into my calendar ahead of time so I wouldn't show up on closed days like last year but here I am. Well, I had to go to the bank anyway, so we're off. Sometime around dinner I get to thinking (yes, this process starts very late in the day for me) and I start wondering about the gym being closed and very slowly I start to realize that I WAS THERE A FULL HOUR EARLY!!!!! I tell this to Bananas, who very matter of factly states, Duh, the clock said 2:26 when we left. (It should have said 3:26 since the class starts at 3:50) God help me, is this how Alzheimers starts?

Inheriting the crapola

Poor Bananas. Of all the things to inherit from me, she received the lack of space in her mouth. Now she gets to have special contraptions made to move her tooth over. At least it will be in the back of her mouth. She won't have great big head gear for everyone to make fun of. Thank God she's adorable!

Did I Call it or What?

And what time did the response to my e-mail come?

4:33

It's a good thing I have until December 1st!!!!!!!

THIS IS ME SCREAMING!!!!!

Is it just me or do those people who don't shut up long enough to actually hear what you're saying piss you off?!?! I get an e-mail address for the person to contact regarding readmission. I send her a desperate e-mail because I'm under the impression that today is the deadline. I have not heard from her yet. So I call Academic Services back to see if I can get a phone number for a real live living, breathing, speaking person and they don't understand why I can't wait for this person to respond. Now everything I found on the Rutgers website says Nov. 15, deadline. Right? So if Miss Erica doesn't e-mail me back until 4:30, doesn't that seem like it might be a problem? Now why does the wench on the other line shut her mouth for more than 5 seconds to hear why I'm in a bit of a rush? OK, fine, I now understand that I have until December 1st but everything else says differently and everything also says to reapply with the school you previousely attended which doesn't exist when you try to link to it. So again I ask you, "IS IT JUST ME?!?!?"

PRINCESS OF PROCRASTINATION

Yup, that's my title. I am a pro and should probably have dedicated this blog to that purpose. If you think you deserve my title more than I do, I welcome your story, but i doubt you will dethrone me.

Anyway, I've been trying to figure out the whole readmission process at Rutgers and since they no longer have separate colleges, aka Douglass, Cook . . . and the website hasn't caught up and I can't seem to find THE person to speak to, I am caught in a readmission nightmare. The website says to reapply at the college I previousely attended but that college no longer exists. I am now waiting for "Erica" to respond to my very desperate e-mail. The Academic Services person says this is the person to contact but she only has an e-mail. Have I ever mentioned that I HATE WAITING!!!! Seems odd when you label yourself a procrastinator since essentially you're WAITING to get something done but AHHH, this is waiting for someone ELSE to get something done. Much different!

And so I wait.

Stuck in Go

We are experiencing technical difficulties please stand by. . . . .

That pretty much sums up my brain right now. I'm having a few of those days where the list seems never ending and my get up and go has got up and left. Thanks 1970's Saturday morning TV for coining that phrase. Maybe cheese is the answer. It was right in front of me the whole time and I missed it. I definitely could use a break from hearing "Mom" every 5 seconds and the whining and crying and bickering and fighting and complaining. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! How are you supposed to think straight with that blasting in your head?

So, the Holiday Open House went well. Everyone seems to have had a nice night out and left with some really cool purchases. The expandable trivet seems to have been the hot item. And who could blame anyone. It expands or shrinks to fit most any dish and looks beautiful on your table too. And congratulations to Jeanette for winning the door prize. An adorable little tote and the most awesome travel mug ever. And congratulations to my neighbor, Kathy, for winning the hostess benefit.

I once again apologize for the lack of posts and excitement. I'd just rather roll into a ball and stare at the wall right now. I bet a weekend at the Longaberger Homestead would do me some good. Don't you think?

My Longaberger Purpose, I Mean addiction, I mean Purpose

Tomorrow night is my first Longaberger Open House. I'm busy trying to clean up, organize and set up stuff. Then I need to bake, cut up veggies and that sort of thing. I think it'll be fun. I'm nervous already though. That "in the spotlight" it's all on me type of nervous that I just love! Well, this is Longaberger's purpose for me. Practice in the spotlight! So wish me luck and send good vibes. And hope for lots of sales too. That surely wouldn't hurt.

Oh, and that cross stitch I picture below. I started working on it! I'll post a picture of my progress another time.

My Apologies

I apologize to my one faithful follower (you know who you are) about the lack of post today. Harry "worked from home" today and therefore we went to get tickets to see "A Christmas Carol" and I wasn't home for very long before heading 40 minutes away to the vet for Shooter's check up and I didn't get home until about 5:00. So hopefully I can come up with something exciting for tomorrow to make up for today. If I had more time I was going to translate my post to German but alas, it has escaped me.

Recipe of the Day

It seems to be crazy busy today. I started the day by making sausage, peppers and onions for Harry to share at work. That was at 7:30 this morning. I've been busy cleaning, organizing and so on ever since.

So today I'm leaving a recipe that I tried last night. It was so simple and so tasty. I found it in Martha Stewart's everday food magazine.

HOMINY SAUTE

1 Tblsp vegetable oil

2 cans (14 oz. each) hominy, rinsed and drained

4 to 5 scallions, thinly sliced

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1 Tblsp cider vinegar

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add hominy and scallions, season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until scallions are softened. 2 to 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, cook until warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and add vinegar; season with salt and pepper.

The changes I made were: I didn't have grape tomatoes so I cut up regular tomatoes but removed the seeds and I didn't have cider vinegar, so I used red wine vinegar. It was like a warm salad. Yummy and light.

Thanks Martha!!

Der verwendungszweck Deutsch

OK, it's supposed to say "The German Purpose". Sorry, it's not supposed to sound like something straight out of the Furor's mouth. One of my purposes to add to the list is to relearn what I learned in German I. And fast! So should I start blogging in German and make all of you download German/English dictionaries, or is someone going to step up to the plate and maybe leave some comments in German? Or maybe you have another idea? Any advice would help. And if someone could make any corrections to "mein" title it would be greatly appreciated. Danke!

By the way, Harry jarred a huge bunch of peppers last night, he brought a whole bunch for people at work, I've been chopping some up for sausage peppers and onions and then there's just a bunch to freeze. The table is mostly usable now. Hurray!

SHOP 24/7 : http://www.longaberger.com/pamsbasketcase

The Daily Grind

My purpose today is not so interesting. Cleaning! Yup, cleaning, laundry, freezing peppers. Try not to get too excited. The laundry pile is getting so high that soon they'll be forming parties to climb It instead of Everest.

Speaking of parties, we had 2 this weekend. "Bananas" went to a bowling party for a friend from school. Her very first time bowling and her very first time rolling that ball down the lane she knocked down every pin but one. She was quite excited and enjoyed all the kids saying "Way to go!" Even so, I think she had more fun running in circles, slipping with those bowling shoes, and falling down with her "BFF" that you met at our Halloween party.

Saturday night we picked the last of the peppers from the garden. TONS OF PEPPERS! Hot, sweet, bell. Now they need freezing or we won't be able to use the kitchen table for a while.

Now, off I go to my tasks for the day. See why the painting never gets started?

NOT!

It looks like today is turning out to be a non-painting day. I guess that gives everyone more time to post some tips. Yea right. I will leave you with some more angles of the hallway to help with the tip giving.

Today I'm sending out a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jeanette.

Have a great day.

And lastly, Here's a couple more great ideas for those wonderful baskets. Have a new baby or a shower gift to buy? A basket is great to fill with a few diapers wipes, rash cream, q-tips, etc. for the changing table. If your bathroom is like mine (no drawers or real closet space) use a basket to hold all your beauty supplies or extra shampoo and soap. Why not just sit a beautiful flower or house plant in the protector and sit by a window or on the counter? Sit a basket by the door to hold keys, wallets, mail to be delivered, etc. then you can just grab and go.

Happy Un-Halloween

It's the day after and I believe it went really well. The kids had a grand ole time and it looked like the adults did too. And after eating snacks, and pizza, and trick or treating they all sat quite still for Uncle Rick's scary story. Which I'm still waiting to hear last years. So Jeanette, if you're listening, send them both over. The treats came out great and thanks to Grandma Judy for her creative skills on the Witch cupcakes. They were quite elaborate!

Tomorrow will hopefully be my first day of painting. So any last minute tips like "wax on, wax off" for me, now would be the time to post them.

And most of all a great big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to Mom, Grandma Judy, Jude . . . .

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Lot's to do for Halloween spooking today. Cupcakes to decorate, goody bags to fill, cleaning to do. Can't wait for the fun to begin! Here's a sneak peak at one of the spooky treats will be having tonight. Severed finger cookies, YUM! Harry's totally turned off by these. I think they're fun.

Don't forget to get your Holiday shopping done early and pain free by logging onto my Longaberger website: www.longaberger.com/pamsbasketcase Your purchase is shipped within 3 days and sent directly to you. Please contact me through comments or pam.harry@patmedia.net if you have any questions. Be sure to check back for more uses for your gorgeous Longaberger baskets too!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My Halloween Purpose

Today my purpose is Halloween preparations. I have baking and decorating and shopping and haunting to do. This is the beginnings of the table decorations. I can't wait for my nieces and nephews to see all the crazy stuff I have planned. Monster and witch cupcakes, "finger" cookies, rotten apple punch, eyeball pudding and LOTS OF SPIDERS! Too scary! If you have any Halloween tips or ideas I'd love to hear them.





On a side note, if you want to see something scary. The little man fell up the stairs yesterday and put a lovely little hole in his tongue. Every time he'd stick his tongue out at me it would lay open. Yuck! The picture I was able to take just doesn't do it any justice since he wouldn't hold his tongue out. So you can see the line on his tongue but when it's in his mouth it stays closed. Lovely! Great shot for the Dentist! Look, no cavities!

Don't Forget!

Don't forget, I'm an Independent Longaberger Home Consultant. If you're inspired to get organized or decorate your home with beautiful products or need to purchase some gifts, than you can either leave a comment with your contact information, e-mail me at pam.harry@patmedia.net or go to my Longaberger website at www.longaberger.com/pamsbasketcase and place an order right there. Please contact me with any questions or for more ideas.

Oh The Beautiful Baskets!

As promised, here is a list of ideas for the medium wreath basket from Longaberger. This picture shows it with the red hurricane, garland and filled hurricane candle inside. Absolutely gorgeous for a centerpiece! But how about taking the garland out and filling with chips, pretzels, crackers and cheese, candies, replace the garland put some ice in the red hurricane and put a bottle of wine inside, remove the hurricane and replace with a 5" bowl for dip, place vegetables in the divided protector. How about filling the hurricane with holiday candies? Fill the entire basket or half with the garlands and hang it on the wall as a Holiday decoration. Change out the garland to fit the Holiday. Eggs for Easter, roses for Valentines, etc. Having a Brunch? Fill it with muffins and bagels and biscuits with butter and spreads in a bowl in the middle. Fill the bowl with coctail sauce, place ice in the regular protector, sit the divided protector on top to hold shrimp, etc. Make it crafty and separate your beads, cross stitch threads, scissors, glue, scrapbooking supplies. Basically, the ideas are endless. Put your basket to use all year round!

Lots to do today and a Halloween party for the kids, so keep checking back for more ideas and progress on my list.

And there it goes!

Here's Shooter's after photo. His eyes are open, woohoo! Isn't he gorgeous?! I keep wanting to call him a her and Billy Jean. Too weird how much he looks like her. I took the before photo in one shot. It took about 10 to get the after photo.

It feels good to check the first job off my list. Today I have a party at 12:00. Yup, right smack dab in the middle of the day. So therefore, I end up spending the morning getting ready, the afternoon at the party and the evening getting the kids ready for bed. No time to work on my list. But I think tomorrow is going to be "go get the paint" day. So any little helpful hints for preparing and actually doing the painting will be helpful. I'm going to concentrate on the lower half of the hall for now. All the stuff I can reach on my own and with a regular ladder and then I'll move on from there. I'll take a few more shots of the hall from different angles so you see what I have to work with.

I think tomorrows post will be all about baskets. My favorite. I plan on leaving all types of ideas for using your baskets. How many times do you go to a Home Show and they give you 5 million ideas that you're completely excited about and then you get home, the basket arrives and you just can't remember any of those great ideas you were going to use. Now you can come here and find them.

See you tomorrow!

Here Comes the Fuzz

OK, one thing I neglected to put on the list was shaving the dog. Poor Shooter is desperately in need of a new "do". So I snapped a photo of his before and today Shooter will get shaved and I can officially say I completed a task. And since it's pooring rain outside I really don't feel like going to pick up paint and running in and out of stores with 3 kids. Blah!

I can't believe it, his eyes are closed! And I thought that only happened to humans. I guess I just won't show him this photo.

And if you're wondering how this will improve my home than I bet you don't have any pets! Check back later to see Shooter looking 10 pounds thinner and much more handsome. You'll probably mistake him for his mother - Billy Jean.

In The Beginning

OK, so it all starts somewhere, right? Well this one is going to start somewhere in the middle. By this I mean in the middle of all the unfinished business in my life. All those nagging little projects that I see everywhere that never get completely finished. Is it just me, or is this what most people are going through? I'm tired of getting all excited over a project, getting it started and either running out of steam or what happens alot is some occasion, date, another project, whatever, gets in the way and I never get back to the original. And then every day as I go about my routine I see these unfinished tidbits and they nag at me. "Please finish me!" So today I start this blog as a way of being accountable to all these things and anyone who logs on to check my progress.

So here's the start of my list that I'll add to as I come across more things or new projects arise.

Paint the front hall
scrapbook for daughter
scrapbook for son
clean out closet
organize kid's clothes (Too big, too small, too old)
put stuff in attic
go through toys and books
organize paperwork
reorganize linen closet
organize photos (in albums, in computer)
paint kitchen cabinets
clean the 100's of windows in this house

So that's a start. Any advice on home projects, organization, crafts, etc. is greatly appreciated!

I'll take some pictures of what I need to do for before and after shots also.

In Need of Tips

So I'm working over the whole painting of the hall project and I could use some helpful tips. It's a weird space. There's a large victorian staircase that wraps around and creates a 2-story area that definitely won't be reachable from the floor. Do I use a really long roller or special ladder or grow some wings? And how do you decide where the wall color should stop? the stairs go up to a hall that spans the entire length of the upstairs. It does make a turn though. Maybe I should just stop at the turn then. So, any other helpful hints are definitely appreciated.