Soda my love!

Grant and I LOVE soda like many Americans. I really don't drink a lot during the day but come 8ish when we start to play our nightly game of skip-bo or phase 10 out comes the soda in full force. We love the awful stuff too! Grant's soda choice is the ever popular Mt.Dew. Mine is Pepsi. Well I've been looking into some natural alternatives and tried Blue Sky soda the other night. I got the cola and it's good....Kinda like RC cola Grant thinks. We know we have to cut back and soda should only be a treat but at least we've made a change eh'
Mt. Dew Ingredients:
Carbonated water
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
Concentrated orange juice and other natural flavors
Citric acid
Sodium benzoate (preserves freshness)
Caffeine (55.2 mg per 12 oz.)
Sodium citrate
Gum arabic
Erythorbic acid (preserves freshness)
Calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor)
Brominated vegetable oil
Yellow 5
I don't think I realized that there was vegetable oil in it..ewwww!
Blue Skyy Soda
Blue Sky Real Sugar has been developed for consumers who have allergies to High Fructose Corn Syrup or wish to eliminate HFCS from their diets. 100% Natural, No Artificial Flavors or Colors, No Preservatives, No Caffeine, No Sodium, Kosher Certified, GMO free, and No High Fructose Corn Syrup.
I see on their web-site that they also have organic which I haven't seen at the grocery store. So as we cut down on the soda we are switching to something better while we get there. It's spendy also compared to regular soda so that is a good initiative to quit also!

I am Blessed!

I used to be the person who thought life was after me and nothing went my way..waaa waaa. Well I have to tell you it's a blessing in itself to know how truly blessed one is. What a great feeling to feel such contentment and satisfaction. for the past year now It's really been hitting me just how blessed I am. I really haven't anything to complain about. Everything I have I've created for myself. Debt..I created but when you come to the realization that it's not going to take over your overall attitude and you decide to take control it's the most wonderful feeling! I never thought I'd say this but I love being budgeted and the feeling of having a handle on things! I know I'm overly blessed having the husband I do, having the friends I do and of course the puppies I do also! I'm truly content and happy in life and my only hope is that others get to feel this way in thier lifetime as well. It seems that so many don't ever get that feeling of true contentment and focus so much of the things that aren't so good and forget to focus on all the blessings we have!

My Grammy Award Update and a little music ranting

Yes, I know it's like a week after Grammy's. I recorded them and watched the 2ND half today and now feel I have to give my feedback. This is my own personal reflection and I don't mean to offend anyone=)
So the nerd I am took notes on the performance and some of the inbetweens..here it is:
U2's performance was good. I haven't loved a lot of their newer stuff and really liked the song they performed.
Whitney Houston..one word..YIKES! Ok I do have a few more..ick, cracked out and to much botox
Coldplay was awesome. Since I lost respect for JayZ(see older post) I liked the effect on the song but he just brought a certain ick factor for me. Chris Martin did a interview before the grammy's and was super cute in his boyish way. Love him!
Al Green and Justin Timberlake was good
Jonas Bros with Stevie Wonder was fun. Joe is the cutest one in my opinion.
I was happy to see Jason Mraz..I heart that boy!
Miley and Taylor Swift was nice. I think Miley was nervous and didn't do a great job.
Jennifer Hudson's performance and win was touching
Katy Perry I think was lip syncing and I HATE that! I'm not a big fan!
Kenny Chesney..nice
JayZ, Kanye, Sean Puffy(whatever his name is these days), lil Wayne, TI, and Mia...I thought it was very annoying and I didn't like her choice in clothing at all! She was super annoying me!
Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl were good and fun to watch. I love Dave and Paul is a good egg also.
Jack Black was so awesome to see! My heart skipped a beat and I was speechless for quite sometime.
I didn't like John Mayer winning an award and when he played with BB King and I believe it was Keith Urban he had absolutely no umph. He seems so smug and arrogant in any situation I see him in. I don't know what Miss. Aniston sees in him. He's so frumpy.
Sugarland was phenomenal! She has a great controlled voice and such passion!
I love Adele's song Chasing Pavement and her voice is nice but she needs more charisma, more stage presence.
I thought that Justin Timberlake and TI were good. I was really impressed by TI..not that I'm going to go out and buy and album though. I loved the strings and the bucket drummers.
Radiohead I love but it's so hard for me to watch Thom Yorke. He's just so bizzare. Grant and I watched him on a music show that was just them and he kinda spooks us both out. I do love listening to their music though.
Neil Diamond is someone I adore. He brings such warm fuzzy's to me like he did the audience. Growing up he was my sister Dawn's fave and my dad also loved him. When I was 24ish I brought my dad to a concert of his. Beings my dad was handicapped we got to sit in handicapped seating which isn't such a bad deal. They had double seated in our area and someone asked if we'd like to sit in the front with his wheel chair and they'd give us our money back. So not only did we get to be right up front, instead of to the side we got to attend the awesomest concert for free!
Robin Thicke and Lil Wayne I just pushed fast forward. It really wasn't doing anything for me.
Robert Plant and Alison Krause I just don't get why they are loved! I personally don't like the song that's popular and that they sang. I was a little disappointed they won album of the year. Green day is looking good though!

So there you have it. I haven't watched the grammy's for awhile and probably won't for awhile again. You know (I'm talking about people in my age group here) how we used to make fun of people for being stuck in the 80's, well I beleive I'm stuck in the 90's. I just love the music from that time and there is just nothing coming out that wow's me or hasn't been done already. Like to me John Mayer is just a bad immitation of Dave Matthews. I love the whole grunge era and I don't like bands like Linkin Park that aren't that good...sorry to the lovers! It's funny because my favorite band of all time R.E.M. even started to make not as good music after the 90's...after automatic for the people where I'm concerned...monster was good to I guess. So today I'm just lying in bed and I see top 20 countdown on VH1. Personally I didn't even know that MTV or VH1 still ran videos..he ha. I cannot even tell you the last time I pushed enter to watch one of them. Well the video that was on was some music I'd hear at some bar I hate in a downtown dance club. Click, off. Thank goodness I wasted a LOT of time recording video's in the 90's!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Grant and I usually don't make a big fuss of Valentines Day and I was potentially going to be in the cities this weekend anyhoo. Well last night at 12 Grant says "since it's 12 can I give you your Valentines day card?" Grant is like a excited kid when he has something to give and rarely can make it until the day of to give something. So he presents me with this card he made on the computer. He had found a card envelope in my "craft" area and decorated it with hearts and wrote love on it written all funky. The card reads on the outside To my beloved wife and on the inside it says happy valentines day to the one I love (a little R.E.M. slipped in there), you are my inspiration to be a better person. When it comes to words Grant is so good! In it was 3 coupons he made. One is for free hugs and kisses even doggie kisses from the girls for LIFE! WOW..that's intense! Another for dinner at the Roxy which is a restaurant downtown Oshkosh that has AWESOME steaks! The last one is for a free movie date! The fun thing about the movie one is we never go to movies. We hate spending the money on what it costs and would rather rent them anyhoo..so the movie will be a special treat!
I know many woman say I have the best husband (or at least I hope many do), but I truly feel blessed to have such a wonderful caring man who is sensitive to me and others. I'm going to give in and celebrate cupids arrow hitting me. I'm going to go and get a couple steaks, shrimp, a bottle of wine, and ingredients to make miniture cheesecakes....maybe even light a few candles and well you know=D
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

The Great, The Wonderful

Stimulus Pkg!

YEAH RIGHT! The bill is 1071 pgs long and 8inches thick. Wow that's a lot to take in right...well yes but if it's your job to make a wise decision for the American people then you should read every word of it..Right? Well when asked if they read the entire thing, a high precentage of the senators hadn't! Ummm isn't this why we pay you?? This bill is a disaster! Another thing they've slipped into it is a railway going from Disneyland to Vegas..is this what you feel we need in an economic slump? I in my heart of hearts do want this to work because I don't want our country to fail but I just don't see how passing a bill with tons of hidden spending is going to.

Simply a Wave

This morning after dropping Grant off at work (630ish), I come to a Kwik Trip driveway. Like any business driveway I stop before it so people can get in and out...something many don't do and is one of my hugest pet peeves! So There is no one in back of me and I could just take off after the car in front of me goes, after all the guy wanting to get out only rightfully has to wait for me, right? Well being the nice gal I am I let him go and not even a wave of thanks! I find that people don't wave anymore when you let them over and such. I don't know if it's my ND upbringing but aren't you supposed to wave when someone lets one over to say "hey thanks, you didn't have to do that but your swell." After all people don't have to let someone in even though it is the polite right thing to do. I've always automatically waved even in the cities where you have to "get over" quite a bit. This may be taking it to far but to me this is just another sign of politeness and human kindness coming to a minimum=(

Dryer Sheets

I bought some Mrs. Meyers dryer sheets a couple weeks back and love them. I haven't found a eco-safe and effective way to take static away from my clothing until I found these. I bought the geranium scent and they smell super good also! I did try the method damp cloths and they didn't work well where static was concerned. So there you have it folks!

Stupid commercials

There are many dumb commercials. My favorite dumb ones are the head on. Now lately with Valentines day coming they are advertising Vermont Teddy Bears and PJ grams. I told Grant I better never recieve a cheesy teddy bear and if he gets me pjs I would hope he'd find some comfy ones that he took the time to pick out and wrap. Or how about the every kiss begins with kay commercials. Kisses begin with a man and a woman treating one another with respect not over stupid jewelry! And why is it always the man giving, why not the woman treating his man to a cute teddy or a nice chain from a jewelry store. Men deserve love to! Grant and I are not big Valentines day people and we choose to celebrate our love everyday of the year not just a hallmark holiday of the year.

Michael Phelps

Really I don't care one way or another that Kellogs pulled away from Phelps. I do think he is young and like young people they do things that are a little crazy. I do think that putting yourself in the public eye and being a role model one should not be doing this kind of stuff. Don't these people know that what they do is going to come out. Well anyhoo now there is a pot group that is banning kellogs. I mean really he shouldn't be doing it in the first place being an athlete and then putting himself in the place of a role model. Go get a job pot heads and worry about something else!

No Apolgies needed!

So O'Reilly made a comment to Allen Colmes who was on his show and said basically that Helen Thomas asked a stupid question and went on to mock her and say that she sounded like the wicked witch. Now this femminist group that no shocker was formed by Jane Fonda is all outraged. Where were they when Palin was getting mocked up and down for anything she did or said...can I say biased!?!? I don't feel that he owes Ms. Thomas an apology.
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If your not outraged your not paying attention!

Oh how I loved this liberal bumper sticker during the Bush term. I hope they still have it on their cars because it's true now! If your not outraged you aren't listening or we just really have different ideas on how America should be. This whole stimulus pkg. has got me banging my head against the wall. I love how they've snuck things into it and are trying to pass it as quick as possible so noone notices. Well if you pay attention you do notice. First of all I don't want our tax money being spent on universal health care...if I wanted to live in a socialist country I'd go live in Canada! I don't want to help with a billion dollar energy plant in Chicago. We need to focus on teaching people how to spend and invest better not just keep throwing money at them and hope for the best or just turn around and say "ok now you get to pay us back with higher taxes!" The money has to come from some where people.
I'm a huge Glenn Beck fan and I think it's safe to say that anything I've heard with my own ears from him I've never disagreed with! He is very good looking, very animated and not to mention a smart self taught man! I love his new show on Fox News. And by the way for people who tell me to watch something else really why would I want to listen to a bunch of liberal gargage? I'm thankful for Fox News and I feel I do get a fair and balanced outlook.
This is a link to the video I couldn't embed
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This is a first....

Tonight while watching the O'Reilly Factor I diasagreed with Bill. I have to be honest and say I don't know if that's happened before. He was talking about the video which I posted below and how it was so wrong and the father who recorded it was exploiting his son. It's not like the father drugged him and took the video the kid was on anestesia after getting a tooth pulled. I think this is hoooolarious and the father just found some humor in the situation.

I loved you Rose!

I forgot to post and was just thinking about it how bummed I was that Rose from American Idol did not make it. I loved her voice and of course she was super cute! I also liked the girl with the pink hair and tattoos who didn't make it. Here's what I fear this season...bikini girl is going to make it to the show with her ok voice. She drives Grant and I crazy...along with tatiana or whatever her whiney name is.

Surprised to say the least

Yesterday Grant and I went and took a visit to our local library. I looked up the following books which are all by authors that lean to the right...
Ann Coultiers Guilty
Bill O'Reilly's Bold fresh piece of humanity
Dick Morris's Fleeced
Bernard Goldbergs A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media

Although I wanted to bring home at least one of these books I'm happy to report that they were all checked out and Ann Coultiers had 22 holds! I put a hold on all of them. I'll give you an update as I read them.

I recently read Traveling Light by Max Lucado and it was WONDERFUL!!!! A must read for everyone!

Simple lessons in life

I recieved this from Karma Tube and thought it was a nice story to share.

Yikes!

If you belong to my e-mail list you know I do a quote of the week. Well I'm begining to think I could do an Obama administration screw up of the day. And people thought Bush was bad!?!?


Passing the SCHIP's bill.
Republicans, even the one's who support it, fear democrats were taking the program beyond its original intent and were encouraging states to cover middle-class families who otherwise could get private insurance. They also said it will mean an estimated 2.4 million children who otherwise would have access to private insurance will join the State Children's Health Insurance Program instead. And isnt a higher precentage of smokers usually the poor. So we are going to tax the poor more? I didn't think this was a demorcatic policy...hmmm. I believe smoking isn't a good thing for one's body or others but why should an American smoker have to pay for an illegal child to have healthcare?

I watch the news A LOT and I'm appalled by what I hear! I guess if you don't mind our country moving toward socialism and think abortion is ok and don't beleive in morals this is the administration for you!

Still shopping till their dropping!

It amazes me with the economy being as bad as it's suppost to be, the number of cars in the mall parking lot. Now don't get me wrong, I do believe that our economy is not in good standing right now. Two Saturdays ago, Grant and I went to the Appleton Mall (equivelent to Rosedale...I might say even a tad nicer) and the parking lot was so loaded with cars that is was hard to find a parking spot without walking from the near end. Last night I went there again to exchange a shirt a Penny's and it was really busy there. My friend Virginia who works at Penny's at the Rosedale mall in the cities said the same thing about that Saturday. So that's it, I'm just amazed by how busy the mall is and the amount of bags people are carrying around with a Gloria Jeans still in hand.

Here you have it folks...6 more weeks of winter!