The only access I have to my backyard from my house is my sliding glass doors. I have no idea why I don't have a back door, or a door to the yard from the garage. My best guess is that the guy who built this house thought it would be too much of a security issue. Yes. Right here in Menomonee Falls. I can't understand it either. All I know is that my house is wired up the wazoo for just about everything. I've got a security system, overhead sprinklers in the hallways, motion detectors, and my phone lines are located in the house -- you know just in case my life turned into a suspense thriller movie and I dunno, the bad guy came and cut my phone lines. Now you know that you have to invite yourself into my basement to cut my phone lines. Good luck with that. Have you seen my Boxer?

As I was saying, I can only get to my back yard via the sliding glass doors in my dining room. My dogs use that door on a regular basis to go outside, the backyard is completely fenced in so we just open the door and let them run around. The problem is that the doors keep freezing shut. How do I keep that from happening? Any suggestions?

Visit me here if you'd like read about my latest dinner disaster.

The following is a special request that is written by a friend of mine. I've put a lot of thought into the words I should use to introduce her project properly, but to be honest, I know that I would not be able to give it the delicacy that it truly deserves. If you are able to help Julie, please do. If you feel that you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact Julie (her email address is below). Thank you!

I was reading a book called The Secret Life of Bees.  Fantastic book, you should read it if you haven’t already!  In it, one of the main characters began to build a wailing wall, a place in which she would leave all of her pain.  I immediately felt a connection with this idea and I haven't been able to let go of it.  I feel this need to make one... and a need to build it for all mothers who have lost a child, regardless of how or how old they were.

I am an artist and mother of two. I have not lost a child, but it is my biggest fear, one that is always there in the back of my mind, and continuously shows up in my work. I could never have imagined that I would feel this kind of need to create such as open, community work based on that fear. Yet, I feel the need to create a place for mothers to go and leave their prayers, pain and fears ... and all others who share that pain with them.

I am appealing to mothers who have lost a child of any age. If you or someone you know would be interested in having a space on this wall, please contact me. I will need to have contact information from you, the child's first name and dates of life. The wall is to be constructed of molded rocks from Lake Michigan, found on the shores of Milwaukee. Each rock will be reconstructed out of clay with the name and dates of each child. Every rock fits in the palm of your hand. I hope to be able to hang the wall at the Cardinal Stritch Art Gallery in May (Cardinal Stritch University). As to what will be done with the wall after the gallery event, I am not sure. I would love to donate the wall to a public space we can all visit ... and add more to the wall. Any suggestions are welcomed! Otherwise I would like to return each individual rock from the wall to the mothers that participate.

I can be contaced through email at: japurney@stritch.edu. If you would like to participate, please contact me there first. Then if you would like to have a written prayer or letter to the child included in the wall, you can send that to: Wailing Wall, c/o Teri Wagner - Art Department, 6801 N. Yates Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53217.

I need to have many mothers respond to make this wall possible. Please tell everyone you know about the wall and how to become a part of it. Responses will be accepted through February 29, 2008.

Thank you,

My family spends an awful lot at the grocery store. It's crazy how much I have to write a check for each Sunday as we do our shopping --- and I usually have about $10-$20 worth of coupons too.

I never make out on the promotions that Pick N Save runs though. The one over the summer got me a $25 coupon for my next grocery visit of $250 or more. Yeah, I had about 4 of those coupons, and about 3 of the $18 coupons which I could use on my purchase over $180. I'm telling you this right now, I can try to spend $50 at the grocery store and end up spending $250 without a problem. However, every time I tried to spend $180 so I could use my $18 coupon, I came up short. You may have seen me in line the day that I finally was able to use that damn coupon. It was monumental! There was celebrating!!

The Bag of Dreams promotion was much easier to handle, all I had to do was collect the receipts and hope they added up to either 6, 10, 15, or (sweet baby moses) 20! If I got 20, I'd recieve a gift card worth $40!!! I started counting up my receipts last week and found I had 14 -- only needing 1 more I asked my mother if she had any to spare.

And she gave me 6.

6!

That left me in the same predicament that I was in before. Only now I needed 1 more so that I could have 20!!! Because quite honestly, why stop at 19 if I could scratch up another?

Yesterday was the last day to turn them in for the gift card, and I still only had 19. Somehow, I ended up at not-my-usual Pick N Save where the clerk had a few extra and she was able to donate 1 to me -- and I had 20, which I gladly exchanged for a $40 gift card. 

It totally made my day!

In a couple of weeks I'm going to Mexico for the first time, my destination is Riviera Maya which is on the Caribbean Sea. I'm very excited! My husband, not so much. He's excited to be going on vacation, but it's the getting there and the coming home that's he's not looking forward to. While I'm edgy when I fly, he's absolutely terrified, and is having anxiety attacks over the thought of getting on the airplane. Twice.

The last time we were on a plane was in September of 2000 and we went to Nassau, Florida on a Disney Cruise. It was the only time we flew together as a couple, and as he's gotten older, and of course now that he's a father, it's harder for him to face this. The time is coming soon though, and we'll both have to face the fear together. Do you have any suggestions on how to subside the anxiety and panic?

Are you planning any vacations to a warmer place this winter? And for those of you who have been to Riviera Maya, what do you recommend for excursions and site seeing?

Today is the Samson Stomp 5k, my husband is supposed to run it, but it's way too cold for me. We woke up this morning and my husband asked me to check online for the weather, so I connected to The Weather Channel on my cellphone and it said: Menomonee Falls Current Temp: -6. Today's Hi: 3, Lo: 1.

I gave up math long ago, however even I can figure out off the top of my head that -6 is not between 3 and 1.

Did you run in the Samson Stomp?

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

I was at my satellite kitchen the other day (you know, Panera) when I ordered a caesar salad a la my way (i.e. no chicken, hold the caesar dressing, balsamic vinagrette on the side thank you).

Now, the caesar salad (less the dressing) has the following ingredients: romaine lettuce, croutons, Parmesan cheese. I order it mainly because I like romaine lettuce, and I do not like field greens, which is what many other salads are. I didn’t always like the cheese, however I got it by mistake one day and it turns out that I do like it after all.

Anyhow, back to my story. The salad ‘chef’ (and I use that term lightly) was handing me my salad over the counter at Panera when I noticed that it was field greens, rather than romaine lettuce.

“Excuse me, but a caesar salad isn’t made with field greens,” I said. To which she replied, “I’m pretty sure it does.”

I squinted my eyes at her and in my head I said: Look lady, you do NOT want to get me started on this. Thankfully, out loud I didn’t have to say anything because she quickly offered to make me a new salad, without the field greens.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

It’s Girl Scout Cookie time, and my husband has just informed me that he ordered six boxes from one of Zoe’s friend’s from the neighborhood. My first question for him was this: How many boxes of Thin Mints did you order? His response: Three.

Three boxes of Thin Mints, and they are all for me!

This is one of the perks of living in a house with two people who do not like mint flavored food. Of course, he’s willing to try any gross thing they serve on Survivor, yet the Thin Mints will not touch his lips. My daughter, who will not eat any thing other than chicken fingers, Cheetos, bananas, and grapes ( and a couple other things), doesn’t like mint either.

Her and I were at Macy’s the other day and there is a gumball machine at the Origin’s counter, well how was I supposed to know that those white gumballs would be mint flavored???? She practically ran to the nearest garbage can to spit out her gumball, holding it in her mouth very carefully so that it did not touch a single taste bud.

The first year my husband and I were married, a girl scout came to the door while I was at work and my husband was home alone. I don’t remember how many boxes of cookies he ordered, but let me just say this, he did not order one single box of Thin Mints. Apparantly during our courtship we had never gone over our Girl Scout cookie likes and dislikes. I didn’t know he didn’t like Thin Mints, and he didn’t know that I coveted them like the Holy Grail.

So let that be a lesson to all you unmarried folks out there, if you want your spouse to order you Thin Mints, you should probably put it in your wedding vows, or at least go over the scenario should a girl scout come to the door when the other isn’t home.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

On Saturday I got a call from LensCrafters telling me that my new glasses were ready to be picked up. And so while the state of Wisconsin watched the Green Bay Packer game, I went to the mall and picked them up. I then went to the ladies room, which is located in the food court, then walked halfway through the mall, down the elevator, where the T-Mobile guy smiled at me and said, “Hello miss.” I then went into Teavana, where I purchased 2 oz. of tea for my husband, and I was on my way out when I was stopped at the door by a clerk who grabbed me by the arm, pointed downward and said, “excuse me, but you have toilet paper on your shoe.”

Lovely.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

Recently I was at Panera Bread for lunch. There was a guy at the counter: hands in the pockets of his jeans, one of those beanie stocking hats pulled down tight on his head, and Chucks on his feet. He looked to be an early 20’s college dude.

Clearly he’d not been to Panera before, which to me is shocking because Panera is my satellite kitchen for when my fridge is empty. I eat there all the time. I always order one of two things: chicken noodle soup, or a ceasar salad with no caesar dressing and balsamic vinagrette on the side. I’m not really a sandwich kinda girl. I love grilled cheese, but that’s about it.

So, back to this guy, he couldn’t decide what to order, then he asked the girl at the counter “what’s good?” Okay, the girl couldn’t have been more than 20 years old, and granted, she does work at Panera, but Panera is like a McDonald’s for grown-ups. Do you go to McDonald’s and ask “what’s good?” The girl replied with a couple different sandwiches that she liked, and then asked him for his order, to which he said, “Just pick something for me … but not the tomato crispani. “

I wonder what she picked. I wonder if he liked it. And I wonder how many people order that way on a regular basis. Just pick something for me is something you’ll never hear me say. Ever.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

You will not believe what happened. On December 22nd I let my dogs outside and when I looked into the backyard there was a HUGE hole in our cedar fence!! We live in a subdivision, however we are the first house and the yard faces Lilly Road, which is a rather busy street. My heart just sank because it would have been devastating if my dogs had found their way out of the yard and onto the street.

The fence looked like it had been kicked in from the outside, but with the snow we'd see footprints if that was the case. There was a big boulder of ice (like 2' long and 40 lbs. heavy boulder of ice) right inside the fence ---  it took us a while to piece it together that the snowplow had passed the house and in doing so shot the ice right through the fence. I figured we had nothing to lose, so I left a voicemail with the person in charge of the snowplowing with the Village of Menomonee Falls. He returned my call later to let me know that he came out, looked at the fence, and would have it repaired this spring. In the meantime, my husband covered the hole with three 6" wide planks of wood. That's how big that hole is!!!

Here is a photo of my fence, and the boulder. Who knew a snowball could be so dangerous?

(Cross posted in part @ Thoughts Outside My Head)