Linda's Sunflower

We sold my car on Friday to our neighbor. Since we didn't want to put $1600 into a new transmission, we decided to try to recoup some of the money we paid for the car. We were able to get some of the money back, and we sold it "as is", and he knows it has transmission problems. ONE CAR GONE! Corby replaced the water pump in his car this morning, and so far, it's running good. (Keep your fingers crossed!) ONE CAR FIXED! Kaleb's car is the one up on jacks. The service people at the auto parts store suggested a few things that Corby should check before he bought a fuel pump, since the pump is $279!!!! So Corby, and 2 of our neighbors, our handyman/friend Paul, and the neighbor who bought the car, Tom - have been working to get to the fuel pump for the last few hours. Once they got everything checked out, they determined it IS the fuel pump, so Corby will have to go buy one tomorrow. Hopefully between the 3 of them they can get the car back up and running in the next ...

This entire week has been spent cleaning out the office end of our family room. Of course, in the middle of all that, I decided I had enough scrapbooking, stamping and crafting stuff to have a garage sale. That was accomplished on Friday, with medium success. It was helped out at the end by my neighbor's mother purchasing 3 of my Longaberger baskets, and 2 additional sales on Saturday that amounted to $50! And I wasn't even having the sale on Saturday! One was the older lady who bought all my books, and one was a lady who came back to buy some of my scrapbooking kits. YIPPEE! I packed the rest away for the fall city-wide sale. Anyway, I think I'll be brave enough to post before, during and after pics so you can see how much work this project was! BEFORE: DURING: (everything was basically in the rec area of the room) AFTER: (yes, that's Patrick Dempsey as the wallpaper on my computer) The furniture is still mix and match, but at least I have plenty of storage, and the dr...

(thanks for the REVISITED idea, Robyn!) Okay, I posted last week a blog entry about Entertainment Weekly's Top 100 Movies of the last 25 years. Now I'm going to post their Top 10 TV Shows, and my Top 10 TV Shows... ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S TOP 10: 1. The Simpson's - don't like, never watch 2. The Sopranos - never watched 3. Seinfeld - don't like, not a Seinfeld fan 4. The X-Files - never watched 5. Sex and the City - never watched (do you see a pattern here?) 6. Survivor - UGH - I HATE ALMOST ALL REALITY SHOWS! 7. The Cosby Show - I would put this in my Top 20, but probably not my Top 10 8. Lost - never watched 9. Friends - HATED! 10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - never watched Obviously you can see my tastes are definitely not the same as the EW reviewer's. Here's my Top 10: 1. Miami Vice - I still drool over Don Johnson 2. Golden Girls - consistently funny, and I love Sophia! 3. Scarecrow and Mrs. King - Bruce Boxleitner was one HOT dude! 4. CSI Miami - gre...

We are down to 2 vehicles right now - Kaitlin's and Brandon's. Of course I've already mentioned the transmission on my Hyundai. While driving Kaleb's Sunfire on Tuesday, taking mom home from a doctor's appointment, his car started dying. This happened right after he first got it, and we had to replace the fuel filter. Corby replaced it again last night, and it seemed fine. (more on his car later). Then, while driving to work this morning, the water pump on Corby's Sunfire went out, so we will have to have it towed home tomorrow. Corby can replace it himself, thank goodness. Kaleb, Kaitlin and I went to the Humane Society this morning and got a new kitty! We're thinking about naming her Abby, and she's a tabby! She is 11 weeks old and quite lovable. They were having a 2 for 1 sale, at half price ($45), but Corby & I decided one more cat was enough! We are introducing her slowly to Muffin. Right now they are at the stage of Muffin hissing and growling ...

I got my new issue of Entertainment Weekly in the mail yesterday. I've just begun reading it. They are listing the NEW CLASSICS - The 1000 Best Movies, TV Shows, Albums, Books & More of the Last 25 Years. It starts off with the movies. I'm going to list their Top 20 here and tell you what I think about the choice. 1. Pulp Fiction - hated this movie! Corby and I only made it halfway through before turning it off. 2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy - the kids have loved these movies, but they're not my style, so I haven't seen any of them. 3. Titanic - good movie, but #3??? 4. Blue Velvet - haven't seen it, no real desire to. 5. Toy Story - good choice. One of my favorite animated movies. 6. Saving Private Ryan - I have yet to see this movie, but Kaitlin is obsessed with it since watching it in school this year. 7. Hannah and Her Sisters - another one I haven't seen. I'm not a big Woody Allen fan. 8. The Silence of the Lambs - good choice. Who could forget A...

We're finally home from a weekend trip to Dallas to take Kaitlin to see Rascal Flatts. It was at some outdoor amphitheater - called SuperPages.com (stupid name, huh?). What is it with all these sponsorships and stupid names for arenas and amphitheaters? Anyway, we hit the road early yesterday morning. Our goal was to make it to our hotel by 3pm. May I say how stupid several Texas cops were yesterday? Here's the scoop. We were about 30 miles outside of Denton, tooling along at about 78mph. All of a sudden I see people slamming on their brakes, so I had to slam on mine. There was a police SUV STOPPED IN THE LEFT HAND LANE - JUST STOPPED!!! You could barely see flashing lights, and this idiot was just stopped! Ultimately they were detouring traffic onto the access road because of an accident that was just about cleaned up. I can't help but wonder if they didn't cause another wreck after we went by, because we had just passed quite a bit of traffic. After that excitement, ...

I've really been enjoying my niece's blog (Presenting Lenore). She is a bookaholic like me and her dad. The only difference is she is a very talented writer, and writes wonderful reviews. If you are a book lover, check out her blog. Anyway, on Tuesday (I'm a day late here), she posted the Library Thing Tuesday questions: What's the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? What's the most popular book you don't have? How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read? Let's see - the most popular book in my library? I don't keep many of my books - mainly because I wouldn't have any room left in the house if I did. I will mention one of my favorite books of all time - and I read this 29 or 30 years ago (the copyright is 1978): The Proud Breed by Celeste DeBlasis. At the time, I was into historical romances and it was one of those books that you became immersed in. It was about several generati...

Check out my niece's blog for a cool contest: Presenting Lenore: Postcards and a giveaway/contest!

more cat pictures more cat pictures

Corby, Kaitlin and I are headed to the drive-in tonight to see Kung Fu Panda. (The boys are going to the Warren to see The Happening). I'm looking forward to the drive-in. Haven't been in a couple of years. I'm dating myself here, but when I was a kid and lived in S. Wichita - on S. Main near Pawnee - there was the Pawnee Drive-In at the corner of Broadway and Pawnee, where Walmart sits now. We had great times at that drive-in - as well as getting to watch all the fireworks on the 4th of July. We'd have neighborhood get-togethers and have ice-cold watermelon while watching free fireworks! I don't know about the rest of you, but we barely know most of our neighbors now. Outside of our friends Paul & Tokeah, who live across the street, the rest of our neighbors avoid speaking to us, keep to themselves, and generally are NO FUN! What about the rest of you? Do you know all your neighbors? Are you friends with them? Maybe there is something wrong with me and Corby! N...

Can you believe I forgot to take my camera to Kansas City? Oh well, it's not like I haven't been there dozen's of times! We got the boys to the Rockfest concert about 10:45am. They got to share the experience with 50,000 folks. They were offered pills, weed and beer by 1pm. Thank goodness I have smart teenagers who don't partake of such offerings. When Kaitlin texted them about 1, Brandon said they were enjoying watching boobs and beer drinkers. Yeah, I said they were smart teenagers, I didn't say they were blind! They saw people getting sick, people passing out, and a some people actually enjoying the concerts. Kaitlin and I spent the day shopping, and we didn't spend very much money at all. The most we spent was at Bath & Body Works at Oak Park Mall. They were having a great clearance sale and we stocked up on lotions and hand soap. We ate dinner at Macaroni Grill. YUM! Kaitlin swam for a while in the hotel pool while I dangled my feet in the hot tub. We w...

We think the transmission is shot in the Hyundai. If it is, we aren't going to replace it. It would cost about $1600 and that's more money than I want to put into the car. UGH! You take a chance whenever you buy a used car, but I certainly am going to call the lot where we bought it and ream them out. I'm going to threaten to go to the Better Business Bureau, and more if they don't switch and give me a different car. I know the warranty is only good for 30 days, and it's been a couple of months now, but GEE WHIZ! (I wanted to say something much stronger than that but some family members read this blog). Anyway, it's carpool time in our household until we figure out what to do. For now - I would warn you away from purchasing a 97 Hyundai Accent, especially from a small car lot! I WILL NAME THE LOT IN A FUTURE BLOG!

This has been a weird week. Kaitlin and I had originally planned to go to Kansas City this weekend to take Brandon, Owen (Brandon's friend) and Kaleb to Rockfest. Then Brandon found out he couldn't get off work because too many people were off and he didn't ask in time. So - I cancelled the hotel and cancelled the rental car (don't have a car big enough for all 5 of us since we all have small vehicles now). Corby and the twins made plans to go camping, since they had already asked off for work. I put feelers out everywhere to try to sell their tickets. THEN - I got a text message from Brandon around 11 this morning saying he managed to get the day off - SO - the trip is back on. Of course, that meant trying to find another hotel. Couldn't find one cheaper than $150 in the downtown area (where the concert is), so we're staying in Overland Park. I did manage to get a better deal on the rental car though. ON - OFF - ON! What a roller coaster week! Of course, now Co...

Enjoy - and tag someone if you'd like... What were you doing five years ago? Who remembers 5 years ago? Let's see - still working at the Eagle in a bit different capacity - production coordinator. I am now layout manager, which also includes my coordinator duties. I was working for a great guy, who has since moved on to Minneapolis/St. Paul. What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)? 1. Pay bills (this sucks, but it has to be done) 2. Finish laundry (this sucks also, but also has to be done) 3. Shred junk mail 4. Fill out patient information for mom's eye dr. appt. this coming Thursday. 5. Continue listening to Keith Urban!!!! YUMMY! What are five snacks you enjoy? Chocolate chip cookies, granola bars, pretzels, cherry tomatoes, popcorn What five things would you do if you were a billionaire? 1. Pay off all the debt of my friends and family 2. Quit my job, build a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and veg 3. I'm with my niece on this ...

Happy Birthday to my sister Rhonda (on May 30th)! We celebrated with a family get together at On The Border this afternoon. GREAT fun! Of course, I had a couple of GRANDE margaritas! Hey, Brandon was driving, so it was okay! We had a great time. Our waiter was very gracious, considering there were 11 of us! The twins were unable to go because they both had to work, and my sister-in-law, Sandy, had a scrapbooking class so she was unable to join us. But the rest of us had a great time - great food - great family time! We're already planning our July 4th get-together. It's nice that July 4th falls on a Friday this year! Here is a picture of the birthday girl: Here is my baby brother Mike and the birthday girl: Here's is Corby and Brandon: Here is my nephew Nick and my mom: Here is my little sister Marilyn and her significant other Mark. Not the greatest picture, but I had to get them in on this blog. And last, but not least (notice how I managed to stay out of the photos sinc...