Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas eve, and of course Merry Christmas day too since chances are i wont be on tomorrow to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
the last few days have been beyond crazy around here but what else is new come this time of year ~
first of all about a week ago mother goes into this HUGE blah blah blah about how she just has to give my sister $80 for christmas (at least that much) for her boys.. but yet im here covering mother for my boys again this year. i dont have an issue doing it but please i mean we really dont have it but we always do the best we can. not that my boys would care that she bought them anything or not but i know it makes her feel better that my boys open something from her under the tree, so i just buy whatever and put her name on it kwim? its not like it is in any way taking away from my boys and it makes her happy that she knows they opened something from her.. but i would lie if i said it didnt bother me that she worries about getting cash to my sister (i mean her husband does get a christmas bonus but ron never does) i guess its the whole point of if we can work it out why cant they be just as understanding of mothers financial state as the rest of us are? it was all kinda brought to head today on my facebook page (one reason why i dont really care to have family on my facebook page because to be quite honest i dont want the bullshit) but yeah there it was on my page about how mom didnt give her money whine whine whine.. join the rest of the group.. your kids are 18 and almost 17.. i have a 17 yr old, 9 yr old and a 2 yr old if they can get it, im sure yours can as well.
to top off the typical holiday brew-haha that makes me think everyone should get Prozac for Christmas..
mothers fridge died last saturday and i have spent a good bit of the beginning of the week hunting down and pricing fridges for her. finally found one and she got it.. well actually me, the wildabeast, and little ron went and picked it up for her and carried it to her house. we got that all set up and she is good to go on that end of things.
ron and i got all the christmas shopping done. now we are waiting for the lil ones to drift off to sleep and waiting for santa to arrive.. they are both watching some christmas cartoons now.
have a very merry chirstmas and i really hope every ones is the best one ever.. only mere days before the new year is here! be safe everyone..

santa claus is freaking me out

he looks innocent enough dont he? white beard, perfect white gloves, red hat, rosy cheeks, holly jolly laugh, and you know a belly that wiggles and jiggles like a bowl full of jello..
but yes, sad as it is, its true.. santa is seriously freaking me out this year!
it kinda started when i saw this advertisement for this santa claus thing on facebook which is obviously someone who is positing updates for santa, after all i mean lets face it the real santa, much to busy this time of year with his elves and gearing up for the big run on christmas eve to be hanging out on facebook right?
anyways all i could think is *wow thats kinda nuts, folks talking to this *santa* and not knowing who this person really is..
and to think they were worried about pedophiles over taking facebook because of a cartoon character for your profile picture thing not long ago. now im NOT saying this santa is a pedophile but you get what i am saying? or at least i hope you do.. the fact is how does anyone know who it is that hides behind the white beard, red hat, holly jolly exterior? the fact is you dont.
so like a good smart girl, i opted to stay clear of that facebook page that i heard so much about.. i mean yeah i checked it out from a distance (curiosity) but thats where it ends..
and than the other night, i ran to walmart.. and there in the in-store mcdonalds i saw him.. santa claus sitting there next to the decorated christmas tree.
im sure all day long parents walk by and point out to their kids *oh look its santa claus*, but me.. nope i was not one of them parents.. all i could do is think *did they sex offender search that guy?*

i dunno what to do about it, i cant help it now, when i see one thats all i think about.. *ack* something tells me, im gonna be on this years naughty list.

huffy bike review

now i decided to review this one because it needs to be out there not to waste your money and to be honest as a mom im damn well pissed off that my youngin is stuck with this piece of crap bike and thats putting it mighty nicely for how i feel about this stupid thing that has been nothing more than a headache for me since date of purchase a few months back.

this is the huffy panama jack bike .. little ron bought it a few months back (over the summer) when he was clamming and making money. he saved for a good bit and finally had enough cash to make his purchase.. the over all look of the bike is good, i mean there was some good attention to details and we had to laugh that on the front wheel thingy (sorry im not good at technical terms but the thing that hold the front wheel on) is in fact a bottle opener. the pouch in the front we though would be great for him carrying his various fishing stuff (extra hooks and what not) when he wasnt hauling the whole tackle box and the cup holder another added bonus ..
unfortunately thats where the good kinda leaves this bike .. within the first 2 days of owning it, there was no way we could keep the chain on the stupid thing. it got more and more irritating as the days went on and so on day 3 we (mother and i) loaded it into the back of her durango and carried the stupid thing back to walmart and (stupidly now as i look back on it) exchanged it for a new but same as bike.. funny how days later we saw his original bike up for sale at a not so greatly reduced price..
well if only we had known because i would have returned the stupid bike and gotten his money back that first time but noo i thought *woohoo bike fixed were all good* bike number 2 however had some serious issues with the back wheel, theres this little metal piece that you need to keep the wheel on that unfortunately dont stay on. by now were outta our walmart return time and into huffy territory. so i contacted huffy and the man was great on the phone manged to figure out what i needed when i couldnt speak bike talk very well .. for that i was impressed.. however telling me that the new rear wheel (minus tube) would be out in a few days .. was a complete lie.. a month later i was back on the phone with huffy wanting to know when i would receive the piece i was told i was getting, i mean did they deliver it to the wrong house? thats when i was told that the part would be to me as soon as they got it from their over seas manufacture .. um okay, so now we have had this stupid bike sitting here looking like a lawn ornament vs actual time spent riding the stupid thing..
finally 2 weeks aprox. after that phone call the part shows up.. woohoo my youngin can start using this over priced bike that he bought with his hard earned money..
until.. can you guess? 2 days later the same exact problem we had before starts happening again, that stupid part is falling out, the chain wont stay on at all.. and my youngin is just flipping fed up!
so as all good moms do, i phoned huffy again and explained what all we had been threw with the dumb bike and could i please just get a refund, they could gladly have the POS back.. but nope i was informed that they only send out parts, they will not refund money *great* and to call where i bought it at..
so i get on the phone with walmart (place of purchase) and talk to a lady there who tells me *sorry its huffys problem, if its over X amount of days than we dont do refunds.. great! so now i have this lovely POS bike just rusting away (btw thats another thing they might want to fix because this less than 6 month old bike has so much rust on it, it looks like weve owned it for about 5 years) in the back yard under a cover.
so my advice, dont waste you money, dont let your kids waste their money and surely dont think that huffy stands behind their products.
back to mongoose we go and where we will stay, we learned our lesson very well on this purchase and i hope that someone learns from what we went threw.

as always i didnt receive anything from huffy for doing this review nor do i expect to however a refund would be nice but im not holding my breath on that one ever, maybe i should email them a link to my blog review of their bike *haha* yeah right, they dont even have an email to contact them at.. this is simply my buyer beware review ~

two turkeys for thanksgiving

yeah a bit late of an add for this one but ah well.. life normally gets in the way so im trying to catch up a bit!
so for thanksgiving we had two turkeys .. mainly because the kids and i beg ron to smoke one on the grill every year and the other because the old religious one hates the taste of the smoked turkey and is always insistent on shoving a bird in the oven. we have always kept and open door policy on holidays for everyone who wants to stop by but over the years our group of folks who come by has cut down a bit, this year we lost aunt b because her family is staying with her now so they opted to have their own holiday there at home vs coming here to the house.
of course chris stopped by and enjoyed turkey dinner with us but honestly after 16 almost 17 years of knowing him a holiday just dont feel right without him here.

so what do you do with two 20+ pound turkeys and lots and lots of leftovers. a normal person i suppose would take and cut the turkey off the bone and freeze some of it for later meals but nope not in this house its all about the left overs. which this year for the first time sent us spinning into turkey hell and the 5 days of turkey dinners..

day 1 was of course thanksgiving itself. turkey with all the thanksgiving fixings to go with it.

day 2 was your typical left over turkey dinner.. complete with the fighting over the leftover thanksgiving fixings. ever notice how they always tend to disappear long before the turkey does?

day 3 was turkey and gravy over rice.. hence leading to no more turkey gravy in the house at all *lol*

day 4 was rons creation, turkey bbq using not your red sauce bbq (think like KC Masterpiece) but instead a nice NC bbq which is vinegar based .. i wish i could remember which one we used but i for the life of me cant *sorry* when i find the name of it i will share i promise. anyways ron stood and picked the meat off the bone and tossed it into the crock pot, let it slow cook all day long than after so long he added the sauce in and let it slow cook some more. now i admit i was even a bit scared of the idea, i mean turkey bbq? but in all honesty it was really really good. just toss it on some hamburger buns and your good to go.

day 5 was because i wasnt thrilled of the other option for dinner this night so i opted for turkey bbq dinner day 5 which lead me to 5 days of turkey hell *lol* im currently voting for prime rib for chirstmas, i do believe i am completely turkey'd out this year!

Little ron turns 17

yep its true.. my little ron is no longer so little but of course like with every mom he will always be my baby :)

little ron turned 17 on November 10th ~ he picked out his own cake, only my child would pick an older than dirt cake at age 17 *lol*

i have to admit that i am very proud of the young man he is becoming. still an avid fisherman and is always down at the water when ever he gets a chance. he got the chance to go net fishing with *uncle* chris a few times so far this winter and seems to enjoy it. he went on thanksgiving day and again the sunday after.

Need Christmas Cards?

Who isnt on the look out for a good christmas card deal this time of year? well you all saw my stuff on shutterfly and yes i got my cards this week. but i have a few friends who dont blog and arent able to take up shutterfly on their great christmas card deal they have going on.
so for those friends i wasnt sure how i could help them this year until i went to where i got my cards from last year which was seehere .. if you go there and sign up for a new account you get 25 cards for free (well you have to pay shipping costs). you can create them however you want and all you need to do is use promo code 25cards at checkout. its an awesome deal for sure!

Awesome deal

I couldnt help but passing on an awesome deal

I was at walmart the other day and i admit it i was tipped off on this one by a friend (thanks jess) and yes this is an awesome deal :)

now when your out and about see if you can find this gift pack, they had some variations of it but the main thing is that it has to cost you $10 and it has to have the allure magazine offer on the front (see the sticker??)

so this is how this one works, you find this and you purchase it so yeah it cost you money up front. when you get home take the allure thing out of the box (should be a small form thing up behind the puff in the box at least thats where mine was located at) theres a code on it and a website to visit. go to that website and read the fine print on it.. not the up top mumbo jumbo but the fine print (will be on page 3 when you print it out)
by not taking the magazine offer, you can mail in page 3 of the form filled out with your name and address, a copy of your reciept, and the card in the box .. and they will send you a refund check of $9.99

so yes i got the whole set after mail in rebate for 1 cent. now how can you seriously pass up all of that for a penny??