A great holiday!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Whether you are Irish or not, you have to admit this is a great holiday. There are no gifts to buy, and you have permission to pinch people. What is better than that, huh? Tell me. There's no smooching from lovers that you just want to smack. There's no discrimination against those who don't have children. (Yes, I get offended when going out to eat on Mother's Day and they give me a flower ASSUMING that I'm a mother. Well, now Bailey counts as my baby, but still..) It's an excuse to go out drinking with your friends, although we don't get off work for it.. or rather, off work the day after.

I don't drink beer so the green beer thing has never been a draw for me. I just have never been able to acquire a taste for it. I don't drink coffee either unless it's flavored coffee with some yummy caramel vanilla (or other yummy) creamer in it. Yeah, that's really fattening, so it's not often I do that either. But still...

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I think most of us in the US have roots that go back to any number of countries. It always cracks me up when people try to define themselves by their ancestors. If that were the case, I would be an Irish-German-Yugoslavian-Czech American who was born in Panama. Is that a mouthful or what? This country was founded by those leaving other countries, so I'd just rather call myself an American. That's what we all are, right? Granted, we'd sometimes like to send people back to where they came from, but it's the land of the free whether we always like that or not.

In Columbia, SC, they do a weekend long event that will be this weekend. They kick it off the weekend before by dying the fountain at Five Points near the University of South Carolina green every year. I have never been, but I've heard it's a real blast. They even have their own website for the event. Apparently, they take their Irishness a bit more seriously than I even realized.

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They have a race, bands, a parade, a beauty pageant, dancing competition, and all kinds of other fun things to enjoy. Now that I've looked all of that up, I think I need to go next year! (I will be so glad to be done with school so I can stop saying, "I'm going to have to do that next year.")

Do your states do similar fun things? I know Chicago dies their river green. What do you all do? Is St. Patrick's Day a fun thing for you? Some lifetime I am soooo going to Ireland. That is one of the places I always wanted to go, but we never did when we lived in Germany. From everything I've seen, it's such a beautiful country. And who can't love a country known for enjoying their spirits? I mean, I'm not going there to find a new liver.

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By the way, did anyone have trouble logging in to Blogger yesterday? I couldn't get on to save my freaking life so I couldn't respond to comments or anything. Very strange, I thought. I was just wandering if it was my internet world that was screwed up or if everyone's was. I didn't want you all to think I abandoned you.

And stay tuned for a new look here at Talkative Taurus. I am so excited that it's about to roll out anytime now! I can't thank the ladies who have been helping me enough, but I will attempt to by pimping them now and later..

Go show Amy at This House Gets Crazy At Three O'Clock
and Amber at Amber LaShell Rants some serious love. These ladies have been putting up with my pickiness and helping me above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks so much, ladies! It truly means the world to me that you'd help pretty up this joint.

So everyone, enjoy your St. Patrick's Day! Have a cocktail or green beer in my honor, as I plan to do the same for you. I'm a giver like that. (Notice I showed you the pooch way to do St. Patrick's Day. You knew I had to be original about it!)

Thanksgiving weekend

Bailey and I made the trip home to my parents' house Wednesday evening. She goes ape when she hears me ask if she wants to go to Grandma and Poppop's. She loves running in their big backyard.

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

As you can see, Bailey has to wear a seatbelt harness because otherwise she is all over the place in my Jeep. She doesn't like it, but it has made my life tons easier. After all, I would like to keep the transmission in my vehicle, and I'm not too keen on her throwing the car into another gear.

We had our Thanksgiving meal at my nephew and his wife's house. It was a combination of her family and part of our family. The food was great, and we had seconds at my parents' house to load up for the all night shopping spree my mother informed us we were about to embark on. Wal-mart decided it would be better to have the toy sales start at midnight, and the electronics start at 4 a.m. This is what it looked like at both hours, by the way.

My expression was not nearly as enthused as any of these patrons.

We had four ladies get in an argument about their place in line that we thought was going to break out into a knock-down-drag-out fight something like this. 

If you had seen the madness near the towels that were on sale, you would have thought they were fighting over HD TV's that were on sale for $1. I wanted some of the sheets, but didn't dare go near there with all the boxes and plastic and hair flying! It was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. They are towels, people! Not gold bars. 

As tired as I was after the experience at midnight, we did go back at 4 a.m. to get some other things, and we hit a few other stores. I will say it was kind of nice to be done shopping for the day by 9 a.m. I went home and did a little shopping online before crashing. Dad was a little testy because he said my phone kept ringing while I was asleep, and the volume on my ringtone was turned up so it kept scaring the crap out of him. So sorry Mr. Lightweight-who-couldn't-handle-the-second-round-of-shopping! I was TIRED! Honestly, I never sleep through my phone, so that should tell you something.

Saturday morning I had to go get my neighbor's Ridgeback at the kennel where he was being boarded. To show you his size in relation to my Bailey...

He's a horse, but he's a big baby. (Bailey wasn't even as big as his head when I brought her home from the shelter.) He and Bailey were just as tired as I was though, so this is how the both of them remained for about 12 hours straight after we got home.

Cody decided he really likes Bailey's new bed. So of course she didn't get to sleep here.

She had to resort to the couch. Doesn't she look put out?

Apparently, my camera phone was just as tired as we were because the color on those photos is awful. But we had a really great time with the family. We played pool, drank, ate, ate some more, and laughed so hard at times that our faces hurt. Oh, and I just have to share this photo. My grand-nephew Jaxon was asleep on his daddy, and right before I clicked the picture he smiled for his Aunt Krissy. I just love that boy!

"If they only knew what I'm dreaming of doing for all these cameras in years to come."

I want to ask everyone's advice on my new possible family member too, so I'll write more later. For once, it's not a baby! I think my family will actually make it through this Christmas without a baby on the way. They are a fertile bunch, our crew. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I am still catching up on reading everyone else's blogs.

I'm thankful for a short work week!

So is everyone ready for Thanksgiving? I think I'm ready to spend some relaxing time with my family on that day at least. It seems like when I've been home recently (which is about 45 minutes away) we've had so much going on that we are always busy. Granted, we'll be watching football, but our Steelers aren't playing that day, so I won't really care who wins too much.

Of course, that night will probably be game night for all of the clan, too. My family is addicted to Skip-Bo lately. Funny how a $5 card game I bought at Wal-Mart before our last trip to Pittsburgh would end up being a game every household needed. We have fun playing lots of games though. Are we the only ones who still do that? My friends always fuss at me because I do more with my family than anyone else when I'm off, but my family is a trip! At least I know there is never a dull moment with them.

I know I will happily take a 3-day work week for Thanksgiving, even though my mother will have me up at the crack of "OMG what time is it?" to go shopping on Friday. I'm sure I'll have some crazy photos and/or stories to tell after that experience. I truly hate shopping, so I try to get as much bought on that day as I can every year. You get great deals, and I know Mom is going to have me there with her anyway. I usually make a list after that to see who else I need to buy for, and those gifts either get bought on the internet or during one more mass shopping day.

I swear they start putting things out for Christmas earlier every year though. This year I saw that stuff out before I saw Halloween stuff! What the ...? That is just crazy. Now if someone would just come clean my house for me so I can decorate this weekend, I'd love you whole bunches!