Peeve Me (first posted on 3/6/2008)
I’ve been working on this list for days now. I can think of tons of pet peeves - until I decide to write about them! Darn! 

Again, #6 - thank you notes. This also goes for other occasions and/or sympathy cards. Trust me; it really makes someone feel good when a person remembers a special day or thinks enough to send a card in sympathy. With the recent passing of my grandmother, I was amazed at the number of sympathy cards I received. It’s nice to know that people care about you.
Trust me - in the future, my “card list” is going to become much shorter, as I will begin to “forget” special days of those who don’t remember my “special days.”
Seriously - a stamp costs 44 cents - and you can buy a card anywhere for 99 cents - and the 99-cent-cards mean just as much as the 4-dollar cards.

Again, #11 - I hate to break it to you… but it’s not all about you. Sure, I don’t have the most interesting life by any stretch of the imagination - and I know that your life is probably much more interesting than mine. But, you could at least pretend to care what’s going on with me.

Continue my extended list here……

(14. Please learn the difference between your and you’re. They do not mean the same thing! Just for clarification, an example of your is “Your Truck.” You’re is a contraction - it is a shortened term for you are. Would it make any sense to say “You are Truck?” Or… your going to be in trouble! - actually, if you think about it… it’s you are going to be in trouble, therefore, you’re going to be in trouble. Fools.
Hello, just use a bit of sense… and talk it out before you write it or type it. You would be surprised how much smarter you will sound.

(15. And while I am on grammar, let’s go ahead and give a lesson on I and Me.
I learned this a long time ago from a friend in high school. When using “I” in the plural sense, it is “we.” When using “me” in the plural sense, it is “us.” So, like, when you say “John and I at the park,” it would actually translate to “We at the park.” Doesn’t really sound right, now does it? But, if you said, “Us at the park,” it sounds better. It’s kind of complicated to give an example for this type of grammar… and these terms don’t bother me as much as #14’s peeve.

(16. I really don’t want to make another Peeve number about grammar, but I have to. Example: “I seen her at the bank.” Um… you didn’t “seen” anyone! You SAW. Past tense. You can use seen when you ask, “Have you seen ‘The Blindside’ yet?” That makes sense.
Along the same lines, WAS does not equal WERE. “We was going to the beach for the weekend, but something else came up.” NO. Does that even sound correct to anyone?! Replace that hideous WAS with WERE, and it’s a very nice sentence. (Except that they didn’t get to go to the beach - and that kind of sucks).

Tired of my grammar lessons, yet?!

(17. Work - Customers that don’t listen to me when I tell them it’s time for a reorder. Trust me, I have your order history… and while I am trying to make money… I would never try to “load you up” with products I know you don’t need. It’s much worse when you call or email me weeks later, and inform me that you are completely out of a product. Many of your products cannot be sent overnight/air, because of their hazardous nature - that’s why I try to give a ‘heads up’ before it is too late!
I received an email last week from a customer that I’d tried to call a week earlier… and then days earlier tried to email… her email said- IN THE SUBJECT LINE (see #7 from before) “Those crap heads let me run out…” - WELL! If you would have listened to me or answered my email… you would have had product at your facility already! Amazing how that works, isn’t it?! Trust me - I know these things.
And as Robin said, “lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine” - guess that customer is pretty lucky that I like her.

(18. People that ask, “when you are going to have a baby?” Many family members and friends are guilty of this… and it’s not that it bothers me that bad, it’s just when you hear it over and over and over and over! Geez. Drop it already.
I have two good friends that don’t have children- and when the husband is asked that question, he told me that he answers with, “we leave that answer in God’s hands.” I think that is the most awesome thing I’ve ever heard. It generally shuts people up - and you don’t have to go into details about why you don’t like kids… why you don’t want kids… how the time is just not right… or, the dreaded response of… we can’t have children. Ouch.

(19. Political Affiliations: It’s been said that you should never talk religion or politics in public, and you should never share your salary amount with anyone. Some people choose to talk about it, some don’t. Since being on Facebook, I’ve noticed many people do not divulge their political views- and that’s fine with me… but I absolutely despise when people fill in the “political views” field with “don’t care” or “don’t know” - it’s a stupid response to begin with - you should just have left that field blank. BUT… if you really don’t care, or really don’t know - then please, don’t vote.

(20. FOOD - A package of Oreo cookies showed up at work yesterday. As you probably know, Oreo recently made new packaging with a pull top across the top of the package. It makes so much sense to not have to open it from the side, and not have a good way to reseal the bag. Well, this particular package of Oreos has been opened from the side - right by the STOP sign that Oreo has printed on the bag to remind you of the new pull top. That irritates the crap out of me.
Next - Hidden Valley Ranch dressing - the regular (full flavor, full fat version) has a small hole in the top of the bottle under the cap. It’s been there forever, I am sure… so that you can control the amount of dressing you pour. Well, explain to me why… on the Hidden Valley Ranch low-fat, low cal kind… why is there no small hole on top of the bottle. It’s a regular wide-mouth bottle - so… if you’re not careful when pouring this dressing - you might end up with way too much dressing… or a mess. I can’t understand the concept behind this.

(21. The weird guy at the bar - he comes in most nights, for just one drink, yet never sits in a seat at the bar. He normally stands behind other patrons- as far as I know, people he doesn’t know and isn’t friends with. After 30 seconds or so, he will begin mumbling “how long does it take to get a drink in this bar“… I do my best to ignore him… but how should the bartender know what he wants? And why doesn’t he take a seat at the bar? If you’re sitting at a spot in the bar, it’s a pretty good bet that someone will come take your order. Duh.
To make matters stranger… sometimes while he is standing around me (ugh!) or my friends, he mumbles interjections/comments into our conversation. Go drink your drink and leave me alone.

Okay… I’m going to put this to rest for now… Steven says I should write a book about my Peeves. Who knows? People might actually want to ready it.
Look for more Peeves in the future…

Hope you all have a great birthday/anniversary!
If I’ve forgotten you, please let me know so that I can add you to my list!

This picture was taken September 26, 2001 - the last time I was in Germany. I have fond memories from that trip, and a great scrapbook to match. I worked on the scrapbook throughout the whole trip - I’m lucky to have it now.
My grandmother was an amazing woman. From sewing our stuffed animals’ wear and tear, and trying her best to learn any English she could… she managed to sing “Happy Birthday” to us- but it always sounded more like “Heppy Burst-dee.” Still, it was pretty good for someone with no formal training. As kids, when we visited her in Germany, she would put a hot water bottle in our beds to warm the sheets before we got into bed!
And forget having hiccups - she would make us hold onto her pinky finger, and she would hold onto ours… she would tell us to hold our breath, and she would stare so hard into our eyes, promising the hiccups would “jump” from us to her. I’m not sure if that ever really worked … but she would always pretend that she suddenly had the hiccups, too.
She always had everything put together - the house was always spotless, and she even went as far as to iron tablecloths, jeans and nightgowns. She always had breakfast, lunch and dinner ready and on the table before we entered the kitchen - whether it was fresh-baked pastries or bread from the bakery, or a home-cooked hot meal, it was always thought of and prepared hours before the next meal. Her potato soup was the greatest - I remember asking her one time if she would share the recipe with me… boy, was I shocked to find out that it came as a powder in an envelope and just needed water added! This turned out to be good, though, because I was able to take some home with me and make it on my own.
Even though my German leaves a lot to be desired, throughout my college years, we sent letters back and forth to each other. She was always interested in what I was doing. I’m sure she had fun trying to decipher my horrible spelling and grammar - she never mentioned it, though… and her letters always came to me with a $20 bill inside.
She had been in the nursing home for over 6 years, and had not been doing so well for at least the past 3 years. I know she is better off now. Still, it is strange to think that she’s not there anymore. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to my mom and my family.
Like I said, she was awesome… and I am so happy to have wonderful memories of my life with her.

The past couple of weeks have been nutty around here, and I’ve thought about writing to tell you all about it for several days… but alas… at least I am here now.
On Friday, we got off work early (about 2p) - snow began to fall about 1:15, and it fell fast. The grass was fully covered by the time I arrived home! The snow was very pretty - and it wasn’t that icy crap we usually get in Georgia… it was really great crunchy snow. And… since it wasn’t ice, we didn’t get trapped up on our hill again.
Yesterday’s sun pretty much melted all the snow… but here are a couple of pics I took in the morning.
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Last weekend was our 4th annual Super Bowl party!
It was our biggest party yet - with over 40 guests. Wow.
My parents and sister came to visit, and SB’s parents stopped by, too. They both said we have some of the nicest friends - and they are right! We could never pull off a party like this without them!
I wasn’t all that interested in the game this year, so I spent the evening playing hostess for my guests. I think everyone had a great time… now, as Steven says, 358 days until the next SuperBowl party!

Hope you all have a great birthday/anniversary!
If I’ve forgotten you, please let me know so that I can add you to my list!

We don’t have any real new year’s resolutions… I’m tired of making goals and plans that I probably don’t intend to keep. Not making resolutions is the easiest way for me not to be disappointed later.
Tomorrow I go back to work. I’ve enjoyed my 4.5 days off!
I did get a few scrapbook pages done, though not as many as I’d hoped… I have some free weekends coming up where I plan to work on them again.

If you ever do any online shopping, I would like to ask you to join my BlastOff Network. It’s a totally free site where they pay you a percentage back of the purchases you make online. A few of their many online stores include BestBuy, Barnes&Noble, Kohl’s, OldNavy and Target. It’s quite an extensive list, and I’d love for you to check it out.
Here’s my link: http://ppl.blastoffnetwork.com/steflrb/

Hope you all have a great birthday/anniversary!
If I’ve forgotten you, please let me know so that I can add you to my list!

2009 had good times and bad times. Many things changed, but some things remained the same. We learned a lot, and had some fun along the way.
We had our 3rd annual SuperBowl party in 2009. Steelers vs Cardinals - Steven was excited to see the Steelers play, and even win. We had a nice gathering of friends to party with us - I hope we can continue to have this tradition in our home for many years.

In 2009, a few of our friends’ families grew. Justin & Lisa, Nicole & Danny and April & Bill all welcomed baby girls. Jennifer & Nathan recently welcomed their new baby boy. Congratulations to you all.
March marked our three year wedding anniversary. Here’s to many more anniversaries!

My friend Kate got engaged on April 18 to her long-time boyfriend, Jonathan. I look forward to being Kate’s Matron-of-Honor in June 2010.
We celebrated her engagement in Nashville in July. I met some new people, and saw some old faces again.
We also were lucky enough to see Kate in June and October, as she visited us here in Georgia.

June 1-5, Steven and I took a cruise to Nassau on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas. It was the first cruise we’ve taken together alone. We visited Atlantis and Señor Frogs, had many drinks, won some money, lost some money… and I got sunburned.

For the 4th of July weekend, we traveled to Hilton Head Island with Steven’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law. We stayed in our favorite place, and again, saw some familiar faces and sights.

We made a few home improvements throughout the year. From new curtains, to finally hanging a few pictures on the walls, the new mailbox, a new refrigerator… and the major job, the new roof. Granted the new roof came about because of the major rains we had here. We surely weren’t expecting a new roof at this point in our home ownership, but it’s something that will last long into the future.
I succeeded in some de-cluttering, but it’s still a long work in progress.

We saw a few Braves games during the summer. Jeff Francoeur was traded in July, which made me very sad… but I knew it was for the best. Still, the Braves didn’t go to the playoffs. Maybe next year…

Kristina came to visit us over Labor Day weekend. It was her first trip to visit us where she drove down alone. She was very excited about it, and seemed to have a good time with us.
We celebrated two weddings in 2009. Congratulations to Jack & Lyndsey and Ryan & Rachel.

We made some new friends, and had more great times with the old friends. We look forward to many more years with our circle of friends.
I took lots of pictures in 2009. Sadly, I fell down on my scrapbooking hobby and really didn’t put many pictures in their books. With my next few days off, my goal is to get several months (or even the whole year) into their books!

Ten Years Ago…
I spent New Year’s Eve with Shanti, Mike and Sandie in Spring Hill, TN. We weren’t 21 yet, so we had a lame house party complete with sparklers, sparkling grape juice (maybe there were wine coolers)… and parents. We worried about 1999 ending, and what would happen to all the computers and banks… we thought about how weird it would be to go from saying ‘99 to ‘00…
Life went on, and oh how times have changed since then.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! We wish you and your family all the best for 2010.

After the Thanksgiving holidays… we had some changes at work. Please keep my workmate in your thoughts, as she’s going through a rough time right now. It was all a big surprise to come back to. I’m getting some new responsibilities, which likely means more job security, too.

This past week, I’ve had something going on with my eye- it somewhat resembles pink eye, but doesn’t have a lot of the same characteristics. I don’t know what brought it on… maybe the new stress from work? Who knows? It’s looking a lot better today — but I’m still using “pink eye drops” and wearing my glasses just in case. It’s amazing how many people didn’t even know I had glasses!

Friday was the first night of Hanukkah. SB and I went to his aunt & uncle’s house to celebrate. As always, it was good to see family… and his uncle made cosmopolitans!
We have one more Hanukkah gathering this week - the wedding of SB’s cousin this upcoming weekend, where we will light candles for the last night, as well as celebrate their marriage.

I wrote all of my Hanukkah cards last weekend, and this weekend finished all of the Christmas cards. For a few hours, I felt very productive!
If you are writing cards this year… where is the farthest one traveling? Other than the two I have going to Germany… my cards travel to Georgia, Tennessee, Virgina, Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania. I’m actually surprised I don’t have more states covered!