Friday, April 27, 2007

Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 8

Simply put, he makes me laugh and a lot.

Last Wednesday night, we'd gone to RC Willey to price appliances and to generally peruse what all is out there. For over an hour, we were laughing and rolling our eyes, critiquing this and that and making all sorts of faces (and at times, even dancing) throughout our visit.
It was so much fun together!

The best was when we were trying out the mattresses, rolling together from side to side, testing how well we'd be able to do our 'rotisserie'...


P.S. That thing on his face is a round,
totally bizarre, leathery fringed pillow!

Monday, April 23, 2007

The GRAND Tally for My 2007 MS Walk


$2,714!!!

(I'm speechless)

CORRECTION:

$155 more today (4/25/07), which brings the grand total to

$2,869.51!?!

Friday, April 20, 2007

For My Lovely MS Walk Sponsors: A big, fat THANK YOU!

Although I haven't yet reached my goal... CORRECTION!!! In just 3 hours since I'd first posted this massive Thank You listing (11:09 a.m.), not only have I met my 2007 Las Vegas MS Walk fund-raising goal, we've exceeded it by $469 dollars and I am soooo very happy, I've been tearing up about every 5 minutes since I first received my email notice from the Nat'l Multiple Sclerosis Society, announcing that I'd met my fund-raising goal!!!! YAY!

Some More Drippy Honesty (since I've just admitted I'm a total cry baby sap n' a half!): I was working in my office when I received my email notice nearly an hour ago, and I screamed, shrieking loud enough for everyone on my floor to hear me, and I did so REPEATEDLY!

I gotta offer lots of gushing-ALLLL- OVER- YOU-with-truly-heartfelt-gratitude 'Thank You's' to all my most awesome MS Walk sponsors, who've helped me thus far (UPDATED on 5/11/07 to reflect all the lovelies who gave donations for my MS Walk!):

Dan Allen, Annette Amdal, Bryan Andrews, Mark & Mary Ashcraft, Leslie Baldwin, Barbara & Richard Ballingham, Andrew Bell, Mark Bennington, Jonelle Cachuela, Jackie Camp, Michelle Carro, Rolanda Chung, Daly & John Costanza, Ed Crossman, Shelan Davis, Bob Dippner, Kashmir Dixon, Robyn Donaldson, Eric Drachman, Sherri & Garrett Draper, Carla Eagleton, Samantha French & Mike Weller, Peter Garbett, Roni Glover, Melissa Halls, Lindsey Harrington, Pam Havig, Lois Heaton, Chris Heavey, Russ Hurlburt, Cliff & Dannie Johnson, Sharon Jones-Forrester, Elizabeth & Darrell Kahre, Jane & Michael Karwoski, Bob Koettel, Chris Korose, Ryan Larsen, Brian Lech, Andrew Leman, Pat Loosbroock, Liz Marave, Pascal Marcotte, Rebecca Marcotte, Aaronell Matta, Steph Morris, Duane Neillson, Mary Potter, Suzanne & Jason Poulsen, Mary Jane Powell, Carol Randall, Martina, Jennifer & Roger Rennels, Mark Schwartz, Jenna Silverman, Rachel Simmons, Southwest Auto Glass Co., Randall Stiles, Kristine Stone (Yes! a fellow blogger!), Stephanie Stowman, Susan Summers, Michael Sy, Rebecca Thomas, Don & Leslie Trottier (THREE donations between the 2 of 'em!?!), Kati Trottier (my very first sponsor, yay!), Jen Vecchio, Diane Villa, Carolina Villar-Mendez, Cortney Warren, The Gwen Weiss Family (my 2nd most generous sponsor!), and Wayne Weiten (my most generous sponsor, Hallelujah!)

YOU ALL SO ROCK! THANK YOU AGAIN!
And if you're NOT on my list?
Fear not! It's not too late!
Go visit my MS webpage right here, right now!

MS Update!

Okay ~ it's my last full day to receive donations for tomorrow MS Walk, and I'm happy to say that I'm much closer to my fundraising goal than I was just yesterday, for sure, but we're still not there yet!

I still need help! I need YOUR help!
Puhleeeeeeze?

Help me out and in turn, you'll be helping my dearest gal pal, Poppy Johnston, and helping everyone else who must deal with the uncertainty MS causes in so many lives... You're donation will do some good, guaranteed! It'd be something you can absolutely feel good about, 100% ~ and I promise, you'll have some fabulous karma comin' atcha! Pronto!

I have only $365 left to go
to make my goal of $2,000,
but I absolutely cannot do it without your help!

Please? ~ Visit my MS webpage and make an online donation right now, easy as pie! It'd be a great start to your weekend!

And thank you to all those who've pledged
their donations thus far!
I cannot express how touched and pleased I am with all those listed amongst my sponsorship! THANK YOU!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Fundraising Countdown is on...the MS WALK is this Saturday!?!

Alrighty, between now and this next early Saturday morning, by 7:30 a.m. [SEMI-RELATED TANGENT: Speaking of 'early,' working as a member of the MS Walk Committee, I gotta spend this Friday night doing preliminary set up for the walk from 6pm until midnight!?! and then, Saturday morning, I have to be there by 5 AM for final set up. No one can say I don't love my Popstar! END OF TANGENT], I've got to drum up $520 to meet my $2,000 fundraising goal for this year's MS Walk - - and I am soooooo close, but not quite there with little time left!

Soooo, if you haven't done so already, be an absolute dearie and pledge a donation, and in turn, there will be some uber good karma comin' atcha for it! And, of course, I'll be forever grateful to you for your help and support! REMEMBER: Every single dollar counts! NO amount is too little, not ever!

To donate online, use my MS webpage!
You can also use this link:

http://tinyurl.com/35nnxm

~ And here's the entire webpage address in case:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/site/
plus the next line...
TR?px=1989971&pg=personal&fr_id=2980

And if you don't want to use your personal email contact info., please, please, please use mine and I'll happily email your donation receipt to you, if you'll be sure to email me and let me know yours:

annejelynn at yahoo dot com
OR
annejelynn at gmail dot com

ANNNND
If you don't want to submit your donation online (although it's very secure), but ya do wanna give, you can either send me an email or look via the NMSS Nevada Chapter's Home Page for instructions as to how you can mail in a donation! Just let me know ~


For a more personal glimpse into the life story of someone who's dealt with MS her entire life, see my adorable friend, Melissa's own MS webpage right here.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Walking Through the Motions

Not all too long ago, we had had NO idea what the hell we were gunna do... and in a matter of one month's time, our direction has been entirely rerouted in the opposite direction of this last two years' worth of hopes, quite literally speaking, like, directionally speaking.

Wait, so what does that mean?

IT MEANS THIS: I won't be moving to Los Angeles, after all. Instead, so that my honey-man can continue his much loved work in Vegas, minus his weekly 10-12 hour commute from L.A. to Vegas and back again, by Memorial Day weekend, he will move from L.A. to Las Vegas.

Yup, a TOTAL switch from our original plans - - from south on I-15, to northbound.

Of course, there's a great number of seriously deep and complicated issues to deal with surrounding this decision - - Geesh, what a gagging understatement that is!
Moreover, for now, I will not go into all those issues, because right now I'm feeling something very real, something very new, something legitimate, and rather intense...

Today, I had my first "walk-through"... By April 30th, I may have a new address, and today, I got to walk through it, scrutinize it and lay some claim to it, and today, in my heart and my mind's eye, I got to see us all in it, all of us together, and it made me happy.

Yes, I had my very first walk-through this morning at 11AM. It took 2 and a half hours, and today, I am now, officially, excited about our decision.

From New York to Paris

I stole this from Random & Odd (Kristine!) ~ and it's too good! ~ Just check it out!

–Go to Google.com

–Click on Maps

–Click the "Get Directions" tab

–And Type in from New York, New York

–To Paris, France

–Then Click the "Get Directions" button...

–And read line # 23.

An Excellent Point: Media Controls our Perspective re: Working Moms in the U.S.

Anyone who shares my concern (and my anger) about the dreadful lack of support encountered by working mothers in the U.S., you should read this tight lil' piece written by Alice Bradley from AlphaMom.com:

"It's time for a cease fire"

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Hoppy Eastour Bonny!



Happy Easter to all!

and Here's how I spent my morning...

Friday, April 06, 2007

Fuzzy to mah Left, Fuzzy to mah Right

Otis on my left...
...and Owen on my right

Thursday, April 05, 2007

It HAD to get done! or else!

One of the cutie chickies who used to work for me had come by the office this morning to ask for some help. She was wearing dark sunglasses and explained she had the worst hangover and felt sooo tired from last night's festivities with a visiting out-of-town friend... I explained I was also very tired, having stayed up until 1 AM... quilting!

How about that contrast, eh?

Yeah. I'm quite the party girl.

My aunt Radeane, who has soooo graciously and fervently worked as my realtor and our head cheerleader in helping us secure new diggs in Las Vegas (who successfully fought for $10K from the seller towards closing costs with buydown to secure a 6% interest rate for a 30-yr fixed home loan), she has a new grand baby who will be blessed this coming Sunday, so I had to finish the binding on the baby blanket we'd made for the lil' guy's big day, and I HAD TO GET IT DONE before I left town this afternoon... or I'd face her rath, had I not finished it ~ hence, I was up handquilting until 1 AM to get 'er done. Can you imagine?

"Oh, Radeane, I know you've been running yourself ragged these past few weeks, but that baby blanket for your grandson's baby blessing? yeah, I just got too tired."
Oh and did you read already? I got an OH MY HOLY GOOD GRACIOUS $500 donation just yesterday for my MS WALK fundraising efforts!

Go visit my MS webpage right now!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Holy Whoa! ~That's Alotta Dough!

For each online-issued donation I'm given for my MS Walk this year, I receive an immediate email notice. The only one received today thus far, I opened and scrolled down to see the usual, as in what I always want to know when I receive a donation notice: 1) from who, and 2) for how much - - [SIDE NOTE: That's what fundraising is about, right? = dah money! = Raising funds for a good cause!] And today's email notice? OH MY GOODNESS - - It's an all time fundraising record ~ the largest single donation I've ever received:

Five hundred of the green stuff!

Yes, that's $500 from one sponsor - - and I'm beside myself as to how I can possibly thank him for such an enormously generous donation! When I read the email notice, I shreiked and sat there in my office absolutely dumbfounded for about 10 minutes or more. $500 is a quarter of my entire fundraising goal, ya know?!? That's a lot!

With $500 now thrown into the 2007 Las Vegas MS Walk sponsorship pot, my fundraising total has reached $785, so we're almost half-way towards my ultimate goal of $2,000! Soooo, let's keep it goin'! Help me get there, people! Only $1,215 left to go!

If you haven't done so already, go visit my MS webpage and help us fight MS - help us find a cure!

Posts, Unpublished

Here are some of the titles of several unpublished post drafts [with translations], all of which were written between the months of December '06 and February '07, soon to be trashed:

"Olympic Bitching" [Written early December '06: With explosive fury and frustration, raging on and on over the seeming fact that we'd been unable to achieve any of the goals we'd set for 2006.]

"Seeking Professional Help" [Written late December '06: Made plans to see a therapist to determine how to best handle our life circumstances.]

"Feelings of Deep Failure" [Written early January '07: Eight months later and nearly 100 formal L.A. job applications, and not one job offer = "No one wants me" = "What the hell is wrong with me?" = "I'm a failure" = big time yo-yo depression = an abismal sense of worth
= severely damaged confidence = feeling inadequate.]

"Feeeling Sooo Forlornnn" [Written late January '07: My L.A. job search is put on hold and my honey-man tells me that he thinks we'll know what we'll be doing by February's end; I have difficulty (major understatement) mustering much faith.]

"I Surrender" [Written early February '07: I give up trying to determine what to do next and resign myself to living strictly in the 'now,' surrendering myself to my circumstances.]


And then, post-"I Surrender," my preoccupations become minor (with the exception of my missing purse)... and this one really should have been posted, but I'd forgotten it:

"What a Waste" [Written late February '07: Wanting to offer a gesture of gratitude, I brought in Starbucks coffee for my new assistant, and managed to spill an entire 'grande' caramel macchiato in a 5-story building's elevator, all down its button panel, and the front and sleeves of my expensive, fancy-schmancy light pink terry zip sweater that my stepmum had bought me.]