We have a winner!!!!

Thanks to all who entered my first ever sponsored giveaway! Today I let Indy pick the winner out of a hat (a Santa hat, at his insistence) and that winner is....

Kim at Beautiful Wreck!

And a big FAT thank you to Tiny Prints for sponsoring this wonderful giveaway!

Coincidentally, Kim lives in the town where Mr. HH and I went to college. Small world, eh?

I hope those of you who followed for an extra entry will stick around. I'm loads of fun (just ask me, I'll tell you) and write about a variety of things from living in and traveling Europe, decorating, random thoughts to my crazy kid, Indy, and loads of stuff in between, plus every now and then I'll throw in some photos of my shoes (cause they're pretty).
Have a great day and congrats again to Kim! Shoot me an email and I'll shoot you the certificate code.

And now a word from our sponsor. And a GIVEAWAY!!!!

Look over there -----> Do you see it? That's right! I have a sponsor! I feel so special! A while back I was contacted by tinyprints.com about being a sponsor on my blog. First off, I was floored. Floored, I tell you, that a company, any company, let alone a big company, with great products wanted to sponsor my little blog. Even Mr. HH was shocked (should I be insulted?).
So, I thought about it for about 2 seconds and sent them a reply. They sent me samples of their work that arrived in the mail yesterday. They are gorgeous! I want to order something for every single even I have coming up for the next 50 years.

Don’t believe me? What’s wrong with you? Have I ever steered you wrong? No. No I have not. To prove my point, take a look at these samples.

Can’t you just see your friends squealing in delight over this one?

And look at this one! She’s moving in HIGH HEELS and pulling a wagon full of shoes behind her. You KNOW I love this. The next time we move, I’m going to have to use it. Who cares about Mr. HH and Indy? This one is for ME!

Throwing a Bridal Shower? Look how chic these are! FYI, they also have a full range of wedding stationary that is gorgeous.

None of your friends getting married? How about having a baby? You know you need cutesy invites for the baby shower! Notice that mom-to-be is wearing heels. Squeeee!

Maybe you’re having a baby and want to announce your precious little bundle to the world. LOOK AT THESE! The pink one almost makes me want to try for another so I could send these out. Almost.

Now that you’re married and have a little one (or 2), you’re definitely going to need Mommy Cards (Believe me, these are wonderful! No more scrambling around for a scrap of paper to write your number on.) This is the outside and inside of one of their many Mommy Cards. I like the pattern on this one. Classy.

Or perhaps you simply need personalized cards (and who doesn’t?).

Do you not adore that zebra print card? Zebra, monogramming AND hot pink? You need that.

Speaking of needing, I NEED this.

OMG, I could just go on and on and on, but the last thing I’ll show you is some holiday cards. Imagine the joy your family will get when they find these in their mailbox:

The samples they sent me are truly beautiful and very high quality. The photos are gorgeously printed and the card stock is thick and lush. You’d think they cost a lot more than they do. After going to their website (which you need to do, but only after you’re done with this post) I was amazed at the overwhelming selection they have. If you have something you need stationery for, they have it.

And now, for the part you’ll be most interested in: the giveaway!

Just in time to get your holiday cards or invites taken care of (they ship fast!), they have given me a $50 gift certificate to give away to one lucky reader! WHAT? I know! Of course you don’t HAVE to use it for the holidays. You can always save it for your next big to do. You have until noon EST Monday, Nov. 30. And there you can enter up to 3 times!

1. Leave me a comment and tell me what you’d use the $50 gift certificate on.

2. Post about this giveaway and leave the link in a comment.

3. Follow me! All my followers are automatically entered and if you want an extra entry, follow me too! (that’s right, I’m not above using my giveaway to gain followers). Let me know in your comment you’re a follower!

Good luck! Now go check out Tiny Prints!

Please note, this post is sponsored by Tiny Prints.

Random Tuesday: Almost Thanksgiving

Tuesday! Brain expulsion! Huzzah!



*Indy and I were at the commissary a while ago and there was a sample lady out. What was she offering? Sprouts. Mustard, Radish and Broccoli. Indy fell in love and ate about half her samples. He insisted I buy some (I bought the broccoli) and now we are enjoying them in our lunch. Bread, cream cheese, sliced turkey (not on mine) and broccoli sprouts. It's darn good.

*The commissary was packed (packed!) with people like us making last minute Thanksgiving purchases.

*The weather sucks today.

*The Pilgrims celebrated with the Wampanoag Indians.

*The night before last Mr. HH and I were watching TV. Here's our convo:
Mr. HH: (flipping the channels over and over and finally stopping on some obscure movie)
Me: What's this?
Mr. HH: I don't know.
Me: Why are we watching it?
Mr. HH: I don't know
Me: That guy looks familiar
Mr. HH: Yeah, he does. What is this?
Me: (sigh)
Mr. HH: I feel like I've seen this.
Me: What is it then?
Mr. HH: I don't know, but there's supposed to be a bear in it.
Me: What?
Mr. HH: A bear. There's supposed to be a bear.
Me: Why? They're in a town.
Mr. HH: I don't know, I just know there's a bear.
Me: How?
Mr. HH: I just know.
Me: (watching for a minute) Hey, wait! That's the guy who played Gizzly Adams.
Mr. HH: Yeah. You're right. And there's going to be a bear.
Me: (laughing) Just because the guy who plays Grizzly Adams in in it doesn't mean there's going to be a bear.
Mr. HH: No, there's a bear. If he's in it, there's always a bear.
Me: (laughing) This is going on my blog.
Mr. HH: Great. Your readers must think I'm a buffoon.
Me: No they don't. I'm going to bed. If a bear shows up, please come wake me.
Mr. HH: Oh, I will. I will.
He never woke me.

*The Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving. Too bad they didn't have a movie to go with it.

*I can't wait to eat some pumpkin pie.

*We took Indy to a philharmonic concert the other night (his violin instructor was in it) and he loved it. He was on his absolute best behavior and I couldn't have been more proud. They were between Bach movements featuring an oboist and it was perfectly quite and in a very loud "kid whisper" Indy leaned over and said "THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL!" The rows sitting around us all laughed. Afterwards, a German lady came up to me and commended me on how good he had been during the concert.

*1939 was the year the great Thanksgiving Day calendar controversy began.
Beginning in 1863, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Until 1939 that is. Under pressure to boost spending during the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in order to kick off the holiday shopping season early. Not only did FDR catch flack from everyone from calendar makers to schools with scheduled football games, some states even rebelled against the change and celebrated on the original day. FDR held the change for two more years, but public outcry was so strong, Congress passed a law on December 26, 1941 to make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November permanently.

*Canadians came late to the Thanksgiving holiday (many years after it was declared an official holiday in the US). And they do it on a Monday. A Monday. See Americans figured out that if you have a holiday on a Thursday, you'd probably get Friday off from work too, thus making it a 4 day weekend, instead of a 3 day weekend and giving you more time to loaf around after eating all that food. Canadians.

*Remember that old SNL skit about the 4 boys who were obsessed with the TV show "Golden Girls?" I'm wondering if I should worry about Indy. He loves Murder, She Wrote. Seriously. It comes on the German channel TNT Serie (in English) and he gets so excited. He likes to try to figure out who did it. As long as he doesn't put on a wig and start calling himself Jessica, I suppose we're okay.

*Mr. HH swears up and down that it's not Thanksgiving unless you have the weird jellied cranberry sauce. (shudder)

*Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets

*And to end our RTT before Thanksgiving, I've got something really special. It's not exactly a sign, but I think you'll like it:

Unable to break 130

I have little of importance to say today, but I thought you might think I had been carted off to the loony bin after my previous post and wanted to assure you that I am fine. Johnny sends his love, BTW.
Anyway, every day I come check my blog and see what's going on in the blogisphere. Who cares if the dishes are piling up and Indy has no clean clothes? I have to check my blog! When I go to my dashboard I always see the number of followers. First of all, I'm absolutely floored that there are 129 of you who are actually interested in what I have to say. I heart you all, just so you know. So every day the number is either 127, 128 or 129. Some days I get all sad because I've lost followers and other days I'm happy because I'm back up to 129. This has been going on for about 2 months now. It's weird. Before the fluctuation I didn't really pay all that much attention to it. I saw the followers, marveled that there were so many and moved on. Now, it's become an obsession. Why do I lose a follower or 2 a week? Who takes their place a week later? WHY can't I break 130? Why do I care? I have no idea.

Mmmmmm....Johnny Depp

If you haven't heard yet, People Magazine, arbiter of sexy men, has once again named Johnny Depp 'Sexiest Man Alive.' Now this doesn't mean he's up for grabs ladies. He's still mine. And that that other chick that he shacks up with until he and I are free to be united in a love that will sustain us through time. Or something.


Did you look at the cover? That is one sexy smile, isn't it? Oh, and look RPattz is there too! Wow, it's like porn. Only better because the guys are hot.


Here he is writing me poetry and wearing a GINORMOUS watch because he can't stop thinking about the time we'll be together. Probably.


Oh, this one makes me laugh! It was taken when I was just a teen and he in his mid 20's. He jokingly called me 'Betty Sue' because I went to an all girl Catholic school. He even had it tattooed on his arm. I told him he didn't have to, but he wanted everyone to know about our love.



Here he is, wearing those sexy little glasses he knows I love. Oh, Johnny!


Okay, see that? Right there? That hand over his heart? Yeah, that's our special signal. When he does that, it's to show me how much he loves me. Isn't that sweet?


And this one, well, it's kind of special, but I decided to share it with you anyway. He took this photo specifically for me (though I think it may have leaked to the press). He's in a wet outfit and no, that's not a gun in his pocket. :) Drink it in, ladies.


Just so you know I may or may not be blogging from a mental institution starting very soon (something about delusions, but I don't know), but that's okay, because I know Johnny will swing past my room, just to make me laugh.

Random Thoughts Tuesday!

Oh, sweet Tuesday. You rock my world.

*How do you like the new bliggity blog design? I was feeling the need for something different. And I made it 3 columns! I'm awesome like that.

*Having blog sometimes makes me feel like a rock star. You know, if rock stars hung our all day with their 7 year olds and did housework. I've been "recognized" by several people and it always takes me by surprise. It also makes me laugh that they say "Hey, aren't you Mom in High Heels?" Sadly, I usually look terrible when they see me. Why can't I just look descent when being "sighted?" Instead I'm frequently cleaning up dog poop. Very glamorous.

*I got to meet Satekieli the other day. She lives just a few buildings away from me and came to our tea party cultural gathering last Friday. Indy has been studying the UK and our instructor's guide suggested a "high tea" as a cultural gathering. We invited a group of friends and asked Satekieli (I don't have permission to use her real name, so I'll just use her blog name) because I wanted to meet her she's British. Indy thought it was "double cool" that he had an actual British person at his tea party cultural gathering. She's very cool and has a super posh accent. Jealous

*The other night we were watching Wall-E in German (because it was on and, well, it's not like there's a lot of dialogue in it). Here's a bit of my and Mr. HH's conversation:

Me: I wonder how Wal-Mart feels about this movie?
Mr. HH: Why?
Me: Well, because Buy N Large seems to be a poke at Wal-Mart.
Mr. HH: Really? I always thought it was more like Sam's Club.
Me: Sam's Club is Wal-Mart, just in bulk and with a membership.
Mr. HH: What?
Me: 'Sam' is Sam Walton.
Mr. HH: (blank stare)
Me: The founder of Wal-Mart.
Mr. HH: I didn't know that.
Me: (silence)
Mr. HH: This is going on your blog, isn't it?
Me: Oh, yeah.
Mr. HH: (sigh)


*I'm itching to put up my Christmas decor, but have to hold off until after Thanksgiving. I hate decorations up before then, because by the time Yule, Christmas, New Year roll around I'm sick of them. I'm really antsy though to put them up. Must...not...cave....

*Speaking of cave....Indy has a rock collection. Not fancy rocks, mind you, just hunks of rock he's found and brought home. He was in his room earlier and came out with one of the large rocks to show me how he had done cave paintings on them with a pencil. What a crazy kid.

*We keep blowing light bulbs and it's freaking me out. 6 bulbs in the past week and a half. WTF?

*Pepper is laying on the sofa next to me snoring and farting. Nice.

*And for the funny sign of the week:


Click the button up way there ^ to head over to Keely's for all the randomness.

NaNoWriMo Update 3

OMG! How is already the middle of the month? Where have the days gone? I am sooo far behind in NaNoWTF. You can see my word counter somewhere over there. <------- I should be at almost 27K words by now. I'm 7K words behind! Ack! Oh sure, 1667 words a day. I can knock that out. No problem. Oh, how the universe is laughing at my boasting. The story is actually progressing quite well, it's just that I can't get the words out some day. I know what I want to write, but actually getting it down on paper (or rather on screen) is HARD. And what am I doing right now? Posting here instead of writing. I'm such a slacker. Okay, off to write. Cross your fingers!!!

Brownies in Bed. Or how Mr. HH nearly destroyed millions of dollars of equipment and ended his career (maybe)

How's that for a title? Take that Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. Seriously, that's a quirky movie. Ever seen it?
Anyway, Tuesday evening we were eating dinner and Mr. HH tells me that on Thursday (he had Wed off for Vet Day) he has to bring in pastries for the office. I asked why and he proceeds to tell me a little story about what happened at work earlier in the day. As he rarely talks about anything dealing with work (because of the sensitive nature of...whatever it is he does), I was enthralled. And a little nervous. Was he going to have to kill me afterward?
One of the other warrant officers he works with baked brownies for the office that morning. Apparently she's super woman. She went to PT, came home, whipped up a batch of brownies, showered, got ready and went to work, all before 9am. I may have still been in my PJ's watching Oprah, but that's beside the point. Overachiever. Mr. HH had some work to do elsewhere in the morning and made it in late. He was in the little break area and saw the brownies. One of the other warrants told him that they were really good when they were warm and that Mr. HH should warm one up before he ate it. Sounds like a good idea, right? Sure it does. Who doesn't like warm brownies? Mr.HH (remembering how many times I bitched at lovingly reminded him to place food on paper towels before putting them in the microwave, grabbed a paper towel, placed a brownie on it and popped it into the microwave for 30 seconds. Now, let's talk about the high quality paper towels the military buys. You know those rough brown paper towels you find at fast food restaurants? Those are like 600 thread count sheets compared to what the military buys. If I didn't know it were impossible, I'd think they had a huge cheese slicer like thingy that they used to shave super thin sheets of whole trees and folded them up to look like paper towels. Yeah, they're that nice. After popping the brownie on the high quality paper towel into the microwave, Mr. HH stepped away to make a cup of devil's brew coffee. One of the guys started yelling and motioning to the microwave. The super high quality paper towel had caught on fire. Mr. HH stopped the microwave and opened the door releasing a huge plume of smoke, that headed right towards the sprinkler system. They all grabbed towels or papers and waved the smoke away from the sprinklers. They were fortunately able to disperse the smoke and keep the sprinklers from going off, thus saving Mr. HH's career. Seriously, had the sprinklers gone off, millions and millions of dollars of equipment would have been destroyed or severely damaged. Once everyone got over the shock, they started laughing. Mr. HH said they laughed until they cried. All that super sensitive equipment could have been taken down by a brownie and a microwave. It was then decided that Mr. HH would have to bring pastries and brownies for the office on Thursday (today).
Now normally when Mr. HH needs stuff baked for work I take care of it. This time though, I decided he was on his own. He had to go to the store, buy what he needed and bake it. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV and surfing the web doing really important stuff when he got home. Around 8:30pm, I told him if he was going to bake brownies, he needed to do so because they took a while. He did not know this and assumed it would be like baking muffins which takes about 15 minutes. Yeah. So, he went to the kitchen to bake them and called me about a hundred times asking where this pan and that bowl and those eggs were. Seriously. He got a bit irritable with me because I wasn't in the kitchen helping him. Box brownies, people. Add eggs, water, oil, stir, bake. How much help does that really require? Around 9pm, he finally got the brownies in the oven. While they baked he put in a movie I did NOT want to watch, so I went to read in bed. I was propped up in my jammies under the blankets reading Angels & Demons, when Mr. HH walked in with a warm brownie on a plate and a glass of milk. WHAT? Brownies in bed? No way! WAY! It was heavenly. Wasn't that sweet of him? Of course he was doing it to make up for being so crazy with me earlier, but still, it was a nice gesture. I've decided I'll take brownies in bed over breakfast in bed any (and every) day of the week. Try it. It will rock your world.

The last survivors

Sixteen year old Frank Buckles enlisted as an ambulance driver in the Army. The year was 1917. He sailed to France in late 1917 on the Carpathia, the ship that rescued survivors from the Titanic in 1912. He was just 17 and still serving in France on Nov 11,1918 when the Armistice went into effect. Today he is 108 and the last American Survivor of World War I. He is one of 3 verified vets of WWI in the entire world. Time is not on Frank Buckles side. When he is gone, an entire generation will be lost forever.
It is estimated that of the 16 million Americans who served during WWII, less that 3 million are still alive today. Their stories are dying along with them.



The Korean vets are of an age with the WWII vets. Some of them were WWII vets.



The spunky, misunderstood, often angry, Vietnam Vets are now grandfathers.


One day, the young men and women serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be old and have only stories and memories.



If you know a Vet, your father, grandfather, mother, uncle, sister, whoever, talk to them. Ask them to tell you what they remember. Tell them you're grateful for their service and sacrifice. Honor those who came back. Remember those who didn't. Never, ever, ever forget.

Random Thoughts Tuesday. Living in the Dark Ages

Tuesday? Again? Didn't we just have one of those like 6 days ago? Sheesh! They just keep coming! On with the randomness!

*I was without internet yesterday! For whatever reason, Telepost Kabel Service (TKS) was having issues with lines or something yesterday and I had no phone or internet from about 10am yesterday until this morning. I swear to you it nearly killed me. I'm constantly running to the internet to look up whatever catches my fancy, mostly Edwards Cullen and Johnny Depp really important stuff and not being able to do so made me feel all edgy and anxious. I think I could have a problem. I was like a junkie jonesing for a hit. To distract myself, I rearranged the LR (imagine Mr. HH's surprise when he came home for lunch and I made him move our behemoth entertainment center about 2 feet), cleaned a bit (boring) and wrote out another 4000 words for NaNoWriMo. I was still thinking about it though. I NEEDED to find out who played the crazy rocker chick in "Just Friends" (Anna Faris in case you're wondering), and exactly how much someone my height should weigh (I'm way slightly off).

*Oh, guess what? Blogger did save my RTT that I thought Mozilla ate last week. The following is what I was thinking about last week:

*I'm totally procrastinating today on NaNoWriMo.

*Part of my procrastination involves browsing the NaNoWriMo forums where some people ask the most ridiculous questions. Honestly, if you plan to write a book about something, know at least a little bit about it. If you're planning to write a book about, say Knights and the Middle Ages, you should at least know how a knight was addressed. You should also know what a doctor was called. FYI, there were no doctors. Barbers were surgeons and dentists. Can you imagine?

*On Tuesdays, one of our AFN channels airs an hour of HGTV programming. Oh, how I miss you HGTV!!!!

*The Halloween candy is calling my name. Loudly.

*Do you think it will balance out if I eat the candy while I'm on the stair stepper?

*I could do the laundry as a way to procrastinate, but that's too much like work.

*Indy and Mr.HH have cub scouts tonight (Mr. HH is the den leader) and I so look forward to my hour alone. Maybe I'll write then. Or not.

*Do you own a lot of bras? I just counted (I'm watching Oprah) and I have 19. Does that seem like a lot?

*Wow, it's easy to write out an RTT when it's been done already. I'm awesome.

*Indy is on the phone with my mom. He will only talk on the phone if it's on speaker, which means I get to hear both sides of the conversation. I have to say it's sweet and crazy hilarious.
Indy: Hey Gigi, guess what?
Gigi: What?
Indy: My mom, she says you're not the boss of her anymore.
Gigi: That's right. She's a grown up, she doesn't need a boss.
Indy: Well, my dad does. And mom's his boss.
Gigi: (laughter) Oh, yeah?
Indy: Yeah, 'cause my dad, he just can't get his act together. Plus, he's lazy.
Me (from the other room): Watch what you say!
Indy: But you know it's true, Mom.
Me: Talk to Gigi.
Indy: It really is true, Gigi. I'm not lying. My dad, he's kind of lazy. My mom needs to light a fire under him sometimes.

Bwahahahahahahaha! Man, I love that kid.

*And finally, the funny sign of the week, which was sent to me by a friend:


Now, click the super weird button at the top (I still find it crazy disturbing) and go check out all the other RTT's.

You searching for me?

The pervs are at it again! I thought I’d update you guys on some of the recent searches that have brought depraved souls to my innocent little blog. You ready for this?

Ice cream inside heels-Okay, really, why? Ice cream? IN heels? Weird.

Naked moms crouching down in high heels-Just Ewwwww! Why would you search for that? No, don't tell me, I'd rather not know. I imagine this post is not quite what they were looking for though.

Hard love in high heels-Ummmm….

I lost a bet and have to wear high heeled boots for one day-What kind of bet was this?

Dirty heels-What? I would never let my heels get dirty! Wait? What? Oh, that kind of dirty. Never mind.

Naked mom in heels-There are multiple searches for this. I’m thinking crazy Freud was onto something with that whole oedipal thing.

I’m a boy and I like to wear my mom’s high heels-Might I suggest getting your own?

High heels for pervs-At least this person knows he’s a perv

Slutty Jewish girls in skirts and heels-How very… specific.

Super hot moms in high heels-Why thank you! You came to the right place.

Isn’t that insane? It always gives me a good laugh to read through these and to see what country the searchers are from. Surprisingly a lot of them are not from the US. Look at me, I’m reaching out to the international perverts.

NaNoWriMo Update: At the end of Day 3 I should have written 5001 words. My actual count was 5308. Go me! They’re not all great, by any means, but the story is there and I can clean it up in Dec. Or maybe Jan. Okay, off to each the boy and write my 1667 words for the day.

Mozilla ate my RTT

I had an entire RTT typed out and was getting ready to publish when Mozilla crashed. WHAT??? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <--I actually yelled just like that. I don't have the energy to energy to retype it all (plus I can't remember it all). Crapola.

I do remember that I wished my dad a happy birthday though. He's 61 today, but let's keep that between us, shall we?

I will reload the random photo though, because it makes me laugh and we can all use a good laugh, right?

NaNoWriMo Update 2

At the request of a few commentors and some emails, I'll post a rough synopsis of my NaNoWriMo story:

Giselle's twin brother, George, is dying of leukemia and can't find a matching donor. A chance encounter with sexy British psychologist/hypnotist, Benedict Attwood, who specializes in past life regression sends a skeptical Giselle back to World War II Germany. When she sees a chance to change her family's history and save her brother, she refuses to leave her regression, forcing Benedict to regress into her past, a practice that is dangerous for him. Failing to convince her to come back to her own time, despite the dangers to them both, Benedict agrees to help Giselle's family escape the Nazi's who hunt them down for their part in hiding Jews. Can Giselle change her family history and give her twin a chance at life or will she wipe out her own existence and Benedict's too? Will she find what she's looking for only to lose it in the mists of time?

Sounds crazy, right? Keep in mind, that I wrote that on my NaNoWriMo page around midnight last night. My real writing is much more cohesive (I think). BTW, I'm up to 3400 words (exactly). Yay me!

NaNoWriMo Update 1

It has begun! I started my novel this morning and am happy to report that as of right now, I'm at 2049 words-almost 400 more than I needed to reach my goal for the day! I'm so excited. It's not great writing, by any means, but it's solid and can be edited after I've finished writing. Best of luck to everyone else participating!