Let Me Catch You Up....

I am sorry it has been quite awhile since I last posted anything. Things here in Las Vegas are crazy, as usual - and I don't expect anything less from this crazy city... I LOVE it! I will try my best to catch you up with my life over the past couple of weeks. It will be long but please bear with me and enjoy!!

1
I have been sick, as I informed in my last post. I really really hate being sick, but being in 1st grade is like swimming daily in a petri dish of germs. In the past 12 weeks, I have had a head cold - twice, 24 hour stomach flu twice and a sinus infection (that probably isn't from the germs, but I was still sick). I am finally better now, but not 100%. I still have a stuffy nose and my hearing in one ear sounds a bit like a tunnel. However, it is better than it was at the beginning of the week.

2
Halloween was a big excitement at school. A costume parade, class parties, trunk or treat, and a carnival. For the 2 weeks before this festive day, everyone was a buzz on what was going on and what needed to be done. The 4th grade was in charge of the carnival as their fund raiser for their big white water rafting trip at the end of the year. Nicole and I volunteered to make a cake for their cake walk. We decided to be very festive with it and decided to make a spider web cake... now please note we are NOT professional cake decorators nor do we claim to be...but I think it turned out pretty cute... take a peek!
Pretty cute, eh? And it has 50 spider rings on it!

Now, I don't know what it is with my roommates and friends when it comes to cake and icing, but it never stays on the cake and never makes straight into our mouths. As Nicole and I were icing the cake, the icing monsters in us came alive and attacked Cat Then I got Nicole Then they got me Me and Cat...aren't we sweet as icing?? Covered in icing
A bit juvenile but we had fun and that is all that counts!!!

3
I know I posted a sneak peek of my Halloween costume and never followed up with pictures. I am sorry. I NEVER dress up for Halloween, but my students kept asking what I was going to be and they were all so excited about their costumes for our school parade, that I decided I had no choice but to dress up as something. Well, I am still fairly poor and I didn't want to pay too much for a costume. I decided to be a witch. I have a black dress with white polka dots, so that would be my outfit. All I had to do was accessorize...which is the fun part! I found a coupon for a costume shop and use that to get my oh so cool green and black knee highs (so they were only $2.89 including tax). I found a hat at Target on sale for $1.50. At this point I had spent under $5 ... WOO HOO! Since I was so frugal on my costume thus far, I decided to spurge for some fake eyelashes...and they were under $3 to boot!!! SWEET! Now I was kinda excited to get all dressed up for Halloween. I started getting ready Thursday morning (we had Oct 31 off for Nevada day so we did everything on the 30th) and I wasn't feeling so hot and I got sick. I thought maybe it was just a fluke thing so I continued getting ready. I was queezy on the way to school and ate a few crackers to see if it would help...nope. I got to school and when Mrs. M walked in the first thing she said way wow you look green... and I wasn't wearing any face paint! I lasted about 5 more minutes before grabbing the garbage can and headed to the bathroom. Needless to say I was sent home after that. I didn't object. 3 of my kids were out during the week with the same thing and I caught it! So I went home, turned my air to 70 and put on a movie, I fell asleep and woke up around 2:30 feeling much better. Lynley came down that night to spend the night. So I lent her my wicked cool knee highs and my hat to wear to work on Friday night so she could be in the Halloween spirit. I didn't get any pictures except what I already posted and of my sweet eyelashes. Did I mention they had rhinestones on them...everything is better with SPARKLE!!!!!!
4
Halloween Day I was feeling WAY better! Sariah's friend Vance was in town so we took him down to the Strip. We went to Mandalay to see if we could get into the Shark Reef... it was crazy, since the kids were off school, everyone had the same idea as we did or so it seemed. The shark reek had free admission for kids in costume - we decided to cancel that part of our day. We started walking through the shops to the Luxor on our way to M&M world when we were stopped by this friendly young man. He convinced us to go with him to preview a TV show for NBC... and it didn't hurt that we would get paid $15 each... YES! So an hour later we each walk out $15 dollars richer. We went to M&M world, Coke world, and MGM to see the lion habitat (which was closed).
By this time we were hungry and it was happy hour at Chevy's... you can't beat $3 appetizers that are big enough to feed 3 people! When we don't feel like cooking, it's a cheap alternative for dinner.. and delish to boot! When we finished there, Sariah and Vance wanted to watch scary movies... which the rest of us are not fans of. So, Nicole, Cat and I went down to Fremont Street. I loved the drive there down the Strip looking at everyone out in their costumes...some good, some not so good. It was Cat's first time on Fremont. We stopped at one casino for deep fried Oreo's...interesting... grossly sweet, but I would eat them again. Cat opted for the deep fried Twinkie instead and topped that off with a frozen chocolate dipped banana.

We also popped into the Golden Nugget to see the World's Largest Gold Nugget

We meandered back out to Fremont to see the Visiontron... which we missed, but walked around checking out costumes and listening the two bands... one was there last time we were and the other was a pretty good country guy (we liked him most). We were taking pictures of ourselves (heads together and camera outstreched as usual) when this guy in a mask comes up behind us and said "why don't you take a picture with me". We were a bit creeped out by it but Nicole opted out of the picture and took it. What was more creepy was he rubbed our necks and told us "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"...GROSS FREAKY BOY! He handed Cat his phone and said he wanted the picture, she looked petrified and handed it to me. Now using my quick as a roadrunner skills, I naturally put in a fake number and told him to call us. We decided to leave after that but didn't want to be close to him so we opted to go through the Golden Nugget (which we were by) to lose him on the street. While we were in there, Nicole and Cat were fascinated by people playing on this MASSIVE slot machine... it was pretty cool, but I wandered off and found a bit of paradise. I found the pool. Now you may be wondering why I would consider this paradise....it had a fish tank in the middle of it with sharks. I made myself comfortable on one of the beach chairs and got lost watching the fish swim. I was interrupted by my phone and gave the girls directions to my new secret place. It was a beautiful night, clear, cool and the waterfalls were soothing as we watched the fish.
Oh notice the water slide that goes through the middle of the fish tank... too cool!!!

5
Two weekends ago, Sariah, Cat and I were heading to a Hoe Down out at Hidden Valley Ranch (our Bishops ranch in North LV). We were running late, but hey it takes time to turn ourselves into cute cowgirls! We were finally on the road when Mel and Daisy called ... they left an hour before we did and they still weren't there. We were stopped in traffic so we discussed the situation of an hour drive ahead of us (or longer depending on the traffic situation)and decided on going to Wendy's ... it doesn't compare to the food we would have had but we were hungry and didn't want to drive for at least another hour. Don't worry looking cute didn't go to waste... we were at Flamingo and decided to go explore New York New York casino... we found the roller coaster and the dueling piano bar. So the night wasn't a complete waste. Ok, I know I don't look like a cowgirl but I am a city girl... this was the best I could come up with out of my closet.

So folks, that is all for now. I am tired of writing and need to work on my work sample and I am sure you are tired of reading. Thanks for stopping by and have a FANTASTIC day!