Category: Life


Stink Pretties!!!!!

I have embarked on a new endeavor…one I enjoy, and have the ability to do pretty well with. I’m so excited to be a consultant for…Scentsy!!!

I believe it’s a company that makes such great products that everyone will enjoy…from wickless candles to perfumes, and they are very charitable! Last season, they supported Autism Speaks, and this season, it’s the Ronald McDonald Foundation. There are more than 80 scents to choose from, so everyone will find something they like. They are all unique and will make your home that much more inviting!!! If you’re a real estate agent, you NEED a warmer for your open houses…great smells tend to influence people in a positive way!!

It’s one of those things that you’ll never realize how much you would love it, until you own it.

Our wickless warmers are EXTREMELY SAFE, which makes them ideal for moms with small children…the wax doesn’t get much warmer than our own body temperature. The warmers are all equipped with a 15-25 watt lightbulb, depending on the size of the warmer. Because they are heated with just a lightbulb, they should be safe enough for someone living in the college dorms!! We even have over 65 college warmers in our campus collection. There are MANLY SCENTS, among others! If you are interested in learning more about Scentsy, please visit my website:

www.stinkpretties.com

I didn’t join, initially, for the money at all…it’s just fun, and it’s a great conversation starter 🙂 It’s only $99 to join, so if you think it’s something you might be interested in, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have!! stinkpretties@gmail.com

Fish Lure and Fruitcake

That’s the gift I took to my small group party this year.  It was regifted from a Dirty Santa game last year.  I though it was great.  And the fish lure was Cleveland Browns. Of all things.  I think I actually got to open the most gifts under the tree, because people kept stealing from me.  First, I ended up with a lottery ticket, then, I ended up with a blanket, and by the end of the game, I ended up with this…compliments of Kristen.

I was thrilled with this….even without the wine!  It sure beat the door draft blockers!  Oh, and my favorite part of the party was becoming the spoons champ!  I took Wendy down, ya’ll!  If you’ve never played spoons, find out how to play, it’s SO much fun!

The next week, I went to a party with the mix group, which is just 20-30’s singles.  I didn’t know many there, but there were a lot of laughs.  There was gingerbread house making…with graham crackers.  Some houses looked great, and others were a good attempt.  We played Dirty Santa there, as well, and I took a can of Spam and a can of Spaghetti.  I had a can of spam in the house (luckily, for a good gag gift).  Karma came around, and it gave me THIS…

A package of Gongju, which, according to ther part that’s written in English on the back of the package, it’s CHRYSANTHEMUMS!!!  I didn’t know people drank dried up flowers for tea!  The back of the package says to put 6-8 of the flowers in hot water, but I just can’t muster up the courage to try it.

I think the Christmas parties are my favorite part of the season.  It just gives everyone a chance to unwind from the stresses of the season, and enjoy what’s truly important to you!  I know, for me, it’s my family. In 2007, I couldn’t spend the holiday with my family, and then realized how much being alone on the holiday sucks (for lack of a better word). Then, last year, I realized I need MY family.  I went to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving, and it just made me terribly homesick.  I’m headed up to Michigan tomorrow, to spend the holiday with family, and can’t wait!  One of the perks of being jobless is having such a flexible schedule LOL, but I’m ready to have a little less flexibility!

Thanksgiving 2009

Turkey day, this year, was FANTASTIC! The food was phenomonal, and the company even better!  The Merrell clan was nice enough to invite me over for the holiday, seeing as I have no family in the area.  I would have loved to go home, but it’s just too long of a drive for dinner, plus, I’ll be up there for Christmas (God willing).

My sausage dip was a hit (usually is, not bragging, just sayin’), but I think the star of the night was the turkey!  Sometimes, turkey, in my opinion, isn’t all that good, ends up too dry, but this turkey was WONDERFUL!  Stefan had been working on it since the night before, and it paid off! We even had asparagus, which I’d never had at thanksgiving dinner, but it was perfect.  There was the green bean casserole and sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes that are a staple, and did not disappoint.  After dinner, Andrea and I helped the kids decorate a gingerbread house, which was fun.

I put the tree together, and looked fabulous.  Then Emma got hungry..It was a great little activity for the kids, just not something you wanna eat after a 3 year old had his fingers in his mouth and up his nose while touching everything.  I kept making him use “hanitizer” as they called it, but just wasn’t quick enough sometimes LOL.  Then, little Sarah decided she wanted to try some too, which led her to taking the candy off the house, licking the icing off, and putting it back!  After watching her brother just stick his finger in the icing, she realized it was so much easier doing it that way too!  The kids had fun, and we got some good laughs, so it was a win win.

 

Then, I was introduced to 2 new card games, called Blink and SkipBo.  I couldn’t beat Andrea at Blink, but had slightly better luck ast skipbo…until Emma beat me!  It was all in fun, and I’m glad I now know how to play skipbo.  Last year, my friend, Sarah, bought the game for us to play when we went to her house for Thanksgiving, but couldn’t figure it out.  I think really we were just VERY unmotivated at the time.  It was a lot of fun…and you’d be surprised how much a 6 year old can trash talk!  I was getting looks and her telling me I was goin’ down!  LOL

 

Andrea was nice enough to send us home with leftovers, which, I think, were better the 2nd time ’round!  And she included a piece of her pumpkin log, which is AMAZING!

 

I had a great turkey day, and hope everyone else did as well!

 

What was your favorite part of the holiday?

 

Yep, MORE roommate drama!  I somehow manage to attract all of the mentally unstable.  I, myself, think I’m fairly stable in that area, so I’m not sure why me.  It turns out everything that ever came out of Jeremy’s mouth was a lie.  His own father said so.  He’d never even been in the marines!  All his little stories probably came from his father, who actually did spend time in the military.  His father stated he is a pathological liar, and just can’t help it, along with being bipolar and schizophrenic.  I got wind of this info, and, seeing as I had to live with the dude, wasn’t going to confront him on it, but I did mention it to my roommate, Mike, who was in the army, and knew a buddy that works for the Department of Defense, called him to see if he could pull anything up on him, like an enlistment/discharge date…NOTHING!  He tells people he was shot in the knee, yet, no bullet holes or scarring of any kind, hm!  His father said he fell on concrete, which is why his knee hurts him every now and again. Kind of a far stretch, don’t ya think?  He also says he had 981 confirmed kills as a sniper in Iraq.  Mike says that is WAY too high of a number.  He showed me his bipolar/schizophrenic medication, but he’s not taking it like he should.  And there’s no way the military would have even accepted him if he was on medication!

Another one of his lies is about his birthday.  He likes to tell everyone his birthday is on Halloween.  He says he was birthed my a midwife, in a podunk town, on October 23rd, and she was a little slow in filing the paperwork, like 8 days slow, therefore, his birth certificate states he was born on the 31st.  I’ve seen his birth certificate. Not the case.  Only because he carries it in his wallet, and it fell out, is why I saw it.  He decided to invade my privacy (shame on me for leaving my phone in the other room unsupervised), and went through my cell phone, and saw text messages I had with a friend, comparing stories of pathological liars in our lives. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? He then started rattling off the things he’s been accused of per the text messages to his boyfriend.  He asked me if I had seen his birth certificate, I said no, only because I saw it briefly, and never had posession of it. He couldn’t find it, so he decided to call the police!  I had to talk to 3 cops over this!  I apologized for them having to come out, but that he’s just upset he was caught in a lie, and is now throwing a fit, and that’s what they told him outside in the parking lot, after they left.  Nothing accomplished there, so he wasn’t happy.  I really wish I were a fly on the wall when those cops left!  They had no idea what to think, I’m sure!

Mike was gone through the whole ordeal, and came back home to this mess.  Jeremy had called him about his birth certificate, which Mike didn’t have, he told him it fell out, but that he put it back.  Utt and Fut (as we refer to Chris and Jeremy) were out of the apartment, so I explained what happened, and I felt bad for having left my phone out, because Jeremy was ready to kick Mike out.  Mike called Jeremy, and after that phone call, Mike was ready to kill Jeremy.  I haven’t known Mike long, but he’s not one to get angry all that easily.  He asked me to take him over to his buddy’s house, because he felt if he saw Jeremy, he would’ve done something stupid.  I took him over, and wished I could’ve stayed there too!

Tuesday rolls around, and I made myself scarce.  Not knowing how long I’d be gone, I even grabbed some snacks and lunch and dinner to take with me.  I just knew I wanted to avoid the apartment for awhile, and not spend money, nor inconvenience anyone. I bummed over at my friend’s house, and babysat for her, in return.  Later that night, I went and picked Mike up, and we went back home.  I feel much better when he’s around.  Jeremy won’t mess with me if he’s there!  Jeremy still hasn’t said much, if anything to me.  He talks through Mike, making it loud enough for me to hear.  He says he’d rather confront an issue, and gets mad if people talk about him, yet he’s NOTORIOUS for talking about other people behind their backs!  Mike and I tell each other what Jeremy says, and it amazes me how much crap can spew out of one mouth!

Wednesday night (this has all happened this week, mind you), Jeremy shows Mike this letter (again, he doesn’t talk to me, so I never saw the letter) that supposedly says everyone in the apartment must have a job in 5 days, or on the 6th day, will be evicted.  NEVER heard of such a thing, MY rent’s always been paid.  Thursday morning, I went into the office to ask about the terms.  I told them i was subleasing, and I was advised that’s not allowed per the lease agreement.  They said names can be added to the lease, but not removed.  I said I had no idea, but was under the impression Jeremy had called them to say Mike and I were living here.  She said all names on the lease (including Marie) would need to approve for the addition.  She said they’d heard there were unauthorized people living there, and said Marie had called. I grabbed some applications and left.  I got home later that day, and Jeremy is saying something that didn’t make sense, so I called down to the office for clarification, and come to find out JEREMY was the one who called saying there were unauthorized people living here!  Yeah, I’m unauthorized, in that I just came and snuck all my crap in the apartment one day, and have been living undetected the whole time…PLEASE!  Jeremy and Chris refuse to add my name to the lease, because I’m apparently talking so much crap about him.  So, now, he is worried he would get evicted if we don’t leave.  Guess what?  I’m not leaving by next week!  He was in the wrong for subleasing, because I’m guessing Marie didn’t even realize anyone was moving in to replace her, and amazingly enough, any time he said she’d supposedly been back to the apartment, Jeremy was the only one here to witness it.  It is just irritating to me that now I can’t believe a thing that comes out of his mouth.  I can’t afford to move out at the moment, nor have anywhere to go, so I’m stuck here for the time being.

Anyone wanna trade lives?

Bringing You Up To Speed

Since the last time I blogged (seems like forever, really), I have moved out from living with “Joan Crawford“, and now reside with a gay couple (and their cat, let’s not forget the damn cat)!  They are 23 year-old guys, and not all that bad in relation to previous roommates.

Jeremy – The outgoing roommate, former marine, country boy, owns a ghost hunting company

Chris – AKA Sunshine, very quiet, acts like a child, walks around holding his game boy ALL the time

Winslett – The damn cat.  They couldn’t have picked a gayer name if they tried!

Mike – (36) Army dude who moved in with us temporarily, but has now turned into indefinitely. Unemployed, and vehicle doesn’t run. He dated Chris years ago, but only went out a couple of times because Chris played his game boy all through dinner!

Nick – (19) Mike’s boyfriend, who lives in Columbia.  Only had a part-time job. No vehicle

Continue reading

Why ME?

I know it seems like my roommate issues have been an ongoing theme here at Schmidt Happens, but, for some reason, I have a real gift for finding the worst roommates.  I know what you’re thinking…maybe it’s me.  It’s not.  All the issues are different.  If they were the same ones, I’d think it was me too, but I couldn’t make up the weird ones if I tried!  I really think I’m a reasonable roommate, not the best, I have my flaws, and I’ll be the first to admit it.  My roommate, on the other hand, fails to see that she has any, and is now holding me to standards that she, herself, doesn’t uphold.

And so the saga continues…

118 – Enforce an unreasonable policy

Keri (roommate) comes into my room earlier today (Sunday) and says something along the lines of “I really didn’t want to have to do this, but I tried to make it work, and it just hadn’t” and hands me a sheet of paper:

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I, stupidly (shame on me), signed the note without reading the whole thing because I just wanted her out of my room.  If you caught the last line, it states “it is not to be discussed with any other person,” so apparently, I’m not allowed the freedom of speech, according to her, but you know me…I’m SO not the quiet type.

I am wondering if she is just looking for an excuse to kick me out, does she not want the rent money? Does she just not like me? I thought we were really getting along lately, and she hadn’t bitched about anything in awile.  That’s what threw me for the loop, I really can’t tell you the last time she complained about something silly, I thought she was loosening up a little.  NOPE.

My friend, Katie, advised I better start looking for a new place to live.   Like I said, I’m not the greatest roommate.  I MAY not put my groceries away immediately, and I MAY not necessarily put my dishes away at the moment the dishwasher is done, but I’m respectful of her and her things, and keep to myself a lot of the time.  There are FAR worst people out there.  And I LOVE how “the ceramic stovetop cleaner will be used by Landlord.” Can I not be trusted with that even???  I have a wicker basket on the counter in there, and now, I can’t even put what I want in my own freakin’ basket!  Am I the only one thinking this is absurd?!?!?!?!?  The bathroom is not nearly as bad as she makes it sound, I swear she makes special trips in there just to see what it looks like.  The only thing on the floor of the bathroom is my rugs and dog hair, from HER dog!  I really just want to scream.  I feel like I’ve bent over backwards trying to make her happy, even giving myself a curfew, and I’ve done really well, trying to be home by 10pm as to not wake her up.  My friend asked if I’d slipped up on curfew and that’s what started it, I said there’s no way…had that been an issue, you’d better be sure it’d be included in this screwed up “policy.” I just don’t understand why it is I have to endure such insanity…the only silver lining is great blogging material, as a friend has pointed out before.

If anyone happens to know of someone NORMAL needing a roommate (preferably) on the west side of downtown, at a reasonable rate, please let me know.  I’ll pretty much be out on my butt in 2 weeks.

Have you had any HORRIBLE roommate experiences? If so, what did you do to combat them?

Schmidt’s Latest Happenings

  • Job hunting – my temporary assignment was up with Caremark, so back to hitting the pavement.  They should be hiring in the next month or two permanently, but I really don’t want to have to wait that long, nor does my father want to keep bailing me out financially.  He’s so uneasy about his job right now @ GM, in England, the lectures are getting longer and longer everytime I ask for money.  In the meantime, I’m trying to get my Melaleuca business off the ground.
  • Tutoring – I did get an itty bitty job working as a tutor for the kids in the No child left behind program, that were left behind.  It’s only 4 hours a week, but it’s a couple hundred dollars in my pocket a month.  Not too sure how it’s going to work out.  The head lady said I was more of an instructor today that interacting with the kids.  I guess I’ll do my best to work on that, it just is difficult when you have more than one child, and they’re on different levels, and to pay attention to what they’re doing.
  • Computer died again – I guess when it falls off the bed enough times, it’s bound to stop working! It would’ve cost more than it was probably worth, so I ended up replacing it, on a whim (which I don’t recommend) when I went to staples…to get notebooks, like the binder kind, not the computer kind! I did get a free printer (after rebate) and I have a year to pay it off with no interest, no payments, when I signed up for a Staples credit card.  Darn me and my good credit, they just keep giving me more lines!
  • FINALLY finished a book – I was reading How to Win Friends and Influence People (cuz I could really use the help somedays), and it was good.  I started it about 5 months ago.  Not sure if I’ll change much, but I’m working on it 🙂 After my bible studies conclude, I’m going to attempt Twilight.  You know I have a dull life when me finishing a book is a big deal!   Probably lost what few readers I still had lurking around!

S-L-A-C-K-E-R

Okay, so I’ve REALLY been neglecting my blog, but mostly because I figure most keep up with me on Twitter.  For those of you who may not, here’s a run down of what’s been going on since the holidays:

I started my new job – The new gig was a little rough in the first week, bored to tears in training, but made it out alive.  We’re in the 3rd week now, and it’s getting better.  Today, we got a little gift, which included a little keychain light, a mini first aid kit w/ plastic tweezers and bandaids, a mini calender, a set of crayons (not sure why, we didn’t get a coloring book), and it was all wrapped. Every so often, we get snacks and every Monday, we get free food.  So far, the perks are nice. Getting yelled at by old peeps that can’t remember what prescriptions they ordered blaming you for them running out of their meds…not so fun!  I can’t tell you how many times I heard “you people” and it drives me nuts!  I do like elderly people, so I’ve had some great conversations with some, and they’ll tell you their WHOLE life story, if you let them!  One girl even heard about how a woman’s bladder fell out of her vagina, or so she said…TMI!  And, even though I don’t wanna jinx it, there is some talk of hiring us permanently, so that would be cool.  And I’m assuming they need the help, they’re hiring another class to start next week…quite a few have either left, and one fired in less than 3 weeks!

Champ was put to sleep – yeah, it was his time, so my mother took him to the vet last Tuesday, and Casey apparently is still not quite over it yet…Vet did say it may take a couple weeks to a month, so hopefully, he’ll bounce back soon! May Champ RIP!

Champ

Champ

My foot – If you’ll remember back, I’ve written about my grossly abnormal feet, and it seems I have done something to aggravate them something fierce…some days, I’d rather have my right foot amputated, certain it’d be less painful!  The bad thing is there’s nothing that can really be done about it.  I’ve been told to get more calcium in my diet, and stay off my feet as much as possible.  I’ve had removable casts, and they help, HOWEVER, lack of insurance makes it a little less than feasible.  In the meantime, it takes me FOREVER to get anywhere…

Church – At CrossPoint, I had the opportunity to help out in the Kidz World last Sunday, and that was great!  As cute as the kids were, my stance on motherhood remains the same lol, but I got a chance to meet some interesting folks, like Lindsay Ferrier (I read her blog from time to time, and her hubby is on WSMV Channel 4 News, which I watch religiously) and Wally from Total Axxess (a great radio show on Christian radio…if you have a chance, listen to him, I GUARANTEE you will laugh), and thought it was neat to see all the people CP attracts.  I enjoyed it so much, I will be doing it on a weekly basis…well, really cuz Wendy asked me 🙂

Small Groups – My small group from TrueLife is going to be studying the book of Esther with Beth Moore, and we watched the introduction last night, I’m REALLY excited to get into it!  It’s a 9 week study, on Tuesday nights, at 6:30, in Pegram, so if you might be interested in joining us for the study, let me know!  Like I said, we are just starting week one now, so it’s not too late!  My small group from CrossPoint is starting up tomorrow night, and I’m excited about that one too, studying a book, not sure the name, but to my knowledge, it’s about Philipians, which should be good.  I found out who my “Sister in Spirit” is, and I’m even more excited…she’s one FABULOUS woman!

Well, I think I summed everything up for now, so I’m gonna head to bed, so I can do the whole work thing again tomorrow!  For some reason, though, I can’t seem to get up before 6am…I sleep through 4 alarms EVERYDAY, and I don’t know why!

A Schmidty Christmas

Well, I had a great Christmas…it was WHITE, and spent with FAMILY!  Some of the family I hadn’t seen in 2 years, so it was a great time to catch up.  The way our family does it, we all get together for Christmas Eve, and just have hors d’oeuvres, which everyone brings some, and the kids usually get a present to open.  Then on Christmas Day, we just have Christmas dinner with the immediate family. I fell in love all over again, with my cousin’s little boys, Mason and Connor.  They look like they could be dolls, they’re so cute!  Mason, who is 2, has autism, but he’s progressed so well since the last time I saw him, he’s talking a lot more, and is just so precious.  His mom (my cousin Kelli) brought over some nachos for him, and he even asked for a spoon to eat what was left after the chips were gone…WHAT 2 year old does that?  Then there’s his little brother, Connor, just stole my heart, he is just a happy toddler, and he loved zorberts so much he would start to lift of his shirt for you to blow on his belly!  As for the rest of the kids in the family, I couldn’t get over how much they’d grown…the oldest great grand kids were all a foot and a half taller, and I feel like I’ve been so out of the loop!  My other cousin’s baby (Lilly), who is maybe a year and a half, is now walking, and talking, and cute as a button!  Lily and her mommy were kinds sorta famous for a few seconds on Regis and Kelly, when they submitted their photo for cutest Halloween costumes:

amy-lily My uncle sometimes gives us lottery scratch-off tickets, and I won FIFTEEN BUCKS!!!  I’m NEVER lucky with those types of things.  Kelli’s husband, Patrick, won $4!

Christmas Day, we woke up to our precious REINDOGS…

Champ

Champ

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Casey

I just stayed in my PJ’s, and relaxed.  We had sausage puff for brunch, and that’s our traditional breakfast on holidays.  We opened our presents, of which I got an electric toothbrush, a pair of sparkly socks, and PJ’s and slippers.  I loved it all!  We had a WONDERFUL ham dinner, of which I ate too much!  All in all, it was a GREAT Christmas, and my mother and I didn’t kill each other LOL!

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From the Left: Sheila, Rick, Trevor

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From the Left: Sheila, Rick, Trevor, Victor, Me, Marcia

The day after, I met a former coworker for brunch, and it was a great visit, I hadn’t really seen her in years, either, so we had a lot to catch up on.  I had dinner that night with old college buddies, and that was AWESOME!  I hadn’t seen any of them, except Sheila, since graduation.  Here are some pictures:

After that, I went to my old neighbor’s new house, which is basically a mini mansion, it’s MASSIVE!  They were having family in for a 50th birthday celebration, and were karaoking in the basement (of which the singing just didn’t run in the family), but it was fun, and the out of towners were fun people.  I left there late, and then kind of dragged my feet when it came time to leave to come back to TN.  I’m never in Michigan for more than 5 days at a time, and always feel so rushed seeing people, and can’t always see who I want to see.  I did, however, before I left Grand Blanc, do a driveby of our old house that I grew up in, and that was interesting!  I took a picture and sent it to my mom…

House where I grew up

House where I grew up

Of course, we always had WAY more Christmas decorations on the outside of the house, but I’ll give them credit for updating the house and making it look really nice.  When we had it, it was Dark brown shutters nad roof….Very 80’s LOL.  What’s funny is there’s this hill that you go up to get to our road, and we used to always say it was SO big, and going up it on bikes was a struggle sometimes, but when I drove up there, I though THIS was what we complained about…it was hardly even a hill!  I told my mom this, and she says I just got bigger, the hill didn’t get smaller, but I think it very well may have 🙂

My Trip Home

Well, I made it safely to Grand Blanc, Michigan (home of the Buick Open).  After SEVERAL hours on the road, you’d think I’d made a trip around the world, however, I did pass through Miami, Lima, and Boston. 🙂 I really don’t know why I constantly complain about Ohio being the most boring state, I do more driving in Kentucky…wasn’t sure I was ever gonna get out of that state! The snow wasn’t really evident until the last quarter of Ohio, and then in MI, where there was a detour, and, for some reason, they can’t put the detour signs up properly in Detroit, so I was lost a good hour or so!   It’s been great thus far.  I got home, my mom made me some tomato soup and grilled cheese, and we just chatted.  Got to see my dogs, Champ and Casey, and man, they are getting so old!  The oldest, he’d be 12 in May, probably won’t make it until his next birthday, according to my mother, and even the youngest one, he’s 8, isn’t getting around that well either.  Casey, the youngest one, still thinks he’s a lap dog (he’s a 100 something pound dog), and came to wake me up this morning…in my bed!  Usually, I wouldn’t mind it, except, I’m on in inflatable mattress, and it apparently has a slight leak in it, and he put me closer to the ground lol.  He didn’t care though, he just wagged his tail, waiting for some attention!  Both dogs like to talk in their old age now, the oldest goes outside, and tells the world of his troubles with all his barking, the youngest one grunts and moans ALL the time, but it’s a good type my mom says.