an ode to my home...

Hey friends.. see how I did that?? home?? and its about my home?? Its all tied together nicely today... So I did some upgrades to my little house while my hubs was out at a meeting..I wait until he leaves, decorate, and then watch as he walks right past it.... So I got the ladder at Hobby Lobby... I walked by it about 50 times before I pulled the trigger on it... I have literally 4 ladders in my house.. but I can't resist them...and I thought it would add a nice little (well notsomuch little) ladder to the wall... I know it looks crooked, but its the pic... the coffee table, again inspired by my interior design yoda, Liz over at lizmarieblog.com who puts up pics like this... and thisand makes me mental!!!! So I try try try to compete... but I'm NOT WORTHY!!!!!

Have a wonderful day my friends... Enjoy your home...

The Best TV has to offer

Good Morning Lovelies... its Tuesday... the second day of a five day work week where I will have to work every damn one of  'em!!!!!

A friend of mine just recently got Netflix...( I know.. can you imagine?? NOT having Netflix???) So we were telling her all the things that Netflix has to offer... Here are the best of all the channels I watch..(this could go into next week so make yourself comfortable....

Netflix: 1. Orange is the New Black... I wish I could tell you this was the greatest show... its not.. but if offers the greatest high... this show is why binge watching exists.... I honestly can't tell you I'd watch this if I couldn't have all the episodes in one meal....

2. Blackfish... this is a must see!!! This documentary is a fascinating look at how whales are wiiiiiiildly mistreated in captivity...

3. Bloodline: A new series that came out last month... Kyle Chandler... I say no more...

4. Arrested Development: loved it on Fox... loved it even more on Netflix

5. Friday Night Lights: (or any show your friends are like, " WHAT??? How can you not be watching it??????"

6. Food Network Challenge Shows ( Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, Food Truck Challenge, Next Food Network Star... its all on netflix

7. House Hunters!!!!!

8. The Magic SChool Bus (for the kids!!)

Amazon: 

1. Transparent: I wasn't the BIGGEST fan of this show.. but you know.. if everyone else is watching... I gotta see what the hype is all about...

2. Mozart of the Jungle... watch this for the main character who is soooooooooo cute!!!!

3. Oz... this is a gritty HBO show that I missed.. suuuuper disturbing at times.. but you know... 

4. Alpha House: This is a funny show starring John Goodman and Mark Consuelos (yum!) about republicans in the house... like House of Representatives....

So check out some shows.. and if you are not on the Netflix bus... climb aboard!!!!

Mad Men Wrap Up....

ok... Episode 4...... those sands are going toooooooo fast through this hourglass....
ok... This was a great episode because it all took place inside the SCP offices.... those episodes are always the best... the most action takes place.... the story is legit... Now... for those of us a little confused by the hierarchy of  SCP...(Sterling Cooper and Partners) Don,(Roger, Pete  Joan and Ted all work at SC&P.... SC& P is owned by MCcann... McCAnn is another advertising agency... they bought them all out last year and our partners made over a million bucks each.... now..... McCann gave the impression that they would just be the older brothers to SC& P.... so our partners were living in a fools paradise thinking they were living on easy street, managing THEIR OWN firm and being millionares as well... well life isn't that easy... we find out right from the beginning that McCann has cut off SC&P's lease... they are moving to the McCann building... Our partners are NOT happy about this... they just went from bosses to..... employees....... no more 3 hour liquid lunches for Don.... no more screwing on the white leather couch for Roger.... so our partners are not happy.. all with the exception of Ted... who, in my opinion is NOT an interesting or deep character in any way shape form or fashion... he pretty much is led around by his penis and makes all decisions regarding his career in that way... he is consistently one dimensional and not at all an asset to the story...
Now... again, scouring the internets... I see we are still upset because this story is moving about as fast a glacier melting and we are coming to an end in triple time... how can all of this be wrapped up in time????? I dont' know... but as with Mad Men episodes of the past, this isn't really a show that answers questions... its much better at asking new ones... so much like we all asked ourselves," What was that????" after the last "Sopranos" episode... I feel we will be asking ourselves that same question at the end of the last "Mad Men" episode.... I can feel the arguments coming and the yearning for more...

Weekend Wrapup....

Good Morning Lovelies!!! Its Monday... when I woke up this morning at 5:59... the sun was up and I was sooooooooo happy because I had like 45 more minutes of sleep... yay!!! So this will be a goooood day!!! over the weekend your girl Pooka left the house!! My niece got married!!!! now... I know I do not believe in family function blog posts..that is what Facebook is for... however.. I do have to put up this pic of the gal who caught the bouquet......

what what what????Is that Casey??? Why YES IT IS!!! Casey is the next one  to get married???   YES!!!! I take the bouquet throw VERY seriously and I take this as a clear sign that Casey and her cute little boyfriend Sam will be getting married next... I will keep you updated.....

Have a GREAT day my friends!!!

All the news thats fit to print

Good Morning!!!! Its Friday... I have a new photog today.. Jack... for some reason (senioritis) he has just been getting up whenever he feels like it and then has hubs drive him to school... this isn't bad.. its just NEVER planned out.. Jack just kind of sleeps in, wakes up with like 5 minutes before school is starting, and then asks for a ride... I CANNOT WAIT until this boy graduates!!! Jack+the bus= failure

why no blog yesterday??? Because I take these online classes to bump my salary... and these classes are so tedious and time consuming that I literally took a day off of work to do it!!!!!! and I"m still not even close to being done!!! The class isn't hard, its just soooooooo time consuming!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know how much I approve of this outfit... I really wanted to wear some little ballet flats, but my feet can't handle shoes without socks unless they're flipflops.. so these shoes?? I don't know if they're acceptable.. but they are comfortable.... 

On other fronts... I have been watching the F/X show "The Comedians" with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad.. .suuuuuper funny!!!! I highly recommend that show

Orphan Black is baaack!!! and it did not disappoint!!! LOVED IT!!!

Coming May 1.. Shark Tank :Behind the Tank... CAN   NOT   WAIT!!!! this is where we see some failures!!!! 

So hopefully you'll be out and about living your life, but if you do have to stay home, try out these shows....

Have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!!!

What I wore Wednesday...

Good Morning Lovelies... Its Wednesday.. that means linkup with thepleatedpoppy.com, tuckerup.blogspsot.com and cappuccinoandfashion.com... Now.. I know y'all are saying, theres alot going on in this outfit of mine.. and I agree... however... I have extenuating circumstances....

1. It is about 50 degrees and wildly windy outside so I need the sweater...

2. Whenever I wear all black I feel like Johnny Cash and I try to lighten it up a little...

3. These boots are super warm and super comfy so I had to wear them

4. the striped tank underneath was the only tank top I had that had black 

So as you can see.. this mishmosh of an outfit was born out of harsh winds and bitter cold...

Have a wonderful Day and don't forget to linkup!!!

Mad Men Wrap Up

Hey Mad Men fans... and then there were 4... 4 more episodes of "Mad Men"....
As we go, I am trying to devour the blog world seeing if theres something I didn't get or something I missed from an episode... I sometimes agree, sometimes don't with the blog world, but thats nothing new...

Last night's episode was a typical episode... as we go on, the blog world is upset because they feel that as the sands go slowly through the hourglass, nothing is getting resolved... we will be stuck with too many loose ends... they are upset with the last two weeks because we were introduced to Diana a character who proved to be short lived and its taking time away from our core group... I agree completely... HOWEVER... upon reading last nights episode notes... the theme for this half season seems to be "freedom".. that freedom of the 70's... last night Glenn ( who EVERYONE agrees is creepy)showed up with his Greg Brady sideburns and announced he is going to Vietnam... now this is apparently for our "freedom"... but later we find out hes going because he flunked out of school... how sad to think that a kid like Glenn would die in Vietnam, or be scarred like our servicemen were over a bad report card....
Later, Don is trying to be "free" of his apartment.. now that he is free of the hideous Megan he is yearning to be free... but the thing is, he already is... but is he??
The next symbol of freedom came from Joan... she meets an older man( Joan with her daddy issues)and he is "free" from raising kids... so when Joan tells him she has a four year old son, he feels like he can't handle it and breaks it off with Joan (how anyone could let those boobs go, is a mystery to me!! ) so then Joan feels like she has no "freedom"  with her son the next day when she inadvertently says, "you're ruining my life!" to her son through the babysitter... Joan doesn't have the "freedom" she once enjoyed....
Now.. more freedom...Mathis is now free of his job thanks to his big mouth... Heres how it works... Mathis (on the left) is the new Don... (what Don was a million years ago) but not as handsome, not as much of a natural liar, not as smart, and DEFINITELY not as charming... so at a pitch meeting, he uses the F word and offends a client.. Peggy and Pete differ on the approach for punishment... Mathis goes to Don for advice... now Don is mans man.... so when dealing with MEN, Don can bs his way out of any situation... so he tells Mathis to BS, or joke his way out of his dilemma... Mathis, not as savvy as Don, cannot really do this and royally Fwords himself even further in a hole.  He goes in and blames Don for the bad advice and leaves saying, " You never have to worry, your handsome you don't need anything else"...(remind you of when Peggy told Joan, "Youre a millionare, you dont' have anything to worry about) NOW.... what bothers me about this moment is that Don has experienced this kind of misplaced blame before... this isn't the first time hes heard this... but in last nights episode, he kind of pauses for a minute before he fires Mathis... after he leaves, Don sits down and seems to try to take in what he said... this seemed out of character for him.....
Later.. my girl Sally comes into the picture... Sally is MY GIRL!!!! Again.. the ONLY one who will not and can not ever be fooled by Don's bullshit.... she sees right through it.... when one of her friends starts blantantly hitting on her dad she is so disgusted she looks like shes going to be sick.. then she tells him, "I can't wait to be free of you!!!" another reference to freedom....

Now at the end of the episode, Don comes home to find that his realtor has sold his apartment despite it being a "symbol of failure"... as he walks out the song, "The first time ever I saw your face"... NOW if anyone out there can tell me WHY this song was chosen.. what it means.. PLEASE send me a message!!! I NEED TO KNOW.... I have scoured the internets trying to find the symbolism... I can't.... maybe its coming.. let me know.. please!!!!!

April 20

Good Morning Lovelies.... It is a glooooomy Monday over here... My hubs has been sick for about three days and when he said he was going back to bed It took everything in me not to scream, "TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!!" but we persevere....

My blog has been FULL of doom and gloom lately right?? Well hopefully today we can turn it around... Today is the day my mom died April 20,2011  (not off to a great start right?? Hold on..)So today instead of reminding myself what I did that day... lets think of some of the things that my mom did that were great....

Every year we would have a super big wrapping day where we would wrap all of our Christmas gifts... my mom  was the best wrapper.... if you got a gift that she wrapped, you would know it...

My mom could make the BEST and I mean BEST brownies in the world... They were not from a mix.. it was the unsweetened chocolate with the butter... when I had my son, I asked her to make me some and she did...

My mom would ask what you wanted for Christmas or your birthday and get you the exact thing no matter what it was (short of like a puppy of course)

My mom would change my sheets every other week.. when you got into that bed... swooooooosh it felt good... that woman could wash and iron sheets better than a Chinese laundress!!!

My mom is litrally the ONLY person I know who can make gravy... we all try to make it, but we pale in comparisin... its sad...

My mom was always there when I got home from school... when I got home, I would just chillax until dinner... she was a great mom.... 

so don't think about the way/day she died... think about the fun times, the good food, and the great person....

Have a WONDERFUL DAY!!!

Its Friday!!!!

GOOD MORNING!!!! Its Friday... its 70 degrees and I'm wearing sandals!!!! Things are going great and they're only getting better!!!! Now.. based on my blog yesterday.. what problems do I have?? ok..

1. Hubs is out of work.. has been trying for (not exaggerating) one year to get back into the National Guard and it looks like its not going to happen... so hes down in the dumps....

2. How will I pay for Jack's college??? Will he get enough in loans to pay for it???

3. Casey's car is unoffically kaput.. what should she do??? 

Thats about it for now... so things are not wonderful not terrible... but I hope all is well with you... Have a GREAT weekend my friends!!!! 

Is Facebook an Illusion??

Good Morning Lovelies.... Its Thursday... We're almost to the end of my FIVE DAY WORK WEEK!!!! I know y'all are like,"Shut up with your five day work week... you're not special!!!" I know... but I get proud of myself for working five days in a row....

I was up again last night thinking and worrying about my facebook friend who lost her husband...It got me thinking... the things we see on facebook... all the vacations, the parties, the celebrations... is it all an illusion??? Are people trying to make up for something missing by putting an illusion on facebook??? I know when summer rolls around, I get jealous of all the vacations... all the great food... the new puppies people get... and I feel like I"m some kind of loser because I'm sitting here at my house blog surfing.... I asked a friend at work who lost her husband a while ago if facebook is an illusion... she said unequivocally... "YES!!!" she knew people whose husbands were clinically depressed, on 18 different medications just to get out of bed putting pics up of the family handgliding... if we really knew the stories behind the pictures.. would we still be jealous???? Would I feel comfortable putting my intimate problems on facebook??? I have in the past and learned that feelings and conditions change and if I put something on fb that is bad and then it changes... I don't always update properly.... So what have we learned??? I guess don't be afraid to put some troubles on fb... people love to reach out and you may find help from a place you didn't expect... 

Have a great day!!!

21 Years Later....

Good Morning Lovelies.... Today is a very special day!!! More important than "What I Wore Wednesday" over at thepleatedpoppy.com,tuckerup.blogspot.com, and cappuccinoandfashion.com!! Today is my anniversary!!!! This time 21 years ago I was running around getting flowers and getting my hair done... My wedding wasn't a banquet hall white dress kinda wedding... it was on a Friday night and I had the reception at my parents house... it was suuuuuuuuuuuuper intimate... but I have nothing but good things to say about it...It was the last party I ever had at that house... Since that day I have NEVER regretted or questioned or even tried to change my marriage... I LOVE LOVE LOVE being Mrs.Bruce!! Its a good teacher name... I love having a hubsband... I love complaining about him, telling funny stories about him, having him with me at parties, going on dates with him... I love all of it.... I love having the same last name, I love that my son looks just like him, I love reading articles about how married people live longer, I love how he loves our dogs, I love watching the same shows as him and making stupid funny comments, I love staying home on Friday nights and drinking wine and watching "The Amazing Race" I love that our big date every week is going to the bookstore... I love that when I do something new to our house he NEVER notices... ( I mean like, a change of a rug, a pillow, a picture.. he walks right past it) I love that when I'm sick he calls me "sweetie" and goes out and gets me my meds... I love that when I had my gall bladder removed and my tonsils out he was there for me and helped me... I love that he gets up to take my picture every day for my little blog... I love that he got me a phone stand so I could take my own pics if he wasnt' there... I LOVE LOVE LOVE that he gets my jokes!!! Sitting here thinking of all the things that I love about being married.. its a good thing its lasted so long.... So I dedicated Pookapookapooka to my hubsband!!! Happy Anniversary!!!!

We don't really have problems...Part 2

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Now I know I talk all about my problems... Hubs has no job... Jack is struggling with college, extended family has issues.. etc.... but it takes a blow to the head with a frying pan to make you see you don't really have any problems...

Last night while I was in bed I decided to just check fb for the night one last time... I keep seeing all these posts for a friend of mine from high school... everyone is sending her messages... so I go on her page and find out her husband has passed away.... This gal is my age (44) her husband was 38.... this is a tragedy... They had 4 kids... I was devastated for her... I have to admit, we weren't like friends who go out together or see each other, we are facebook friends... and every pic I saw of her and her family she was always commenting on how lucky she was to have her family and her husband.  I can't imagine the pain this family is going through today, tomorrow and for the months/years ahead.... So Please pray for her... she needs all the positive energy she can get!!!!!

Have a lovely day!!! don't take your loved ones for granted... send a loving text to therm today....

Back to Work....

although I am smiling in this pic.. this outfit leaves something to be desired.... I SWEAR Iook at all my clothes and I cannot find one thing I want to wear.... 

today is our first day back from spring break... and although the 6:40 alarm was not a welcome thing... being back at work is welcome... I NEED to be productive... I did some projects around my house.. painted here and there.. finished my taxes... I DID clean my room and got rid of three huge bags for Goodwill... so my little list of things to accomplish was helpful...

My hubs is stressing over still not having a job... which makes us spending time together hard.. but we are hopefully on a new plan to get him in school so hes not waiting for the phone to ring... 

Now we are 37 days out from summer... 37 days.... We can do that.... right??? 

For all my "Mad Men" fans out there... last nights (Now we're down to 5!!!) episode was alot better than last weeks.... the waitress storyline got fleshed out a little... now... I grew up during the 70's... I actually did know people whose mom or dad just kinda took off.... The gal who went to New York to start over from her tragedy wasn't as far fetched as one may seem....so the sadness that Don was talking about was palpable and sharing it with someone else, whose sins were worse or her cirucumstances were worse seemed plausible... also plausible, Don's kids room... It looked like Fudges room in "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing"  that book was originally set in the 70's... if you look at that origianl book alot of the images of the apartments look the same... also... Fudge's dad was in advertising... the vodka shoot reminded me of when Peter and Fudge went to work with dad.... I don't know if its because I seriously loved this book or I seriously Love Mad Men... but I see alot of comparasins.....

Last night was also the return of hideous Megan... who we haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttte!!! Those teeth!!! uggh.. and seriously Megan??? you feel fine just taking the food out of baby Gene's mouth you whore!!!! good thing someone is giving you money you talentless hack!!!!! 

Well enough of my raging... back to work... have a lovely lovely Monday....