If you send a mother to the store

Season of Giving

2008-12-23T07:57:00.003-06:00

After two days of sitting around doing much of nothing but watching holiday movies, it makes the old gears in the head start turning.

The countdown to the big day is on. Hannah daily gives me the day's left tally. (Sometimes more than 5 times) While she looks at the gifts under the tree with gleam in her eyes, it makes me wish I could really make her understand what it's all really about.

I wish the girls could appreciate the important things in life. This year I am becoming increasingly away of all we take for granted. With all the daily reminders of the failing economy, it makes me more aware of how lucky all in this house are. Even the small things seem so big.

I feel so blessed that we have Job Security. Even though Mark and I are not doing our dream jobs, we both are in places where we don't have to worry about being unemployed. My heart breaks for those family's that have lost jobs or feel the stress of wondering daily if and when they are next. I can't imagine what that would feel like.

Because of that, I am thankful that we have no fear of losing our home. While so many people have been dreaming of bigger and better, while we have dreamed it too, we never made the jump. Financially, it never happened. While for awhile it made me so sad to see everyone we knew move toward their dream homes while we stayed in our small cozy abode, now I am glad. We don't have to worry about how we are going to make our payments. My heart breaks to see those dreams crumble. I am so sorry for those who are having to sell their homes because they can't afford them. What makes it even worse is the need to sell and not being able to sell because no one can afford that beautiful big home.

Our health, it was a bumpy road this year health wise but I am thankful that they were small bumps. Mark has an upcoming surgery that's a bit on the scary side but again its just something so small in the grand scheme of things. We are so blessed to be healthy. No one has had any major illnesses this year. We haven't lost anyone. My thoughts frequently go to those with loved ones in the hospital during the holidays. How hard that must be. If only we all could wish really hard at the same time and everyone would be healed. What a miracle that would be. And this is the season of Miracles right. If only. I am so truly sorry for those of you who have lost loved ones this year.

As I sit here sipping coffee, in my jammies thinking how lucky and blessed this year has been for my family, I just want to say to those who haven't had it so good, just know that it's you that I am thinking and worrying about.

Side by side

2008-12-13T17:20:00.004-06:00

When I go to work, people call out "Here Comes Skinny". I always turn around to see who is standing behind me. Usually there is no one. Skinny is not a work I am familiar with anymore. When I was little, (really really little - like age 4) my parents and family used to call me "Skinny Minnie". Since it's been many, many, and many more years since then, the word Skinny describes everyone in the world but me. My friends are skinny, my kids are skinny, my husband used to be skinny (thank goodness he grew out of that stage haha). And as everyone around me stayed skinny, I did the opposite.

Now about 8 months into my weight loss journey, because that's what it is a journey, I am discovering things I have lost over the past 12 years. I haven't found everything but I am working on it. Someone said something the other day and I didn't think much about it at the time but upon reflection, it makes sense. When I showed them a "fat picture" of myself they said I don't look the same. It was like a fat lady ate me up. Maybe that's true.

As I became "fat" (and I know that it upsets people when I say this because they love me and never saw me as fat but if and when they stop and really look at who and what I had become, I was FAT) I became someone else. I seemed to have taken all the hurt, sadness, disappointment, anger, frustration, loneliness, and any other un happy feelings, and I ate them. Literally. In every delicious way I could. I am sure I even ate un-delicious ones. 12 years is alot of eating to make up for what's missing in life on a daily basis. And as I ate all those feelings, I changed inside and out. I became a bitter unhappy person. This is because for everything I ate that represented a bad feeling, that broke me just a little more. Every pound I gained represented a little more of me (the real me) disappearing. At the end, I was a bitter fat woman. No longer the bubbly happy girl I used to be. And again yes when it started, I was still a girl.

Now half way thru my journey, I have found some of myself that I had lost. I am learning that it is ok to put myself first. It's very hard and I feel selfish. I don't know why society makes us feel that if we put ourselves first, that is wrong. As mothers, wives, loved ones, shouldn't we put ourselves first? That way we are happier to take care of those we love?

I am learning to voice my opinion again. And not in the agree with who's talking, but to say what I really feel. This is shocking some people. I don't care you ask me , I may tell you what I think and I don't care if you don't like it, it's truly how I feel.

I am finding confidence. Now this doesn't mean I am doing anything major, it's baby steps. Something as small as going to a workout class by myself with a group of people I don't know. Before I would never do this because not only would I stand out because I was new but because I was fat and new. I didn't want people to notice me. The fat lady who ate me was extremely shy. She was miles away from the girl who's friends used to curl her hair and put into tight dresses that were tight tight against her ample chest and would drag her up to eldo to lure the guys to come talk to us. (yes this is true right brigi? I even think it was your dress it was like the baby got back video dress haha) I didn't like doing anything out of my comfort zone. It made me extremely uncomfortable. Now I am making small goals for myself to break out of that zone. I want to get out there, I want to meet new people and live new experiences.

I have found my spouse. We take time for us. This is maybe the most important part. When I wasn't happy, my husband couldn't be happy. The fat lady wasn't who he had married. I don't mean this as he wasn't happy to be with the outside of the person I had become but the inside. Especially when we both know that he helped create it. I am not putting all the blame on him. I am putting it on us. There never was middle ground. It was do it my way or do it his way and we never agreed on it at the same time. Now we mesh. We have found common interest. We share equally and give to the other equally. We sacrifice for the other. It is amazing. And with each hurdle I overcome, he is proud of me and tells me this. And just this little thing makes a little more of the fat lady disappear and the true me come back out. I know feel like we have got each others backs. I know we did before but we both were always hesitant of was it a wavering coverage or strong. Now its strong coverage all the time period.

I have found energy to be the mom I wanted to be. I used to sit at home on the weekends feeling sorry for myself. Now we get out and do things. I don't feel like hiding so I don't embarrass my kids with having a big mommy.

At the end of the day when I reflect on the "skinny " comments, No I am not skinny, I am healthy, I am happy. I don't think "skinny" will ever be me. But so many of the people in my life now never knew "skinny Minnie" so in their minds I am now that person. Compared to what I looked like 8 months ago, I guess I do look "skinnier". I know it's just a word, but it's not a word I am comfortable with because it's not me and it's not who I want to be. Maybe I should just tell them to call me "The New Girl".

Going , Going, Gone

2008-09-05T11:35:00.014-06:00

I know I have been really bad and haven't posted all summer. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day anymore. (well and ok so blogging frustrates me because it seems every time I pound out a post, then when I am ready to post it, it disappears into cyber land to never be seen again.)

Anyway as the summer passed buy .............. so did I. By this I mean........ yes I started a diet. I use this term very loosely because I don't look at it as I can't have this and this and am doing with out all the things I love to eat. No, no. I woke up one day and everything seemed to click in place and I decided to change the one last thing in my life I had lost control of. And that was my eating. It's been a long journey and I have a long way to go but I keep trucking on and I am not looking back.

I am so happy that I have been successful so far. I know I will see the end and once I get there, I also know I will not lapse back. I guess it's because I want it THAT BADLY. I am working my ass off (literally) to get there.

It's not all changing my eating to do it. Oh no it's workout after workout. And let me add here I positively HATE HATE HATE to work out. But I do it. All the time.

So the moment your waiting for haha a horrible horrible before picture and a half way there after picture.......... I am feeling ill at the thought of putting these pictures out there but I told myself that it will for sure make me accountable to put it up.

Excuse me while I go Barf. Or die of embarrassment

Summer Reading

2008-07-12T18:58:00.003-06:00

I have been mia for a long long time now. Not much exciting has been happening this summer. Hannah's been taking Tennis and Golf lessons. That takes up Monday thru Thursday. Then I read on the other three days to keep up with my summer reading.

So far I have found a few new authors that I love

Elin Hilderbrand has a new book out called A Summer Affair
(click for link for contest to win 2 books) I have only read this book of her but loved it so much I am sure I will like the others just as much.

Maggie Marr was very fun with Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club

Beth Harbison author of Confessions of a Shoe Addict has become a fast favorite.

Denise Hunter was delightful with The Convenient Groom

those are just a taste of the new authors I have found.

I am sure by the time school starts up will have have even more to add to my list.

Spring in my step

2008-04-27T04:49:00.003-06:00

I love spring. I love love love spring. It is by far my most favorite season.

I love the new buds on the tree's, I love the different colors of the blooming varieties. I love the bulb flowers that are so vibrant and beautiful after a long dreary winter. I love the sound of all the birds chirping first thing in the morning. I love the chilly beginning of the day and the slow gradual stripping of clothing as the sun warms you up each hour.

With all the hip stuff going on, it has been my goal to become more active. To get up off my lazy butt and move. I would tend to not exert energy in taking long walks because I knew it would hurt at some point. But alas,,,,, as we all know not moving causes....... weight gain.

Well I have made a deal with myself and it's one I promise to keep. So at least 3 nights a week, I have been taking walks around the neighborhood to get my body moving. And I must say I have a Spring in my step. What better time of year to get out and enjoy the daily changes in the surroundings. I have to admit this is one of the best advantages of living so close to the lake. Watching the water slap against the shore with the ducks and geese bobbing in the water. I love it. (Have I mentioned that?)

Yesterday (this is shocking!!) I took the girls to Fairview Park and we took a bike ride. Imagine little Hannah peddling the 4.28 miles from Fairview to the Rock Springs Center and back!!!! It was quite the haul to get her there; and lots of tears and loud shouting back and forth with me cheering her on; but the smile of pride and joy on her face when I showed her how far she went while driving. She couldn't believe it was the equivalent of going from Fairview to Staley Bridge!! That totally wowed her. And the ride thru the woods was so beautiful and peaceful (when she wasn't screaming that is).

So our goal is to find 3 more bike trails to try this spring. If you know of any good one's please let me know.

All that said, Happy Spring Everyone!!

Shots

2008-04-17T04:20:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was the appointment for my shot. I would be dishonest if I said it was bad. I had visions of this one foot needle about 3 inches thick being jabbed into my bones haha but no just a tiny pin prick for the numbing stuff, some strange pressure while they injected some contrast to make sure it was in joint and then some tingly pressure while they injected the steroid and more numbing stuff.
And then when it was all done was when it started hurting haha. But it wasn't terribly bad. I think the worst part was the 2.5 hour drive home. By then I just plain wanted to be home. When we did get home I took a nap before the kids got home and was at walmart a few hours later so I guess it didn't slow me down much at all haha. Now today I feel fine for now but I get to start the Physical Therapy so this should be interesting.

Peeking my head in

2008-04-13T07:31:00.007-06:00

Hello everyone. Isn't this weather the worst? I am sitting here on April 13th watching the snow showers we are currently having. It. Sucks. Big

I know I have so much yard work to do this year and I am chomping at the bit to start it. All of my landscaping bricks tipped over this winter. I think it was because of the amount of rain we would get after a snow the ground was just so wet and saturated it gave way. I also have about 5 bushes, trees, and roses that need removed because they apparently didn't survive the drought last summer. I am really bummed but what can you do other than enjoy getting to pick out new stuff. We also still have Mt. Frederick on the side of the house from where they dug and buried the drainage pipes from the front yard all the way past our property line in the back. Talk about Ugly and such a PITA too because we can't cut across the yard to go to my favorite neighbors anymore you have to walk to the end of the driveway and walk in the street. Bummer!!

Anyway hopefully the weather will pick up soon. We did have a couple nice teaser day's last week. It was so nice to be able to take the dogs on walks around the neighborhood. They were very excited. I must admit though, if its under 60, I am not going out at all. I don't know what changed in my body this year but I am constantly freezing and shivering when it's under 50 people think I am nuts but I am just plain COLD all the time. Very strange.

This week will be a busy one. I am meeting good pal Val for a coffee on Monday. We will be going to St. Louis on Wed. for my shot. Then Thurs. I start therapy. Friday there is no school so the kiddies will be home. Then to end it all with a bang, we have the Show Choir Dinner Theater on Saturday. Fun Fun Fun. We also have a family reading night shoved in there somewhere with Han's class doing a performance. Usually we have nothing at all going on. NOTHING.

That about sums up life here. Hope the week goes well for everyone.

Frustrations

2008-04-01T17:51:00.002-06:00

So today marks a week since my doctor appointment. I think I am more frustrated now that I was then. I felt a bit hopeful that things might be OK. Since Friday's cancellation, I called the canceling Doctor Monday to find out what the reason what he canceled.

The nurse said it was because he didn't feel comfortable administering the shot to some one my age............ What.The.Hell.Does.That.Mean??

Anyway so I called the St. Louis guy to see who he recommended. Well he knew of no one in the area so I am going back to St. Louis on the 16th for my wonderful shot.

But hey, at least I start the Physical Therapy on Friday. WRONG.

As I sat at the computer this morning, the phone rang. It was a woman calling to ask me if I was aware that I missed my 10 am PT appointment today.. ...... Um no I didn't miss my 10 am appointment because my appointment is Friday. Well needless to say I was given the wrong day and it's 2 weeks before I can now get in.

So I guess the week of the 14th will be the week. On a good note, I have been a very very good girl and taking my pills every day. HaHa. I must love that shrimp supplement.

Dr.'s and Other Updates

2008-03-28T16:20:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted for a bit so I thought I would do a quick catch up.

We had a quiet un-eventful Easter, which was wonderful.
Tuseday, Mark and I drove to St. Louis to see the Orthopedic Specialist.
All went well I guess. They took lots of X-rays, and bended my legs in all different ways. I walked in feeling fine and walked out in horrible pain. It. Sucked. Ass

They informed me that I had too much arthritis around my hip joints to do the surgery they thought they would be able to do. So they came to the decision of me getting a Cortisone Shot in the hip joint. Then follow up with Physical Therapy 3 times a week for 6 weeks. I also need to consistently take my Naproxen pills daily to reduce swelling of arthritis and then take Glucosamine and Chondroitin pills to juice up my joints daily.

Hopefully this will make it better. If not , then we will be looking at a hip replacement, sigh not what I want to do by any means.

Now that being said I was a good girl and came home and the very next day called my doctor to get these appointments made. And we did!! Monday at 9:30 I go for my shot sniff sniff, and then Friday at 10 am, I go start my PT.

Then at 4:45 pm today (Friday) I get a phone call from my Dr's office telling me that the Orthopedic Dr here in Decatur is not comfortable administering my shot and that I need to go to the Dr in St. Louis for it.

Are.YOU. KIDDING. ME???
So now here I sit with no way to figure out a solution until Monday rolls around. And there is no way in Hell I will be able to get this damn shot before my PT on Friday.

Sigh does it ever end???

Before and After

2008-03-12T10:08:00.005-06:00

Before

I won't bore anyone with all the hassle we went thru with the living room updates. I will just show the beautiful pictures.

After

Wordless Wednesday

2008-03-12T10:05:00.001-06:00

IKEA Day!!

2008-03-08T05:44:00.003-06:00

Ok I am a dork I know this. However, I am in LOVE LOVE with IKEA.

If your not familiar with it, it's a HUGE store that carries home furnishings dirt cheap from over seas. Yeah yeah I know buy American. Well frankly, I am too poor to purchase American made furniture haha.

At IKEA, you can take ideas from the Pottery Barn Catalog, and make them real at less than Target's price. No Joke. OK more like Big Lot's price on some things.

What sucks is they are few and far between in location. We are lucky enough to have 2 in the Chicago area, but still it's even rarer for us to go. I turn it into a vacation destination. I have favorite products I alway think I need every time we go.

Today it's bookcases. I love love love love Billy!!!! When you live in our house your books are our most prized possessions and all of us have outgrown our current bookcases.

So today off we go to Chicago for none other than an IKEA day. I have carried the catalog with me all week making up my list so I don't forget anything. My closest friends and family will share my excitement because I will finally FINALLY shut up about what should I get??!!

I will post pictures of our new library system soon!!

Problem with tv after wii use?

2008-02-29T20:29:00.003-06:00

OK I will keep this short. It's not so much informational as searching for help.

We got a Wii around Thanksgiving. We hooked up to living room tv (a tv/vhs/dvd combo and yes I know they suck) and played our hearts out. Right after Christmas/ new years, the tv quit working. You turn it on, and it instantly turned off. We took to a shop where he said he could fix it.
Three weeks later he says oops can't fix.

We then bring Ashley's 12 inch to the living room and hook up the wii and continue on in happy wii bliss fashion. Now her tv (tv/dvd combo) won't turn on. You turn it on , it turns right back off. Same EXACT thing the first tv did. Nothing at all is hooked up to it. What could this possibly be??

Any help much appreciated before we go purchase a new tv only to have this happen again.

WW : Butterfly Breakfast

2008-02-27T12:25:00.002-06:00

Peer Pressure

2008-02-27T12:14:00.004-06:00

We teach (or try to anyway) our kids to not give in to Peer Pressure. But as adults do we practice what we preach? I can say that for me no I don't.

Time and time again something comes up that I don't whole heartily believe or want to do and yet because my peer's do it, I cave and do it too. Now granted it's never anything bad or illegal, just things I don't agree with. I suffer from "NSN" syndrome. In case you haven't heard of it, it's Never Say NO. I can not say those 3 words. No matter how much I don't want to do it, I NEVER SAY NO. I then call up my friends and complain about the evil person who is putting up to the said task.

This ends today. That said I want everyone to know it's nothing against you but in the future you will ask me to do something and I WILL SAY NO!!! It won't be on everything of course but if it's really something I don't want to do , I will say no.

Today I stood a mini ground and quietly ,secretly , stated a small NO shout. And it was heard. And I got my way!!! So I am now feeling empowered. Next time it will be a bigger NO.

Now I will be staying at home this weekend and totally vegging out and being lazy and I am excited!!

How many of you suffer from NSN? Have you ever decided to start standing your ground?

Prayers

2008-02-14T18:26:00.003-06:00

I am asking for Prayer's for one of Mark's fellow Manager's. Her 3 year old daughter was rushed to St. Johns yesterday with Acute Liver Failure. She has now been transferred to Chicago and is in a coma. My heart goes out to both. Mom is a single mom so I can't begin to imagine how hard and painful this is. Please keep them both in your thoughts.

Well here we go

2008-02-04T13:08:00.000-06:00

I am showing you my inner most parts.

This is what my hip X Rays look like. All I can say is I am glad that I am not a Dr., because if someone showed me this, I would say it sure looks fine to me. But apparently not.

I was diagnosed with Hip dysplasia 8 years ago. It bothers me some days but most days, not. However this winter has been a bit more painfully. So I called the DR, to get some drugs( I haven't taken anything since I was diagnosed for the pain)
The Dr said she would feel more comfortable with me getting X rays to make sure nothing new has appeared.

OK fine off I go like a good girl.

I get a phone call from the Dr letting me know she wants to send my X-rays to the Ortho. Dr because its beyond her expertise. Sigh........ OK fine

Then I get another phone call to let me know that now I have to go see a Specialist in St. Louis because its beyond the regular Ortho Surgeons' Expertise. Yikes

So supposedly this X Ray shows "Drastic Deterioration" for my age

yeah right..............

Wish me luck.................. I think.............. I really am not wanting to get the hip replacement they told me 8 years ago to get ready for.

Brag for a Moment

2008-02-01T10:43:00.001-06:00

For Christmas we purchased a new kitchen table. Not a big thing for most people, but since we never purchase furniture, it's HUGE for us. Last night as we ate pizza, and we were able to sit at the table together with two pizza's on the table and still tons of room, my family laughed at me because I kept saying "Look I can eat and not have to get up to get anything for anyone because we can have everything we need on the table." Or "Look both pizza's are on the table at the SAME TIME!!" I know the smallest things bring me the greatest enjoyment haha.

We did it again!

2008-01-26T07:37:00.001-06:00

They did it again!!

Last night we went to the Danville Invitational. There was 11 different schools there and man everyone was nervous. Especially because 2 of the groups had dropped out last Friday so we didn't know how there show was going to be and then rumors flew that Mt. Zion who hosted last week changed their entire show.

I guess it didn't matter!!

We won Outstanding Visual Presentation, Outstanding Music Sound, Outstanding Female Soloist, one of the kids received and All Star Performer award and.........Grand Champion again!! There was only 2 other awards so it was almost a clean sweep.

Now I fear that the other close area's are going to be holding a major grudge at the next competition.

On a different note it was a bit of a sad night for out Ashley. Because she was so excited last week and yelled A-LOT she lost her voice. The girl who did her solo last night is who won best female vocalist. It was a hard lesson and she wanted to leave immediately so I didn't get any group pictures afterwards. After a bit of prodding she admitted that she was mad at herself and no one else so that's good. We have two weeks before the next competition so she should be rearing to go by then.

They put me to work so I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures of the show this time.

all the representatives of each school

our kids getting Outstanding Sound trophy

Love Cake!

2008-01-19T08:50:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Mark.

This is the Beautiful Love Cake Hannah made for daddy.

A few days before the Big Day, I was asking Mark what he wanted for his birthday dinner and did he want cake , cheese cake, cookies, or some other dessert (He isn't a big dessert fan) so as usual he said nothing so Nan piped up and said

" Daddy, I know what you want, you want a Love Cake!!"

Well who can turn down a sweet little girl offering a Love Cake?

So apparently this is what one looks like!

Grand Champions!!!

2008-01-19T08:09:00.000-06:00

Hello Blogger Friends. I have been so MIA and I am sorry. It's been a little busy since Christmas and honestly I have stayed away from the computer.

Last night was Ashley's first competition with Xperience! (the Show Choir from school) Many hours of practice paid off.

As I understand it, where you ranked the year before is how they list the order you perform in. Since JH placed 2nd last year, they were supposed to be 2nd from last. How ever, as we all know, things are not always fair so they slotted us as 2nd from the beginning. And then ....... the first group dropped out the morning of because their costumes didn't get finished (was the rumor going round) So nervous as all get out they went first.

And they blew the audience away. Everyone I talked to got chills. Then all the other groups performed and it was a fun evening but none (to me) had the tap your feet get into it performance I thought we had. There was even a group from Missouri who donned feather chicken masks and hatched an egg on stage with a big ending of the chick leading the audience in the Chicken dance? Since this was my first show to watch not sure if that's a good thing or not LOL I think I would more expect it at a comedy show but what do I know?

Ashley ended up last Wed getting a Solo for the show. So being the first time to perform it was quite nerve racking. She did great and I am sure next time she won't have the nervous deer in the head lights look.

We are so proud of the kids and this can only be the start of a great season to come!! Good Job X!

Ashley and Mrs. Bell her director with the Grand Champion Cup and Best Female Vocalist trophy (actually went to the other soloist Ashley Cook )

Ashley and her friend Susanna

Blockbuster Sucks

2007-12-20T10:15:00.000-06:00

OK I am on a rampage. We have done the online movie rental thing for awhile. We started with Netflix. Then we heard about the Blockbuster total access so we switched. It was a no brainer.

Then things got tricky. Blockbuster fazed out my plan so I had to upgrade my plan at the cost of $7 to get what other members were only paying $3 more. I was up in arms of what to do. Do I stay, do I switch? It took quite awhile to decide. I ultimately stayed where I was. I sucked it up and payed the $7 more dollars.

Now that all has changed. I got an email last night. My plan is now going up to ............ $34.99 a month!!! They are increasing it $10 MORE DOLLARS. OH NO they are so wrong.

To put salt in the wound more I found out from a friend who was able to stay at same plan when I had to change, that not only does she still get the free coupon that originally so enticing, but that due to the price change, she is only paying $2 more a month.

To break it down she is paying $19.99 for 3 movies at a time unlimited in store exchanges and a free coupon once a month.
Where I would be paying $34.99!! for 3 at a time unlimited exchanges.

Can anyone see my frustration?

Customer service?? what's that. I called on the phone to see what was going on this is a mistake right?? The guy informs me he can not discuss other plans that other customers might be using. It's not like I gave him a name or anything I just said a member. I didn't want to know how they were paying just the fact of this must be a mistake. He said nope no mistake we are increasing the price and it's reflective of how many movies you rent. What does that mean I wonder?? If you use your service you pay more?? That can't be it, I have had the same 3 movies sitting on the desk for almost 2 weeks now.

Needless to say they lost this customer. Please, if you read this, share it, lets take revenge on the greedy money hungry pigs.

First Perfomance

2007-12-16T08:42:00.000-06:00

Ash had her first performance last night. Along with Eisenhower Elite Energy, and the Thomas Jefferson Music Machine, the John's Hill Xperience had their Holiday Preview Show. It was AMAZING!

I have to warn TJ that if their performance last night was any indication of how they will do at competitions, they are going to lose to us every time. I am not saying this because we are in JHX but because we truly were so much better haha.

Anyway the EEE had many solo's then TJMM did their act in khaki's and polo's. It was not so great. Especially after such great performance's by the High School kids. I was very very worried of how bad the X kidss were going to be. But alas they were awesome. Their opener was "We got it Going On" by Bon Jovi. It really got the audience to sit up and take notice. And it only got better from there. Where TJ left you in pain, JH got you tapping your feet and clapping. Thank goodness our outfits came in in time to wear. It definitely made a great impression right from the get go.

Then EEE closed out the show with an excellent performance with their entire group. Hannah was in awe of the costumes. Mark who is NOT INTO this stuff actually enjoyed it for a change. It will be an interesting and fun season to be sure.

When the show was over, we were greeted by Tons of Snow!! Mark went to get the car and while us girls were walking out, we didn't see him because our silver van was totally white lmao. We walked right past him and him us because it was snowing so hard. Luckily I saw the license plate as we passed and back tracked.

On a side note, we cracked up at Ashley's hair all night. Now that I know what they want the hair to look like, I will take over the roll of her hair stylist. She looked like a French Poodle with her do. If your wondering how much product a 12 year old needs to achieve this look here you go!

I am alive

2007-12-11T04:51:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted lately. Been so busy and yet so much is going on.

Ashley has her first performance on Saturday at the Lincoln Theater. Wish her luck. Their dresses came in yesterday so they won't be altered in time to wear so they will be wearing their 2nd costume. I still am not sure how I will deal with my little girl wearing a padded bra, makeup, hair done to the 9's and high heels. It's a bit surreal. She also has her "Christmas Ball" dance Friday. I just can't believe I have a 7th grader.

Hannah is doing good. She came home from school last Thursday beaming from ear to ear. She has her first loose tooth. This was hard. This means she will no longer be a baby. She is a little girl. A big girl if you ask her. sniff... sniff... I actually cried. Don't want to imagine her with a missing tooth. She is hoping for Christmas visit from tooth fairy so she will not wiggle it nor let anyone touch it. This could get gross.

Our house was busy with Alexis visiting and playing wii , drinking, shopping , and doing all our favorite activities. We loved having her here and now miss her terribly.

Yesterday my mom came to town and stayed the night before heading of to Chicago for a meeting then she has to rush home to Missouri to pack up to head to VA. I told her to call you Brigitte and help you move into your big beautiful new house!!

That's about all that's going on in the F house. Work and run. And no I do not have my Christmas Shopping done, so don't ask haha.

Getting Ready

2007-12-03T06:47:00.000-06:00

In less than 2 hours I am going to pick up Alexis from the Airport. I am so excited. I haven't seen her in forever!........ Ok not true, it's only been less than 4 months but that's forever. We are going to spend the day shopping, eating, drinking , and being merry. I took the day off to be free all day. When we get back to town, we are collecting Mark and all going to dinner to eat, drink and be merry some more.

I think I am going to look for some new Christmas Decorations while out so it will put me in a Merry Christmas Mode! haha.

BINGO

2007-12-01T07:56:00.000-06:00

Wow so last night was quite the Xperience (haha). I had to work from 5-9:30 at the Majestic Bingo Hall towards fundraising for Show Choir.

I must be honest I was extremely nervous. Have you ever seen the old people with their bingo? It's some serious stuff. Most of the people there were nice (the fellow workers) some were not. It was easy but I felt abit of a hooker. Walking up and down up and down the isles yelling "Pull tabs" "ButtCrack" "RedNeck" "IttyBittyBankers" "Anyone Need Beans?, ButtCrack, RedNeck?"

You get moments of pleading "puppies?? anyone want puppies?" I thought that if my voice was really pathetic they would buy but no if there is a good bingo going they ignore you. And it didn't help that there was 7 of us out on the floor for a room of maybe 100 people at the very very most.

But the things you see. You get your ladies who know they aren't moving so they buy 3 drinks and line them up along the table. You have your people who bring in their own computer type games to play while using a bingo computer to play all at the same time. And the good luck charms!!
You of course have your trolls. There was a giant wooden frog, special dollars with colored daub spots all over them. An American Flag, pictures of their grand kids. Soo much to see!

And the amount of money they spend Holy Cow!!!! I sold about $3,500 in pull tabs. And I sold the fewest because they realized pretty quick I was no luck lady haha. I couldn't even go in the "dungeon" (no smoking room) because Ashley's teacher from last year was in there and she played Bingo with me once and then didn't win again for 7 months!! haha. She knows all about my bad luck curse haha.

The highlight of the evening was when I had two ladies yell for pull tabs at the same time and I went to the one I was closest to first they were a table apart. I sold the lady $20 of bean cards, turned around and sold the other lady $15 of bean cards. Well the first lady ended up winning $100 so the other lady kept making comments ALL NIGHT that she was going to kick my white racist ass for selling the other lady her winning ticket. I was a bit shaking in my keds!!

But all ended well and I will probably do it again but after January when it goes all NO SMOKING!!! I am so excited haha. The smoke was so thick in there I had a headache in the first 5 minutes.

The Truth

2007-11-29T17:00:00.000-06:00

So I previously posted about my search for the perfect Christmas tree.

I am not having much luck. I found one I liked but it's a gazillion dollars.
(OK not a gazillion but $399 so that's pretty close when talking about a tree)

I have gone to every store in town and it's down to the $$$ one or one that's not much less that I loved but it's in Springfield which isn't too far away but I hate to go when I don't really have the time right now.

There for all of this has me in a very BAH HUM BUG mood. I actually change the channel when Christmas music come on the radio. I have purchased only two Christmas presents so far. I have done absolutely NO DECORATING. And the worst part is to be honest I have no desire.

Not sure what exactly my hang up this year but I need to get over it. My kids are getting very angry with me.

Has anyone else had this feeling before? Or now? How did you get over it??

Some times wii get lucky

2007-11-23T07:49:00.001-06:00

Yes you see correctly. I now have in my possession 2, count them 1 and 1 makes 2, wii systems. After hearing of how lucky I was yesterday and knowing of a store in town that was going to be having more, my good pal Alexis said her son Chris wanted on and it was top on his list.

So being in the KNOW, and knowing they were expecting the spill over from the unlucky ones who were going to be standing in line at Wal-Mart to fight over the 4 (yes only 4) units they were getting in, I headed to (place I shall not name to not get anyone in trouble) where I heard they were going to have 22. So at 4 30 again I headed over and thought there was a huge line but alas only 4 other people there. 2 of them were right behind me the day before. It was a nice chat and after only 10 minutes, the manager came in for the day and handed up vouchers for the 12 units they actually had. I got number 5 of 12!! Woo Hoo!! The even had in stock 2 of the Guitar Hero 3 that hubby wanted for Xmas. Jack Pot Baby

So for my good buddy Chris......... here you go merry Christmas!!

This little piggy

2007-11-22T06:16:00.000-06:00

One little piggy went to the market
Many little piggies stayed home
Some started their roasted turkeys
Other piggies were just plain dumb
But this little piggy went wii, wii, wii all the way home

Yes yes yes. At 4 30 I drove up to k-mart. The add said they had some wii's in stock. Mark checked out the parking lot on his way to work. The count was around 8 cars. Ok I can do this. So I walked up to the scary crowd who informed me there was only 7 wii's and I was number 8. My response was "I will take my chances" so I stayed. I watched ,as the mean people who stayed in their chairs since 9pm last night in the 30 degree weather, in horror as they informed each person who came after me that they were shit out of luck there already weren't enough wii's for the people currently in line. That they were going to mace people who tried to cut line.

It was all so interesting. While I Waited. In the Cold. Doors not opening till 7 am. For a Wii that already there wasn't enough for me...........

and guess what............... I got ticket number............................

7

of 7!

Yes!!!!!

I have the golden ticket. Now the scary part is I left to come back later. Will I get mugged when I go get my wii??

Wish me luck as I go Wii.......... Wii.................Wii all the way home.

Christmas Tree Decisions

2007-11-20T09:45:00.000-06:00

Fake or no Fake. That is the question.

Last year I made Mark throw away our 10 + year old artificial tree so I would be FORCED to replace it. (We had talked about tossing it for about the past 3 years and never did.)

So that being said I now have to decide what tree to get. Do I go with a real tree? Our past history with real trees isn't a good one. We have done the go to the parking lot stop and picked out trees that were "perfect" only to get them home and have to tie to curtain rods, nail to floor to attempt to get straight. We had a cat decide to explore the tree while doing last minute shopping the night before Christmas to come home to every ornament and 1/2 the lights busted from the impact of the tree crashing to the floor (that was a sad sad night) (( also said cat left our home the next month))

So I have been considering a real again but as I said am a bit nervous and the cats we have now are very curious. I know that artificial trees have come a long way in the past 10 years. Now you can get pre-lit. You can get rotating stands, you can get music, and the branches are already on you just swing them up and down. So that's all exciting.

I have been surfing the net and look at what I have found..........

The ever wonderful UPSIDE DOWN TREE! Who knew!!

What about the purple or blue tree

What do you think??

Blog Brag

2007-11-19T19:49:00.000-06:00

ok my good good pal Brigitte just started a blog FINALY so I have to promote everyone to check it out and cheer her on in the blogging world!!

Its called Good Things Come In Sevens ( you know because she has 5 yes 5 beautiful children)

Deep Thoughts

2007-11-18T11:56:00.000-06:00

by Jack Handy...............lmao does anyone remember those from Saturday Night Live? Man this will make me sound ancient but is snl still on?? There is no way I could ever stay up anymore to watch it. Who's brilliant idea was it anyway to have it air at 10 30 at night anyway?? That show should be Prime time baby!!

Ok anyway now that I have veered off subject haha

I have noticed lately of being plagued by Deep Thoughts. I don't know if it means I am hitting a mid life stride and becoming more aware of things around me or what. Some examples

Fall is so beautiful. I love looking at the trees early in the morning while the sun is shining thru the leaves and the night sky is behind the tree. It is breath taking.

The sun coming up in the morning. I love it when I leave for work the sun is starting to come up but still not visible. Then while I am driving I know exactly where I should be by the location of where the sun is in the sky. And then I think that I am a tiny dot standing on a giant orb that is turning and while that is going on a huge fire ball that's gazillions of years old and soooooooooo far away is heating me up.

The Moon. I love looking at quarter moons and still being able to see the rest of it and how it has light on it. I stand there and think WOW people have actually walked on that and that is AMAZING. To think that we come from a time when wheels were made of rocks haha.

Dinosaurs. HOLY COW. Could you imagine them walking around. And they were real! I guess its something that they are gone I can't see them dodging our cars very well.

Life is good. I have recently realized how truly blessed and lucky I am. I have two beautiful healthy daughters. I have a husband who comes home every night and who loves me. I am healthy. I have a home. I have a car and it works. I don't have to worry every time I get in it, will it start? I have Job security. I don't go to work every day wondering if dh or I will be unemployed and how would we pay or bills? I have friends and family. They love me and we help each other out. I know that if something terrible did ever happen I would have someone to lean on. I would not be alone.

OK I am rambling but WOW I AM SO LUCKY. And the world is amazing. And no I am not drunk nor have I been drinking haha

Have a great ponderous day!

Bits and Pieces

2007-11-16T02:02:00.000-06:00

I say this every time I blog but I can't get over how hectic life is. The scary part is I don't do half of what most other mom's do. Kudos to them. I can barely keep up with the day to day.

Here is the briefing of the Frederick house of late:

Hannah refuses to wear socks , pants, tights, or sweaters or coats. The "touch" her skin. big old fat Mark sigh ..........................

I had to go shopping to purchase her long skirts and dresses not such an easy task as one might think especially in winter. What has happened to children's fashion? there are some pretty ugly things out there.

I realized that I have almost entirely payed Ashley's show choir tuition. Now to take out a lone for the price of tickets to attend her shows......

I have to work Bingo on Black Friday to go towards a Show Choir trip that my daughter is not going to.... no no logic on my part there.

I made a big decision that Ashley WASN'T going on trip and I am sticking to my guns despite the booster club trying to beat me into changing my mind.

I picked up a permanent work study at work so I now work 36 hours a week ARG what was I thinking...... does that mean I am full time now or still part time??

We had a scare with the Washing Machine and I thought she was a goner. Luckily she has been revived and going strong. The thought of getting a new one sent me in panic.

I think the biggest deal I will be getting on Black Friday is new tires. What does that say about me? haha sounds kind of red necked.

We are having Thanksgiving Dinner at the Cracker Barrel again this year ........... (another of Mark's sighs here)

That about sums up what's been on my mind lately. Not much of anything as you can tell.

It's all about ME!!

2007-11-03T14:40:00.001-06:00

OK so we all know how well about how I always purchase things for everyone but me.

Well today all that changed. I bought thing for me , me!, ME!!!

And I am so excited I wanted to share.

I have been wanting a portable DVD player for my longer trips to catch up on all the Blockbuster movies I pay for and don't have time anymore to watch.

So a little bird told me about the Early Bird sale Kohl's was having this morning and about the $99 dvd player they were going to have. (ok it was $129 with a $30 mail in rebate.)

So I was up at 5 and at 6 on the dot I rolled into Kohl's grabbed my dvd player and started nosing around at what else they may have. I loaded up my cart with clothing I needed and remember that my sheet on my bed just ripped the night before (blaming the cats for this one) so off to the home department I went. As I cruised the aisles, I heard the sound of Angels singing because before me was a.................. $459 500 thread count 650 fill power (or what ever they call it haha) Hungarian Down Comforter. Ahhhhhh........... I had to have it I decided it must be MINE. SO after some thinking and planning I put back all the clothing and made my purchase. It was like a dream come true. Oh what is that you saying what was I thinking?? I guess I forgot to mention it was............. 80% off !!!!!!!!!!!! That means it was $90!!!! I was so all over that thing.

Then after that I decided I needed a carry case for my dvd player so I went to Wal-Mart where I found another 9 inch dvd player for....... $89.

So I took back the one from Kohl's and had instant gratification of not having to use a $30 m-i-r and also saving $10.

Some days its good to get up early!!!

Here is to me :P

Better Late Than Never

2007-11-02T03:26:00.000-06:00

So I am really bad. Last week was Hannah's 6th Birthday. I didn't get on to post about what a bitter sweet week it was. But since I have been up since 3 am and have all my house work caught up, I will now!!

So on Wed. the 24th, Hannah turned 6. All day on the 23rd, I kept walking around saying, OH Wow this was hour 8 of my labor with Nan, or this was hour 12, 15, 18 , 21, (you get the picture). Yes , 23 hours of labor with my fabulous wonderful beautiful Hannah. I went in at 5 am on the 23rd for them to break my water and she was born exactly 5 o2 am the next day. It sucked , It was horrible, all the things you would expect for a full fun filled joy packed entire day of labor. But at the end came Nan and we all who know this curly toe headed Cinderella of a girl know just how worth it it was. The child who at age 4, 5, and now even 6 says at just the most opportune times, "Mommy, I still wish I lived in your tummy." We have visions of her the day of her birth, in my womb with her arms and legs outstretched in the X position clinging on to what ever she can to NOT COME OUT. She tells us all her favorite shows were on in there. And was it ever warm and toasty. Apparently she finds the world a cold place (see her point on that) And it was Happy , Oh so Happy.

So to my Clingy Princess Baby, Happy Birthday!

Halloween

2007-11-02T03:12:00.000-06:00

Since the kids are 12 and 6, and Mark and I were dead on our feet we did the parenting move I have always bad mouthed over the years. I still can't believe we did it. And yet it was the best Halloween EVER!!

What did we do you ask?? We did drive by trick or treating. Yes, Yes, yes. We sat our happy asses in the van with the heat on and drove along with the kids while they went door to door. Every so often with the glee and excitement of the feeling of freedom they were

having, they yelled "Why do you keep following us??" haha like we would just go park a few blocks over and wait...... I think not.

In the end it worked well because I stayed warm, Mark and I had a quiet moment to talk and listen to "oldies" on the radio (circa 80's haha) and the kids walked themselves to exhaustion. As far as I see it a win win for all!! Now I am officially TRASH MOM!! WOO HOO

MIA

2007-10-14T07:02:00.000-06:00

It seems that I am continually not updating the blog. I am a hamster going round and round on my wheel and not getting anywhere...... Well ok I am getting somewhere, as in another day gone, another day older.

So if you have any interest at all in whats going on lately, here we go

I did this over last weekend. And no I am not showing what it looks like now haha I am waiting to the room all done to do before and after pictures.

I went here twice. Once for Hannah's class trip and then the very next day for work trip.

And then I also had lots and lots of boring stuff like meetings, meetings and more meetings. I have been spending lots of quality time in my van.

I even got to go an entire week where I seriously saw my husband (as in both of us away and try to converse face to face less than 3 hours in a 7 day period. Who knew that this is how life would get once the kids were both in school. It's funny how you think gee when the kids are both in school we will have all this time to sit around in the peace and quiet and enjoy it.......... WRONG. I am still looking though............

But don't get me wrong I still find time each day to pause and enjoy things like this:

Wordless Wednesday

2007-10-03T09:56:00.000-06:00

I feel like a prisoner sometimes

Ditch work

2007-09-24T12:27:00.000-06:00

If you have talked to me recently you have heard my complaining about the ditch work being done on my street. I thought I would finally get around to sharing a few of the pictures from the oh so wonderful ditch work being done!

Let me tell you this is fun stuff...............

First Dance

2007-09-24T12:19:00.000-06:00

On Friday, Ashley had her first school dance. There was much drama involved of course. First finding "the right dress". Then "the right shoes". After many stores and mom hours later. We learn two days before the dance OH YEAH it's a sports theme dance so come dressed in your favorite sports team colors..........uuuuuhhhh right so this is what we ended up with hehe

It gets more depressing with each passing year of how quickly time goes by. She said she had a great time and danced "tons" ........."but not with the boys mom so don't worry" haha. Oh how she knows her mother.

Is it possible for clean rooms?

2007-09-23T06:06:00.000-06:00

I have had a battle with my oldest and her room since Kindergarten. I have tried many many things to attempt to keep her room clean. I have done it myself only to have it a mess as soon as she is home 20 minutes from school.

I have taken away every item she owns leaving an almost empty dresser and a bed. Seriously she didn't care. She had one outfit to her name and didn't care. I even went so far as have a friend purchase the ugliest dress at a garage sale she could find and Ashley loved it.

I know with out a doubt that it's my lack of consistency. I know that its my fault that when I took everything away, my child KNEW me well enough to know that I did not throw it all away like I said I was going to. When I think about throwing it out I visualize Dollar Bills laying in the garbage cans outside.

Well the day has come. I am done wheeling and dealing for a clean house. Today is the day that those Nike tennis shoes that the children leave in the entry way blocking the front door and being tossed outside.

What has brought this on you may be asking? Well I asked Ashley to clean her room yesterday when she got home from Show Choir yesterday at 5 pm. I got the usual tears and rants and raves but then I also got the shocking "If you wouldn't have forced me to go to Show Choir practice, I would have had time to clean it."

Ok well this sent off so many red flags I can't name them all. But firstly what popped into my head was the way that check for ONE of my payments for show choir in the amount of $250!! Next was a vision of the red purse I have been eyeing in the dollar amount of $34 that I can never envision spending on myself for a purse. Let alone that really expensive one I have dreamed of one day buying and know that day will never come because I could never justify it. The next vision I had was of the bag of clothing I just bought Friday for her from Aeropostale of the amount of $75!! $75 I spent just so she would look cute. And what thanks do I get? Granted I was going to have to exchange for different sizes, but they are still sitting in the bag. She currently has clothing strewn from one end of the room to the other not taking into account the Piles all over the floor that doesn't get vacuumed because you can't get in there. Here is a picture of it right now as I type this:

She was told to clean her pig pen last night as I said. I went in two hours later and she was watching tv. So I am done. The bag of clothing is going back. Not to be exchanged but to go back. Get my money back. I will no longer be purchasing items for my oldest daughter. I know that sounds harsh but I have decided I will start giving her allowance (we sometimes give it sometimes don't) I think I will go $10 a week so give her $40 on the first of the month and she will have to use that for clothing she needs, school supplies, her lunch if she wants to buy or anything else that comes up like supplies for her show choir such as makeup , hair rollers, pantyhose. I think she needs to really understand the value of a buck. She needs to understand how hard her father and I have to work so she can have the things she needs.

My neighbor just happened to have seen the room yesterday while over and said in the news paper was a great article about messy rooms so I wanted to share it to anyone else who maybe is having similar problems but not on such a large scale. It was by John Rosemond.

I will keep everyone posted on how it goes today

I am a mean dog owner

2007-09-15T05:49:00.000-06:00

So sign me up for dog abuse.

In our cozy house, we have two beautiful (when properly groomed) male Shelties. Anyone who knows the breed knows how they are herding dogs. So of course they herd. And of course along with the herding...... comes the barking.

Now I don't believe in debarking. I firmly believe dogs should bark when feeling threatened or in the need to protect their family and such.

However if you have ever come to my house, or called my house, you would know that MY SHELTIES bark.... at..... EVERYTHING.
The wind changes direction, we bark.
A leaf falls from a tree, we bark.
A car goes down the road 3 streets away, we bark.
You open the dvd player, we bark.

You get the picture. This doesn't include the time they bark where its to be expected like the Mail lady, the door bell, someone going outside w/out them, things like that.

So after 7 years .....yes 7 (I can be a bit slow sometimes and am known for giving many many chances to correct behavior on its own) long bark filled years , we purchased a bark collar.

And after 3 "tickles" as we call it for the kids. My house is silent. And this is with only one dog wearing the collar. The younger dog is confused why the bigger one yelped those 3 times , he is just plain terrified of anything right now.

Now as proof of this miracle quiet maker, yesterday (actual full day one with collar) we had about 10 men next to our house removing a tree. I am talking chain saws, cranes, trucks, chippers, the whole bit and never a bark. I have a set of windows that was right next to the action and the dogs stood and watched but never a bark.

I love being mean. I love the quiet. I am now in heaven.

Whats for Dinner

2007-09-15T05:42:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday, we had a very busy night. So of course it was crock-pot night!

We had
Crock pot Enchiladas and Peach Pie

Ashley loved all but tortillas
Hannah loved the beans
Mark refused to look at the tortillas for confusion of thinking it was pasta (I must be an evil pasta shove down the throat kind of wife?)

And the pie was a hit. I had went to our Farmers Market on Saturday and found some decent peaches. So by Tues. they had ripened to perfection. I will not share the recipe however because it wasn't perfect haha. I will keep trying till I find just the right one.

What's for Dinner

2007-09-10T09:47:00.000-06:00

Awhile ago I was going to post our dinner menu from time to time and didn't do to well at keeping up with it.

Now that school is going again , I thought I would try one more time.

So last night's menu was.........

Bruschetta
Salad
Chicken Parmesan
Rotini Pasta with Alfredo sauce
and for dessert we had Chocolate Molten Cake

Of course we had very mixed reviews.

Mark, not liking pasta only ate the chicken... after he scrapped off all sauce and breading and only ate the bread portion of the Bruschetta. The cake, he didn't like at all because, 1) he isn't a desert fan, 2) since it was semi sweet, it wasn't sweet enough for him therefore I put arsenic in it and was trying to kill him.

Hannah, doesn't like chicken so she only ate pasta but loved the cake and offered to eat daddy's

Ashley loved everything but the pasta because she only like red sauce and not white (her words) She had 4 pieces of Brushetta.

Me I loved it all even the cake until I just not looked at nutrition value and will never make again because I have 3 cakes left and have to now give them away or I will gain 20 lbs by eating just one more........

(now, cooking notes)
if you make the Brushetta, I learned that you can enjoy the next day also but if any leftover bread is now soft, toss in toaster!!

Chicken Parmesan Jamie's way,
drag chicken breast in whipped egg, dip in Italian bread crumbs with a bit of Parmesan cheese. Repeat again.
Place Chicken on foil lined cookie sheet. Cook in oven for 20 min. in 450 degree oven.
Transfer chicken to baking dish. Add one jar of spaghetti sauce top with mozzarella cheese and sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Bake 10 more minutes.

Can we say Cheater?

2007-09-08T09:32:00.000-06:00

A peek into a Jamie-Hannah conversation.

As I go thru Hannah's Friday folder I notice that as they practiced making the letter S this week all of Hannah's papers are marked with "Keep Practicing". So I say,

"Hannah, tomorrow we will go to Target and buy school paper to practice our letter S."

Hannah responds with crying and "no I don't want to practice, I don't want homework, I know how to make the letter S, see!! (as she points to the paper)

so I negotiate with "we can get a Starbucks at Target then come home and you and me both will make the letter S together I will help you ok?"

And of course to this she responds happily with " ok lets do that only you don't tell my teacher you did them and I will tell her I made the S's ok mom??"

ummm did I miss something here or did I just give my daughter the impression that not only am I taking her shopping and for Starbucks but I am also going to write a bunch of S's down on paper for her to turn into her teacher as her own??

Who am I?

2007-09-06T21:20:00.001-06:00

Ok so I must be honest with myself. I haven't been doing well at posting. I am avoiding the computer. SHH........ I think I might be suffering from a touch of depression.

Or..... can you get baby blues....... when your baby is almost 6?

I know so many of my friends are going thru some similar feelings right now. I suppose this is what happens when all of our wee ones are so close in age.

My heart breaks for all of us for our own individual dilemma's. OK what is she talking about you may be asking? With back to school time came....... the actual action of sending the kids back to school. This means our babies are being sent off to school. I mean us moms we thought about it with glee but did we really think about the actual part of doing it? I for one didn't. I had this dream scenario of get up , go to work, the kids run off to school, I come home, pick up a few things around the house, on days Mark was off stay home and actually spend time as a couple. Rediscovering each other (no not in a sexual way you perverts!!) but going to breakfast or lunch and talking, doing some sort of activity together, working on house projects together you know what I mean. Then going back to work finish up the day with cooking for family and all sharing stories of the day. On days Mark works, well then I would pick up extra work when I felt like it or just spend the day reading, or working on some hobby. Umm yeah well life is not like my dream idea of a day well spent. Therefore.........Well....... I think I should pull Hannah out of Kindergarten. I am not ready. Can I do that?? Can I hold her back for my own selfish reasons?

I am a wee bit jealous that she is loving it. It brings tears to my eyes seeing the excitement in her eyes at the end of every day. It hurts that she no longer needs me to walk her to her bus. How did she separate herself from me so quickly. And what does this say about me for not being able to move on. My baby is growing up. In fact she is no longer a baby but a little girl. No longer the toddler. Now just a kid.

Isn't it odd that leading up to this point it's always been, "boy I can't wait till the kids grow up and go to school then I have the day to myself." Now that time has come and I have no clue how to fill my day. We give up so much of ourselves for our children that we end up hollow shells of our former selves.

How much of who we are now as seasoned parents is who we were before embarking on the journey of parenthood? My afternoons are so quiet. I now realize I don't like the quiet. My house is staying picked up. I don't like a clean house. The dogs are now spending the days lying on the kids beds and you can hear their sad sighs thru the house. The cats ..... well you know Pebbles just spends the day freely chasing KiKi. (not much change there) Mark....... is doing spans of working 9 day in a row not much help there. And when he is home not so into being my playmate for the day. Asks me what the problem is this is what I have wanted for the past 3 years.

So anyway the point of all my babble is........ Who am I? What do I like? What do I enjoy? These are the new questions I have been asking myself and I honest to goodness can't answer. I can tell you what I did pre-kids. (Work and party and get drunk haha) I can tell you what I did in toddler stages (mommy and me classes, play dates, zoo's, museum's, story times, talk on phone for endless hours with other mommies about what it will be like when they go to school all day and how much fun we will have)

I don't remember it being this hard when Ashley went to school. I would go to the Y, work out, a few days a week I would babysit twins for 1/2 the day, come home clean, and then go pick her up. Maybe this means I lost more of myself over the past 7 years?

What are your experiences in this? When your children jumped from the nest, what did you do to fill the void? How do you find yourself?

I'm Sorry You Have The Wrong Number...

2007-08-29T16:42:00.000-06:00

Typically , that's what you hear when you dial the wrong digits and do not connect to who your trying to chat with.

But Alas this is me and nothing I do is normal.

Rewind to this afternoon. I got home from work, and after doing a 5 min run thru of the house putting away all things my children distribute in the minutes before school, decided to just plain chill and get back in bed and spend the morning catching up on my reading.

Well of course because my bed is so comfy, I fell asleep. Until I heard the earth shake. I laid in bed dazed thinking of all the things that crash could have been when it sounded again. Oh no..... what makes that crash sound twice? Did ADM just explode again? ( yes it has happened and knocked pictures off our walls before) CRASH there it goes again. So I hop up and peek out the bedroom window and see nothing. I go to the living room and this is what I find.

Yes it's lovely. A sure sign they are finally going to do the ditch work they planned out 3 years ago. So I use the camera phone and take a picture and send to dh and A to CALL ME

Right away my phone rings, I glance at the number think its odd that the actual number and not the persons name popped up on caller id but commence to chatting right away anyway. I even mention that it was odd that the number showed up and not the name. I discovered thru conversation that my phone companion had just awoken from a nap as well that's why her voice was froggie and didn't we hate how that happens. It's so gross all the phlegm and such. What was up at my house? I explained all the details of the crash and even included my sound effects. I explained how this now meant I was trapped in the bed room if I had any hopes for sanity, you know how the dogs bark when they see anything of interest going on in the neighborhood. Yada Yada, after 35 minutes of talking, we doled our goodbyes and I said go back to your nap, and I would call you later after work. Give the kids hugs when they get home from school. Yada , Yada

Later during route, I get a message from A asking if I had been eaten at work. How odd. I assured her no and why was she asking. Her response was because I never called her. OK I was thinking did you bonk your head. Was your nap of COMA proportions? DID our conversation not mean a thing.

So when done with work I called A and said what the hell? We talked what are you talking about remember the picture, the sound effects, the peeing together (ok gross I know but hey when you wake up from a nap you got to pee and I apologized like I always do)

But no to my dismay I find out that I never spoke to A. I looked at caller ID and to my shock and horror I realized I mixed up the last two numbers. Who was my afternoon phone companion. Was her life so bland as mine that she didn't mind conversing with a stranger? Did she humor me to not hurt my feelings? Or did she wonder if one day we could be long lost friends. (We already have shared private things!)

Should I call and apologize and explain, and thank her for letting me chat her time away? What is proper etiquette for wrong number conversations?? Anyone??

School Updates

2007-08-28T09:41:00.000-06:00

Holy Cow does life get busy quick!!

To sum it up in short text, we have joined the busy family club.

Ashley is now in Show Choir. What a commitment that's going to be. She has it for one of her daily classes, along with one Saturday a month all day practice and every Monday after school practice. Add to that the once a month Booster meeting and all the fundraisers and things I am sure to come on that and that alone fills up the schedule.

Hannah starts up gymnastics again tonight so that's another evening of running around.

Add to that any appointments, events, or other daily things along with work and the extra work that will soon be filling up the day time and I am about to go bonkers.
Those who know me well know that I live a very calm (haha) scheduled (sort of) life. Not a whole lot of activity up to this point.

Oh well so goes life right?
But other than that , Hannah is adjusting ok to school. She doesn't enjoy the fact that she can't come home with me. And getting her to her bus is very frustrating. Lots of tears are shed.

Ashley is getting over the adjustment of changing classes all day and they already had homework. So that's adding another element to the house again to keep mom and dad on their toes.

But we will survive and I know when it's all said and done, the year will fly by.

Vacation Day Two

2007-08-28T09:07:00.000-06:00

Things you can do in the Charlotte NC area:

See Chinese Elvis singing at a Car Lot,

Get frightened by a Dead Bear

Stick your hand in the middle of a Tornado

See Huge Bugs, (foresight into visit to the Jacobs house yet to come)

And see nasty eels covered in glow in the dark green slime!

You can also visit Grandma Denise who is working there currently. We had a great time for short period we were there.

Vacation Day One

2007-08-25T08:26:00.000-06:00

As we sped thru many states, when we hit the beautiful yet tedious mountain side I told the girls lets do something very un us for lunch. Let's go to a real authentic mom and pop restaurant. They were game. At the bottom of a real doozie of a mt, we saw the signs. It looked like a good place to try so onto the exit ramp we go. The scenery was gorgeous. The signs said River view dining. Yippee what could be better. But alas its us Frederick girls and as we all know, things do not go as planned. Heaven forbid a restaurant be open on a Friday. So instead of eating here:

we got to eat here:

yes yes, it was a gas station. No river view, no mt. view. Oh no instead the view was of a 90+ year old man with no teeth staring into space as they called his number repeatedly over a span of 15 minutes, there was the 250+ lb man with about $70 in scratch lotto tickets with no shirt. Then there was the occasional dirty guy with or with out shirt and or shoes. So instead we got pictures like this:

Note the beer case behind Hannah!! What a variety!!

And what Joy Ashley is showing as she stared at yet another no shoe , no shirt guy. The girls were quite confused about this. Now I must say the food was great. And look at those portion sized. But for lunch for bbq, a burger and chicken tenders at a gas station restaurant it was a bit pricey at $25 after drinks were added to the meals. But the experience they got was priceless. The best part was when I asked where we could find the river views, she said up the road less than 5 miles but there was no water there today. They haven't released the water, but it will be there tomorrow. Thanks but no thanks not so into waiting a day for water views.
As we continued on,(by route of wrong road) we came upon Chimney Rock.

It was beautiful and definitely a place I would like to go back and spend a day or two getting familiar with. They had little shops everywhere, cabins, even a lake with a beach with what appeared to be water rides. Very cool.

False Alarm

2007-08-25T08:24:00.000-06:00

I don't know I guess I must have been bonkers. I searched and searched and searched all pets and found not a single flea nor evidence of any flea's on anybody. Maybe it was a vision of things to come? Haha oh well no harm no foul. I had a tube of frontline in the drawer from when we go to my moms house so I just put a dab on everyone just in case. Kiki was the worst to deal with because of her loving fabulous personality haha NOT.

OH CRAP

2007-08-24T09:09:00.000-06:00

ok I was just about to post about the first day of school and the end of the world is coming. As I sat here waiting for the page to load, KiKi ( the white devil cat) is laying across the keyboard and ....................

a flea jumped on me.

HELP!!!!!

where oh were did princess get a flea, is there other fleas, great now I have 2 dogs and 2 cats to inspect and figure out how to deal sigh ok other update post will have to come later I am now going to waste my first free momma day looking for flea shit on pets.

Wordless Wednesday..... First Day

2007-08-22T13:14:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow's the Big Day

2007-08-21T15:57:00.000-06:00

Yes yes. Tomorrow the kids and I go back to school. It will definitely be a bittersweet moment.

A BIG day for all for sure.

My innocent Ashley will be starting 7th Grade this year. I have visions of her being eaten by sharks. Not sure what that's about.

And my baby Hannah will be starting Kindergarten this year. Sigh so much to say on this. This is the year they grow their independent wings. No more will she need me to teach her the little things I have always taken for granted. Now she will have someone else teaching and doing exciting "cool" things with her. Now she will realize there are people out there much smarter than her parents. Now she will be making her own friends that she picks and not just the children of my friends whom she is always around and so that's who her friends are. I know Nan is VERY outgoing and will not have problems in this area but it still makes me sad and worried.

Back to Ashley....... I remember my first days starting at Cerro Gordo. I started 7th grade there and I wasn't exactly the first day of the school year. I don't remember for sure when it was but I felt like such the odd ball. All the kids there had been classmates since Kindergarten. And here I was the "city girl" with my "city clothes" that they had never ever seen let alone wear or own. It was a struggle for the first couple weeks to find my "click". When I finally did, it was friendships that I still have to this day.

So for sure the friends you make in middle school are some of the important ones. My loving husband has assured me that Ash will be fine and it's not a big deal but I honestly feel like I have bigger knots in my stomach about tomorrow than she does. What if she gets lost, goes to the wrong class, falls on her face going down the stairs. And the worst part is I won't be able to give her a big hug, make her a special breakfast and send her off with a good luck girl. Sometimes I wonder why I am working? But I guess it wouldn't make sense to stay home to be there for the one important day. I will have to come up with a creative way to show her I love her and will be thinking about her. We will have to go have a special lunch after our half day to share the events.

I have to say a very good thing is that she is going to be in show choir as an elective class. Apparently at the school, this is a VERY VERY BIG thing. 75% of the middle school kids are in this is what I was told. It will be a very big commitment for Ash but with class every day and her first Saturday practice this Sat, it will give her a great opportunity to make friends quick and they will have something very important to school life in common.

Ok with all my rambling I will close. Thanks to all who read thru all this........

With that said wish all us Frederick girls good luck on our First Day and pictures will be posted with updates tomorrow.

Back from Vacation

2007-08-20T07:53:00.000-06:00

We got back late Wednesday evening. Of course we have busy bee's trying to get everything together for school starting the following Wednesday. I think we are done (knock on wood) but I am now having major jet lag. But I wanted to share a small sample of pictures to come. These are from W. Virginia somewhere lol I know that sounds bad but on the way home we were weaving in and out of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and W. Virgina so it was a bit confusing. Anyway, for some reason at 8 am this struck me as some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in forever. It was a cool 54 degrees at the time and I had just come from over 100 degree days so I was shivering my butt off to take these but well wort it.

Possible Answer to Prayers?

2007-07-31T15:59:00.000-06:00

OK I had to blog this. Did you know you can take pictures and actually look thinner? Now any of you who know me, I positively hate having my picture taken. I look and them and think , OH Crap when did I turn into a blimp?? Now don't get me wrong , I know when and how (it was the cheese cake, ice cream, pasta, ok anything I put in my mouth that I know I shouldn't). I am not in denial I know how I got this way and I know how to change it.

That being said you rarely see pictures of me but the short term answer to my prayers has finally come!! They now make camera's with a slimming feature!! I am not kidding I couldn't make this up. HP has many camera's with this. You have to check it out.

But with technology comes down sides. I would know that just because a person looked thinner in the picture , they would still not be thin. But most importantly, what would this do to the online dating community?? You hear horror stories of people who "fall in love" online only to meet in person and the other be a much much larger version of who they described themselves as or even sending someone else's picture. But what if you were sent a picture where the person made them selves slimmer with the camera tools. It is a picture of them........ sort of.

What do you all think of this??

Updates

2007-07-31T12:05:00.000-06:00

Last week we had our good friends from NC come to visit for 5 days. It was so nice to see them again and the kids got along just like they used to. (haha hugs, and fighting it was just like last year when we all had to part ways)

We got to go to 6 flags St. Louis with them which was a real treat because as we realized we actually never did anything fun and big like that with all the kids. Our last attempt ended in a mugging and riding cement horses at the police station. It absolutely was a wonderful day. The kids were well behaved, the weather perfect, and the lines not long. I hand picked it just for Alexis just like she ordered the dolphins when I came to her house and we went to the beach one day.

It was sad to see them leave but it made me realize that no matter how much time goes by between our visits, she will always be like my sister I never had and it will be like we just left each other yesterday and we pick up right where we left off. Hannah and Sam will always be the best of girlfriend and I see lots of long distance phone calls between them too in a few years.

As for my house and all the work I have been doing, well I got most of it done. I know that I need to post pictures so those will be up in the next day I promise. And to sweeten the deal I will post before and after so you can really see the difference. I think the kitchen will wait a few more weeks before I get to work on that. I am still having aches and pains from all the work I did in the living-room. I think rolling the paint and doing the texture I developed Carpel Tunnel Syndrome haha is that even possible? I guess though for me anything is possible right?

This Friday the girls and I are packing up and heading East. We will first go to Charlotte to visit my mom for the weekend. Then pop north-west to see Alexis in Funky Vagina (oops that's not really its name but had to say it cause I can!!) for a few days and then from there go North a bit more and go see Brigitte in her new digs. She ( the lucky ducky) is building a new house which won't be done for a couple months yet so the daring woman will be living in an apartment for the time between. So adding us the the group of 6 will be very interesting to say the least. Brig, I will bring the wine!!

So that's all the new stuff.

One room down

2007-07-17T05:13:00.000-06:00

So... busy, busy, busy is the name of the game. I haven't gotten dressed in days but the living room is nearing the end!! I am learning patience with all this work but that's good right? Last night I wanted to sleep on the couch so I could keep looking at my fab walls going ,I think I like this.

On the heels of all my work, I am taking today off and Ashley and I are going to take a free day and go to Six Flags just the two of us and blow off some steam. (thru work, they are taking a bus and since we have the season passes it only cost us $2 per person for bus fare (haha) and then the cost of what ever we spend while there so fits in the budget nicely.) Then Wednesday its back to work. So much to do and my time off is dwindling down. I have no idea where my summer has gone.

But with our good friends from NC coming to visit next week, I can't wait for them to see the difference I have made in house. I am very excited to share!!

If you wondered what I have been doing lately

2007-07-14T19:05:00.000-06:00

This shows just a tiny tasting of my recent days. The first picture shows the two inches of plaster/type substance that came off my hall walls by just washing before priming.

The second picture is something I removed from my garbage disposal after turning it on and then after it ran for 10 seconds started making a grinding horrible noise. I am going out on a limb and guessing that this is part of the chopping thing that should go around and chop all the gunk you put in a disposal?

And my final picture is the difference between my freshly painted living room ceiling and my unpainted kitchen ceiling.

Now of course I don't have pictures to showcase all the other issues that comes along with doing any kind of sprucing up in my wonderful fabulous home.

There was the issue of fixing all the cracks in the walls. Painting the hall way and the next morning starting to apply the top color to do the combing technique I was going to do to only have the bottom paint start peeling off. So of course I only had one choice. I spend all day yesterday re-texturing the entire living room. Yes it was fun. In fact it was the most fun I have ever had in my entire life. ........ can you feel the sarcasm?

In case you were wondering how to duplicate this in your own home, let me tell you!! First you start with a 4.5 gallon bucket of tuna smelling goo. I think it must weigh about 75 lbs. Then you add 2 liters of water. Apparently this is an important step. Then you can add a little more water. You want it to have the consistency of melted ice cream per directions on the back of giant bucket. NOW the tricky part is figuring out how to stir the water in to the giant goo bucket.... I found disassembling my swiffer and using long handle to work for me but I am sure others have come up with some other useful tools.

OK so your goo is stirred up and your swiffer stick is bent and your arm is hanging limp at your side because you stirred it to death. (it is now 80 lbs of goo keep in mind and you had to stab it quite a bit to *stir*)

The next step is take a 4 inch paint brush and apply goo to wall. NOW HERE is another important step it says apply thickly to about 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick. !!!!!!!( don't make the mistake I made. Apparently you really should drag out a ruler and measure your thickness IF you do as I do and go.....hmm its holding the brush horizontal to the wall so yep looks thick to me is bad. ) Now after you smashed on your 1/16- to 1/8 inch goo you take a roller with wonderful pattern of your choice and play in goo.

From time to time you have to rub goo off roller or was. Too much gunked up goo is bad. You also have to do opposite walls which means you have to drag your drop cloths, ladders, rags, and children ( I did mention that for the best possible results you must involve your young wonderful children who never argue, fight, shove each other in the goo into helping you right?? If I didn't that to is an important step to the proper goo application. ) OK so you have now applied 150 lbs of goo to your walls and it only took you 7 hours to do 3 walls. Good job time to take a pee break.

Now while you take your break you notice that your wonderful goo job (I used a roller to install cracks into my walls) is cracking. ** Now, I don't mean that my goo successfully has roller installed cracks, no that would be nice wouldn't it. OOOOH no not for us goo installers. Nope for us that means that our goo was applied to thick (refer to upper reference to 1/16 inch to 1/8 inch thickness) so our installed cracks has cracks. Talk about crack house from hell. But for those of us who don't feel the need to measure our goo, good news there is a way to fix this problem. The next morning when you roll out of bed and every muscle is on fire and you ache in places that you didn't know you had, you get more goo and add lots of water. Make it thin like paint....... I chose to go for the cheap thin brand of paint thickness (haha) and not the Lowe's variety of thickness.

Then you paint this thin paint like goo over the dried up crack goo. And ta-da you have kick ass crack textured walls!!!! Congratulations, good job I am so proud of you goo installers!!! You get a huge pat on the back and OK now you have to go trim out the hall because you left that project unfinished.

Ok sorry that was soo long and thanks if you got thru it. I just wanted to make sure if anyone ever needed to add goo to walls they knew how to do it. Think of it as your female friendly goo guide. or FFGG

Vacation Pictures

2007-07-06T05:38:00.000-06:00

I have been a very bad blogger. Since we have been home from vacation I have been destroying my house. Yes another endless project is in the works. This means hours upon hours of decorating decisions that can't be made.

But to redeem myself I thought I would post some pictures from our vacation.

The Knights at Medeival Times

The girls outside of the castle

Mardi Gras Royalty in Six Flags

Hannah flying the wiggles jet

The girls waiting for the old fashioned cars

Mark and Ashley in the car

Tweety in the night time parade

Ashley and Hannah with the Jelly Belly Car

Hannah with her free bag of Jelly Belly's

Happy 4th Everyone!!

2007-07-04T09:25:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to pop my head in for a moment and wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!!

OOPS

2007-06-23T06:33:00.000-06:00

So yesterday after going on my rampage about the van, Mark got home hopped in the van to listen to sound that had my eyes squeezed shut because I kept seeing the red lightning flashes from a Dr. Seuss Book every time I heard it. Of course the irony of the story is the van started and purred like a kitten. Sigh yes I am going crazy. The time is right. It is usually mid June when I lose my marbles.

Frustrations

2007-06-22T13:40:00.000-06:00

Why oh why .......oh why is it every time we prepare for vacation, something happens with the van to stress me out. We leave Sunday morning for Chicago. As of 2 pm today my van decided not to start.... at all. It is probably a good thing it won't start because I am not kidding right now if I could push it to the street, I would shove all my weight into it to force it to roll down the freaking hill into the lake.

It started out as an ok day. (well ok should have known going to turn to crap day) Realized first thing upon waking that Mark forgot to take his pill.... I MUST TAKE IT TO HIM FOR MY BENEFIT. haha so I get the girls up and we go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. When get there I find out he accidentally took the house phone to work so I have to bring that home (first clue to day) Stop by bank to get cash for trip, the make us late to Ash's Camp (clue 2) drop her, go to walmart to get oil change, only they said they are running over an hour behind do I want to wait? UMM No (Clue 3) so I go to the oil place up the street a bit and it cost $31!! I usually pay about $20 and that includes cleaning windows and vacuuming! Go home and start printing coupons for trip.

I go get Ash and decide to clean inside of van. I clean and clean. I drop the vacuum attachments under the van. I try to start van to move to get piece and van won't start. Its making some clicking noise. I don't know maybe the batter is dead but then the lights, clock, radio , and air wouldn't work would they?? I am pretty sure this isn't the first time this has happened. I just don't remember what Mark ended up doing. Sigh.... This comes on the heels of just this week, (well and all of last week and some of the week before ) fighting with the Chrysler Company and Bob Brady to figure out the deal with my door locks that won't work.

Just to make this interesting lets look at all the things that have gone wrong with our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan before a trip!

Right after purchase, put seat in floor to make room for dogs to go to Missouri........ the seat won't come back up
Right before a trip the entire rubber seal on 2nd driver door completely came off.
Right before the wedding last summer we put a tape in the NEVER USED tape deck and it made some horrible noise that wouldn't stop even with the van off so we had to immediately take to dealership to have radio unplugged and they had to order new one entirely.
Right before we went to St. Louis at the beginning of this month for Ash's B day, the locks quit working. As in if you push the lock button on either remote, or door, they won't lock or unlock. This also means we have no way of locking or unlocking the back hatch door. It kind of decides what mode its going to be in and we can't do anything to change it. They did fix this (as mentioned before) but it quit working again two days later.
Right before I went to NC last fall, it started putting out this funky noise when turning corners. Now we actually don't know what this was, It only did it for that trip.

Now this is only vacations. For everyday use we have other issues from time to time to deal with. OH WELL........... so goes life right??
Thanks to everyone for letting me vent. Sigh I guess I will go mop floors and clean bathroom and calm down until Mark can get home to jump me....... the battery that is because I am sure that's the problem causing the near tears.

Horse Camp Week Two

2007-06-18T06:24:00.001-06:00

Ashley so has every one's number. She will be attending Horse Camp again this week where she will learn to two-point, cantering, patterns, games, jumping, and more.

Now I am happy that she is again going to have this opportunity. I am very pleased with myself also as a parent because I had nothing to do with this this time. I told her if she wanted to go she needed to find a way to round up the $250 fee. So she took to begging, borrowing, and stea........ok no she didn't steal haha. She is borrowing from her bank account for a small portion and she begged for the rest. She called up all grannies, and then begged, and begged dad. At the end there was mention to us paying for the monthly lessons after the week was over sigh......... looks like horses may become the norm for the Frederick Family after all.............

Things that make you go hmmmm

2007-06-15T18:58:00.000-06:00

When we redid our bathroom recently why didn't we get this!!!

Can I just say ewwwww!!

What has the Frederick family been doing?

2007-06-14T11:19:00.000-06:00

It has been busy this week. Ashley started Horse Camp this week where she has learned the in's and outs of taking care of a horse. She has learned to ride and saddle along with other stuff she cares to not share with me (I have become the UNCOOL mom which means she stays far away from me for now..... thinking hormones have started coming help me now)

Hannah started her gymnastics again and we will be sticking with this from now on. She very much enjoyed her first class today and was very sad to see it end. The best part was the sister of one of her classmates from preschool was there so we both have someone we know to spend time with while there and talk to.

I made a commitment and made all reservations for vacation so on the 24th, we will be going to Chicago for 4 days. Can't wait to get away for a few days. I love my pets to death but its always nice to get away from the drama of daily life with them haha (example we must pace and bark a good 30 minutes before the mail lady comes).

That's about it here for now but will keep everyone updated.

Summer Vacation

2007-06-11T05:34:00.000-06:00

Ho Hummm so I had wonderful plans of having lazy days hanging out in my wonderful back yard catching up on all my reading. As usual things are not going as planned.

Ashley refuses to partake in ANY summer activities. I have tried bribing her any way I can think of. The kids are not grasping the facts that all chores must be done before we can even think of doing anything fun. So therefore they are spending day after day holed up in their rooms making bigger messes than what they had to start with.

And I have spent day after day online looking for just the perfect things to do on our upcoming family vacation (I have issues booking hotels some sort of commitment phobia thing) only to find the best offer ever and get excited and have Mark call me two hours later saying oh by the way I have to work so my days are shifting..........sigh I give up

On the plus side, I have cleaned and organized the Kitchen, Living Room, and now our Bedroom. Which is all fine and dandy but that means that all there is left to do is............ paint............sigh again another commitment issue. I have needed to paint my bedroom for about 4 years or so..... I just can't decide on a color and don't want to take on the task of destroying the room to get everything out to paint. Same with the Living Room. It will be a major job because we need to paint the ceilings so that means I have to paint the hall way, living room, entryway, then the dinning room and kitchen all at the same time because the ceiling is all connected sigh.......... makes me have a panic attack just thinking about it.........

Anyway I guess it has to be done right?? So my goal is this week make it to the store to pick out colors for the bedroom. Start out small right? My other goal this week is to paint the bathroom closet to get me back in painting mode.

So I challenge all my readers to post a small goal of a task you have put off all year.

Flower Friday

2007-06-08T07:04:00.000-06:00

Happy 12'th Birthday Ashley

2007-06-07T06:12:00.001-06:00

I can't believe that 12 years ago right this moment, I was 2 weeks overdue on my way to the hospital to take a stress test to see how little baby Ashley would handle labor. Little did we know that that day she would decide to FINALLY make her appearance.

When the nurses got me all hooked up , I sent Mark off to run some errands and got comfy to watch the Young and the Restless. About half way thru, I called the nurse into the room because I embarrassingly thought I had somehow freakishly peed the bed. Imagine my surprise when the nurse went into hysterics and said that my water broke and as she looked at the printouts from my stress test that there were constant high peaks. She asked if I knew I was having contractions every 3 min? UMM no......... my reply (remember I was young and stupid) was I had menstrual type cramps but they aren't so bad. At that point they freaked. The had me change into a gown and checked me and I was at a 5 already. OOPs ummm where is my husband? When Mark showed up (he had only been gone for about an hour) they had me in a room and I was almost to an 8. Our beautiful Ashley was born by 1 30 and we couldn't believe that now we were parents. Poor Ashley its a wonder she survived all these years. I had no clue what I was doing and didn't have any friends to share experiences and questions with. But were we ever happy. The sun rose and set in this little girl. Now she is growing up to be an independent young lady. Is she just like her mom? Not so much. She is more like her dad. I love her more that life itself and yet at times it surprises me how different we are. I see wonderful things in her future. She may not take the roads I want her to but she will do it her way and be just as successful. Happy Birthday my little Ashey Coles, I love you.

Wordless Wednesday

2007-06-06T06:37:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday Samantha

2007-06-03T21:32:00.000-06:00

Hannah's oldest and best friend is turning 4 today. I thought I would share the fabulous card she helped me make to show Sam how much she loves her.

Happy Birthday Sam!!

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Friday's Flowers

2007-06-01T16:49:00.001-06:00

OOH ok so that's my new weekly friday post. Every friday I will post a new flower from my yard! I know I need a life

I'm FREE!!!

2007-05-31T06:50:00.000-06:00

Can you tell I am excited. Yesterday was the perfect end to a crazy year. I almost cried telling some of my bratty kids (I actually love them all in their own way!) goodbye as they head off to High School for next year. But anyway the kids were so well behaved. I was so shocked.

But I am free. I can do absolutely NOTHING for the entire summer.

OK yeah I know that's not really going to happen but I have high hopes so in remembrance of past years of summer nothing and hopes for future nothing, here is a well wishing picture from last summer doing nothing with our good friends!!

Sam, Maia, and Hannah summer '06

Pretty picture for the day

2007-05-27T15:40:00.001-06:00

The Starter Wife

2007-05-27T15:29:00.000-06:00

I found a book around March that looked somewhat interesting. I picked it up once and read about 10 pages and put it down and started another book. Then about 2 weeks ago, I saw the preview for the books upcoming television show. Game on I must read book to be on top of what may come up in the show. I picked up The Starter Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer and read. I read and read. The book is very good. If you don't mind all the name dropping from Hollywood.

I have to say ( I really don't want to ruin too much if you want to read the book) that I am so excited to watch the show. Now I know that many times the shows fall short of the book. I already know that I am sad that they changed the main characters name from Gracie to Molly and her friend Will to Rodney. But let me set up the reason I think this happened. The main characters name is (was) Gracie. One of her best friends is a Gay man named Will. Guess who the actress is that's playing the lead on the show......... Debra Messing
While reading the book I laughed about how Will and Gracie reminded me of Will and Grace. Guess that they had to change it. Another funny I can't wait to see is that Gracie's husband Kenny dumps her to date none other than Britney Spears. Yes you read that right...... so wonder how that will play in the show.

So add the Starter Wife to your summer reading list and then check out the show with me this Thursday on USA channel.

Flowers

2007-05-25T19:18:00.000-06:00

As some of you know flowers are one of my most favorite things in the world. I love looking at the colors, textures, and uniqueness of each one. Thru the summer I am going to try to add another flower picture along with each blog I do to share my favorite shots with you. I encourage all you readers to share your favorites as well. This gives all of us something to try to do. Catch that most prized flower shot possible. I will also toss in a few shots of my other favorite things too some may be things you didn't know about me. Good luck and hope you enjoy the shots yet to come!

This picture was taken today in my back yard. It is of my Clematis....I believe it's the Jackmanii Superba haha I will have to look tomorrow to find out exactly what variety it is. If you click on the picture thru this entry it will enlarge it. From there if you center the flower just right to me, (anyway) it could almost pass for a painting. I love the marbling of the shades of purples on the petals. And to be able to see the fallen pollen pieces is amazing. I used the Macro setting on the camera. WOW. I didn't know I was that good haha.

So Pretty

2007-05-25T07:09:00.000-06:00

OK I had to share a couple of pictures I did get to take at the St. Louis Zoo yesterday. I will have to go back. Ashley took the camera and I had to fight tooth and nail to get it back just for these shots. But OOH so worth it!!

Class Trip

2007-05-25T06:27:00.000-06:00

Ashley and Hannah on
First day of School 2005

Yesterday was Ashley's 6th grade class trip. It was so sad. I was looking at the children that started out in Kindergarten together realizing that some will never see each other again. Because her school is a Magnet School, the kids get bussed in from all over the city. So your typical school in the neighborhood isn't where your child is going. The neighborhood kids they play with aren't their classmates. So many of them will be going to the only two regular Middle School for the district. A few will be paying tuition to go to the other alternatives such as Decatur Christian or LSA. Some will be moving to go to Mt. Zion, Forsyth, or Argenta. Then there is Ashley. She is making the transition by her little ole' self. I feel so sorry for her. How hard this is going to be for ther girl who has had the same class mates for 7 years now. We have never moved, its always been the same , same , same for her. She won't have the comfort zone of the teachers she has know and made smile over the years.

But we have to have positive thoughts. This is still the best option for our family and I am excited to see how it's going to go. And it will be nice to be able to see the girls before school in the mornings again.

So as we say good bye to an old chapter in our lives, we open a new notebook, and break out our new pens and get ready to start a new story!

My group of girls on trip
Tye, Ashley, Tessa, Taylor, and Chelsea

Title!!!

2007-05-25T06:25:00.000-06:00

OK as you can see I was playing with the settings this morning and I got my spot to put entry title back. I know I am a major dork but hey, this feature was missing for quite awhile!!

2007-05-20T19:22:00.000-06:00

I wish I had a graphic of someone peeking their head thru a crack in the door. That's how I feel about my blog. I am peeking in briefly to let you all know I am still around just very busy. A, hats off to you for always getting what you do done. I don't know how you do it.

This last week was hectic with trips, trips, dentist visits, counseling, and more trips haha. This next week is trips, trips, play day, class trip, whew and then 4 glorious days off. The only thing I positively need to accomplish is get my stinking garden planted. Yes I know it should have been in by now but my spot is COMPLETELY grown over with weeds and grass so I need to dig up my entire area.

I did go shopping for myself!! Can you believe this?? Now I did go shopping on Saturday only to find myself w/o any money or any way to pay so it was a cheep day haha. But I made up for it today with deals left and right. And it was shopping that I (I used to believe that every woman did this but I am learning I am wrong its just the women in my family with the huge knockers) haven't done in forever. I bought new bra's and panties. Now I know what your thinking, Jamie you can buy bra's right here in Decatur. But those of you with the big girls up front, My pal A convinced me to go into a Lane Bryant and try on some of their padded push up bra's last year..or was it the year before? Anyway much to my arguing I did (I mean when you already have alot why do you need to shove them to your chin and padd them as well?) and fell in love. There is something magical about the padding being just thick enough that when you wash them and yes I am so bad and will change my ways, but I throw them in the wash in with everything else and after well over a year of being washed this way they still look new. Not wrinkled, caved in or falling apart like so many others. The straps DO NOT DIG IN YOUR SHOULDERS, and you hardly realize the underwire is there. Have I gushed enough?? OK on with the day LOL (go buy Lane Bryant Bra's ......subliminal message over )

Sigh I know the girls don't NEED cropped cardigan sweaters in May but at under $5 each from GAP who can pass right?? Even at 2 each it was cheaper than one at original price.

Anyway hope everyone is doing well and gearing up for summer!!
Have a great week everyone and I will catch up on the big weekend!

2007-05-13T19:48:00.000-06:00

Yes I am still around it's just been so busy in the Frederick household. I have been working mega hours lately which makes some nice paychecks but boy oh boy does it get exhausting. On Mark's days off it's been dentist appointments, counseling sessions, or other fun chores that make being a couple so fun. We did get to buy the girls a Trampoline thanks to Grandma Denise. (pictures will come soon I let my camera batter go dead and haven't charged to get picts yet haha) I got all my flowers planted and all my yard work caught up (ok well except the garden) and it looks lovely. (picts to come haha) Can't wait for the end of school we have 11 more days and I think I am counting down more than the kids. These next two weeks will be crazy so bear with me if I don't post. I will be back haha Happy Mothers Day to all my mommy friends!!

2007-04-28T15:24:00.000-06:00

Mixed Reviews

Today was a busy day. I had a 9am appointment at Mr. John's School of Cosmetology (they suck) to get a manicure and a pedicure. I met up with gal pal Danielle for our girl only date. Due to unforeseen circumstances, her sitter canceled. Since the lady that took my appointment asked if we were going to have kids, I figured that my change from no to yes wouldn't be a big deal. I convince Dani that it would be OK we will just take her two children.

So as we walk into Mr. Johns (they suck), I said Jamie and Danielle for our 9 am mani and pedi appointment. The lady said "umm and what are you doing with those?" I said "Excuse me? What do you mean?" She then pointed her freshly painted freakishly long BLACK nails at the girls and said "Those children, we can't have children in here unless they are getting the work done." I said in response that I have been with 5 children in here before and its never been a problem and also the lady on the phone had asked and acted like its nothing big so that's why we had decided that due to a sitter falling thru we had the girls. To this she did a sigh, roll of the eyes and said " UGH That would have been one of my LITTLE HELPERS"

She then in her disgusted sneer said "Well this is a professional establishment to cater to Adults and we can't have THOSE CHILDREN in here, we have had children put nail polish in their mouths before. "

At this point I said "Never mind we will just reschedule at a later date so as to not ruin the atmosphere of your FINE ESTABLISHMENT" Then I started walking out the door. Now during this quick exchange, poor Dani was getting her girls to the sitting area only to have me say lets go I will not Pay for a B with an itch to do my nails.

So that being said (Mr. John's sucks) I said fine we will go home get my girls out of bed and have a kid fun day. So we took all the girls to the Children's Museum (they rock) where the kids could be as hyper and obnoxious as they wanted and everyone loved it and thought they were so darned cute. (The Museum people rock)

From there we had lunch at the International House of Buffet. Where the kids got to eat 10 lbs of Ice Cream (IHB rocks) and no one cared because I was all about let the kids be kids and screw professional establishments.

Then we went our separate ways where my girls and I went to get Ashley's hair cut and donated 13 inches to Locks of Love.

Then I took her to the dollar store where she picked out $5 worth of hair clips and head bands which actually she ended up with 10 head bands, 6 clips and 5 barrettes.

Lastly to round out the day I thought I would stop at the Cedar Lake Nursery. They had Pink Dogwood trees I asked for for Mothers Day and Mark wanted to know how much. Well needless to say at $169 a tree, I knew I wasn't going to be getting one but we figured we would check out the rest of their stuff while there. Sooo instead we got these

for a mere $16.95

which is an awesome deal considering that they are HUGE.

2007-04-27T17:53:00.000-06:00

The Internet always amazes me in what I find just aimlessly lurking around cyber world.

Here are some things that blow me away:

Ok we all knew there was Netflix and Blockbuster online movie rentals. What an awesome concept right?? well what other rental categories is there you may wonder?
Here are a few to think about
In the market to change purses alot?? Try Bag Borrow or Steal

Do you need a special occasion outfit for your child but hate to buy an $$ outfit to only wear once?

Need some Bra Bling? Check out Borrowed Bling where you can rent some bling bling for 3 small amounts per month.

Have a Special Man in your life and want to get him a nice gift? Try renting some massaging hands. (ok laughing my ass off about this one) sorry ladies this is only for the men apparently.

Want to rent a chest? Go Here.

Husband or Wife busy and you want to go out? Just rent a date for the night. Heck you can even tell them what to wear.

Have small things around the house you need help with and your kids fight you on doing it?? Just rent a kid they will love walking the dog.

Hope this helps in your search for rental items.

(** just added**) Ashley saw me looking at the rent a kid site and asked why I was looking at renting a kid when I had them. My response is you two aren't doing everything I asked. She then said OOH well, if you get a boy can you get a cute one?? Dear lord help me now.

2007-04-26T17:24:00.000-06:00

Thoughts on Thursday

I posted recently about a Church here in town that has Quotes that really make you think. So here is the one I saw this week that really makes you think.

I believe that you don't have to change friends as long as you understand friends change.

2007-04-25T04:55:00.000-06:00

Found!!

6lbs of chicken still frozen
where? fridge
when? Last night after Mark took milk out of back of top shelf.
who? I don't know or Not me
why? No freaking clue

What I do know is this..... After digging in the freezer 5 times, Making Mark take complete inventory of its contents with me, he was ready to send me off to the loony bin. It didn't help that I kept walking thru the house saying where is my damn chicken?
But I mean come on wouldn't you do the same? He kept telling me maybe I never bought it, maybe we ate it, maybe I threw it away.

Ok to a man that all may make sense but come on ladies. I am sure every one of us could list off exactly whats in the freezer right now. I just bought the stinking chicken Saturday morning and divided it up in the baggies I knew it was there. I know that I say and do some pretty off the wall stuff but I AM NOT CRAZY!
I mean, I was seriously thinking who came into my house and stole only my chicken? Why didn't they take my steaks too? Are they not good enough steaks?

Anyway the only thing I can come up with is tweedle dee or tweedle dumb was in the freezer for something and the chicken fell out. They couldn't figure out how to get it back in so instead of asking for help or telling someone, they shoved it in the back of the fridge. Thank goodness it was still frozen. I would have been one ticked off chick if I would have had to cook up 6 lbs of chicken today LOL

2007-04-24T18:12:00.000-06:00

Missing

6 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast.

Description.......4 quart sized freezer bags with 3 breast each.
Last seen Saturday April 21 approximately 11 am.

Please, if you have any information concerning the whereabouts of my future dinner, please leave a message in the comment section. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,
Jamie

2007-04-22T19:07:00.000-06:00

Windy Day

So the weather was beautiful today but a bit windy. However, thanks to Grandma Frederick, we had a great day. The girls both received new kites for Easter so today was the perfect day to break them out. We didn't even have to run to get them going just hold out and they were off.

2007-04-22T07:31:00.000-06:00

Budgets and other boring stuff
This week was an emotional one that's for sure.
With Monday being a half day and the tragic event that unfolded. Tuesday I had a trip all day.
Wednesday I was witness to a high speed chase and shoot out then had a trip all day.
Thursday I took a break and went to lunch with a friend.
Friday again I had a trip all day but this one was a class trip for Ashley so I also got to chaperon.
Saturday was spent grocery shopping and cleaning.
Does it ever end?

I am starting to feel the crazy tension you get before the school year is over. Trips are popping up left and right. This will be good news next year but for this year it stresses me out so. Trying to balance between wanting to make much $$ and being home in the afternoons with Hannah because of sitter issues is driving me bonkers. I just keep saying about 5 more weeks and its done for awhile.

As for home home life things are ok. It has been decided that Jamie needs to learn to live in a budget. This is very important for me to realize that I can do this. Now if I could quit having anxiety attacks before going into a store..... I actually am getting to where I don't want to go in a store because I don't want to be tempted to get off budget. The thing is everyone knows I am a bargain shopper. But I am an addictive bargain shopper. Is it really bargain shopping if you don't need it or hadn't planned on getting it?? Perfect example. Back in January I bought Hannah a beautiful burgundy velvet short sleeved jacket. I thought it would be so cute over some jeans. It was a mere $4.98 from its original price of $28. Here comes the BUT........ I have YET to find a shirt to go under it. It turns out the sleeves are so short that normal short sleeved shirts look bad with the ends of the sleeves popping out. Any shirt with a collar doesn't look right and any patterns or design in front looks bad as well. The perfect solution would be a satin cream silk tank. Anyone know where they make cami tops in satin for a 5 year old?? LMAO

2007-04-18T16:15:00.000-06:00

Worst Day of My Life.

OK beginning to question my career. I don't want to say what all I witnessed today but...... Lets just say I had the closest seat in the house for 10 minutes of this event and I didn't know that when guns went off the puff of dust you see on tv is the real deal. sigh........

Here are the stories to fill in the blanks
Story one
Story two

2007-04-15T06:39:00.000-06:00

Hopes for the Future...........

Yes, ok I am going to whine.......

I want some freaking warm weather NOW!!!!!

2007-04-12T19:56:00.000-06:00

Cat on the Hat. Corny I know. Pebbles loves to read.

OK Hannah went to the bookcase to pick out a book and before she could look her buddy pebbles jumped up to give his opinion. Just yet more proof we are a household FULL of avid readers!

2007-04-12T18:03:00.000-06:00

From the mouth's of babes.

From time to time Hannah says something that just makes me laugh and say "wow I am so lucky to be her mom"

Example

The other night Mark and I were lying in bed watching TV (shocker!). He had something Hannah wanted and he said to her I will give it to you if you give me something that goes here (insert him pointing to his cheek)
She said "hmmm" he said "Hannah what can you give me that goes here?" (again insert him pointing to his cheek)
With a big jump up in the air and her eyes all aglow she said................... "SHAVING CREAM??".
I thought I was going to die.
He said "no Hannah I meant a kiss." She then said "Oh well can I give you money instead?"

Boy I love that girl.

2007-04-12T17:43:00.000-06:00

Quotes. I don't usually post quotes but I saw one today that really made me think and I wanted to share

Don't let yesterday use up today.

2007-04-06T05:24:00.000-06:00

Girls Magazines ........ Who knew what a horrible journey it would be to find a decent magazine for your pre-teen daughter.

The idea was simple.

For the Easter Baskets this year, I would pick out a few appropriate magazines and let the girls spend some time looking, reading, and enjoying then pick one they would like to have a subscription to.

However, things don't go as planned. So here is a break down of the current girls magazines and my likes, dislikes of how or why they did or did not make the cut.

American Girl : This magazine is a bit more geared to the younger set. I did get an issue of this however just to let her check it out. I would say 7-10 would be a decent age group for this. I did however like its simplicity.
So Pros: NO SEXUAL Content
Cons: A bit pricey at 6 issues for $23 for not many pages.

CosmoGirl : OOH MY ok my mom said if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. OK well we know I don't always listen to my mom. So this magazine is perfect for training your daughter to be a hooker, or slut.
Pros: Cheap 8 issues for $10
Cons: Topics such as The New Dating Rules where they talk about how its not called "going out" anymore but you hookup. Oh and 5 Hot New Kisses and Be a Model where they go into the pros and cons of Modeling. Such as Pros traveling, Cons someone saying your nose is too big. Not Con you have to starve to death to fit in the sample sizes.

Discovery Girl : They didn't have this one in the store. I looked online and will be checking this out. So I can't really push this as to good or bad not being totally informed so I will go for pros for me wanting to check this out:
Clothes not slutty
Articles genuine such as are brand labels important, embarrassing moments such as not getting locker opened and a boy helping only to find once it opened she had picts of him with hearts all over it (ahh I remember those days) and hiding candy wrappers in room only to had dad find out.

Girls Life : The Cover was cute. But looks can be deceiving. This one almost passed but upon very close inspection this was bad
Articles such as Dangerous Liaison's teens tell real stories of dating violence. umm no
Get Fit workouts to tighten your bum. um no
Pros: Again Liked the Cover and loved the famous people they were featuring
Cons: Content not age appropriate.

New Moon : OK again found this one online so can't diss this too much with out actually seeing it but from the issue they had online I have 3 words to say will come from possibly getting this for my child. FUTURE FEMINIST LESBIAN.

Six, 7,8 : Purchased this one, love this on. It is geared to ... you guessed it 6, 7, and 8th graders. Articles such as How to Survive a New School, How to Get Organized, Consequences of Gossiping.
Pros: nice , clean , age appropriate magazine
Cons: Didn't see any!!

Teen : I used to LIVE AND BREATH this magazine. I loved it. And so many stars of now started in Teen! But oh my the content is different today. Would be ok for over the age of 15 year olds I suppose. Not the middle school girl as it was in our day.
Pros: Not the worst on the block
Cons: Boys, Boys, Boys is that really really the only thing on teen girls minds?

Seventeen: I remember this as the BAD magazine. Its appropriate for girls at the age of ... 17 haha no younger. Because its very open about sex and no child of mine is going to think about the S word until after the age of 17! haha right?

Ok now in no way is any of this to be held against the magazines this is MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION

2007-04-05T13:47:00.000-06:00

Day of fun. Our Friends Val, Noah, and Maia came over to play today. We colored Easter eggs, and decorated cookies. It was such and nice, fun , much needed day. I love watching the joy shining from the children's eyes. It went to fast. But here are some vibrant, colorful, beautiful pictures to share and remember by.

2007-04-05T13:31:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was Hannah's Easter Party.
In general she had a great time. Mark and I were the lucky suckers who volunteered to help set it all up. Hide over 100 eggs yep that's our favorite thing to do haha. Oh no wait Marks favorite was Bible Bingo my bad haha. Or mostly the flutes they received when they won bingo.

Anyway on the way home MOM realized that this will be her last school party she can attend due to the fact that all parties in regular school are during my pm routes. Sniff Sniff as pathetic as I am I actually enjoy the kids during their sugar fests.

This is the Spring Tree scene that Hannah's class has worked on for the last month. It is so pretty.

2007-04-01T15:52:00.000-06:00

Happy April Fools Day!!!

Where have I been? I got a new puppy and have been playing mommy!!

ok April Fools we know I am not THAT CRAZY!! 2 dogs, and 2 cats, and 2 kids is enough for me haha

I have no clue where I have been. Just yesterday I realized I haven't been to Target in 2 weeks!!! I hope they didn't go under w/out me!!

I guess just working, cleaning, keeping up with kids, the usual has kept me so busy I haven't been getting on the computer.

Last weekend we did a clean house on Saturday, and yard work Sunday. Then for about 3 days when I was home we were outside not doing much of anything enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we had.

Friday, I took a just for me day and went to Springfield for my Book sale (it was a dud this year) and then off to the Mall where I proceeded to lock myself out of my car and had to wait 2 hours for Mark to make it over to let me in van. Then by the time we got home I was so exhausted from shopping while waiting, and stress that was it for me.

Saturday we had my Great Grandma's 90th! Birthday Party. Shockingly almost all the family came. This means people who didn't talk to each other for a year got to spend time together it was nice.

Then today I have been Betty Home Maker. I made cupcakes for the girls to decorate to celebrate Spring, then I made up 4 loaves of homemade bread, to have with dinner and freeze to make up for my lack of cooking for the past 3 days haha.

So that pretty much sums it up!
Hopefully I will be better next week. Will keep everyone updated and have a great week!

2007-03-18T09:00:00.000-06:00

I realize I haven't been posting much lately. I feel as though I am living in a big fog. I am so exhausted by life's daily day to day I have felt that I can't get ahead. But today I am feeling better. So far no drama.

Between getting the house back in order with the bathroom ordeal, home life issues, and work drama ( dang them) it was so overwhelming.

But today is a new day and the beginning of a new week so watch out here I come. My goal for today is to finish getting the house put together (all I really need to do is sweep, mop and get all laundry put away) sit down and watch the pile of movies I have had for about 2 weeks now, and finish my book! I am so behind on my reading.

Happy Sunday everyone and have a great week!

2007-03-18T08:56:00.000-06:00

Ok so I have people wondering why candles are not to go into the new bathroom. Here is a picture reminder haha.

2007-03-13T12:18:00.000-06:00

Burning Bathroom Questions Answered

Mark did all the work. He is getting a Good Boy Award. He even GASP
painted!!!! And Mark Does Not Paint. Granted he didn't do the color wash part or trim but he did help roll the base coat.

The trim is painted and going down right this second as I type this. (this means that Teddy is barking and attacking the nail gun hose haha) All Mark need to do when done with that is swap out the outlets. The reason we do this is because all the outlets are messed up (you have to leave things unplugged 1/2 way for them to work).

The reason I ended up taking back the first set of towels is because believe it or not it didn't match. The green/blue color went perfectly. However the moss green and the cream color didn't go. Now when I purchased those it was taking into mind that I would be getting a bone colored toilet and sink and oak vanity and medicine cabinet. Since we ended up doing the white with the shiny chrome and white porcelain accents on the towel racks, toilet paper roller, shower rod, and sink handles, the cream color wasn't going to well. My neighbors all agreed that it wasn't so good. And the walls ended up looking more teal than a dusty shade. BUT, I like this stuff much much more. I feel very relaxed and it gives it more of a CLEAN modern spa feel to it.

As for Candles, umm well I said to Mark the other day I wonder what scent Yankee Candle would go in there with those colors. I was threatened within an inch of my life haha. No candles, no way , no how are allowed in the bathroom EVER. so of course I asked about a potpourri burner hehe