Scrappin' A Princess

Friday Fill In's

2012-01-13T21:37:00.002-05:00

1. When I looked out the window this morning I finally saw snow!!! I've been waiting for it and it's about time it's here!!!

2. People who can biologicaly have beautiful children but then choose not to take care of them doesn't make sense to me. What's even worse is when they continue to have those babies time AND time again!!! (my girl is the 7th child by her birth mom, and mom has NOT ONE of her babies). At what point will the courts step in and say NO MORE???

3. Remind me how good it is to be me!! Every once in awhile I forget!!

4. Going to concerts, shows, and listening to live music is something I love to do!

5. TP is a necessity.

6. I cleaned the refrigerator recently and I found nothing! My fridge needs to be cleaned so bad!! Maybe next week???

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a chill night, tomorrow my plans include an evening with friends and football and Sunday, I want to hang out with my princess. Papa and Grammy wanted her for the weekend, so they surprised her and picked her up from school and we will pick her up Sunday morning!

Have a great weekend!!

xoxo

Maybe this will get me back to the blogging world...

2012-01-06T11:41:00.002-05:00

Since I've been so terrible about blogging since I finished the 31 day challenge, I thought maybe some Friday Fill In's would get me back into the swing of things. Hmmmm, we'll see!

1. Discussions well i guess it depends on what your discussing, could be good, could be bad!! LOL!! I will have a discussion over just about anything, of course my hubby would call them arguments. I can "discuss" till I'm blue in the face...sometimes a good "discussion" it just what a girl needs! I will say I tend to "discuss" too often!! LOL As the hubby would say, you are just looking for me to argue with you, and yuuupp, sometimes I am!!

2.Saying goodbye SUCKS!!! I suck at them, they suck....that is all!!!

3. I think it's time to get my ass in gear and do some exercise!!! I have no excuses, I know what I should be doing, I just don't. It's pure laziness!! I think it would help if I cared what people thought of me, but I don't! I'm me, take me or leave me, I like who I am, you don't have to!! Sometimes that's probably a bad thing, but I really believe if you like who you are, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks!!!

4. A lot of things put a smile on my face. I'm generally a happy, smiley kinda girl!!! Seeing my princess when she gets home from school, listening to the hubby and the princess on the weekends making breakfast together, when my daycare kiddo's come up to me out of the blue and say "I love you Lolo", live music, hanging out with the family, having all the windows open in the summer, the first snowfall....the list could go on and on forever!!!

5. Maybe sometime hubby and I will go on vacation just the two of us. I can just see us somewhere tropical, ya know those photos you see on pintrest, the ones with the hut that is in the water...ahhh, that's a dream!! That might not come for a long time, can't imagine leaving the princess for longer than a couple of days.

6. Having a child gives me strength. Don't think that needs any explanation. I think the answer would be the same for any Mom. My world revolves around her, and I'm pretty ok with that!!! She is our world!! We waited so long for her, went through so much...she keeps us going even on her bad days!!! (oh yes, she has some BAD days!! I have no idea where she gets it from, wink, wink)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a whole lot of nothing, tomorrow my plans include I have no idea, I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl and Sunday, I want to watch football, of course!

Happy Friday Ya'll!!!
xoxo

Proud Mama!!!

2011-11-28T21:41:00.004-05:00

Today I am one Proud Mama!!!

Everyday, and I mean everyday Lil surprises me with the things she understands! All year long Lily saves her money in a "give back" jar. We always save it till Christmas so she can buy toys for Toys for Tots. We have explained to her why it's so important to "give back". We explain to her that not all kiddos have all of the toys and books that she does, that sometimes Mommy's and Daddy's can't do the things for their kiddos that her Mommy and Daddy can. We ask her to think about other kiddos, the kiddos who may not have a Christmas if we don't do our part. We want her to understand that not all kiddos have the "life" she has. (yes, she's spoiled)

So today was the big day....we ventured out to get our toys. Lily and Mommy head out to Target...we don't find anything that we have to have so we decide that we are Toys R Us bound. We stroll through all of the isles (and yes I mean all). All the while I can just see her mind going crazy. She finally decides on a couple of things for a girl, and a play set for a little boy. She told me that she would really like what she picked out, but she knew that she had to "give back". I picked out my toys and we head to the register to pay. She was so proud to get out her wallet and pay by herself (yep, my girl saved $60). She had $13 left over when we left Toys R Us. We got to the car and she told me that we needed to go to another store because she had more money. She never asked if she could keep that money, she wanted to buy more toys for kids who don't have any. So on the Meijer's we go!

I needed to return a few things at Meijer's, (bare with me) so I'm getting my money back from the cashier. She asked if she could give Lily the 3 pennies so she can ride Sandy the pony. So Lil puts them in her pocket, we pick out her toys and pay, then she asks if she can ride the pony. We head over to Sandy and as she's riding she notices that someone left pennies there. She asks me why there are pennies just sitting there, so I explain to her that someone must have left those pennies for the kiddos that don't have a penny to ride. Then my sweet, sweet girl grabs those two other pennies out of her pocket and tells me she would like to leave her pennies there too!!

I had all I could do not to cry right there.....ok, I got teary eyed!!! Everyday as a parent I question if I'm doing a good job (I think most of us do?), at that moment I thought...we are doing something right!!!! I really think she gets it and for that I AM ONE PROUD MAMA!!!!

xoxo

(note: I wanted to add photos, but it won't work!!!)

Thank A Veteran Today!!

2011-11-09T23:02:00.004-05:00

Today...honoring all who have served...those who are no longer with us and those that are serving now. We are always and forever grateful!!

Words will never be enough for all of the sacrifices you have made and continue to make. Know you are always in our thoughts and prayers.

Thank You!!

Happy Birthday Marines!!

2011-11-09T21:12:00.005-05:00

From a PROUD Marine Daughter, Happy Birthday Marines!!

Happy Birthday Daddy, I Love You!!! I loved growing up as a Marine daughter, I wouldn't have changed a thing!!!

Semper Fi

xoxo

Cheerleading Is Over

2011-11-09T09:38:00.005-05:00

My girl got her first trophy!! We had the end of year Beach League banquet last weekend, and Lil was so proud of her trophy!

Now that 31 days is over, what am I going to blog about??

My Christmas shopping is in full swing around here! I love to start early, but I have a problem with not stopping! I can't believe the things that were on the shelves a week ago are already disappearing off the shelves already!! My suggestion to you: If there is a special something that your kiddos want, buy it now!! Two of the things Lil wants I've already bought because I'm scared they won't be on the shelves later.

The hubby is having a "guys" weekend away, so it will be Lily and Mommy time this weekend. Hopefully daddy has a great time away, he deserves it!!!

Happy Hump Day!!
xoxo

Day 31 - It's All Up To You

2011-10-31T21:44:00.003-04:00

Here it is, the last post of my 31 day journey. (still can't believe I actually blogged for 31 days straight!!)

What I've learned along the way is.....there is no wrong way, no right way, no two people find balance in the same way! Do we ever truly find balance...I'm not sure. We just keep going! As long as we keep trying, and giving it our all we are bound to make it through!

To my friend Luz who invited me to join her on this journey, we've never met in person, but I love her like she lives next door to me and I've known her forever!! (someday we will meet, I'm sure of it!!). Thanks for the journey my friend!! Much Love!!

xoxo

Day 30 - So Tell Me......

2011-10-30T23:28:00.004-04:00

Only one day left of this 31 day journey....tell me what's the most important thing for you when trying to balance it all??

xoxo

Day 29 - Life Is A Balancing Act

2011-10-30T01:22:00.003-04:00

Isn't that the truth??

xoxo

Day 28 - Care For Your Body

2011-10-28T22:24:00.002-04:00

Having a high energy level is a trait held by many highly successful people. No matter what your present level of energy, you can increase it by following these steps: Eat. Don't skip meals. Your physical and mental energy depend upon nourishment. Irregular eating patterns can cause a frayed temper, depression, lack of creativity and a nervous stomach.Exercise. Over and over again, highly successful people mention the benefit of exercise routines. . The benefits of exercise are mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. If you are healthier and have more stamina, you can work better and longer.

I've left this topic as one of my last posts, well....because, this is something I suck at!!!! I believe everything that is stated above, I just don't do it!! I have NO EXCUSES!! I always say, I'll start tomorrow and of course tomorrow comes and goes. Hoping that I will get on with taking care of my body!

xoxo

Day 27 - Re-Do Your To Do List

2011-10-27T21:00:00.002-04:00

A to-do list is a day, time and life management tool. Regrettably a to-do list can take over your life and manage you instead. If you find that you cannot make a decision or be spontaneous even on your off days, if you can barely breathe without checking your to-do list, it is time to take back control.

Weed out the tasks on your list that are unrealistic, counter-productive and keeping you from spending quality time with your family, your friends, your hobbies and yourself. If you feel you must, schedule “Be spontaneous” or “Forget the to-do list” on your to-do list and do just that.

I've had to ditch my to do lists!! I get stressed when I don't get everything on it done, so I just quit making them!!

Do you make lists?? Do you get it all done??

xoxo

Day 26 - If You Fall, Get Back Up

2011-10-26T22:33:00.002-04:00

This is so important....Perservere!!!! Don't call it a failed attempt and give up, when the next try at something may lead to success. Maybe it won't lead to success today...maybe it will be next week, maybe next month, maybe next year, and maybe it will take a lifetime.

Life comes moment to moment, so we must be here now, giving our full attention!

A life of balance means living in the present and meeting ourselves where we are at this moment.

Don't give up!!!

xoxo

Day 25 - Love Yourself

2011-10-25T22:14:00.002-04:00

When you completely respect the person you are, and when you are true to your inner word, balance will be a normal part of your entire life.

You must be true to yourself and love who you are "today." You are the person you are, and regardless of what others may tell you or what you may think others think about you, up until this very moment, you have defined exactly who you are. Good, bad or indifferent, you are the person you are and you should love that person deeply. It doesn't mean you have to stay this way; it just means you recognize the "you" you really are and that you are in harmony with who that person is right now. This is a huge step towards finding inner balance.

Couldn't have said it better myself!! You have to love you!!! Sure we will always have things we want to change about ourselves, but no matter what "you have to love yourself". I always say "you either like me or you don't, but this is me, and I like me....take it or leave it"

Go do what you do and LOVE YOU!

xoxo

Day 24 - Get Enough Rest

2011-10-25T08:28:00.002-04:00

Do you notice how your day is soooo much better when you've had a good nights rest? You get more done and you are in a better mood.

I am notoriuous for not getting enough sleep! I crawled in bed way early for me last night, didn't even watch Monday Night Football (that is just not me)!! I was just plain tired!

They say at least 8 hours a night, well I got that and more last night!! It happens about once a month where I finally give in, and it just feels good!!!

Here's to getting 8 hours each night!!!

xoxo

(another late post....stay tuned for another later today)

Day 23 - Keep Moving

2011-10-23T22:40:00.002-04:00

Day 22 - Do Nothing

2011-10-22T21:12:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just have to say....***k it!!! Today was one of those days!!! We had Lil's last day of cheer, then we came home and have done a whole lot of nothing!!! The house needs to be picked up, Lil's mess from the day needs to picked up...but ya know what?? I'm really ok with it waiting till tomorrow!!!!

Sometimes it good to just have "do nothing" days!!

xoxo

Day 21 - Practice Makes Perfect

2011-10-22T17:19:00.001-04:00

It's late....well it's really early!!!

Today was all about practicing balance. Work, our favorite band Wayland...then tomorrow our last day of cheer, and i'm sure a nap will fit into there too!!

So I've given you a video of the band we saw tonight!! Be sure to check them out....Great Music.....Great Guys!!!

xoxo

(oops on the late part, could not get my video on here. Be back later for today's post!!)

Day 20 - Establish a Support System

2011-10-20T21:32:00.002-04:00

Be willing to ask for help AND receive it. Enlist family, friends, neighbors, professionals and others to help you as needed.

I hope you are all as lucky as I am with this one! I have an amazing family and friends and I know that I am never alone...if I need help, it's there. I wish the same for all of you!!

xoxo

Day 19 - Don't Work Yourself To Death

2011-10-19T22:13:00.002-04:00

You've got to set some boundries when it comes to your work life!

Set certain days and times that are only for you or for your family. Instead of causing you to fall behind, you will probably work more efficiently during the rest of the week.

xoxo

Day 18 - Keep walking..

2011-10-18T20:34:00.002-04:00

This is how I feel sometimes....just keep walking that line, keep trying to find my balance!!

Keep walking...keep walking...just keep walking!!!

xoxo

Day 17 - Don't Take On Too Much

2011-10-17T21:12:00.004-04:00

It is hard for many of us to delegate responsibility to others. Whether it is at work or in the home, we become victims of the “I’ll just do it myself” mentality. The result is that we spend too much time focusing on certain aspects of our lives while neglecting others. We quickly forget that everything is a trade-off. Learn to delegate to co-workers, family members and your spouse. Return the favor for them to achieve an even greater balance.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate!!! I FOR SURE have the "I'll just do it myself" mentality!! Nobody does it the right way but me! Who am I kidding...!!! Seriously, I always load the dishwasher, well, cause I'm the only one in this house that does it right. Really Lori?? What makes my way better?? I have no idea, I just have to get over those things!! Oh lord, the dishwasher is just a start on what I could go on about, but I think I'll ONLY go there!! LOL

Of course that is just a little thing...but I always take on too much. I have to learn to say no once in awhile!!

Are you a victim of the "I'll just do it myself" mentality??

xoxo

Day 16 - Be Nice To Others

2011-10-16T20:42:00.002-04:00

Plain and simple.............Be Nice To Others!!

Being nice and being kind to others has the "pay it forward" effect that not only makes you feel good but quite possibly improves the world around you!

I try to instill in my daughter and all of the kiddos that I take care of:

Do unto others.....treat people the way you want to be treated!

xoxo

Day 15 - Be Positive

2011-10-15T19:58:00.002-04:00

Be positive, Stay positive!!!

Positive upbeat people tend to have a clearer point of view and generally speaking get more of what they want out of life....including proper balance.

This is a HUGE thing for me...I believe in staying positive...it's the one thing in this journey to Finding Balance that I can say...I've Got This!!!

Is your glass half full or half empty??

Happy Saturday!!

xoxo

Day 14 - Slow Down

2011-10-14T19:07:00.003-04:00

Slow Down

Life is too short, so don't let things pass you by! Take time to stop and enjoy the things and people around you. Schedule more time between meetings; don't make plans for every evening or weekend, and find some ways to distance yourself from the things that are causing you the most stress.

Happy Friday!!!

xoxo

Day 13 - No Regrets

2011-10-13T21:24:00.003-04:00

The things in the past are just that....the past. We can't change these things, they are over and done...you have to move on and hopefully you learned something from it all!! Living with regret throws everything off Balance, we can't be overcome with the should've, the could've or the would've.

Life in the present and enjoy each moment as it happens!!

xoxo

Day 12 - Almost forgot...

2011-10-13T00:29:00.004-04:00

Looks like I'll have two posts today...oops!!!

Be back later today!!

xoxo

Day 11 - Priortize

2011-10-11T20:58:00.004-04:00

I found this online and I LOVE it!!!

Our journey in life defines exactly who we are. Prioritize your life. Your thoughts are powerful. Create a mental picture of exactly what you want in life. Use this as your "roadmap." Now you can sit down, and create a list of your priorities. Take your time with this. Decide what you can really control in your life. Release the rest

Happy Tuesday!!

xoxo

Day 10 - Taking Care of Me

2011-10-10T16:15:00.005-04:00

So since I'm learning to balance....right now I'm taking care of me...so bear with me while I try to get rid of the raging headache and sore throat, and congestion!!! I had a field trip with Lily's class today, had a blast, but.....I'm all done!! Hope this "thing" I've got going on will go away soon!! Did you ever notice that when Mom's get sick, our life has to go on like normal but when Dad's get sick, their world stops?? Today..I want to be a Dad!! LOL

Better Balance posts are soon to come!!

xoxo

Day 9 More Balance

2011-10-09T14:17:00.006-04:00

Another quick post - I'm getting sick!! Sore throat, clogged head....UGHH!!! No time for this, I have a field trip with Lily tomorrow.

Hope you all have had a great weekend!!!

xoxo

Day 8 - Practicing Balance!!

2011-10-08T13:57:00.006-04:00

Today I am practicing balance with a short post. The weather is fabulous today, and I'm going to get yard work done, before the snow flies here in Michigan. You never know when that is going to happen around here...I've actually raked leaves here before while it was snowing!!

Happy Saturday!!!

xoxo

Day 7 - Eat together

2011-10-06T20:59:00.003-04:00

Sit down together and have at least one meal a day together.

I'll admit, we don't do this. We eat dinner in the living room in front of the tv. Yes, we have a kitchen table, but we surely don't eat at it. We should be eating dinner at the table every night!! Our schedules are crazy sure, but that is the one meal that is most consistent for us. On the nights that Rob has school, Lil and I should be sitting down together. The more I type this, the more I'm thinking about what we miss out on by not sitting down together for dinner. That would be a perfect time to hear about the happenings in each of our days, what's going on the next day, and to listen to one of Lil's crazy stories!

Do you sit down as a family for meals? If you don't, why not?

xoxo

Day 6 - Play Time

2011-10-05T21:46:00.005-04:00

When we allow our "play time" to dwindle down to almost nothing, we may notice that our relationships begin to suffer! Take time out to play!

Read with your child, cuddle your baby, build with blocks, play board games, play tag, watch a favorite movie, go for a bike ride, take your teen to dinner and just chat. Just be there, be all there!!! Show your family with one on one time how important they are to you!!

I love this photo from last winter of Lily, Toby (the dog) and her Daddy playing!!

xoxo

Day 5 - Flexibility

2011-10-04T21:48:00.005-04:00

To maintain your levels of happiness in your life, no matter what happens in your day, be flexible. Don't be a perfectionist and do try to be adaptable in your expectations of yourself and events around you.

Do you ever have those days when everything is going good, and one little (usually ridiculous) thing just sets you off and changes your whole day?? If you are like me, I have a mental photo of how things should be, and when they aren't or they don't measure up, I get annoyed!! Of course, most of those things are completely out of my control so why do I let them get me so worked up??

I'm usually pretty flexible, until it comes to my own life, or the things that REALLY matter to me. But I really need to work on being flexible ALL the time!! It's not even the big things I need to be more flexible about...it's the little things. I found this on the internet, and I love it:

When you have a flexible mind set you're able to deal with crises and problems much more easily because your not working against a preconceived notion of how things "should be". You're able to tap into your creative problem solving skills and move through challenges without all the drama and frustration. Be like the tree that bends with the breeze - and you're much less likely to break

I bet my life would be more Balanced if learned to be more flexible!! Here's to being like a tree!!

xoxo

(to check out all of the other 31 dayers, just click on my Finding Balance button on the right hand side)

Day 4 - Self Care

2011-10-03T21:19:00.003-04:00

You can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself - Mary Mazzer

I'm telling you, I should post this quote all over my house!! I think I NEED this to smack me in the face, everyday, all day!!! Of course, it all makes sense....get enough sleep, eat right, exercise, speak kindly to yourself. Why is it that I can't follow through with these things??

First off, my sleep habits are terrible. Here's what it looks like : Mon-Fri I go to bed somewhere between 11 and midnight or later (usually the midnight side of things), I'm up between 6 and 6:30. No wonder I'm tired all the time!!! I go to bed even later on the weekends and sleep in for as long as I can. Really....so not good!!!!

Eat right.....not so much, Exercise.....not so much!!!!

The only thing I'm decent about is speaking kindly to myself. I like who I am!! Of course on the outside, there is huge room for improvement, but I'm bound to get there too!!

So....I am going to make that quote pretty and print it out to place around my house! I WILL read it and be reminded!!!

Don't forget to take care of you!!!

xoxo

Day 3 of Finding Balance - Quiet Time

2011-10-03T01:00:00.003-04:00

Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself - Jessye Norman

First things first....family night DID NOT happen here tonight. The princess was in her room cleaning it for 3 hours, then it was bedtime. She knows that she missed out a night of games, and her heart was broken!! She came out of her room crying and walks up to me and says, "I'm so sorry Mommy" I asked her why she was sorry, and through the tears and crying she said "for ruining our fun night." Oh lord, I really, and I mean really wanted to cave!!! I gave her a hug and said we will have to try again, and that maybe when Mommy says to clean up your room you should get it done, and not play for 3 hours!! Hopefully she learned a lesson, and we won't miss out again!!!

So in doing some reading on balancing your life, one of the things I continue to read is to find some time for yourself- quiet time. We tend to give so much of ourselves, wearing so many hats, we forget about us! I do get me time, but I would not call it quiet time. I have time to hang out with my girlfriends, with my mom and sister, and time with the hubby and our friends too. I guess I wouldn't call it quiet time. I really don't have any excuses now, Lily is in school all day and I have two days a week off of work. I WILL have quiet time, a day for me to read, scrap, stamp, anything that is just for me!!

Here's to wishing us all a little quiet time!!!

xoxo

Day 2 of Finding Balance

2011-10-01T21:39:00.005-04:00

(bad photo from my phone this am before we headed off to cheer)

And there is my reason for needing to find BALANCE. If I can find BALANCE in this crazy life of mine, I'm sure to be a better Mommy! I'll have more quality time to spend with the princess and her Daddy. Not that we don't spend time together now, but is it really quality time?? That is the big question. I am a firm believer that it doesn't take money or big plans or expensive things to have quality time together.

So the big question is where do I begin on this journey of finding BALANCE??

I think the first step to finding BALANCE in my life is going to be to set aside a family night. A night with no tv, no video games...just "us" time. A night that we can play games, go for a walk, go for a bike ride,read together...something that will get us to slow down and just be together, enjoying each other.

I really believe that it's the little things that make the best memories! I know when I was a child, it was the hanging out together with my parents and my sister that we still talk about, that we still remember!! We remember hanging out at the beach, playing baseball in the street, just hoping in the car to go for a drive.... Those are the things that I want Lily to remember, those are the things I want us to be talking about 30 years from now!

Somehow my parents always made it look so easy...I know now, as an adult, that it wasn't easy!! Those are the memories that I want Lily to have, I want her to think we made it look easy!!! If we keep going at the pace we are now...I honestly don't know if that will happen.....hence......FINDING BALANCE.

So...day 2 of finding BALANCE is starting family night, once a week. Our family night will be Sunday evenings from dinner until Lily's bedtime at 8pm. I'm actually really excited about this!!

Do you all have a family night?? What are some things that you do on family nights?

Don't forget to check out all of the other 31 dayers over at Nesting Place!

xoxo

Finding Balance.....

2011-09-30T23:27:00.005-04:00

Well...here I am on the beginning of this 31 day journey of finding BALANCE in this crazy life!! (Be sure to check out The Nesting Place for all of the details of the 31 Day journey) I know I am no different than any other working, living, loving Mom out there, but sometimes I just feel like I fall short in so many areas. I guess we all feel that way at certain times, right?? It's not that I think I'm a bad Mommy...I think that I'm a pretty good Mom. Sure I make mistakes everyday, but I do my best and my baby girl NEVER has a doubt how much she is loved!!! It's not that I think I'm a bad wife, I think I'm OK at that too...I'm sure I need even more improvement at being a wife, than being a Mommy. (yes, Lily probably gets the best of me and the hubby gets what's left over, not a good BALANCE!!)

See...this whole BALANCE thing seems to revolve around Lily Rene'. I waited soooo long for our little princess, once she was finally ours, everything changed...she is the center of my everything!!! Everything I went through, all the pain, all the hell, all of the heartache...I would do it all again...knowing what I know now...knowing that she would be the reason for all of that!! I truly believe that GOD knew all along what he was doing, he knew this beautiful little baby girl was going to need us. He knew that we needed her. I believe that he chose her for us, long before she was even thought about, before we even had a plan for Foster Care or Adoption. He just knew!! (a little history here: I was diagnosed with stage 4 Uterine cancer at 27 years old, and had to have a hysterectomy ASAP, followed by chemo and radiation. We had no children, and struggled as a married couple with our options. We finally agreed on Foster Care to possibly adopt. We had some wonderful foster children, had some struggles, had some children we thought would be ours...but that wasn't the plan, had some bittersweet endings, met some really wonderful people who now have some amazing forever children and some really happy endings through foster care...of course the happiest ending of all was adopting Lily Rene')

So through it all BALANCE is what I need to work on!!! Now that Lil has started Kindergarten, and is gone all day, I really need to find a good BALANCE of time with her, BALANCE of quality time with the hubby who works full time and goes to school at night, BALANCE of me time, BALANCE and quality time to be a better daughter, sister and friend. BALANCE of time in general!!! I just need BALANCE and some motivation on the side would help too!!! LOL!!! I will spend the next 31 days finding ways to BALANCE my time and energy into being a better all around me, which in turn will make for a better Mommy, Wife, Daughter, Sister and Friend!

Hope you all enjoy the ride with me!!!
xoxo

Here I Go.....

2011-09-30T18:16:00.004-04:00

I CAN DO THIS!!!! (I must keep telling myself this) I'm joining in over at Nesting Place on their 31 days of change!! (Geez, this starts tomorrow, I better get busy) Thanks to my lovely friend Luz for leading me to the Nesting Place and to join her on this journey!! We've got this girl!!

You are all invited to join in! Here's the deal: You commit to blogging on a topic of your choice for 31 days. (I CAN DO THIS....have I mentioned I haven't blogged since Feb., and have NEVER blogged 31 days in a row....oh boy...)

I'm going to be blogging about Balance. The balance of life with a 5 year old who is now in Kindergarten, married life, work, mommy time, time for the two most important people in the world, and how in the world I don't screw it up!! This could get serious ya'll!!!

Enough for now...I must go figure out all of the other things I need to do!!!

xoxo

Happy Birthday to my Baby Sister!!!

2011-02-05T22:23:00.005-05:00

A Big Happy Birthday to my Baby Sister today!!! Gone are the days when she would wait by the door with those LONG pigtails, waiting for me to get home from school, and yelling "SSSSIIISSSYY" with a big hug. Gone are the days when she drove me crazy (well, most of the time), but not gone are all of the wonderful memories of ALL of the crazy things we've done and shared!!!! Sometimes we took each other for granted and we've had our spats, our all out wars....but through it all, we always knew we had each others backs (sometimes we just forgot for a minute or two). I can't imagine not having my CRAZY, LOUD, IN YOUR FACE, TELL IT LIKE IT IS, BE THERE FOR YOU NO MATTER WHAT, Sister!!! I LOVE YOU ROBYNN ELLEN, and I'm so proud you are my baby sister!!!!

The photo above was taken by my BFF Jodie in October of 2010. Robynn and I had a mini photo shoot so we could make a collage of photos for our Mom and Dad for Christmas. Now I can actually share some of those photos.

Here is my Week 5 Photo for Project 52. This photo is the after effects of our "Blizzard 2011" Yes, we got that much snow pretty much overnight!! I've been back here for almost 14 years, and I still love the snow!!!

Lil and I have been spending my days off at Grammy's house getting crafty. Lil would move in with Grammy and Papa if we would let her. I just keep telling her it's way more fun to visit, cause they aren't as much fun when you live with them!!! LOL!!!

Hopefully you are all ready for the Super Bowl tomorrow??!! We are hanging out at Grammy and Papa's for the day (imagine that). Looking forward to a good game!!!
LETS GO PACKERS!!!!!

xoxo

I Got Crafty!!!

2011-02-02T09:53:00.004-05:00

I had the day off yesterday and Lil and I went to Grammy's and got crafty! I worked on Valentine's Day cards for the daycare kiddos. I haven't made cards in sooooooo long, it was good to do it again!! Lil and I are going back to Grammy's on Friday to do it again!!

Here is my week 4, 52 Week photo. I took a different one, but for some damn reason that photo will not come off of my memory card, so I took another last night. Here I am will ALL of my gray hair!!! I am WAY to young to have so much gray, not to mention that my hair grows so fast!! I don't get my hair done until the 12th, I'm thinking I better not wait so long next time, cause this is NOT GOOD!!! I have to wear my hair up everyday, just to try and hide this crap!!!

This photo is also for the 52 week project, it is a white space challenge. I used a scrapbooking transparency, and took a photo of my favorite socks!!

Not much else going on here, snow day today. Nobody's working, and I have no daycare kiddos at the moment either. The snow is beautiful, we've got 15 inches outside my front door, with some crazy drifts. I'll try to get those photos up later.

I still need to get some of Lil's B-day photos up too!!!

Hope you are all warm and safe!!

xoxo

Just a quick post.......

2011-01-25T10:56:00.002-05:00

Here is my week 3 photo. I almost forgot to take it, so I quick snapped one on the fly. Of course I played with it in Picnik. I think I'm addicted to that site, it's like I can't just leave a photo alone anymore!! LOL And let me tell you, with all the gray roots I have going on right now, it's a GOOD thing for Picnik!!!! I really need to get some serious creativity for this project, instead of just these face shots!!! Be sure to check out the 52 Week Project and play along!! Just click on the link over here ------------>.

Not much else going on, busy week, and a birthday girl on Thursday!!! Who can believe that my baby has been ours for almost 5 years!!! I just can't imagine my life without her in it!!! I'm sure I'll be posting B-day photos after Thursday. Have a great rest of the week!!!

xoxo

2011-01-10T14:05:00.003-05:00

I finally picked my "One Little Word" for 2011!! A big thanks to my friend Shanna for inspiring me make a logo of my word. Now I really need to head over and sign up for the One Little Word online class, so I can see what they've got up their sleeve to get me MOTIVATED!!I chose MOTIVATE for so many reasons, I mean, it appears that I've lost all my motivation and I need to get it back!!!

I need to be motivated to be a better me, to be a better Mommy and a better wife. Not that I don't think I'm a pretty good me, Mommy and wife, but I know there are things I can do better, that I want to do better!! I WILL do better, I WILL be better.....my MOTIVATION will return!!!

Just got done playing with my 52 Week Project photo. I don't know if I will ever not play with my photo in Picnik, well, cause I just don't like photos of myself! But...maybe this project will help me get over it already!!! Anyhow, here it is: it's all in the eyes

Not much else going on here, didn't leave home ALL weekend, didn't even get out of my jammies this weekend, this cold is kicking my ass!! But now it's back to work, no time for laying around, lots to do this week!! Really looking forward to spending ALL day Saturday scrapping with some lovely ladies, maybe I'll even get some scrapping done!!!

Have a great week!!!
xoxo

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-04T20:14:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!!!

So here I am....hair all a mess, no make up....this is me most days!!! I've decided to join in on the 52 Week Project. I'm so not photogenic, and I don't like photos of myself, so this is going to be a major challenge for me, but I'm gonna try!! So here is week one, I figured why not start out with the real me. Being home doing daycare during the week, my hair is almost always up, I have no make up on, and I'm usually in sweats and a sweatshirt, or jeans and a sweatshirt. Maybe once a week I'll actually do something with myself. (yeah right)

I still haven't finished by December Daily album, of course. I have the photos, now I just need to print them. I am going to a crop on the 15th, and I'm hoping to have it done after that!! Wish me luck!!

Hope you all had the happiest of holidays, I know we sure did!! Christmas was amazing as always. How can it not be when you get to see everything through the eyes of 4 1/2 year old. Not to mention all of the time we get to spend with our family, just hanging out, playing games, being together. Lil was extremely spoiled, she got what she asked Santa for (a pink escalade, and a pink cross bow), not to mention all of the others (leapster, games, bitty baby, baby alive, glo doodle, polly pockets, littlest pet shop, camera, and the list goes on and on...)Yes, she's spoiled!!! We had to go through her room and take out toys and do some cleaning and rearranging to make room for all of her new stuff!!

Now we are back to school, and back to the grind of non holiday mode, and honestly I was ready!! Ready to go back to normal routines. Rob starts back to school next week, and we have loved having him home for 3 weeks. Looks like this semester he will only be gone one night a week instead of four. He decided to try an online course, so we'll see how that goes!!

On another note, Rob and I FINALLY have insurance again!!! We have been without insurance for ourselves for almost two years, and his company finally offered it to us!!! Talk about a load off of our minds!!! I just got to cancel Lil's insurance and put her on a policy with us now!!

Not much going on here, trying to get motivated to make some changes in my own life, but motivation is hard to come by lately!!! If you have any spare, please send it my way!!!

Wishing you all the best in 2011!!!!

xoxo

Surprise....

2010-11-21T13:38:00.002-05:00

Are your surprised yet??? I've got to keep you on your toes, you just never know when I may "show up" again!! LOL!!

Have I ever said how much I LOVE Sunday's?? Cause I really do...nothing ever gets planned on a Sunday, it's all about relaxing and FOOTBALL!!! Maybe a load or two of laundry and some picking up from a weekend of hurricane Lily, but that's about it. Did I mention Football?? Really that's what goes on in this house on Sunday's. Lot's of flipping channels between games, yelling at the tv, and explaining to Lil that she's cheering for the wrong player. But you have to love that she knows when someone scores, and she yells "TOUCHDOWN" with hands in the air and all.

It's been a quiet weekend here. Friday consisted of scrapping with two lovely ladies, by the fire, AND we all got lots done!! I even managed to get all of my foundation pages done for my December daily. I would share pictures, but I sent the camera with Rob hunting. I will get some photos when he gets home.

Saturday consisted of Lily and I sleeping in, then getting up and having PB&J sandwiches for breakfast, cause that's what Lil wanted. Then I decided to try to get down the outside Christmas stuff from the attic. My sister came over to help and we managed to get it down with no injuries!! Lil and I then worked on getting stuff up outside, even though I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, I'm glad to have some of it done. I would have kept working if 80% of the lights didn't have half a string out. Nothing worse than Christmas lights that don't work!!! I had enough, and threw them all in a tub for Rob to mess with, that is so not my job!! Lil and I went to hang out with Grammy after I got my hair done. Needless to say, we didn't get home from grammy's till after 1am. Lil was asleep and slept all the way home, but was wide awake when we got her pj's on. So she laid in my bed and watched her favorite show, Billy the Exterminator. I know she was still awake at 3am, when the tv went off, cause she was not happy!! I did convince her that Billy would be on another day, so we don't have to watch it like it's never coming on again!!! Oh the child and her crazy shows!!

Totally off the subject, but totally has to do with Billy the Exterminator. One night Lil and I were watching Billy, he had caught a squirrel in someone's attic and had it in a cage to take and release in the woods. When he got to where he was releasing it, the squirrel had it's foot caught in the cage and he was worried about it and had to cut the cage, to save the squirrels foot. Of course he was talking to the squirrel as all of this was going on, and talking to himself. He said to himself, this squirrel is pissed off, come on buddy, don't be so pissed, you're going to hurt yourself, things like that. Fast forward to bedtime, Lil and I are walking back to her bedroom and she stops, has this really serious look on her face, puts her hands out in front her, and says "Mom, that squirrel was really pissed of, wasn't he mom??" Oh Lord, the look on her face and the words from her mouth almost sent me to the ground with laughter. I kept my composure as much as I could, then told her yes he was, but that is not a word that pretty little girls should say. Of course she said, "when I get big, can I say that word Mom???" Of course my child would pick up on the worst word in the whole show!!!

Back to the weekend....we are doing nothing today, but watching Football, washing sheets, and waiting for Daddy to come.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!!!

xoxo

Maybe, Just Maybe....

2010-11-18T21:25:00.002-05:00

Maybe, I'll start to blog again..just maybe.

Hubby headed out for some deer hunting with the family for the weekend. So it's girl time!!!

A few lovely ladies will be joining me tomorrow for some scrap time, and maybe a few drinks too. I think I'm going to jump on the December Daily bandwagon. That will be my project for tomorrow night. Lets hope I can find some creativity, wish me luck!!!

Saturday, Lil and I may put up some outside Christmas decorations if the weather cooperates!! We'll get everything but the roof done, then daddy can do the roof while we watch from inside the warm house!! Then Saturday night, it's time to get all of this gray hair covered and this mop cut, it's just crazy how fast my hair grows, so I think I'm going to go darker this time, we'll see!! I'm so easy going, that I'll just let Sarah do her thing!! Can't wait!! I'm sure Saturday night will include some Grammy time too!!

See, so exciting.....NOT!! I'll share some photos soon!!

Have a great weekend!!!

xoxo

Thank A Veteran Today!!

2010-11-11T08:56:00.002-05:00

Don't forget that our freedoms are because of our Vet's and all of our military members....past, present and future. Please take the time to thank them today and say a prayer for all of those who are serving and continue to fight for our freedom!!!

Thank You from the bottom of my heart, you are all Hero's!!!!

Happy 235th Marines!!!

2010-11-10T09:34:00.007-05:00

Happy Birthday Marines!!!

To my Daddy....I am so lucky that your are mine!! Not only are you an amazing Dad, but an amazing Marine!! I am so proud to be your daughter, you will ALWAYS be my HERO!!! I love you!!!

To any other Marines who may read this and have come into my life, I'm so proud to know you all...THANK YOU and Happiest of Birthday's to you!!!

Semper Fi!!!

xoxo

Can you believe it?????

2010-03-01T13:10:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm alive and well. I thought I would shock you all and blog for a change! It's really hard to blog when you honestly don't have anything exciting to blog about. Cause ya know, my life is rather boring!!!

What's new with us???? I guess the biggest and most important thing that has happened since I blogged last, Rob has a job!!! Woo Hoo!!! He has been working since January, and life is now much easier!!! We have learned a lot about the things we can live with out and the things we wasted our money on before. No more for us, we are changed people!!! We have no credit cards, we are out of debt and we plan on staying that way!!! Rob is loving his job, great people, great company!!! I know he is glad to be back to work!!

As for me, well, same old, same old. Daycare is keeping me plenty busy, I've got great kids, who on occasion, make me totally insane!! But I love them anyway!!! I haven't done much scrapping or crafting, I just haven't found the time. Well....let me rephase that, I've become VERY lazy lately and sleep and doing nothing have sounded better. I think it's just the weather...I need sun in my life and we haven't had much of that lately!! Although today is bright and sunny and I'm feeling great!! Not to mention that Facebook is seriously addicting!!! I'm trying to do better about being on there!!

Our foster daughter whom we've had since September, is officialy living with her adoptive parents. She is VERY loved and has great parents, and I know she is going to have a wonderful life!!! We are looking forward to watching her grow, as her adoptive parents have said we can still see her and such!! We've now had our last two foster placements result in happy endings, and WOW does that make our job as foster parents so much better!! I'm sure after the happy endings our next placement will be all out hell!! Oh well, we take the good with the bad and just hope the best for all of "our" kids!!

As for Lily, she turned 4 at the end of January. I was really hoping that when she turned 4 she would snap out of her naughtiness, but not so much!! Three was not any fun, and I can see 4 is going to be great too!! No really, she really is a angel baby about 80% of the time, but you better run like hell for the other 20%. She can be UGLY!!! (yes, i'm told she may have gotten that me, and that I probably deserve it all for the hell I put my Mom through) We have started a responsibility chart for Lily, and she is actually improving. She has things she has to do each day to earn her smilies. At the end of the week, she earns a quarter for each smilie (side note, Lil who is supposed to be resting, just appeared and as I told her back to her room, she says, I just need to hug you Mommy....it's a good thing she's cute) Anyhow...for each smilie she doesn't earn, she owes me a quarter. At the end of the week, we pay her out. She gets half of the money to her piggy bank, then the other half we divide in two and she puts half of that into her spend jar, and the other half into her give back jar. It's been hard for her to understand the give back jar, but I think she's finally got it!! There is one smilie she has had the most trouble with, and that would be the "keeping her hands to herself", I think she only earned 3 of those last week. We'll get there I'm sure!!! Her things she has to do each day are: Get dressed, Make her bed, brush her teeth, keep her hands and feet to herself, say please and thank you, and clean her room every night before bed. We've only been at this for 3 weeks, so hopefully we will continue to see improvement!! In other Lily news, she is loving her dance class and looks forward to going each week!! She also loves that Papa or Grammy pick her up to take her and most of the time, she goes to their house afterwards. We are so lucky to have Papa and Grammy to help out!! We would have had to take her out of dance, had they not been able to help us out since Rob got a job. Thank you Papa and Grammy, you a loved and appreciated soooooooo much!!

I don't even know what else to say, cause this post is just a lot of ramblings....I'll TRY to do better, then maybe my posts won't be all over the place!!
xoxo

Thank A Veteran Today!

2009-11-11T08:23:00.005-05:00

This video so made my cry!! I have been to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier and it is a powerful place!!! I could have sat all day in silence.....

Please remember to thank a Veteran today, our freedoms are because of them!! Thank our active duty Soldiers too, they continue to keep us safe and make sacrifices every day for US!!!

(Don't forget to pause the playlist before watching the video)

Happy Marine Corps Birthday Daddy!!

2009-11-10T13:52:00.005-05:00

Happy 234 Birthday Marines!!

I Love You Daddy, you will always be my hero!!!

Semper Fi

To my Marine friends, thank you for your service, I'm honored to have you in my life!!
Happy Birthday!!

xoxo

2009-11-05T10:31:00.002-05:00

I received this blog award from my online friend Julie, you should stop over and check her out, she is super talented!! Not to mention, I think that she's trying to get me to blog more!! LOL!!

The rules are this: I need to pass this on to five people. Post on their blog that I gave them this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in one word. (ok, I can't answer in one word!!) So, I am passing this award onto, Sasha, Mandie, Shell and Traci.

Where is your cell phone? Purse
Your hair? Messy
Your mother? Best Friend
Your father? My Hero
Your favorite food? Mexican
Your dream last night? Nada
Your favorite drink? Diet Coke
Your dream/goal? For hubby to find a job!
What room are you in? LivingRoom
Your hobby? scrapbooking
Your fear? Something happening to the princess!
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Right were I'm at now, except hubby to have a job!
Where were you last night? Home
Something that you aren't? Mean, i'm usually too nice
Muffins? Poppy Seed
Wish list item? Crossover
Where did you grow up? Everywhere, I moved every three years (Michigan, California, Illinois, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina and some of those states twice!)
Last thing you did? Fed the Baby
What are you wearing? Clothes
Your tv? Off
Your pets? Getting Old
Friends? The greatest
Your life? Many people have it worse, we're making it!!
Your mood? Upbeat
Missing someone? Grandpa
Vehicle? I have a very old Eddie Bauer Explorer that I love!!!! I will drive it til it falls apart around me!!
Something you are not wearing? Makeup
Your favorite store? Build A Bear
Your favorite color? Pink
When was the last time you laughed? This morning
Last time you cried? Lastnight, happy tears as Lily sang "our" song to me!! You are my sunshine makes my heart melt every time she sings it!!
Your best friend? Jodie
One place that I go to over and over? Mom and Dad's
Facebook? Too Much
Favorite place to eat? Belt Line Bar and Mongolian BBQ

So people, I blog!!! Just not very often!!! LOL!! I still haven't posted Lily's dance class photos, I will do that this week!!! Hmmmm, I think I've said that before!!!

xoxo

I got Scrappy!!!!

2009-10-12T10:09:00.005-04:00

I did this lo for the Point Blank Period challenge. I love the way this one turned out!! The prompt was Get Over It, and you have certain rules to follow, if you haven't been to check out PBP, you really should!!

This one I did for These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things challenge. The prompt was your favorite time of the day. I'm finally getting going on some of these prompts, be sure to stop over and check out TAAFOMFT!!

Just a lo of last year on Halloween!

Grammy and Lily

My Sissy!!! She will hate me for posting this, but I love this photo!!! Then again, she'll probably will never look here!! LOL

I know these photos are terrible, but that's what happens when you have no sun and all rain for DAYS ON END!!! UGHH!!!

I keep saying that I'm going to blog way more, but no, it just has not happened!!! Maybe I'll surprise you tomorrow and post photos of Lily dressed and ready to go to dance class!!

xoxo

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-09-22T14:14:00.002-04:00

Be sure to stop and check out this super cute jewelry!!!!!

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Thanks for sharing Mandie!!

I'm Back........

2009-08-10T13:18:00.003-04:00

Since I've got nothing better to do with my time, heck, I guess I'll blog!!!

What's new????? Lots and lots to share.

First off, we are without power and I'm typing this from my sister's house. We had some straight line winds come in yesterday, and we lost power about 19 hours ago, and according to the power company we're looking at power again Wednesday night about 11 pm. Hello people, I need to work!!! I can't really run a daycare with no power, cause for us, that means no water, along with no power!! We didn't have any damage to our home, but 2 miles down the road it's a MESS!!! Fruitport was CRAZY!!! So many trees down, power lines, trees on houses, it was unbelievable!!!! We drove through last night and I was just shocked!!!! Now they aren't letting anyone through the village!! So we can only hope for power before Wednesday!!! Keep your fingers crossed!!

We are heading to the Big D this weekend to see a Tigers game!! Lily will get to her first baseball game!! We are going with the whole family, Mom and Dad, Robynn and Wally and us. We are really looking forward to the game, and the visit we will have with our dear friend the "Jones'" No one told me that going to a baseball game was so expensive!!!! Not to mention Lily's ticket was as much as ours!!!

Next weekend I will be heading back to Big D to see Kenny Chesney!!!!!! I know, I know, YES, I've seen him a million times, but I just can't get enough!!!! Jodie got us tickets from the casino, so this is an all expenses paid trip, minus the gas money!! We are staying at the casino, and I'm sure fun will be had!!! Thanks Jod!!!!

What else is knew??? Ummmm, well our sweet foster daughter is now living HAPPILY with her Mommy and Daddy and her two brothers and we know she is extremely happy!!! Her Mommy came to Michigan to get to know B and she is just awesome, and we have totally made her a family member now!!!! It's great to know that there are happy endings, and we are happy to have been a part of that!!! Someday, I will share photos of the sweet little B and her family, just know B is a happy girl surrounded by so much love and will have a wonderful life!!!! Love you B and Lisa!!!

Lily is doing wonderful, she is becoming such a lady!! We will be signing her up for dance next week!! I'm so excited!!! Lil has totally enjoyed the summer, we have camped for 10 days by the beach, swam in Auntie Wendy and Auntie Heather's pool, spent lots of time with Grammy and Papa, and loves being outside!!! She is our little dirt troll!!!! I'll be sure to put photos up once our power gets back up!!!

Hope all is well with my blog land family!!!! (Luz, are you impressed, that I'm here???)

xoxo

Remembering those who served and are serving....

2009-05-25T14:21:00.006-04:00

We are forever grateful, Thank You!!!

Yes, I am still here!!! Photos from today as we headed off to the parade in Fruitport! We had a busy weekend with lots going on, but wanted to at least post a new photo of Lily!!

I'll be back.....sooner than later!!!
xoxo

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T14:28:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentines Day from the Princess and I!!
xoxo

Compassion Art

2009-02-02T09:28:00.002-05:00

I found this on my friend Mandie's blog and want to help her spread the word for such an awesome cause!! I think that this is SO cool. Basically, a bunch of christian song writers got together and decided that they wanted to make a difference. A difference in the world. They got together and wrote songs for a purpose: To give every cent that is ever made from those songs to 4 different organizations in hopes that they would make a difference- Hand Of Hope, Stop The Traffik, Ray Of Hope, and Watoto. CompassionArt has a platform to touch these people. People who are dying everyday from hunger, AIDS, lack of clean water- you name it. Young children are being sold into sexual slavery and their lives are being ruined, tormented, destroyed. Children are orphaned everyday and see no hope ahead for their own lives. Children who are never named, because their parents know that they most likely won't live long. It's not only for children, though. This is about every person out there who is without hope. Every person who is living in poverty and does not have the means to pull themselves and their families out. My goal is to help Mandie spread awareness of this project

Be sure to check out Compassion Art!

My Baby is 3 today!!!!

2009-01-27T10:05:00.007-05:00

Hard to believe that my princess is 3!!! Time sure flies!! She really wanted no part of the camera this morning, but I had to get a least a picture or two! She is so excited to head out to Chuck E Cheese tonight, that's the first thing she asked this morning when she got up, that and if it was time to have Tinkerbell cake. She is getting be such a big girl, if only she was potty trained!!!

Oh how times have changed, I can't believe how much she has grown in two years!!

I'm sure I'll have more photos to share after tonight!!
Hope all is well with everyone!!
xoxo

HE GOT IT!!!!!

2009-01-07T16:27:00.000-05:00

ROB HAD AN INTERVIEW TODAY AND HE GOT HIRED ON THE SPOT!!! IT'S A CONTRACT JOB THAT SHOULD LAST FOR ABOUT A YEAR, AND HAS THE POSSIBILTY OF LEADING INTO SOME GOOD THINGS!!!!

THIS HOUSE FEELS AS IF A WEIGHT HAS BEEN LIFTED!!!!

I'm still here!!!

2009-01-07T10:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, I am still here!!! Lots to blog about but I just haven't made the time!!! I have lots of photos to post, but I just don't feel like it right now!! So I thought I would post this that I found on my friend Sasha's blog. I'll be back later this week for a new post!!

Everything I've done is in bold

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii (lived there for 3 years)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Held a praying mantis
9. Climbed a mountain (not very big ones)
10. Sang a solo (nobody wants to hear that!!)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (adopting the princess was the best moment of my life)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (only tomatoes)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon (i'm sure I would keel over and die)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagra Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Have your portrait painted
48. Gone deep see fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Walked in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a Business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (damn atm slips, why did I have to forget a BIG purchase)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (not a chance)
72. Pieced a quilt (I can say i've tried)
73. Stood in Times Square (someday I will be there for New Year's Eve)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (back in my young, dumb years)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published in a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (front page of the 4th of July edition, they did an article on me and my home, for being so patriotic)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

I've Been Tagged!!!

2008-12-05T21:10:00.002-05:00

My super sweet friend Julie tagged me, so here it goes!!

So Here are the rules...Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends! Try not to be lame and spoil the fun! If you get tagged, copy this entire survey and paste into your own blog, change all of the answers so that they apply to you. Then visit the profiles of some of your friends and "Tag" them by simply leaving a comment, asking them to visit your blog, and state that they have been Tagged! The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known! Some of you may get tagged several times, so they can always refer back to your blog for your answers.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:28 am, I was running late!
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? It's been so long, I can't remember!
4.What is your favorite TV show? Grey's Anatomy and I'm a reality show junkie!!
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Diet Coke, I know, how sad is that!
6. What is your middle name? Renee
7. What food do you dislike? SEAFOOD......yuck!! (me too!!)
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Umm, I would say the new Pink
9.What kind of car do you drive? A VERY old Eddie Bauer Explorer named Eddie. I just can't part with him!! I'll drive him till he rusts out around me!!
10. Favorite sandwich? Turkey
11. What characteristic do you despise? People who are nice to your face and the minute you walk away their mouths just start running!!!
12. Favorite item of clothing? Jeans
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia
14. Favorite brand of clothing? I love Tommy H!
15. Where would you retire to? Right where I'm at!!
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? My surprise 35th birthday party!!
17. Favorite sport to watch? NFL Football baby!!
18. Furthest place you are "tagging" this? Not sure yet
19. Person you expect to send it back first? Who knows!
20. When is your birthday? August 4th
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night, I hate mornings!!
22. What is your shoe size? 7 1/2
23. Pets? 3, an 11 1/2 year old Australian Shepard, a 5 year old black lab, and a 12 year old cat
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I wish I could tell you that hubby found a job, but nope, nothing exciting!!
25. What did you want to be when you were little? A Mommy
26. How are you today? Better, coming out of a couple day pity party!
27. What is your favorite candy? Almond Joy
28. What is your favorite flower? Star Gazer Lily
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Any day that hubby gets a job.
30. What's your full name? Lori Renee Suchecki Borntreger
31.What are you listening to right now? Rob and Ryan playing Play Station, and Lily and Dylan playing.
32. What was the last thing you ate? A cracker
33. Do you wish on stars? Absolutely!!
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Hot Pink
35. How is the weather right now? Cold and Snowy
36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Tracy
37. Favorite soft drink? Diet Coke
38. Favorite restaurant? Olive Garden
39. Real hair color? Brown
40. What was your favorite toy as a child? Pooh
41. Hugs or kisses? BOTH :)
42. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate
43. Coffee or tea? Neither
44. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes!
45. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday, more of that pity party thing!
46. What is under your bed? Dust Bunnies
47. What did you do last night? Watched Grey's and addressed Christmas Cards
48. What are you afraid of? Losing my parents, my hubby, and my princess, and my sister
49. Salty or sweet? Salty than sweet, that would explain why my ass is sooo big!!
50. How many keys on your key ring? 8
51. Favorite day of the week? Friday
52. If you can choose your talent, what would it be? Artist
53. Do you make friends easily? Yes
54. How many people will you tag this to? 4

55. How many will respond? Hopefully all of them

Ok, I tag
Luz
Heather W.
Shanna
Tracy D.

Have a great weekend and pictures to come soon!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-11-26T16:24:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to wish you all a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Don't forget to count your blessings!!!

It's Snowing!!!!!!

2008-11-17T11:03:00.003-05:00

I LOVE SNOW!!!!

In my book, if it's cold, it might just as well snow!!!

Look how beautiful it is!!!

Ok, now that I look at these, it really doesn't look that pretty, but it will!!! As soon as the snow covers all of the ugly brown from fall!!! And actually it looks so much better in person!

Have a great week!!!
xoxo

Honoring Our Veterans!

2008-11-11T08:51:00.002-05:00

We say “thank you” when a store clerk hands us

change. We wave “thank you” when a motorist yields
us the right of way. We thank our friends when they
pay us compliments. If you think about it, we probably
use the words “thank you” or some variation of it at
least a dozen times a day. But how do you thank
someone for saving the world?
When you ask young men and women to endure
great hardships, drastically change their lifestyles and
possibly give their lives for you – the words “thank
you,” seem woefully insufficient.
Simply put, we owe them a debt that can never
be re-paid!
taken from: American Legion Veterans Day Speech 2008

Happy Marine Corps Birthday Daddy!!

2008-11-09T20:59:00.007-05:00

Happy 233rd Birthday Marines!!!!

I love you Daddy and so PROUD to be your daughter!!!! You will always be my HERO!!!

Semper Fi

ETA: To Luz, Dave and Bucky-Happy Birthday!!!

Halloween Fun!!

2008-11-01T13:04:00.021-04:00

Good Lord, it took me forever to load all of these photos!!

Lily waiting to carve pumpkins!

Lily picked out our designs for the pumpkins, she picked out an owl for Mommy, and she wanted to help poke holes!

She was not impressed with digging the guts out of the pumpkin, so she used a pumpkin scoop and did ok

Ahhhh, a photo for a daycare craft!

Here is the peanut ready to head out to the pumpkin patch

Riding a pony at the pumpkin patch, she thinks she's such a big girl!

Here's the princess going on her first ride all alone! They drove the kids around in this piggy train, and as Lily rode away, I had a tear in my eye! She is growing so fast and had no problem doing this all on her own! She even had to ride twice!!

She never stopped steering!!

Bye Bye

Here's our little punk princess ready to go trick or treating! Notice the owie next to her eye?? She fell the night we carved pumpkins and has a big scab and a black and blue eye!

With our pumpkins

She had an obsession with trying to get her nail polish off! She loves to have her nails painted, but loves even more to take it off!!

Checking some things out along our way!

Trick or Treating with Papa and Grammy! Lily had her own posse last night, we called ourselves the LOP (Lily's own Posse). Six adults and one kid trick or treating, she couldn't possibly be any more loved!!

Daddy and Lily

Lil needed a break along the way!

At home with all her loot!!

This is how the princess looked this morning. Daddy laughed and said she looked like she had a rough night at the bar! LOL!!

Lily had a ball last night, after every house she asked if we could trick or treat some more! She had great manners, always saying thank you after candy was put into her bucket!

This morning we busted her after she had taken her candy bucket off the counter and eating it!! Little stinker!!!

I know I haven't blogged much, but I'll try to get better!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T10:52:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween Everybody!!!!

Be safe and have fun!!!

I'll have lots of photos to share over the weekend, I'm sure!!

I'm on a Roll Now!!!!

2008-10-13T15:07:00.004-04:00

I'm on a roll, another video!!! Woo Hoo!!! I promise when I do this again, I will not talk so close to the camera!!! LOL!!!

But at least you get to see the princess!!

(don't forget to hit pause on the playlist)

Our First Video

2008-10-13T14:12:00.004-04:00

(for those that don't know, be sure to hit pause on my play list)

Ok, here it is, our first video!! I know it's a little annoying, I have a big mouth and Lily is pretty quiet, so bear with us!! Not to mention, I had no idea how Rob's camera worked, but I think I've got it now!

If this video works, I have a couple more from the same day to share. This video was taken a couple of weeks ago, and for real, the princess just makes me smile!!! As you can see, Lily was not that interested in being taped, and you have to laugh when she sees a mosquito in the middle of singing her song and she says I smash him!!

More to come tomorrow with an update!!

Ok, no one told me how long a 1 and 1/2 min video takes to upload!! Good Lord!!

Blog Overload!!!!

2008-09-28T12:05:00.006-04:00

Damn, I've been gone awhile!!! So grab a drink, cause this post is going to be a long one!

First off, I know this is a bad photo of the peanut, but I bought this shirt a long time ago on a trip to VA, and it finally fits her!!!! So this ones for my girl Luz, I know she'll love it!!

Can you even believe that my child walks around the house like this and thinks it's hilarious?? She has always walked on her tippy toes, but this is the new thing. Seriusly, have you tried this??? Yes, I have, but there is no way in hell I can do it!! She tells me she is a ballarenia. I've even had the Dr. check her out, and he says there is nothing wrong. I do have to tell her to walk on the bottom of her feet, then she'll do it for a little while, then right back to her toes!!

Now down to the nitty gritty, no Rob has not found a job yet. So needless to say our house is a little STRESSED at the moment!!!! He had an interview on Monday, and we haven't heard anything from that. They said it would take about a week for them to make a decision. Unfortunately the economy in MI is so bad right now, I'm starting to freak out that he won't find a job!!!! Please keep your fingers crossed and prayers going up for some good news REALLY soon!! Rob is doing some side work for a local business man just to help out with some cash (cause we really need it)!! We are thankful that he has a little work for him, even though it's just misc. odd jobs for him, it's better than nothing!!

Anyone out there sell Silpada jewelry or just love it?? I love their jewelry and I am going to start selling it. Something for a little extra cash. Jodie and are going to look at everything on Tuesday and go from there.

To all of you out there with debt, pay it off NOW!!! Don't wait till later!! If we had already paid off all of our debt before Rob was laid off, it wouldn't be a big deal, but since we still have 3 1/2 years to go, this really sucks!!!! You just never know when something like this will happen, so pay it off now!!!!!

I tried a couple of weeks ago to quit smoking, I was taking Chantix. Well, lets just say that I haven't quit smoking YET! I took the Chantix for those two weeks and as soon as I had to move to the higher dose, it made me sick. After three days of being sick, I finally said no more! So now, I'm trying to quit on my own! It's going to be a slower process, but I'm going to work at it! I'm down to like 5 smokes a day, I just am going to keep going down from that number and hope it works!! Wish me luck!!!

On another health note, will somebody PLEASE kick me in the ass to get me to stop being so lazy and exercise all this extra weight I am carrying away!!!! Damn, pretty soon I'm not going to fit into my damn clothes!!!!! And we all know that I can't afford to buy more!! I am in this rut and I can't get out!! I have no motivation!!! You would think since we are doing pretty much nothing while we have no money, that I could exercise!! I mean, it's free, I have a treadmill and an weight bench/2 station machine downstairs, so I have no excuse at all!!!! My daughter would love to go for walks or bike rides too, pretty soon the snow will be falling and we won't be able to do those things, so you'd think I'd be doing it now!!!! Hello Lori????!!

I did get to go have some fun last weekend!! Every September (and May) we go up north to Karen's place to celebrate her Birthday with a girls weekend away. I said I couldn't go this year for obvious reasons, the closer it got, I wanted to go, I don't miss girl's weekends away!!! So I got to go, thanks to Jodie!!! So I decided to surprise the girls!!! I knew they would be sitting at the Oak Grove Tavern by the time we got there, so I walked in and surprised them!! As always we had a wonderful time!!! These are the girls that I would call my closest friends!!! I can't imagine my life without these girls in it!!!! Now, I wish I had a photo of the one armed man that came walking out of the woods at 2:30 in the morning, but I don't!!! We had just got back to the cabin and we were standing outside and low and behold from out of the wood walks a one armed man who was talking to himself, he couldn't find his car!!! Hello, you've just walked 15 mins from the bar, your car is not here!!!!! Anyhow, we always have some crazy funny stories from our girls weekends, but this one takes the cake!!!! I hardly took any photos and the group photo we always take for some reason won't download. So here are just two photos!!!

Karen and LoLo

Jodie and Wendy

I haven't scrapped much lately, but I do have some lo's to show you that I just downloaded from the camera.

Here are two ATC swaps that I have done in the last month or so:

Well, I guess it's time to check out, football is coming on!!!

I did do a video of Lily and as soon as I can figure out how to post it I will!!

Have a great week!!!

xoxo

What Color Are You??

2008-09-17T22:58:00.001-04:00

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

The Social Butterfly Collection

2008-09-15T15:36:00.004-04:00

OMG, I LOVE this new collection that just came out today over at SIS!!!

Be sure to stop HERE and check out all the details!!!

I love the collections offered by SIS, they push me to use products that I might never choose, and I always like how my lo's turn out!

If you need a little push or just some cool new stuff, check out their collections!!

Happy Monday everybody!!

We Will Never Forget!

2008-09-11T08:35:00.002-04:00

Hard Times Ahead!

2008-09-07T18:28:00.002-04:00

No cute photos of the baby today, but I will post some this week!

We got some BAD news on Friday that we weren't expecting, sent us into shock and panic!! After 11 years on the job, Rob was laid off indefinitely. It's a pretty scary situation!!! You just don't think it will happen to you!! So now Rob has to find a new job FAST!! It will probably take two jobs for him to make what he made, it will also mean I will get a second job too. We are on a budget plan now and we CAN'T go off of it, we've come to far!!!

Not much sleep to be had here, too much worrying going on!!! I'm so afraid that we will lose everything unless he can find something fast!! Please pray that this is a blessing in disguise, that Rob will find something QUICK!!!

xoxo

My Girl Is Getting So Big!!!

2008-08-28T09:56:00.007-04:00

Look at my little stinker!!! She didn't believe me when I told her that we had just used the rest of the peanut butter, so I gave her the jar. Yes, she did manage to get a little more out!!

Clean up after this was really fun!!! NOT

My baby girl never wears her hair down, and look at this!! She usually wears it up cause I can't stand her hair hanging in her face yet I'm still not ready to get her very first hair cut!! Maybe when she's three in a few months I'll get the courage to cut it!! I can't believe how long it has gotten and how much of a big girl she is becoming!!! Kinda makes me sad!!

Look at that mop!!

I'm tired today!!! I'm so glad the week is almost over and it's a three day weekend!! We've decided to stay home for the long weekend!! We've got plenty to do here at home, and it will save us some money. I've got three sets of ATC's to get done and there's no time like the present right?? What do you all have planned for the long weekend??

I drafted last night for fantasy football!!! Had a blast!! Not so sure about my team, but hey, it can't be worse than my last years team!!! I'm looking forward to football season!!! You all know what I'll be doing on Monday nights!!! Woo Hoo!!! Even Lily gets into "touchdown" as she calls football, she tend to copy what I do when I'm yelling and screaming at the tv. I really have to watch what I say!!! Are you ready for some football???

Not much else going on! I'm thinking about getting a second job in the evenings. Not looking forward to it but I don't want to go off my budget, so I have to do what I have to do!! We are doing great on the budget, and I won't give up, we WILL have everything payed off in 4 years or less!!!!

Happy Thursday!!
xoxo

Check This Out!

2008-08-27T17:34:00.002-04:00

Check out my new widget to the right!!! Scrap In Style TV affiliate, how cool is that?? You too can be an affiliate!! It's as easy as posting the banner on your blog. If you want to become an affiliate, just click on the link and sign up. You can earn some great benefits that come along with being an affiliate!!! Anybody who signs up through my link, send me an email and let me know you did and I will put your name into a drawing for a RAK!!!

So Cool!!

2008-08-27T11:28:00.006-04:00

Some cool news to share, I was given this blog award from my girl Sasha!!

Thanks so much to Sassy Sasha for my Gold Card blog award.

The Rules of this award are:

1. Only 5 people allowed.

2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog

3. one has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.

4. you must link back to whoever gave you the award.

So I would like to send this award to...

Since, I know by my Neo counter that I have readers from other parts of the world, but I have no idea who they are, I sent my last award to my sweet cousin instead!! It took me awhile to get this done, but YAY, I did it!!!!

I would love for those of you who stop by to say hello!!! I love making new online friends!!

Stay tuned for a RAK next week!

Fantasy football draft tonight, Woo Hoo!!!!

xoxo

Tuesday Ramblings

2008-08-26T08:09:00.003-04:00

It's Tuesday and I'm tired already! I stayed up too late scrapbooking last night, but I had to get this challenge done for Sassy Sasha's Wacky Wednesday challenge, since a new one comes out tomorrow! Sasha comes out with some great ideas, and her journaling is amazing!

We had a super busy weekend!!! Friday night Rob and I went to an all class reunion and stayed out too late, but had a great time!! (maybe a little too much fun for me!)

Saturday we had our annual corn roast! It was hotter than hell all morning while we finished setting up, with rain in the forecast for later. Yep, it rained for awhile, but the party went on! The adults huddled under tents and the kids played in the rain. Lily loved it!! She wouldn't come in out of the rain no matter how hard we tried. By about 6 pm, I would guess, I stopped raining and the rest of the night was great!

Sunday I headed to Michigan Adventure with Robynn, and our friends who came down for the corn roast from Flint. Had a blast!!! We never even made it to the water park, but we road all the roller coasters, got soaked before we went home on a couple of water rides, laughed a lot and enjoyed spending time with them!! Mom and Dad bought me the ticket to get in for my Birthday, so I was able to go! I got to ride my first suspended roller coaster, and I loved it!!

Needless to say, by the time we all got home on Sunday night, we were EXHAUSTED!!!! In bed by 10:30 AND sleeping!!!

School will be starting soon and I'll be losing a few kids to school, so I'm really going to be broke!! The budget is going to kill me!! I had two kids that were going to start when school started, I've known about them since May. Well, guess what???? They aren't coming now!!! I think I better go out looking for a job at night!! UGHH!!!!

Tomorrow night is draft for Fantasy Football!!! I'm so excited!!! I'm ready for some Football!!!!

The kids are all starting to come now, so I must check out for now!!

xoxo

Check This Out!

2008-08-20T10:28:00.003-04:00

I'm sure that most of you know that my favorite place to hang out on the web is over at SIStv.
Great ladies, tons of inspiration, great challenges and awesome collections. Be sure to stop over and check us out!

Check out this super cool, funky, fabulous, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious collection about to be released over at SIStv boutique. This collection is available For PreOrder Until 8.24, Spend $50 and Get A $10 Gift Card! While you are there check out the rest of the boutique, there is some great stuff!!!

Happy Wednesday!!

A Girls Weekend Away!!

2008-08-19T09:52:00.009-04:00

Lily, Grammy and I had a great weekend away!! Rob took us out to the campground and dropped us off on Wednesday night! Just the girls, Woo Hoo!! Auntie Robynn came out on Friday night and stayed with us too. Lily just loves camping, she loves being outside, she loves to play in the dirt, she loves to shovel, she loves to watch the fire!! We spent most of the time relaxing, playing cards, heading to the beach and even a Saturday morning trip to Build a Bear! Rob and Papa came out Saturday night with Pizza and stayed the night too!

Here is my crazy child! We are so lucky the fire pit was not still hot from the night before, cause this is where I found her! She told me that her and her puppy were taking a bath!!

I have NEVER seen my child as dirty in her 2 1/2 years (and this photo just doesn't even show how dirty she really was). She loved every minute of it!!!

Grammy and Lily on the walk to the beach

Of course I had to put her in a tree for a photo

Here we are back at camp with her new Tommy the turtle! She picked out the turtle and wanted him to be a boy! She loves all of her animals from Build a Bear, but Sophie the monkey is her favorite!!

Awww....I just love this photo of Grammy and Lily!!! Lily loves her Grammy!!

Ok, I don't like this photo!! Then again, I don't like ANY photos of myself!!

Nothing better than a sunset over Lake Michigan!!

I've got more photos tomorrow of Lily playing on the beach!! She loved the beach!!!

Lots going on this week!! Meeting some new daycare parents tonight, tomorrow setting up for our annual family corn roast, Thursday night a beauty party, Friday night, an all class reunion, Saturday the corn roast, and Sunday, clean up!!! I need a nap, just thinking about it!!!

Peace Out!!

On A Happier Note.....

2008-08-12T14:20:00.008-04:00

Lots to say, but just too tired to say!!! So for today I'm just sharing photos of the princess!! She has been hamming it up lately!!! I included a couple of photos of the quilt that Grammy made for Lily's big girl bed. It is so adorable!!! Grammy embroidered on it with her name and such and it all turned out soooo cute!!! Thanks Grammy, we love it and you too!!

Thanks for all of your kind words yesterday, really means a lot!! Much love to ya!!

It's A Sad Day!!

2008-08-11T15:24:00.004-04:00

We lost our sweet dog Brody today. He has not been himself lately, and this afternoon I went outside with the kids and Brody was laying in his favorite spot in the dirt under some bushes. I didn't thing anything of it, I thought he was just sleeping, it's not unusual for him to just lay there where it's cool and watch the kids. About an hour later the kids told me Brody still hadn't moved, so I went to check on him. Well he wouldn't wake up and I could tell he wasn't breathing, so I tried to keep my composure (when really I was dying inside) and got the kids in the house and called hubby at work to come home. Rob is out in the back forty digging a spot for my boy to rest. I have to go out and put his americana bandana on and give him some loves. Brody has been the sweetest, best dog I have owned in my 35 years. He is going to be very missed!!

On that note, one of my day care kids, who happens to be my little cousin, is just the sweetest thing ever! He could tell I was very upset, he walked up to me with the biggest hug and told me he was sorry and that it would be ok!! Love that little guy, ok he's 8, but still he knew just what I needed!!

Help a Friend Out!!

2008-08-05T11:27:00.003-04:00

A very good friend of mine has made it into the top 5 of the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol. Her work is amazing and she so deserves to win, so if you would help her out please go vote!

In their quest to become the next Gallery Idol, the Top 5 has incorporated a silhouette into the design of their cards. It’s now up to you, the Paper Crafts online community to decide who will become the next Gallery Idol. Please cast your vote for your favorite quote card. REMEMBER: YOU MAY ONLY VOTE ONCE, SO CHOOSE WISELY!

You’ll have until noon (MST) on Thursday, August 7th to cast your vote for your favorite designer. THE Gallery Idol will be announced Friday August 8th, so make sure to stay tuned for the big announcement. Good luck, Top 5!

Here is the link:
Gallery Idol
Go to the card that says You Rock My World by Shanna Vineyard

Here is the link to Shanna's Blog:
My Next Thirty Years

Thanks so much!!!

Look What I Just Got!!!

2008-08-01T11:34:00.003-04:00

Absolutely beautiful!!! Not to mention my very favorite flower is in there-Stargazer Lily's
Seriously, how lucky am I??? Guess I'm gonna have to start celebrating from now till Monday!!

These flowers are from some of my very best friends in the world!! I'm so lucky to have the Alger family in my life!! We may not get to hang out like we used to, but I know they are always there for me. Sometimes for an ear, for a laugh, and sometimes even a kick in the pants if I need it!! Thanks for your friendship guys, it means the world to me!!! Love ya!!!

4 More Days!

2008-07-31T10:59:00.004-04:00

4 more days till the big 35!! Hard to believe another year has flown by!! Seems like just yesterday I was meeting some friends to go to GR to celebrate at one of my favorite restaraunts, and SURPRISE, we weren't going out, they were having a surprise party for me! They really got me!! I had no idea!! Not a clue-damn they are good!! This year going out with the girls on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to good friends, good conversation and good melon margaritas!!!

It's almost Friday and that is ALWAYS a good thing! We don't have plans for the weekend, hopefully get caught up on some housework, and move a swing set to Papa and Grammy's. Their neighbors have a swing set that Lily just loves to play on and their boys are older now, so we are moving it. Thanks so much Sparks family!! We love ya!!

Not much going on this week here. Rob has been working late every night to get a project out, so it's just been Lily and I. I managed to get some scrappin' done, one lo for SYC and two ATC holders. I've actually managed to do 3 weeks in a row over at SYC, hard to believe I haven't fallen off the wagon!! I made the ATC holders for the "Hottie" swap I was in and also for the "Sister to Sister" swap I was in. I'm so hooked on ATC's!!! Since I have nothing going on, I'll leave you with photos of what I did last night. (Sorry about the bad photos!!)

Heading Out!

2008-07-24T09:33:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post, Rob and I are heading out tonight on an adults only camping trip this weekend!! It's the annual canoe trip, that actually, nobody really canoes anymore, most of us have kayaks. Lots of fun to be had, lots of adult beverages, a bonfire, lots of Texas Hold Em and good friends. Side note to my girls: I'm gonna miss you all!! But rest assured I'll have drinks for ya!! Wish you were there with me!! You know who you are!!

Lily is spending the weekend with Grammy and Papa, and I'm sure she won't have any fun at all!!! Yay right!! She won't even want to come home!!

Not much as gone on since we've been back from vacation. Pretty mellow!!

I've have gotten lots of scrappin' done, I've even managed to get the challenges over at Scrap Your Crap done two weeks in a row!! Woo Hoo!! You should stop over and check them out, great ladies and great challenges!! Click over on that adorable pink skull blinkie to get there!
That is the great thing about being on a budget, I get lots of scrappin' done, and I'm using up the stash I have!!

Rob and I have made some decisions about Foster Parenting and I'll fill you in more about that next week!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

xoxo

Just Photos!!

2008-07-18T11:20:00.007-04:00

Just wanted to post some of the photos from our last night on vacation. I have not edited them yet, as you can see, they really need to be edited!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

The family Rob Lily and I, Mom and Dad, Robynn and Wally

My Brother in Law and My Sister
Wally and Robynn

Me and Rob, Wally and Robynn

Dad Lily and Mom

Our Family

(the only photo I have edited)

Friday Fill In's and Kayaking Trip Details

2008-07-11T15:18:00.002-04:00

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have all our debt paid off!!! (it's going to be a LONG 4 years!!!!!).

2. Milk is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator. (You have to have a lot of gallons of milk when you do daycare!!)

3. I never leave home without my cell phone and yes I know it's bad, but my smokes.

4. If I were a condiment, Pickles I would be because I could be sweet or sour depending on my mood!!.

5. Back stabbing bitches, bitches who say they are your friend but talk shit behind your back is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was the serial killer (read below for the details).

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to two more days of vacation, tomorrow my plans include lots of Malibu and Diet cause I haven't even had one yet and Sunday, I want to well really I don't want to, but we have to pack up and go home!

We had a great kayak trip yesterday, all 7 of us headed down the river. Rob and I have a big kayak that has room and a small seat for Lily (thanks Jod), we weren't sure how she would do, but I have to tell you, I have the BEST 2 year old EVER!!!! We were on the river for over 5 hours and she was AMAZING!!!!!! She had the best time, and was such a good girl!!! She sang, hung over the edge to splash in the water, helped her Daddy paddle, and I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful she was!!! I will have photos after the trip, cause we took disposable cameras with us.

Now on the the good part...... We had to park our truck with the trailer on it at the end so we could all get back, well guess what???? Dad locked the keys in the truck!!!! Mind you we are in the middle of BFE with 7 of us just standing around and it's 25 minutes driving 70 back to the other vehicles! So some dude pulls in and Dad talks him into driving him back to the other vehicle where the keys are. I'm here to tell you the dude looked like a serial killer!!! He said he was from Minnesota, driving a car with West Virginia license plates, and said he was here on business. Then he pulls up over by us and tells me how cute Lily is??? I was so paranoid that Dad wasn't coming back!!!!!!!! I chewed off all my nails, and was never so happy to see Dad pull back in, I ran up and gave him a big ol hug!!!

We did have a great time, and are sad we only have have 1 full day left!!! I'll check back in Sunday night after we are all settled in.

Vacation is Wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-09T19:29:00.015-04:00

Well, vacation is going wonderful!!! We are having good weather, and lots of rest and relaxation!! Lily is doing sooooooo good!!! She is having a ball!! Just a quick update, with photos in no particular order. Gotta love that we have internet this year! Hope you are all having a great week! We are heading home on Sunday and back to the grind! We are all heading out for a kayak trip tomorrow! This will be Lily's first REAL kayak trip, and it's about a 4 hour run, so keep your fingers crossed that all goes well!!

Here is a photo of Rob and Wally's excitement for today, emptying the shitter!!

I call this photo camping with the Clampets! We've got a lot of junk!!

Anna, these photos are just for you girl! Yes, we scrapped today!! Got six lo's done!! Lily hangin' out coloring while Mommy scraps!

More scrappin'

Water logged Princess

The first day here, she found the water and went right in, clothes and all!!

Say cheese!

Papa and Lily playing in the water

Daddy and Lily fishing

Lily's favorite thing to do here besides the water. Dirt, dirt, dirt!!! I have been calling her our little dirt troll!!

Lily dressed for the 4th of July

She was VERY unsure of the sparklers!

Auntie Robynn is scared of the sparklers!!! I finally got her to take one!!

Peace Out!!

We're on our way!!!

2008-07-02T23:55:00.002-04:00

HAPPY VACATION TO US!!!

We are so ready for vacation!! We are leaving tomorrow sometime before noon!! It's now almost midnight, and I think we're almost done packing! We spent the evening make 3 stops to pick up enough kayaks so the whole family can go together instead of going in shifts, loaded up the camper, bank, groceries, and picked up the house all since about 7 pm. Not to mention we had some serious storms and did all of this is in the rain!! UGHH!!! Never fails!!!

Lots to do in the morning: Lily has to go to the Dr. at 9:30, then drop Lily off to my Mom so she can go have lunch with Grammy and some of her co workers, finish picking up house, load bathroom stuff, hook up the camper and GO!!! Mom and Dad are bringing up Lily with them so Rob and I can get the trailer set up and everything done and not chase Lily away from the water.

Seriously, it's been a day from HELL!!!! Crazy kids freaking out from the storm, inconsiderate daycare parents (don't even get me going on this one!!!!), a Princess that REALLY needed her beauty sleep so she would stop whining!! (Nothing I hate more than whining), all I can say is I NEED A COORS LIGHT!!!!!

I know I'm rambling, it's time for me to check out!!

Be back in a week and a half!!!

Much Love!!

Where did June Go??????

2008-06-30T14:06:00.003-04:00

Seriously, time is flying by!!! I haven't posted any of our June happenings, so I'll give you a quick recap!!

Rob and I had our 11 year wedding anniversary on June 7th. Another, wow, where has all the time gone!!?? I'm so lucky to have Rob in my life! He is a great husband, a wonderful Daddy, and above all, he puts up with me!! LOL (just ask him, I'm not the easiest person to live with!!) Yes, sometimes he makes me crazy, but I can't imagine my life without him in it!!! I love you baby!! Here we are 11 years ago!! I would do that day all over again, and not change a thing!!! I had such a perfect day!! I have to tell you that I was really lazy getting this photo on here! This was the first photo that I came to and I took a picture of a picture!! Yep, pure laziness!!!
I got my hair cut again!! I get board so easily! I just want something fun and summery!! So I let her go at it and she cut it and gave me some caramel highlights to blend and hide some of my gray!! I know this is a bad photo, but ya know, I just can't take a good photo to save my life!!

Rob celebrated his 47th Birthday on June 22nd. We always go out to dinner with the family and the birthday person chooses where we eat. Well, Rob ALWAYS chooses the same place, cause I don't EVER go there. So we all headed to Red Lobster! Rob was a happy guy. Lily and I also took Rob to Red Robin for his free Birthday burger, now that's my kind of food, no seafood please!! Lily loved it when we embarrassed Rob and had the staff come over and do their Birthday thing!! She especially loved sharing a sundae with Daddy!!
Lily is doing great! Rob and I took last Friday off and took Lily to the zoo! She had so much fun, and it was great to spend some time with my two favorite people!! Lily was an angel!! She loved every second of checking out the animals. She got to pet sting rays, crabs, and a shark, she got to pet goats, sheep, cows, and chickens. She loved watching the crocodile. She liked the frog exhibit. She thought it was great that the bear was swimming in his pool, and the monkeys, she loved watching too!! We needed some quality family time, and it was wonderful!!

We are heading Up North on Thursday and will be gone on vacation for 10 days!!! Woo Hoo!!! We are camping at our favorite spot on the water!! We are going with Mom and Dad, Robynn and Wally and the three of us!! We are really looking forward to no work, no worries, just pure relaxation and fun!! (Yes, I am bringing my scrap stuff) We will be doing a kayaking trip, this will be Lily's first time in the Kayak for any length of time, should be interesting! I'm sure I'll have lots of photos upon my return!

I hope you are all having a great summer!! Take time and enjoy!!!

Scrappin' A Princess

2008-06-12T12:07:00.001-04:00

What's Your Toddler Training For?

My Result: True Performer

Wow. It's amazing how even 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds can really work the floor whenever a crowd gathers. Your toddler is a real people lover, so he/she naturally loves to share! Not one to shy from the spotlight, your agreeable, fun, friendly, and helpful child is someone other people quickly flock to. The fact that your little one is so comfortable with everyone he/she meets is just one sign of his/her naturally sparkling personality.

But with your toddler's high-profile personality, you can expect he/she will be concerned not only with pleasing him/herself, but others, too. So when your toddler's learning new tricks of the trade — whether walking, talking, or even potty training, it's important to give him/her lots of support, and maybe a role model when appropriate.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=toddlertrainingogt&c=50652

I Do Not Have A Green Thumb!!!

2008-06-05T08:39:00.006-04:00

I'll admit it, I'm not good with flowers! I love to go and buy them and plant them and put up hanging baskets and make the outside of our house look pretty....I go with the standard easy care kind ya know! Anyhow, I always put 3 fuschia hanging baskets in my front windows. They usually do great until I go on vacation in July and people forget to water them, but I've only had these damn things for 2 1/2 weeks and one is dying??? WTH?? I bought them all at the same time, from the same place and they are hanging in the same place, getting the same sun, being watered at the same time... so.... how can one be dying????? Anyone?? Can you tell I'm a little irritated??? I did some research and It's possible that I over watered it, but why aren't the other ones dying?? I use Miracle Grow and it has always done wonders for my plants, but I guess not this time. It also said if I did over water it, it probably won't come back, so I haven't watered it in like 4 days and it's not looking any better. I give up, I think I need to buy another hanging basket! Damn!!! Ok, rant over!!

I have been waiting to put Lily in her cute outfits I bought her in February and it's finally warm enough!! She looks so adorable!!! Sorry about the bad photo!!

I was in bed at 8:30 last night, I've got ANOTHER cold!! Let me tell ya, daycare at home makes for germs and sickness everywhere!! I have this dry hacking cough that just wouldn't stop last night so I drugged myself up with some cough medicine and some advil pm and crashed for the night. So far today I feel pretty good, let's hope I'm on the mend!! Nothing worse than a cold and cough when it's finally getting nice outside!!

We've had some very humid weather the last two day and rain. I know we need the rain, but we've had like 4 days and more to come! I need sun in my life, otherwise I get a little crabby!!

It's almost the weekend, YAY!!! We have another weekend of staying home and hopefully getting some work done planned!

Give a Man a Chainsaw......

2008-06-04T10:13:00.013-04:00

We had a wind storm the Sunday night of Memorial Weekend and a branch off of our tree in the backyard broke and landed on our roof. There was no damage to our roof on the house, just the back patio roof. The problem was trying to figure out how to take it down without completely trashing the back patio roof, cause the branch was partialy attached. So put my Hubby, my Dad and my BIL in my backyard with two chainsaws and yep, they got it down! Now mind you, some of the things they were doing, they had no business doing with chainsaws in their hands, seriously somebody could have gotten seriously hurt!!! Not to mention give my Dad a chainsaw and he'll remove every tree he can see! So not only did they trim the tree with the issues, but a few others too!!

The branch on our roof

Ladders, Straps, Chain Saws. Now look closely, if my hubby slipped with that chain saw, my Dad would have some serious problems. DUH!! Not to mention, my hubby is standing on a door across the patio roof, cause it's not meant to stand on!! HELLO!!

I mean seriously, how safe does this look to you??

I had to go in the house, I just couldn't watch anymore!!

Actually, I think this is what sent me in the house!!

Well, they got if off the roof with minimal damage to the patio roof!

Now after I've been in the house for awhile, I go back out to see what they are doing, and look what I find, my Dad up HIGH in the tree, with a chainsaw, tied to the tree with a rope.

Hello, dude, you are not a spring chicken anymore, what the hell are you doing???

Good God, somebody get my Dad out of the damn tree!!

Thank the lord, he is finally getting down!!

So somehow, amazingly enough, no one was hurt, not counting the scratches and scrapes!!
Thanks Dad and Wally for helping Rob out!!

Yep, I jumped on the bandwagon too!!

2008-06-03T13:38:00.003-04:00

I decided to try out Scrapblog and see what I could come up with. Here it is. I did have fun doing this, I don't think I could ever go all digi. I like paper and embellishments way too much!! I'm sure I'll be playing around with this though!!

I'll be back soon with some photos of what happens when you give men chain saws to cut down one branch!

Memorial Weekend Fun

2008-05-29T09:18:00.010-04:00

We spent Memorial weekend at home this year. We had lots of yard work to do, and we actually got it all done!! I went and bought flowers and got that all done, and I'm even trying to grow some sunflowers this year. Mind you, I am no green thumb, so my guess is, they won't ever sprout!
We spent Friday night at the carnival then the fireworks. Lily had so much fun!! As you will see from the photos, Papa and Grammy joined us and well, no one really exists when Papa is around! He rode almost all of the rides with Lily, I only rode a few. Thank goodness for Papa's cause there was no way my big ole' ass was walking back up the stairs to slide as many times as he did. I only had to ride once!!

Waiting for the firworks

Fishin'

Riding the dragon with Papa and Auntie Robynn

Look Mom, no hands!

Lily was giving a thumbs up to her entourage watching her ride

I don't even know how many times Papa and Lily rode this slide

Gotta love a Papa who will ride in the elephants!!

Watching fireworks. She loves fireworks, she calls them "bams"

We went to the parade on Monday and Lily loved that too!!! She waved to everybody and shook her booty when the bands came!! All in all a great weekend!!

Hope you all had a good weekend too!!

For Mature Audiences Only!

2008-05-28T10:29:00.012-04:00

I'm finally getting around to posting a few photos of girls weekend Up North! Yeah, we're a little crazy when we get away, but we have some fun!!! Love these girls!!!

Heading out for the night

My Baby Sis

Now you may be asking yourself, WHY??? I had to try to get a photo of this! How much more wrong could you be?????? Seriously, this poor woman was the laughing stock of the bar, not just this night, but Friday night too!!! Where are her friends??? How could they let her leave home like this?? Ok, and on Friday night it was a string bikini top that was tied wrong. This is just wrong!

LoLo and Wendy

My Sis with the crazy eyes

This was at the end of the night and well, ya know what happens when you tell a friend you want to see her feet coming out of the sun roof!

Hanging out at the Oak Grove Tavern

Low, Low, Low......

Don't even ask!!

Yep, that's what she said!!

2008-05-25T17:42:00.001-04:00

Don't Blink......

2008-05-22T11:08:00.022-04:00

Cause you just might miss some Kenny!! The concert was amazing!!! He just gets better and better!! Kenny concerts are high energy, that man is all over the place (I wish I had that energy)! I took over 200 photos and some turned out ok, I was shaking so bad from all the adrenaline, but we still got some worth while! Leanne Rimes opened for Kenny and she did an awesome job! Now for the question of the day??? Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland showed up to sing a few songs with Kenny, so are they a couple??? If they aren't, they should be!! Uncle Cracker showed up too!!!! Got love when those two get together!! Here are some of the photos!!! Enjoy!!!

Thanks Robynn, Tracy and Lori for a wonderful time!!!

Stay tuned for girls weekend photos next!!!

I'll Be Spending The Evening With.......

2008-05-21T08:24:00.003-04:00

That's Right, I'll be spending the evening with the 4 time Entertainer of the Year
Kenny Chesney!!!!

A girls night couldn't be any better than listening and looking at Kenny for a couple of hours (unless of course we were on that beach - alone) LOL!!! Kenny is already playing on the stereo! I just can't get enough of him!!! Honestly I've seen him in concert like 7 times, but I'm not gonna stop now!! (good thing I got the tickets before our budget).

I've got lots of photos to post from my girls weekend. We had a blast, but damn, I'm getting old!! Two nights of being up till all hours of the morning, mixed with some Coors light, and damn I'll be recovering for a week!!

Have a good one!!