Too funny for words.

The pictures just do not convey how histerical this was. Grace strapped Morgan with her fairy wings a few days ago. What you may not realize is that instead of being wrapped around his arms they are wrapped around his neck. Apparently not too tight because he didn't mind. As a matter of fact he proudly wore them and showed them off for over an hour and screamed at me when I removed them! It was so funny. He was just laughing and giggling and running around like "look at me!"


HAHA! Anyway, saturday morning CJ was weed-eating and when I look out the window I see CJ only from the waist down crawled head first inside the culvert that goes under the driveway and Tanner and Grace standing at the other end with their bug nets. Hmmmm. I must go investigate. After MUCH effort we have a prisoner....

This is the biggest lizard we've ever caught. Though elusive at first I must say the lizard doesn't have much brains. We make Tanner let him loose at night and instead of running away he sticks around the house so Tanner catches him again every morning. Dumb lizard.

CJ has been working hard on our projects (which, by the way, our list for the HOA was completed ahead of schedule so they can kiss my you-know-what!). He stained all of our cedar this weekend and of course the kids had to "help" - which usually meant you had to tell them to move before you got down off the ladder or you would be stepping on their heads. I had to practice being calm and keeping my mouth shut because the kids were not at all fearful of that big extension ladder. They would climb up until they were right on CJ's heels and be like "look at me mom!". Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!! OK, be calm. Don't scream at them to get down. They're kids. They're having fun. It's not likely that they'll fall and break a limb. Breathe. These pictures were taken at a MUCH lower altitude - I'm telling you they were WAY up there when CJ was working higher.


It's amazing really how shutters, porch railing, and a little stain can totally change the look of the house. I can't wait to see the way it looks when we can get our landscaping in...

FINALLY!!

Catching up

Yesterday was my birthday and I've been celebrating since last friday :-) I went to Great American Scrapbook Convention with my girlfriends on friday, cropped, stayed the night, shopped and took classes all day on saturday and cropped some more. Arrived back home about 12:30am. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!
Got to hang out with my family on sunday. Watch the race. Monday CJ and the kids gave me presents - a beautiful braclet and earings that they got from a little boutique on the square. And, last night I went to Pokeno. I didn't win anything though. Shouldn't there be some kind of rule that if you are playing Pokeno on your birthday you should go home with something?! hehe.

I think I forgot to blog about Tanner. He had an awards program the second to last day of school and he got an award! A medal for being one of the top Kindergarteners in Advanced Reading!! Go Tanner!!


Last thursday was Tanner's first time to go to GymKats with Grace. He was SO excited. All day - "when do we get to go?", "is it time yet?". And they both had a BLAST. Since CJ was there I got to go down and snap a couple of pics. Here's Tanner getting some assistance and learning how to do a back handspring on the trampoline...


And Grace doing a headstand (which was supposed to be a HANDstand), and doing her jumps on the trampoline. I'm hoping one day I'll get some better pics, but for now this is it....

Old School, Sentimental, Nostalgic...

something. Seems like the older I get the more I get that way. I love life "back in the day" (but not too far back - hehe). CJ has always said he should have been born 100 years ago. Riding horses across the range driving cattle, hard manual labor, sleeping on the ground around a campfire, drinking coffee and telling stories. That's him. And he's right. Me, I don't need to go that far back, but I love old farm houses, actual farms with animals, huge gardens, clothes on clothes lines, a simpler life. Life without identity theft, internet predators and $4.00 per gallon gasoline! What ever happened to your word is your bond, you only need a handshake, trusting your neighbor to look out for you, knowing that there were other adults looking out for your kids while they were running all over town? After my last post someone said to me that they thought home canning was a dying art. I'm sure they're right but the way grocery prices are going up it might need resurrecting pretty soon. People may need to get back to their roots and learn to love gardening again just so save some money on their grocery bill.

Something that totally warms my heart is Dave (CJ's dad) has taken up some carpentry work. He started with fishing lures (I think) and he branched into many different areas makeing all kinds of cool things for the kids. He's made cars, trucks, trailers, Semi-trucks, adirondak chairs, baby doll beds, an African safari jeep (as I like to call it) and most recently a riding horse for Morgan. I love it. Every time he makes something it just melts my heart and brings back so many fond memories of my Grampy. Nothing could be more special. Thanks Dave!


And my mom, who sewed matching outfits for us when I was a little girl, who sewed cheerleading outfits for the whole squad in junior high, who sewed almost every one of my prom dresses, just made Grace a matching outfit for her and her doll for her birthday. Grace LOVES it and so do I.


I still have a quilt that my great-grandmother made for me when I was born, a beautiful armoir that my Grampy made for me when I was just two, a quilt that my grandma made for me when I graduated college, among many others. They are all so special to me. I hope that I can do some of those things for my kids and my grandkids, if I'm so lucky to have some, and pass on some special memories.

Look what I picked from my garden...

I started picking green beans LAST weekend. Canned 7 pints last weekend and 8 pints this weekend. Me and the kids were standing around the counter breaking our bowl of green beans and it made me laugh as I recalled memories of canning beans when I was a kid. I told CJ I'm glad I get a bowl or two at a time because that's about all I can get canned in a day by myself, but when I was a kid if you didn't have four or five 5-gallon buckets full of beans sitting around your chair you weren't very busy that day. At least that's the way I remember it. Grandma up before the roosters picking them, mom washing jars, sometimes Aunt Esta or Aunt Jeanne would be there to help too. For hours and hours, until you didn't want to look at another bean. I wonder if that's really the way it was or if that's my memory of it because I was so young and it seemed like such a huge amount. The only reason why I question my memory is because I always remember making a double batch of sugar cookies to be such a HUGE deal - massive bowl, stir so much your arm hurt, takes all day to roll them out and bake them there were so many. Today I can bake a double batch of sugar cookies in about an hour and a half. hehe.




Also, I made a cake for a lady who was throwing a "Great Grandma shower" for a friend. I made a quilt cake for her. I hope she had a wonderful party.

GRACE IS 4!!

I meant to do this all day yesterday but I just didn't have time. Yesterday was Grace's 4th birthday. We had her celebration on Monday so everyone could come down and Dave and Jan could enjoy it too.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and made it so much fun. Grace has said several times how much fun it was and she has played with all her gifts non-stop. EVERYBODY ROCKS!!


I have lots more to share but I'm going to have to continue later....

Day 2 of 28

Today's Photo Challenge: The mailbox

Nothing out of the ordinary about our mailbox but I do love the view.

Today's Task: Create a layout about you. I want you to make it specific to today...your agenda...your plans...what's on your schedule. This is not just a typical "about me" page but a page that addresses a specific question: what is your life like today?

I squeezed this into my agenda yesterday. The journaling reads:
In the shower at 5:45am
Chocolate Chip pancakes for breakfast
Take Tanner to school
Wash car and get new tires
Errands: Sam's Club and JoAnn's
Enjoy lunch at Olive Garden with girlfriends
Pick up Tanner from school
Clean up around the house
Dinner at CiCi's with baseball team
Enjoy my Anniversary evening with CJ! 10 years and lovin' every minute!
Thursday May 22, 2008

Happy 10th Anniversary to Us!!

Amazing! I can't believe it's already 10 years. Time really does fly when you're having fun. We've come a long way baby. It's amazing to me to look back and see how different our lives are now compared to 10 years ago. Our love is stronger than ever. We seldom argue and we never fight. We love having fun together. He's the one that usually reminds me to laugh. We have 3 beautiful children and a truly great life. We both long for a time when we might be able to run away together - just for a weekend would be OK, but I'm sure most couples have that same desire. Maybe the stars will align one day and we can. For now, Dave and Jan are in town to see the new baby and they are going to come down tomorrow night and watch the kids. CJ and I will get to go out to dinner and we're going to go see Indiana Jones at the drive-in. I can't wait!!

Catching up.

That's what I always feel like I'm doing. I'm told it never ends. What a bummer. Anyway...
Stamp Something Challenge #2: For this week, create a little something to say thank you. It's a phrase we say all the time, but sometimes you just need to show people you really mean it. It can be a card, a gift, a scrapbook page or what ever. Just a little something to say thank you!

Perfect for me because we ended our baseball season last night. We lost by 1 run in the semi-final round. The kids really played well and this was a fun season. So, I made a Thank you card for the coach:



On to the 28 Day Challenge. We (my girlfriends who are participating and I) thought that we had only been given photo challenges each day - come to find out there were also daily projects and now we are 14 days behind. I have decided I'll post my stuff as I get it done so this may turn into 28 weeks instead of 28 days :-)

Day 1 Photo Challenge: Take a picture of your pantry. As is - no straightening:

I followed the rules and didn't straighten before but now I'm feeling compelled to go clean it. The point is to photgraph things you normally wouldn't - (as my friend Jeanne so eloquently said...) duh, like I would ever take a picture of my pantry! Can't wait to see what we get to do with these photos we're taking!

The daily project: Decorate the outside of the journal that you'll be using through the course of this workshop. (In the beginning they said this workshop is designed to help you use what you have so feel free to substitute.) Well, I didn't have a journal laying around and I didn't want to buy one so I made one:


Ta Ta for now!

I cried for two and a half hours.

Clearly, I have a chemical imbalance. Yes, it's that time of the month. But still. CJ wanted to watch a movie last night so we PPV'd "P.S. I love you". I'm trying to hold back the tears and finally about 30 minutes into the movie I burst out and say, "this movie is terrible! It's not cute or sweet or loving or anything. To lose the love of your life is every woman's worst nightmare! Why am I watching this?!" CJ immediately gets up, comes over to me, holds me for like 5 minutes telling me it's OK, and tries to calm me. It didn't really work. I was in constant tears for the rest of the movie and for like 30 minutes after!!

For those of you who have not seen or don't know what it's about this woman's husband dies and he has this elaborate scheme preplanned to help her move on with her life and sends her letters and other stuff everyday for a year.

Still this morning it's not a loving feeling that I'm getting. My hormone imbalance I'm sure is adding to my feelings, but I just want to curl up in the corner and cry. I would hope that if something ever happened to CJ that I would have what it took to pull me and the kids through it, but right now I think someone else would have to take the kids and I would be in a mental institution completely unable to function. I'm sure it's not healthy to think you just absolutely could not live without someone else, but that's what I think today. I'm pretty sure that a broken heart physically cannot kill you, but for me it would come close. I love CJ more than I could ever express and I cannot even let the possibility of losing him enter my mind or I shall cry again. I do not like to think about our own mortality. I know - God's will, better place, yadda yadda. Today I cannot give it to Him.

Who would make such a sucky movie and do this to me!!!!!!!

Fish Tales

After baseball practice friday night CJ took the kids down to the little lake in our subdivision to see if they were bitin' and were they! Grace caught a bunch of bluegill and here's the photo to prove it...

Here is Tanner holding one of CJ's four catches....

And here's Tanner holding one of his own catches....

They had an absolute blast. Grace cannot tell you enough how excited she was about catching all her bluegill. I'm so happy that she has fun too and can go with the guys every once in a while. Makes a mom's heart melt to see her baby girl having so much fun with her daddy. *Smile*

Stamp Something Challenge #1

Our challenge this week will be "First Somethings." Challenge yourself to try something entirely new. Attempt a new layout or color combination or a new technique or fancy fold/card style that you've been wanting to try but have been putting off. You could also just keep with the theme of "Firsts" and make a card for a first birthday, a first baby, a first house, a first car, or any other first you can think of.

So here's my first attempt at a trifold card. Also my first time using my new Pick A Petal stamp set and my wheel. Here's to firsts!

Ouch.

Sunday morning about 5am Morgan woke up screaming. I couldn't find anything wrong with him. He calmed down pretty quickly and went back to sleep. When he got up at 7am I noticed his thumb and first finger on his right hand were red and swollen. I found two puncture marks - one between his thumb and first finger and one between the knuckles on his thumb. He was very cranky all day. The reaction was pretty localized to that area so we weren't real worried. Then the site developed a blister. Then it oozed clear fluid. Monday is was not any better, actually the swelling was a little worse. The whole back of his hand was swollen. I've already talked to the nurse once, CJ's telling me it's going to be OK and we should just watch it, but the mother in my head is overpowering the paramedic in my head so I called Jan (my m-i-l). She's always a good voice of reason when you need one and I needed one. Thanks Jan! The following picture is 48 hours post-attack.

I tore is bed and room apart and we don't know what got him. Scorpion? Spider? Something else? Anyway, he's been on benadryl every 6 hours and hydrocortisone cream 3x daily and I think it's finally getting a little better. Poor buddy.

My Latest Creation

You know what I love?

I love economic stimulus checks.

I love that I now have in my possession the title to CJ's truck.

I love that we now OWN both of our vehicles.

I love that we have ZERO credit card debt.

I love that we have more than 50% equity in our house.

I love that we have (some) money in the bank.

I love that hard work and diligence (mixed in with a few moments of shopoholic weakness and stupid decisions) has resulted in a stable financial situation for us, for now.

Excitement is in the air....

I am participating in two challenges and I'm SO excited. Thanks to my dear friend Jeanne, who's excitement and enthusiasm bubbles over for scrapping and stamping, I'm going to broaden my horizons:

Challenge 1: 28 days
We'll be getting instructions every day for the next 28 days and we'll be making a memory of "a day in my life". I think it will be really cool. I've never scrapped anything about me. Today's instructions were to photograph the pantry. The pantry? Yup. As is. No straightening or anything. I think I won't post it right now, but I took it. As is.

Challenge 2: Stamp Something
Stamping is a whole new world for me. With the help and encouragement of my scrappy friends I've accumulated several (that might be an understatement) sets of stamps and I think it's high time I learn how to use them more creatively. This will be a weekly challenge and it starts tomorrow. I can't wait!

Over and over and over

F - R - E - E that spells free, credit report dot com ba-by.

The marketing people accomplished their goal I can't get it out of my head!

Yeah I'm here.

I've been unusually angry this week about a multitude of things and when I'm mad I don't feel like blogging. I don't really like to complain to a million people and multiply the bad vibe (those of you who I called to vent to hold in your laughter please).

I did do something fun yesterday - I made a cake. For a friend of Beth's little girl for her birthday. My instructions were - Littlest Pet shop please, the dog. Well, you may or may not know there are like 50 dogs in Littlest Pet shop so I chose the one I liked the most and went with it....



I'm a little in awe of my growing artistic ability.

Just for curiosity's sake - this cake is a 12" 2-layer round cake which will feed about 40 people. How much would you pay for a custom cake that feeds 40?

TORNADO!!

Not really, but close. We had a doosey of a storm roll through our neck of the woods last night. There were tornados spotted in other areas. One left A LOT of damage about 10 minutes from CJ's subdivision. We're all good though. But this is what happens when you have an unfinished project and a Texas spring storm rolls through...

Oooops. Hopefully next week this will be a complete backyard fortress for the kids. Stay tuned.

Everybody's been asking for pics of Grace at gymnastics so I tried taking some through the glass from the observation area....this is what you get....

The instructors told me it was no big deal to come on in the gym and take some pics but getting Morgan to sit still and stay out of their way long enough for me to do that is challenging at best. We may have to wait until June when CJ is able to go and watch Morgan for me to get some good pics. Have a GREAT week!

Amazing.

It is truly amazing what a good hair cut can do for you. Seriously for YEARS I have hated every picture ever taken of me. I always think I look good (or at least decent) and then I see a picture of me and I think "is that really what I look like?" YUCK!! Not now. I love my new do. I love the way I look. I love how easy it is to fix. There is a little part of me that misses my long curly blonde hair but I think that Staci might be gone forever and it's OK. I have a NEW me that I love!

Thanks for the pic DT!