This is cool!

Thanks Katina for sharing!

What scrapbook company should you design for...?

KI MEMORIES DESIGN TEAM!Innovated and inspiring...two words that best describe your scrapbooking style. You are always growing and evolving to the next level with your pages and it shows with each and every layout you create.
Take this quiz!

Which Scrapbooking Paper Collection Are You?

You are KI MEMORIES paper!You tend to focus on creativity with your pages. The brighter the better! You celebrate all the joys of life with energy and enthusiasm. You treat each new day as a gift.
Take this quiz!

Guess I'm a KI Memories girl huh? Anybody surprised?

I've been a Mommy for 5 1/2 years

but now I'm officially a PARENT. I woke up to an alarm clock this morning, fixed breakfast, packed lunches, fed the baby and had the whole family out the door at 7:10am. (CJ is in heaven - finally after 9 1/2 years I'm cooking breakfast for him and packing his lunch!) Whew.

(no the dora drink bottle is not his) Sorry the second picture is so bad, but I was taking it from across the room and it just didn't work. No, I didn't cry. Actually I didn't even get a hug. We found Tanner's teacher and he bolted. Put his backpack down, found his seat and that was it - I no longer existed. No hug. No "Good-bye Mom". Nothing. I know I'm supposed to be proud that he doesn't have issues, he's not afraid to talk to new people, etc, etc, but it's kinda weird for me. I'll be OK, Go Tanner!

The person facing the most difficulty and the hardest transition - Grace. She is Tanner's little shadow. Whatever he's doing, she doing. After we dropped him off I had to go to Walmart and pick up a couple of things and as we're pulling into the parking lot she says, "Mommy, I'm really going to miss Tanner today." I almost cried for her, but we'll find something special to do today.

BTW - have you ever been to Walmart at 7:30am? It's really a pretty pleasant experience. That might be when I do my grocerying from now on.

Have a GREAT day everyone.

Kaleidescope of Color

Just a few of the colors that are sure to adorn my new house. You all know I'm not afraid of color, but don't worry the house won't look like a rainbow.



Do you know what this is?...

You know it - the brick! It dropped yesterday - woohoo! There's not much picture-worthy stuff going on at the house this week. The heating and A/C guys were there yesterday and the electricians are supposed to be there tomorrow. We should insulate and sheetrock next week and I have no idea when the brick will actually go on the house.

Movin' right along! We go meet Tanner's teacher tonight, yeah!

Morgan (Hugh)gene

as Grace calls him. hehe. I can't believe that he's already 6 months old. My how time flies.

We had his well check yesterday. He's great (of course).
26 1/2 inches
16 lbs 10 oz
50-75% in all areas
He now has two teeth on the bottom and the Dr said she thought he would start cutting the top ones soon.

As crazy as my world is I'm so blessed with my three kids. I love them all equally and individually. They are growing so fast. Grace is ornary (sp?) as ever, and is constantly "stealing" her daddy's money (the change he leaves on the dresser each night). She snatches it at first sight and says, "Thanks daddy for letting me have you money." Boy is that a sign of things to come or what?

Tanner starts kindergarten next week. I'm sure I'll cry.

Hot enough to roast a Roofer.

100+ degrees that's what it has been these last two days, but still they work on....


I'm sure you can see that they're not quite done yet, but almost!


And, here's a better pic of the front porch from the other day. Eventually there will also be a nice hand rail that goes around the porch.

Have I mentioned that I'M SO EXCITED!?!?!?!?!?!?!

My Darling Pasha

you SO got the short end of the stick last night! America got it WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! I'm totally addicted to this show and I'm so sad he's gone. My tribute...

Torture.

That's what watching this movie was. It took two nights to do it and it was pure torture both nights. Somebody PLEASE tell me that the third installment of Pirates of the Carribbean is better than the second?!?!?!?!

Another Day Another Board.

I took CJ and Brian lunch today and this is what I found...

I think you can't really see them because of the way the sun is shining but the cedar posts are in place on the front porch

We have windows!

And, we have more than half the decking on.

Woo Hoo!!

HOLY SMOKIN' JOE!

Or should I say Eddie?! CJ has been asking this guy "Eddie" to come and help him one day on the weekend to help get the cornish work done. Eddie says he really can't come on the weekend but he'll bring his crew down one day during the week. CJ informs him that we don't have the money to pay his whole crew, he simply replies, "well then I guess you'll owe me huh?" This is what 5 guys can do in a day....

My Happy Place

Through all the progress, happiness, and excitement what I didn't know is that CJ was a little sad, and my elation was just rubbing salt in his wounds. Late last night when he got home he told me. He said, "I didn't even want to call Eddie because doing the cornish work is my favorite part. Well, not really, but it's the most rewarding. It's like all this time it's just rough- boards and braces in a tangled mess, you're back hurts, you've got splinters in every finger; then when you start putting the sheathing on it finally starts looking like a house. It's nice that Eddie came down and brought his crew because they've done in a day what would have taken me a week, but I feel like somebody just stole my masterpiece and they're getting all the credit for it because the work they did actually made it look like a finished product."

I totally get it.

What a difference a day makes.

The framers actually showed up yesterday and so we have rafters...



This last pic is one of what I think will be my favorite space (next to my scrap room of course!). Can you see the black line I scribbled in between the house and the garage? That area will be level once we get some dirt pushed in there. The house and the garage are 10 feet apart and the roof is 20 feet wide. Just standing under it yesterday made me happy. Brian thinks it's a huge waste. He says it's like a hot tub - it sounds like a good idea, but then you never use it. I'm out to prove him wrong!

Help is overrated.

CJ and Brian may not agree, but look at what they accomplished by themselves yesterday....

-standing at the road looking at the front of the house, the roof is up over the front porch

-walked to my left, looking at the side of the house/garage where the driveway will be

-zoomed in on the garage

-two of the hardest working men I know.

And, just for clarification - yesterday when he said he was learning he didn't have any friends - (for the most part) he was referring to the other people he knows in the constuction industry whom he thought he had developed more than just a business relationship with. The bottom line is - we're paying customers - if you don't want to drive to Granbury to do the work JUST SAY NO, don't say yes and then just never get around to it. We'll gladly find someone else to give our money to.

Why should we be any different?

"we'll be there wednesday or thursday"
"we'll be there thursday or friday"
"we'll definately be there on saturday"
"it's going to be monday or tuesday before we can get there"
can't get 'em here so let's find someone else, hey, can you come?
"we've got a job to do on saturday, but we'll come out on sunday"
Made arrangements to meet them so they could follow us to the property, I planned food for lunch.
No call, No show.
This is what CJ deals with every day at his job and it's what has happened to us this week on our house. I guess why should we be any different?
CJ LOVES to build houses, but there's two things that makes CJ HATE his job - people who don't show up when they say they're going to; and people that, when they do show up, do a s&!#ty job.
CJ would love to just do it all himself, but he can't. There are just some things that you've got to have help with. And even if he had a guy or two to help (which he does have Brian - THANK YOU, THANK YOU) it's just too big. He really needs an experienced crew.
In his own words this morning, "I'm learning one thing - I don't have any friends. All the people I help out, all the people who say, 'if you need anything just let me know' are all worthless."
He's not even asking for free labor or favors - he's paying for goodness sake! Screw everyone.

I'm quitting now because the more I type the madder I get.

SUPERMAN!

Why do babies ALWAYS do this?

Guess he's just building his back muscles. Anyway, it just occured to me that I haven't really updated on Morgan recently. He's a proficient roller now. He has one tooth on the bottom and I think he's working on the second one. He eats cereal and carrots. Well, he eats cereal and spits out carrots. hehe. Here's some more recent pics....Enjoy.

Update...

Well, there wasn't really a whole lot going on here last week. The kids begged to make "shape cookies" (aka sugar cookies) so we did. Bless their hearts - they are their mothers children. For those of you who may not know to make shape cookies you roll out the dough, cut into shapes with cookie cutters, then take the remaining dough and smoosh it all back together and start over until the dough is gone. After the second round of making shapes they started asking if we were done and could they just eat the rest of the dough :-) That's my kids. I made them continue on, but in the end I did save them a pretty good size chunck of dough to eat (and of course some for myself too!).



CJ and Brian have been hard at work on the house all week (and weekend). The house may not look much different to you but they got the beams up for the box ceilings in the living room and master bedroom, and all the ceiling joist are up in the whole house. They also got the walls up on the garage. Tonight CJ and Brian will be working on getting the ceiling joist up on the garage and the beams that connect the garage to the house. That area between the house and garage will be filled in with dirt and that will be a covered patio area back there. The breezeway going across will be 20 feet wide and the two buildings are 10 feet apart. I'm so excited - it's going to be an awesome area! CJ is hiring a crew to come and put the rafters up. It's just too much for him to do. They should be here Wednesday or Thursday. Yippee! So next weeks pics should show the framing for the entire roof and you'll really be able to see the monster we are building. hehe. We also laid out the cabinets - woo hoo. I found 7 custom cabinet makers in Granbury and we are going to call 3 or 4 of them to come out and give us estimates hopefully this week.





Well, that's about all for now. Have a GREAT week!

Peach Pleasures

Brad Holt - The Community News
Grace Thompson enjoys one of the rides at thie Parker County Peach Festival, held Saturday, July 14 in Weatherford. A record crowd of about 45,000 people attended the event.


COOL HUH? Thanks Beth for forwarding this to me! Beth, Lily, the kids and I attended the Peach Festival in Weatherford last weekend and a guy from the paper took Grace's picture while she was on one of the rides. Afterwards he asked me her name and permission to print it but who knew he would?! COOL!

Hallelujah!

Praise the Lord! Thank you Mother Nature! Have I forgotten anyone? We have progress...




They poured the slab on last Monday. CJ has been out there every night this week working with the help of Brian. Our friend Carl also came over yesterday to help and they have all the walls up on the house. As you can see from the pictures there was threatening weather in the area. They worked through a rain shower or two but it never got really nasty. CJ will be working on putting the ceiling joist up and the walls for the garage this week. Hopefully the roof will be on next week. YIPPPEEEE!

Ode to Scrapbooking Supplies

How do I love thee, let me count the ways....
I just used my sanding block and a brad to finish a Bridal shower cake. hahaha.
I was happy with it, now I'm a mess. Is it smooth enough? Is it fancy enough? Is it what she wants? Is it the right colors? And to think that I was contemplating pursuing this more. I don't know if I can. To make a cake for me is fine, but to make one for someone else makes me a nervous wreck.
I need honest feedback. I don't want to think I'm good enough to go into business if I'm really not. "I would wait until you've had a little more practice" is preferred over "you suck." Thanks.

It is what it is.

It's been over a year and 100 posts since I started this crazy blog. Originally, I started it to be a way to keep long-distance family involved in our lives - only to find out that none of the family ever checked it. I think that has changed some now. Yeah!
Sometimes it's a place for me to express myself.
Sometimes it's a billboard for my girlfriends.
Whatever it may be, I'll continue to blog as long as you continue to read.

A Crazy Kind of Wonderful.

The second half of the week was spent at the Thompson's. A little busier, a little crazier, and a little louder but just as wonderful. Actually I think we set a record for calmness this trip - at least comparatively speaking. It only becomes this way because everyone is always there, and we LOVE it that way. It's wonderful that their family all lives close and loves to get together.
We got there tuesday evening in time for a great fireworks display. Morgan slept through the whole thing including the loud booming fireworks that about shook me out of my chair. I was surprised. Grace just kept saying "ooohhh, that one is beautiful" and Tanner's repeated comment was, "that one's the most humungous!"

The next day we had loads of fun the pool. Tanner took right to it. I thought he would because he did really well last summer but you never know. I was unsure about Grace because last summer she was still very clingy to me even with a lifejacket on. Not now. "I can do it myself!" It terrified Papa Dave to let go of her even with the life jacket on but she was insistent. By the end of the weekend she was toodling around everywhere and Papa Dave was breathing again too.

Lots of visiting with friends, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, you name it. All wonderful! We were so happy to see everyone and there were lots of people that were missed! Hugs to you!

Tanner learned to ride his bike without training wheels. CJ had taken them off and set down the wrench and before he could turn around Tanner was already half way down the driveway yelling "look dad, I can do it!" Go Tanner!

We caught lightening bugs, frogs, crawdads, and even a couple of fish. The kids were in heaven. If you know my kids you know they love bugs and small animals.

Did I mention how much fun we had this trip? We miss you all very much!