New from Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up! has a new line of products called Decor Elements. LOVE Them!!!!
I ordered these super cute circle with initials for the girl's room. I also ordered some other pieces, I just haven't hung them up - yet!

Aren't they great!!??

XOXO

Football and injuries

Okay - first let me say I was very hesitant to allow Little Man to play football. But after many promises and a lot of begging, I gave in. I was also worried he would lose interest in Baseball, which he is really good at but that is not the case. He loves both and tells me he is a 2 sport man. The fact that Big Daddy is a coach also helped my decision.

So - first week of 2 hour a night, every night what happens? Little Man severely sprains his pinky. He doesn't break it but 1 week later and the bruising has gone down quite a bit but it is still swollen. Lovely. I was thrilled! HA!



But then last night they had their first scrimmage game against the other 6 year old team. Who had 2 touchdowns? Little Man! He also made 2 blocks and a fumble. He was awesome!!!! I am so proud of him. Still not happy about the pinky but understand why he loves football. After watching him I can see that he truly enjoys the sport, testosterone, or just hitting other kids and not getting in trouble! LOL

Today is filled with work and catching up. School starts Monday! Oh Joy for me! I can hit the gym regularly and get some real work done! YEAH!!!!

Here he is making his 2nd touchdown! GO my Little Man!!!! (He is #6 with the ball)

Until later - XOXO

Time flies

Don't look too close at this picture! This is the one for our Christmas cards this year! LOL I just love it soooo much. I am using it for EVERYTHING! Oh well, it really is a good picture.

Has it really been that long since my last post?? April - Really???? I guess I better get on the ball! Here is a quick wrap up of our summer. I promise to be better!!!

Life is good - I have no idea where to begin, so here it goes.....

Princess finished out her year with straight A's, realized she wanted to go back to her old ballet studio, decided she really wants to play tennis and learned to play golf. She got her braces off, her hair "styled", and is getting contacts. She is very excited about entering the 5th grade.

Queen Bee finished up one competition season to move to another gym. She is looking forward to actually winning this year LOL She also did well in school (straight A's) and is nervous about 3rd grade. She will be just fine. She also got her expanders on for her braces, she was none to happy about that one! She also decided to expand her cooking knowledge and is working on her first cookbook. She also taught herself to ride her bike!

Little Man finished out his baseball season with averaging 1 -3 homeruns a game, made the Allstar team and LOVES baseball. He made some really good friends on his baseball team luckily they are also on his football team! Yes, he is playing football and LOVES every minute of it. Big Daddy is coaching so my anxiety level has decreased greatly. Although, today he broke his pinky finger. Little Man informed me in football you get hurt and it is okay. Geesh - still doesn't make it easy for a Momma. He also learned to ride a bike and now wants a dirt bike. I don't think so. I have too many grey hairs now!!!"Bring It" - that what Little Man tells his opponents! Go Little Man!

One of my favorite pictures of him. All grown up but still my little boy!!!

We also had the my niece visit for a week this summer. That was great and she was such a joy to have stay with us. She got homesick but she was perfect!! Love you Angel Face!!! The family came back through a second time for a visit. It was so good to see everyone! They are great!!!!

I lost my Grandpa this summer. Very sad for me. He is in a better place and I know he is picking his banjo and playing his fiddle. It is all good -

We enjoyed a week at the beach. We did nothing, it was great. I really want to go back. I miss Florida and the beach so much I could just run away and never look back. Oh well, I will settle for the annual trip to the beach.Big Daddy's Brother and his family came through for a quick visit. It was so good to see everyone. I have THE BEST nieces and nephews ever! They really are good kids.

I am now swamped with work and PTA President, helping our football team mom and over committed as usual. Nothing changes around here but the day LOLWe also went to the American Girl Shop and Bistro here in ATL. It was FAB-U-LOUS!!! I even enjoyed myself. I really a kid at heart, especially for dolls ;)


I promise to be better about updating!!!

XOXO

Science Fair 2008

The science fair was very exciting. We tried to force all 3 kids to participate but Princess was the only one who ended up completing their project. That is what happens when the parents do not do the work for them! Maybe next year I can be a little more convincing on this subject.
Princess placed 5th. That is okay, she was still happy and she did a great job! We are very proud of her!!!
Here it is - Lemon Electricity!
We still celebrated by going to 5 Guys! Hey - it was a good night, mom did not have to cook!
Yay for mom!

MS Walk 2008

We did it! We walked for Papa and we raised $285.00 for MS Research!! If you are asking "What is MS?" then I can fill you a little. You can look here or here for more information. Basically Multiple Sclerosis is a Neurological Disease that attacks the Central Nervous System. You guessed it - you lose your ability to walk, write, control your muscles among other things.
Here are our pictures from the Athens MS Walk.
This Year we walked for Papa. My dad has been diagnosed for 17 years. He probably had it for up to 25 years but it was never properly diagnosed. We also walked this year for 3 friends - Ms. Mary Ms. Emily, and Ida. All who are learning to live with this terrible disease and praying for a cure. We had a great time and hope to raise even more money next year!
Team CURE - Walking for Papa!!!!

Crazy weeks and dinner withVice President Cheney

Life has been Extremely Crazy!!! We have been so busy and I am amazed that I am still functioning LOL
We have had baseball games and practices, Ballet and Hip Hop classes, cheerleading competitions, and to top it off...we attended a dinner last night hosted by the Georgia Republican Party where the guest speaker was Vice President Cheney. It was great. Very interesting. The VP walked on stage, gave his speech, and walked off stage. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures with him. I don't think anyone did. But I did take a picture of the centerpiece and tried to get a distant picture of him speaking. The whole evening was interesting. I remember why I enjoy politics so much. But we won't get into that here. Attending a dinner like that was a great opportunity. We were definitely the underclassmen in the room. We were completely out of our league.

I did get some crafty stuff done this weekend with the girls. I am helping them develop a business plan for a new company. More on that when we finish up the business plan. I love empowering these young girls. They are the future and the leaders that will shape our country.

Stampin' Up!

I signed up to be a Stampin' Up Demonstrator -again. I sold SU about 6 or 7 years ago. When we moved I stopped. But as the girls are getting older and are able to do their own creative thing I thought I would give it a go again! I am very excited!
I hope to have some cute cards and extras made this week. I also joined Split Coast Stampers.
No fear - I will still scrapbook and sew.
I also have the Cookies to post for this week.
I just like having my fingers in LOTS of pots!!!!

Back from Disney World!

We are back from Disney World. It was an adventure. We had to replace the radiator in both my mom mobile and Big Daddy's truck before we even left town!
I ended up at the doctor in Disney - strep throat - YUCK! Queen Bee ended up at the ER on Friday night with some gross tummy thing she picked up. Hopefully that will cure her of biting her nails. 6 hours in the ER at Disney cured me of her biting her nails. But everyone is on the mend and we are home. Exhausted but home. I need a vacation!!!! I will post pics as soon as I can.

The cherry on top was that the prior weekend at Nationals Queen Bee had the stomach flu. She was sick prior to getting on stage to compete and sick right after leaving the stage. It was lovely. I told the girls who base her - at least she held it in on stage :) There is always a silver lining somewhere!!!

Here is to healthy rest of 2008 an getting our act together ! Wippeee!!!
XOXO

A 70's Girl!!!

You Belong in 1977

Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Sunday Scrappin' Day

It's Sunday Scrappin' Day! After a much needed trip and too much money spent later...I almost finished some pages! LOL I did everything but journal and add some embellishments. But I felt good about actually getting them together! My other TA-DA is I did finish getting my pictures organized. So now I am ready to or at least have pictures organized to scrap. Now to get all these off the hard drive...

These are great papers, stickers, and fun stuff I found at Archiver's. I am so excited they came out with Girl Scout stuff. Now to find where I organized those pictures...

Here are my pages for Little Man:

This one I have to add :RUN, (Little Man), RUN!

Team Picture -I REALLY like the background paper - it is a grungy baseball, but it is hard to see in this pic of the page.

I Love these pictures - I need to find a cute phrase or something for this page.

I like the way this page turned out -these are great action shots. No, I can not take credit -they were taken by a company that does that kind of thing.

If you remember a while back...these are the fired pieces from Princess's party. They turned out pretty good. The picture does not do them justice.

My TO-DO's for the week - well, first, get Valentine's Day Goodie Bags finished. Hit another scrapbook store to wrap up Little Man's pages. Start on his other baseball pages.
I think I may get some ideas and make some cards to send out for Easter. Maybe sign up for a card challenge...although I am not sure I am that brave yet....

The question of the week is: What are your favorite crafts sites? They can be blogs, commercial sites, or forums. Well, that is a tough question. For paper crafts, maybe the other bloggers in the Sunday Scrappin' group. I am just starting to browse paper crafting sites. I do not have any real favorites - yet!

I guess that is it for this week! See you next Sunday!

Menu Planning Monday!

Menu for the Week:

Monday: Breakfast Night - Pancakes, Bacon, Eggs, and OJ

Tuesday: Fat Tuesday!! Seafood Gumbo - Georgia Style. Please don't get offended true Louisianians :) It is juts my twist on your scrumptious classic.
Corn Bread and a King Cake.

Wednesday: Ash Wednesday - Spinach Tortellini Soup, French Bread, and Salad

Thursday: Crockpot BBQ, Chicken and Fries for the kids - our super busy night.

Friday: Grilled Snapper with chili sauce, bread sticks, rice, broccoli

Saturday: Ham Sandwiches and Soup - real easy. Another busy day.

Sunday: Roasted Chicken, Cauliflower, Salad, and Biscuits

Cookie of the Week: King Cakes for the kid's classrooms, Mint Wafer cookies for our cookie of the week!!

Desserts and Snacks: Homemade Trail Mix, Sitcky Messy Munch, chocolate chip cookies

Breakfasts: 1 batch of banana Nut Muffins, 1 batch of Cinnamon Muffins, 1 batch of Homemade Waffle mix made into par baked waffles.

Enjoy your week!

Sunday Scrappin

Sunday Scrappin' Hosted by Amy at the Sunday Scrappin' Blog Thanks Amy!!


Well, I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked. I did get Little Man's baseball album laid out. Okay - just one series of pictures. I laid everything out and realized I did not have any white paper or dark blue paper or even enough baseball paper. No baseball stickers. He had confiscated them for his own use. That rascally rabbit. So it is off the scrapbook store or Michael's tomorrow. This is what I have so far.
I did manage to get a coat of glaze on the pottery from Princess's party. Here are pics of the stamps we made and the shirts. I also realized these girls had no idea how to decoupage. Are you kidding me? I have to "clean up" some of their work on their hearts.
My TA DA's: I really have nothing completed. Sorry.
My TO DO's: To get things completed!!!!

The Question of the Week:
Do you sketch your ideas or do you just put things together as you go?
Both - it depends on if I get inspried from the pictures or a certain paper or craft idea. Sometimes I just start throwing it together and it ends up completely different than my original idea. Isn't that half the fun?

Have a crafty good week!

Readers Rally 2008

Well this has been a crazy busy weekend. Princess's Reader's Rally Team won first place in the county this weekend. That is first out of almost 40 elementary schools. That is impressive. Yes, there actually more elementary schools than that in our county - something like over 1 million people?? Crazy big!! We are considered Metro - not the city!!!
Anyways - they had to read 20 books and answer detail questions. It was quiz show or academic bowl style with teams and buzzers. It was exciting!!! I am proud of her. Brains and Beauty - watch out world!! In the pic that is Princess on the left, their coach/sponsor in the middle, and a friend on the right. They even received medals and of course a book.

Menu for week 1/28/08

Here is my menu this week. I have been planning menus for a few years. I found on I'm an organizing Junkie's blog her weekly challenge for organizing and posting you menus. I have found it extremely useful for grocery trips and even makes it easy to shop for sales. I try to let the kids help with the menus and cooking. I also try to once a month do a huge freezer cooking for busy nights or meals only Big Daddy will eat. Makes it easy on me. It is all about me - right?

Monday - Princess's birthday - Big Daddy's Famous Fried Chicken (use to called spearless wings)
Skinny Onion Rings, and Birthday Brownies!

Tuesday - Chef Special Stir Fry - Fried Rice - frozen chicken and fries for the picky ones

Wednesday - Spinach Tortellini Soup - Garlic French Bread - again - frozen chicken and fries for the picky ones - Queen Bee and I will eat out with friends (cheer night)

Thursday - Busy night :) Leftovers, whatever anyone can find in the frig, freezer or pantry

Friday Night - Hamburgers and Hot Dogs, homemade french fries - chocolate chip cookies for dessert

Our cookie of the week this week: Peanut Butter Cookies -
Last week we made Martha Stewart's Black Bottom Coconut cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and brownies - mostly for Princess's birthday party.

Enjoy your week!

A word for the year - Patience

I found this great blog from Kristi -Everything is Pink. Besides the fact I love the color pink. Seriously - love the color pink! My room was pink growing up, I wear pink pretty much everyday, my sorority colors were pink and white, my girls love pink...I have now gotten off track.
Any whooo...Kristi has a great post about her word of the year. It made me think, what would my word of the year be?

I choose Patience. I have none, not one ounce. I want everything right now, right here, no waiting. Patience is one thing I need to learn. My patience quickly runs out when the kids are screaming and fighting - yes, they do that. I think patience would be good for me, for the whole family. Patience in everything, from waiting in a line to waiting for a phone call or email. Patience that anything good comes with time. Or is it anything worth having is worth waiting for? You get the idea. My kids need to work on their patience too. So in effort to self-improve I will be holding on to my patience. Gee, this is where I wish I knew how to make those great digital pictures or graphics. Then I could make one that says, you guessed it "Patience". Maybe I should have chosen Learn - LOL
I will know Learn to have Patience for those brownies to finish baking!
Have a great weekend!
Tomorrow is the big crafty B'day party! I will post pics on Sunday :)

New Projects this Week

This week has been my "catch up on unfinished projects" week. Fun huh?
Here are a few things I actually finished...

My first apron. Next time I need to add pockets, maybe make the front a little wider. I am going to put a monogram on it for my SIL.These are a pair of soft shoes for my cousin's little boy. I also made him a matching burp cloth and paci holder. I think they turned out cute for my first pair of baby shoes :)Off to finish playing with block printing. It is one of the crafts we are doing at Princess's party on Saturday. I will take pics when I am done - so far - too cute!!!!!

CUTE!CUTE!CUTE!

I love tootling along the blog -line and finding tutorials! Look at this adorable tutorial!!
I make handmade fortune cookies every year at Christmas and for the Chinese New Year (Yes, the kind you eat). But these are precious. I have to make these...now to get some tan felt...
Check out Craft Sanity Blog to get the tutorial.
Let me know if you make them!

Last week's yummy treats! The kids and I decided to make these yummy chocolate and peanut butter blondies last week. They received rave reviews!
Here is the link to the recipe and the picture the Hershey's website gives:
We added the chocolate and peanut butter swirl pieces to the recipe and added more of the mini Reeses baking bits. Yummy!!! I think our picture looks tastier! Of course we had to put them in cute cello bags with pink and brown rafia.
Let me know if you try them! I would love to know if your turned out just as tasty!
Off to get this week's recipe going....

Sunday Scrappin'

For my Sunday Scrappin' I worked on our Wedding album.. It has only taken me 12 years to get it together. I know you thinking -wow that must be some album. It really is just all black , 8 x 10 pics held on with photo corners. Nothing extraordinary - but sweet and simple. I will get the pic posted today. I just have 1 page to finish up. Alteast I can say - One album down LOL

Promise - the next album will be a little more substantial and creative :)

My Ta-Das - is not scrapbook related -but it is crafty! I almost finished with my SIL's apron! I will post when it is done. I also made cute baby booties, burb, and paci holder for my cousin's new baby boy. I wish they lived close enough I could hug him. But sadly they are in Minnesota...so long distance hugs will be sent this week. - That would also answer the bonus question. Getting these projects wrapped up!

My To-Dos - get ready for Princess's "Crafty" Birthday Bash this weekend...UGH... 13 kids and lots of great crafts. Let's hope they don't wreck my studio and basement. I am going for controlled chaos.

Have a great Monday.

It snowed again!!

It snowed again!! I was so excited! Big Daddy, Princess and her friend, and of course -Little Man -built this great snowman! He is a "hiking" snowman. We had to improvise on the embellishments -but I think it turned out great!
Hot Chocolate anyone????

Did you get snow this year? Did you build a snowman??? Share! I would love to see pics.

Snow in the South!

We had snow!! How exciting for us Southerners!! We didn't have 6 inches or anything, just a couple of loose powder inches - enough to have a good old fashioned snowball fight! The kids had a great time! Yes, I know Queen Bee is in shorts. She had just come home from cheerleading practice. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to stick around. It was gone by noon. Then today it was almost 60 degrees. It is suppose to snow again tonight. I guess we will see what it looks like when we wake up!

Here's to snow ball fights and hot chocolate!

Feeling the L-O-V-E

I LOVE Valentine's Day -I mean I really LOVE it!! It is my Fav holiday! In the spirit of loving Valentine's Day - why not join this great swap from Missy at Fabric of My Life.
I am so excited. My mind is twirling wildly with the possibilities. It also made me realize. I have not posted hardly any of my craftiness. I also have not posted Princess's newest outfit. I am taking care of that right now. Hmm..I need to work on my photography. It is a very cute outfit but still "cool" enough for her to not feel like she is 5 years old. Geesh - she is only going to be 10 in a couple weeks!!

Go visit Missy and join the LOVE Swap! Kiss your kids and hubby. Eat more chocolate!
That is my mantra for the day!

Warm PJ Drive

Another great idea from Flat Betty! (you can click on the link on the left side bar) or click HERE to get to Flat Betty. A warm pajama and book drive!!! Everyone needs warm Pjs! Who doesn't love to cuddle and read a good book? Please visit Flat Betty's site to help raise money for this event!
I off to check my calendar to put together a PJ/book drive to help out! More details later...
What are you waiting for? Go visit Flat Betty - Hurry!!!!!!

Queen Bee does a good deed

As parents Big Daddy and I try hard to instill caring and a value of service to others in our children. This is a hard concept, but one that we try to model through actions and teach throughout daily life. Well, Queen Bee started growing her hair over a year ago. She said she wanted to donate it to Locks of Love. Great I said. Little did I know how long it would take. I know, patience is a virtue and all good things come with time. But day after day of struggling with the angel's hair - it hurts when you brush it, there is a knot, I don't like that hair do - UGH!! Finally, after looking around and hearing about an Oprah show -we found Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Program. They only needed 8 inches! WOO HOO!!! Last week my girlfriend cut Queen Bee's hair! All 8 inches! She was so excited. She was even featured on the school's morning announcements. That is a big deal in 2nd grade! Here are some "during" pics! Hmm...doesn't seem like a lot of hair, but it really was a HUGE change. She looks totally different now.
We are all proud of her! Have a fabulous day!