CrazyMomto7

EEK a Mouse

2011-08-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

I was working on my computer and all of the sudden Seth yells MOUSE!! I'm like where and he said it was behind the hope chest. Next thing I know he's headed for my desk so of course my feet immediately go up in the chair. All the kids were standing on furniture and this poor mouse was running all over trying to figure a way out of the chaos. He finally went behind the TV for awhile. Katie went downstairs to get a bucket as she wanted to catch him and let him loose outside. Well I went downstairs to put clothes in the dryer and then I hear a bunch of shrieking and then I heard the back door open. When I came upstairs I was informed that he ran out from under the TV and ran around in circles before crawling into Olivia's shoe. Katie picked up the shoe dumped in the bucket and then ran him outside. She was going to let him loose behind the garage but apparently he jumped out of the bucket and ran like the devil. Hopefully we've traumatized him enough that he won't come back!! Katie Jo Horwitz saved the day and is our HERO!!!

Happy, Happy Girl

2011-07-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

Drove down to my Mom and brother Skip's last Friday to pick up Katie. The bonus for me was being able to see my niece Madeline. She's such a happy baby. Mom was watching her while her parents and older sisters were on a trip to Ohio to go to Cedar Point, Kings Island and a few other places. They really missed Madeline and I know they were all happy to see each other. Katie and I left Mom and Skip's on Saturday and headed home. It was so HOT!!! I really wasn't feeling well on the way home. I blame it on the heat, I just couldn't seem to cool off. I was in bed by 8:30 that night as I was exhausted.

Today Seth and Marc are enjoying themselves at Six Flags Great America. Seth got a free ticket for doing the reading program at school and I got Marc a free ticket with Coke points. They've already called twice. Seth has been on Raging Bull, American Eagle and Dark Knight. It's the first time he's been on them as the last time we were there he either wasn't tall enough or brave enough. Sounds like they are having a great time! The girls and I are just hanging out at home today and being lazy!

Productive Day Part III

2011-07-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the rest of what I did today!!

Productive Day Part II

2011-07-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

I'm doing this in parts as all these pictures won't fit in one post. All of these layouts were done today. I really feel a sense of accomplishment!!

2011-07-20T16:23:00.001-07:00

I spent most of the day in the basement scrap booking. It's the coolest place to be since it was over 100 with the heat index today. These are the cards I've made over the past month. The first one was a birthday card for my great niece Ariana. The 2nd one was a birthday card for my father-in-law. The 3rd one was a card for my granddaughter McKenzie wishing her a great summer filled with lots of ice cream. And, the last one was another card for McKenzie saying that I hoped they were all settled in their new home.

I'm Still Here

2011-07-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted I almost forgot how. Well I'm going to try and get back in the swing of posting regularly which I hope means weekly. Here's pictures of some of my latest projects. OK first are cards I made for teacher gifts, they got 4 of each one as a set. Next are two scrapbook pages of my niece Madeline who just turned 1 in May. And, last the wedding card I made for our son Matthew and his wife Tina. I still have some more recent cards to download from my camera so I'll try to get to those later this week. Hope everyone is staying cool!!!

New Pictures

2010-01-07T20:21:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our Florida trip.

Oops where does the time go!!

2009-11-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

Well it's been so long since I posted I doubt anybody even bother to check out my blog anymore. Can't say that I'd blame them. Here's some pictures of things I've been working on over the last several months.

The first picture is of the little Christmas ornament gift tags I made to go with teacher gifts this year. They are filled with mint M&M's. The second picture is the birthday card I made for Olivia's teacher this year. They just happen to share the same birthday. The third is a birthday card I made for one of Seth's friends. Next is the birthday card I made for my niece Chloe, who like her Aunt Paula, loves ducks. Next is the birthday card for my brother Bill. He and his family went to Kennedy Space Center this summer and actually saw a shuttle lunch. And, the last picture is the gift I made for my mother-in-law's birthday.

I'll try and do better about posting!!

Finally....

2009-06-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

And here's the last of what I've done over the last month or so. First one says Who'll Miss You? and is for a friend of Katie's that is moving. The second says We'll Miss You and is for another friend of Katie's that is missing. And the fourth is for my niece Haley who turns 4 the end of the month.

And more....

2009-06-14T15:45:00.001-07:00

Layouts of Seth & Olivia's spring pictures from school. Katie didn't like how hers turned out so we didn't buy them. And, a birthday card for my father-in-law.

Graduation Card and Gift

2009-06-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here's some stationary I made for a friend of Katie's that graduated high school as well as the card.

Projects

2009-06-14T15:22:00.001-07:00

Here's some cards I've done lately. The first one is a Father's Day card, the second was just a note card and the third was a birthday card for my sister-in-law.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-08T11:44:00.001-07:00

I made several Mother's Day Cards this year. This is what they looked like. I also made them in pink as well. Hope everyone has a Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-04T11:18:00.001-07:00

Here's the card I made for Suzannes 17th Birthday (this Wednesday)!

Teacher Appreciation Week

2009-05-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Here's the cards I made to put with the Teacher Appreciation gifts this week. Their simple but I think they're cute.

"Bye, Bye Birdie"

2009-05-02T09:17:00.001-07:00

I made this card for Katie to congratulate her on a job well done. Jack London Middle School did a production of "Bye, Bye Birdie" and it was wonderful. I enjoyed it so much that I'm going back tonight to see the performance again. The entire cast and crew did a wonderful job and I was quite impressed.

Card Challenge #7

2009-04-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here's my version of this challenge. It's simple but I like how it turned out so I guess that's all that matters.

New Additions to the Family

2009-04-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

Here are the two new additions to our family. Matthew bought the kids two hamsters for Easter. The one in sitting in the food bowl is Flower and the other one is Bambi. Everday this week the kids come home and put them in their playballs so they can roll all over the floor. They've also been inviting all their friends to come over and see them. I'm sure in another few weeks the excitement will fade. I hate to admit it but I think Marc and I are enjoying them as much as the kids!!

Card Challenge #6

2009-04-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

Marc and I celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary today. So this morning I was thinking I needed to make him a card. I decided to check out http://www.linnecards.com/ to see if there was a current challenge going on. Sure enough card challenge #6 is due by midnight tonight so here's the card I came up with!

RIP

2009-04-12T16:00:00.001-07:00

OK, so the Buick Century is no longer a lawn ornament in our backyard. We donated it to the Veterans and the tow truck came and took it away on Saturday. It was a great car and it served us well! We've replaced it with a Cadillac that we bought from a friend. He gave us a great deal and the car is in really good shape and should be perfect for our needs.

We have had a crazy (in a good way) couple of weeks. Matthew surprised us and came home on Katie's 13th birthday. And, her newest cousin Reece (our first nephew) was born on her birthday too! That will be a tough birthday to top!! My Mom arrived the following day and stayed for a week. While she was here her and I travelled to Cedar Rapids, IA and met my brothers there. We scattered my Dad's ashes near the Marion Depot per his request. After my Mom left my brother-in-law arrived and spent an evening with us. Jonathon came over and visited with us too! Then my in-laws decided to come back from Florida early so they could visit with Matthew. They arrived here yesterday and spent last night and today (Easter) with us. I fixed a big dinner and Mike stopped on his way home from Michigan and had dinner with us too. Jonathon joined us as well so there were 12 of us for Easter. It was hectic but nice! Then this afternoon after all our company left, Matthew said he needed to run out as he wanted to get the kids an Easter gift. Needless to say we our now the proud owners of two hamsters! The kids are ecstatic, at least it wasn't a puppy! I'm looking forward to a quiet evening and everyone going to bed early. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Card Challenge Week #5

2009-03-29T06:18:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to win Card Challenge Week #3 and so I'm the guest designer this week. Here's what I came up with!!

Card Challenge Week #4

2009-03-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here's my card for this week.

Olivia's New Look

2009-03-24T11:16:00.001-07:00

Olivia's new glasses finally arrived. Not sure if you can tell a difference but she did get two different pairs.

Card Challenge #3

2009-03-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

I had some quiet time this afternoon and I had so much fun making this card. My son had his last basketball game yesterday and finally made his first basket. We were all so proud of him and I wanted to make him a special congratulations card. It was great being able to make him a card and use it for this weeks challenge! Just in case it doesn't show up clearly the middle section says What a Sport!

Card Challenge Week #2

2009-03-14T15:28:00.001-07:00

Here's my card for this weeks challenge. I had a lot of fun with it!!

Card Challenge #1

2009-03-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

OK, so Dianne and Marnie convinced me to participate in the weekly challenge at linnecards.com so here's my card!!

Ta Da

2009-01-25T15:40:00.000-08:00

Here's what the new bedroom looks like it. We still have a few little things to do but at least all the furniture (some new) is in the room.

This Week's Layouts

2009-01-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of layouts I started at Marnie's on Wednesday and finished up at home yesterday.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

A Few More Layouts

2009-01-13T08:40:00.001-08:00

Here's a few layouts I did last Wednesday in addition to the two I made for Marnie's Wellies challenge. The challenge layouts are posted on the Schnockered Scrapper blog. The one on the left is a picture of the kids with their Great Grandma Beckert. I always make sure to get pictures of them with her every time we visit. I'm thinking next time I should get a picture of her and I since I don't have any recent pictures of us together!!

Hockey Player or Jack-o-Lantern

2009-01-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

So what do you think?? I said Seth looks like a Jack-o-Lantern and Marc says he looks like a hockey player. Either way he's still the cutest boy I know!! He was very excited to have lost another tooth. He was a little disappointed that he didn't loose it at school as he really wants to bring a tooth home in one of those cute little tooth holders. Oh well maybe next time!

Have fun digging out of this wonderful snow, UGH!!

Todays Quote

2009-01-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

OK, so today's calendar quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson and it says "Men are what their mothers made them." Let me just say that for certain men that I know it explains alot.

I've already received and sent out the first 2009 e-mail entitled "Getting to Know Your Friends". Usually when it asks what my favorite day of the week is I say Friday, as that's usually wind down from the week. But after further thought (and reading Dianne's answer) I wonder why I don't put Wednesday. That is the one night a week (most weeks anyway) that I get to call mine. I get to go hang out with my good friends and scrap. And I am so looking forward to going tonight. Seems like it's been forever and technically it was last year since I've been. I have so many ideas and layouts I want to work and hopefully I'll accomplish something. There's also going to be a weekly challenge which I LOVE the idea of. That certainly motivates me and usually gets me going in a direction I may not of thought of on my own.!

Hope everyone else enjoys their Wednesday!

Sneak Peek

2009-01-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a sneak peak of the new color in the bedroom. I'm loving it!! Can't wait to put the room together. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Good Morning

2009-01-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

This is the quote of the day from my new calendar...."Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarasses your children". I LOVE this one and I do it as often as I can.

Our bedroom is in total disarray. It's finally getting the well-deserved makeover it needs. It's been primed and tomorrow the new color goes on!! After that time for the new flooring. I'm hoping to get to Kohl's over the weekend to get some new pillows and maybe even some new bedding. I'll take pictures to post when it's all completed.

I've been up since 8:00am this morning. All the kids are still sleeping and I have gotten so much accomplished! I've been writing a letter to Matthew since Christmas day and I finished that up to get in the mail. One of my resolutions was to send him a weekly letter. So far I'm off to a great start!! LOL...we'll see how long it lasts.

Melody and Hawk are coming over this morning. We were supposed to have a scrap/play date before Christmas but Seth got sick and we had to cancel. So far it looks like a go for today. I'm hoping to scrap my Christmas cards/pictures from last year and maybe this year too if I have time.

Well it's time to end the silent solitude. Better get the kids up so they can get breakfast before company arrives. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Happy New Year Everyone

2008-12-31T10:11:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year!! Here's some Christmas photos of each of the kids. Last pictures of 2008!!

New SpringWidget

2008-12-27T18:18:00.001-08:00

Get this widget!

Merry Christmas Everyone

2008-12-23T19:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm such a terrible blogger. I haven't updated this since school started and I think last year my resolution was to be a better blogger. Guess that better be my resolution again this year and hope it works out better.

Here's what's going on with us! The kids all went back to school the end of August. I got a job working at Field Elementary as a playground supervisor during the lunch hour. I'm loving it!! Those kids crack me up and it's pretty decent money for only 5 hours of work a week.

Seth is now 7 and in 1st grade. He loves going to school and is doing very well! He joined a basketball group and starts practice after the 1st of the year.

Olivia is 9 and in 4th grade and just starting taking the viola. So far she enjoys it so we'll see how that goes. She's still in Girl Scouts too.

Katie is 12 going on 20. She's very into makeup and she loves the Twilight series. She's even got me reading them. She's still playing the oboe and joined our church's puppet team. She'll start confirmation classes after the 1st of the year.

Suzanne is 16 and a Junior in high school. So far she's doing pretty good in school and she's trying to figure out what her future career aspirations are. Certainly not an easy decision at 16.

All the kids are looking forward to Christmas and seeing what Santa is bringing them. I'm hoping they'll be happy with everything they receive.

Here's wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!!

Silence is Golden!!!

2008-08-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's so quiet hear. Stephen took the kids to Chuckie Cheese for lunch and I'm getting a taste of what my days will be like when school starts. Gotta say I'm looking forward to it!

What a week we had last week. We drove down to my Mom's on Monday, spent the afternoon swimming and had a little BBQ. Then we we all left to head back to Bill & Heather's none of the kids wanted to go in their car with them. Well it turned out that it worked out for the best as Bill hit a cow on the way home. Luckily we were about 5 minutes behind them as both their cell phones were dead and they had to use mine. They were so lucky as there wasn't a lot of damage to their car. Just the hood basically. We all said that it was a good thing that it wasn't us that hit him as there probably would have been a lot more damage to our van.

OK, so Tuesday we spent the afternoon swimming and then headed for the Bond County Fair. We got there about 5:30, scoped out our spots for the parade and took the kids to the midway. They were able to ride some rides and then we all got something to eat and sat down to watch the parade. Let me just say it was 98 degrees but felt more like 110. Well just after the parade started Heather turned to me and said "that's the weather siren going off". But, no one was moving or even paying attention as the fire engines and police cars were going by with their sirens on. I think we kind of assumed that the police or firemen would let us know if there was a problem. We were wrong!! A few minutes later the sky looked very ominous and I thought for sure we were going to be right in the middle of a tornado. Needless to say my girls were freaking out, as girls will do. We took shelter under the cow barn which basically just had a roof over it. After about 5 or 10 minutes a police officer came and told us that two tornados had been spotted and power lines and trees were down all ovre town. He directed us to the grandstands or any buildling with a concrete foundation. Off we went to the nearest building and got drenched in the process. We stayed their for about an hour while the storm blew over and then headed back to Bill & Heather's. Now my children will probably never want to go to a county fair again.

Wednesday morning it was off to St. Louis to go to the arch. Everything went well until we tried getting Seth in the little pod elevator that takes you up. He was screaming and crying and holding on to the stair railing for dear life. Marc physically pried him off and threw him in the elevator. He freaked...kept screaming "where's the buckle" and kept his eyes closed the entire way up while saying "don't touch me, nobody touch me". Once we arrived at the top he kept walking down the center of the aisle with his arms out for balance and continued to say "don't touch me, nobody touch me". Luckily after a few minutes he got braver and started looking out the windows. According to him it was the best part of our vacation. After that we made a quick stop at the Soldier Museum and then headed to Ted Drewes for their famous frozen custard. Then we met Bill, Heather and the girls at The Magic House which is really a huge children's museum where we spent almost 3 hours. The kids had a blast and so did the adults. Then we all headed back to Bill & Heathers for pizza and an evening of Guitar Hero.

Thursday we headed home and Friday I spent the day doing laundry and packing to go to Mike's house for the weekend. It was the last time we'll probably go to Kalamazoo since he starts his new job in North Dakota on the 18th. Saturday we had an uneventful ride to Kalamazoo and then that afternoon we headed to Ribfest. The ride home on Sunday was long and we thought it would never end. We left K-zoo at about 1:00pm our time and didn't get home until almost 6 as their was road construction and traffic. We decided to take the Skyway since according to the radio station it was clear. Well that was true until we got to Comisky Park and the White Sox game had just let out. Then we got caught in that traffice. Whew!

This weekend we are all headed in different directions. I'm going back to my Mom's on the 14th to spend a long weekend helping her clean, organize and go through everything. The girls are going to be with their Dad. Suzanne is still with her Mom. And, Seth and Marc are headed to Fulton to see the Peoria Chiefs play the Clinton Lumberkings on Saturday night. Ryne Sandburg is the manager for the Peoria Chiefs and they are hoping to get his autograph. We'll all return on the 17th and then we are done with our travels for awhile as school starts on the 26th.

Well I'll close for now as I've been quite long winded, as usual!

She Did It!!

2008-07-29T16:23:00.001-07:00

Well, Suzanne and I just got home from the Hair Cuttery. This is what she looks like now that she's donated the majority of her hair to Locks of Love. It's called an Alien cut as it's shorter in the back and longer on the sides. I think it's adorable and I think she likes it too!

I'm an Idiot

2008-07-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

It's Register's Annual Great Bicycle Race across IOWA not America. Of course my brother went to the blog and now I'm sure he thinks I'm an idiot.....wait he probably already did. Oh well!

RAGBRAI

2008-07-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Caption next to photo in Iowa City Press-Citzen Newspaper read:

William Beckert, of Greenville, Ill., holds his bike over his head after dipping it in the Mississippi River on Saturday in Le Claire after completing the final leg of RAGBRAI.

For those of you unfamiliar RAGBRAI stands for Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across America and this year was the 36th annual. My brother Bill rode in it for the first time and had a blast. I followed along everyday by logging on the Des Moines Register and viewing photos, maps of the route, etc.

Anyone interested in reading the article that accompanied the above picture can do so by visting http://www.press-citizen.com/ then in the search field type RAGBRAI and the name of the article was Bidding RAGBRAI Adieu, dated July 27, 2008. Or try this link which I think will take you right to it

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807270317

Later

2008-07-28T11:01:00.001-07:00

Let's see what's been going on here...

Friday was Stamp Camp at Marnies and we made some wonderful cards. Saturday I spent most of the day in the basement scrapping and did these two layouts plus some more pages for the tribute album I started for my Dad. Sunday I signed up for IM on Myspace and I've been chatting with Matthew on it daily since then. It's great as they are 8 hours ahead so he logs on about lunchtime here and it's 8:30 or so over there. He said it's really hot, sandy and boring over there. He keeps adding all kinds of things he'd like us to send to him so I keep trying to keep everyone updated. I've already sent one box but he still hasn't received it. I've got another box I'm filling and will probably send in another week or so.

VBS was cancelled so we've decided to go out of town for a few days and see my family. We are leaving on Monday, August 4th and it just happens to be the week of the Bond County Fair so we are going to go to that. I don't think the kids have ever been to one so hopefully they'll enjoy it. We are also going to take them to the St. Louis Arch. Marc and Katie have been up to the top in the last few years. I haven't been up in it since I was a little girl so I'm looking forward to it. We'll come back home on the 7th and then on the 9th we are leaving to go to Kalamazoo for a quick weekend trip. Marc's brother took a job in North Dakota so this will probably be our last trip there. It happens to be Ribfest that weekend so you can guess what we'll be having for supper on Saturday.

We'll I've got more plans for August but I'll save those for another post in a week or so. Hope every one is well!

So Sorry....

2008-07-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since my last post so I'll try and summarize the last few months...

After a long battle with diabetes and heart problems, my Dad passed away on May 5th so needless to say that pretty much took the wind out of me for a few months. Life does go on and it is getting better everyday. Needless to say I worry about my Mom and am trying to help her out whenever I can. She seems to be doing pretty good however I think the end of the month will be rough as it would have been my Dad's birthday on the 31st of this month.

Matthew came home the weekend of Mother's Day and was here for two weeks. We threw a big BBQ on Memorial Day weekend and invited all his family and friends to come visit him. He shipped out to Kuwait on June 16th. He calls about once every 10 days or so and is doing well. He says it's like being at the beach except there is no water and no pretty girls sunbathing!

School ended the beginning of June and Seth graduated Kindergarten and received a "Wonderful Singer" award from his teacher. He's very excited about the prospect of going to school all day in the fall. Olivia would never go back if I'd let her and Katie is excited about going back as well. Although I do think it's because she wants to see all her friends and not because she can't wait to get back to learning.

Suzanne made the "B" honor roll the second semester and we are all very proud of her. We chipped in some money to help her by an MP3 player that she'd been wanting. She started working as a day camp counselor at the Prospect Heights Park District on the 16th of June and her last day is July 25th. She only works from 8:30 to 12:30 but she seems to enjoy it and I know she's looking forward to getting her paycheck.

Marc, Katie, Olivia, Seth and I went to visit my Mom and brothers the weekend of June 20th and also celebrated my niece Haley's 3rd birthday. The intent was to help my Mom go through some of my Dad's things. We did go through a few things but we really spent most of the weekend swimming and fishing with the kids. We had a great time!

I turned the big "45" last week and on Tuesday my Mom and my niece Chloe showed up on our doorstep to surprise me. They stayed until Friday morning and we all had a great time. The kids were happy to be able to spend time with Chloe and Mom and I were able to go shopping for scrapbooking supplies and spend time together. On Wednesday we went to Marnie's to scrap and all my WONDERFUL friends surprised me and took me to Claim Jumper's for dinner. I'd never been there and the food was really good. While Mom and I were out Marc baked me a cake and hid all the evidence until the next day when I woke up and found a dozen roses on the breakfast counter along with a card and a note that said check the oven. After a wonderful birthday meal of spaghetti I had more wonderful gifts to open and we ate the cake which was delicious. Then on Saturday Marc surprised me again by telling me we were dropping the kids at Marnie's and going out to dinner alone. We went to Red Lobster which is one of our favorite places and had a nice dinner.

Whew! I think that's the highlights from the last several months and hopefully I can get make to trying to post on a weekly basis. Have a great weekend everyone and stay COOL!

Mia's Birthday Present

2008-04-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot. Here's pictures of the birthday gift I did for Seth's friend Mia. Her party is this weekend at the Kohl's Children's museum. I just took a pink plastic flower pot that I had laying around. Put her name and a cute flower on it and then filled it with all kinds of fun girly stuff. I hope she enjoys it.

Tax Day

2008-04-15T08:48:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone has their taxes done. We do and we've already received both refunds. Walgreen's Photo Center has an on-line special today. If you type in the code word TAXDAY in the coupon section you can get 15 4x6 photos for free. Needless to say I took advantage of that deal. My shipment from Uppercase Living is scheduled to arrive today so later in the week I will be busy putting things up on the wall and making some other items to use at my open house later this month.

Marc and I celebrated 7 years of marriage yesterday. He went to basketball and brought home Taco Bell for dinner. We did go to Applebee's over the weekend (with Seth) and we bought the iPod for each other so it was a GOOD anniversary. We've been spending the last couple of weekends burning songs off our CDs to put on the iPod. We've currently got over 300 songs and let me tell you between my collection and Marc's it's quite an eclectic mix.

Seth came down with pink eye on April 4th and then on the 7th I came down with a sinus infection so we both had to visit the doctor. Yesterday I got a call from the high school and Suzanne has pink eye now. She's been putting drops in her eyes since yesterday afternoon and it's starting to look much better. She'll hopefully be able to go back to school tomorrow. Unfortunately she was going to try out for BGHS Poms but the workshops were yesterday and today with tryouts on Thursday. Doesn't look like she'll be able to do it now. Oh well there's always next year.

Seth and I are going to see Dr. Skale (dentist) after I pick him up this afternoon. Both of us have small cavities that need to be taken care of. Katie is still complaining of her one tooth hurting when she eats and brushes so I'm taking her with us as well. If necessary I'll reschedule my appointment for next week since I have to take Suzanne anyway.

Why is it that April and May seem to get so busy?? Olivia had a drama club assembly last Friday and Seth and I went to see it. She did really well. She spoke clearly and slowly so she was easy to understand. Can't say that about all the others though, stage nerves I guess. Tonight their is a Puppet Team open house at church and Katie wants to go to that. She's thinking of joining the team and wants to check it out. Next week Olivia has a choir concert that I'll be going to and then on May 5th (Happy Birthday Randi!) is Katie's last band concert for the year. Marc's parents are back from Florida and they are coming up on April 25th and will spend the weekend with us.

Marc booked his flight to Texas. He's leaving on May 10th and Matthew will pick him up at the airport and they will drive back here. They'll be home sometime on the 11th and I'm sure they'll be exhausted. I know Matthew has a lot of things he wants to do and people he wants to see before he has to head back on the 25th or 26th. He's shipping out to Kuwait sometime in June and will be gone for a year.

Well I guess I better get ready to get going. Have a great week!

April Fools Day

2008-04-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

I had to warn Seth this morning that it was April Fool's Day. I was afraid someone would play an April Fool's joke on him and he'd get upset. Hopefully my warning helped. I had forgotten about it until I heard the kids on the playground joking with their friends.

Well, it's official Katie is now 12 and at the rate she's going she may not see 13. Tonight I'm taking her shopping for summer clothes. That was our gift to her since she's always in need of clothes. We all survived her slumber party last Friday. It really wasn't bad...they got loud every now and then but that's what your'e supposed to do at a sleepover. She used some of her birthday money to buy an I-pod shuffle so now she feels like she's not so underprivileged, LOL!!

Speaking of I-pods.....Marc and I purchased a 2GB I-pod for our anniversary. We ordered it from Apple's website and it was only $69 with free shipping and free engraving. It's red and says Happy Anniversary on it. We ordered it last Thursday and they tried to deliver it yesterday but I wasn't hope so they brought it again today. I spent most of the morning downloading various songs from some of our CD's. I'm listening to it now as I type this.

We went to my niece Abbigayle's 5th birthday party on Sunday and everyone had a good time and enjoyed yummy food and cake!

Well I made the decision (with a lot of persuasion from Marc) to become a consultant for Uppercase Living. Marc feels that it's worth the investment to see how it goes. As long as I make the money back that I spent on the kit he'll be happy. Now I just have to choose a date to have an Open House and introduce it to everyone. I'm thinking a Sunday afternoon might work best. Once I receive my kit I'll choose a date.

Spring break is officially over...YEAH!! I LOVE my kids but it's always nice to send them back to school. I think they were ready to go as they were getting bored being at home and were anxious to see their friends.

Hope everyone has a Great week!

Spring is coming......

2008-03-14T08:18:00.001-07:00

the birds are singing, the snow is melting and even though I'm sure we'll have some more cold days it finally feels like there's a light at the end of the tunnel!! These flowers are from a few years ago but I can't wait until it is time to start planting and purchasing flowers for this year. I didn't do much in the way of flowers last year as it seemed like we were gone a lot and they would've just died anyway.

This has been a fast week and next week will go even faster. Spring break starts at Noon on Thursday the 21st. My brother-in-law will arrive that night and work on the kitchen floor will begin bright and early on Friday morning. Friday evening I'll be at stamp camp at Marnie's with all my friends. I've assured Marc that I'd prepare a nice meal for them before I go. I'm going to be picking up Double Filet-O-Fish sandwiches for those who want them as they will probably go away after Easter.

Marc's brother will stay through Easter dinner and then head back to Michigan later that afternoon. I really don't have much planned for spring break other than all of us going to the dentist for our 6-month check up. Katie's having a birthday slumber party on the 28th and luckily I have really good friends who've agreed to take Olivia and Seth so that they can have some fun of their own and not feel left out. I'm sure it'll be a crazy night here and I think Marc is looking for a place to go as well. Maybe he can go see a movie or two.

Tonight is Winterfest at church and the children are supposed to wear green. While the adults are in bible class they will watch one of the Shrek movies and then later they are going to decorate sugar cookies. I'm sure they'll have a blast and get all sugared up in time to go home.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Oops

2008-03-04T08:07:00.003-08:00

I gave the wrong demonstrator ID in the last post. The correct Demonstrator ID is 541471. Sorry!!

What to Do???

2008-03-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

OK, so my sister-in-law (Heather) and I talked at length on Saturday. She asked if I'd ever heard of Uppercase Living and I said no what is it? Well she had just been to a party and spent a little money and is having a book show. She said maybe you'd like to start another business? My first thought was no way, I can bearly make my quarter with TS why would I want to start another business. LOL, well now I am obsessing over this new company and the fact that there are very few reps if any in the Chicago area. The concept is just like scrapbooking rub-on letters and designs only you put them on your walls, doors, closet doors, furniture, appliances, dishes, containers....basically anything you can think of. And when or if you decide you don't like the look anymore or want to put up something new they are easy to remove. I went online and fewed the 100 page plus catalog and I can't stop thinking about it. It's similar to a Stampin Up Catalog, the more you look at it, the more you see and the more you want.

I've gotten the go ahead from Marc to go ahead and give it a try. My main concern is that my friends and family, who have been so supportive in all my other businesses, may be sick of hosting parties for me. I'm going to talk it over with my scrapbooking friends tomorrow night to see what they think. I like the idea that I could really do a lot of business if there is no one else in the area doing it. There's no inventory to tote around and very little to take to a party so it won't be a lot of set up or take down time like some of the other businesses I've done.

I think I went to their website about 4 or 5 times yesterday and I've got a list of questions to ask my sister-in-laws local rep when I give her a call later this week.

If you have any advice, I'd love to hear from you. Also if you want to check out the catalog go to www.uppercaseliving.com and choose customer corner log-in. Use Demo ID #541741 and Token name or ID is Hudson. This will allow you to view their entire catalog.

By the way today is my beautiful niece Abbigayle's 5th Birthday.....Happy Birthday Abbigayle!

Snow, Snow Go Away

2008-02-26T10:57:00.001-08:00

And don't come back until next winter, please! Yuck I'm so sick of this weather. And, I hate that on days when Stephen doesn't have school I have to clean off his car. This morning all the doors were frozen shut and he'd pulled so far over to the edge of the driveway I couldn't get to the passenger windows to clean them without falling in the little ditch on the side of the driveway! I was so aggravated that I decided from now on he's going to have to get up early to get the car cleaned off for me so I can get kids to school. Either that or the rent is going up!

OK, so we had a beautiful sunny weekend. Saturday morning Olivia and I went to our local Walmart so she could help sell GS cookies. It seemed to go pretty well. Hopefully this weekend will bring more sun and a little warmth as it's Katie's turn to sell GS cookies at Walmart. At least after this weekend all my cookie obligations will be over, whew!

Because the weekend was so nice I had to deal with sinus headaches all weekend. Oh well it's a price I'll pay for a little break in the cold weather.

I'm in cleaning mode today. I spent the morning tearing the living room apart, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and putting it back together. Next I'm going to tackle our bedroom. The AT&T installation guy will be here bright and early on Thursday to install our new digital cable and internet. So, tomorrow night after I get home from scrapping Marc and I have to move the TV's and computers away from the wall so he can access them. They say it will take 5-8 hours to install and I'll be without internet for most of the day. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end. We are getting a little more for our money, plus a DVR. I just noticed today that our Dish Network bill went up by $2 so it makes me feel like we're getting a deal. I just hope there are no service issues!

Well I best get back to work. Have a good week!

Another Yucky Monday

2008-02-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

I think this is the first winter in a long time where I've gotten fed up and am ready for it to be over!! Anytime now would be good.

Here's what went on here this weekend. The kids had no school on Friday so we slept in until 9. Marc took a half day and then came home and varnished Seth's new toy box. His friend Cathy gave it to him and it's much bigger and looks more appropriate in his newly remodeled room than the Little Tikes one. Katie spent all day at her friend Anna's house and then Anna ended up coming over here and spending the night.

Saturday the girls went with there Dad and I went with Katie's GS leader to go pick up the cookies. What a zoo!! Since I'm the cookie Mom I'm now sitting here with 74 cases of cookies waiting for people to come and pick them up. And.....lucky me, since we have the first time slot of our on-site cookie sales at Walmart I get to keep the extra 25 cases here until March 1st. I'm really hoping March 1st is a dry, somewhat warm day!! I'm thinking 35 degrees or above would be good. After we unloaded all the cookies I ran to Sam's Club and Jewel to get the things we needed. I HATE shopping on Saturdays!! Needless to say I get a call from Marc informing me that Olivia's Brownie leader called and can I pick up her cookies. YIKES!! I was able to pick them up on the way home and I quickly put those in a complete separate part of the house. Don't want to get them mixed in with Katie's troop.

Went to church on Sunday. Katie's friend Anna has been going with us every Sunday since the end of January. She was very excited as the church presented her with a Bible since she didn't have one of her own! After church Katie's two GS leaders stopped by so we could go over the cookies and make sure that Marc and I had sorted them out properly. They each took their daughter's cookies home along with one other GS who lives close by so now I'm only waiting for 5 people to come get the rest. I'm hoping they'll all be out of the house by the weekend.

Well today is President's Day so again no school for the kids. We slept in until 9 again and now Katie's in the shower and Olivia is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her best friend Emily who's going to come and play from 11 to 3. Of course they are both complaining that 4 hours is just not enough time for them to do everything they want to do. My comment to them was they'd just have to deal with it because 4 hours is way more than enough time in my book.

Next home improvement project will take place over the Easter weekend. The flooring Marc wants to put in the kitchen is on sale this week and his brother has agreed to come spend the long weekend with us and help so we're going to take advantage of that. We have hated our kitchen floor since we moved in and hopefully the new floor will look MUCH better and be easier to clean.

Well I've been a little wordy this morning so I'll close for now!! Happy President's Day!

A Heat Wave would be Nice

2008-02-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

I'm not asking for much. How about a week of weather that has temperatures above 32 degrees and no more SNOW!! I do realize this is Chicago but come on I think we've had enough already. If this keeps up my parents may never return from Texas and Marc's may decide to stay in Florida.

Not much happening this weekend. We had Winterfest at church so the kids made painted t-shirts and fleece scarves while the parents attended bible study. Our teacher is very good and really makes the class fun. Marc thanked me for signing us up so obviously he's enjoying it too!

Saturday Katie went to London Middle School's variety show as one of her BFF's was performing. She also got invited to a little after party that Zoey's mom was giving her at a local restaurant. So I dropped her off at school and gave her $7. Two for the ticket and $5 to contribute to whatever she ordered at the restaurant. Well needless to say she bought her ticket, enjoyed the show and then lost her purse somewhere between the school and the restaurant so $5 went missing. Zoey's mother of course would accept no money from anyone and I should have known that ahead of time and just kept the $5 to myself. Oh well, it could have been worse. Katie only had lip gloss and her wallet in the purse. Luckily she'd left her school ID at home or we would have had to pay $5 to get a new one.

Yesterday we all stayed home and tried to keep warm. Marc was adamant about going to Target last night (totally unlike him) as he said they had a few things on sale he needed. I had went through the sale ad and didn't see anything I thought we needed. Well he came home told me to sit at my desk and close my eyes. I got my Valentine gift (I didn't expect one at all so I was shocked) early. He bought me a red fleece blanket with hearts all over it. I spend a lot of time at my desk with my feet propped up and then my legs get cold so he thought the blanket would help. Very sweet. He also brought me dark chocolate M&M's, Peanut M&M's, Reese's Miniatures and Cherry Cordial Kisses. I should be set for awhile!!

Stay warm everyone.

Rainy Days & Mondays....

2008-02-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

This has got to be the craziest weather we've had in Chicago in a while. On Thursday night we got 8+ inches of snow which resulted in a Snow Day for everyone. Then yesterday we got another 1-3 inches on top of that and this morning I was out running errands in the pouring rain and I saw lightening.

Seth's room is finally done, WOHOO!! He's no longer sleeping in our room on the floor so I don't have to worry about stepping on him in the middle of the night. It also means we got our dining room back, although there are still a few items out there. Marc's old neighbor Cathy gave us a nice wooden toy box that he's going to stain and then that will go in his room. In the meantime we want to go through all his toys and throw out broken ones and put aside ones that he's too old for now. Seth is very excited to be back in his room and he loves having is own bulletin board to put things on. It is so nice when the smallest of things bring such joy to a child....and then they grow up and what I-pods, MP3 players and cell phones, LOL!

Friday I was supposed to have been the Mystery Reader for Seth's Kindergarten class but since it was a Snow Day it didn't happen. I was all ready too! Hopefully Mrs. Scott has some open dates and we can reschedule as Seth is constantly telling me to call her so I can be the Mystery Reader.

Saturday I went to a VBS workshop with Barb. It was very nice and they even fed us lunch. Afterwards we stopped at The Christian Shop in Palatine to check out one of the VBS kits. Of course the kits were in a room with all their VeggieTale products. We love VeggieTales!! And, since Seth has been talking about not having a Bible and having to wait until he's in 3rd grade (which is a lifetime away for him) to get one....I just couldn't pass up the VeggieTale Bible Storybook. It's so cute and he's so happy with it. Of course we've been reading one Bible story a night so far and we'll see how long that lasts.

Just call me Gimpy. I'm not sure what I did but I woke up in the middle of the night Friday and my right knee was hurting. It hurts to bend it which has made getting around the last few days a challenge. Luckily I can walk and when I'm up and around it's not bad but if I sit for any length of time it gets sore. I've been taking Ibuprofen to help with the pain (which luckily is not unbearable) I just wish I knew what I did. Marc says I'm showing my age, thanks dear!

Hope everyone has a good week!

I've Been Tagged

2008-02-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Dianne...and now I'm passing it on to you! So, here's the deal for those that I Tag! The Middle Name Game! These are the rules:-You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for detail.)

Here is my middle name (Jo) and facts about me....

J - Jo...my middle name...is also my daughter Katherine's (or Katie as we call her) middle name.

O - Oh so many words come to mind that sometimes describe me. Optimistic, I'd like to think that for the most part I'm an optimistic person. Ornery, sometimes I can be a little ornery. Don't ask my husband he might say it's all the time!! Olivia's Mom, Olive's grandaughter are just a few more.

This is probably the shortest tag I'll ever get. I only had to choose two and I chose my favorite sister-in-law Heather and my good friend Jamie. I hope they have fun with this "Tagging"!

Almost Forgot

2008-01-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

Whew, time just seems to fly. This past weekend was a busy one for our household. I went to the crop so I was gone from Friday evening at 6pm until Saturday at 5:30pm. I did come home long enough to get some sleep but Marc was the only one who was coherent enough to know I'd been home. I did get several pages done and was so happy to finish some pages I'd had planned for a few years.

Marc and the kids went to Winterfest at church on Friday and then went bowling on Saturday so they all had a good time. Katie and Olivia went with their Dad yesterday and ended up going to a theater in Palatine to watch "The Sound of Music". They both enjoyed it!

Back to school today and at 10:45am I received a call from the nurse saying that Olivia was there. She was given another detention and was crying again. We talked and she said she deserved it so she toughed out the day and served her detention. She said she was given the detention because she was playing with her fingers and not paying attention. If this continues I'll be having a meeting with the principal sooner rather than later.

Hope your week started out better!

Ooops

2008-01-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

I forgot yesterday was Monday and I wanted to post. Having the kids and Marc home yesterday for the MLK holiday threw me off. The kids are home again today so my whole week will be off.

Marc's project for the long weekend was to paint Seth's room and put in the hardwood floor. He even took 1/2 day off on Friday to give him a little extra time. Of course nothing ever goes as planned and needless to say there is one coat of pretty blue paint on the wall and that's it. He's planning on painting a 2nd coat tonight and hopefully putting the flooring in on Wednesday. Anyhow that mean's my dining room is a mess as everything from Seth's room is in there and we can't eat as a family. Oh well hopefully by this weekend everything will be restored to normal.

I ended up going to Kohl's yesterday. They had scrapbook albums 50% off and I was lucky enough to pick a scratch off ticket worth another 20% so I got 3 albums for less then $30. Then I spent the afternoon putting pages I've done lately in the proper albums. I also made the discovery that the shelves in the entertainment center are the perfect size for 12 x 12 albums so now I can keep them downstairs and readily available for me to add more pages too. I also started packing for the crop this weekend. I hope I take everything I need and don't run out of things to do!

Tonight I go to get my yearly eye exam. Since I didn't need new glasses last year I'm sure I will this time. I'm considering bifocals but I'm still hesitant so I'll just play it by ear. I may even run across the street to JoAnn's as they have 12 x 12 paper 6 for 96 cents and I could use some Christmas and Valentine paper.

Well have a good week everyone!

Card Happy

2008-01-14T09:05:00.000-08:00

OK so as you can see I've been spending some time in my scrap area and have made the above cards using my new templates. The first one is for Marc for Valentine's Day and I don't think he ever goes to my blog so hopefully he won't start now. The middle one I made over the weekend and when I showed it to Marc his response was "You made that?" I'm hoping that means he was impressed. The third one is for a good friend of mine who loves ladybugs. I still have a few more to make for Valentine's Day and then I'd like to start working on some Christmas ones to get a head start.

Our first bible study was last Friday. There's a good mix of people and Marc seemed to enjoy it. Of course he has to attend the next class alone as I'll be scrapping. I'm sure he'll do fine.

Girl Scout cookie sales are going well. Katie is at about 54 boxes and Olivia is at about 23. I still have some more people to ask so hopefully we can boost Olivia's number up a little.

Speaking of Olivia...I just got a call from the school nurse saying that Olivia is in her office crying. She says she's tired, she doesn't feel well and she can't seem to stop crying. Luckily I have to go get Seth in about 10 minutes so I'll just pick them both up at the same time. She seemed perfectly fine this morning and she got a good night's rest so I'm wondering if something has happened at school or if she really is coming down with something. I guess if she comes home and goes to sleep I'll know the answer.

Have a good week everyone!

Happy First Monday of 2008!!

2008-01-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Well as you can see by the pictures I've finally gotten my scrap area set up and organized...at least for the moment. I spent all weekend working on it but really enjoyed doing it. I've even got some things ready to take to scrap this week. The first picture shows the 9 cubicle storage area that I used some Christmas money on (I used some of Marc's too but I don't think he minds). I had hoped it would be big enough to store my albums in but no such luck. As you can see I had no trouble filling the space. The last picture is of that cabinet we garbage picked and it's got all my stamps and card making items in it!! I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time down there being creative. I'm going to start by hopefully making some cards using the card templates Marnie gave me for Christmas.

Kids went back to school today. They wouldn't admit it but I think they were happy to go back. The weather is wonderful....to bad it won't last. Sounds like we may be back to wearing snow pants by the end of the week, YUCK!

Well Girl Scout cookie sales started last Friday. Each year it seems like we lose people we can sell too due to them having others in their family that are selling also. Katie was sweating making her 50 box goal. However a friend of hers who is no longer a Girl Scout said her family wanted to buy some from her. Well she made the call last night and sold 36 boxes and she was THRILLED!! Of course Olivia is a little awe struck and is hopeful she can sell as many as Katie.

Marc and I are starting a bible study this week on the Old Testament. I've taken bible classes before but this will be the first couples class we've taken. It meets twice a month from now until April and it should be interesting. While we are in class the kids will be doing crafts, watching movies, etc. so we won't have to worry about them.

Well I'll close for today and I'm hopeful that I can post on a more regular basis this year.

Sorry

2007-11-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since my last post so I'll try and get everyone caught up on what's been going on!!

We went to Fort Knox for family weekend the beginning of October. We had a nice visit with Matthew and took in some of the local sites. We visited the Patton Museum, Colonel Sanders Grave, Church Hill Downs, Schmidts Coca-Cola Memorabilia Museum, went on the Belle of Louisville for a two hour cruise down the Ohio River and saw the cabin where Abe Lincoln was born. The weather was unseasonably warm and we had a great time!

Stephen came home complaining of a stomach ache on Nov. 14th and by Thursday he couldn't stand up straight. Marc took him to the ER and they said his appendix had ruptured. He had it removed at 4am on Friday morning and spent his 22nd birthday in the hospital. He came home on the 20th and is doing well. Today is the first day he's went to school since it happened.

We left on the 21st and went back to Fort Knox to see Matthew graduate! It was the best graduation I've ever been too! After that we were all able to go and have lunch at the Golden Corral and then we dropped Matthew off at the Louisville airport at 3:30pm and headed back home. We arrived at home about 9:30pm. Matthew is now stationed at Fort Hood which is in Killeen, TX.

Needless to say on Thanksgiving we didn't do anything as we were all pooped. My girls ended up spending the day and evening with their Dad so it was just Marc, Seth and I. I did make a nice turkey dinner on Friday. Olivia spent the night with Emily and Abbi and had a great time.

Marc, Katie, Olivia, Seth and I will be heading to Raymondville, TX on Dec. 21st to spend Christmas with my parents. We are all so excited! Matthew is going to try and take leave and head down there as well and then he'd ride home with us and hang out for a little while before heading back to Fort Hood.

Suzanne tried out for the girls basketball team this year but was unsuccessful in her endeavor. We are just happy that she tried and hopefully she'll try again next year. Katie tried out for the Poms squad but she was unsuccessful as well. Again, hopefully she'll try again next year. Katie continues to play the oboe and just recently had one of her art projects chosen to be included in an art show! Olivia is going to a cheer leading clinic this Saturday. For $20 she gets poms, a t-shirt and is taught a routine that they will perform later that morning. She's very excited about it. Seth continues to love school and has made a lot of friends. His best friend Dillon lives right down the street and they've already had a couple of play dates. They'd have one daily if only us Moms would let them...LOL!

Well I think that covers it! Hopefully it won't be so long before I post again.

2007-09-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

Forgive me blogspot for I have sinned, it has been over a month since my last blog. Here's what's going on..... My baby Seth turned 6 today...he was up dressed with his backpack on and his bag of treats ready to go to school at 7:50am. He was not happy when he found out we couldn't even consider going to school until 8:30 or after. He had a great day at school and he has a classmate who shares his birthday. She also happens to only live 3 doors down from us. Who knew!! He was very happy with all his gifts which included new spiderman pajamas, Thomas the Train Leapster game, deck of cards, sleeping bag and Aquadots. The verdict is still out on the Aquadots, not sure if it was a waste of money yet or not. I'll know by the end of the week.

We leave Friday at 1pm for what will most likely be our last trip to Fulton this year. Marc's 25 year high school reunion is this weekend. Friday (Marc's birthday) we will be attending the homecoming game as Marc has been invited to play the National Anthem with the band and also participate in their half-time program. Then Saturday night is the reunion at the Red Dog Steakhouse. Hopefully some of Marc's old high school buddies will be there and we'll have a nice night out.

Just finished watching Dancing with the Stars. I watched last night's show online this afternoon and we just watched the men. Floyd Mayweather got all 6 of my votes. I thought he was good!

Well I'll try and post next week and let you know how the reunion went!

Back to School, YEAH!!

2007-08-21T06:54:00.001-07:00

First 1/2 day of school is this morning. Katie left about 7:40am for her first day of Jr. High and she could barely contain her excitement....wish it was like that on every school day. Olivia wanted to be at school right at 8:30am so she could spend time with her best friend Emily, who is not in her class this year. They've been working on the playground for the last week, installing new equipment, putting in more dirt and wood chips. And, of course with all the rain we had last week it's not done yet so it was off to the gym for everyone this morning. Seth and I head off to Kindergarten orientation at 11:15 this morning and then he will officially start on Thursday. He's very excited but a little concerned about homework. Suzanne starts her sophomore year tomorrow and Stephen will head back to Harper on the 27th. Whew!! Our summer was great and we did lots of fun stuff but even the kids were ready to head back to school. It'll be nice to have everyone back on a schedule.

Olivia will turn 8 on Monday the 27th and my parents are coming into town to help her celebrate. She has no idea that they are coming and when she sees Grandma waiting for her after school I'm sure she'll be thrilled. She thinks they are coming sometime in September and was a little disappointed they wouldn't be here on her actual birthday.

Marc went to Michigan this past weekend for the Nascar races. Saturdays race went without a hitch. However Sundays race was a washout and was postponed until Monday. Marc decided to go ahead and come home as it looked like it would rain all day Monday as well, which it did so the race was postponed until today at 10am ET. Needless to say Marc arrived home Sunday night a little after 9pm and headed back to Michigan last night about 8:30pm. He called from the racetrack this morning and said it was foggy but no rain so hopefully the race will happen today. His favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not be driving the #8 car next year so all his merchandise was 1/2 off. Needless to say all of us got souvenirs of some kind.

Got a letter from Matthew yesterday. He's been gone since August 2nd but just started boot camp on the 13th. He says it's extremely hard but he's toughing it out. He's really homesick and requested letters everyday if possible. I wrote him one last night and another one today. I'm hoping to send one every couple of days and then with other relatives and friends writing hopefully he'll get mail almost daily.

Well I'm going to sit and enjoy the quiet for a few hours as I know I'll spend most of the afternoon filling out school paperwork. Have a good week everyone!!

Baby It's Hot Outside and Inside!!

2007-07-31T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well here comes the hot weather and we have no A/C. Today we are getting our 4th and final bid on a new furnace and A/C so hopefully we can make a decision and get it taken care of in the next week or so!

Matthew leaves tomorrow afternoon and then on Thursday he will be headed out to Fort Knox to start his Army Basic Training. He's actually looking forward to it! His Dad and I are a little less than enthused as of course we fear that at some point he'll end up in Iraq. I do, however, applaud Matthew as this is something he really wants to do and for that we are proud!

Katie started a Sneak Peek into 6th grade class at the Jr. High yesterday. She was very excited but nervous too! Hopefully becoming acquainted with the school before hand will ease some of her anxiety on the first day of school! Speaking of which 20 days and counting, LOL!

Olivia is going to have Ms. Resnick for 3rd Grade. Katie had her for 3rd and 4th grade. Olivia of course wasn't to happy as everyone says shes mean. My hope is that since Katie and Olivia have such different personalities that she might actually enjoy having her for a teacher. And, since they no longer loop she should only have her for one year.

Seth has been switched to morning Kindergarten. Usually everyone who lives in our subdivision and is a walker gets assigned to afternoon. However this year there were only 7 kids who fit that bill and there are another 17 kids that were scheduled for morning. So.....they decided to combine them all together in the morning and there will be no afternoon kindergarten at all. This will be good as now I can drop Olivia and Seth both off in the morning and then head off to do any errands I need to do.

Well since it's quiet here I better get some things done. Keep Cool!!

Catch Up Time

2007-07-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

Let's see....Olivia and I spent a long weekend at my brothers house. We had a great time. Olivia got to play with my nieces and Mom, Heather and I scrapbooked. Attached is a picture of Haley who turned 2 on June 27th and Chloe who will turn 5 on August 22nd. When Olivia and I returned home my kitchen was green and I LOVE IT!!! On the 30th of June we threw Matthew a Graduation/Going Away Party. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a good time and ate lots of good food! Suzanne and Matthew went home with Grandpa and Grandma and this weekend we are headed to Fulton to pick them up.

4th of July was spent picking up my birthday present, which is a new bike. Unfortunately it's been so hot lately that I haven't ridden it much but since cooler weather is on the way I plan on taking a ride every evening. Both Katie and Olivia were in the Wheeling parade and Marc, Seth and I had a great spot to watch the entire parade. Thank goodness the weather was nice for it! Then at 9:30 we found a great spot to watch the fireworks and we were the only ones there. We are going to keep that secret spot to ourselves!

UH OH!! I have clothes on the line and it looks like it's going to rain!! Gotta go.

Keep Cool everyone!!

Coming Soon...

2007-06-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well almost all of the yucky wallpaper that was originally covering my kitchen is down. Marc just has one little section to go. As usual no project in this house ends up being easy. The wallpaper was put on top of drywall so it was a little tricky getting it down. My new kitchen is going to be a bright green with red accents, Apples. I've already bought some accessories to for decorating purposes and I just ordered the cutest curtains last night. I'm very hopeful that everything will be done by June 26th. That is when Marc's parents arrive to help us put new doors on every room and closet upstairs.

68 days and counting until the kids go back to school. 70 for Seth as Kindergarten starts later. It's not been bad it's just that there always seem to be two that are fighting or irritating one another. Olivia is going to have a playdate with her best friend Emily today so that will cut down on some of the fighting, since she seems to be the instigator most times. Then it will be off to scrapbooking later for a little bit of ME time!

I certainly hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weather we've been having. As we all know it could change in a heartbeat! HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!

Tagged

2007-06-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

While wandering through Dianne's blog she mentioned that she had been "Tagged" to answer some questions...and that if you read her blog and her answers...you were tagged too. So...consider me tagged! The same holds for you...if you read this...you're tagged!

10 FAVORITES

Favorite Color: Purple
Favorite Food: Mashed Potatoes
Favorite Month: October
Favorite Song: Doesn't stay the same...but "Defying Gravity" from the play "Wicked"
Favorite Movie: Gone with the Wind
Favorite Sport: Ice Skating
Favorite Season: Fall
Favorite Day of the week: Friday
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Ben & Jerry's Caramel Sutra
Favorite Time of Day: Late at night when everyone is sleeping, quiet,all mine.

9 CURRENTS
Current Mood: Earlier, disgusted....right now calm for the moment
Current Taste: Bugles
Current Clothes: jammies
Current Desktop: starfish in the ocean
Current Toenail Color: The one I was born with.
Current Time: 12:57am
Current Surroundings: my desk
Current Thoughts: I should probably be sleeping?

8 FIRSTS
First Best Friend: Brenda Finch
First Kiss: Kenny Dianda...eighth grade, my backyard.
First Screen Name: pjb1963
First Pet: Poodle/Terrier Mix (Rosie)
First Piercing: Ears
First Crush: my neighbor Kenny Dianda, also my first kiss.
First CD: (Record) Donny Osmond "Puppy Love"
(I think there should be a #8 here....but the person who Tagged Dianne didn't have it)

7 LASTS
Last Cigarette: Don't smoke.
Last Drink: Diet Coke.
Last Car Ride: Home from Marnies.
Last Kiss: Marc, before I left for Marnies!
Last Movie Seen: Man on Fire
Last Phone Call: Marc
Last CD Played: Sugarland in the car.

6 HAVE YOU EVERS
Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: no
Have You Ever Broken the Law: speeding
Have You Ever Been Arrested: no
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: no
Have You Ever Been on TV: Yes, on a TNN dance show. I think I still have the videotape somewhere, YIKES!!
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: yes

5 THINGS
Thing You're Wearing: nightgown
Thing You've Done Today: Went to Marnies, for therapy and scrapbooking.
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: my son, snoring.
Thing You Can't Live Without: Marc and my children
Thing You Do When You're Bored: I have no time to be bored, but I'd say reading

4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY
My room
My desk
My scrap area
Marnie's house

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO
Marc
My Mom
Marnie

2 CHOICES
1. Black or White: Black
2. Hot or Cold: cold

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
Take my husband on a trip out west, he's never been farther than Kansas.

so I guess I get to tag people now?!??! yeah.....if you read this, then consider yourself tagged! I assume that I read your blog but in case I miss it, let me know if you try this!

9 Days and 1/2 Hour

2007-05-21T07:32:00.001-07:00

That's how many days before my girls are out of school for the summer. They are very excited of course, however, Seth can't wait for school to start so he can go to kindergarten. He keeps asking how many days and I haven't counted that up yet. Although I'm sure after they are all home for a week or two I'll start counting the days until they go back. I'm hoping this summer won't be too bad as we seem to have lots of things going on to keep everyone busy!

Seth graduated from preschool last Wednesday! The ceremony was just so stinkin' cute. They had caps on and the marched in to "Pomp and Circumstance". Then they sang several cute songs and then each one was called up to receive their diploma. We've got it all on tape and hopefully my pictures will turn out! I didn't cry, but I did get a little teary eyed.

Next week Katie has a Promotional Awards Ceremony for moving on to 6th grade. She's such a scammer as she brought me the Best Buy ad yesterday that showed the top 5 gifts for grads. Of course it listed an Ipod, laptop computer etc. I told her to dream on...it's just 5th grade. My Mom wants me to buy her a small bunch of balloons and thanks to my friends input I'm going to get her a single rose! I'm not sure I want to take it to the ceremony so I'll probably have them waiting for her when we get home.

Well I better get busy with laundry.....Happy Monday everyone!

I must be doing something Right!

2007-05-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last two days working on my scrap area in the basement. It's not done yet but it's getting there! I managed to make my 10 cards for the swap I'm in and I also got caught up with putting the kids birthday cards and school papers in their scrapbooks.

Last night I had to run to Walmart to get some organization things for my scrap area. I decided to pick Kate up from Girl Scouts and head over there. She just happened to have her $25 of birthday money that she got from Grandpa & Grandma Swanson. Well when we got there I told the areas that I would be in so she could find me when she was done looking around. I told her I wanted her to spend her money on clothes or things she needed and absolutely no candy, food or pop. Well after I had gotten everything I needed she still hadn't found me so I went looking for her. My first stop was the jewelry area and there she was at the counter. I was immediately told to go away....so I did. Then when we were standing in the checkout line she was looking at the Mother's Day cards and told me she was going to get one for Grandma and was it OK. Of course I said it was. Well anyway we get home and she hands me the card and a jewelry box. She bought me a beautiful Mom pendant and the card made me cry! I'm so proud of her that she spent her own money to buy me a special gift. Needless to say Olivia felt bad so when she went with her Dad today they went to a garage sale and she got me a bracelet that says HOPE and a stuffed duck which is now on my scrap desk. Seth brought me home a potted petunia plant from pre-school on Friday. It was a clay pot that they sponge painted and then decorated with ribbon around the top....and they got to put in the dirt and everything. So needless to say I'm a very lucky Mom to get all these presents a week early!!

Busy Weekend

2007-04-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well we spent the weekend in Kalamazoo. My brother-in-law Mike graduated from graduate school with a Masters in Science and Information. He had an open house yesterday to celebrate. There was, of course, way too much food so everyone was sent home with leftovers. Our van was packed to capacity on the way there as we took 8 bags of bottles and cans that were Michigan refunds. We ended up with $43.10 worth which we were amazed at!! We assured the kids that we'd have more room in the van coming home but guess what?? Not so...we brought home cake, rolls, cereal, salad, an entire angel food cake, mints, plastic silverware, cups, paper plates and napkins....the paper products and mints will be used for Matthew's graduation/going away party. At least the weather was nice and it was great for travelling. Everyone slept all the way home, except for Marc of course.

Tomorrow night I'm scrapping which I'm excited about. I've been on a roll lately and I don't want to loose my momentum. This weekend Marc and I are going to start working on a scrapping area for me in the basement....I'm so excited!! I'll post pictures when we are done.

Enjoy the rest of this great day!

Great Day

2007-04-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Got a beautiful Anniversary card from Marc today. It just kills me that he spent $4.99 on it he needs to ask one of my scrapping friends to make one and pay them instead. He liked the card I made him last night at stamp camp. So far our anniversary has been great. We slept in until 10 and then I made us cinnamon rolls. He has spent the day working in the basement and I spent all day making my April Christmas cards. I've attached a picture. I LOVE THEM!! I'm so glad I bought that stamp set...I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. So many possibilities. I just ordered our pizza from Giordano's and we are going to sit down and watch the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler.

Oops I posted this at Schocker's by mistake!

Happy Friday the 13th

2007-04-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in almost a month...where does the time go! These last several weeks have been so busy with dentist and doctor appointements, school meetings, etc. Tonight is Stamp Camp which I'm so looking forward too! My girls are leaving with their Dad at 5:30 tonight and will be with him until church on Sunday morning. Marc and I celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary tomorrow night and are still thinking about what we want to do!! We seriously may just order our favorite pizza from Giordano's and watch a movie. The older ones will all be in the basement and I'm sure Seth will be there too so we might actually get to watch a movie in the actual time allotted with no interruptions. I'm also hoping that I can get some scrapping or cardmaking done as well.

Jonathon arrived back home today. He is done with the Air Force so he's been applying for jobs and is considering going to Harper. He enjoyed his time in the Air Force but he's happy to be home.

The above picture is of the three youngest on Easter morning! Have a great weekend everyone!

Wow, my DH just came home and brought me a dozen roses...I've attached a picture. They are beautiful!! I'm so lucky.

You've got to be kidding!!!

2007-03-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

I just got an e-mail from my ex-husband asking me if we'd be interested in a 4 year old German Shepard/Huskie mix dog named Beulah that weighs 80 lbs. He's gotta be kidding me...it's all I can do to keep up with the kids and all their schedules. The woman who is trying to find a new home for Beulah is even willing to throw in a month's worth of dog food to whoever takes her. Even that is not incentive enough for me. Now, if Beulah can clean the house, do the laundry, cook an occasional meal and get the kids to keep their rooms clean 85% of the time I might consider it. I'd also consider taking Beulah in exchange for one of the teenagers!! I'm not sure that would be a fair trade though. If you know anyone who might be interested in giving Beulah a good home, let me know and I can pass the information along!

Busy but Productive Day

2007-03-10T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well my girls left with their Dad about 10:30 and will be gone for the next 24 hours, (imagine Big sigh here). Marc, Seth and I decided to run and get some errands done and then ended up at the new TGI Friday's in Wheeling for lunch. I had the Cedar Seared Salmon Pasta and it was yummy! Upon arriving at home I threw a load of laundry in the wash, ironed some Brownie Try It badges on Olivia's sash and then finished a layout I had started at Marnie's on Wednesday. I wasn't sure where I was going with it but today it just seemed to come together quickly. I just love it....thanks to Dianne for the cow paper piecing! Inside the heart is says Cute lil'. Also on the photo corners the top right says Seth and the bottome left says 2002. Need to finish up my laundry. Remember to Spring Ahead!!

2007-03-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

March already, where does the time go!! Seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for Christmas...speaking of which I need to come up with a design for this month's Christmas cards. I really LOVE that Marnie made this a challenge. It's going to be great to have all the cards done and ready to go instead of rushing to get them done so they can be sent out on time!

Last night was a blast! Marnie and Dianne are phenomonal....I showed up for scrapbooking last night and they ended up challenging me to do a layout in 30 minutes. I hadn't come prepared so luckily Aunt Marnie supplied me with a few pictures of my kids. I'm really pleased with the way both layouts turned out and it was fun to have absolutely to just pick and choose and put together a layout that quickly. I hope we continue to do that every now and then!!

Well my challenge for today is to try and get people to be hall monitors and nursery caregivers at church this Sunday...so far no one I've called has gotten back to me so I guess I better make more calls and hope that by the end of the day I've been successful. I have an all day seminar tomorrow and I don't want it to be Saturday night and still no success.

TGIF everyone!

Productive Morning

2007-02-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

In between doing laundry and running the dishwasher I managed to make 10 Christmas cards so I'm good for the month of February. I also did a layout of Katie from last summer. I know you can't read the journaling so here it is.....

4th Grade Comes Crashing to a Halt
What a way to end 4th Grade. It was a little after 3pm on the last full day of school and I was waiting outside the school along with all the other Moms. Then Mrs. Cherry came walking up to us to tell me that you had taken a nasty fall off the monkey bars. I followed her to the nurses office where you were sitting with an ice pack on your forehead. Mrs. Resnick was sitting next to you holding your hand. You were really shaken up and scared as you couldn’t remember what happened or how you got to the nurses office. We came home and dropped off Olivia and then we headed for the Emergency Room. The Dr. checked you out and said you had a concussion and made us hang around for an hour to be sure you were all right. I had to wake you up in the middle of the night too…but all was well. You just had a nasty looking forehead for a few weeks and as far as I know it hasn’t stopped you from continuing to play on the monkey bars either!

Happy Groundhogs Day!

2007-02-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

Well if you believe in the groundhog we will have an early spring! My kids are very excited and we are all hopeful that it will turn out to be true. I've never really kept track of what the ground hog's record of correctness is so I guess time will tell! All I know is that I am ready for these frigid temperatures to go away!!

Every wear you go today all you see is everyone dressed in the Chicago Bears wardrobe. The girls were supposed to wear something to show their support and luckily Matthew had two Bears t-shirts so they each have one on. I had to use a small binder clip to keep Olivia's from falling off her shoulder. Poor Seth had nothing to wear so he's wearing Bears colors of orange and blue. I stopped at Dominick's really quick this morning and everyone there had Bears paraphernalia on as well. Even U/L said that if you had no clients visiting you were free to wear your Bears shirts. Marc has one but opted not to wear it.

I think we are finally going to go and get a new TV tonight. Sure hope they have the one that's on sale through tomorrow in stock. I have a feeling we are pressing our luck but we will see. It'll will certainly be nice to control the volume from a remote versus having to get up and actually walk to the TV to do it, LOL!! However did we cope back in the olden days!

Super Bowl Sunday here will be reminiscent of New Year's. We are going to make a bunch of appetizers (Swedish meatballs, Velveeta w/sausage and Rotelle, cheese & crackers, etc.). Marc claims we are going to put a cooler of beer in between our two recliners so we won't have to go far to get another one....again how lazy is that! I doubt that I will actually sit in front of the TV during the game. I'll probably be at my computer desk working crossword puzzles and listening to it in the background.

Stay warm everyone and GO BEARS!

Happy Monday, Ooops I mean Tuesday

2007-01-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

My kids were off yesterday so I'll be confused all week. Well anyone out there Bears fans...if so GO BEARS!! Of course I have not really followed them since late 84-86. I think I just started watching them for lack of better things to do...that was back before I had cable so my choices on a Sunday afternoon were limited and I'm pretty sure I spent of those Sunday afternoons cross-stitching with the game on in the background. My how things have changed. Now I'm on the computer playing games, doing crosswords or surfing with the game on in the background...even with cable and much more choices. Although Marc is constantly changing channels during commercial breaks and half-time so it's hard to figure out what's going on.

Poor Seth, Olivia and he were playing the yesterday and she wanted to play dress up. Lucky for her he's a good sport. I've got a great picture of him in the outfit the Bushmoles gave Olivia for Christmas...it consists of a leotard, tights, ballet slippers, headband and a poof that Aunt Marnie made. I also have a picture of him all decked out in a pretty Easter dress, tights and black patent leather shoes. He was smiling away in both outfits and Olivia was ready to go for three when he said..."I don't want to play anymore". Those will be fun pictures to scrap! Hopefully it won't take years to get it done, LOL!

Katie went to a Wolves hockey game with her girl scout troop on Saturday. She had a blast and lucky for me her troop leader took pictures and shared them with all of us so I can scrap that moment as well. She had so much fun that she wants Marc or I to take her again sometime. She was apalled, however, at the prices of the snacks/drinks. I had given her $10 spending money as I knew they'd the prices would be high and she actually brought $5 home. Guess that's a sign of her growing up!

Ugh, guess I better get some housework done and figure out what's for dinner!

Challenge accepted and Complete

2007-01-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last year I had a great idea...I said I was going to try and make 5 to 10 Christmas cards every month so that when it was time I'd be ready! Well it was a great idea but one of many I failed to act on. Well Marnie challenged all of us to make 10 Christmas cards this month and I am happy to say that I took her challenge and have attached a picture (hopefully) of what they look like. Hopefully she will continue to issue this challenge every month as I'm not usually one to back down from a challenge. Since I was so gung ho and ending up cutting out more squares than I needed I'll probably do the same card again next month as they were so easy. Then by March I'll hopefully have another design in mind and make something new!

Happy New Year!, a little late

2007-01-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I was a terrible blogger in 2006 but resolve to try and do better in 2007. I hope that everyone had a Wonderful Holiday and a Terrific New Year!!

This year was the first, since Marc and I have been together, that we did not travel over the holidays. As most of you know my parents winter in Texas and this year Marc's parents left for Florida in October and decided not to return for Christmas. Basically because they will be returning the end of February for their oldest granddaughters wedding. Anyhow, we had a nice quiet relaxing Christmas at home. Olivia, Seth and I all fought colds during those two holiday weeks so perhaps it was a good thing we didn't go anywhere. It also allowed us to celebrate Christmas with Dave, Marnie, Emily and Abbi as usually we don't get to celebrate with them until New Year's or after.

New Year's Eve was spent at home with our traditional appetizers all night long feast with sparkling juice and champagne at midnight. The kid's always have a great time as they get to drink their juice out of champagne flutes and that makes them feel so grown up!

Well, no more 12 passenger van for us. We traded it in for a new 2007 Chevy Uplander that only seats 7. Since Jonathon is gone and Matthew will be heading to Ft. Knox in August we decided it was time to downgrade. It's rare that all of us travel together anymore and we will save so much in gas money not to mention much better gas mileage. I'm still adjusting to parking it as it doesn't take up the whole parking space like the other one did, LOL!

Happy Friday, everyone.....hopefully it won't be another 3 months before I blog again!

14 Days and Counting

2006-08-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

OK so now I'm the one counting the days until school starts instead of kids counting the days until it's over. Everyone has all their school supplies, new outfits for the first day of school and Seth jut got his last shot yesterday so he can officially go to pre-school!! YEAH!!! The only thing left is our family dental appointment on Monday and they we are all set to go!

What a crazy, but fun, summer this has been. We've done a lot of travelling (mostly to see family), swimming lessons, karate boot camp, vacation bible school, etc. Actually we have 3 more days of VBS and then we are off to Fulton to see Marc's family and meet our new great niece. Ariana Jasmine arrived on July 12th and we can't wait to see and hold her. We are also taking our other nieces, Emily and Abbigayle with us as we are watching them over the weekend.

Jonathon is home on leave at the moment and has spent the last few days with his Mom. He will be returning here on Wednesday so he can go to Fulton with us. Then on Monday he ships out to Holloman AFB in New Mexico where he will spend the next two years. He's having a great time being back home but I think by Monday (after a weekend with all the kids) he'll be ready to get back!!

Katie got her hair cut really, really short a few weeks ago....she was so excited about it but has now decided she's going to grow it back out!! I have a feeling she'll be like I was as a kid, everytime my hair would get shoulder length I'd get it cut short and then start the whole process over again.

I hope everyone has had a GREAT summer vacation and hopefully once things get back to normal around here, if that's even possible, I'll try and post on a more regular basis!

Summer Fun

2006-06-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. We just got back yesterday from a long weekend at my family's. My youngest niece was baptized and had her 1st birthday party all in one day! We had a great time and actually got to spend some time in the pool on both Saturday and Sunday. This did a world of good for Olivia....she progressed so much more than she had during swimming lessons but I think it's because she had more freedom to practice and try things on her own. It was amazing how good she did and it showed at swim lessons today. Seth had a great time too and has absolutely no fear, even after swallowing several mouthfuls of pool water. He informed me that when we got home I needed to sign him up for swim lessons. So that was my first order of business last night. Livvy will progress to Level 3 and Seth will start with Pre-school and then hopefully move up to Level 1.

When we left yesterday we left Katie behind. She's going to spend the next 2 weeks with Uncle Bill & Aunt Heather. She's attending VBS this week and later I think they are planning on taking her to the Arch. She is also going to be going on a trip to Pirate's Cove on Kentucky Lake for a few days and she is completely unaware of it. They want it to be a surprise!! Heather's grandparents have a home there and a boat so I'm sure they will have a lot of fun and Katie will hopefully have a nice tan when she returns home!

Am busy doing lots of laundry today so I can repack. Marc, Olivia, Seth and I are heading to Fulton Friday for the long 4th of July weekend. Marc will be helping his Dad redo their basement bathroom which had to be completely gutted due to a mold problem. His parents are always here helping us with our house so it's our turn to help them!

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy 4th of July!!

So Sorry

2006-06-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

OK so I haven't blogged in quite a while. So sorry but I have been without the internet for over a week now. As of about 30 minutes ago I am back up and running and raring to go.

School has been out since last Wednesday and I'm already close to being insane!! Or was I already there...hmmm. Olivia starts swimming lessons next week. Stephen is out of work until the 28th as Dinorex is doing maintenance. We will go visit my family the end of the month for Haley's baptism and 1st Birthday party. We will be leaving Katie behind and she will spend 2 weeks with my family. She's looking so forward to it!!

Well that's it for now. I'll try and be better about posting now that I've got my internet back!!

I'm Not With Stupid, I am STUPID!!

2006-05-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

That's the new t-shirt idea I came up with yesterday. Marc thought it was good and I'm sure I could market it and sell a ton of them. Half of my family would be eligible to wear them as well...LOL!

Countdown to the last day of school has begun. The girls only have 5 days and 30 minutes (including today). Olivia's last field trip of the year is tomorrow and they will be going to Green Meadows Farm in Wisconsin. She is very excited and we are all hoping that there will be no rain...at least during the time of their visit.

Memorial Day Weekend was kind of quiet but productive. Both Katie and Olivia got their ears pierced so that was their highlight of the weekend. Their cousin Emily also spent the night with us and that was fun...other than the times when they were fighting over who's friend she was and who could or couldn't play with her. Marc and I spent the weekend doing yard work, planting flowers and cleaning out the storage and furnace room downstairs.

Just wanted to post something new as it's been awhile. Seth and I are on our way to the Chevy dealer to get the oil changed. We are travelling almost every weekend in June so need to get that done!

Productive Morning

2006-05-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

Have been busy being creative (or at least trying). Here's a graduation card I made for our niece Michelle. Also a layout of my cousin Megan....she was the flower girl in my first wedding back in 1994...she's still just as cute too!

2006-05-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! I made out pretty well!! Matthew bought me a dozen roses, a huge balloon and a lovely card. Stephen gave me a $25 gift card from Barnes & Noble (which I've already spent). Katie and Olivia bought me flowers and a beautiful butterfly necklace. And, Suzanne made me a beautiful card. All the girls brought me breakfast in bed on Saturday which was sweet!! They also brought breakfast for Marc and said Happy Early Father's Day. Guess they didn't feel right about bringing breakfast for only me. All in all it was a quiet weekend which was nice for a change.

Olivia and Katie are both a little under the weather. Not sure if it's allergies or a cold. Katie is home from school as she does have a slight fever today. Olivia wanted to take medicine and go to school so I of course complied with her wishes. Tonight is her first night of swimming lessons (level 2) and she does not want to miss that. I think that's why she was adamant about going to school. She knew if she didn't that swimming lessons would not be a happening thing.

2006-05-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

This is the layout I started on Friday at our monthly Schnockered Scrapper's Soiree. I finished it on Saturday. Haley is my youngest niece and will celebrate her 1st birthday the end of June. I just thought these pictures went perfect with the paper!!

Used my new template and made gift bags for Katie & Olivia's teacher's. Inside I put 6 cards (which I made). Each card was for a different occasion, sure hope they enjoy them as I had a great time making them.

It's official....I've now got all three of my daughters hooked on scrapbooking. I found a cute 8 x 8 making memories album on clearance at Target and picked it up for Olivia. She spent all day Saturday and a little bit of Sunday with me at the table working on it. She's got about 6 pages done and they are really good for a 6-1/2 year old. I have a feeling she could become obsessive about it...is that good or bad, LOL !!

2006-04-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a study for Diet Coke next week and I had to make a collage of the top 3 situations where I drink Diet Coke and how it makes me feel. I also had to refrain from drinking Diet Coke for two 24-hour periods and do a collage on how that makes me feel. Not sure you can read the words I used in these pictures but I have a word for every letter of the alphabet describing my feelings for both. Much thanks to Ana, Dianne and Marnie for helping me with the words. If my collages are voted the best the study pays an extra $50!!

2006-04-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well the living room is finally finished. Just in time too. Marc and his Dad finished Saturday morning about 11am and Suzanne's party started at 4pm. The party was very nice and I think everyone had a good time. If anyone went away hungry it was their own fault.

Sunday's confirmation service was very nice and we are all very proud of Suzanne. I'm not sure she'd admit it but I think she's proud of herself as well.

Well, today it's all about me!! Marc should be leaving right now to go to Best Buy and get a new computer. We've been having trouble with ours off and on for the last few years and it's just time to upgrade. The one we have in the basement went kaput as well so we will move the old one downstairs and hopefully everyone will be happy. I also stopped at Kohl's this morning and got new throw pillows for the couch and a new purse for myself. Speaking of it's all about me, I also finished my scrapbook "All About Me" yesterday. All the pictures and journaling are done, with the exception of the page about life lessons I've learned. I still have to give that one some thought.

I'm Amazed

2006-04-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Marc and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Friday. He actually said Happy Anniversary before I got the chance to. After he left for work I heard knocking on our bedroom door and Suzanne asked if she could come in. When she did, she was carrying a cookie sheet with a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, a Pop-Tart and a can of Fresca. Now if that's not a healthy breakfast I don't know what is...LOL. Katie spent some of her birthday money and bought us a lovely card and some vanilla sugar wafer cookies as she knows we both like them. Late Friday night Matthew gave us a very nice card and then on Saturday Stephen came home with a lovely card and gift. He got us a motion/sound picture of a waterfall in a beautiful gold frame. We've already got the perfect spot picked out in the living room for it.

Speaking of the living room, it is really taking shape. The ceiling has been textured and Marc put in over half of the wood flooring over the weekend. His parents arrive on Thursday morning so they can put up all the oak trim. I'm so pleased with the results and can't wait to see everyone's reaction to it at Suzanne's party on Saturday.

I planned a really nice Easter dinner for last night as with Dinorex being closed I figured we'd all be here (which is rare). However, Matthew got hired at Dominick's and you guessed it, his first day of work was last night from 4-10 so he missed out. He'll get to enjoy the leftovers today though. Both he and Stephen have to work next Saturday during Suzanne's party too but they will both be at church on Sunday to see her confirmed which I think will mean more to her.

I went to Walmart (1st of many trips this week I'm sure) this morning and got everything I needed and then some. Bought Suzanne the prettiest pair of cross earrings as a confirmation gift. I'm sure she'll love them...if they'd had a second pair I'd have been tempted to get myself a pair. I do have to go back to Walmart tonight after school as she'd like to get a new skirt and top, plus sandals for Sunday. Since her birthday is May 6th, this will be part of her birthday gift as well as a few other things I've picked up for her.

Well I'm in spring cleaning mode so I better get back to it. Happy Spring!

Sorry

2006-04-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it's been over a week since I posted anything. It's been crazy around here, which is normal I guess. Olivia started her swim lessons on Saturday, Katie and I took her and then on the way home picked up a friend of Katie's who spent the entire day with us. Seth was supposed to start T-ball on Saturday but there was a scheduling conflict and the kids were all there and raring to go but there was no coach. So...the lessons will start next week and they will tack on another week at the end. Sunday the kids sang at church and they were of course adorable. I was able to get pictures but have been having trouble with my computer so it may be awhile before I can get them downloaded.

Marc has been diligently working on the living room. He's got most of the ceiling done (he's texturing it himself and it looks great) and hopes to finish that up tonight. Then he's going to rip up the carpeting (YEAH!!!) and start putting down the hardwood floors. Suzanne's confirmation/early 8th grade graduation is on the 22nd so he's trying to get it done before then.

Friday is not only Good Friday but Marc and I will celebrate 5 years together that day. Unfortunately I have a Tastefully Simple show that night but we agreed that we celebrated our anniversary early by taking our trip to Texas and enjoying some time alone. Katie is going to sleepover at her friends house that night and Olivia is going to sleepover at Emily's as well. We can't tell you how much we LOVE Aunt Marnie and Uncle Dave!!!! I'm going to have to get after them about our taking their girls every once in awhile to at least try and make up for all the times they've taken Seth and the girls. Doubt we will ever come close but we will certainly try!

Well I spent the morning running errands so I better get some things done around here! I'll try and post again before another week passes us by.

Back to Normal, Whatever that is??

2006-04-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well everyone is back home. My girls returned from North Carolina at 11pm on Saturday night. They were so happy to be home but luckily went right to bed after a little conversation. We celebrated Katie's birthday yesterday (it was 3/30) and she was pleased with all her gifts and of course any money that she got.

Jonathon graduated from basic training on Friday and as of today should be headed to California to prepare for tech school.

Everyone's back to school today so hopefully everyone will fall back in to our regular routine.

Walgreens had an April Fool's No Joke for all their customers. I was able to get a free 8 x 10 and I've attached a copy of the one I chose. It's Olivia and my niece Haley and I just think it's adorable, although I'm a little biased!!

Have a great day!!

Proud Mom Moment II

2006-03-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

Well we survived our quick trip to San Antonio!! We left here Wednesday night about 9:15pm and arrived at my brothers (near St. Louis) at 2:00am. Slept until 7:00am and were back on the road by 7:30am. We arrived in San Antonio late Thursday evening, about 11:15pm. We would have made it in less time but we hit Dallas rush hour and we lost a little time.

We were at the Air Force Base by 8:00am on Friday and sat through graduation. However, Jonathon was not among the graduates. He doesn't graduate until this Friday and he claims they wouldn't let him call home to notify us. Oh well we know what graduation is like and we did get to spend a few hours with him on Friday evening and he was allowed to go off base all day on Saturday. Marc and I spent Friday afternoon on the Riverwalk and we went back on Saturday with Jonathon. We also went to the Alamo and RiverCenter Mall as Jonathon was itching to play some video games. Jonathon looks great, what a difference 7 weeks has made in him. We are still amazed!!

We left San Antonio bright and early (5:20am) on Sunday and got to my brothers about 8:45pm. I was able to spend a little time with my nieces which was nice. We were on the road by 9:30am yesterday and arrived to pick up Seth at about 2:30pm. He had a great time with Uncle Dave, Aunt Marnie and the girls but I think he was happy to come home. As I'm sure they were happy to see him go home!!

Well I have a lot of laundry to do so I'll close for now.

What a week!!

2006-03-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

It's been a hectic week around here and it's only Wednesday. Monday the girls only had 1/2 day of school so I took both Katie & Suzanne to the doctor for their school physicals. They took blood from Suzanne and Katie completely freaked out. Imagine her dismay when the doctor checked out her veins and announced that they should get blood from her too! We had to hold her down and when I told her it would hurt worse if she didn't lay still she quieted down a little. Although we all know my Drama Queen....she screamed when they put the needle in and again when they took it out. I told her she should never have children and she responded with a quick "OK". On the way home she told me she was going to back to school and warn all her friends.

Today is the day that Marc and I leave for San Antonio. We are leaving at 10pm and driving as far as my brothers in southern Illinois (near St. Louis). We are going to crash their for 3 or 4 hours and then get up and head out in the morning, hopefully missing the St. Louis rush hour!! Jonathon is so homesick he called home twice this past week and the last time I talked to him when we hung up he said "I Love You, Mom"...not something I hear from Marc's kids much. We are thinking that since he gets the entire weekend free that maybe we might stay an extra day to spend more time with him. My girls will already be in North Carolina and hopefully Marnie will agree to keep Seth one more day if need be. We probably won't decide until we get down there and find out what's going on.

My Dad is back in the hospital and having surgery as I type this. They want to scrap some of the dead tissue off his foot, however if they have to go deep he will lose his Achille's tendon and then will not have any control over his foot. He would then need a leg brace. I think my Dad would rather loose his leg and have two prosthesis and walk with two canes. I'm sure he told them that if they got in there and decided it was necessary it was OK to take his leg. Keep those prayers coming!!

I'll be out of touch until next week but I'll fill you in on our trip and hopefully have some pictures to post!

Proud Mom Moment

2006-03-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

Katie participated in her first karate tournament today. Out of 16 other 9-year olds all in various stages of the yellow belt, she took home a 1st Place Trophy. She is so excited and we are so PROUD!! She's only been taking karate lessons since September and a lot of the other kids she participated with have been taking lessons for a year or more! Way to go KATE!! Of course now she's going to want to participate in every tournament possible.

I Guessed Right!!

2006-03-17T12:49:00.000-08:00

OK, so about 30 minutes after I wrote the first blog today, I had an idea of what my anniversary present was. I was right. We have finally leapt into the 21st century....I am now the proud owner of a digital camera. I'm so excited as Katie's first Karate tournament is tomorrow and I can use it and get my pictures right away. Marc said the reason he gave it to me almost a month early is so we can use it when we go see Jonathon next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

What is It?!?!?!

2006-03-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

At 8:30 I get my daily morning phone call from Marc, wanting to be sure that everyone is up and ready to head to school. He then proceeds to ask if I will be home all day, not a typical questions so I'm wary. I say yes, why...and he responds with..."if the UPS man stops by and brings a package you can go ahead and open it". My first thought is OK what has he ordered that we probably don't really need. I immediately feel guilty for this thought when he responds that it is an early anniversary present for me. Now I'm shocked. Our 5th anniversary is not until April 14th and he's already ordered me something (making up for last year's birthday??). He then says it is something I can use and that he ordered me two things. Hmmm I could use diamond earrings but somehow I don't think that's what it is...it can't be a vacuum cleaner as we just bought a new Kirby. In fact I was going to tell him that he didn't need to buy me an anniversary or Mother's Day gift since I now have a really nice vacuum. I then ask will the box give away what is inside?? He responds with I'm not sure. Then I say will the return address give it away? He again says not sure. I proceed to tell him that if the box says what's inside (like my birthday present last year) then I will go ahead and open it...but if not I'll wait for him to come home. But will I really be able to wait or will the anxiety get the better of me....guess time will tell.

Potty training with Seth yesterday went well. I only changed two pull-ups and only because they were stinky. The rest of the day he went on his own. I hope this will continue to be a daily thing as I'd like to stop buying pull-ups. I also know that Aunt Marnie would really appreciate not having to deal with changing him next week as she is trying to train Abbigayle. He keeps assuring me that he will go on the potty at Aunt Marnie's all the time. Again....time will tell.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! My girls went off to school decked out in whatever green they could find to wear. I'm going to surprise them when they get home with Shamrock cookies. For those of you who know me well you know it's the Pillsbury ones you just put on a cookie sheet and bake. Although I did make cookies from scratch for the Christmas cookie exchange last year. I think once Seth is in school all day I'll be better about cooking and baking cookies from scratch...or at least I hope I will.

Look for another post later today or tonight about my anniversary gift. With my luck the UPS man will come really early, there will be nothing on the box hinting to it's contents and I'll have to wait until Marc gets home!! LOL!

I'm a Karate Mom

2006-03-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

Last night both Katie and Olivia had their Karate tests to see if they can advance to the next level. Both Marc and I went to watch as they wanted both of us there. Big mistake for me to go as Olivia continually looks over to make sure I am there and watching. They don't find out if they pass until next week. At the end of class Sensei tells each kid what they need to work on. The list for Olivia has quite a few things on it, Katie has none. Marc and I are both assuming that Katie has done well enough to advance and that if Olivia works on what he mentions and does the moves well at the beginning of class next week she will also advance. Poor Olivia can't decide what she wants to do...one minute she says she wants to continue (if she passes) and the next minute she says she wants to quit. I talked to Sensei Tex and he claims that for her age she is doing as well as everyone else which makes me feel a little better and I tell her hoping to encourage her. Next week I'm sending them alone with Marc as I'm sure she will pay better attention if I'm not there.

Katie on the other hand is excited as she's pretty sure she passed although she did ask Sensei what she should work on since he didn't call her name. He told her to just keep practing all the moves. She's also signed up for a tournament on Saturday where she will compete against any other 9 year olds that are the same rank as her. She's very hopeful that she will come home with a trophy....and so it starts. I'm hoping that this will toughen her up a little (she's too emotional at times, who does she get that from?? LOL) and make her a little competitive but not obsessively so.

Marc really enjoys taking them to Karate and helping out when needed. By September Seth will be old enough to go so I'm sure he'll want to join as well. I told Marc to take the class with Seth if he wants but who knows.

Today is my day with 4 hours of no kids. So far I've managed to get some laundry done, plan some scrapbook pages and make some phone calls. And, I still have over 2 hours left, hmmm what to do??? Now that's a good question....

All She Wants for Christmas is her Two Front Teeth

2006-03-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

Olivia came home from being with her Dad last night and showed us that her other front tooth was getting looser. Before bed she wanted me to pull it out and I said I didn't think it was quite ready yet. This morning I heard a joyful scream from the basement.....Dad, Mom my tooth fell out. She was so excited that she'd done it all by her self. She of course put it in a ziploc snack bag as she wants to show everyone at school. She also said she wasn't going to smile at anyone because she wants to be sure that she gets to be the one who tells her teacher that she lost her tooth. Needless to say she looks extremely funny with both front teeth now missing. Hopefully she won't have to wait until Christmas before the adult teeth come in.

Yesterday I took Matthew to Kohl's so he could use his Christmas gift cards. He offered me is $20 card in exchange for $20 in cash which I agreed to. I used my $20 to buy to nice casual/dressy tee shirts. Matthew was able to get most of the items he wanted and we spent all but 5 cents which they gave us back in real money. He got a great rolling duffle bag that was marked down from $29.99 to $19.99. At the register it rang up $22.49 and when I complained they gave it to us for $10 off the register price so we got it for $12.49. I'm almost tempted to go back and get a few more of them to use as Christmas gifts! Although by now they've probably changed the price on all of them anyway.

Well I just received the portraits that we had taken for our church directory. I think that I'm missing some pictures so I'm going to get on the phone and see what's going on!

Am I Wrong??

2006-03-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

OK, so I can't be the only one out there that hates the prospect of taking my girls out to buy birthday presents for their Dad (my ex). I hate it!! I know they love their Dad and want to buy him stuff but they always want to either buy him things that are way more money than I want to spend on him...or they want to buy him something that I know he won't be thrilled about. A lot of times I suggest just giving him $20 so they can all go out for dinner although I know it's not very personal. I also realize that he is very good about taking them out to buy me things for my birthday, mother's day, etc. but lets face it....aren't women easier to buy for. So regardless of this I took the girls shopping today as it is their Dad's birthday and they will be seeing him tomorrow. They both bought him a shirt, Olivia chose a nice polo shirt and Katie got him a Homer Simpson t-shirt. Hopefully he'll like them both and wear them every now and then to make the girls happy!

Marc is outside at this very moment grilling our dinner. Pork chops, bratwurst and hot dogs with salad as a side dish. I'm so glad that we are that much closer to spring as that's one of the things I miss during the winter, our weekly grill outs.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!!

Energized

2006-03-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

The taste-test survey for the energy bars went well. We had to try 4 different ones and I was completely shocked that they weren't bad. I expected them to be AWFUL but out of the 4 there were two that I would definitely consider buying if I was an energy bar kind of gal. It only took about 20 minutes and I was rewarded with $25 so you can't beat that.

Two cute stories about my kids to share....

Yesterday Olivia decided to wear a dress to school, she came upstairs all decked out in a pink dress with the appropriate hair acessories and a necklace. When Seth saw her he looked at her and said..."Olivia in that outfit you look pretty". Talk about melt my heart. Luckily Olivia was polite enough to thank him. I have a feeling she won't hear those words that often if ever again from her little brother who usually takes great pleasure in tormenting her.

Renee (scrapbooking friend) spent a few weeks in Arizona in February and brought back the cutest mood rings for each of us. Of course we all put them on and kept checking our moods throughout the evening. I still had it on the next morning and Katie (10) immediately said.."is that a mood ring?"...when I said yes she immediately asked if she could have it as she's always wanted one. News to me I didn't even know she knew what it was. Olivia (6) completely does not get the concept it. They keep checking to see what color it is and Olivia keeps telling me to make faces at it. Apparently she thinks this is how it knows to change colors. Completely cracked me up.

My Dad called me last night. He's home from the hospital but my Mom has to take him back on a daily basis for the next 6 weeks. It takes an hour for one IV of medicine and 1/2 hour for the other. Add on the driving time and they are spending about 3 hours in the morning away from home. Then they have to rush home as a visiting nurse comes everyday at 1:30 to check and re-wrap is foot. He is not supposed to put any weight on it at all and he said it's almost impossible to use crutches as his left leg is a prosthesis and it's hard to use it as the support leg. So they were given a wheelchair but they don't have a ramp leading to the house so Mom has to park the car as close to the porch as possible and he hobbles up the stairs and she carries the wheelchair. This is really starting to take it's toll on my Mom as well. My Dad is so negative and depressed as he really can't go anywhere or do anything and he just can't get comfortable. They aren't even sure if they will be able to come back to Illinois at all this year so that means they won't be coming to see us and we may not get to see them either. Which of course is depressing to me. Then he proceeded to tell me that he thinks Marc and I should go see Jonathon graduate and let him know how proud we are of him. Also that we need to listen to Jonathon and let him tell us everything and show us around the base and to act interested even if we're not, and if he really wants to go to McDonald's for dinner when we are there then that's where we should take him. Give me a little credit Dad. Then in the next breath he is telling me that it's going to take a lot longer to get their than we think and that we are going to end up getting ourselves killed and then who will raise our children. OK, now I'm confused....are we supposed to go or am I supposed to send Marc alone and stay with my kids so nothing will happen to me?? Couldn't I just as easily get hit by a bus while crossing the street? Doesn't he realize that as a Mother I am constantly worried by the the thought that something will happen to me and I won't get to see my children grow old and enjoy grandchildren? However, I try not to dwell on that as I don't want to be a negative/depressing person! Needless to say I was very depressed and crying the rest of the evening. I'm sure that wasn't his intention but that was the affect never the less.

OK, so enough of that. We have another busy weekend ahead. I have a Tastefully Simple show tonight and Katie has girl scouts. Tomorrow is "Celebrate Kids Day" at our church and since I'm a team leader for children's ministries I will need to be there the entire time (10am-1pm) as well as a little before to help set up and a little after to clean up. Marc is going to be there too as he is in charge of the Underwriters Laboratories table. This also means all the kids have to be there too but there will be enough activities and such that I think they will be fine. Then after that I have to take my girls out to get a birthdray present for their Dad. Sunday my girls will be gone all afternoon and Matthew wants me to take him shopping at Kohl's so he can spend his Christmas gift cards and get some things he needs.

Marc's been busy working on getting our taxes done. He also has to do them for Stephen, Jonathon and Matthew although they shouldn't take as long. He is anxious to get them done so he can continue working on the living room. He went to Menard's last night and bought the paint as it was on sale and he's done patching and sanding walls so it's time for paint.

OK, I think I've rambled on enough for today. Have a Great Weekend everyone!

Change in Plans

2006-03-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

We finally heard from Jonathon last night. Unfortunately he won't be graduating on the 17th as originally planned. Now his graduation will be on March 24th. Everything came to a screeching halt for a few hours. But all is OK. Hotel and rental car reservations have been changed. And, most importantly we still have somewhere for all of the other kids to go. All that is left is just informing my brother that we will not be stopping by on our way home until a week later.

Marc was happy to hear from Jonathon as this is the first time he's had a chance to speak with him since he left on January 31st. Seth talked to him as well which I'm sure meant a lot to Jonathon. He always asks how everyone is and I know he misses us all. He also told us that once he graduates he will be headed to California for his technical training. He will be at Vandenberg AFB which is near Santa Barbara which is one of those places I've always aspired to visit. Maybe now I'll get a chance!!

The one good thing that came out of the change in plans is that now I will be able to go see Katie take part in a Karate tournament. I was a little distressed about missing out on a photo op which of course will I'm sure end up turning in to a scrapbook layout.

This also means that the week of spring break that my girls are spending with their Dad will now be expanded by 2 days. They will be travelling to North Carolina to meet their grandmother and Aunt for the first time. Yes, I know what you are thinking the girls are 9 and 6 and they haven't met them yet?? Well Katie was 6 weeks old when she met her grandmother and I belive 6 months old the last time she saw her aunt. It's a very long story and would bore you to tears!

I'm off to do a taste-test survey on energy bars. I'm certainly hoping that it gives me the energy to come home and get all the income tax information together for Marc. I'm not holding out much hope though.

I got my Tastefully Simple order today for the show I did last week. I spent the entire afternoon sorting, labeling and bagging everything up. I have another show tomorrow and just booked one for April and have another tentative open house for April as well. WOHOO!! The new Spring/Summer items will be available April 1st and I can't wait to try them. We will be throwing Suzanne a joint Confirmation/Early 8th Grade Graduation party on April 22nd and I'm sure I will be serving some of the new items. I especially can't wait to try the Key Lime Cheese Ball, YUM!!

Well time to get dinner ready. Haaave a Great Night!

Weekend is Over!

2006-03-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

Weekend was good! My Tastefully Simple show was a big success and I did manage to book a show for April so that's good. It was an early party and I was home by 9:00. On Saturday we went to our niece Abbi's 3rd birthday party on Saturday and had a great time. The goody bags were a huge hit. Especially the Little Einsteins coloring pages and the conductor wands. Seth has been conducting music ever since. When he's done he asks for me to clap so that he can take a bow. The cake was absolutely adorable, it looked like Rocket from the Little Einsteins. Marc liked it so much (especially the frosting) that he informed me that from now on we should just hire Marnie to make our kids birthday cakes. Guess the bunny cake I made last year wasn't as impressive, LOL!! On Sunday my girls were with their Dad for most of the day and so it was just Marc, Seth and I that went to church. Then later in the afternoon Seth went with his friend Hawk to see the movie "Doogal". So Marc was able to watch the race in piece and I took a nice nap.

Only a little over a week to go before we leave for Texas. I'm both looking forward to it (seeing Jonathon and watching him graduate) and dreading it (the 19+ hour drive there and back). It will certainly be an interesting weekend!

My Dad is doing better (I think). He will hopefully be going home from the hospital tomorrow, although he will have to remain on heavy duty antibiotics for 6 weeks. So instead of returning to Illinois the first of April, they will have to stay in Texas until May 1st or so. According to the MRI he had the infection is not in the bone so they are still very hopeful that it will not be necessary to amputate any of his right foot or leg! He's on several prayer chains and I'm keeping him on them indefinitely. He's still very depressed and nervous as he finds it hard to believe that he won't need surgery. Mom did say he's not eating well, but who does in a hospital. I'm sure once he's back home he will start to eat and feel better.

Well I better get some work done around here. Happy Monday everyone!