I'm slacking and I admit it.

I know I know. June 22nd was the last time I posted. I have to admit that I am actually ashamed of myself. To make up for it I am going to show you pictures of my incredibly cute Stinky.

We went to the park the other day. It is right down the street from our house so we just walk to it. Recently they got some work out equipment. Babe and I were working out regularly when business was a little slow but now that it has picked up we don't go. I know I could still go, but Babe was the only reason I went so take him out of the equation and I would rather be home watching tv or scrapbooking. Who needs to be healthy anyways. When we go Stinky says he is my personal trainer. He gets on the machines and shows me how to use them and then tells me to get on and do it. It is actually very motivating.

 I know at this point you already forgive me, but just in case.

Why is it that little kids stick out their tongues to play dead?

We were there for 15 minutes and we both were ready to go home. It is way to hot and humid to be outside in Florida.

Love and Be Loved.

Does this make my butt look big?

The other day Babe and I were going out to dinner with some family. Just the 2 of us. No kids. I thought it would  be nice to pick up a new top. Spice things up a little bit. Out with some adult family, no kids, did I mention no kids. I went to Dressbarn by my house. I have never been to a Dressbarn. Walk by it all the time but have never gone inside. I figured I would check it out. They had some really cute stuff. I grabbed a couple of pairs of shorts and a few tops too. I had Stinky with me and as I am trying things on he is looking at me. Not talking, not singing, just looking at me. I get the first pair of shorts on and he says "Mom those don't make your butt look big" Did my 5 year old son just say that?  I couldn't do anything but laugh. Sure does bet "Mom do you have a baby in your belly" or "Mom why does your tummy giggle" You have to appreciate the honesty kids have. Especially when it is a compliment. You know they wouldn't say it to you if they really didn't mean it. Maybe the 6 pounds I have lost n the last 2 weeks is actually showing. I don't see it of course, but Stinky does, and that means a lot!

Love and Be Loved.

Oh Summer how do I love thee

Summer in Florida is hot. Really really HOT. Like take off your clothes, eat ice cream and stand in front of a fan and you are still hot, hot. You get my point. So, Babe and I decided that getting a pool would be a good investment for us. It is an 18 foot above ground. Babe dug it into the ground about 2 1/2 feet.

This is what we started with.

We decided that we wanted to put the pool 2 feet in the ground. We thought it would look nicer. Not to mention I don't want my neighbors staring at me, in my "backyard" bathing suit, as I climb the ladder to get in. If ya know what I mean.

This is what the hole looked like after Babe removed all the dirt.

This is the half way mark. I don't have any pictures past this point. I'm a slacker I know.

This is Stinky jumping into the pool after it is all done. Do you see the problem with this picture? Look at the right side of the picture, behind the ladder. Do you see it? It's a trampoline. Babe thought it would be oh so fun to put the trampoline next to the pool so the kids can jump into the pool from it. Like we haven't seen enough on America's Funniest Home Videos to know what the possibilities are. I foresee an increase in the amount of strawberry daquiris and pina coladas I will be consuming while sitting next to the pool, with my phone in my hand and the numbers 911 punched in waiting to hit send, with my ninja like reflexes. Maybe the trampoline gremlins will dismantle it and throw it away in the middle of the night while everyone is sleeping.

All in all I have to say that I am extremely happy with our purchase. It has been a blast for not only the kids, but us adults to. But don't take my word for it.

Love and Be Loved

Random Photos

Just wanted to take this time to share some random photos from this weekend.

See what I taught Stinky. This is a priceless tool that he will be able to use for the rest of his life.

This is Babe and the boys washing his truck or each other.

This is Stinky at school on Friday. They "camped" in the class room. They also got to wear their PJ's and make smores. Oh what I would give to be in Pre-K.

This is poor Rock. Babe likes to prove just how good of a dog he really is. He did not move from this position the whole time. He is better behaved than my kids.

Well that was our weekend in a nut shell.

Give love and you will be loved.

For the love of sisters

Last week my little sister Ashley came into town from Hawaii. While she was here dealing with tragedy, we did a lot of bonding. We decided to show our bond by, what else, a tattoo.

Isn't it cute. The story behind it is this. There are 4 sisters. The oldest, Heather, is represented by the biggest star which is purple for her favorite color. The second is pink and a little smaller, which is me. Ashely is blue and Shannon is green. Everybody all at once now, awwwwwww.

It was pretty painful. The green star caused the most pain.

What we do for the love of our sisters.

Show love and you will be loved.

A boys tongue

Stinky is quite the character. He is funny. Energetic. Loving. Crazy. A boy.

Recently my mother in law sent me this video. It is kind of grainy since it was taken by her cell phone, but I think you will get the point.



Do your sides hurt yet? I have never seen a tongue move so much. He does this every time he concentrates. Just like his daddy. Although daddy has learned to control his a little better then that.

Is that my son?

Trev had prep week in school the other day. They wore their cloths backwards, had team day and Nerd Day. Can you tell what day this is?

Need I say more.

Catch up

The time has come for me to announce my exciting wonderful fantastic news.

#1. I got a job. My very first designer, Brandy, has given my the wonderful opportunity to become her Events Coordinator. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. I love her work. She is great. It is great. I will be planning fun games, cool prizes and keeping the CT Girls in line. They are a rowdy bunch. lol. Seriously, they are great. Very creative and awesome.

#2. I got chosen to be a Sugar Plum on the digital scrapbooking site Polka Dot Plum. This was amazing for me. I applied and hadn't heard anything back in a week so I assumed I was not chosen. I am still "new" to the digital scene so I was not surprised. I was a little sad but figured that if it was meant to be it would be. Then I got an email saying I got it. I jumped around like a 5 year old excited about ice cream. My duties here are creating layouts for the wonderful designers that call PDP their home. Inspire people to scrapbook and have fun.

So how amazing is that. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Life is good.

Here are some of the pages I have been working on.

Last week Babe got a call from one of his customers. He works in the radio industry and acquired 4 tickets for Taylor Swift for that Thursday and asked if we wanted them. My moto "If it's free it's for me". We said yes of course and immediately I thought of my nieces Avri and Abbi. I knew this was the perfect opportunity for us to get together and have some girl time. I called their mom, and she was game. We went and had a blast.

The weekend was packed with baseball games, new refrigerators, don't get me started, and family gatherings. I couldn't have asked for a better week. Except for the refrigerator part.

As you might have read we had to get a new fridge. We waited 2 long weeks for it. We got the call on Saturday and Babe went to pick it up. We got it home, unpacked it and this is what we saw.

Isn't it awesome. I think I will name him Wilbur. He looks like a Wilbur doesn't he? A brand new fridge and it has this on the back. I don't ask much in life. A roof over my head, food, health for me and my family, A BRAND NEW FRIDGE THAT IS NOT DAMAGED. Luckily we purchased from Lowe's. I made a few calls, found out a couple of people don't know how to do their jobs and that one individual named Mark ROCKS! He told us to keep the fridge, ordered us a new one and is having it delivered. Thank you Mark. Lowe's owes you one.


Thank you and Good night.

I'm going high tech. I am sitting at Trev's baseball game typing on my cool new phone babe got me. I feel cool and special all wrapped up in a nice and neat little package. I must say that I still prefer my trusty old pc over this method but for the times when life is flashing by to fast for me to keep up, this will do.
Thank you and Good night.

Baseball season is upon us

Baseball is in full swing. Trev is playing for the Bulldogs. He has had 2 games so far. The first one he lost and the second one he won. 15 - 4 Plus he got the game ball. He had 4 RBI (runs batted in) and stole 5 bases.

 

Then Stinky played his first game Saturday. He plays for the Storm. Game was tied 15 - 15. 

How cute is that. His uniform is huge on him still. They are hitting off the tee for the first few games and then it goes to coach pitch.

He made it to first. Coach Joey giving him a bump for a job well done.

More pictures to come.

Choa

10 Random thoughts

1. We are exactly 1 week away from getting our new refrigerator.

2. I'm going to see Taylor Swift tonight. Free. Thank you Mr. Kanak!

3. I have more exciting news to tell you but can't. Soon. Again, no I am not pregnant. Even though Stinky asked me the other day while I was in the shower if I was having a baby. I asked him why and of course he said "Because your belly is fat" Awesome.

4. My sister and her family are moving away in 4 months. That will be a sad day.

5.  I have always wanted to go to Australia. Anybody want to pay the bill?

6. We just revamped my Trev's room. By revamped I mean took out the carpet and painted.

7. I'm getting sick of the cold. I'm ready for a dip in the ocean.

8. The kids started baseball. We are going to 4 different games a week.

9. I ate a funnel cake sunday last night, in an ice cream shop, and asked for them to hold the ice cream. Imagine the look I got from that. I don't like ice cream.

10. I have been working out for 2 months. I still way the same.

Thank you and Good night.

It's official!

It's no secret that I am an addict. A scrapbooking addict that is. I recently applied to be on the CT (creative team) for a fabulous designer named Danielle Corbitt and as of March 1st I became part of that team. Did I mention that this is my first CT gig, Ever! This is really exciting for me. I love the fact that someone else thinks my layouts rock.

Here are some of the pages I have done with her designs.















See I told you her stuff was amazing.

You can get all of the kits I used here at Polka Dot Plum along with tons of other fabulous designers. Plus if you go today you get 20% off of new releases.AND you have to check out March Plum Pickins. Great Great stuff I tell you!

Thank you and Good night.

I am good enough

Scrapbooking is one of my favorite hobbies. Photography being the next in line. I guess the two kind of come hand in hand. Lately I have been stepping up my game by being more active in the online digi community. It has paid off. Brandy of Brandy Designs gave me my first "foot in the door" by allowing me to be on her blog team. It has been so much fun and very educational. I just applied to Polka Dot Plum, one of my favorite digital sites, for a spot on their CT Team. Keep your fingers crossed. I also applied and got a spot on another team that I can't talk about yet.If I tell you I would have to kill you.

Today I found out that I got LOTW (layout of the week) on Inspiration Lane, one of my other favorite sites.

Go check it out! Her is the link http://inspiration-lane.com/blog/

What an honor it is to have a piece of your work noticed. Especially by the mighty Jen Yurko, designer, site manager and co-owner.

Can I get a woot woot!

Thank you and Good night!

That's my boy.

My dog Rock is the best. He is a lover. He is silly. This is him sitting on the couch. Yes like a human. How can you have a bad day when you have this to come home too?

That look is priceless.

This is a page I did for this pic.

Thank you and Good night.

Check out what is New at Polka Dot Plum

Wednesday is one of my favorite days in digi land. It is when Polka Dot Plum release new products with 20% off. You can't beat that. Here is some of the new stuff coming out from Danielle Corbitt Designs.

 

I love date stamps, stickers, brushes, sticks, you get the point. Anything "date" related is awesome. After all isn't the whole point of scrapbooking to document events in your life. You can't document an event with out the date!

 
 

Stitching is so fun and versatile. I could put stitching on any page, easy as pie. 

Who doesn't love notebook paper? Brings me back to school days when I use to do everything else with notebook paper but school work. Paper air planes, notes, spit balls. You know, the fun stuff.

All of this stuff is a must have for your scrapbooking stash and you can get it all 20% off at PDP.

Thank you and Good night

Does anybody know anything

For the past few weeks Babe and I have been looking into a new refrigerator. We have two. One in the house and one in the garage. The one in the house has been acting out. It has frozen over twice, stopped making ice, rusted and dispersed water on to unsuspecting guest with out stopping. Something I would expect from a 20 year old frig. Not a 6 year old fridge. Needless to say I will never purchase a Maytag appliance again. The bad taste is there and I don't see it going away anytime soon. Unless they want to give me one.

Our first stop was Lowe's. We spoke to a gentleman by the name of Chris. The same Chris that sold us our front load washer that I am deeply in love with. He told us we would be limited. I'm not the type of person that needs all the fancy bells and whistles. Give me ice and water in the door and space for my groceries and I'm good. I want the thing to last. I told Chris this and he pointed out a Frigidaire. We took the information home to digest.

A couple of days ago I went into the freezer in the garage. Everything was defrosted. Cold but not frozen. I thought Trev had left the door open since he was the last one in there. I reminded him to make sure it was shut tight when he was done. The next day I went into the freezer and everything was still defrosted. Now cool and not frozen. Red flags started popping up. I don't think this was caused by a pre teen boy forgetting to close the door tightly.  I called for Babe and sure enough, broken. This freezer is our main freezer for meat. I estimate that around $150 of meat had to be tossed. I don't feel like dealing with botulism. Not with my schedule.

Today we ventured out once again in hopes to find a refrigerator. The pressure is on. Since the space we have is just a little over 33 inches and most standard refrigerators are around 35 inches. It poses a problem. They do sell 33 inch ones but not very many or they are short. We have a 33 inch wide and 69 inch tall fridge. This is not the norm. Come to find out this leaves us with about 3 to choose from. Okay, not hard research the 3 and move on. We went to Lowe's, a different one. Big mistake. Home Depot, Sears and Best Buy. Sears, Home Depot and Lowe's show us the same and they all do price matching. We go to Bestbuy and they show us a 26 cubic feet frig that is 32 5/8 inches wide. Sweet. The other one we were looking at was 22 cubic feet. That means more space for mama to put her grocery's. We go home and start poking around the internet. I decide to go on the Fridgidare website to check things out. One last time before I input my information into Bestbuys website to seal the deal. I type in the serial number from the print out Bestbuy gave us and up pops the fridge. Scroll down to look at the specs and see that the width is actually 35 5/8. Mind you my space is 33 inches. We call Bestbuy. A typo. I almost spent over $1000 on a refrigerator that I was going to have to wait 2 weeks for, find out it does not fit and it's a typo? Wow.

Back to Lowe's we go. Before we leave I call and try to speak to Chris. The gentleman said he was on break and would be back in 15 minutes. We go and find out that he has left for the day. 30 minutes after I called and was told he was on break I am then told he is gone for the day. By this point my blood pressure is slowly approaching an unsafe level. Deep breaths. I'm done by this point. I tell Babe that we are buying this one and leaving asap. We find some other guy to help us, not happy with that, and tell him what we want and that we found it at Sears for $110 cheaper.

Me: "Will you price match?"

He looks at the print out  from Sears.

Man: "This says it is 22.6 cubic feet and the one they are selling is 22."

Me: "The model numbers are exactly the same, wouldn't that mean they are the same?"

Man: "Okay I will match this price."

Me: "Thank you. What about the 10% off for buying energy star?" 

Man: "Oh that is no longer in affect that ended 2 days ago."

Me: "Why are there signs all over the refrigerator section that say 10% off then?"

Man: "I don't know."

I tell Babe to grab a few of the signs. He brings them over and hands them to the man.

Man: "I can't give that to you on top of the price match."

Me: "Why not?"

Man: "Because we can't do 2 discounts"

Me: "I think you should!"

Man: "It's 2 discounts"

Me: "So.You should do both. Price matching is not a percentage off and it is not my fault you did not take the signs down that say 10% off." 

By this point my blood pressure is at and unsafe level. Things could get real ugly real quick.

Man: "I need to call a manager"

Me: "That is a good idea"

The man calls his manager. He turns his back to me while he is talking, probably to tell the manager there is a crazy lady that looks really mad and he needs help. He gets off the phone and turns to me and says he will do it.

Victory! After all is said and done I saved about $250. See persistence does pay off.  

Now I sit and wait until March 11th for my brand new, simple, Frigidaire refrigerator.

Thank you and Good night.

Seriously.

This is my little sister. She is strange as you can tell by this page. Most people say she gets it from me. I'm not sure I have a rebuttal. This was taken at Aden's 5th Birthday party back in October.

On a scrapbooking tip I used Sass A Frass by Brandy Design. The sad news is that it has been discontinued. See what happens when you slack.

Thank you and Good Night.

Some things I have been working on

I love me some scrapbooking. Here is what I have done lately.

 

Doesn't my Molly look so sweet and innocent. It's all a show. She is a diva with a capital D.

This was made using U Rock My World by Danielle Corbitt. You can pick it up here.

 

This was taken in Alabama. I'm not in a lot of pictures because I am usually behind the camera. I'm going to try and change that. TRY is the key word here. 

I used Serenity for this one. It is an awesome collab kit by Brandy Designs and Edeline Designs. You can get this one here.

Thank you and Good night.

Fun with friends in the Florida weather

Yesterday we took Stinky to the park with one of his friends. They had a blast. I had a blast. It was a cool 58. Can't beat that on a winter day.

This is Stinky and his friend. I use to baby sit for this little boy. Such a sweet kid.

 

They played with lady bugs. It kept trying to climb up their sleeve. They would squeal and pass it to each other. I'm sure that poor little lady bug has whip lash and a couple of broken legs. Bless you little lady bug for the 15 minutes of fun you brought us.

 

They rolled down the hill, which was hilarious.

 

They climbed rocks with Babe.

We all had fun.

I wonder what our next adventure is going to be.

Thank you and Good night.

I'm excited!

Okay so I have some exciting news. I don't know if I'm allowed to say yet but as soon as I know for sure that I am I will. And NO I am NOT pregnant. No more baking in this oven.

I can't focus right now so this is all for today.

Oh! don't forget to check out Polkadotplum.com tomorrow for New Release Wednesday. You will likey likey.

Thank you and Good night.

Happy Valentines Day to me

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentines Day.

Lets cut to the chase. I got some pretty nifty stuff from Babe.

Let me introduce you to my new blinds. Aren't they purrty. The journey to get them on the wall was not very fun. I originally started out with some cocoa brown roll up bamboo shades, but once we hung one set it was obvious  that privacy was not taken into consideration when they were being made. So we took them down and back to the store. These are the one we went with. They are roman shades and made of bamboo. I'm such a tree hugger.

 

Then, I'm so spoiled, Babe got me this

 

This is my new 22 inch LED monitor/T.V. Hey look I'm blogging about it in the picture. My old monitor was just that, OLD. I got it when I got my first computer in 2001. The original computer, that the monitor came with, has since gone to PC heaven. Then the mouse joined it about a year ago. PC heaven now has mice. You get it. My mouse died so...I just made a joke. Now the only thing I have left is the keyboard. Which the shift key sticks, so........

I love this monitor. It is huge compared to my old one which was only 16 inches. Now I can have to windows open at almost full size and still see them both. I am such a spoiled girl. It is also a TV. That makes Babe happy. So now when I am watching American Idol, yes I did just say American Idol, he can go into the bedroom and watch what ever he wants. For those of you wondering why we just didn't by a television for our room in the first place, well, the television Babe wants is close to $800. This was less then half that. You do the math. Did I mention that our refrigerator is on its last leg, along with our dishwasher and the windows in our bedroom are so bad they might as well not even be there. So that $500 we didn't spend on Babe's fancy schmancy television will go towards covering one of our many other homeowner expenses. Did I mention my new monitor is Energy Star Qualified? I just thought I would throw that out there.

I love you Babe.

Thank you and Good night.

 

Gone Fishing

We have a "lake" behind our house. I think it's more of a retention pond, but, whatever. All the people that live directly on it are considered waterfront property. The neighbors that live to the north of us let us use their dock when ever we want. Very nice people. Even though it has been pretty frigid Babe took Stinky over the other day. I tagged along just long enough to get some pictures and then I ran home like a little baby because it was to cold. This is what I got.

Stinky actually caught a catfish all by himself. He wouldn't touch it, but he caught it. I wouldn't touch it either. I would be affraid it would spit toxic waste in my eye and I would have to walk around in a purple jacket with a smile put on my face by makeup. Then every one would call me the bride of The Joker. Then my kids would get made fun of for having a mommy that only wears a purple jacket and can't do make up right. I'm just saying.

I never understood why people like fishing, but it sure does make for good photos.

Thank you and Good night.

Cards anyone?

My family has been on a card game kick lately. Uno, Skip-bo, Rummy. We love it. I'm the Uno champ and Trev is the Skip-bo king. Babe, well, he's fun to beat. Someones got to lose right?

I was looking on the internet for coupons. Yes I use coupons. If I remember to take them with me when I go shopping. They don't do any good when you leave them sitting on the counter at home. I am blonde you know. Well I found a coupon here. It is $5.00 off any Pictureka game. Did I mention ANY. So I took my little coupon with me to Target and found this



















It is Pictureka the card game. I haven't played it yet so I can't tell you how it is. What I can tell you is that it is $5.24 without the coupon. Use that coupon and voila .24 cents for a card game. Not to shabby if I do say so myself. Hold your applause, please.

Your welcome.

Thank you and Good night.

What a lucky man

Over the weekend Babe received a phone call from one of our neighbors. He had something to show him and wanted him to come over. Babe got there to find a huge pine tree on the ground. I guess the other day the wind decided it did not like that tree being in that spot and dropped it. This tree was huge.

Here is the root system.

Pretty impressive isn't it. Can you see the pool in the background? This massive tree decided to land right on the deck. It missed the house by about 5 feet. The only damage was to the pool deck and it was minimal.

 

Look at the size of the trunk. This could have done some very serious damage. Look at that hunky man of mine. Mama likes it when he works.

This tree gave Babe a run for his money, but he did it. I was so proud of him. 

I love that man of mine.

Thank you and Good night.