Playing. Creating. Looking forward to using bunches of new goodies I have.

Dear Hubby,

I don't know how often you check my blog. I'm going to figure you will at least read this before the Christmas shopping season is well underway. So, here's a hint. A pretty specific hint. You say you never know what to get me for Christmas. Jammies from Old Navy are nice. Scrapbook stuff is awesome. But, seriously, I like to shop for that stuff myself. Sorry. Its true. But, I found THIS BEAUTIFUL NECKLACE on Etsy and it's screaming "buy me, wrap me and put me under the Christmas tree!!!". I honestly think you'll go mental trying to buy something off Etsy (I'm sure it will remind you of ordering McDonalds for three kids and yourself through the drive thru window). But, I'm willing to give you a few (FOUR to be exact) months to get over your fear and I'm hoping that if the good Santa really lives on, I will find this under my tree.

Love,

your Wife
your Cook
your Laundry Maid
your Lunch Packer
your children's Mother
your McDonald's drive thru orderer


lol!

Happy Weekend Off

Got my hair cut and highlights/lowlights put in on Wednesday. Awesome. Short bob that I can wear straight or curly. More caramel color in my hair so every six weeks I don't look like a teenager wanna be with a dark stripe where my roots are. Hate that! Always been a blonde, but face it, I ain't gettin any younger and neither is my hair.

We had planned to take the girls overnight to Adventureland this weekend. Work issues = cancel those plans. Major disappointment. On the brighter side, things are looking up as far as making a change in that section of my life :) Friday, had to make an emergency trip to the Dr. ~ Gracie had three growth looking things on her feet, totally gross and something I had never seen before. They were plantar's warts. Where in the world do you get that? Gross. Icky gross. Dr. had to freeze them and then cut them off. He says they will most likely regrow and have to be frozen and burned off a couple more times. Super icky gross. I will have to find a mommy replacement for those days because I was very disturbed by that process.

So, in replacement of the original Adventureland plans that had to be cancelled because I got my days moved around at work, and then eventually moved back. Don't ask. Makes me seriously ill when I think about it. So, we hit a River Bandits game instead. Super fun. Great weather. Crappy ball game. Bandits got hammered by the Burlington Bees. Avery didn't get an autograph which led to a meltdown. Which led to another round of beers. ha! Avery chilled with some cotton candy, girls with super nachos and mom and dad with a couple more beers. What a great night! Chillin' on the berm watching ball. Life is sweet at moments like that. Hope you all had time to enjoy the weekend.

More weekend plans this week = hittin the town with friends for a 40th birthday couples celebration. Lookin' forward to that. Gonna try and get to the Drive In in Galva (www.galvaautovue.com) and get a movie in on Sunday (its a one show on Sundays) and then I'm off work until after Labor Day. Who knows, maybe that opportunity will knock harder while I'm off. Crossing fingers.

Totally can't believe that school has started. Missed my babies like crazy yesterday. Then they came home, went with me to a hair appointment and were super crabby. Didn't miss them anymore. Wanted to find a bus who would come and pick them up and take them back to school. That didn't happen either. Luckily, some friends of ours and their kids showed up at the same hair salon (different stylist) and all the kids played absolutely fabulously in the play room. Lesson: There's always an up side to a down side, and vice versa.

Hannah had a rough couple of first days of middle school. Was late to class on day 1, not a biggie since they have a couple of weeks before tardies are counted. Why? you ask was she late? She was trying to open the wrong locker. ha ha! At least she saw the humor in it. Said she was completely embarrassed when the teacher came to help her and said, are you sure this is your locker after 3 times it wouldn't open. Then, yesterday there was drama picking lunch tables and some girls telling her she couldn't save seats so she moved to an empty table and then the same girls who preached to her about her wrongdoings turned around and did the same thing. We talked about it and I told her to listen to the adults, not the snot nosed girls that she's so unlucky to have in her class. ugh! So not about the prissy, mean girls. Then, her ever-so-efficient mom put an icepack thingy from Target in her lunchbox and it decided to get a hole in in and leak all over her locker yesterday. She almost missed the bus (which then I would have missed my hair appt) but one of her great teachers helped her clean up most of it and then told her to run and catch the bus and she'd clean up the rest. SUPER teacher....thank you! She also told Hannah not to worry about it, if you get all the crazy things to happen at the beginning of the year, the rest of the year is smooth sailing. :) Awesome advice. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Here's some of what yesterday found me creating....now that its not raining, I can get in my walks/jogging. Depends on my mood which I do.

~ I Hope You Have the Time of Your Life.....

School is back in session around here. Hannah started middle school today. Loved it! Thinks all of her teachers rock, we'll see how long that lasts. :) Gracie started 4th Grade. She is super looking forward to Bank at School, field trips to Loud Thunder and Bishop Hill. I love Bishop Hill and I love that field trip....it's always on my list of helper days. Avery started 1st Grade and just about flipped when she walked into her classroom and realized they get DESKS instead of tables....you should have seen her face when she opened her desk and found, BOOKS. She yelled "oh my gosh, we even have BOOKS!!!!". Her teacher (and many other parents) were laughing. That is classic Avery. All in all, they seem to be very excited about school and getting reaquainted with their schedules, friends and activities. I have to say, honestly, so am I. But I miss them during the day. :) Just means I have more me time on my days off. Here's some pics I took this morning before the bus rolled up.

Cartwheel Happiness

Last Thursday the girls participated in the New Windsor Fair & Rodeo parade with their tumbling school. They cartwheeled two miles!!! Yes, they did get to take some breaks and didn't cartwheel the entire time, but pretty darn close. What a great time, wish we could have spent more time enjoying the actual rodeo part of it, but as always my work schedule doesn't allow it. Bummer! Definately planning on that next year.

Time Flies

Can you believe it is the end of summer already? Where has the time gone? I registered the girls for school at the end of last week. Gracie's teacher attends our church and has daughters that are just a bit younger than I am. All good to have a familiar face and it's a teacher Hannah did not have so looking forward to new experiences there. Avery has a brand spankin' new to the district teacher (for the 2nd year in a row). We were over-the-moon with Ave's Kindergarten teacher, she made learning so much FUN for them and they sang and did experiments daily. Loved that! We are hoping for more of that this year and Ave is really excited to be in first grade. She has one friend from Kindergarten in her class, but there are a few other girls she knows because they are sisters of Gracie's friends and one of my girlfriends' daughter.....she's looking forward to having a new group of girls to make friends with!

Yesterday was our last day of summer session tumbling. We have two weeks off before fall session begins, so there's some pics here, but I'm still trying to find a setting that takes good pics in that building, lol! We spent last night at 6th grade orientation for Hannah (yeah, I know, I am really feeling that "i'm not ready for this" feeling). She has her locker combo memorized, her schedule down and we talked about how to make it from class to class in those short three minutes. I have no fear she'll do fine. Middle school comes with more responsibility and in turn, stricter discipline, but I know she will be fine. Our big decision now is what instrument she wants to play for band. Leaning towards the flute.....we'll see.














We have a busy week ahead of us, the girls are going to be in the New Windsor Rodeo parade for their tumbling school and we have to finish school clothes shopping. Today, we took a break to hit it outside with the sprinkler and just jump around and have fun. Beautiful day. As you can see, though, we still need to fix that issue with the muddy puddle, lol.....Avery is a dirt magnet! Hope you're all enjoying the weather and the last days before school or the first days of school, since we have year round surrounding us, I'm sure some of you are already in session. :)

~ 80's Day at College 4 Kids

Hannah is at College 4 Kids all week this week. So far, she is having blast. She has been doing "scrapbooking" type of projects all week in one class about bookmaking. So far they have made books out of envelopes, chipboard and origami. Today, they are making a paper bag book and tomorrow they finish by writing and illustrating a real hardback book, think children's size. She is having so much fun with that class! She is also taking a writing class where they are learning how to (basically) journal and write about her life. I couldn't believe it when she picked these classes over Raku Pottery and French. As a kid I never would have picked these classes, different story as an adult, lol. I think I am rubbing off on her.

Her favorite class so far is a rock around the clock class where they are learning each day about a different decade, Monday was 50's, Tuesday was 60's, Wednesday was 70's, today is 80's and tomorrow is 90's. They are learning about music, television and other pop culture of each era. Yesterday she came home and said "Hey mom do you know the song Jeremiah was a Bullfrog? It is so hilarious. And we did the hustle, do you know that? It is SO funny."....um, yeah, Hannah, I know it. They also talked about the assasinations of Bobby and John F. Kennedy. She is learning a lot about our recent history; all the while having fun doing it. Today she wanted to dress up 80's style, so this is what we came up with. She was loving it, me I was having flashbacks of a style I thought would NEVER return. However, this is all newly purchased merchandise, isn't that crazy? Hoping she has as much fun today...as they are playing PacMan, listening to Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi and Madonna and talking about the Reagan era. My baby is growing up....and apparently so am I because all of this 80's talk is making me feel old.... lol!

Took Saturday night off of work to attend a birthday/anniversary party. Had Sunday as a scheduled day off so finally had a weekend to spend with my family for once....my brother fed me way too many drinks/shots on Saturday so I was hurtin' most of Sunday morning :) Note to self: aspirin and water next time before bed!!! Cooked out by the fire and made a yummy chicken/mandarin orange salad for dinner....was a great night to just sit out by the fire and chillax a little bit. I don't get the opportunity to do that with the family often enough :(

Here's a couple layouts that were sitting around all week and I finally put some finishing touches on. I am hoping to get some others done this week, but I hope that every week and it just ain't been happening all that much this summer. But I'm okay with that, it's been much too nice to stay in and scrap. I guess I'll save it for rainy days.

~Cash for Clunkers

When I was diagnosed 4 years ago, Lance sold his Grand Prix so we didn't have another payment to worry about while I was undergoing treatment and wasn't working. It killed him to sell his baby, but we were suffocating with that extra payment. His grandpa had already given him what we deemed the "POS truck" beforehand that he used to hunt, fish and drive to and from work when he knew he was going to be "oiling" and didn't want to get his baby dirty.

Well, after 4 years of driving that POS truck, it had had it. The air went out last summer and we've been lucky this summer to not have it be so hot. The heat went out over the winter and the radio went out long before both of those, lol! He was using that POS truck to take the girls back and forth to Orion when I had to work and it just wasn't safe....and I swear you were breathing toxic fumes the entire time!! lol!

So, we make a stop at a few dealerships Wednesday, and Key Pontiac-Buick in Moline was awesome to us! Lance's POS qualified for the $4500 Cash for Clunkers rebate and they gave us an additional $6000 off the car, making it a total of $10,500 off the sticker price of $23,785. Woo hoo!! We couldn't beat the payments, the savings, any of it. In his heart I know he wants a truck so bad, but there's no way we could swing $600 a month for a brand new truck plus gas and insurance!! YIKES! I wish we could, it's just not feasible.

So here's Daddy in his new ride. Hannah helped pick it out since we're figuring it will be her first car in 5 more years. Avery already nicknamed it Rosie. The truck was nicknamed "paws", short for POS. lol! And, I will be looking for a cheapo truck to buy him for his hunting needs.

~ More St. Louis layouts

Time crunch ~ so these pics aren't cropped. :( Sorry. These are a couple of layouts I did this week with new Reminisce papers...the bright red, white and blue were a perfect match for our red hot Cardinal photos. Woo hoo! Hope the rain stops, it's my only weekend off all summer (besides my vacation in July) so I really want some sun!! And heat!!