Hello there

In two days it will be April. This year is passing us by so quickly!! There is only 2 months left until school is out for Mykenzie and even less for Kaylee. April isn't even here yet and it is shaping up to be quite a busy month for us. Starting Saturday we will be on the go. We are going to our first hockey game with girl scouts! Travis may be going up to Ohio this weekend to see a friend that needs him right now. Then my friend Amy is coming to visit us on Monday and staying till Saturday afternoon. Sunday is Easter (add that to my list of things to do/buy) I have my college course assessment test on the 18th that I need to study my butt off for. I am trying to work out, read, and get my house clean on top of everything else which is quite frankly making me forget all the things that I must do. Hence why I just now got my new stickers for the car today and they expire on Wednesday! I got my emissions test done weeks ago but forgot to go get the darn stickers. At least I managed to get that done today.

Both Kaylee's school and girl scouts will be over mid May, which will be here before I can even think about it and I have to plan the girl scouts bridging ceremony.... yep, I have no clue how to do that one, nor do I want to. One of these days I need to suck it up and do it. I also think I am in charge of planning Kaylee's school Easter party.... yikes! No clue what to do there either! I just have been bitten by the lazy bug and I don't want to do any of it or even think about it for that matter! Kaylee's school will be having a graduation ceremony soon too. I need to figure out when it will be so I can plan for it. We need to buy a new video camera before then so we can have it on tape. Crap! I have to find out when kindy testing is too!!!

We are planning a trip to Ohio. The day Mykenzie gets out of school we are leaving! The next day I am going out with just my girlfriends, NO KIDS ALLOWED! We very rarely get to hang out just us without having to deal with the kids. In fact I think we have only done it once. Once in all the years I have been moved away and we started having kids. And that one time was in 2006! CRAZY! So we are going out and we are doing it well! Starting off mid afternoon with a spa trip (undecided on the treatment, either facials or pedicures) followed with dinner, drinks and dancing and ending at a hotel room to hang out and chat till whenever we want! I can NOT wait!! I think every one of us NEEDS this! I am unsure what I will do the rest of the week but I do plan to get together with those same girls and let the kids play for a few hours one day and hopefully get a few hang out hours with Rachel one morning.

I need to call the community center and see about getting Mykenzie back in swim lessons again. If they would have had their stuff together the last time she took them she would know how to swim by now and be done with it. Freaking people. She is also thinking about giving tennis a try so I need to look into that. Apparently at some point I made a deal with Kaylee that I forgot about but she has not. I guess I told her when she was 5 she could take ballet? Well she is planning on holding me to it even though I totally forgot so I guess I have to look into that. She is a brute though so I can't really picture her being a dainty ballerina... I may try and talk her into soccer instead. I wish I could know right now what my class schedule will look like so I can start to figure stuff like that out.

It is FINALLY starting to look like Mykenzie may possibly learn how to ride a bike without training wheels after all. Travis worked on it some on Saturday before her friend showed up at our house and she got embarrassed. But she finally seemed interested in doing it when before she would scream and run into the house if you tried to get her on her bike.

The girls had their spring break last week already. We didn't go anywhere as generally the only place we would go is Ohio and I hate going there in the spring. We just hung out at home, played outside and at a friends house, met our playgroup at the park. On Friday we went to see Monsters vs Aliens (side note it is crazy they charge an extra $3 per ticket for a 3D movie but don't offer it in a theater where you don't have to see it in 3D. I was pretty mad when I heard I had to pay $30 for 3 people to see a matinee) the girls both really liked it though. Travis' birthday was on Tuesday so we decorated the kitchen with balloons and a birthday banner and the girls hid and jumped out to yell surprise when he got home. We made him a big cookie instead of a cake and we took him to Fuji (Japanese Hibachi Grill) for dinner and then we all watched Bolt. The girls had a great day! lol After a week of begging for her friend to spend the night chance happened and she was able to come over to play on Saturday which turned into her spending the night which turned into her staying here until 3pm Sunday afternoon. They had a great time and ended up having a pretty good spring break even though we didn't travel.

That was a long update/ list of things to do!!!

OUCH!

I am soooo sore! My arms, shoulders, and back are KILLING me! My legs are sore but the pain in a zero in comparison to my upper body. Wanna know why? YOGA. Yeah I said yoga. WTH? Never in my life would I think yoga would mess me up so bad. Ah, did I mention that this is from yoga I did yesterday! I have been in pain since yesterday around noon. It has gotten worse. So sore! I don't think I have ever been this sore in my life, certainly not from exercising! I am doing good though. I have worked out 3 times this week, including today through my serious pain. Monday I did a yoga core work out (boy that'll set your stomach muscles on fire in about 45 seconds) and a yoga end of the day wind down (it was 11 pm when I did this). Yesterday I did an 11 minute yoga workout that was I using as stretching basically, followed by a 22 minute yoga workout to target buns and thighs and then to top it off I did a 22 minute fat burn that consisted of cardio and some strength training. Know which one messed up my arms? The BUNS AND THIGHS work out, WTH? I promise though that's what did it. Today I was trying to not work the arms since they hurt so I did the yoga core work out again, followed buy a short cardio workout and some strange stripper dance thing that is supposed to work the booty. I was not a stripper in a former life and could never be one now. There was nothing sexy about me trying to do those moves! LOL It did make my thighs burn though, not the booty so much but since I probably wasn't doing the moves quite right that could explain that one ;) Now I am done, till Monday that is hopefully my poor achy body will feel better by then. I swear I am going to keep up with this but I damn well better see results if I am going to be in so much pain everytime I move my arms. Seriously all I could think about last night while I was whining about my pain is how in the heck do the people on the Biggest Loser do it? They clearly haven't been a friend to any type of exercise and they have these people in the gym for 6+ hours every day! How can they walk?!? I bet I won't be watching them while eating ice cream anymore. I feel really bad for them now! OUCH!

Good Citizen

Every grading period 3 kids from each class are chosen to be good citizen for that grading period. The kids have to be well behaved, turn in homework and get good grades. Each teacher choses who will get it in different ways. Mykenzie's teacher this year has the students in the class vote out of those elligible. This grading period Mykenzie was chosen as one of them. Yesterday they had a good citizen breakfast that Kaylee and I went to and it was followed by a ceremony. This is the third time Mykenzie has been good citizen over the years but the first time I didn't have my camera :( Travis Someone took it out of my purse and didn't put it back so I don't have any pics of the award ceremony. I am a bit bummed but I don't know how I would have taken any with Kaylee with me. I did take one of her holding it when she got home from school though so I have something. We are proud of her for getting it :)

Tonight was my parent teacher confrence with her teacher. She said she was a good kid who has really grown since the beginning of the year accidemically. Not that she wasn't where she needed to be before, because she was, it is just she seems to have a real interest in what she is being taught now and that is coming out in her work. She said the only thing that will hold her back in class is that she doesn't take constructive critisim well and becomes very defensive (wonder where she gets that from- HA! you thought me but it is Travis, ok both of us) She said she likes to base things on facts and asks questions until she understands. If she is found wrong on something, she doesn't believe that she is wrong until it is proven to her and explained to her why. These are both good and bad things I suppose. She told me to make sure she doesn't have a teacher that is combative and she should be ok. It may be a long 10 years. Lord help me.

ey yi yi

I went to pick Mykenzie up from school today and as she is getting in the car she says "Mom, why didn't you pick me up today?" I was totally confused because I was in the process of picking her up in that moment. Then she reminds me that I was supposed to pick her up early from school because she had an orthodontist appointment! DUH! At this point we are already 20 minutes late. So I rush across town to at least show up and hope they could still see her. About halfway there I remember that we came home after I picked Kaylee up from school and I say "Kaylee, you don't have shoes on do you?" That would be a big fat NOPE! So not only are we going to stroll into this orthodontist appointment 40 minutes late, but Kaylee is also barefoot!!! Geeze.

We get there and they are all super nice about us being so late and were totally understanding about me just plain forgetting (even though they called yesterday to remind me) They ended up telling me that we only have to turn the palate expander for another week!! Yay! She still has to keep it in till her next appointment (in 5 weeks) but she wont have to have it turned anymore :) She is sooooo happy! He put 2 more brackets on 2 of her baby teeth to try and get the teeth to space out for the permanent tooth that is trying (and has been for a year) to come in. I just have to say if you ever need to take your kiddos (and live in my area) to an orthodontist this is the guy to go to. We have NEVER had to wait (and they are BUSY) they get them in and out quickly and they are SUPER nice!

Just a bitch bitchin'

So I finally went to the doctor and spoke to her about meds for my pms moods. She agrees with me that it sounds like I probably need some and tells me I have PMDD and wrote me a script. So I call my insurance company because getting the meds through them is cheaper for us so for a long term thing it makes more sense. I had to talk to several people because the name of what they had to send me was different than what the doctor prescribed. After a while we finally got it figured out that it is the generic for what she gave me (she told me the generic was something else) great fine, whatever. They tell me it will get to me in 7-10 days.

Fast Forward to yesterday and there it was in my mail. Now I am PMSing and now is the time I need those magic little pills, perfect time to put them to the test, right? I open the package and it is a totally different prescription that what we discussed!!! So I call and it turns out that my insurance company wanted the prescription changed because it would cost them less money! They contacted my doctor for the ok and went with it. Never was I the patient and policy holder notified! The meds they sent are an ANTI-DEPRESSANT, I DON'T NEED AN ANTI-DEPRESSANT! Not only do I not need it but I don't want it in my medical history that I was on one. Not there is anything wrong with it if you actually need it but since I DO NOT I don't want it on there.

So I in my PMS pissy-ness told the man on the phone that I didn't give a shit what the insurance company wanted and I had damn well better be consulted before my medication gets changed again ever! Ridiculous! So they are going to fix it and send me the right stuff but it is going to take another 7-10 business days. Bastards. I have to go in to the doctor in May for a 3 month follow up. Um yeah I won't have been on it for 3 months thanks to these jack offs. When I asked if they would express ship it because of this, I swear they were trying not to laugh and told me I would have to pay $17 for that! I told them I wasn't paying for anything since they are the ones who fucked it up. Really? Do you think it is smart to mess with a hormonal woman who has been prescribed medication to deal with PMS symptoms? Fucking men.

I just want to lock myself in my bedroom and come out in a few days when this is over.

I do have another story with a good ending but I am gonna leave that one for another day

Hey there Nancy!

Mykenzie had to dress up like her favorite story book character today for school as they are doing alot of reading oriented things this week including the book fair. After much thought of what the cheapest and easiest perfect costume would be, we decided on Nancy Drew. Has Mykenzie ever read a Nancy Drew book....no. But luckily there isn't a book report involved so she just has to look the part. I picked up a cute Nancy Drewish cardigan sweater (that she will never wear again) and a trench coat at Target and paired it with some things she already had and poof she was Nancy Drew. Well after her notebook for her clues that is ;)

And a silly picture of Kaylee in pj's cause apparently I can't just take pics of Mykenzie these days.

Snow day!

We woke up this morning to see the ground covered by a beautiful blanket of snow!! We got ready immediately since you never know how long it will last around here and went outside to play!! This is the first time we have had enough of the right kind of snow to make an actual snowman since Kaylee has been around. So she was pretty excited about making a big snowman. Here are the pics of some of our fun...

Lazy days

I haven't posted in 11 days! I guess this blog has been put on the back burner along with cleaning these days. I have cleaned but you can't tell at all so really does it even count? I am on strike. I am just tired of the routine. I was starting to consider getting a job for a couple of reasons. But then I really think about my availability and figure no one will hire me for a few hours Tuesday mornings and Sunday afternoons! lol Whatever. I guess I would have to quit in 2 months anyhow so it isn't worth it.

My children are driving me batty. We have had to have some serious heart to hearts lately with Mykenzie about her attitude and her being disrespectful to us and just mean to Kaylee. Hopefully we will see some improvement. The biggest conversation just took place yesterday so we shall see. Kaylee is doing a little bit better since her and I had our little chat. Fingers crossed. I am not asking for perfection just common sense stuff taken care of and keeping the attitude out of my face.

Mykenzie isn't enjoying her palate expander. It was rough in the very beginning and then it seemed like it wasn't hurting her but now she seems to be in pain every time I turn it. It is definitely working though because she now has a sizable gap between her two front teeth where she certainly did not have one before. I am hoping that when we go to the orthodontist in a couple of weeks they are planning to tighten the braces to begin the process of pulling them back together. I have checked her bite a couple times though and can definitely see an improvement so I am hoping that 2 months will be long enough to have it on.

Kaylee is doing really well in school. She is learning so much this year and is much further along than Mykenzie was at this age. I am so glad that we had her in preschool at age 3 instead of waiting till 4 like we did with Mykenzie. Travis has talked me into letting her go to Kindergarten next year. So now I am really cracking down on behavior and how to act in school. No progress on that yet but I just started. Several of the classes from her school were on the news the other day! The weather man came to talk to the kids and teach them about weather, what to do in a tornado ect. And they got a group photo that they showed on the 6:30 news Tuesday. She was SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to tell everyone and to watch herself on tv! It was really fun to watch how excited she was about it.

As for me I can't seem to get motivated these days to do much of anything that requires me to get off my big butt. I have watched tv, played on the computer, done some work on the computer for my moms group, fed my facebook addiction, watched Changeling, read the last book in the color series about Jane Kelly by Nancy Bush called Ultra Violet, read Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich and washed some laundry and dishes. That pretty much sums up my week! lol SAD! I did go to the doctor on Tuesday, FINALLY and she did end up giving me a prescription for my bitchy-ness. Apparently she thinks I have extreme PMS! LOL Travis I'm sure would agree with that. I am currently waiting for my Ins. company to mail it to me so I can find out if they are going to work. It is sad cause this is the week is when I REALLY need to have it. lol Travis keeps asking if I've gotten them yet but since I believe he need meds too I just tell him to kiss my ass. :)

I am debating on going to Bunco on Saturday. I really want to go but at the same time I have already been out the past 2 weekends with friends, we already have 2 things planned for March (so far) and I have several weekend things for girl scouts coming up soon. I guess I will wait and see how things are looking tomorrow. If we aren't doing anything I may just go anyhow.

I finally called the college I am planning to attend to find out what I needed to do yesterday. It looks like I will be going to fill out an application either Tuesday or Thursday next week. The mere thought of this gives me a panic attack. Not good. I know it will be ok, hard but ok, once I get started but getting there is scaring the crap out of me.

I guess that is all that's been happening here. I am really hoping for some nice weather soon (supposed to have snow flurries tomorrow damn it) that will help motivate me to get off the couch, until then I am afraid I'll be sitting here ;)

Estrogen Overload!

OMG! The hormones are going to just kill me! Seriously my kid is 8. Should I be dealing with mood swings and melt downs already? They have been picking at each other all day which is always followed by a loud whiny mooooooooooooooom _______ did _______!!!!!! I am tired of listening to it so I sent both of them to their rooms for so quiet time. Mykenzie totally breaks down crying, screaming "I don't want to go to my room! This is my last day of vacation and it isn't fair!!!!" So then I told her if she didn't go she could just be grounded from the computer for the week. She stomps off crying as loud as most people can scream, slams her door and has now been in her room for 25 minutes still hysterical crying and talking to herself about how I am such a mean mom and how she doesn't want to be in her room that it is her last day off. And of course how it is all Kaylee's fault (even though she has been the one picking on Kaylee all day)

OMG! I am going to need to be tranquilized to make it through the teenage years! Just kill me now~ I don't even want to know what it is going to be like when they are both hormonal! Geeze!

Happy Belated Valentines Day

We had a good Valentines Day here. Mykenzie and I headed to a cookie booth at noon to try and peddle cookies outside of Kmart. We ended up selling 96 boxes in 2 hours! Yay! Add that to the rest of the booths our troop did and we sold quite a bit in booth sales. I am almost done delivering cookies. I missed an opportunity to deliver some today but I will hook up with her another day this week. Still waiting on a couple of checks to come in the mail and then I will be headed to the post office to mail the rest to Ohio, Virginia and Arizona. Then I will be DONE with cookies for another year! Woohoo

After the cookie booth we met up with Travis and Kaylee and went out to lunch. Figured it would be less crowded at lunch time. Went to get Mykenzie a webkin for her v-day gift and came home, delivered the neighborhood cookies and then just relaxed. Travis got me a dozen roses and another bouquet of flowers :) Thanks babe.

Today was our group's secret Valentine reveal lunch. I got some pretty great things from my valentine and everything is something I will actually use and am happy to have (especially the jelly belly's ;-) ) I can't wait to go to Michael's to use my gift card!!! I love doing secret valentine with these ladies! After most of us went to see the Shopaholic movie. It was good but it was pretty loosely based on the book. I guess the main idea and the character names but that was about it. I was glad I got to see it regardless, I loved the books.

The rest of our week has been pretty busy. Mykenzie got her palate expander on Wednesday. That is a gigantic pain in the ass for me and a pain in the mouth for Mykenize. It doesn't seem to bother her unless I am trying to tighten it. We have to do it every single night. Hopefully it takes less time than they originally told me (3-4 months) cause I seriously after 4 nights of doing it am already done.

We had a family mystery night at Mykenzie's school on Thursday. It was fun but I have to say some of the clues were harder than I would have liked. Thank goodness I am not in school and can go ahead and look at other peoples papers to cheat! lol In the end we were able to solve the mystery though and all was well with the school :)

My house is a total disaster! I can't seem to get myself back into a routine after being sick for that week ( I have not missed a single dose of my medicine btw, big pat on the back for me!). I FINALLY have the last load of clothes in the dryer. This is the first time in 3 weeks laundry has been caught up. Of course now it starts all over again. My goals for this week are 1. get this house put back together 2. get a couple of work outs in. Hopefully I can make that work, since there is no school tomorrow I will be all thrown off again this week. Ahh well, cleaning isn't the most important thing right? You wouldn't agree with me if you saw my house right now...

Oh and in other news, I found out that I am going to be an aunt once again. My sister just found out she is expecting baby #2 and will be due sometime in October. I am hoping for a BOY this time!

It has been a long week.. I am tired

"We're gonna have to check with the general manager on that ma'am"

I had a girl scout project planned out for last nights meeting. And by planned out I mean I knew for a month (probably 2) what we would be doing but the procrastinator that I am didn't have any of the stuff actually ready for the meeting. Fast forward to 4:30 yesterday afternoon just 1 hour before we have to leave for the meeting and see me scrambling around the house getting everything ready trying to make the things the girls would be making so they could see the final project ect. Then I realize that I never went and got those straws I have known for a month I would be needing for this project. DANG IT! So I decide that on the way to the meeting I am going to go through the McDonalds drive thru and convince them to give me the straws rather than me going in with both kids and teaching them to steal straws from McDonalds. Here is the conversation that took place at the pick up window.....

Me: Is there any way you would be willing to donate 20 straws for a project for a local girl scout troop or that I could just buy 20 straws from you?

Girl: Ummm. Let me go ask

The manager is right behind her so she turns around and has a 2 minute discussion with him right in front of the window rather that him just speaking to me directly all the while we are holding up the drive thru line at 5:45 pm..... you know fast food rush hour.

Girl: Yeah I just spoke to the manager and he said for us to be able to make a donation we would have to get in contact with our general manager and check with him.

Me: You have got to be kidding me! That is the craziest thing I have ever heard!

Girl with a sympathetic look: I'm sorry

Me: Look. I am not asking you for 20 boxes of straws I am simply asking you for 20 straws. In reality all I have to do is park my car walk in there and take 20 straws off of your counter or you could make my life easier and just hand me 20 straws. I mean come on it is 20 straws.

The manager is still standing there the whole time this conversation transpires. With a very distressed look on his face as though he felt as if his job could possibly be in jeopardy finally gets a bag and tells her to go ahead.

Seriously you would think I was asking for all the money in the cash register with the reaction I got over 20STRAWS!!!! Ey yi yi

Moral of the story. If you ever need McDonalds straws for something leave the kids at home and just walk in and take them off the counter. Yes I am telling you to steal. If it makes you happy leave them a quarter on the counter to cover enough for them to buy back those 20 plus an extra 1000! For petes sake!

Just call me Rainbow Bright!

No one can ever say that I am afraid of color that is for sure! My house is now a rainbow. I am thinking the only color I don't have represented is blue.... maybe the garage can be painted blue that would be cute! For those who have never been to my house, my bedroom is a yellow gold, my master bath is sage green, Mykenzie's room is pink & Kaylee's room is purple (lavender). Last year around this time we painted the girls bathroom a bright orange (you can click here for a reminder). Our loft was red when we moved in and while we repainted it because they did a terrible job but we kept it red. Downstairs our living room is brown our kitchen is purple (Plum) and now our half bath is BRIGHT green! Now I must say that it is MUCH brighter than the swatch I have is but it works out because I love it anyhow! So now 2/3 of the bathrooms in my house blind you when you walk in! LOL That is what Travis says anyhow. I personally love it so I don't really care. I really hope that when we decide not to live here any more the person buying likes color too cause I will be damned if I am repainting over any of it!! I still have some accessories in mind to add but here are some photos :)

BEFORE

AFTER! Isn't it pretty!!

Signed~ ROY G BIV

This could be a record!

I haven't really posted anything in a while. Sure I did my shame on you post but does that really count? Life has been pretty quiet around here the past couple of weeks both by choice and not. Last week I was really sick, I imagine that most of the people that have permission to read this blog already know that I have Inflammatory Bowel Disease(IBD), I call it old man disease. While most of the time I consider myself in "remission" every now and then it rears its ugly head and knocks me on my ass for awhile. I was out for over a week pretty much laying on my couch sick with a few good hours here and there thrown in to trick me into thinking I was better only to be knocked back down on my ass. Anyhow, while I am no longer saying that I feel better cause every time I do I end up sick again, I will say I am no longer couch bound and am able to actually leave my house without panicking. This started Monday afternoon. So I have run a few errands this week but mostly have chosen to stay put. I haven't crafted other than making a couple more bean balls yesterday to fill up the apothecary jar and helping a friend make a tutu. I have my next one planned and the stuff to do it but I haven't gotten around to it. I have to do the girls valentines day boxes for school first.

The girls are doing really good. Mykenzie got her 2nd report card for the year a week or 2 ago and got straight A's for the first time!! 4.0 Baby! She brought her reading grade up from a B which I was sure she would do since she hated reading until the end of the last grading period, now she loves it and reads more than she ever has and has found some books she really enjoys and is reading above her grade level. This is big because before she really hated reading and would get books that were way under her skill level just to take the easy way out. Last night she was reading a 4.2 (fourth grade second month) level. I realize that it isn't how some people are saying oh "Johnny is reading 2 grade levels above where he should be" but it thrills me to no end. This is such a huge improvement to have her actually choosing books she should be reading. I have no doubt that she can read at an even higher level and she will get there soon. I am just so happy she finally loves to read!!

The upcoming weeks are going to be pretty busy. Not insane but I have alot going on this month. Between Mykenzie's dental stuff and girl scouts and both girls have school things and add in Valentines Day,2 no school days and 2 MNO this month is going to seriously fly by. At least most of it is fun stuff though ;)

Shame on you!

If you are reading this blog without my permission by logging on with someone else's identity you need to back yourself right back out of here. If you would like to read try asking ME! I don't have a problem with people reading but don't be sneaky about it. I made it private for a reason. If you are giving out your log in info out to people, shame on you. I wouldn't do that to you! You know who you are, I know who you are, my suggestion... get a new password and don't give it out again.

Project of the day

While walking around Lowes today I stumbled upon some ceramic tiles marked down to 35 cents each! Yay! Perfect for a project I have been wanting to try out. Pair that with the Hobby Lobby 50% off of stamps and ink sale and I have the makings for a pretty sweet craft that I really needed to have anyhow but didn't want to pay $20 for. I got enough to make 2 more sets for gifts too :)


Here are the supplies.....








Finish Product....





Still don't know what it is? Now look... It is a set of 4 coasters :)

Mission accomplished ;)

I was a lazy girl this week! I realize it is only Wednesday but Travis is home now in effect ending any productive time I would normally have. On Monday I had Barbara and her kiddos over to play while we awaited the news that Chandra had Eli and both were doing well.

Tuesday was the Inauguration! YAY! Which I watched at the hospital while holding the sweetest baby boy ever. Good news is that holding that sweet baby boy I did not want to go home and have one of my own, I do however want to hold that one, ALOT!

Today was the laziest of them all. I hung out on the couch with my computer. Watched cartoons with Kaylee. I did do a few loads of laundry and put them away and did some minor cleaning, by that I mean dishes, picked up some toys. I did do a small craft project today as well.... Here are the photos :) I saw these in an Etsy store for $5 each mine were approx. 50 cents each!!!

Yep. They are black and red bean balls :) I need to make a couple more for my apothecary jar though

Here are our Inauguration Day Photos

Don't mind me in the photo. I look terrible and totally exhausted. I was trying to show the shirt. I suck at taking photos of myself and lets face it I am just not photogenic at all. So I gave up and just took a photo of the shirt! lol

We were all decked out for the Inauguration :) Kaylee has a red,white and blue ribbon in her hair and Mykenzie wore her USA shirt to school as well. What a fabulous day it was :)


My lovely husband brought Mykenzie's camera with him to Ohio and while there snapped some photos of the craft project I forgot to take pictures of before I put them in the mail! Yay! So below are the pictures of the photo blocks I made. You will see my kids on 2 of them and the other 2 are my 2 nephews, Neeko and Jaden and my niece Lily :) Travis told me that my MIL has them all on her mantle :) Yay! I am excited she likes them! Though the flash isn't allowing there true cuteness to shine I think they turned out quite adorable thank you very much ;)

I am done

I am totally spent. I have been busting my tail all week. I did all the decorating, painting and shopping that I mentioned in previous posts and then Saturday I did a complete overhaul of my closet. It looks so good now! It is actually functional and we don't have to step in baskets of dirty clothes in order to get to the back of the closet. I got some shoe things, a laundry organizer, brought a book shelf in from downstairs and used a rubbermaid tote to get some stuff out of there and into the attic where it needs to be. It seriously looks so much better and so freaking organized it is awesome! I would post a photo but I don't have a before so you wont get the full effect. Just know I ended up with a big box for phase 2, a bag of trash and a bag for good will. Beautiful. Because I moved the bookshelf out of my downstairs closet to upstairs I also had to rework some stuff down there and it looks so much BIGGER! Just from removing a bookshelf that honestly did not take up much room at all. Now if I could just figure out a storage solution for our games I would be extremely happy.

I managed to get about 10 badges sewn onto Mykenzie's girl scout vest. I finally found them when I cleaned out my downstairs closet Saturday. I put them in a spot that made absolute perfect sense I just forgot completely where I put them! lol don't you love when you do that!

Now I can think of a million more things to do but I think I am going to hang out and spend the next couple evenings I have alone with a good book rather than with paint and spackel. Maybe just make a list of all the millions of things I want to do around this house, big and small to see what I can do here and there. I informed Travis last night that I wanted to put wainscoting in Kaylee's room and he just rolled his eyes and gave me a whiny "why?" LOL Gotta love it :)

We had snow all day today. It looked like it was going to stick for a minute but it ended up all going. It looked so pretty coming down though. I believe if it is going to be cold I want it to snow so at least the beauty of it distracts you from the cold somewhat. I just hate cold for the sake of being cold.

Tomorrow is the big day. Ol' GW will FINALLY be out of the White House!!! Woohoo! I am thrilled to have Obama being sworn in tomorrow! I can't wait to watch it. Travis got me a coffee cup while in Baltimore last week with Obama on it, it rocks! He got himself a sweatshirt that I will certainly have on tomorrow when I walk Kaylee into her totally Republican filled school. Well I live in TN so everywhere I go will be totally Republican filled! LOL I love it! I will be going to the hospital in the morning to meet Chandra's new baby!!! She had her little miracle boy today and he is such a cutie! Congratulations to her and her family! I am so thrilled for them!

Easy, relaxing week. That is the goal. I'll let ya know how that goes as I seem to have a problem doing that when Travis is out of town. Today though, mission accomplished! lol

Giving into the decorating bug

I have tackled some projects this week since the decorating bug bit me. I gotta say my living room finally feels pulled together. (Of course, since Travis wants to paint it, I won't allow it now though) I still have 1 more table to purchase but I am looking for the right one (for cheap) to put by my front door. Can't wait for garage sale season!!! I already posted all the deals I bought on Tuesday so those are in my living room, well some are. I also bought a gigantic red plate for my mantle that I jazzed up a bit (I talk about that in a minute). I painted the half circle table between my kitchen and dining rooms black and it looks much better!

I purchased the Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) program for my cricut on Wednesday night and it freaking rocks! I made a big "B" for on my gigantic mantle plate and added some other things in my house. I must say that I am dangerously close to having words on EVERY wall in every room of my house! It is addictive!!

I also bought a few new storage totes to help me get some things lacking organization organized. I will say that I have gotten some of that stuff done but still have to complete that project.

Next on my agenda.... ha! what's not.

*I have plans for my loft but I need a LOT of cash for that room because it involves buying a new 50inch plasma so that has been bumped to the bottom of the totem pole since we just re-carpeted out entire upstairs.

*Mykenzie's room needs repainted and her things need put back on her wall. I just don't like the set up in there right now, and she wants stripes on her wall. I have never done that so I don't know if I am capable to do it as I can't make straight lines to save my life.

*Kaylee's room needs upgraded from babyish to little kid. I don't have any kind of a plan for what I am going to do yet but I am thinking that wainscoting will be involved :)

*I am DYING to redo my laundry room! That is going to require garage sales though cause I can't spend alot on things for a laundry room, I just can't bring myself to do it. But I have a specific idea in mind so I may have to! lol

*My downstairs bathroom needs a serious face lift as well.

I guess I should have just said I have plans for every single room in my house, except the living room and the girls bathroom cause that would have summed it up much better! lol Sorry to all of you actually reading this! So many plans so little budget.

Here are a few photos :)

My newly painted table with new vase and flowers

The wall between my window and front door... so much better!

My gigantic red plate, with my SCAL "B"

My mantle now

Mykenzie's headboard :)

Deals Deals Deals!

Lately I have been out shopping for some great deals. That is the best part about this time of year after all. Now that Christmas is done and it is a long way to spring. How else are we supposed to pass the long cold winter days? Here are some that I have picked up recently, mostly today though. (You can click all the photos to see better)

Hobby Lobby is having a big sale. I love when I can utter those words. I got the above for $6.80! It is darker than the pic shows, love that flash. Looks cute sitting on an end table in my living room

I got this one for $6.12! Soon I will have too much to put on all of my new(ish) tables in my house!

I didn't know if I would like this or not. Still haven't decided. I got it at Marshalls ($12). I will be going back to Hobby Lobby to get the flowers I saw and wanted to put in it on Thursday. Hopefully it all works when done.

These baby's were only $7 each. They replaced some very disliked pics in my living room. Though I like it better, the wall is still missing something so the search continues ;)

Christmas Tree Deals!!

These were some serious deals! I can't wait to put them out next Christmas!

This is much cuter in person. It is metal, painted white with lotsa' glitter :) Original price $39.99 my price $3.99

Just thought this would be cute upstairs or on my kitchen table next Christmas :) This one cost me $4 not sure of the regular price

This picture doesn't do these justice either. The little pots say on one Merry Christmas and the other Happy Holidays. They have tiny red bells with white polka dots and swirls :) So cute! I got these for $1.50 each

So cute! Originally $29.99 my price $2.99!