Ha! I had every intention of actually using my first start to summer to revamp and get this blog back up and running properly, and all I succeeded in doing is ignoring it - but alas that is all about to change. Or at least I think it is! LOL

I’m up to my eyeballs in typical summer stuff:

- sticky, hot days <check>
- ice cream, slushes and loads of crushed ice beverages <check>
- water in any form (pools, the lake, sprinklers, water parks and water balloons <check>
- crazy hot days at the park trying to have a picnic and stay cool in the shade <check>
- frequent breaks from my computer and facebook <check>
- a trip to Chicago to see Marty Casey and four other bands with a girlfriend <check>
- warm, starry nights with hot campfires and roasted marshmallows <check>

Am I missing anything?

Only thing left to do is to continue to enjoy it and find a home for the rest of these puppies I have left.

Hope your summer is going wonderfully and that you are enjoying the time with your family and loved ones.

Somewhere along the way, I lost focus of this blog and what I was doing with it, and so I have spent the whole weekend cleaning up my whole website. I’ve located lost posts, found unpublished posts, delete thousands of files and all in all I feel quite a bit better about the direction this site can now take.

I’m going to give the blog a new face lift (cause you know me, I have to change ALL the time) and then we’re going to be back in the swing of things.

Missed you all (but if you’re bored, you can go visit me at my food blog: www.dailydishrecipes.com

I swear that’s the last time I will mention it.

What’s for dinner? Need a snack? Looking for money saving recipes to feed your family that allow you to stretch your grocery budget a bit further? Try Daily Dish Recipes for articles, recipes and more!

This is what the whelping/bed looks like now.

Just to have a little fun this morning…..

Sweet Lily - 5 days old

Little Rose - 5 Days Old

Bruiser - 5 Days Old

Sweet, Sweet Spot - 5 Days Old

This was supposed to be a picture of BELLA - but apparently we messed up and it’s a picture of Lily again. LOL  - 5 Days Old

Sweet little Emma - 5 Days old

Two days of snow days for the kids and no work for me, because it takes everything I have to concentrate. I’ll be up late again tonight trying to stay afloat. I love snow, but I hate bad weather and I’m starting to not love snow days as much. Actually I was super happy about yesterday, today not so much. LOL We did have a great time, we made seasoned popcorn on the stove, cookies and other snacks. Today we are going to do cookie layer brownies. So yummy. (you’ll be able to see them here once they are done.)

Here’s my world today:

Okay, and I’m a weirdo. I take this same shot every year of my neighbors shed. I just like how it looks. I know I’m weird.

I need to go outside and get a shot - this was through my back window, so it doesn’t look as good as it usually does. I’ll get out there later. It’s just too freakin’ cold. LOL

Seems like they were just off for like 2 1/2 weeks straight - oh wait, they were. LOL If it wasn’t SO close to the holiday’s it would be bothering me so much, but I get so behind and it is so hard to stick to a schedule when I have five little people all wanting me for one thing or another on a day I should be working. Unlike the schools, *I* don’t get a break from working at home unless I prepared ahead of time - this time I did not.

And it isn’t just about having them off - my office happens to reside in our family room, which while isn’t the most ideal place, on a typical day it does allow me to be with the family and still be working. Well, guess what else is in the living room? The Wii. Yep. So I get to hear banging, pounding, screaming and shrieking all while I am trying to churn out my daily articles, blog entries and work on my novel. It’s just plain crazy I tell ya.

It’s been a quiet weekend so to speak. Mike got back from Portland last night, the kids played in their rooms most of the day and I got more work done than I thought I would. Now everyone has congregated in here and the Wii is fired up and the kids are too.

Have a fantastic Sunday night!

Have you ever wondered about a situation that occured in your life, but as you piece together information, there are still pieces missing?  Have you ever gotten those pieces? I have been wondering about something for EIGHT years. Something that has to do with a friend who is no longer a friend. I have my whole puzzle and a variety of people with matching stories, which tells me that I do have the complete puzzle.

So - when you get your confirmation - what do you do with it? It has made me angry, resentful and hurt over the whole thing as I continued to be friends with her for seven years afterward. It just kills me to finally have the pieces and to now be angry all over again. I haven’t spoken to her in close to about a year and a half now - and I was truly at peace. So now why, am I angry when I get the confirmation on what I already knew all along?

Ugh! Sometimes I think “friends” are more hassle than they are worth. My advice? Select your friends VERY carefully and don’t allow anyone toxic into your life.

I probably shouldn’t have used the word crap in my blog title, especially since for the most part this is a pretty PG-13 blog, and I can only imagine what in the world kind of keyword searches will bring weirdo’s here. LOL A few things:

Update on Brie: We have heard absolutely nothing and I am a bit perturbed - I put a call in middle of last week and have not gotten a call back. Guess what’s on the top of my TO DO list tomorrow morning. Yeah. Anyway, she is feeling great, you’d hardly know we went through any of that two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I am still a bit jumpy so any change in her coloring, her eyes, etc. and I get all panicked. LOL Honestly, she is doing great - thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts and well wishes!

Update on this site: I was scanning back a couple of weeks and realized it had been a VERY long time since I have shared ANY of my layouts, cards and other stuff on here. That is what this blog was designed for, but I know I use it mostly as a personal writing outlet. I’ll get back there really soon, as I have set my scrap area back up and am almost done getting organized.

Update on the Wii: I seriously had no idea how much fun that system would be. I am such an addict, as are my kids. If you don’t have Outdoor Challenge, I strongly recommend you get it. It’s a full body, outdoorsy game with tubing, kayaking, trampoline jumping, jump roping, running, hurdling, boarding and so much more. It is probably our favorite game. I’m still a Wii Sports addict, but now that we have Outdoor Challenge, it honestly sits collecting dust. LOL I also really like Mario Party 8 which I had no clue I’d like. LOL Weird, I know. I’m excited because I finally got the Wii to connect to the Internet after giving up early on when we got it. So now we can d/l the games that are there. And if you don’t have the free Check Mii Out downloaded - you really should get it. It kept my kids entertained for over and hour while they went through and checked all the different Mii’s out and then guessed who they were. It was hilarious - and to whoever made the few Mii’s we picked to download - you guys rock - they were so good!

So, I think that’s about it. I’ve got some scrappin’ to do and really want to post some stuff on here showing off what I’ve been up to so I need to get back to layouts.

~Hugs and Stuff~

So, yesterday Brie and I had an appointment with a pediatric specialist to run some tests to see why this keeps happening and to ensure there was no lasting damage to her Kidney’s, etc.  She had an ultrasound and two different types of Urethrograms. Terribly uncomfortable but my little trooper took it like a champ. Thankfully I have a fantastic friend (thanks Jaime!) who has gone through the same thing several times and was able to give us much advice about the whole thing and we were prepared to help Brielle out with the pain at the end, and also request certain things be done I would never have known about if it hadn’t been for her.

We don’t really know anything yet. Her right Kidney looked fantastic. I have no clue about left kidney (there was no discussion) and we will find out the results to everything next week. I’ll keep you posted. She is feeling much better today, so I’m really happy about that.

Life is slowly resuming to normal, and we all actually crashed at a “normal” time last night and woke up at a “normal” time today. Yay!!

Kids go back to school Tuesday, so its time to get them back on their everyday schedule.

‘Till later!

*HUGS!*