For My Mom

This is what the whelping/bed looks like now.

Such a Snowy Day

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

Scribbles, Scraps and Other Crap

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~

Recipe Blog Won Editor’s Choice Award

Trying to get Christmas shopping done, I had gone into my Pay Pal account to see how much I had to work with. I was a bit surprised and kinda freaked out to find quite a bit more money in there than I had originally thought. I was confused as to which one of my clients might have sent me extra $$, etc. So I went on a search.

I was pretty excited when after about ten minutes, I realized that The Daily Dish had been chosen as the Editor’s Choice at today (dot) com. (Quick update: I no longer blog for them because they are bad news – so the link now takes you to my OWN recipe site, and I removed the link to the today website. I didn’t want to remove the post.)

There are so many reasons why I was surprised, but the major reason is because while I get paid to blog for today.com, it isn’t an income I necessarily rely on. It’s kind of like my “extra cash” and some months there is plenty of it, and some there is not.  I control that, but it has just never been a prime focus. About two months ago, I started spending more time over there, trying to get the blog name out, and for the past three months I have consistently been on the Hot List. This is a list where the blogs are ranked in order from how popular they are. To even make it in the top ten list is a huge feat in and of itself (there are thousands of blogs), but I was often floating between slot 3 and slot 6. Currently I am in slot 10 and this is because of the holiday rush and madness that always seems to consume me with my other clients. I was focused elsewhere for the past couple of weeks.

Winning an extra $250 just before Christmas, was honestly the boost I needed to appreciate my blog over there. A few days ago, I did a 12 hour of posting thing (it ended a bit earlier than I had anticipated due to unforeseen circumstances at home) and the past couple of days I have made it a priority to post a couple of times a day. (we only get paid for one post a day). I hope you will come visit me over there, leave a comment and say hi, find a great recipe to try and request a recipe you might be trying to find.

Here is a screen capture of the announcement.

A Rockin’ Camping Trip

Okay, the weekend was absolutely awesome. We planned a camping trip that wound up probably being one of the most fun and most adventurous I’ve been on. If you knew how we got pelted by a terrible wind and rain storm. So funny!

Here are a few pics from the 100 or so I took LOL

A Plethora of Valentine’s

I am warning you. Never offer to help four children create Valentine’s using your Cuttlebug and your stamps. Actually the stamps weren’t so bad. The cuttlebug – which I absolutely adore btw, was a nightmare. Do you know how many pieces of paper and how many little dies I had to shove through that thing to make these cards?

<—– 81 Valentine’s Day Cards

I didn’t want them to ruin the cuttlebug, and remember which plates went where, so I volunteered. One wanted a horse, one wanted a monkey, one wanted a frog and one wanted a pig. I’ll be honest, the monkey was the hardest. I wasn’t prepared for that. It is one of the cuddlekids dies and I had never used it. It is in TONS of pieces (separate ears, separate head, separate body, separate stomach, separate feet and then the shadow piece for the back) – ugh! The rest all had three.

Here is a close up of each kids cards, and while they look almost identical, they just liked the way they looked and wanted them that way (they absolutely love learning new techniques and how to make cards, etc…. they all loved how easy and perfect this one was.)

<—– Created by Brielle (24 of these)

<—— Created by Vanessa (13 of these)

<——– Created by Melissa (20 of these)
<——– Created by Jessica (24 of these)

They might be cute but they were ALOT of work! (probably should have just bought some!) hehehe

Snow Day Number Two or Is It Three?

Well, the kiddo’s are off school today. Uhm. Wanna see the view out my window?

Not too bad eh? Yeah. Apparently the roads OUTSIDE of our subdivision are bad, so the kiddo’s get another free day off school. Perfectly okay with me. I told the oldest girl last night that I seriously thought there was no possibility that they would be off, and uhm. I think I was wrong.

We were going to make Valentine’s while we watched AI tonight cause its a nice long two hour show. I think instead I’ll have them make them during the day today and we will have time to perfect 80 valentine’s (not including the ones they plan to make for teachers)

What are your plans today? Is your neck of the woods off school for the weather?

Mini Van Mom

Who’d have ever thought?

I seriously never thought I would be driving a mini-van. If you had told me that, fifteen years ago, I would have never believed you. However, here I am today, with a mini-van. And honestly, I love it.

It’s just a simple Ford Windstar, nothing special, no bells and whistles (unless you count the 8 CD changer that is located beneath the passenger seat), and it was given to us by Mike’s ex-father in law after he passed away.

In fact, the best part of it is that it did not require any type of car loans or monthly payment. It was free essentially, although as everyone knows nothing in life is free and it needed a few little tweaks at first that certainly cost us a dime or two.

It isn’t the color I would have chosen, or the interior I would have chosen, nor is it even the brand/style I would have chosen. But over the past two years that I have been driving it, I love it.

Of course, having five children doesn’t allow for a lot of other options in car ownership, unless we want to purchase a small bus, which at one point we thought would be very funny to do, but we haven’t….yet. Mostly because the insurance rates on a larger van or small bus were outrageous and we are perfectly content paying what we pay now. We did our homework and spent time to compare car insurance just to see if it would make more sense to get the larger vehicle. It didn’t.

So now, I’m a mini-van driving mom. I really hope I never add “bus driver” to my list.

p.s. Notice anything funny about the pic? In the background through the van window, can you see my neighbors EXACT replica of our van? :LOL :

Coffee Addiction

Addicted to Coffee.

I know I am.

I’m totally addicted to coffee and there is no end in sight.

First, I must have it every single morning. If I don’t, I tend to just kind of muttle through the day without any real purpose. I drink the entire pot. Very rarely do I waste any of it, and typically I will even add a little water to make the pot stretch a bit. Whenever my best gal pal and I get together, we sit and talk over coffee. She lives very close to me so imagine how much that must be in addition to my typical consumption amount? Hey, I’m a writer – I *need* coffee because it is at this time that I am the most

I know its an unhealthy addiction, but there are still so many other things I could be addicted to and I am not. I cannot, no matter what life altering moves and dieting things I do, give up my coffee for anything. I just *have* to have it.

See:

I am 96% Addicted to Coffee

Ahhh! Guess I’ll go grab a cup and catch up on some blog reading.

No TV For How Long?

Okay, I admit it. I am a TV addict. Well not completely, but I have a few favorites that I simply MUST see. I want to watch every House episode new or old. I want to watch every Law and Order: SVU episode even if the same episode came on two hours earlier. LOL There are a handful of others.

Well, Mike has been growing increasingly more aggravated with our digital satellite and its cost. First, every single storm, wind or otherwise, we typically lose the satellite signal for a few hours. We could live with that, because its a normal part of having satellite. Then about three weeks ago, all of a sudden all of our digital satellite receivers are getting multiple copies of channel 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 24 and 30. Apparently they are pulling from all over. Except we aren’t actually GETTING the channel. You have to flip through all the channels to find the CORRECT channel 2 that you wish to watch. I’m sure you are thinking why not use the guide to find what you are looking for. I.Would.Love.To! Except the guide channel has gone crazy as well. Dealing with the above mentioned channels there are multiple copies of each channel to flip through and in addition to that, the NORMAL channel 2, 4, 5 and so on that we are supposed to get, no longer says what’s coming on. All it says is “Regular Programming”. Yeah. Helpful. Not.

So apparently he got peeved enough last week to call them, yell at them and promptly cancel our digital satellite. Uhm. Then he just told me about it on Thursday and they shut it off Friday at midnight. Let me just tell you how much fun it is with five kids, no Hannah Montana, The Suite Life, etc. They are about miserable and have almost exhausted all avenues of playing, every DVD we own and every video game we own. I never thought I would hear my kids complain about being sick of video games!

So now we are going with a new service. According to my best gal pal who just got it about 2 weeks ago, it took them A MONTH on a waiting list to get the service installed. Am I seriously going to be without cable/digital satellite/digital ANYTHING for a month? Please tell me the list has gone down to a much more manageable one hour? hehehehe

Anyway, the plus side is that Mike did not have a DVR when I moved in. I did before I moved in. I was totally accustomed spoiled. NOW, with the new service we are getting, I will have it back!! YAY!! I am seriously so thrilled about this because honestly I wouldn’t be such a “tv addict” if I could just watch the shows when I wanted to and delete them when I’m done.

Guess I’ll get a lot of reading, scrapbooking, writing, work and family time in before its installed. This could be a good thing.

I swear I’m not a technology brat, I just need some eye candy during the quiet day from time to time and before bed.