movie night :o) ...

yesterday "the girls" (Alex, Alissa, & Susan) came over for dinner & movie night (complete with popcorn & peanut m&ms, yum!).
Alex was the only one who got to see the end of the movie - Alissa & Susan had to be home by dark, Alex had till 8:30! It's a wild crowd hanging out over here! :o) We watched "What Happens in Vegas", it was cute - I wish everyone had gotten to see the ending.
After they left we started watching the other movie I picked up (I'm really splurging this weekend-it's a holiday weekend) - Jodie Foster's "The Brave One" ( love me some Jodie Foster) .
We never got to see the end last night. The outside dogs started barking like someone was here, sure enough when we looked out Jeff was coming down the drive in the ice cream truck (yep, my best bud is the ice cream man :o) ) , Zach & Sierra were with him! It was so nice to see all "my peeps" in one night that hasn't happened in a long time.
While they were here I got the urge to pull out some home movies... hehe, one in particular...
June 2000 Zach was spending the night, they boys were 9 & they put on a musical show for us! The boys immediately bolted for upstairs and the rest of us laughed till it hurt, at the same time I was fighting tears( I wanted more than I can describe to turn the clock back, back to when they were small like that again & life was much simpler & easier ).
But it was good. I for the life of me can't imagine how we didn't laugh at them when they were "performing" but we managed to keep straight faces at the time. I wish you could see it, maybe if I ever figure out how to upload a video to this thing.
We had synchronized head banging, butt slapping-horse riding dancing & Devan even did a stripper cat crawl across the floor up to the camera. Oh yeah he did, then he kissed the camera! OMG! It was too funny, if you ever need a good laugh stop by & I'll pop it in for you, hehe.
After that we watched the video from Dev's 12th birthday. We had a sleepover, 6 -12 year old boys & we turned them loose with the video camera ( can you imagine?) Devan told Zach "oh this one's ok we can watch it, about 10 minutes into it they bolted again. :o)
I would have never played those in front of the girls here earlier, but this was different. Zach & Sierra will soon be together 3 years, she can handle it & after that amount of time she's entitled to see it. :o)
I can't tell you how much fun that was! :o) (I still want to turn back time though)
We finally finished watching "The Brave One" this morning & it doesn't dissapoint if you want some tough Jodie kick some butt movie :o), she does that sooo well!

fabulous friday ???...

well I don't know if it was fabulous, but it was quite a day.
The class I had yesterday was a challenge, the teacher had warned me about a particular student when I had talked to her the day before. At first I thought I had gotten lucky and he wasn't coming to school, but he was just late.
The morning started off good but when I picked them up from activity the art teacher said "they have lost 5 minutes of their recess today, they wouldn't quit talking & disrupting".
What !?! in the SIX years I've been doing this I have NEVER had any activity teacher take recess from a class of mine, especially THIS teacher (she has more patience than I can imagine) !
When we returned to class & I handed out the next assignment the problems with this one child started. He claimed I didn't go over the paper with him (he wanted the answers), when I told him it was a test and that I wouldn't go over anymore with him than I did the rest of the class he got angry & started disrupting those around him.
At that point I moved him. Then he refused to do any work. When I asked him if he wanted my to call the assistant principal he told me "NO, if you have any problems YOU'RE supposed to call my momma". Okay are you kidding me ??? Does he really think he can tell me how to do my job ???
I told him that I wouldn't be calling his momma that if he didn't change his attitude and make better choices I WOULD call Mr. Cupples & he could deal with the consequences of that. He grabbed his papers & started marking answers without reading the questions, after I told him that was unacceptable & he would lose the privilage of going to the library unless he did his work he took his pencil and started stabbing at his genitals! At that point I called Mr. Cupples (this is not something I do easy) & he was gone for the rest of the day.
Later when I was talking to one of the teachers they said he had Mike French last year ... OMG!!! He was the kid that walked into Mike's class & said "you better be ready I have anger management issues!". Never before have I ever heard Mike raise his voice, but last year I heard him slam his door & yell! (I couldn't believe it). Then teachers started telling me I was lucky, that he had decked a couple of the teachers at the primary school! What !!! Whew, I guess I was one lucky girl yesterday.
When I got home from school yesterday there was a message on my machine that they have put our Miss Chris back in the hospital! Bless her heart now she has gall stones! They can't do surgery on her because of the blood thinner she has been on for the blood clots. So please if you could send a few more possitive thoughts & prayers her way I would appreciate it.
Last night the choir sang at the football game again, so being the good mom I am I went toting my camera :o) (aren't you lucky, lol).



Okay look in the middle of this pic, see my sweet niece in the middle (the t-shirt with "Love" written on it) ? Look carefully she, Alissa (behind her to her left-brown hair) and Susan (directly behind her- red hair) have all spotted me up by the press booth with my camera & they are making faces at me, lol. Poor Dev (last guy on the back row far right) is totally cluless as to what's going on.



Now they are posing for me, lol! Alissa is kissing Susan, Susan is sticking her tounge out & I'm not sure what Alex is doing she's hidden behind Mr. P & the microphone. I wonder what he would have done if he had noticed them ???



Here is a better pic of Susan. I think my child has a crush on her & I'm pretty sure she has a crush on him. He posted some of the zoo pics on his myspace and she commented that she wanted to go with us to the zoo. :o) I think he really messed up last night, after they sang he, Alex, & the rest of his group headed out for Java & a night out. Susan had to stay to cheer. At half time she came and sat with me & Sierra (he should have been there). While talking I asked if she wanted to go to the zoo with us sometime & she didn't miss a beat or blink an eye, she said yes. hmmm...



last but not least this is a pic of my weekend kid (Zach) on the field, # 37. Sadly this is the best pic I got of him.
I really have quite a lot more to learn about using my camera. I don't do so well when the sun starts going down, apparently there is something I'm not getting and I need to figure it out.
Well I think that brings us up to date for now, trying to figure out what I'm going to tackel today. I need to go to that dreadful place. You know W-M ( shhh don't make me say it) but ... well ... I don't really want to, can you imagine it's labor day weekend on top of every thing. Ugh...

it's been a long day...

when the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning I kept wondering why Jim didn't turn it off ???
...then I realized it was MY alarm & I was the one that needed to turn it off, lol.
This is the first full day I've had this year & I'm just not used to 5:30 anymore.
The class I had today was fantastic :o) , but I'm basically wiped out anytime I work.
Devan & I ran a few errands after school & got home around 5 . I was starving so I had a sandwich and within 30 minutes of sitting down to "surf" I was asleep for the next hour and a half, lol. (that's par for me)
I was able to schedule another class for tomorrow so that will bring me up to 3 days this week ( 2 - half days & 2 full days), wahoo I'm in the money. lol.
The coffee is set to turn on, my name tags are made & my bag is packed. Now I just need to figure out what I'm wearing & I can go to bed. :o) night all ...

surgery cancelled

for now mom's surgery (double knee replacement) has been cancelled. I'm not sure why they cancelled for now but I do know that she'll be taking a stress test Thursday and they'll decide after that where to go. She's very disappointed.
I worked another 1/2 day today, it was a really nice afternoon. Except for one little glitch, seems one of my kiddos got upset on the playground and said.... umm... well he took the Lord's name in vein (4th grade). I asked him if his mom knew he talked like that & he said she did (sadly enough that's probably true) .
Twenty write offs, -5 minute recess time for tomorrow (yeah I leave notes for teachers) & no candy from Miss Sheila's bag today.
Do you think he'll do that again when I'm in there ???
Other than that it was a pretty good day! :o)
The class I have tomorrow will probably wear me out, I dread this class & I know the only reason I have it is that the full time sub told them to find someone else to do it. This teacher has NO control what so ever, you know they are in the hall without ever looking out the door. They make that much noise, well unless the very mean Miss Sheila is in there, lol, then you don't even know the sweet angels are around. :o)

best phone EVER! :o)

Do you see this phone??? It's the phone that Dev & I have.
Some of the kids say it's crap, I say it's the best phone ever! :o)
(of course I'm knocking on wood while I type this, lol)



When Devan got to Panama City last month it mysteriously stopped working (it would ring but he couldn't hear anything & you couldn't hear him) except for the text, he was still able to send & receive text (really strange this is exactly what happened to the last phone).
I immediately started checking ebay to replace it (we are NOT up for renewal for another year).
The Monday after they returned I had Dev gather laundry for me. On Tuesday morning I was taking clothes out of the washer & a pair of his shorts seemed very heavy... (remember he's the one that had gathered the laundry??? that means he had already picked these up) so I looked in the pocket ( I do NOT empty pockets that is YOUR job not mine).
Can you guess what I found???
Yep! You guessed it... his PHONE!!!
As those of you who know me know I was furious!
I'm sure you could see steam coming out of my head!
To be that irresponsible is unacceptable! :o(
I took the phone into the kitchen & opened the back, removed the battery & propped ALL the parts up to dry.
When he got up you can imagine it wasn't a pretty sight and he was told that I wouldn't pay 1 penny towards replacing his phone he would live without a phone till he found one & paid for it.
Well around 2 that afternoon out of curiosity I tried putting the battery in... it started popping & sizzeling and trying to fire up??? I was afraid it would short out so I quickly removed the battery and left things open for a few more hours.
Around 5 I put everything back together & it seemed to fire up!?!
So I plugged it in to charge & when it was done charging I had Jim take it across to the other side of the house & I called it.
Ya know what ... it WORKED!!!
Can you believe that?!?
I know people who have dropped their phone in water for less than a minute and it never works again, this phone went through an entire wash cycle & now it's fixed?!?
Wow, he was one lucky kid! :o)
(he must have had someone watching over him)

1st day back...

Some of you have asked if I will be subbing this year & the answer to that is YES!
I got the call at 9:20 this am to be there at 11:30, not bad I like 1/2 days. :o)



So here are my kiddos for today at play. (Yes! I made it in time for recess!!! :o)
I have 2 more days booked for this week, my mom is scheduled to have surgery Friday so that's all I'm booking for this week. Hoping to get a few more days for next week.

the end of an era...

CK was the first scrap magazine that I ever subscribed to.

About a year and a half ago I noticed that it seemed to be shrinking & sadly there was more & more advertising.

Then last summer the whole HOF controversy started.

No, I'm not bold enough to enter these contest. But I have friends who are & they should have the chance to win. (it kills me to think of ALL the time & work they put into their entries & they don't even have a chance to win?!?)

I was sooo dissapointed that I decided to drop my sub of CK, I just can't support a company that isn't fair & truthful. :o(

Lately I've been on a mission to condense & straighten up my scrap room some, I thought it would be good to start with the magazine/catalogs.

So for the last week I have concentrated on the CK & Scrapbook Answers (they aren't around anymore) areas.

this is what I was able to eliminate!

look it's empty :o( it was a tough decision but I think it was the right one...

this was my magazine/catalog area ...

and this is where I am now, just 6 sections.

I think I like it much better this way! :o)

Miss Chris Update

They released Chris from the hospital yesterday! :o)
Dev & I made her some food (homemade chicken pot pie, salad, & kiwi-lime pie, comfort food) & took it to her & Bobby today. We only stayed a minute but she looks good for all she's been through.
She had just had her first shower since Wednesday, you know she had to feel better.
They're not sure why she developed the blood clots, she will have to be on meds for the next 6 months. She won't be able to return to work for another week at least.
That's really about all I know for now, like I said we didn't stay long.
Thanks to everyone for the positive thoughts & prayers. :o)

prayers & positive thoughts please...

This is our sweet "Miss Chris", Devan's drama teacher.
She started having problems with her left foot last year just before school ended. (as a result she wore a boot all summer) When school started back up the boot just became too much with all the moving she does in a day so she went back to the dr.
They discovered that she has a blood clot the length of her leg. Immediately they started checking her respitory system & discovered one in her lung too. (they told her that if it had gone undetected in 3-4 days she would have probably just dropped dead!)
Wednesday they took her to the hospital in Jackson & began working on the clot in her lung. They had hoped to start working on the one in the leg yesterday. When they looked at her lung again they discovered that it hadn't disolved like they had hoped so they are still working on the lung for now.
Please send prayers & positive thoughts Chris' way, she means sooo much to these kids (& us too)... they are so lucky to have someone as wonderful as she is in their lives cheering them on.

our little songbird...???

For as long back as I can remember Devan has wanted to be a singer.

But in the past he has tended to take after me, Jim can sing - I can't!

We tried voice lessons when he was younger & few years back he did do the musical with the band/choir at school. He loved being in the musical! He was not a Lead, mainly a background so kind of do-able.

Last year when I pulled up to pick him up from school the choir director was talking to him.

Curious if something was wrong I asked "what did Mr. Patterson have to say?" when he got in the car.

He replied "he was asking me why I never joined choir", ???

And then I asked (sorry I know it sounds cruel, but I don't want him hurt)

"did you tell him you can't sing?" & he said "yeah I did & he said I should sign up" !?!

(Okay, he's worked with him before if that's what he wants then okay)

Devan has been really excited about this, it would mean that he would have a class with Alex. All seniors are in advanced choir & that is the class Alex is in.

You know what???

He really does seem to have gotten better over the last year?!?

Can you train yourself to have "an ear"?

He seems to be working really hard & trying so maybe this will work out for him & be a good experience.

He did say when he got home from school one day that Mr. Patterson had told him that he had a nice voice. :o)

They had their first performance last Friday at the football Jamboree. Being the good parents we are we trudged out in the rain, paid our entrance fees, waited for the choir to sing the nation anthem, packed up our cameras & left! LOL!

Sorry I hate jamboree in the first place let alone in the rain.

Here's a little pic for your enjoyment. :o) See our guy- he's on the very end of the right (green striped shirt)! Mr. Patterson seems to be looking at him in this pic (hmmm... wonder why?) Alex & Alissa are on the front row the are the first two girls if you work your way down from Dev towards the center (the ones without the umbrella!). I have to tell you that when they began to sing it was absolutely beautiful!:o) I almost started crying, do you know how hard it is to get a good shot when you are crying??? lol. I hope his only year in choir ends up being a good experience for him. :o)

time well spent...

Yesterday Alex (my niece) brought Dev home from school & spent the evening hanging out with Aunt Sheila! :o)
She hasn't been around a lot lately.
She actually sent me a text last week that said "Yeah I guess the whole driving thing has kept me pretty busy lol".
I guess this is part of me getting ready for next year when we are just another couple of old people with nothing interesting or fun going on in their home.
Anyway, we have a photo club meeting tomorrow (she's in photo club with me) so we wanted to do a little evening shoot to see what we could get.
We left the house about 4:30 and headed over to the county high school, they have a Beautiful "english" type garden over there (this month's club topic was flowers).
We were able to get a few good shots but it's kind of late in the season and most of the flowers are kind of "spent" looking. Here are a couple of my faves from DCHS yesterday...





I LOVE this fountain...
After DCHS we headed down to the "mighty Mississippi", our goal was to try to get some sunset shots on the river. Maybe even catch something worthy of entering in the upcoming "shoot dyer county" contest.
The first road we turned down didn't exactly bring us to the river, but Alex liked the way it looked and wanted to stop & take a couple of shots. She always comes up with the neatest ideas (she's good at thinking outside the box) and she liked the way the road seemed to go on forever. She wanted me to shoot a couple of shots of her with the road visible in the background...



I kind of like the way this shot turned out, it represents Alex well.
She tends to "pick the road less traveled" in life (hmmm... kind of sounds like a LO coming on doesn't it :o) lol)
After taking a few shots here we did find a road that took us to the river.
Before I progress with the story any further let's stop and take a little lesson in southern culture... the "mighty mississippi" has a substance that is referred to in these parts as "gumbo". It is a mud that is like quick sand, once you take one step onto it you are pretty much doomed and... it STINKS like you would not believe.
Okay, now that the lesson is out of the way we can go on with our story.
Once we were in view of the bridge (this was our goal) I started to "scout" our location to see what kind of shots we could get &...
can you guess what I did???
yep! I stepped right into the "gumbo"!
Did I mention I was wearing sandals???
My Favorite sandals!
I was just glad that I wasn't holding my camera, it can be hard to keep your balance when you are trying to pull one leg out of the "gumbo" and your other is sinking deeper as you do so.
It's kind of a non-ending battle, I did however manage to finally "free" myself after sinking into the "gumbo" half way up my calves!
I also had to fish said sandals out of the mud and make my way to the water to "freshen up" a little. :o)



Cute pic huh? There were a couple of men down there fishing (the poles belong to them) and they were kind enough to direct me to an area that would get me out of the "gumbo". I'm sure they were dying laughing inside but they were kind enough to not do it in front of me.
(When I got home a took a very LONG bath before going to bed and scrubbed very well, but you know what??? While working with my pics this am all I could think was "I still smell like "gumbo!". This stuff is REALLY strong & smells like muddy-dead fish! Lucky girl huh? :o)
Needless to say I have already jumped into the shower again today.
Jim now assures me that I don't stink anymore, lol.)



While we were waiting for the sun to break out from the clouds I spotted a couple of rocks & couldn't resist having Alex pose for a couple more shots. :o)
We were finally rewarded with a sunset, but I'm not the one with the sunset shots. Alex had the camera at that time & she was busy shooting her little heart out.



A small geography lesson for ya'll that aren't from around these parts.
This is a shot of the Tennessee/Missouri bridge.
(Dyersburg is located in the very North-West corner of Tennessee)
We are standing on the shore of the Tennessee side (left) & if you were to drive over that bridge you would be in Missouri.

shhhhh ... can you keep a secret ???

So last week my sweet little one came out of school excited & wanting two things.
First -the baseball coach's "field cat" had kittens and "he's willing to unlock the field house & let us have one", so that was a very quick "NO". We already have a cat & she's more than enough to take care of, there will be NO more cats in this house until she's gone.
Then he says "well Miss Chris finally told us the real reason why were are not having a spring play this year, it's because she's going to London over spring break & it only cost $2,313" :o).
OMG! I about fell out in the floor of my car! ONLY $2,313!!!!
After the shock wore off & I was able to breath again I started trying to make a plan to make this happen. This is a once in a lifetime oppertunity, Chris is an excelent teacher & the "coolest" one you could ever have. :o) (Chris & I actually go Way back, back Before there was even a Devan- I used to work for her first husband. I love Chris very much & I would love for him to experience something like this with her)
We have never let him go on any of the Big trips with the schools over the years. He didn't go to Washington when he was at the intermediate school & he didn't go to Europe with the band when he was in band. This is his sr. year & we want this for him very much, so somehow I Will find a way to make it happen. Right now I'm thinking another job (I know this doesn't usually work out too well for me but I'm going to stay positive).
Last night Chris had a meeting for the parents of the kids who want to go, during the meeting she leaned over & whispered I want to talk to you. It took for Ever to get everyone out of there (cause she's cool you know & all the other parents want to tell her their problems). When everyone else was gone she told us that with a min. of 6 students she goes for free, if she were to have 12 students she could take another adult for free...
wait for it...can you guess???...
She wants to take... ME!!!!! OMG! I probably wasn't too cool at that moment, lol. Right now we probably have a solid 7 maybe 8 going. Not enough for me to go, so I'm hoping & praying that other parents see what an oppertunity this is for their child and come sign them up!!! :o)
I have to admit as much as I don't want to get excited that there is the slightest of possibilities -I am! Had a hard time sleeping last night, lol. The ability to be able to share something like this with my one & only kiddo before he "leaves me" would be totally awesome, especially for someone who's been having "mommy meltdowns", lol. (by the way I've been much better about those, no more meltdowns so far).
So please keep your fingers crossed for me. :o)

Scrap Alert!!! :o)

Okay, raise your hand if you LOVE Thickers, go ahead raise it - you know you do!
Do you know how much you pay for a package of Thickers???
Well I checked at HL they range from $2.99 - $3.99,
not bad especially if you catch them on sale.
Now...
Raise your hand if you have the Quickutz Revolution...
Raise your have if you have a Quickutz font...
Last but not least raise your hand if you have a Xyron (any size will do really).
Stop & think about ALL the qustions I have just asked you,
go ahead I'll give you a minute...
Can you figure out what I'm going to tell you next???
Yep, if you have the above items that I have mentioned you have the ability to make your own Thickers for a fraction of the cost!
You are only limited by the fonts that you (& your friends) have. :o)
When I was at Ruth's I ran out of white Prima flowers, so I bought some felt to run through the revolution, it worked I just wasn't as happy with the results.
Ruth wondered about the foam (remember those BIG packages of foam I bought on vacation, remember I said I would tell you what they were for later?).
So Ruth bought a sheet of adhesive backed foam. When we got home she ran it through the revolution with one of her new 4x8 alphas (Chemistry) and it cut and looked Perfect!
That font looks just like Thickers & you get the entire alpha on ONE sheet of foam!
So Cool!!! :o)
Now I don't have any of the new 4x8 dies, so we weren't really sure how well I would be able to do this.
I tend to like thin, swirly fonts, but you know what ???
It works like a DREAM !!! I would NOT however try this with the hand tool, I just don't think the results would be as good, that thing has a hard time cutting through bazzil for pete's sake.
So here is one of the LOs I'm working on (I know I'm very slow, lol) and on this LO is my HOMEMADE Thickers!



See that font??? You won't find that in any Thickers package.
That's Sophie!
You really can't get any SKINNIER or SWIRLIER than Sophie.
I figure if it worked with Sophie...
it will work with ANY of the fonts! :o)





Below is a close up so you can see, it's got the dimension & texture that you've come to love from Thickers.



So here's the bottom line & how it breaks down.
Package of thickers $2.99-$3.99, limited to the colors available and fonts available from Thickers.
Now if you make you own:
Fonts-you are ONLY limited by the fonts you can actually get your hands on
Colors-you are ONLY limited by the color of foam you can find
Cost- there are packages that are 5 1/5" x 8 1/5"
in the adhesive backed you get 20 sheets for $4.99
in the NON-adhesive you get 50 sheets for $4.99 (I will tell you that I bought both and you DO get MORE colors is the package WITHOUT adhesive)
or you can take a completely different route and go for the 12x18" sheet that is just $.79! :o)
Now there are many other places to get foam besides HL. But if you are lucky enough to live where there is one you know that every other week you can go online and print out a 40% off coupon!
What did I pay for my cute little Thickers title on this page??? About $.08 at MOST (& yes that includes the adhesive)! :o)
Don't you just LOVE a good Scrappy bargain.
Now a little info about the LO, this past Easter we were able to spend Easter at my parents home (she was out of town at a wedding).
We had a blast & I took EVERY advantage to enjoy my time there as much as possible!
I did lots of things with the nephews and took TONS of pics! :o)
I still have "things" that aren't finished or just right about this LO, but I wanted to go ahead and share the "Thickers" with you. :o)

sights we see when we go out for a walk...

So I thought I would share some of the "country life" with you.
Here are a few pics from last night's walk, this isn't the route to Cujo/McGraw, this is what you see if you take a left at the intersection before "Cujo's" house, this is the way to "Fernando" (my favorite baby bull) . Only thing is they seemed to have moved him to another field, :o(. I was really looking foward to petting & talking to him.


Here's Dev riding a little ahead of us, he's been joining us this week. It still makes me smile to see him ride a bike (it took us sooo long to get him there).



This cool looking piece of old farm equipment is just "parked" randomly under a tree next to a field. I think it's really cool.



Well the cows weren't there but there was a couple of sheep. I don't think they liked me approaching the fence. I literally scared the p.. out of one of them, well you get the picture. The one on the left seems to be whispering to the one on the right. He's probably saying "what is that?? do you think it's dangerous??" They are cute, even if one of them "stomped" at me, lol.



Yep, I have hay bale envy! I want one of these bad, lol. I have tried many times to convince Jim that he could just "roll one down the highway". Some of my favorite pics that I have shot of the kids has been sitting in front of a hay bale, I want one of my own to put on the back of the property.



See this house??? Well we used to see people outside, coming & going, you get the picture. Well ALL activity at this house seemed to stop this year! Look at the house, it seems that no one is tending to it either. The lawn does mysteriously get mowed, but other than that nothing changes. No signs of people, blinds & curtains never raise. I have been telling Jim all the time we've been walking, each time we pass this house "there's dead bodies in there". I know, I know - but really it's that creepy how deserted this place is now.



And finally home again. This is the view of our pond when you're coming back down the drive way. I never really get tired of seeing it. :o)

deceptive?...who me???

well... umm I don't know what you're talking about. Oh ok, yea I've been at it again & this is what I've figured out.
First of all my sweet neice WON'T eat it if she knows there's something extra in it, so this means don't tell Devan cause he just can't keep it to himself.
Second I'll follow her suggestions about what to add to what kind of dish. Like her lasagne recipe has cauliflower in the ricotta mixture & sweet potatoe in the red sauce. So I took this idea and used it in my manicotti & it was delicious! No one could tell!
Third all recipes in that book are NOT created equally! I tried her mac-n-cheese recipe yesterday, let's just say.... it left a LOT to be desired. :o( I'm not saying that maybe I didn't get something wrong but I usually follow a recipe pretty well). When I finished the "cheese sauce" it had the consistency of... well umm silly putty! You know the stuff you used to get when you were a kid, comes in an egg- very rubbery and bouncy- able to lift print off a newspaper (hmmm I should have tried that). Or maybe slime, remember that one? It was one huge rubbery glob and it had a bit of a strange flavor.
So what have I learned? I think I'll stick to my recipes and just add her suggestions, that seems to work. :o)
Before I go I thought I would share a few of the pics I took when we went walking last night.



This beauty was in one of my neighbors front yard. We have a photo club meeting next week and our assignment for this month's meeting was "flowers" so I just couldn't resist this one. I'm sure the neighbors don't know what to think about me crouching around with my camera, lol. It's not like were social, they probably don't even know that I'm their neighbor!



We met this sweet guy at the beginning of our walk last night. His name is Rickett & he's very sweet. Do you see that toungue??? Well let me tell you, it is EVERY bit as LONG as it looks & it is JUST as WET!!! I can tell you this because in one quick lick I was wet from my hand to my elbow, lol. Seriously! :o)

meet Cujo...

Pretty ferocious huh!?!
Yep this is what we have to encounter in the name of trying to get healthy.
You see back in the spring Jim & I both found out that our cholesterol is a little on the high side. Not through the roof but high enough that we need to do something about it. So we are working at it and one of the things that we are doing is going for a 40 min - 1 hr walk in the evenings after dinner. (If you have any tips about lowering cholesterol please let me know, we would love to know.)
Needless to say we don't really like walking down the side of the highway, but we did find a nice little side road just a bit up the highway to walk down. Only problem is there are some pretty mean obstacles.
The first obstacle is a black lab he would charge at us barking, the owners always seem to be there in a flash & then it's okay. One day a kid riding by on a golf cart said "don't worry about him, just yell NO BO! at him and he'll leave you alone. But you have to yell". Hmmm.... we weren't sure what to think but it was worth a try (this happens EVERY time we walk). So the next time we're walking here comes the dog and Jim says "now Bo, hush", he didn't yell just said it real gruff. Ya know what? You could almost see Bo shake his head (as if to say hmmm I didn't remember them, but he knows my name) & then he walks away! It has worked like a charm every since. :o)
Our second obstacle is a boxer about 5 houses down from the lab. This dog is pure EVIL!!!! I Love dogs and normally never wish them harm, but if this dog mysteriously disappeared.... anyway. This dog crosses yards, intersections, roads all in the attempt of scaring the cra.. out of us or maybe really trying to take a plug out of us. We have found nothing to solve this problem, we do however literally carry a big stick and walk very very softly when we pass this road.
And our third possible obstacle was Cujo! This dog is friggin HUGE! I can't begin to explain how HUGE he feels when you are next to him. The first time we had walked that far down the road he very slowly, very purposely came out to the middle of the road, approached us & stopped us. You could have knocked us over with a feather, we were sooo scared (think about the other dogs we had already gone through). We very carefully held out our hands and said hi. Then we slowly, carefully & with the greatest of respect began to pet him. He seemed to be cool with this, when we began to walk away he took his body and pushed against Jim's legs as if to say "not yet buddy, you haven't talked to me long enough". After a bit more petting & talking he would finally let us pass. :o) This became the routine whenever we would venture that far down the road.
When the temp rose to 80 and above we put walking on hold. This week the temperature has been much milder so we began walking again. On the first night when it was time to make the decision (the bulls or Cujo) it was no contest, we had missed Cujo and were ready to see him.
This time when we got to his house his family was outside. I couldn't help it, I had to meet the owners of this cool dog. You may already know what kind of dog he is but I didn't, turns out he's a Great Pyrenees. And well his name isn't Cujo (although I still like that, hehe).
So let me have the pleasure of officially introducing you to McGraw....


Oh yeah, see how mean he is ? The guys give his head a little tickle and you are rewarded with a big ol grin! :o)



Can you get any idea of how incredibly huge this dog is? His owner does admit that he's very territorial when another dog comes around. Seems he doesn't like the boxer down on the corner (imagine that), he would kind of like to eat him (hehe, ok ok not nice but if he acted like he was going to bite your bumm you would feel the same way).
He was so glad to see us and to have to extra attention that instead of pushing against Jim for more attention he high fived him! So cool we didn't even know he could do that. :o)
His mommy said we might not see him for a few day. He's going to have a hair cut, this doesn't make him happy. She said he usually spends about 3 days pouting & hiding in the garage after a hair cut. Poor baby. :o(



He's such a good dog, really just a big ol teddy bear (unless you're a nasty boxer, hehe). Isn't he handsome!

on a quest....

okay, so I have ALL these LOs that I've been working on.
Multiples on the same theme.
I've been having trouble coming up with different titles on my own.
Ruth sent some help my way, but I needed more. I did locate the book she has, "Top Title & Tips too!", and ordered it.
I turned to the net and found some sites that offer title suggestions. :o)
So I decided to add them to the side bar, just in case you might need some title help too.
If you know of a different book or another site that you find helpful please share! I would LOVE to check it out. :o)

Wow! There's a lot more than I thought...

Okay, I really didn't think that I had bought that much stuff. We went out at least once a day, sometimes twice to several places.You pick up 1 or 2 things here, 1 or 2 things there. You use them or store them to take home, then when you pull them out you see this...



a HECK of a lot more than I thought! LOL.
So what did I get? Here's the break down...
Quickutz - Flourish 12" border die (I fell in LOVE with this when Tammy was here, I REALLY wanted the vine but this is the one they had)
Basic Grey- Recess chipboard & Travel Rub-ons (picked them up at Big Lots no less)
BoBunny- Ornamental clear stamps (this was the splurge- nothing particular in mind but LOOK at that corner stamp! isn't it gorgeous!)
Stickles- turquoise, aqua, yellow, & orange peel (it's about time I get a few & I thought these colors would be perfect for summer LOs-that's what I'm working on)
Me & My Big Ideas- bling skull & music notes ( clearance $1!)
StazOn - mustard (it's our school color & I've watched the stamping on transparencies at 2 peas, they didn't use colors but I think I will)
Studio G- small clear stamp sets June, July, October, & flowers (from the $1 spot at Michaels!)
Meri Meri- Easter die cut
Jolee's - Rock & Roll (this was a gift from Ruth) & Concert
Sandylion- Owls (another gift from Ruth), Circus, & Grad
Spare Parts- assorted bright, summer colored brads (for the LOs I'm working on)
Making Memories- die cut Road sign (Ruth saw a LO at Studio Calico & lifted it, she did a Fabulous job & I can't wait to lift her lift! LOL)
Craft & White cardstock
Clear binder covers ( from Staples $13, for stamping on - told you I watched the videos)
Creative Cafe'- 6 felt ribbons (only got 1 yard each they were $2 a yard! do you see that itty bitty bit of green???? that's ALL I have left! I've used up the rest of it! :o) )
& LOTS of foam ( I'll tell you about that later after I've had a chance to play with it myself)
So that's it, that's EVERYTHING I bought on my vacation except for the papers that I have already cut & put on LOs! Most everything here has a plan to be used in the very near future.
Since I'm working on sooo many LOs that are the same design and same subject (just different people) I'm trying to come up with different titles.
Ruth sent me some that I really like, she got them from a book she has called "Top Titles & Tips Too!".
I also googled and found a few websites that have title suggestions but if you know of another book out there I would LOVE to know what the name of it is.
I think this would be a GREAT investment, one that I would use again & again.

had a FABulous time! :o)

Well I made it to Ruth's about 1:30 Monday afternoon & I had a fabulous 4 days with her!
I didn't take as many pics as I had hoped, we were just too busy.
I did however take a pic of their dog Riley & Ruth's tomato plant the first day I was there. (he's the best dog!)



Seems that Riley likes to "think" that he likes tomatoes, so he picks the red ones and takes ONE bite out of them.
Apparently they must not taste as good as he remembers because that is all he eats, then he just leaves them on the ground to rot. (this does not make his owners happy, I personally think it's cute :o), he's getting old).
Well I shot the pics in raw (that's where I tend to keep the camera set recently) and her card reader doesn't read raw so Tuesday I changed the setting & shot some more pics of Riley. Ruth then said "I need pictures of my tomato plant too" (she has plans for a LO), so I went out to shoot the plant & what do you think I found???

I stood there laughing to myself as I took the pics & I felt bad as I picked them up- I knew he was going to be fussed at when I took them in. But honestly it's so dog gone cute!

Tuesday we shopped & scrapped.

Wednesday we met Ruth's friend Lela in Knoxville for a day of shopping & lunch.

Lela is really a cool person & I enjoyed meeting her a lot.

Below is a pic of Ruth & Lela shopping in Big Lots. It is not the pic I wanted to post! :o( There is a MUCH cuter one, one of them goofing off with some coconut & seashell bras (use your imagination) but....... Ruth was a spoil sport and said she would never speak to me again if it ended up on the blog so you get this pic instead.

Not a very good pic for pete's sake, you can't even see Lela's face.

Thursday was spent scrapping & getting new meds for the ear infection I mentioned in an earlier post. I took the last of my med on Wednesday & I woke up at 4:30 am Thursday, it was worse! I knew I was leaving Friday am & that I had to go through the mountains on the way home! I didn't want to face that the way it was hurting, so I was burning up the phone line trying to get the pain level knocked down to where I could stand it. It worked I was able to make it home without dying. :o)

I know you won't be able to believe it but...... I worked on 9 LOs while I was there!!! Okay, okay before you fall out & die let me tell you that they are ALL the same LO style. I know not very imaginative, but I do like the style. It lets you use a series of 6 verticle 4x6 photos. I was able to find cute paper while I was there.

Speaking of finding paper... the price of supplies has gone through the roof! I have not shopped much in the last year

( resolution I made to use what I had when I could- to quit stock piling) but I didn't have any paper that would work for the LOs I wanted to work on. OMG! I didn't expect it to be as much as it was. But it's ok, I have already used ALL the paper, a Huge amount of the ribbon & have plans for all of the embellishments! :o)

The only things I splurged on were I did break down & buy 4 bottles of stickels and a set of stamps (they are sooo pretty). There is a set that Ruth bought that I wouldn't mind having too. I'll post pics pick later of my new goodies & a really cool trick Ruth came up with while I was there.

we ate spinach! :o)

and it wasn't bad! LOL. Okay if you hide it it's not bad. I tried the first recipe from "Deceptively Delicious" yesterday. I made the blueberry oatmeal bars. It seems the trick is to allow the food to cool completely, this way the flavors mix well and you don't taste the yuc... umm the stuff that's good for you. :o)
This recipe has 1/2 C. spinach puree, I made a batch yesterday & then went to run errands. When I came home "someone" had cut into them. When I asked Devan if he had cut them he said "I admit I ate this part". When I asked him if he liked it he had two things to say. "Yes" & "was it one of "those" recipes?". Then he wanted to know what was in it & I told him spinach - didn't seem to phase him much.
When he ate one after dinner we did notice him trying to take it apart & he said "well I sure don't see it". LOL. He thought there would be a layer of spinach instead of it being mixed in with other ingredients.
They really are quite good, so much so that the guys requested that I make them another pan for while I'm gone this week.
Speaking of being gone this week, I head out bright and early 8am tomorrow to go to my friend Ruth's! She's just outside Chattanooga. We'll be scrapping, working on a few projects, & I'm sure we'll do a little shopping while I'm there. :o)
Today I've been very busy getting ready. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, gathering supplies & pics. I think I have all my supplies (probably more crap than I need & I probably left out something important) they are packed & in my car. I've finished cooking and done all the cleaning that I'm going to, lol. I have my directions & atlas, I've packed some snacks, coffee maker is set to go off early tomorrow. Now I just have to finish getting my clothes ready & in a bag.
Hope to have some pics to share when I get back. :o)

.... it's just not fair :o(

How could it have happened?
In the blink of an eye time has gone by , things have changed, & soon life will never be the same.
This has been a very tough week for me.
You see Thursday was the first day of school, the first day of my baby's Sr. year.
All week all I can think is "how can I remember every moment of his birth, bringing him home, his first smile so vividly... like it was yesterday and he's going to be a Sr. this year".
I know I'm supposed to be all excited, & I am for him but..... my heart is breaking.
It started Wednesday afternoon.
We were in wal-mart of all places & I ran into another one of the Sr. moms. She was sooo excited "I can't believe we finally made it here!" she says (I guess maybe you feel different if you have twins, I guess you feel different if you still have Another baby at home).
I can only imagine the look on my face, all I could get out was "I'm not ready".
She goes on all excited about this year. All I can say is "I'm not ready". Repeatedly this is what I say. And then it starts.....
a mommy melt down in the middle of friggin wal-mart, great just what I need to labeled a complete kook Devan's Sr. year.
She realizes that I'm losing it & quickly says "well you have a year to get used to it" & runs off.
At this point I want to grab her & shake her and scream at the top of my lungs "I've been trying to get used to it for the last year & this is as good as it has gotten!!!".
( yes I'm the mom who was so depressed when my baby rolled over because "he's growing up too fast" that my girlfried sent me flowers to cheer me up) Anyway so this is mommy meltdown #1.
Thursday everyone is in first day of school mode & I grab my camera and this is what I get....



(isn't he a cutie!)



... and this is what my heart sees and remembers....





(his first day of preschool, don't you just want to eat him up)



As I hugged him bye my mind is reeling, remembering that first day of preschool. How nervous I was about having him leave me. My heart breaking & I ran.... I ran out to Jim's Aunt Linda's. I spent the morning crying, drinking coffee, and being comforted by another mom who had already been there and lived to tell about it. In an instant I had the urge to run to Linda's again, but I didn't it wouldn't have been the same.
Later that afternoon I had to go see our Nurse Practioner (I have an ear infection?!?) and as I'm leaving her office she is also excited (her daughter is a Sr. too) and again I start having a mommy meltdown (#2). She is kinder about it though and admits that she has some pangs herself plus the luxury of having another kid at home.
As I leave her office I call my sister-in-law upset with myself that I have had another meltdown. Can you guess what happens??? yep (#3) another meltdown about having meltdowns, lol.
Then I go into the pharmacy for my rx, can you guess what happens??? Yep, you are very smart! (#4).
So let's sum this up- 2 outings, 4 meltdowns and it's ONLY the first day of school!!! It's not even the first full day of school, it was just registration! Yep have I got my stuff together or what??? You know he is one lucky kid, lol.
As this year progresses I'm really not sure how I'm going to handle things, if I seem a little emotional or short I appolagize - please be patient with me .... my life is changing , my heart is breaking, I'm losing my baby and things will never be the same again...