My surprise!!

I had gone away for the night with a girlfriend. Had the best time ever! So refreashing! I can home to a spotless house, a welcome home sign, and this. My husband and 3 boys made a trip to Ikea and fixed up the closet I scrapbook in! He hung the fabric got matching rugs. New chair and desk. Even a wood block to go on my desk for when i need to hammer. Another bookcase, and several new containers. An Owl picture, because I love owls. All this in just a 24 hour period. Best surprise ever. I cried and cried. Then my husband even made dinner and cleaned up after. Told me to just relax.

Whats New?

Sick, Sick and more sick! When will we not be sick?! I haven't had much time or energy to do much. Except for trips to the doctor. With Super Bowl Sunday coming, I'm hoping to get more scrap pages done.

My birthday Gift

My oldest drew this for me for my birthday. I love it!

My birthday was spent on the couch with a horrible sinus infection:( Along with a child was sick. Not really sick, he seems to be developing a alergic reation to something. Which is really scary. Being that we have no idea what the issue is. He keeps breaking out into hives. So no shell fish, nut or chocolate till we see an allergist.

snow, snow, more snow

We have snow! Finally after months of nothing. Just in time for my birthday! I love the snow.
Hoping to use this weekend to get a few pages punched out!

2012 Not a Resolution

I'm not going to call this a resolution. Like many people come this time a year, I've been looking back at the year. Thinking of all I wish I had done or accomplished. Not as much as I hoped for.
So not resolutions.... just things I would like to try to accomplish. LOL:)

1. get back to scrap booking. I'm 2 years behind. Want to be caught up by summer.
2. read at least 2 books a month
3. plan family meals and make 3 new recipies a month
4. family game night... actually do it every week!
5. Lose that last 10 pounds by June. ( I'm down 1.5 lbs already:)

I'll be adding to the list I'm sure as the year goes by.

I admit Defeat

I admit defeat. I give up after a month. I think I need a bit more baby steps.

still going

I'm still going good with my challenge. It's been hard. I didn't realize how often I just pick things up here and there.

day, not sure!

I'm not sure what day I'm on. I did slip up and buy a purse, and a shirt. However, I was on vacation. The shirt was a need. I didn't pack properly ( which never happens) My husband and I went to Grand Haven for a couple of days. Day one, we went for a walk down the board walk. A very long walk. It was going to be a nice low 80, and was over 90. So I was a soaking wet mess by the time we got back to our friends house. So I bought a tee shirt. Then my wonderful bag is a Vera Bradley, that I found like new for only$35.00. Rick did gently remind me of the challenge to myself, and I swore purses were not included. Yeah, I reread my post, it was.

still going

My challenge is still going strong. I've put aside over $100.00 in scrap non purchases. That just paid for my Aerosmith concert tickets. My first concert ever. How sad is that?! I'm 3........ something. And have never been to a concert.

Day 7

I'm one week down. It's been hard not spending. Especially yesterday when the kids were so bad I actually cried:( Is it to much to ask for 1 good hour? I was at Home Depot, originally taking back a screen door, but then buying paint and stain, oh and a few plants. My husband just built a mini privacy fence and added a ton of landscaping area. So I'm in the flower area and all of a sudden I hear screaming and one of the kids is on the ground with the other one hitting him. Then about an isle over I have another child crying because his brother is calling him stupid. I was so embarrassed. They get into huge trouble for acting that way. It's not like I let them do whatever, whenever. The punishment is still going into today!Sigh:( So all that to say, I think I buy when I'm stressed, then justify it by saying I deserve to buy because I had such a long day. With 3 boys and a hubby, when am I not stressed!? LOL! I'm still going strong though.

Day 4

I had yet to tell anyone but my hubby and the blogging world of my new venture. So when my girlfriend emailed me with her order for bella and wanted to know if she was ordering or if I was. LOL! How how well she knows me. I was quite proud of myself when I still didn't give in. Can't wait till that discount is over. It's taunting me! LOL:)

Day 1

Alright, I've had my first test at will power. Bella is having a 20% sale. 20%!!! I can't remember when it was that high. Sigh! Pushing on. I can resist!

My new Venture

I realized something tonight. I spend way to much money on things I don't really need. I was talking with several ladies tonight about how American's have way to much stuff we think we "NEED." Or buy simply because we want to. How we( American's) never really seem to take responsibility for our actions or our spending. Myself included in this. Really not taking responsibility for ourselves is just a fancy, nicer way to say we're selfish. Yes selfish. With our time, and resources. So this got me thinking of my own spending habits. Yikes I know. So this lead to my new venture, challenge really. I'm starting out small. Not because I don't want to be all in or nothing. Small because I know my habits and how hard and unlikely i would be able to quit cold turkey. I don't want to set myself up to fail. So my 3 month challenge to myself is....... To not buy any new clothes, shoes, purses, or jewelry. Anything fashion related. Here's the big one.. oh it'll be hard. To not buy any new stamps, Cardstock, Printed cardstock, embellishments, anything to do with scrapping. Unless I run completely out of a Cs color, or tape. I added that in only because I'll need colors like white and cream to use for scrap page and card backs. Which I will run out of. Along with tape. But nothing else scrap related. Now here's what I'm going to do with the extra cash flow. Every time I have the erdge to buy a new fasion or scrap related item, I'm going to take that dollar amount and put it in to my savings. Just to see how much I can be saving, and how much I really don't need or ever remember I wanted. Yikes. I'm going to be keeping a log of my 3 month journey. Follow along if you want, or not. Whatever. I'm hoping to learn something about myself on this little adventure. At the end of my 3 months I will not be taking my saved money and buying all I wanted, I'll hopefully decide and be ready to take further steps into ending my wateful spending:)

Meet Juliet

My husband surprised me last Saturday:) He said we needed to drive out to his bosses house, which was over an hour away, to sign papers he forgot to sign on Friday. So we piled all the kids in the car and took a road trip. He even told the kids they could not get out of the car when we got there. So I was totally surprised when he motioned for us to all get out of the car and go into the house. We're walking up to the garage, I'm letting the kids know what will happen if the misbehave inside.LOL! I step into the garage and see puppies and say, " OH! your boss has puppies!" Then it hits me, I turn to my husband and say, " This isn't your bosses house is it?" He smiled and said no, pick one. AHH! I've never been so surprised in my life. I've been wanting a little dog forever. We have a big dog already. Is my husband the best or what?!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!
I'm hoping to start the new year by getting back into crafting. I haven't made anything in months:( I need to use all the supplies I've got stocked up!

Another Happy Holiday

Happy Easter! No, they are not really fighting. No actual hitting was involved. I let them do a silly photo after they've taken a nice one for me. They usually make faces.

Info

Hello fellow bloggers!

I saw a piece on the news yesterday about blogs dedicated to uplifting others. Just a place to be positive and grateful. Everyone knows of someone or is that someone themselves, that is going though a rough time in life. So I started another blog just for that. It's still in the beginning stages. Building a blog is hard work! Here's where you can come in, if anyone knows of sites that are great for this topic, please shoot the information my way.

Cutie Pie

Here's my youngest cutie patootie. He fell asleep playing his brothers Ds. The game was still playing! Oh to be able to fall asleep anywhere, and anytime.

Family, ooops I mean my son's project.

My oldest had to make an alien out of recycled materials for a class project. Rick and I helped, just a little. The design was all Noah's idea. We just hot glued it together. Although, I did have to talk him into making the little alien dog. You can see it at the bottom by the milk jars. To cute! It took about an hour, and we need to glue some of it back together again,it feel apart overnight. I think it would make a fun summer project for them. Just to do to pass some time and have fun.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!! go bananas!

LOL:) B-A-N-A-N-A-S, go bananas, go go bananas! Was a cheer from high school that has never left me. Whenever I say bananas I say this cheer either in my head or at home I'll say the cheer then do a little dance, much to the embarrassment of my older boys. Who are to cool for that. Caden, my 4 year old loves it. Wow all that to explain why I have a bottle of bananas on my blog. Well this was my Valentine's gift. I told my husband a few weeks ago that I wished they made just the banana and strawberry runts. So he bought 4 boxes of Runts candy and sorted out the banana's and put them in this jar for me:) How cute is that!? For all you Runt lovers...... they've change a few flavors! The got rid of the gross lime and red apple, and replaced them with a very yummy grape and green apple. Also, the pink strawberry is no longer pink, it's red. Love it! They're even better now!! It's okay to laugh. I get excited over the craziest things.