Hollye's Code of Holiday Conduct

I'm funny about holiday stuff. I won't put out Fall/Halloween stuff until October 1st. I REFUSE to put out anything Christmas related until December 1st. I will not even listen to Christmas music until December 1st. Well, here is it October 3rd and I am currently playing a Christmas CD in my truck. Faith Hill has a new CD out and it is Christmas music. It's sort of big band and I actually like it. Today was the first time that O'holy Night has made me cry. But, to be honest, I've had a rough couple of days, so I am good for a good crying episode!

Well...I made the decision to NOT garage sale this time. I'm going to sort, make lists and cart it all off to Goodwill. I've got some big ticket items that I will be listing on Craigslist. I'm also going to be selling a lot of Miss K's clothes. I donated a lot of stuff, but this is her Gymboree stuff, Janie & Jack, and boutique stuff that I refuse just to give to Goodwill. So, I'm hoping to get clothes washed and sorted this weekend and next week. My child has WAY too many clothes. I got upset because I couldn't find anything nice in my closet to wear out to dinner last night. Miss K has an entire closet full of new clothes, not to mention her dresser is full as well! I think once I lose 11 more pounds, I am going to have to buy some clothes that fit. I am tired of walking around with baggy butt jeans. Sad thing...I've also got a closet full of clothes and about 80% off it doesn't fit anymore.

Well, I need to go see what sort of destruction my child has left in the spare bedroom. We are in the process of making that room a playroom, so it's just a mess in there and she does her best to get into things that she KNOWS she isn't suppose to be messing with! Dang kid.

Blog ya later.

It wasn't bad at all...

So, the bra shopping wasn't bad at all. I was actually a little irritated. I walked into the store, started digging around in the drawers looking for what I thought might be my size. I grab a couple and head to the dressing room. The dressing room is right next to the register. There were three women working there. Did not say a single word to me. I found a bra that fit (2 sizes smaller than I wore last time I bought bras! GO ME!) I checked out and the only thing the sales girl said was, "would you like to apply for one of our credit cards?" Woman, have you not been watching the news? The LAST thing I need is a damn credit card! So, very uneventful shopping experience until......I took Miss K to Gymboree. I ordered a TON of stuff on line and never tried it on her. I knew that some of the stuff was not going to fit and I needed to exchange it, but I needed to try the stuff on her. The trying on was no problem at all. Until she needed to go to the potty. She went willingly to the bathroom, but the minute she saw the toilet, she lost it. I actually held her while she was sitting on it and she was FREAKING out. So, I had to go out to the truck and get the Royal Potty. Damn potty. The things we do for our children. I look like such a goof ball carrying a potty into a restroom that has a working toilet! So, after that I got her calmed down. When we got there, we were the only people in the store, so Miss K had to run of the place. She set her the chairs in front of the TV the way she likes them. (She put them in a certain order by color and lines them up like a train.) There are 3 chairs. One little girl. Happy, happy. Then in came a family with 3 or 4 kids. I can't remember. K was sitting in the orange chair hanging out. I asked her to stand up so I could try a dress on her. She stood next to the chair while I put the dress on her. I guess the little boy assumed that he could take the chair and sat in it. K flipped out. I am not one to correct someone else's children, so I told K we had to share. It just got worse from that point on. Screaming. I had them hold the stuff I want to get with my Gymbucks and we left. We get outside and she is begging me not to take her home. She doesn't want to go home. I think she thought I was going to make her take a nap. I'm not even going to fight that battle with her.

Goals didn't go so well today....

*got 3 loads of laundry done
*cooked dinner - turkey tenderloin, rice, green beans

That's it. I wasted a whole day and got nothing done. Loser.

Tomorrow is another day. Blog ya later.

I'm pissed, but it's my fault.

I have cats. One of them is the meanest cat in the world, Socks. Miss K refers to her as "mean cat". And she lives up to that name in every way. She was a happy and sweet kitten when we got her. Then I made this mistake of bringing home a second cat. I honestly don't think she ever forgave me for that. Tabby, who my dog walker, Delaynie has renamed "Meow's Alot" is one of the sweetest cats, but she is so lovable sometime that it can drive you nuts. And Tabby is one hairy cat. And if she gets stressed out...she sheds...a lot. Once I brought home Maxie, the first cocker spaniel, Socks became Satan's spawn. And when Betty Boop, the rescue cocker spaniel came to live with us, it was all out WAR. She's just a mean old cat. I think she is something like 12 years old. She's lost a number of teeth, but she can still bite pretty hard. And she makes it a point to bite my toes if she sees them sticking out from under the blankets when I am in bed. And she only bites me. Miss K is smart enough to stay away from her. And the dang cat doesn't hiss, she spits. It truly sounds like she is spitting at you when she gets mad.

ANYWAY...back to the point of this blog post... Two goals this week were to spend time cleaning the garage and the craft room. I sorted a couple of boxes in the garage earlier today and this evening I started working in the craft room. I keep the doors in there shut at all times, so I have no idea WHEN this happened, but I picked up a canvas bag that was sitting on a box FULL of paper. The damn cat peed on it. On the bag. Thankfully, it didn't get on anything else. At this point, I am angry. But the ONLY person I have to blame is myself. No one else. Then I pick up some home dec fabric that I bought to make drapes for my dining room. The damn cat peed on it too! I was so mad. And I KNOW that it was Socks. She is the one who does stuff like that. Tabby will just cry and cry if her litter box needs to be cleaned. Oh my goodness that cat is annoying when she wants something. Socks on the other hand is an agent of the devil sent here to torture me. I'm quite certain of this. And, I am not the type of person who gets rid of animals, but if I could find a home where I know that Socks would be well taken care of, I would give her away. She needs to be an only animals in a house. Our house has another cat and a dog. (Betty Boop passed away in May.)

Again...back to the point. If there weren't PILES of stuff all over my craft room, the dang cat wouldn't be peeing on stuff. ARG! And at this point, I seem to be just moving piles of stuff around. We are suppose to have a garage sale this weekend. I was planning on using the money to pay for part of my embroidery machine that I want to get. But I am seriously thinking of just making 500 trips up the street to the local Goodwill and giving everything to them and not messing with the yard sale. Brian keeps telling me that the tax write off it worth so much more than we will make in cash. At this point, I am SERIOUSLY considering it. But, if I go the Goodwill route, I have to set a deadline for getting all the crap out of the garage. What to do...what to do?

As for my goals today...
*I spent about an hour and 45 minutes working in the craft room and the garage. Almost two hours.
*I made dinner. Whole wheat pasta spaghetti. I'm really trying to like it, but it tasted like stale pasta to me. I've already got everything together for dinner tomorrow night.
*I took my book club book to the park with me. That's as close to reading as I got today. I have a feeling that I am not going to get the reading done. Which at this point doesn't matter a whole lot because I am not sure I am going to be able to attend the meeting anyway. I've got so much stuff to do.
*K's Halloween skirt? I've taken the pattern out of the envelope and looked at it. I also read the tutorial that I have for making the skirt from that specific pattern.

I think that's about it. I took Miss K and her friend for a playdate. We had Dippin' Dots ice cream at 10:30 this morning. Yes, I know, I'm going to be voted Mom of the Year for that. Then we went to the park and had a picnic and played on the playground. It was a fun day. Miss K goes to school tomorrow, so will be home working on stuff.

Sorry to be so long winded... Blog ya later!

I hate shopping

Okay...if you REALLY know me, I bet your mouth is hanging open and you are yelling, "LIAR!" Let me clarify. I hate a certain kind of shopping. Bra shopping. To me...that's like worse then getting my teeth cleaned. (I actually enjoy my cleaning experience. My hygienist should be a stand up comedian.) Anyway. I use to be like the queen of bras. I had more bra/panty sets than I could wear in a 3 week time period. (This was pre Miss K.) Well...as I gained weight, the 'twins' grew. Lord did they grow. So, I finally decided to go in and have a bra fitting. WHAT A FREAKIN' JOKE. The girl pulls out her paper tape measure and announces that I am a 40C. I honestly think she was smoking crack. I told her something to that affect, but left out the crack comment. Just to "humor" her since she was INSISTENT that she was right, I 'shoved' myself into a 40C. And when I say shove, I mean I had to manipulate myself into the damn thing. Once I managed to get myself into it, I had cleavage up at my chin. I KID YOU NOT. And I could not breathe. I think I had more on the outside of the bra than what I had on the inside of the dang bra. It was horrible. The "bra specialist" never said another word to me. I finally grabbed a couple of ones that I thought were my size, tried them on until I found one that fit the way I liked. And because I can't do anything half-assed, I bought like 10 of them. EXPENSIVE. That was like a year ago. I am now down to two bras. This morning I was getting ready to head out for a playdate. Put my bra on and was immediately stabbed with wire. Dang wire snapped in half. Now....I know you are asking yourself, "why the heck did she let it get down to just two bras and ohmygosh is she wearing the same bra everyday? I let it get down to two bras because I've lost 50 pounds and I didn't want to replace all my bras while I was still losing weight. I've been meaning to go shopping for new ones, but I HATE SHOPPING FOR BRAS! And, believe it or not, I wash a load of clothes every night so that I will have a clean bra everyday. So, tomorrow after I take Miss K to school, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy some new bras that fit and aren't trying to kill me. The sad thing is...I love these bras. Hence me buying 10 of the same bra. I just looked on line and they are having a sale, buy one get one 1/2 off. So, about $60 for two bras.

Yes, I just did an entire blog entry about purchasing a dang bra. Tomorrow will most likely be a ranting session of how awful it was.

My child finally went down for a nap. I am going to take something out for dinner and then I am going to take a nap too.

Blog ya later!

Busy, busy!

I love being busy during the week because it makes the day go by faster so that the weekend comes sooner. However, I HATE being busy onthe weekends. And for the Cross family, October until the end of the year is BUSY for us. Anniversary, birthdays, holidays...all sorts of stuff. I LOVE FALL! Can't wait to get all my decorations out. But, I will not be able to get them out until after this weekend since we are cleaning and doing a community yard sale. LOTS of junk that needs to be cleaned out of the garage and the house. My goal this week is to spend at least one hour in the garage and one hour in the craft room everyday. If I do that, I will be in great shape. The yard sale is Saturday starting at 7 and lasts until 1. Miss K has a birthday party to attend at 10 on Saturday, so either Brian or I will take her and the other will stay home with the yard sale. I'm hoping I get to go the party because I know that she is doing a whole brunch for everyone from Puffy Muffin! I love Puffy Muffin. They have this chicken and tomato quiche that I LOVE!

So...here are my goals for this week:
*buy anniversary present for Brian (9 years!)
*make inventory list of cloth diaper stuff so that I can sell it. (If anyone is interested in cloth diapering, let me know! I've got a TON of stuff!)
*make list of extra Vera Bradley bags to sell. (if you emailed me for the list, I will send it to you as soon as it is done! Sorry it has taken me so long. I'm lazy.)
*cook dinner EVERY night (except Thursday night...we are going out for our anniversary!)
*spend one hour cleaning my craft room every day
*spend one hour cleaning the garage every evening
*make Miss K a halloween skirt!
*Read The Shack (this needs to be done before Tuesday evening since that is when book club meets. Can you say 'last minute'?)
*Catch up on laundry and get the laundry room organized. (how can I convince my husband to move the washer and dryer so that I can paint?)
*print out the stuff for my Simplify 101 workshop.
*Get my Christmas binder updated. (yes...I've already started my Christmas shopping thanks to sales at Gymboree and Old Navy!)

I'm sure I will have other things that I need to get done. But, I'll be lucky to get this stuff done! Okay...my husband is yelling for me to come help him fold clothes. I don't mind washing clothes, I HATE folding and putting away. That ranks right up there with cleaning toilets! Crud...just remembered I wanted to bake banana bread for my friend who just had a baby. I'm picking up her daughter for a playdate tomorrow. We are going to Dippin' Dots for a craft and ice cream...before lunch. Aren't I a super mom? HA!

And Lianna...I promise I will do your tag tomorrow. I just can't think if 7 random things about myself that people would actually find interesting.

Blog ya later!

Why do I do this?

I've mentioned on about oh....500 ocassions that I have a about 7000 unfinished projects in my craft room. And my craft room is a disaster. Can't even walk in there. At least I can shut the door...too bad they are glass paned french doors, so my mess is there for everyone to see. (I keep telling myself that I WILL have that room cleaned in time for bunco on the 9th.) Back to my point. I've been trolling Etsy.com for awhile checking out all the super neato stuff. I've made a couple of things I've seen on there. It's a great place to get crafty ideas. I've bought a ton of patterns to make felt food. I've bought all the felt. My hand stitching is CRAPPY, so I really need to work on it because the felt food it just too cute. So, I've seen these really cute halloween skirts and I wanted to get one for Miss K, but I know I can make one. I bought a pattern and some cute Halloween fabric. (I love the retro fabric the skirt on etsy is made out of, but I can never find anything like that. I got some while bright print that I think will look great for the skirt. And I am just using ONE fabric.) I AM DETERMINED TO MAKE MY CHILD A SKIRT! If you read my blog, please pester me about it and do NOT allow me to make excuses! I will NOT let this skirt become unfinished project number 7001!

I got to meet Baby Andrew today. So tiny. So snuggly. Miss K asked me why she didn't have a little brother or sister today. That caught me offguard. I asked her if she wanted one and she told me, "yes, pretty, pretty please. I did my best not to cry. She's going to be an only child. That's a fact. Nothing I can do about it. I'd love to be able to adopt, but we just don't have that kind of money right now. And, at the rate the economy is going, we won't for quite some time.

Getting ready to go to bed. I've got a pretty nasty headache. Blog ya later.

Another Miss K funny

(I swear...this kid is going to end up doing stand up before she is 10.)

If you are a mommy of a little girl, you will probably understand this conversation.

We are out running errands today and K told me she wanted mac n' cheese for lunch. (big surprise, huh?) I pop on over to Burger King which now serves mac n' cheese on their kids menu. I ask K to grab a seat while I get all our stuff.

Miss K: (looking around at all the signs in the restuarant) Mommy?
Mommy: Yes?
Miss K: Mommy, are we eating at the King's Crown?
Mommy: (cracking up laughing) Yes! Yes we are!
Miss K: Oh wow! I'm just like Fancy Fancy now!
Mommy: Yes you are!
Miss K: (at the top of her lungs) Sally the camel has one hump! (totally nothing to do with Fancy Nancy. Just shows her ADD tendencies!)

Happy labor thoughts, please

A very good friend of mine, Kennington, is going into the hospital this morning to be induced. This is her second child. Miss K and I met Kennington and her daughter when we were taking a class at Gymboree. Both of the girls were bald-headed and couldn't even sit up. Now they are taking dance classes together. It's been such a blast watching these two little girls grow up together. So, if you think about it, say a quick prayer for my friend today. She's had a rough 24 hours dealing with her mother who apparently thinks that verbally attacking your daughter who is 9 months pregnant is an acceptable thing to do. I'll be headed to the hospital tomorrow morning with coffee from Dunkin' Donuts for the new mommy.

Update: Kennington had her baby this afternoon at about 12:30. Not sure what happened, but she had to have a c-section pretty much right away. I'll get the scoop tomorrow when I visit her at the hospital. Can't wait to snuggle her new baby boy. I love the way babies smell.

Heard on the baby monitor last night...

Miss K: Daddy...there something wrong with my night stand.
Brian: What's wrong?
Miss K: I think it's broken.
Brian: Why do you think that?
Miss K: It's meowing.

Play that Monkey Music

I have no idea what Miss K and Brian were talking about tonight when they were getting ready for bed, but Brian started singing Play that Funky Music. Miss K told him, it was Play that MONKEY Music. And you all know how much Miss K loves her monkey. There for awhile she was content to not take the monkey everywhere she went. Now for some reason, the monkey must go everywhere we go. It's actually gotten worse than it has been in the past.

Things are pretty crazy around here with the whole gas shortage. Who would believe that no place in the country besides Nashville is having a gas shortage. We are talking waiting in line for HOURS for gas. I remember as a kid sitting in my mom's car waiting in line for gas. Would have never imagined that we'd we dealing with something like this again. and it is making people CRAZY! I swear, people are acting like they are never going to be able to find gas again. We lucked out on Saturday night and found a Shell station that had gas and for some reason there was no line. If you went down one exit, there were 100 cars waiting to get gas. I did a little dance in the parking lot I was so excited we were able to get gas. Brian and I were both on E and we needed to get gas in order to be able to make a trip to Indy to pick Miss K up. She was having a little vacation of her own visiting her grandparents. She had a grand time. She went to the fair a couple of days. She got to pet a real live monkey. She baked pies and cinnamon rolls every day. She caught a 10 inch bass one aftrnoon while fishing with her grandpa. I know she had a great time, but we were really ready for her to come home. We had a bit of surprise for her when she got home. We decided she was ready for her big girl bed. So, that meant painting and redoing her entire room. I'll blog about that tomorrow. As for now...I was watching past episodes of Lost that I never got a chance to watch. I need to clear out the DVR since Brian has like 8 shows recording over the next couple of days!

Anyway...I've got LOTS to blog about, so I hope to get back into the habit of blogging everyday. Trying to make some changes here at home. I am hoping it I actually blog about it, it will hold me accountable.

Okay...off to watch Lost. Blog ya later!

Atleast he has a sense of humor about it...

I spoke to my dad this afternoon. I asked him what he was doing..."Just hanging out in the street being homeless." They've already talked to the insurance company. They are looking into getting a condo until their house is repaired/rebuilt. I'm truly hoping that it is rebuilt. It also sounds like the clinic that my stepmom works out was pretty much demolished as well. I'm trying to convince them to come stay with us for a couple of weeks. I'll even let them bring all their dang dogs!

So very sad

My parents (dad and stepmom) live in Crosby, Texas. They were not in an area that was evacuated. We begged my dad not to stay, but my stepmom is a nurse for the county and they made the nurses work at the shelters that were set up around the city and my dad was not leaving without her. So, my dad was at home alone when the storm hit. They live in a very wooded neighborhood. The neighbors next door have two huge oak trees in their front yard. I should say...HAD. Both of those trees are now laying down the middle of my parent's house. Totally destroyed. Thank GOD my dad decided to go into the den where there are no windows. The tree took out the bed he had been lying in right before the trees fell. Best they can tell....the smaller tree fell into the larger tree pushing it over and they both landed on the house. I think my dad was in shock when I spoke to him this morning because he kept going on and on about all the money they had just put into the house redoing the kitchen, den, living room and utility room and a ton of new furniture. Yes, I am very sad that the home that he and my stepmom have made together for the past 12 years is destroyed, but I am so very thankful that my dad is still alive to complain about it!

If any of you who read my blog have families that live in the path that Ike to, I pray that they are all safe. I promised myself that I was not going to watch the news, but I was glued to it pretty much all night last night and all this morning. I've not turned the TV on since about 2 to see what else is on the news and I think I am just going to read a book and not bother with the TV tonight. I don't think I can handle seeing the devastation anymore.

Oh...I never got a chance to announce that I am an aunt again...for the 5th time. My sister-in-law, Jennifer (my brother's wife and my favorite sister-in-law) gave birth to their 4th child, Tanner Jase. He's their 3rd son. And I can promise that they will never forget his birth or the first week of his life. He was born on Tuesday, released from the hospital on Thursday and immediately evacuated. I don't know if they even took him to the house before they left town or not. I hope I get to see him soon.

Okay...I've got some Christmas shopping to do on line. Gymboree is having their baby sale, so I want to get some gifts bought now. My goal this year is to have ALL my shopping done BEFORE Thanksgiving.

Blog ya later!

Darius Rucker....am I the last to know?

So, I am sitting in the bonus room at like 1:40 in the morning watching CMT and surfing blogs. I hear this country song come on that I've never heard before, but the voice sounds really familiar. I look up and the guy looks familiar, but I can't place him. And let's face it, there are not a lot of African American country singers. But I swear I have seen this guy somewhere before. Hootie and the Blowfish. Loved, loved, loved them in college! But to be honest with you, I didn't even know they were still together. Or, they were until August 2008 when they split so Darius could persue his solo COUNTRY music career. What is up with that? Jessica Simpson and now the lead singer of Hootie? And didn't Brett Michaels try his hand at country music? Lord help me, if Britney Spears decides to cross over to country I think I just might stop listening to the radio.

Honestly...his song wasn't that bad, it just doesn't seem right.

Potty Conversation

So, this morning I get Miss K up for school. I tell her to hurry and go use the potty so we can get dressed. I have the baby monitor turned up full volume, so I would hear what she was saying in the bathroom She's sitting on the potty and I hear this...

I love my mommy
I love my daddy
I love my monkey
I do not love mean cat

Mean cat is our cat Socks. I don't think Socks likes Kennedy. Honestly, the cat likes no one but me. As I type this post, "mean cat" is as close as she can possibly get to me without being in my lap. Her entire fat body is up against my leg. Mean cat is also a fat cat.

As I mentioned last week, K is in Awanas. Brian and I have been trying to work with her on this week's verse. 'And all that He made was good' Genesis 1:31. We ask her to repeat is and her response is, "but I don't wanna be good." Good gravy.

Busy week this week....
Monday - Zoo
Tuesday - School
Wednesday - Errand day & Awanas
Thursday - school, dance class and then we are going to see Disney Princesses on Ice.
Friday - Well...we are suppose to have a playdate at CEC, but I think we are going to have to wait for the dang cable man. Comcast stinks.

Busy weekend too. K has a birthday party on Saturday and our general weekend stuff that seems to rule our lives. K is leaving next Wednesday to spend some time with her Michigan grandparents. We will be changing her room to a big girl room while she is gone. After her reaction to Brian painting her bathroom, we thought it would be best if we did it while she was gone. I seriously think the child was going to have a nervous breakdown over her walls being painted blue.

Well...gotta go. blog ya later.

Today I was "that mother" with "that child"

OMG. What a day. Rain + Chuck E. Cheese = lots of hyper kiddos. So, Miss K and I met Miss E and her mom at CEC for a little fun. We had a good time. They girls were on their best behavior except for one minor incident involving the mini merry-go-round. So, after we leave, I needed to run to my favorite store...Hobby Lobby. I needed to return a couple of things and pick up some felt for a project I am working on. Well, she started doing the "peepee dance" while I was standing in line. So, I finished and took her to the potty. OMG. She lost it. I pulled her panties down and she would arch her back so that I couldn't get her to sit on the seat. And crying. HUGE tears and SCREAMING. She kicked me and was screaming "NO!" We were using the restroom at the front of the store, so I know that everyone and their mother heard us. I finally told her that if she wet her pants, I was going to spank her. We went through this whole thing at the post office on Tuesday and she did wet her pants. So, we walk out of the restroom and EVERY person in the check out line is looking at me. Miss K is still screaming. At this point I am trying to figure out why she is still freaking out. She starts jumping up and down, stomping her feet and screaming. Again....everyone is looking at me like I am the worst mother in the world. I calmly picked my screaming, kicking child up and removed her from the store. We get outside and she is even more upset. She doesn't want to go home. She wants to go back into the store. I told her that she had to stop crying first. MORE crying ensues. I pick her up and carry her to the car. She cried the entire way home. I mean....WAILING. She cried so much that by the time we got home, she was hoarce. We came home. I told her to go upstairs and go to her room. More crying. Screaming. Mommy needs a stiff drink. After about 30 minutes, she comes out and apologizes to me. And...to make it even worse, the lady who does the returns at Hobby Lobby was a complete witch to me. This is the second time I've dealt with her and both times she has made me feel like I have done something wrong. Today, after everything that happened, I've decided I do not deserve to be treated like that. I'm writing a letter to their office. Before you say, "talk to the manager", the issue today also deals with the manager. ARG. I'm just irritated. Totally. Irritated.

Step away from the hot glue gun....

So, I was trying to get the stuff done that was on my "to do" list. One thing I needed to do was make some bows. Bows to match Miss K's dance outfit. (see previous post as to why I must have a bow.) I took a "bow" class a month or so ago. I make a couple of bows in the class and I've made a handful since then. But for SOME reason, I am having issues with these bows. For one, the ribbon is printed on one side, so I need to make sure that looks right. But, I just can't get the "construction" of the bow correct. I messed with it for a bit. The one I did get completed just looks "wrong". Now, normally there would be a lot of swearing and me throwing supplies around because things weren't going well. But, I actually was pretty calm about it. I tried several HUNDRED times and I just couldn't get it. So, I calming unplugged my hot glue gun, rolled up all my ribbons and neatly packed everything back into my "bow box" and went on about my business. I'll revisit the bows later this weekend.

Miss K has been a hoot the past couple of days. Her personality is really starting to come out. Brian and I are always telling her, "You can not talk to mommy or daddy like that" when she starts her using her mean and demanding tone of voice. I usually will tell her that I am disappointed or upset with her attitude and I always make her apologize to me or her dad. So, this afternoon she was driving me CRAZY. She has this BAD habit of giving you things that you don't want and she will NOT take no for an answer and instead of putting it back, she will usually throw whatever it is down and run away. She did this twice today. The first time she did it was my camera....MY REBEL. I saw her holding it and told her to put it down. I said the words "PUT IT DOWN" over and over again about 30 times. Then I yelled. I finally had to take it from her. Then the next time she did it, it was a stack of felt. By now I was mad because she will not take no for an answer and Brian and I are trying to make her understand, but it hasn't worked. Well, I yelled again. And this is not normal because while I might raise my voice to my child, I seldom yell. Well, she threw the felt down and that was when I yelled again and told her to pick it up or I was going to spank her and send her to her room for not minding me. She picked it up and then came and sat by me on the sofa. The conversation when like this...

Miss K (in a very calm and quiet tone): "Mommy, you can not talk to me like that".
Mommy: "K, you need to learn what the word NO means, Grace" (Brian and I call her Grace usually when she is in trouble.)
Miss K: "I'm really disappointed in you Mommy."
Mommy: "Well, Mommy is disappointed in you for not minding me."
Miss K: "Now, you need to apologize to me Mommy."
Mommy: "I am sorry that Mommy had to raise her voice at you because you refuse to mind me!"
Miss K: "That's better Mommy. I still love you."
Mommy: "I love you too"

After that conversation I could help but laugh. She is really growing up. But PLEASE do not tell her that you think she is a "big girl". That makes her mad because she does not want to get big. She wants to stay little forever and makes it a point to tell me that anytime I say the phrase, "big girl". Good gravy she is a mess.

Blog ya later!

Organizaton stuff...

So, I am working on my pantry. I can not believe how much stuff is in there. It's nuts. Anyway...one thing that I am really bad about is throwing away plastic grocery bags. I know I need to use my resuable bags, but I NEVER seem to have them with me when I am shopping. So, I usually end up with a ton of plastic bags. And the crazies at Wal-Mart are really good about putting two items in each bag. I don't think I ever come home with less than 5 bags from that place. And it never fails. I throw the bags away and the next day I am in need of bags. So, in my blog surfing, I found this...

I found it on the Simple Human website. They have a lot of neat stuff on there. I actually ended getting it off of ebay a little bit cheaper. I've already got the perfect place for this in my kitchen.

My friend Margie posted her to do list on her blog and I thought I would do the same...hoping once again it would make me accountable for things that need to be done!

*drop K off at MDO

*Doctor appt.

*two loads of laundry

*load dishwasher

*make bows for dance class

*work on menu for the next two weeks

*update calendar

*work on baby gift project. (Need to get atleast once piece completed today.)

The list in my head is a LOT longer than there, but this is what I think I can actually accomplish in one day. The list in my head would take me a couple of weeks.

Blog ya later!

Awanas and the things Miss K says...

So...here are a couple of funnies that have come out of Miss K's mouth recently...

She and her dad were getting ready to head to the park the other evening. He told her to come on and her response..."WAIT DADDY! I need a bow in my hair. I can't leave the house without a bow in my hair. It needs to be pink to match my shirt. Mommy! Where is my pink bow? I can't go to the park without a bow in my hair." Seriously...it was a major drama mama moment. It took everything I had not to laugh at her.

She did something that I was really proud of today and I told her, "You are such a big girl." She put her hands on her hips and said, "Mommy, I am NOT a big girl. I don't want to get big. I want to stay little!"

Last week she was digging through her dress up box. I was just sort of watching her to see what she was doing. She put on a bunch of jewelry, a princess crown and a pair of dress up high hills. She started marching up and down the hallway yelling..."Here comes the queen!"

I've been working with her on her Bible verses for Awanas and she does NOT want to do them. Her response to me is..."That's for later, Mommy!" I think she keeps telling me that because she knows that Miss Mali works with her on it on Wednesdays.

OMG! There was another one that cracked me up today and I can't remember it! I meant to write it down.

So...as I mentioned, Miss K is in Awanas...Cubbies to be exact. She is a stinker when it comes to memorizing the verses. Last week went okay, but this week was a nightmare. She just would NOT repeat them back to me. I swear...I repeated those Bible verses over and over for days. I was pretty certain that she was not going to be able to recite both of the verses tonight and therefore she would not get her award...aka her Cubbie vest. Believe it or not, I was actually nervous. And I was suprised because Brian was able to make it. I was actually holding my breath when she started reading out the names. She did it in alpabetical order, so I knew when she should get to Miss K's name. I almost stood up and cheered when she called out her name! Yeah Miss K! Here's a photo of her and her best friend, Miss E in their new vests. These two do pretty much everything together. They go to MDO together, Awanas and dance class. They will probably end up in the same preschool next year as well. We also spend a lot of time with Miss E and her mommy during the week when the girls aren't in school. Her mom and I are pretty good friends. (Miss E is not really that short, but for some reason, she was slouching down, but she is smaller than Miss K.)

Well...I said I was going to start working on my pantry tonight, so I need to get off this computer and go downstairs and start emptying out my pantry. I'm probably going to have a ton of stuff that needs to be thrown out. Lots of fun.

Blog ya later!

Pantry Inspiration

Well...I wasn't able to sleep last night so I did some blog surfing. I came across this blog through someone else's blog and it inspired me. (Her blog hasn't been updated in months which makes me a little sad.) Anyway, back in March of 2006 she did a panty reorganization and it has inspired me to work on my pantry. I love the totes she uses. I have some baskets in my pantry right now, but I don't really like them. And while I have enough Longaberger to use in the panty, I'd rather not! I already have a ton of Tupperware and I have been using it. I hate cardboard boxes and I try to store everything in plastic instead of cardboard. I think this is a holdover from my days of living in Texas. Bugs. Bugs the size of my hand. And tree roaches that will freak anyone out. Huge flying ones! My skin is starting to crawl just thinking about it. Maybe I could call my pest control guy to come out and spray just because. I don't think people understand my issue with bugs. It's sort of out of control. Anway.... So, tonight after I put the munchkin to bed, I am going to basically take my entire pantry out and purge, sort, organize, and containerize! My pantry is so unogranized that I had no idea what all is in there. And when I grocery shop, I basically just shove stuff wherever it will fit, so there is no rhyme or reason as to why things are where they are in there.

I am slowly doing little projects here and there around the house to be organized. I figure if I start small, I might actually get some stuff completed. A couple of nights ago I cleaned out Miss K's PJ drawer. My child has way too many PJs. After I cleaned out the drawer...I got rid of 18 pairs of pjs. There are still probably 15 pair in her drawer. I did just order her these cute little pink skeleton pjs for Gymbo. These are the same pair that we had last year, but Miss K outgrew them pretty fast. Well, I have errands to run. Need to get the Grandparent's Day presents in the mail this afternoon along with a gift for a friend and her son who is in the hospital. I need to stop by Wal-Mart and see what they have in the way of canvas totes for the pantry. My child is STILL wearing PJs, so I need to convince her that we NEED to leave. She is suppose to have Awanas tonight, but I don't think it's going to work. She just can not memorize the verses. I think she is just a little too young.

Okay....gotta go. Blog ya later!

Well crap...

I am suppose to be headed over to a friend's house tonight to scrapbook. I decided to go ahead and order some photos since I've not printed any new ones lately. I totally sucked at taking photos this year. There are so few. And the few I did take are AWFUL! I am so disappointed in myself. I knew I was lax on taking photos, but I didn't realize how bad. CRAP.

Miss K's 3 year photos

OMG! Can I just say that I am in photo heaven right now???? Go check out some of her photos at the photographer's blog. Ulmer Studios.

Sleep? What's that?

I had to go off of my study medication a couple of weeks ago because of some dental work I had done. The nurse warned me when I went back into the drug, I would probably have problems sleeping again. Well, here it is 2:29 am and I am still wide awake. I've done a load of laundry, cut up a pineapple, cleaned out the fridge, made my list of "to do" for tomorrow, list of projects I would like to complete this week and have been working on my calendar for the next week. At least I am using the time constructively!

So, I mentioned yesterday about the master bathroom. Still formulating some ideas in my head, but I am pretty sure I know what I am going for. It's the follow-through and execution that I seem to have the most problem with. Anyway....Brian and I were talking the other day about getting all of Miss K's stuff out of our bonus room and making it a room for "big people" again. (I'd love not to have to set on another My Little Pony!) My suggestion was to move all her stuff into the guest bedroom. Get rid of the bed in there and find a nice loveseat that folds out into a bed for the 3 or 4 times a year we actually have company. (We also own a queen size Aero bed that is WAY comfortable.) He said that all her crap wouldn't fit in there and it was a bad idea. Okay. Whatever. Today at lunch he starts talking about how Miss K is getting too big for her toddler bed. I asked him if he thought it was time to convert her bed into a full size and he said yes. His plan...we will do it while she is at her grandparents house for 5 days in September for the fair. That's cool. When do you want to pick out paint? He gave me the "look" and said that he never mentioned the word "paint". Well, HELLO! Her nursery was ladybugs and dragonflies. The room is painted cream on the top portion of her wall, white chair rail and then the bottom half is a deep, dark barn red. (I seem to remember it taking something like SEVEN coats of paint to get it even.) Her new stuff is a "Paris" theme with bright colors...purple, pinks, yellows, turquoise... Doesn't really go well with the red walls. Looks like I am going to be spending a LOT of time in Miss K's room while she is out of town. And the walls HAVE to be coompletely painted before we get back. She about had a mental breakdown over the painting of her bathroom. It was yellow and now it is a green/blue. She screamed for quite awhile asking us to wipe it off and make the walls yellow again. Lot's of crying. She still asks for her yellow walls. The child does not forget anything! She spent the night at my mom's house on Saturday. Before she left, Brian asked her to hug Maxie, the dog and tell her that she loved her. She did and then she said, "I love Betty Boop too Daddy." Brian told her the same thing we've always told her...Betty got sick and couldn't live with us anymore. She told him that she knew that. The she asked him if we could get a new Betty Boop. Lord...everytime that child brings up that dog, it makes me want to bawl, but this is the first time she has really asked for another dog. And let me just state for the record....WE ARE NOT GETTING ANOTHER DOG! Let me just say that again.... WE ARE NOT GETTING ANOTHER DOG. I'm tired of messing with the one dog and two cats I have right now. ARG...I got sidetracked. Long story short....we are going to redo Miss K's room and convert the guest room into her playroom. I'm on the look out for a sleeper love seat if anyone has one they want to get rid of.

Believe it or not...I'm actually starting to get tired. Think I am going to wash my face and head to bed. If the weather isn't too hot in the morning, I am going to take Miss K to the park after breakfast. We have a busy week...school starts, Awanas starts and dance starts back up for the school year. Okay...I'm off to bed.

Blog ya later....with photos.

Finally....

I've finally decided on what I am doing with my master bathroom. I bought a piece of art for the wall at Hobby Lobby the other night, a towel bar, magazine rack, some new drawer pulls, some towel hooks and a thingy to hang a hand towel on. Everything...1/2 off. Lord, I love Hobby Lobby. And this week, the metalware stuff, candle holders and candles are on sale 1/2 off. There were a couple of black metal baksets I wanted and some candle holders I want for the tub. Now, I need to pick out paint. I am going with some neutral colors. Black, taupe and creams. Brian has no idea yet. I am thinking I am just going to pick the paint, buy it and start doing the cut in and then let him see it. Then he will have no choice but to finish painting! Sneaky me! He needs to put down the moulding on the floor that was never done. Please don't ask me how long ago he did the tile.... I also need to paint the baseboards, door mouldings and the doors. I still need some curtains, a rug and a couple more things for the wall. I would love a round mirror to go in the "water closet" area. I would also love a new light fixture because the one that is in there is old, nasty and has started rusting! I saw some curtains at Target that would work, but I am not sure if they are exactly what I want. The curtains don't really serve a purpose in there other than decoration. I would like to have one room in my house actually completed. I can never commit, so nothing gets completely done. Story of my life....unfinished projects. If I just worked on unfinshed projects and never started anything new, I would have enough stuff to do until I am like...88 years old. Honest to God truth! And yet, what do I do almost every week? Start a new freaking project of some sort!

Okay...it's LATE, so I need to get to bed. I am going to work on getting the bathroom cleaned out, so I will take some "before" photos and some "in progress" photos and then "completed" photos. I am DETERMINED to finish this room! But, you know what they say about the road to Hell....paved with good intentions!

Blog ya later!

It's been a busy couple of weeks....

I looked at my calendar the other day and I was shocked. I've had something going on almost every single day...even weekends for about the past 6 weeks!. No wonder I am sick and can't seem to get better! Last week was a crappy week for me health wise. I ended up at the Minute Clinic on Sunday for an infection. The NP said that she had seen a lot of these infections in the past week because of dehydration. Drink lots of water, take these pills and you will get better. I felt a cold of sorts coming on while I was there and I should have said something, but I didn't. That came back to bite me in the butt later in the week. So, last week I had some dental work done. It's been over a week and I am having all sorts of problems. Pain related to eating. Eating anything. Drinking anything hot or cold. Basically, I'm in pain. But because I've got this upper resp. thing I couldn't go in and have my dentist look at my mouth. So, she called me in some pain pills. They do NOTHING for me at all. I ended up at the Minute Clinic again on Friday for the upper resp thing. That was expensive. $80 for freaking nose spray. ARG. And I hate using nose spray. We took Miss K to the Williamson County Fair on Wednesday. She had the BEST time. I was surprised that she rose as many rides as she did. She even rode the kiddie roller coaster that they had. And she got so excited when they started the fireworks. We got home pretty late that night. I tossed her in the tub, gave her a bath and had her ready for bed in like 10 minutes. Brian went to lay her down and she kept saying, "But Daddy, I'm not tired! I don't want to go to sleep." A minute after she went down, I went in there to put something in her closet and she was passed out. She has talked about the fair every day since. I think we are going to take her to the Wilson County Fair next week. Thursday was also Miss K's last day of her summer dance class. I had her fitted dance clothes for the regular dance season. That was a cute experience. She was not happy about trying the leotard on and less excited about the fact that the dance teacher wanted to see her in the clothes. That was until she put the little ballet skirt on. Then she became a ballerina. She was twirling all over the studio. She was not happy that I made her take the outfit off. Crazy kid. Saturday went spent the morning with Josh and Amber Ulmer having Miss K's 3 year old photos taken. I can not wait to see how these turned out. I am totally a girly mom and I had her decked out like a girly girl. I made this adorable multi-colored tutu to match her Gymboree birthday girl shirt. Paired that with some hot pink bike shorts and some WAY cute pink Converse high tops. She looked so dang adorable. And I was so proud of her. She did so good. I actually did a couple of different outfits. Cute little white Strasburg dress with a multi-colored ribbon sash and bow to match. Josh and Amber were so good with her. It was a very laid back and most importantly, STRESS FREE!

Alright...I need to get off this computer. This week is shaping up to be yet another busy week. Next week the same as Miss K starts back to school and dance class.

Blog ya later!

Coming up with a plan...

So, my friend Chelle recently did some MAJOR cleaning and organizing at her house. I'm jealous. I want someone to come in and MAKE me get rid of stuff I don't need. I just can't seem to do it on my own! One of my biggest problems is completing a task. I will start cleaning one room and will get sidetracked doing something else and then something else and then something else. At the end of the day...none of it gets completely done!

So, tomorrow Miss K goes to school. (This is her last week until the school year starts again...it's later for her MDO program.) The exterminator is coming at 10. I've got ants in my kitchen which tells me that I am not doing a very good job of cleaning in there. (We've also got some MAJOR spider thing going on outside that is FREAKING me out on a daily basis.) I need to sit down and work out some kind of plan to get my house under control. It's really out of hand. And 99% of it is my fault. I hate cleaning. I was born without a cleaning gene. And, let's face it, I'm lazy. I'd rather sit around and color or read with my child. I'd rather play with play-doh than clean the toilets. I'd rather watch Barbie Swan Lake for the 9,999 time than do laundry. Are you getting the picture?

So, tomorrow I am going to formula some sort of plan. It will probably make no sense at all, but I've got to come up with something. Maybe if I actually post it on my blog, it will give me incentive to actually do the work.

Okay...it's 1:30am. I need to finish cleaning the bonus room, but I want to go to sleep. So, I will get up in the morning, clean the bonus room, take K to school and then come home and clean the kitchen before the bug man gets here.

Oh....did I mention that I have an entire book to read tomorrow before 7 for my book club? I love to read, so I don't know why I didn't read this one. I've read probably 15 other books this month, but I never picked up this one. And the book I just finished too me forever to read and I was very disappointed in it. And it was recommended to me by someone who write short stories and has them published on line. She is an awesome writer, so I honestly thought this would be something similar to her style. Not even close.

Oh, another thing. Wednesday I am having some dental work done. Because of the amount I am having done, I've elected to do the sedation thing. They have blocked out SEVEN hours for me. They will not have anyone else in the office but me. That makes me a tab bit nervous. Good thing they gave me a script for Valuim. And I totally plan on taking it! Hollye = Big Arse Chicken.

alright...I'm out of here. Blog ya later.

My baby is THREE YEARS OLD!!

I can not believe it. She is actually three years old. Where has the time gone? When did she get so big? Brian and I have been working with her to teach her to say that she is "three years old." She refused. She told me that she wanted to stay two. That she wanted to "keep little forever mommy." That brought tears to my eyes. I want her to stay little forever too. I'm just sad. I won't get to experience this age again. Although....right now, with the way she is acting, she will be lucky to make it to 3 1/2. Some days she is the sweetest little girl you have ever met. Then her body is taken over by something and she turns into a demon child. She did something on Thursday and she knew she was in trouble. I just looked at her and she walked into the hallways and put her nose on the wall. I never said a thing to her. About two minutes later she asked if she could come off the wall. I told her yes and she said, "I'm really sorry Mommy."

So, Miss K has pretty much been celebrating her birthday for almost the entire month! We started when my parents came into town to visit over the 4th of July weekend. Of course they brought birthday presents. Then the next weekend we went on vacation and part of our vacation was a trip to the American Girl store to get her a Bitty Baby. We get back from vacation and that weekend was her birthday party at the Monkey's Treehouse. This past Wednesday we took cupcakes to her school so they could celebrate her birthday. Today...her actual birthday we are headed to one of her favorite places...Chuck E. Cheese. She doesn't like Chuck E. himself, she likes to ride that Derby game horse. She will ride it like 10 times in a row and I usually have to make her get off. So, we are heded to CEC to have lunch some of her friends. Then her other grandparents are coming into town later today. And, through out the month presents have been arriving in the mail. She gets excited when I check the mail these days.

Okay...gotta run. I leave you with another photo from Miss K's birthday party. Photo taken by Sherri. Blog ya later.

My friend Sherri rocks!

My awesome friend Sherri took photos at Miss K's birthday party this weekend. I can't wait to see how the rest of them turn out!

Total Disaster!

Well...when you have 3 people working on the same project, things are bound to go wrong. Needless to say, I gave up on the crayon rolls at 12:30 this morning after I tried to complete the first one and it was WAY off. My mom was ironing different that Brian and Brian was trimming different than my mom. I sat in front of that sewing machine for HOURS.

So, I've got to get dress and head out to get something...anything for party favors. I am going to rework the crayon rolls next week and see if I can salvage some of them. If I can get the fixed, I'll give them to her friends from school for something or another. I'm just really bummed.

Okay...party starts in 4 hours and I've got a million and one things to do. Doesn't help that I am sick as a dog either!

Later!

Party Favor

So, like MONTHS ago I saw this really cute crayon roll on Etsy.com. Loved it and thought it would be the perfect party favor for Miss K's 3rd birthday party. I mean, I had to top the awesome Mickey Mouse beach towel I gave last year. We are talking top quality! Remember...I'm a BARGAIN shopper, so I got the towels for like $4 each. Since I only had 8 kids, it wasn't a big deal. Anyway...so, I decided to make the crayon rolls. Found some way cute monkey fabric to make them with. And then I never did a dang thing. So, today is the 18th (it's 3:45 in the morning.) and I've not made one yet. I actually just finished the sample to see how it would go and how long it will take to make one. Well, it took a LONG time. It took a long time because I am so freaking unorganized. And, I've not used my sewing machine in a couple of years. Pulled that sucker out to use it and got half way through sewing and the machine keeps messing up. I have no idea what the heck is wrong. So, I take myself down to Wally World at 2:30 in the morning to buy a new sewing machine! Yep. And let me tell you...they've got some strange people working at Wally World at 2:30 in the morning. It took like 4 people to figure out how to accept American Express gift checks.

So...anyway...HOURS later I've finished one. I made it out of some extra fabric, so this is my "trial" one. I'll probably end up mailing it to my friend's daughter because even though it isn't perfect, it is still functionable! So, tomorrow morning I've got to get up at the CRACK of dawn and start cutting fabric for 20 of them! I'd like to get all the fabric cut before 10ish so that I can run a few errands and come home and sew my little heart out. I'm going to set it up in an assembly line. Then I am going to put Brian to work when he gets home. He can help! He knows how to use an iron. I'll also beg my mom to come over and give me a hand. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? I do this to myself ALL the time. I even started planning this party back in March. Here it is...last minute and I've not gotten them done. At least I've gotten just about everything else done. I need to order balloons, pick up a fruit tray, get a bag of ice, pick up cello bags for the crayon rolls, make "thank you" tags for the bags and I am sure there are a number of other things I've forgotten I need to do.

So, I promise I will blog about my vacation and the "adventure" that one of our family members had on the way home from vacation. For those of you who know anything about Miss K will find this story funny. At the time, we sure didn't!

Okay...I've got to get to bed. I am only going to get about 4 hours sleep. Blog ya later.

Before anyone else calls....

Yes, I've heard about the GM layoff thing. Yes, it does affect the plant that he works at. Yes, it does affect his job. Yes, he still has a job. Am I nervous? Heck yes. I did ask him to update his resume' and start putting it out there. I can't let it control my life, so I just have to have faith in God and my husband that everything will be okay. I've got other things I need to concentrate on. But, more than likely, as soon as Miss K is in school fulltime, I will have to go back to work. I really wanted to stay home for a couple of more years after she started school so that I could be involved and volunteer at her school. I am just praying the economy turns around soon. It is honestly very depressing. Heck, I am going to have to go back to work just to be able to afford groceries! The past 3 months I've spent more money on groceries than I ever have expect during the holidays.

Okay...I've got to get out of my 'funk' and get ready for Miss K's party this weekend and then for my inlaws to be here to following weekend.

I'll blog more about our vacation later. Let's just say...the trip home was a bit of an adventure for one of the members of our family.

Blog ya later!

Windy City...here we come!

Because of the production schedule at the plant this summer, we weren't able to do our usually summer thing and we won't be able to go to the beach this summer. I'm super bummed about the beach because we had such a great time last year. It was one of the most laid back vacations that I've ever had. Maybe next year.

So, I mentioned back at Christmas that I wanted to take Miss K to the American Girl store in Chicago for her 3rd birthday. So, we decided to make a little vacation out of it. We are meeting some of favorite people in the world in Chicago. Us girls will head over to the AG store and the guys are going to do whatever guys do. I'm excited for Miss K to get to go to the AG store, but I'm even more excited about the day AFTER. The hubbys and the kiddos are headed to Wisconsin and Margie and I are going SHOPPING!!!! And if you know me at all, you know that shopping is one of my favorite hobbies. Heck, I have a degree in purchasing!

So, we are headed out tomorrow afternoon. We are going to drive to Indy and stay the night and then drive to Chicago the next day. We've got plans, but nothing that we have to "stick" to. We are just going to go and have some nice family fun. And this trip will also give me a chance to finally get my camera out and take some photos. I am embarassed to say that I've not taken a photo in about a month. How awful is that?

And dang it...I just realized that I've got a ton of stuff that I still need to do for Miss K's birthday party. I started planning this party MONTHS ago and then just stopped. Now, I'm going to be rushing to get everything done. At least I finally got the invitations mailed and that is the most important thing. That and the cake and the cake was ordered months ago when I booked the party. My biggest concern now is that I won't get the party favors done in time. I've not even started them! I should have never said I was going to make those crayon rolls!

Well, I need to get some laundry done and get K's stuff together for school tomorrow morning. I've got a lot to do tonight, so it's probably a good thing that I don't sleep much these days. I need to get off this computer and get some stuff done. Heck, I've not packed a single thing for anyone in this house! Blog ya later...WITH PHOTOS!

It never fails and other random stuff.

So, we have a ton of stuff that we need to do this weekend. My parents are coming next weekend for a visit and then we leave later that week for Chicago. Lot's of "chores". Brian started tonight with some landscaping that we've been putting off. We had to get it done before Monday because our new neighbors are moving in and our hedges were way over on their property. Want to start out on a good foot with them. We still need to catch that mole that has torn up the side yard and my flower beds. Anyway...I was getting ready to head downstairs when Miss K came tearing in the house screaming because she fell down. I sat down on the stairs and got her calmed down and decided to go outside to help Brian. I stood up and the next thing you know, I am falling down the stairs. Walk much, Hollye? At first I was just a little stiff, but 2 hours later, I can't put any weight on my foot at all. It's my ankle that hurts so bad. I'm sure I sprang it. Brian told me that I couldn't use that as an excuse not to get anything done this weekend! Big meanie. Guess I'll be doing a lot of stuff that I can sit down and do. Like cleaning out from under all the sinks. Folding the mountains and mountains of laundry. Cleaning out Miss K's drawers and sorting the clothes...give away/sell/keep. The list goes on.

So, Thursday was day two of dance class. I started talking about dance class on Tuesday. The response I got every time was, "I don't wanna go to dance class." So, I told her Wednesday night I would take her to Chuck E. Cheese on Thursday if she was good. It gets time for dance class and she aint' havin' anything to do with getting anywhere near the studio. I reminded her that the only way she was going to get to go to CEC was if she was good and that meant going to dance class. I don't know how I managed it, but I got her into the dance room on her mat and left without her flipping out. I kept looking through the window to see how she was doing. The first 15 mintues she sat in the corner watching everyone. Guess she decided it was fun because the next time I looked, she was going the mat exercise they were doing. The best part came at the end. Each girl was dressed in a princess costume and they were dancing and twirling in a circle. It was the CUTEST thing. When class was over, she came running out and the first thing she said was, "Mommy, monkey wants to come back to dance class again." Yes, I let her take her monkey. And the instructor was fine with that. I asked her if she had fun and she said, "yest Mommy, lots of fun!" Next week they are going to start doing tap. No problem, the owner has tap shoes to loan. Except for my child. Her feet are fat and flat. Think Fred Flintstone. So, I went to a local dance store. $35 for a pair of tap shoes for a toddler. Geez. I know the owner said the ones she sells are $24, but she had no stock right now because they just moved. I finally went on line and found them...$24.95. Works for me. Hope they will be here in time for class next Thursday. They are too cute. Tan Mary Jane tap shoes. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she will like dance next week!

Well, since I've been typing this, my ankle has gotten worse. I can't put any weight on it at all. Guess I will be headed to the doctor tomorrow. I told Brian I need some crutches and he told me if I need crutches, I needed a doctor. Great. I'm going to crawl in bed and pray that my ankles is better in the morning.

Blog ya later.

I'm in love

These came in the mail today. Need I say more?

PS I Love You

I read this book several years ago and I remembered that I cried like a baby when I read it. But for some reason, when the movie came out, I had no desire to see it. Well, I was at the Redbox the other day to return a movie and wanted to watch something else, so decided...."what the heck". Oh my. I think I started crying like 10 minutes into the movie and have done nothing but cry and laugh my head off since. I am a huge Harry Connick Jr. fan and his character in this movie cracks me up. I'm not done watching it yet, but I had to take a break. All the crying is starting to give me a headache. If you haven't seen it, based on what I've seen so far, I could recommend it. But it is strictly a chick flick. I don't think hubbies would enjoy it much at all.

Well, it's 3:40am and I guess I should try and get some sleep. I guess I am going to have to start taking the sleeping pills again. Can't function like this. Blog ya later.

I'm really bummed

I found these really cute invitations with matching thank you notes that I wanted to order for Miss K's birthday party. Found them on ebay. I thought I had bookmarked the store so that I could go back and order them. Now, I can't find the store or the invitations. I searched for over 2 hours tonight. I finally gave up and ordered some other ones that are cute, but not as cute as the ones I originally wanted. Dang it. Oh well. They should be here by Wednesday, so I can get them printed, addressed and mailed. That reminds me of all the other stuff I still need to do. Guess I better get started on my list tonight before I head off to bed.

I am really excited about her party. Most of you know that Miss K has a monkey that she has carried around since she was about 6 months old. Loves that thing. She loves all things monkey now. We've probably got 6 pair of monkey pjs. I can't even count the number of monkey t-shirts that we have. We've also got a couple of outfits from my favorite place, Gymboree that have monkeys on them. So, I decided to go all out on the monkey thing this year. We are having her party at the Monkey's Treehouse. It's an indoor play place. We've been there before and it's a lot of fun. And, it's not my house. The last thing I want is 20 kids, plus parents crowded into my small house for a party. And since her birthday is in the middle of July, having it outside probably wouldn't be such a good idea.

Blog ya later.

Cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning, menus and Blockbuster.

Today has been a day of cleaning. I am trying to get all three of the bathrooms cleaned. I hate doing toilets, but I hate cleaning our shower more than anything. So, it doesn't get done very ofter, therefore it usually takes a lot of scrubbing. Right now I smell like every cleaning product that I have in the house. I needed a break, so I decided to blog.

Brian finally got the boarder down that was in Miss K's bathroom. Guess we will plan on painting tomorrow. Then I will get the monkey prints hung up and the wall words on the wall and mirror and we will be done. Well, done until I decide to change it again. Honestly, I am hoping that we will move before it is time to redo her bathroom again.

So, I have a question. I am really trying to get better about cooking dinner every night. We eat out too much and I need that to change. So, I made out a menu for the week. I had the hardest time coming up with 7 meals that aren't the same that we had last week. Once I tried to do a two week menu and that was a joke. Here is my menu for the week...

Saturday - steaks, potatoes & corn
Sunday - chicken pot pie
Monday - turkey tenderloin, homemade mac 'n cheese, green beans
Tuesday - salmon, rice, mixed veggies
Wednesday - Pasta Milano
Thursday - Pampered Chef party
Friday - Mexican casserole
Saturday -grilled chicken sandwiches, baked beans

I've got a couple of other things that I usually do also. I do chicken enchiladas, spaghetti, chicken spaghetti, and shrimp & pepper pasta. Lots of pastas. I need some new recipes. I checked out two Rachael Ray cookbooks and I'm sorry, but there was maybe one recipe from each one that I would actually make. And her 30 minute meals...nothing. So, if you have a recipe that you and your family love, please send it to me. Or, if you have a favorite recipe book, tell me which one. I am desperate for some new ideas! And remember...I've got an almost 3 year old, so nothing too off the wall.

Now...let's talk about Blockbuster. When we were living in Michigan during Brian's temp assignment, I went signed up for that Blockbuster Total Access. $9.99 a month for one movie at a time and you would return the movie to the store and get a free movie each time...unlimited! Well, for a number of months we weren't watching movies and it was just a waste of money so I cancelled it. Well, this past month I've rented a number of different movies for Miss K to watch. So, I thought I would reactivate my Total Access account. The same plan that I originally had for $9.99 is now $21.99! That is just totally nuts! I can get a plan for $11.99 that is one video at a time in the mail and you can return it instore twice a month for a free movie. That is just nuts! I should have never cancelled my account to begin with. Can't decide what I am going to do.

Well, I need to start my baked potatoes and get back to cleaning. Blog ya later!

Outside, Mommy. Outisde!

Isn't she a cutie? She wants to be outside ALL the time. No matter how hot it is. I coat her with sunblock and set her loose! I bought her a little pool for the backyard (that reminds me...I need to clean it out and scrub it) and she loves to be out there. I also bought her a bucket and sponges like she had at school on water day. I bought a 19 gallon bucket. She likes to sit in it and play with her "girls". The "girls" are Princess Pollypockets. We have Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White (but Kennedy insists that her name is Dopey) and Ariel. Jasmine has been hard to find, so I finally just bit the bullet and bought it off of ebay. She asks me everyday if Jasmine is here yet. I am hoping she comes in today or Saturday.

Got the cooling stand for my laptop and it has made a HUGE difference. Just wish I could attach it to the laptop so it wouldn't keep moving around.

Got a sad email last night. The scrapbook store by my house is closing. I'm really bummed. I am going up there in the morning to get a few things. Very sad. I've not been in there much lately because of the new hours.

Still irritated about the whole dance thing yesterday. And to top it all off, I had a crappy day after all that happen. We come home and K wants to watch a movie and the dang DVD player is broken. We haven't even had that stupid thing for 3 months.

Busy day today.... 1) buy new DVD player 2) laundry 3) laundry 4) laundry. I'll probably do a couple loads of laundry too. LOL I HATE LAUNDRY. I would love to have a maid who just did laundry, floors and bathrooms. Okay...I need to get my rear in gear. Blog ya later!

I have a feeling I wasted about $150...

So, I signed Miss K up for dance class. I couldn't wait for it to start. I've been telling her about it for over a month. She's been doing "ballerina" all over my house since we started talking about it. I bought her the cute little black leotard, pink tights and pink ballet slippers. She was so excited. So, today was the day class started. She was excited. She kept talking about the fact her friend "E" was going to be there. I forgot to mention...K woke up at 6:30 this morning after going to bed at 10 the night before and did not have a nap the day before either. The child will not take a nap! So, class starts at 3:30. We leave the house...it's an 8 minute drive. Three minutes into the drive she is passed out. I woke her up when we got there and she seemed fine. Time for class to start and she is a little clingy, but I convince her to hold her friend's hand and off they go. Another little girl totally flips out. Well, I think that freaked Miss K out and she started crying. They ended up having to get me to come in the room and sit with her. I finally got her calmed down. Then the other little girl flips out again and K starts crying again. At that point, I was done. I took her out, took her slippers off and we left. She told me that she didn't want to go back next week. I did manage to get a couple of photos of her before she had her nuclear meltdown. It's was so cute. You can't tell, but her hair is in a ponytail and she has this cute big black bow in her hair. Oh well. I am going to try again next week.

If you emailed me about the Vera bags, I am working on the list. I need to pull everything out and see what I have left. I had a list that I made when I first sold some of the bags, but I can't find it. I'll have the list done before the end of this weekend.

Blog ya later.

Extra Vera Bradley bags and stupid people

I've got a handful of bags that I bought that I ended up not giving away as gifts or selling to people who were originally interested in them. I thought I would see if any of my friends are interested in them before I put them on ebay. I hate messing with ebay, but I need to get these bags outta my house! So, email me if you are interested and I will let you know what bags I have.

I hate using the word stupid, but in this case, I think it is called for. So, I was driving to get my hair done this evening. I was on I-24 at 5pm, so you can figure...the traffic is getting heavy. I get behind some guy on a motorcycle. The speed limit is 7o mph. He's going like 50mph. So, I get over so that I can pass him. HE WAS TEXTING ON HIS CELL PHONE! How freaking stupid do you have to be? Lord. I got over and kept him in my review and he was steadily texting and driving. I was just waiting for him to wipe out or cause a wreck. Then...I get to the salon. There is a little boy, I would say probably 4ish running around the color room getting into everything while his mom is getting highlights and all over color. I could tell the colorist was getting irritated. The kid took the client box down and threw all the cards all over the floor. The cards that have the client names and their color listed. Then the kid was getting into chemicals and opening cabinets. They blocked out 2 1/2 hours for her and she had been there for 2 hours by the time I left and she hadn't even gotten her hair cut yet. Why in the world would she bring her child? And before anyone says maybe she is a single mom or her husband doesn't help. She even said that her husband was home with the baby and the little boy wanted to come with her and she couldn't say no. Well honey, you should have! Trust me, no one thought he was cute after the first hour. By the second hour, I am sure people were taking bets how long it would be before he hurt himself. And for the record, he did end up hurting himself because he was spinning around in one of the chairs and fell FACE FIRST onto the concrete flooring. Now, I love my child and I am a stay at home mom because I enjoy being with my child. But, I draw the line at taking her certain places. I do not take her to the doctor's office with me unless I am just going in for a weight check and it takes like 20 minutes for the appointment. I do not take my child with me to the dentist. I do not take her to the salon. Honestly, I treat these little trips as "mini mommy vacations"! And, if I can't make my appointments for when my husband is home, I will find a babysitter. Usually a friend. I also have a nanny that I can use. There are time when you need to leave the kiddos at home. Be considerate to others. Okay...off my soapbox.

I've got to get a cooling stand for my laptop tomorrow. Just another errand to add to my never ending list of stuff that never seems to get done. One of these days I will actually take sme photos and pst them on my blog. Still want that new camera.

More on my father-in-law

Well, he is going better. My MIL said that he is resting a lot and taking it easy. He has really been good about the smoking. He has not smoked since his heart attack. I just hope that he can stick with it. Now, here's the bad news. He found out on Thursday that he has prostate cancer. They can not do any treatment until he has his second heart surgery and his heart is in better condition. After they determined his heart is better, they will start radiation. The doctor told my in laws that he feels like this will not be anything that they need to worry about. I'm sorry, but I just can't not worry about cancer.

So, my husband called me from work this morning to tell me that his phone wasn't working. I asked him if he forgot to charge it. Nope, he left it in his short last night....the shorts I WASHED before I went to bed. Dang it! We need new phones, but they are not both eligable for upgrade yet. One is now and the other isn't until August. The 3rd phone isn't until November. Luckily my mom doesn't need a new phone, so we will upgrade Brian's phone now, mine in August and if my mom needs a new one, we'll get her one in November. But, I think she is happy with the phone she has now. I don't like it because it's so freakin' small, but she likes it.

I'm off...washing sheets since Miss K announced at 8:30 this morning that she wet the bed. Then I am off to "wash that gray right out of my head". Lord, don't I wish it was that easy? Probably a heck of a lot cheaper too. But I would NEVER do home color. I have the worst luck with stuff like that. So, I would most certainly end up with green hair or something like that.

A Miss K funny for the day: "Mommy, isn't Dopey beautiful in her red dress?" For some reason, she thinks that Snow White's name is Dopey. She usually does call her by the right name, but all of a sudden she has started calling her Dopey.

Blog ya later

Snip-Snip, Clip-Clip

I CHOPPED my hair off today. We are talking a bob at my chin. I'm going back on Tuesday to have my grey covered up. Getting old is expensive! I am loving my hair though. Miss K keeps asking me what happened to my hair though.

Just random stuff

**Just trying to get back in the groove after our emergency trip to Michigan. Brian's dad had a heart attack...well, a couple of heart attacks. They didn't think he was going to make it, but much to the amazement of everyone, including his doctors, he pulled through. It was a very stressful trip for us.


**I hate the weather. I hate that it is hot so early in the morning. I can not get my child to understand that we can't be outside all day long no matter how much she wants to be. And when I do take her out, she fights me on drinking water. We are meeting some friends at the Zoo tomorrow at 8 for member morning. I am hoping it won't be too hot and we can actually enjoy ourselves.


**Took my child to get a haircut this morning. It wasn't the usual screaming and crying that I am use to. But she did not want her hair "snip-snipped" as she calls it. You know, it really isn't even a haircut. All I get is her bangs trimmed. Brian would have a fit if I cut her hair. He is afraid that the curls will be gone if I cut it. And to be honest, I don't want to cut it. My mother cut my hair SHORT when I was little and I hated it. Little girls are suppose to have cute pigtails and bows.


**Going to see Sex & The City tomorrow night with one of my girlfriends. I can not wait. I really wanted to go out for Cosmos before the movie, but my friend is pregnant, so I don't think that would be fair to her.



**I want a new camera. There I said it. Brian told me not to even think about it, but it is all I can think about! I used a friend's 40D at a birthday party a couple of weekends ago and all I have to say is ...whoa. That camera ROCKS.

I've got other random stuff, but that will have to wait until I have more time. blog ya later!

One of those mommy moments

Today Miss K and I went to a "sing along" at the library close to our house. Miss Lynn, the lady who was leading the session started asking the kids questions like, "What do babies do? and Now that you are growing up, what else can you do?" Miss K turned to me and very seriously said, "Mommy, I don't want to grow up." I thought I was going to cry. I just hugged her really tight and told her I never wanted her to grow up. I can not believe that my baby is going to be 3 years old next month.

Here's a photo of my baby. This was taken at a party at Owl Creek Park on Sunday. And yes, that is sweat in her hair. My child sweats like crazy.

Lists, lists and more lists

At this point, I think I have a list of the lists that I need to make. How sad is that. I need to make a list for all the stuff to do for Miss K's birthday party. Need to make a list for stuff for our Chicago trip. Need to make a grocery list. And then I just have a million and one things that I need to do, that at the rate I am going, will never get done. I've got too many lists going and it's not working for me. I just don't know what to do. I swear, I am so unorganized. I start doing one thing and then get sidetracked

So, I am watching the hockey game and it is now in the 3rd overtime. Believe it or not, I actually wanted to go to bed early tonight because I am tired and Miss K and I are meeting some friends for storytime at the library in the morning. I don't want to be dragging in the morning like I usually am. I'm going to sit though the 3rd OT and then I am going to bed. This will give me a chance to at least get our menu made for the next two weeks and started on the grocery list. I so need to go shopping.

Blog ya later!

Happy Birthday Honey!

Today is Brian's birthday. We had a great day. He went golfing while Miss K and I went to a birthday party. We went out to dinner at Saltgrass, came home and had a Chocolate Caramel Nirvana cake from Coldstone. Oh my. Sinfully delicious! Then we spent a couple of hours hanging with our neighbors and playing with Brian's birthday present. I managed to find a Wii Fit for him. WE LOVE IT! Can't wait to spend some time figuring out all the stuff it offers. I will say this, you WILL get a workout on it.

Anyway...Happy Birthday my wonderful and amazing husband.

I know this is a goofy picture, but it is the most recent one I have of him! I so need to get better about photos this year. I don't know what happened, but I just haven't picked up the camera like I have in the past.

Betty Boop

I rescued this cutie from an awful lady on Pettus road four years ago. When she came to us, she looked like one large ball of mud, dirt and anything else you could imagine stuck in her fur. My original plan when I brought her home was to get her cleaned up and to find her a home. She ended up becoming a part of our family. She was always a quiet little dog, but she tended to be agressive. So, when we brought Miss K home from the hospital we were really concerned how she would handle it. We needed not worry because they became the best of friends. Last week Betty hurt her leg while we were visiting my inlaws in Michigan. I honestly think the leg was just one of the many things that was wrong with her. She hadn't been the same dog for the past six months. Brian was planning on taking her to the vet first thing Saturday morning because she had developed a sore of the inside of her leg. Betty passed away Saturday morning in her sleep before we were able to get her to the vet. We are devastated. How do you explain to an almost 3 year old that her puppy, her constant companion since she was a baby is not coming home? I am a very emotional person, so I've been crying on and off since Saturday morning. I went shopping with a friend and I was looking for new drapes for my dining room. I said that I didn't want to spend $100 on one panel because Betty Boop has a tendency to eat my curtains. Then I remembered that she wouldn't be chewing on my curtains anymore and I started crying in the middle of the store. I'm just very sad. I miss my puppy.

Alright my Vera Bradley loving friends... (and other ramblings)

I am headed to the big sale in Ft. Wayne this weekend. Brian and I went last year and I got some AWESOME deals. Most of the stuff that I bought was in the retired patterns, but heck...$10 for a $85 purse in a pattern that I liked worked for me. I ended up with a number of gifts. I am hoping that I am lucky enough to find the same deals this year as I did last.

So...here's the deal. I know a couple of you have asked me to get you a bag. I've got no problems with that. But I can not promise you that you will get the color you want or the bag you want. So, if you want me to pick you up a bag, email me and we will chat. We are headed out for Michigan on Thursday. We are spending the weekend with my inlaws. I actually told Brian that we could cancel the trip since the cost of gas is freaking outragous! Dang...that reminds me, I need an oil change.

I've been bad about blogging lately. I've got like 6 unpublished entries. I am going to try and post something every day in May. I am also challenging myself to take a photo every day. I seriously have taken maybe 10 photos in the last month. That is SO not like me. I've actually let a bunch of things go recently and I really need to get back on track with "life".

Let see...what else is new? I've been packing kits for J.J over at SISTV. I am really enjoying getting to meet some new friends by doing this. And getting to see the new kits before they come out is pretty cool too. I really need to get back into scrapbooking. I've got all these ideas in my head, but don't do anything with this. And let's face it....if I worked on just unfinished projects for 3 years, I probably still wouldn't get caught up! Why do I do this to myself???

Weight loss is still going well. Down almost 40 pounds now. I finally had to break down and buy a pair of shorts that fit. 3 sizes smaller than what I wore last summer. Go me! Sleep is still an issue. i am just going to have to break down and start taking the sleeping pills more often. I just hate who sluggish I feel in the morning and with Miss K and her current 'destroy the bathroom' tendencies, I need to have my wits about be at all times! That child is WILD. She is obsessed with the foamy pump soap. And the Kandoo wipes that I use for her when she goes potty. She calls them her "special box". I have no idea why. She does know that she is the only person that uses them. But she uses like 3 or 4 at a time and I usually have to go right behind her and wipe again. No pun intended there.

Well...here it is, 1:25am and I am not sleepy at all. Too late to take a sleeping pill. I think I am just going to read one of my romance novels. Yep...that's one of my guilty pleasures in life...I love to read romance novels. Thank God for the library. With the sleep issue, I've been reading one book a day some weeks. And we are trying to cut expenses, so I spend a lot of time at the library and not at the book store. Except for when it comes to Miss K. She wants to hear the same books every single night. I finally had to break down and by all the "If You Give A" books because I had checked them out from the library and renewed them the max amount of time that I could. Her favorite new book is Fancy Nancy. She calls it Fancy Fancy. I have a feeling that before long I will be buying all the books in this series too. I'm going to check them out at the library and she if she takes to them like she did this one.

Have I made this post long enough to make up for not blogging in forever and a day? Blog ya later!

Krazy Kid

So, this is the only place that my child will sit today while she is watching her "T.B" as she calls it. She has also decided that the desktop computer in the guest room is her "puter" and wants me to have the NickJr website pulled up at all time. She just likes to hear the music that is on the website. She does her "ballerina" stuff in the hallway while she listens to it. And the make believe play has really started. She was playing on her bed this morning with all her "dollies" and she was using a blanket as a gate and they all had to pass through the gate and close it when they were done. It was too funny! She's a hoot!