CHICAGO HERE WE COME!!!!

look who will be headed to chicago in july for CHA?????

thats right folks.

the dynamic southern duo.

ya know, we woke up this a.m. without a thought about this in our mind. hell, even at lunch we still weren't thinking about it.

around two the thoughts began.

at four it was all set.

TWO HOURS!!!

the wonderfully fab simone has graciously offered to let us two wack-a-doos stay at her house.

we are going to get the opportunity to meet all sorts of fabulous gals and we are "beside ourselves about it" (ala dan conner from "roseanne" when he expresses his joy for jackie going to the police academy for six weeks. veronica, i know you are rollin' at this point :)

the plane tickets are being booked as we speak.

i am still in udder shock aobut this. like i can't believe this is happening.

this is so what i needed.

okay, so who else will be there?

eeeeeeeeek!

i'm so friggin' excited :)

oh, and i will be drawing a name on friday evening for the goodie package.

thanks to all you fabulous people who left such awesome comments in the past post.

good to know that people care what i spew outta my mouth and the rest of the going ons in my boring life :)

much love to ya all.

ANY LURKERS OUT THERE????

here lately, in my time away from posting (yeah, i know, but life has gotten in the way) i've wondered how many people stop by here on a regular basis that have never posted a comment before.

so with that, i ask all the lurkers to come outta lurkdom and tell me why it is you visit "my lil space".

even the regulars....tell me why it is you stop by here.

all that comment on this post, will have their names scratched on a piece of paper and i will draw a name and send that extremely lucky person a lil goodie.

ya'll know a lot (probably too friggin' much) about me, so let me learn something about you :)

NOTHIN' TO REPORT BUT SOME RANDOM PHOTOS & A CRAZY OBSESSION!!!

things are still hectic, so i leave with you some random photos.


bella as a messy princess.


mikey discovers that he can make dogs with legos.


a kinda recent photo of "the house".

ya know, i got a wonderful magazine today from sundance catalog. upon having some "quiet-time" in the bathroom {wink wink} i noticed the back cover. it was an old pick up truck filled with these wonderful embroidered pillows for each of the states.

i gasped!!!!

I.MUST.HAVE.THESE.

oh wait. they're $155 EACH!!!!

okay, maybe i won't have them, but the idea of having one for each state that me and michael have lived in is still tempting.

i guess that is until i figured out how much that would be.

lets see.....we would need a pillow for...

wisconsin
alaska
ohio
tennessee
georgia
florida
& mississippi

thats 7 x $155= hold on, lemme break out the calculator.....okay, $1085.00. so like i said, i won't be owning these pillows.

but look at how great they are:



but the point of all of this, is it made me realize how much i am obessed with the states.

*i love those old-kitchy style postcards from prolly the 50's that have the states on them with lil pictures and stuff. i bought two posters that had all 50 states on them at hobby lobby so i could cut them up for crafty stuff. yes, i said two.

*i keep telling michael that i want one of those book-thingies for kids that have a big ol brad in the corner and you can slide out the cards and they have facts on each state.

*i'd like to visit each and every state one day

*i love looking at those sticker maps that people put on the back of their rv's that show all the states they have driven to.

*love looking at state tags. used to play that game in the car all the time when we traveled.

*i pride myself on knowing the majority of the state capitals (i used to know all of them, but that is when i was at school).

case in point: one day, my mom, her at the time husband, michael, my cousin, and myself were playing scattegories and the letter on the die was "F" and one of the catagories was state capitals.

i had this in the bag. i was so excited that i was the only one that knew that frankfurt was the capital of kentucky that i was shaking. i purposely let everyone have their turn so i could be the victor (i am usually this way with ALL games i play...sad i know).

when it got to my turn, i proudly shouted frankfurt!!

everyone laughed at me.

frankfurt is not the capital of kentucky. frankfurt is the capital of germany. lexington is the capital of kentucky they all shouted.

oh no its not i shouted back. and when i mean shouted, i mean shouted. i was pissed at this point.

so i got my fat ass up, marched into my brother's bedroom, grabbed the "K" encyclopedia, opened it up to kentucky and found where it said "capital: frankfurt". i then pounded...errr...marched my way back into the living room (where everyone was still having a good laugh at my expense might i add) and took that open book and shoved in front of everyone's face all the while screaming "frankfurt", then to the next person "frankfurt" until i showed each person.

i ended it with an "i quit!!!" and that was that.

so yes, i know i'm a wack-a-doo but if i say frankfurt is the capital of kentucky, its the capital of kentucky god damn it!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY BABY!!!

happy fathers day to the best daddy i know!!!!!



here are the goodies he received:



a green bay jersey with his name and badge number on it.


a acordion style album to go on his desk at work.

i also made him eggs, toast, and blueberry muffins for breakfast and i have a yummy dinner in store for him also.

happy fathers day baby.

we luv u!!!

BDAY & BABY SHOWER PRESENTS!!!

yesterday, i finally got to give greta her bday present. this is the surprise that i have been working on last week. i couldn't wait to give it to her.

i made her a scrapbook of all of the "us" pictures that we take. we take "us" pictures (whether we take them ourselves or have someone else take them) pretty much everywhere we go together.

next i'll have to make one for myself :)


her card

































after i gave greta the album, we headed over to a friend's baby shower. we got her a baby bathtub full of goodies and made her some handmade goodies.

i of course forgot to take a picture of the baby wreath and christmas ornament i made her (darn it!!).

but here is a wreath that resembles the one i made. i make these for all my preggo friends to hang on the hospital room door.



i then made her this card and gift tag







those as you can see, this explains why i have been so busy lately :)

I'M STILL HERE!

no folks, i didn't fall off the bloggin' bandwagon, just been uber busy with work, picking out stuff (i.e paint colors, carpet, tile, sinks, tubs, etc.) for the new house (EXHAUSTING!!!), and the every day waiting on three people stuff.

nothing too exciting to post. off to finish working on a surprise for someone i {heart} oh so much.

so i'll leave ya with some photos of myself.
because after all.
this blog is all about me.
and i really like these shots.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

happy 36 to the man of my dreams.

i love you baby.

GRRRRRR!!!

if i have one more "fuck you" contest with some fat ass hick named bubba while driving to work, i'm moving.

?????????

where the heck is everyone at????

is everyone outside enjoying the summer weather and not on their computer?

i have hardly any blogs to check or comments to respond to ;)

FOR THOSE OF YOU WONDERING WHY I'M SO OBSESSED ABOUT SAVING MOOLA!!!

this is it!

whoooooo-haaaaa! i'm so excited about this house, i can't even stand myself!

you can even see some guys working on it. hope they didn't wonder who the freak was that was stopped in the middle of the road taking a pic of them working....teehee!

MIKEY'S FIRST TROPHEY!!!

i wanted to post this yesterday, but i haven't had a telephone or internet access since friday afternoon. grr....finally its back up.

friday was closing ceremonies for mikey's t-ball league. due to the fact that it was raining, they had to hold them at the highschool gym. it was a lil chaotic, but it was nice.

all the members of the team got a trophey and mikey got presented with the "sportsmanship award" for his team. his coach told me that mikey deserved it. he never complained, he always did what he was told, he went out and played, and always behaved. i felt very proud of my bug for receiving this award.







then on saturday, mikey's coaches threw a lil pizza party at the park/ballfield for the team. we had fun.

of course i wanted to bring something and of course it had to be cute. so i got some knock off oreo cookies, melted some white chocolate candy discs and dipped the cookies in it. i then did the lines with red frosting. i wish i would have done the lil dashes for em, but i didn't think about it till it was too late. i'll have to remember these for the future.



me and the kiddos had fun swinging. bella still doesn't grasp the whole legs out, legs in thing when she's swinging, but she will one day.







now that t-ball is over, i wonder what sporty adventure that we will get into next?

DOMESTIC BLISS!!!

note: this post is being typed with the smell of homemade chocolate cookies with chocolate/caramel pieces being baked....not to make anyone jealous or anything ;)

first, i wanna say a huge THANK YOU to all those who sent their recovery vibes to my hubby. that means A LOT to me!!! he's doing better today and getting better on the crutches. its been a long three days (for both him and me!!!).

okay, on to the domestic bliss.

ya know, in the past two weeks, i have been off an additional five days (sick two days, memorial day holiday, and then mike's surgery). in that time i have been busting my ass getting stuff done. stuff that really should have already been done, but none the less.

this is a break down of some of the things i have gotten done in the past week. (seeing it in print always makes me feel oh so accomplished!):

*paid bills (finally!)
*did about seven loads of laundry
*swept the kitchen floors
*made sure that a not a dish lurked in the kitchen sink
*cleaned my shower
*organized my scrapbooking stickers (as best as possible)
*cleaned off my dresser (boy was this a feat!)
*organized my jewelry by designating two of my dresser drawers as "jewelry boxes". i put lil organizers in there and have everything nice and tidy.
*cleaned my bedroom (still have to work on my scrap corner
*cleaned off the computer desk
*made sure that the kiddos kept their rooms clean (yaaayyy!)
*vacuumed the floor
*returned some overdue (by a week) books to the library. i even took them inside so i could pay the fines.
*finally made it to the post office to mail off v's pkg.
*deposited some moola into the bank.

there are still a ton of things that need to be done, but that feels oh so good to look at.

i've also been thinking alot, and i mean alot, on how we spend our money. me and michael are very much "if you want it, buy it kinda people". we have got to stop being these kind of build.

we are building a new house folks (which i have got to get pictures off. i went today and started to cry when i stepped foot on my new, huge, beautiful porch. this house is already amazing). but anywho....

so, i've been scouring the web and blogs for ideas on saving money (if anyone is interested in some of these blogs, lemme know...they're full of great information). i've thought of things we could cut to save money. now i'm not talking crazy things like satellite tv or anything, i'm talking more the eating out all the time, tanning, and spending on foolish items. these are some of the things that i have started to do:

*i'm going to see how long i can go without going to the grocery (cept for milk and bread). i have enough food in my house to feed a small country. this is not an exaggeration. i have a stand up freezer, the freezer next to the fridge, and a huge pantry filled to the brim. its so not neccesary for me to go to the grocery store again.

*i've contacted my phone company and got a better deal on my monthly bill and got $10 off my directv bill. i am also getting a $25 visa gift card.

*sent off for a few rebates. i mean i actually got them in the mail and not let them just sit around and expire.

*i've decided that money saved from coupons, rebates, etc. will automatically go in the savings acct.

*packing lunch is a must

*whenever possible, a gift will be made, not store bought (i mean c'mon, hobby lobby resides in my bedroom :)

*learn new things to cook

these are just a few of the things and i am super excited about it. i think i am going to make it a challenge to me. turn it into a game, and i'm a playa.

okay, onto the cooking. i've been cooking like ca-razy!



this is a loaf of oatmeal molasses batter bread. thanks to nic for the recipe. this is a very quick and delicious bread. good with butter or even a sandwich. i was very nervous about making this as anything that involves getting yeast and lukewarm water right is a struggle for me. this is a must try.



now these i made on my own. i don't know how i feel about them. they are pot stickers filled with cherry pie filling. now the reasons i made these are as follows: i had to use up these pot sticker things and i had some great fried cherry pie thing at the gas station up the street. these prolly would have turned out better if i used a dough instead of a pasta. i both fried and baked some of these. i hate frying for the smell it leaves in the house so i only did one batch.

i ended up throwing a bunch away. not b/c they weren't good, but b/c they got soggy. so i will def. try again with a dough and see how that goes. they were better right outta the oven with powder sugar on top.

i don't have a picture of the zucchini muffins or the banana walnut muffins i made.
i found a recipe on the weight watchers message boards. they are a low fat recipe of course and they are super duper good. if anyone is interested, let me know and i'll email/post the recipe. but right now i think this post is long enough now.

oh, and i also made these great italian stuffed zucchini (can't ya tell i had a few laying around that needed to be eaten?). i was sceptical but these were so farkin' good. seriously. you can find the recipe here.

cannot wait to move into the new house and have a garden to make plenty of that.

well, i guess that's it for now. sorry for the long post about nothing, but i have been so happy in my domestic bliss despite the fact that i have been non-stop since tuesday.

again, thanks to everyone for your wonderful words regarding michael!!!!