THRIFTY GOODIES!!!

here's a post devoted to some of the goodies i've recently scored in the past few weeks.

of course there are more, but these are my favorite!!
































and my favorite makeover story to date.

before






after





this looks sooo much better in person. silly me took it while the sun was behind the box making it look all washed out.

and what makes me love this all the more, i got the box for $0.79 with 70% off!!!

whooo hooo!!!

A WEDDING!!!

last sunday, me and mike went to another officer's wedding and it was simply stunning!!!

i'm only posting this picture of me and mike b/c i'm funny about posting pics of someone else's event without their permission.



after the wedding us and two other officer couples went to eat out at the outback.

it was a nice lil date for me and the hubbers!!!

THE PIANO MAN!!!!

pic found via google


this is an email that i sent to andrea



oh my dear billy joel.


lemme tell ya. i have waited about 15 years to see him. when we lived in cincinnati, he came and my friggin' cousin who loved him as much as me didn't even invite me to go, she went with a friend and boy was i pissed. that was my freshman year of highschool. then elton john came down here in biloxi a few years back right after 9/11 and gave a certain amount of free tickets to police/fire. so me and mike went (a lil disappointing for elton john). well the next night he was playing in jacksonville, fl i believe with billy. so i was upset again. so when i found out that he was coming close to here, i begged and pleaded the hubby to buy em. so for christmas i got em. yay!!!

well i had it all planned to bring my digital camera and did. i was so excited. i brought my zoom lense and was ready to go. the tickets said no audio/video and i called to see if it was okay to bring my camera and they said well it only says no audio/video. okay. so we are staning in line and then an announcement is made not to bring any camera of any kind. shit. so instead of taking the chance of them taking my uber expensive camera, we truck it back to the car to drop it off. but once we get inside and get seated i see flashes going off like crazy. now granted they were all using the itty bitty digis but still, i was hot to trot.

but once he came out and i boo-hoo'd like a friggin' baby, it was all good. BEST fuckin' two and a half hours i ever spent. seriously. if you ever get a chance to see him, do it. he played almost every song off his greatest hits and they sounded just like they do on the cd.
just like his song, he is quite the "entertainer".

so even though i'm disappointed that i don't have any pictures, i'm not in the fact that they are in my head (okay, that was a lil too corny, even for me ;)

i also wanted to add that he played almost every song from his greatest hits album, he is hilarious, and one of his roadies came out and sang highway to hell!


seriously folks....i still can't get over that concert and hear his songs on the radio in a completely different light now.

he was amazing.

since i couldn't bring my camera inside, i did take pictures on the way there.
























my seal of approval.

MY BDAY (A FRIGGIN' MONTH LATE!!!)

ahhh...my birthday. yes it was almost a month ago and i am just now getting a chance to post all the details.

it was a great day. the day before (sunday) we had a lil cookout and invited greta and the kiddos to come over. that is when i got to open up presents and eat my favorite spice cake for dessert.

the goodies included:

*scrappin' goodies galore
*a navagation system for my car (you have no idea how bad i need this)
*moola
*a emerald necklace
*a ruby bracelet
*koolaid pitcher and glasses
*cooking supplies
*a tether ball set (hell yeah!!)









i spotted this koolaid set in an antique shop months ago.
me and my brothers had one just like it and i contemplated
getting it for my kiddos, but didn't know if i wanted to come
off the $15. so i left it. i was telling my mom about it one
day and we decided to swing by there and see if it was still there.
it wasn't. i was cussing myself out for not getting it the first
time i was there. lo and behold, my mom was the one that bought
it for me for my bday!!!


goodies from greta


stamps from michael



then that monday, once i got to work, my desk looked like this courtesy of my boss.







and it just so happened that this is what was on the calendar for my bday:




how'd they know????


and here are some goodies that i got from my bloggin' buddies!!!


from beki





dontcha just love that owl fabric?????


from my gal pal mary ann




from aja





it was an awesome, awesome day and i can't wait till next year.

thank you all so much for all the bday love and wishes and sorry it took so long to get this posted :)

{DEEP SIGH}

another weekend is finally over. i actually shouldn't make it out like i'm glad that the weekend is over b/c i'd love to have just one more day before i go back to work, but i'm glad that last week is over. even though it was my birthday week, it was the longest week ever.
thank you so much for all the birthday wishes and i bet you guys are thinking this is going to be a birthday post, but i'm afraid i'll be disappointing you....lol.

i'm just going to catch ya up on what i did over the weekend and post pictures of the lo's i did for
the circle journals that i'm behind on {as usual}.
saturday, mike took both the kiddos to the ballfields so mikey could have baseball tryouts and me and mom ran some errands. we stopped by the scrapbooking store to pick up the lo's i submitted for design team. no, i didn't make design team, but she did ask me to be a guest designer one month and i picked july. i was a lil bummed that i didn't get picked, but i guess thats the way of letting me know that i am too busy for that right now and that maybe another time would be best. so i was excited though that i got picked as guest designer.

after that we hit a couple of thrift stores and antique stores where i made out like a bandit. i got
some of the cutest buttons, book, and games. i also got some more jars to store some things in when i get moved into the craft room.

today, mike spent the day painting out kitchen cabinets and i worked on my circle journals. i also made some thank you cards that are going out in the mail tomorrow.


andrea's journal


jenna's journal


dana's journal


thank you card


if everyone crosses their fingers that i might post more than once this work, it may work and i just might do it...lol. i don't know what has been going on with me lately, call it laziness, call it bored, i don't know, but i just haven't been in the mood to post. this creates problems for me b/c then i become overwhelmed when i do wanna post (shit, i'm gonna have a ton of catching up to do) and it makes me not document what is going on in the manna's life.

oh, on a side note, tuesday i go see billy joel in new orleans. i am so stinkin' excited i can't even stand myself. thursday is mikey's first baseball practice, and i guess thats all i can think of for now.

hope everyone had a great week.