MIKEY'S BDAY PARTY!!!!!

i'm finally able to post about mikey's bday party (for the second time since friggin' aol booted me off...now lets see if i can remember everything that i typed).

mikey and all the wee lil pirates had a blast. and as anyone who has ever thrown a birthday party before, we all know that a happy bday bug and parents mean it was quite the success.

the guest list included:

the birthday boy
bella
mason
melana
aubrey
noah
ian
cody
orion
angela
and of course all the lil pirates' parents (mine included!)

we were also super excited to the fact that mikey's uncle buddy was in town and was able to celebrate with us.

there were plenty of splashes in the pool, tattoos given, treasures hunted, pirate cake-n-icecream, and tons and tons of presents.

take a look for yourself.


the cake. when i purchased this cake, it was actually for a duck hunter. i took off the phoney looking duck and "ducks unlimited" sign and threw on jack sprat. now bad eh?

the party locale. mom's backyard couldn't have been a more perfect place for this party.

now ya'll know darn good and well that i had to take the infamous "me and mike self portrait".

the wee pirates splashin' around.

more splashin....looks like someone may be getting ready to walk the plank.

the bday boy.

the birthday pirate has to walk the plank.

me, my bro buddy, and mom

lets eat!

look at all that loot!

mikey and uncle buddy.

who wants cake? hmmm...is anyone even noticing the cake in this picture? ;)

make a wish!

three amigos enjoying cake and icecream.

it feels soooo good to know that i don't have to plan another bday party for another 8 months....that is unless i decide to throw myself a "holy shit, i only have one more year in my 20's" party...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

WELL.....

...after the potential buyers extended the closing date again by another week on tuesday, they cancelled on us yesterday.

a month and a half has been wasted with these people and now i have about two to three months to sell it before my new house is finished or....well, i don't even wanna think about or.

we moved out of the current house and in to mom's over the weekend (thinking that these fuckers were going to do the final walk thru on tuesday) so now i will be paying for an empty house.

so needless to say, the past 18 hours have been spent crying, smoking, drinking some beer, and being plain ol depressed.

i wish i could just go to sleep and not wake up till this was all taken care of.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY BUG!!!

well, today is my bug-a-boo's 7th birthday.

i can't believe that we have been lucky enough to have this little guy be our lives for seven years already.

saturday is his pirate party and i can't wait (and he can't either).



since we're moving and all, me being betty crocker was not an option this year. so i improvised on the cake.

he didn't care at all.

happy birthday bug man, i love ya more then life itself!

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY.....

...i was sitting in a hotel room in tallahassee, florida with the two kiddos and my mom wondering what kinda of destruction was going on at home.
wondering if my husband was alive.
wondering if the police department i work for was still standing.
wondering if all my fellow co-workers (aka friends) were okay.
wondering when i would get to talk to my husband.
wondering what i was going to see when i got back.
wondering if i still had a home to go to.
wondering if i was going to be able to explain all of this to my kids.

i sat in that hotel room for over 24 hours with a knot in my stomach and tears brimming in my eyes while i constantly dialed phone numbers over and over again to be told by a machine that lines were down and i couldn't get through.

i sat trying to keep my kids occupied, while trying to answer their questions.

i sat watching the weather channel and cnn feeling as if i would throw up every time they showed pictures of home.

i sat.

then, late tuesday night (the 30th), i finally got a text from michael letting me know that he was okay.

that everyone was okay. i have never cried like that in my life. shortly after i got the phone call that i waited all that time for. i heard his voice. i knew he was okay. i got to hear that everyone else was okay and that i was very blessed to have my house be okay.

the next morning we hit the road. i couldn't drive fast enough. i still had the knot in my stomach. i didn't know what i was going to see when i got home. i had no idea that gas was going to be like gold. that water was going to be like gold. that i wouldn't be able to drive down roads b/c they were blocked by trees. i had no idea of the stench that had taken over the coast.

i didn't know that when i pulled into the parking lot of the police department that wednesday that it would look like a war zone. officers (aka every day heroes who are my friends) would be filthy and exhausted. the vehicles in the parking lot would have tree limbs on them. the pd is just a block from the beach. but still, i wasn't prepared for the sand in the parking lot. when i pulled up with my mom and kids in tow (b/c after all, this was the first stop i made as soon as i pulled into town), i saw the major (aka the boss) and a captain by one of the back doors. they looked horrible. purely exhausted. i asked them where mike was and was told that he was in his office. i couldn't park and get outta my car fast enough. this has got to be what military wives feel like when they finally get to see their husband after not knowing if they were going to come home or not. i ran to michael and cried. i cried so hard i couldn't breathe.

one year ago today, i had no idea how everyone's life on the gulfcoast of mississippi would be changed forever.

say your prayers for those that have lost loved ones and say your prayers for those who are still trying to rebuild their homes and their lives. b/c they need it.

for those that didn't read my blog last year at this time, you can find a post and pictures here and here.

MIKEY'S BDAY PARTY INVITE!!!

last year, mikey was supposed to have a pirate birthday party, but due to katrina hitting five days before his party, we weren't able to have it.

so he decided (okay, maybe i swayed it a little) that he would have his pirate party this year.

i'll post a picture of all the pirate goodies later, but i wanted to post the invites i made. the stamps on the envy came from stampin' up and i simply love them.





his party will be complete with a treasure hunt, pirate music, and a good time in the pool.

on another note, i wanted to thank everyone for the kind words in the last post. things are a lil smoother now and we should close on the house next tuesday (still keep them fingers crossed). i will just be so glad when all of this is said and done.

*smooches*

I NEED EVERYONE TO....

cross your fingers, cross your toes, cross your legs, cross your arms, and hell, cross your boobs if you got em and you're that talented.

i think i may have mentioned before (i'm not sure) that we had a bite on your current house and that closing on it would be at the end of the month.

well....

i don't know which staircase these potential buyers climbed up on to get outta hell, but they arrived right to my doorstep. i'm not going to get into all the nitty-gritty due to being tired of thinking and talking about it, but lets just say that today they are going to make their decision as to whether or not they are going to back outta the deal.

of course this is a fuckin' week before we are supposed to close.

can you believe this?????

i have never dealt with more picky assholes as these people. they have also accused us of being fraudulent and liars.

seriously, i don't know how much more i can handle.

why not cancel myself you ask? b/c since i have wasted a month on these fuckers, i want their earnest money that they put up.

so if these people back out (which i have a feeling they will) then we will have to start all over and i have about two and a half months to get rid of this damn place before my other house is finished.

feel my pain yet???

if not, maybe this will help.

tuesday evening on the way home, me and mike discovered this whistling sound coming from my car. it kinda went away, no biggie. wednesday a.m. while i am driving the kids to school, i get down the block and my car is shaking violently. lo and behold, the driving shaft is out. so not only did i need four new tires on the car, an oil change, and new brake pads on the rear of the car, i need a new driving shaft (whatever the fuck that is). so now my car is in the shop and i'm looking at a $1800 (yeah, thats right) mechanic bill.

now ya feel it????

MAIL GOODIES!!!!

i participated in amber's super cool crafty swap and let me tell you that i had the best partner.

EVER!!!

andrea spoiled me rotten. this girl got me down pact. you would have thought that we have been friends forever with all the wonderful goodies that she sent me.

now don't be jealous :)


a prima jar filled with all sorts of fabulousness!


where oh where did she get those bingo tokens that have letters on them? eeeeek!


cigar tins. one which she decorated and one plain that she left for me to decorate. both were filled with goodies (which i forgot to photograph).


this is friggin' awesome and i cannot wait to use it.


and a stack of the most *amazing* paper in all shades of blue. she also sent this license plate paper with a note that said since i know all the state capitals. i think i am going to use that paper to scrap that story on.

thanks again andrea. i am so sorry that it took so long to praise you with this post but i know you understand. i'm so glad that you had me. i have enjoyed reading your blog and have found a new friend.

*smooches*

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on a different note, i did a lil swapping with anna-maria and she sent me this ka-yute tin filled with piles of aussie candy goodness.

thank you so much anna. i promise your package is going out shortly :)

HAPPY 7 YEARS BABY!!!

today is mine and michael's seven year anniversary!!!

we didn't really do anything to celebrate it. we're busy getting everything ready to get outta this house (which would explain why i have fallen off the bloggin' earth). we did however, after the kiddos went to bed, sit on the porch where mike surprised me with a glass of wine and we watched a lightning storm.

wow! seven years. its been a wonderful ride baby.

here's to 7x7x7x7x7x7 more.

i love you more then life itself.

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on a side note, i've been reminded by my father-in-law today {waves hand wildly} that i haven't blogged in about two weeks. so i thought he might enjoy seeing some pics of the new house. they started the bricking yesterday and are more then halfway done. our builder (who is also our neighbor in the new 'hood and lives right across the street) stopped us when we left and told us it should be done by tuesday. here's hoping that it doesn't rain.


front of the house


the first set of windows you see on the (l) side are in my craft room. middle window is in guest room/future nursery, far window (r) side is in the guest bathroom.


window to the left is garage. window on the right is mikey's room.


front shot of the porch. very far (l) photo is mikey's room, middle window is dining room, and again you see the craft room window.


garage window with a good shot of the brick.


soldier design.


more brick. god, i love this brick and am glad i went with my gut :)


garage shot. in this shot to the far left kind of, you can see mike's work space and then kind of behind that is the storage area. this is also a two car garage.


back of the house. this is the garage. window you see ot the left is bells'a bedroom.


back of the house. far (l) window is master bedroom. then you see french doors from the master bedroom to the porch, middle windows are living room, another set of french doors from the morning room to the porch, last set of windows are in morning room.


full shot of of porch. the very last window you see on the left is in the master bath.


back again.


master bedroom side of house.


good shot of front porch. can you believe the size of that thing. yowzers!!! i cannot wait to be rocking on that thing.


and a brick shot (this is mostly for greta ;)

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i know you guys (is there anyone still around?) expected a better post since i have been gone for so long and i promise that soon there will be, but we close on the house that we are in now at the end of the month and i am going through seven years of shit trying to get things cleaned out and packed. plus, we'll be living with my mom for about two months until the beauty above is finished. so needless to say, i have been busy. plus my bug-a-boo started school last week and i'll have pics of that soon.

i've have received some awesome mail lately and i promise to post about that tomorrow.

hope everyone is having a lovely august (and are not melting) and i will try to sneak in some time to check more blogs.

i miss you all madly.

*smooches*

I'VE MOVED!!!!

that's right folks.

i decided to make the move to typepad.

so update your bloglines and your links.

you can find me here now.

*smooches*

ADIOS FOR NOW!!!

alright everyone....tomorrow i'm off for cha so this is the last post till i get back. i'll have ton of pictures and ton of catching up to do i know.

i also will be posting pics of the awesome pkg. that kim sent me for the apron swap. if you simply can't wait until then, she's posted pics on her blog. this apron was friggin' amazing. the stitchwork...holy cow!

okay everyone, pray to the ear gods that my ear clears up before i step foot on that plane and that me and greta don't get into too much trouble while we're gone ;)

*smooches*

OUTTA THE MOUTH OF BABES!!!!

while at chili's tonight for dinner (which is a complete treat btw....well it is for the family, i'm there with greta or the major about once a week) mikey was playing his gameboy and bella was coloring while we waited for our food.

a conversation started between big mike and her over what she was doing.

bella said something about her coloring that i missed.

and mike said : well excuse you (in a sing songing smarty voice)

and bella yelled: i didn't fart!!!


damn i shoulda wrote it down while we were there.

greta, where is that pocket protector and pen i keep saying i'm going to carry around on me????

THE TOOTH FAIRY WILL BE MAKING A VISIT TONIGHT!!!

when i took the kiddos to the dentist a few weeks ago for their 6 mos. appt., we found out that mikey had to have a few teeth pulled.

i about cried. my poor baby got my farked up mouth of teeth.

when i was his age, i had six teeth pulled at the same time. one of those teeth (the front one) never came down b/c it was in my gums sideways instead of straight up and down. so when i was about in the fourth grade, i had braces placed on my teeth. i then had oral surgery to have a bracket placed on the tooth still in the gum and a chain (just like a necklace chain) was connected to the bracket on the tooth and the wire on my braces. everytime i went to the orthodonist, then snipped the chain, grabbed the pliers, and got to town yankin' on that damn tooth to get it to turn around and come down straight.

to this day, i still get teary-eyed and white knuckled when i go to the dentist.

mikey didn't seem to scared or worried. he was more worried about how much the tooth fairy is going to leave him.

he was back for a few minutes and then popped out full of gauze and with his three teeth (two of the teeth were like fused together). i about threw up when i saw the teeth. i can't believe how long they were.

so mikey has spent his day playing on the computer all day and eating icecream for meals. he's already to go to bed and wake in the morning to check out his loot.

check out the new grin.


and the nasty teeth...ewwww!

WHEW! THE APRON IS DONE!!!

nothing like waiting until the last minute to work on a swap package. this of course is nothing against the swap itself, just that i've been a busy gal.

so i had another love/hate relationship with my sewing machine but luckily it ended in love. damien rice and dave matthews were who got me thru the whole thing.

but i have to say that i love the way the apron turned out.

i also altered a lil chunky notebook to go with. of course there are other goodies, but i haven't taken a picture of the whole sha-bang yet.

if you haven't noticed, the package has a whole polka-dot theme going on (you know me, i love a theme :)





tomorrow i'll post some more exciting things.

hope ya'll had a great weekend.

and for those going to cha....only 11 more days.

WHOOOOO-HAAAAAAA!

HAPPY (BELATED) 4TH!!! picture heavy

hope everyone had a wonderful 4th filled with grilled meat, mayo-laden salads, plenty of red, white, and blue snacks, and fireworks.

we had a day filled with the above (minus the mayo-laden salads) but a few games of scattagories and texas hold em in its place. we went over to mom's and spent the afternoon there and then let the kiddos do sparklers once it was dark.

we had fun but hated to have to come home and go to bed so we could go to work/school the next day (blech).









before we arrived at mom's though, we decided to stop by the new house to let the kiddos get out and look around.

of course i got some pictures for your viewing pleasure.


front of house


brick


bella in her room


mikey in his room


french doors


my closet....look at all that space.


the craft room.


me in my craft room


cathedral ceiling in living room.


front porch

hope ya'll are having a good week. i haven't been able to cruise around many blogs, but i hope to do some catching up tomorrow :)

*hugs*

UGH!!!

ya know, i spent about an hour and a half last night working on what i think is the worst lo i have ever done. know that i'm not posting this on here for pity and comments that let me know that it's okay.

i'm posting it as a reminder of the way that *i* scrap. i spent a good part of yesterday surfin' around scrappin' blogs, message boards, and the famous scrappers bloggers.

the "in" things seems to be cluttered pages. now i don't mean that as something bad b/c i love the look. its pages with a lot of embellishments on them and i think they look fab.

i however, can not accomplish this. the only way i would be able to accomplish this look is if i totally scraplift someone 100% (and i am so not into scraplifting at all really. then i can't claim the creativity as my own thats all).

so after i did all my surfin around, i sketched some lo ideas and thought that i was going to go home last tonight and get to scrappin'. i would have lo's completed in minutes (not hours) and i was going to have a great start to my "all about me" album.

shit, was i wrong. this lo is not even one of the sketches that i did. i was a photo i wanted to use b/c i love it so much. i love the flash mark on my face. i love how you can still see my eyes and eyelashes. i love the ghosty look to the whole shot. heck, i love it so much, its my avatar for crying out loud.

okay, so i had the photo and looking at the photo i knew that i wanted to do a black and white lo. i also wanted to use some heidi swapp rub ons i had.

i thought it was going to be a breeze.

wrong.

like i said, and hour and a half later, i felt like all i accomplished was a waste of supplies.

i did however learn a lesson. i am a simple scrapbooker. i will always be a simple scrapbooker. my lo colors will always match. i will always want clean lines. there will always be a good embellishment/paper space ratio.

i just have to accept that is my style and that i can continue to admire those styles that are different.

okay, so here is what all the fuss is about. keep in mind that the shot is a lil dark. the paper (aside from the inking on the sides) is stark white.