WEEKEND RECAP!!!

friday

**after i dropped the kiddos off at daycare, i was able to come home and have the house to myself for 2 hours of pure bliss before i had to pre*register bella for kindergarten (sniff sniff).

i wish i could start every day like that.

**once i got to work i worked (ha!!)

**had lunch with friends and on the way backed stopped at the lss to pick up some new bampop.

**shared gummy lifesavers with two of my fave people at work (drew/kerry)

**came home and fixed dinner (yummy homemade french bread pizza)

**michael went in to work for some overtime

**made homemade apple/cinnamon muffins for breakfast the next day

**cleaned out my coupon box

**clipped a buttload more coupons (while watching sex in the city)

**thought about my grocery list and menu for the upcoming week

**fell asleep to murder she wrote (as usual)

saturday

**got up early, made my grocery list, had coffee and above muffin and headed to the grocery store (i have mentioned how much i love this right?!? no sarcasm, i'm serious)

**saved almost $50 with coupons and got some items for FREE....whoo*haaa!!!

**b/c of this savings i bought myself "juno" and the kiddos "alvin and the chipmunks"

**used nothing but the reusable bags that walmart sells for my groceries. that felt so awesome!!! i should now have enough to where i don't have to bring home another plastic bag for the rest of my life!!! they were also handing out free ones for earth day. oh and flower cards for the kiddos to plant.

**came home, unloaded everything and off the boys went for hair cuts.

**had to leave to go pick michael up his truck broke down. boy that was an ordeal and required us to go down the street from where his car was (20 minutes from home) to get the right tools. finally it started.

**raced home to head to the ball fields for mikey's baseball practice. they had an extra practice b/c they are still undefeated and they are going to play the toughest team tomorrow night.

**came home, made dinner, and watched it while watching alvin and the chipmunks.

**michael went off for more overtime and the kiddos and i fell asleep watching movies that bella and i had rented earlier in the day.


sunday

**got up early and started some chores (grrrrr!)

**mikey and i loaded up our own recycling bins and brought down to the local recycling center. that felt awesome!!!!! we had fun pitching the cans in the holes and throwing the newspapers where they belong. now i have fresh empty cans ready to be filled.

**took the kiddos to go get their pic taken at a local volunteer department from when we donated some moola to them a few months back for a new station. i can't wait to get the pic back next week. i don't have any picks like that of them together.



**spent both lunch and dinner here. we've been spending many meals here before it gets too hot.

**laundry

**aside from my tomatoes, got the garden ready:






i'm growing: tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, egg plant, carrots, lettuce, red/green peppers. figure i got all the main componants to a salad :)




**added more stuff to my compost bin. got this bad boy at sams a few weekends ago and i'm tickled "green" about it. i just hope that i'm doing everything right and that i get some good compost in the new month or so.



**discovered more blackberries growing on the tree that we got last year that i thought for sure would be dead.




**these are wild berries of some sort. i don't know if they are black or raspberry but i hope they do produce some fruit for us to nosh on.




**another discovery....is this wheat???? this is in an area where we had a birdfeeder that fell to the ground, so all that seed was planted. i also discovered some sunflowers in this mix and hope that i can dig those up and plant more toward the back of our property.


**michael and mikey planted our lime and lemon trees. if anything produces fruit, i hope its these two bad boys.









**we celebrated fritz's 1st bday!!! it was last sunday and i missed it, so we celebrated this sunday.





**cooked chicken for another dinner this week.

**made spaghetti sauce to jar and freeze for meals in the future.

**grilled out and ate dinner outside....yum*may!!!

**ate some cookies that i made earlier for dessert.

**played a game of candy land with the kiddos

**read em two books

**now i'm bloggin'



see what my weekends are like???

this has been pretty much every weekend for the past two months or more. and this doesn't include the two-four loads of dishes, the 6+ loads of laundry, hitting the net for freebies and coupons, updating my netflix queue, blah blah.

but my weekends have to be like this b/c my weeks look like this....

week of 21-27 april 08

**monday: baseball game

**tuesday: back to the ball field for baseball pictures to be taken

**wednesday: bday party

**thursday: another ball game

**friday: michael works over time

**saturday: bday party in mobile at the mobile bear's

**sunday: chores and get pic that was taken this sunday

whew!!

hope y'all enjoyed your weekend and got a lot done too (b/c if i'm busy as shit, so the hell should everyone else ;)

COMPLETELY ADDICTED!!!!

i have been listening to these two non-stop since monday morning. well actually i should say sunday night when michael and i saw the movie and i immediately downloaded the soundtrack.

anyway, they are the only ones i have listened to in the car, at work, you name it. i'm listening to them right now. actually i'm prolly singing a lil too loud. hope no one walks by :)

i hear they are going on tour and i can only hope that they come close.


aside from that i've been addicted to.....

*the making of my garden

*going to mikey's baseball games and paying him $10 for every homerun he hits (i'm going broke :)

*noel's treehouse kit

*face book. why the hell did it take me so long to join this??? let me know if you're on there and i'll add you as a friend :)

*the idea of scrapping a lot this weekend. and i mean A LOT!!!

*getting ready to go grocery shopping (i LOVE grocery shopping)

hope y'all have a great weekend and let me know if you like my new friends :)

I AM SOOOOO COMPLETELY HONORED!!!

the ever fab*boo maryann has featured good morning sunshine on indiependence.

how awesome is that???


thank you so much maryann :)

for those of you out there that still remember me, know that i did not fall off the face of the earth just have been busier then ever!!

i'm so behind on posts and what has been going on in my life that its just plain ridiculous. i do plan on getting some pics uploaded from my bday (um yeah....a month and a half later) and some other things that have been going on.

but to fill you in a little bit....

*i haven't scrapped in almost 2 months (aarghah! the horror!)
which completely sucks b/c i haven't had a change to participate in the scrap your crap challenge, the past few noel challenges, and all the other ones out there :( i really need to get back into this b/c i can tell when i haven't done it. any of you other scrappers like that?

*baseball season has started

*birthday parties are in full swing and there are quite a few on our calendar

*i'm still researching this whole gardening thing

*work is crazy busy and i can't even believe that i'm able to blog right now

*bella will be graduating from preschool in a lil over a month :(

*st. patrick's day parade resulted in goodies and a major sunburn (boy did it hurt!)

*easter was fun but came entirely too fast

*spending time with the kiddos and the hubby which is always a blast

*READING, READING, READING, READING...i can't quite put the books down
and for those of you don't know about good reads you should really check it out. lemme know if you join and i'll add ya as a friend.

*got the most awesome box of stuff from noel mignon including the new kit-apple blossom which is just gorgeous.


so those are just a few of the things that have been keeping me busy.

and for those of you that think that i don't wanna read what has been going on with you please know that is not the case. i really can't get on the net much at work anymore and by the time i get home i'm so busy i really don't have a chance to hop at home.

but know that i love each and every one of y'all especially if you are still around to read this :)

SAY IT AIN'T SO.....

i'm officially the big three*oh!
eeek!


i keep telling myself that its really not official until 5:10 tonight....lol.

i'll be back tomorrow to show all the wonderful goodies that i have received in the mail this past week and a recap of this past weekend.

off to look in the mirror to see if any new wrinkles have developed {wink}

*THANK YOU*

thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the comments sending your thoughts and love. you have no idea how much that meant to me. i'm feeling better now but still worry about some others.

((((big hugs))))
to each and every one of you!
*mwah*

i uh, i've been away longer than i had intended, but sometimes life throws something at you completely and totally unexpected. something so gut wrenching, you wonder if you will ever be the same again. something that makes you realize that the people you work with are family. and that even though they can piss you off, you will need to lean on them one day. b/c they are the ones that understand the most the pain you are going thru. i'm the lucky one though b/c michael is also a coworker and understands the pain. and i only hope that in these past five days i have been there for all of them as well.

it makes you realize that maybe God and church could do ya some good b/c you are also going to need to lean on Him a little bit more than you ever thought.

NOW THAT'S MUSIC TO MY EARS!!!

in the past few days i've been hooked on this chick: sarah slean. not only is she drop dead gorgeous, her voice.....major swoonage :)

actually the first time i heard her was on dawson's creek (for those of you that don't know, i'm completely hooked on dawson's creek. but only the season's when pacey and joey were together. oh that damn pacey! {deep sigh}. but anyway for any other fans out there, its on season three, the episode where they have the anti prom and pacey asks joey to dance. just thinking about it makes me all weepy.

anywho!

back to sarah, right now i'm listening to her and i have a lil itsy bitsy bar of battery left on my ipod and i've been listening to this song back to back all day!! better get the ipod rejuiced :)

I'D LOVE TO BE ABLE TO EMAIL YA BACK!!!

this isn't much of a post but when i saw this on jenn's blog i knew i had to post it here.

here is a tip for all you blogger users out there that show up as noreply-comment@blogger.com in my mailbox when you leave a comment.

c'mon girls and guys click here. i wanna email ya back when ya leave a comment.

more scrappiness and other schtuff later :)

back to entering overtime into my db!!!

WHICH STATE IS SURROUNDED BY CIRCLES AND IS HIGH IN THE MIDDLE???

OHIO!!!

i have a love for all things state related. don't know where it came from. think it started when i learned the state capitols and pride myself on knowing most them still (however, i'm becoming a lil rusty so i think a study session is in order. you think i'm kidding. i'm not :)

anyway, so when i saw that there was a state atc swap going on over at sis i had to jump on the bandwagon. i chose the state ohio since i was born there and mississippi was already taken (thank goodness i did, i would have never got mississippi stamped on these cards :) now being the procrastinator that i am, i signed up for this swap in december. they are due march first. i didn't start them till this past tuesday. so i'm quite proud of myself (pat on the back) for getting 50 of these bad boys done.



oh i love em!

i actually need to do four more of four other states that didn't get picked and actually they will be about the same way exact the shape of the state will be different.

i think that i am going to do one like this for every stand and frame em in one of those big poster frames and hang it up on the wall.

i'm telling ya i dig things "state"y.

just so ya know, i've spent the past 15 minutes or so trying to scroll thru my archives to find the pillows that i found on the web that i desperately wanted, but to no avail can i find it.

but here's a link to show you what i'm drooling over. i wanted to get a pillow for every state i've lived in (5) and for every state that michael has lived in (2)...well if you hit the link, you do the math! i think not.

but i did find this nifty lil place that sells state map cross stitch patterns. thought about going that route.

and then i told michael that i wanted this lil number for my bday.

see, i love the states!

does anyone have any good state ideas or websites? seriously, i'd love to be able to incorporate this crazy*state*love i have more in my house. especially since i think i've passed it on to mikey.

but there ain't nothing wrong with that right?

HAPPY MARDI GRAS

(note: i'm pissed....explorer locked up on me and ate the original post so lemme see if i can remember what i was saying...here goes nothing..grr!)

for those of you that didn't know it, today is/was mardi gras. this means that all schools are closed (actually closed this mon-wed which is ridiculous) and the city is closed (aside from the hunky men in blue) for the biloxi parade.

so this means while michael was at work, the kiddos and i were at home.

i got up a lil late this morning (730 is pretty late for sleeping in....for me anyway), grabbed a cuppa coffee and hit bloglines. i wasn't really in a scrappy mood today and i could tell when i was checking more of the crafty blogs today!

so a crafty day it was going to be.

the first project i did was one i spotted on one of my most favorite crafy blogs hello my name is heather. not only is she a fabric designer but her photos are *amazing* and she does the best projects. so when i spotted this project i knew i had to try it.



so whatchya think?
isn't it just the cutest???

she has the instructions listed in a pdf file on her sidebar if you're interested in making one yourself :)

now a piece of advice....if it is really humid outside and you have the windows open like i did, don't use a glue stick. its just now going to work. hell i don't even know if its dry yet and i did this project this a.m. also i used my giga scalloped punch since it was the same size as the circles and didn't wanna cut the circles out. oh and i didn't have a dow rod so i just covered a pencil in scrappy paper and as you can see used a cardboard "bag" that i got in a pack of 20 from the dollar tree.

i'm really lovin' how this turned out and think that one for every holiday is a must!!

if you make one shoot me a comment and lmk. i'd love to see it.

so after this project was finished, i had the bug.

now in an effort to be more organized for oh*eight, i decided that i needed a bloggin' buddies address book. a place for all my favorite people's addresses and birthdays.



inside this beauty there is a colored index card for some of you that has your address, blog address, phone number (if i have it), and your email addy. on the back of the card is your bday. i feel so organized and on top of the game its disgusting.

its hard to tell but there is a plastic cover on it and i cut it from the scenic route chipboard circles packaging. i'm hoping that it helps protect it just a lil. oh and the back and front cover are cut from a 12x12 piece of cardboard that comes with scrapbooking paper.

it def. pays to be a hoarder :)

once this was done, i knew that there were some cards that i wanted to make that i saw earlier this week.

another one of my favorite bloggers is jessica from how about orange. she is a graphic designer who is very generious with her designs and well just about the most clever person on the planet. when i saw her post for these cards i knew i'd be making them.

these are the ones that belted out today.



close up



what a great way to use up all those buttons you have laying around!!! mine are all vintage buttons and they are ready to be stuffed in envies to go out in the mail already :)

while i was working on one of my projects, bella was sitting in the craft room with me when she spotted a bag of buttons that i had sitting on one of my shelves. i received this beautiful bounty of buttons from michelle when we did a swap that me and her never thought would take place. and if you can believe it, i actually never really went thru them (i know, shame the hell on me).

so bella wanted to go thru them. okay, i don't mind. she also wanted to have some. okay now i mind a lil. but as she was going thru them, she showed them to me and asked me which ones she could have (actually she really told me which ones she wanted...lol). there was such an awesome bounty of buttons in that bag that it kinda broke my heart to let her have some. but i overcame that and some she got to keep and now bella has her own lil plastic box (which i put her name on with stickers) of buttons that she has been playing with all evening.

but the point is, there was one button in there that took my breath away. the instant i saw it, i knew it had to become a ring. so a ring it became.



this isn't a really good picture, but the button is black with a weaved wicker in the middle. ummm...is that not amazing???? i'm afraid its going to be my new fave. i'm a sucker for turning big huge ass vintage buttons in to rings. i'll have to post the ones i got in a later post.

so that's it for my crafiness today. quite frankly i can't believe its already after 7. where did the day okay.

but before i leave, i need to give a big ol thank you and hugs to my deal love maryann for the wonderful goodies that she sent me the other day in the mail.



and i also need to give a big ol thank you to one of my oldest bloggin' buddies jennifer for the goodies that she sent me as well. unfortunately i don't have a pic b/c the box is still at work ;)

aren't bloggin' buddies the best?
that's why i needed to make a book strictly devoted to them.

oh speaking of books....'member on the last post how i mentioned that i spent the weekend cleaning the kiddos' rooms and closets? well aside from keeping all the change that i found from cleaning their rooms, i also found me some scrappy products.

all you scrappers out there know that chipboard mini albums are simply the must have product for altering into scrapbooks rights?

well i'm going to alter these....



lil chipboard books that the kiddos don't read anymore.
in the future they will be mini scrapbooks.

so i thought i would pass the idea on to ya'll. start searching your kids' rooms, the thrift stores or garage sales for these lil books. betcha you'll get em a helluva lot cheaper then buying the ones specifically for scrappin'.

hope ya'll had a happy mardi gras :)

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

oh, i've been quite busy lately.

so i'll just break it down for ya.

working
ehhh...not really busy with that...next!

cooking

the other morning i put a roast in the crockpot so it would be ready for dinner.
when i plopped it in the pot, it looked like this.


ahhh....what a love*rly roast

i found this recipe for sour cream banana muffins that were so stinkin' good i've had em about every day since i made em. i got the idea to look for this type o'recipe when i made some muffins from a martha white mix. they were strawberry and on the back of the pkg. she had a recipe for adding sour cream, almond extract, and some almonds on top. i didn't have almonds but i added walnuts and they were so gooood. so b/c i had some bananas waiting to be eaten, i found this. def. a keeper.


i've had this recipe for caramel french toast since jody posted it last year on sis. i've made it twice and each time delish! if you love a good french toast recipe, girls this is it. and what is great about it is you can make it the n....

...okay i'm back, had to see tom petty during the half time show. damn i love him and his band.

okay, where was i?
oh yeah, you can make it the night before and just pop it in the oven the next a.m.

i also stumbled across a phenom blog called nook and pantry. she has the most phenom recipes and the most beautiful pics. i made her nutella brownies (minus the hazelnuts...didn't have any) and her french onion soup.

the brownies were ahhhhh*mazing! i will never make another brownie recipe again. they are exactly how i like them, chewy and fudgy. not cake like at all. sooo good. i'm gonna have to eat my gazillionith one for the day when i'm done posting this.

the french onion soup was as equally delish (okay who am i kidding...nothing compares to chocolate and nutella) but it was very good. i didn't realize till after i ate it that i forgot to add the balsalmic vinegar. oh well! it was still good.

scrappin'

this is where i have been the busiest and i couldn't be more thrilled!
on to the lo's!

oh shoot!
i forgot to mention that greta, simone and myself have decided to give each other challenges each week to help us use up some of our crap. we all don't want or need to buy anything and this i a lil boost to help us use what we have.
(secret to be announced shortly :)

the first week was greta's challenge. she choose ribbons! so i dug in my jar of scrap ribbons and came up with this.



the next week was my challenge and it was to use up stickers. we had to use 10 stickers and they couldn't be letters or numbers. i'm quite thrilled with the way this turned it out b/c it was a lot harder than it sounds. the stickers are centers of the flowers.



simone's challenge was to use a holiday line without using a holiday pic. this was a great challenge b/c without it i would have never picked this paper and embellies to go with these pics and now i just think they are perfect for each other.



then this past week it was greta's turn to pick again and she chose rubons. you had to use rubons in the title and one embellie rubon. well this title was a pain in my ass b/c it took forever and i was so afraid of spelling something wrong. but i love the way it turned out and i have been wanting to use paul mccartney's line forever on a lo.




then i just had to participate in the first overlooked challenge.



then there was noel mignon challenge



and the challenges over at scrap diner which made me produce these.









whew!!

and if you didn't think that was enough, the past couple of days i've done these.



and this for the newest scrap jack



and did my vday cards



man i've been a busy lil scrappy bee eh?

home/organization

lets see, i have cleaned and organized my closet (we're talking a 10x10 foot room folks. for just me. lil ol me and all my clothes and shoes....ahhh..heaven)

straightened up my craft room

cleaned the bella's room and her closet.

also made her try every article of clothing on that she owns to get rid of everything that doesn't fit.

did the same thing for mikey.

i'm hoping that this makes our a.m's a lot easier.

kitchen is cleaned.

master bedroom clean.

tired yet?
b/c i know i am.

oh and i also found the book that the library just informed michael last week was over a year old and that we owed $54 dollars for this friggin' book!!! yes, b/c they marked it lost, they felt it was worth that much moola. well thank goodness i found that book b/c now i don't have to pay it. except i'm not exactly sure how much the late fines are. and what really pisses me off is mom found this online for $3.xx.

hmph!!

mommy*hood

i volunteered this past friday to assist in mikey's winterfest. i worked the bingo booth with a coupla other parents (sorry no pics!). i called out every bingo game. i'm surprised that i didn't wake up the next morning with no voice. i'm also surprised that i did it without stuttering b/c i am a completely shy person and do not like speaking in front of groups of people (even if i know them all). but i did just fine. actually i've noticed lately that this doesn't bother me as much as it used to. hmmm....maybe i'm growing outta it :)


on another mommy front, all you other mommies out there, what do you do to keep your sanity to make your kids realize that you are not their maid. you are not their personal chef, and you do not jump when they need something. here lately i've been feeling very taken advantage of by my kids. now not in a bad sense really, well i guess sorta. but like as soon as i sit down for dinner they are wanting something else and expecting me to get up at that very second to get it. they have no respect for their things and its starting to drive me crazy.

any advice??

family accountant

doing my best to not spend money. haven't smoked a cigarette in over a week. feel good about that. not only for myself but for my wallet. money is a big stress here lately and if there is one stress that i do not need in my life it is that one. money can leave a knot the size of a basketball in my stomach and i can't deal with that.

actually we've been both doing really good about this. we transferred two credit cards (the only ones we have) to another card with a lower interest rate which feels really good. we are thinking of trading in my car for something for a lower payment and would cost less in gas. i am all for this, but the idea of being hassled by a car salesman turns my stomach.

grocery shopping has been better. calculator in hand i made the last trip and did pretty well. i need to hit winn dixie tomorrow b/c they have a lot of b1g1f items that would really be beneficial to my budget.

if anyone out there has any other advice, lemme know. i'm all ears.

oh and i've sold two pendants on good morning sunshine which makes me happy as punch!

internet time

if you feel like i have neglected your blog, don't feel bad. i've neglected everyones :( i just can't get on the net as much at work anymore and well if you have read up until now, you can see i've been busy at home lately.

but i was tagged by the fab*boo kimberly who is my newest bloggin' buddy and just the sweetest thing ever!!!

its to list your favoritest links.

here's mine.

martha
martha is my homepage at work. nothing is better then sitting in that dreary ass office and hopin' on the net to be inspired to bake, craft, garden, and find all the good things. i love you martha. ex con or not!

flickr
there is so much inspiration here i can't even stand it. whether i'm looking at scrappy stuff. awesome photos. sa*weet craft spaces. vintage goodies that i'd give my right arm for or whatever, this is the place to be.

bloglines
i could not live without you.
i heart you.

sis
seriously, so much inspo.

grocery game
where i find the best freebies/samples on the net. love this place.

well i guess that's it.
if you've made it this far....*mwah*

SOOOOO STOKED!

this chick and this chick are flying in next month for my bday!!!!

i'm so super excited i can't even stand it.

and if that wasn't enough this chickie might be coming in too!!!

whooooo*haaaaa!!!

anyone else wanna fly in?
seriously.
let me know, you have a free place to stay!

OH....

i've been away too long.
i swore i wasn't going to be gone long again, but look at me.
things have been crazy around here, especially at work so that has kinda been draining and kept me from living my normal life....lol. but i've taken the past weekend to relax and get refocused.
scrapping has helped.
ALOT!!!!

so here is a result of the most recent therapy session :)






the recent scrap mojo




ACCCCCCK!!! THIS LO JUST MADE catwalk and picked by ms. big sis herself :)



for the recent jack




an older jack

GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!!!

good morning sunshine has been updated with some new goodies.

have a happy monday!!!

WELL....

....how is everyone's oh*eight so far?

today i have had an excellent day. house to myself. i haven't heard it this quiet in god knows how long. i'm loving it. the whole not speaking thing is pretty awesome too!

i've spent the day....

catching up on blogs.

scrappin' a lo.

making more stuff for etsy and snapping some shots of em (update will be shortly :)


baking some key lime cupcakes which i cannot wait to try!!

my version! i swear, the green "frosting" i could eat by the spoonful...sooo good!!


i'm pretty much just having a great day.
but i thought i would take a sec and do a lil new year's eve recap since yesterday's post was mostly my hopes for oh*eight!




we are really not into new year's eve. i could care less if we go to a party and i care less if i even make it to midnight. its just not really a holiday that i put too much thought into.



well the past coupla years, we have gotten together with greta and her clan and this year wasn't really any different.

michael grilled out, we shot some fireworks, and exchanged presents.

i couldn't wait to give greta her presents (in another post...i plan on posting all the christmas gifts that i made this year....well at least the ones i snapped photos of...lol) and was equally excited to see what she got me.

we had decided that we would do a "handmade christmas". neither one of us needs anything and i always enjoy giving and receiving hand crafted lovlies.

boy did i rack up.

first, greta kinda cheated and bought me a gc to noel mignon and some of the marah johnson card scrappy goodies that i have been oogling for quite some time. but i'm not complaining that she cheated in the least :)

and now on to the handmade schtuff...


prima ornament


hambly owl necklace


handmade card and heidi swapp mask


an album for me to put lo's of all of our self portraits

and...


an awesome "friend" album for me to put pics of the two of us in.

see i told ya i racked up :)

so all and all it was a nice and quite new year's. greta's clan left around 1030-1100-ish. michael started a fire and we put the kiddos in bed (only to discover that mikey was in bed watching fireworks out his window and reading one of the captain underpants books that simone and max sent him. and i am here to tell ya, seeing that swelled my heart like you wouldn't believe. i even jumped in bed with mikey a coupla times to watch the fireworks with him. he was convinced two of our neighbors were having a competition to determine whose fireworks were the prettiest :)

once the clock struck midnight, michael gave me a kiss that made my knees buckle, we watched a lil murder she wrote (of course!) and then hit the hay.

a nice relaxing evening to start the new year off right :)

oh man!
i better get...i wanna few relaxing minutes reading or watching something on tv before everyone gets home :)


darn it!
one more thing.

i like to make lists. i usually don't make them enough but when i do i find that they keep me organized and nothing is more satisfying then crossing something off. whether it be a grocery list, to*do list, or lists to help me prepare for an event.

so i decided that this year, instead of throwing them away, i would snap a photo of them (first?), add em here, and be able to see what all i got done this year. anyone is welcome to join me if ya want, just lemme know so i can be all nosy like and read your lists too!!!

without further ado, here's my first list for oh*eight

HAPPY OH*EIGHT!!!

pic taken by your's truly on new year's eve night.


i hope everyone had a fabulous and safe new year's eve night and that you're spending the first day of oh*eight feeling relaxed, being a lil lazy, and just enjoying the day!!!

that's on my agenda anyway :)

ya know, oh*seven was a rough year for me...well us. ya know with all the house brew*ha*ha and living at mom's (not living with mom per se, but living in someone else's house and not having my own). so i have been looking forward to oh*eight for well...quite some time.

i'm very excited about this year and i have many hopes for it. its an even numbered year...i tend to like those more. i turn 30 next month (eeeek!), and well, i just have a lot of things that i would like to accomplish this year. i'm not going to say resolutions, b/c who the hell keeps those??

so i am going to call them.....da*da*da*dum.....

my "oh*eight hopes"

and here they are:



*to be more positive. quit being a "glass half empty" kinda gal

*learn more about my camera and take a ton of pics.

*start a family game night and stick to it.

*have a garden this year and produce a bounty of beautiful veggies. have the kiddos be a major part in this with me.

*get rid of my black thumbs....i guess maybe this one should come before the one above ;)

*journal and journal and journal and journal.

*feel relaxed 85% of my time

*climb a rock wall (i need to find one first...i wish we lived in an area to hike, but we don't).

*quit smoking for good!!!!! seriously, this is the one i wanna accomplish the most!

*cook more homemade meals. make the time to do this. i love to cook and i usually do, but i'm usually not prepared and then come home from work and think "what's for dinner?".

*create a menu and stick to it...making my life more calm!

*be and stay organized. if i would just realize the stress this would reduce in my life.

*be more frugal. realize the difference between "wants" and "needs" (even though i really do "need" elsie's jack + abbey line...i really do!)

*use up the goodies in my scrap room. why have it if i don't use it?

*write letters and thank you cards and get them in the mail.

*keep up with birthdays and get stuff out in the mail in a timely manner.

*get my ass off the couch!

*do more crafty*schtuff with the kiddos.

*keep my etsy shop updated with goodies (and hopefully sell something or two :)

*learn more about photoshop

*answer emails immediately

*make more real life friends

*vamp up my sewing skills (or lack there of actually)

*scrap more!!!!

*read, read, read. and start to read some classics.

*keep a cleaning schedule and stick to it so i'm not bombarded with a buncha chores at once.

*i HAVE to go to work everyday so i might as well find something about it i truly enjoy and quit bitching about how i can't be a stay at home mom. start crafting there if neccessary...lol.

*go bowling more often

*take a photography class

*quit being soooo competitive

*start exercising more and watch the junk i eat. i am not going to call it dieting.

*quit putting everything off until "later". i'm such a procrastinator and this has to stop! my life is by no means easier b/c of this. as a matter of fact, something usually comes up "later" and then i'm running around bitching at everyone b/c of my own lateness!!!




well i guess that's a large enough list now to start my oh*eight off with.

what's your "hopes for oh*eight"???

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!