Between Laundry and Naps

An Announcement....

2010-07-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hello all.....
I am writing this post to announce that I will no longer keep this blog up and running. If you want to catch up with me, head on over to my cooking blog......
http://www.cookingwithlibby.blogspot.com/

Having two blogs to keep up with has been time consuming and to be honest, my heart lies with my cooking blog vs. this one ;) I will still keep this blog up for a few weeks...but probably towards the end of August, I will be deleting it.

Hope to see you over at Cooking With Libby. :)

Preschool/Empty Nest Syndrome....Maybe??

2010-07-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

I'm in a somber mood today. This whole morning I have been in a funk. Why? Because this morning, I just realized that BOTH of my kids will be starting preschool in September.

Of course, I have known about this for a good few months. And I have been telling everyone how excited husband-man and I are that both of them will finally be in school (even if it is part time preschool). And don't get me wrong about this.....we are truly excited.

However, it just hit me this morning. Like, really, really, really hit me.

I haven't had a couple of hours to myself during a full week day in 5 years!!! Yes.....5 years!!

5 years ago, I was pregnant with our daughter and working part time at the local library. However, I got off work at 1:30 in the afternoons and basically had the rest of the day to myself.

5 years ago, I was able to do what I want...when I wanted (when I wasn't working) and how I wanted.

5 years ago, the house was oozing with quietness. So quiet, that you could literally hear a pin drop.

Fast forward to a year later....when Pookie entered our life.

My life as a Stay At Home Mommy started the day she was born. I have never looked back and have even added another tiny human being to bless our little clan.

And now....5 years and 2 kids later...I am finding myself in the same position I was in before my daughter was born.

And to be quite honest with you all.........

It. Is. Scary.

Scary to me...at least. I'm so used to a morning that is all about changing diapers, cleaning up toys, and wiping up spilled juice/milk all before 10 AM.

And now...I will be faced with none of that come September.

Some may tell me to welcome this change with open arms. And I am. Believe me, I am.

I will be happy to be able to finally go shopping during the weekdays without having to fight over the cart with 2 little people.

I will be happy to be able to finally crank up the radio while cleaning the house and not have to worry about waking up a sleepy headed little dude.

I will be happy to be able to finally get some blogging time in without hearing the words, "Mommy, he stole my crayon!" or "Mommy, I want something to eat and drink!"

I will be happy to finally be able to watch an R rated movie during the day vs. waiting till 9 PM and not have to fight with myself to keep from falling asleep because I'm so exhausted by 10 PM.

I will be happy to finally be able to get my hair done and not have to worry about trying to keep my son from having a melt down because mommy's hair is getting touched by someone else.

So yes....I will be happy.

However, there is a part of me that will also be sad.....

Sad that I will be losing my "running errands" partners in crime.....

Sad that when I go to the doctor for myself (Either one or both of my kids 80% of the time came with me to my doctor's appointments), I won't have two little kids to make me laugh before the doctor comes in to talk to me.

Sad that our mornings will soon be 'rush-rush' out the door and that I won't have the time to clean up the spilled juice or milk.

Sad that when I go shopping at Target, I won't have to stop by the food court to pick up 2 child sized icee's for my children...and then watching them slurp em down while we shop. The next time I go to Target, it will be just me....and well....me.

Alas, this is all going to be a change for me. And while I will be embracing this "new found freedom" in my life, part of me will always keep those memories locked in my heart...forever.

When my daughter was born, I never understood it when people used to say to me, "Enjoy them while they are young."

Now......I do.

Weekly Roundup~#4

2010-07-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July weekend!! We've been doing nothing except hanging out at home. My hubby's work schedule has been c-r-a-z-y these past few months so we actually enjoyed having a lazy weekend this weekend.

We did go out lastnight to the Boardwalk with some friends to see their local fireworks show. Before the show, we all met up at this place, Pietro's. It's an Italian/Pizzaria and believe me when I say that the pizza and calzone's were to die for over there! We really enjoyed their food. Our friends are from New York and they actually said that the pizza at this place came very close to the pizza in New York ;) Very awesome! After dinner, it was off to find a place to sit and wait for the fireworks.

The kids enjoyed walking around and seeing a real life "Hamster Ball" game taking place........

Fireworks started at 9:00 PM and they were unbelieveable......

We really enjoyed ourselves and have discussed making it a family tradition to start going every year. Up until now, we never really went to see fireworks because we weren't sure if our kids would enjoy them or not. After lastnight, there is no question in our minds now that they enjoyed them ;)

By the way, all the pictures above were photographed by husband-man. He wants me to put a plug-in to the link for his pictures in this post :) So....if anyone is interested in seeing more pictures, check out his site at:

Husband-Man's Flickr Gallery

Let's see....what else........

Since husband-man was off for 4 days this weekend, I gladly took that opportunity to finish decluttering our guest room while he watched the kids for me. And I am proud to announce that my side of the guest room is FINALLY finished. I am so happy!! I still have a few boxes in the closet, however those are things that I really want to keep and not give away.

I am hoping this week I can start decluttering the second floor of our house...starting with our children's room.

What else has been going on??

Our family calendar is full of travel plans this month and next month. Next week, we will be heading down to Mississippi and Florida to see family on both sides of us (husband-man's and mine). Then, the kids and I will be heading up to North Carolina for the whole month of August ;) Finally, I get to go and see my homestate....and I can't wait! Not sure if I will get to do much blogging between now and September :) But I know I'll be having lots of fun ;)

And that is it folks :) What a crazy summer this has been so far! But it's been a great one!

Sunday Scrappin~#10

2010-07-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! We've been lounging around our house being lazy all weekend. Tonight, we will be celebrating the 4th at our local Boardwalk with some friends...dinner and fireworks. Should be a fun time :)

My Ta-Da:

I have had the chance recently to complete another layout in my pregnancy scrapbook. I am scrapbooking my pregnancy with my son. It's not the weekly challenge, however it is what I have been able to complete this week.

My To-Do's:

To complete the next page in this scrapbook. One day I will have this book finished...lol. Hopefully by this fall...LOL.

For more Sunday Scrappin or to join in on the fun, click the Sunday Scrappin button to the right of this post. -------->

You may have to scroll up or down to see it :)

Sunday Scrappin~# 9 (Scrapbook Page Picture Frame)

2010-06-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Scrapbooking has become one of my all time favorite hobbies to pursue. If I'm not working on a layout, I am thinking about the designs for it while I'm doing other day to day activities. I make it a point at times to take a weekly trip to the Hob Lob and Michaels to check out their latest scrapbooking supplies.

In the last few trips I have made, I noticed these cute little shadow box picture frames.......

I couldn't see myself spending 20 or 30 dollars on one so I came home to see what I can use around the house as my own little "shadow box" frame.

I came up with this frame.....

It's not in the form of a shadow box, but it was the only frame I was able to find that would hold my 12x12 layouts. It stayed that pukey gold color for a good while until just recently when I decided to change it.

A little maroon spray paint.....

a change in the background color.....and voila......

a brand new picture frame appeared ;)

It lifts my inspiration to create more layouts everytime I look at this frame :)

If you scrapbook, do you have a certain way to display your completed layouts?

My Gift Wrapping Station

2010-06-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

While decluttering our guest room the other day, I came across my collection of gift wrapping supplies.

Up until now, I have been using this little nifty tupperware bin to house them all......

However, as you can tell, this bin is not wide enough to hold such things as gift bags and tissue paper...both of which I have a huge collection of. Realizing this, I went off to research and brainstorm a solution to this problem.

Naturally being the frugal and recycling person that I am, I wondered if the answer to my question lied within the walls of my home. The next thing I knew, I was upstairs, in the room that used to be my son's nursery...staring at this piece of furniture.....

......his old changing table.

The thoughts started racing through my mind about what I would be able to put in it and where it would be placed in the house.

I took off the changing pad, cleaned and disinfected the table, then waited for my husband to come home from work to move it downstairs.

I decided that it would stay in our den/office/hobby area for now, until we can figure out a better place to store it.

The idea was genious!!

I placed the gift bags in the first drawer.....

The second drawer houses tissue paper, all occasion wrapping paper, and cellaphone paper that I use for gift baskets.....

And the third drawer houses any items that are Christmas related.........

Even though I had the drawers filled, I still had to figure out what I was going to put on the top of the table.

I placed an old bread box that husband-man and I do not use anymore on the top and sat it in the right corner.

This holds the bows and ribbon that I have been purchasing over the years....

The left side needed a little TLC also so I decided to use one of the baskets that used to be in my daughter's nursery to hold my collection of greeting, thank you, Christmas, Birthday, and Anniversary cards......

I decided to take it one step further and came across some old plastic organzing drawers that I once used for my scrapbooking supplies. Scissors, tape, and any gift tags I had all went inside here.....

When you put it all together, this is the end result.......

....an organized and beautiful gift wrapping station :)

Where do you store all your gift wrapping supplies?

Weekly Roundup #3~Pools, Parties, Projects...Oh My :)

2010-06-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

This week has been one for the record!

We started out last Sunday celebrating my daughter's 4th birthday. It was an impromptu party....thrown together in a total of a week due to my husband's work schedule. I think we did pretty good though and planned it well. 7 kids and 8 adults...who all had fun and ate lots of yummy food :) I decided to make my daughter's cake this year and was very pleased with how well I did. Not to shabby for someone who's never made a Wilton cake before ;) The black frosting could have used some tweaking, but over all, the cake turned out pretty well. I've always wanted to try my hand at making one, but knew it would be time consuming. I was right about that....lol. It took me a day and a half to make that cake! However....I did think of a few short cuts to save on time the next time I make one. I can see why people are addicted to making cakes now because it is fun ;)

The same weekend of my daughter's party, my husband decided to go to Wally World and purchase a pool. The temperature down here in the Bible Belt is getting up to 100 degrees, so a pool is exactly what we needed. Ours is just a simple, small wading pool and looks just like the one in the above picture but boy oh boy is it ever fun! The pool we bought last year wasn't even as fun as this one. And I think it's because this one actually came with a filter, so we can add pool salt to it to make it smell like a "real" pool.

Our kids are growing to love it and I can't even tell you all how relaxing it is for Husband-Man and I. It has become a great way for the both of us to relax and unwind at the end of the day. As soon as the kids go down for bed, him and I are in that pool....talking up great conversations while looking at the stars up above. It's great....and VERY romantic ;)

Lastly, between all this mayheim, I have worked on and completed two repurposing projects :)

I do plan to blog about them soon, but to give you a sneak peak, here are some pictures....

and

Stay tuned to find out what these pictures above are all about :)

To My Daughter On Her Fourth Birthday......

2010-06-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Today, you are turning 4! Four years old!!

I remember when I was pregnant with you.....

...I was so happy and full of joy. So full of anticipation to meet this tiny little baby who made me smile and laugh with every kick she made inside of me.

...and then we had you and our lives have never been the same :)

You captured our hearts with that beautiful smile and outgoing personality.

And as you grew....

...so did our love for you.....

You're such a great big sister.....

....and Mommy's Number One Helper....

Who could ask for anything more?

We love you so much, baby girl.

....and are so blessed to have you in our lives........

So....Happy Fourth Birthday!!!

And always remember that Mommy, Daddy, and Your Brother Love you very, very, very, very much......

Weekly Roundup #2

2010-06-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

This is my second week of doing my "weekly roundup." Which are just thoughts about how my week has been going....

Let's see.......

Not sure if any of you read my last Weekly Roundup Post about throwing these babies away....

Well...I am happy to report that I have done that (with the exception of keeping 2 for the mommy's that come to my house and need them) and have replaced them with these lovely and colorful cups....

I am completely in love with them...which is funny because I bought them for the kids but really, I secretly am loving them. I think I *heart* them more then my kids do ;) They came from Target.com and are just the perfect the addition to our dishware collection. They are made from plastic so I know they are 100% kid safe :) Love em, love em, love em :) :) :)

Potty Training.........is going well. Of course, we haven't fully started it yet. I am proud to report though that my son knows how to get on his potty and get off it. The first day we placed it in the bathroom, he knew exactly what to do without me telling him. I was a VERY happy mommy :) He was so familiar with it that he became frustrated when he realized he couldn't "flush" his potty. So hopefully the rest of this journey will go smoothly. I know, I know....*wishful thinking* on that one ;)

I've also been in deep thoughts this week. Mostly about the future and decisions that have to be made.

For a long while, it has been my dream to open up a family owned bakery/cafe'. After thoroughly thinking it through, doing the math, doing lots of research, and talking with husband-man, I've decided to close up this dream of mine and save it for when our children are grown and out of the house. In the last 3 or 4 years, I have seen plenty of restaurants/cafe's close down around our area and I don't think I can risk that happening to us right now. I originally wanted to start out small...but even doing that will require some kind of financial help...aka "loans." And everyone knows that if you obtain a loan from an institution such as a bank, they require you to give something up as "collateral." So if your business flops, they keep whatever it is you offered to them as collateral....your house, your car, etc. We, as a family, are not ready to take that risk right now. Not when our kids are still young and have a long life ahead of them.

Will I regret not starting this business?? Maybe. Maybe not. As the days go by, the more and more I think about it, the more I come to realize that my children's youth only happens once in a lifetime. They are still little but they won't be little forever. And because of this, I have come to the conclusion that this bakery idea of mine can wait. It can wait until they are much older and won't need us around as much so I'll have more time to focus on it. It can wait until they are old enough to start working part time and won't have to depend on us so much for financial reasons.

Have any of you seen that show "Cake Boss?" Ummmm....yeah....that's what it would be like for me if I opened up my own bakery. Of course, the bakery on Cake Boss is very successful and I would be just "starting" out...so to speak. So I would have to work triple hard to get things going. I'm not ready to add all that stress to my life right now.

And while this thought has closed in my life.....

....another thought has bloomed and opened :)

While talking with husband-man at dinner one evening, I explained to him that I needed to find something to do (job wise) while the children are in school full time. Something that will allow me to bring them to school, pick them back up, attend their soccer games, and cheerleading competitions, and something that will allow me to be home while they are home afterschool and during their summer vacations. Anotherwords, something that will allow me the flexibility that I would need.

I also told him that I needed to find something to do that would make me happy and something that I would have confidence in doing. Something that I know that I can do and that I can do very well. All the other jobs I have held in the past have not given me the confidence, nor the happiness that I crave.

This is when husband-man took control of the conversation and said these words to me....

"Why don't you look into becoming a writer?"

A writer?? Me?? Could it be possible?? I do have two blogs up and running. I did win first place in a writing competition in high school where I scored myself $100.00 :) I also have had a few short stories published in the local newspaper back home. The list of "writing" accomplishments in my life can go on and on and on...but I'm sure y'all get the point ;)

With this new idea and thought in mind...I am setting out to pursue just this.....

to pursue a career in writing.

I haven't narrowed down what exactly it is that I will be doing, however I have entertained the thought of expanding my blogs and maybe writing a book....still not quite sure yet....

I know the road to success as an accomplished writer/author will be tough, but I need to at least give it a shot :)

Anyway...just my thoughts on what's happening in my life this week ;)

Stay tuned for next week ;)

Weekly Roundup #1

2010-05-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

I am replacing what used to be "Sunday Scramble" with my own version, entitled, "Weekly Roundup." It will work just like the SS, with a once a week post on my thoughts and updates for the week.

Let's see.....

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. Which means a nice 4 day weekend for my husband. Which means lots and lots of rest, relaxation, and family time. He has been working non-stop (12 hour shifts) for a good month or so and definitely deserves this break. A friend of ours suggested we go out on a date night tonight so we will be dropping the kids off at her house and will be kicking off the weekend with a nice, romantic dinner at a local Italian restaurant here in town :) I can't wait :) Then on Monday, it will be a nice dinner with friends at their house. It's going to be a great weekend :)

Let's see what's been going on this past week......

I actually have been working on decluttering every single room of our house. Believe it or not, I am almost finished with the first floor in our two story house. It all started with our laundry room and I just couldn't stop myself after that. Just this week alone, I have thrown out 2 full grocery bags of expired and unused medicine bottles, found 2 boxes of unused plastic sandwich bags, extra bottles of cayenne pepper and garlic powder, and extra cupcake liners that I forgot I had. I also found an unused bottle of dishwasher cleaner. As soon as I found that, I emptied my dishwasher and put that sucker to use! It's amazing how much stuff you can find when you start to really clean out the junk in your house. I predict by the middle or end of next week I should be done with the whole house :)

While decluttering my kitchen cabinets, I came across our wide variety of sippy cups and lids. I decided it was high time to get rid of these cups because my son is already 2 years old and can drink from a regular cup very well. For some reason though, my 3 year old daughter has an attachment to the sippy cup lids..even though she can very well drink without them. So...what did I do? I hid all the lids and valves to the cups and told myself that if we can go one week without using the lids that we can get rid of them. Forever. Well my friends, it's been a week and I can say with confidence that we are COMPLETELY SIPPY CUP FREE!! I cannot wait to go shopping for some regular cups/glasses for the kids now :) And even though I am happy that this stage in their development is over with, I am also sad because this means that my children are growing up :( First it was the bottles, now it's the sippy cups :( It is all reminding me that they are growing up so fast. But it's going to be nice going down the baby aisle at the stores and not having to stop for more sippy cups :) Being diaper-free and potty training my son is next on the list :)

Speaking of which....since my son is 2...I think it's about time we start introducing him to the potty. My daughter and I have been taking him into the bathroom with us everytime we go. I am planning to dig out that ole potty chair this weekend so he can start getting familiar with things. He hasn't been showing the potty training signs yet, but I don't see the harm in introducing the potty concept to him now. Once he starts showing the signs, we will move to the next step. It will be great to finally be diaper free in this house! Husband man and I are definitely looking forward to that. And even though I know that the road after potty training will be challenging (an accident here...an accident there...poopy issues...etc..), I will still be happy to have a diaper free family :) Can't beat that!

Ohhhhh.....here's something to talk about.....

How about that Season Finale?! Now, I admit, I was sucked into the whole Grey's Anatomy thing when it first came out, years ago. I faithfully watched Seasons 1 and 2 because it came on right after my other favorite show at the time, Desperate Housewives. But after Season 2, I started watching an episode here and episode there...mostly relying on friends and family to keep me up to date on the latest Grey's craze. This last season (season 6), I watched the first two episodes then stopped. So I kind of knew what was going on, but kind of didn't when I watched the episode above. But still, it didn't take a genious to figure it all out. This episode really had me feeling like I was riding a rollercoaster. It was that intense! I used to be a faithful ER fan back in the day and I have to say that this recent episode of Grey's ranked high up there with the episode of ER when Dr. Carter and Lucy were stabbed. I cried when that happened. And cried even more when I found out Lucy died. Oh the things television makes you do. And of course, when it comes to Grey's, they can't kill off Dr. McDreamy or Dr. McSteamy...or Dr. Karev...but this last episode really made you wonder about it all.

Can't wait to see what my life will have in store for me next week :)

Let's Talk Preschool

2010-05-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

Ok...at the risk of not making this a dramatic post, I want to talk about preschool for a minute...

Some of the mommy's in my playgroup are considering the pros and cons of it all. So I decided to post my take and experience about it. Some parents are totally against it, others...like myself...are totally for it. Some parents think "why bother paying the money to send my child to this or that school for something that I could teach them at home. And save some money in the process?" I know this because, I too, had that same view point...until we actually tried it...2 years ago.

The way my family and I stumbled upon weekday preschool was totally by a fluke. You see, we are a Military family...stationed away from any possible family members who we trusted to watch our children. When I became pregnant with my daugther, almost 5 years ago....I was looking for ways to help myself out should I ever need extra child care during the day. Since we don't live around family and I did not have any friends who I knew well enough to trust to watch my child (who were home during the day), I had to look into child care assistance. Asking my husband to come home from work to help was not worth the effort because it's a good 20-30 minute commute from his job to where we live.

I did not want to place my child in full time daycare, because not only were we unable to afford it, but just the thought of sending her to one just tugged at my heartstrings. This was when an aquaintence of mine told me about the Mother's Day Out Program that some churches were offering around here. Some churches call it Mother's Morning Out or Kid's Day Out...but anyway you look at it, it was a part time program for kids who were from infant age to ages 3 or 4...sometimes 5.

I found myself interested in it so I started calling around to all the churches that were by us (and believe me, there are plenty of em). I finally found a church that I was interested in, so I went in, spoke with the director, and took a tour of the building. What I noticed was that all the children that were there were sooooooooooo happy and there was no crying to be heard (of course, I could have showed up on a good day) but I noticed that the kids were just so content. The teachers and staff members were so nice and helpful too. They weren't snotty or mean and did not act like they couldn't take the time to answer your questions.

Needless to say, I was impressed with my visit and asked to place my daughter on their waiting list for their Mother's Day Out Program. 8 months later, she made it to the top of the list and I enrolled her for just one day a week.

That's it!! Just one day a week :) We didn't see the need to place her in there for longer then one day. The tuition was pretty low too...compared to other part-time and full-time programs around here. Only 25 dollars a week...100.00 a month....and for 5 hours for that one day. Husband man and I did some rearranging in our budget and were able to set aside 25 bucks a week. It wasn't that bad. It gave me piece of mind to know that we had a permanent, saved spot one day a week for my daughter. Unlike hourly care at a regular daycare center where it's first come/first serve.

And believe me, we needed it because a couple of months later, we found out we were pregnant with our second child :) So I was able to schedule my OB appointments during that one day a week when my daughter was in Mother's Day Out. I know I probably could have taken her with me to doctor's appointments, and I did do that once...and vowed never to do it again. Imagine getting a gynocological exam with your 1 and 1/2 year old child running around all over the examining room. It wasn't a fun experience...lol. They also had to take my blood that day and that wasn't fun at all either. Imagine a technician trying to stick a needle in you and you can't relax the whole time because your 1 and 1/2 year old daughter wants to play with the empty viles and needles and such on the tray table. And yes...some may say that is what a stroller is for...to contain your child...but she was growing out of her stroller phase and refused to cooperate in it. So scheduling my doctor's visits during my daughter's MDO days worked out wonderfully!!

Fast forward to after we had our son. We were at a crossroads about what to do in terms of MDO. Do we enroll him too? Do we just keep our daughter in it? Or do we dis-enroll her? Out of all the answers we were seeking, we did know one thing was for sure.....our daughter LOVED going to MDO. She loved it so much. How could we take away something that she was loving??

So we decided to keep her enrolled. The director of the program told me that if we wanted to enroll our son...that he would have an "automatic" in because he had sibling preference. Husband-man and I figured, why not? Why not enroll him as well? So during the summer of 08, both of my kids were in MDO for only one day a week.

After that summer, we were informed that the MDO Program would be cut (due to budget reasons) and that the church was going to replace it with a 2 year old preschool program. They already had a preschool program for ages 3 and 4 so I guess they decided to add in a program for 2 year olds as well.

Husband man and I didn't know what to do. Do we find another MDO program to enroll our kids in or do we just not bother with it anymore? We were confused until the Director told us that our daughter not only would qualify to start the 2 year old preschool program, but that she would automatically already have a spot saved for her.

Soooo...we went for it and decided to try preschool out. Now, 2 years later....we have not regretted our decision.

Our daughter has learned so much since she started preschool. She has learned to get along well in a public setting with other children. She has learned to follow directions and rules. She has learned the educational basics and what she needs to know to enter Kindergarden. She has made tons of friends. And most importantly, she has learned to have fun while learning :) Being in a classroom setting gives her the opportunity to be in a structured and scheduled environment for a certain amount of time. And I have to admit, even though I try as hard as I can to make the time she has at home, structured and scheduled, sometimes it doesn't always work out the way I want it to. Her teacher this year told me that when Kindergarden comes around, she shouldn't have a difficult time adjusting to everything because preschool has prepared her for it.

Now, I know that some mother's will argue and say, "Well...my child can learn all of this at home. Why bother wasting 25 dollars a week on this?" And this is very true. But to see the look on my daughter's face when she brings home a completed project or a "present" for mommy is priceless. And to have her wake up every morning and actually ask me, "Mommy, can I go to school today?" is even more priceless.

Preschool works for her and for us. We decided to enroll my son in the same program and he will be starting this September and hopefully will thrive in it just like his sister. We hope...lol.

And considering there are full time and part time preschool programs out there (trust me, I've looked), our kids are only enrolled part time. And even though they are being taught at school, I also have been working with them outside of preschool on certain activites, hence our Tot School sessions at home.

What started out as a simple, one day a week Mother's Day Out program for my daughter has turned into a part time, educational and fun adventure for both her and us.

So if you are considering placing your child in a preschool program, I would recommend it. If you or you child doesn't like it, you can always disenroll them.

Oh..and one more added bonus (and I'll probably get some hate mail for this)...mommy gets some much needed free time while they are in school :) Sounds horrible and selfish of me to say that, considering I am a Stay at Home Mom myself, but come on.....who are we kidding?? I'd be lying if I told everyone that I didn't need a break every now and then. And with us being Military and being stationed farrrr away from trusted family, a break is much needed in my world....and my husband's world too.

Tot School~Week 5

2010-05-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

~Pookie is 3 Years Old and The Dude is 2 Years Old~

I know I am getting this post in wayyyyy late. However, we've been doing some improvements to our house recently and it's been pretty crazy around here. We only did Tot School once last week, so the below activites will be from that week. We will not being it this week because I am taking some time off to focus on making a fun summer schedule for my children. My daughter's last week of preschool for this year is this week, so I have been super busy trying to plan out our "summer" schedules. So this week, I will be focusing on actually planning out our Tot/Preschool Days for the weeks ahead

We have lots of fun things on the agenda for the summer...to include gymnastics classes (for both kids), Storytime at the Library for preschoolers, playdates with other kiddos and their mommies who have become like family to us, and of course....2 days of Tot School every week. Whew! It's going to be a crazy summer over here...but a fun one :)

So....on with the activities from last week's TS.

We didn't do much but what we did do was so much fun!

We started out the morning by reading these two books. Both from Disney and both were so much fun to read. The animal one below was a little on the "older" side for the kids, but we had fun looking through the pictures and identifying all the animals. My daughter even made up a story to go with the pictures...lol.

And of course...who doesn't like a good Disney Fairy Tale every once in a while? ;)

We then moved onto our worksheets....

I had The Dude color in a picture of a chicken for the letter C.

And I had Pookie match upper case and lower case letters....

Lastly, Pookie's preschool class was celebrating her birthday last week so we decided to make some strawberry cupcakes for the celebration. The Dude actually took a nap during the time we started making them, but Pookie wanted to help. She is just like her mama...always wanting to bake, bake, bake ;) Normally I would have made homemade cupcakes, but we had a box of Pilsbury Strawberry Cake Mix in the cabinet that needed to be used up.

And this concludes our day of Tot School for last week :) I'm off to plan our exciting schedule for this summer :)

Tot School~Week 4

2010-05-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

~Pookie is 3 Years Old and The Dude is 2 Years Old~

First off....HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to everyone!! Husband Man and the kids made me breakfast in bed to celebrate the day :) As a matter of fact, I am typing this from my bed :) Later on this afternoon, we will be heading to the Circus. I hope the kids will enjoy it :)

Secondly, I want to thank everyone who responded to my previous Tot School post about having a curriculum and planning things out. Your posts really helped me in terms of trying to figure out how to plan activities and such :)

Mommy wasn't feeling to great this week, alas, we only did Tot School once and didn't make it to our weekly playgroup :(

Here is what we did for that one day....

We always, always, always start out Tot School with reading. This particular day, we read the Poky Little Puppy and more Bible Stories. The Poky Little Puppy was one of my favorite books as a child and I really enjoyed reading it to my kids :)

We always do a worksheet of some sorts after reading. For this day, we picked the letter B. Mommy slipped up though and remembered that we did the letter B on Week 2 a few months ago...lol. But it was ok because the kids didn't remember and we went on as if nothing happened...lol.

Pookie LOVES doing these worksheets as you can tell from the picture below.

The Dude had fun as well. Which was a shocker because he usually doesn't like to color...lol.

This was Pookie's finished masterpiece. She just loves to draw and color in any space she can find...lol.

Next up, was an exercise with the letter B. I had the kids do a Scavenger Hunt in their play room for toys and objects that start with the letter B.

The Dude found it a little difficult to find the toys so he ended up just following Pookie around the room while they hunted.

The basket below is the result of Pookie's work....

She did very well in picking out objects. These are some of the one's that were in the basket....

Lastly, since Mother's Day was just around the corner, I figured it would be a great idea for the kids to work on a crafting project to celebrate the day.

We made Mother's Day Basket Pictures. I found the idea for this project here.

These were mailed out on Thursday with another gift for their grandmother up in North Carolina :)

And this concludes our Tot School Session for this week :) I think I need to start some kind of binder documenting what projects and worksheets we have done. It may make it easier for me to remember...lol.

Tot School~Week 3

2010-05-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

~Pookie is 3 Years Old & The Dude is 2 Years Old~

Argh!! I know, I know, I have seriously been slacking with doing Tot School with my children. When we first started doing this (back in February) , I vowed to myself that I would be a better planner. Ha! That has not happened yet and we're only on Week 3. Of course, if I had been more organized, we would be on weeks 7 and 8 by now. But, as usual, life always gets in the way. My kids do love it when we do this and I am going to try much harder to work this into our weekly schedules....especially since my daughter's regular preschool will be out for summer break in 3 weeks.

Before I get started on what we did this past week, I have a question for all of you who are doing this with your children. Do you have a certain curriculum you follow or do you just plan things by ear? We've just been planning things by ear and I usually just pick things off the top of my head that I think my children will love. However, I would like to know how some of you plan out your Tot School Time.

We did TS twice this week.

We started out the first day by reading these books....

Dr. Seuss's ABC and One Fish, Two Fish books. My daughter LOVES anything by Dr. Seuss and while we were reading these, I had both kids help me count and say the alphabet. My son didn't really act interested in it and wanted to do his own thing. But my daughter had a blast :)

Next, we moved onto the letter C. My daughter requested that letter the night before...LOL. I downloaded some worksheets from my favorite website, Kids Learning Station.com, and we worked on recognizing and writing the letter C. It took a while for my son to get into it....

But he eventually enjoyed it...lol.

My daughter, on the other hand, loved tracing and writing...

and was so proud of her finished page....she even wrote her name at the top :)

Next, we moved on to puzzles. Both my kids LOVE doing puzzles so I figured I'd work this into our plan for the day.

The Dude is still working on learning his alphabets and shapes, so we took out some puzzles that helped him with this area. These are his favorite ones :)

Pookie, on the other hand, is past this stage and needed a more complex one to work on. I bought this one at the Dollar Tree for only a buck :)

She had a hard time at first trying to do it.....

...and I had to step in and help a little....

She kept telling me she couldn't do it. I kept reassuring her that if she kept working on it, she would complete it.

And.....15 minutes later.....she completed it :)

Smiles and all :) After she finished it, I told her that she could accomplish anything she wanted to if she put her mind to it. She agreed :)

Our second day of Tot School started out with reading these books.....

I am trying to incorporate more Bible stories into our lives and the book on the left was a wonderful way to do just that. Animals were the theme for this day and both kids had fun picking out the animals in the book on the right.

Next, we went on to the letter D....and once again, I downloaded a few pages from The Kids Learning Station.com

The Dude thought that putting his crayons in a row was much more entertaining then coloring the Dinasour...lol.

Pookie on the other hand, traced all her D's and even drew on the extra space on the paper.

After this was finished, we went on to play the game, Candyland....

My son wanted to do his own thing so he ended up not paying attention, but my daughter loved it.

After the second game, we put everything away and settled down to watch the DVD,

Planet Earth.....since we read about animals earlier...

And this concludes our third week of Tot School. At the end of every session, we always go outside to play for at least an hour (weather permitting). We also went to a weekly playdate on Friday. Can't wait to see what our fourth week has in store :)

Diaper Bags, Purses, Totes Oh My!!

2010-04-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that I have been in total mommy denial when it comes to purses and diaper bags. When my second child arrived, I thought that it would be soooo much easier to just buy one of those huge purses and put everything baby/toddler related as well as my things inside this purse.

Well....my son is already 2 years old and the picture below is the result of many, many, many trips out....

notice how the handles were starting to fray!! Ick!!!

Within this purse...I kept such items as these....

diapers...wipes...etc....

I figured it was finally time to retire this purse and purchase a new one. A couple of weeks ago, I was strolling through Target and a really cute purse caught my eye. This purse came in 2 different sizes...the big size like my run-down old black one...or a nice, medium size. I couldn't decide which size to purchase so I ended up leaving the store without the purse.

But wouldn't you know, that dang purse continued to be on my mind for weeks!!! The dilemma I had was figuring out which size I wanted. And then, I remembered something that my sister told me 3 years ago after my daughter was born........

to cut down on time and confusion, she kept all her baby/toddler things in one big bag and kept it inside her car at all times. She filled it up and it stayed in the car...day and night...every day...all day. She was free to carry around a much smaller purse by doing this.

So......this morning, I went to Target again....determined to solve my dilemma. The purse of my dreams was still there to my surprise. Once I realized this, I strolled around the rest of the store, looking for a bigger sized contraption to hold all of my toddler things.

Enter this cute little tote....

......for 12 bucks...in the Accesory section :)

It doesn't take a genious to figure out that I purchased it :) I bought it home and started to fill it up with everything my kids would possibly ever need when we go out on short trips.....

diapers....security blanket....books....

Change of clothes (for both kids)......

And off to our mini-van it will go....where it will stay there, forever and forever. At least until it's time to change their clothes up.

So...bye-bye big huge purse that makes me feel like a mama......

...and HELLO to my kid-free, mama free, cute purse!! Ok...so it won't be completely kid-free. I will be carrying some wipes in it because they do tend to dry out if left in the heat to long. And I will also be carrying little snacks for the kids....but the majority of the purse will be devoted to me, me, me!! And I can't tell you what a relief that will be! :)

One more thing....while going through my big-black-hunk-of-a-mama purse...I found this....

YUCK!!! An old pacifier from God knows when!! Just more proof that that purse had to go!!

It's Our Ninth Year Anniversary!!

2010-04-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yes folks. Today is Husband Man & I's Nine Year Anniversary. I can't believe it has been nine years since the day we said "I Do" to each other....and 10 and 1/2 years when we first met at Books A Million in a small little town in North Carolina. Time sure does go by fast. I'm not going to lie. We've been through some rough and rocky times (and I am sure there will be plenty more to come)....and yet, through it all, we still have remained together.

We celebrated a couple of days ago. Contacted a friend of ours to watch the kids while we went out to eat and spent a few hours afterward enjoying each other's company. It was fun :) We even talked about our plans for next year's Anniversary. It'll be our 10th...so we are wanting to make it Super Special. Maybe a cruise?? Maybe a 2 week trip back home to North Carolina to visit our old stomping ground...while we drop the kids off with grandparents and spend a much needed vacation in the mountains?? We haven't figured it out yet...but I can't wait till we do!!!

So....Happy 9th Anniversary darling....may there be many, many, many more to come!!!

Internal Thoughts

2010-04-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

I am getting this entry in late because we have had a crazy weekend over here at my house.

This week, I had a lot of internal dialouges going on between myself....and....myself ;)

My first internal thought came to me when my husband told me that he read an article on the internet not to long ago about something called "The Mommy Mafia." Click here to read the actual article. He said that it reminded him of all the mommy friends I have ever had....past and present...and how things really do seem like they are in the article.

Then..my thoughts became more validating when I went to one of my weekly playdates on Weds. One of the mommy's mentioned that she knew a woman who had to stop breastfeeding for medical reasons. She went on to say that this woman had received a harsh comment from someone else...stating that their (the woman who made the harsh comment) child is going to be smarter then hers (the woman who had to stop breastfeeding) because she is still breastfeeding him/her.

I was blown out of the water when I heard this. Hearing this rude comment just validated the article that my husband told me to read just days before. When you are a mother, you do have to survive what's called, The Mommy Mafia.

As if the choices aren't hard enough when you are pregnant and first have your child....

Will I be a Working Mom or a Stay at Home Mom? Do I breastfeed or bottlefeed? Do I let the child cry it out, do I do the co-sleeping method or try another one? Do I make my own babyfood or do I use the Gerber kind? Do I use cloth diapers or disposables? Will I allow my child to get their vaccinations or not? Do we use a pacifier or not use a pacifier? Do I get a Diaper Genie or not?

The list goes on and on and on. And if that isn't enough, as your child gets older, there are still more questions that come up....

If they are being bad, do I spank them or use 'time out'? How much television is to much? Is it ok to give them a bowl of icecream every now and then? Do we homeschool or place them in a regular school? Preschool....do we do it or not?

The list goes on and on and on for these questions also.

Funny thing is, no matter which route we choose or which way we choose to do things, we are always going to be judged by our choices. It's true. Why do mothers in general have to be so judgemental??

If you are a stay at home mom, you are viewed as being lazy...cheap...and not wanting the best out of life for your children. If you are a working mom, you are viewed as neglectful, selfish, and wanting to spoil your children. If you bottlefeed your child, you are viewed as...once again...not wanting the best for your child. If you are breastfeeding your child, you are viewed as someone who thinks their children will be smarter and healthier then all the others. The list goes on and on and on for each choice.

I know that opinions are everywhere and that everyone has them and are entitled to them. That's the beauty of America....freedom of speech and opinions. But there is also a little thing called respect. And in my opinion, it's hard enough being a parent....single or married...working or not...breastfeeding or not...etc. I think it's time that all the mother's of the world stop the judging and do more respecting. It's like that saying, "can't we all just get along?"

Another internal thought that I had this week.....which has nothing to do with the issue above.....

Will there ever be enough hours in the day to get everything you want to get done....done?

I assure y'all, staying home with two children who are under 3 years old isn't the easiest job in the world. I usually accomplish a lot during the day by doing the things that need to get done. However, just by doing this, the things that I "want" to get done never seem to happen.

Things such as, "I want to organize my dungeon of a closet' (I refer to the junk spaces in our house as 'dungeons'...a phrase that was originally developed by my mommy group).

Or....

'I want to figure out how to change the lamp shade in the kids room'

And how about....

'I want to learn how to garden and learn how to keep a plant/flower alive for more then a day'

And let's not forgot.....

'I want to finally finish that scrapbook that I have been working on since my youngest was born...3 and 1/2 years ago'

But...as usual...there are dishes to clean, laundry to fold, bills to pay, menus to plan, food to purchase and cook, errands to run, and kids to play with. Oh...and if your kids are sick at the same time..which mine are at the present moment....throw in a little extra pampering time for them as well...and maybe a doctor's visit or two.

Mama needs a break!!! :)

Sunday Scramble~#4

2010-04-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if these are still going on anymore because everytime I check their blog, I don't see a place to link up to. Alas, I'm going to take my chances and post this anyway...just incase they are still going on.

Let's see....what has been going on...that I should write about....

A few days after my son's 2nd birthday (which was about 3 weeks ago), I was telling my wonderful husband that the battery on my cell phone was dying. And I don't mean dying as in "charge me" dying. I mean....d-y-i-n-g.....as in 'replace me' dying.

Well...if any of you know how men are....the first thing that comes to their mind after you tell them something like this is...."Ohhhhhh....I smell an opportunity to purchase some new electronics!"

Anyway...a few days after I tell my husband this...he goes and tells me, while at work, "I have something to give you. It's an early Anniversary present. I don't have to give it to you now and can actually wait till our Annivesary...but I have a feeling you will really like it." Then he proceeds to tell me that he is going to "deliver" the surprise during his lunch break and asked me to be home at 12:30 (I was running errands at the time of the phone call).

LOL...the things that were racing through my mind were c-r-a-z-y. What was this so called "surprise" that he was going to "deliver" to me? Was it orders out of this God foresaken place? Did his re-enlistment bonus come in and he wanted to 'deliver' the check to me so I can place it in the bank? Was it an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas for our Anniversary (which by the way is at the end of April) ?

It was none of the above.......instead....when he came home....he handed me this....

....the new Droid from Verizon Wireless!!!

I had a deep down feeling it was a phone...but I kind of let myself get my hopes up high thinking it would have been something else...lol. He purchased one for himself too...lol...like that was a surprise...lol.

3 weeks later...I am still learning how to work this wonderful phone. And he was right....I do absolutely love it. Before my Droid came into my life, I was carrying this around:

...a flip phone...LOL. With the lowest, possible cell phone plan imaginable. Texting not only took FOREVER on it, but we were getting charged 80 cents per text to send and open one.

With the Droid, we have unlimited texting AND unlimited internet use. It's wonderful. It also has a built in GPS system AND all these wonderful applications!! I'm telling y'all, I am in heaven. It even has a calendar that is "similiar" to the one I use....Microsoft Office...so I can plug in any important event and it will send me reminders. AND....just the other day...I stumbled upon all these FREE applications for recipes and cooking!!! Oh...and the music. The music is out of this world. I love all the stations I can get on it...for free. I used to always be jealous of the people I knew who had XM radio. Not anymore...lol. It's great. I'm telling ya....I am in heaven with this thing. Love it, love it, love it!

Yes..we have finally moved into the 21st century in terms of cell phones....lol.

Hubby also promised to still take me out to dinner on our Annivesary too ;)

Let's see....what else....what else can top my Droid??

Hmmmmm......................................

Spring has sprung over here down our way. And along with the birds and the bees and the WASPS (yes...I've had to kill 2 HUGE red wasps in our house already...they didn't stand a chance)...come all these beautiful looking flowers that are blooming everywhere, to include our backyard.

I will be the first to say that I am not a gardner. I don't know the first thing about gardening. However, I think all that may be changing. This morning, I took my 3 year old daughter outside with me to cut and pick some flowers to place in a cute little pitcher/vase that I bought a few weeks ago...

the result....

.....now I am not sure what kind of flowers these are...because like I said...I'm not a gardner. BUT...I have plans to look them up and research them later. They are very pretty though and I couldn't believe something that beautiful was planted in our backyard....for free!! :)

Let's see......

...the other day, my daughter...my son...and I were all sitting in the living room. I was reading...my son was playing with his cars...and my daughter was writing. All of a sudden, she comes up to me...and hands me this sheet of paper. I couldn't believe my eyes. She wrote the words, mom and dad...her name..and her brother's name all on this sheet of paper. Everything was spelled correctly and everything. It blew me away! I was so proud of her ;) She's only 3 years old too! I think she gets it from me ;)

Hmmm....what else.....

Has anyone seen this movie below?

Well...I did. This week. And let's just say....that it ends differently then the book. I read the book last summer and was so pumped up to see the movie. Well...tears were shed throughout the whole thing and then disappointment set in when I saw the ending. The movie followed most of the book and some parts were left out....but the thing that made me mad was how it ended. I'm actually glad that I didn't go to the movie theatre to see it. I won't write about the story just incase some of you haven't read it or seen it yet. But it is a good one and raises so many moral and ethical issues.

And let's see....

I have finally finished the book, Columbine. Interesting book. Makes me wonder how many people I knew in high school back in the day who could have snapped and went crazy. If you are a social worker or work in the criminal justice field, this book is a good one to read. I won't be keeping it because it just freaks me out alot...but none the less...the social worker side of me was curious as to why this tragedy happened.

The survivors, the families, and the victims of this incident all have my utmost respect and admiration. I could not even imagine having to go through something like this with my own children and I pray that I will never have to. This tragedy took place 5 years after I had graduated high school....back when metal detectors were starting to become a trend in schools. Just the mention of the implemenation of metal detectors in my school was enough to scare the living daylights out of me. But it was happening...regardless. I was a junior in college when I heard about Columbine...majoring in social work...with my main course work focusing on teens. So this incident really had me intrigued. It still does to a degree.

And this is it ladies and gentlemen....these are my thoughts on the week...or weeks. For more Sunday Scramble.....click the link to the right of this blog (you may have to scroll up or down to see it)-------->

Easter Decorating Is In The Air

2010-04-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Actually, it's been in the air over here for a while. These deocrations have been up in my house for a good month now. But since Easter is just around the corner, I thought I'd celebrate it in blogland by devoting a post to the decor that I have around the house.

I don't really decorate alot for this holiday. Although I think that is changing thanks to my friend, Gigi ;) She loves bunny rabbits and I think her love for them is rubbing off on me...lol. Some of the decor you will see are things that I have had for years, others are items that I purchased recently.

We'll start with my kitchen hutch decor......

This little vignette below is my favorite. I've had the candle holders for years now and tend to change up the color of candles every season/holiday. The pink gingham bow is made from some ribbon that I found at Dollar General...for...you guessed it...a dollar!

The bunny candy dish is from Big Lots and was only 5 bucks. I found the apple cinnamon candle at Dollar General for only a dollar also...LOL. I am in "lurve" with apple candles ;)

This white platter was actually a serving platter that was at my sister's wedding rehearsal dinner :) After her wedding, back in 2006, my mom asked me if I wanted to keep any of the dishes and utensils that were used during that time. Of course, I told her yes and this platter was one of them. We use it alot during the holidays. Funny thing is, she purchased this platter from Big Lots as well....back in 2006! :)

I found the egg garland at Party City while I was looking for my son's party decorations a few weeks ago. I know originally it would be ideal on a little tree, but since I didn't have a tree, I decided to wrap it around the platter. I think it worked ;)

Another bunny rabbit piece. But it's soooo cute! I had a whole bunch of plastic eggs in the slots but my kids somehow found a way to get to them :) Once again, this was another Big Lots find :)

The hutch all put together. That bottom shelf is just begging for something to be put on it. Have to wait until my son is a little bit older though :)

A vase that sits on our kitchen window sill. I found it at the Dollar Store last year for fall. I filled it with glass pebbles that I had for scrapbooking and placed some candles in it that I found for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I tied a white ribbon around the top that I've had since my daughter was born :)

Another Big Lots find!! This sits on the opposite end of our window sill. Love the bunnies!!

A vase full of shredded pink paper (basket filler) and some plastic eggs. The bunny rabbit stuffed animals are my kids very first Easter stuffed animals from my husband and I.

And last but not least, is our fireplace mantel.

There isn't much on it...lol. The blue and purple ceramic baskets I found at Big Lots. The bunnies that sit next to them are actually from my childhood.

And this concludes my tour of the Easter decor in our house :)

Saturday, we will be heading to a barbque and Sunday I am planning on making a little Easter dinner.

I hope everyone has a great weekend :) Happy Easter!!!

Sunday Scramble #3

2010-03-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! I'm getting this in early this week...which is good :)

First and foremost, I have had people tell me that they have been having a hard time posting comments on my cooking blog and that it takes them a few times before one is actually posted. I have hopefully solved this problem on that blog and tweaked it to where it will hopefully be easier for people to leave comments on this one as well.

Let's see.......thoughts in this past week....

We celebrated my son's 2nd birthday last weekend. Yeah...6 kids (including mine) and 9 adults....and we all had a blast :) There was cake everywhere, balloons and toys occupied most of the room, and the laughter of children filled the air...all 6 of em :) Up until last week, I had never tried my hand at decorating a birthday cake.

Check these babies out:

Yes....I decided to do a basketball themed party for my son :) I made a batch of 12 cupcakes for the kids and made a 2 layer basketball cake for the grown ups. It was Snickerdoodle cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Icing. Believe me when I tell y'all that it. was. delicious. To check out the recipe for the cake, click here: Snickerdoodle Cake With Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

I also made this little nifty basketball court cupcake for him to blow out....you can't really see it in this picture...

But it looks like this.........

More pictures from the party...just to give you an idea of how fun it was....

There are more pictures...but I'll just leave it at that...lol...

Let's see what else....

My in-laws actually made it up for my son's birthday last weekend (they rarely ever come up) and my husband and I took advantage of their time here and actually went out on a date...without the kids. Of course, they were only here one day and 2 nights, so since we were pressed for time, we decided to go out for coffee after our son's party. And I must admit that it was fun! Holding hands in the bookstore while waiting on our latte's....holding hands while we walked through the aisles of books together, stopping to read one that caught our eye.

One in particular book caught my eye and I ended up buying it:

Columbine by Dave Cullen.

Yes...it is about the actual Columbine School Shooting that happened back in April of 1999. All I have to say about it so far is....what the heck were these kids thinking??? I wasn't even past the first 20 pages and I started getting chills up my spine. The book is 417 pages long. I spent a good fortune of money on it so I am planning on finishing it, but I am just in awe that this community had to go through something like that. The book tells you a lot of things that you didn't hear in the media back then and some of it is VERY disturbing.

Of course, after the first night of reading it, I started going into a huge panic attack about my children's future in education. I started second guessing our choice to place them in a normal school setting and started to wonder if homeschooling them would be better. I know the depth of the shootings at Columbine were random and that it wasn't like any of the other school shootings out there...but I couldn't help but to wonder about the safety of my children in today's society. I would just love to shield them from all of this but I know it is impossible.

Then, my anxious thoughts started leading over into other thoughts about my life and once again...about my children's future. It's funny how a book can make you really think about your life and about the direction it is taking or the direction that it needs to start taking.

Yeah...I got all this from one book...LOL.

Let's see what else.....

This bottle up above has saved our lives...especially my daughter's!! She gets half a cap full of this every morning mixed in with some prune juice and apple juice and within a day or two, she poops. We like to call it her "prune juice cocktail." It's wonderful! She is no longer scared to go poopy in the toilet The doctor ordered her to stay on this laxative for 6 months just so her colon can regain it's original shape (it's stretched out from all the blockage). Along with the prune juice, we have also been giving her every fruit imaginable to eat (apples, strawberries, grapes) everyday, have been highly limiting her cheese intake, and are trying to increase her water consumption. It's been working...praise the Lord!

And lastly, ever had one of those incidents where you are shopping somewhere and someone totally random comes up to you and starts chatting up a conversation as if they knew you. They tell you it's great to see you and ask about your kids and about your husband...and all the while they are talking, you are thinking to yourself, "Have I met this person before? Do I know this person? Who is this person?" Well...that happened to me...last week...at Wal Mart of all places. This totally random lady came up to me and started asking me questions like she knew how I was. What was I to do? I couldn't be rude to her and tell her, "I don't think I know who you are." So instead I just smiled, played dumb, and acted like I knew her. Funny thing is, her face is still haunting me after this has all happened and I'm STILL trying to remember where she knows me from :)

To check on other people's random thoughts for the week, go to the Sunday Scramble icon on the side of my bar (you may have to scroll up or down to see it) -------------------------->

Till next week..........

One Vase, Three Different Ways

2010-03-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

Not sure if y'all remember this lovely vase from last fall?

I bought three of these babies at the Dollar Store last year and I didn't want to give them away so I started using my creativity to figure out how we can use them around the house.

Idea #1:

Use them to store your cooking utensils. I know they make crocks for this purpose, but I figured I'd place my utensils in the vase to see how they would look. The result was pleasing to my eyes. I added the red and white gingham ribbon to give it that extra "country" flair.

Idea #2:

Place decorative stones/pebbles in them and then place some votive candles on top. I found some white ribbon I've had for years so I decided to tie it onto the top. This vase is sitting on the corner of one of our kitchen window sills.

Idea #3:

Place any decorative items according to the season (or not) inside of them. These are filled with little plastic Easter Eggs I found at the Dollar Store. At the base is just some shredded pink basket filler I've had on hand for years.

Before the eggs, I had some faux apples inside.

The last two pictures gives y'all a "glimpse" into the decorations I have done for Easter :) Stay tuned for a post on this :)

Sunday Scramble~#2

2010-03-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

This is my second time participating in Sunday Scramble. The SS is a weekly meme for bloggers to write about their thoughts on the past week.

Here are mine for this week......

Ever had one of those days when you just want to scream because things are just to crazy and chaotic in your life?? Well...that was me...today. We are expecting company in 4 hours and the kids were just everywhere in the house. I stayed up till 12 midnight lastnight cleaning and prepping food for today's festivities. I should have known that with 2 kids under 3 in the house, things were just not going to stay as they were when I cleaned. We had Gold Fish spills (the cracker, not the actual fish), my son attempted to write all over his body with a black pen...AFTER I had gotten him ready for the day, my son also got into the toiletries in the downstairs bathroom...dragging the toilet paper around, we had fights over who stole who's crayons and who has the better coloring book, and everyone dove into the cake that I made specifically for tonight's events...nevermind that the cake was for the guests who were coming. My kids wanted their cake and they wanted it this morning.

And yes...before you even ask..I do have a husband. And yes...he does help me with the kids. But for some reason this morning, he was trying to multitask between helping me and doing other things. So...needless to say...after me having a total melt down in front of everyone (to which included crying and freaking out), my lovely husband finally got the picture and took the kids out for a nice drive into the city....giving me some peaceful R & R for a few hours and a chance to cook tonight's dinner in peace.

But I must ask myself.....why is it that I get this way?? It was my idea to have a get together with some friends today. I wanted to invite them over. And yet, I'm sitting here, freaking out because the house is a mess a couple of hours before they arrive. I have always been this way and it's actually starting to get on my last nerve. Is it the perfectionist in me? The whole, "Oh...my house better be in tip-top shape before they come over or people are going to start talking." Or is the whole, "How are my guests ever going to feel comfortable if my house isn't neat and tidy?"

You would think that that by now, I would have figured out with 2 kids under the age of 3, the house isn't going to be picture perfect. But yet, I still strive to make it that way.

I know in all actuality, people are coming over to see our kids and us....and not our house. They wouldn't even care if there are spilled Gold Fish crumbs on the floor or newly drawn crayon marks on the table, but yet....I still do this to myself.

Why, why, why??? I need to learn to say to myself, "Just let it go girl, just let it go."

Let's see...what else....

I have a 3 year old....who is constipated....and who is scared of going poo-poo in the potty. We took her to the doctor and came back with some pediatric enemas and a laxative. Supposedly it's a common problem amoung children who are newly potty trained, but the hubs and I don't like it one bit. Since her doctor's visit last week, we've been pumping her with water, prune/apple juice, limiting her dairy intake, giving her the doctor prescribed laxative, and also the 2 enemas that were prescribed. She's only went to the bathroom once so far. We are praying and hoping that nothing is seriously wrong with her digestive track. We have a follow up appointment with her pediatrician in 2 weeks...we will see what happens. I'm trying to look on the bright side of things, if this should ever happen to my son...then we know what to do. Sometimes you just have to keep looking and searching for a bright side.

Speaking of bright side, the weather is getting warmer now in our neck of the woods. Yay for us! All of this warmer weather is just a reminder for me that I need to start shopping for some spring/summer clothes for the kids. I tend to shop for the kids clothes when the seasons change vs. buying clothes in bulk. Mainly because I never know what size they are going to be when that season hits. So I wait...lol.

Warmer weather also equals yucky bugs...and down here in the south...the bugs are super yucky!! I am NOT looking forward to that...lol.

Oh...and one more thing....the lovely folks at NewParent.com asked me to become a regular blogger/author for their site. I wrote my first article for them this week and it went very well :) You can read more about Newparent.com and also check out my articles by clicking their icon on my right toolbar ----->

Other then that, nothing else to write about in terms of my week. I really need to start getting these in on Saturday nights vs. Sundays....LOL.

For more Sunday Scramble....visit the link to the right on my side bar---------------->

Sunday Scramble~#1

2010-02-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

I saw this on Amy's blog, Keep n' The Sunny Side and figured I'd join in on the fun. This weekly meme is for the events that have happened in your life during the week that you didn't post about or didn't want to post about or just forgot to post about. I am a little late on this because I think you are supposed to post these on Saturday nights vs. on Sundays...lol. I know this now for next week :)

So.....let's see.....

This past Weds. my kids and I got together for the first time with a few of the mother's I met at a baby shower last Sunday. It. Was. Awesome!! Eversince my daughter's been born...3 years ago...I have been on a never ending search for the perfect "playgroup" for us to join. I've joined 3 so far and none of them have panned out for us at all. Either my kids were the youngest in the group, or the oldest in the group or the other mother's and I just didn't jive together. This group that we met on Weds. was just perfect. It was so perfect in fact, that we all decided to officially make it a playgroup thing and meet every other week...twice a month. Oh....and an added bonus....they are all Stay at Home Moms and are also Military :) Yay for all of us!! I think my kids and I have finally found our "niche" in terms of playgroups :)

I am currently reading the book above and have been reading it for a while now. I am finding it very confusing....with it jumping from date to date. I like the idea of the book...a man who is a time traveler and just so happens to time travel into his "future wife's" childhood and life. But I feel like I'm back in college because when reading it, I have to keep in mind and remember which dates the author writes about...lol. Regardless though, I am determined to finish it before I see the movie. The movie is on my Netflix que and I'm finding myself putting all these movies ahead of it just so I can have more time to read the book...lol. How crazy is that??

Speaking of crazy...yesterday, I also went to see the movie, Shutter Island with one of the mommy's from the playgroup I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Now....I am a HUGE Leonardo DiCaprio fan...HUGE. I've been following him since he was on Growing Pains...back in the 80's. Before we went to go see it, I had no clue what the movie was about, just that it was a psychological thriller of sorts. It took a while to get into...but towards the middle and before the end, you start wondering..."what in the world is going on? Is this guy "really" insane or is he "normal" like the rest of em?" And even now....after I've seen the movie...I'm still left wondering...lol. Aside from all that, it was really nice to be able to get out of the house for a couple of hours kid-free and enjoy some girl time :) Plus, like my friend said...Leo is great eye candy :)

And the good news keeps coming....

The wonderful people at Newparent.com contacted me and asked if I wanted to be one of their featured bloggers on their site. Of course, I told them yes :) I am very excited to start writing articles for them and feel honored that they contacted me to do so :)

Let's see.....the hubs tested for the second time last week for the rank of Master Sergeant. Prior to his testing, he's had 2 full weeks off of work to study for it. Everyone in the Air Force world knows that this rank is very, very, very hard to acheive. But we have hope that maybe this time around he will get it :) And if not, there is always next year :) Since he's been off for 2 weeks, I have gotten used to him helping around the house (when he wasn't studying) and it's going to be hard when he returns to work tomorrow :( But, he has a job to do....and so do I :)

Besides my husband's studying, I have also been dealing with the beginnings of sibling rivarly. My kids love each other, they really do...at least that's what I've been trying to convince myself of these past couple of weeks...lol.

Oh...and lastly...the weatherman called for snow sometime last week...but did we see it??? Nope! All we saw was a bunch of wind and rain. Oh well. So much for wishful thinking :)

Can't wait to see what this coming week has in store......

For more Sunday Scramble...click on the button to the right (you may have to scroll up to see it) ------->

Tot School~Week 2

2010-02-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Pookie is 3 years old & The Dude is 23 months old

These past few weeks have been crazy down our way, but I did manage to get one day of Tot School in this week. Here is how our day went.....

We started out reading these two books. My 23 month old is a little behind with his speech so I have been reading these "first words" books to him...to include this Fun and Play one. While I was reading it, I had my daughter pick out the colors on the pages. The "Little Bo Peep" book was a great read also. Pookie did a lot of counting with this one :)

After our reading, we moved over to the kitchen table where the letter of the week was "B." The Dude colored on a sheet that introduced him to the letter B.

......while Pookie traced the upper and lower case B's.

Next, it was off to do an activity with the shape of the week....the square.

Pookie really enjoyed cutting out squares with the scissors....

Success!!!!

For The Dude, I cut out a square and let him place these colorful foam shaped stickers on them. He really enjoyed that :)

When we were done, I decided to hang up their finished art on our refrigerator. Pookie wanted to show daddy when he came home from work :)

For our last activity, we all made a chocolate cream pie for dessert after dinner :)

While we were making it, I taught them measurements.....

Our finished pie...................

This same week, we also attended a weekly playgroup for 2 and 3 year olds :)

All in all, it was a good week :)

Sunday Scrappin~#8

2010-02-28T05:45:00.000-08:00

Today is another edition of Sunday Scrappin :) I didn't get much accomplished in terms of scrapbooking this week. At least not as much as I would have liked. But I did get one layout finished......

My Ta-Da:

.....the first page to my son's part of my pregnancy scrapbook. I copied the same format as the first page in my daughter's part of the scrapbook.

My To-Do's:

To at least finish 2 more pages in this scrapbook :)

Can't wait to see what everyone else worked on this week! :)

Sunday Scrappin~#7

2010-02-21T05:54:00.000-08:00

It is time for another edition of Sunday Scrappin :) I had a chance to scrapbook A LOT this week!! My hubby has been off for a week so it's giving me a chance to seriously catch up on some layouts and pages. I'm working on a pregnancy scrapbook so I think it fits right in with the challenge this week too...pastel colors :)

Sooooooo...here are my ta-das:

The Third Trimester......

The Birth...

There were so many pictures that I wanted to put on this page....so I was trying to figure out how to make it all work. I also wanted to include her birth story. I cropped all the photos, fiddled around with where to put them...and then decided to make a little pocket at the bottom to put her birth story in. I think it worked well :) The "It's A Girl" embellishment at top left corner came from a congratulations/baby girl wreath that my parents bought us after she was born.

More pics of her birth. The "It's a Girl" ribbon also came from the same wreath as the "It's A Girl" embellishment on the upper page.

A Keepsakes Page....the rattle embellishment on the top right came from a congratulations card we received.

Going Home....

The blue and pink teddy bear embellishment at the bottom also came from a congratulations card :)

I am officially finished with my daughter's part of the scrapbook ;)

My To-Do's.......

To start on my son's side of the scrapbook...my pregnancy with him :)

For more Sunday Scrappin...check out the link on the right side of my blog ------->

Sunday Scrappin~#6

2010-02-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

I haven't scrapbooked in a LONG while! But this morning, I had the urge to do it and this is what I accomplished. It's not a sports related theme for the challenge, but I hope this will do just as well :)

My Ta-Da For this Week:

The Eigth page to my pregnancy scrapbook. The theme is my daughter's nursery. The pictures are a little lopsided because I was trying to get this done with a screaming toddler sitting right next to me. And if any of you have kids, you know how that can go....lol. Alas, lop sided and all, I completed the page...lol.

The journaling is in the upper right hand corner, inside the little pink and white pocket. The pocket is actually a cut out of the paper plate theme that we used at my baby shower :) I wanted to incorporate it into this scrapbook and I found a way to do it :)

My To-Do's For This Week:

To finish Page 9 of this scrapbook....the Third Trimester :)

For more Sunday Scrapping....check out the button to the right of my blog :)

Tot School~Week 1

2010-02-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

~Pookie is 3 years old & The Dude is 23 months old~

Last week was our first week doing Tot School. A few weeks ago, I was blog hopping/reading when I came across this cute little idea for my kids. My almost two year old son seems to be getting restless at home so I figured I'd give this a try. Even though it's only been our first week, I can already tell that it has made a profound effect on him. He's a lot more calmer now at the end of the day and isn't "all over" the place, as some would like to call it.

Planning activities for both of my children to do is taking some major creativity, mostly due to the fact that they are at different learning stages in their lives. Since this was our first week, the activities I planned were mediocre at best. I only hope to improve the ideas as time goes on. My three year old currently attends a part time preschool for her age group two days a week. And this coming August, we will be enrolling both children in the same part time program. However, I am still planning on implementing Tot School on the days that they will not be in school...especially during the summer.

So...without further adeu...here is how our first week of Tot School went....

We started out the hour by reading two books per day. On the first day, we read the books below. I enjoyed reading The Bernstein Bears one to them because it teaches them about social values within the family unit. And the Dr. Suess one was really great at teaching them colors...and how to count.

On the second day of reading, we read the electronic book from LeapFrog. My son loved to press the buttons to hear how the letters were supposed to sound.

We also read the book, Counting Kisses by Karen Katz. My three year old enjoyed counting the hearts on each page :)

After reading, we did an activity where my 23 month old transferred some rice from bowl to bowl. We used a measuring cup and he absolutely loved it.

While he was doing that, my three year old played her Strawberry Shortcake Memory Game....

But I think she was more interested in helping her brother play with the rice......

The letter A was our letter for the week and I had my three year old work on learning how to trace it in the upper and lower case form.

I also had my son color a page that had A characters on it. It didn't hold his attention long and this is was the result.....

Both worksheets I found through The Kids Learning Station.com.

The Second day of Tot School, my little dude was happier to color in the pictures.

And my daughter happily loved learning how to write the letter A :)

Both of these worksheets I found through Crayola.com.

Another activity we did with my 23 month old was find the red leggos in a baking pan full of dry noodles. He loved it :) And his sister was more inclined to help...lol.

Of course, when he realized that some of the noodles were able to slide perfectly into his finger, he stopped looking for the leggos and started playing with the rigatoni instead :)

We also tried the ABC I Spy Jar using just a jar, some rice and some silver alphabet scrapbooking brads I had on hand. Pookie liked this activity, but lost interest in it really fast.

On the second day, our shape was the triangle. So I cut out different sizes of triangles for The Dude and he went to town on placing little foam stickers inside them.

....while Pookie enjoyed using mommy's scissors to cut out triangles of her own.

And last but not least, I dug out some glass marbles I had in my scrapbooking room and let the dude have fun putting them inside of the muffin tin. Out of all the activites he did that week, this one was by far, his favorite. He loved it so much that he spent a good 15 to 20 minutes playing with it.

While he was doing that, I set Pookie up with some magnetic Disney Princess paper dolls. She enjoyed dressing them up and coordinating the accessories to match the clothing......

And this concludes our first week in Tot School! After school is over with, I take them out to play for an hour, weather permitting.

Whew! Would I do it all again? You betcha! Can't wait to plan out next week's school :)

For more info. on Tot School, go here: Tot School.

Valentine's Day Decor

2010-01-28T10:41:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I took down my beloved Snowmen decor and started putting up some Valentine's Day items. I don't decorate for V-Day like I do for the fall/Thanksgiving and Christmas Seasons. However, I do prepare somewhat for it. Since the decorations aren't much, I had just enough to decorate our fireplace mantel.

Decorations on the left side.....

Decorations on the right side.....

Everything put together.....

The wreath that graces our front door....

Another wreath that I bought accidently a couple of years back, when I thought I didn't have a V-day wreath...lol. My memory isn't what it used to be since my kids came along...lol.

A homemade heart wreath I made this week. I had everything for it except for the heart shaped foam.

To learn how to make one, click here: Easy Valentine Wreath

The cost to make this wreath....$2.00 (had to purchase the heart shaped foam).

There is one more craft I am working on and when it's through, I will add it to this post :)

The evening before V-day, I go out to the dollar store and purchase 2 mylar balloons for my kids. On the morning of V-Day, I tie the balloons to their chairs in the kitchen so when they wake up, that is the first thing they see.

We don't buy each other gifts for this holiday. Instead, I make a breakfast of homemade buttermilk pancakes shaped in hearts (I use my heart shape cookie cutters).

What kind of V-day traditions do you do to celebrate?

Entry Way/Mud Room Envy

2010-01-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

*Sigh*.....the above picture is what my dream entry way/mud room would look like. Unfortunately for us, our entry way is very, very, very tiny. It is so tiny that building something even remotely like the picture above would just make it look way to cluttered.

I don't see us moving out of this house in the near future unless the Military gives us orders, so until then, I have learned to make lemons out of lemonade and work with what I have around me. Aka...shopping my house...and finding new purposes for old things.

You know, how you just get those urges to rearrange the furniture in your living room or your bedroom? Well...I had that urge this morning.

Brace yourselves......this is what my entry way looked like before I rearranged it:

**Note to y'all: It is nothing like the above picture. My house was built in the 1970's so a lot of updating still needs to be done to it**

Yes....such a pitiful sight to see! This is what it looked like when you walked through the front door....

It had stayed like this for years...lol. And I honestly can't remember where I even purchased the wire shoe rack...maybe Wally World??

Anyway...it all just looked to cluttered. And I have started feeling embarrassed about inviting people over because the first thing they see are our shoes...all out in the open. Sooooo not cool....lol.

When I started developing my "mud room" envy...I noticed that some of the mud rooms that I adored all had little "bins" or "baskets" to put the shoes in. What a great idea to hide them in! And very stylish indeed!

So this morning, I started brainstorming. Where could I find cute little bins and baskets?? Do I go out and purchase them?? Do I purchase them off the internet?? Then....it dawned on me. The answer was literally staring me in the face.....

Enter this cute little contraption.......

Originally, I had bought this little corner storage shelf for my kitchen. When it was delivered, we found out quickly that it wasn't going to fit in our kitchen. Up until then, I had been using it to store my crafting supplies:

Sooooooo...my brain started rolling and before I knew it, I was taking everything out of these baskets, clearing our entryway, and placed this corner shelf in the corner.

The result???

Pure bliss....and just LOOK at all that space!!

Isn't space the name of the game when it comes decorating a room? The more space you have, the larger the room looks...or so I have read :)

The baskets were just the right depth to store our winter gear........

.....and our shoes.....

And how much did it cost me to do this? Zero dollars!

What did I do with that hideous wire shoe rack??

I used it in combination with some plastic bins I bought at the dollar store...to store my crafty items...

Of course I'm still going to have Mud Room Envy....but that is ok. I will just put it all down on my list of things I want for my dream home. A girl can dream...can't she? :)

Kids Room Rennovation-New Bed Linens

2010-01-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

Yes folks...these last two weeks I have been working on purchasing new bed linens for my kids. I'm happy to say that everything has worked out as planned :) The colors I am working with are navy blue, red, white, and tan.

As you can see in the above picture, my daughter's bed was originally pink.

Now, her bed color is red. I also moved her fabric frame above her bed as opposed to it being near the window.

I purchased the comforter, pillow shame, and bed skirt from Domestications.com. The white pillow is one we had already.

My son's bed previously didn't have a theme to it. However, we figured it was time to move him into the next bedding phase and converted his crib into a toddler bed.

Now his side of the room looks like this........

I purchased my son's comforter and pillow from Carousel.com.

I tried to match the colors of the bed linens with the colors of their fabric frames.

Next on my list is to make a no-sew fleece blanket to match their bedding and also to make a homemade throw pillow for each bed. Can't wait to get started on it :)

Tag...You're It....

2010-01-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged. This time, by my dear bloggin & e-mail buddy, GiGi. Y'all have got to check her out over at Guitars and Pralines when you get a chance. She's a girl after my own heart...a fellow Louisianian who loves to blog about everything from childhood memories to the scrumptious dinners she makes for her hubby :) She even has her own cooking blog, GiGi's Kitchen. So head on over there if you have time and be sure to tell her Libby sent ya ;)

The Rules For This Tag Are:

1.) Answer 5 questions with 5 answers.

2.) Tag 5 other bloggers.

Here Are My Answers.....

Question #1: Where Were You 10 Years Ago?

10 Years Ago, I was.....

1.) Living in Jacksonville, NC....home to the U.S. Marine Base, Camp Lejeune.

2.) Working as a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coordinator/social worker....loving my job, but not liking the people I worked with.

This pic was taken at one of the computer classes I had to go to to keep up with my certification. I was 23 back then. Wow! Look how skinny I was!!

3.) Engaged to my Military Sweet Heart and Husband To Be.......

4.) Living in my own apartment....rent solely paid by me and no one else..thank you very much.

5.) Only lived 3 hours away from my parents....those were the days.

.....now I live 17 hours away from them :(

Question #2: What is on your To-Do List For Today?

1.) Frost some cupcakes with my kids

2.) Eat dinner

3.) Nothing

4.) Nothing

5.) Nothing

......hubby took today off and told me that it was my day of rest :) And how I am enjoying it too :)

Question #3: What 5 Snacks Do You Enjoy?

1.) Icecream

2.) Cookies

3.) Cheese and crackers

4.) Cashews

5.) Veggies with ranch dressing

Question #4: Where Are Five Places You Have Lived?

1.) Fayetteville/Fort Bragg, NC

....the video below was put together by a Real Estate Company, but it is a great video about the area

2.) Jacksonville, NC

...no video for this one...sorry :(

3.) Shreveport, LA

...no video for this one either, but I found a really nice picture of downtown Shreveport :)

4.) Newburgh, NY

5.) Nuremburg, Germany

Question #5: Name 5 Things You Would Do If You Were A Billionaire

1.) Pay off my kids tuition

2.) Give an equal share to the members in my family (parents, brother, and sister)

3.) Give some of it to the church we go to

4.) Pay off our morgage and car payment

5.) Invest it

Now...I tag....

1. Amy over at Keepn The Sunny Side

2. Carey over at American Girl Primitives-N-Such

3. Mrs. J over at Becoming Mrs. Jorgenson

4. Stacey over at The Cannon Family

and

5. Farrah at the Old-Fashioned Homekeeper

Can't wait to read everyone's answers :)

In The Meadow We Can Build A Snowman.....

2010-01-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone survived the holidays :) During the New Year's Weekend, I took down and packed up all of our Christmas decor. For a loooooooooong time, I have had a holiday decoration dilemma...but now, I have finally figured it out. It only took me over 2 years to find a solution, but who's counting?

What was my dilemma you ask? Ever since I have been married (8 years so far) I have been collecting 3 different type of holiday decor. Type #1...red and white gingerbread; Type #2.....red, silver, and gold related Christmas decor (greenery, spreads, wreaths, pictures, etc...); and Type #3....blue, silver, white, and occasionally red snowmen.

Ya following me so far? If I lose you, don't worry. I sometimes lose myself thinking about all this...lol.

I started thinking to myself that there is no way in the world a woman should have all this "holiday" stuff and found myself a little overwhelmed. Up until a few years ago, my solution was just give it all away to charity. That was...until I read an article (can't remember where it was from) that suggested that the easiest way to decorate for the holidays would be to pick a few colors that go together and have those colors be the main colors for all the rooms in your house.

I thought to myself..."hmmmm...that makes LOTS of sense..and sounds sooo much easier." I then looked at all the stuff I had and started putting on my thinking cap. It finally dawned on me that the prominent color that seemed to show up in all my decorations were red, white, silver, and gold. Sooooo...this year, I decided to display my gingerbread and the rest of my red, white, silver, and gold decor.....

for the Christmas Holiday.

However, that still left me with a whole bunch of white, silver, and light blue snowmen decor. Those colors definitely didn't jive with my red decor so they ended up sitting inside a box that I packed away :( I felt a little guilty for having items stored away that I didn't want to use....until I read a post on Sugar Pie FarmHouse about how to decorate your house after the holidays...while it is still "winter" outside. The majority of posters said that after the holidays, they usually pack up all their Christmas decor, but leave their snowmen and other "winter" related items out....because...well...it's still winter.

I thought to myself, "B-I-N-G-O!! I don't have to give away my snowmen decor afterall!! I can display it after the holidays and pack it all up when winter starts to fade :)

So....without further adeu......I'd like to present....

My Collection of Snowmen......

I actually bought this one a couple of hours before I wrote this post. At Goodwill. For 4 bucks :)

My little snowmen....I know it was hard being cooped up for so long in that box...

But you can always count on mama to find a way to save you.....

...and give you a home.......

We love you.....

...and wait every year.....

....to take you out of that ugly box...

...and dust you off...

....so we can see you in all your beauty :)

I think I will start collecting snowflakes to go with the snowmen :) Yay for winter!! :)

Closet/Clothing Organizers

2009-12-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

Not sure if any of you have heard of these, but they are the most wonderful things to have if you have little kids. They are organizers that fit in your child's closet and can hold anything from books to shoes to clothes. We use ours for clothing purposes. My daughter already had one as a gift from my parent's...so since the kids are sharing a room now, I decided to purchase another one online for my son's side of the closet.

Gone are the frustrations of picking out what your child needs to wear from day to day. I just plan out what they are going to wear for the week on Sunday and place the clothes inside the space, according to the specific day.

If you are having someone else watch your children in the mornings or throughout the week, this will be a great tool to have so whoever is watching them won't have to figure out what to dress them in. The work is already done for them. All they have to do is open the closet and take out the outfits according to the days. What's also great about this is, it teaches your children organizational skills. When they become old enough, have them help you pick out which outfits they want to wear and have them place it in the correct box. And when it's time to get up for school in the mornings, they already know what to wear. They can just open their closets and pick out the outfit according to the day :)

As you can tell by the pictures, I have two different one's from different companies They may be different but the concept is the same :) They have made our mornings a lot less stressful. We love em :)

Christmas Decorating Part 2

2009-12-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Outside

The wreath that graces our front door.....

Another wreath that I have to the side of our front door.....

The plant stand all decorated nicely :)

The Inside

Our tree. I only decorated it half way to the top because my 1 year old started getting into all the ornaments and garland. It's a red, white, and silver themed tree :) When I was digging through all my decor, I found this lovely red bow to put to the side of tree.

A festive candle centerpiece that greets you as you walk through our door.

A cute little Gingerbread Christmas Countdown stocking I bought from a craft fair many moons ago. My daughter love moving the candy cane everyday :)

My kitchen hutch...all decked out. Later on when my kids are older I will deck it out even more :)

A closer look at the hutch...

An even closer look...lol...this was inspired by Aunt Ruthie's Sugar Pie Farm House. It just so happened that I had just the right items to pull this off :)

I have a few more things to finish up...but this is it for the most part :)

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Decorating

2009-12-03T15:50:00.000-08:00

Yes...I am a little late with the decorating this year. However, I am almost finished with everything..so I guess it's better late then never :) The above picture is a picture of our fireplace mantel. I apologize for the uncentered photo. My daughter was trying to find a way into the picture and I had to take it before she snuck her way in...lol.

This is how the railing on our steps is decorated. As you can see, my daughter succeeded in making her way into this pic...lol.

This is a picture of a cute little gingerbread kitchen set that I found at Jo Ann's last month. I also have an oven mit, a pot holder, and a spatula in the same design :) Originally I was going to wait until it all went on sale, but I ended up purchasing them because I was scared they may run out of stock.

That's it for now folks. I still have the outside of our house, my kitchen hutch, the tree, and a few other places to decorate. But I wanted to share what I have done so far.

Back Porch Rennovations

2009-11-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

This past Thanksgiving week, my husband and my father started working on rennovating our back porch/patio space. They worked non-stop...for 7 days...morning and night ...to get it done. The above picture is the finished product. It looks NICE! I have been making a mental list of how I'm going to decorate it :) Here are more pictures....

The "before" picture of the patio. We liked it, but my husband was starting to get the itch to build something more.

Back porch rennovation about 40% in. About a month ago, we took down the metal/tin roof. The picture below is what took place this week during my parents visit to us on Thanksgiving break.

Rennovations about 90% done...

The finished product....

The kids LOVE it...by the way!

The best part of the whole thing, they found a way to salvage that awesome porch swing!

Now...it's my turn to figure out how to decorate this :) I'm going to have fun!

Chore Charts.....

2009-10-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

we love them around here. Well....it was more so me...until today :) A post on the Sugar Pie Farm House Forum reminded me that I needed to make a chore chart for my 3 year old daughter. I have been wanting to do this for a LONG time and finally, today, I decided to do it.

As much as I love the chart/calendar in the above picture, I still decided to make my own. Since she is 3 and can't read yet, I had to stick with pictures. I'm sure I probably could have found one on the internet, but I wanted to make sure these charts were "tailored" to our lifestyle.

Here is her morning chart (I have my son's name on it too so I won't have to reprint this when he gets old enough):

If you are having trouble reading it, click on the picture and it should come out larger.

And here is her evening chart:

So far, she is really enjoying the morning one. She even wanted to do the evening one after the morning one but I had to explain to her that we would do it before her bedtime. I, of course, will be surpervising all of these things until she can do them on her own. We have been doing all of them already, just haven't had a set time to do them. My 1 year old son will be tagging along as well. I am hoping that once he sees his "big sister" doing this, he will want to do it too :)

I have found the chart idea to be very helpful when we were potty training her and she loved it. So I am hoping we have the same kind of success with this one as well.

As she gets older, I will be changing it up...adding the things that I know she can do. This will give my husband and I a break in terms of picking up her toys. I am also hoping it will also teach her how to be responsible and teach her that she can't just roam around this house without helping out once in a while. Some say that 3 years old may be to young to have her start helping with the chores and such....but it is something she enjoys doing. She likes helping us...especially with cooking. I am sure this will change as she gets older, but for now....I am enjoying the extra help :)

Making Your Own Bookmarks

2009-10-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you guys love to read...but I LOVE it. When I have those rare free moments, you can almost always find me with my nose in a book or a magazine (if I'm not on the internet). I always use to "doggy tail" the pages where I stopped reading and that seemed to work......until now. I stumbled across this cute little tutorial over at Keep'n The Sunny Side and I couldn't wait to try it.

Being an avid scrapbooker and paper crafter, I was drawn to this craft project. It's pretty simple to do. You don't even have to be a scrapbooker to do this....

Step One: Start with the piece of paper that you want to use as a bookmark. You can use old greeting cards, scrapbooking paper, even construction paper. I chose a blank card from my stationery collection.

Step Two: Measure the card according to the size of your book and start cutting away to fit the size. You want to cut it into rectangle form. After you are done cutting it, take two edges of the paper and fold them in half...forming a V shape (as seen in the picture below). Glue or tape the edges together.

Step Three: Embellish and decorate the paper with whatever you want. I added a little pink bow and some pink trim to the bottom. The pink trim isn't in the picture below. I also cut the bottom with my handy dandy scrapbooking scissors.

And...voila! You have your own bookmark :)

Let's take a closer look.

I think the idea of using cards for these is great! You can make some out of Christmas cards, New Years, Easter, or Thanksgiving/fall :) The possibilities are endless!

Thanks Amy for this wonderful idea :)

Seasons Change....So Do Blogs....

2009-10-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Yes....I am still here. All the action seems to be going on over at my cooking blog lately. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should :) Just roam your mouse/pointer over to the right hand side and click on where it says "My Cooking Blog."

Even though I have spent more time on that blog then here, I have made a few changes on this one. The first of this change is the name for this blog. A friend of mine called me a little "Martha Stewart" a couple of weeks ago...and even though I hardly keep up with Martha...I took my friend's comment as a compliment :) A few days after this comment I was looking to change the title of this blog. One thought led to another, then to another, then to another....before I finally decided to rename it: At Home With Libby. It used to be "The Organized Homemaker" but that just seemed to stuffy for me. I like this name better. After all....when close friends and family call me on the phone...they know I'm ALWAYS home...lol. So...what better name then "At Home With Libby?" I did try and change the blog url, but realized that all my saved links and blogrolls would have been lost in the process...so the url is still the same. The header for this blog still needs work. I'm not completely satisfied with it yet, so if you see it change from time to time...this is why.

Along with the new title change came the new background change. I had to find a festive background that worked with my header, hence this one. I may still change it though so you may see the background change from time to time as well.

My husband has also been working a different shift at work now...working from 3 PM till 2 AM. So this has thrown my whole "routine" for a loop in terms of how I run my day. We are slowly getting this under control though and hopefully we are all on our way to being well adjusted.

Anyway...just wanted to update everyone let you all know where I have been. Yes...I am still breathing...and yes...I am still alive....as evidence has shown on my cooking blog :) Hopefully I will be up and posting on this one again soon :)

Jack O' Latern Fun

2009-09-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Since my daughter is 3 now, we have decided to start taking her trick or treating. I know everyone has seen those personalized jack o latern's/candy bags you can buy at the stores for around 10-30 dollars. If it's one thing you have to know about me is that I try to be as "frugal" as possible when it comes to certain things. I picked up these two Jack O Latern's at Target the other day for only 99 cents. Originally, I was going to use some rub on alphabet designs to personalize them. However, I went to Big Lots this morning just to do some looking around and this is what I found in their scrapbook section:

......pumpkin/Halloween chipboard letters for only a dollar!!! Yes...that's right...only a dollar!! I bought 2 of these packs because well...that's how I roll :)

I came home, figured out where to place the letters on the Jack O' Laterns and the rest is history as they say. Since these were chipboard letters, they didn't come with adhesives so I had to use my handy dandy glue dots to adhere them to the laterns. It worked :) Now my kids have a really cute personalized latern to hold their Halloween treats and the total cost.............

was only 2 dollars per latern :) Imagine that! :)

The Last of Fall Decorating....

2009-09-21T10:43:00.001-07:00

...has come to our house. I was waiting until everyone else in my neighborhood had their fall decorations in their yard. This past Sunday when I saw the lawn of the house down the street decorated in scarecrows, I knew it was time to put my decor out. I bought everything in these pictures from Michael's. This is my first time working with hay bales, so I'm not sure what to expect with them sitting outside practically all season. I tried to secure the items on the hay as tight as possible so I hope they will be able to withstand bad weather. I can always bring them in if a big storm happens. We will see ;) BTW, I got the idea for the hay bales through Country Sampler magazine's Fall/Autumn issue. I was originally going to put the hay bales in my children's wagon and set it on our porch, but they still use their wagon so that idea was a no-go. So there it sits...underneath our magnolia tree :)

Anyway, this completes the last of the fall decorating at our house. The rest of the fall season will be spent baking and cooking wonderful autumn and fall dishes. Along with lots of walks outside and picking leaves :)

Shopping at Michaels....again!!!

2009-09-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

So....taking a tip from my dear friend about how Michael's had some really cute recipe cards out...I took a trip there today. And...well...I ended up spending more money then I thought I would. I bought a whole bunch of recipes cards...but on top of all that..I also bought MORE fall stuff! I keep telling myself I am finished with my decorating for fall...but this doesn't seem to be the case...lol. Here is what I found. I redid the decor on my kitchen hutch to accomodate my newly bought treasures :)

This beautiful pumpkin pie rolling pin :) I added the bow when I came home :) I do have some autumn themed ribbon..but I'm in love with gingham and actually had some red gingham ribbon at the house. I may change it to a more fall colored ribbon though...still debating on that.

This really cute pumpkin pie plate...for only 5 dollars. I actually found a stand to place it on at home...which made me even more happy :)

Putting the two pics together...this is what everything looks like...

Oh boy...I hope I am done with my autumn decor!! We'll see...lol

Plant Stand Decorating

2009-09-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

After years of collecting dust and rust, I decided to "revamp" this lifeless plant stand. We've had this thing for over 6 years and I figured it was time to either change it into something that we can use or give it to Good Will. The above picture is the result of my hard work. How did I do it?

Well...this is what it USED to look like (notice the rust and the wear and tear from being outdoors to long):

First step was to clean it (had to clean all the lose rust and dirt off):

Next was to prime it:

Next up...painting it:

The finished product:

Last but not least, decorating it:

I used autumn garland I found at Hobby Lobby for 10 dollars for the trim. I couldn't find anything to fit at the top except for this basket...so I decided to just use it until I find something else. My original plan was to have candles like the one in the basket going up the stand...which would lead to a cute little pumpkin at the top. But when I went to place the candles on the steps, I couldn't find a way to secure them. I figured the next best thing would be to put a candle in the center of the basket and surround it with fake squash and gourds. I found everything in the basket at the Dollar Tree :) I plan on putting little pumpkins on each step once the pumpkin patches open up.

I will be switching the decor depending on which season is in style.

Not bad for my first revamping and painting project! I can see why people find this addicting! I'm on the hunt for the next thing I can revamp :)

To-Do List For Revamping Our Kids Bedroom

2009-09-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

This is the room that I chose as my first attempt to rennovate, revamp, and decorate. If you look closely, you will see alot of pink and white accents in the room. This is because this room originally belonged to my daughter. She started developing a fear of being alone in the room...so a few months back, my hubby and I decided to move our one year old son into the room to see if it would help our daughter overcome her fear. I am pleased to say that this decision worked like a charm and was an instant cure.

Even though my husband and I have been sleeping soundly for 8 hours because we aren't being woken up by her, the decision to move my son into her room did pose one problem.....a decorating problem. In my opinion, the room looked way to feminine for a little boy. However, my son is only a year old so I'm sure the colors of pink and white do not bother him. After countless hours and days of trying to figure out which gender neutral colors to decorate and work with...I finally came up with the colors red, blue, and white. I also decided to keep the colors of the wall as is...which are two different shades of gray. My husband painted it that color 7 years ago when we first moved in...so it has sentimental value to me :)

Here is a list of everything that needs to be done to this room. I will put a star next to the things that I have completed over time. These tasks are in no particular order.

-Take out the ugly green carpet and install hard wood flooring

-Put more insulation between the walls of the room

-Purchase an area rug to match the colors of the room

-Replace pink and white lampshade with a blue, red, and white one

-Replace original bed linens with red, blue, and white ones*

-Make matching blanket and throw pillows for each bed

-Make personalized fabric frames for each side of the room *

-Create a memory shelf for each side of the room

-Touch up gray paint on the ceiling

-Install window treatments that match

-Replace door stopper

-Purchase a closet organizer for my son's side of the closet *

-Repair the hole that is in the wall

-Find a cute little sign or plaque to put on the front of their door

-Find a clever way to store toys in the room without making it look cluttered*

-Purchase new window, one that will block out noise and draft from the outside

-Purchase new closet doors??

-Make the closet look more organized and less cluttered

-Put crown molding around the top of the ceiling??

School is Back in Session...

2009-09-01T15:19:00.001-07:00

Today was my 3 year old daughter's first day of preschool for this year. We enrolled her in preschool last year when she turned 2 and she had a blast. So we figured we'd keep taking her :) I cried when I dropped her off at the doorway that lead to her room. She didn't cry though...lol. She told me, "Bye bye mommy!" And went off to find herself a puzzle to play with. Through my tears, I took a few pictures of her, talked with her teacher for a little bit, and then gave her a goodbye kiss. I seriously don't know how I'm going to handle it when she starts Kindergarden! I'm going to be a wreck! This whole summer I was telling my husband that I couldn't wait until her school year started...and now that it has...I find myself a little sad during the day without her :( Afterall, she is my partner in crime and a future *homemaker* in the making :)

Cracker Barrel Finds....

2009-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

We went out to eat at Cracker Barrel this morning after church and I couldn't resist purchasing these cute apple coffee mugs! They were only 5 dollars each! I thought that was a steal...especially at Cracker Barrel..when their items are priced 20-30 dollars. The mugs not only have apples on them, but have the *fall* themed colors that I just love. I predict I will sipping lots of hot cocoa and coffee with them in the next few months :)