Projects, Princesses and Peanuts..Ohh My!

I hope you all had a great week, although I know how most of you are doing since you blog ;)

I was bored last weekend and looking for something to do. Everyone was occupied doing other things and my wheels were turning. I found this frame with no glass in the laundry room and decided to make something for Alex. She has more wall space than Avery. We love butterflies, so I was thinking butterflies and it had to be made with things I had here. I was not leaving. I love being home on the weekends.

I painted the back white. I found these cute little wooden butterflies and got out the stencils. She loved it.
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Austin had to do a cell project for Science. I remember doing this project when Autumn had the same teacher, so I could not bake the cool Betty Crocker Bake N Fill cake for the project for fear that she would remember and think he should have been more original. Anyway, at Hobby Lobby (ahhh, I love that place), I found candle wax. We made his project with wax and it was really fun. He had to label the items, so we made a key. Here he is doing his part, which was hard to get him to do since there was a Halloween special on TV. Don't feel sorry for him. We recorded it!

Here is the finished product! He was proud and he said his friends loved it and the teacher said she would give him extra credit if he took it outside and burned it (not because she did not like it! She just thought it was neat that it was a big fat candle).

We had leftover wax, so I poured it into a silicone muffin pan. OMGosh! We love these little candles! Look for more of this with colors and things floating around.

Avery could not wait until they cooled. They are so squishy and cute!

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The little girls had their Fall Festival at preschool, so they got to wear their costumes.

Avery was a Ladybug Princess.

Alex was a Princess. She wanted her hair down with a headband because that is the way she likes it these days. I was trying to put it up. She is beautiful just like this. Don't you think?

Here are some pictures from the Festival.

And here we are! Mom, Me and Cindy with the girls! I love this picture!

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Cindy made some boiled peanuts last weekend and had so many left! We got some and I took some to work for all the peeps to enjoy! OMGoodness! They are so good! I started eating them and before I knew it,

there was this monstrous pile of shells! Well, the girls ate some before they left and there is a napkin underneath, but I really overdid it! They were so good, though! I felt sick. I was not happy, but they were good! Do you ever overdo it like that!

After all those salty peanuts, I had to drink alot of water! I mean alot of water!!!! I am still trying to flush salt out! But they were so good!!!!

Of course, after salty, comes sweet! Are you also one of "those"? Well, I bought some 100 calorie brownies from Little Debbie. You know the ones. The regular fattening brownies are really good. Well, why have we not yet realized that 100 calories is just a smaller version of the real thing? LOOK how little that thing was!

I bet you could cut the real ones in half and eat just one for 100 calories and save money! Ohh well, it was good!

Speaking of all this crap I am eating, I have committed to doing 30 minutes of some sort of exercise a day with Mom (Ganky) and Joyce (Mam)! So far, so good this week! I am back to doing my Cindy Whitmarsh videos and I love and hate her all at the same time! She works me hard! Jump on if you would like! Accountability is key!

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Enjoy the beauty all around while it is still here! I am!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

til next time...................

BTW, my Hubby is taking me on a date Friday! He has not told me where! Isn't that fun? I will tell you all about it!

My Home is Full of Music..and Some Refreshed Spaces!

Well, it is not exactly music yet! I asked my Austin, who is 10, if he has ever considered playing an instrument. He said yes, piano or guitar. I then asked him to choose and he chose the guitar! I am very excited about this because I know it is good for a child to play an instrument. We went after school and after careful consideration, he chose electric. We will be signing up for lessons.

Play that funky music, white boy!! :)

Did you know the guitar boxes double as row boats and wooden spoons double as paddles?

We have an acoustic guitar that my Dad gave us and I am excited about learning with him! (or trying to!!)

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On to part two of my blog title for this week, the refreshed spaces.

Here is a bare wall in my bedroom. Now that I have gotten over the "Less is more" syndrome, I am trying to spruce up some spaces.

I ordered a shelf from Home Decorators Collection. This is how it came. It took me all afternoon to get this thing put together.




Once I got it all put together, I needed to add some things to it and above it. I had an idea to use my favorite picture I took when we went to the Dominican Republic a couple of years ago.


Here is the picture before...

And after. This arrangement was printed from my home printer, which is an HP that always prints grea pics. There is a glare, but it really looks neat! See me?? The frames were two dollars each, so 18.00 plus the photo paper and my ink!


And here is the finished product with the picture and some added decor, including the flower arrangements I made. I hope you can click and make it bigger. Like it?

Refreshed space project #2 for this week:

I had this idea at Hobby Lobby. I bought these letters. When I bought them, I noticed they did not give me screws or nails. I actually had exactly ten left over from the shelf (does that mean it is gonna fall apart?), and they fit the holes perfectly. They were silver, though.

So, I screwed them into a folder and found some purple paint.

The purple paint matches my little girls' bathroom perfectly! Yay! Finally a place to hang robes and towels at bathtime.

It takes three towels to bathe them. One for the floor because no matter how many times I say "Don't splash", they splash, and two more towels for them! I used to lay the towels across the tub and countertop to dry. I always hated that. Now, a solution!! I love it!

I hope you do too!!

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My girls are wearing Halloween shirts to school almost every day this week. The only problem is they keep asking me at night if we are going Trick or Treating after dinner. I explain every night that they are just being "festive". They just want candy! :) I made them some cute hairbows with some ribbon I got for half price at Hobby Lobby (are you seeing a pattern with my shopping choice?).

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As most of you know, My Friend's Mom just lost a four and a half year battle with brain cancer. Her church organized a benefit for the family to help with her medical bills. I was astounded to hear the price of chemo treatments and meds. The benefit was a run/walk and golf tournament. Of course, since Christy has been my friend since I was five and she was four, there was NOTHING that was gonna keep my from going to walk! Here we are when we first got there. It was extremely cold and we were crying. I still love the picture.

And here is Mom with Christy. We lived next door to her family and took numerous vacations with them. They are our family!!

Well, we did not run. We had no desire to run. We were there to take in the scenery and chat with old friends.

Well, as I said, it was cold, but when you get going, you warm up and there were some of the steepest hills I have ever walked up on this course! Very hilly, indeed. Anyway, Mom got hot and since she had on three layers of pants, she shedded layers right there on the course!

We liked to pretend we were doing something big, so at every mile, Mom celebrated as if she were running a marathon!

Sponsors of the Golf Tournament were displayed on the road.

I cannot imaging standing alone without my precious Momma.

I am not a golfer but I do know this is a hard hole!

Go Momma, Go!!

Here is Christy, her Step-Dad, Terrill and his daughter Kelly. Terrill was so humble and thankful about this whole event. He was given almost 7,000.00 from this event to help out with bills he has incurred. Is that wonderful or what?! He was so good to Teresa. She stayed at home. He could have had someone else take care of her, but he would not have had it any other way. He loved her until the very end. Marriage vows at their finest. What a MAN! I hope you will join me in saying a little prayer for this family.

We always have moments that truly make us laugh! There were 30 walkers/runners. We, as I said before, walked and talked and took pictures. We enjoyed each others' company. We also came in 26th and 27th (If I remember right) out of 30! The funny thing was when they had the award presentation, they gave awards to the top two runners in each age group. I am 35 and there were a ton of 30-40 year olds, but only two 50-60 year olds, so Mom won an award! She was the top two, the only two, but still the top two!! And here she is showing off her prize.

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My Autumn and her softball team were invited to the County Board of Education meeting so that they could be recognized for winning the Newton-Rockdale softball championship! She is in the front with tan pants smiling so big. She pitched every game of that tournament, 22 innings in one day! Go Autumn!

Thanks for reading my blogs. I am really enjoying this. Take care and have a great week!

Read my food blog sometime and add your recipes. Click the cupcake!!

.................until next time.

My Umbrella Was Stolen...And Then Eaten!!

I guess that title got your attention. Were you thinking after the previous blog that it may have something to do with my mischievous pup, Munson? Well, I went to Ingle's one day after work in the pouring rain because I was cooking for my sweet Aunt Barbara, who is still dealing with the flood! When I got to Ingle's, my little trusting self left my umbrella at the door. As I was leaving, I turned around after loading my arms up with groceries, and the umbrella I JUST saw was no longer there (neither was the man that was JUST there!)! I quickly went over to scan the parking lot and whatdoyaknow??!! That fool stole my umbrella! I yelled at him (it was pouring) and he finally acknowledged me and said "I'm coming back!". I honestly do not think he was going to get back in the rain to return my umbrella, do you? Anyway, I was standing there, with way more bags on my arm than I should have had, waiting on that goofball to return my umbrella and he drove up and held it out the window! I had to go in the rain to get my own umbrella back that I brought to keep the rain off of me!! I wanted to yell at him and tell him to bring it back to me since he is the one who took it in the first place, but I felt he would have just left! Some people have nerve! I left fuming and was home all nice and dry until time to go get Austin from the bus stop. When I went outside, this is what I saw!!!

And then this is WHO I saw! Bad Munson! He would not even look at me!

WHEN are they no longer crazy puppies?! BB was never this bad, so I don't know what to expect!

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This little sweetie always makes me smile, despite my umbrella fiasco! Standing on the vent laughing!!!

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This past weekend was my cousin, Justin's Birthday! He is a Marine and was home on a short leave to celebrate! He had also just had his wisdom teeth removed, so he needed to recover!

As we were having breakfast at the house, look who I busted and look what I busted her doing!!!


I wanted a picture of Justin with his sweet Sister and Brother and of course, he had to be so silly!

And here they are! All of them together! It is a wonderful sight!


Later on, they all came back over for my strawberry cupcakes! If I don't make them, they will wonder what is wrong!


The girls attacked Britani

and flipped with Justin and Jeff.

No Chicken fights in the house!

And then it was song and candle time! Of course he let Alex help!

My four with Cindy's three! That is a great group of cousins!

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Alex needed a haircut this week. Of course, I can not believe I remembered the before pic! So glad I did!

BEFORE

And AFTER!

She LOVES her haircut!
I love the tippy toe pics! You are almost there, Avery! She was grunting!

Avery wanted to show me her nails I painted! Love the Hello Kitty panties sticking out!!

And Alex wanted to show me her nails too!!

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Well, it is starting to get cold, so this may be some of the last flowers I get from my yard this year! They are pretty for a few days, though.

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When we built the house, the dumpster company got stuck in the mud and pushed their truck off of the big tree you see on the right. This tree showed us the way to the site where we planned to build the house when it was nothing but thick woods. I guess it was kind of sentimental. We believed the damage the dumpster company did would kill it and the time had come to make the decision. The tree was dropping huge branches and we were getting scared it would fall on the house, so.....

Down it went!!! We watched the whole process. It was fascinating how they got that whole tree down without damaging anything. They really do not yell "TIMBER!". Did you know that? :)

And the tree was gone!

See Munson? He is never far away looking for something to chew!


Munson on porch before the tree was removed...

..and Munson on the porch after the tree was removed. I told you he is never far away!

I know I am showing alot of before and afters, but the difference really is amazing!

BEFORE

AFTER

The whole tree deal reminds me of a conversation with Alex this week. We were riding in the car and she was quizzing me on math problems. She was saying things like "What is one plus one?". I answered several math questions and when she got to "What is tree plus tree?" I assumed she meant three plus three, so I said "Six". She said "No, two trees!". Cute!!

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Autumn makes fun of "Snuggies" on tv when she sees the commercial, so I bought some! She was showing off our new Snuggie here, being her usual silly self.

And here, she was imitating the commercial! Have you seen it? They should have her on one of their commercials!

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By the way... look who Autumn got to meet last weekend!!!

Luke Bryan! Isn't that cool?! She loves his music!

Have a great week!!!

.................Until next time!!